Born in Blood



Instantly, the crowds scattered in all directions, but not before everyone received thick books regarding the academy classes and timetables. 

Headmaster Reye had already teleported out, but Janice lingered for a bit.

"Alright. You misfits look like you understand everything, so I'll be on my way. Oh, before I forget…" Janice fiddled around with her pocket, before taking out five individual maps.

"That's the general layout for the academy. Just use your mental energy to get a better description of them," she said, handing them to Liam and the rest.

"Drop by my class if you'd like to get battered," Janice said with a smile, before turning around to leave. "If you're good enough, I'll take you as my disciple."

With that, Janice left.

"I'll be going, then," said Sveinn, shifting to the group. "I hope we can become friends and hang sometime."

Nessa nodded with a meek smile, Rin remained silent, and Liam hummed noncommittally.

Meanwhile, Nord looked at Liam with respectful but challenging eyes.

"Let's fight one day. I'm sure I'll make it worth your time."

Liam let out a half-scoff, half-laugh, before leaving himself.

Even in his first life, Liam had no friends. He didn't imagine that would change in the second. 

As he left the hall, he noticed a group of nobles looking at him with strange gazes. 

The look in their eyes was something Liam recognized well – that greedy glimmer he could notice from a mile away.

He responded with a piercing glare, unblinking as he looked over the group sizing him up.

They eventually got uncomfortable and left the area, but Liam memorized their faces just in case.

Heaving a sigh, Liam followed wherever his token pointed towards. 

After half an hour of walking, he faced a medium-sized two story house. There weren't any windows, except the ceiling which was see-through.

'This is it,' he thought, imbuing his token with 'Ora' and pressing it against the front door.

CLICK.

Liam creaked the door open and entered. His mental waves couldn't actually pierce through the space from the outside – the inscriptions didn't allow it to. 

That, and there was no noise exiting the house, making everything that happened inside perfectly discreet.

'Glad they thought of privacy,' Liam smiled, elated at his new dwelling. 

After a quick tour, he realized there was  a large basement in the bottom as well – alongside the three well furnished bedrooms.

The rectangular basement was empty, but the walls were made from reinforced white steel, lit by bright lights lodged between the ceiling. 

Inscriptions covered them too.

With roughly 55 square meters, Liam could freely practice his martial arts, spells, and forgings without having to worry about shattering anything like he'd done in the past.

There also seemed to be a formation of sorts around the space, which had some healing and anti-fatigue properties. 

Besides that, the 'Ora' concentration was amazing at where he lived. 

'This could make me fast-forward my progress by months at least, if not a year,' he smiled. 

He'd already completed his daily cultivation, thus, he needed to browse through what classes to choose, as well as memorizing the map.

He opened up the academic book and started to read it carefully. 

Amazingly, the book itself was inscribed, which made the writings directly enter Liam's mind, along with Reye's, Janice's, and multiple voices magically ring in his ears.

Needless to say, Liam's urge to learn inscriptions grew.

In short, the book highlighted the countless classes available for Liam to choose, along with their timetables and requirements. 

'Inscriptions, alchemy, cultivation, botany, forging, formations, wards, battle, world history, language…' 

The list went on and on, which spanned from beginner level work, to intermediate and advanced. 

Three classes were mandatory – cultivation, battle, and world knowledge.

The latter consisted of general knowledge of landscapes, borders and current events happening within the world.

However, specializations all depended on the student themselves, so it would be pointless to mandate it upon them.

Not only that, but there were countless teachers to choose from for each topic, due to the vast differences between methods of inscriptions, forging and more.

Weirdly, the teachers had their own star rating, signifying how good of a teacher they were. Below, there were even 'reviews'.

Janice had 3.5 stars, with anonymous comments under her photo.

'In a friendly spar, she broke my arm and held me in a triangle choke!' 

'Rude and condescending. No respect for noble families!'

'Loves eye patches and won't shut up about them. Please, just shut up about eye patches!'

Liam chuckled briefly, then scanned the book for any inscription teachers that worked with blood.

…Sadly, there weren't any. 

Although there were teachers specialized in unorthodox methods of inscription, none went as far as using blood to invent spells and techniques.

'Blood Weaving is heavily influenced by vampires. Even the diagrams are more or less written with that language. Maybe learning more about them can help me.'

With that, Liam noted world history and language as one of his chosen subjects.

He browsed the same for a forgemaster that worked with something similar to Primordial Forging, and there actually were methods similar to it. 

'I'll mark these down for now.'

With that done, Liam laid out the map in front of him. All the establishments and facilities were built around the circular shape of the academy.

'Battle Halls, Alchemy Labs, Formation Fields, Inscription Labs, Armories... Grand Library! there's too much here to browse through in just a week.'

Liam memorized the layout quickly, before nodding to himself.

'I better visit the armory first. I'll see what spells I buy with my current wealth.'

Liam had a hefty sum saved – Revel's inheritance, prize money from the tournament, the three nobles' rings and the countless inscribed items he sold off.

Over all, it amounted to 38 thousand 'Ora' Stones.

Before that, he pushed himself to the limits with the Psionic Rune.

He didn't feel close to becoming a Rank 2 Magus just yet, but Liam's biggest advantage was his strong mental sphere. 

Reaching a Rank 4 body was still far away, and so was the solid-stage of his core. But with the torture he'd endured with his sea of consciousness, it wouldn't be long before he could advance. 

'At least, if I get the time to absorb a Rank 2 or Rank 3 beast will.'

After his eye turned bloodshot from training, he'd finally left his dwelling and went straight towards the armory.