Chapter 20: Against a Viscount

Rena left the room after Keith finished drinking the two glasses of blood. He took a long breath and examined the changes in his body.

After his level increased to 1.2 he felt the circulation of blood qi inside his body. He didn't know the level at which he would evolve into a viscount but he was sure it wasn't close.

' I have to hit level 2 to find out what happens afterward.' Keith thought.

The most noticeable thing was that his blood core was grown ever so slightly. it wasn't noticeable right away but when he examined his body with blood qi, he came across it. For now, his primary goal was to reach level 2 as quickly as possible.

The uncertainty of his win didn't let him relax. Even though he was strong enough inside his family, there were many vampires that could decimate him in a heartbeat.

In his family, his grandfather was known to be a count-level vampire. His uncle Brad was a high Viscount, the second strongest vampire. Apart from them barely anyone broke the viscount rank.

His eldest uncle Rufus, was only a high baron, even after all the years he spent training with the sponsor family, he couldn't break the viscount barrier. This showed how difficult it was to level up in the path of blood condense.

If Keith didn't have the unique refinement method of the purple tendrils, he would've had to do it the old-fashioned way. Now with the help of the marks, he could isolate the attribute from the blood qi and absorb the pure-blood essence. This was way more efficient than drinking gallons of human blood every day.

As all these thoughts surfaced in his mind, he continued circulating the blood qi throughout the body. Several hours passed and he opened his eyes again. This time his blood qi calmed down quite a bit.

The excess blood qi had been absorbed successfully and was marked with his very own attribute. The blood core absorbed the blood qi like a sponge and layers of condensed blood qi appeared on its surface.

'It's quite stable for now.' Keith got up from his bed and moved his limbs.

*swish* *swish*

The air split as he threw a light punch and kick, the end creating a small vortex.

' Not bad. The muscle strength has greatly improved after absorbing the blood qi, and now merging completely, the body feels much lighter.'

After swinging his arm a couple of more times, he thought about testing his strength against other vampires.

It was already dawn, but because the sun didn't appear until way later, the outside looked as dark as midnight. he changed his clothes to a more comfortable pair of training suit. it was a mix of red and black textures with quite flexible materials. The family logo was stitched on the right side of the chest area.

He headed to the training grounds, where he fought against Marvin. After getting there he noticed that there was someone still practicing this early. Sounds of air splitting were heard and sometimes sharp cracks.

As he entered the training grounds he saw his second uncle Brad using a curved sword to perform flawless moves. The rhythm that he was in, swinging his sword, splitting the air, looked marvelous, to say the least.

" Oh! it's you Keith" His uncle peeked from the side, still swinging his sword flawlessly.

" Yeah! I was just looking for a partner to test out my strength. I think my core is stabilized enough. I want to see how I fare against others." Keith replied.

"You came at the right time. I was also tired of all the members who kept avoiding me in the arena. Father won't fight anymore and everyone else is just meh." An unsatisfied expression appeared on his face.

Looking at him swinging his sword flawlessly, Keith clenched his fists. he knew that his uncle was a viscount, far stronger than him. There was no way he could defeat him. Not yet anyway. Good thing was that Brad was always good to him, even when he was weak and frail.

"Don't be nervous, I will fight with you without my sword and use only one hand." He smirked at him.

he stopped moving and Keith saw his ripped muscles as the tight grey half-shirt stuck to his body. The blood-red sword dimmed and he put it inside his sheath.

"Now come here! show me everything you got." He gestured with his fingers.

Keith walked towards the center of the arena and stood three meters away from him. Like brad had said, he put his right hand to the back and didn't hold the sword.

"Don't just stand there, come at me. I am getting bored by looking at your nervous face."

Keith took a deep breath and jumped straight with his fist aimed at his face. Due to his enhanced physique, he took a split second to reach his face. He was fast, way faster than before, but Brad didn't move from the spot. His glowing red eyes looked straight at him as a slight smirk appeared on his face.

Brad moved his head sideways and turned his shoulder. The punch missed his head, but Keith didn't stop there. He threw a punch from the left hand and also moved his leg to strike him from below.

" As a total newbie, your moves are quite predictable." Brad swiftly dodged his attacks without moving much.

" You have never trained in your life, so it's understandable that your moves are clumsy and full of openings."

He grabbed Keith's arm and turned him 360. Keith was overwhelmed by the strength, but he resisted with all his might, barely able to slip away.

He landed on the ground hard and a slight tremor shook the arena.

" Whoa! When did you reach the middle stage baron? Your strength is not bad..."

Without letting his finish, Keith used a sweeping leg kick to put him out of balance. he put all his strength into his legs and veins popped on his head.

*Thwack*

He hit Brad's legs with a loud crack, but what happened after was something outside of his expectations. Brad didn't dodge at first, but when his leg was right next to his, one of his legs sprang up. The other leg collided with Keith's but it didn't budge from the position. The other leg that was up in the air pinned his leg as Brad turned sideways moving Keith along with him.

Keith was dragged by the movement and as he turned half a circle, he let go of Keith's legs. The momentum threw him away and he rolled over the floor, stopping after gripping the floor as he was moving.

" Not bad, I see you can control your strength quite well. But in the real world, strength will only take you so far. You lack severely in fighting techniques and battle experience. Not to mention you can't use blood-qi skills and techniques. I know you've just reached baron rank and couldn't use blood condensing before, so getting all this strength would've made you feel quite powerful. But trust me when I say this, Physical strength only works when your opponent is way weaker than you. If a Baron with decent blood-qi techniques fights with you, you will see how important skills are."

Keith got back up on his feet and processed everything his uncle was saying. he was new to the blood-qi techniques and didn't know anything about it. he only knew how to condense blood-qi and that's it.

"Tell you what, fight with me every day, and I will teach you some basic blood-qi techniques. And if you can endure, I might teach you my advanced version of family martial arts."

A smile appeared on Keith's face as he opened his mouth.

"Don't underestimate me that much, I will catch up to you in no time." Kieth looked straight into Brad's eyes.

"Good, I would very much like that." A grin appeared on his face.