"Demon Element..."
Damon muttered to himself as he lay on the bed. Zhao Manyan, Mu Nujiao, and Mo Fan had all left for Jinlin City for their mission.
Even AI Tutu had a prior appointment with her group of friends, celebrating someone's birthday party.
After weeks of being together, it was the first time Damon was left all alone. He and the darkness—that was all that remained as he looked at the city of Shanghai, whose lights illuminated the night.
His mind was in shambles. For the first time in his life, he wasn't thinking—no, he couldn't think clearly—about the future.
And the cause of this? The Demon Element.
A private experiment carried out by a mad battlemage and his group to create their own new element.
After Damon learned about the mission, the first thing he did was ask about the members from Imperial College.
Their names and identities—it was odd for Damon to ask this of Mo Fan, but he still got the answers.
Nine students.
Doing a background check on all of them, Damon finally found his target.
Lu Zhenghe.
Why Damon was curious about this man, one might ask—but his intentions were clear. It had been years since Damon read *Versatile Mage.* He knew the major plots, the stories, and how everything turned out. But the names… his memory wasn't sharp enough to recall every single detail and minor character.
Closing his eyes, Damon looked at the tablet where the image of a man in a military uniform appeared, along with his credentials.
Lu Nian.
Lu Zhenghe's brother—and a madman who wanted to introduce the Demon Element for his own profit.
The man targeted Mo Fan to make him the test subject for the Demon Element.
**Operation Blood Sarira.**
Looking at the contents on his tablet, Damon's face hardened. His eyes grew colder as he slowly set the device down.
His target this time wasn't Lu Nian, nor the Demon Element, but something else—something far more valuable than any of it.
***
Following the departure of Mo Fan's team to Jinlin City, Damon began his plans. He started by investigating Lu Zhenghe and Lu Nian's digital footprints.
It took some effort, but Damon, with his skills, managed to uncover information about Lu Nian and his subordinates—their past locations and everything connected to them. By morning, he finally got what he wanted.
The location of the private laboratory funded by Lu Nian—mainly through the Lu Family's accounts and supported by other major families and clans.
The laboratory was in a secret location, two days' journey away, hidden in Lu Family territory between the mountains, guarded by level-one intermediate mages.
Not being authorized by the military, it didn't have very high security, but still powerful enough to make infiltration difficult.
Without making a grand scene, Damon quietly infiltrated, avoiding cameras and the senses of other mages. Knocking out a few who saw him, threatening those whose magic signatures were needed for deeper access—before killing them.
Inside the deepest area, he found files, documentation, and everything related to the research. Taking them all into his inventory, he destroyed his tracks and anything connected to the research before starting a killing spree—one by one, eliminating the mages present.
There weren't any strong combatants, as most were taken away by Lu Nian to Jinlin City. Those left behind were researchers or weak guards.
After destroying the lab, Damon left the mountains, making his way back to Shanghai. One by one, he went through the research materials.
The main objective of the research was to create an element capable of making humans physically able to contend with monsters.
The Demon Element wasn't newly discovered—it was a banned, evil magic condemned by the Association and the Holy Court for its effects.
It made the target lose all reasoning, their cultivation destroyed, their soul suffering greatly before finally losing their mind.
When injected with the sample, one needed the power of two nebulas just to survive briefly at the intermediate rank.
At the advanced level, it required power equivalent to three nebulas or more. It was a dangerous practice that could only be attempted by those with at least three intermediate elements—this was why Lu Nian targeted Mo Fan.
Mo Fan survived the effect of Blood Sarira in the novel only thanks to his four elemental nebulas. Even then, he lost his reasoning and hunted soul essences to barely survive with his soul intact.
The research articles contained deep and profound knowledge in multiple fields—Elemental Extraction, Artificial Mutations, In-Depth Talent and Elemental Spirit Studies, and Elemental Infusion.
Knowledge impossible to obtain—banned in all countries—now stood in Damon's hands. Illegally researched knowledge that provided him ways to turn his ideas into reality.
His location was far from Jinlin City, where the main cast fought for their lives.
He didn't know how much his existence had changed the story so far. Would Mu Nujiao return alive? Would he ever have fun with Zhao Manyan again? Would Mo Fan even survive?
Damon didn't know how much it would cost him to meddle with the plot like this. For a moment, he just closed his eyes and prayed to whoever was listening—just for once, let the plot play itself out as it was.
In truth, Damon had a lot on his mind when he saw them off. Something inside urged him to knock everyone unconscious and save them from danger.
Not everyone—but at least those he called friends. He even wanted to follow them into danger, hoping to change things. But in the end, his greed and selfishness won over.
Blinded by desire, he went after the knowledge and resources left at the lab, not caring about the safety of others.
Coming to Mu Nujiao's apartment, Damon stood before the door, his heart heavy. He couldn't even muster the courage to knock.
*Kluck*
Standing in front of the door, the knob turned by itself. The figure on the other side appeared—wearing a green dress that matched her elegance, her eyes red and puffy. Her once bright and poised face cracked as tears streamed down her cheeks at the sight of Damon.
"...Damon," she muttered, before throwing herself into his arms, gripping him tightly as tears flowed freely down her face.
***
A/N:
Okay let's take a break here. I have simethings to say first.
First of all my first negative review!
Yippee someone said that this was a translated novel and somehow how the protagonist is an idiot not using his powers to its full potential.
Okay first thing about translation. This isn't any. It's completely original work of my own based on popular series versatile mage.
Next addressing to the power issues, I made the mc op but some are saying the mc isn't using his powers to full potential. Okay then let me clarify.
MC lives inside a city faraway from monsters and is fucking weak or atleast he was. Do you think someone with no money, no background could somehow gets his hands on super powerful monsters, full forbidden curse level resources or something like that?
Nah it needs money, connections, a year he spent only making money to secure his future, connections he had many but in the hunters and resources field?
Very few okay. Secondly about his control someone is complaining but those who have read the novels surely have ideas on how fast his control is growing. It took Mo Fan a year for 49 stars with his experience with 2 elements already and years of battle experience.
So then also mc is able to come close to mo fan while making money do you think now it is slow?
Then next about people saying of when to kill mo Fan and how will he antagonise him. Okay first of all I am also one of those who likes villainous MCs, killing original protagonist and what not but honestly do you think versatile mage is a world where killing mc would work?
Dark Kings, Southern Emperor, Sahara Emperor, Kunlun and all are things that even with great powers one can handle alone? Even Mo Fan wasn't able to if not for his luck.
So should I then also kill mo fan? And for what dual element talent that in the later stages doesn't even matter? Or demon Element whose sample Damon now possesses?
Tell me something that makes it worth killing Mo Fan and not having him as an ally and sound reasonable.
And if you don't know Mo Fan's existence itself is special, the old man of Kunlun and likes whose mysteries were yet to be solved.
Sigh.. everyone has their own tastes and likes and I can't force anyone to read this or satisfy everyone. I am just new to writing less than even 3 days of experience in writing.
So if possible ho lenient on me and make me go with my own ideas, I love the support you all given me but comment even if critics atleast after reading original and checking the facts right
Sorry for the long rant anyways let's move to something to look forward in next few chapters MC is gonna be super OP in a few days time thank you.