Red P.O.V

Red watched as Jill stepped into the portal in front of her. Now all three of her friends had gone, and entered their trial for reaching level 100. She was tempted to do the same but knew that it would be a mistake for her. While going through the dungeon tended to be better for most classes, that was not true for hers. Blood-related classes tended to improve significantly when the advancement was done through traditional means. Her family had done enough tests that she knew that much. Still, she had almost followed Jill into the portal.

The thought of lying to her friends was grating on the back of her mind, but she wouldn’t take an option that could potentially make her weaker. No, she would keep the truth from them. It was one of the most well-guarded secrets of her family, and she couldn’t tell them even if she wanted to. She turned away from the portal, looking south, far beneath where the capital was. Her home was a few days away from here, and she could easily make it there and come back. She didn’t want to rely on her family, but she felt like asking her friends to help her hunt someone down would be wrong too. They were good people, too good for their own good sometimes.

She started walking away from the portal heading toward her home. A few adventurers watched her, and Red wondered if they would attack her. From their perspective, it would have looked like she had abandoned her friends, and she had seen fights break out for less. They didn’t do anything though. Knowing that she was going home, her thoughts drifted to her family.

Her family had not been filled with good people, that much was ingrained into her mind. She could remember the first time she had killed someone. Her father had her experiment with manipulating someone’s blood while it was inside of them. She had made a mistake and had caused the person’s heart to explode. She still remembered how sick that had made her feel afterward. Thankfully, her talents had been in controlling already released blood and her father didn’t force the matter too much.

If you can kill them if needed, then that is good enough.

Those had been his words when he had released her from trying to learn how to control people. Her mother and father had a talent for controlling people like puppets, and she was glad to have not inherited a talent for it. People often believed that talent didn’t play a role in how the class system worked, but she knew that wasn’t the case.

Her friends, especially Jill were very crude with her abilities. They were strong enough to bypass her lack of talent, but Red had seen it. Jill struggled to do more complex things with her space magic and only replicated the general use of the skill. Luke was talented in soul magic, but his healing magic wasn’t quite as good. She had read a few books on liches and knew that there had only been one lich capable of stealing skills from his victims, and that monster currently owned an island nation that could rival the great kingdoms. Luke’s soul magic was apparently even better than that. After seeing Luna's work, it was obvious that Luke’s healing would probably never compare to that. Although, he was well above the average for that magic too.

Honestly, everyone in Mash’s family were freaks when it came to talent. Luna’s healing ability was the best that Red had ever seen or heard of. There was a precision and thoroughness to her healing that other mages couldn’t match. Red had only been healed by her once, and that was only because she had asked for it out of curiosity. Arthur was a hero, or at least had the talent to rival one. Mash had mentioned that his brother probably wouldn’t take the class, but Red doubted that would stop people from treating him like one anyway. His control and precision with his magic, in general, were far beyond what skills alone would do.

Finally, there was Mash himself who didn’t even seem human. He claimed Priscilla did most of the heavy lifting for his magic control, but she had seen him do things before getting Priscilla. His ability to shape and use his wooden magic was outstanding, even when they fought the rats together. He had only just received his class, and yet he had still been more detailed with his control of magic than she had with a few months of training. His ability to grasp and use new affinities might be helped by Priscilla, but she was confident he would’ve been able to figure it out on his own if he wanted to. She had often wondered if he would get a magic-oriented class since his talents obviously lay there. If he came back and said he had gotten a grand mage class, she would not be surprised.

She was surprised by how easy it was to forget her family when thinking about her friends. She wondered if anyone else in her family could even claim to have something like a friend. It wasn’t something she could picture. Honestly, she never expected that she would be able to get friends that whom she actually felt close. However, she had learned too much from her family, and couldn’t be as open with them as she wanted to. She probably didn’t need to be so careful anymore. It's not like anything could compare to the fact that she was an undead now.

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The walk progressed slowly, and she found it surprisingly hard to not feel a little lonely. She had really spent the last few months constantly surrounded by people and being alone like this was pretty awful. She had nothing but her thoughts for the journey. The forest here only had weak monsters, and they were smart enough to stay far away from her. The wind caused the leaves to rustle around her, and the was the only noise she could hear. Right up until she walked into her family’s territory there had been nothing but forest since she left the dungeon.

She could tell when she had entered the family territory. Her great-grandfather’s domain covered their territory. The family claimed that he was over level 200, but she doubted that. The domain was a lot bigger than Mash’s, but she didn’t think it was particularly better or worse. She didn’t really know how much it could improve though. Well, her family would know that she was there, so she didn’t bother walking anymore. Instead, she just looked over the territory.

Her family home was at the center of the territory and was surrounded by a town. They called it a village, but she knew that her family was soon going to turn it into a city. Apparently, there were classes people could get for owning territory and developing it. She wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they wanted to develop their own kingdom eventually. There was a crude wall surrounding the main estate, but the rest of the town was only protected due to her family’s presence here. She didn’t want any of the people here to see her, so she stood far outside of the town. Even hidden partially by the trees of the forest, she could see that someone was coming out to meet her. Her vision had improved since becoming undead. All her senses had become better, and she found that more than a little odd. She would’ve expected the opposite.

A man dressed in a red suit rode on a carriage driving toward her unceremoniously. It was one of her family’s butlers, and he stopped the vehicle a short distance away. He jumped down opening the door and bowing deeply.

“Welcome home, young lady Ellinia. I hope your journey has proven beneficial.”

The man was old, almost as old as her grandfather. With light blond hair, he looked extremely young. He had reached level 150 in his forties, but he only looked a little older than Mash’s brother. His bow was perfect, though his words were not. He would know exactly how her journey had gone, and he would know that she was no longer a lady of the house.

“Enough, let’s just get on with it.”

She made sure to make her words sound cold, though the butler didn’t even react. He politely helped her into the carriage, before returning to the front. The carriage like everything was comically red, and she sat on red cushions. She would need to get used to being called Ellinia again. As the carriage started moving, she made sure to block the windows. She was not interested in people spotting her.

“I assume you have come for your advancement. To think that you would return after forsaking your own family. All for the sake of power.”

Her eyebrow twitched as the butler’s voice entered the carriage seamlessly. She knew what he was getting at and didn’t care to hear it. However, she knew better than to act childish around the man. Of all the things she could use to describe the man, kind was not among them. He was trying to bait her, to make her do something so that he could justify some punishment. Honestly, she wouldn’t mind fighting him after the advancement. Not because she thought she would win, but because she just wanted to hit him.

“You are more like your grandfather than you know. He would have done much the same as you.”

The butler grew quiet, and thankfully the rest of the ride continued in silence. She didn’t need to be reminded of what she was doing. There were no doubts in her mind about what she was doing. Her friends, or rather Mash, were particularly good at finding dangerous or crazy situations to thrust himself into. While it might be smart to just abandon him, she was enjoying the growth too much. No, the better solution was to become strong enough that she wouldn’t die anytime soon. Well, die again anytime soon. If that meant dealing with her family, she would do it.

Even with the windows closed and curtains drawn, she could tell when the carriage moved behind the walls of her state. The smell of blood permeated the space thickly, and she opened her windows in a vain attempt to avoid it. She hated this place. Her home was practically a village, with several houses designated for servants and guards outside of her family’s mansion. That building was easily larger than a castle, though it wasn’t as tall. It was a brick building, made mostly out of red brick. Most people thought the constant use of red was just for the sake of humor or taste. That was not even close to the truth. The red was because almost everything was made with blood to some degree. The paint, bricks, and even clothes had blood mixed into it. Within this estate, her family was practically gods.

There was no grass within the estate, instead, the ground was made of stone, and she could see streaks of red mixed into it. The walls would be the same. It was excessive and reminded her of the repulsive nature of her ability. Eventually, the carriage came to a halt, and the butler opened the door for her. She jumped out, refusing to take the offered hand of the man. He frowned slightly but didn’t do anything as another person addressed them. She recognized her father’s voice well.

“Hello, father. I am here to get what is owed to me.”