An impulse took hold of Grey and he almost felt a surge of rage. But before it could take complete hold of him, he felt that familiar calming feeling and he couldn’t help but frown.
’This feeling is so disgusting. Why is it changing the way I think?’
Grey grit his teeth, but somehow he almost felt as though he was only doing it because it was what he would have normally done rather than it being because it was actually what he wanted to do.
Maybe it made sense for things to work this way. The Neural Frame was just the nervous system. So if you were making changes to the nervous system in order to learn something new, the idea that it would impact your brain wasn’t that far of a stretch at all.
The issue with that was that Grey didn’t want this.
’One problem at a time, Grey. One problem at a time.’
It might have been because of how calm he was, but Grey felt that something to temper his temper wouldn’t be all that bad of an idea right now. He needed less of the rash side of him and more of the logical side.
Plus, he didn’t have the luxury of wasting time on this.
A knock came at the door.
"I’m feeling a bit sick, Silva. Give me some extra time. It’s not like they can start the ceremony without me, right?" Grey called out, the gloominess in his eyes not affecting the cheeriness in his tone.
He did his best to not let things show too obviously. If the NPCs were remembering things from previous loops, he couldn’t just lay into Silva. Otherwise, it would make things harder in the future in case he needed to go through yet another loop.
Silva was someone that he had defeated twice due to sneak attacks. Grey wasn’t under any illusion that he could easily defeat the man in a one on one battle.
The only thing that he could do now was focus on trying to mend the relationship as best he could so that Silva would keep falling for his sneak attacks should the time come.
That also meant that if he could help it, he would have to avoid killing or battling Silva until he could ensure that it was worthwhile for the loop.
’Right now my best shot is to make it back to the Altar of Savages and hope to use the Blessed Carapace to fool the Holy Knights into thinking I have a Holy Frame. But that plan has too many holes in it. Let alone the fact I have no idea if that would even work, there was also the issue of Baron Giyoto. That fucking old fart.’
Grey took a breath and exhaled.
Baron Giyoto making it there definitely wasn’t a coincidence. He had probably had some sort of sensor that went off.
It didn’t register when Grey used the passage in his desk, but it had registered when he made it to the secret catacomb of treasures he was hoarding. Obviously, Giyoto was very sensitive about whatever he was hiding there, and the moment Grey appeared, he would likely not be too far behind.
At that point, he would be stuck in a battle with someone even stronger than Captain Terran, and he knew exactly how that would end. Would there even be enough time to finish sacrificing enough Blessed Items to form the Blessed Carapace in the first place?
If it was so easy, Baron Giyoto would have done it already. Otherwise, why else would there be such a large pile of materials there?
"I understand, Sir Temolt. I’ll just wait outside your door, then. If there’s anything you need, please feel free to let me know."
The words of Silva made Grey cringe on the inside. Wait outside his door? Silva hadn’t done that before?
It was a clear sign of a lack of trust. The things that had happened in previous loops were already seeping into this one.
’Not good.’
Grey shook his head and then exhaled.
"Gotcha. Thanks. Just some warm water would be nice."
"Understood. Right away, Sir Temolt."
Grey felt Silva linger around the door for a while longer before he left. It was only then that Grey flipped a palm in communication with his inventory and brought out the blood witch tome.
’You’ve got to have something that helps me, right? Anything.’
Grey didn’t want to admit it, but he knew that he was getting desperate. Every path he took seemed to lead down another dead end. The problems he faced just kept piling up and the ability to revive wasn’t nearly the trump card he had hoped it would be, not with the Genesis System suddenly deciding to paint a target on his back.
He never wanted to experience that pain again, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to have a choice.
He grit his teeth again. But this time, it was very much for himself and himself alone.
’I’ll fucking destroy you too. Don’t let me get out of this loop.’
Grey took a breath and exhaled, opening up the first pages of the tome.
The very first thing he saw was a download for [Blood Control]. It was the most basic inheritance in the tome and it didn’t seem very useful to Grey, not when he had Heart Lance and the other abilities of the Vampire Lord Frame.
However, when he touched it, he felt something odd.
’This is... different.’
It felt like he was looking at something far more comprehensive than Heart Lance.
Heart Lance was specifically designed to take blood, harden it, and then allow him to use it as a weapon. This [Blood Control] download was different. It had a wider range of what was possible. It could use blood far more flexibly, and it also seemed to have room to make blood a lot harder than what Heart Lance was capable of.
Grey felt that he was getting a better feel for understanding the patterns formed here. He was just looking at a circuit and complex glyphs, but it was almost like it was speaking to him.
He frowned and then flipped the page.