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nThe vampire that attacked Kieth was a final stage viscount. His aura expanded and covered his body as he stuck where Keith was standing. His overwhelming blood-qi directed at Keith.

n‘His physique is really good. A blood warrior. He hasn’t activated his warrior frame yet.’

nMeanwhile, Kieth analyzed his body and blood core and found out that he was a blood warrior. Within the aura, the warrior frame was on the verge of activation.

nCompared to him, Keith’s blood-qi level was higher so he didn’t worry. Although blood core was one stage lower, his higher blood-qi density compensated for it. He blocked the incoming attack easily and landed a kick on the vampire’s stomach.

nThis happened so fast the vampire couldn’t block the attack and was blown away by the strike.

nGyaah!

nHe rolled on the ground before stopping his movements and getting back up.

n“Who are you? You have a final stage baron blood-core but your strength almost reaches the count stage. There is no way you are doing it without an artifact.” The man shouted.

n‘Does he think I used some sort of artifact? Maybe my sudden surge of blood-qi must’ve given him the wrong impression. Whatever, let’s play along. I don’t have time to explain to him how I did it.’

n“So what? You are weak, and that’s how it is. Now if you’ll excuse me. I have important things to attend to.” Keith was about to leave but suddenly vines started to pop up from the ground and gripped his legs.

n“Now what?” He looked at the other two vampires who were getting ready to fight. Particularly the lady was using her hands to keep something active. The Blood-qi fluctuation on her hands was higher than her body, so Keith guessed it had to be her.

n“You can’t leave before answering a few questions.” The lady said to Keith.

n“You didn’t have to restrict me in order to ask those questions,” Keith said, rolling his eyes.

n“Seeing how fast you are, it would be unwise to let you go until we know you are on our side.” She said, moving closer.

n“Huh? What do you mean? I am a student of the academy, I don’t need to justify myself to others.”

n“Then answer my question, have you seen or sensed a beast at the count level in this region?” She asked with a suspicious gaze.

n“I don’t think so. All the beasts that I’ve killed were weaker than a baron. So if a county-level beast arrived I would’ve noticed.” Keith replied.

n“Did I make a mistake? There was supposed to be a count-level beast. The dead ghoul was definitely killed by that beast.” She mumbled.

nKeith heard her faint voice and his ear perked up.

n“Excuse me? The ghoul. Was it a large ghoul of middle stage baron level?” Keith asked.

n“How do you know that? Were you present when the ghoul died? When we arrived the best died just recently. You couldn’t have seen the corpse and come this far.”

nKeith laughed and looked at her.

n“Of course I saw the ghoul die because I am the one that killed it,” Keith replied with a smile.

nThe vines that wrapped around Keith’s leg tightened, but he was unfazed. The lady was having a problem wrapping her head around what Keith had said.

n“Don’t lie to me. How can you defeat it so easily? I’ve seen your strength, but to kill it in one strike is not possible for a viscount, let alone a baron. Ghouls are much stronger than vampires and they can match vampires one stage above them.

n“This one was especially strong. We checked its body too.” She said with a serious tone.

n“Miss, you saw how I defeated your friend over there and I didn’t even use my full power. Just drop the topic. I am already late, I can’t keep entertaining you guys. Oh, you guys have to compensate me later for wasting my time, or I will find you inside the campus.

nSee ya.”

nKeith broke the vines and disappeared from his spot. The three stared at each other and went to the position Keith was standing.

n“Where did he go? I couldn’t even sense his presence.”

n“Miss, did you notice where he left?” One vampire asked.

n“I’m afraid his techniques are undetectable to me. I did feel his presence faintly moving away from us, but his aura was almost invisible. That’s why it felt like he disappeared.” She explained her guesses.

n“What do we do now? One of us is injured now. We can’t continue the mission. We should take that ghoul corpse and hand it over for its merits. It will fetch more points than this mission anyway.”

nThe other injured vampire sitting on the ground also agreed to this.

n“I also agree with him. We should retreat and take that ghoul corpse with us.”

nThe lady hesitated for a moment but soon realized how dire their situation was. If a horde of ghouls arrives here now, they will be in deep trouble.

n“Alright, let’s return to the hunter office. We will take the ghoul corpse with us.”

nThey went back to the place they saw the ghoul but this time there was nothing there. The ground was even covered up and looked normal as if nothing happened here.

n“It must be him. Apart from us, he was the only one who knew about the corpse. We have to find him before he enters the academy premises.”

n“Aren’t you injured because of him, yet you want to fight him again.” The lady spoke.

nHe tried to retort but remembering how easily he was defeated he didn’t argue further.

n‘I can’t let him get away with this. I will confront him later and get all the information from him. I’m sure he was lying. Maybe he saw the beast, but chose not to disclose the information.’ She thought after giving a last glance to the place where the ghoul corpse was.

nKeith was hunting low-level ghouls with frustration and moving further into the blood forest. The number of ghouls appearing increased a lot after he advanced several miles.

n‘When will I find a viscount ghoul? Are they that rare?’

nKeith slashed two ghouls as he moved forward. The blood forest was getting denser and denser with many beasts appearing here and there.

n I think I found what you are looking for.

n‘A viscount ghoul? Where?’ Keith asked excitedly.

n You see that hill over there. It’s inside what appears to be a cave.

nKeith looked slightly right to spot the hill over five hundred meters high. There was a small hole at the peak. Keith immediately dashed forward in that direction with a smile.

nIt appears to be sleeping at the moment. The cave is quite small, huh.

nKeith quickly made his way through the dense forest and climbed up the hill, finally arriving in front of the cave’s entrance.

nNow he could feel the corrupted blood-qi fluctuations himself. He walked inside the cave and the darkness soon covered his vision. Thanks to his blood-qi, he could still see the blood-qi inside the cave and the ghoul was basically a bright lamp inside the cave.

nKeith approached the sleeping ghoul without making a sound. His eyes glowed red as he used blood-qi inside his eyes to sense the surroundings. When he was ten meters away from the ghoul moved.

n‘Did it sense my presence?’ Keith took one step forward.

nThe ghoul moved again. This time its eyes slowly opened and it stared directly at Keith.

n‘…’

nThere was a moment of silence that was broken as Keith shot forward with all his power and tried to strike the ghoul while it was in a half-awake state.

nGraaah!

nThe ghoul screamed and turned back. The attack was blocked by two membranous wings.

nKrrrr!

nThe ghoul didn’t turn around and flew straight into the cave.

n‘Didn’t you say that it was a small cave?’ Keith asked the system.

nWell it is…oh my god.

nThe system made a sudden realization.

n‘What is it? Don’t leave me hanging?’

n This is exactly how we found that cave in your territory. This place is literally a ritual ground. I couldn’t sense beyond that because the runes were blocking the senses. As soon as the ghoul vanished inside, the runes activated.

n‘Then we need to hurry up and follow it. Or else we might lose it.’

n We have another problem to worry about.

nKeith looked forward as the runes started to reveal themselves and spread across the cave. The glowing runes stopped right below Keith.

n‘I don’t have a good feeling about this.’ Keith immediately used his blood-qi to jump but the ground collapsed under him.

n“Fuuuucccck!”

nKeith shouted as he fell endlessly inside that hole.

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