Chapter 80: Curious Gaze

As usual, Rena was tidying up the place and entered Keith's room. She came here last night after Keith came back, but seeing him snoring like a baby she left the room immediately. She placed the glass and silently exited his room.

The next morning she heard weird noises from his room. Slightly opening the door, she took a peek at him.

"What is this place?" 

She heard him mumble things while his eyes were closed. He seemed asleep but his eyes madly flickered. She entered immediately and walked closer to him. As she approached the bed, a faint black smoke could be seen coming off of Kieth's body.

Upon closer look, his eyes were pitch black, staring straight at the ceiling.

Huff! Huff! Huff!

He woke up not long after while panting heavily, looking around with a fearful face.

"Master! Are you alright?" 

Rena asked with a face full of concern.

"Rena! Thank god... I thought I was kidnapped or something. Turns out it was a weird but terrifying dream."  Keith took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Young master! Is everything okay? Do you have anything weighing you down?" Rena asked.

"I don't think so. I sorted out everything yesterday. This nightmare was not something related to the real world, I think."

He remembered the dark and foggy place with a pond with pitch-black water. Inside he saw two glowing red eyes.

'What was that about? Man, I need something to put my mind off of that nightmare. I think the stressful life is taking a toll on me.' 

Getting out of his bed, Keith drank the glass of blood. Rena stood there without saying anything. 

"How is it here? Any new developments?" Keith asked, giving a side glance while sipping blood from his glass.

"Nothing worthy to note. But I heard an interesting rumor." Rena said.

"That is.."

"In the gathering last evening, a maid said there were several vampires scouting the residence. At first, it was only two, but soon several vampires came to the building, trying to look for something."

"Interesting… So did they inquire about anyone or just looked on their own." Keith asked with a curious expression.

"From her accounts, they didn't ask anything to the staff here or the servants. They came on their own and left after some time." Rena said with a thoughtful expression, trying to remember if she missed out on anything.

"I see. Maybe they wanted to find information on something or someone… Anyway… always keep your guard up, don't leave the building for some time. Everything is available here, so you won't have any problem. If you need some air, you can go take a walk in the garden."

"Yes, I love it here. This place is way better than our castle. All the places are properly maintained, and I also heard the entire building is protected by some kind of powerful magic." Rena said cheerfully.

"Oh! That's probably the blood runes covering the residential area. That's some good security, certainly better than vampires." Keith nodded his head.

"I will go to the training facility now. The nightmare was rough, I need a good place to start condensing blood-qi." 

"Will you stay there for the day?"

"Nah! I will come back in the evening." Keith wiped his mouth after slowly finishing the glass of blood.

"Then, I will take my leave." 

Rena picked up the empty glass and left the room. After she left, Keith changed his clothes to the battle uniform, which was used for training purposes. There were several types of uniforms, each to cater to a particular need.

For example, for ceremonies and parties, there was a suit-like uniform perfectly decorated with all sorts of embroidery. The stitching was done by ruby-like threads. They glistened with every reflection that accentuated the suit's charm.

There were other uniforms for attending classes, for specific departments and the one like Keith was wearing, a combat suit uniform. It was made up of a resilient material that could withstand high and cold temperatures, couldn't get torn by sharp objects, and had a perfect fit no matter who wore them.

Keith also noticed the subtle runes going across the insides of the uniform. These were the reasons the suit could adapt to the wearer. Also, they maintained a constant temperature throughout the body at all times irrespective of the outside temperature. It was like an integrated mobile air conditioner.

'Damn! These blood ritualists went all the way while designing this uniform. Is that the perk of having so many ritualists in one place? Our fiefdom barely has any high-level blood ritualists.' Keith looked at the exquisite designs and lamented the fact that their city had no such blood ritualists capable of doing this type of intricate work.

[Good morning, Moonshine..] 

The system said in a seductive feminine voice.

"Geez! Could you talk to me like you used to… This is freaking me out." Keith snapped at the system.

[What? You don't like my voice. Should I change it back to the rough hag voice.]

"No, I didn't mean your voice… just don't talk to me like this" 

[Ah! You don't want me to talk sweet to you? Are you afraid you will fall in love with me? Maybe nobody in this world knows, but I know. You are just a 16 year old teenager inside that body.] 

"Please, you are also a thousand old year hag. Besides, you tried to kill me. Even without that, I won't fall for an unknown entity that has no form. For what it's worth, you are my slave now. So I'll have one less headache." 

[ Yeah... Yeah! Lucky human. I didn't even consider you as your existence was nothing compared to me. It's like when you walk, you don't take into consideration all the insects under your shoes. So it was nothing personal. I was trying to get out of that world and used you as a bridge, but that went terribly wrong. Now, I've lost everything, forgotten my true existence and bound to a mortal.]

"Glad to know that Karma doesn't discriminate."

[Hmpph..]

Keith walked out of his room and left his building. Arriving at the Blood warrior training facility, he entered with his rune card. The doors opened automatically as he entered the final stage baron training chamber.

'Huh! Mr. Visit must've added my name. Speaking of him, I hope he doesn't seek me out too soon. I need a way to hide my physique and blood core. But can I do that? He's way more knowledgeable in rituals and runes than I am.' 

He entered the chamber used for blood condensing. It was rich with purified blood-qi and helped blood warriors to simulate their frames and lead to a breakthrough.

Sitting down at a corner, he closed his eyes and started absorbing blood-qi to fill up his warrior frame. He was holding back his blood core advancement because he wanted to level up the warrior frame to the max and then attempt to advance the blood core.

This way his foundation would be further solidified. Nobody knew of this, as they couldn't absorb blood-qi directly into the warrior frame. For them, the warrior frame was a result of their blood core level.

So only the viscount level vampires could activate the viscount level warrior frame. Keith was an exception to the rule as he found a way to independently keep the warrior frame activated and not depend on his own blood-qi. 

It helped him increase the overall blood-qi inside his body, freeing his blood core from the burden of sustaining the warrior frame. It also increased the blood-qi density, giving him explosive strength. And when combined with the blood core, the warrior frame showed unparalleled power, even surprising vampires possessing the same level of warrior frame.

"Guess, I have to wait until I finish filling up my warrior frame. The limit right now is the count level. So after that, I need a higher level blood warrior frame technique to level up my frame." 

He madly absorbed the ambient blood-qi and filled up his warrior frame. His warrior frame was at the early stage of viscount but had the blood-qi amount that of the middle stage viscount due to the increased density of the blood-qi. 

The system helped him fill up all the cracks and crannies of the frame. It made sure no space was left and filled blood-qi with its superior computation and remodeling of the frame.

Regular minds couldn't perform these kinds of calculations. Maybe high-level blood ritualists or Kings, but after reaching that level of power, their path is already set in stone. They can't modify their techniques at their stage as it was the majority of their essence and made them who they were.

Keith had the benefit of being at the lower stage and the capability to do these alterations to his techniques. His warrior frame would evolve to be way stronger and better than regular variants of the warrior frame. 

From his calculations, by the end of this, his warrior frame could match up to marquis-level warrior frames even if its limit was count level because of the increased density.

With that in mind, he concentrated his mind to condense blood-qi inside his warrior frame.

After some time, many students entered the chamber and picked an isolated spot to sit on. As they entered, their attention focused on Keith who was immersed in his blood condensing. They were curious to know who this new student was.

Among them, a bulky man walked towards him and stared at him curiously. 

"Are you new to this place? First-year perhaps?"

He circled around Keith and examined his body.