Ch-143
—
《‘Bloodspawn 1’ has begun Rapid Growth!》
《‘Bloodspawn 1’ has evolved into a Blood Fiend!》
It swelled and grew, finally taking on the appearance of the Bloodspawn I was familiar with.
Not exactly the same, but similar in outward form to the Desert Queen.
【Lv.8】
It had jumped instantly from Level 7 to Level 8.
So much growth from only three drops of blood.
Not enough to make me anemic yet.
So, I decided to be a little greedy.
《‘Blood Fiend 1’ has begun Rapid Growth!》
《‘Blood Fiend 1’ has begun Rapid Growth!》
Pooong!
When I fed it two more drops in succession, the Blood Fiend’s body couldn’t endure it and burst.
Grk! Grrrk!
Blood splattered in every direction.
Like it had been hit by a bomb, it exploded into pieces.
Krr!
Krrrl!
Soon, the other Bloodspawn ravenously devoured the fallen flesh.
…It seems there’s definitely a limit.
Or perhaps another condition is required.
Knowing now that forcing more blood into them would make their bodies burst, I adjusted accordingly.
I raised one of them to Level 9, and the rest only up to Level 8.
And at that moment—
《‘Blood Fiend Pack (1)’ has been completed.》
《The Pack Leader Blood Fiend has acquired the ‘Fire’ attribute.》
《You may now use ‘Eternal Flame’ by sacrificing ‘Blood Fiend Pack (1)’.》
《Hidden Tip: The sacrifice skills available depend on the Pack Leader’s attribute.》
《Hidden Tip: To increase a Blood Fiend’s limit, the Blood Fiend must complete ‘more missions’.》
Right after the pack’s completion, another message came to mind.
‘A sacrifice skill?’
Sacrificing them—
Meaning, literally using the lives of these Blood Fiends as the price for a skill.
Sacrifice skills were overwhelmingly powerful and exceedingly demanding.
Beyond one’s level in performance, but guaranteed death upon use.
‘So *this* must be the Blood King’s true function.’
The Blood King’s real authority must have been the power to unleash devastating abilities by offering Blood Fiends as sacrifice.
It was possible that even the ‘Dimensional Gate’ had been produced through such a sacrifice skill.
Like how he had sent the Desert Queen ahead.
‘…So that’s why the pollution sources had the appearance of Bloodspawn.’
Realizing that made everything far more intriguing.
The Blood King had sent the Desert Queen to Pangaenia in advance, to conduct research on ‘pollution’.
Then he caused a plague across all of Faisalmer to artificially increase the population of Bloodspawn.
And finally, he intended to sacrifice the last pollution source to descend personally.
There may be additional conditions, something I’ll have to research further…
‘If the Blood Fiend pack grows larger and stronger, I can use higher-tier sacrifice skills.’
This was the most important point.
Strengthening the Blood Fiend pack meant being able to use sacrifice skills of another dimension entirely.
And the available skill changed depending on the Pack Leader’s attribute.
‘I’ll tame every Bloodspawn on this floor.’
I needed to enlarge the pack.
There might be Bloodspawn on the floors above—or perhaps not.
So I had to gather as many as possible here.
-Give us orders.
-Shall we kill those two humans?
-My King! Let us slaughter!
-Blood! More blood!
But these creatures were completely blood-crazed.
They were drooling as they watched the two people fleeing in the distance.
‘You said they’d grow stronger by completing my orders.’
I nodded and pointed toward the fleeing pair.
“Bring them. Alive.”
*
*
“Please spare us!!”
“Spare us, my lord!”
Pat and Mite.
The moment they were captured by the Blood Fiends, the two men threw themselves down.
Then they furtively exchanged glances.
*‘This guy must be the area boss who controls these monsters!’*
*‘But no matter how you look at him, he looks human…’*
A man who appeared out of nowhere.
He commanded monsters and evolved them by feeding them blood.
He clearly *looked* human, but nothing he did was human.
“Looks like this isn’t a tower meant for Level 4s.”
“O-our Master tricked us into coming! Said it wouldn’t be hard, that we’d be paid a lot! That son of a bitch!”
…Watching him passionately curse his Master, I stroked my chin for a moment.
The Master had recruited people to act as lab rats and shoved them in en masse.
“That Master—did he enter the tower as well?”
“Yes! He definitely said he was going in too. And there were some strange monsters with him…”
“With monsters?”
The Master associating with monsters?
So he wasn’t forming a party with players?
But forming a party with monsters was nearly impossible.
Unless you were like me and could deceive them by turning into a corpse crow.
Just as humans hated monsters, monsters hated humans.
Then the man beside him spoke.
“Y-yes. Raktusha! I clearly heard that name. An orc and a dark elf… The other two had their cloaks pulled deep, so I couldn’t see, but they looked incredibly strong.”
…Raktusha?
Surely not that Swordmaster Raktusha I saw on the Mountain of the Trainee?
‘Didn’t he die?’
Baal had revived on the Mountain of the Trainee.
I’d assumed Raktusha died fighting him.
Perhaps his subordinates sacrificed themselves so that he alone survived.
And strangely enough, Raktusha was now traveling with the Master.
‘Raktusha and a dark elf… That’s the Black King’s force.’
Why the Black King’s forces were with the Master—
The likely answer: the Master had sided with the Black King.
Whatever he offered them, the fact that they were climbing the tower together meant the Master possessed key information about this ‘Rift Tower’.
He was famous for liking experiments, after all.
He might have information even I didn’t know.
‘Raktusha was Level 13 when I saw him. For now, he’s outside my range.’
The Tower of Rifts Levels.
In my party, the highest level was Serengeti.
A 1-Star, which equated to Level 11.
So we wouldn’t directly clash with the Black King’s forces yet.
But it *was* possible we’d run into them.
If I climbed to the 13-level tier myself.
-My King! May we eat now?
-Blood! Flesh! Slaughter!
-So tasty!
…The Blood Fiends drooled while surrounding the two men.
If left alone, they’d devour them down to the marrow.
I shook my head slightly.
“Bring me the remaining Bloodspawn alive.”
Increasing the pack was the top priority.
*
*
Pat and Mite could not believe their eyes.
The monsters spread across the entire area in an instant—
and brought back other monsters alive.
Then those captured monsters bowed to the man and pledged loyalty.
*‘What *is* this man?!’*
A being monsters instinctively followed.
He even fed them his blood to strengthen them.
And the number of strengthened monsters soon exceeded a hundred.
*‘…I’ve seen necromancers before, but this is on an entirely different level.’*
These were living monsters he was leading and empowering.
Undead couldn’t grow, but these creatures could grow endlessly.
And with only a droplet of blood.
Such an unbelievable being—they’d never seen anything like it.
For a moment, vampires came to mind, but even that paled in comparison.
And then—
Fwoooosh.
…When the man drew his sword, a blizzard swept through.
A cutting-cold blizzard that could flay flesh froze the entire area in an instant.
And then—
《The entire area is frozen.》
《Progress: 100%》
《The Level 4 Area Boss has appeared.》
《The Level 4 Area Boss has died.》
The area boss died instantly before anyone could even see what it looked like.
《The Level 4 Area has been cleared. You will be forcibly transported to the ‘Waiting Room’.》
《You cannot leave until Floor 1 of the Rift Tower is cleared.》
The two men were forcibly ejected.
A warp circle appeared beneath their feet, and they fell through.
But they saw it—
*‘What is that warp…?’*
A golden warp that appeared before the man who commanded monsters.
Completely different from the one they’d used—
a color and shape they’d never seen before.
They saw the man step through it freely.
*
*
《You have obtained a total of 45 SP.》
《You have obtained 15h of Golden Scale Shards.》
《The path to the next area has opened.》
《Total Party Score: 420 points》
《1st Place – Randolph (330)》
《2nd – Serengeti (50)》
《3rd – Rommel (20)》
《4th – Balte (10)》
《5th – Andrew (10)》
《You are ranked 1st out of 13,754 parties.》
《The score of the 2nd-ranked party is 180 points.》
《The score of the 3rd-ranked party is 120 points.》
We ascended the floor with an overwhelming score margin.
Judging from the decreased number of parties, some had been wiped out.
‘Being disproportionately strong for one’s level is definitely advantageous.’
Other than myself, Serengeti had earned considerable points as well.
A 1-Star, but nearly 2-Star in real ability.
There was almost nothing in an 11-level area that could stop her.
‘The Blood Fiends can cross the warp too.’
Level 5 Area.
As I crossed the warp, the Blood Fiends transferred along with me.
Their number reached one hundred and twenty.
《‘Blood Fiend Pack (6)’ has been completed.》
《The Pack Leader Blood Fiend (6) has obtained the ‘Darkness’ attribute.》
《You may sacrifice ‘Blood Fiend Pack (6)’ to use ‘Piercing Shroud of Darkness’.》
《You may sacrifice ‘Blood Fiend Great Pack (1)’ to use ‘Blazing Cataclysm’.》
Exceeding one hundred creatures formed not just a pack, but a ‘Great Pack’, allowing access to grand-tier sacrifice skills.
Blazing Cataclysm.
Just the name conveyed its destructive force.
But using it here would be wasteful.
-We can grow stronger still. Please grant us your blood!
Soon, Pack Leader (1) spoke to me.
The first one who gained the Fire attribute.
It must have expanded its limits after completing several missions.
I granted it a single drop of blood.
Then—
Brrrrrr!
Its body shook with power, growing slightly larger, and flames surged over its entire figure like a visual effect.
【Lv.9】
It rose another level.
But that wasn’t all that changed.
《You may sacrifice ‘Blood Fiend Pack (1)’ to use ‘Eternal Inferno’.》
The skill had changed—from Eternal Flame to Eternal *Inferno*—because the Pack Leader had been strengthened.
Indeed. The sacrifice skills improved with the leader’s nature and level.
I was growing curious to see how far it could evolve.
And that curiosity would soon be answered.
Krrik!
Kirrk!
…Because there were Bloodspawn in the Level 5 Area as well.
Slightly larger ones than the ones in Level 4.
“Capture every single one of them alive.”
I issued the command to them.
I intended to subjugate every Bloodspawn here as well.
*A heaven-sent opportunity.*
*
Jiiiiiing—!
A fierce energy gathered along Raktusha’s greatsword.
Not sword-aura, but a solidified, fully-formed blade-force.
*Devour them all, Black Heaven Sword.*
When the pitch-black blade, dark as spilled ink, swung with its condensed blade-force—
KWA-RRRRRRRRUNG!
The earth split open as a massive horde of giant-sized Bloodspawn was blown apart like scattered debris.
Everything the blade touched was shredded and fractured into thousands, tens of thousands of pieces, not even granted time to scream.
And then—
《You have cleared the Colossal Bloodspawn Horde.》
《You have gained 3 additional points.》
《Total party score: 429 points》
《1st – Raktoosha (100)》
《2nd – Saint (99)》
《3rd – Haneul (98)》 *(lit. “the Wasted One / the Ruined One”—name preserved if needed)*
《4th – Saluman (97)》
《5th – Master (35)》
《You are ranked 2nd out of 13,311 parties.》
The results screen surfaced all at once.
But Raktusha did not find this score satisfactory.
‘Still only 2nd place.’
—
