Just like that, the second battle of the Redstone Fort has ended.

The supreme commander had sounded the horns to retreat, and what remained from the three tribes moved away from the battle without regard to what their captains were actually doing. Now that the battlefield was less crowded, Tristan could see the hundreds of corpses scattered amongst puddles of blood, and the smell of iron was enough to make him wince.

Just like when the first battle was over, all the orc gretchin came out of the fort to clean up the corpses.

This time, however, Tristan ordered them to not kill the stragglers, but capture them.

He had the idea when he was doing his [Blood Extraction] skill.

[Received 1200 mixed blood cells]

[250 Blood Essences extracted]

[Received 960 mixed blood cells]

[370 Blood Essences extracted]

[Received 1120 mixed blood cells]

[290 Blood Essence extracted]

Right as Tristan reached 5000 blood essence, a notification appeared in his mind's eye. At first, he was elated, but after reading it, it was not the notification he hoped for

[You have obtained enough blood essence to unlock level 2 Blood Seal]

[Spend 5000 blood essence for upgrade?]

At first, he hoped to get a stage 3 upgrade that could increase his battle power to another level. But this one is quite a surprise for him as well. But then again the answer for the question has to be

"No."

Tristan muttered his refusal. For now, he couldn't just use that much blood essence without thinking. The only opportunity to collect them in large amounts would be in huge-scale wars, and he's not sure when the opportunity would come again.

This notification somehow gave him the valuable hint that there is a limit to his Blood Seal ability. To test that theory, he ordered the capture of the surviving barbarians who are still coherent enough to speak. Those writhing on the ground due to wounds or those who are dying would just become part of his feast.

But before that, Tristan still planned to finish his blood extraction stroll first. He walked around and continued to extract all the corpses as he passed.

There were so many lifeless bodies lying on the ground, and if he had to ballpark an estimate, it would be around one thousand. A few dozen of those corpses are from the dying orcs, while the rest belong to the barbarians.

While wandering around to extract blood from the corpses, Tristan found the dead body of Akon, the captain of the blue tribe.

[Blood extraction]

[Received 150 mid-quality blood cells]

[70 Blood Essences extracted]

The [Blood Seal] he performed on the captain cost him 250 points of blood essence, and now as he performed the extraction, he didn't get any of it returned to him. It was just the amount of blood essence belonging to the corpse, none of it his at all.

At this moment he just learned one of the limits of his [Blood Seal] skill. It seems that when the sealed person dies, Tristan will lose all the blood essence he has inside the person's body.

Though he didn't like the outcome, it was understandable.

There are more than one thousand corpses here, and more than 50 of them belong to the blue-tattooed warriors. Each of those gave him around 30 to 40 blood essence points.

He collected a bit more, and finally, another notification was sent into his mind when he reached the 10.000 marks.

[You have enough blood essence to advance into the third stage of Blood Monarch]

[10.000 blood essence is required for this upgrade]

[Proceed?]

Finally, his hard work and sacrifices in this battle paid off, and he was presented with the opportunity to increase his battle power. But as with the earlier situation, he decided to say no to the upgrade.

Not yet, at least. He still couldn't collect enough blood essence to both sustain himself and upgrade the skill.

[5000…]

[3000…]

[1000…]

[7000 mixed low quality blood cells are found]

[Extracting and filtering blood cells]

[2400 blood essence gained]

That was the last of the blood essences he could collect in this battlefield. He walked around to make sure he didn't miss anyone before checking his current blood essence total.

[Blood Essence: 12610]

"Not bad, not bad at all!" Tristan said and puffed out his chest proudly.

The crows had circled overhead, and the flies were buzzing all around the corpses when he decided to go back.

The walk back to the fort was uneventful. Tristan circled the fort once more to survey the damage, and surprisingly, the place seemed relatively intact save for a few rotted sections that have now collapsed. Remains of stepped over and broken ladders litter the place, dipped in reddish blood of the barbarians who attempted to scale the walls.

Right as Tristan walked through the gate, Layla ran towards him and quickly casted her healing spells. As much as he tried to persuade her by saying he was fine and all the wounds had almost healed, Layla seems to be oddly stubborn.

Nevertheless, he enjoyed the warm light shining on what remains of the small cuts littering his body and the two almost fully healed holes on both his arms.

While enjoying the light, Tristan looked at the tied-up barbarians on the ground. Some of them were missing a finger, while others still winced in pain at the slightest movements.

"How many did you capture?" Tristan asked a female orc.

"34 men, the rest either fled or died." The orc answered.

Before Tristan needed to decide the fate of those captured, Tristan accesses the system in his mind and looked at the two upgrade options available.

[Upgrade blood seal to level 2 - 5000 blood essence]

[Upgrade body to stage three blood monarch - 10.000 blood essence]

There are two choices, but with the amount of blood essence he has, there was no way he could take both. Which one should be chosen?