Chapter 25
ㄴㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : All right. I'll give it a try!
A broken cup.
I took out the second corpse.
The first human I'd killed.
It was the woman whose abdomen I'd slit open to make the man lose his reason.
First, I rinsed out the pot with water and set it beside the corpse.
Then I reached toward the abdomen, its insides fully exposed.
“Blood Drain.”
Ssshhk-
Blood rose like smoke from the corpse's open abdomen and entered my hand.
Then, once I'd gathered enough, I moved my hand.
Splaash-!
I poured it into the pot.
That was how I drained all the blood.
Then I put my finger into the pot and infused it with magic power…
I pushed the blood back into the corpse's open belly.
…
..
.
I repeated the process six times.
But.
“……It isn't working.”
It had failed again.
The blood in the pot hadn't changed color.
All it did was soil my clothes with blood.
I left another post on the gallery.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : I repeated the process six times with the corpse whose abdomen was open, but nothing happened. It isn't working…
ㅇㅇ(341F) : Even the newbie seems to have trouble with this lol
ㅇㅇ(651F) : It's a relief that there's something you can't do hehe.
ㅇㅇ(450F) : He does seem human after all haha
ㄴㅇㅇ(385F) : Human-like (not human).
ㅇㅇ(702F) : Hmm… That's strange. Why are you stuck at Stage 2 of all things…
ㄴ Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : It seems neither corpse has a soul left…
Neither corpse seems to have a soul left.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : I put them in my inventory right away… Does the inventory only prevent decay? Do souls escape?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Yeah, that's true, but not enough time has passed for the soul to escape. I don't know.
It was while I was caught up in confusion.
An anonymous user barged in.
ㅇㅇ(331F) : Newbie, if that doesn't work, there's also summoning magic that uses a corpse as a sacrifice. Want to learn it? I'll teach you.
ㄴㅇㅇ(643F) : Hijacking the moment ㄷㄷ
ㄴㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : Can it be summoned permanently too?
ㄴㅇㅇ(702F) : Nnnnnnnnnnnno. Summoned creatures have minds of their own, so there's a high chance they won't obey you.
ㄴㅇㅇ(331F) : What a shame.
“Hmm…”
The suggestion to use summoning magic was immediately dismissed.
Even afterward, more comments kept appearing, trying to distract me.
ㅇㅇ(134F) : Captain Death Note < When is this guy coming back? Shouldn't you listen to him?
ㅇㅇ(418F) : Why not just give up and spend the rest of your vacation leveling up?
ㅇㅇ(351F) : Agreed. You don't have to force it. You just need to get stronger lol
I ignored those comments and typed.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : There's still one last one. I have one more corpse.
The male swordsman I'd killed with the instant-death skill.
What ought to be called remains was still there.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : You mean the corpse that was completely ground up?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : Yes.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Hmm… That just won't work. A corpse that damaged would have lost its soul immediately.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(420F) : Don't just say it won't work. Tell him how to do it, damn it lol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : And to circulate blood through that scrap of flesh, you'd need to know the supreme blood-flow-control spell called ‘Blood Command.’ There's no way you can suddenly use that.
ㄴKnows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : First, I'll teach you the basics of blood-flow control… Please follow along slowly…^^
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Huh… Teacher… This isn't going to work, is it? Honestly, this feels like a waste of time.
‘Blood Command.’
It seemed possible if I learned that spell.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(60F)(OP) : I'll try it once, at least.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : What are you talking about, Blood Command?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(324F) : He says he's going to try it anyway? lol
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : There isn't a spell she can't use in one try…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(702F) : Just because you learned Drain right away, you think you can use Command too? lol Learning Blood Drain immediately was impressive, but that's a complete beginner spell. Command is absolutely impossible. Reaaally, absolutely not.
He was flatly insisting it was impossible.
But it didn't feel like he was trying to stop me.
It was probably because trying wouldn't damage the corpse.
That corpse could not be damaged any further; it was already ruined beyond recognition.
I took the last one remaining from my inventory and placed it on the floor.
Sluuurk-!
It immediately slid down.
It truly wasn't even something that could be called a corpse.
It was simply a lump of mangled flesh.
I reached my hand over it.
“Blood Drain.”
Ssshhk-!
Dark red blood surged in a mass from the man's body.
I didn't put it in the pot.
“I have to manipulate this…”
Keeping the blood suspended in the air, I rotated the First Circle in my lower abdomen.
Vrrrroooom-!!
“Blood Command.”
The blood began to dance.
Worried that it might scatter across the floor, I stopped moving my hand and focused all my attention on my lower abdomen.
The blood that had floated up soon began to take on a shape.
A donut.
Why had it suddenly become a ring?
“Ah…”
I realized.
Focusing on the circle had apparently made it take on a shape similar to the circle itself.
If so.
“If I focus and imagine it, does it take that shape…?”
As a test, I made several different shapes.
A sphere… a tetrahedron… a cube… a star… a whale…
I could mold it into whatever I imagined.
When forming a specific shape, wiggling my fingers proved effective.
When I wanted to move the whole thing,
Whoooosh-!
I only had to use my shoulder and swing my arm like this.
But the flow of blood was too violent.
“In that case.”
I tried slowing the circle's rotation.
Wuuuum-
The floating blood began to calm down.
I moved my hand slowly.
“Is this how it works…?”
The blood followed my gestures.
Before long, I had completely grasped the sensation of controlling it.
Now, I slowly guided the blood over the corpse fragments…
and carefully set it down.
“I did it…”
I slowed the circle's rotation even further.
The blood began moving more slowly, allowing it to seep into the fragmented corpse.
Then I increased the torque again.
Vrrrroooom-!
The blood crawled between the flesh and shattered bones, forcibly making paths and tracing trajectories.
Whoooosh-!
This time, I didn't need to infuse it with magic power separately.
I was continuously infusing it while moving the blood.
It was the moment after I'd rotated my body several times.
Fwoooosh-!
The blood that had been circling began to turn transparent.
Then.
“…Reddish-brown.”
I saw the color of black tea.
The soul had finally been caught by the blood.
“I did it!”
A shudder ran through me.
Swoooosh-!
I manipulated the blood again and floated it into the air.
This was spirit blood (靈血).
“Good.”
But this was only the beginning.
Stage 3, the most difficult part of the Spiritblood Tea Ceremony (靈血茶禮).
The process I'd found most unsettling while reading the explanation.
The time had come to perform it.
Drinking tea (飮茶).
…I had to drink this liquid.
Within just a few seconds.
And not merely through my mouth—I had to draw it through the three upper passages among the body's ten apertures.
So I couldn't even squeeze my eyes shut.
I opened my mouth toward the transparent blood floating in the air.
Then I gestured toward myself and pulled it toward my face.
Sluuurrrk-!!
In an instant, the liquid filled my mouth, eyes, and nose.
My throat was blocked.
My vision was cut off.
I couldn't breathe.
It felt like I was being waterboarded.
Glug glug!
“Mmph…!”
Glug glug!
And so.
The liquid began entering through my esophagus and airway, as well as through the passages connected to my eyes.
“Cough, cough, cough!!!”
Being able to cough was lucky, and managing not to vomit was practically a miracle.
It felt as though the pressure would make my eyeballs pop out at any moment.
“Uuuuuugh….”
I groaned at the overwhelming sensation of a foreign object inside me.
I was almost there.
I only had to endure this. This was the hardest part.
…Though Gonic-nim, the teacher, had said this stage was the most enjoyable.
“Phew…”
After a desperate struggle, I took it all in.
I didn't spill a single drop on the floor.
My head felt full of water, and I could hear a buzzing sound somewhere inside it, but I steadied myself.
For the moment, I devoted all my attention to calming my body.
Now, Stage 4.
I had to circulate this spirit blood through my body.
It was the process of firmly imprinting its master on the imprisoned soul.
They said this process was what made permanent subjugation and absolute obedience—the special features of the Spiritblood Tea Ceremony—possible.
And Stage 4…
had two methods.
The first method I'd originally intended to use was the most ordinary one: letting the body digest and excrete the liquid.
But now, there was no need for that.
In other words, I didn't have to wait until I needed to urinate.
I placed a hand on my stomach.
“Blood Command.”
I spread the blood in my body throughout my entire body.
“Aaaaaaagh…!!!”
Excruciating pain struck me.
The spirit blood was forcing its way through every part of my body like a growing tree trunk.
But I'd been told that doing it this way made the subjugation effect more certain.
It allowed the structure of every nook and cranny of my body to imprint itself on the spirit blood.
Vrrrroooom-!
While enduring the pain, I furiously rotated the First Circle in my lower abdomen.
I painstakingly engraved my magic power into the liquid as it permeated my entire body.
And then.
I placed my hand on my stomach once more and gathered all the spirit blood in my abdomen.
“Uuuuuugh!!!”
When the unbearable foreign sensation reached its limit,
I lowered my head.
Then I vomited violently enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“Uweeeeeeeeegh-!!”
The blood imprinted with my magic power poured down over the man's corpse.
Sssssssssizzle-!
…
Silence fell.
Nothing happened for quite some time.
“Did it fail…?”
Just as I thought that and was about to turn on the gallery,
Sssskkkkkk-!
I heard the sound of pieces of bone fitting together.
I raised my head.
The blood that had poured out was surging upward on its own.
Rumble, rumble-
The blood began wrapping around the shattered skeleton without leaving a single gap.
Before long, the blood and flesh coagulated and hardened rapidly.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The clumps of blood were building a solid form in place of flesh and skin.
The shape those clumps of blood created was…
armor.
A thick breastplate layered one plate over another.
Gauntlets and greaves honed sharp as blades.
Blood mist was pouring from the cut surface of the headless neck.
Now for the final, fifth stage.
Naming (命名).
“Blood Knight.”
That was the name I gave it.
At that moment.
Thud-!
The Blood Knight dropped to one knee before me.
……
It had been only a few hours earlier.
He was the one who had screamed at the death of his companion.
The man who had glared at me with bloodshot eyes and swung his greatsword.
The human who had lost his reason and attacked me with hatred, determined to tear me apart.
But now.
The corpse was saying this to me.
<Absolute…… loyalty……>
Immediately afterward, a holographic message appeared.
[The first soldier has come under your control.]
[You can check the list of subjugated soldiers in Status.]