56. Blood companion

Noah focused all his mental energy on the skeleton but he found nothing wrong with it, so he decided to examine the room.

The room was clean and completely empty, its walls seemed more resistant than the others in the building.

'This should have been some kind of vault, which means that the treasures are with the skeleton.'

He neared the throne and inspected it.

The throne had nothing special with it and the skeleton was the same except for a box in his hands.

Noah took the box and opened it, inside there was a book with some runes on it.

Expectation was mounting in Noah's mind as he sat on the floor a started reading.

'The beasts tide broke through the outer ring, they will be here at any moments. My Assea family is doomed but our will must go on so I decided to write this book and seal it with some inscription to make it last the passage of time.'

At these words, Noah became completely focused as one thing came to his mind.

'Inheritance!'

'My family is famous for our inscriptions and animated puppets, its a noble art passed down by my ancestors but its power in combat is lower than the average martial art. That's why we came here, we wanted to nurture our descendants in this environment and study more applications of our art.'

'Everything went well for a period, we were making progress and our descendants were growing strong, but then we awoke the King of this place.'

Noah was surprised for a moment before he resumed his reading.

'The King was sleeping below the area with the highest density of "Breath" and was extremely angry when it realized that there were trespassers in its territory. It sent hordes of magical beasts to attack us and the previous patriarch, my father, died in the process of defending us.'

'We were forced to hide in this place but the King only wanted snake-type creatures in its domain, so we ended up in this situation.'

Noah imagined something stronger than the dragon in his childhood and shivered at that thought.

If a patriarch of a medium-size family could not win against this King how could he hope to survive?

'We can't fly like my father and the passage to the surface is on the other side of the valley so this will be the end of my family. I will pass to you the pinnacle of our art that we managed to create, I hope that it will help you to survive this place and, one day, to avenge us by killing that King. My name is Uriah Assea, and this is my lifelong achievement.'

Noah's eyes kept going onto the next pages without blinking once, and a smile began to appear on his face.

'I can use it! I can use this spell!'

The spell read:

'Body-inscription spell, rank depending on the strength of the companion, no elemental requirements as the spell will be stronger if paired with a magical beast of the user's same element. The spell consists of engraving the figure of the chosen magical beasts on the user body to create a blood companion. The blood companion will have the same strength of the actual beast if its element matches with the user since it's fueled by the "Breath" in the user's body. The process to create the blood companion is complex and must be followed strictly otherwise the inscription will fail.'

'To create the inscription on the body, the user must dip a sharp stick or a weapon in the blood of the magical beast that he decided and draw its image on his body. The drawing must be done below the skin so the user must cut through it in order to reach the specific depth. After the drawing is complete, the user needs to eat the center of power of the beast to give life to its image. The center of power is generally the heart of the beast. When the drawing comes to life, the user must subdue it with his mental energy and then he will have completed the procedure.'

There were examples of drawings that reached the standard required for the spell and many of them were of snake-like beasts, the Assea family had probably experimented a lot on them.

Noah meanwhile had a bright smile on his face.

'It is totally doable! My first spell! I wonder if I'll get the right element on the first try.'

The description of the spell continued listing its advantages and disadvantages.

'The blood companion can attack on its own or be controlled by the user so its efficiency vastly surpasses normal puppets. The user will share his "Breath" and mental energy with the companion and will need to use a part of them to feed it or make it recover. The pressure on the sea of consciousness of the user will grow as the companion sensations will be shared with the user. The beast needs to be recently killed or the "Breath" in its heart will not suffice for giving life to the inscription. It is better if the user killed it as it will be easier to subdue during the last part of the process.

The blood of the beast must be filled with the "Breath" of the user in order to have a better control over the body of the companion, that's why the valley, with its high density of "Breath", is the perfect place to create these types of inscriptions. To remove the companion, just kill it.'

Noah's hands trembled from the excitement he was feeling and he hastily stored the book in the space-ring.

'Hahaha! It is perfect for me right now! Yet, which beast should I choose? The Fire snakes are the weakest, but I didn't find any rank 3 till now and the Earth snakes have a pack too big for me to go there and kill their boss quietly.'

He thought for a bit before doing an evil smirk and looking in the direction where he came from.

'That horned snake should have survived right?'