Hmm. Ever since that day, I haven’t come in here at all. Of course, it’s not like the library could possibly undergo massive changes in that time, so it isn’t surprising that it’s just as I remember.

The ceiling was way up there and the walls had windows on all sides. Even if only the winks of sun still shone through the night clouds, it’d still be bright enough in here to read - which was the purpose, to avoid both the unnecessary use of oil and avoid the risk of setting the place ablaze.

I’d come in through the side, near the… this looks like the general knowledge section. Information about ranks, essence, impurities, and other things related to Sorcerers was all here. There was a different general section for non-Sorcerer related objects.

Though, I don’t really see why they need an entire section for just the Sorcerer stuff…

After getting my bearings, I began heading over to the divider that separated the area that anybody could roam from the one where only certified Sorcerers could.

Shade, what do you think? A lot more had happened then expected, and although I’m not sure why Shade hadn’t spoken the entire time, it was definitely listening at the least. As for what it wants to talk about, that’s up to it - and why I didn’t ask about anything specific.

The voice echoed in my head as usual. That whole thing was just ridiculous. Maybe for something like Dark Law where all the paths are comprehensive, it’d make sense, but for Blood Law it doesn’t. Heritage, Bloodthirst, and Vampirism all have their own purposes, and only Heritage can be said to be comprehensive.

I thought about it… So what you’re saying is that the best way to use them is to use them all together?

Exactly. Vampirism is typically used in the preparation phase, Heritage as the foundation, and then use Bloodthirst to make a right mess of things. Shade then paused for a second before continuing. Of course, I can’t tell you which to pick because I have no clue what the choices are.

Of course. As I approached the divider, the person on duty nodded to me. I nodded in response and passed through without any issues. Hmm, I wonder if I could’ve gone in with a counterfeit badge.

The other side of the divider was actually not that filled up. I guess it makes sense. Creating new spells is said to be an extremely dangerous and difficult process, so the number of spells is always lower than what you’d expect.

The Blood Law section is definitely the largest though, which makes sense. It has easy-to-obtain materials, meaning practice and research can be done at will. And while I might be wrong, most of the spells probably just have a backlash of worsening existing wounds.

Good thing I decided to look over things first instead of walking right in, since there was a book on a desk by the shelves that showed what spells there were.

Let’s see… Rank 1 Spells.

Ah. Heritage first. There’s Blood Spike, Rupturing Blood Spike, Blood Blade, Wound Heal, Blood Chains, Crystal Blood, Blood Control, Blood Shaping… Uh, what’s the difference between those two?

Hmm, not that many for the other two though. For Bloodthirst there’s only Scar Bursting and Vein Eruption, and for Vampirism there’s only Blood Infusion and… Blood Jewel Extraction?

Uh, looking at the details, it’s a spell that turns all of the blood in the target’s body - only effective on dead Sorcerers-! What? Why is there a spell here that needs a dead Sorcerer? Surely the city wants people to not kill each other, right?

Whatever. I want to say that I’d just try it out on someone in the abandoned district since anyone over sixteen in this city goes through the ceremony… But for one, those with actual aptitude to be a Sorcerer wouldn’t end up there, and two, apparently if your body gets too weak, you’ll stop producing essence. If that goes on for too long, your essence core will apparently shatter.

I shuddered at the thought. That’d be a fate truly worse than death.

Back to that spell, I’ve gotten distracted enough. Condenses all of the blood in the target’s body into a Blood Jewel, a material used for some spells… Wait, so you can’t just use your own blood for every spell? That’s a bit disappointing, but it makes sense I guess?

I don’t know how spells work, but I guess there’s only so much power in normal blood? At least, there’s no way it could compare to something condensed from all the blood in someone’s body.

Hmm. Does it even say which spells need this material? …Of course not. Stupid library.

Honestly, this is just… ugh. What in Hell was the point of asking questions to figure out which path suits me best if there are only actual fucking spells for Heritage? For some reason, I’m getting really mad about this. I don’t know why, nor do I care. At least I can vent to someone.

It’s not surprising, unfortunately. Is that really true, Shade? Then explain. Not like I need to say that, since it probably - definitely - will anyway.

Bloodthirst spells are very destructive and thus have strong backlashes. Plus, they tend to either leave irreparable damage, which is bad in practice fights, or tend to ‘splash’ and hurt both allies and foes in a fight. As for Vampirism, it’s surprising for even Blood Jewel Extraction to be there- in fact, it probably only is because some of the other spells need it.

I… I guess it makes sense. Scar Bursting isn’t too bad, but Vein Eruption not only causes great harm to the caster, but it even notes that the explosion of blood is so strong that it will hit everything in that direction, and the caster has next to no control over it.

But even still… So chances are that there are more spells for those two paths, just not here where anyone can see them?

Yes. As for which spells to learn first-

Wait wait wait. I immediately interrupted Shade’s words. I want to pick for myself first. Then you can tell me whether or not they’re good choices.

Since Shade didn’t speak, it must be agreeing, so I immediately went through the list of spells. I want to learn Wound Heal so badly. It seems like it’d be really nice… After finishing up practice, I could then use it to close the wound on my hand up…

Plus, even if having my blood be spilt is needed for casting, more wounds is not better! What if I get badly hurt during a fight? Yes. This one is definitely going on my list of ones to learn.

Other than that… While Blood Blade is good for fighting, it can’t just cut through everything with no issue; it needs physical strength to back it, which I don’t have. Yeah, I feel like Blood Spike is the better option. And with how strong mine is, Rupturing Blood Spike doesn’t seem necessary…

Then, Blood Chains? After all, there’s no way it can be easy to hit an actual target with Blood Spike. If I restrict their motions with chains first… Right, that’ll be my other choice!

I quickly and - admittedly, happily - told Shade my choices. There’s no other set of choices that can even compare in usefulness!

Ugh, I should’ve realized I was being full of myself.

Blood Chains was one I’d suggest since it would allow you to capture people. Then, you could just knock them out and use Steal Yin. Even though I couldn’t see it, I could practically feel that Shade was shaking its head at me. But more than that, you need to not be wasteful! Steal Yin ends up killing people, and you’re going to go after Sorceresses soon- Thus, learn Blood Jewel Extraction so that their blood doesn’t go to waste!

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I see..... Well, it makes sense. So Blood Chains first so that I can sustain my rapid practice, and then learn Blood Jewel Extraction before I start going after Sorceresses! But… can I even practice that one? It needs a Sorcerer’s corpse. What would happen if I used it on a normal person?

Maybe that info will be on the scroll containing the spell?

As for Wound Heal, that’s the least immediately useful, so I can learn that one last. Plus, I should reach the middle stage soon, so I’ll be able to practice twice as much!

With that in mind, I immediately went into the shelves to find the Blood Chains scroll. It didn’t take long since they’re labeled…

Blood Chains, a Blood Law material duration area control spell. Draws out the caster’s blood and forms ten blood chains to entangle the target area. The chains will anchor onto nearby objects, and if there are none, will retract towards the caster.

A versatile spell… Useful for creating blockages, trapping opponents, or even directly capturing them. If I made the area small, what would happen? Nevermind, I’m getting ahead of myself. I don’t know enough about spells to know if every targeting seal allows for adjustment like with Blood Spike.

Uses 20% faint ruby essence. So I can only cast it twice. Hmm, it only says it draws out the caster’s blood, but how much? I don’t want to pass out from blood loss if I use it too much…

Hmm, maybe I should add Blood Infusion into my list of spells to learn. Even though it needs the blood from others, it’s the only option for a spell to replenish blood quickly. But that’s something I can deal with later. For now, I can’t even cast enough spells to use up a dangerous amount of my blood.

Alright. Hand seals first, then start memorizing the essence flows while I practice the seals. Ugh, it took me four days to memorize Blood Spike. How long will this one take?

Really, I don’t get how I underestimated how long a spell takes to learn when it took me three months to cast Blood Spike for the first time. I’m a fucking moron.

I would say - at least Shade managed to memorize the essence flows - but it didn’t really matter since I had to keep going to the library in order to keep up appearances. Suddenly being able to cast Blood Spike before even many of the C-Grades was already eye-catching enough, and then instantly memorizing the flows for an entire spell would just be ridiculous.

Though, I did go through all of the other Blood Law spells so that I could start learning them secretly once I finish Blood Chains. Even if I complain about how long it takes, this will probably take only a third of the month or something like that.

After all, Shade taught me a much better way to deal with essence flows. Of course, it only makes me more suspicious of it since it makes no sense for my inner devil to have more knowledge than me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll reject it’s help.

Instead of memorizing the essence flows and then practicing them with the spell, I can instead just figure them out while using my essence to cleanse my meridians. The reason you aren’t supposed to practice the flows by themselves is because it will be considered a spell and result in some unknowable backlash.

But even though a spell courses essence through the meridians, it doesn’t affect the impurities lining their walls. Likewise, when using essence to get rid of impurities, a spell isn’t being cast. The only issue is that there aren't enough impurities.

I’ve already hit a stopping point because the iron impurities on the thirteenth essence flow’s path are gone, and my faint ruby essence isn’t able to do anything to the silver ones.

So for now, I’m instead practicing the flows that I can and working on getting rid of the rest of the iron impurities. Then, I’ll reach the middle stage and not only be able to practice the flows again, but also have twice as much essence to practice with when I finally get to that point!

Regardless, it’s been five days since I started. I predict that I’ll reach the middle stage tomorrow, but that might shorten if I manage to find someone to use Steal Yin on. After all, there’s no way every single girl in the abandoned district is willing to refuse food, right?

There’s something else I’m wondering about right now though, while I sit in the library pretending to be going through the essence flows for Blood Chains.

That thing is - where are Coal and the others?

I mean really, I haven’t seen them since the day that I killed that man and changed my fate. Maybe the girls would be afraid of me, but none of them knew I could cast Blood Spike until two days ago, and I can’t see them being scared of me with just my dagger…

On one hand, it’s nice having time to myself. But on the other hand, I’m… Hmm? No, I’m not lonely. It’s that it makes it more difficult to take my revenge. The plan had been to capture Dust as my first target for using Steal Yin on a Sorceress. Then, when the others realized she was missing and started looking, I’d mention that I had seen her recently and lead them to her corpse.

And while they’re shocked, I’d kill them. Mmm, a great plan!

“Huh?” Without any warning, everything became almost pitch black. But after looking around, I realized that it wasn’t anything special. Night had fallen- but still, it’s crazy how bright it had been up until the moment the sun’s light fully vanished.

The lanterns in the library were soon turned on, and as for myself, I put the Blood Chains scroll back and made my way out the building. Tonight, the plan is to head to the abandoned district, since Shade said it has a plan for finding a girl to use Steal Yin on.

…I’m a bit irked that it wouldn’t tell me what the plan was in advance, though.

But eventually, I made it close to the center of the abandoned district. I tend to just be passing through or looking for people normally, but now that I look at it, the way this place is set up is definitely intended to be good for hiding.

The walls of the buildings are seemingly fine, but when I actually enter one of them, the insides are interconnected in a maze-like manner. Even though I’m curious and want to check it out… I’m afraid that I might get lost and be unable to find my way back out.

Even if Shade could help me, I can’t help but be afraid of such a thing!

So, what is your ‘amazing plan’? Hmm, my tone is a bit bad…

But it seems Shade doesn’t mind. Well, the plan is simply for me to go out and search for a target.

Huh? You can do that? Of course I’d be shocked by its words. I mean, I knew that while it looked like my shadow, it was not constrained by where my shadow physically is, but still… Why would I have guessed that it could detach itself from me and move around freely?

I can only move in shadows, which is why we needed to wait for night. Is that so… Hmm, maybe I could use this for hunting down targets…

Well, for now at least, there’s no issues. Then go for it. Should I just stay here?

You should be able to sense my location no matter where I am. If I stop moving for more than five seconds, then assume I found a target.

Alright. With that, although there were no visual changes, I could sense that Shade was no longer next to me. But like it said, I could tell that it was heading north.

How interesting. Unfortunately, since I had to keep an eye out for when it stopped moving for more than five seconds, I couldn’t just do whatever I wanted. So I just sat on the ground and waited.

I don’t really know how long it took, but eventually Shade stopped moving. Currently, it’s to the northeast of where I am… I got up and began moving, not fast enough to make noise, but not so slow that it’d take a while to get there.

When I finally reached my destination, I immediately saw the small figure on the ground. Shade spoke in my mind as usual. She’s asleep, and there are no other people nearby.

Perfect. Without even bothering with the girl, I began casting Steal Yin and placed my right hand on the back of her neck. It doesn’t matter if she wakes up; the spell makes the target feel weak so quickly that she’d probably not have the strength to do anything by the time she wakes.

Mmm, the pleasurable feeling of the yin entering my body was great. I do wonder though. The yin ends up in my essence core, so does that mean that my body has reached the max amount of yin possible, or is my yin still increasing and it’s just that some ends up in my core?

There’s no way to know without just continuing to use the spell and see if the Blood Spike ever gets stronger, really.

By the time I finished with the spell, the girl hadn’t ever woken up. Nor will she, obviously.

After going a bit away, I sat down and began finely using the yin energy mixed with my essence, sending it first at the few remaining areas where there were a lot of impurities. Then, by using the rest bit by bit, I wore away the rest of the impurities I found.

After the twentieth or so cleansing motion, I suddenly felt my essence core begin to shake. A vortex formed within the pool of essence, and the essence I had been controlling was forcibly pulled back.

Ah… Is this what I think it is? It must be, right?!

All I can say is that it felt like true magic. The vortex shrank and took the essence away, and when it finished - a red light flashed across the walls of the core.

And there, at the bottom of my essence core, bright red essence began to bubble up.

Three months and three quarters of a month after becoming a Sorcerer, I finally managed to reach the middle stage. Now, things will be much more convenient.

Ah, I can’t wait!