Chapter 231 (2/2)

Hissing in annoyance, Lucretia made a small construct of her precious Aether and sent it into the mirror, dissipating her seed. The glowing yellow color faded slowly, clearly aware that something was amiss, but unable to determine what had earned its ire.

“It seems even this backwater place has a high level Pontiff… well as long as I stay away from that girl, it should be fine… he will likely assume the interference was something to do with the tournament. It will be dissatisfying, but without proof of harm, he probably won’t seek me out…”

Lucretia sucked on her lip contemplatively for several minutes. Then she sighed and stood, gathering up her two packages.

“Didn’t get this far by taking pointless risks. Anyways, let’s leave this place. Move somewhere closer.”

*****

Almost unwilling, Randidly set down the spatula and fork and began to walk back towards the city of Deardun. After finishing his training that day with Azriel, he had hurried out of the city and created a small fire, then constructing a hasty grill over it. These past few hours, as the sun slowly rose and called for the beginning of the day, he had been cooking and practicing his magic, as he had wanted to do as the closest thing his work ethic would allow to a “break”.

All in all, it had been a very well spent time since he had last checked his PP. Randidly had gained 3 Levels in the Spear Phantom’s Embrace, 6 Lvls in Dodge and Bacterial Regeneration, 2 Lvls in Aether Connection and Spear Mastery, 4 Lvls in the Golden Roots of Yggdrasil, Circle of Flame, and Battle Intent, and 1 Lvl in Incendiary Bolt, Stalemate Breaker, Physical Fitness, Grace, Flexibility of the White Hunters, and Cooking. This was in addition to some of the other skills that Randidly had tried, to some success, to distract Azriel.

It was enough to allow Randidly to finish off the Bacterial Mutation Path.

Congratulations! You have completed the BacterialPath! Some paths are not the places where your feet walk, but ways your body grows and adapts to the world around you. The places you have been have been harsh and unrelenting, and for that, you have been forever changed. But your body teems with life, and is ready to evolve. Branching Path!

You sense that your body can continue to refine itself further, either by directing its increasing improvements within the body or without. Where shall your blooms mutate?

It didn’t necessarily say what sort of improvements this would entail, so Randidly was rather annoyed that he had to make a decision without information. But still, Randidly had gotten this far by following the path he believed in. From the earliest time, as he had chosen rot as a source of life, to now, when he selected on focusing his refinements inward, his goal was always to improve himself.

At the moment, he had more than enough weapons. In his opinion, the other option would increase survivability, which especially now, was important.

Congratulations! You have focused your attention inward. Your organs and blood vessels are refined in purged, becoming more robust. Perception +5, Reaction +5, Resistance +5. Health and Stamina Regeneration increases by 1 per level. You have learned the Skill Living Blood (Un) Lvl 1.

Living Blood (Un): Your blood has an increased affinity to you, and carries a large amount of your Vitality. You have developed a small amount of control over your blood. Upon being wounded, should you have great concentration and remain undisturbed for an amount of time, you can control the spilled blood to flow back into your body, rapidly increasing the regeneration speed of the wound. Control over the blood increases with level. Amount of percentage of lost health that regenerates increases with skill level.

A sort of Meditation for health? But he had to focus? Intriguing, but it was hard to know how useful it would really be. That stat boosts were more concrete for the moment, and also more encouraging. But Randidly was nothing if not accepting of new skills, so he removed a spear and cut his arm, letting the blood slowly drip down his arm and away.

Then, closing his eyes, he focused on the wound, guiding his will there, and seized the blood, and began to will it back up his arm, flowing back into the wound. As promised, there was a huge boost in health regeneration, making it so half of the health he lost from the cut was recovered by absorbing the blood. The rest of the damage was low enough that his already impressive regeneration took care of it by the time he finished. However…

Randidly opened his eyes, panting, with a slight headache forming. Controlling blood was fucking hard. Ridiculously hard. His Control was at what he had assumed was a monstrously high level already, so he should be able to do it relatively easily, but this was far, far from easy.

The other problem was that healing the wound had taken him almost 5 minutes. His more optimistic hopes were that this would be able to help him heal mid match, but it seemed pretty certain that this was useless for now. Perhaps he could use it briefly, seizing only the blood nearest the wound, guiding it back into him, just earning a nice boost in health. That benefit would add up, and probably wouldn’t take too much time…

Randidly sighed. So many things to train. He had earned 2 skill levels in it already, so at least there was that.