Blood Shaper

Book 3: Chapter 69

A few members of the assembled group stared at Kay after he finished his story, eyes shocked. Others traded glanced back and forth and around the table as they tried to figure out how everyone else felt about what had happened.

Kay’s normal council of Ministers and advisers was supplemented by a few members of Parliament that had been chosen to represent the legislative body in this first informal meeting where Kay explained what had occurred after he’d been abducted. There was going to be another, much more formal event during a session of Parliament with a lot of grandstanding and being impressive for the record.

Cyrus Aventi, the older human Minister of Finance, deliberately made eye contact with as many people as he could before speaking, “Now, I will say that this is a lot to take in. These are the kinds of things you’d expect to hear in some legend about a far off hero, not something you’d actually have to experience in your life. But!” He leaned forward over the table, “Has anything bad actually happened? And I mean anything that will negatively affect the long term internal stability of Avalon or our ability to follow Kay? If he’d been turned into any new species that wasn’t connect to vampyr, we’d be fine with it, if shocked that it had happened. Am I right?”

People nodded or voiced their agreements, some cautiously as they waited for Cyrus to make his point, others already seeing it and responding confidently.

“So why should we be worried about him now? He’s proved through multiple sources that he isn’t a vampyr and while his new species is related to vampyr, it’s related the same way any species is connected to an undead version of themselves, it’s something that happens too them, it’s not part of their being.” He leaned back in his chair with an inquisitive tilt to his eyebrows, “So, does anyone have any real concerns or worries about our lord?” He pointed at the person next to him, “You?”

“No?”

“You?”

“No, I don’t.”

Cyrus continue to point around the table, skipping over Kay and Eleniah, then coming back to the other side of himself. Everyone answered in the negative. “Well then, that’s one entire topic we can table as not being a concern.”

Kay smothered a laugh at Cyrus’ smug look, “Thank you for your support Cyrus, and to everyone else. There will be problems moving forward, there’s no denying that, but hopefully we can head off any internal ones before they get too big, and the only thing we can do about any external problems is deal with them as they come up.”

“It’s easy to acknowledge that you aren’t a vampyr when you’re right in front of us and we can see the results of the various tests and such, but people farther away are going to think that you’re just lying to us or tricking us,” Amanda pointed out, a grave look on her face, “That could lead, no it’s going to lead to difficulties and clashes.”

“How is that different from what we were already expecting?” Kay countered, “We knew that our sudden rise as a player was going to spook people and bring some kind of conflict to us, one way or another. We’re getting too big too fast for anyone else who wants to hold onto the reigns of power to not starting poking us and seeing what we do. That was a given the moment I revealed that I was a Class Line Progenitor, and it’s magnified by the success we’ve been having. We’re finding resources other people want or using resources in new ways to make products people want and trading them. We’re expanding into a huge section of previous unclaimed territory and gathering huge waves of immigrants, some of them people that other nations or polities don’t want leaving their borders. And those are only some of the things we’re doing that are painting a target on our back.”

He pointedly didn’t look at Amanda, since he didn’t want to draw attention to her off the books dealings, but he did share a few looks with people in the know about their secret project. There were actually several secret projects but most of them wouldn’t have anywhere near the level of impact Project Chord would. And thanks to Isla’s lectures and paranoia, Kay was getting much better at keeping secrets. The only people who knew about the project needed to know about it, and he wasn’t going to be telling anyone else. Reading people in on secrets wasn’t part of his job.

“So we keep doing what we were already doing,” Kay continued, “Which is get ready for confrontation as best we can. This,” He pointed at his new fangs, “Is going to change some things and add new depth to what’s to come, but it isn’t going to change the fundamental reality, which is we’re going to be fighting. It pushes the time table up a bit, but not much more than we were already expecting it.”

Keeping the existence of their weapons project a secret was starting to get harder. Cindy was out with the rest of Chord’s leadership setting up an actual munitions development and manufacturing site, with an attached town to support it. Once that was ready they planned to start training people in both of the new Class Lines. Once that started the secret was going to be out of the bag, which meant that “Avalon is causing notable problems” was only going to spreading on the feet of messengers a few months earlier than expected at worst.

The meeting broke up less than an hour later, people heading out of the room in small groups or singletons as they went off to do whatever their jobs required with this new change to the dynamics of the city. The purpose of having the meeting in the first place was to spread information to the people who needed it, not to make any real decisions. Those meetings would come in the future once they actually knew how things were going to start changing.

Only Eleniah, Meten, Darten, and Ahthia were left once everyone else had filed out, the small group being all “original” Avalonians.

“The whole, ‘you still have to drink blood’ thing is going to be one of the biggest problems,” Eleniah mused, leaning back with her feet on the table, “Most people think of that as a core vampyr trait, and now I know that it is because it’s a core vampire trait, but people are still going to be leery.”

“I’m just glad I can eat and drink regular food. Some versions of vampires only consume blood.” Kay held up his snack, a tasty pasty someone had brought him, and happily chowed down on it.

Darten laughed and shook his head, “Of course the thing you focus on is eating instead of problems. I still remember you bitching about not getting to eat that pizza dish you talked about.”

“Which will soon be rectified!” Kay crowed, “Because we have a trade route for tomatoes!”

“Why is it that every time I want to talk about important Class related things you chat about food!?” Ahthia burst out, throwing her arms in the air, “Tell me more about your tier five Class!”

“I don’t really think that counts, since we were talking about the blood thing first and-“

“Don’t care! Tell me!”

Kay rolled his eyes and pulled up his Status, then the Class and Skill descriptions.

[————————————————————]

Name: Kenneth “Kay” Davis

Race: Vampire

Age: 26

Highest Tier: V

Total Tiers: 25

Class Slots: 12 Combat Class Slots/7 Non-Combat Class Slots

4 Combat Class Slot Used/2 Non-Combat Class Slots Used

Classes:

Combat:

- Lord of Spilled Blood: Tier V -

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 40

Shape Blood - Level 40

Meld Blood - Level 40

Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 40

Blood Transfusion - Level 40

Healthy Blood - Level 40

Blood Regeneration - Level 40

Enhance Blood - Level 40

Blood Boost - Level 40

Leadership - Level 40

Domain of Blood - Level 8

Create from Blood - Level 5

Identify - Level 5

Appraisal - Level 5

Inspect - Level 6

Mandate to Blood Spilled - Level 1

Folded Veins - Level 1

Lord’s Bloody Domain - Sublime

-Blood Manipulator: Tier IV -

Skills” Manipulate Blood - Level 40

- Expert Swordsman (Bastard Sword): Tier IV -

Skills: Swordsmanship (Bastard Sword) - Level 39

- Expert Polearm Wielder (Halberd): Tier IV -

Skills: Polearms (Halberd) - Level 39

- Empty

- Empty

- Empty

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Combat:

- Cartographer: Tier IV

Skills: Spatial Determination - Level 31

Expanded Sight - Level 33

Sharpened Memory - Level 30

Stable Footing - Level 32

Drawing - Level 32

Cartography - Level 37

- Expert Mapmaker: Tier IV

Skills: Effective Communication (Drawing) - Level 32

Drawing - Level 35

Cartography - Level 37

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Class Skills: Punch Daggers - Level 5, Writing - Level 5, Reading - Level 5, Running - Level 5, Sprinting - Level 5,

Titles: Class Line Progenitor, Class Creator VIII, System Access (Minor), Blood Lord of Avalon, First Vampire

[————————————————————]

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Class: Lord of Spilled Blood (Combination of Blood Manipulator + Blood Shaper + Blood Melder + Bloody Healer + Blood Enhancer + Simulacrum Creator (Blood) + Blood Lord)

- Near the very beginning of your journey on Torotia, you swore an Oath. That Oath had unintended consequences that you never expected, but it set you on your path. That path has been one of blood. Blood, and rule. Blood that drips from the veins of others is yours to lead, by right of your Titles and your achievements. Manipulating, Shaping, Melding, Creating, Healing, Enhancing, and more. If it can be done with blood that no longer sits in someone’s veins, you can do it. Your path has led to you becoming a powerful figure, with others following your lead. Where will it take you next?

Class Skill: Mandate to Blood Spilled

Class Skill: Folded Veins

Class Skill: Lord’s Bloody Domain

Class Effect: Passively increases the strength and efficiency of all Blood Manipulator line Skills used by your followers within your Domain by a small amount.

[————————————————————]

This time Kay deliberately pulled up the Class Effect too, the passive ability all Classes got after tier three. Almost all of them were “slightly increase strength of associated Skill” or something similar, but this new Class used so many Skills that he hadn’t been sure what the effect was going to be for this one. The tier five Class had ended up grabbing onto both of the blood related Skills that hadn’t unlocked a new Class, Domain of Blood and Create from Blood, and Appraisal, Identify, and Inspect. Kay assumed that was because a lord needed to know what was around them or some such, and was interested in finding out how his version of those Skills ended up being different form Eleniah’s versions.

[————————————————————]

Skill: Mandate to Blood Spilled (Level 1)

- Time is irrelevant. Spilled Blood is your charge, and it shall heed your call. This Skill allows the user to call upon the memory of battle, carnage, and chaos, and bring it once more to life. Anywhere blood has been spilled it can be called on again. When this Skill is used within an area that has had a large amount of blood spilled at any point in the past, it will temporarily recreate the blood that has been shed in that area within range of the Skill, at a high mana cost. The blood shall be bound to the Skills user, and no other may control it in any fashion until it dissipates. The blood created may impart additional effects based on the events that led to it being shed during the original events. Higher levels of this Skill decrease mana costs, increase range, and increase the likelihood that additional effects will be imparted

[————————————————————]

[————————————————————]

Skill: Folded Veins (Level 1)

- Veins, the place blood sits. The storage and transfer of the crimson liquid of life, but changed. Expanded. This Skill passively changes the vines of its User, spatially expanding them to hold more blood than normal. Higher levels of this Skill increase the amount of spacial expansion.

WARNING: This Skill may cause negative interactions with teleportations and travel via portal. It is recommended that these experiences are avoided to prevent spacial rupture.

[————————————————————]

[————————————————————]

Skill: Lord’s Bloody Domain (Sublime Skill)

- You are a lord and your domain is blood. This Skill passively increases the power of all Blood Manipulation Line Skills you use within your domain, from any Class. This Skill may be activated as well. For a massive mana cost, the size of your domain will expand in size by a factor of ten for a limited time. During this period, all range limits will be changed, causing the maximum range you may use Blood Manipulation Line Skills at to become the temporarily increased range of your domain, if that range is larger than the previous maximum range. As a Sublime Skill, this Skill has no level and will not change with experience or use. (System Access Info: Warning! Sublime Skills are only loosely balanced! Changes and updates may occur without warning!)

[————————————————————]

“Damn!” Eleniah smiled widely at him when he’d finished reading everything to them all. “That’s top twenty percent of tier five Classes I’ve heard of for sure!”

“That’s only top twenty percent!?” Ahthia spat out, “That Class is insane!”

“My cousin can fuck with the weather across her entire country simultaneously and spawn storms that will track you down to fuck with you,” Eleniah casually countered, “The Doomlord can give out multi-generational curses that have intelligence and can adapt to people trying to get rid of them or mitigate their effects. Kay’s Class is great, for sure! But it’s not the best of the best.”

Everyone stared at her, mouths open in shock.

“Your cousin sounds terrifying.” Kay muttered.

“She can be if you’re an enemy, and I will say that the weather and storms thing is a relatively new development, she only got that Class a few decades ago. She conquered the isles and became queen through just Water Manipulator and Sailor Classes. The Storm Mage stuff came later.”

“Well, setting aside the fact that we are never making enemies with Eleniah’s hometown, it sounds like Kay’s gotten a great Class that will help us out with what’s to come.” Darten commented.

Meten nodded along, “If we can identify places where battles have been fought and manipulate our enemies to fight us there, Kay could make blood suddenly spring up around their feet and be able to hit the entire enemy force at once.”

“It’s a great Class for one versus many type fights, but you’re still going to have to watch out for hyper-focused single target fighters,” Eleniah warned him, “This Class turns you into a one man army, but you’re exactly as vulnerable to assassins as you were before.”

Meten gracefully stood up, a small smile on his face. “Let us go train together. We can test out Kay’s new abilities and strength, and remind him that just because he’s reached the same tier as us doesn’t mean we can’t kick his ass.”

“That sounds great!” Eleniah headed behind Kay and started pushing him out of his chair with a grin on her face.

“I didn’t say anything like that!” Kay protested, “I didn’t even think that!”

Meten nodded sagely, “It shall be an important humbling experience for him.”

“You guys suck!”

That night, after getting beaten up and down the training yard they’d taken over for themselves, although having given a much better showing than previous sparring matches, Kay washed up before bed. His room and bathroom were much larger than he was comfortable with yet, being bigger than his entire apartment back on Earth. The bathtub itself could fit four or five people his size comfortably, but all he wanted was a shower. He as wondering why his bath didn’t have one, since he’d definitely used showers in Torotia before, when something unexpected happened.

Kenneth Davis.

A message from the System popped up in front of him, the same mildly alarming version that was different than any other message he’d seen from the System before getting abducted by the vampyr. “Yes?”

We need to talk.

There are issues to be solved.

Issues that you have been positioned to deal with.

“Oh, joy.”

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