Demon's Virtue

"No, no! Wrong, this is so very, very wrong!" Partax groaned loudly, "Aren't you supposed to be the incarnation of the Alchemy skill?! How can you be this... inept?"

Eiro blankly stared at the halfling, "I'm still myself. Which means that I can get pissed off if you keep yelling at me like that."

"Then do it right! I told you to grind the limestone to a range between 50 and 100 micrometers, so what's with this?! You've got massive grains at above 150, and tiny dust below 20! Do it right, or don't do it at all!"

Closing his eyes for a moment, the Alchemy Eiro let out a long breath, "I've been doing the physical motions exactly as you instructed. I literally copied your muscle-memory and completely integrated it into this arm. So clearly, there's some other trick to it."

"Trick?" Partax sighed, "There's no trick to it, you just have to do it! Know where to grind, and know where not to grind! Now, do it again until you get it right."

Annoyed, but understanding that he had to keep doing it to get the technique down, Eiro scooped up the ground-down limestone dust and put it aside, "Will you finally tell me what benefit there is to doing it by hand instead of just letting me use magic?"

"Benefit? It's part of the process! Doing it manually is a much more rewarding experience, it lets you get properly pulled into the process of doing what you're trying to be doing!"

"... So you've been making me do something that has no tangible difference for the end-result?"

"... It's not always about the end-result. The process is part of what you need to love!"

The duplicate suppressed a deep, heavy groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He loved Alchemy. Of course he did, it was deeply ingrained in who he was. Everything he did, everything he thought of, was somehow brought to a relation of alchemy. He was still Eiro, of course, but a version of Eiro that never did anything but learn alchemy throughout his life.

And even though he certainly did enjoy the process, this was a waste of time. Partax wasn't free every minute of every day, while this Eiro was. He could practice the physical motions however much he wanted. Being a duplicate, he didn't require any sleep either. However, Partax was different. He got deep into his own work all the time, and slept half the day.

"I told you, the focus here is learning about your different techniques as much as I can. If you don't have any other tricks for me, it's clearly just a matter of practice. I can practice on my own time," Eiro said, flicking his wrist. He pulled the limestone dust back toward him with earth magic, "How big exactly are the grains supposed to be, best case. In the optimal scenario."

The halfling clicked his tongue, "Varying sizes between 64 and 78 micrometers. Around 50% should be at 71, 10% at both 64 and 78. Linear gradient between those points."

"Thank you," the demon replied, quickly fusing the limestone grains back together into a single block before breaking it back down into the exact sizes that Partax described. Now, the limestone was split into the right variety of sizes.

"Show-off," with one more click of his tongue, Partax turned away, "Fine. Now, get started saturating the grains with water."

Eiro nodded his head, doing as he was told. No matter how annoying Partax was, he was still learning a lot. He had already received a lot of instruction in the field of artificing, but receiving active support in alchemy was boosting his skill a lot.

---

"Fucking hell," Shimour walked around the duplicate-Eiro standing in front of him, "When he said he'd make these dupes have the perfect body for our techniques, he sure wasn't lying, huh?"

"It's 'you', not 'he'," Eiro replied, crossing his arms, "I'm that very same Eiro that told you about that."

"... But that Eiro is upstairs in that cocoon thing."

"Yes, but all the duplicates share a consciousness. Yes, we can act independently, but at the end of the day it is simply an advanced form of multi-tasking. Our mind is one, our thoughts are one, though our actions are individual."

Trying to wrap his mind around it, the stealth-master raised his brow, "Hm... I don't think I get it, but I'm not sure I need to, either. But if you say you're that same Eiro, then I guess I'll just treat you like it?"

"Yes, please do. And if you want to tell this version of me something, feel free to tell any other duplicate you see around. I will know anything you tell them, and they will know anything you tell me."

Shimour scratched the back of his head, "Well, if you say so. Anyway, let's just get down to business. What's the goal of this training for you? Do you want to get to a particular skill level?"

Eiro thought about it for a moment, "Yes, but also no. I want to increase my skill, of course, but independent from the level."

"... What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, during evolutions, my access to the system is cut off. I do still accumulate some level of experience, but it usually just results in the skill's system-level catching up to me once my access to the system returns.

However, my skills don't actually level up, so these three months are basically the perfect thing to let me increase my proficiency with all of your techniques, since any growth will be independent from the system."

Shimour listened to Eiro's explanation and slowly nodded his head, "I see... So instead of improving based on the 'system', you want to improve just generally, and refine your current abilities."

"Yes, practically. I want to try to emulate increases in skill levels as much as possible without actually levelling up."

With a satisfied nod, the master clapped his hands together, "In that case, let's get this on. First, show me what you can do. Without using any techniques to actively remove your presence, show me your movements. Just..." looking around to try and figure out a good way to exactly see Eiro's current, pure stealth skill, Shimour's sight soon landed on James.

He was currently on break from his own training and seemed to have something he wanted to do inside. Considering that James himself also had the stealth skill, Shimour saw him as the perfect target.

"Follow that guy, without letting him or anyone else notice you. Stay within ten feet of him. Do not leave behind any traces, and just fully use your environment and movements to avoid his sight. No magic, and no energy- or presence-manipulation. Just raw physical technique," Shimour said, and Eiro let out a slight sigh as he looked back at him.

"Alright, sure," the demon briefly pulled the wings out of the folds on his back and flapped them briefly, closing the distance between him and James almost instantly. As his feet touched the ground behind the helf, he pulled his wings back inside. But then, he just stood there.

Right now, there were plenty of things he could hide behind that would be a much safer choice, but that didn't particularly seem like the point of what Shimour wanted to see. Not to mention, it was unnecessary effort.

Eiro could feel the presence of anyone and everyone that could possibly spot him in any way, even if it was just through a brush of the air. He knew when they were coming close to seeing him, and how they were about to move next, and that was especially the case with James, who Eiro had trained up himself.

So, he knew he could just casually follow behind for now. Of course, as he moved, Eiro did so without making any sound, but he was just walking completely upright not even two full steps behind James.

Even as he walked into the manor, where plenty of individuals were walking around that could potentially spot him, Eiro didn't need to do much. Sure, sometimes he had hide behind a corner, stick to the ceiling for a bit, or cleverly position himself in a way that Eiro himself was hidden from others behind James, while avoiding both him and anyone else that could see him.

It was a sort of easy task, but Eiro figured that it wasn't really the point anyway. Shimour just wanted to see the specifics of his body and techniques, and the only way that was possible was by seeing him in action in some sort of capacity, so even a simple task like this should be enough.