"Still that kindling state was abnormal" Scarlett noted Ron’s kindling state was a lot more powerful than it should be.
"Since I got the Belmont bloodline it’s been like that, the side effects have become more drastic as a result" Ron explained his side effects to Scarlett who nodded after hearing it.
"I would be more surprised if you didn’t have drastic side effects, what you’ve basically done is exceed the ceiling a first stage kindling state could be" Scarlett wasn’t surprised at the side effects.
"Yeah, I figured that already which leads me to what my next choice should be" Ron explained his earlier thought before she showed up and wanted her input on things.
"Honestly I would do neither" Scarlett surprised Ron with her advice before she elaborated "Ron if you increase your power with a potion it’s not going to be as useful as the first time, your body builds a resistance whenever you consume those potions if you want the same result as last time be prepared to use a fortune. And if you increase your fortitude with wish points it's just a plain waste of points".
"Then what’s the answer?" Ron still didn’t understand where Scarlett was leading to with this explanation but it sounded correct.
"Simple, you focus on techniques for now. It’s how I just beat you, I used a technique at the end to slip past your whip" Scarlett told Ron his weakness was techniques and Ron was reminded of his fight with the spirit where it also had multiple techniques to increase its fighting capabilities.
"I see, I did make a bet with an interesting old man at the town lord’s manor" Ron mentioned the old man and his sneaking technique.
"Interesting let’s talk as we walk, you’ve probably seen more interesting things knowing you" Scarlett said as she helped Ron up. It was a simple walk and Ron told Scarlett about his own dungeon run and the subsequent travelling with Sabrina. Scarlett did tease him when he mentioned Sabrina which Ron promptly ignored, although Sabrina was pretty Ron still didn’t have feelings for her.
"Meanwhile I’ve been stuck in mazes while you’re hanging around killing scorpions and even saw literal gods, gotta admit I’m jealous" Scarlett told Ron after hearing his side of the story.
"To be fair, you’ve broken through a pretty tough bottleneck. That red hue when you activated the kindling state was from the breakthrough?" Ron asked about the earlier red hue.
"Not really from that one, there are multiple stages when it comes to the kindling state. You’re currently in the first stage and normally one cannot exhibit power above the first state but we’ve covered that already. The ‘red hue’ as you call it is actually the second stage, the colour is indicative of your flame’s colour as the flame is emulated outside and literally covers your body" Scarlett explained about the first two stages of the kindling state.
"Interesting, then what is the third stage?" Ron knew Scarlett was currently in the third stage and was dying to know.
"You’re just gonna have to wait until my fight with that old man" Scarlett smiled and didn’t tell Ron, causing him to be a little annoyed.
"Fine whatever, what will you do after your fight with the old man?" Ron knew her objective to break through and now that she achieved it she would have another objective. Although Ron did know it he wanted her to say it. Scarlett stopped for a second at the unexpected question.
"I’m going south" Scarlett said with a fire in her eyes, she clearly hadn’t forgotten her events with the goblins and was going to pay them back ten fold.
"Then after that?" Ron was happy she was going to deal with the goblins and didn’t want to miss her wrath when that happened, but after that was a different story. Scarlett gave it some thought before she sighed out.
"Probably going to head home after that" Scarlett was beginning to miss her home a little with all that happened, after dealing with unfinished business she would ask Ron to send her home.
"I see" Ron was silent after hearing her answer, it was expected yet he would have to say goodbye to a good friend, the mood dampened as they both fell to silence.
Using this moment in silence Ron reflected on the spar he had with Scarlett, in the beginning he was winning due to his weapon and difference in striking range. Then they got more serious and Ron noticed his lack of techniques, they were more than just flashy moves, they could create openings. Ron remembered during the barrage he felt strange and used his free hand to change the trajectory of the whip, did his bloodline show him a whip technique? Thinking about it logically techniques shouldn’t only be from his body, weapon techniques were also an option.
Seeing another hidden effect of his bloodline Ron had to admit he had underestimated the Belmont bloodline, he originally only wanted the bloodline due to their connection with the Vampire Killer and their supposed superhuman strengths. Being able to tap into his bloodline to get pointers from the other Belmonts never even crossed his mind.
"What type of techniques would you recommend for me at the moment" Ron asked Scarlett, the silence had been long enough and Ron wanted to break the tension.
"Body forging mainly, with a body forging technique you would be able to minimise if not negate the negative side effects of the kindling state. At the same time it would also boost your passive defence" Scarlett explained what Ron was needing she continued with a warning however "Be careful, like the potions those techniques are painful"
"Hooray, more pain" Ron said sarcastically, he was slowly beginning to doubt if he wasn’t an M with all the pain he had brought upon himself. "You don’t happen to know one such technique correct?" Ron asked Scarlett if she knew a technique like that.
"Nope, It was a type of technique I’ve never really delved into because of financial situations. Those techniques were pretty costly to train in my world so be prepared to fork over some wish points" Scarlett told Ron about the costs which made Ron groan once more.
"I hope my wallet will be big enough for the spendings" Ron said as he heard Scarlett talk about the body forging technique.
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"The road to strength is filled with pain and hardships" Scarlett said as she heard Ron’s sarcasm.
"Words from your master?" Ron noticed how she spoke those words.
"Pretty much" Scarlett confirmed.
They walked in silence after that conversation to the town, the time it took wasn’t all that much, only around 3-4 hours. The distance one got thrown from the dungeon varied, sometimes one would be thrown nearly a day and sometimes right outside the gates. Soon they were right outside the gates, Scarlett and Ron wouldn’t attract the attention of the guards this time around as they both had identification.
They both decided to meet up with Sabrina first, this would be Scarlett’s first time meeting Sabrina. Ron knocked at the door of her house when they got there and the door flung open, inside was Sabrina who suddenly hugged Ron. It was extremely unexpected from Sabrina.
"Congratulations!" Sabrina said excitedly before registering that there was another person standing by.
"Uh, thanks. Sabrina, this is Scarlett who I’ve told you about" Ron tried to move on the best he could and introduced Scarlett who was trying her best not to laugh at the situation.
"Hello there, Ron here has told me quite a lot about you" Sabrina tried her best to hide her embarrassment.
"Same here, and I see he was not kidding" Scarlett decided on teasing Ron and Sabrina both by obviously scanning her body. Ron could already feel a headache incoming as Sabrina turned an even darker shade of red.
"Let’s go while the sun is still up, we need to go to the town lord" Ron wanted to move along before the situation got more out of hand.
The walk to the town lord’s manor was pretty boring except for the fact that the two women were talking and getting to know each other better, Ron was the topic of discussion most of the time with Scarlett even mentioning some embarrassing moments of his. After discussing Ron’s black history for a bit they came to the town lord’s manor, Ron knocked on the door and saw the town lord open the door who’s face lit up once he saw Scarlett.
"Excellent! You came out alive, well shall we have our fight right away?" The town lord didn’t even acknowledge Ron or Sabrina and had all eyes on Scarlett.
"Not yet, he’s got business with you" Scarlett held the town lord back for the moment.
"Ugh, you want your merit points right? Here, I don’t know how you got rid of the scorpions but it doesn’t matter" The town lord transferred Ron 100 merit points for being able to get rid of the scorpions.
"Thank you, I also have another matter that might interest you" Ron said as he took out the crook and flail he had gotten from the eagle headed man. The moment Ron took out both items the town lord’s eyes went wide in shock before his energy spiked.
"That is a very interesting item you have there, what prevents me from taking it right now?" The town lord threatened Ron immediately, upon the town lord’s energy spiking multiple guards came from everywhere with their weapons drawn. Before Ron could answer the man another energy spike came from next to him, it was Scarlett.
"I am preventing you from taking it, don’t think the guards can take him on" Scarlett threatened the town lord back. Tension seemed to be on an all time high and people came from everywhere to get a better view of the situation however with the guards there nobody interfered. It seemed like an eternity before the town lord sighed out and lowered his energy.
"Stand down" He ordered the guards to stand down before focusing his attention on Ron again. "Follow me, we’ll talk inside" he said as he walked inside. The party followed him all with different expressions, Scarlett one of victory, Ron one of interest the item was worth more than he expected, and Sabrina with shock just what type of monsters are these?
Following the town lord they were led to a room with a table and two couches, the room was filled with hieroglyphs and Anubis statues confirming Ron’s earlier theory about the town lord’s identity. Scarlett and Sabrina didn’t seem to know the town lord's identity. They sat down on the couch with a butler bringing them tea and snacks, the butler was the same old man who Ron had seen earlier.
Seeing Ron so early surprised the old man and the town lord spotted it immediately. "You know him?" The old man nodded and explained his earlier encounter with Ron. The town lord mulled over the man’s words and said with a surprised tone "You beat the second level of the dungeon already?" It was unexpected and the town lord didn’t know that Ron had already entered. Ron confirmed the man’s words.
"Did you find the secret?" The town lord asked to which Ron once more nodded and explained what he saw. The town lord was silently listening and seemed to be more emotional than usual when Ron finished his narration.
"I suspect you’ve some guesses to my identity" The town lord said to Ron with much more respect in tone of voice. "If I had to guess you’re a descendant of the pharaoh’s of the pyramid itself" Ron voiced his theory.
"Pretty much spot on, my name is Ankhtakelot I am indeed a descendent of the royal pharaoh lineage" the town lord or rather Ankhtakelot confirmed Ron’s theory.
"Long ago one of my ancestors made the stupid mistake of meddling with dark necromancy, as a result he managed to effectively become immortal capable of taking corpses of the dead as puppets. However the gods weren’t happy with his action and as a result they cursed our bloodline making it we would be trapped in eternal limbo once we died. The dungeon was originally the ancestors' tomb, however his name was removed due to his actions, and the descendents were also buried there with the hope of every moving on" Ankhtakelot told them the history of the dungeon.
"I see, so the secret in the dungeon was to lift the curse and allow the descendants to move on" Ron spotted the crux of the secret and the condition was to exorcise the spirit without destroying any of the corpses of the descendents.
"Correct, I have spent countless hours researching the dungeon before I went in; however I still couldn’t find the secret. I never would’ve expected you to find it, and even get a reward from the gods" Ankhtakelot told Ron.
"Well the reward is useless in my hands as I can guess only a bloodline descendent can actually use it correctly, so what can you offer me in return for it?" Ron was interested in selling the item.
"I guess I can’t buy it with merit points, can I? Speak what is it that you want" Ankhtakelot wasn’t an idiot, he knew Ron would never accept merit points.
"I want manuals for all the techniques in this city including the ones you teach guys like him" Ron said as he pointed to the old man. The old man was clearly amused, he was originally only going to teach Ron if he swore fealty to the town.
"Impossible, I admit the crook and flail are important to me. The techniques form the foundation of the entire town as such I cannot accept such a gigantic demand" Ankhtakelot shot down Ron’s offer.
"Then show me what techniques you have and I will pick 5 of them" Ron really only wanted a body forging technique and the stealth technique from the town lord. However, if he could get more why not push for more?
"Only 3 techniques, don’t think techniques are cabbages one can get everywhere" Ankhtakelot gave Ron a counter offer.
"Deal, first one is his stealth stepping technique" Ron accepted the deal and immediately chose the first one. Ankhtakelot nodded his head and the old man threw Ron a booklet which contained the technique.
"The second one is a body forging technique" Ron laid out his second technique that he wanted. Ankhtakelot frowned at his request and warned Ron "Are you sure? We do have one however nobody ever attempted it due to its diabolical training regime". Ron knew they would be pretty painful and thus nodded his head. The old man left and within a minute he came back with an old and dusty booklet, clearly it hadn’t been used much.
"Do you have any whip techniques?" Ron asked Ankhtakelot about whip techniques to which he shook his head "Whips aren’t used too much even in these parts thus no technique was ever created." A bummer however his bloodline could give him inspiration for more techniques. Ron thought about his weaknesses before he landed on one, one that he had neglected for a while now.
"Do you have a movement technique that allows one to move faster?" Ron laid out his question to which Ankhtakelot nodded and sent the old man out once more before returning with a booklet. The booklet was given to Ron and with that Ron was given three techniques, he gave the crook and flail to Ankhtakelot. He didn’t want to scam the town lord because one, he didn’t like to do such scummy things and two the town lord still held power.