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n“That’s right. The old vampires that are stuck at a certain level will certainly seek you out and pay you a large sum in order to breakthrough. You won’t just give up the money, are you?” Sen asked.

n“Money… Does the vampire society run on money? No matter how much I have, I’m at the mercy of the strong. If a king comes to me and takes away my money, what can I do?” Keith said.

n“But, they won’t do that in normal circumstances..” Sen tried to back up his word.

n“Still, we can’t do anything in that case. Being strong is the greatest wealth a vampire can achieve. It will give him all the riches of the world while sitting on his spot. Because the world will revolve around him.” Keith said calmly.

n“What he said is true. Being strong is the only thing that should matter to a vampire. We are not like humans or other living beings that can’t evolve. We have a very big gap in terms of strength from the top to the bottom. The king is so much stronger than us that a human baby is closer to our strength than we are to the king.” Garion explained.

n“…” Sen wanted to add more, but he also knew the reality. He wanted to say that, as long as the council was there, they could protect themselves. The thing he was forgetting was the council looked after its own members.

nSure, you could get the help of the council to secure your position, but in order to get inside the council, you have to be absolutely loyal and become a slave of the council. They will take a portion of your profits and order you around. In return, you get to keep the rest of your money.

nMost of the students here were next in line for their family leader’s position. This made them feel like they were privileged and protected. But the fact that their family came under the council and all their blood-qi techniques was given to the council never entered their mind.

nIt was like a tradition passed down from generation to generation that nobody questioned. Only the normal vampires could know about the chaotic life of managing their own place in this continent.

nProtected places like the cities were safer than most places, but leaving those highly populated areas, the barbaric nature of vampires was shown. If Keith killed any vampires in the blood forest, nobody would know about it, even though it was illegal.

nThe only case in which Keith would be subjected to the council’s interrogation was if a noble was killed and somebody found Kieth suspicious. Otherwise, the council didn’t care for ordinary vampires lost in the blood forest. That is why the ghouls still roamed the continent, despite the strength of the council that could easily wipe them out.

nThe council only cared about power over the vampires and controlling them with their overwhelming influence. They sent low-level hunters to the blood forest for a routine clean-up just to show that they are taking action.

nKeith got up from the floor and looked at the technique he got from the student with additional joints in his warrior frame. He took out two scrolls and wrote the two separate pairs of revised warrior frame techniques.

n“I made some adjustments to your existing warrior frame. I want you to try it. But, let me warn you… this is not guaranteed to increase the output of the frame. So if you find any problems, revert back to the previous technique.” Keith gave them the two scrolls.

n“If you are giving us a technique, it will surely be great. Still, if there are any faults or loss in output, I will notify you.” Garion replied with a light smile.

nSen also joined in and agreed with Garion.

n“As long as you do this, I can create better techniques and give them to you. You can say, it is my own variation rather than the warrior techniques that are already there. So your frames will be unique from your family technique.” Keith reminded them again.

n“We don’t care. As long as we can get stronger with this over time, we will do anything.” Garion looked around for a while.

n“By the way, when are we going to execute the plan?” Garion asked with a hushed voice.

nKeith understood which plan Garion was talking about. It was to steal the blood-qi technique of the Lennar family. They talked about it a couple of days back so Garion asked again to confirm Kieth’s position.

n“Don’t worry. After I break through to the viscount stage, we will proceed with the plan. It will take a month or two, so try to raise your strength as much as you can before that. Garion, I want you to reach the viscount stage as well in two months.” Kieth said with a serious voice.

nGarion’s expression turned grave as he nodded his head.

n“I won’t spare any effort for the breakthrough. Before the end of this month, I will attempt to condense the viscount blood core.”

n“Good! Sen is still weak, so his goal is to reach the final stage before the deadline.”

nKeith looked at Sen who nodded his head with a determined expression.

n***

n“This is really impressive.”

nDean Jesper was sitting on a large throne in a long decorated room. Statues of many bests that touched the ceiling displayed one by one as the red carpet stretched to the end of the hall.

nTwo figures sat on two chairs on the side and looked at the mirror-like artifact in front of them. It was an artifact that recorded what happened in a certain place by capturing all the light in the runes.

nThe only thing that made it difficult to produce the artifact was the scarcity of blood ritualists. Only a handful of ritualists skilled enough could make this type of runes. Higher-level vampires knew the underlying principle, but without the knowledge of the runes, they couldn’t replicate it.

nThe mirror-like artifact was displaying the events that transpired in the circular room where Kieth learned his first blood summoning technique. Dean Jesper was keenly observing Keith’s actions and his eyebrows were going up and down every moment.

nHe was at the pinnacle of the blood summoning discipline, so he knew what process was happening precisely at the moment.

n“He has such control and calibration at this age. If somebody didn’t tell me he is a new student learning blood-qi technique, I would’ve thought he was a seasoned summoner who was practicing his technique on a new beast.” He said with a slight surprise.

nMiss. Cryel who was also watching nodded her head.

n“That is what makes it even stranger. Before this, he specifically asked me to teach him the technique by a real-world practical example. He didn’t even know how to separate the body from the brain. On the first try, he almost killed the beast.” She said with a confused face.

n“Either he is a once in a generation genius, or he’s lying,” Kyrel said with a frown.

n“He’s not lying. If you notice his expressions and the way he is handling the process. It shows that he is lacking a lot. But the control over blood-qi and the calibration of the wisp is on point as if two minds are working together to solve a problem.” Dean Jesper said while deep in thought.

n“How can that be? He’s just a kid. Besides, We checked for artifacts and didn’t find any.” Miss Cryel said.

n“Whatever it may be, we need to monitor him and see how he performs in the future. If he could maintain this kind of growth, we will definitely see a great disruption in the power scale.”

nDean Jesper leaned forward and his crimson eyes glowed in the darkness.

n“He is learning three disciplines simultaneously. He gave up the blood esper department just because they didn’t allow the students to learn any other technique besides their own.

n“Eventually, he will master the disciplines and try to learn the blood esper technique. If he will stay true to his ongoing projection, I see great potential in him.”

nDean Jesper clasped his fingers and leaned closer to the artifact. Keith was waking up from his meditative state and examining the beast.

n“Interesting…” Dean Jesper noticed Keith’s eye movements and the

nbeast’s behavior.

n“Should we allow him to learn the blood-qi techniques of other departments?” Kyrel asked.

n“I see no problem in it. If we try to restrict him, he will surely leave the blood summoning department. He joined precisely because he could have the freedom to learn all three disciplines.”

nKyrel looked at the dean with a confused face and asked.

n“Sir, you’ve been saying this, but he has a blood warrior frame and he goes to the training facility but when did he join the blood ritualist department?”

nDean Jesper smiled.

n“Mr. Visit has taken an interest in this boy. He found him even before the orientation and the boy agreed to become his assistant. Can you imagine this?” He laughed after saying this.

n“Mr. Visit! The blood ritualist, who refused to follow the rules of the blood ritualist department and left. He joined the blood warrior department later and built the training facility.” Kyrel said in surprise.

n“Yes, him. He rarely gets out of his lab and doesn’t share his research with others.” Miss Cryel said.

n“So, he’s the one backing him. I wondered why dean Jesper never enforced restrictions on him. Turns out this was the reason.”

n“That is not the sole reason. You see, I am also interested in this boy and his growth potential. I want to see how far he can go.” Dean Jesper smiled mysteriously.

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