Demon's Virtue

Once again, the students repeated after him.

"Dirhais. And all together now; Akita polimrust dirhais."

While the students tried to repeat this sentence, most of them stumbled once they got to the last word. It was like trying to learn a spell\'s chant; it was something that Eiro himself had never struggled with, luckily. For almost his entire life, the ability of the \'Scholar\'s Memory\' allowed him to remember a chant without worry, but most people needed to comprehend the effect of the chant and the spell itself for it to catch in their mind. That was one of the central struggles of becoming a mage. Since chants were only effective when spoken in the ancient language, due to its innate connection to the essence of magic, it was a rough hurdle to step over. It was the reason why these days there was a lot of value put into the concept of casting spells at full power even without the assistance of chants, and more and more research was being put into this.

But what Eiro was trying to do right now was not to teach the students a new chant; he was trying to get them to learn the \'Ancient Language Comprehension\' skill. Not only was this the baseline requirement for being able to learn arcane magic in the first place, but it would also help the students learn new spells. Once they were able to hold onto ancient language somehow, then new chants would stop fading from their minds so easily.

Of course, there was still a question to be asked here. Why exactly was Eiro doing this? Why was he trying to teach the students how to speak the ancient language? He didn\'t even exactly know it himself all too well, but if he had to say a particular reason, then it was because of a realization he came to recently.

Eiro was a horder and a collector. He liked to take anything that he could for himself and grab onto it. Especially if it was something that only he had, it was somehow an exhilarating sensation to him. But at the same time, there were limits to what Eiro on his own could do. He didn\'t have dozens of lifetimes to spend on specializing in specific techniques, developing things on his own. He couldn\'t, on his own, explore all branches of magic, no matter how much he tried. He couldn\'t become a master of every single skill, just off of things he developed himself.

Most of Eiro\'s growth came from taking things from others. Whether it was level experience points, the cards, or techniques; even his abilities these days were about taking things in from the outside. But there was a very innate, basic requirement for that. If Eiro wanted to take something, it had to exist on the outside in the first place. And it wasn\'t as though Eiro liked the act of stealing or taking, he simpy liked having things. The best way to do that was to... outsource. To have others create things for him to then later take and hold onto. Sure, that meant he had to give up a bit of that feeling of being the only one to have something, but that was a compromise he was willing to make.

As such, this academy was the best place for Eiro, and now that he decided to stop holding back in what he taught the students, he could develop individuals that could grow and specialize, taking their unique perspectives and develop new spells or applications of magic that Eiro may not have ever considered before. True growth and development came from a single spark that caught on and developed into a true flame. Sparks were common, but truly catching was something different. And if Eiro could create more sparks, he didn\'t have to settle on a few candles. He could have a wildfire of potential blazing in front of him.

Most of these students would fail to make new discoveries, but they might still deepen the knowledge of their field and lay the groundwork for someone else to make that new discovery. They could become the kindling for the next sparks. But that could only happen if they were given that opportunity. If Eiro truly kept hording it all, keeping all his knowledge to himself, then this world would never become what it should turn out to be.

The demon looked around the room. The students were feeling hazy and confused, like a shroud of mist was covering their minds. This is what happened when you engaged too deeply in the process of trying to learn the ancient language. They wouldn\'t make any more progress on that front, so Eiro figured he should try and show them exactly what they were doing this for.

"Okay, this is it for ancient language practice for now. Instead, could one of you please come forward for a small experiment? It\'s nothing tough, don\'t worry," Eiro asked, and the exhausted students looked around at each other, hesitating to really answer to their teacher\'s request. One of them finally came forward, complying, and then Eiro cleared his throat.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"What\'s the chant-based spell you use the most often?" Eiro asked, and the student, a young woman, nervously looked up at him. It was like she was a bit nervous to respond, but then finally came out with it.

"I, uhm, I use the \'clean\' spell a lot..." she admitted, and a few students started snickering. Eiro didn\'t really understand why, though; it was certainly a useful spell that helped you keep up with personal hygiene with relative ease. Though, somehow, not many mages liked admitting to using that spell.

"Now, now, don\'t laugh. I use the \'Clean\' spell almost daily," Eiro explained, and the laughing students slowly stopped. Eiro snapped his finger and summoned Gondos before pulling up his sleeve. This duplicate\'s form was actually altered at the source to have him appear like a human, so Bavet wasn\'t actually here, so having spells cast on him carried no trouble at all. The demon had Gondos provide some dirt and quickly covered his arm with it.

"Please, cast the \'clean\' spell on me, please."

The student slowly nodded her head. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a few moments, before starting to chant. Eiro knew this student; like that of many others, her chant pronunciation lacked a lot. The aspects that made remembering the ancient language tough also made it hard to hit the right pronunciation and cadence. But in this case, all of a sudden, to a point where the student herself was even surprised, her pronunciation was much, much cleaner. She even almost stumbled over her words when she realized, but the chant flowed out of her mouth so naturally that even her surprise didn\'t stop her.

The spell was properly activated, and small bubbles of water sweeped over Eiro\'s arm, picking up the dirt with ease. The student\'s expression showed clear confusion, though the other students in the room didn\'t even realize something had happened.

"Do you want to tell the other students what you noticed?"

Eiro smiled, and the student, slowly stuttered out her answer, "It was easier... it was way, way easier to say the chant."

It took the students a few moments to realize what she had just said, until they started whispering amongst themselves again. Stay tuned for updates on empire

"That\'s correct. If anyone would like to test this out in a moment, you may come down here and speak a weak chant you are familiar with, but before then, let me explain. Even if the system didn\'t acknowledge this just yet, fact is, you have grown closer to the barrier of the ancient language. Part of it was my guidance to you, of course, but part of it is simply that you pushed past the point of resistance. That is this sensation you are feeling right now," Eiro explained, "Imagine waking up in the morning in complete darkness. You stand up, stumbling through your room, and open the window. The light streams in, blinding you more and more as you open the window to the point where you are just as blind with the light as you are without it. And even if you may rest your eyes for a few moments by pressing them shut, fact is, just because the light is uncomfortable doesn\'t mean you shut yourself off in darkness. You continue adjusting to the light, until it becomes the norm. That\'s what you need to do with ancient language. Rest your eyes here and there, but keep persisting, keep pushing through, and you will soon adjust and truly learn how to speak the ancient language. And the results are already showing."