The Book

Two days passed and Reiko had barely moved an inch, her drink was long finished.

'I need to prepare materials for Akito's weapon', she had made a weapon for her older children after she finished training them. She was planning to do the same for Akito.

'I also need to buy one of those bean bags to sit on... Or maybe two.'

She got up, used magic to change her clothes and then teleported to Earth.

* * * * * * *

Akito had started reading the book the day before and had finished the first section. It contained information about the different races that existed. The amount of detail the book went into was enormous, so he was currently walking around a local park in the city to summarise his thoughts.

The book he had been given by his mother covered many topics and it seems as if it had been written by his mother herself, if anyone else had written it then it would have been general information. He had never come across a majority of the things the book contained so it was fair to assume that it was written by her.

The first part of the book focused entirely on races of intelligent or potentially intelligent beings, it emphasized that it only focused on some of the main races rather than every single one.

It also mentioned that most races are divided into ranks, this is due to their strength. Ranks a strength and life span estimate, mana largely impacts both. Ranks usually only denote their lifespan and how much mana a being has However, in some cases also separate a race by changes to their souls as they get stronger.

He summarised the information from the book while walking, he hadn't been able to remember everything as there was far too much detail. However, everything that he remembered is as follows:

There were Dragons, these beings were entirely their race own with no relation to lizards, their ranks were changed based on intelligence, strength, and lifespan. They would move up ranks by in some cases just growing older while for others it was necessary to become more competent with magic. Dragons were relatively easy to kill as they relied entirely on their physical bodies to survive and so didn't require a 'soul death'. The two highest ranks were an exception to this rule and would eventually be reborn again if they didn't have their souls destroyed.

Dragons were one of the very strongest races in existence, at least that was depending on their rank, the highest rank dragons were devastating exitances capable of erasing galaxies with magic and shattering planets with physical strength alone.

Another notable race would be Spirits, they are a very strange existence as they are one of very few 'living' things to not have a soul at all. For that reason they are near invincible, it is far easier to simply seal them away if one becomes troublesome. It is possible to kill them but only the very strongest of Gods who are aligned with the concept of Death or End can do so.

Similarly to Dragons, they also had ranks, with the weakest not being all that intelligent and every tier getting more and more intelligent, starting at the middle ranks they have intelligence comparable to humans.

When it came to using mana and energy the Spirits were unique. They had no energy of their own, humans and every other living being had a certain amount of internal energy or mana, spirits had none. They would instead use surrounding mana to cast magic. This was part of the reason they had no souls of their own, they weren't alive and rather just a manifestation of energy. They also weren't really 'born' instead they just sort of happened to come into existence wherever there are dense energies, as a result of their peculiar existence they don't have a finite lifespan. They fade out of existence if surrounding energies can no longer support them, however they don't die, instead they manifest somewhere else.

After these two races the book followed on to group certain races into categories, as these races shared many similar traits. The spirits and dragons were unique because they are one of the few races in existence that couldn't achieve godhood, this was due to the fundamental differences in their soul compared to other beings. Becoming a god was largely dependent on being able to sense and control your soul, spirits do not have one while dragons rely entirely on their physical body and are unable to sense their soul at all.

The first group of races was simply referred to as 'Mortals and Immortals' and the races it concerned were the humans, giants, dwarves and elves. These four races made up roughly 60% of all intelligent life in existence and mostly have a finite lifespan.

The book said that the reason they 'mostly' have a finite lifespan is because any of them can become immortal after accumulating enough mana or energy. However, this is only pseudo-immortality as their mortal minds are terribly suited to eternal life and they usually go insane after a few thousand years pass. This doesn't apply to elves as if they gain enough energy they become High Elves, they also don't tend to go insane because elves already have naturally long lives.

All of the Mortal races change on a fundamental level if they manage to achieve godhood and an extended lifespan is no longer a problem.

The next category is Daemon folk or simply Daemons. The very first thing this part of the book proceeded to explain is the idea of 'concepts of existence'. These are important to magical races as they usually embody at least one of these concepts. This was a huge category as it contains any race that is magical and does not better suit another category. Despite the name they are not necessarily evil or corrupted, however, they are generally associated with 'darker' concepts such as death, end, and war. But not always, a well-known exception to this rule are the angels, who also fall into this category as they are magical beings.

A few notable Daemon races were mentioned along with their demeanours and concept alignments.

There are the Devils, who are generally mischievous and fond of destruction, death, lust, and corruption. They are generally aligned with concepts of death, decay war and fire. Their lifespans vary greatly on their ranks and the highest rank Devils are immortal while the lower ranks generally live between 400 and 800 years.

The next mentioned race was the Demons, not to be mistaken with the collective term of Daemon. The demons have a neutral disposition as they are mutated from mortals, this happens when a mortal who is a strong magician manages to fuse his soul with a concept, albeit accidentally. This seldom ever happens and they generally just increase their population through reproduction. They generally live for about 300 to 600 years, although this does vary depending on their ranks with their longest possible lifespan being 2000 years. They can achieve immortality however this is not related to ranks, they must have their soul altered or have something support them. This is usually either accidentally altering their soul themselves or by a god. There are also a few artifacts which grant immortality scattered throughout the universe.

The book briefly skimmed over Succubi and Inccubi which, apart from their instinctual lustfulness, are similar to mortals. In terms of concept alignment and lifespan, they are most commonly aligned with fire and life, they generally live for around 1600 years.

The final greatly significant Daemon race is the vampires, they require blood to survive and while they do not have a particular disposition they are particularly sensitive to their desires and generally cannot resist them. This makes them highly unpredictable and rather difficult to deal with. They happen to be the second strongest race of Daemons and are mostly immortal, the only exception to this is their 'slave' subspecies which are the ghouls. Ghouls are neither dead nor alive and are far weaker than vampires, generally used for boring tasks or manual labour and can be created from any mortal, upon changing race they gain a bond to their creator which makes them absolutely loyal and they cannot go against any orders.

Vampires are generally aligned with the concept of life and frost (the opposite concept to fire, usually called frost or ice).

The book finished the section by mentioning a few rarer but not any less important races, the werewolves, orcs, and angels.

It also mentioned Valkyries and Valors however these races are artificially created by a god and can only reproduce amongst themselves. They are also similar to dragons in the sense that they cannot become gods due to them relying on their physical bodies and not being able to sense their souls.

The final group of intelligent races was called the beast races, these are races which are generally intelligent animals or animalistic races which are not generally associated with magic or cannot use magic at all. There are too many races to really count, however, many are extremely rare so the book only mentioned the most notable ones.

Arachs are a spider race which can use magic but are not counted among the daemon folk as they do not initially have a humanoid form, they are instead are counted as a magical beast. They only gain a human form after becoming a Divine beast.

Goblins also count as a beast race as they, unlike orcs, are incompetent in terms of magic.

Wyverns are a beast race that is not associated with magic and are a poor imitation of dragons, they are completely unrelated and simply a cruel twist of fate.

Gryphons are a proud and strong race, however, unless you enter their habitats, encountering them is extremely unlikely.

The book finished off the section by mentioning Divine beasts and Beast people. Beast people are mortals with animalistic features which are very closely related to animals, there are many different types of beast people and are generally just slightly more humanoid versions of animals.

'Divine beast' refers to a stage in the evolution of any beast race. Rather than being called immortal when a member of the beast race achieves immortality, they come to be called Divine beasts. Almost any animal in existence can become a Divine beast however this is based on luck and they need to become a magical beast first.

Akito had been wandering around the park for quite some time while summarising what he had read and he happened to encounter one of his friends from university. Rather, his friend saw him walking around the park aimlessly and managed to snap him out of his thoughts