I decided to continue training even as I followed the trail to its source.
Not out of curiosity, but necessity.
If the boy I saved was really an asset, I had to use any means to bring him to my side.
And if he wasn't, then I'd make him useful until I could find a replacement.
No.
I shook my head.
Why was I thinking like that?
Replacing people… they're living things, not tools.
I guess the demon part of me was getting stronger.
Dangerous.
I opened the book again, skimming through the spells.
The goal was simple—build accuracy and expand my spell arsenal.
I summoned a ball of water, imagining water rising from a glass and forming into a sphere.
It trembled. It had nothing to hold its shape.
The mental strain was intense—like trying to solve further mathematics while only knowing basic maths.
It burst.
I coughed up blood, my nose bleeding.
Shit.
Everything blurred.
Was it from the magic… or poison coming from the corpses? I didn't know.
Wait.
Poison?
Since when?
I looked closer.
There was poison—green, like that boy's eyes.
The trail of poison was faint at first, then gradually thicker.
I covered my nose.
It was odourless, but visible.
Worse—it was spreading into the surroundings.
I used the black-and-white static vision again to scan the area.
Just as I thought.
It got denser the deeper the trail went.
And now there were footprints—like whoever walked here had melted the soil.