Book 3: Chapter 48: The Present

Book 3: Chapter 48: The Present

Zeke sat in his study, staring down at the box before him. This was the present Tristan had given him. Even with his spacial awareness, he could not tell what was inside. There must have been a Mana-repellent layer somewhere in that container.

The thought made Zekes imagination soar. If such a measure was necessary, the present was most likely something valuable. With growing excitement, Zeke stripped off the first layer of cloth, then the second. The delicate fabric was soft to the touch and clearly expensive, heightening his excitement further.

With trembling fingers, Zeke lifted the top off the box and looked inside. His brows furrowed. He hadnt quite known what to expect, but it hadnt been this.

Inside the box were a couple of unbound pages. A quick glimpse revealed that they werent neatly penned either. Parts of the writing had been scratched out or scribbled over. There were small doodles and illustrations all over the place. For Zeke, who had learned the art of drafting proper research papers from Maximilian, this unorderly creation looked extremely offensive.

Swallowing his disappointment, Zeke grabbed the first page and began to read.

Blood Magic: Mysteries of the Crimson Essence

Perplexity One: Boundaries of Vital Fluids

In the labyrinthine pursuit of solving the puzzle that is Blood Magic, the main challenge manifests itself in the lamentable scarcity of procurable resources. In my relentless quest, I have found three two remedies to assail this unfortunate frailty.

The first method relies on the augmentation of blood. It is imperative to augment the very liquid, imbuing it with an unprecedented density

A second approach tries to dismantle the shackles of temporality. We must exalt the velocity of its regeneration

Thirdly, the conservation of fluids via reintegration after usage

[]

After painstaking iterations, two spells of profound intricacy have been devised to address this frontier in different ways. For maximum effect, they should be inscribed upon the core at an early age. I have learned that the body needs time to adapt to such drastic changes...

[]

Honor and glory to my house and my descendants!

Marlon Bloodsword First of his name.

Zeke gasped. This was it, this was the basis for the original spells Tristans father had developed. These documents could be called the foundation of the Bloodsword households Magic. From what he just saw, these papers were from an early stage of the research. It was still far removed from the result he had seen today. However, for somebody like Zeke, this knowledge was invaluable.

This gift was absolutely perfect for him so much so that he wondered how much Tristan knew about his abilities. For anybody else, this foundational research would have been nothing but an interesting bit of trivia. After all, it wasnt hard to find out what the spells did just by observing the Bloodswords fight.

This discovery didnt come as a surprise to him, in fact, it was basic knowledge. It was initially easy to compress most materials. But after a while, they became so dense that it was almost impossible to squeeze them even by the tiniest amount. Zeke figured that even en Exarch would not be able to get much more out of that spell.

None of this managed to detract from the spells usefulness, however. Having even twice as much blood as he did now would already be an immense boon. He would have to find a way to incorporate [Blood Compression] and Zeke was eager to start. The combination of his recordings as well as Marlons notes would certainly be a big help.

Zeke closed his eyes, focusing inward. His perfect affinity made it incredibly easy for him to feel his own blood. For a moment, he did nothing other than focus on the flow. He observed as each strong, rhythmic beat pumped the liquid through his veins. He could feel the slight radiation of attuned mana infusing his blood and body with ever more strength.

Suddenly, a question occurred to him, something he had never considered before. However, now that he thought about it, it was weird that it had not come up before. What did his space and mind affinity do to his body? He knew that his Blood affinity was strengthening his body all around, but what about those other two?

All of Zekes knowledge on this subject came from books, which had proven to be an unreliable source at best. Many of them were written by untrustworthy researchers, and others were built on a false premise. However, by far the worst were written with the sole purpose of propaganda, making the content deliberately misleading. This was true, especially for Mind Magic

Zeke grimaced. Now, it was up to him to discover which sources he could actually trust. He would also need to find a way to measure the actual effects of those two affinities on his body. Otherwise, it would be impossible to separate fact from fiction.

As far as Zeke could tell, his Mind affinity mostly nourished his brain, improving his thinking speed. Of this at least, he was certain. Did it have any other influences on his body? He couldnt rightly say. And the Geistreich family wouldnt have allowed such information to be circulated freely, making Zeke certain that he wouldnt find this knowledge in any book from the empire.

Zeke had read that a Space affinity adjusted the body to space, making it easier to teleport. However, he had never tried to teleport another person before and didnt know how much of a difference this actually made if any at all. As far as he could tell, his space affinity did absolutely nothing to his body.

Zeke sighed. Why hadnt he devised better measurements when coming up with his [Analyze] spell? There was no crying over spilled milk. With a thought, he brought up the changes to his body from his very first measurement to now.

Strength:

18 >25

Constitution:

22 >27

Agility:

16 >23 Intelligence: 20 >24

His strength, constitution, and agility had risen by a fair amount over the past two months. Despite not having worked out as much since coming to Tradespire, his progress had been great.

This was probably thanks to his use of Blood Affinity crystals. Zeke could feel that he had already made significant progress on that front. If he only had his perfect affinity to worry about, he might be able to advance to Grand Mage in no more than a year or two.

His stats were already comparable to what he felt from Mordred which was strange. No matter how good his affinity was, he shouldnt have been able to creep up on the young Bloodsword this fast. The other boy had been a Mage almost twice as long as him already, after all.

Zeke got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He could only think of one thing that could make up for this difference. His thoughts drifted to something else, something he would have rather ignored.

Zeke had been certain he had heard a voice when his heart had acted up. The fact that his recordings didnt contain any sounds only reinforced his theory. The noise had not come from a physical source but a spiritual one.

Are you ready to talk now, Dragon?