Draconic Vampire : Curse of the Blood

Chapter 57: The Training Facility

The inside was like a large house with multiple rooms attached. In the middle, there was a giant hall that connected the rest of the rooms. Two stairs went up to the upper floor from both sides of the hall.

Keith decided to check out the rooms. The first room was quite big, similar to his room at Ennes castle. The others were a little smaller, but it was nothing ordinary. Every room was decorated with luxurious furniture and filled with all the amenities.

He gave one of the rooms to Rena, which was opposite the hall. It was the second biggest room after Keith’s. Rena reluctantly accepted and started renovating the room.

Meanwhile, Keith was interested in looking around the academy campus. He left his room and headed outside. The front garnet was well maintained with different species of trees painted.

He glanced around and walked towards the other side of his residential area. The corridor was short and when he came out of the other side, a large building was seen towering over fifty meters.

The building was wide covering his entire field of vision. Many students wearing different types of uniforms were entering this building. Keith was curious to find out what this place was, so he followed them and entered the building.

Upon entering, he saw a large hall consisting of dozens of large doors. Every door had a unique sign and a corresponding title attached to it. 

“Are you new here?” A middle-aged man asked.

“Uh… Yes. I just enrolled in the academy today. What is this place?” Keith asked the middle-aged man.

“You are one of the students from the new batch, I see.” The man nodded.

“This is a training facility for blood warriors. You see those doors.” The man pointed his hand to the dozens of doors opening and closing as students came in and out. 

“Each door represents one minor level of the blood condensation stages. Baron has three doors for each stage. Viscount has three and so on. The last ones… are way less crowded. They are the training facilities for count and marquis stage respectively.” The man spoke as he pointed his fingers to the bright red colored doors with beautiful carvings.

“Can a lower stage blood-qi user enter the higher training grounds?” Keith asked.

“Not normally, but if you can get the approval of the dean.” 

“The director of the academy?”

“No, the head of the blood warrior department.” The man shook his head.

“Is that so? I’m new here so I don’t know a lot about the academy?” Keith said.

” Didn’t your current family leader brief you about the academy?” 

“He did, but I condensed my blood core fairly recently so there was not much time on my part to sit down and listen. I was stabilizing my blood core most of the time.” Keith scratched his head with an awkward smile.

“Huh! You are a final stage baron. When did you get promoted to baron?” The man asked with a strange face.

Now, Keith realized his progress was too fast, even among the top geniuses. He was promoted to baron very quickly., even getting to the final stage baron within a month after condensing a blood core. If he told him that, the middle-aged man would surely doubt him.

“Around a year.” 

“You are telling me you reached the final stage baron within a year.” The middle-aged man was flabbergasted.

Keith gave an awkward smile.

‘I thought the top genius would reach the final stage baron within a year. Should’ve added a couple more years.’

“Yeah…Is that bad?” Keith asked with an ignorant face.

“Bad? If that is bad, then all the geniuses are trash.” 

The man looked at Keith as if he saw a terrifying monster.

“Come with me. I will test your blood core. Let’s see if your core has stabilized or not.”

“How should I address you?” Keith talked to this middle-aged man for a while but didn’t know who he was. Considering that he knew a lot about this place, Keith thought he might be a staff.

“Garey Visit. Retainer of this facility.” The old man replied.

Keith followed the man to one of the gates and entered inside. The inside was dark and the corridor was filled with blood runes.

Hong! 

“What was that?” Keith was startled by the sudden pressure.

“It’s just the runes trying to suppress the blood-qi. Stay close.” The old man warned.

Keith didn’t feel that much discomfort but it still stung him a little.

” The blood ritual array here suppresses the blood-qi of the warriors. They come here to practice their blood-qi tampering.

“When you condense your first blood core and enter the baron stage, there are a lot of things you need to learn. This is the start of the path for your journey in the blood condensing.”

When you stabilize your core, you can learn one of the four disciplines. The retainer looked at him.

” Oh, so you know about it.”

“Mhm… Grandpa told me about it.” 

“So, you must have known your family technique then.”

” It’s nothing special.”

They reached a place where the runes were so dense that it was suffocating. The man opened his hand and a card appeared in his hand.

The surrounding runes changed, and the room was devoid of any life energy.

“Now, can you withstand the pressure without a warrior frame?” The man turned around.

He saw that Keith was not only able to withstand the pressure, but he did it without the help of a warrior frame. This greatly stunned the man as he stared at Keith from top to bottom.

“Do you practice any special blood-qi technique?” The man asked.

“Not at the moment, why?”  Keith asked.

“Considering that you can withstand this much pressure, you have something special going on inside your body. No ordinary baron can withstand such pressure without a warrior frame.” The man examined Keith’s body with his senses.

He scanned Keith’s body with his blood-qi but found nothing.

“Maybe, my blood-qi is too dense.” Keith smiled.