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nA blood forest is a specific term used to identify the forests in the continent. They don’t have any special traits apart from the blood trees that have red leaves. The harsh environment of the continent and its lack of sunlight made these trees evolve and now almost all the forest area is covered with them.

nThe grains and vegetables grown by the humans are planted inside the settlements and they only make a small portion of the greenery. The natural habitat is different for the blood forest. Generally, these trees are much better with life essence than regular plants.

nSo the beasts that eat the plants and trees with red leaves get more life essence. As it developed for millions of years, the beasts here became way stronger and rivaled even vampires.

nBut they were no different from normal living beings. They had the same blood and organs functioning the exact same way. The vampires were the only ones that were different on this continent, as they used blood-qi instead of natural life essence.

nKeith made his way inside the dense forest and encountered some beasts too. They were very weak compared to him and were easily dealt with. He did use his purple tendrils to absorb all the life essence in them.

n‘I think we reached the border..’

nKeith glanced at the large cedar-like trees lined up as a wall that stretched across the horizon.

n Yeah, there are rune imprints all over the place. It’s not as dense compared to the runes inside the campus, but still impressive.

nKeith jumped over to a branch of a tree and used his momentum to hop over the upper branches. He reached the top of the tree and looked at the horizon.

nThe tree was over 100 meters high and it was one of the tallest trees in its surrounding area. The spot allowed Keith to monitor the other side of the border.

n‘Did you find any signs of ghouls’

n Still nothing. I can enhance your senses and expand them up to 500 meters, but after that everything becomes hazy. Also, the region only senses blood-qi that is above the 7th stage of blood condensing. There might be lower-level ghouls but they are not important.

n‘I thought I would find a lot of ghouls here, but it seems like they are hiding very deep. Do you have any ideas to lure them out?’

n We don’t have anything to lure them out like humans and other bait. The only thing left is to reveal your aura and wait for them to enter our detection range.

n‘Alright, I will reveal only early-stage baron aura, so the lower ghouls will be intimidated and only the high-level ghouls will come. On second thought, I am tempted to release all my aura to bring out the viscount ghouls.’

nKeith wanted to fight a viscount-level ghoul to see how strong they were. The last time he fought against the baron-level ghoul, the difference in strength was too much.

nBut now that he mastered his warrior frame, which was at a similar strength level as early-stage count. It didn’t mean Kieth could defeat an early-stage count just because his strength matched theirs. They might have better blood-qi techniques than him.

n We don’t know the situation and how many ghouls there are. If there are several viscount or count level ghouls, you will be in trouble. We can come back here later anyway so there is no point in being greedy. Now you have the hunter license so you can come here every day if you like.

n‘After absorbing the blood-qi, I will have to go on a retreat so coming here every day won’t be possible. Maybe once a week.’ Keith smiled.

nHe expanded his aura to the early stage baron and jumped down from the tree.

nBoom!

nA crater formed where Keith landed and the nearby ground shook. He announced his arrival outside the border of the campus. The beasts surrounding that area fled after sensing such a menacing aura.

n‘No sign of them yet?’

nHold on. I sense corrupted blood-qi. A ghoul is approaching… Time for a good meal. The system said in delight as the ghoul approached closer.

n‘They are strong but really inefficient. We get so little purified blood essence from their corrupted blood-qi. Most of it is lost in the purification process.’ Keith thought annoyingly.

nA ghoul similar to the size of an elephant charged forward like a bull stretching its tongue. It was a middle-stage baron-level ghoul with exceptional physical strength. But Kieth yawned as the ghoul approached him in the open area.

n‘Like with Garion, the ghoul is very strong but..’

nWithout waiting for the beast to arrive, Keith appeared over the ghoul’s head and smashed it. He used blood-qi to penetrate the ghoul’s skull and killed it immediately.

nThe ghoul rolled down on the ground after losing its life and the momentum was enough to uproot several trees.

n“Next?” Keith looked around for new ghouls to appear but not a single soul was present, be it beasts or ghouls.

n‘Where are they hiding?’ Keith asked with frustration.

n I did sense several blood-qi fluctuations at the edge, but all of them were very weak. Do you want to follow them?

n‘Why not? I’m not passing up free blood-qi, especially when it’s so close.’

n Maybe you should absorb the ghoul baron’s corrupted blood-qi.

n‘It’s not going anywhere, we are staying here for the afternoon, so there is plenty of time to hunt.’

n… The system didn’t say anything but an unsatisfied intent radiated from it.

nKeith asked for the location where the system last sensed the ghouls and quickly dashed forward almost like a mirage disappearing into the horizon.

nSoon after he left, a trio appeared at that location and saw the large corpse of the ghoul lying in the middle of a crater.

n“Who did this?”

nOne of the male vampires asked, pointing towards the dead ghoul. The other two also looked at the scene with serious faces.

n“There must be a beast around here, at the level of the final stage of viscount.” The other man said.

nThe lady didn’t object and nodded her head.

n“I think so too. Even a vampire at the final stage viscount can’t defeat this ghoul so easily. Look at its head. Only a single strike has been delivered and the ghoul died. I think the beast is at least an early stage count level.” She deduced.

n“How can such a strong beast roam here without notifying the academy. The runes must have located the beast by now. How did it hide in plain sight?”

n“Whatever the reason may be, we need to learn its whereabouts right now.” The lady said out loud.

n“Miss, why are you so desperate for the beast? We can report it back and the hunter department will deal with it. We were supposed to scout the area, not to look for some beast that is probably at count level.”

n“I think this is a good opportunity. My highest summon is just a viscount level. If I can capture that beast, my strength will increase significantly.”

nApparent by her remarks, she was a blood summoner. Seeing a good opportunity to capture a count-level beast there was a new light in her eyes.

n‘I have to subdue that beast with any means necessary. Thankfully, I brought my artifact.’ She smiled thinking about this.

n“This is going to be a hassle. Miss, are you sure we can subdue it.” The other vampire asked.

n“Don’t worry, I didn’t come here without preparation. We will be fine. Now, let’s follow the trail.”

n“What about the third-year student? We didn’t find him on our way here.”

n“Forget about him. If he’s alive, good. If he’s dead, it’s his fault to venture out alone. He couldn’t have helped us anyway.” She replied sternly.

n“The beast seems to go in that direction. I can feel high-density energy fluctuations coming from there.” The vampire pointed in a certain direction. This direction happened to be where Keith had gone.

nSwish! Swish! Swish!

nThree figures flashed across the horizon.

nOne mile away, Keith already found several low-level ghouls and killed them as he moved. He would put them on the way in which he was moving, so when he returned he could absorb the corrupted blood-qi without changing paths.

nThe ghouls were very tenacious in their hiding process. He could only find a dozen or so ghouls at the blood condensing phase. As he was getting bored by killing these weak ghouls, he sensed someone approaching him.

n Three Vampires coming this way. All of them are at the final stage viscounts.

n“Oh, I have visitors..” Keith turned back and waited for them to catch up.

nSoon, the three of them caught up to Keith and stood in front of him. They inspected him as if he was an outsider.

n“Are you the one who registered for the ghoul scouting mission?” The lady spoke as soon as she laid eyes on him.

n“Yes, miss. I did register for that. So how can I help you?” Keith replied.

n“Cut the crap. Why did you come here alone despite knowing we were supposed to come as a team. Aren’t you too full of yourself?” The vampire on the lady’s side shouted in rage.

n“Woah there senior! It’s not that I have something against you guys, but I like to hunt alone, so forgive me if I disappointed you.” Keith said with a slightly apologetic face.

n“Hmph! Who do you think you are? Hunting outside the academy border alone? Are you looking down on us?” The other vampire asked.

n“Uh… No offence but you would hold me back considerably, not to mention I can’t display my full powers and techniques in front of you. There is another very important thing, I definitely can’t do while you are here, so if you’ll excuse me, I w…”

nOne of the vampires suddenly launched an attack on Keith.

n‘…Why don’t they peacefully listen? I even apologized.’ Keith started dumbly at the attacker and sighed.

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