67 Middle Path
Lucien didn't leave the room once his decision was made, but sat cross legged on the ground. He knew Elena wouldn't be coming back for a while, so he just sent his mind into the Crimson World.
Standing on the lonely rock under the crimson shine of the moon, Lucien looked cold as he was pondering on his next move.
'Give me more details on the Devour, Blood, Body, Soul and Freedom Middles Paths.'
-It will cost you 100 existence points per path for the information-
'The jump is huge, normally information is pretty cheap, I guess it would be incredibly rare in the outside world to be priced this high.'
Lucien didn't really care about this amount of points, he had made a killing in the last fight.
Just the Souls of the 100 Rank 1 humans he killed were worth 100 000 Existence points, and even through his Soul Devour Domain was quite large, not all of the 3000 human victims died within, but it was well more than a third, looking at the points it was probably around 1000 Rank 0s and another 100 Rank 1s. Each Rank 0 was worth 300 Existence Points, so that translated into 300 000 Existence Points.
The crimson lights were displaying a number over 500 000 existence points.
'Display the information.'
-Devour Middle Path: It would give a Practitioner the ability to absorb anything in his vicinity to practice this path, not advised for host as the ability is already included in the eyes. Another thing to note is that a Practitioner of this Path can enhance all stats using it's manual-
-Blood Middle Path: It would give a Practitioner control over the Blood of all life, can completely ignore the little amount world will contained in the blood of living creatures to obtain control over it. Another thing to note is that a Practitioner of this Path can enhance all stats using it's manual-
-Body Middle Path: It would give a Practitioner enormous boost in all fleshly stats, even if the stats have reached the cap of a certain Rank, for example if a Rank 3 Practitioner has capped at 10 000 Strength, a Rank 3 Body Path Practitioner can continue forth with no obstruction even through he remains in Rank 3 with his Path. Another thing to note is that a Practitioner of this Path can enhance all stats using it's manual-
-Soul Middle Path: It would give a Practitioner enormous boost is all spiritual attributes, even if the stats have reached the cap of a certain Rank, for example if a Rank 3 Practitioner has capped at 10000 Soul, a Rank 3 Soul Path Practitioner can continue forth with no obstruction even through he remains in Rank 3 with his Path, can provide great assistance in breaking through. Another thing to note is that a Practitioner of this Path can enhance all stats using it's manual-
-Freedom Middle Path: It gives a Practitioner abilities to make him unfettered and unbound in the darkness of the world, no further information can be provided-
'Hmm the freedom one seems incredibly vague, it could be a sham or an incredible treasure.'
'Can I pick more than one of them?'
-It is not possible for the current status of host, at Rank 2 the Soul cannot endure more than 1 Middle Path-
'I don't gamble when there is no need, the other paths are okay for now, and when I'm at Rank 3 the mystery will be resolved. For now it seem the ability to absorb the blood of creatures during a fight is going to be the best option.'
'Simulate the Blood Middle Path.'
-Deducing 100 000 Existence Points, Blood Path simulation executing-
The crimson lights split with a part shooting inside of Lucien, who was then sucked inside an illusion.
Once he regained his consciousness, he was still standing on a rock, but was not in the Crimson World like before.
He was now surrounded by a blood sea, there were no bones or anything fancy floating inside, it was just pure and unaltered blood. No matter how far in the distance he looked there was no end to it.
Lucien was not sure what he was supposed to do now, he didn't know how to comprehend the path, as he was pondering a sudden change happened over in the distance. He could see a man floating in the sea, the man was sitting on what appeared to be a throne, everything seemed completely in tact with the sea, his hair was red and even his eyebrows were red.
The man didn't even care to notice Lucien, and as he was floating there looking completely detached from the world, Lucien was shocked to hear countless roars from all around to echo. It didn't even take a second for the horizon to be covered in unbelievable amounts of creatures. There were humans, beasts and even races Lucien couldn't recognize.
They were all heading towards the man who still seemed completely unaware of the situation.
Lucien couldn't even guess the Ranks of the present beings, he was completely sure this was a slow motion simulation, for him to be able to follow it.
Once they were within 10 kilometers of the man, he glanced at the beings who had the guts to invade the piece of heaven belonging solely to himself.
It was then that Lucien saw something unbelievable unveiling. There were no Particles or flashy moves, the moment the man glanced at the creatures, their blood rioted and started leaving their bodies in any possible way, it was a wretched sights, they were bleeding from any possible hole in their body.
The man didn't show any interest in the blood and left it to rain over the ocean, once the struggle was over the creatures simply fell in the blood sea and never emerged.
'How am I supposed to comprehend this?'
Not noticing that the man was already within 10 kilometers of himself, Lucien continued thinking how to get this unbelievable ability.
Once again the man glanced in his direction and Lucien finally understood exactly how it worked.
That being was not using any Particles to control Blood or anything of that sort, he was directly using the Blood in an unimaginable way, it was the same way Particles of the same Path can be attracted to the Practitioner that the Blood itself showed its own volition to leave his body and present itself to it's true master.
Many things started making sense about how Middle Paths worked and using his robust foundation he was making incredible progress on how to truly influence Blood the same way that man just did to him.
Before he could think further, the simulation ended as he was dead.
Lucien didn't care at all and directly left the Crimson World to continue his immersion.
For the following week he completely ignored Elena and was striding forward to the entrance of the Blood Path.
Once of the days he was pondering on his experience in the simulation, he could suddenly clearly feel the Blood of all the creatures within his Soul Perception, and he felt that he could call it to gather upon himself.
-Changes in Paths detected-
-Blood Path obtained-
-Vampire Path mutating-
