Sanguine Paradise

∼ Day 50 ∼

Retracting my bloodstained claws, I admired my handiwork. The figure that was the Mistress was now positively unrecognizable. Her empty eye sockets that stared listlessly out into the aether, the mangled limbs, the broken bones, and every single inch of utterly mutilated flesh completely betrayed the fact that she was still alive...

Time hadn't registered to me as I indulged in my unending hatred for this woman. I took it all out on her, so I didn't know for just how long I had been at it. Multiple times, I even used my own blood to restore what little health she had left, if only to prolong the time I had at my disposal.

I did realize that I was still in danger. There still laid possible dangers to both my freedom and life, such as the King that should be very much alive. But in my hatred and fury, I had lost most of my rationality, foregoing self-preservation in exchange for revenge.

Simply dominating the Mistress's mind could've also been a possibility instead of wasting a potentially powerful puppet, but the hatred rooted within my very soul would've never allowed her existence in this world. Even though I did now understand that what I had done was foolish now that I had regained sensibility, I regretted nothing and would've done it all again if given the choice.

Looking down on the mutilated body of the Mistress, I sneered. The only thing I truly lamented was not having more time.

I had been constantly monitoring her health with Appraisal, and now that my blood failed to restore even a single point of health while also constantly ticking down, I moved to place my foot on her head.

"Burn in hell you demon bitch." - Me

The only thing that followed was the sound of bone fracturing and flesh being ruptured.

[Lesser Daemoni has taken 3 damage, a critical hit!]

[LVL: 25 - Lesser Daemoni "Asial" has been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 66202 points of EXP]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 35]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 35]

[You're currently at the level threshold, you can choose an evolution path!]

With her death, I felt the magic that had been planted within my body suddenly falter and fade into nothingness. It was truly the last shackle upon my freedom that had finally been broken, setting me free once again. But something else also happened upon the Mistress's death. Purple-tinged darkness flowed from her corpse and seeped unhindered into my body, causing rushes of energy to shoot into my core.

[Congratulations! Your Lesser Crimson Shadow Core has evolved into a Crimson Shadow Core]

It appeared that I could absorb the magical energy of the enemies I kill to evolve my own core, huh...

I couldn't be completely sure, but I guessed that the killed magic-wielder had to be of the same affinity if I wanted to absorb it without any problems. And now seeing as how my new core contained the alignment of Shadow, it made sense how it effortlessly improved my core.

Looking over the prompts, I knew for a fact that I would've gotten a lot more EXP from personally killing her. But seeing as the warlords already had done almost all the work, the amount I got had been severely reduced; not that it really mattered as the surplus simply disappeared when I reached the threshold.

Actually, how they had even managed to almost take down the Mistress had initially surprised me, but when I inspected that peculiar dagger embedded within her gut, it became evident how they accomplished it.

The jet black dagger was an instrument of magic, but instead of unleashing magical might, it seemed to actually consume it. I had tried to remove the dagger from her body when I was torturing her, yet I was unable to. The dagger from where it was lodged, black tendrils sprouted out in each direction, each one sucking out all the mana of her body and what her core produced.

But that was not all that it did though, the blade seemed to almost have a mind of itself as it refused to exit her body when there was more mana to be had. Now that she was dead, I tried once more, and to my pleasant delight, the blade easily left her body as any normal blade would.

However, as I was holding the dagger I could clearly feel the blade's desire to consume the mana that resided within me. It was quite off-putting feeling the intent and desire of an inanimate object, to say the least. Inspecting the weapon, I was suddenly alerted to a presence entering the hall, and I quickly got ready to fight or flee if necessary.

"Lialak's tits! - what a mess..." - ???

The young figure of the childish voice caused great confusion that then turned into great apprehension the moment I recognized her presence. Auras, or presences, were almost like identities. I had yet to find a way or somebody who could change their presence to hide their true identities, the only way to stay anonymous was to completely suppress your aura, hiding it.

So the moment that this young girl's presence entered my sense, I instantly recalled two certain memories of a carriage and an originally thought-to-be empty balcony in the colosseum. This girl was the exact same person who had been in that entourage the first time I entered the colosseum and the time when she had spectated the battle. I had also experienced that exact same presence on other occasions as I was fighting with my opponents in the arena.

I at first thought the girl to be a young orc girl, however, as soon as I inspected closer with my mental sense, I realized that she was a bonafide great orc. Being that young while simultaneously being a 4th-tier monster could only mean one thing; she was born a great orc.

-Appraisal!-

[Appraisal: Melane]

Name: "Melane"

Race: Great Orc

Sex: Female

Rank: E+

Level: 5/50

Health: 353/353

Stamina: 222/224

Mana: 0/0

[Attributes]

STR - 28

VIT - 35

AGI - 27

DEX - 20

INT - ???

CHR - 15

WILL - ???

MAG - 3

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - ???

Traits - ???

Titles - ???

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 10

Mag. Resistance - 3

Men. Resistance - ???

It was seriously menacing the fact that this small girl, or at least small for a great orc, had such insane attributes. I knew that since she had yet to reach adulthood and full maturity, her stats hadn't fully filled out, so as she grew she would only get stronger even if she didn't level any further.

But that wasn't what was truly scary, rather it was her potential. Due to the fact that she was born a great orc, then it meant, although very slim, she had the possibility of evolving into a 5th-tiered monster.

While there were a lot of uncertainties in my knowledge around how monster reproduction worked, it wasn't as simple as just pairing strong monsters with each other to rapidly-produce off-spring that was increasingly powerful over and over again.

From what I knew, selective breeding amongst the monster race was a staple of their society, a tenet of their culture, or at least that of the civilized side of the monsters. But this selective breeding had various limitations and restrictions that didn't allow for monsters to overrun the creatures that used the class system instead of the evolution system; like humans.

I knew there were limitations of maturity rate, conception rate, and inborn potential to more powerful monsters, however, there's probably even more than just those. I was pulled from pondering about the monsters' ability to reproduce and regrow their strength by the girl, Melane, suddenly speaking out once again.

"-Ugh, ease down. I'm not here for trouble. I just wanted to see the result of Papa's plans, however, it seemed that he somewhat underestimated that witch; hmm - thank you for taking care of her by the way." - Melane

I was no genius, but I wasn't stupid enough to not realize just who this young girl was by now.

The fucking King's daughter had paid a visit...

The nonchalant way that she spoke was a bit off-putting, but I still laxed my guard seeing as I sensed no hostile intent from the girl or any other presence in the vicinity.

"Fuck... she really did you dirty, didn't she?" - Melane

She cringed as she inspected my sorry state.

"I don't want any trouble, I'm going to take my leave once I finish up here... I trust there's no problem in that?" - Me

"Not at all, while Papa doesn't know much about you, I watched a few of your fights. On his behalf, I invite you to come for a conversation and some eating if you'd like." - Melane

I shook my head. I had no desire to remain in this blasted city any longer than necessary.

"I thank you for your invitation, but I must decline." - Me

"Don't worry, it was more of a formality, I didn't expect you to stay." - Melane

And with that, the young great orc girl, Melane, all of a sudden turned on her heels and casually strolled away while humming herself a happy tune. As tension left my body that I didn't notice before now, I simply touched upon my magic, now free of all restraint. I couldn't help but revel in the feeling of power rushing through my body, something I hadn't experienced properly in a long time.

Suddenly, all around, blood from the seven corpses of the warlords and the Mistress started flowing into the air, like it defied gravity itself. Slowly, the streams of blood that now hung in the air creating a sinister but awe-inspiring scene started flowing towards me.

I consumed it all.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of 5 different creatures 8 times!]

[43522 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Due to continuous EXP hitting the level threshold, you've begun to approach Forced Evolution]

Finished with absorbing the large amounts of blood, I pulled up my status to check my gains.

-Status!-

[Status]

Name: "???"

Race: Azde (Blood Fiend)

Sex: Male

Rank: E+

Level: 35/35

Health: 340/357

Stamina: 81/122

Mana: 39/90

[Attributes]

STR - 15 ⇒ 20

VIT - 68 ⇒ 82

AGI - 72 ⇒ 80

DEX - 25 ⇒ 28

INT - 25 ⇒ 28

CHR - 8 ⇒ 10

WILL - 32 ⇒ 35

MAG - 48 ⇒ 56

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - 24

Traits - 7 ⇒ 8

Titles - 3

Skillpoints - 2 ⇒ 3

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 15 ⇒ 18

Mag. Resistance - 13 ⇒ 15

Men. Resistance - 12 ⇒ 20

To say the increase was substantial would be an understatement. My attributes had taken a massive leap, but not only that, my mana and resistance also had risen explosively. The mana increase I quickly attributed to the evolution of my mana core, but when a looked at my improved resistances, I couldn't help but have mixed emotions about it.

The things I went through for those increases...

Discarding the unnecessary thoughts of the dark experiences of being in the captivity of the Mistress, I pulled up the skill list finalize checking up on everything.

-Skill list!-

[Skill list]

-Appraisal-

Tier: 3

LVL: 7/15 ⇒ 8/15

-Blood, Shadow Magic-

Tier: 3

LVL: 5/15

-Blood Plague-

Tier: 3

LVL: 3/15

-Blood Profiling-

Tier: 1

LVL: 5/5

-Blood Shaping-

Tier: 3

LVL: 4/15

-Blink-

Tier: 2

LVL: 8/10 ⇒ 9/10

-Greater Puncture-

Tier: 2

LVL: 9/10

-Greater Smell-

Tier: 2

LVL: 8/10 ⇒ 9/10

-Mana Mending-

Tier: 2

LVL: 2/10 ⇒ 3/10

-Iron Gut-

Tier: 1

LVL: 3/5 ⇒ 5/5

-Language Adaptability-

Tier: 1

LVL: 3/5

-Lesser Mana-Infused Exoskeleton-

Tier: 2

LVL: 3/10 ⇒ 9/10

-Lesser Mana-Infused Organs-

Tier: 2

LVL: 3/10 ⇒ 9/10

-Mana Control-

Tier: 3

LVL: 4/15

-Obscurement-

Tier: 2

LVL: 6/10

-Greater Paralyze-

Tier: 3

LVL: 1/15

-Silent Flying-

Tier: 2

LVL: 4/10

-Thermal Sight-

Tier: 2

LVL: 4/10 ⇒ 5/10

-Swift Flight-

Tier: 2

LVL: 6/10

-Infusing Slash-

Tier: 3

LVL: 2/15

-Spell Formation-

Tier: 3

LVL: 4/15

-Blood Conversion-

Tier: 1

LVL: 1/5 ⇒ 2/5

-Blood Born-

Tier: 3

LVL: 2/15

-Lesser Eldritch Vitality-

Tier: 3

LVL: 1/15 ⇒ 2/15