42 The Fall of Jean Prio (1)

Several days passed, and in a laboratory of Grand Magus Kayle's Tower, a sturdy bear-like giant man was grinning, extremely pleased at his newly found strength. On his body, strange glowing tattoos were constantly giving him energy and stamina. For a man like him, who had been stuck in the Half-Grand Knight realm for over twenty years with only slight progress in his bodily strength, these tattoos gave him more strength what he would have earned in two more decades of training.

"Are you satisfied?", Drake asked.

It was the first time he had practiced the [Runic Barbarian Tattoo] engraving art. It was not very complicated, but it required perfect mastery of the human body's anatomy. With the biochip's indication and advices though, it was very easy for Drake to perform such an experiment, not to mention that any of his mess ups would not hurt someone as tough as a Half Grand Knight.

He made a simple deal: authority and resources in exchange for this tattoo.

Drake earned a lot in this deal. 15 magic crystals worth of resources, massive amounts of contribution points as well as a promotion to Sentinel General, on par with the man in front of him. General Liu Bu, an eastern elder who had reached the Half-Grand Knight realm a long time ago, and travelled to Helios in hope of breaking through, to no avail. He did get stronger over time, and accumulated a lot of achievements, patrolling and taking care of rebelling acolytes who performed mass sacrifices in the Porfield Kingdom.

But compared to the power up he had received after striking a deal with this sentinel newcomer…

"I am more than just satisfied, fellow General Drake. You have respected your words, and I can sense you are very much knight-like. Had it been other acolytes, they would have never proposed to strengthen us sentinels, in fear of their status decreasing, especially a half-grand knight!"

[Name: Liu Bu. Age – 58 years. Rank: Half Grand Knight

Sentinel General

Status: Tiredness (-10% attributes)

Attributes:

Strength – 8.0 (+2.0) | Dexterity – 2.4 (+0.4)| Constitution – 7.6 (+1.6)|

Perk: Runic Barbarian Tattoo – Sky Eagle Blood Runes (+2.0 Strength, +0.4 Dexterity, +1.6 Constitution)

Skills: (?)]

'Impressive! Even though the blood runes were only engraved with 76% of its potential, it is already that strong…And Sky Eagles are only Rank 2 average beasts. The higher the grade of the magical beast, the more potent the blood runes would be. I truly wonder what would happen if I strengthened myself with Rank 3 magical beasts such as a Wind Boar King…', Drake appraised upon scanning the man in front of him.

"As promised, I will make you a General as promised, though considering your strength as a Half Grand Knight, it was only a matter of time before you got promoted", General Liu Bu said, "I will also pay the 15 magic crystals upfront. No, I should give you 20, because I was a bit dubious when you proposed the experiment. Turns out it was even better than I could have imagined in my wildest dream. As a General, you will be able to directly influence Helios' sentinels with just one word. This is how much influence you now possess"

Authority. Drake didn't make this deal for magic crystals, though it was a tremendously good reward for an experiment that only lasted for 18 hours. He was even given tremendous amounts of resources from the Sentinel Warehouse that would allow him to perform a dozen more sets of Blood Runes on his subordinates.

Since the blood runes were this effective, Drake planned on putting a façade of difficulty, even though it was truthfully easy to complete. His biochip couldn't take over his body to perform the surgery, but it could pinpoint areas where he had to engrave the runes. By using cheap sleeping powder, there was no risk of Liu Bu messing up the experiments because of pain either.

Performing the runic surgery would have been extremely difficult, because there were 1128 different runes to inscribe on the back of a man. Just memorizing them was difficult enough, but writing them was even more complex, since it was a foreign, mysterious language that most people never read or heard about. Runes were mysterious, but since Drake's biochip had stored them all, he only had to practice on ink paper for a few days to completely master them. As a knight, he wasn't afraid of blood either, so engraving the blood runes was surprisingly easier than expected.

"I'm glad you enjoy your newly found strength. Do not overstress your body over the following days, and avoid revealing that I possess rune arts. Otherwise, there will be no end to sentinels asking me to perform such an experiment on them", Drake asked

"Of course! But I'm sure that if you strengthened every knight in the Sentinels, we would become a faction on par with the Arcane Order, perhaps even better", General Liu Bu said with anticipation.

The Sentinels possessed authority and a lot of investments from the Magi. In a way, they were the counter power of acolyte factions that allowed merchants and non-magical beings to wander in Helios with a feeling of safety. However, behind the curtains, sentinels were always looked down on, including the Half-Grand Knight generals, who had strength on par with rank 2 acolytes.

Because of their limited potential, the acolytes never treated them on equal footing. Acolytes could become magi in the future, if they were lucky. Even if their odds of becoming a magus, acolytes had unlimited potential. There were records of rank 3, even rank 4 magi in the ancient History. As for Grand Knights…That was the end of the road.

With Drake performing these blood runes, it would enhance the strength of sentinel greatly. Most of rank 1 acolytes would find themselves unable to deal with a team of knights if they were strengthened by blood runes.

But Drake couldn't just accept that. If the sentinels wanted him to perform these runes on sentinels, then Sword Master Sillius would have to come forward, with enough resources to persuade him.

The more he waited, the better the rewards. And to increase the value of his rune mastery, Drake planned on raising a unit loyal to him: Rey's team alongside White Rat, Black Rat and Lewis.

He would complete missions that were previously deemed as impossible for sentinels, capture strong magical beasts and spread news of his team's absurd strength. In other words, Drake planned on advertising his runic skills by accumulating achievements. At some point, every single sentinel would beg for him to perform these blood runes experiments on their body.

But first, he had to make use of his new status.

He wasn't just a sentinel captain anymore. He was a General. And Generals had the power over the laws and investigation in Helios. This was Drake's plan to deal with Jean Prio.