After the class ended, Mwana planned to go and consult the Academy’s vice-head regarding his bloodline awakening. Before he left the class, Fury came over and the two hugged for a long time. It had been over a year since they last saw each other and for children their age, a year or two was almost an eternity. It was enough time for them to forget how annoying they found each other and genuinely miss each other. “See you later?” Kia questioningly said to Mwana who stammeringly replied, “Yeah” as he left the class. He knew that they would see each other as Fury’s father would arrange to live near Mwana’s family household.
As Mwana walked to the Vice head’s office, he was joined by Cheza and Jua Damu. Both were also newly awakened in the past few months and had questions to ask thus choosing to discuss their bloodlines with the vice-head. Jua Damu was one of the 13 boys in Mwana’s class. The meaning of his name was ‘blood’ and he lived up to it by wearing dark red robes 90% of the time.
“The old man sure is living comfortably,” Mwana commented when they got to the old man’s office. The ‘office’ in this case was a straw hut at the edge of the school. There was a small forest garden near the hut and at the center of this garden was a small pond. After walking past the trees, Mwana and the other two boys found the old man fishing at the edge of the pond without a care in the world. Unlike the other teachers whose schedules were packed from morning to evening, the old man clearly had a lot of free time. He was dressed in white robes with black patterns. Besides that, he did not wear any shoes. As for his physical features, he was a typical old man with a thin frail-looking body, wrinkled face, sunken eyes, bald head, and a long white beard.
The 3 boys first greeted him with a bow before sitting beside him around the pond. The vice-head had an amiable smile on his face suggesting that this was a good time to seek his advice. However, as they asked their questions, the old man kept deflecting and asking them about their daily antics. He was clearly bored and looking to liven up his day by hearing the children’s stories.
Eventually they got the old man to stay on topic, “When it comes to Bloodline Affinity vs. Elemental Affinity, you ask which is more important, which takes precedence of the other? Well blood can be called the fundamental base of all things in the body! What could be better means of transporting natural energy than blood? Your blood circulates through every nook and cranny of your entire body. Every organ, every muscle, every bone, they are all connected by blood!”
The boys found these words simple to understand and direct to the point so Mwana said with a nod, “En, you really do have some knowledge old man. Over 60% of the human body is water with a lot of that being blood. Indeed to circulate energy in the body, blood has to be the most crucial thing!” The old man looked at Mwana strangely, he always felt as if Mwana treated him like an infant whenever they interacted.
“You just awakened yesterday? Stretch out your hand, let me see.” The vice-head asked Mwana. While Cheza and Duma came for advice, they had awakened their bloodline for a while now and were just looking for general advice to further advance their bloodline power and synchronize it with their martial practice as they edged closer to Bone Forging realm. It was Mwana who needed more specific advice. After the old man caught his wrist, Mwana could feel a powerful yet gentle energy pour into his body. It left him with a feeling of nakedness as if his entire body was being perused which immediately made him shiver.
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“Sigh, The Myriad Dragon Bloodline?” With a somewhat disappointed sigh, the old man guessed Mwana’s bloodline. Although it was just a guess, with his level of expertise he was more than likely accurate.
“Sigh? Is it that bad?” Mwana asked with a concerned look on his face.
The old man answered Mwana truthfully, “It isn’t bad but it isn’t the best either especially with the combinations of Dragon bloodlines making up your Myriad Dragon Bloodline. Sometimes it is better to have one pure bloodline rather than a mixture. As you know, your father had the Bright or pure Sun Dragon Bloodline. It was very powerful and compatible with the Sun Divine Arts thus allowing him to improve in martial practice at breakneck speed. The Myriad Dragon Bloodline loses some of these advantages and there is something even worse! ”
“Worse! Old man, stop scaring me. What do you mean worse? ” Mwana slowly felt the joy at his bloodline awakening turning into pain.
The old man kept explaining, “Apart from the Sun Dragon Bloodline mixed in, I’ve also sensed 2 more bloodlines in your Myriad Dragon Bloodlines and if I’m not wrong, the other should be the Blood Dragon Bloodline!”
On hearing that, Damu gave Mwana a strange look. Mwana himself looked deflated. He knew well of the Blood Dragon Bloodline. In the legends of legendary dragons, Blood Dragons were known for two things: their love for war and bloodshed, and their extreme gluttony and hunger. The Blood Dragon Bloodline encapsulated both these aspects. The first could be controlled but the second could not.
Mwana knew for sure that his mother had aspects of the Blood Dragon Bloodline. This bloodline was one of the half-awakened bloodlines. The reason it would not usually fully awaken was because in its ‘greed’ the bloodline would siphon off energy and nutrients from the host. As a result, people with this bloodline were like bottomless pits. Most of the energy they accumulated would be absorbed and locked up by the bloodline making it harder to advance in martial arts. They would only be able to awaken it much later making their early path much harder. However, this was rewarded by greater strength in the later stages. Mwana only managed to awaken it as his bloodline was a mixture of the Sun Dragon, Blood Dragon and another unknown Dragon Bloodline instead of the pure Blood Dragon Bloodline.
Compared to warriors, people who did not practice martial arts would be affected much more by the Blood Dragon bloodline leaving them in a perpetually weakened state. Although it was not the sole culprit, Mwana knew this was one of the reasons for his mother’s health condition.
The old man further explained the issue with Mwana’s bloodline using Damu as an example, “This kid Damu has a pure bloodline solely related to blood. His bloodline simply enriches his blood. It is a small thing but enough to put him in the top 10% of bloodlines. The Blood Dragon on the other hand is the exact opposite as it is gluttonous. It sucks up nutrients from the blood and after awakening, it gets even more gluttonous. The power it grants is incredible after awakening but the energy and resource consumption will double or even triple!”
Hearing the vice-head’s words, Mwana was almost despairing. His family was not rich. Where would he get double or triple the training resources? He was barely making it with what the village provided him! “Old man, is there a way around this issue?”
Hearing Mwana’s tone, the old man felt like he had scared him too much. He could also see Cheza giving him the eye from the side as if saying, ‘soften the blow’. “Cough cough, of course there is a solution.” With a cough, he quickly put to rest some of Mwana’s worries. Seeing calm return to Mwana’s face, he smiled with a nod before continuing. “The most direct method is to get to Blood Boiling as soon as possible. At Blood Boiling one has much more control of their blood. They can directly control how much energy and nutrients are absorbed into their blood. However, you don’t have the resources to reach Blood Boiling so you should just skip the other levels and directly enter Blood Boiling.”
“Skip levels!” All the 3 boys exclaimed at the same time.