The Blood Awakening

The next morning, Vlad traveled to the central region of the 3rd layer of the settlement. Unlike the first two layers, each of which spanned for over 10 and 7 kilometers respectively, his current residential sector was only 5 kilometers in overall width while housing only 300 thousand people who had at least one family member serving in the military.

Dracula traveled on foot for an hour and finally reached the Temple of Blood God.

In the Svalka Kingdom, there was a test called the Blood Awakening.

It was the method to find the true potential of vampires who had control over their inherent bloodline that could be used for awakening special abilities.

Once a vampire passed the Blood Awakening test, showing prospects useful for the military, they would be granted a Stigmata by the Temple of Blood God.

Now, what was a Stigmata?

In the world of Redros, Stigmatas were akin to the lowest levels of Blessing Runes.

A blessing rune, as the name explained itself, was used to grant a person a particular blessing by their God.

This procedure was carried out by the Temple of Blood God and the one to choose the Stigmata would be the individual themselves.

Anyone who passed at least one Blood Awakening test can get at least 1 stigmata.

And the highest number of stigmatas one could get at Apprentice Rank, the lowest of them were 3 after passing 3 of such tests namely Bloodline, Physique, and Mana tests.

[Blood Sovereign System, increase my physical strength, mana capacity and bloodline purity by 3 times.] commanded Dracula.

[The user will need 2 thousand Blood Points to make these changes and transformations.] responded the system.

[Do it.] he said and got in line for testing where hundreds of kids close to his age were queued up for the Blood Awakening.

[Command affirmed. Initiating enhancements.] reported the system in a female-ish voice.

As part of the test, every individual who was taking the test had to stand inside a blood-red formation where the runes imprinted within it would detect the potential of that particular aspect that was differentiated in 3 colors.

The grade of the Stigmata you would get will be decided by the color of the light.

White meant Low, Green meant Average and Golden meant Excellent.

For example, if one got a Strength Path stigma, the white color low-grade one will increase physical strength by 15% of the original physical strength.

The middle grade from Green color would gain a 25% increase.

As for the Golden color with high grade… they'd gain a whopping 40% increase in their strength when activated.

This setting was carried out for all 3 tests and the respective colors for all stigmatas related to their Paths.

The problem here was that out of 100 people, half couldn't even pass the test. As for those who did, they would have very few people with White or Green color results.

As for the Golden color… they were very rare; out of 10,000 people, not even 5 could score gold in either of the three tests.

An hour later, Dracula's turn finally came and he stood silently in the middle of the Bloodline test.

Hum!

Hum!

The formation engraved on the stone platform shone brightly for half a minute and finally…

It turned into Golden color.

Gasp!

All the onlookers and the disciples of the Temple of Blood God who were conducting the test were stupefied and taken aback at the same time.

"Golden color result… he's someone with powerful bloodline ancestry!" exclaimed the conductor of the test.

Dracula on the other end wasn't fazed in the slightest.

Why?

Because he already expected this result given how Vlad was a descendant of a Noble House. Bloodlines of such houses were often very powerful.

On top of it, he ordered the system to raise his bloodline purity by 3 times just for this test.

Hence, this result was already expected.

And now, he moved to the next formation for the Physical potential test.

Hum!

Hum!

The formation kept humming again and again as the colors kept changing.

Another one!

Vlad received the Golden color result for the Physique test as well, making everyone speechless.

Even the experienced Blood Awakening test conductors, who performed the test for hundreds of people every day, were bewildered.

"Go and contact Zingos." spoke one of the conductors to an underling.

As for the Mana test… the results were as expected.

Everyone who saw these results were simply losing their minds.

Because this was truly a shocking and unexpected occurrence.

Someone getting a golden result for all tests of blood awakening was unheard of.

Even talented individuals from rich and powerful backgrounds would get one golden result at best. Those rarities who got 2 golden results would be considered monsters with immense prospects by the military.

But 3 golden results… no one had even heard or dreamt of it.

With such results, Vlad could equip at least 3 high-grade stigmatas.

"You're obligated to give me the Stigmatas." spoke Vlad in an overbearing tone, unexpected for a young vampire who was only 20 years old.

In human years, Vlad was like only 6 years old in their eyes given how long lifespan the vampire race had. Yet the demeanor he displayed was that of a full-grown adult.

As for the Stigmata…

Dracula had already studied and gathered their information.

For his future path, each stigmatas would play a huge part.

Because what normal soldiers didn't know was once you chose a particular set of Stigmatas, then you would be able to stack more powerful stigmatas on them as you ranked up.

This stacking would enhance the effects and then improve their own fighting skills and battle styles. Choosing stigmatas would dictate how strong they become in their particular Path.

This was what noble horses and high-ranked imperial officers used to create their forces, nurturing them since the beginning and creating soldiers, warriors, assassins, and mages by making them choose the set of stigmatas.

In simple words… they were deciding their fates, catering towards only serving the upper class.

And since Dracula was going to choose the Ghostblade Blood-Lord path, he already had the best and appropriate information regarding the Stigmatas he would need.

So it was time… to create his foundation.