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nComing back to his room, Keith was ruminating over the incidents that happened and also the information he gathered.

nFirst up was the reveal of the most powerful vampire in the academy, the dean of the blood espers. He was said to be stronger than any vampire on the continent. Even though there was no strictly maintained power hierarchy in the continent, the council elders stayed on the top, be it their innate power or influence. Then came the five kings who ruled over the five countries.

nAmong them, the scale of power was more or less the same, but some were stronger than others. These were the vampires known by the masses. Apart from them, the hidden powerhouses never came up in the discussions.

nSuch powerhouses usually didn’t want to be known so they rarely interacted with the council and the countries. With strength alone, they could rival the five kings.

nClearly, the dean of the esper department was one such powerhouse. From what he heard from Mr. Visit, he was a king-level vampire and an esper too. Combining his blood core with his technique, he was unbeatable in one-to-one combat with anyone.

nEven the vampire council feared him. Still, he never showed himself outside his department. The espers were quite unique, in the sense that the vice dean usually showed up to the events and meetings. He was on par with the other deans as well.

nAs for that man, whose name Keith didn’t know, was away most of the time. He didn’t even stay inside the academy. The esper department was fairly small in size but they were treated better than any other department.

nKeith was very tempted to join the esper branch, so he thought about consulting with Mr. Visit. He didn’t actually join the training facility, rather he was a disciple of Mr. Visit. Now he had to think of a way to join the blood esper department.

nDean Lucien already said he would give him lessons, but he was not looking forward to those. He possessed so many secrets and knowing that the young dean was not so reserved and could force him anytime, he didn’t want to meet him.

nComing back to the matter at hand, he had to decide on a department within a day, and he was really considering joining the blood espers. As far as he knew, blood espers were the most powerful blood-qi users in general. At the same level, they could defeat most of the vampires, even blood warriors had a tough time handling them, no matter how skilled.

nAs he sat down to think about the other options, he didn’t know how they stood against blood espers and blood warriors. The blood ritualists were not a combat-oriented department and they primarily focused on creating artifacts and rune formations.

nThe blood summoners seemed very powerful with their summons adding more power to the vampires, but they had to maintain their form with their blood-qi. They couldn’t afford to learn other blood-qi techniques on top of their own as it took a lot of time to tame and train blood summons.

nIn the end, he didn’t have enough time to carefully evaluate the four departments. Although the blood espers seemed the most powerful department, blood ritualists and blood summoners had some really powerful vampires as well. Their power worked for different scenarios.

nKeith was selected for the four departments, so he could choose anyone. But his goal was to join as many branches as possible. With his system, he could learn several blood-qi techniques at once without compromising his growth. Unlike other vampires, he was really suited for multi-discipline study.

nTo maximize his power, he needed to amass more blood-qi techniques that could complement his current techniques and increase his output even more. He already thought about such away.

nThe blood summoners could tame any living thing and turn them into blood summons. Their blood-qi flows inside the summon. The blood core handled the blood-qi inside the summon.

nKeith had an ample amount of blood-qi and his blood core didn’t have to focus on the warrior frame as it was functioning independently. So if he could get a blood-summon on top of using his warrior frame, his battle strength will soar.

nThe most difficult thing was to join the departments. He could learn the techniques easily given enough time. But that also meant he had to keep them to himself so as not to arouse any more suspicion or the entire academy will go after him.

nHe calmed his mind for now and relaxed for a while. Drinking the blood that was on his table, he contemplated his next course of action. He sat down on his bed and circulated the blood-qi the whole night

nEarly in the morning, he left his room to go to Mr. Visit’s lab to talk to him about the department joining. He finally chose to join the blood esper and the blood summoner department, if he could, he wanted to join both.

nAs he put his rune card on the door, it opened right away. He walked to the chamber where Mr. Visit worked most of the time. He was busy forming a rune with his hand movements as Keith entered the chamber.

n“I didn’t call for you today? Are you liking this lab already?” Mr. Visit smiled and turned back.

n“I’m here to clear some doubts. It’s about the departments.” Keith said.

n“Alright, ask what doubt you have. Do you have a problem picking up a department?” Mr. Visit asked.

n“Not that… I mean I already know the blood esper department is the best choice but I want to join multiple departments, is that possible?” Keith asked.

n“Multi-discipline? Hmm… it is certainly possible, but you can’t join the esper branch if you choose to join any other department. They have strict rules regarding who can join the department. They require you to stay at their department for one year before interacting with the other departments. So if you join the other departments, you can attend their classes, and get kicked out as a result.” Mr. Visits replied thoughtfully.

n“One year! I can’t even go outside the department premises?”

n“Maybe not. Their training is very rigorous and they think going outside will break your flow. If you can convince the higher-ups then you can ask for a leave for some days. But don’t expect free-roaming throughout the campus.”

n“I thought it was the best department…” Keith mumbled.

n“It certainly is a good department, but they are isolated and rarely interact with other departments. I doubt they will let you join any other department.”

n“So, I don’t have no choice but to join other departments,” Keith said dejectedly.

n“If you want I will allow you to join the esper department. It’s just one year. Then you can come here anytime you want.” Mr. Visit replied with a smile.

n“There is no way you are doing this out of goodwill. What do you want?” Keith asked straightforwardly.

n“Nothing much… I want to test out some things with the runes. You just have to stay in one spot without doing anything. It’s that simple.”

n“I think I will pass on that. I don’t know what evil things you are planning. Maybe you want to put some curse runes inside my body.” Keith denied his request.

n“Don’t you want to join the esper department? Mind you, I still want you here, so you can’t stay at the department for long.” Mr. Visit said with a frown.

n“I will think of another way. Being an assistant is tiring enough and you want to experiment on me. No thanks.” Keith didn’t want to get himself scanned and staying idle inside a rune formation basically left him with no defense.

nHe already had enough with the shapeshifting runes so he wanted to stay away from such things if possible.

n“Mr. Visit, I have a condition… If you agree to this condition, I am willing to do this.” Keith said.

n“Speak.”

n“I will do your experiments, but I need time to prepare. How about two months. I will do it in two months. And after that, you have to formally teach me blood rituals and rune formations.”

nIf he was going to be his little lab rat, he wanted to grasp what was happening as well. Blood ritualists were very resourceful and he wanted to learn this discipline to better understand runes and their applications as well.

n“Impossible… My legacy is not something you can learn so easily. It’s one thing learning the basics of rituals, but to ask for my technique, I can’t agree to this.” Mr. Visits flatly refused.

n“If you don’t show me how things work, then how am I supposed to know what are you using on me?” Keith asked with a frown.

n“We have an agreement, kid. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. I gave you the bloodstone as well. You have to follow your part of the agreement.”

n” Then I have no choice but to be your assistant. You can’t do experiments on me. I will never lower my aura and let the runes invade me.” Keith replied resolutely.

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