19 - Class Blood

In Jackal's Lab, I learned a lot from his books and research material.

Too much to go over now.

Still, in general, I learned about this world, various magic related knowledge, and an absolute crapton about runecraft.

I suppose I'll go over the most important things.

This world was a large one, maybe several times larger than the entire continent of the one I came from. At least, what I had mapped of it.

There was a more dense magic culture in this place, and I finally learned about "classes".

Essentially, there were once people that were differentiated by their usage of magic, and that changed their blood, forming different species. These species' blood and magic knowledge became diluted and lost with time.

Now, the best anyone could manage was a "class", which was a lesser version of one of these ancestral bloodlines.

For instance, "mage" was a class, and there were once a species of mages that had unique bloodlines that made them mages.

The goal of every class-based existence was to eventually progress in their technique enough to recreate the bloodline that the original species the classes derive from had.

In regards to this, in this place, there were many more classes than just mages and knights, and people at the equivalent level of plasmic mana, or 7th circle mages, were also relatively more common.

At least, they were around.

Since the techniques and magic knowledge in this world were more developed, people of that level appeared more frequently.

I also learned what getting to that level did to people.

There was a long ways to go to get to the level of an ancestral bloodline. These were people at the level of gods. No, perhaps sometimes even beyond that.

That was what the myths foretold, at least.

The peak powers of this realm had discovered that the key to unlocking these bloodlines was storing skills, like my [Stealth], into one's blood. Magic research then tilted towards discovering ways to do this.

It was commonly said in the Nyla kingdom I had just came from that mages didn't tend to learn skills, but it turned out this was actually not true. It's just the skills mages learned tended to be passive, like a skill for faster casting. It was difficult to notice.

Layering these skills in the blood, one's offspring would have a huge headstart, allowing for immense power when combined with the right technique.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done.

One had to at least be at plasmic mana or the equivalent level to even practice the appropriate to instill a skill into the blood.

Skill-infused blood was called "class blood".

Gathering enough class blood was one of the prerequisites to the level beyond plasmic mana.

For mages, that generally, but not always, meant becoming an "archmage".

I also learned that I was considered odd. I knew a lot of spells, practiced a bizarre mana cultivation technique, already had a bloodline from my reconstructed body via the mystical fruit, practiced a knight breathing technique, and had the skill [Stealth], which was generally considered a "rogue" skill.

I was all over the place.

Actually, it was the fault of the Nyla kingdom's heritage.

Mages were supposed to bathe in a liquid mana bath, made by melting mana crystals, and sense mana while within it in order to awaken, but the Nyla kingdom used the knight breathing technique as the base to sense mana instead.

Normally, you were supposed to pick a class and stick to it, but I had already messed that up.

Thankfully, there were classes at the archmage level that were the advancement of the combination of multiple classes.

A knight who used a variety of spells just had to practice magecraft and knight breathing in order to become a "magic swordsman". As for my [Stealth] skill, it seemed like it couldn't belong anywhere, so I didn't know what to do about it.

Of course, so long as you didn't have any class blood yet, you could always pivot, and given how [Stealth] was the only skill I had, or so I thought, if things stood as they were, I could only pivot to becoming a rogue.

Maybe I could learn some knight skills and mage skills before reaching plasmic mana.

***

And so it went, a few more years passing by.

I read through a lot, and became proficient in runecraft. Of course, I didn't reach anywhere close to Jackal's level.

My knight breathing broke through to solid crystal mana, but slowed down progressing significantly. However, with merely this one, it wasn't enough.

Thankfully, Jackal had a much better knight breathing technique. Moreover, switching techniques didn't require completely starting over.

I retained my solid crystal mana cultivation while switching to a better technique. With that, I would be able to break through to plasmic mana with near certainty.

After all, I already had near apex talent anyhow. With a better technique, it was all but certain.

However, it would take a long time. At least 10 years.

Meanwhile, my mana cultivation had reached the 13th circle, but not the 14th, and I stopped without even attemlting the 14th circle, instead aiming to use a different technique.

Jackal didn't have high level techniques for every class, but he did for quite a few of them.

With that, I would be able to reach the 7th circle with due time as well. Currently, I managed to reach the 5 in these few years.

I learned of the surrounding terrain as well. Jackal had chosen to build his lab here precisely because of how isolated it was, and although I understood the reasoning, it seemed excessive.

Jackal had been a runesmith, but also a mage. He had reached the 8th circle.

The stage before archmage but that was equivalent to plasmic mana knights was 7th circle, as well as the progression through 8th, 9th, and 10th circle.

Archmages could cast 11th circle magic and beyond, which was called "Grand Magic". Moreover, certain lesser circle spells could only be cast by an archmage.

A spell was of a given circle based on the number of magic circles needed to cast it, not the complexity or difficulty, although of course the complexity and thus also the difficulty tended to increase when adding more circles.

There were some lower circle spells of tremendous complexity and/or difficulty, albeit not many.

The people at the archmage level in this realm would be like the plasmic mana users of my past life. Difficult to find and all doing their own thing.

3 years later, I decided to head out. It would take about a week to get to the nearest town, but thankfully, I could pack live beasts in the treasury after knocking them out, so that saved me the hassle of food. Same with water, just stored in the treasury, in a large holder.

Thankfully, there was a spell to turn salt water into fresh water.

I had Ixtra keep watch on and knock out the beasts again whenever they woke up, and so like that, I left the lab.

Of course, not really. I took the whole lab with me.

The whole thing was quite large, but it still didn't take up the entire treasury warehouse space. That's just how large the warehouse was.

I was 28 now.

I had also learned what the "level" was that was mentioned by the screen that was constantly present in the treasury.

It was my level of power. I was up from level 39 to 45 now. I needed 60 for the treasury upgrade, which I was looking forward to. Based on the current progress, level 60 seemed to adhere to plasmic mana level.

Meanwhile, Ixtra was still stuck at the equivalent of the peak of liquid mana. He had never been a knight anyhow, he just had demonic energy the equivalent of the peak liquid mana realm.

He needed to eat strong creatures or aquire a demonic technique to "level up", neither of which had been in Jackal's lab.

He seemed a litgle irritated about it sometimes, but he tried not to show it.

***

One week later, we reached a town. It was really small and barely counted as a town.

There couldn't have been more than 1000 people there.

I didn't need to ask for directions since Jackal had left maps, and I could tell the direction, both through the compass and the sun and stars, and I didn't need food and drink either. Even sleep, I could bring out a bed from the lab, which was all in the treasury.

So, I just rested there for a day and left again.

There was wildlife now, although I was approaching a desert.

The desert tapered off into barren land until eventually reaching the cliff edge and the sea, which was where Jackal had placed his lab.

Getting deeper into the desert, I found a decently sized town to rest in. It had been harder in the desert rather than the barren rocky edges this time, so I was more exhausted.

I confirmed a lot of what I had learned from the lab in the town. I also came across an enchanter, which was a runesmith who specialized in "enchanting" items using runes. Many of the items I had been using, like my treasure cloths and weapons, were examples of this.

They had been made to hide the runes well, so I had never noticed before.

Meanwhile, Jackal had been a runesmith specializing in making golems and formations.

I could mass obtain treasures with this, but it was useless for now since the compass wouldn't even show what was needed for the next upgrade without first upgrading the treasury.

It just said [3207/1000] [Upgrade Pending].

It was annoying every time I glanced at it.

I hopped on a caravan in the town and two weeks later arrived at a city.

It was a bustling city, and the culture and style was completely different from anything I had ever seen.

I knew of deserts, but I had never seen a kingdom built in one. It had a unique kind of feeling.

Walking around, I enjoyed the sights for a while before heading out again.

Ecer since I had learned of what the "level" meant, and of plasmic mana being the condition for the treasury upgrade, I had made it my goal to get to plasmic mana as fast as I could.

In order to do this, I decided to head to the capital of this kingdom, the kingdom of Axel, where the magic culture would be the most enriched.

There were even people on Jackal's level there.

It would take me years to get to plasmic mana, maybe even over a decade, and I wasn't a fan of taking things slow and steady for so long when I was still a mere mortal, but it might be what I had to do now.

A few weeks later, I arrived at the capital, and although I didn't need them now, I was still amazed at the uncountable number of golden dots on the map due to so many enchanted items existing.

Lodging at an inn, I felt a familiar feeling of warmth as I did so.

I took a moment to think about my life so far.

My reconstructed physique made me not so sad at the lack of a woman, and Ixtra and Tom had been with me for some time now.

I wasn't alone, and I didn't feel alone.

I had had a rough childhood, but I had grown out of it into a respectable young man who could read and write, and interacted with nobility. I discovered a unique opportunity for greatness and grasped it, and had been on a journey across the entire world-no, across all the realms, ever since.

I had already left my home world.

I got an unusual feeling in my chest as I thought of these things.

It wasn't pain, or sadness, or even nostalgia and a desire to return "home".

I had never really felt at home anywhere, anyhow.

If anything, roaming around like this, with Ixtra and Toma and the unchanging treasury inside me; all that felt more like home than any physical place outside.

I was grateful. I was glad I had been given this opportunity.

Even if I died in a number of decades as a mortal human like everyone else, doomed to stare at the starry skies and reach out to them, unable to grasp them...

It would still have been a good life, by then.

I was sure of that.

When night fell, I chose not to sleep tonight, and instead made my way to the roof of the inn.

Despite the cold desert night, I didn't really feel that cold.

I felt warm, and satisfied.

I laid there and stared at the stars, and drifted off to sleep outside, just like that.

Ixtra watched on wordlessly from my shadow, as always, and he also marveled at the stars in the night sky.

As he did so, he had an oddly emotional thought, for him.

'Hell doesn't have any stars in the sky.'