Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen released his Nightmare Slime into the shadows, and using his divine split ability, he created 23 clones. Each of the 23 Nightmare Slimes spread out, deactivating their Shadow Sneak, which triggered an ambush from the nearby vampires. Using his Hunter Magic Eye, Rosen precisely located these vampires and directed his divine clones to use Shadow Sneak to teleport close to them. Upon contact, the clones transformed into Nightmare Marks, marking the vampires.

With these marks in place, the vampires could no longer detect Rosen. Shadow Sneak already had a high level of concealment, and with the Nightmare Marks, only vampires of Sequence 6 or higher could sense him.

Approaching the magical barriers surrounding Shiree's house, Rosen activated Death Strike, compressing his spiritual energy. He switched his Godslayer Crossbow into rapid-fire mode, launching bolts imbued with Ashen Armor-Piercing. Upon impact, the barriers visibly weakened.

The Ashen Armor-Piercing was powerful but depended on the target's spiritual strength being weaker than his own. If the caster of the barrier had greater spiritual strength, the piercing effect would be diminished. Thankfully, the barriers crumbled quickly, confirming that the vampires maintaining them were at most Sequence 7.

This also confirmed another crucial detail: Fara could not approach Shiree's house, nor could any vampire above Sequence 7. It appeared that the original Shiree had established this rule, preventing Fara from accessing a certain painting inside the house.

The numerous barriers were shattered in just a few seconds, and Rosen teleported into Shiree's house using Shadow Sneak.

Inside Shiree's bedroom, a painting of Lake City hung on the wall. It depicted the entire city, with a shadowy vampire castle in the middle of the lake, and on the castle's terrace stood Fara, her bat wings spread wide.

Rosen infused his spirituality into the painting and discovered it was in a masterless state. This could only mean one thing—Shiree had perished long ago.

Though the painting was masterless, Rosen couldn't immediately refine a Sequence 4 spiritual realm painting. However, he could store it within his Void Gallery. But doing so would erase the Simmons family's spiritual realm, likely causing a rift with Susan, despite their current good relationship.

Still, Rosen decided to take the painting. Once he had successfully used the vampire relic to enhance his bloodline, he planned to return the painting to Susan. By that time, the Simmons family might no longer be relevant.

On the terrace of the vampire castle, Fara gazed at Shiree's home from a distance, sighing. Despite her Sequence 4 power, she had been unable to prevent Rosen from breaking through the barriers and taking the spiritual realm painting.

Although she had the strength to intervene, Fara hadn't put all her power into stopping Rosen. If she had, she could have sent higher-sequence relics or forces to intervene. The fact that she didn't meant she had her reasons.

Subconsciously, Fara longed for freedom. She wanted to escape the confines of the spiritual realm, but her pride would not let her bow to someone she deemed unworthy. Rosen, a Sequence 8 individual, had proven himself capable, so perhaps in the future, he could help her.

As Rosen contemplated how to acquire the vampire relic from Fara, he heard a noise. Looking outside Shiree's house, he saw a crimson Holy Grail floating in the air.

Rosen released his Nightmare Slime, which swallowed the grail. Inside the Secret Study, the grail transformed into a scarlet card.

[Essence · Divinity · Queen of the Holy Grail: Fallen Tarot Card]

[Level: Sequence 3]

[Properties: The Queen of the Holy Grail bestows divine water attributes.]

[Divine Authority 1: Focus—greatly enhances concentration.]

[Divine Authority 2: Charm—possesses charm strong enough to seduce even divine beings.]

[Divine Authority 3: Loyalty—allows for easier acquisition of loyalty through charm.]

[Divine Authority 4: Intuition—grants divine-level intuition.]

[Divine Authority 5: Dreams—provides the confidence to achieve one's dreams.]

[True Divine Authority 6: Fallen Chalice—can refine Fallen Divine Blood, which, when consumed, enhances one's innate bloodline at the cost of reducing spiritual limits.]

Rosen's heart raced as he read the card's properties. This wasn't a forged tarot card like the Holy Grail Knight; it was an authentic Fallen Tarot Card from the Queen of the Holy Grail series, though corrupted.

It was clear now—Fara had let him go on purpose. She had leaked her memories of the spiritual realm painting to Rosen, testing his abilities. By presenting him with the Fallen Tarot Card, Fara had shown her sincerity and recognition of his strength.

Now that he had succeeded in reaching the painting, Fara had rewarded him. Still, Rosen couldn't use the card yet.

After some thought, Rosen took the card and boldly headed toward the vampire castle. Meanwhile, the Void Gallery remained behind, absorbing the spiritual realm painting.

Inside the vampire castle's grand hall, Fara raised her hand, summoning the Queen of the Holy Grail from Rosen's grasp. A crimson crown appeared on her head, and a scarlet grail materialized in her hand. The grail's light condensed into a cup filled with Fallen Divine Blood, which Fara compressed into a gem-like crystal and handed to Rosen as a sign of goodwill.

"Would you like to hear my story?" Fara asked sorrowfully, putting away the grail.

"I'm very interested," Rosen replied, accepting the crystal.

Fara then told him everything.

As a child, she had found the Queen of the Holy Grail, a semi-divine relic in the form of a tarot card. Even after becoming a vampire, she retained her humanity thanks to its power.

When Shiree came looking for her, she protected him, allowing him to gain control of Lake City. But as power corrupted him, Shiree sought to join the World Government, acquiring a vampire bloodline. However, he also desired the Queen of the Holy Grail.

Knowing it was the key to Fara's humanity, Shiree tricked her into entering a spiritual realm painting he had commissioned from a Sequence 4 painter, imprisoning her in the vampire castle.

In the end, Shiree never obtained the Queen of the Holy Grail and died at the hands of an alien god.

Fara's feelings toward her brother were complex—hatred mixed with nostalgia for the older brother who had once been her protector.

Whenever someone entered the inheritance spiritual realm, Fara would observe them. Those who performed well were granted a cup of Fallen Divine Blood and allowed to leave. Those who failed rarely survived.

Fara was aware of the political situation within the Blue Whale Kingdom and feared drawing attention from its demigods, who might seize the Queen of the Holy Grail.

Rosen had arrived at a time when Fara was in a bad mood. The last person to enter the realm, Susan's late husband, had reminded her too much of the corrupted Shiree. Despite Rosen's success, Fara's conflicted emotions had influenced the challenge he faced.

Now, Fara had no choice but to acknowledge Rosen's ability. As a painter, he had survived her attacks and discovered the truth of the spiritual realm being a painting, meaning he would soon take full control.

Rather than eventually having her life and death forcibly controlled, Fara decided it was better to pledge herself to Rosen early. Of course, Fara had her pride, so she sent dozens of Sequence 7 vampires in a final struggle.

Now that her attempt had failed, she immediately chose to come clean and be honest with Rosen.

"Time reveals a person's true nature. I hope we can be open and honest with each other," Rosen said, making a universally understood gesture for money.

Fara, still immersed in the sadness of her memories, suddenly felt as though she had made a grave mistake. But with her fate now in Rosen's hands, it was too late for regrets.

Fara led Rosen to the vampire castle's treasure vault. Though small in number, 99% of the treasures were spirituality crystals, while the remaining items were blood cores—the vampire equivalent of extraordinary essence and unique to the spiritual realm painting.

If Rosen desired, he could also hunt the vampires of Lake City to collect skill crystals and extraordinary artifacts.

As for the millions of spirituality crystals, they were the accumulated wealth of over two thousand years, drawn from the spirit realm by the spiritual realm painting. And that was after Fara had used many of them—without her consumption, the amount would have been even greater.

Rosen unceremoniously emptied the treasure vault before discussing the future of the spiritual realm painting with Fara.

While Susan hadn't wronged him, Rosen still felt uneasy about taking the painting from her.

Fara offered a solution: since the Simmons family was thin in numbers, she could cast a curse to extinguish their bloodline, allowing Susan to fully inherit the family title.

Afterward, Fara could assist Susan in gaining a vampire bloodline, and if needed, she could provide Susan with another Sequence 4 spiritual realm painting in the future.

Of course, this would depend on Susan's wishes. If Susan refused, they could wait until the Simmons title passed to a collateral branch, at which point they would take the Bloodline Glory painting.

With this deal made, Fara sent Rosen's self-portrait doppelgänger out of the spiritual realm.

When Rosen explained everything to Susan, who had anxiously awaited him outside, she was moved and nodded gratefully. Not everyone would consider her feelings when dealing with a Sequence 4 spiritual realm painting.

Susan had seen the darker side of many nobles, and she knew that the usual approach would have been to kill her and seize the painting. Rosen's willingness to compensate her so generously was an unexpected kindness.

In the following days, Rosen took over Castle Simmons, drawing hostility from several quarters.

However, before any collateral members of the Simmons family could cause trouble, they began to die one by one under a vampire curse.

Though Rosen and Susan became the prime suspects, after the royal hunters investigated, they discovered that the curse on the victims stemmed from their vampire bloodline origins, meaning the Simmons family ancestor was responsible. Rosen and Susan were cleared of involvement.

With the suspicion lifted, Susan firmly secured her position as Countess.

The only regret was that her descendants would inherit only a hereditary viscount title, as hereditary counts possessed divine domain territories, while viscounts did not.

Still, this was the best outcome. Reclaiming the count title would require future efforts by her descendants.

After consuming the Fallen Divine Blood Crystal, Rosen's spirituality strength dropped from 23 points back down to 20 points, but the gains were significant—his Nightmare Slime bloodline now had the potential for further advancement.

Once his spirituality returned to 23 points, there would be no barriers preventing him from reaching 24 points. Normally, this process would take two years, but Rosen was unwilling to wait that long.

The simplest way to speed up his progress was to spend money.

Rosen's spiritual strength had already reached 23 points before, so increasing it back to 23 wouldn't damage his spiritual foundation. Had he tried to force this growth without such a foundation, it could have weakened his base, requiring ten to a hundred times the effort to repair once he reached the demigod level.

Using the connections he had built over the years, Rosen acquired several key items to aid in his "pay-to-win" strategy.

First, he purchased a special painting pigment. Though classified as Sequence 8, the materials used to make it were of Sequence 6 quality. When used for painting, it could temporarily boost the speed of spiritual growth.

Next, he bought a high-quality nightmare, sourced from a Sequence 4 being. The more powerful the entity, the higher the quality of its nightmares. The Blue Whale royal family had imprisoned a Sequence 4 alien creature, using its nightmares as a resource. Consuming such nightmares provided immense benefits.

Lastly, Rosen purchased hunting rights under another identity. Powerful nobles often imprisoned extraordinary beings like livestock. After extracting all possible value from them, they sold hunting rights to hunters, who could then claim the beings' corpses.

Hunters could slay these heavily sealed Sequence 6 creatures. Though this method didn't typically activate Hunting Authority to yield battle spoils, it still provided the base benefits of enhancing spirituality through the hunt.

Using these three methods, Rosen regained his spirituality strength to 23 points in just two months, though it cost him three million spirituality crystals. This was truly a pay-to-win approach.

Soon after, Rosen's spirituality strength seamlessly increased to 24 points, following the enhancement of his bloodline.

However, reaching full completion would still take at least half a month.

This time, Rosen planned to prioritize the Painter Sequence over the Hunter Sequence.

A Sequence 7 young painter held far more social standing than a Sequence 7 hunter. Becoming a painter first would provide better conditions for improving his hunter abilities.

To complete his progression as a painter, however, his skill levels still needed work.

Both the Void Gallery and Void Sketchbook, as well as his Self-Portrait, were maxed out at Sequence 8, and as innate skills, they would evolve naturally to Sequence 7.

However, skills like Glory Seal, Mind Canvas, and Divine Brush were still at Level 2.

The strength of Glory Seal depended on noble bloodlines, so it would soon advance to Level 3.

Divine Brush was an innate skill, though it could be enhanced with materials to evolve with greater attributes at Sequence 7. This required some planning.

Rosen regretted turning Mind Canvas into an innate skill.

At Level 1, Mind Canvas allowed him to paint on the mental plane.

At Level 2, it let him project his paintings into reality.

At Level 3, Mind Canvas would allow him to project spiritual paintings into others' minds—a notoriously difficult level to achieve, even for Sequence 7 painters. Many took years to reach it.

Turning Mind Canvas into an innate skill had saved him the effort of training but had reduced the potential for a stronger innate skill after the sequence upgrade.

Realizing this, Rosen spent a million spirituality crystals to hire a Sequence 4 psychologist to sever the bond between Divine Brush and Mind Canvas, shifting the innate skill potential to his Void Sketchbook instead.

At Sequence 9, only God's Brush and Spiritual Affixation remained as innate skills.

At Sequence 8, the Void Gallery, Void Sketchbook, and Self-Portrait would evolve naturally as self-growing innate skills, freeing Rosen from needing external help to upgrade them. This would allow him to focus on raising Mind Canvas to Level 3.

Still, it would take years to achieve. To make up for lost time, Rosen would need to seek out time acceleration or time loop powers.