40 Blood Ritual

Owning Magus Kayle's badge, Drake could access these laboratories without paying anything. It was yet another benefit of being a genius talent. Drake had seen the records in the first floor of the library.

In the past century, the stats didn't lie. Although the talent grade of acolytes has been declining over the past century, the proportions were more or less accurate. With the Magical Court gaining more influence, more acolytes joined Helios however, and most of them were lacking talent.

50% of acolytes possessed grade 1 talent, the worst talent possible. Learning spell would be difficult and manipulating mana to cast actual spells would prove to be extremely difficult. That's why most of them stay rank 1 acolytes their entire life. Of course, some encountered unexpected treasures and rewards and rose to fame, like rank 3 acolyte Water King, a water elemental acolyte who used to have poor talent who managed to reach the infamous rank 3 after eating a legendary Sea Fruit, which increased his spirit by one entire grade. Furthermore, the fruit increased his affinity with the water elemental, allowing him to break through the rank 3 realm after a decade of meditation and missions.

30% of acolytes were grade 2 talents, which was actually not bad. They were the most active folks in Helios, and many of them managed to reach rank 2. However, because of their slow growth, rank 2 is often a limit they would never be able to overcome in a lifetime.

As for the rest, about 15% were grade 3 talent and 4% were grade 4 talent. As for grade 5 talents…they could be counted on one's hands. If you considered those who weren't descendants of Magi, then Drake was probably the only grade 5 talent.

Magical affinity was rare. However, high magical talent was even rarer. Being a descendant of a magus definitely increased the odds of having high magical talent, but it wasn't like it was a written rule. As for Drake, a half-elven youth, son of a peak knight…It was definitely something rare.

Drake was stuck in Marianne's dilemma. If he joined her expedition, his life would definitely be put at risk. Even if the [Contract] she talked about was something absolute and fair, the expedition would be a laboratory of a wanderer Magus. There were naturally golems or perhaps even creatures guarding it, and they would most likely be rank 2 or rank 3 lifeforms.

In any case, it was very dangerous for Drake to accept the deal.

On the other hand, getting Magus-level information was bound to be extremely profitable. In fact, he might even benefit more from this information than Marianne herself, or her Magus Grandfather thanks to his biochip.

He could use the Jatu Meteorite Piece to improve his strength and constitution by absorbing its radiations on a daily basis, but it proved to be a slow process. Furthermore, the Jatu Meteorite Piece was fist-sized. The biochip estimated that the benefits of using such method to increase his bodily attributes would only result in a +0.8 point of strength and a +1.2 point of constitution after two years of continuous absorption.

However, there was a shortcut available: Blood ritual. Using the blood of the fearsome rank 2 Vampires, magical creatures of darkness born in the Northern Kingdoms, it was actually possible to absorb the Jatu Meteorite Piece in one's blood.

Acquiring rank 2 Vampire blood was not easy, but Felicia somehow managed to find someone who owned some of it in the Arcane Order. It was an old man stuck in the rank 1 for years. After making a loss and buying one litre of rank 2 Vampire blood for 5 whole magic crystals, Drake rushed to Magus Kayle's Tower to make the blood ritual.

The worst part of the ritual besides gathering the material was the fact that it could cause the vampire blood to contaminate his own blood system, causing diseases of all sort. If he was unlucky, he could even turn into a [Blood Slave], a creature bound to obey vampires' commands, akin to a soul brand.

Since he knew the risks, Drake naturally prepared counter-measures, and it turns out that completing the ritual after consuming a [Soul Empowering Potion] almost nullified the odds of the side-effects of the ritual. However, this potion cost him an additional 5 magic crystals, leaving him in a state of depravity, only owning a measly 3 magic crystals.

It was common for rank 1 acolytes to have few magic crystals, or even having none. However, Drake used to have 100 magic crystals. In a few months, this giant sum had vanished into thin air. It truly showed the costs and opportunities in Helios.

[Beep! Ritual has reached Phase 32…Beginning Phase 33. Host must practice the Enhanced Grand Knight Breathing Technique to further increase the effects of the ritual!]

After drawing the magic circles on the ground like the books suggested, one would normally just lie on the ground and wait for the ritual to take effects. However, Drake's biochip found ways to reap even more benefits from such rituals. By practicing his enhanced breathing technique, he could actually refine the Jatu Meteorite Piece at a faster rate as well as filter out the impurities. The price to pay was not small: agonizing pain, nausea and insomnia.

The Blood ritual was simple. By using vampire blood as a medium, the Jatu Meteorite Piece was diluted in Drake's blood system. Thereafter, the radiations would tear apart his body, while the vampire blood would speed up his recovery. As for the Grand-knight level breathing technique, it further increased the effects.

Every few dozen minutes, he would hear a mechanical voice:

[Beep! Beneficial radiations enhancing host's body…+0.002 strength, +0.001 Dexterity, +0.008 Constitution]

[Beep! Beneficial radiations enhancing host's body…+0.002 strength, +0.002 Dexterity, +0.006 Constitution]

…

After 72 hours of agonizing pain and exhausting over-exertion, Drake felt like his body was crumbling down.

However, the ritual was…a complete success.

[Beep! Blood Ritual has ended…]

[Beep! Fatigue, Overstressed and Weakened Status obtained for the next 48 hours due to over practice of Breathing Technique and absorption of radioactive materials.]

However, when Drake looked at his status page, he felt nothing but complete joy.

The Jatu Meteorite Piece was indeed a treasure worth over 50 magic crystals. It didn't 'improve' his body. It transformed it into a superior body altogether. His strength and dexterity significantly rose. However, the biggest change was his constitution.

Due to the lack of toxins, his constitution was a bit low compared to his strength. Hence, the blood ritual had the most impact on his constitution. Furthermore, his internal energy also overcame the bottleneck that stopped him from progressing further on the path of knighthood in the past months. It leaped to 19.9 points.

The results were incredible…

The Blood Ritual had transformed him into a Half-Grand Knight.

Blood Rituals used to be forbidden by regular Magi. However, the Magical Court accepted both Dark Magi and White Magi, focusing on nothing but one goal: knowledge. If necromancy was used for good purposes, then not using it would be a waste of skills.

Magi were pragmatic. Evil, righteous…These moral rules didn't apply to them. These were way too subjective. "Knowledge is Power" was the Magical Court's motto.

Blood Rituals were not forbidden because of their evil nature. After all, vampires were intelligent and strong creatures and hunting them was not necessarily the best thing to do in an era where humans were starting to lose their position in the Continent. Out of the Thirteen Kingdoms, two were falling and the rest were being weakened as time passed.

Blood Rituals were forbidden because a failure usually ended up as a death. They were too dangerous to be completed. However, the Magus Tower had prepared measures in case he failed his experiment, with all details shared with a magical golem who would kill Drake without hesitation, should he turn into a Blood Slave.

Fortunately, it was a success, and a huge one.

[Name: Drake Moonlight. Age – 16 years. Rank: Half-Grand Knight, Rank 1 Acolyte

Status: Fatigue, Over-exertion (Impossibility to move too much), Weakened (All attributes decreased by 30%) for the next 48 hours.

Attributes:

Strength – 8.4 | Dexterity – 5.3 | Constitution – 7.0 | Internal Energy – 19.9

Spirit – 6.3 | Mana – 6.3

Perk: Mutated Heart (+200% base recovery rate)

Skills: Lunar Elven Sword Art (Knight level, proficiency: advanced), Moonlight Shield Mastery (knight-level, proficiency: Advanced), Moonlight Breathing Technique (Grand-Knight level, proficiency: Peak), horsemanship (proficiency: Advanced), Original Meditation Technique (Proficiency: Peak)

Knight Killing Technique: Arclight Chop (Sword speed: 300%, [Strength*3] degrees of physical damage, 4 degrees of internal damage).

Spell: Wind Bindings (Deals [Spirit*2] degrees of damage over time, drain target's stamina and cripple its movements – Cost: 1 point of mana).

Enchanted Heavy Armour Set – Absorb up to 12 degrees of damage.

Wealth – 3 magic Crystals.]

By Breaking through, his bodily attributes had gone up by approximately 1 point, and his constitution increased by 3 whole points! It was truly an incredible increase.

Furthermore, becoming a Half-Grand Knight proved to have some effects as well. With his internal energy going through a qualitative change, his Arclight Chop was enhanced. The sword speed increased further, and it would now deal 4 degrees of internal damage instead of 3.

With Half-Grand Knight strength, rank 1 acolyte cultivation, Drake had thoroughly stepped in a new realm of strength. People often compared knights and acolytes in the past.