Chapter 664: Bloodline Prison Realm (part 2)
Contrary to what the little tiger girl believed, Daimon had... no idea of what was going on, as in the silvery light that previously cladded his body was a completely new thing for him.
’That felt a bit like mom’s mana before she was revived, so my vampire lineage was the first one to be influenced?’, wondered Daimon.
Unlike the other lineages he had, which had granted him great abilities, his vampire one could be said to be lacking, after all, unlike Aisha who was considered the most talented among the Silverhearts, and probably one of the most talented vampires ever in the four galaxies.
Daimon’s vampire lineage was weak back then, it wasn’t until he obtained "Mythical Vitality" that his vampire lineage showed some promise, since that skill saturated his blood with vitality, but even so, that was obtained from absorbing the manticore, so it wasn’t a skill that came from his vampire lineage.
Only recently thanks to the Lineage Temple, he has learned that the reason behind the lacks of his vampire lineage, are caused by the fact that it’s incomplete, as a result of it, he doesn’t have Aisha’s extremely strong metal affinity, nor the capacity to empower himself with it, like she does.
The metal affinity Daimon has, was developed by him thanks to the fact that he doesn’t have limits in what affinities regard, and while it’s not weak by any means, it can’t be compared to Aisha’s.
’Well, it was tit for tat, the Nactis’s darkness affinity was probably added to mine, which helped me obtain the "Lover of Darkness" from Erin later on, and I still inherited the Day Walker’s trait to not be affected by extreme positive energies’, he thought.
After a moment, Daimon saw through the gaps on the rocks blocking the entrance, how a fierce battle broke out between all the blood specters, the star ranked ones formed packs in order to defeat and eat a few Lord rank specters, and Lord ranked ones hunted the star ranked ones that were left behind by their respective packs.
But all the previous simply ended in the stomach of an Arch ranked blood specter which had a canine-like shape, it was a carnage.
Having taken a look at the situation outside, and knowing that with the current state he has achieved, it would be too much for him to face those giant Arch ranked blood specters, without relying on absolutely anything but the strength he has obtained from the Bloodline Prison realm, Daimon returned to the back of the cave where Dana was calmly waiting for him.
Since Daimon has many lineages, the question if all of them will benefit from the blood specters, remained, luckily there was a certain little tiger girl who has also more than one lineage according to Leena, resting not too far from him.
"I think it’s gotten worse than before, yesterday there were only a couple of giant blood specters here and there, but there are more of them now, right?", asked the little tiger girl, apparently her lineage acted as a sensory ability, instead of mana sense which she was unable to use due to the restrains in place.
"Yeah, there were a lot of them, in fact I think that by tomorrow, there won’t be many star rank blood specters during the day, even the weaker ones will be Lord ranked ones", he said to which Dana nodded before saying.
"Sister Arianna has gotten strong enough to face even the stronger Lord ranked specters, if big brother Daimon works together with her, facing the Arch ranked specters should be possible".
"Oh?", Daimon raised an eyebrow with curiosity, certainly that martial "junior sister" of his, as a second year student, her realm before entering the ruin was already rather high, so he was indeed curious to see how much she has advanced during this time they haven’t seen each other.
"Mm, sister Arianna has already reached the early stage of the ninth star realm, and her external phenomenon is amazing, a red giant wolf that can devour a Lord ranked blood specter with a single bite!", said the little tiger girl.
"A red giant wolf, not made out of lightning like that tiger you used earlier?", asked Daimon.
Just like Dana, Arianna’s affinity is lightning, and her talent lies in the mage path which is a rare occurrence within the Argent, so it’s a bit strange that unlike Dana, the external phenomenon produced by Arianna isn’t made out of lightning.
"Mm, apparently the aspects that are chosen by the Blood Prison realm to be focused on, are the weakest ones of our lineages, I don’t know the specifics about sister Arianna, but in my case that’s why the phenomenon is shaped like a Storm Tiger, it’s my normal lightning what I can use, instead of my special one, though it’s many stages stronger than it would normally be", said the little tiger girl.
"I see...", mumbled Daimon, that made sense, in his case the "weak" part of his vampire lineage was a lack of offensive power, since he did have the high vitality that came with it, and the immunity to extreme positive energies as well.
For the little tiger girl, the lightning that she inherited from the Jolbaris lineage, in other words the part of her affinity that came from the Storm Tiger, supposedly, was considered weaker than the one from the Star Lioness, since Dana was able to awaken that special lightning at such a young age.
The curious part, is that apparently Arianna’s lightning was judged to be stronger than the aspect of a werewolf’s lineage that came to mind when Dana mentioned a "giant red wolf", which would be vitality that is also supposed to be strongest trait of a werewolf.
Anyway, Daimon decided to put the matter at the back of his head for now, he will get to the bottom of it when he reunites with that junior sister of his, for now since travelling at night it’s not a good idea with their current abilities and they have had dinner already, it was time to sleep.
With a wave of his hand, Daimon took out a couple of individual mattresses, pillows and even blankets, while this was the normal for him and the ones that had been travelling with him from the very beginning, like the Risha sisters for example, the little tiger girl’s eyes were sparkling at the first bed she has seen in months ever since she entered the magic ruin.
"Have a good rest, because we’ll start moving as soon as "night" ends and won’t stop until it starts again", said Daimon to which Dana continuously nodded.
"Mm!", she jumped onto the bed, to then wrap herself up in the blanket, an action that Daimon understood the next second, when temperature dropped like crazy out of nowhere.
Which would explain why she was really happy to have a warm comfortable place to sleep on, also apparently, she has already learned one of the most useful abilities to survive in the wilderness, which is making the most of every safe moment to rest.
Though she seemed to be still lacking in terms of awareness of her surroundings, considering how it seemed as if she wouldn’t wake up even if the cave they were sleeping in, were to collapse
’What a funny girl’, thought Daimon as he laid down face up on his bed, to then close his eyes in order to enter the land of dreams, he was confident that he would wake up at the slightest sign of danger, and he had both Eve and Narasha to warn him even if that wouldn’t be the case.
But after a few moments Daimon realized that there was not going to be a need for those two to be on the look, because he couldn’t sleep, his body was in a perfect state and it was even more noticeable since he has rested and also ate, earlier.
"I guess, meditation it is...", mumbled Daimon, he didn’t change his pose, his eyes remained closed but he was focused in the sensation he felt earlier when his body was cladded in that silvery light.
...
Though day in the Blood Prison realm lasted around from sixteen to seventeen hours, night only lasted four, of course under the influence of the red sun that never disappeared from the sky, that was more than enough for one to recover to their prime, so after four hours of a really good sleep, Dana’s eyelids trembled before she opened her eyes.
"Yaaawn~", the little tiger girl stretched her body while yawning to get rid of the leftover sleepiness, before she raised her upper body, sitting on the bed to then look in Daimon’s direction.
Unlike her, Daimon didn’t use the blanket to cover himself, because he had a better resistance to cold, but that’s not what had caught the attention of the little tiger girl, but the fact that there was a silvery light gathering on his right hand.
Just as Dana was wondering how was Daimon training in his sleep, he opened his eyes, which made the little tiger girl realize that he wasn’t, he simply didn’t sleep at all.
"Are you okay, sister Arianna also had trouble falling asleep the first days after our arrival into the Blood Prison realm", said Dana, that could be a side effect of those whose lineages have high vitality as one of their main traits, to which Daimon shook his head in response.
"It’s okay, I could have fallen asleep with some effort, but I honestly didn’t feel tired at all, in fact with every second that passes, my state keeps improving, so I choose to try and see if I could draw out that silvery energy that went into my hair earlier", he said to then extend his right hand.
"But this is harder than I thought, I only barely managed to make it circulate into my right hand and that’s the limit of it, perhaps I’m lacking too much in terms of quantity ", added Daimon as he saw the silvery glow cladding his right hand, stopping right at the wrist area.
"That’s still amazing... we had to kill the blood specters just with the physical strength boost obtained by the exposition to the red sun, before we could start using just a bit of that energy in an external way", said the little tiger girl with a comforting voice.
Apparently, she thought Daimon was truly disappointed with the results he has achieved, so she tried to cheer him up a bit, which made Daimon chuckle to his insides.
’Perhaps I’m unconsciously used to fast and smooth progress, so there was a hint of disappointment in my face without me noticing’, he thought to then change his position from laying down, to sitting on the bed.
"I want to hunt some blood specters before focusing on travelling, so let’s have a quick breakfast before heading out", he said as he took out some toasted bread, fruit, eggs and bacon.
Seeing the warm food in front of her, Dana couldn’t help but drool a bit, she couldn’t believe that she was having this kind of breakfast in the wilderness, it’s worth mentioning that she of course had food in her storage ring, because Leena wasn’t an irresponsible aunt.
But it was food prepared to last long regardless of the environment in which the one eating it, ended, which means basically dried meat and cookies that won’t spoil regardless of the humidity, the other rational option being nutritional potions, not exactly a meal to look forward to.
"How come big brother Daimon has so many dishes prepared at home in his spatial treasure?", she asked as she started grabbing this and that to place it on her plate, which made Daimon bitterly smile to himself.
It’s not like he could tell the little tiger girl about the fierce competition between Elaine, Aisha and even Erin to cook for him, luckily his appetite is quite big due to his monstrous body, otherwise he would have been in trouble having to eat triple rations of every dish on a daily basis while those three’s competitive stage lasted.
Nowadays the soulmates took turns to be the one to make the food of the day, even the usually lazy Liz and the battle maniac Aura who had never taken any interest in anything besides fighting, learned to make some simple yet delicious dishes just for Daimon.
"Ahem, I have acquittances who took cooking classes at the territory of both the Revy and Argent families, so they gave me their results to give them my opinion about it", he limited to say, it wasn’t exactly a lie, since those that were utterly helpless when it came to cooking, namely Liz and Aura did take some personal lessons from old married ladies from their respective clans.
While the little tiger girl pounced on the dishes in front of her, she couldn’t help but ask what has been in her mind since yesterday.
"What does big brother’s ability do?", she said while munching on a piece of bacon, her focus was divided between the curiosity she had and the food she was eating with such dedication that one would think she was being starved by someone as punishment or something like that, she kind of reminded Daimon of Ruby when he found her chained in that ship alongside Scarlet and the others.
"That’s a good question, to be honest I have no idea, I don’t think this in an ability perse, it’s not reinforcing my body but it’s also not causing elemental damage like your lightning for example, I would say it’s just a byproduct of whatever I will be obtaining", said Daimon.
Which made Dana nearly drop her fork, she could feel such a strong aura coming from that silvery light, and now Daimon was telling her that was probably just a byproduct of his ability not the real thing.
If he were to use the infinity eyes, the mystery would be solved easily, or at least he would get a useful hint about that silvery light, but the moment that thought appeared in his mind, his black sea emblem shook a bit inside his pocket as if to remind him not to cheat.
’I think it’s got a pretty color, it reminds me of your hair, Daimon’, said a certain sword girl, while surprisingly Eve chose to remain silent about it.
In part that’s also why he wanted to go hunt a few blood specters, to test what that silvery light could do, and in any case that would accelerate the process of obtaining the ability he was supposed to use for the challenge.
Once both had finished having breakfast, Daimon walked towards the entrance of the cave and after looking through the gaps on the borders and confirm that the giant blood specters were gone, as well as to check if there were enemies in the vicinity, he pushed the rocks that were blocking the entrance, down the mountain.
"Are there any common characteristics between the places where you have seen large groups of blood specters gather, before?", asked Daimon to the little tiger girl who made memory for a second before saying.
"There are actually bodies of water, the largest groups of blood specters me and sister Arianna ran into, were around areas with them, luckily the energy of the blood specters also gets rid of thirst, because that water is definitely not for us, it’s pitch black... and some beasts that approach to drink it are dragged into it from time to time, but they still keep going to those places".
Daimon nodded with interest, he does remember that in one of the dreams that the black sea emblem showed him, the sea near the giant bones he saw, was in the process of being dyed black, so those water bodies could be remnants from back then.
"Let’s look for one of those places, this mountain is the highest in the vicinity so we should be able to have a good overall view of the area from its top", said Daimon as he opened the way for the little tiger girl to go out of the cave first.
Dana was not only completely recovered after a good night of rest and two delicious warm meals, but she was also in high spirits thanks to all the commodities which she got to enjoy thanks to Daimon, so she didn’t need to be carried like before, she casually jumped out of the cave, onto a nearby protruding rock which functioned as support for her.
Daimon followed right away, not without collapsing the entrance of the cave once again, in order to not leave any traces, because this way, anyone that passed would just think that a piece of the mountain fell off, and some parts rolled down the mountain, while others remained stuck on it.
Wanting to see how the little tiger faired when it came to movement skills, Daimon started leaping through the face of the mountain, of course he slowed down his pace, because the idea wasn’t to bully Dana, but to get an idea of what was she capable as of current, for when battles broke out.
And the little tiger girl didn’t disappoint, though obviously acrobatics and agility aren’t her strong points, unlike that girl from the Snow Leopard Leeris family, Gina, she still managed to keep up with Daimon, without falling behind too much, though she did have to rely on using some lightning here and there, it only took them a few minutes to reach the peak of the mountain.
’She’s gotten stronger than yesterday, or perhaps this is her actual level and she was just dead tired before’, thought Daimon to then focus on the task at hand, which was finding a water body to set course in that direction.
Aisha’s marker has been changing ever since he entered this place, she of course knows Daimon is here and is heading his way, but the distance between them is really big as of current, and apparently, she is taking the challenge seriously too, otherwise she would have already used the soulmate connection to speak with Daimon.
Anyway, the point is that moving a few dozens of hundreds of kilometers to either right or left, won’t affect the overall direction where he is heading to, which is Aisha’s one.
And that’s good, because at the border of what Daimon is capable to see with just his bare eyes, he managed to catch a glimpse of an area which is darker than usual, while the soil of this place is indeed black, it’s not a deep black enough to be considered "pitch black" as Dana described the water bodies she has seen before, so that was their next target.
"I found it, there is a darker large spot a dozen of kilometers to the right, luckily there are less mountains in that direction, so it will only take us an hour or two to reach there, how much energy will that consume for you?", said Daimon to Dana who was standing next him.
"Mmm, around 20% if I keep the same speed of earlier... but I will be fine after eating something later", mumbled the little tiger girl, which made Daimon softly laugh, she obviously has grown fond of not having to rely on the energy of blood specters, when it came to fill her stomach, but didn’t want to sound too eager for the next meal.
"It’s settled then, I wanted to hunt my first blood specter by myself, so you can take a break later", said Daimon as he jumped down the mountain, the little tiger girl whose eyes were sparkling, followed the next second, and so two figures could be seen taking large leaps through the mountain range area, in a specific direction for the next couple of hours before they reached the area that Daimon has seen from afar earlier.
As expected, there was indeed a water body on sight not too far from Daimon and Dana’s current position, and that wasn’t all, there were groups of blood specters spread all over the area, which is why Daimon stopped advancing after finding a small hill with a rock formation at its top, which could be used to hide and observe the black "lake" area ahead of them.
"A bunch of star ranked blood specters in groups of five, all led by one Lord ranked one each, it wasn’t like that before, so the leaders must have advanced during night", said Daimon, there were many groups, but luckily, they weren’t large unlike the one that pursued Dana all the way to where Daimon found her.
In a rough calculation, Daimon saw around forty groups spread through the nearby area, and with that number of blood specters, even during day when they weren’t as aggressive towards each other, normally they would have already started fighting.
But in this place, they not only didn’t interfere, but they also kept a large distance between each other, and they even seemed to be taking turns to drink the water from the lake, which as Dana said was pitch black, because no more than ten groups were at the shore of the lake at the same time.
’The only thing that can suppress a beast’s instincts is a stronger being, so there must be something in the lake that is making them wary enough to not make any ruckus, and even though they feel danger they are still attracted to that black water, looks like I found a perfect hunting ground’, thought Daimon as he beckoned, leaving some snacks for the little tiger girl, before he left the hiding spot at the top of the hill, to walk towards the lake.
Soon he was not too far from one of the groups at the end of the "waiting line", and as expected there was no reaction from all the other blood specters, only those five turned to see him and showed signs of hostility as they charged towards Daimon.
’Well, let’s see what can you do’, thought Daimon as he gathered that silvery glow on his right hand, where his nails had turned into black inked claws, to then jump towards the closest blood specter, it’s worth mentioning that they weren’t the bird-like ones which Dana was fighting before.
This group was composed of some lizard like blood specters, and the one leading them, which is a Lord ranked blood specter, had a horn on its head.