Payment and training

Getting in a fighting stance Eric started flowing mana throughout his body to strengthen it. Because of the way that this worked it didn't give off any signs it was happening, no fancy aura, no magic circles, or any of that shit. So by the time, the demon in front of him saw the wooden staff in front of his face neither he nor the referee had time to react before he had been knocked to the ground with the pole on his neck ready to crush it at a moment's notice.

Looking over at the shocked demon referee he smirked and said "I'm guessing he can't fight anymore? If he still can ill gladly crush his throat, I don't know if you guys need to breathe as we do but it would be fun to find out." as he said this he slightly pushed down on its neck. As he did this he saw the guard begin to unsheath his sword, so he took the pole of the demon's neck before walking away.

"you! How dare you! You are just a human, a slave! Something I can beat and break without a problem! Come back here and fight me without any tricks!" standing up and pointing his sword at Eric the demon began to scream and yell about 'honor' and 'he was just a slave to be beaten and to 'not fight like a coward'. Hearing this Eric simply turned around, looked the demon dead in the eye, and said "If you keep yelling I will kill you, and it will be painful."

Seeing Eric's seriousness the demon became quiet for a second before grabbing the guard's sword and charging at Eric. Tired of the demon's shit Eric wanted the demon to swing before ducking under the blade and closing the gap between them and sticking the demon's shoulder joint, dislocating it. Dropping the sword the demon yelled in pain before backing away as Eric grabbed the sword.

Slowly walking over he began to speak "First, when using a sword like this use short and concise cuts, second when swinging the sword always make sure to do so in a way that you can quickly change to a defending position, third, stop being a little shit, and finally." crouching down to look the now quivering demon in the eye as it held is dangling and useless arm. "stop being such a little shit and realize when you can't win." as he said this he started the sword in the ground next to the demons head. Before walking off.

"Consider this your day's lesson, if you wanna learn more then your gonna have to pay. The first one is free but this isn't a charity. And I only accept magic knowledge as payment, that or your soul. Witch ever you think is cheaper, and don't worry. I will judge the price properly so no need to worry about being ripped off."

After this, he simply returned home and continued to practice his magic and create a training plan for his body training. Over the next few weeks, he had begun to be known as a training addict and battle maniac because of how no one had seen him rest or take a break. He was always meditating and using mana or training his body and when he wasn't doing either of those he was 'training' the demons at the camp.

Some had even taken him up on his offer to train for magic knowledge, of course, they thought they were ripping him off by only telling him things about demonic energy but how could they know he could use it? As time passed he had become more and more adept at using energy, not just mana but demonic too. Once he could make complex shapes with high definition he began to work with demonic energy. Once he was able to do the same with that he would use both at the same time.

Currently, he was able to use both at the same time with extremely high control. His body training was going well too. An unexpected side effect was his body changing in more ways than he expected. His muscles while we'll large were more athletic than bulky making a well-toned but strong appearance, his hair had gone from dark to almost pitch black and his eyes had turned a shade of purple. These were just the more important changes, the less important were his canine teeth becoming more like short fangs and his height going from 6'8 to 6'10, not that he cared about that.

His best guess was that the different energies he was using in his body training were affecting his body differently, the mana was giving him a more refined look while the demonic energy was making him more beastly. Because he was using both in roughly equal amounts they balanced each other out and gave him a rough but refined look. So in total currently was 6'10 with tanned skin and a short but well-groomed beard and messy short hair, Along with all the previously mentioned changes his stat sheet looked like this

{name: Eric

Gifts: potential, adaptation

Realm: energy gathering 1/9

Powers: N/A

Skills: physical enhancement.

Energy: demonic/mana

Stats:

Strength:23

Agility:20

Perception:20

Intelligence:18

Constitution: 23

Mp:200 (100%)}

Something worth mentioning was that stat growth was exponential. He wasn't twice as strong as someone with ten strengths, he was about three to four times as strong. And that gap only got wider the higher the stats went. To counter this it became harder and harder to grow stats as time went on.

His constitution and strength were only as high as they were because he was mainly training those two things. Having completed one of his minor goals his next was to actually use magic, the demons had helped with that one, not that they knew. Eric had been using his newly gained knowledge of energy to form what was called the 'core'. It acted as the storage and medium of usage for energy. The reason why he could use energy without one was that the body was able to innately store and use a very small amount of energy, he was just an anomaly in that case and he very well intended to capitalize on that fact.

Normally the core would be formed in the lower abdomen or heart with some exceptions for different races. But Eric planned to use his whole body as a core, why settle for one part of your body when you could use all of it? If anyone else knowledgeable were to hear this they would probably go mad about how reckless and dangerous this was. But then again they would do the same considering his body training as it was considered suicide to directly use energy to strengthen the body without the use of spells, Especially with how much he was using.