” This is the third disciple, Blood summoning.” The blob changed shape and turned into a beast two times larger than the other figure.
” The vampires who specialize in this discipline are called blood summoners. They use their blood-qi to control beasts and turn them into their loyal servants. Then they slowly take control of their life force, feeding them with blood-qi. When it reaches a certain saturation point, the beast evolves into a blood-qi summon detached from the physical world, solely staying inside its master’s blood core. “” How do they do that?” Keith asked without hiding his impatience.
” I wish I knew. It is also very hard to reach that level. Most summoners can’t get past this barrier. And even if I knew I couldn’t teach you without the council’s permission.”
” Blood summoners work as the hunting dogs of the council. They control a large force of summons and keep a lookout throughout the continent and country’s borders. If a war breaks out they are the ones that deploy their summons to fight the first wave.
” As they are the third rarest discipline, they are considered quite influential if you could reach at least viscount level.”
” What is the final discipline? From the looks of it, this might be the most common across the continent.” Keith figured out that this was a descending order of rarity so the last one was the least rare, so it was the most abundant.
” Correct, last but not the least is the most common discipline of the blood-qi manipulators. The blood warriors. Although they are the majority, their strength shouldn’t be underestimated. They control the military, the council’s hunting squad and most elders on the council table are blood warriors.
” And some of the strongest vampires on the continent are blood warriors. Plus they are the most versatile.” Brad explained as he showed Keith different types of blood warriors using different weapons.
“Are there vampires who learned all four disciplines?”
” Oh you can try, but trust me it’s useless. Unless you are naturally talented, it is insanely hard to learn two disciplines at once. The blood-qi manipulation works differently for each discipline. You have to unlearn a lot of things to even attempt the other field.
That is not to say there are no bi-disciplined vampires. quite the contrary. But most of them can’t reach the baron level. But when some of them get past that barrier, they become insanely strong.
“Let me tell you a little secret, the king is both a blood warrior and an Esper. He is primarily an Esper at King level, but he practiced blood warrior discipline to the Archduke level as well. So you can imagine how strong he is, and this news is almost 100 years old.”
“If it’s 100 years ago, I can’t imagine how strong he will be at this moment.” Keith sighed and tried to process all this information. It was like a whole new power scale that was introduced to him.
“But you have to keep in mind that after someone reaches that kind of level, it is extremely hard to grow further. I’m sure he improved but I doubt it would be significant.”
Brad dispersed his blood-qi and materialized his sword.
” Blood warriors can only use physical non-living objects attached to them, boosting their strength with blood-qi. They can’t conjure new weapons like espers or manipulate things that are detached from them. So they mostly use strengthening on their bodies.”
” Are you a blood warrior as well?” Keith knew he was holding back, without using his sword.
Brad didn’t answer and smiled as he put the sword inside the sheath.
” When I first heard that you reached baron level and created a blood core, I didn’t believe it. I thought the old man was messing with all of us. But after the fight with Marvin, I was convinced. But I was also curious to know how someone could reach this level so fast, given they didn’t have any means to practice blood condensation.
I talked to father about this and found out that your physique changed after the blood ritual. But he also said there was something odd about your growth. You see it takes so many years to reach the baron level. The geniuses who reach this level at 12 or 13 years of age, start practicing blood condensation in their mother’s womb.
You didn’t even know how to use blood-qi, and you reached baron level overnight. Father buried the assumption and told the family that you were secretly practicing and didn’t show anyone. he buried this deep for the sake of the family.
It is only natural that the next heir shouldn’t be in the middle of a controversy. He didn’t want to think more about this. So he also instructed me to keep it under wraps. I don’t care too much about the family, but to see someone like you, an anomaly, my instincts can’t rest.”
Brad closed the gap between them and appeared in front of his face. His huge frame covered Keith from all directions.
” What do you mean?” Keith took a defensive stance as his mind panicked. He got all this power thanks to the purple marks and the system. He didn’t want the others to be suspicious and interrogate him, worse send him to the council to become a guinea pig.
” Don’t worry I won’t bite you. I was fascinated by your growth, so I want to know how far you can go. You are my beloved nephew. I don’t want to see your potential get wasted.” Brad grabbed Keith’s right hand and a red aura covered him.
Keith’s body froze in place. He could see and hear everything but he couldn’t move his body in the slightest. He couldn’t even utter a sound.
‘What did he do to me?’
” Now use your blood-qi to break my suppression.” Brad said as he squinted his eyes.
‘How do I do that? Aren’t I using my blood-qi all this time? How do I break the blood-qi suppression?’ Keith racked his brain to think of a solution.