Sagely Practices

Deep in the cave, Mattheo's chanting could be heard. He had been at this ever since he woke, accumulating familiarity to the spells in his new form. He had done this for days re-learning the most rudimentary spells and moving his way up. Since he knew them in the past life, he already understood the fundamentals to their casting. But due to his new body, how those spells should be effectively percieved changed too. Everyone had a variant of spell control which worked for them. Fortunately he had read all the methods in the books of his old self so could use the Observer to call forth that information.

His first batch of spells to master the first day were: Fire-control, Ice-control, lightning-control, Earth-control, Water-control, Air-control, and Abyssal-control. These "spells" were all the foundation magic for their respective elements. With Fire-control, Water-control, etc. A magic practitioner would be able to master magical formations that could be performed by simple control. They were the real spells.

What Mattheo had done the first day was merely tune himself to the various elements, including Abyssal. This is what would corrupt one's soul turning them into "heretic mages". By allowing the soul to command such a corrosive energy, it would inevitably lead to what Mattheo had gone through. Using this energy, a human (or demon) could take control of demons to do their bidding. It also allowed for external corruption of other creatures, the ability to utilize the energy for direct combat, and excite gates to the Abyss to unleash hordes of demons on a certain location.

The last method was only useful since the demons released surpassed what the normal user could control. Being a demon now though, such connections to a demon would have the opposite effect. The more influence he had over demons, the more energy he would get from the chaos they could perform. Their natural accumulation of strength was also his.

The second day, his second batch of spells to master were: Abyssal-tame, Lightning-tame, and Earth-tame. These were also foundation building spells, at this level, direct control over an element could be attained. Normally this would take years, but his magic conductivity and past experiences allowed him to surpass the norms for magic learning speed.

The next few days he managed to tame all the elements he knew how to control in his past life. At this point his element levels were as follows:

- Fire / tame

- Ice / tame

- Lightning / tame

- Earth / tame

- Water / tame

- Air / tame

- Abyssal / tame

With these, he would be capable of so much more. Mattheo wondered what look the people of the sacred continent would have when a magic using werewolf attacked them on their cushy continent. Needless to say he wanted to see. To put the finishing touches on what he had picked up, Mattheo practiced many spell formations using all of the elements he had. By using fire he could generate a medium flame in about 2 seconds, after which he could control the movement of indefinitely. Or at least until the flame burned out. The same went for the other elements more or less. Earth and Air being already present, meant he would be able to control them directly without having to generate anything.

Onto testing his Abyssal-tame, Mattheo made a miraculous discovery. Since he was a demon now, he could also use this magic to leech the life-force of demons and undergo physical transformation! Mastery of transformation was extremely rare among demons, but since Mattheo was always the curious wizard, he would practice transformation directly on demons under his control in his past life.

Who knew it would become so useful?? In the days of his practicing, he was also able to master the ability to transform to a human, but since the form was so versatile with the many bipedal races, he could manage things like elves and dwarves too.

It had been around a month since Mattheo started his training, and he was finally ready to explore the dark continent. After sliding down the slippery slope the cave was perched upon, Mattheo disembarked into the forest that he had stared out onto many times.

The trees were aligned in such a way that it were as if he was back in the Abyss, if not for the sky and the Observer telling him otherwise, he would be convinced that he was. Mattheo treaded into the direction where he had seen one of the clearings. The ground was firm, with scant amounts of grass occasionally appearing in small patches. It too had been affected just like the trees.

Stepping into the clearing, Mattheo saw a few demons. A devilish grin came about his face as he found what he was looking for. As he approached, he noticed they were all werewolves too! Fortunately they hadn't noticed him. He crept up to one after the other as he subdued each and every one of them. They had been extremely weak, or rather weaker than him. Mattheo subdued a total of 6 werewolf demons. He could finally test his Abyssal magic on a demon other than himself! But first he needed to re-learn controlling them as he was also out of practice in that field.

He placed his hand over the head of one of his unconscious prey. While doing so he closed his eyes. After about 10 seconds he could sense a string like apparition floating in the area below his hand. Infusing his hand with Abyssal energy, he grabbed for the string with intense speed. Only, it was so intense that he accidentally crushed the head of the werewolf...

Moving on to the next one he made sure to grab onto it from the sides instead of plunging for it. And it worked, he grabbed all of the connected strings binding them to his palm. After a short moment they disappeared into his palm and he felt invigorated with great strength. He now felt the connections whenever he focused on them. Although he wasn't a god, their intellect would now surpass their instincts allowing him to give out orders. His first henchmen!

He stood around for about 10 minutes before the werewolves could be heard getting up. Checking his influence, it was what he expected.

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Influence: 6

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The 5 werewolves contributed to his influence giving him the extra points. Looking around warily, they were all startled when they heard Mattheo speak.

"Alright! We're going to be reaaaal close buds from now on, I know you won't, but if you delay for even a second through my orders you'll end up like your other friend." Mattheo pointed to his failed test subject.

The werewolves that had a boost in their intellect still couldn't speak, but it was possible to relay certain thoughts between master and servant, it was far from language though.

"Yes!!" The bunch shouted in unison slightly echoing in his mind.

Mattheo nodded and told them to take him to where they had used to rest. Demons like werewolves usually lived in large packs, as proven by his new minions, and would form large communities of feral beasts.

Grinning, Mattheo followed them.