Chapter 123: Burning 12 Months of Progression!

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Burning 12 Months of Progression!

Lucien sat motionless at the center of the of the master bed, surrounded by thousands of Blood Mana Crystals, with all of them ranging from C Rank to even a few of the S Rank ones Carmilla had given him along with the various concealment and whatever other types of array plates he had in his trade ring.

[Use 12 Months of Cultivation Progression?]

[ Yes / No.]

’Yes.’ He thought mentally accepting it.

[12 Months of Cultivation Progression Used.]

[Beginning accelerated cultivation using the Blood Sovereign Scripture.]

As the system’s notification faded away, the entire room changed with it.

Ambient mana began moving, not violently, not like the hurricane he’d pulled during the dual cultivation sessions, but steady, deliberate, drawn toward him from every corner of the room.

The blood mana crystals lit from within, thin crimson threads unspooling from their surfaces and curling through the air toward his chest.

Within minutes, the room filled with dense red mist, thick enough that the air itself seemed to shimmer and bend.

Lucien sat perfectly still at the center of the Mana storm.

The Blood Sovereign Scripture ran on its own now thanks to the system while mana circulation paths in his body worked in sequence exactly as he’d just spent months worth of his accumulated technique comprehension learning.

The little ambient and unaffected mana still left around him, was absorbed into him and flowed directly through his body, not his mana viens.

As the Blood aspected mana from the crystals joined the stream, and since they were already halfway refined, with it only needing the final push through his body and getting refined into Sanguine Mana as the technique described.

The two sources merged after the aspectless mana gained the Blood aspect, then stabilized, and flowed throughout his entire body, refining itself more and more until it converted into Sanguine Mana, then flowed straight to his mana core.

’The mana conductive body is broken, I literally have no need for mana veins as the mana can flow anyway and anyhow through me without anything to worry about, heck even the amount that can flow is something that would make others blow up.’

’And due to this, my cultivation is way faster than if I cultivated normally.’ He thought feeling the mana rivers flowing through him.

With every completed cycle, the core grew bit by bit as his mana core changed to suit the energy being stored in it and according to what the technique said, its structure settling into something sturdier and built to hold more than it ever had before.

Secondary mana pathways branched outward from the core, carrying the Sanguine Mana through muscle and bone and blood vessel as the physical refinement ran in parallel with everything else happening inside him.

’Another benefit of the slime trait, my body can allow multipe and different kinds mana pathways to flow simultaneously through it.’ He thought.

’This is sick, with this I could theoretically cultivate all the time, all I need is a way to split my mind itself, thought focus splitting should work almost the same.’

’Its the best, I’ve got no manual labor and no fumbling through trial and error, since the System’s doing the heavy lifting, the scripture’s just telling it exactly where to put everything.’

The crystals dimmed, one by one, their stored energy bleeding dry into the mist. The array along the walls glowed faint and steady, quietly swallowing the worst of the fluctuations before they could leak past Blackthorn’s walls.

Lucien’s expression stayed calm, undisturbed, breathing slow and even at the center of a room drowning in red fog.

’My foundation is severed, my old technique put to retirement and for the first time, my cultivation’s finally being built around what I actually am.’

’Which according to my dear master, is a male version of her?’ He suddenly remembered what Carmilla had called him, as his face scrunched up at the thought of it being somewhat true.

All the while the blood mana mist kept swirling, thick and unhurried, as twelve months worth of cultivation progression was flooded into his insane body.

Meanwhile deep below in the Bloodmoon Ruins Dungeon, the Nine Star Zenith Academy’s Mid term Exam was still going on in full swing, as all the groups of students competed for first place.

And on Floor Sixteen of the dungeon, the Bloodmoon Ruins didn’t look like a forest or plain anymore.

It looked like someone had taken a desert, dipped it in a slaughterhouse, and left it out to dry for a few centuries.

With red sand stretching in every direction, broken up by jagged stone protrusions the color of dried rust with the wind carrying a faint metallic taste that nobody in Group 7 had bothered getting used to.

Ten students in the expensive looking robes of Nine Star Zenith Academy’s uniform, with one particular Elf whose uniform looked a little to tight for comfort and appeared to be struggling to hold her massive assets from spilling out, lucky for her the academy uniforms weren’t regular clothes but magically enchanted.

They all moved through the crimson desert in a loose formation, their feet sinking into the red sand that crunched beneath them.

Adrian Valemont walked near the front, his black hair catching the light coming down from the artificial crimson skies of the dungeon, his gold eyes scanning the horizon out of habit more than necessity.

At six foot one, he cut an easy line of sight over most of his own team, but in a world riddled with ridiculously tall races, he wasn’t all that.

As just in his group there a few taller than him, and a red skinned Oni who stood a little over seven feet, which made him useful for spotting trouble and occasionally resented for blocking everyone’s view.

’It took us quite some time to get to Floor Sixteen, and its another desert themed one. At least it’s not as crazy as the last one.’ Adrian thought.

"I miss the trees," Neris said, wringing imaginary water from a lock of coral pink hair. "This floor’s doing nothing good for my complexion."

She brushed another strand of vibrant pink hair behind her pointed fin like ears as her deep aqua eyes flashing with irritation. The side slit of her short academy skirt flicked open with every stride, revealing her long, perfectly sculpted and sexy legs.

"You’re a mermaid for God’s sake, just make some water of you want." Darius said.

"Besides we’re in a desert, inside a dungeon, and we’re here for an exam, so what were you expecting, some kind of vacation?"

"I know that your brute, but I still have standards."

Garruk grunted from somewhere behind his shield. "At least the sand doesn’t try to eat you like how floor Twelve’s swamp tried to eat my leg."

"And it nearly succeeded, if not for me warning you." Kiera said.

"It would have still failed, but thanks for that Kiera."

"You’re welcome, but next time I wont warn you, so let’s test that theory of yours." She said smiling as her white wolf ears twitched on top of her head, catching the distant wind while her fluffy white tail flicked in amusement.

The cropped cut of her uniform top proudly showcased her chiseled, rock hard abs and broad, athletic shoulders.

Orion laughed loud enough to startle a lizard shaped shadow out from behind a nearby rock formation, which promptly vanished again as his orange mane, half braided with small gold rings, swayed with the motion.

"Remember Floor Ten?" he said excitedly.

"The Crimson Crawler Boss, that thing had more legs than the entire group combined."

"Fifty," Thalen said, without looking up from the staff he was idly twirling. "It had fifty legs and on each side."

"It felt like way more when it was trying to use all of them on me specifically."

"You were standing in the only spot it could reach, that’s not the boss’s fault either."

"Why is everything my fault today?"

"Well, considering you and your big mouth, a lot of things are your fault most days." Mira said, standing on one of the nearby rock protrusions as she surveyed ahead of them.

Orion spun to where he heard her from but found no one, as she disappeared ahead, he scowled at the empty rock like it had personally wronged him and kicked up some of the red sand.

"What’s got her panties all twisted?" He said, as he got slapped in the back of his head by Selene.

"Have some basic manners, would you, that’s not how you talk to a lady." She said, and just as he was about to rebuke her, she pulled her spear out of her storage ring, silencing him.

Selene then adjusted her grip on her spear as her silver hair caught the dim red light and fell down past her shoulders to accent the broad sweep of her hips, and with every step she took, her full thighs swept together.

"Floor Fifteen’s wyrm was worse than all of that combined." She said, walking forward.

"The Blood Wyrm," Garruk said, with the particular reverence of a man who had almost personally seen the disgusting in sides of it.

"That massive a disgusting looking thing that tried to eat us whole in one swoop, luckily it was only A Rank and Adrian was there."

"You do look surprisingly edible to monters with your red skin and all that muscle." Mira’s voice offered as she joined back up with them.

"Well, atleast I don’t dissappear in the darkness." He joked.

"Don’t cry if you lose something important in the darkness tonight." She said making a scissor chopping motion with her fingers.

"I’m going to start carrying a second shield just to hit you with it if you ever try."

"You’d have to see and catch me first."

Adrian let them run through it, half listening to their nonsense and half watching the horizon along with Thalen.

Nyla stood nearby, her dark elf features sharp and focused. Petite and compact, her lean, slender frame offered a stark contrast to Selene’s towering, heavy curves, giving her an agile archer’s grace.

Up above on a giant rock poking out the ground, Mira’s dark skinned silhouette shifted fluidly like a shadow, her flexible body crouched low against the rust colored stone.

’Good, it seems like they’re holding in, the team’s loose but not sloppy just yet, exactly where I want them before another fight.’

’We can likely go on for another floor before they need resting.’ He thought as suddenly an amused voice rippled up from somewhere deep in his own skull.

’Come now boy, where’s the fun in that?’