Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Under Baek Cheon-myeong's guidance,

Ha Cheol-ryong screamed miserably.

Kang Ha-min couldn't bear to watch,

so he looked away.

"Come to think of it, Lord, may I ask you one thing?"

Siriel suddenly leaned her face close.

Kang Ha-min really wished she wouldn't suddenly do that.

It was bad for his heart.

"Yes, Ms. Siriel. What is it?"

While Kang Ha-min held his pounding chest,

Siriel carefully asked her question.

"Lord, your soul is connected to the Heavenly Slaughter Star, right?"

The contract they had formed the first day Baek Cheon-myeong climbed the Tower.

It had allowed Baek Cheon-myeong to enter the Tower in Kang Ha-min's place.

"Ah, yes. That's right."

Was there some problem with it?

Kang Ha-min began worrying.

Siriel puffed out her cheeks.

"That's unfair!"

Unfair?

"I want to form something like that with Lord too!"

"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong only formed it because he needed to climb the Tower."

"But you never know when I might have to enter the Tower too, right? Then we should form one!"

Was that how it worked?

Still,

she wasn't completely wrong.

Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong is fine right now, but...

There might eventually be a floor difficult even for Baek Cheon-myeong.

If Siriel joined him then,

it could make things easier.

"It is not a bad choice."

Baek Cheon-myeong approached after completely destroying Ha Cheol-ryong.

Ha Cheol-ryong's condition was too miserable to describe without censorship,

so Kang Ha-min felt bad even mentioning it.

"If Master forms an additional contract with the bat, Master will be able to use that woman's power too."

Ah.

That was true.

Baek Cheon-myeong wasn't especially interested in Siriel climbing the Tower.

But just as Kang Ha-min had been able to use Baek Cheon-myeong's swordsmanship,

he seemed to be considering the possibility of Kang Ha-min using Siriel's abilities.

"And perhaps another Subclass will appear, like last time."

There were only benefits for Kang Ha-min.

"Also, through the bat, Master can continue training even while this body is away."

This training addict.

"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, you're banned from saying the word training for a while."

"What?"

Baek Cheon-myeong looked genuinely dumbfounded.

But it was his master's command.

"..."

The word training no longer came from his mouth.

While Baek Cheon-myeong frowned,

Siriel covered her mouth with both hands and laughed.

"Pfft, serves you right. More importantly, Lord, you'll form the contract, right?"

Separate from the training issue,

Kang Ha-min wanted to use Siriel's abilities.

From his perspective,

her abilities looked extremely useful.

"Yes. Let's do it."

When Kang Ha-min agreed,

Siriel gave a short cheer.

"Ms. Siriel, do you know how to do it too?"

"Yes, of course."

Siriel placed one hand over her chest.

The moment her fingertips touched it,

a faint light rippled from deep inside her body.

Not the heart.

Not the blood vessels.

Somewhere much deeper.

She drew out her soul,

which had been hidden between the gaps of her body.

"Lord, concentrate your mana and place your hand here."

Kang Ha-min followed her instructions.

Mana far denser than when he had first synchronized with Baek Cheon-myeong gathered at his fingertips.

He pushed that mana into her soul.

A line of light connected soul to soul.

He felt himself mixing with Siriel's soul.

He had experienced something similar before,

but it still felt strangely uncomfortable.

After watching the souls mix for a while,

"Wow!"

Siriel shouted happily.

At the same time, Kang Ha-min's vision changed.

Just like with Baek Cheon-myeong,

he could now share Siriel's vision.

Kang Ha-min blinked and returned to his own sight.

Siriel's face suddenly came close.

"Lord, we're finally connected!"

"Ah, yes. We are."

Siriel looked incredibly happy.

She held both cheeks with her hands and twisted her body joyfully.

Perhaps because she was so beautiful,

seeing her this happy made Kang Ha-min feel strangely proud.

At the same time,

he sensed a new kind of power.

Something stirred from deep within his blood.

Was this what people meant by feeling their blood boil?

The power of Siriel, the Vampire Queen,

could be felt from the tips of his fingers.

It feels like the very quality of my body changed.

With Baek Cheon-myeong,

it had felt like the quality of his mana changed.

With Siriel,

the quality of his body itself felt different.

Maybe Siriel's raw physical ability was actually superior.

"Then, then, Lord, let's use my abilities right away!"

"Ms. Siriel, could you teach me what kind of abilities they are?"

He didn't want anything getting destroyed like when he learned from Baek Cheon-myeong.

This time,

he would properly learn before using anything.

Siriel proudly raised her chin.

Then she began her lecture.

"I mainly use two kinds of power."

"One is shadow magic, Umbramancy."

"The other is blood magic, Sanguimancy."

"Magic!"

That beautiful word.

Kang Ha-min's heart started beating faster for no reason.

Magic wasn't rare anymore after Hunters appeared.

There were plenty of Mage Classes.

But even then,

the word magic still sounded exciting.

"How do I use them?"

A sword was relatively simple.

The act of swinging it was already swordsmanship.

Magic was much more complicated.

Formulas,

mana calculations,

and all kinds of restrictions were involved.

There was a reason Mage Classes were said to have extremely high difficulty.

Even after sharing souls,

Kang Ha-min didn't know how to use it.

"I called them magic to make it easier to understand, but shadows and blood are basically my exclusive traits."

"They're like my hands and feet."

Siriel stretched out one foot.

A shadow spread across the floor from her toes.

It carried a disturbing aura,

as if ready to swallow prey at any moment.

Every time the shadow advanced,

the nearby plants instinctively shrank away.

"Rather than thinking that you're using magic, think of it as moving another limb forward."

"That will be much easier for Lord."

Wasn't that even simpler than using a sword?

"Master understood. The bat is an extremely simple creature."

"What are you suddenly talking about?!"

While Siriel argued with Baek Cheon-myeong,

Kang Ha-min concentrated on the sensation at his feet.

Move forward.

The instant he focused on that meaning,

something ticklish appeared.

It felt like he had gained a completely new sense.

A sensation that had never existed before.

It was unfamiliar,

but not unpleasant.

Is this it?

Stretch straight forward.

The moment he focused,

Whoosh!

the shadow beneath his foot suddenly rose

and shot forward.

Umbramancy.

He had understood the basics of shadow magic.

The moment Kang Ha-min saw it,

he shouted.

"Ms. Siriel, I did it!"

Siriel, who had been arguing with Baek Cheon-myeong,

quickly turned around.

Her eyes widened.

Then she looked back at Baek Cheon-myeong.

Baek Cheon-myeong merely shrugged like he was used to it.

...He learned the Heavenly Slaughter Star's swordsmanship, but my traits should not be something he can use so easily at the same time.

Siriel had personally taught Kang Ha-min.

Even so,

she had honestly expected it to take at least a week.

Yet she had looked away for only a moment

and he had already awakened the trait.

Does Lord's perception work differently?

Only now did Siriel understand what Baek Cheon-myeong had meant.

Kang Ha-min possessed something neither of them could properly understand.

"As expected of Lord! You're a genius!"

That was that.

Now was the time to celebrate.

While Siriel enthusiastically praised Kang Ha-min,

Baek Cheon-myeong silently watched him.

As expected.

The talent Baek Cheon-myeong had only vaguely suspected until now.

Through Siriel,

he confirmed it again.

Master learns at an abnormal speed.

And that wasn't all.

The nature of his mana changed in an instant.

Baek Cheon-myeong's Star-Destroying Sword Flow and Siriel's traits used mana in completely different forms.

Baek Cheon-myeong's qi.

Qi was close to an extremely pure form.

It was the most natural type of power,

harmonizing with nature itself.

Siriel's Crimson Blood.

Crimson Blood contained violent and destructive impulses.

It was almost the complete opposite of Baek Cheon-myeong's qi.

Normally, they should have conflicted.

But Kang Ha-min handled both forms of mana naturally.

Abnormal talent.

Had he inherited something from an ancestor?

But Kang Ha-min's parents were ordinary people.

A talent with no clear origin.

Kang Ha-min becoming the Gravekeeper probably wasn't simple coincidence.

I cannot say whether some strange chain of cause and effect created Master, or whether this is simply his natural talent.

One thing was certain.

Kang Ha-min would continue becoming stronger.

He would reach a level even Baek Cheon-myeong couldn't predict.

I never thought the day would come when this body looked forward to someone else's growth again.

As Baek Cheon-myeong climbed the Tower,

Kang Ha-min would continue growing stronger.

Baek Cheon-myeong honestly began wondering just how far he would reach.

Kang Ha-min had once told him to climb the Tower for himself.

Perhaps those words would one day return carrying an entirely different meaning.

I need to climb the Tower.

While Baek Cheon-myeong gained another reason to climb,

Kang Ha-min was trying various things with Siriel.

He had already tried shadows.

Next was blood magic.

"Sanguimancy is called magic because it's easier to explain that way too, but its usage is closer to a natural trait."

"Lord, do you know what it feels like when your heart beats?"

"Of course?"

If he put his hand on his chest,

he could feel his heart beating.

"Then close your eyes and focus on the sound of your heart."

Focus on his heart.

Kang Ha-min followed her words

and slowly closed his eyes.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Soon, the sound of his heartbeat echoed through his entire body.

"For a vampire, the heart is our most powerful tool."

"Lord, can you hear it?"

"The more you focus, the more explosive power you'll feel coming from your heart."

Siriel was right.

Inside the silence of his body,

his heart thundered.

He felt blood rushing rapidly through his entire body.

Kang Ha-min focused completely on that sensation.

"Lord, now focus on releasing it outside."

Toward his fingertips.

A sensation different from mana gathered there.

Soon,

drops of blood began forming on his fingertips.

The drops slowly grew.

Before long,

they became a blood sphere about the size of his hand.

"Lord, you did it!"

Sanguimancy.

The most basic form of blood magic.

"Lord, imagine flicking the concentrated sphere of blood forward with your finger."

Flick it.

Kang Ha-min followed the meaning literally

and flicked the blood sphere with all his strength.

Bang!

The sound resembled a gunshot.

The blood sphere flew forward.

It pierced straight through several ancient trees inside the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest.

"Wow."

Kang Ha-min stared at the trees,

each with a hole the size of his fist.

He had only fired it casually.

Yet it had this much power.

It was anything but ordinary.

"The method you just used is the basic form of manipulating blood, the Sanguine Arts."

"And if you go further from there..."

Blood gathered around Siriel.

Soon,

it formed into a human shape.

Then Siriel layered shadow over it.

"If you combine it with the basics of shadow manipulation, Ars Umbrae..."

Shadow armor wrapped around the bloody human figure.

A knight made from blood and shadow was born.

"You can use many different applications like this."

Kang Ha-min unconsciously clapped.

As expected of the Vampire Queen.

Her control over her abilities was astonishingly precise.

"I'll have to study hard."

"Hehehe, Lord is praising me so much that I don't know what to do with myself."

"Master, why is your reaction different from when you learned the Star-Destroying Sword Flow?"

Well.

That was.

This was.

That.

Whoosh.

While Kang Ha-min sweated trying to think of an answer,

mist suddenly appeared before him.

The Mist Immortal emerged.

Perfect timing.

"Mist Immortal, did something happen?"

Baek Cheon-myeong glared at the back of his head,

but Kang Ha-min couldn't help it.

If something had happened,

they had to handle that first!

Hearing his question,

the Mist Immortal conveyed his message.

Then Kang Ha-min's eyes widened.

This was...

Something had actually happened.

"...Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, Ms. Siriel."

Inside the world granted by the Tower.

"A city appeared."

A new world had appeared,

different from the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest and the World Tree.