Blood human

After treating Orianna's wounds, Lewis picked her and hid in a cave deeper in the forest. 

With Jorg controlling the battlefield happening in front of the gates of the Fire Dagger village, and the remaining two druids dead, the mission had officially ended as a success. However, leaving right after completing a mission as flawlessly as they did would be a waste.

Eric Aurelius was not just an imperial knight. He was a grand knight with many connections, and Lewis knew that his achievement on the Northern battlefield would affect his family's standings in the coming months. The Dalian Empire was a military empire after all, and the reason why his parents threw him in the depths of hell without hesitation upon learning he had arcane talent was an extension of this military culture. In their eyes, he was an investment to reignite the greatness of the Steelguard household.

Lewis had manipulated the battlefield over the past month to kill and extract the blood essence of the druids. 

Quality over quantity.

To summon Noctis, the most basic requirement was to find creatures gifted with intellect and arcane talent. If they lacked either attribute, then the blood ritual would fail, no matter how intelligent the creature was, no matter how magically gifted it was.

Noctis was, after all, searching for clues of a breakthrough to the rank 1 demon realm, something that Lewis only understood further down in his path. 

He would not make the same mistake twice.

Becoming a vampire was out of the question, since he would be limited by the original blood essence's strength. Unlike bloodline acolytes who could enhance their bloodlines to their genetic limits, and at least reach the magus realm, becoming a vampire with a below-magus powerhouse blood essence was the same as destroying your potential. And if it was still alive, it would be synonymous to enslaving yourselves to the whims of your blood master.

However, there was something that Lewis had never considered before, yet was incredibly attractive to him. Not having been born into a bloodline magus household like the Longlost family, Lewis could not become a bloodline path acolyte.

But this did not mean he could not study bloodlines and make use of them.

Decades of research and pristine materials were now in his possession. He possessed two more droplets of Noctis' blood essence, an intermediate-rank demon with the potential to become a rank 1 demon, or even rank 2 demon from what Lewis remembered from his past life.

He possessed drops of Orianna's blood essence. Even if it was impure, it possessed trace of a Great Acidic Alligator, a creature which could easily destroy boats with a single bite, and terrorized the ocean for centuries and still did.

Not willing to wait anymore, Lewis drew a very special hex with the intermediate-rank druid. The hex was not drawn onto the ground this time, but instead, on his own body, his heart at the centre of it. It was the third time he was using the [Forbidden Blood Hex], something he had discovered in the Magical Court's archives, studied and improved. 

Soon enough, he felt an incredible strength flowing into him. His face became sharper, his muscles more refined and his aura much more dangerous. But more importantly, he could feel his soul becoming much more wicked. Lewis had waited for Orianna to lose blood for quite some time, but the young scion was very careful in her battles...until Lewis left her no choice but to fight.

Her blood loss coincidentally left her unconscious and weakened, and gave him the perfect opportunity to treat her wounds and strengthen himself without ever revealing what he had done.

The [Forbidden Blood Hex] was a runic formation that allowed vampires to strengthen their bloodline and increase their blood purity. Although inefficient, this exact process had drawn the interest of thousands of bloodline acolytes, and while forbidden, Lewis was not the only one who had pierced its mysteries and used it as a strength regent. 

Just like consuming elixirs, there were little to no drawbacks at all, while increasing your growth speed by several folds.

The thing was...Lewis did not have a bloodline at all. He was completely human.

In the past, he used blood essence from enemies he fell and allies alike to strengthen his vampire bloodline.

In this world, countless bloodline type acolytes were doing the same to strengthen their own bloodlines.

However, Lewis did not want to discard his humanity this time around. He wanted to use his identity, his origins, his roots to become stronger and reach the very limits of his potential. 

He was actually sacrificing the immediate source of power from the demon Noctis and the great acidic alligator...for his regular, human bloodline. 

This time around, Lewis did not just use noctis blood essence, but used two droplets as well as several vials filled with a Longlost heir's blood. Lewis never felt so strong in this lifetime. In fact, in his previous life, he had never felt so pure, so untainted.

Lewis discovered that the human bloodline possessed no inherent trait. There was no extraordinary scale, acidic breath or ability to merge with shadows. He was not the only one who had thought of improving the human's bloodline...But all of them failed...They all failed because they did not know the extraordinary wonders a human could achieve. Surely, there was no extraordinary strengths, but they also lacked any obvious weakness.

By doing so, Lewis was actually merging the path of blood elemental and body refinement magi together. Body refinement acolytes searched for away to overcome physical limits. Blood acolytes studied blood elemental magic, and researched bloodlines to inspire themselves. Lewis was doing something different altogether. He was increasing that limit, he was increasing his very potential...

His blue eyes had gradually turned grey, but they were now closer to a white shade overflowing with power. Casting the analysis spell, Lewis could not feel any better about his actions over the past two months:

[Name - Lewis Steelguard | Age - 15 years old

Attributes:

Strength - 3.2 | Agility - 2.2 | Vitality - 4.3 | Spirit - 5.9

Perk: Crimson Pact [Sealed], Blood Human

Spells: Blood drain (156), Analysis (132), Blood Enchant (95) , Blood Shield (80), Sanguine Tracking (75), Blood Arrow (53), Blood Essence Gathering (36)

Sealed spells (not enough spirit): Blood Golem Summon (60), Blood wolf Summon (50), Tides of blood (40), Blood Curse (10)]

He had earned a new perk, a passive attribute that crystallised efforts of a lifetime. He no longer was a regular human. He was a blood human.

And with that, came higher strength, agility, vitality and spirit. In a month of consistent meditation, his spirit had only increased by 0.1 point. And he had a lifetime's worth of experience in meditating, otherwise, the results would not have been 0.1 point, but rather, something much lower.

Yet...A single month of battle and blood rituals had sufficed to allow him a turn into a blood human, reach the level of veteran knights in terms of physique, as well as gain 1 whole point of spirit, roughly equivalent to a year's worth of meditation for a grade 2 acolyte like him.

This mission was not just an overwhelming success for the party. It was an awakening of sort.