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Zeth felt like he had no idea what the Blood Mage was planning. There was simply no way to tell. But really, there was. Maybe he couldn’t quite see the line of reasoning right now, but there was always some way to tell what your opponent was planning. What they might know that’s still hidden to you.

He wanted to be cautious and stay in the house, just in case the Blood Mage was waiting to attack when he left the protected area. But could he figure out for certain what they were planning?

There was a ritual circle sitting in the middle of some storage closet in the guild. Zeth had been focusing on what that meant for him, but why would the Blood Mage do that? They’d hidden it somehow, but Zeth’s own finding it proved that their method wasn’t perfect. And they probably knew as much. They knew they were taking a risk by putting it there. So why take that risk? He didn’t know the function of the circle, but clearly, something about their plan needed the circle to be put in a populated area. Specifically, a populated area that was easily accessible by any normal person.

There were a few different reasons someone might need to do that. Maybe the circle had a defensive function, and the Blood Mage wanted to be able to easily reach the circle in case of emergency to activate it. Maybe they needed to frequently return to the circle, and having it within the building they worked in was convenient. But no matter the reason, they must have known they were taking a massive risk every day by keeping it there. And the only reason someone would take a risk like that was if they were planning something big. Something that would make the risk worth it.

And, judging by the fact that the Blood Mage’s last ‘something big’ included killing hundreds of people to fuel the acquisition of a special Class, Zeth knew he wanted to prevent this next one from happening.

Then there was the matter of whether or not the Blood Mage suspected him. The matter of Zeth’s own life and death. If he guessed wrong and walked out of the house and into the forest, where there were no witnesses, all while a demon tailed him, he’d be dead the moment the mage said ‘go.’

But when analyzing his opponent’s actions and considering what they might be aware of, he realized he may not have been in as much danger as he thought. Regardless of whether or not he’d been figured out, if the Blood Mage had some massive, risky plan they were in the middle of enacting, they wouldn’t waste precious time and attention going after Zeth. Whatever that ritual circle was for, it needed babysitting and surveillance. And, from the Blood Mage’s perspective, it’d been four whole months since they’d last seen Zeth without him causing a single problem for them. They had no idea if Zeth was even hostile to them in the first place.

So, if they somehow figured out that Zeth was for sure alive and active as the one and only Blood Magus, they likely wouldn’t come after him immediately. Worst-case, they’d probably wait until whatever they were doing with that ritual circle was finished, then come investigate what was happening with him. Besides, if they were really as gung-ho about finding Zeth as he worried they were, wouldn’t they have found out about his existence from the town guard after the monster attack? Maybe he was just an afterthought to them—some random guy who got in their way one time and who they’d resolved to look further into once they were done with their current plans.

Really, Zeth could be almost certain that he was safe to act for at least a little while longer. But he could also be almost certain that he’d need to do something quickly if he wanted to kill his enemy. Which meant laying low would be the exact opposite of what he needed to do right now.

So, after making sure he was the only one still awake, Zeth crept through his room’s window and through the fields, heading back into the forest. He had a ritual to finish.

Upon finding his old spot in the woods with his ritual circles, Zeth found that something was wrong.

To start with, the monster corpse he’d left behind to be used for his rituals was missing. He’d left it in the middle of the active Hellfire Ritual circles so that any scavengers coming to take it would be killed, so that shouldn’t have been possible, but it simply was not there. He briefly considered the idea that some massive flying monster from the Beast Realm may have come and taken it without ever touching the hellfire circles on the ground, but upon closer examination, there was clearly a trail of blood left behind from the original spot the corpse had been left, leading off into the woods. Zeth wasn’t sure that he wanted to follow it.

It was during that closer examination that Zeth found why whatever had dragged the corpse away hadn’t been roasted alive by his circles. They’d all been disabled. They hadn’t been stepped on and activated, and yet Zeth could tell just by looking at them that they were no longer armed like they once were. The subtle glow had disappeared from their lines. And, when he looked even closer, he realized that a part of their lines had even been erased. He’d need to repair the missing pieces before being able to offer a new sacrifice to enable the traps again.

Zeth immediately went on guard, glancing around himself and searching for any hidden attackers. This couldn’t have just been the work of some strange monster, if someone had come tampered with his magic.

But nobody was around. At least, not now. After a moment, he went and searched the entire nearby area for evidence of a human being nearby, but the only boot prints were his own, and other than that, all that was left were the tracks of whatever animal had dragged off the monster carcass. It was like the circles had erased themselves.

So he went back to look at them again. Instinct told him about twenty minutes of progress had been erased for each Hellfire Ritual circle, but it wasn’t as obvious as a big line being dragged through the chalk. It was as if the most recent twenty minutes of drawing he’d done had simply vanished. The lines had unwritten themselves.

And the Empowerment Ritual circle in the center, too, had been partially erased in the same way. It hadn’t been finished, so he had to work off his memory of how much he’d completed before leaving it, but as it was now, the circle was almost completely gone. It seemed like at least an hour of progress, maybe even an hour and a half, had been erased while he was away.

He frowned, staring at the circles, then glanced through the Skills themselves, looking for an explanation. Nowhere did it say anything about the ritual circles erasing themselves. So did someone find this place and use a Skill of their own to erase them?

But then, in the Skill descriptions, he realized. The line of text at the bottom of all of his rituals that he’d all but ignored up until now explained it all. Zeth had never really considered what “Upkeep time required each day” might have meant, but now he realized that this was definitely it. If he left his ritual circles out for a full twenty-four hours, they’d get partially erased, forcing him to come back and redraw a portion of them.

And the times lined up as well. For Hellfire Ritual, the amount of upkeep time required was around eighteen minutes after being reduced by Vile Focus, and for Empowerment Ritual, it was an hour and twenty minutes. Both fell exactly within the amount of time he assumed he’d need to dedicate to repairing the circles back to the point they’d been at before.

So then, he wouldn’t be able to just draw up a circle and leave it sitting for days and come back later, it seemed. At least, not without greatly lowering his upkeep time requirement first. And now that Empowerment Ritual was getting to the point where he’d probably need to start dedicating multiple days’ worth of drawing time to completing it, that seemed like it would get in the way. Hell, if the upkeep time requirement grew to be over twenty-four hours, it would become literally impossible to actually complete the ritual. Though, it didn’t seem like the ritual’s upkeep time was growing nearly fast enough to get there any time soon.

Either way, he wasn’t too much of a fan of this development. It wouldn’t have been as much of a problem if he could just work on his rituals every day without having to worry about getting caught, but as things were, every moment he could steal away to work was hard-earned, and there may come times when he wouldn’t be able to come out here for several days in a row, which could possibly lead to all of his ritual circles being erased. He needed a permanent base, where he could wake up each morning and simply fix up his rituals with one hand while he ate breakfast with the other, or something. That would be nice.

But that was all just a future aspiration. Not practical in the current moment. For now, he just needed to draw his circles and finish this Level-up before morning came so he could finally afford to purchase Demonic Covenant.

And draw his circles Zeth did. After taking some time to repair the Hellfire Circles, he found that he didn’t need to give a new sacrifice to bring them back online. The moment he drew the final line, they lit right back up, seeming to retain the blood he’d given them back when he’d first armed them, which was nice. Once he was finished with that, he went right back to the Empowerment Ritual, drawing away with as few breaks as he could manage.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He tapped into Vile Focus to help the monotonous work pass by more quickly, barely having his attention pulled away during the two times he felt the Hellfire Circles around him light up in a flash and some animal nearby go up in a bright blaze of death.

The first time was a false alarm, unfortunately—some rabbit wandering into the kill zone before Zeth could shoo it away—but the second time, a much larger, likely predatory beast came and died to his magic. It was a gigantic mess of long fur dangling down to the dirt from its body, a head with two gigantic tusks protruding from its mouth ready to charge and rip Zeth apart before it stepped into the clearing and caught alight. After that, it fell to the ground within seconds.

Zeth was beginning to realize just how powerful Hellfire Ritual was. He remembered how people talked about Blood Mages having access to something called ‘Fire Ritual,’ and how he’d always assumed they simply didn’t know the real name of the Skill. But surely something this powerful wouldn’t be offered to just anyone to pick up the Class? He was beginning to suspect that pretty much all of his Skills were made to be completely overpowered compared to whatever the basic Blood Mage Class got.

Simply judging by the response of the guards in town, he knew they weren’t aware of just how powerful their culprit was. At least, if Zeth knew someone was out there in town with the ability to kill almost anything they wanted just by drawing a picture on the ground and waiting for them to step into it, he’d call a state of emergency, not allow anyone to leave their house, and throw the entire hand of the law at the issue until they were certain they’d found the culprit. But they thought they were looking for a Blood Mage, not a Blood Magus. And clearly, they didn’t consider it to be enough of an issue to do more than some cursory investigations and interviews.

Zeth had to use some precious time both times the rituals went off to re-draw the circles that killed the beasts before going back to working on his Level-up, though he wasn’t too upset about needing to do so. He’d have to find a sacrifice before he could finish the ritual anyway, so when the sacrifices came to him, he was more than happy to accept the gift.

The sun had risen by the time he finished the ritual. When brightness overcame the horizon, he’d made the decision to simply buckle down and keep going until he was done, considering how close he was to finishing. Even if his family may have been awake by now and he’d have to come up with some excuse for why he’d been gone all morning, it would be worth it to finally acquire his next bit of power.

So, after drawing the finishing line on the circle painted across the ground, Zeth stood up and took a breath, admiring his handiwork. His biggest one yet, and it looked absolutely beautiful. Lines and patterns curving and overlapping, joining and splitting all across the circle to make a masterpiece.

“Now,” he muttered to himself, looking at the charred monster corpse he’d set aside, “to douse it in the blood of whatever this thing is.”

He pulled out the knife he kept on his belt and cut the monster’s belly open, allowing blood and guts to spill out across the dirt, where it sank into the lines of the circle and disappeared, ticking the progress marker upward. It wasn’t going up too quickly, though. So, once the blood stopped pouring out of that slice, Zeth made another, and another, tearing his dagger across the leathery skin of the beast everywhere he felt he may be able to reach a new supply of the stuff and speed up the process.

Eventually, blood stopped leaking from the monster’s body. He’d done all he could, but the progress tracker was stuck a little over ninety percent. But when he grabbed the rabbit’s corpse and held it by its feet over the circle, cutting its neck and letting the blood drain from its corpse into the circle, too, that last gap was closed, and he finally got the notification he’d been waiting for.

[Ritual complete: Empowerment Ritual.

Sacrifice given: Blood from various sources.

Level Up!]

[Blood Magus’s Level has increased to 6.

+3 Endurance. Your Endurance is 24.

+1 Awareness. Your Awareness is 6.

+2 Poise. Your Poise is 12.

+7 Shaping. Your Shaping is 42.

+3 Skill Points. You have 16 Skill Points.]

[Requirement fulfilled: Blood Magus Level 6.

You have unlocked Blood Magus Skill: Otherworldly Excellence.]

He sighed and smiled at the notification. Finally.

He’d finally hit the fifteen Skill Point requirement to purchase Demonic Covenant. Plus, he’d also unlocked a new Skill in the process—something called Otherworldly Excellence.

Before he opened up its description to see what it did, he started back to town. It’d be best to get back home as soon as possible, now that morning had come. Hopefully, he could get back soon enough after everyone woke up that it’d be believable to everyone that he’d simply gone on a walk in the early morning.

So, traveling through the forestline that had now become relatively familiar to him, he trekked back across the wilderness to arrive home soon. And while he walked, he looked at this new Skill he’d obtained.

[Otherworldly Excellence - Cost: 17 Skill Points

The second Skill that is entirely unique to the Blood Magus Class. Sets the leader of all Blood Mages apart from the rabble by granting mastery in a Stat beyond what would normally be considered possible.

Upon purchasing this Skill, choose a Stat. Whenever this Skill Ranks up and whenever you Level up with the Blood Magus Class, increase the chosen Stat by 5.]

Zeth stopped in his tracks. Holy shit. Holy shit!

So this one was also completely exclusive to his Class, it seemed. It certainly deserved to be, considering what it did. At a cost of seventeen, once it reached max Rank, it’d only have ended up costing Zeth seven Skill Points to obtain. That seven Point cost was nothing compared to the fifty total Stats it’d give him when it reached max Rank. And that was ignoring the fact that the Skill would also increase the Stat whenever Zeth Leveled up, which would mean this Skill could theoretically have infinite returns all for the measly cost of seven Skill Points. It was absolutely absurd.

A part of him wanted to immediately drop his plans of purchasing Demonic Covenant and wait a little longer to get one more Skill Point so he could afford this new Skill, but he held off. It was a common newbie blunder to get distracted by whatever shiny new Skill you just unlocked and forget about the older ones that you still needed to purchase, and he didn’t want to make that mistake here. He’d been focused on getting the ability to summon demons for a reason—he needed power, and he needed it quickly. And unfortunately, this new Otherworldly Excellence would take a little while before it got up and running.

Unfortunately, though, any Levels Zeth got before purchasing this Skill would effectively mean wasted Stats. It didn’t seem like this would count retroactively, so waiting a long time before acquiring it would be a bad idea, too.

Zeth did some quick math in his head. If he went with his original plan and took Demonic Covenant now, he’d still be capable of getting the seventeen Skill Points necessary to afford Otherworldly Excellence just by Ranking up his existing Skills. He wouldn’t need any of the extra Skill Points gained by Leveling up to afford it. So then, he could effectively get both without any downside—simply wait until he got Otherworldly Excellence later on before he tried conducting any more Empowerment Rituals.

Obviously, the Skill had its limitations. Mainly, it would only ever be able to increase a single Stat, and he’d have to pick it the moment he purchased the Skill. So if he chose poorly, it could lead to him missing out on what would end up being a far more powerful option. He might be stuck with an ever-increasing Stat that he barely ever needed.

But he put the problem out of his mind for now. The question of what he’d choose was one for future Zeth. For now, he’d be focused on the questions and problems he was sure were going to arise when he tried his hand at demon summoning. With sixteen Skill Points, he could finally afford to pick up Demonic Covenant any time he wanted.

With his mind set, he started walking again. He technically didn’t need to spend the Skill Points until he was ready to start performing the Demonic Covenant ritual, so he’d just hold on to them for now.

Though, he’d likely end up starting that ritual soon enough anyway. As long as no big crisis happened to delay him.

Zeth cut back onto the main road leading to the farm once he was far enough away from town that nobody would see him coming out of the woods. Squinting, he could barely make out a group of people all standing outside the house talking with each other. More than just his mother and Sophie. Were they chatting with some neighbors, or something? Looked like he’d need to use that excuse he’d come up with.

Approaching the farm, he mentally rehearsed the story. Woke up early, felt restless, decided to go on a walk and look around at the trees for a bit, lost track of time, came back here when I saw the sun rise.

But as he drew closer, he realized that the people talking with his mom and sister weren’t neighbors. They were dressed in familiar armor. It was the town guard.

He immediately tensed up, hoping this didn’t have anything to do with him. But he pressed forward so he didn’t look suspicious. From everything he knew, they had no reason to think he was the Blood Mage—not after he was ‘proven’ innocent when they visited the last time. He just needed to act natural; maybe they were only here to check on the place and that was all.

When he got close enough, his mother glanced in his direction, eyes growing wide as she ran over to meet him.

“Oh, Zeth, thank the gods you’re okay,” she muttered breathlessly, hugging him and quickly separating to look him up and down, patting his upper body as if to feel for any more injuries he may have received. He winced in pain as she rubbed her hands across some of his worse burns. “You are okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “Y’know, just woke up in the morning and felt a little restless, so I decided to go on a walk and—”

“Zeth!” Sophie’s voice interrupted him, and he looked over to see her sprinting down the road to meet him as well. “I knew you’d come back!”

“Yeah, um, I just lost track of time,” he said, reaching over and bringing her into a hug. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you two worry.”

Sophie drew away from him and looked up to meet his eyes, looking strangely excited. “They caught the mage!”

Zeth blinked. “What?”

“That trap they set in the shed,” his mom explained, “it went off early this morning, apparently. We woke up to a group of guards swarming the place. They say it’s definitely the Blood Mage they were looking for in there. Seems like she came back to continue doing magic, and they got her. She’s still in there; they’re debating what to do with her.”

She nodded over in the direction of the shed, where, sure enough, there was a whole group of guards all standing around talking in hushed tones.

Zeth blinked once again. “What?”