Master of Illusions

Kendell, intrigued by Marcus's illusionary prowess, decided to approach him to learn more about high-level illusory rituals.

Clearly Marcus had incredible mastery, so hopefully he knows about crafting his own illusion rituals and can help guide him.

"Marcus, I was impressed by your duel earlier. I'm working on creating an illusion ritual to distract my opponent, something to create openings in combat. Could you give me some guidance?" Kendell asked, eager to expand his understanding.

"I saw how you made the illusions of yourself and was incredibly impressed, your mastery is amazing!"

Marcus looked over at Kendell with surprise, "Haha sure, Kendell. I would love to pass on the knowledge I have, unfortunately many people find illusions cheap and don't practice them but they are a powerful tool. If you can master high level rituals, casting high level power rituals becomes much more realistic in combat."

Kendell nodded in understanding so Marcus continued.

"Illusion is all about misdirection and subtlety. It's not just about creating false images but influencing perception. Let me show you something," Marcus replied, leading Kendell to a secluded part of the room, laden with books and scrolls of forgotten lore.

They began pouring over an ancient ritual, the lines twisting in intricate patterns that danced on the edge of understanding. Kendell activated his system's analysis feature, the complex script slowly unraveling in his mind.

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[ Ritual Analysis: Mirage Weave Detected ]

[ Description: This high-level illusion ritual creates a series of intangible, moving images, capable of distorting the opponent's sense of reality. Effective in creating diversions and disorienting foes. ]

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"This ritual is fascinating," Kendell mused, "but I want to integrate it with my own ideas. See, I have this concept for a ritual that distracts the opponent, making them see threats where there are none."

Intrigued, Marcus leaned in as Kendell sketched out his idea. The diagram he drew was complex, integrating elements of misdirection and psychological manipulation, much more advanced than what a usual first-year student would conceive.

Kendell hesitated before deciding to reveal more. He showed Marcus a small section of the ritual incorporating aspects of Azmoth's abilities.

Marcus's eyes widened in recognition. "Azmoth? That's a name steeped in legend within illusion circles."

He looked, wide eyed, at Kendell and began trying to analyze this kid, "Integrating his style into your ritual... that's ambitious and incredibly risky. Azmoth's illusions aren't just visual; they play on the mind, twisting perception and reality. If you can harness even a fraction of that, your ritual would be powerful."

Kendell nodded, absorbing the information. "That's the plan. I want to create something that isn't just a distraction but can manipulate the battlefield in my favor. I want to buy time for me to cast other rituals before entering combat."

Marcus leaned back, impressed. "You're thinking on a different level, Kendell. Most students wouldn't dare tread into such complex territory this early. Let me give you some advice on working with such potent elements."

As the day progressed, Marcus shared insights into advanced illusion techniques, delving into the psychology of combat and the art of misdirection. Kendell listened intently, his mind racing with possibilities.

Their conversation sparked a flurry of ideas, with Kendell taking meticulous notes. The more they discussed, the more his vision for the ritual solidified, a blend of Azmoth's cunning and Kendell's strategic thinking.

Kendell nodded in understanding after listening to Marcus discuss illusionary combat, "So the key is to have your illusions mimic reality instead of other worldly beings. The more real and normal they seem, the more effect they might have since your opponent will think it's actually real."

"Yes exactly, for example my mirage of faces, the ritual I used in the duel earlier, mimics myself. That means I can hide among them and my opponent has no idea what is real or fake," Marcus smiled as he explained, happy to find a student to pass on his illusion knowledge to.

The rest of the day was spent with Kendell and Marcus tweaking Kendell's ritual. Marcus allowed Kendell to do a majority of the work and creativity, but offered his expertise to strengthen or correct Kendell's ritual.

They decided that the best way to use this was to make a ritual that pulled a fraction of Azmoth's mental manipulation illusions to make the opponent believe more in the illusions in front of them. It sounds small, but the ability to increase the opponents innate belief in the ritual being real means that the illusions effect is incredibly enhanced.

By combining this with a ritual that would create two copies of Kendell, he would be able to make the other two cast separate rituals, while leaving Kendell cloaked with fake invisibility.

The illusion would convince the opponent the other two Kendell's were real, while placing an illusion over the space Kendell really was that mirrored what the environment looked like to make it seem as if he was not there.

This means someone could still hit them, but unless they were of a higher level they would not know he is there. Now Kendell has the time to cast his morphing rituals or eventually high level devil summons while he keeps his opponents busy.

Unfortunately, without the ability to make ritual tattoos this on his body, he would have to draw out this ritual first before getting the ability to work on his higher level ritual.

Also, given Kendell's inexperience with weaving ritual energy, keeping the illusion ritual going while drawing high amounts of energy for other rituals would be disastrous at the moment. 

If he drew in high energy without mirroring this energy in a field around him, an opponent could easily follow the flow of ritual energy and know where he is. 

In doing this, since he is inexperienced, the illusion ritual might falter or become wavy while he tries to cast a second ritual.

However, Kendell had an ace up his sleeve.

After finishing up the details of the ritual, he looked at it and heard a familiar ding.

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[ Ritual Circle Detected: Would you like to place this tattoo on your body and sync? ]

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With a grin and mental confirmation, Kendell agreed.

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[ Error: Ritual cannot be recorded due to lack of contract with the entity involved with the ritual. ]

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'Damn it. That makes sense, the other rituals I have used are historic rituals where the devils or fey have already agreed to let their power be used in them. For a new ritual I would need to get the devils permission and form a contract.'

As if reading his mind Marcus looked at Kendell gravely, "Before you can use this ritual you would need to form a contract with Azmoth. This is incredibly difficult since he a demon from the sixth circle, a high level one at that."

Kendell made a disappointed face, and Marcus somberly nodded his head in understanding, "I know that this is a set back, but in your second year you could probably get a professor to summon him for you to discuss a contract! They probably would not allow a first year to do it, but if you are close with a professor you could ask."

"I understand, thank you Marcus I greatly appreciate your help. I will work on that later, can we fine tune the ritual as it is right now?"

Marcus smiled wide seeing his new student so excited about illusions, "Of course!"

As the club meeting came to a close, Kendell thanked Marcus for his guidance. He left the club room with a sense of accomplishment, his mind buzzing with the potential of his new ritual.

He was already planning on summoning Azmoth in his private practice space within the Vice-Headmaster's room later tonight. To justify getting the contract he would just pin it on the Vice-Headmaster. Why wouldn't she help her star pupil with this? Of course she would!

Kendell grinned at the thought of his plan as he went to the cafeteria to hear about his friends experiences within their clubs.

On the way out however, a sharp pain hit his shoulder and he turned towards it.

A face surrounded by a fiery mane stood menacingly before him.

"Hey Kendell, don't forget about my challenge. You better work hard before the professor's tournament. If you aren't strong enough, I can't go all out and show my full prowess," Leon said with a low growl.

"I would advise you to do the same thing. I don't want to accidentally kill you in the tournament, I quite like being here at the academy," Kendell shot back, looking Leon dead in the eyes.

With final snarl, Leon paced off. Kendell held in a smile as Leon walked away. This kid had no idea what was coming for him in the duel. Even if he held back, Kendell was confident that his abilities right now would be stronger than Leon's a few months from now.

With a grin Kendell headed off to the cafeteria to discuss with the rest of the trio how his encounter with his club went.

Kendell arrived and both Celia and Coli were heavy in conversation. After sitting down the three swapped stories. 

Coli was able to see a collection of Fey from his club and got to talk to different club members about their Fey and witness their abilities.

Celia's experience was a little more hectic, for initiation all the freshmen had to duel each other. Apparently the duelist club maintains an order of strength in their club, and that list determines the privileges you get within the club. Higher strength gets you access to better rituals and training equipment.

The initiation was a tournament style fight, where the eight freshmen competed in one on one duels until there was one winner. The system also had losers fight each other to get an accurate reading on strength.

Celia won all her fights and became the strongest in her club! She was at the top of the list for freshmen, her body enhancement rituals were impressive even knowing the family she's from- as expected of the class representative.

They then asked Kendell to explain his club, they were both shocked to hear about Leon being apart of the club too. 

"Wow Kendell, you really made a horrible enemy there. Why do you think he is going after you so hard, and if each professor can have two pupils why didn't the Vice-Headmaster take him on as well?" Celia asked with a confused expression.

"I don't know, he threatened me again on the way out of the club meeting. Maybe the Vice-Headmaster didn't think that he was right for her style," Kendell offered.

Coli nodded, "I guess that makes sense, but why pin it on you? To prove himself? I mean he is a Tilanaz so maybe he feels that he needs to beat you to get his respect back."

"I guess so."

They continued to eat and wrapped up their meal before calling it a night and headed back to the dorms.