When Kidd went back, Ewan set up an area in his yard for the Noble Rite and proceeded with the sacrifice without wasting time.
The Boxafly kneeled before Iris as Ewan unlocked his slave-collar and threw it aside. He didn’t study it, but a glance showed an explosive-type spell circuit etched on it. It was an unstable element—a variable he didn’t want in the rite.
“@#$@##@#!” The collar was out and the Boxafly begged Ewan in a foreign language—a high pitched sound that changed in tone, unlike the words spoken in common tongue on Airadia.
Ewan sighed and rubbed his forehead. Those idiot traders hadn't broken this slave yet. What use was the fresh clothes, floral cologne, and healed wounds, if they hadn't even done the basics.
His imploring eyes and his shivering figure pricked Ewan’s fading conscience. Sympathizing with his kill just because he was wordless, because he begged; he accepted the hypocrisy in it. If only it was a hideous creature, a repugnant life, someone who didn’t plead, someone who spoke his tongue….
The thought made him wonder. How endearing a creature had to be before it could induce compassion and kindness in emotional Starons? What were the traits that triggered empathy the most, and what triggered it the least?
“Get ready,” he said to Iris, pushing these irrelevant thoughts aside, and moved behind the Boxafly. His hazy morals and conscience didn’t affect his actions. Whatever conflict that rummaged inside him for a response, he denied it.
He took out his Obsidian Dagger and slit the Boxafly’s throat amidst his constant pleas. The flower of warm blood bloomed and rained over Iris, drenching her. She swayed, her cheerful thoughts and her thirst for blood intensified. Her roots extended, and she stabbed them into the wound Ewan had just created. The spasming Boxafly soon stilled down, his body wrinkling.
Iris gobbled all his blood—a quantity far more than what she could bear, a quantity that was several times the size of her body. Finally, when she licked clean even the last drop of it, she became drowsy and drooped down.
Don’t fight it….
…
…
…
Her transformation was gradual, but naked eyes could follow it. Her roots thickened, her petals softened, her whole being gave off a blood luster. There were no drastic changes, yet she wasn’t the same anymore. Her species was a Blood Lotus, and now she moved towards the royalty of it.
Identify!
[Astylind Name: Blood Lotus]
[Astylind Level: Level-9]
[Astylind Grade: Grade-A]
[Anima Affinity: Blood]
[Skills: Blood-Recipient | Mend (Dormant)]
[Gender: Female]
[Description: Extinct natives of Sepra. They had decent affinity with Blood-Anima (Recipient) but lacked the means to protect themselves. Delicate and feeble. They lost the battle of natural selection.]
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
[Grade-Exalt Requirements: Regal Rite (Dreit Arnaad)—Life Sacrifice, offer ten red-blooded lives and drink their blood.]
[Remark 1: Can be used as an ingredient for potions. Useless otherwise.]
[Remark 2: Decent choice for a healing type Astylind. But lack strong evolution branches.]
[Remark 3: I don’t like them. They’re nasty~]
[Remark 4: Special evolution path found. Focus should be on its grade.]
He could only shake his head at the outcome. Not only did he not regain his status as a healer, but the next rite showed a problematic pattern—the pattern of increasing sacrifices.
……
“T-Ten more?” Kidd stood before him in his yard, gaping.
“Is there any problem?” Ewan asked.
“I-I don’t know. I have to ask Cork.”
“That is what I’m telling you, go ask Cork,” Ewan said. “Give me a reply soon.”
Kidd bobbed his head and bolted back. The protective shield closed behind him, and Ewan resumed cleaning the yard—the mess the Noble Rite created was his to clean. The dried body went inside a shallow grave he dug in the corner, and he covered the spilled blood in the yard with loose soil; his Ryvia excelled in such tasks. A few casts of
Nonetheless, the process of dealing with the dead body in such a crude way introduced him to the weathered, dry, brittle, grimy, and tattered skeletons buried in his courtyard. It was from the massacre he saw through
He sighed and looked at the cloudless sky. Since when did he become fine with such things? The skeletons made him look back to his journey of the short time he’d been a Severynth. The things he saw, the things he experienced, the things he did, they all piled up and made him what he was today. He also wondered whether he should buy a different villa to seem more normal to others. He had enough Novas now….
No, he could never have enough Novas, there were just too many places to spend it on. The ten slaves he ordered alone would cost him five thousand, going by the previous cost. And he still had to buy liters and liters of Astylind blood for his element baths. Splurging on a new and ‘clean’ villa couldn’t climb his priority list.
“Boss, I’m back,” Kidd whispered in a volume that was anything but a whisper.
“What’d he say?” Ewan asked, letting him in the protective shield.
“He agreed but it’ll take longer this time.”
“Week long? Month long?”
“A month at least, most likely longer, but shouldn’t take more than two.”
“Fine,” Ewan said. “Prepare the contract.”
The price was the same as the last time, as he expected. For ten slaves, he paid an advance of two thousand Novas upfront and signed the contract with Cork.
----------------------------------------
Status: Healthy
Step-0 [9th Awakening]
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 2.0
Spirit: 18.1
Anima: [Fire – 18.1 | Ice – 18.1 | Blood – 18.1]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-0 [9th Awakening]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-B]
----------------------------------------
Blood Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-9] [Grade-A]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Obsidian Dagger; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 29,854
Crelith: 4,049