hotmtlnovel Chapter 3811 The School Doctor's "Daily Life" (26)
Chapter 3811 The School Doctor's "Daily Life" (26)
Chapter 3811 The School Doctor's "Daily Life" (Twenty-Six)
“I can teach you,” Schiller suddenly spoke again. His attitude perfectly displayed the capriciousness of an evil dark sorcerer. “I can see your evil; you and the Sorcerer Supreme will never be on the same side. It’s my pleasure to create an opponent like you for him. However…”
"But what?"
"What do you think black magic is like?" Schiller chuckled. "Is it the same as the childish knowledge taught in this naive school? You think you're doing well in school, so you're confident you can learn black magic from me? I can only tell you that the unique thing about black magic is not its evil."
"What does that depend on?"
“It’s a truly magnificent system,” Schiller said. Although he didn’t know exactly what kind of system it was, that didn’t stop him from boasting. He paused for a moment before continuing, “It will reveal to you the truth of this universe. It’s a system of power that even a great archmage would find difficult to comprehend, far more difficult than any magic you learn in school.”
"And what about the Supreme Master?"
“He can’t,” Schiller said. “Learning dark magic requires a unique, wicked talent, which he doesn’t have.”
The owl was clearly intrigued. He said, "But you said I'm evil enough."
"You're just wicked enough. I saw some interesting parts in your soul, which is why I'm trying to teach you. But whether that's enough for you to understand this knowledge, I can't say for sure."
Night Owl wasn't surprised; in fact, he thought that the profound and obscure black magic Schiller spoke of was the real magic. The wand-wielding magic taught in schools now was utter nonsense, a complete fraud.
Batman always has a knack for complicating things, and Owl is no exception. He prefers to believe that true magic requires unique talent and is extremely difficult to learn. He doesn't believe that something simple and easy to learn, even if usable, is necessarily better than something difficult.
"Where should I begin? I saw some books in your secret room..."
“Then go read a book,” Schiller said dismissively. He stood up and walked to the window.
“What I mean is, I think I can learn from your notes first.” Night Owl knew he was angry, so he quickly tried to make amends. “After all, you are the world’s best master of dark magic, and your notes will definitely benefit me greatly.”
"What I mean is, those books are disorganized and useless even if you read them. But if you really want to read them, you can take a look. I have things to do tonight, I'll contact you when I'm done."
After saying that, he flicked his sleeve, and Night Owl collapsed. It wasn't magic; the gray mist had simply knocked him unconscious. Then Schiller used the gray mist to send him back to his dormitory.
After sending the owl back, Schiller went to find Mephisto. Mephisto had been staying at the filming location recently, and Chris had found him a new job: being a lecturer for the Bestiary.
Chris made everyone look at the Batman guidebook. Batman's writing was indeed good, but not everyone could understand it, especially children, who would get sleepy just looking at that kind of text.
Of all the people present, Mephisto was the one who understood it best. Putting aside his own vast knowledge as an immortal being, Mephisto was genuinely interested in Batman's way of presenting the world.
As a demon, the world couldn't possibly be logical in his eyes, but he was, after all, an intelligent being, not utter chaos and confusion. Any thinking being possesses a degree of order, and Mephisto, being exceptionally intelligent and cunning, was fully capable of understanding human logic and thus could appreciate rigorous logical thought.
Batman's thinking is not merely rigorous, but also carries an arrogance and conceit, as if saying, "The world must be the way I understand it." The truth may not be so, but writing with this sentiment is extremely persuasive. The devil loves anything persuasive, and they won't miss the opportunity to learn from a great orator.
Not to mention, Mephisto himself really likes Batman, thinking they're perfect candidates to become his followers. After seeing the character's profile, he likes him even more. If he weren't afraid of the Ancient One coming back and beating him up, he'd definitely give it a try.
Moreover, being a diligent and hardworking individual, he possessed a strong sense of professional ethics. He would research whatever interests the person navigating the game. Now that his most desired target, the big boss Chris, was interested in this guide, he had to put in an extraordinary amount of effort to thoroughly understand it.
So he read that illustrated guide over and over again, until he understood it perfectly. The next day, he had a long talk with Chris, and even extended his own insights on the content written by Batman, leaving Chris completely stunned.
When Schiller found him at the filming location, he was giving a lecture to the crew about the evolution and branching of mushrooms. Schiller waited for a while, and when the lecture ended, Mephisto still looked like he hadn't had enough.
"It used to be so troublesome to convince a believer," Mephisto couldn't help but sigh. "It was all about dreams, miracles, and I had to take care of everything—my kids and elderly relatives getting sick, all sorts of aunts and uncles having accidents, even the cheese getting moldy and the beer going sour. If someone was disobedient, I'd have to slaughter a cow or a sheep in the sheepfold to scare them off. If I wasn't watching them properly, they'd run off to the church. Modern times are so much better. Just yesterday, someone messaged me on an app, inviting me to a hotel."
Schiller nearly spat out his coffee. He looked at Mephisto and said, "So you went?"
"I went. I went to every single one of them who asked me to, and I transformed into their favorite version of myself, completely fooling them. Unfortunately, not many of them turned into believers in the end, but it wasn't a loss, at least it increased my account's followers quite a bit."
Schiller opened his mouth, unsure what to say. You can't expect the devil to understand manners and shame; isn't that all the devil does to deceive believers?
In the Middle Ages, the Papacy was there to keep things in check, but in modern society, everyone is more open, perhaps even too open, so Mephisto can't just fool anyone.
Schiller decided to change the subject. He asked, "Do you know black magic?"
"what?"
"Black magic, like curses and the like, do you know any?"
Mephisto's expression turned somewhat strange. He looked at Schiller and said, "Do you think I should?"
"I think you've lived this long, even if you haven't eaten pork, you should have seen pigs run. You must have seen those archmages use dark magic, and you probably know a little bit about it, right?"
Mephisto's expression grew even stranger, as if he were recalling some dark history. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Do you know who the first person to use dark magic was?"
"who is it?"
"The first Supreme Master".
"He hit you?"
“Not every Sorcerer Supreme can beat me!” Mephisto raised his voice. “He’s my disciple! I taught him the dark magic he uses! I am the founder of dark magic!”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Schiller said, looking at him. “You’re a devil; the energy you can control is practically limitless. Why are you studying black magic?”
"It's all because of you, you stupid humans!" Mephisto finally couldn't hold back anymore. He said, "I gave you energy and you don't even know how to use it! If I didn't teach you the correct way to use magic, you would all blow yourselves to pieces!"
“Uh…” Schiller didn’t know how to refute it. Judging from Mephisto’s current mood, what he said might be true; black magic might indeed have been taught to humanity by this old devil.
Mephisto sighed helplessly and said, "I was one of the earliest demons to invest in humanity. I saw your potential long ago and knew the special nature of your souls, which is why I have been tirelessly promoting the idea that Hell is the final destination for human souls for thousands of years."
"Unlike the demons who ruthlessly oppressed and plundered humans in that era, I adopted a peaceful trade approach from the very beginning. Although it may not have been entirely honest, it was still a trade, which was quite civilized for that time."
"But humans are a race with great inherent defects. I don't know how to describe it to you, but those humans with poor magical talent before you released your energy in the Nine Realms were already the result of generations of demon gods tirelessly providing you with energy. Humans in ancient times had even less magical talent than that."
Schiller wasn't surprised by this. Humans are a life form completely opposite to magical creatures. At the beginning of their evolution, they shouldn't have had any intuitive understanding of energy or a direct way to use it; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to make fire by rubbing sticks together.
"The energy I can provide to humans is too powerful for them to store and control properly. In order for them to use this power, I had to impose restrictions, like the safety on the guns you use. They have to draw specific patterns or recite incantations to activate the power. That's what black magic originally looked like."
Schiller began to understand. He had wondered before when watching Strange cast spells why he didn't chant incantations or make gestures. Strange told him that magic was simply a matter of will, that whatever one thought could be achieved, and that there weren't so many restrictions.
But this might actually be because he has magical talent and is not short of energy right now, so even if he acts on impulse and makes a mistake, it won't be a big problem, at least he won't hurt himself.
However, this wouldn't have worked in ancient times. Mephisto might not have been able to find many people with magical talent, and without restrictions, these people could easily destroy themselves, which is why he imposed so many limitations on magic.
"Later, this limited form of magic that I invented was popularized and humans called it black magic. That name is not wrong, after all, I am a devil myself. But the reason why this magic was able to develop is also your own fault, humans."
"Humans are just too greedy. No matter how much energy I give them, it's never enough. If I give them too little, they'll just use it to fight. If I give them too much, they'll get drunk and dare to attack the sun. So under normal circumstances, I don't give them too much energy."
"But if I give too little, I'll seem stingy, and humans will criticize me for not being generous enough. I already had quite a few competitors back then, and I didn't want to lower my image in the eyes of humans because of this. So I told them, you need to research ways to save energy yourselves. If you can't figure it out, it's your own fault for being stupid, and you can't blame me for giving too little."
"Humans have racked their brains in this regard, and within a few generations they have developed many ways to save energy, which are the prototypes of black magic that have been passed down to this day."
"Just a prototype?"
"Yes, it was only in its embryonic stage from beginning to end. Before it could be developed further and more extensively, the Ancient One became the Sorcerer Supreme. Her magical talent was simply too good; she could absorb any amount of energy given to her by the Daedric Prince, and her use of energy was completely natural. She beat up all the dark magicians on Earth, and then they realized that this path was not viable, so basically no one used it anymore."
“I see,” Schiller said. What he was really thinking was that if the Ancient One hadn't existed, dark magic might have truly developed to the point where even ordinary people with no magical talent could use it. Unfortunately, the Ancient One descended, completely blocking that path.
But this is actually a good thing. If the extremely energy-saving dark magic hadn't been largely passed down, humanity wouldn't have so ambitiously plundered so much energy. This is the same principle Schiller wanted to teach Night Owl the dark magic of.