Draconic Vampire : Curse of the Blood

Chapter 83: A Message

The process went smoothly and Keith copied the warrior frame structure. Now, the only thing left was decoding the blood-qi technique which would take longer. 

“I scanned most of the warrior frame and we will continue this tomorrow. Using this technique takes a toll on me so I will stop for now.” Keith said with a tired voice.

“Alright, I can wait. This is very important to me so I don’t want any mishaps. By the way, you haven’t told me your name.” Garion said.

“Kieth Ennes, from Kelgard. Which country are you from?” Keith asked.

“Haha! We are fellow countrymen. I am from Kelgard as well. Which place are you from?”  After hearing that Keith was from Kelgard, Garion was happy. He also felt pride as such talent came from his country.

“Bergzen territory,” Keith replied with a smile.

“Far south huh! I heard the family head of that place was an old man. The previously assigned leader went missing and the previous count took the position again. Is that true?” Garion asked.

“Yes, my grandpa is overseeing the territory for now until I go back from the academy. My father had an accident and my uncle was not good enough for the role, so grandpa shouldered the burden.” A glint appeared on Keith’s face as he remembered his father.

The secrets of his disappearance were buried in this academy and he needed to uncover all of that. The vampire council had a hand in this. Whatever happened at that time, the vampire council wanted to bury it forever. Not even nobles knew what transpired on that day.

“I heard the leader was supposed to be a vampire named Marvin. He showed good promise, not at the level of genius but passable.” Sen said with a doubtful face.

“My cousin was selected to enter the academy, but as he was defeated in battle fair and square, the family head position was given to me. So I ended up coming to the Crimson Academy.”

Remembering the time when he beat up Marvin, his mood suddenly got better.

“Where have you been these twenty years? I’ve never heard of such a genius in the southern territory,” Sen asked.

It was so sudden and his presence was not even heard outside the academy. The nobles in Kelgard never heard of such a talent.

“I was crippled my whole life. Until a blood ritual cleansed my body and fixed my physique. After that, my blood core evolved at a tremendous speed. Maybe I had this talent all along and my faulty physique was holding me back.” Keith replied with a dignified voice.

“Well, in the end, everything worked out. So don’t dwell over the past.” 

“We are from Carrizen territory from the north. A branch family of the Lennar family. We got the spots three years back and we’ve been at the baron stage since. Reaching the final stage baron was possible due to the resources of the Academy.” 

Many vampire nobles didn’t have good talent to advance at a great speed. Even if they were more likely to evolve than regular vampires, their pace was not that fast. The direct descendants were more likely to advance further than branch families and the families of the purest blood had the chance to advance to the king level.

Keith’s goal was to reach the king level, not only to uncover the secrets of this world but also to understand his own genes. He didn’t know how many original genes he possessed. Even the judgment pillar couldn’t accurately tell his gene structure.

“I know the struggle of lower-level families, but we have to acknowledge our privilege. The vampire council doesn’t allow regular vampires to learn blood-qi techniques, so we are living way better lives than them.” Keith said.

“That may be true,  but the council did it to preserve our race. If every run-of-the-mill vampire learned blood-qi techniques, the entire continent would be in endless war. The demand for blood will rise and humans would get killed, which in turn increases the demand. This will end in the total destruction of the vampire and human race alike.” Garion explained with a thoughtful expression.

Keith was about to answer but his rune card glowed and he received a message.

“Excuse me!” 

Keith turned around and read the message. It was from Mr. Visit. He wanted to see him in his lab. He sent the location of his lab in the training facility and asked him to be present there in ten minutes.

“I thought the old man forgot about me.” 

Keith was not pleased to see the message as he hadn’t come up with a technique to mask his secrets. 

[ You don’t have to worry. After my upgrade, the system can mask your physique better. I don’t know how strong his detection abilities are, but he can’t break my barrier so easily.]

“I hope that’s true. I don’t want to end up getting dissected.” 

He excused himself and left the training chamber. Navigating the hallways and corridors, he stood in front of a huge black door made up of some kind of ancient wood. It emitted a pleasant fragrance that had hallucination effects.

The door opened as soon as he got closer and closed quickly after he entered.

“Come in. I heard you have a viscount-level warrior frame! Why didn’t you show your power when we first met? I might’ve offered way better things to keep you here.” Mr. Visit said while licking his lips.

“I didn’t know what kind of person you were. Even now I’m having second thoughts about joining the training facility. If I get the chance, I would hide my power once again.” Kith answered resolutely.

“I am not going to eat you. The most I want is to study your physique to improve my theories about warrior frames. Your talent is very unique and it will help me analyze the blood-qi structures that form within highly talented vampires.” Mr. Visit explained.

“I don’t want you to know my secrets though. I only agreed to become your assistant, not your guinea pig.” 

Keith was very uncomfortable with the blood ritualist even though he didn’t feel any malicious intent coming from him. All of his intent was filled with curiosity and awe.

“So, why did you call me here? Do you need help with anything?” Keith asked.

“Yes yes… My new blood rune is active now and I need someone to attack the runes. I could get high-level vampires but their strength will be too high for this type of rune. I don’t fight so the only one I could think of was you.” 

A wall was revealed from the side as the runes covering it glowed faintly.

“What kind of blood runes are these?” Keith asked, looking at the wall.

“This is a type of blood rune that changes the shape of the object it is engraved on. It has the capability to change into any shape or form. It can change into a sword, spear, or even artifacts with certain attributes.

“The only thing holding them back is the upper limit of power they can tolerate. Anything above the count level will break the runes as they are not calibrated properly. I am still working on it to improve the upper limit and make it withstand at least marquis level power.”

“So you want me to attack the wall and test its limits.”

“Mhhmm… I want to see how powerful your punches are.” 

Kieth didn’t say anything and activated his warrior frame.

“Early-stage viscount. Not bad!” Mr. Visit scanned Keith’s body with his senses.

Keith could feel his senses scanning his whole body and it was not simple. Even with high-level vampires like Valencia and the other professors, their senses didn’t feel so intrusive as the blood ritualist in front of him. He was clearly using advanced runes to amplify his sense.

‘This is going to be a headache.’

Moving forward, he punched the wall with all his strength. The wall didn’t respond until his hands made contact with the surface. The wall morphed into a shield and blocked Keith’s punch.

Bang!

Soon the entire wall shifted and many types of weapons formed. They all pointed towards Keith. 

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The dozen or so weapons launched from the wall and headed towards Keith. each and every one of them was imbued with blood runes providing continuous blood-qi to the weapons.

Seeing the barrage of weapon projectiles, Keith expanded his aura and increased his defense. He was still an amateur in terms of handling blood-qi projection, but after a lot of practice, he could create blood-qi barriers like this.

These were three times thicker than regular aura and they provided nine times the original defense. This was possible because of Keith’s excess blood-qi.

The spears hit his outer layer of the aura and tried to pierce it. The runes on them glowed as they were spinning rapidly. His aura was able to hold back the spears.

“Amazing! You can block all these spears. Let’s see how you handle the other weapons.”

As Mr. Visit said this, a couple of swords and axes struck Keith’s aura and his eyes wavered.

‘Not good!’ 

His defense was dwindling and the number of attacks kept increasing.

[ Activating your blood core will boost your strength enough to tackle this,  but you’ll also expose your power to him. I suggest you get a defensive stance and not take the wall head-on. You need to find a weak spot and strike it there.] 

‘You’re right. I need to get back and evade the attacks. Then I will target the weapons individually. There is bound to be a flaw in the blood runes. We just need to find it.’

With a determined expression, Keith turned sideways and evaded the attacks, moving closer to the center. His eyes were locked into the central rune at the center of the wall.