3 Chapter 3

The next ten years were rather monotonous for Ryuu.

In many fanfictions this would now be the time-skip that would suddenly allow the main character to become overpowered beyond reason. Sadly reality wasn't as kind to him.

All that the [Shadow Clone] did for him is save time. It didn't change the fact that he has numerous blocks and limitations placed upon him.

Of course Ryuu never had any delusion that things are going to be easy. While he did feel a little regret about not being able to suddenly go all "super-saiyan", it fueled his desire for strength even more than before.

Ryuu concentrated mainly on two aspects of his life. One was his studies. If it wasn't busy with his duties, the clone would always be seen in the library. Though the clone would dispel itself every six hours to make sure the mental burden is still bearable for the main body. His studies also helped him further organizing his minds, even going as far as promoting the growth of his mind arts.

The second being his physical prowess. There were certain limitations he had to put on himself. After all he was still a child and growing, but that didn't hinder him from refining his skills. One just had to look at Sairaorg, Rock Lee or Might Guy to understand just how far you can reach by specialising in physical combat.

Using his past lifes' experience and knowledge he quickly started getting himself accustomed on his old earth's martial arts. He was never a prodigy or even genius, but hardwork kept him reaching heights many never could've imagined.

And now he makes sure to follow the same discipline in his new life. Being strict with himself is what allowed him to survive so long in his old world, despite his dangerous occupation. Now in a world a hundred times more deadly he would need to watch his back even moreso than before.

Things were moving along smoothly all things considered. There were a few hiccups with his mother. He had already recognized her mental instability, after their first meeting. And things didn't really get better afterwards.

It wasn't until four months later he decided to come clean with his mother. Telling her about his wish for strength in order to survive, about the creation of his shadow clone and his plans for the future. He, of course, didn't mention anything about his reincarnation. That would a secret he'd take into the grave.

To say Melissa was not amused would be a monumental understatement. In fact she was livid. It wasn't until she remembered the death of her beloved husband, that she took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Closing her eyes she thought over the arguments her beloved child presented her with.

Being a devil, regardless if you are of common or noble birth, she understood the importance of strength instinctively. In order to live freely and securely, to enjoy all the good things life has to offer to start a family. In the supernatural world all these things require one thing and one thing only: strength!

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she thought about family. "Ryuu, family. Family, children, grandchildren.." A dangerous gleam passed through her eyes.

Ryuu coming clean not only ignited Melissa's desire for a big family, but also fueled her obsession making her start training whenever she finds the time with vicious tenacity. She decided to become the strongest grandmother in existence to ensure the safety of her future grandchildren.

For some reason Ryuu had shivers running down his spine after seeing the gleam in his mother's eyes. "Ryuu-chan you have my permission!"

She practically screamed with enthusiasm. Melissa gave her son a quick hug and rapidly disappeared from his view. "I think I just opened Pandora's Box," mumured Ryuu.

The first three years of his training were purely dedicated to understanding his capabilities and limitations. It became rather apparent that he had enhanced memories.

Not quite on the level of an eidetic level where he can remember everything in the smallest detail, but good enough to remember the contents of entire books if he so desires. Training in mental arts and building his Mindpalace further strengthend his ability.

Ryuu also found out that he was ambidextrous with heigthend control of his body in general. This helped immensely with his parkour training. It also allowed him to keep a high degree of flexibility despite gaining more and denser muscles.

Last but not least were his magical capabilities. Lucifer never bothered giving the common devils any potential or specialties. This resulted in him not only having an extremely small pool of demonic energy which wasn't even half of the capacity a lower devil had, but also extremely poor control over it.

When he tried circulating his energy in his body, it felt like trying to stirr extremely thick honey. Ryuu knew that his highest priority should be working on his demonic energy manipulation. After all it not moving and reacting like he desires is a big disadvantage.

While he was training hard he had his clone change research subjects from medicine to magic. Specifically: Runes and Rituals.

Runes have always had high potential in his eyes. Odin being proof of what the apex of Runecraft can look like. As for the rituals, it was much simpler.

Since ancient times mortals have used rituals to gain things from the supernatural side of the world. Most of the times in involved sacrificing something to receive something. Farmers sacrificing a third of their yield for a god to bless and protect their fields for the next season.

Ryuu had many ideas on what he could sacrifice and how it should be sacrificed though this topic most definitely needed more research before he could act upon it.

When Ryuu reached his fourth year the first thing he did was question his perception towards time. For him it felt like only a few months had passed at most, not years. After a quick exchange with Serafall she explained to him that it's a quirk all long lived species share.

Since he didn't want to continue linger on this topic he quickly dedicated towards he newly advanced trainings plan.

With all the knowledge gathered from the library it was time to start a few test using animals. like sacrificing a snake to enhance the venom of another. The results were rather promising except for one little problem. The sacrifice and the to-be enhanced needed a certain affinity. You couldn't for example imbue a snake with the plants to give it photosynthesis.

All the while he made sure to continue his studies and mental training while also keeping himself fit as to not lose his previous training results.

He could already feels himself getting closer to the first bottleneck of his physical growth. One he couldn't overcome himself. He'd need to let nature take it's course and allow him to grow naturally.

Ryuu also tried tinkering with a few basic runes though it quickly became apparent that his talent in this particular subject was almost nil which saddened him. He did have hopes, that with a few rituals down the road he could change that.

Starting with his sixth year he dropped the practical part of the runes training, but continued to study them. It was also the year he started getting comfortable with rituals. Going as far as mapping out his first one.

A chinese novel favorite, the removal of impurities. Ryuu's idea was simple: perfect what you have before adding new things on top of it. He had plans to cleanse his body, mind and soul all seperately.

Like any self-respecting he knew that the holy trinity needed to be well taken care of in order to maximise your potential.

In his eighth year he finally underwent his first ritual: the cleansing of the mind. Having been practising mind arts so often and diligently made it rather easy to handle the stress the ritual cause on him and gain the most benefits off the it.

After the ritual he felt his mind more active. His already improved memory officially became an eidetic one and his processing speed went through the roof.

His enhanced mind capacities also helped him with the manipulation of his demonic energy. Allowing him to exert greater pull and control over it. He couldn't stop the grin from sticking to his face making Serafall and Melissa question just what made him so happy.

Though effective he understood that his body could at most take one ritual a year, and that was already pushing it.

With the support of the new mind the entirety of the year was dedicated to magical training. He never bothered studying and using the other established magic system. After all he had to first gain full control over his devil magic.

The newly upgraded mind allowed for a much smoother manipulation of his energy. What was once thick honey became a stew and was on it's way to becoming a clear soup though sadly his reserves were only growing slowly with his body, barely reaching low-rank at the moment.