Chapter 120: Consolidate

" It's already midnight… Young master hasn't returned yet? Kenny, are you concerned for him too?" 

Rena who was looking outside the window from Keith's room asked the beast standing beside her. 

Grrrr! Grrr!

Kenny shook his head and dropped to the floor. He was just there for the sake of it. Also, staying with Rena meant he would get surprise treats once in a while. Rena even gave her some portion of her meal, but there was enough in the storage that everyone ate to their fill.

Keith didn't come to his room and he didn't notify Rena about something important. So she was a little concerned about him. That didn't mean she thought he was trouble, quite the contrary. She believed in his power and thought he could overcome any obstacle, but there was also the threat of the unknown that she couldn't comprehend.

"Hopefully he returns safely…"

Grrrr! Grrr!

Kenny started to growl with displeasure and shrunk back in annoyance. He seemed to sense something.

"What happened? You are still hungry after eating all that?" Rena retorted.

Creak!

The sound of the front door opening was heard and Rena quickly got out of Keith's room. She paced across the hall and stood in front of the front door.

Residential quarters were exclusively given to each student and only their rune card could let them enter. They could give permissions to other students and their servants, but as far as Rena knew, there was no one except her who had permission to enter Keith's private quarters.

"Young Master! I've prepared your bath and your meal is on your table. Huh!" She looked flabbergasted at Keith's appearance.

His hair was erratic and his uniform was torn in several places. A foul stench came from his body like he was in a gutter for the entire day. The only thing that didn't change was his skin. When she looked closer, his skin seemed to be glowing even more. The contrast between such extremes was confusing her mind.

"Young Master! What happened.." 

"I can't talk to you right now. Here take this and eat it like you do every day. I'm tired, so don't disturb me anymore." Keith walked off and entered his room with a tired face.

Kenny also sensed something was amiss but soon shook his head and lay on the carpet. 

"I wonder what was that all about? Anyway, maybe he worked really hard today and needs some rest. I will ask about it tomorrow." Rena nodded her head and glanced at Kenny one last time then entered her own room.

Back in his room, Keith took off his dirty clothes and entered his bath. He exhaled slowly after submerging half of his body in the lukewarm water. It was not too hot, just enough to ease his fatigue.

"That was a wild day? Keith still hasn't returned from the subconscious. I wonder if I can keep this body for some time. He wouldn't mind right. After all, I'm making him stronger.

"That being said, It took eight hours for me to completely absorb all the blood-qi. That viscount ghoul was really potent. I have to stay inside my room and consolidate the blood qi.  The blood core is at the early stage viscount and the warrior frame has already reached its peak.

"Combining all of the blood-qi, Keith's strength is comparable to a middle stage count now. But the warrior frame hit its limit. Without a new warrior frame technique, it will be stuck at count level indefinitely."

Haa!

After relaxing and cleaning his body, Keith put on new clothes and sat on his bed. The system was focusing entirely on stabilizing the blood core and warrior frame.  Blood-qi was overflowing the body and leveling up sped up the process. Now, the blood core and warrior frame contained more than three times the blood-qi they had one day earlier.

Such a rapid increase in blood-qi was dangerous for the body. If not for the special physique of Keith, he couldn't store such an amount of blood-qi in a single day. Normal vampires took decades to accumulate the same amount of blood-qi. It was supposed to be a slow and gradual process.

[ I think the dragon genes are the reason Keith's body is so tough and can hold many times more life energy than normal vampires. It happens to be blood-qi but I'm sure any energy can be stored inside this body. 

[ Just how did a vampire meet with a dragon? It seems impossible. Forget it. There is no point in asking questions whose answers are out of my reach. I haven't regained my strength yet, so all of this is useless. ]

Throughout the night, the system carefully circulated the blood qi and added more attributes to it. The overflowing blood essence was running amok and without properly stabilizing it, the chances of a blood-qi eruption happening in the future will increase. 

Blood-qi needed to be circulated in order to imbue the personal attribute that identifies Keith's blood-qi. Without it, it's just blood essence like humans. If enough blood essence circulated inside his body without converting them to blood-qi, his odor would change and other vampires would notice it.

The scent of attributed blood-qi and normal blood essence was different. Blood-qi with attributes was used to identify a certain vampire and remember their aura. If Keith's ratio of blood-qi and blood essence crosses a certain point, he will smell like half-human. This is what the system observed after the tremendous amount of blood essence entered Keith's body inside the sacrificial chamber.

Just like a human who turns into a vampire and the blood essence changes into blood-qi, the reverse could happen, but it didn't revert the vampire into a human. It resulted in the instant death of the vampire as it couldn't sustain the energy within the body and resulted in an explosion commonly known as blood-qi eruption.

This was more to do with the conversion of energy. While blood essence was pure and attribute-less, converting it to blood-qi was easy. All vampires did that naturally. On the other hand, converting attributed blood-qi to blood essence or life energy was impossible for the vampires, that's why they couldn't drink another vampire's blood and convert it to their own blood-qi.

To be able to absorb the other vampire's blood-qi first, you have to convert the blood-qi into attributeless blood essence and then absorb that to imbue it with your own attribute. The system was able to convert any type of life energy no matter how crude to useful energy that was compatible with the user. 

It could change the blood-qi to pure life energy and even corrupted blood-qi now that it understood their composition. But it was dangerous and could result in Keith turning into a ghoul.

The night passed and Keith didn't flinch from his position. The system decided to stay inside his room until Keith's blood core and warrior frame are completely stabilized. As usual, there was no reminder for any classes as he was given the freedom to enter the summoning department anytime he wanted. There was no strict requirement.

***

Taking an offensive stance, Keith waited for the ghoul viscount to reach his range of attack. The ghoul saw that Keith stopped and an evil smile appeared on its face. Swinging his sharp wings towards Keith, the viscount ghoul wanted to cut him into a thousand pieces.

But Keith's power in front of the ghoul was not the same as in the previous short battle. Right now, Keith's body was oozing out aura due to the rapid conversion of blood-qi from blood essence. Sucking the entirety of the ghoul baron gave Keith enough power to overpower the viscount ghoul.

Boom! Crash! 

Now to the ghoul viscount's surprise, it was hit in the abdomen with Keith's powerful kick that was so explosive, it sent the ghoul flying. Keith jumped just before the wings approached and flew horizontally to deliver a powerful hit with two legs. 

Getting back into position Keith madly poured blood-qi into his warrior frame that was being converted. The warrior frame strengthened further and Keith's aura turned fiercer.

The viscount ghoul got out of the rubble and lunged at Keith. As they clashed, a big shockwave erupted and aura fluctuations could be felt throughout the chamber. 

Keith was overwhelming the viscount ghoul and kept on hitting his head and chest. The wings tried to slice him from behind but Keith was fast enough to dodge them in time. This made the ghoul irritated and lose its temper.

So far, the ghoul was attacking Keith with a calm mind but as soon as Keith dominated it, the attack pattern changed and became arbitrary. This was good for Keith as he could tire the ghoul quickly and then kill him with repeated attacks.

'I can see that you are a vampire. Don't worry we have more in common than you think. I will tell you all the secrets of how vampires came to be if you take me to the sacrificial chamber.' The lump of flesh said to Keith.

'Sacrificial chamber. It sounds like a terrible place. What if you are tricking me and it's all a trap?' Keith said with a suspicious gaze.