The demiplane.
Beneath the shade of a magic lamp, Romon read the parchment.
Dark blue-green symbols glimmered faintly on the pages. Every character represented magical power.
After turning to the last page, Romon closed the book.
"After all this time, I've finally integrated the essential knowledge." Romon set down the book and gazed at the shelves, murmuring with a hint of delight.
He turned to look out the window.
Gray clouds filled the demiplane's dark sky. Now, however, Romon knew that they were a terrifying force of ice, roaring and ready at any moment to reap the lives of intruders.
Looking down at the black ground below, Romon could not help smiling bitterly.
He had been in this space for three months, accompanied only by countless ancient books and magic scrolls.
At last, though, this stage was complete. Romon drew a deep breath and exhaled heavily.
The Divine Vampire had originally been a mage. Admittedly, although there were some differences between the magical traditions of the Mist Plane and the Main World, their underlying principles were much the same.
This was especially true of the lower-level courses.
Thus, for levels one through five, Romon had not really been learning at all. He had been reviewing the Divine Vampire's experiences as a mage and digesting that knowledge.
It had been difficult at first, but his progress had grown faster and faster. The entire process had taken only fifteen days.
At levels six through ten, the mage courses diverged considerably. Romon had to digest the Divine Vampire's knowledge while studying new mage courses, which had taken a full month.
The material above level eleven had taken a month and a half. Finally, he had found the common ground between the Vampire's knowledge and the magical knowledge here. Once he found it, even