Damon blinked hard. The battlefield, the corpses, the poison, the shadows, everything felt distant for a moment, blurred at the edges as if he had stepped halfway into someone else's dream.

His head throbbed with an afterimage he couldn't place. Shapes. Blood. A crown of bone. A blade singing in a language older than the world.

"Huh? What happened? How did-"

"My liege… You accessed my memories… memories that even I do not have control of." Blood Reign looked at Damon with wide eyes. "I am the one who is supposed to be digging deep, my liege. Instead, you were the one who pried into my memories."

Damon rubbed his temple. "I didn't do it on purpose. I don't even know how I did it."

Blood Reign remained silent for a while before sighing. Sensing the restlessness in Damon, she became the calm one this time. "Everything will unravel with time, my liege. Let's have patience."

Damon nodded. "What happened to the attributes? Were you able to do something to them?"

Blood Reign only shook her head. "Unfortunately, my liege… I have failed in my efforts. I thought if I could connect our minds and souls, I could understand how the blood extraction works, but I was a fool to think it would be so simple."

"Hmmm?"

"I couldn't even come close to it, my liege."

"It's fine. Good try." Damon's voice softened despite himself. He genuinely meant it. The whole idea had been a wild experiment anyway.

Blood Reign bitterly smiled. "I am supposed to be the ultimate weapon… yet I could not even comprehend the pattern your extraction skill uses. And worse, when our souls connected, you were the one who tore through my sealed layers. You were the one who reached deeper."

Damon blinked. "…Are you embarrassed?"

Blood Reign stiffened. "Absolutely not."

"You sound embarrassed."

"My liege, nothing is embarrassing about being inferior to you." She quickly retorted back but her frustration only made Damon smile. This woman was clearly not used to failing at things. Unlike her, he had a lot more experience in failing than succeeding. It would only be surprising if he succeeded at the first attempt.

Damon snorted, the corner of his mouth lifting. "It's fine. Really. You pushed yourself. That's what matters."

Blood Reign lowered her gaze. "My liege… do not be kind to me right now. I do not deserve it."

Damon raised a brow. "Why not?"

"Because," she whispered, "I promised to support your ascension. To sharpen you. To elevate you. Yet today, you were the one delving into me and pulling me upward. You were also the one who found the weapon for me to consume and upgrade myself. That is backwards. That is unacceptable. I cannot keep failing."

Damon exhaled, settling the issue with a single sentence. "Blood Reign, it's not a failure. It's a start." Blood Reign froze. Damon continued, voice calm and unwavering.

"You didn't crack my extraction skill today. Fine. You will someday. You didn't unlock a new method to store my attributes. Fine. We'll figure it out. We have time. We will keep trying until we do it."

Blood Reign stared at him, stunned by the simplicity of his conviction. "You helped me connect to your memories," Damon finished. "Accident or not, that is progress."

A long silence followed. Then Blood Reign spoke up. "My liege… You really are capable of making someone believe the impossible. My liege… with time… I will succeed. I swear it upon the origin from which I was forged."

"I know you will," Damon said, standing and cracking his neck. The poison fog rippled outward in response. "Now let's accelerate this war. I'm getting bored. You can go back in and think of a better way to store the attributes. I don't think I need your help to win this one."

Blood Reign's eyes sharpened, regaining their usual deadly glint. "As you command, my liege. I will not fail you. I will come up with a method. All this power around you, I will not let it go to waste, no matter what. This I swear on my honor, my liege."

Damon nodded with a smile. The red figure disappeared into him, leaving him alone in a city covered with miasma.

Damon looked around, satisfied. His poison skills were as excellent as ever. He unleashed another round of the Poison Blood skill and used Shadow Step to terrorize yet another group of NPCs and guild members.

At the same time, he constantly invoked Blood Rain all around him to continuously practise his blood manipulation skill. Maybe relying on Blood Reign was the wrong way to go about this. Bloodline Extraction was an ability that was ingrained in his bloodline. He doubted if anyone else could understand it better than he did.

Leaving the poison analysis to his avatars temporarily, he focused on his blood manipulation skills. There was so much blood around him, which made this the perfect opportunity to understand his bloodline extraction skill.

He repeatedly absorbed the pile of corpses around him, and each time he sucked in the essence, he focused on every single movement in his body, his blood, his mind, and his soul to see how exactly the process was working.

He couldn't simply use the skill like a black box anymore. He was losing out on a lot.

Fuck it. He wanted to do it, and he was going to go for it.

Damon's eyes shone with determination as he got back in training mode. His body shook as he drew in another wave of blood essence. He didn't passively absorb it this time. He forced himself to feel everything. The way it flowed.

The way the extraction skill latched onto it like a parasite. The way it devoured traits, condensed them, refined them, and converted them into raw stat points and skills and whatnot. He visualized every microscopic motion within himself as the essence of the blood was efficiently sorted out.

Nothing was clear yet, but he was tugging at something. Something just out of reach.

***

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