I received some odd gazes from my other classmates, but I simply ignored them and continued drawing in my notebook.
Over many years, I spent thousands of hours making plot lines, a detailed historical timeline, and a geographic map of my world.
This knowledge was basic to me.
As the bell rang, signifying the start of lunch, I crowded out of the classroom alongside everyone else.
However, turning away from the crowd, I exited the cafeteria and headed to my low-level dorm building, which was only a ten-minute walk away from classes.
Unlocking the door, I grabbed the curved sheath containing my new Willow Leaf Dao and slowly withdrew the sword.
I glanced at the mirror before me and took a step forward.
Then, in an instant, my right foot involuntarily lunged forward, slotting perfectly into a footprint dent in my dorm’s wooden floor.
Suddenly, as I glanced at the mirror, my reflection...vanished, only appearing a single moment later.
Although I couldn’t quite leap on air yet, which I presumed was part of the second movement of the art, I could somewhat imitate the robed man’s first few steps perfectly now.
That was the first movement, Torrent Step.
I had mastered about 25% of it, allowing me to disappear from sight for one fourth of a second.
That was all I needed.
The first incident of the book was scheduled to happen in a week.
As an introduction to demons and djinns, I had created Zyn: he was the senior that Leo had defeated on the first day of school.
Succumbing to vengeance against Leo for the humiliation, Zyn abandoned his humanity and accepted a deal from the demons, receiving extreme amounts of demonic mana in exchange for his lifespan.
In the final version of my book, Zyn only injured a single student before being swiftly taken down by Leo and Carissa.
Leo and Carissa would become acquaintances while the readers would understand the dangers of demons, who, despite being thousands of miles away, played a role in the human realm.
However, in the initial draft of my book, things had taken a darker turn.
Twelve students had died in a massacre before Zyn could be defeated.
Classroom walls were painted red, mangled corpses lay along the seats I once sat on, and streams of sticky, metallic blood leaked down the staircases.
Yet, the same result as above occurred: Leo and Carissa bonded through the tragedy, and readers learned about djinns, humans who accept contracts from demons.
The image of my previous scene flashed before me, causing me to stumble forward like a drunkard and nearly bang into a nearby wall.
Re-sheathing my sword and attaching it to my back, I took a deep breath and grabbed a green mask from my desk.
Created from bits of the lily pads within my painting, the mask contained mana-rich materials, allowing it to be infused with attributes like stealth or strength in the future.
For now, it was simply a dark-green mask that covered my entire head, including the back of my head and face, with two holes for my eyes.
With two small horns above the head, the mask resembled that of the Green Goblin from the Spider-Man movies.
As for clothing, I simply grabbed a cheap black shirt and pants that had been in Athens’ apartment.
Checking the time, I sighed and left my dorm room.
It’s about time...he should have just accepted the contract.
-*- Original content can be found at NoveI-Fire.ɴet
In a dorm room, blinds shut and lights off, blocking out any light from the outside, A boy with short, black hair and a scarred face, clearly from a sword, knelt.
Before him lay a small piece of paper.
Lines of an oozy, metallic, crimson-red substance stained the paper, forming a symmetrical circle with countless lines.
At that moment, the darkness-filled room suddenly lit up, as the blood on the paper suddenly flew upward into the sky.
Gazing upward, Zyn watched as his blood gracefully flew through the air, forming a sphere.
Before he could even stand up, a sudden voice, tinged with melanchony and happiness, like that of a mother speaking to their newborn child, sounded.
"What is it you desire...child?"
His entire body trembling, Zyn barely managed to mutter, almost collapsing to the ground.
"t-the circle he gave me...it worked!"
Taking a deep breath, Zyn slowly lowered his gaze to the ground, not daring to gaze at the sphere of blood above him, and prostrated himself.
Instantly, the voice sounded, tinged with curiosity.
"Why is it you require this power...?"
Before Zyn could even answer the question, the levitating sphere of blood suddenly descended, right into Zyn’s skull, vanishing from sight.
An indescribable pain coursed through Zyn’s body as his body wildly thrashed around on the ground, his head burning as if someone had repeatedly hit it with a hammer.
However, no matter how much he tried to scream or commanded his body to move, his figure remained motionless in the silent room.
Finally, after a few moments, the tip of the blood-sphere emerged from Zyn’s skull, slowly ascending.
While Zyn’s trembling hands rapidly covered his hand, his body flailing around on the floor like a child, the voice suddenly sounded, with no emotion present.
"Take my hand, child, you will receive all that you desire and more."
Despite all the pain...all the cautionary feeling coursing through his head, Zyn...reached his hand upward, touching the sphere.
As they made contact, the floor suddenly shook, as if an earthquake were taking place, and the lights flickered on and off.
Then...everything went black.
His eyes closed, and his mind went black.
After three long hours, Zyn’s motionless body suddenly began to tremble, and his eyelids flickered open a few moments later.
However, he didn’t move.
He simply gazed down at his hands, a devilish smile slowly forming on his face.
Within his body, an abundance of a new purple substance flowed, replacing the small amount of blue previously present.
Additionally, as he looked in the mirror, two small horns appeared atop his head, glowing a crimson-red and surging with demonic mana.