Chapter 32
Nick learned from Max that a quarantine had been declared. He was told that each person had their own place to live. Some were lucky enough to stay in wooden houses like him, some simply dug holes in the ground and now live there. Nick was happy with the current circumstances, he tried to use the skill [Reincarnator's Madness] again, but for some reason it didn't work. Nick hadn't yet understood the skill's limitations, and there was nothing in its description that would help him. He assumed that there was either some kind of cooldown, or a limit on what he could learn from one event. For now, he decided not to find out the skill's limitations.
After talking to Max, he began to heal his body further. Yesterday, he was able to accumulate a lot of mana for his condition in a day. He managed to raise the mana growth +20%, now his mana pool was 825 MP. In the week since breaking the limit of his body, he did not notice any significant healing.
If things continue like this, I'll spend too much time healing. I was warned that if I overload my constitution, the consequences will be serious, but not that much. Maybe the fact that I lost a lot of blood somehow affected it? I don't know. It's good that the pain resistance skill evolved into the [Rare Pain Resistance] [Rare] Lvl 203 skill. Without it, I wouldn't be able to bear the pain so well.
Rare Pain Resistance [Rare] — The skill reduces your sensitivity to all types of pain. Be it physical or psychological. The skill also affects mental attacks that cause pain, or any other techniques. (Does not affect soul damage.)
But even with this skill it still hurts like hell, but it's bearable. It feels like you just got run over by a car, and high perception doesn't help at all. I'm so sick of this!
Nick tensed his body in anger and immediately regretted it. The pain was strong, but again the skill saved him from rash actions. Nick tried to ignore the pain again and it again ended up somewhere in the background. After waiting a few minutes to calm down enough, he drew out his mana and began to weave a level 1 spell, "Accelerated Healing." Having applied it to his entire body, he could see how it worked thanks to the aura and sense of mana. The spell made damage heal faster using the body's resources. It was woven into the body along with the mana it needed to work, it was important not to fill the body with more mana than it could withstand. The spell would work until the mana ran out. Formally, this spell could kill an exhausted person. The spell would work using his resources for healing, and not for maintaining life. Nick spent 300 MP on the spell, it should work for about 10 hours according to his calculations. He hadn't used his will in this spell yet, as he wanted to compare the difference later. After the light blue light that had flashed through his body, he hadn't noticed any difference at all, which was to be expected of course. Now he needed more food if he didn't want to lose his life force because of this. Max didn't bother feeding him, he just brought a large amount of food and counted on Nick to eat himself. In order to eat, he had to use weak telekinesis, when he was just starting to learn magic it would have taken a very large amount of mana, but now it cost him almost nothing. His mana had become several times stronger since last time. Dividing his thought process, he used telekinesis, easily stretching his mana for this spell. Today he had fried boar meat with porridge and apples.
Mmmm, I never thought I would be so happy with normal food, especially wild apples.
After tasting the apples, Nick liked them despite the fact that they were not sweet at all, but very sour. With meat and porridge, they were not bad at all. Having put the plates near the bed, he grabbed a metal bottle of water with a spell and took a sip from it. Having checked his mana pool, he was pleased, in five minutes he spent only 15 MP. Sitting on the bed, he thought about what he should do. Nothing came to mind, there was no point in practicing spells considering that he needed to accumulate a very large amount of mana to use the spell "Accelerated Healing" 24/7. And later when he would be able to use a specialized version of the spell on him too. No other ideas came to his mind, so he began to meditate again. Using telekinesis, he laid himself on the bed and closed his eyes.
***
Cassandra walked to her new place delivering food to the "prisoners", this was her new routine now. As one of the two people who could not catch the plague, she had to watch over the camp and do all sorts of boring work. At first she would deliver food, and later she would go patrol the territory.
How boring, where is the promised orc invasion? At least it was more fun with them.
Entering the wooden house where the first infected was, she met Max who was treating him. The guy looked really bad, he had a high temperature, he was very pale with dark spots all over his body, his cough was very strong and sometimes there was blood in it. Max treats him for the second day and removes the main damage. In this case, the plague destroys the lungs, cardiovascular system and causes organs to degrade. Cassandra was here primarily to help Max heal the patient. Coming closer, blood began to pour out of her veins, with a quick wave of her hand she cut a vein on the guy's arm, forcing her blood to flow inside. Unlike people who had a basic blood composition, vampires could significantly affect it. Cassandra's blood is better in all aspects and if she wants, she can make the blood healing without overloading a person with mana. This was the peculiarity of vampires, together with the blood she poured her life force into him, changing it with a spell so that it could merge with the life force of a person without hindrance. Under normal circumstances, it is not enough to simply pour life force into a person to help him, rather it will cause unforeseen bad consequences. To do this correctly, you need to use a spell that makes the life force neutral, this will allow a person to absorb it, but the percentage of life force that a person receives subsequently becomes much less than the original amount. Having finished her business, Cassandra cast a spell that cleansed her of any germs. On the street, she noticed the smell of blood and it was not human blood.
It's just time for a walk in the forest, let's hope that someone can fight against me.
Cassandra did not bother herself with running or even walking quickly. First, she walked around the camp to inspect it for any inconsistencies. She used her sense of smell more to understand whether there was a person in the place assigned to him or not. After making sure that everything was in its place, she went towards the smell of blood. Walking between the trees on the green grass, she examined the forest in search of her prey, she had to do it carefully, without making unnecessary sounds. After 10 minutes of leisurely walking, Cassandra began to hear cracking sounds, coming closer she realized that this was the sound of someone chewing bones. Coming closer and looking out from behind a tree, she saw a lizard about 5 meters long and 1 meter high. He was chewing some kind of animal, but because of the injuries she could not understand what it was and the smell of blood seemed unfamiliar to her.
Race: Stygian Hunter [Rare] Lvl 56
She didn't know the species of this creature and had never heard of it, but it wasn't hard to tell that the beast was strong and agile due to its strong build. The lizard was covered in dark green scales and strongly resembled a Monitor Lizard, but its paws had large claws and its mouth was a little different in shape, with stronger and longer teeth that were more like daggers in shape. Cassandra considered what she should do.
His strength level shouldn't be too high, even if he has poison, I won't be hurt by it much, but if he turns out to be much stronger physically than I expected, I'll be in a really bad way.
Coming out from behind the tree, blood claws formed on Cassandra's hands, each one was 20 cm long. She tried to make them much stronger and sharper than usual to pierce the lizard's thick scales. A round, slightly elongated green pupil focused on her when she was within 30 meters. The lizard let out a quiet growl and waved its tail in her direction, at the same moment spikes formed from the ground and flew at her. Not expecting a magical attack, Cassandra repelled 3 spikes and dodged 4, but 2 hit her, one caught her stomach, and the other pierced her shoulder. Reproaching herself for stupidity, she pulled the spike out of her shoulder with blood magic and began to restore it. The lizard did not perceive her as a danger and did not even tear itself away from eating. Cassandra stopped her advance, to which the lizard did not react in any way. Only when she expanded [Blood Mage Aura] did the lizard turn away from its food and start watching her closely. Using a movement "Technique", she quickly attacked the lizard. The beast did not retreat and rushed towards her, Xandra knew that in a direct clash of strength, she would never win. Anticipating the attack, she slowed her pace so that the lizard would not collide with her in mid-air. When the beast landed on the ground instead of her. Xandra suddenly accelerated and struck twice at its paws, the lizard hissed and tried to bite her. As soon as the beast opened its mouth, two bloody arrows flew out from its wrists. Reacting in time, the beast closed its mouth and the blood arrows collided with its teeth, upon touching the teeth, they broke against them, leaving no damage, the attack only slightly pushed the lizard's head back. The beast growled and spat saliva at her, the attack was much faster than the stone projectiles, barely managing to make a shield out of blood, Cassandra took the attack. Her shield was not damaged in any way and the drops of liquid that fell on the grass did not affect her in any way.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Well, at least it wasn't acid, how much pain there would be.
Seeing that the attack had no effect on her, the beast began to gather mana in the ground beneath it. Cassandra interfered with the spell with her aura, preventing it from being controlled properly. Apparently, the beast had never met anyone who actively interfered with its mana manipulation, as it reacted slowly to Cassandra's quick attack. With a sharp swing of both hands, she tried to deprive the beast of its sight, but it managed to pull its head back and Cassandra's attack left only deep cuts on its face. The beast's loud growl shook its insides, but it did not retreat. By delivering quick blows with "techniques", Cassandra was able to corner the beast and force it to dodge her attacks, but no matter how hard she tried, damage deeper than 6 cm simply did not work. A series of ten blows was interrupted by the lizard's new project. This time, she made it look more like an aerosol than a stream of water. Fearing the saliva, Cassandra retreated, giving the beast the opportunity to attack her. It made a quick lunge and jumped on her like a cat to cling to her with sharp claws. Cassandra used a large amount of her mana for this attack, blood began to flow from her hands forming a solid object in the air, but before she could create it, the beast cut it with its claws, thereby dispelling the spell. Without losing her composure, she took control of her mana and cast a simple spell, "Blood Explosion", while using the *technique" to retreat backwards. The beast gave chase, but before it could get far, her blood exploded behind it. The explosion was unfocused, but due to the solid fragments, it slightly pushed back and riddled the lizard's back. Groaning loudly, the beast spat saliva at her again, which Cassandra easily dodged. They both stopped and Cassandra began to analyze her opponent's fighting style.
So he is an ambush predator, has good agility, but not outstanding. His strength and durability are no joke, I could not seriously injure him, only anger him, but over time he will still get tired. His saliva most likely has a paralyzing effect. He carries out attacks at a long distance with the help of magic, but it is not yet clear whether he can manipulate another element, or only stone. In general, he fits the description of a young and strong beast that has not yet learned to use "techniques", perhaps he uses techniques, but due to his low statistics for his species, I do not notice it.
Cassandra smiled and thought that this would be the perfect opponent for her. The beast began to go around her from the side for a more advantageous position, Cassandra's plan was still to wear the beast down, or weaken it so much that she could take control of its blood. Changing the claws on her hands, she finished off the blood in them that was under strong pressure. The beast used a "technique" that greatly increased its speed, not expecting this, Cassandra was caught off guard due to the explosive speed. The beast was going to rip her head off. Using both a "technique" of movement and increased blood magic, Cassandra barely dodged the teeth, but it cost her a bitten cheek. Immediately noticing how the poison works, she created a spell that neutralizes it before it spreads too much. The beast did not immediately attack after its attack, apparently it was hoping for the paralysis poison. This time it was Xandra who attacked, using the technique she approached the beast and attacked it with her claws.The beast decided not to dodge but to attack her in response, they exchanged blows. The lizard's blow left deep cuts on her body, Xandra instead of delivering cutting blows stuck both her hands into the beast's shoulder, she immediately changed the shape of her claws and the blood that was in them under great pressure hit the creature inside. The lizard growled and slightly swayed in place, but the creature quickly came to its senses and hit her with a healthy paw, Cassandra easily moved away to inspect the damage to the beast. She clearly felt her blood inside the lizard, but was upset that she did not hit even close to the main arteries. If she was so lucky, everything could have ended much earlier. Now she could see the main problem in making the beast tired of minor injuries, it had [Minor Regeneration] [Special] like her. But now she was increasing her blood magic healing, so she barely felt the effects of his claw strike. The wound on her shoulder was almost completely repaired, and the deep cuts from the claws would also heal soon. It cost her a lot of life force, but Cassandra considered it acceptable. The beast had fully recovered from its dizziness and began to inspect its wound, which was not bleeding, apparently causing it confusion about the severity of the injury. Cassandra created new claws from the blood and attacked the beast. Her attacks were simple now, she used techniques to move faster than the lizard and deal light blows to it, while dodging all the attacks. But this was not the main plan. With the help of aura, she tried to control her blood, when she succeeded, the beast noticed this and released a larger cloud of saliva. Although Cassandra could quickly purify the poison, she did not risk exposing herself to it even for a second, quickly retreating and carefully watching the lizard. The beast was at the very edge of her aura and she still had control over her blood inside it, but she didn't do anything about it yet.The thing was that her attacks would be stronger the closer and weaker the lizard became. Going around the cloud, she moved towards the beast, digging her claws into its side and pouring them inside like blood. Not expecting retribution, Cassandra did not retreat too quickly and received a strong blow from the tail that threw her tree.
Damn Techniques, if he used them constantly I would have already run to the camp, but when he uses them so suddenly it really hurts. This is the second time I've been sent flying, when will this stop.
Cassandra got off the blow relatively easily, her arm was broken in 3 places and several ribs were broken. As she stood up, she felt her control over her blood disappear, she thought that the beast had gone beyond the range of her aura, but he suppressed her control with his willpower.
Great, everything is going as it should.
Leaning her hand on the tree, she watched what the beast would do. In its place, she would have run away, but the lizard is not smart enough to understand when it has been surpassed. She spent almost all of her life force on rapid recovery and she only had 10% left, but she was sure that it would be enough. Having fully restored her hand, she created bloody claws and attacked the beast. Her blows were even weaker and they were not as fast as before, but she did not need that. The lizard could not attack her with anything other than a simple swing of claws, because it was busy trying to reflect her control over its blood. The battle lasted for about 10 more minutes, it was measured strikes and dodges from both sides. It all ended when the will of the beast began to fade, using the technique Cassandra stuck both hands into the beast and used a spell inside it. All her blood that was inside the beast began to boil and expand. Seeing no need to retreat, she could watch as the [Stygian Hunter]'s eyes turned red, as the blood vessels inside them burst, and as blood began to flow again from all the wounds and holes in her victim's body.
Congratulations, you have defeated [Stygian Hunter][Rare] Lvl 56.
Congratulations, you have reached a new level in the [Blood Mage] [Rare] Lvl 11 > Lvl 12 class.
Blood Mage [Rare]
For 1 level you get: +34
Vitality +4
Constitution +4
Mental Control +4
Willpower +4
Mana +5
Mana output +4
Mana regeneration +5
+4 free attribute point
Bonus
+10 free attribute point for Blood Mana Core
It was a good fight, it's a pity that there was only one level. Well, the scales are really good , I hope they will make good armor?