Furio's master brought him deep into the desert, into a hidden underground base he had been using for a while.
Contrary to Furio's expectations, the base was quite simple and clean.
When his master had mentioned that they would be going to his base, he had vague ideas of some evil dungeon filled with corpses.
Rather than that, it was a fairly nice space, with a whole room for Furio to use.
"You're probably thinking that this is a bit clean for a dark mage, yeah?"
"Uh, yes."
"Let me make it clear, whatever notions you have regarding dark mages do not apply to me."
"I'll keep that in mind... master."
Furio added the last part awkwardly, but the man did not seem to care much.
The situation, although calm, was still quite uncertain.
Furio did not think the man had tricked him under false pretenses, though.
He was so overwhelmingly strong that he could simply force Furio to do whatever he wanted, if he wished.
'Still, if he's serious about genuinely teaching me, then this situation is in no way bad for me.'
Furio was sure that whatever this man could teach him was beyond what he could do himself.
Literally, all he was doing was aimlessly following the quest he was assigned and casting magic bullet over and over.
'I mean, it's working, right?'
But he was sure that once he broke through to the second layer, such 'training' would slow down in efficiency.
Back in the Notoria family, he had never received proper training beyond the very basics as he could not use magic.
If he had learnt even a smidgeon of the Notoria family's mana cultivation methods, he'd be progressing at a far faster rate.
[Objective 1 (83/100]
Seventeen more kills, and he would finish the quest.
He still had a little over a month, so he would get to it eventually.
Frankly, he was not all that interested in the ring anymore, he would much rather learn from his new master.
'The thing he killed the wyvern with... it's seriously cool.'
His inner child could not help but be a little excited.
Well, he was currently a child, not even fourteen years old.
...
"Heard you threw one of your boys out, Sil, 'sit true? Hic-"
Five men were gathered around a table, drinking eagerly.
If people were to find out the identity of these men, there would be endless uproar.
Their current states did not match their usual appearance in the slightest.
"Fuck, yeah, those asshole elders made me throw the poor kid out."
The men laughed as their friend complained about his life.
"But Sil, it's not like you ever cared about what they said, we all know you'd just steamroll them if they annoyed you."
Silvio let out a deep sigh before speaking with a more serious tone.
"Well, if I thought he was incapable, I'd have just kept him in some small territory away from the estate, but haven't I always told you lot? He's the most interesting child I have."
"Ho-? So even if he can't use spells, you think he'll be able to make a name for himself?"
"Heh~, don't believe me? Just wait a few years and see."
As the topic of Furio came to a close, one of the men brought up another topic of interest.
"Then Mike, what about your girl, ay? Didn't you say she's been doing well."
Michael Ars Goetia, the emperor of the Key Empire, beamed a bright smile befitting a doting father.
"Right! The youngest, it's crazy, you know. Nobody in our family's history has ever done it, but she managed to contract with the first rank infernal spirit."
"Huh, that so? The one you got when we were kids, is it higher rank than that one?"
"Yeah, it was a huge shock when I managed to contract with Paimon, but the girl managed to get Bael."
The heads of the empire's five families continued chattering away about their lives into the night.
They could rarely be themselves in their day-to-day life, so drinking sessions such as these were mandatory for their mental health.
...
"What is that thing inside of you?"
I could not help but ask my pupil.
Did he even know that something was squirming inside of him?
He looked hesitant to say anything, so I spoke again.
"I'm just concerned, as any good master should be."
Seeming to come to a decision, my student closed his eyes for a moment, then showed me his hand.
"...His name is Blue."
'What the fuck is that thing.'
At this moment, I was thankful that I wore a mask.
It looked to be some sort of worm, no larger than a pinky finger.
That fact was nothing special, what scared me was what the worm contained.
"H-how long have you had this.. I mean, Blue, inside of you?"
In my long lifetime, I had seen countless anomalies.
Perhaps it was a little arrogant, but I considered myself well versed on all things, I did not believe many things could surprise me.
"Well, as long as I can remember, since birth I guess."
My student, Furio, did not make eye contact with me, instead looking at the worm in his hands which had been wiggling around.
"Since birth, huh? I've never seen anything like this. So, this has to be the source of your strange unending mana, right?"
He seemed a little troubled by my question, and I could probably guess what he was thinking.
"I'm not gonna try and steal it from you, I reckon it'd be impossible anyway."
"I'll believe you, master... To answer your question, yes, this is the source of my infinite mana."
I was still extremely curious as to what exactly the worm was, so I continued asking more questions.
'Probably shouldn't ask too many questions though, otherwise this wise mysterious master persona will fall apart, can't make myself look uneducated, after all.'
"Ahem, does it do anything else?"
At this question, I saw his eye twitch.
"W-well, he likes to eat whatever I kill, and whenever he eats something, usually my skills improve a little. But, for the time I felt something watching over me, I couldn't reveal him."
'Well, damn, I'd be mad too if I were him.'
He was still maintaining a respectful attitude towards me, but I understood that my stalking had caused him to lose out on strength.
"...How about I make it up to you."
---
LOG 11 - THE GOETIA FAMILY & THE GOETIC ART
The Goetia family exist as the rulers of the Key Empire. Their artform is considered the most suited for direct combat out of all the five family's arts. During the time in which Solomon was alive, he captured seventy two spirits of immense power, which came to be known as the infernal powers. In recent times, the strongest of these spirits, King Bael, has been contracted for the frist time in a thousand years by someone in the Goetia family.