Chapter 38: Whose SoulBlood?!
Next day
The sun had barely risen when Loki stepped out of his room and made his way toward the training room.
It was near the Adventure Guild building, a mere five-minute walk away from his inn. He had already told Athena that he was going to be busy for a few days.
She nonchalantly nodded, burying herself in piles of books.
She herself was quite busy reading all those books she had acquired from the trials.
Upon arriving at the training facility, Loki booked a private room for three days and stepped inside.
The room was simple with minimal interior. It had a large area to practice some skills and defensive runes etched around the walls.
The runes activate upon getting in contact with skills and disrupt their eden flow making it vanish.
He stood in the middle contemplating whether to absorb the SoulBlood first or practice his new art.
The [Primordial Origin Sutra] was a sword art so he didn't need to learn some new weapons, Though he already had a base in most of the weapons available because of his training at the Grimheart Estate.
"Hmm… I could practice the sword art first but my mind is more reclined towards absorbing the SoulBlood. After absorbing it, I could display the sword art's more potential since it would improve my physique, Probably."
After carefully pondering for a while, I made up my mind.
"Let's just absorb the SoulBlood first," I muttered activating my ring.
A vial containing a drop of crimson blood appeared before my hand. This blood was thicker than usual, with tiny, shining particles suspended within it – soul particles, responsible for the abilities it would grant him.
I carefully held the vial and took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Absorbing a SoulBlood could be very torturous or very relaxing depending on the physique.
SoulBlood can grant some abilities to other individuals but they can't grant all abilities. This power is exclusive to my physique which means I have a hundred percent absorption rate.
I popped out the vial's cap, letting its metallic smell spread through the room.
The blood glistened lightly upon contact with the fresh air. I calmly neared it towards my lips and gulped it down in one shot.
An intoxicating feeling arose inside as the blood flowed through my throat.
[Ding! SoulBlood Detected…]
[Ding! Host absorbed a SoulBlood…]
[Merging SoulBlood with Host's physique…]
I dropped down and lay on the floor circulating my Eden flow.
A weird transformation started to occur inside my body.
It felt odd as the muscles twitched and wiggled eerily, skin ripped up off the body, and bones creaked producing a horrible sound.
At first, the pain was bearable but as time passed by, its intensity continued increasing until it became a torture.
"Arghh…" I groaned slightly, clenching my jaws tightly.
Wild phenomena occurred all over my body. Tough scales appeared covering my skin, two horns popped out from my forehead, and giant wings appeared at my back covering my body.
Minutes passed by turning it hours as I lay down on the floor with blurry consciousness.
I couldn't even sense anything cause of the curse, all I felt was the excruciating pain from the ongoing transformation and the random system notifications popping before me.
The transformation continued, Scales had already covered my whole body, and the horns on my forehead crossed five centimeters in height and the wings behind my back were unfolding slowly.
I felt all this occurring around my body as I lay down tired, exhausted, and unconscious.
After the outer transformation was completed, the inner transformation began.
The internal organs inside his body rapidly transformed, new organs like an extra heart and a new breathing channel in his throat appeared.
A long scaly tail popped out from behind and sharp fangs started protruding from his mouth.
Hours later,
[Merging Successful…]
[New Abilities Unlocked…]
The absorption process was completed and he successfully added more abilities to his already overpowered physique.
"Uhh… What time is it?" Loki groggily woke up, checking his remaining time.
He still had a day left, which meant it took him nearly two days to successfully merge with the SoulBlood.
He stood up and started examining his body.
I feel strong and powerful. An unknown power seems to be flowing inside my veins passively nourishing my body.
"Status"
[Name: Loki GrimHeart]
[Age: 15]
[Physique: Deceiving Heaven Physique(+)]
[Tier: Rare]
[Rank: high-silver]
[Affinities: Order, Creation, Yin, Yang, Soul]
[Arts]
[Grimheart Reinforcement Sutra]
[Grimheart Eden Manipulation Sutra]
[Life-Severing Sword Art]
[Primordial Origin Sutra]
[Skills]
[Healing Touch]
[Divine Heal]
[Aegis of Life]
[Sensory Field]
[Blinding Light]
[Flame Pillar]
[Shadow Swap]
[...]
[...]
[Abilities]
[Inspect: Host can observe other's status.]
[Fool's gaze: Host can copy the target's ability, skills, affinities, or items after the copied conditions are met or if you defeat him.]
[Deceit Robe: Host can negate any mental or spiritual ability attacks.]
[...]
[...]
I skipped the information and directly clicked over the plus icon beside my physique.
[Deceiving Heaven Physique: A powerful physique that could quite literally deceive the heavens.]
Abilities:
Shrouding Heaven: Immune to any divinations and fate-related skills.
Divine Deception: Acquire other physique's abilities using their soulblood.
Heavenly Disguise: Transform into any being using their source blood.
Nature's Chosen: Significantly increased affinity with nature; wood element unlocked.
Boundless Vitality: Near-infinite vitality, capable of recovering from any physical or spiritual injuries.
Dragon's Gaze: Host can install fear in their enemy's mind simply by gazing at them. The effect decreases significantly over powerful opponents.
Dragon's Sense: Host acquires an additional sense. He can use the Eden around him to sense their surrounding.
Dragon's Breath: A powerful breathing attack that inflicts immense damage upon the enemies.
Dragon's Transformation: Host can temporarily transform into a Dragon. Transformation significantly boosts all aspects for five minutes.
[...]
"Damn!" I gaped at the sight before me.
"A DRAGON?! I absorbed the blood of a Dragon and It's not a regular blood but a FUCKING SOULBLOOD. Hahaha! I hit a jackpot."
I hysterically laughed glancing at the status.
Dragons were one of the most powerful and elusive races. They live on a separate continent and are very aggressive towards visitors, especially of other races.
Acquiring a dragon's blood is almost borderline impossible since they are very powerful.
Practically every dragon is born epic-tier and the older ones are likely the legendary tier. Hunting a dragon in itself is an enormous task not to mention you will be labeled as an enemy of the dragon race afterward.
So, Dragon Blood's value is almost priceless not to mention its SoulBlood which can literally provide the user with some of their abilities.
I broke from my reverie and tried out the new abilities.