Malice seconds away from collapsing, rested himself on a bench outside the blood pit. Rhodar questioned Malice to see if he was okay but received stale silence in return. Malice postured himself in a meditative stance and began circulating his essence throughout his body, at one moment it felt like the warmth of tens of fur blankets but in the next instant the heat was like molten lava gushing thorough Malice’s insides burning him from the inside out. This process was excruciating and Malice with his young age and lack of experience felt he would not be able to bear the pain any longer, soon he felt fire engulf his arms, Ice freeze his legs and lightening shock his head and only when he could feel no longer did the pain disappear and in it's place gentle streams of power caressed his internal organs. Wisps of energy jumpstarted his heart and soul, his entire being became refreshed and felt elegantly pure and last of all a brownish white aura exuded from Malice’s body.

'I am now in the mortal copper realm, stronger than my peers and it seems I'm even better than some adults, I don't see how people such as those slaves and mercenaries remained at the mortal iron realm all their life.' Malice was perplexed how people at least triple his age were weaker than him.

"Nice win, thought you were gonna be another body I needed to throw away, but you pulled through at the end and you seemed to have gained some strength from it." Azazel approached Malice and observed the changes in his essence.

"You didn't just get more strength, you even got a decent sized pouch of platinum to spend at your leisure." Lillian appeared from behind Azazel and threw a pouch towards Malice.

"Thanks I guess, It was nice meeting you guys but I really got to go, I need to stabilise my essence after all." Malice felt rejuvenated and was ready to move around as usual.

"I better see you again soon or the Ghena family will be paying a visit to that luxurious Institute of Magus' and will bring the fun there instead." Azazel smiled and gave Malice a bear hug of sorts which made Malice truly see the strength of this crimson haired youth.

"Don't worry I’ll be sure to visit in a few days, Im anticipating the day I witness you in the arena your so proud of." Malice found the company of these siblings oddly satisfying, considering their 'odd' personalities.

"Oho you want to see me spill some blood on the battlefield? Well when you next visit I’ll show you a proper fight between experts, steel your nerves because waves of flesh will be headed your way kukukuku." Azazel projected his killing intent too all those around as if to display how much he loved the pleasure of ending ones life.

Malice laughed along and was about to leave when suddenly Lillian pulled him aside "You should know that me and my brother are from the Ghena Family, powerful nobles here in this fine city, I'm telling you this as I trust you will not leak the secrets of this place to outsiders and that you will return whether it's out of curiosity or pleasure, because of that you are now one of us, part of the Blood and Lust seekers, part of the Ghena family, a Devil among men so to speak. The Blood seems to be your current goal and we can guarantee your thirst is satiated, we can even help you become stronger. But we require one simple thing and that is for you to retrieve a fledgling Magus and bring him to us." Lillian stared deep into Malice’s eyes making sure he understood what was being asked.

Lillian continued on "You see this Magus or should I say child, is the son of a noble family that betrayed my father and stole a lot of valuable materials my father was planning to use to expand our families territories. So you will bring the child to me and my father and then we will accept you as one of our own, Azazel practically thinks of you as a close friend, must be the kindred spirits of blood and death."

Lillian wasn’t stopping her dialogue anytime soon and left no time for Malice to interrupt "The boys name is Josha Chevalier and recently entered the Magus Institute, average talent and zero chance of being a threat to you. You will still be welcome here if you are not up for the task but you will have to understand our disappointment."

"I think I can help you as long as you return the favour, that is assuming that I don’t receive any blow back from the incident, I'm pretty sure but I have to be certain that any witnesses will be 'dealt' with, after all the only thing worse than committing a crime is being caught." Malice’s morals meant he couldn't care in the least if someone he didn't care for let alone knew died even if it was by his own hands, he saw the positives and negatives of this outlook but couldn't change his fundamental beliefs even if he wanted to, perhaps if someone deserved mercy it would be shown, whether that would ever happen Malice didn't even know.

Lillian handed Malice all the details on a piece of paper as he left, with his departure he could still hear the screams and shouts from the pit he was in moments ago.

'It seems I'm a contracted kidnapper now, but its for my own good as I can be supported by both the Institute and the Ghena Family, who seem like they can hold their own amongst the most powerful families in the capital, with this my progress is guaranteed after all with my family laying at rest I don’t have any background to utilise excluding my inheritance.' Malice knew what he was doing was wrong but self preservation triumphed over most things and he was prepared to do what needed to be done.

It was the early hours of the morning when Malice finally returned to his residence, after a long day of exploring and killing he had realised that only when he was fighting on the brink of death did he truly feel the most alive as if his essence was it's own entity being used in a way that Malice guessed pushed it's limits and made him advance much quicker.

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'This bloodlust I feel originates from my very soul desiring to evolve and become stronger, if that’s the case would that mean that I would be better off fighting than meditating? If what Lillian said is true and I gain the backing of the Ghena family then im sure they can solve this question without a problem.' Malice assumed that he progressed quicker when in a battle but felt only his essence was improving whereas his understanding of his Magus powers, in particular his foundation spell seemed to have stagnated in growth. Thus he theorised that through killing his essence increased like that of a Martial power cultivator and through meditation and deep understanding his Magus powers grew.

Malice was happy with his results of his visit around the capital despite the boring start and was glad he didn’t have to sit through six hours of that giants disastrous aura. Even still he wasn’t going to start slacking, by now he assumed most if not all the new students had completed the first step of foundation spell creation and were slowly progressing to finish.

'Nova and Violet have most likely completed their foundation spell and are also ready to learn combat spells, if they haven’t already started due to their families connections, making me think even more that I should just deliver this Magus to Lillian as quick as possible. I want to grow just as much as those around me I'm not losing out because I don’t have the will to put my needs above others.' Malice had his thoughts constantly swirling in his head as he feel asleep hoping that anyone but the giant was teaching classes the next day.

The day came quickly considering Malice had only slept for a few hours before he had to go to class, he skipped his usual routine and continued to stabilise his essence which didn’t take too long considering the fact he spent quite a long time on it last night. Wearing his usual Obsidian Plate Armour, which went over a pristine snow white robe adorned by rubies, He made his way to class making sure he was ready to stand his ground against that foul giant, who Malice found he had started to hate.

Walking through the classroom door Malice noticed each individual had a different feeling to them, some felt cold, hot, tranquil and all sorts of other feelings meaning they had at least moved their essence gaining a small aura of power from within. Malice wasn’t really picking up on anyone’s aura in particular but he noticed that there was one person that he felt lacked an aura completely and that was Mars, which would seem natural to others observing a D grade talent but considering he moved his essence two days ago it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think he had formed his foundation spell by now.

Malice unfortunatly wasn’t the only one who noticed this as two B grade talents, the 'bosses' of the classroom approached Mars looking about ready to start a fight.

"Listen here Mars we weren’t going to bother you anymore because we felt you as a D grader would waste away without our help but you actually snitched to Professor Fulgham that me and Charles beat you up yesterday." A scrawny kid shouted at Mars making everyone in class focus on the conflict.

"The Professor saw you do it, I didn’t say anything, why would I do that when its obvious this would happen?" Mars was pretty convincing but after he hurt the egos and pride of most people in the class the other day he didn’t make a single friend, which in this situation would be helpful indeed.

"Monty and I know you thought you were tougher than us so we showed you who was boss but then you hid behind a teacher, now look at you, everyone here has a strong aura whereas you have nothing." The chubby kid Charles stopped Mars from speaking and made everyone aware that Mars' aura was non existent.

Amongst Malice’s classmates those that were dejected, forced to stay behind after class to move their essence whilst Mars walked free, began to stand up and join Monty and Charles' side, those who didn’t care either left the class or just stood as spectators. But the group only consisted of about two spectators, the B rank Damien and Malice.

'I don't believe for a second Mars is powerless, either he has a special soul attribute or he’s too strong for anyone among us to comprehend, if its the latter talent means shit and I may as well be a D rank as well.' Malice would be incredibly surprised if Mars was stronger than him, after all did talent mean nothing in cultivation and was just some made up term to categorise people, Malice doubted that very much.

"Can you guys do this lynch mob somewhere else, funny enough I don’t think we will learn anything today if the classroom is destroyed." Malice was being honest because if the room was trashed he would probably be reprimanded and not learn anything for another day, knowledge was power after all. Malice also offered Mars a minuscule chance of escape, even if he was stronger individually against a mob he would surely lose. Malice was thoughtful of the future and thought if he had some understanding with Mars albeit a small one then that was one less enemy to face, he wouldn’t go as far as making another friend as Malice realised that your problems and your friends problems become one and Malice thought that the Mars' issues were countless.

"What gives you the right to demand how we enact justice?" Monty questioned Malice in anger forgetting to think where Malice was in the hierarchy of this class, which was safe to say right at the peak.

A sword suddenly appeared before Monty’s right eye, almost piercing it but hovered just far enough for him to notice all it needed was a light tap to skewer.

"I could cut you down with a thought and that’s not a threat that’s a promise, so I will ask nicely this time, Please leave the classroom if your going to mob him, if you ask me relying on 14 others is a weak move. But who asked me right?" Malice always felt disdain towards his classmates especially the ones who had no right to be arrogant, especially the ones that claim they are enacting false justice. To Malice the word justice itself made him filled with rage and when it comes out the mouth of a weak little arseling like Monty oh how joyous it would have felt to pierce his eyes and hear him scream. Yet Malice had self control, well enough to stop him from publicly executing a child like himself.

The group slowly disbanded thinking Malice was now protecting Mars, but some still stayed the ones truly indignant with their lot in life to be losing to someone weaker than them, not reading into Malice’s word but taking them at face value, how Malice had intended, proceeding to leave the classroom. A total of 6 students left and Mars could only follow behind albeit unwillingly, he didn’t want the majority of the class to gather as fighting six people is significantly easier than fourteen.