Chapter 69: System Upgrade

Everyone's eyes were locked into Keith as he stood there silently. Even Annica stopped after a while as she reached her limit. She was only two meters away from Keith, but it still felt like an unreachable distance. 

The pressure weighing down on her was terrifying and she didn't want to overwork her blood core and sustain an injury. So she stood there with a defeated face and looked towards Keith with anticipation.

She was also looking for a miracle from this vampire she met yesterday. She already regarded him above her in terms of raw power and blood core capability. When he activated his viscount level warrior frame, she couldn't believe it at first.

But now, after taking a closer look her mind couldn't refuse the truth. She stood there hoping to see whatever Keith was preparing to do.

With all the preparations complete, Keith already started to absorb the bloodstone which contained pure blood essence. It was immediately absorbed as opposed to when he had to purify the blood-qi into blood essence.

Here, it was already refined and ready to be consumed. The blood essence coursed through his body and filled his entire body. At that moment, the system started to absorb the blood essence. 

[System upgrading…]

[….]

…

…

…

Keith looked at the moving dots which didn't give him any estimates about its finish time. If there was any percentage it would've been easier to guess, but here nothing was provided.

He could feel the residue blood essence was stimulating his body, but his blood core was inactive and didn't absorb any blood essence. It stayed idle throughout the process and didn't make any attempt to condense blood-qi.

When he was waiting around for the system to upgrade, he felt that the three presence watching over him intensified their gazes. 

Valencia, who was keenly monitoring Keith's body with her senses, could feel slight fluctuations in his body. His blood-qi was slightly increased, but that wasn't significant to boost his power.

She tried to probe further and tried to determine what Keith was up to. But her senses didn't give her any lead. She could only guess that he was activating a secret blood-qi technique.

At that time, her subordinate came back with a frown on his face.

"Did you find anything about him?" Valencia asked the vice president.

"I did but it's strange." He replied with a puzzled voice.

"What is it?" 

" After inquiring about him, from the registration office, I found that he is from Kelgard. He is the next in line for a relatively unknown count family. I mean, at our level, he is not that special. His family is ranked way below 50 and their blood-qi technique is also only count-level." The vice president replied.

"Is that a blood warrior frame?" Valencia asked.

"Yes, it is a count-level blood warrior frame technique, not even close to my Duke level warrior frame technique." He replied.

"That's interesting. If he was able to construct a warrior frame so early and also managed to upgrade it to viscount level, it is quite an achievement." Valencia pondered.

Looking at Keith's figure a smile appeared on her face. She turned around and looked at the vice president.

"Would you have reached viscount level warrior frame with your Duke level warrior frame technique within twenty years?" She asked with a smile.

"I… If I had sufficient bloodstones, it might be possible, but that would also require decades of training and preparation…"

As he was saying this his eyes went wide.

"What?" Valencia looked at him with a curious face, trying to discern his thoughts.

"I remembered something. He was crippled from birth and his meridians were clogged due to a defect in his physique. His younger cousin was supposed to attend the academy. But recently, he miraculously got cured and his blood condensing also started to accumulate. Within a day, he reached the baron stage." The vice president said with wide-open eyes.

"Are you sure, that's him?" With a doubtful expression, Valencia pointed her finger towards Keith.

"Keith Ennes, that's him. I can't believe he reached the final stage baron within two months after getting cured. His blood core wasn't even formed before that. If I didn't read the reports from the academy and the testimonies of his grandfather and the elders of the family, I wouldn't have believed it." 

"You would lose all of your blood-qi if I tell you what he did right now."

"Did something happen when I was away?" He looked at the test area.

He could only see Keith standing at the edge of the viscount layer with a calm face. His viscount level warrior frame aura was emanating a tremendous amount of blood-qi, that could be sensed from here.

"He reached the end of the viscount layer, with only the final stage baron level blood core. Also, how is he exuding a viscount level warrior frame aura?" He asked in disbelief.

"That's what I wanted to find out, but that is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing he did was…" She glanced with one eye at the other vampire to her left.

" He cleared the baron layer and crossed the viscount layer without using any blood-qi technique," Valencia said softly.

"Are you implying that…" 

"Yes... If you just shut your mouth, that would be good." She glared at him as he was about to spill the secret.

Increasing the blood-qi density was not known to most of the vampires, even marquis level families didn't know about this technique. So saying this in front of all the students was reckless.

"I understand. But to cross the viscount layer while only relying on his blood core, his capabilities are not to be overlooked." He replied while looking around.

"That's why we need to recruit him into the student council. If we can nurture such talent, our standing in the council will increase. We could even get a lot of merits, by making him join the vampire council. " Valencia said with a serious voice.

"I will try my best to recruit him into the student council. I…" 

Before he could finish, Valencia cut him short.

"No need. I will personally recruit him into the student council. He is too precious to be handled by you. I'm afraid you will make him submit by force and I don't want him to join because of fear. If I want to learn his secrets, I have to make him trust me."

A vicious grin appeared on her face.

"Why is the result still not showing?  I think they entered the layers a while back." The vice president asked.

"Maybe the judgment pillar encountered something special."

Keith's figure flashed in her eyes.

…

Keith waited for a long time for the system upgrade to finish and he was getting impatient. The entire hall wall looked at him like he was some kind of prey and the eerie silence was making him uncomfortable.

'Ah! This is annoying. Hurry up and finish the upgrade already.' 

[….]

[ Look at you… Didn't you want all their attention?]

The system's voice changed a little and a more profound voice was heard.

'I was trying to get the attention of the higher-ups, not all of the students. Oh, your voice changed. It sounds kinda better than the earlier voice.' Keith took a moment to register the change.

[ I'm also capable of doing more things. Now I know, with each upgrade, my soul receives nourishment and gets more functionalities. I can become whole again, and maybe get out of your body someday.]

'You say that like I will allow you to get away. Until I get to the bottom of the incidents you caused that put me in this world, I won't let you go. Your memories are sealed for now but when they come back, I want to know everything that happened and retrieve the technique you used to go back to my world.'

[ You still want to go back to your mundane world, after knowing you can become a god here? I don't understand you.]

'I'm not saying that I don't like it here, but there are some things to be dealt with in that world as well. Besides, will I lose my power if I get there someday in the future?' 

Keith asked with a frown.

[ If you have enough strength, you can go there without sacrificing your body. This might be a good choice. If you go there, nobody could oppose you. You could become the ruler of the entire planet.] The system said with a tempting voice.

'I highly doubt it. I can beat human soldiers, but some countries have the technology to destroy me. Also, there are weapons that could evaporate me within seconds.' Keith thought about it in detail and voiced out his concerns.

Being the most powerful entity didn't matter when there were nuclear bombs and other powerful weaponry. Upsetting the wrong people would make his life a nightmare.

[You don't get it. I was talking about when you will reach the pinnacle of godhood. At that time, not even weapons of mass destruction could put a scratch on you, let alone kill you.] 

'… There is still a long way to go. We need to focus on blocking the judgment pillar for now.'

[ Don't worry. I was already working on the countermeasures. With the upgraded version, I can somewhat analyze the blood runes. They are still very dense with information, but nothing my great mind can't handle.]

The mark on Keith's hand increased in size and a shiny purple glow erupted from the tendrils. It was glittering like starlight within the darkness. Only Keith could see the faint light within.