Chapter 69. Adjust(1) One of the questions that I had for a long time had been answered. I am a 'Demon,' a demon of blood and war. A full demon, I hoped that the question marks would say partial human or something like that. The species was gone, leaving the other question unanswered. What was I? A demon or a Human. *Demon* ^Human^ "Just stay quiet," I nearly forgot about the voices but questioning my species made them speak up again. They were a little soft than usual, but who knows till when. Cultivation was another mysterious thing. The skill or technique mentioned there was the next level of the 'Mantra,' which in itself was a weird skill. It used 'unique' poses to help me increase my strength. I had no idea what it actually did, the skill got me another skill but what it really did was still unknown. Thinking further led me nowhere so turned to the other skill and tried them out. Let's start from the easy one, [Flash]. It evolved from [Sprint], so the skill was a movement-based one and according to the name, it was supposed to be instantaneous. I concentrate on trying to activate the skill and in the next second my nose and the floor were kissing a few meters away from where I previously stood. I didn't even feel myself moving, did I even move, or like the name just flash here, teleporting? It didn't hurt that much and that kind of made me think that I did teleport, because if I really did move fast the crash should have been more hurtful. I tried once again but this time with a spot where I wanted to appear after flashing, surprisingly I did. I was at the spot, with no momentum nor the pull I felt after every teleportation. But the problem was the mana it used. I tried it a few more times and could then confirm that it did take a significant amount of mana every time I flashed. I could maybe use it twenty times with all of my mana? But this was just the first skill. If every skill had similar mana consumption, I would be sucked dry in no time. But one thing that was in my favor was their mana recovery. Before the class upgrade, I could feel mana recovering at the speed of an almost still river. It was flowing but at such a slow rate that it being present or not did make a difference. The only viable method to recover it was meditating. But now it was akin to a normal flowing river, recovering at a constant pace. Meditating increased the pace to new heights. This was beneficial as I was continuously getting the resources that I expended, so if the fight was long enough and I did not have to keep using skills, my mana pool would be endless. The range was about 3 meters, if I tried to move further, I would stop at the 3-meter boundary. Using [Flash] did take a slight toll on the mind. You had to think of the exact location you wanted to appear at, if not, then like the first time I would move a certain distance and then fall. Keeping the information overload in control did not make this easier. Next were the blood skills and the first one was [Blood Regeneration]. I made a small cut on my arm and let the blood flow out. When there was a small pool on the ground I used the skill to 'heal' the wound. I felt the skin wriggle a little and then saw it slowly growing. The scab formed super quick, then a minute later fell off with new skin under it. The process was incredibly fast, and surprisingly the skill used way less mana than the three previous skills combined. Next, I used [Blood Manipulation], which was why I let a small pool form earlier. And this skill surprised me, not because it was hard or easy. But using the skill I knew certain things I could do with that blood. I could raise the blood to my height, form a ball, and make multiple needles. I knew this all naturally without even trying it out. It was like I found a part that I had lost, and now it was finally back where it should have been. Detailed structures were still too hard, like a proper sword or axe made of blood was something I could not do. I could make a big crescent blade but the handle, hilt, grip, essentially a full-blown sword was not possible. This was a skill with many possibilities, manipulating blood was a skill that could go many ways. Controlling the blood in someone else's body was something I doubted was possible but if the skill leveled up or evolved..... Leaving that there I moved to [Blood hunt], but nothing happened. I tried smelling the blood, even tasted it but nothing happened. The skill probably had some conditions to work, but no matter what I did, the skill would not work. It was a skill that was the fused version of two tracking skills, so maybe it did that. I would have to test it out after getting out. The next skill was [Demon's Blood Domain]. This was one of the skills that had the term 'demon' in it and were one of my bloodline's halves. But even if I tried to use it nothing happened. So I tried to figure it out from the name. One, it was related to blood, and two, that it was a domain. A domain is used for things like an area or a territory, so I started walking away from the pool of blood below me while I made a small line of blood follow me. 1 meter nothing happened, 2 meters nothing, but when I crossed the 3-meter line the blood near the pool wobbled. I felt the control over the part that was beyond the 3-meter mark reduced. The blood inside the 3-meter radius was perfectly fine. No matter how much I moved it or 'manipulated' it the skill used almost no mana. But after that threshold, the [Blood Manipulation] skill took exorbitant amounts of mana. This area around me was my domain, the blood within it was under my control.