Chapter 71: Mysterious Genes

Hong!

The pressure rose significantly as Keith entered the marquis layer. It didn't bother him as much as it did before because of the protection of the energy layer. It used the residue power of the bloodstone and temporarily created an aura that blocked the outside pressure.

It could've lasted longer if he stayed in the count layer, but now he was in the marquis layer, it was depleting faster because of the resistance. The system gave him a ten-second window to cross the rest of the layers.

Clenching his teeth, he moved faster than he ever did. His blood-qi was perfectly distributed across the body and both the blood core and the warrior frame worked at their full capacity. They complemented each other and boosted the output of his body to a whole new level.

When he reached the end of the marquis layer, only eight seconds remained. It felt way longer but he actually managed to cross the marquis layer in two seconds.

As he entered the duke layer, his movement slowed down a little due to the overwhelming pressure difference. It was many times higher than the marquis layer. If he didn't have the energy layer to protect him, he would've dropped on the floor like a magnet pulling a metal.

Thankfully, he was not experiencing most of the pressure and could think clearly. His focus was on the path ahead that led to the king layer.

He increased his speed while pushing his warrior frame's output even more. He swept past the duke layer in a split second and moved halfway inside the layer within a second. His blood core was glowing red as his output soared with the continuous flow of blood-qi.

'Just a little more, and we will be in the King's layer.' His eyes were fixed on the dark layer that was barely visible in front of him.

At the same time, Valencia was watching him with a stupefied face and biting her lips unconsciously. What he showed to the entire hall was nothing short of a miracle. What happened before her eyes were supposed to be impossible but Keith was doing it with not a single care in the world.

The higher layers of the test produced the emulated aura of the peak-level vampires of the respective stages. That meant the viscount level layer produced the equivalent aura to a peak level vampire at the viscount stage. The same applied for the next layers as they emulated count, marquis, and duke layer pressures respectively.

To break them without any resistance and move like that was not something even she could do. Sure, it would be a different story if she used her artifacts, but this test prohibited the use of any artifact. So he couldn't have entered the test layer while being equipped.

That showed what he used for crossing all those layers was his own ability and not with the help of any artifacts, which was baffling. She couldn't believe that he was using no artifacts to boost his power. And still was able to move past the count layer.

The same reactions could be seen from the other two student council members. Their faces were even more contorted and filled with disbelief. When he reached the end of the duke layer their eyes went wide.

They couldn't imagine Keith breaking the Archduke layer so easily like taking a walk in the park. Their eyes squinted as to see what would happen once he crossed the Archduke layer.

To their surprise, he not only crossed the Archduke layer but he did it with minimum resistance. His speed was slower than before but his speed was regaining as a desperate expression appeared on Keith's face.

Inside the Archduke layer, Keith was now struggling to maintain his blood core at the maximum output. The increased temperature was making his body numb as the blood core was at the risk of failing. If not for his warrior frame supporting the blood core, it would've imploded long ago.

'This layer is way more powerful than before. I can barely breathe.' Keith was visibly tired from maintaining the blood core and the warrior frame at the same time.

[ The pressure from the Archduke layer is several times higher than the Duke layer, so some of it is going through the energy layer. We only have two seconds, so try to reach the king layer before then.]

The system went back to its idle state after saying this.

Keith also looked at the timer which showed two seconds in the status window before the energy layer breaks apart. He closed his eyes and put all of his blood-qi inside which were flowing outside his body. It was more tiring to gather all the blood-qi while maintaining two cores. But he didn't have any other options so he endured the pain inside his head.

'Endure a little bit longer, Endure a little bit longer, I'm almost there.' Keith repeated this sentence multiple times inside his head.

Boom!

With a loud noise, he crossed the King layer with only a second remaining in the clock. He opened his eyes and a beautiful scene appeared in front of his face. The layer was laid with golden red particles flying all across the layer in abstract patterns. 

[ The energy layer is shutting down, you need to go back. I will stay hidden and won't respond for some time, hopefully, you refrain yourself from doing something stupid.] 

Saying this the system went silent.

Keith stayed in the King's layer for a split second but it felt like an eternity. He didn't know it was the runes that slowed the perception or the pillar of judgement. He felt the aura brushing past his energy barrier which was flickering.

When half a second was left in the timer, he turned around and left the king's layer. But before he left, he felt a subtle presence at the end of the King's layer. 

Swoosh!

Moving with tremendous speed, he crossed almost half of the archduke layer within half a second. His face was showing signs of fatigue after running both the blood core and warrior frame at their peak for an extended period of time. If it was one of the two, he could have endured several hours, but both of them together used so much mental power that he was having hallucinations.

'Fuck! I want to sleep.' A soft groan escaped his lips.

The full force of the Archduke pressure reigned down on him as he reached halfway into the layer. His movements slowed considerably and he had to put great effort to leave the Archduke layer.

"HAH!" 

As he left the Archduke layer, his nose started bleeding. He wiped the blood and moved slowly to the marquis layer. With the pressure within bearable conditions, he could at least pass without falling flat on the floor.

Within ten seconds, he reached the marquis layer. He eased up a little and slowed down his blood core. The warrior frame was running at full capacity so he could afford to lower the output of the blood core.

Leaving the marquis layer he took a deep breath and sat down on the floor cross-legged. He looked at the blood core which was slowly recuperating from the overwork and getting to its normal state. 

Strangely his muscles didn't seem to suffer from the extended use of rapid blood-qi circulation. Only his brain was somewhat affected by the mental pressure to keep the system running.

He silently slowed down his circulation and looked at the judgment pillar in anticipation, Now that the system was not there to block the pillar's senses, he would get the results of the gene test anytime now.

As he predicted, the runes inside the pillar started moving and ten circles appeared on the pillar. All of them were the same size, except the one that was facing Keith. It was significantly smaller than the rest of the circles.

"What?" Keith couldn't believe what he was seeing. 

The runes inside the circle were completely empty. There was not a single rune inside that space. Keith turned his head around and glanced at Valencia, who was also looking at the same rune circle with a frown.

She looked back towards Kieth with a strange expression, trying to comprehend what was happening. Today so much had happened that it was not easy to wrap someone's head around.

Heaving a sigh, she turned her head towards the high stage. She didn't know what the rune circle meant. An empty circle was never seen in the time she was in the academy. So she wanted the help of the higher-ups to understand the judgement pillar's decision.

The layer of fog dissipated in the high stage and dean Jesper floated towards the test area. He hovered above the platform where Valceia was standing and slowly descended. 

"Dean Jesper, can you discern the meaning of the judgement pillar?" Valencia asked with an intrigued face

She knew all the other runes and it was clear that they didn't hold a candle to Keith's performance, so it was natural that the others were not in the mind of the dean. With Keith's performance, no one spared an eye to the other results. 

Even Annica, who was supposed to be second in the batch, was looking at Keith's rune circle with a strange expression. It was really weird and not to get a normal result.

The dean stood there while looking at the rune circle with a frown on his face. HE opened his mouth and looked at Keith with interest.

"His genes can not be determined by the judgment pillar." 

The entire central hall was in an uproar after hearing that statement.