RD 2 Ch 30

Chapter 30

I slipped into the bath and pulled the towel off, putting it to the side. “Ah. This feels good.”

“Considering how much blood you were likely covered in, you’ll need a very good scrub.” Simone came in, her horns on display through her curly, black hair. She was wearing nothing but a towel around her torso.

“If you are going to have sex, please don’t do it in the public bath. Despite popular fiction, that’s not really fun for everyone involved.” Circe was also wearing a towel.

Nyx slithered in behind her, looking around with wide eyes.

The bath was wonderful and full of Odyssey members. Many of them were women giggling as they splashed around. There were about a dozen tubs, most of them steaming. We’d gotten one in the corner to ourselves.

“Oh, she has every kink in the book,” I said. “But she’d never display it to someone who didn’t want it.”

“He knows me so well.” Simone slipped in next to me with a sigh, her own towel coming off. The steamy water moved enough that plenty of little bubbles percolated through and hid anything below the surface.

Nyx tested the water with the tip of her tail before sliding slowly in. “Ah, this feels good. Not like that one in the instance.” Her whole lower half disappeared and likely coiled underneath her as she sat down.

I realized, trunk up, she hadn’t grown. It was just the snake half that held her decently high.

“What are you looking at?” Simone hummed.

“For some reason, I thought she’d gotten taller with the transformation,” I said.

“No, the only thing that really grew was my hair and…” She cupped her chest.

“No woman is going to complain about that.” Circe got in, her towel floating up as she relaxed. “So, there was a bath in the instance? I don’t remember any report of that.”

Nyx started to reply before she closed her mouth with a clack and glanced at me.

“Fine, be more loyal to him than your branch leader.” Circe rolled her eyes. “He has plenty to answer for.”

The three servants who Zeus sent entered with baskets of soap and oils.

“I guess I do. You can ask away, and I’ll happily answer.”

“Show me your stats,” Circe demanded.

“Inspect me.” I leaned back as the three got into the bath with their gauzy dresses on.

One looked for Simone to let go of my arm so that she could come at me from that side.

“Oh, please include her in the bathing. I’m not letting her go for a while.” Pulling Simone into my lap, I got comfortable as the three servants started to work on me. “You know what? One of you go pamper Nyx for me. All three is a little much.” I stared at one in particular.

Without question, she moved off to help Nyx.

Meanwhile, Circe was quiet as she stared at my sheet. I allowed her to see my real stats.

The servant who I sent away had also tried to Inspect me, only to be rebuffed. Nyx tried, too, and I let her see. Over the instance, I had grown to trust her. Though, she was still young enough that I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. She’d still change much in her life.

Simone distracted me with a wiggle in my lap. She wasn’t jealous per se, but she wanted my attention at that moment.

I hugged her close as the feeling of her body excited me.

“How the fuck are you still level one? Do you not level?” Circe accused me.

“I can reset my level. A limited number of times—it has to do with that class. Sorry I hid that I was initiated before going in, but I was really level one.” They had to suspect something, so saying this was more for Zeus and Hercules. “A few months ago, an instance spawned on top of me and a friend.”

“Ah,” Circe said. “Very rare, but that’s how most of the FPA starts.”

“If you’ve done your research, you’ll find my mother was in the hospital. She wasn’t there to explain this new world to me, and I had found a quick way to suddenly pay her bills. So I absolutely had a leg up going into that instance. I just wanted my bloodline unlocked and was going to hide…”

“But then the instance went crazy.” Circe sighed. “You spoke with the Blood Dragon?”

“Xothnilium.” I held my hands out of the water. “I swear that was his name when I inspected him. The guy’s stats were monstrous, over three hundred thousand.”

I was so incredibly tempted to ruin the image of the mighty Blood Dragon and reveal that he was a leech. Sadly, the more I changed him, the harder it would be for them to believe the story. A few breaks from expectation actually made it believable, but too much and it all fell to pieces.

Circe let out a soft whistle. “Ancient beasts were powerful… but that defies even my expectations. What level was he?”

“Actually, that was the strange part. No level at all. Perhaps he predated the system, and that’s why there’s no level?” That was my own suspicion.

“Perhaps,” she echoed my thoughts. “So, he gave you the abilities I see here… Powers of Blood and Bloodline Manipulation?”

I smiled at her for spelling this out for our listeners. She knew the game.

“The first allows me to awaken bloodlines, and the second allows me to take and give them.” I turned to the closest servant. “You don’t possess a bloodline but have joined the clan as an outsider. Zeus must trust you deeply to give you this role.” Then I turned to Circe. “If there are criminals with bloodlines in the clan, I can strip them. Well, I can strip the lower-level bloodlines. My guess is with the SS and SSS rank ones, I’m going to have trouble stripping them.”

“S-ranked skill makes sense. You could probably do it to an SS rank with enough time, but you’d have to defeat them and hold them down.” Circe nodded. “Think you can awaken higher-ranked bloodlines? Powers of Blood is low rank.”

“I’m open to testing these both for the clan. It is important that the Heros Clan doesn’t lose its bloodline advantage. The other big clans are full of lower rank and watered-down bloodlines,” I asserted my loyalty to Heros.

Circe had a grave look on her face. “You’d be surprised how hard they work to keep the main branch of each family pure. If nothing more than using you to manipulate bloodlines, they’d love to snatch you up. Which is why I had discussed your protection with Zeus and Hercules. However, now looking at your stat page, that conversation will have to change. There’s one question about your stats I have, though…”

“Yeah. The ancestor helped with that one.” I knew she was referring to my spirit. “He quite liked my actual class. Said I’d need a massive spirit stat.”

A being with over three hundred thousand stats was essentially a god. I could attribute plenty to him, and they wouldn’t bat an eyelash. As long as they could never enter that instance and try to have a conversation with the now-dead leech, my cover would stay intact.

“Still, those stats are incredible. Bloodline Collection? That one is powerful, especially for the Heros Clan.” She nodded.

“It comes with a dangerous downside you might not have realized. When I took the bloodline away from Katie, I lost the benefit she provided. I assume the same would happen if you killed the holder of the bloodline.” While I didn’t love revealing this, giving Hercules and Zeus weaknesses of mine to exploit was needed.

Right now, I was a giant threat. They needed to think they had recourse to stop me even if I grew.

During the War for Supremacy, one of the main goals for each clan was to kill the youngest generation with the most potential. Killing a Level 10 with a high-ranked class and bloodline was far easier than killing them even a few years from that point.

This included not only the battles between clans, but now when they thought they were safe, it would happen inside the clan as well.

“How many more times can you reset your level?” Circe asked.

“Twice. I think. That second time is going to be really hard. It’s gotten increasingly difficult.” I didn’t get into specifics.

Right now, we were dropping what information I wanted Zeus and Hercules to gather. And there was one more thing I really wanted to insert.

“The Blood Dragon said that it’s entering hibernation in preparation for the world to be born into the universe? I didn’t fully understand, but he made it sound like the world is currently protected like a shell is around it. In a little less than two years, that protection is going to fade. Meaning, this world will open up to the wider universe,” I said.

“The prophecy of demonic invasion.” Circe had to fight to keep her lips from turning up at the corners. “You mean to say it’s given you a date.”

My story was also an incredibly valid reason for the dragon to hibernate along with, hopefully, a reason for the clan to work together. After all, I was hoping to add the clan as another horse to pull my wagon.

“The things it did in my soul were impressive. If someone in the clan has even a fraction of that control of their soul, I’d happily show them what I saw.” I laid the hook. When Hercules or Zeus brought some mind reader to check me, I could easily manipulate my soul enough to fake what I wanted to show.

That would probably lock in some opinions.

“I see. You’ve neatly explained how we’ve gotten here. What do you want to do going forward?” Circe asked.

“Well, as I told you before I went into the instance, I wanted to prepare for the demon invasion prophecy. I think that’s a large part of why the Blood Dragon chose me to deliver this message. It knew that no matter what the clan did, I would personally continue to work towards preventing the oncoming disaster, even if on a small scale. That hasn’t changed. Back in Vein City, I have an organization that I’m bringing up to speed to protect the city.”

“Vein City is a long way from the clan—who will want you to help with bloodlines and awakenings. Not to mention, the islands are fairly defensible. Why not stay here?” She gestured as if to encompass it all.

“I’d rather finish what I started in Vein City. Not to mention, I’ll need to be traveling anyway to hunt down instances. I… hoped… that I could do that from Vein City, away from the clan where there are so many high-level players to clear nearby instances.” This was going to be a harder part of the negotiation.

Circe pulled out a tablet in the bath and read off it. “Vein City, where you’ve collected the victims of demons that were trying to collect potential hosts and awakened their bloodlines already?” She pursed her lips.

I chuckled. “Okay. The one demon was working in a factory and making potions to awaken bloodlines. I have a few of the potions.” I pulled one out. They were valuable, but they had also lost all value given the skills I now had. Handing them over wasn’t too painful.

Circe took the potion and inspected it. “Oh. That would make sense for the demons to be brewing such things. However, it means they have quite the resource network.” She clicked her tongue and put the potion in her own ring rather than give it back. “That makes sense. Why not try and forcibly open your bloodline with these?”

“I was concerned the results wouldn’t be the same.” Which I was damned right about.

“Hard to say.” Circe tapped her lips. “Honestly, your abilities give me some faith in your ability to protect yourself. I don’t like you being so far away from my direct protection, though.”

“Then come with him to Vein City,” Simone spoke up for the first time in this conversation. “Bring some of your people if you want, too. At least in the short term, you can work out of the city. Right, Bran? You’d give her whatever she needed to work.”

I raised an eyebrow at Simone, but I went with her suggestion. “Sure. If Simone thinks it's a good idea, then I trust her.”

“Careful. Radiant Insight isn’t always right,” Circe warned me. “You can’t use her like a crystal ball.”

“Nope, I agreed with her. If you’re in Vein City, not only do I get protection, but hopefully, that means we can get plenty of instances around the city for us.” I tapped my chin. “There are still a few outstanding items for me to do, though.”

“Vincent?” Simone asked.

“Yeah. That’s the big one. There are a few other trips I’d like to do. Those involve some heavier travel,” I mused.

“Vincent called twice in the last two weeks. I think he’s starting to feel scammed.” Simone warned.

“The banker?” Circe asked.

“Yeah. He hired me for a job… I uh… did some more faking around him. He thinks I’m some big inscription expert. Long story.” That was a story I did not want to get into with Zeus’ eyes and ears.

“We already have our eyes on him. He’s recruiting some powerful adventurers for something…” Circe’s eyes flashed. “You wouldn’t have already been recruited?”

Simone started wiggling in my lap impatiently, making a wonderful excuse for me to exit this conversation.

“Perhaps. But that’s for later.” I grabbed Simone and stood up, grabbing a towel from the side to wrap around my waist and hold with the other hand. “However, I’ve neglected my fiancée for over two weeks. I intend to rectify that, extensively.”

Simone giggled as I hauled her away. “Sorry, Circe. You’ve been a wonderful host. I’ll nail him down for you to talk later.”

“Sir. We’ll—” one of the new servants started.

“Stay here. Enjoy yourselves, and meet me for dinn—”

“Breakfast,” Simone finished for me. “We’ll only take a delivered dinner if you can. If you can’t, he’ll just have to feed me.” She laughed, no longer holding back.

I swatted her on the ass. “Not in public.”

She smiled like she was just baiting me before starting to kiss every bit of exposed skin I had at the moment. “Second floor, third left. That’s where I’ve been staying.”