Vaughn stood in the booth, not quite sure what to say so he looked at the magic power gauge to check what kind of score was given but the device laid on the ground as a pool of silver liquid; it had clearly been destroyed.

(How could an apprentice grade spell, even if it was advanced grade, break a magic tool reinforced with rank 5 materials? That's impossible...yet it just happened. That scene earlier was so bizarre, especially the appearance of that lone figure, those eyes of his gave even me a few shivers.)

Vaughn was internally a little shook but on the surface he had to show a confident, in control front.

COUGH COUGH

"Everyone, it seems that one of our competitors had a very interesting spell in his arsenal but you can rest assured that there was no cheating involved; the spell he cast was definitely of the apprentice grade."

Nick looked up at Vaughn and thought:

(He clearly wants everyone to think that he is in control of the situation but these people are definitely not idiots. I don't even know what happened, do you Slade?)

Slade spoke uncertainly:

[I told you that anything described as 'cursed' could possibly be trouble. I am not sure why things turned out this way but with magic, anything could happen when all sorts of different factors are mixed in. For example, that strange spell, your special mindscape, your three lone affinities, etcetera. What just happened could be the result of a number of factors playing a role.]

Nick continued to ponder as Carla stood up and spoke:

"Uncle Vaughn, seeing as how Nick's spell resulted in the gauge device being broken, that clearly means that the magic tool's durability was overpowered and in that case even if it did not give a score, Nick should receive a 20/20 score. Aren't I correct?"

The rest of the Jenners internally cursed Carla for being shameless but her request was not unreasonable despite the strangeness of the young man's spell, after all, they were all witnesses and the young man had indeed cast an apprentice grade spell.

Vaughn looked at Carla for a few moments, then at Nick and announced:

"Nick Capitol has hereby received a score of 20/20 for breaking the magic tool. He is therefore the undisputed winner of this stage."

The other candidates went into a short lived uproar but under the watchful eye of a Regular Magician, they did not dare to act wildly. Vaughn announced:

"The rest of the tournament will continue after another three hours and will consist of one-on-one elimination battles where the ultimate winner will be the one who does not get eliminated. Everyone is dismissed."

Nick didn't waste any time in moving because he felt a sudden wave of exhaustion come over him and so he quickly left the arena with many gazes focused on him and went back to Carla's room. The door had been kept unlocked by Carla so Nicked entered without a problem. He flung himself onto the sofa and was so tired and his eyes so heavy that he immediately fell into a deep sleep.

.....................

Nick suddenly found himself in the same space he had been in when he cast Cursed Domain. Bones lined the ground and a run down building was situated in their midst and a lone figure sat on its roof looking down on Nick, seemingly covered in darkness, the only thing being clearly visible was his ruby red eyes filled with malice.

Nick looked up at him and asked:

"Who are you?"

The figure replied:

"That is not your concern"

Nick's right eyelid twitched and then he asked:

"Okay, then what do you want?"

The figure replied:

"That is also not your concern."

Nick sighed and after thinking for a while, asked another question:

"So then, what is my concern?"

The figure spoke slowly and with clear malice:

"You seemed to have gained some relation to my malevolent shrine and I am not sure why that is even possible. So tell me, how did a runt like you gain access to a road leading to the pinnacle of blade magic."

Nick was confused.

"Blade magic? I cannot use blade magic."

The figure looked at Nick silently for some time after hearing his reply and then spoke with lost interest:

"You, who does not know your own talent has actually stumbled onto my path. It is certainly true that pigs sometimes do find jewels. You and I will speak again but only when you are not so clueless."

..................

After the figure was done speaking, Nick woke up from his sleep. With hazy eyes he looked around the room to see Carla sitting at the table, looking at him. She spoke with some amount of concern:

"What happened out there, Nick?"

Nick sat up while slowly rubbing his eyes and replied:

"To be honest, I am not sure myself so I would appreciate it if you didn't pry. It is something that is currently under control."

Carla sighed and said:

"I will respect your wishes this time but my uncle has become very interested in you and is asking me to introduce you to him later so just be prepared. The battle part of the tournament will begin in one hour, I will leave you alone to prepare. Just so you know, you have already exceeded my expectations so no matter how you do in the battles to come, I will get you access to one of our private realms when the tournament ends."

Nick replied:

"Thank you."

Carla nodded her head and left silently.

When Nick was about to talk to Slade, he felt a searing pain envelop his right palm. Nick looked at where he had cut earlier and was surprised to see that the cut had now healed but there was now a strange black symbol drawn onto the middle of his right palm.

(Slade, what the hell is this?)

Slade replied with some incredulity in his tone:

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

[Kid, quick, check your mindscape.]

(Huh, why?)

[Just do it.]

Nick closed his eyes and internally chanted his meditation; his consciousness appeared within his mindscape. Everything looked the same, including the sea, sky and the road where the golden figure walked.

"Why did Slade tell me to look in here?"

Nick was about to eject his consciousness when he noticed something strange about the stars in the sky. With the large bluish red star at the center, the stars seemed to form some kind of formation.

"No, that is definitely different from a magic formation. That actually seems more like the laws for an advanced grade spell being represent by the stars. This is strange."

Nick's consciousness exited his mindscape and he asked Slade:

"Did you see it?"

Slade read Nick's thoughts and affirmed:

[Unbelievable kid, somehow that Cursed Domain has resulted in you becoming the host for a bloodline spell.]

(A bloodline spell, what is that?)

[A bloodline spell is exactly what it sounds like. It is a magic power borne from the bloodline of a powerful Magician. People with bloodline spells are able to cast it as soon as they form their mindscape and establish their foundation laws. They are often related to a person's affinities and will be passed on to their children and usually only members of the bloodline can use that spell.]

(Okay, but how the hell did I get it?)

[That Cursed Domain spell that you used required you to cut yourself and that is where the mark that represents that bloodline has appeared. The description of the spell did say that based on your own talent and affinities, something unpredictable would happen. It seems to me that you were transported to a space that forced you to inherit a bloodline. Whoever that figure that you interacted with was probably did that to you purposefully. That space did seem strange, you probably were transported there because of the large reserves of magic energy that you have in addition to some other factors, that's why your magic energy reserves were so depleted before and seeing how things ended up, Cursed Domain probably worked by making use of that space's power to make the attack via that mysterious Magician but the Magician seemed to have also cursed you with his bloodline while he was at it.]

(What does cursing me with his bloodline mean?)

[It means that his blood and power is being stored within your body.]

(Well, what the hell do I do?)

[First things first, we should attempt to use the bloodline spell to find out how powerful it is and how it relates to you. Take another look at it and cast it.]

(Okay.)

Nick's consciousness appeared within his mindscape once again and he took a look at the patterns that were made up by the stars.

"Hmmm...whatever this spell is seems very complex but somehow I feel a sort of closeness with it like I've known about it since I was born. Slade said that I have to cast it and with the familiarity that I seem to have with it, that shouldn't be very difficult."

Nick focused and it was like he did have a certain connection with the laws formed by the stars within his mindscape, like he could cast the spell at a moments notice. Nick was ready to begin.

"Oh, what is the name of this spell. I think that figure mentioned a term that struck me when I heard it. It was..."

As Nick's consciousness left his mindscape, he whispered the name of the spell in the real world:

"Malevolent Shrine."

The level of the magic sea withing his mindscape dropped rapidly and all of his surroundings turned into a black void filled with bones and an old wooden building loomed over him from behind. Within two seconds, the space returned to normal and the bones and the building were gone but everything that was in the room other than the fours walls and the door had been cut to pieces, being barely recognizable.

"So this is the spell's effect, kind of cool."

Slade said sternly:

[Kid, this is the seed of a very powerful blade path spell. You might be in very serious danger. I suspect that the Magician who cursed you plans to use you as some sort of host later on. We have to deal with the bloodline curse.]

(Could you be wrong? Remember that I gave up my affinity with blade path when I got my affinity with space path.)

Slade replied:

[With that foreign bloodline inside of you anything could be possible. Go and ask Carla for these items that I am about to send to your thoughts. They should be relatively common.]

Nick took out his smart phone and called Carla.

"What is it Nick, you still have forty minutes until the next stage, you should be resting?"

"Carla, to make sure that I come out on top in the next stage, I actually need a few items to help me with a method that I am planning to use."

"Oh, If it is to help us get a better score, I will see what I can do. What are the items?"

Nick new that this half truth would get Carla to help him, after all, self interest was the lever that could move anyone.

"The items are..."

Nick listed the items that Slade had instructed him to get and Carla replied that they were easy to get and that she would have them gathered and bring them to him in ten minutes.

Slade then explained what Nick was supposed to do when he received the items. Ten minutes later, Carla entered the room and she looked around at all of the furniture and fixtures that had been cut to shreds and asked Nick:

"What have you been doing in here?"

"Carla, I'll explain later but right now, I need to prepare for the next stage alone."

Carla looked at Nick expressionlessly for half a minute and then said:

"Carry on, I won't pry, for now."

Carla handed over the items and then left.

(It's a good thing that her desire to win has overwhelmed her curiosity about me. Women never found me that interesting anyway.)

Nick locked the door and looked at the items.

"One basin, one magically enhanced surgical knife, one basic level healing potion, one pack of drawing chalk."

Nick cleared an area in the room and the began to draw a formation that Slade had placed in his mind.

[This is an enhanced blood infusion formation that I picked up from a defeated enemy at one point during my rank 7 years. The only way to effectively combat the bloodline curse is to ironically become truly a part of that bloodline so we are going to use you as the power source for this formation to replace your current bone marrow with tissue that self produces a mixture of your original blood plus the cursed blood that is now within your right hand. Let's begin.]

Nick finished drawing the magic formation and placed himself at the center; Nick remember that he had also used himself as the power source for the soul calming formation so the process was not entirely new to him. Nick then took the magically enhanced surgical knife and made a deep cut into his palm; he gritted his teeth and let the blood from his palm flow into the basin.

("Why is the blood black?")

[Because it is cursed blood and even if we bleed you like this, with that mark on your palm, more would eventually be generated and continue to mix with your actual blood until it influenced you physiology to a certain degree.]

Nick sighed.

(I really do have some weird luck, Andre was right. What were the chances that this would happen to me at this time?)

[That doesn't mater right now, let's deal with the situation at hand.]

Nick nodded and let his palm bleed until he could see red blood. Slade instructed further:

[Alright, activate the formation while chanting these words. You might want to lie down for this procedure, It will be painful.]

Nick heeded Slade's warning and lied down while chanting the words of a mystical language that he was unfamiliar with in order to activate the formation and there soon developed a buzzing noise within the room as the symbols of the formation started rotating rapidly on the floor. The black blood within the basin soon began to boil and Nick could feel the blood within his body begin to move rapidly. After a certain amount of boiling, the black blood within the bucket was lifted into the air and it flowed into Nick's nostrils, ears and mouth; he constantly felt like he was drowning.

As if there was a battle going on, Nick's original blood and the black blood started mixing and reacting violently. The pain was almost unbearable as Nick felt that his bones were being broken apart and put back together and his body felt like hot coals were being placed all over it. Nick still gritted his teeth and endured the pain while struggling to chant the words that kept the formation going for the next ten minutes. At the end of that time, the pain receded and his right palm started bleeding red blood again. Slade instructed:

[Go ahead and drink that healing potion before you bleed out.]

Nick got up despite his current discomfort and drank the healing potion that was placed beside the formation which had stopped rotating already. The incision on his right palm was mended within a few seconds but there was still a burning pain at the area that the incision was made and the mark left by the curse was still present.

[We will not be able to remove that mark for now but at least it should not produce anymore black blood after you infused your bloodline with the cursed blood.]

(What does obtaining a cursed bloodline mean for me?)

[It could mean many things, many of which are not so good but under the circumstances, I really had no other solutions to the imminent danger. The good news though, is that considering the power of the first bloodline spell, this bloodline may be powerful enough to grant other bloodline abilities or change your physiology and other aspects of you later on.]

(...Great.)

Nick was not excited in the least because he was forced to do a choppy procedure on his own body, practically altering his DNA with hardly any time to consider. Nick sat on the floor for a while and considered his next steps.

(The last stage of the tournament starts in fifteen minutes. I'll go to the arena now. Oh, before that...)

Nick took out his smart phone and called Carla again; she picked up at the first ring.

"What do you want now, Nick?"

"I am kind of ready to go to the arena but before that, do you have a place in this estate where can test my magic affinities?"