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Hopefully, though, this would all be over soon. Now that he could start Leveling up again, and now that Erza wasn’t a pressing issue, he could shy away from the daily risking of his life. Even if it wasn’t sleep, holing up in his fortified base and allowing Vile Focus to relax his mind as he drew away at Empowerment Rituals would be far more relaxing than most of what he’d done recently.

And, of course, once he killed Garon and the Blood Mage—who may have been one and the same—then he could really begin to relax. He wouldn’t be totally off the hook, of course—with an illegal Class, his life would never be a cakewalk—but it would be better. His goal would be completed, and then he could focus on the smaller things. Helping ensure Sophie made a good life for herself, earning some money, and consolidating his power to ensure he would be able to get quick, painful revenge on anyone who ever wronged him again.

That was the ultimate goal. And he wanted to get there quickly. So, he worked through the night, painting away on the swath of stone floor that he’d set aside for the four-foot Empowerment Ritual. He allowed Vile Focus to take over, and rested his mind for a bit.

His mind may have been resting, but when he finally finished the eleven hours of labor, Zeth’s body ached. Part of him wondered if it may have been worth putting Otherworldly Excellence into Endurance just so he wouldn’t have to feel this sensation rippling throughout his body after spending too much time drawing. But what was done was done. And besides, adding to his Dexterity would hopefully help with that issue in its own way, loosening his joints and muscles.

He took a deep breath, staring down at the completed Empowerment Ritual. Down in his underground complex, there was no way to tell day from night—no way to visually see how many hours had passed. But just looking at it, he could practically feel the time investment. It was half as wide as Demonic Covenant’s ritual circles needed to be, but took almost three times longer to draw. And Covenant’s circle was far from sparse when it came to inner detailing. So this one was truly, ridiculously intricate.

Zeth was pretty sure he’d figured out why the ritual circles had a required time to begin with. They didn’t care about how many lines were drawn or how much chalk covered the floor—they cared about how much mana Zeth poured into them. Erza had taught him how to examine magic items and look inward at their mana contents. And when he’d done so with his ritual circles, he’d found just how insane they were in terms of the mana stored inside. Each bit of chalk was practically flooding with the stuff.

It made sense that he’d gotten so utterly exhausted from just drawing an inch or two at the beginning of his career as a Blood Magus; even the most basic Hellfire Ritual required an absolutely massive amount of mana to operate. And so, if the chalk substance was what contained that mana, it made sense that more powerful rituals would require more of that chalk to work—more mana to carry out their effects. Taking a Skill to reduce that time requirement, then, wasn’t just decreasing some sort of arbitrary limitation the Class placed on him; it was effectively using Skill Points to make an up-front investment, making a one-time purchase of a Skill to permanently increase the rate at which he could pour his mana into the chalk and feed the circles.

All that was to say, when Zeth looked down at eleven hours worth of mana through the inner sight he’d used to see the mana fields around Erza’s magic items, it was a truly absurd sight to behold. No wonder that investigator woman had freaked out so much when she’d used that Spell back in the shed to detect all the mana that had passed through the area around that time. Zeth had performed multiple Empowerment Rituals in there. To someone who knew what that light meant—how much mana that must’ve represtend—it must’ve given her quite a scare.

Using his mage’s eyes to see the mana in the circle, Zeth was almost blinded. Even a single Hellfire Ritual contained so much that it was difficult to see; this was quite literally like that times ten. More than ten, actually—Hellfire Rituals only took forty-five minutes. He almost fell backward at the majesty of the power contained within the dormant circle, ready to all be unleashed at once upon receiving a sacrifice in order to flow back into him and power up his Class once more.

Zeth wondered what was so special about a blood sacrifice to be what triggered that power-up. Surely the blood requirement wasn’t just an arbitrarily-chosen number, if the time requirement wasn’t, right? And what did the minimum diameter mean? Presumably the upkeep requirement represented the fact that these mana in his circles would escape containment and decay over time, which would force Zeth to refill them before use, but what about the other two? He supposed he’d have to do some more research to find that out.

Regardless, he’d waited long enough to Level up—now wasn’t the time to stand around waiting even longer. It was time to push his numbers up, and to unlock a new Skill.

So, he walked out of the ritual room and went to his storage room, where the containers of blood were housed. Zeth had asked the demons who made them to ensure they were airtight so as to avoid the blood spoiling—and to avoid any rotten smells from permeating his complex—so everything kept here would work fine for activating his rituals.

Once he grabbed one of the half-full barrels containing some of the executed prisoners’ blood—and the vials of mannitor blood he’d obtained—he took it back over to the ritual circle, popped the lid open, and began slowly pouring it out.

Since Empowerment Ritual still had a sacrifice strength of just “Moderately Low”—compared to Demonic Covenant’s “Moderate”—the completion percentage rose quickly, and within just a couple moments, it reached one hundred percent.

[Empowerment Ritual’s Rank has increased to 5.

+1 Skill Point. You have 1 Skill Point.]

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[Otherworldly Excellence’s Rank has increased to 1.

+5 Dexterity. You have 5 Dexterity.

+1 Skill Point. You have 2 Skill Points.]

[Blood Magus’s Level has increased to 7.

+3 Endurance. Your Endurance is 27.

+5 Dexterity. Your Dexterity is 10.

+1 Awareness. Your Awareness is 7.

+2 Poise. Your Poise is 14.

+7 Shaping. Your Shaping is 49.

+3 Skill Points. You have 5 Skill Points.]

All at once, a slew of notifications came flooding into Zeth’s consciousness, informing him of the many increasing numbers within his Status. Not only did he receive his Level-up, but he also had two Skills Rank up at the same time—one of them being Otherworldly Excellence, which increased his Dexterity alongside his Skill Points.

And so, in a single moment, he’d gone from zero Points all the way up to five.

He smiled. This was an absolutely phenomenal feeling.

After that, another notification came in, and his smile widened. Another Skill.

[Requirement fulfilled: Blood Magus Level 7.

You have unlocked Blood Magus Skill: Vascular Hypertension.]

Zeth frowned, looking at the name. That was certainly a mouthful. He didn’t even know what those words necessarily meant.

Well, there was no better way to find out than to read the Skill, right? So he dove in.

[Vascular Hypertension - Cost: 11 Skill Points

Allows your body to hold more blood in it than physically possible. Your blood compresses within itself so that your veins hold 10% more per Rank in this Skill, plus 2% more per point you have in the Endurance Stat.

Your blood decompresses before leaving your body, leading to you losing blood from injuries at a typical rate.]

He stared at the description. That was certainly…an interesting effect. At the very least, the numbers on this Skill were quite insane. Ten percent per Rank was relatively normal, doubling the amount of blood he could store by the time it reached max Rank, but that clause about Endurance was absurd. Compared to something like his Rites Skills, which gave two and a half percent per twenty-five in a Stat, this Skill gave two percent for every single point. That’d lead to an incredibly high boost extremely fast. Even now, his current Endurance total would give over a fifty percent increase—and Zeth was still only Level seven.

The only question was, would he even want a boost like that? It didn’t seem like it could be a negative effect, but how useful would it end up being? Sure, it seemed like it could delay the process of bleeding to death from a would-be lethal wound, but bleeding out was only one way to die. It’d do absolutely nothing if he got stabbed in the heart, if his brain was crushed, if he drowned, burned, got sick, anything. It was a pretty specific thing to protect against. And sure, any protection was good, but was it worth the cost?

At least for right now, Zeth ended up figuring he had more important priorities to pick up first. Sure, in the end, this Hypertension Skill would only effectively cost a single Skill Point, but that was only after he Ranked it up to full. And after all that time without getting the regular infusion of three Skill Points from his Level-ups, Zeth had a long list of Skills he wanted to obtain first. With its low cost, this was certainly on the list, but it was nearer to the bottom.

As for what was at the top…

Zeth looked over his list of available Skills, eyes settling on one in particular that jumped out to him. It was the cheapest one: Ritual Nexus Mastery—the Evolution.

At only five Skill Points in cost, it would begin doling out its profits extremely quickly. Especially when he had so much circle drawing planned in order to Level up. And right now, Zeth was wanting for those potential Points.

There was the obvious possibility of continuing to wait before purchasing the Evolution to see if another, better option showed itself. And it wasn’t necessarily a bad idea to do that. Right now, with the three remaining Blood Magus Skills of his that had yet to hit Rank ten—Empowerment Ritual, Demonic Covenant, and Otherworldly Excellence—any one of them maxing out could possibly unlock a better option for Ritual Circle Mastery’s Evolution choice.

But Empowerment Ritual and Otherworldly Excellence both Ranked up from Zeth’s Level-ups, meaning it would likely take a while before either of them hit Rank ten, and Zeth wasn’t particularly eager to continue conducting demon summonings right now. So, if he wanted to wait to see if something else unlocked, he’d have to lock himself in for the long haul. And he wasn’t sure if that would be the right play.

Sure, he could possibly unlock a marginally better option, but the one he had in front of him was already extremely useful, and would bring with it a great profit in Skill Points. Plus, the sooner he got this Evolution, the sooner he could bring that Skill to its max Rank of twenty, and start unlocking its own Evolution options. It just seemed like the most efficient play.

So, with the five Skill Points he’d just earned from this single Level-up, Zeth made his decision and purchased the Skill.

[You have purchased Ritual Circle Mastery Evolution: Ritual Nexus Mastery (II).

-5 Skill Points. You have 0 Skill Points.]

With that, he looked over his newly-changed Status.

[CLASS

Class Slot 1: Blood Magus - Level 7

Class Slot 2: (Locked)

Skill Points: 0

STATS

Strength: 3

Endurance: 27

Dexterity: 10

Awareness: 7

Poise: 14

Influence: 0

Shaping: 49

PURCHASED CLASS-EXCLUSIVE SKILLS

Otherworldly Excellence - Rank 1

Demonic Covenant - Rank 4

Vile Focus - Rank 10

Hellfire Ritual - Rank 10

Empowerment Ritual - Rank 5

Ritual Nexus Mastery (II) - Rank 10

UNLOCKED CLASS-EXCLUSIVE SKILLS

Vascular Hypertension - Cost: 11

Incendiary Intensification - Cost: 13

Resonant Whispers - Cost: 9

Secure Rites - Cost: 12

Speedy Rites - Cost: 12

Compact Rites - Cost: 12

Forbidden Knowledge - Cost: 25

Unholy Strength - Cost: 18]

Damn, was it good to finally see some of those numbers increase again after so long.

Next, though, Zeth needed to get some sleep. As much as Vile Focus helped him rest his mind, his body needed a break, too. His mind flitted over to that Universal Skill he’d unlocked—Sleep Deprivation—which would allow him to go longer and longer periods of time without needing sleep. It only cost ten Points, so ultimately it’d end up free after Ranking it up. Yet another Skill to add to the plan-to-purchase list.

At this point, it was far too late at night for him to be prowling through town and trying to sneak back into his house to catch some rest there. He’d just sleep down here in his base.

As he found a suitable spot to pass out, Zeth went over his plan for the following day—today, technically, considering it was past midnight. There was supposed to be some sort of town meeting the mayor had called, which Rosalie had expressed concerns about the Blood Mage making some sort of move at. So he probably needed to go. Not to mention, considering the disaster that had happened just recently, there would probably be some genuinely important things being said by the mayor.

He just hoped it wasn’t any bad news.

So, with anticipation filling his mind—both for the upcoming town meeting, and for his own progressing power—Zeth lay down and fought his mind to calm so he could finally get some sleep.