The Way of a Demon Lord

"So, that's the general knowledge you need to have about our continent, especially the Confederation." She finished the lessons on that particular topic.

"Anyone have any questions?" She asked.

"How do I join the Academy?" A commoner immediately stood up.

"Being a little impatient, aren't we?" The instructor giggled.

"If you are able to reach level 5 before reaching 30 years of age, you can apply. Moreover, our Academy will reach out to anyone if he or she is highly talented or competent." She again looked at Isabella.

Adrian, noticing her hints- again, could not stay quiet anymore.

"What if he or SHE rejects your invitation?"

The statement hit the instructor like a bucket of cold water.

"Ahem… then the Academy will not pursue the matter any further. We respect everyone's choices." She barely managed a reply.

"Glad to know. It is really uncomfortable when someone greedily stares at your possessions, you know." Adrian said with the same lazy voice.

The instructor could only put on a helpless smile.

It did not take time for the smarter students to figure out the war Adrian and instructor Bell secretly fought. Among them were Dolf Ironcross and Cornelia de Recruz.

The commoners had no clue. Among them were Isabella- the objective of the war- and the young man who asked the question- who was still standing, completely forgotten by everyone.

Though Isabella's intelligence was above average, as seen from her examination results, she had yet to know the ways of the world.

"We will proceed on to the next topic." She tried to hide her loss using the oldest trick in the book- (literally) changing the topic.

"Magic."

Everyone in the classroom including the nobles, who paid little attention to the previous topic, became serious- except Adrian of course. They arched forward and fixed their eyes upon the instructor. Adrian was still sitting casually, as if he were in his home.

Observed closely, the nobles were more serious than the commoners because only they knew the struggles of aristocratic society, they knew that power reigns supreme. And the way to strengthen themselves is-

Magic.

"Those of you who are here should already know that not everyone is capable of using magic. You need to have affinity to magical energy to sense, absorb and control it. Noble children are almost guaranteed to have magic affinity as they are conceived by parents, both of them who are likely to be mid level circlers at the very least."

"Speaking of levels, I want to clarify that level 0-2 are low level, level 3-5 are mid levels, level 6-9 are high levels- of which level 9 is also called the supreme level."

At this point, the whole class heard a muffled laugh and all of the students looked at the source, which happened to be Adrian.

"Pardon me. I just remembered something funny."

The instructor ignored it and went on with her lecture.

"As for commoners, who are unlikely to have one circler parents- let alone two, the probability of being born with magical affinity is very low. Nevertheless, hundreds of commoners with magical affinity are born every year among the population of the Kingdom which counts in millions. And every year, royal inspectors test the youths who came of age in their respective cities, towns and villages and invite the ones with magical affinity."

"Now, I will be speaking of something that might interest you- tiers of magical affinity; especially because of the fact that this class alone contains seven tier 4s, the cream of the crop of tier 3s and the most special of all- a tier 5."

All of the students in the class were proud, and rightfully so. They were the best of the best among all the examinees and they were selected to be students of the 'Griffin' class- a class only for the 'chosen'.

"There are 5 tiers of magical affinity- tier 1-5. Among them tier 1 and 2 are the most common- constituting about 90% of the circlers. Tier 1 can at most reach level 5 in their life and tier 2 can reach level 7, assuming they use a lot of magic crystals and potions. Otherwise level 3 and 5 are their limits respectively. Tier 3s, which constitutes about 10% of the circlers, can reach level 6 without any resources but with sufficient resources, they can reach level 8 at most."

Though the ones with tier 3 affinity were a little disappointed because of their inability to reach the supreme level, they consoled themselves thinking of the rarity of level 9 circlers in the whole continent.

"Now, I don't need to tell you twice that tier 4s are rare. Of the 937 examinees this year, only the 7 of you here have tier 4 affinity. Among them, you, Cornelia de Recruz and you, Dolf Ironcross should be level 9 seeds of your respective families, right?"

"Yes!" Dolf Ironcross answered proudly.

"Ye… yes." Though the princess's answer was the same, her tone was not. One could easily see her head lowered and fists clenched.

But none asked about the matter.

"How about Adrian Darkheart?" That burly young man who was looking down on Adrian during the examinations was in the same classroom.

The instructor looked at Adrian and started to speak.

"As far as I know, you should be…" She did not speak any further fearing she might be stepping into his personal zone.

"Yes, I lost my right to be the duke."

His casual statement caused a din. None knew of this matter, even members of power families like Dolf and Cornelia. The burly young man, whose name was Dan Silva, outright laughed.

"But the house promised all the resources necessary for my ascension to level 9 as compensation."

This statement caused even more surprise to the ones, including the instructor, who knew that every family could groom at most one level 9 circler every generation.

'So, the Darkheart family is grooming two level 9 circlers?' They asked themselves.

Adrian smiled. Because he knew the truth.

The day the Darkshore duke declared that he, Adrian, lost the right as the heir, all hell broke loose on the household. The successor who was selected to replace him as the heir along with his mother, the second wife of the Duke were killed. The five high level circlers, vassals of the household, lost their lives while trying to stop the killer. Even the duke almost died.

The grandfather of the duke, the only living level 9 circler of the family came out of seclusion just in time to save the duke. Even he could barely do anything to one of the fastest circlers on the continent. Seeing no way out, the supreme level circler decided to negotiate.

That day, the 'silent' duchess, who got this nickname for her non-involvement in family affairs, returned to her room all bloodied. But not a single drop of that was of her own.

'Only that woman deserves to be my mother.' He said to himself.

"Anyways, let's continue on with the lesson." The instructor successfully attracted everyone's attention.

"But no matter how much you try to absorb magical energy, it is impossible to store it without an 'Initiation' potion and the understanding of an 'essence'. This potion provides an overwhelming amount of magical energy along with the ability to clot the energy in a place until it loses its effects. During the process, you have to contemplate everything about the essence."

"Essence is the fundamental of an attribute. Once you understand the essence, you can manifest magical energy into that attribute and use that essence. For example, if you understand the <Heat> essence of Fire attribute, you can manifest fire and use heat. If you understand the <Flow> essence of Water attribute, you can manifest water and control magical energy more effectively as it becomes more fluid. The same goes for <Hard> essence of Earth attribute using which the body can be hardened or <Swiftness> essence of Wind attribute which can grant the user superhuman speed. But mind you, everyone can only have one essence and thus, one attribute."

"Once the initiation process is completed, you will be able to normally absorb magical energy into your magic core. The magic core will be formed in the heart and it will always be in a spherical shape. The radius of that sphere determines your level. That is, if the radius is 1 millimetre, then you are a level 1 mage. But what's more important is the 'Core Circle' which will grant you the powers of 'Properties'. But I will leave that for later as you will need to reach level 3 first before forming a core circle."

"Now, we are going to talk about the most important part, the foundation of magic itself- Circles."

Everyone's heart began to beat faster. Circles- the very foundation of magic. They were unable to curb their curiosity.

"Magic, even though the process looks simple, it is actually incredibly complex. It is so complex that an ancient subject called 'Science' is needed to understand the process. Even with that subject, not everything can be explained. Worse, the existence of 'Science' is still a myth as there is no evidence of its existence."

The students were in a state of contemplation. They have never heard of this thing called 'science' before.

"But there is an extremely simple alternative to 'Science' and that is Circles. Through the usage of circles, magic energy can be manifested into it's practical form- spells. Different spells need different types of circles. And circlers can only use the attributes they understand the essence of. For example- wind circlers can only use wind magic."

"Now, I am going to talk a bit about the different types of circlers. I will start with casters as they are the only ones who can directly cast spells. But being a caster requires high mental strength, imaging skills and magic control. Then, we have the augmenters who strengthen their body through practice and use augmentation magic during combat to further strengthen their body to superhuman heights. Augmenters can be further divided into classes such as warriors, archers, assassins etc. We will learn about them later."

"That's it for today. Visit the library in an hour and pick a book about the 'essence' you want and study them thoroughly today. There will be counsellors there, question them about what attribute will be the best for you. Study whatever you pick thoroughly today as your 'initiation' ceremony will be held tomorrow."

*Ding.Ding*

The bell marked the end of the class.

The poor commoner who asked the question about about joining the Academy, who never got the permission to sit for some reason finally sat and sighed.