Epic Of The Demonic Sage

If one knew that their enemies had the same weapons as them, they would know their weaknesses and their strengths, allowing them better maneuvers. This was a large advantage that could decide the outcome of a battle or war. 

Having learned this, Lucius very well wanted to try it on other people. Though he didn't know what the consumption of the new type of energy would be. 

'I should name it something…' Lucius thought to himself.

After thinking for about five minutes, he decided upon a name.

"It will be called Hell Aether from now on!" Lucius stated.

It was a simple name, but it showed its meaning very well. Not only was the energy a combination of Aether and Hell energy, it could even cooperate very well. Thus the name Hell Aether suited it, making it seem as if it was Aether taken from hell itself.

"Now then… time to test it out on others…" Lucius muttered to himself.

He left his bedroom and chose his first target, which was none other than a servant that was passing by. Lucius already knew the gift of this servant and thus had all the information on it. He lightly squinted his eyes and used Nexus with Hell Aether as the fuel.

A string of words quickly started to appear in front of him.

Gift Name: Sticky Touch 

Description: The user can secrete a weak adhesive from their hands.

Rank: Common

Type: Emission 

Evolution: Possible

Evolution Requirements: Six Aether Crystals 

Other Owners: Samantha Clemons, Janet Shaw, Louis Stanley, Carl Burn…. (total Owners: 9257)

Lucius felt his head throb with the large number of names that had just appeared in front of him. Thankfully nexus seemed to be better than he had thought and it automatically condensed all of them while giving him a number.

He willed it and saw that the list could be extended if he wanted to see it. Still, the sheer number of people that had the same gift as this was shocking to him. 

"Over nine thousand people with the same gift… is this the statistic for a specific area or does Nexus show it for the entire world?" Lucius wondered.

Though there was another thing that had happened when he had used Nexus on the servant. All the Hell Aether that Lucius had was drained in one go. Since he was letting Aether and Hell energy freely mix, his stores of Aether were drained as well.

"Seems like the more number of people the higher the requirement for Hell Aether…" Lucius realized.

The servant who Lucius had been looking at felt a gaze on the back of his head and turned around.

"Y-young Lord Asher!" The servant said, feeling a bit startled. "Do you need anything?" The Servant asked.

Lucius finally realized what he had been doing and gave an excuse. "Where are my mother and Kiana?" 

"Countess is at the main hall, while lady Kiana should be there as well. Ah, yes! I just remembered, the countess was saying something about informing her if you left your room." The serpent replied.

"Is that so… No need to inform her, I'll just go down myself," Lucius said before leaving.

The servant also bowed his head before leaving to do his duty. Reaching downstairs, Lucius saw Lita and Kiana in the main hall.

"Asher!" Kiana said out loud upon spotting him.

"Are you okay, son? Do you feel sick? You've been sleeping for a long time." Lita asked with concern.

"I'm fine-" Lucius was just about to come up with an excuse when Kiana interrupted him.

"You stayed up all night reading, didn't you?" Kiana questioned with a knowing look.

"Ah… yes. I ended up reading too much and forgot to sleep." Lucius replied, taking advantage of the excuse that Kiana had just very conveniently given him.

"It's alright. You should now eat dinner, you've skipped two meals already." Lita said, changing the topic.

Just as she said that Lucius's stomach groaned with hunger.

"Yeah, I do need to eat now. My stomach feels like it's gonna kill me." Lucius said with a chuckle.

"You just take a seat at the table and I'll get the food for you. We had something special made for you tonight." Kiana said before leaving.

"Something special?" Lucius asked in an apprehensive tone while looking at Lita.

"Since you were tired and stayed up all night, we decided that something heavy with nutrition might be better for you tonight. It will also help you sleep again, so that you don't mess up your sleep schedule." Lita explained.

"Oh, I see. Guess I'll look forward to the meal then." Lucius said before going to the dining hall.

About five minutes later, a few trays were brought in by the servants along with Kiana. They placed the trays on the table before opening them, displaying the dishes that were hidden within them.

  Lucius could see some kind of a steak that had been perfectly cooked, along with some roasted vegetables. Then there was a large bowl of soup that had pieces of fish floating around in it. The soup smelled delicious and made his mouth water. There was also some freshly baked bread, along with some pie for dessert.

Overall the meal seemed to be quite familiar to himself and he wondered what was so different about it. Kiana noticed his questioning look and knew what he was thinking.

"This meat is from a Rune beast called as the Joy Milk Cow. While this soup is made from a fish rune beast called as iron scale carp. This pie is also made using the milk of the Joy milk cow." Kiana explained.

Seeing that all this spread was made using Rune beast made Lucius feel impressed. 

"Let's see if it tastes better than normal food," Lucius said before starting his meal.

It didn't take him long to realize that normal food was nothing compared to rune beast meat. 

'It can even speed up the regeneration of Aether in my body…' Lucius discovered.