Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The bloodline essence of a succubus, as its name suggested, came from an Abyss Succubus.
To know the effect of the essence, one should learn about the arts learned by wizards first.
One of the three major arts, the Bloodline Art, allowed wizards to absorb the bloodline of powerful creatures into their own body in order to receive an evolved bloodline. For Bloodline Wizards, any creature that lived on throughout the history could provide a bloodline. For example, creatures such as monsters, magical plants, phantom beasts, humans...
The major arts were not exclusive. Non-Bloodline Wizards could also use a foreign bloodline for self-strengthening. However, Bloodline Wizards could spend many years to make a bloodline fuse with their bodies more perfectly. Once they had mastered a bloodline, they could choose to go for a second one.
The other wizards did not usually spend so much time on it. Injecting a bloodline only meant to improve their bodies to a limited extent.
To put it simply, Elementalists and Occultists used bloodlines to enhance their physique, while Bloodline Wizards considered the method as part of their long-term cultivation. Every bloodline could show its best effect and special properties on the body of a Bloodline Wizard. These wizards grew stronger by the day as they continued to draw more bloodlines while acquiring more and more special traits.
However, drawing bloodlines came with a fatal drawback: having more complicated bloodlines in one’s body meant a lower chance of getting new ones successfully. This was the reason why very few bloodline wizards could progress to higher levels.
Of course, wizards who sought knowledge and truth for their lives more or less knew about methods to avoid the drawbacks. However, Angor did not know anything about such tricks yet.
“The Succubus Bloodline will enhance your body, possibly giving you a special ability of the creature,” said Ness. He continued to encourage Angor by saying, “Just think! A fresh apprentice with a bloodline! Your strength will be doubled! When any other apprentice opposes you, you can just go kick his ass like its nothing!”
Drawing a bloodline... Angor pondered. Previously, he thought Ness wanted to harm him. Now it did not seem the case. As the old man said, the bloodline of a powerful creature was priceless for an ordinary apprentice.
Angor never thought about using bloodlines before because something like that was simply beyond his reach. Now, however... a vial of an available bloodline was ready to be used. Angor was really interested.
But he still remembered Ness’ strange reactions.
“Mister Ness, you said you need to get a result by injecting the bloodline into my body. May I ask what the result is?” Angor asked.
“We haven’t started the experiment yet. How would I know the result?” Ness muttered.
“So... sir, what kind of results are expected?”
Ness muttered again, “We need to actually do the test first.”
Since he could not get anything from Ness, Angor turned to Sunders for help. “Professor, will I get anything bad out of this? I mean, will the succubus blood give me bad aftereffects?”
Instead of answering, Sunders glanced at Ness who in turn gave him a meaningful wink.
Ness used a private messaging spell. “Come on. Help me out. I really need the result! Just tell your student something good. It’s not like he’ll die from the test.”
When Ness realized Sunders was not convinced, the old man clenched his teeth and decided to add to his wager. “Okay! I owe you one this time!”
Sunders finally smiled in satisfaction.
The gentleman turned to Angor. “Using any bloodline has its own risk. But at the same time, there are approaches to prevent that risk. The materials in the nutrient fluid already improved your success rate for using the succubus blood. I’d say... 80% or more.”
Ness nodded along. “It’s a mighty good one, mind you. Without proper methods, those who absorb the initial bloodline usually have a terrible chance at it. 30% at best.”
“So will I receive any negative properties from the blood?” Angor tried.
Ness winked at Sunders again.
Sunders nodded in return and continued. “Any bloodline, even a human one, can affect its user. For instance, a wizard who draws the bloodline of an Earth Fiend might receive a different skin color, loss of hair, and hard skin. They aren’t really important as long as the user doesn’t care about his looks. Of course, these are ‘possible’ effects. It’s likely that the wizard won’t experience any changes at all.”
Sunders was telling the truth, but Ness kept sending him messages. “Tell him good things! Don’t talk about unnecessary stuff!”
“... As long as you succeed in fusing the bloodline, you’ll always gain more benefit than negative effects. A weak body is a major problem for all Elementalists and many Occultists, thus receiving a bloodline would solve the problem. Also, there’s a chance in it that you can receive a special trait which grants you a talented ability like the one used by Dripping River.”
Ness quickly went along. “You heard the man! No shilly-shallying like a pussy! We still need to get your soul examined. Stop wasting time.”
Angor was almost convinced. But the tiny bit of doubt still got the better of him. “Will this change my appearance?”
Ness interrupted before Sunders could answer. “What are you worrying ’bout? A succubus looks just like a human! And man they all look good! The blood will only make you look better!”
Angor ignored Ness and looked at Sunders. He only trusted his professor now.
Sunders only smiled. “I don’t know anything about that.”
Ness sighed in relief. Looks like Sunders’ willing to help me after all.
“However...”
Ness quickly sent the gentleman another message. “Stop! No! Enough! A favor, remember?!”
Sunders also ignored his words. “I can give you an example of a bloodline user. Leona, who once injected succubus blood into her body, didn’t receive any physique change. And as Ness said, she looks even more charming, and... more feminine.”
The words were not about any drawbacks. However, Sunders intentionally emphasized the word “feminine”, and Angor noticed it.
“More feminine? You mean... more estrogen hormone?”
Wizards usually would not know much details about s*x hormone. However, for Angor who had learned some medical knowledge from Earth before, he clearly knew what “more feminine” meant.
A fine amount of estrogen hormone helped a woman look more charming. For a man, however, this could lead to overgrowth on the breast, reduced desire, and degraded manly features.
Something that could turn a gentleman into a “she-male”.
Angor shivered all of sudden when thinking about the idea. It basically meant becoming a transgender... a terrible nightmare!
He remembered that Ness mentioned something about “a subject about different genders”. Previously, Angor thought it meant the “private actions” between man and woman. Now he realized that the old man was aiming for something way more complicated, such as... two different genders on a single individual.
“No! I won’t use the succubus blood!”
Angor’s sudden decision caused Ness’ satisfied smile to freeze.
“Think again! It’s good for your body!” Ness quickly grew anxious.
Angor shook his head. “No thanks.”
“Why?”
“There isn’t really a reason. Just... no.”
Angor was not sure whether his assumption was correct. Nevertheless, he would totally avoid using the blood for now. At least not before he got the chance to look into related knowledge himself.
“You ungrateful fool!” Ness cursed.
“Don’t force him since he doesn’t want it. Use Sweetblood Orchis instead, and let’s begin the experiment,” Sunders spoke.
Ness still looked angry. “I don’t have those. I only got Mero Scorpion Flowers here.”
The old man was staring at Angor in rage now. “How dare you little assh*le reject my offer! Just you wait. Once I get you aroused with the Mero Scorpion Flowers, I’ll find the ugliest fatass woman in the valley, throw her at you, and record everything that happens next so that I can sell it to someone with the right fetish!” Ness made up his mind in secret.
While Ness was being all happy with his wicked idea, Sunders pulled a colorful vine from his ear nail.
“I happen to have transplanted some Sweetblood Orchis in my garden last time. Now we don’t have to find them elsewhere.”
Ness looked at the plant in Sunders’ hand and grew speechless.
“I fuc*king hate rich guys!”
Sunders only chuckled at Ness’ outburst. “Remember your words. You owe me a favor.”
“But he never agreed!”
“I agreed that I won’t tell Angor anything about the drawbacks of the blood. It wasn’t my job to persuade Angor. Do you want to break your promise?” Sunders slowly revealed the powerful aura of a level-2 wizard.
Ness lost his balance a little.
“But, but... I agreed to help you check Angor’s soul...” Ness looked defeated.
“Because you’re also interested in his soul. We both agreed. Besides, you get to learn something about special souls, so you should thank me for that.”
Sunders looked away.
Ness felt about crying. “Why can’t I at least earn something for myself?!”
...
The first step of separating Angor’s soul was “attuning”.
There were individuals whose soul could not be easily separated from their bodies. If forced, they would experience conditions such as loss of memory, dementia, even a dead soul.
Such conditions were common on mortals with weak spiritual power, but it did not mean that supernaturals would be safe.
To avoid problems, they had to determine whether Angor’s soul was good enough for separation.
The process of attuning was difficult and could only be done by Soul Manipulators. However, it did not take much time. Ness asked Angor to step into a magic array. Angor saw something colorful flashing in front of his eyes before he was asked to come out.
“It’s fine,” Ness spoke, but he looked doubtful for some reason. “Something’s strange though. The volume of his soul is... similar to people of the same age. Maybe a bit bigger. Yet the quality of his soul is exceptionally good. Angor’s soul is purer than Saka’s.”
Ness looked at Sunders. “You sure he’s an Illusionist? Not a talented Soul Manipulator?”