The sword was already impressive, and that was before Damian added the final touch: the sharpening enchantment.
He followed the same process as before, but with different runes. He carved the sharpening runes on the sword's handle, since the blade had no room for another enchantment.
The runes were simpler than the fire ones. Damian finished them in one go, working until late at night.
It was harder than he expected, but it didn't take too long. He was faster than he thought.
He packed up everything, grabbed all his money, and headed to the temple. That's where everyone was staying now. They had found a secret passage to leave the city, because the guards were getting suspicious of them every time they went out. It was because of the people Damian had killed.
"Bro," Magnus said, grabbing Damian's shoulders, "your shop is famous! Come on, hook me up with an enchanted weapon!"
Damian smirked at him. "Sure thing. You're a friend, so I'll give you a discount. It'll only cost you 10000 gold coins."
"Screw you!"
Everyone gathered in the main hall for dinner. There were some fresh faces, but most of them were old friends. Damian was still worried about Vanessa, Hazel, his father, and Aurora's parents.
They had disappeared without a trace. Something bad must have happened to them. Damian had things to do in Lemoria, but he couldn't stop thinking about finding them.
Frederic and Natasha became good friends. The old mage was the most knowledgeable one there, and he was trying to find a cure for Mary, Natasha's sister, who was in a coma-like state.
He had seen nothing like it before, but he was confident he could figure it out.
"This place is amazing! Do you want to see my room, Damian?" Serana asked, batting her eyelashes at him.
Aurora noticed her flirting and felt a pang of jealousy. She and Damian weren't dating or anything, so she had no right to interfere.
"Maybe later," Damian said, showing her the leather sacks. "I need to store the money I made from the shop."
"OK, no problem."
Serana offered to help him, but he declined. He had to store the money in the secret chamber under his office. No one could know about that place, not even Serana.
He lied and said he had some paperwork to do for his shop. That was his excuse.
He left the main hall where everyone was waiting for their dinner and went to his office. He uttered some strange words in an ancient language, known only to the snake giants.
The statue in his office moved aside, revealing a staircase. He went down, closing the passage behind him. He made sure no one saw anything.
The petrified snake was still there, and the rest of the room looked the same. Damian found a hidden corner and put all of his sacks filled with gold coins there.
He hid his money in the secret chamber, hoping no one would ever find it. Then he went back to the dining room, where everyone was having a good time.
They threw a small party that night. It was the first night they all stayed together in their new headquarters. The place was far from the city, so they could make as much noise as they wanted with no one hearing them.
"This chicken is delicious! Who made it?" Aurora asked.
Frederic walked around in an apron, smiling. "I did!"
He looked like a proud parent feeding his children. Damian enjoyed the food and the wine and laughed at Magnus's attempts to play the guitar. It was fun.
But after a while, when everyone was getting sleepy and heading to their rooms, Damian felt a dark urge rising in his mind.
Blood addiction consumed him. He wanted to kill something and perform the blood ritual. He knew it was wrong, but he didn't care.
He sneaked out of the temple, leaving no trace behind. No one noticed him, except for Aurora. She went to his room later that night, looking for him, but he wasn't there.
'Is he with Serana?' she wondered.
She checked her room too, but there was no sign of him. He had vanished. Aurora worried, remembering how secretive he had been lately.
'Maybe he's just busy with his shop? Yeah, that must be it,' she told herself.
It made sense that he had a lot of work to do now that he had a shop to run, so she tried not to think of anything bad and went back to her room. She couldn't do much with no clues, anyway.
But Damian wasn't at his shop. He was wandering in the forest, stumbling and grabbing trees to keep his balance.
His mind was a chaos, and his eyes were red like a hungry beast's.
"Blood! Blood!" he muttered, looking for something to kill.
He ignored the small animals that crossed his path. He wanted bigger prey, like beasts or humans.
After walking for a while, Damian heard some noises coming from a specific part of the forest near the road. There, he saw a campfire with 10 people around it!
Damian knew exactly what those people were: bandits! They were waiting near the road for a carriage to pass and attack it. Parasites to society.
"This mug of ale is good! I am feeling we'll have good luck tonight!" one of them said, laughing.
All the bandits were eating chicken legs and drinking mugs of ale. They were used to that sort of thing and never got caught. One reason was because they weren't close to the city gates, and had other bandits who would come running to say if a guard was getting near.
Damian stared at them, hiding behind the trees and the bushes. He could not resist anymore, and started walking toward them. The bandits were slightly drunk, so it took them a while to notice Damian, and once they did, they all laughed.
"Boss, look at that! A milk drinker. Hahahaha!"
Different from them, Damian looked young, and not scary at all. He wasn't bulky like the bandits, or had scars to make him look more fierce. His skin was flawless, actually.
"Are you lost? This is no place for you," one bandit said, moving toward Damian, who acted as if he did not listen.
The bandit yelled a few more times, and after being ignored, he got pissed, "Screw you, little shit!"
He punched Damian right in the face. It was not a weak punch, yet it did nothing to Damian. In fact, it was the bandit's hand that got hurt.
"What the heck?"
The scene made the others curious about who Damian was. They were right there, and they saw Damian got punched, yet nothing happened. Were they too drunk?
That was a thought that crossed all of their minds. Before the bandit could do anything, Damian pierced his hand right through the man's chest, ripping his heart out!
"G-Get him!" the bandit boss yelled.
All the bandits dashed toward Damian wielding their weapons, ready to cut him into pieces because of what he did with their friend. But Damian was not worried at all.
With a simple movement of his hand, he created a living slime shield that kept moving in the air, fending against all the attacks, making his life easy.
The bandits had never seen something like that before. It was a type of power beyond their capabilities. Damian then drained the blood of his first victim, and although it did not increase his attributes, his control over the blood did.
Memories were imprinted inside his mind once again.
"Blood Spike Field," Damian murmured.
That was the name of the new spell he learnt, and it was devastating! A pool of blood formed underneath his feet, and after one second, many spikes came out of it, piercing all the bandits.
There was not a single one of them who survived. A massacre. After dealing with them, Damian drained all of their blood using his blood magic, increasing his attributes even further.
+5 to all Attributes.
Damian was covered with blood, and the surrounding bodies were completed destroyed. He did not care, and checked his status screen after ending their lives.
<Name: Damian Romero>
[Erotic Coins: 90]
[Attributes:]
<Strength: 51>
<Agility: 51>
<Endurance: 51>
<Ability Power: 56>
'My power is increasing like crazy, haha,' he thought.
With the help of his blood magic, Damian could use his Erotic Coins to something else rather than increasing his attributes, and that was great! He vanished from the crime scene right after, not knowing someone had seen him…
After returning to the temple, Damian slept, and the first thing he did in the morning was to go to the address that the red-haired lady gave him.
It was not inside Lemoria, but up to a close mountain, a massive mansion.
Damian expected that. For someone to have that much money, then they had to live in a mansion. He talked to the person at the gate, signalizing his arrival.
"I am Damian."
"Damian, the Enchanter?" the guard said, grabbing Damian's hand, shaking it.
"Yes, that's me. I brought the item for your lady."
"Come," the guard said, opening the gate, "she's inside, waiting for you."