In an instant, starting with the hands, a foreign sensation filled up.
It’s a strange sensation that was different from the uplifting feeling I get when I absorbed a mystery.
It felt as if the absorbed energy of blood flowed through the blood vessels and swept through the entire body once.
“...”
Soon, the stone did not emit even the slightest light anymore.
I looked at it and checked my body.
I already knew what kind of ability Gascalid’s [Blood Art] was, but this ability this was also intuitively engraved in my mind, just like when I absorbed the Mysteries.
“What-- the light of blood crystal…!”
I heard the sound of the vampires from below.
I wanted to try using [Blood Art] right now, but I couldn’t because there were many eyes around.
I got up and trudged down the stairs.
The chieftain, who had been staring blankly at the crystal, turned her gaze to me.
I told her.
“It’s done.”
“...”
She just had a bewildered expression on her face.
It was an understandable reaction because the problem the tribe had suffered for many years was solved so easily. Because it’s really over with just the use of my one hand.
“Did you destroy the soul of our ancestor in the blood crystal?”
“Yeah. That rock won’t go wild anymore.”
Since I destroyed the soul and ate even the [Blood Art], there was no more energy left in it. It was now just an ordinary stone.
The elder vampires looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief.
In particular, the chief warrior could not contain his emotion.
“Sister! There is no need to perform any more ceremonies. You don’t have to waste your life anymore!”
Looking at it, I remembered the Elrod Forest episode in the game.
It was said that the chieftain at the time of sealing the blood crystal died.
The chieftains had given their life force to suppress the energy of the blood crystal through rituals.
As the years passed, it had become a natural responsibility of the chieftain and a tribal custom.
The chief warrior also inherited Gascalid’s lineage, but he was such an accomplished warrior for the tribe that no one wanted his life to be wasted in rituals.
In fact, the chief warrior always had great guilt and regret for his sister who became the chieftain by replacing himself.
Knowing this background, it was understandable that he was so happy now.
Well, anyway, that’s all.
My body was itching because I wanted to go out quickly and check the [Blood Art] I just received.
***
After looking around for a long time to see the vampires that had lost their energy, the vampires finally accepted that the issue of blood crystal had been resolved.
Coming out of the cave, they formally thanked me.
“Thank you very much. I also sincerely apologize for doubting your promise to our ancestor. Thanks to the Lord, our tribe has finally found true peace today.”
The chieftains, warriors, and elders bowed their heads deeply.
Their attitude towards me was instantly the opposite of how they had been before, but I had no intention of blaming them.
It was me who pushed in recklessly in the first place, so that was a natural response. I didn’t treat them with pure good intentions either anyway.
“I’m really sorry, Lord.”
Even the chief warrior apologized once again to me as if he was guilty.
Yes, you should be sorry.
He bowed his head, and I wanted to slap the exposed head of the other once, but I resisted it.
Instead, I spoke to confirm the newly gained ability.
“Try using [Blood Art] once.”
“...Yes?”
At my sudden request, the chief warrior raised his head and blinked.
I said again.
“I told you to unleash your blood skills. Just like the attack you did to me before.”
“Uh, why are you…?”
“Hurry.”
As soon as I told him to do it, the chief warrior finally tilted his head and stretched out his hand in the air.
Then, slowly, his complexion turned into a look of embarrassment, and he made a bewildered sound.
“......Uh?”
As if something was not going well, the chief warrior could not spread his blood skills at all. The surrounding vampires looked at him strangely.
'This is it.'
After checking the performance roughly, I took back my ability.
Then, the chief warrior could practice [Blood Art] again normally. Blood pooled on his hands.
“What, what?”
“Why are you acting like this, chief warrior?”
“Elder, just for a moment, the [Blood Art]… No, it’s nothing.”
He looked at his hands in bewilderment.
A unique ability of Gascalid’s [Blood Art].
It was to take the blood of other vampires as they were and use them.
This was an ability that could be unfolded if the opponent was within a certain range, as there was no condition of contact like [Instant Kill].
Vampires exposed to Gascalid’s [Blood Art] could not use their own [Blood Art] as they did before.
In a word, if the opponent was a vampire, this ability did not differ from fraud. Of course, if the opponent was stronger or equal to you, the [Blood Art] wouldn’t work at all, or it would take time to fully control it.
'Now that I rarely meet a vampire, it’s not a very useful ability.'
It was good to have such a unique ability.
The only thing I needed in the first place was the ability to freely control my blood, which was a common passive of all [Blood Art].
There was nothing more to do, so I immediately left the forest with Asher.
Then the vampires caught me.
“You can’t let the benefactor go like this. If you have anything you want, please tell me. As much as possible…”
“Then, the vampires I brought, please take care of them.”
I already had what I wanted, and there was nothing to gain from this tribe other than that.
At my answer, the vampires looked at me with more reverence.
They didn’t know that I had absorbed the power of their ancestor.
Before leaving the forest for the last time under the vampires’ send-off, one elder spoke to me.
It was the vampire who seemed the oldest.
“Can I ask the Lord about one thing about the world outside?”
“...?”
“Is the Tyrant still positioned as the Sixth Lord of Calderic…?”
...The Tyrant?
I nodded at his question.
At that, the elders all had a sullen face.
I understood their reaction.
Because if there was only one person who made the greatest contribution to making the reputation of the vampire race on this continent sank to the bottom as it was now, it was the Tyrant.
He probably wondered if the Tyrant was still doing that kind of shit outside, so he asked me that question.
“Then please take care. I will never forget the kindness that the Lord has given upon our tribe.”
Anyway, that’s how I left the vampires’ home.
After getting some distance, I said to Asher.
“Wait here for a minute.”
“Yes.”
Asher answered with a puzzled look.
I left her and moved into the thick forest.
Soon, when I couldn’t feel her presence completely, I stopped and looked around.
I stretched out my hand in the air and properly spread the blood.
Uh uh.
The blood that passed through the skin from the palm and seep into it floated up.
I looked at it curiously, moved it around, and tried to put it together in the shape of a ball.
The blood swam through the air at my will.
'This is the feeling.'
It did not differ from a telekinetic force that only worked on my blood.
It felt like I was flapping my wings for the first time, even though those wings didn’t exist at all.
I filled the blood I was controlling and shot it at the tree in front of me. Make it sharp like a thorn.
Whoops!
A powerful shot of blood collided with the tree and broke the bark a little.
'...Well, it is quite fast.'
It was much faster than an arrow, but it had no power at all.
Earlier, when vampires attacked me and used [Blood Art], they blew up the entire forest and showed tremendous power.
But I couldn’t.
Because I was a human, not a vampire.
To remember, in the game race setting, vampires said that their blood density and regenerative power itself differed from other races.
That’s why it was possible to extract such an absurd amount of blood from a body of a size no different from that of a human and use it as a weapon.
So, no matter how much blood I got, unless my race was a vampire, I couldn’t produce such an abnormal power.
In short, the weapon was a machine gun, but the bullet inside was a BB pellet.
Gascalid’s unique ability, blood stealing. It looked like I could use it with its original power, considering that the chief warrior’s blood skill was completely sealed earlier, but blood manipulation was limited to this level.
'There is a lot of heterogeneity.'
In the first place, there was a sense of disparity felt when manipulating blood. It was not suitable for me because I was a human being.
If this sense of heterogeneity was reduced, I could increase the speed even more than it was now.
'Does it increase as you continue to use it?'
Actually, for me, power wasn’t the most important part.
If the enemy came into contact with my blood anyway, I could kill them, so what did it matter? It was just a little sad.
'And there is also [Super Regeneration], so there will be no pressure to use [Blood Art].'
This time, I shot the blood floating in the air by dividing it into three branches.
It was a lot more difficult to control when I tried to shoot them separately.
In any case, it was very encouraging to get the ability to maximize the efficiency of [Instant Kill].
The defense was [Floating Veil], and the attack was [Instant Kill] using [Blood Art], and even [Super Sensory].
With these abilities combination, now, most things wouldn’t be a threat to me.
'There are still weaknesses.'
It was still difficult to use [Instant Kill] if the enemy was too fast to hit with blood, or if they were wearing a full body armor and using a shield.
But the strength of my [Instant Kill] was that no one knew about this ability.
Even if I encountered such an enemy, if I was vigilant enough, I could deal with them somehow.
I stood with my arms crossed and thought about it, then turned my head to one side.
There was something approaching this way.
It was a huge wild boar the size of a house.
It was also the monster we encountered the most while wandering through the forest.
The guy who found me snorted and rushed right in.
I put a drop of blood on my finger and shoot it at him.
As soon as it came into contact with the blood, its body relaxed and it slipped as it had been running and rolled on the ground noisily.
I stared at the wild boar, who was lying on the ground and no longer moving, then I turned around, stirring up the dust that had risen.
“Should I stop?”
I had tried enough of my newly gained blood skills, and now I had to go back to where Asher was.
