Chapter 12: Boiling Blood and Midnight Upgrades!
Lucien sat on the bed, staring at the two crystals.
He took a slow breath, willing his pulse to settle.
’Okay. Deep breath. Don’t hyperventilate over rocks.’
He focused on the crimson one first, and its description bloomed into view.
[Mythical Bloodline Evolution Crystal]
[Evolves the user’s current bloodline to Mythical rank while preserving its original characteristics. The evolution is perfectly compatible with the user.]
Lucien blinked.
’Bloodlines are supposed to be fixed at birth. That’s the entire point of the noble hierarchy. You get what you’re born with and that’s it.’
’Apparently the system didn’t get that memo.’
He turned to the golden one.
[Legendary Talent Awakening Crystal]
[Grants one random Legendary Talent perfectly suited to the user’s abilities. If user already has a talent, Evolves it to Legendary Rank.]
His hands trembled slightly.
’This. This is the thing six-year-old me used to dream about. Every night. For years.’
’Bloodline first,’ he decided. ’Better foundation means a better talent afterward. Logical order.’
He picked up the crimson crystal.
[Ding!]
[Use Mythical Bloodline Evolution Crystal?]
[Yes | No]
’Obviously yes.’ He thought while mentally selected yes.
It dissolved the moment his fingers closed around it, sinking into his skin like water into sand.
Then the pain hit like a speeding truck.
---
His blood boiled.
Not figuratively — he could feel it, actual heat surging through every vein, like his own circulatory system had declared war on him.
His bones cracked, one after another, resetting into some new configuration his body apparently preferred now.
His heart slammed against his ribs, faster and louder, like it was trying to escape and jump put of his chest.
Lucien bit down on a scream, curling forward on the bed as instinct after instinct flooded his mind — sharper senses, hungrier awareness, something more ancient and vampiric waking up after being dormant his entire life.
’This is fine,’ he thought through gritted teeth.
’This is totally fine. Very normal amount of suffering.’
It felt like hours. It was probably minutes.
’Come on, how much longer?’ He thought while gritting his teeth and holding down a scream.
He kept his mind running to distract himself, thinking of random things, his beautiful wives and how cute they were.
His bastatd of a family and how he would get revenge and enjoy face slapping them so hard that they would cough out blood like in the webnovels he is used to read, etc.
Anything to not pass out as he had a feeling it wouldn’t end well if he did.
Then after what felt like hours, it stopped, all at once.
Lucien lay gasping on the bed, drenched in sweat and something darker, staring at the ceiling as words assembled themselves in his vision.
[Bloodline Evolution Complete]
[Bloodveil Vampire Bloodline (Uncommon) → Crimson Origin Bloodline (Mythical)]
[Crimson Origin Bloodline - ]
[Infinite Wellspring : Blood volume and regeneration multiply with cultivation rank. Blood never runs dry.]
[Crimson Body: Enhanced vampire physique. Eliminates mortal vampiric physical limitations. Enhanced night vision, reaction speed, senses, and explosive movement. Charisma and appearance significantly amplified — beyond even standard Mythical-rank vampires.]
[Blood Source: Deep comprehension of blood-attribute techniques, skills, etc. Blood-based skills cost 50% less mana.]
[Blood Suppression: Suppresses inferior bloodlines’ stats by up to 30%, including mental resistance depending on target’s fortitude.]
[Blood Manipulation: Control and shape blood at will. Internal manipulation of others’ blood costs significantly more mana and can be resisted by sufficiently strong targets.]
Still laying on the bed covered in black blood, he closed the expanded interface.
Right as another system message popped up in front of his vision.
[Rank Advancement: E-Rank (Beginner) → E-Rank (Middle)]
Lucien lay there, blinking at the ceiling.
’...Okay. That’s. That’s a lot.’
’Crimson Origin Bloodline, huh.
’Never heard of it. So either I am the first one to have it, making it unique, mine and nobody else’s. Not even shared with actual Mythical-rank vampires of previous generations.’
"Or perhaps it is an ancient bloodline, lost to time! ...Or I’m just uneducated. Truly, history is a dangerous magic; every time I attempt to study it, I am instantly struck down by a profound, memory-erasing coma that lifts only at sunrise."
’Whatever it is, I have evolved from the trash and it only took eighteen years.’
’Eighteen years of "weak bloodline, biggest disappointment the main family’s ever produced," and now I’ve got something my own bloodline-obsessed father couldn’t buy with all the gold in his vault.’
’Heh, who’s a disgrace now?’
He let himself grin at the ceiling for exactly three seconds before reaching for the second crystal.
---
[Ding!]
[Use Legendary Talent Awakening Crystal?]
[Yes | No]
He mentally selected ’Yes’ again.
’Why would I even select no?’ He asked himself, well mostly the system, like it would respond to him.
The golden crystal shattered the moment he touched it, golden light flooding the room.
He braced himself for pain, but this time there was none.
It felt more like his soul was being massaged by a master, gently easing him and after what felt like minutes.
[Ding!]
[Legendary Talent Awakening Crystal Used.]
[Legendary Talent Awakened: Crimson Abyss Furnace]
[Sanguine Alchemist (Active): Consumed blood can be converted directly into temporary cultivation speed. Rarer or more powerful blood yields greater efficiency.]
[Blood Rebirth (Active): Consume blood to heal fatal wounds or replenish mana.]
[Blood Sovereign Domain (Active): Sense and manipulate all blood within a radius — consumes mana constantly when active.]1
[Heart Reservoir (Passive/Active): Internal blood storage requiring no mana upkeep. 10 units at E-Rank, doubling each rank.]1
[Furnace Ignition (Active): Use mana to burn blood for a temporary empowered state.]
[— Stored Blood: Grants combat traits, resistances, stats, etc belonging to the blood’s original owner at random.]
[— Own Blood: Stat boost at the cost of personal vitality.]
Lucien stared at the words, something warm and disbelieving spreading through his chest.
’A blood-based talent. For a vampire with a Mythical bloodline. That’s not just compatible, that’s a perfect match of not broken.’
"Damn!"
’Eighteen years of nothing, and the universe decides to make up for it all at once.’
He allowed himself to sit with that feeling — quiet, stunned, almost too big to hold — before his eyes drifted to something smaller in the corner of his vision.
His wives’ Bond Percentages.
All three had ticked up by one.
[Ding!!]
[Bonds increased]
[Aurelia Astrax — Bond (Partner) 15% → 16%]
[Seraphina Lilith — Bond (Partner) 11% → 12%]
[Evelisse Noctis — Bond (Partner) 12% → 13%]
"...Huh?"
’I haven’t done anything for them right now and they should be asleep.’
’So why—’
’Oh.’
’Maybe,’
’Watching me protect Aurelia tonight. Watching how I’ve treated all three of them since the wedding.’
’Trust is slowly building on its own, without needing an item or a meal to trigger it, and it carries on increasing as we live together, seems like we are becoming a family for real now.’
Lucien smiled faintly in the dark.
’So bonds grow passively too. Noted. Another rule figured out the hard way — well, the easy way, actually. This one didn’t hurt at all.’
---
’Now time to clean this room, it looks like a murder scene in here, wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a crackhead of some kind.’
’Also gotta wash up, these impurities, black blood or whatever it is reek,’
He cleaned the dried black blood off himself as quietly as he could.
He also wiped down the room until no trace of the murder scene remained to be seen, and slipped down the hall toward Seraphina’s door.
She was already asleep, curled small under her blankets, silver hair spread across the pillow.
Lucien eased in beside her, careful not to wake her, and wrapped an arm around her waist.
She stirred slightly, murmured something soft and wordless, and settled back against him.
He was asleep within minutes.
---
***************
[A/N: Loving the story so far? What do you think of his new bloodline and talent?
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