Edward Suncrest Pov

Silvery white waves rolled about in a concentric pattern, and floating in the centre of it all, was a small ball of fire. Streams of silvery white liquid constantly infused itself into the sea, causing it to slowly expand in size. The silvery sea seemed to be constantly seething around the small ball of fire, as if the ball of fire didn’t like its existence, although there wasn’t much it could do about it.

As you may have guessed, the silvery white sea was my mana pool, and the fireball floating in it was the Fire Manipulation Soul Ark. I was currently trying to desperately increase my mana pool and refine the Soul Ark right now. Was I stretching my abilities too far? Not really.

After the lesson ended and I had received my monthly Mana tonics, I had rushed back to begin my meditation session. Popping open the test tube, I remembered Hakha’s instructions and swallowed it down quickly in one gulp. Then, I had felt a numbing sensation spread throughout my body, and my mana pool changed colours from white to silvery white, followed by this System notification.

[You have taken a Mana tonic, vitality and strength temporarily rises by 5, mana temporarily increases by 16.7, mind power temporarily increases by 15.1. Effects will last for 2 hours]

[Warning! This cannot be ingested more than once a week, otherwise all your stats will rapidly drop, leading to death, in severe cases, your body will explode, and your soul will dissipate]

Suddenly, all my senses were elevated. I felt like I could run around the world and still have energy to spare! But knowing that this would only last for 2 hours, I sat down and began meditating.

Soon I began absorbing the surrounding mana at about twice the speed I was originally absorbing it at. But… I still had energy to spare. I was already absorbing the maximum amount of mana possible for me currently, and yet I had Mind power to spare, probably because of my special skill… 1.1 was actually a lot when you thought about it.

Deciding not to waste my time, I began refining my Soul Ark as well. My will wormed its way into the Soul Ark, waking it from its slumber

And that was how the current situation occurred. It was saddening that the Mana tonic couldn’t be used more than once a week, but the effects of 1 was already fantastic, so I wasn’t complaining.

1 hour later.

The silvery radiance from my mana pool had already disappeared for the most part. I had also mostly exhausted myself, thus I regretfully exited my meditation, and opened my eyes, causing me to be greeted by a plethora of messages.

[After undergoing a potion boosted meditation session, Edward Suncrest’s Mana has increased by 1.22 points. Mind power has increased by 0.9 points due to your multitasking]

[The abundant mana in your Mana pool has nourished your body, Vitality increased by 0.5, strength increased by 0.5]

[Due to constant use, Unwavering Will Lvl 1 has become Unwavering Will Lvl 2, effects have changed]

[Unwavering Will Lvl 2: causes the hosts Mind power stat to undergo a multiplier of 1.2, more effects will be unlocked as skill level increases]

[Host has dominated more of the Fire Manipulation Soul Ark, domination rate at 60%]

[Edward Suncrest]

Rank 1

Gender: Male

Vitality: 12.5

Strength: 13.5

Mana: 18.52

Mind Power: 17.89 (21)

Attack: N/A Defence: N/A

Skills: Unwavering Will Lvl 2

Spells: Spiral of flame, Fireball

Soul Arks: Fire Manipulation Soul Ark (60%)

Slowly scrolling through the System messages, I noticed a particular statement which caught my eye.

[The abundant mana in your Mana pool has nourished your body, Vitality increased by 0.5, strength increased by 0.5]

So, does that mean that as my mana increases, my physical stats will automatically follow? I immediately used the Systems question function.

[Negative, this only occurred because the Mana tonic raised Edward Suncrest’s abilities temporarily, causing Edward Suncrest to be able to absorb much more than normal, however since Edward Suncrest couldn’t contain all that he absorbed, some of it slipped out of his body. The little bits that slipped out were absorbed slightly by his body, causing a slight increase in physical stats]

So, if I take the Mana tonic and meditate, my physical stats will increase?

[Negative, it depends on whether Edward Suncrest can absorb the excess mana. Moreover, if this is done too often (more than once a week), his body will burst from having absorbed too much mana]

Then how do I solve the problem?

[Become a knight]

Is this what they call foreshadowing? Looks like I would have to look into knight techniques in the future… although I would only do it if I was safe of course. Increasing my stats is always a good thing, but I can’t exactly enjoy it from the afterlife, can I? Or can I? The System did mention something about a Netherworld when it first started didn’t it?

On the other hand, there were likely other ways to do this. The System itself likely kept quiet about these methods. Sure, [The System is an impartial System which records and points out some paths for you to improve] was good, but there was a loophole wasn’t there? A giant loophole which was popularly used by liars. The System can point out paths for you to take, but it doesn’t have to point out the best path, does it? Nor does it have to point out other paths, causing you to think that only one action was possible. Thus, you take that path, which is beset with dangers. A rather cliched situation, wasn’t it?

As I was musing about the possibilities of becoming a ghost and the reliability of the System, I suddenly felt a wave of nausea overcome me. Rushing over to the toilet, which was a hole in the floor leading to go knows where, I retched loudly, causing silver coloured vomit to spray out of my mouth. Hakha had reminded me about this previously, he had told me that my body wouldn’t be able to absorb all of the tonic.

Actually, a Mana tonic was used by rank 2 Wizards to temporarily boost their abilities while fighting. It was made for rank 2 Wizards to consume, and even though the ones I received was lower than even the lowest rank of Mana tonics, it was still slightly too powerful for me, causing me to be unable to fully ingest it.

Which was why silver vomit was gushing out of my mouth, a never-ending torrent that seemed to have no end. Where did all this liquid even come from? I sure as hell didn’t know.

After what felt like hours but was only five minutes, I finally stopped vomiting, barely managed to drag my exhausted self over to the bed before falling fast asleep, dreaming of all things wrong.

Ezekiel Suncrest Pov

Blood.

Blood was all that I could see.

It wasn’t that surprising, given that I was literally cultivating in a lake of blood. The water level (Blood level?) of the lake had risen somewhat over the past four or five days, causing my body to be partially submerged in blood.

Standing up, I once again created blood steps, only this time I could create and manipulate 3 steps at a time, so I could step forward and move the step behind me to my front to continue my path.

Exiting the cave, I returned to the main cave where the first inheritance was. Stepping onto dry ground, I forced the blood on me off and used the resulting sludge to make a small sword, conveniently cleaning myself. As I played around with the blood sword, I began reading through the countless System notifications that have been popping up ever since I woke up.

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

[Ezekiel Suncrest has meditated under the Blood tree, blood qi increased by 0.1]

…

[Ezekiel Suncrest has finished a long session of cultivation, vitality increased by 6.2, strength increased by 7, blood qi increased by 8.4, mind power increased by 5] (0.1 blood qi bonuses not included)

[Due to constant practice, Blood manipulation Lvl 1 has become Blood manipulation Lvl 2]

[Ezekiel Suncrest]

Rank 1

Gender: Male

Blood cultivator

Cultivation technique: Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll

Vitality: 19.32

Strength: 20.5

Blood qi: 29

Mind Power: 23

Attack: N/A Defence: N/A

Skills: Will of the commander Lvl 1, Blood servant creation Lvl 1, Blood manipulation Lvl 2

After that meditation session, I had managed to condense 3 and a half drops of Longevity blood. However, I was very far away from completing the first level of the Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll. The Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll consisted of nine levels, corresponding with the nine ranks of cultivation. The first level required me to purify and condense 9 drops of Heart blood. Of course, I could also condense Longevity blood, just that I need to single out 9 drops from them to condense into heart blood.

That was of course only the first stage of the Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll. The scroll had stated that the path of cultivation was infinite, and at this point, I was pretty convinced of the legitimacy of that statement.

Stopping myself from daydreaming, I concentrated on my current task. What is my current task you ask? Well that was to get my Blood manipulation to a high enough level. When the one-month protection period was over, I intended to go farm some exp for my skills, preferably improving my special skill, Will of the commander. More than that, I wanted to create some blood slaves too, preferably from humans.

I would start by killing one or two… then when I had around 50 blood slaves which would take about 2 weeks, I would start killing more and more. It would be a race against time, whether I could gather enough blood slaves before they could kill me. If I won, then I would be able to kill a small-scale city, and start improving the quality of my Blood slaves instead of their quantity. Then, I would escape back to the cave and lie low for a while.

The cave was rather special, since its owner was previously a rank 7 Blood Immortal. I could control it and use its reserve energy to hide, ensuring only rank 7 and above beings could detect me.

But the basis of my plans was my personal strength! If I was too weak then I would be killed even before my army was created, and that was certainly something I didn’t want to see! Thus, I was practicing my Blood manipulation in the hopes of getting stronger.

Putting my full concentration to the task at hand, I compressed the blood more and more, until eventually, it turned into a blob of blood, about the size of two fists. Then, I began moulding it into the shape of a small knife. A knife was a good weapon, considering the fact that I couldn’t always use Will of the commander to kill people. I too would get exhausted from too many mental battles after all.

Moreover, I had learned how to use a knife to kill people before. There were only two main moves my father had taught me, and that was to stab and slash. Grabbing onto the hilt of the newly formed knife, I began practicing those nostalgic moves again.

Keep my legs open in a steady stance.

Step, stab.

Step, slash.

Stab, slash.

Repeat and repeat.

Keep the knife edge sharp when I stab, use it to stab.

Then, when it entered my opponents body…

Infect his blood and turn him into a slave!

Tirelessly, I hacked at the air, practicing my skills.

When I was tired, I would use my blood qi to replenish my energy and continue. Soon I was adept enough to create some blood shields around me, regularly rotating them around me while I fought my imaginary enemies.

Stab, slash.

Stab, slash and stab again.

Several hours later, I had 5 shields the size of a small table hovering around me. My knife was still as sharp as ever and it was perhaps my millionth time stabbing the air. With a Ding! sound effect which interrupted me, a System notification popped up in front of me.

[Ezekiel Suncrest has dug deep into his roots and remembered the basics of using a knife! Ezekiel Suncrest has learnt Beginner Knife skill Lvl 1]

[Due to unceasing practice, Blood manipulation has levelled up to Lvl 3, control over blood is greatly strengthened]

[Ezekiel Suncrest]

Rank 1

Gender: Male

Blood cultivator

Cultivation technique: Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll

Vitality: 19.32

Strength: 20.5

Blood qi: 29

Mind Power: 23

Attack: N/A Defence: N/A

Skills: Will of the commander Lvl 1, Blood servant creation Lvl 1, Blood manipulation Lvl 3, Beginner Knife skill Lvl 1

Hmm? Blood manipulation levelled up? I had previously spent several days cultivating to raise a level, but a few hours of practicing had led to another level up?

Unable to explain this phenomenon, I decided to ask the System.

[Answer: Since Ezekiel was more active in manipulating blood when practicing, than cultivating, Blood Manipulation was levelled up more easily.]

So more active huh… sure I guess that was likely the reason… but I wouldn’t trust the System one hundred percent. Just think, an omnipotent System, capable of recording all of your strength… at first thought, seems like a good way to improve yourself, right? Since it’s a neutral System, there’s no problem, right?

Bullshit. First of all, regardless of the level of civilization, corruption will always exist, no matter how slight. Second, there was no way those powerful figures who set up the System would do it with no ulterior motives. Where there is information, there will be people who exploit it. But I wanted to be ready against that situation in the future, where an opponent knew all of my skills.

Either that, or I would try to separate from the System as quickly as possible in the future. Like my father had said, the only person you could one hundred percent trust was yourself.

Sitting down on the floor, I took a short break. Although I could use blood qi to replenish my energy, it couldn’t erase the fatigue that had accumulated throughout the practice. Cycling the Longevity Blood Condensing Scroll, I quickly recovered back into my peak condition, then I began practicing again.

24 days. I had 24 days to prepare. I look forward to when I have an army to fight for me.