Chapter 553: A New Teacher Of The Occult Arts?

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The gala party continued after the entire tournament, as the many Vampires gathered around the winners, the humans, and other demi-humans. As they looked at them with mixed feelings and expressions. The oddest thing was that the Vampires that had lost, minus Bernard, were all feeling the most welcoming of the humans and demi-humans into the Clan. Even though the other Vampires disagreed with this, they were part of the weak ones that didn't participated into the fight, so they had little saying into all of this and were therefore ignored by the rest of the strongest fighters, who cold easily crush them if they ever dared to raise their voices against them and discriminate against the winners.

Kuro and Julia had reached up to Frank who was with Matsuo, Harumi, and Clementine, as Kuro decided to speak with Frank about what had happened, and about his own powers a little bit, while showing some interest in teaching him about the power of the Warlocks and the ability to call upon Outer Gods for power, or even just general knowledge about the Outer Universe such as the Outer Void Plane or the Chaotic Plane.

"Frank, good job in the recent battles. You were an outstanding fighter. I can already see that you're really worth making an ally of. Because I wouldn't really like making you my enemy." Said Kuro.

"Hahaha! You're flattering me, Kuro. I almost didn't made it, Clementine was incredibly powerful after all." Said Frank.

"That's what you like to talk about just because you won, boy. But you were indeed amazingly strong, many times I felt like I was struggling against you… the worst part is the uncertainty. Fighting you always felt uncertain because you always had more and more powers saved up… I didn't even knew what else would you even come out next. It was that uncertainty that made you a terrifying fighter." Said Clementine.

"Oh, is that so? I guess I could say that your Adamas Ability was the most annoying… You were also an amazing fighter, and the first person I've fought which I wasn't able to even damage…" said Frank.

"Heh, is that so? I just need to find a way to strengthen my soul to the same level of yours, and I might as well become invincible!" laughed Clementine.

"Ahem!" Kuro quickly tried to stop the two from continuing to praise one another's powers. Fighters were always like this, especially battle junkies such as Clementine and Frank. When Battle Junkies had such a refreshing fight where both sides went all out and even after all of that they struggled, they felt like talking about the fight all day long…

Kuro was not a battle junkie at all, he was more of a magician and researcher, although he was very strong too, but such power was often used for more research… in fact, the power of his time magic was used to give himself even more time by creating a time dilation inside of his own manor, a day outside was several days inside, this way he had even more time for research!

Nonetheless, Frank and Clementine were brought back to reality, as Frank apologized to Kuro for having ended up talking other things than what Kuro had approached originally to speak with him about.

"Sorry about that… Well, what did you need, Kuro?" asked Frank with a gentle demeanor. Despite his fierceness and ruthless in battle, he always acted gentle-hearted and rather nice with everyone. He was a guy that was very easy to speak with and approach.

"Frank, remember that we had spoken before about the Dark Arts and the Warlock ways? I had offered you to become my disciple in such teachings. Are you still up for my offer?" asked Kuro.

"Ah! I-I had completely forgotten about that! I think its because I ended turning into stone… my brain included… That made my mind lose a few memories." sighed Frank

"Sigh. I am glad I approached you to speak about it now. Alright, are you up for it or not? I am getting tired of asking you." Sighed Kuro. The little boy was actually a very old Vampire, so he had little temperament.

"Sure! I will gladly become your disciple in the Dark Arts and all things related with HP Lovecraft or whatever." Said Frank.

"Excellent! Actually, did you knew something about him?" said Kuro.

"Hm? Wasn't he just a writer though? I just made a stupid reference-"

"No, Frank. HP Lovecraft was not just a writer. In fact, he was a powerful Priest and Warlock of the Old Ones… and would you like to know that… he's still alive?" asked Kuro.

"W-What?!" asked Frank in shock.

"Indeed. HP Lovecraft was one of the first Priests that managed to popularize the names of the Ancient Ones across Earth, which are all real. They dwell within the Outer Void… Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath, and more… all of them." Said Kuro.

"So the name Shoggoth wasn't just a coincidence…?!" asked Frank.

"Indeed! Although Shoggoths are not really comparable to the might of the Outer Gods, as they're servants, they're the lowest of the low, and even then I could barely make one of them my Familiar with a lot of restrictions. But as you saw in the battle, they got a lot of power indeed!" laughed Kuro.

"Amazing… So his books…?" asked Frank.

"His books cannot be discerned by normal minds, but Warlocks like us have easily recognized that they're filled with runes and powerful incantations… they're actually books to teach us about Warlockmancy!" said Kuro.

"W-What?! Okay, stop surprising me so much…" sighed Frank.

"Indeed, and they're available at your local book store at a cheap price, so you better get yourself a few dozen of them… our classes will begin in a week, you should come to my manor for that time. Make sure to read these books thoroughly!" said Kuro.

"Alright teacher!" said Frank with a gentle smile.

"Hmph, you're more obedient than I thought… seeing how strong you are, I thought you would act more defiantly." Said Kuro.

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