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n“Perfect! Now stay there for a while.”

nMiss. Shaw signaled his hands and the runes covering the entire room activated. The puppets started to move clumsily but soon their movements changed and became more refined like a seasoned soldier.

nKeith was rather carefree about it as he didn’t glance at the approaching puppets. The puppets were made of malleable material and fueled by blood-qi. As they came closer and closer, their blood-qi rose from zero and shot past the baron stage.

nThe system was analyzing their blood-qi in real-time, and showing the movement patterns to Keith.

n Half of the puppets to the right reached the early stage baron. The rest are still at a blood condensing stage.

n‘Am I supposed to just fend them off? They don’t seem that terrifying.’

n“Hey, Miss. Can I go outside this rune formation and fight the puppets.” Keith asked.

n“No, You are not allowed to move outside of that circle. That will automatically disqualify you.” Miss. Shaw pointed her hand to the central circle where Keith was standing.

n“Alright… This will be boring.” Keith yawned as the puppets approached him.

nThe two outside the rune formation were watching Keith’s carefree attitude.

n“Do you think he can finish the test?” The young man asked miss. Shaw.

n“His blood-qi levels are very high, but can he sustain it for half an hour with the puppets swarming him like ants? Also, look at him. He doesn’t even look like he cares about the test.”

nMiss. Shaw looked at Keith with a smirk.

nMeanwhile, the puppets in the front started to enter the central rune formation. At that time Keith turned serious and let out his aura.

nHong!

nThe rune circle lit up and the puppets moved at him with even greater speed. They seemed like mosquitos looking for blood.

n Their movement turned erratic and there is no predictable path.

n‘Let them come.’

nSwish! Boom!

nKeith moved his right hand and delivered a punch to the closest puppet and it flew away like a football. It struck the ceiling of the chamber but soon dropped to the ground and stood up again.

n“Wait!” Keith understood what the rune formation did.

n“That’s why I told you not to be overconfident. These puppets are powered by a large bloodstone that can power them for years. Even if they use an early-stage viscount level of power, they can maintain that for several months.

nAdditionally, the runes help them repair any damage incurred during the fight, so you see you can’t beat them. You can only survive.” Miss. Shaw explained with a smile.

n“A blood stone.” Keith’s eyes lit up.

nFrom an outside perspective, it might seem he was afraid and didn’t know what to do. But the amused expression on his face meant something else. He had been searching for a way to get bloodstones inside the academy campus, but he had no luck.

nRight when he forgot about finding bloodstones for now and focused on accumulating blood-qi inside the training facility, a bloodstone appeared on a test. He didn’t know where the stone was at the moment, but he could sense the fluctuations in the runes and the power increased more as his senses dug deeper.

n‘It’s underground.’

n Determining the actual depth and location of the bloodstone will take some time. It is very well hidden with a very faint aura leaking from it. If my senses were not sharp, you couldn’t have detected the bloodstone.

n‘Am I supposed to thank you or something?’

nWhatever. The runes are suppressing the energy emitted by the bloodstone and also the high blood-qi density on the ground also blinds our senses. Only a Marquis-level vampire or higher could sense the bloodstone. Then again, they don’t need this bloodstone anyway.

n‘This is very well planned. But if I have to just survive, then it will be easy.’

nKeith turned back and dashed to the other side of the circle and the puppets on that side attacked him immediately. As their attacks were about to land on him, Kieth’s figure flashed and he appeared on the other side again.

n“What is he doing?’ The young man asked.

n“Hold on!’ Miss. Shaw’s eyes flickered and she looked at the scene attentively.

nKieth repeated the pattern a couple more times and the puppets coming from two sides appeared in the middle. Keith appeared again in the middle and stood there for a moment.

n“Come at me, you rag-dolls,” Keith shouted as he flared up his blood-qi.

nThe puppets sensed the heightened blood-qi and started attacking him in a frenzy.

nKaboom! Swish! Boom!

n“This…” Miss. Shaw’s mouth twitched as she saw the scene.

nThe puppets were blowing each other up and Keith was nowhere to be found.

n“Is this allowed? I think he was supposed to stay at one spot.” The young receptionist said.

n“What he did is not against the rules. He only needed to survive for 30 minutes while being inside the rune formation. Everything else is allowed except the use of external power and artifacts.

n“He didn’t bring any artifacts to the test and he stayed inside the central rune circle. So everything was according to the rules.”

n“Then..” The young man interjected.

n“We can’t say that just yet. He has to keep them away for twenty-five minutes more. After that, I can declare that he passed the test. We have to wait and see how long he can avoid them.” She focused her senses and scanned Keith’s physique.

nInside the formation, Keith was moving back and forth between the puppets and using his presence to make them fight each other. After finding out that the puppets are attracted by the blood-qi and the attraction increased proportionally to the amount of blood-qi emitted, he made a plan to lure them in using his blood-qi.

nFor this plan to work, he needed two things. First, he had to accurately pinpoint the gaps and appear at those specified zones one after another. This would allow him to clash the puppets in a series, and when one layer of puppets fought, he moved on to the next batch.

nThis required an incredible amount of concentration while fighting and most of the vampires couldn’t pull it off. Thankfully, he had the assistance of the system to properly calculate the movements of the puppets and pinpoint the exact gaps he needed to appear.

nThe second requirement was his control over blood-qi. If he didn’t have precise control over his blood-qi, then he couldn’t surprise the puppets. They could sense his blood-qi throughout the formation. Keith practiced his blood-qi manipulation to the finest and he could control the output of his blood-qi very well.

nOn top of that, the system also managed his warrior frame and blood core output. This made his blood-qi seem extremely quiet and stable, almost blending in with the surroundings. And when he appeared at the right spot he unleashed his aura to attract the puppets like moths to a flame.

nCombining the two, he successfully evaded the puppets and at the same time managed to make them fight each other. In fact, it was so efficient that Kieth barely used any blood-qi to execute the plan.

nHis warrior fame was not in use, and he didn’t spend much energy moving among the puppets. He did this for twenty minutes, hopping from one spot to another and he didn’t seem exhausted at all. On the contrary, he looked very relaxed and there was a smile on his face.

n“What is this? How can he concentrate while moving around like that? There has to be more to this than meets the eye.” Miss. Shaw tried her best to come up with an explanation but didn’t find any tangible conclusion.

nFrom her analysis, Keith’s blood-qi was stable most of the time, except when he unleashed his full aura that attracts the puppets. She had to admit that this final stage baron was giving off the aura of a middle stage viscount which was very shocking. It was a short burst, but from the lack of tension on his face, she guessed that he could sustain it for much longer or maybe it was his actual level of blood-qi.

nShe was amazed by how a vampire so young had managed to accumulate this much blood-qi even before reaching the viscount stage. Baron was just the entry to the vampire high society and was not considered special at all. All the students attending the academy as barons were considered seedlings and the academy focused on their growth and future prospects rather than their current strength.

nAs she was from a lower-level family and worked hard to get where she was, seeing such talent made her remember the days when she was a student. She came from a family where the highest blood core level was middle stage viscount. Her father and grandfather were at the same stage and their growth stagnated after that.

nShe was the first in her family’s history to reach the marquis stage, that too within a century. So she was considered the leader of the family even though she gave up on being one. Her little brother, who was fifty years younger than her, also showed promise and reached early-stage viscount, so she wanted him to become the next leader.

nSeeing Keith, she was reminded of a man she used to duel with when she was a student. He taught her a lot of things and he was extremely talented but definitely lower than Keith.

n‘Brad, is he related to him somehow?’ She thought, looking at Keith.

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