Chapter 40 - Bloodlines

After Zephirah fainted I carried her out to my bed and set her onto one of my pillows. I considered waiting to see if she would wake, but a grumble from my stomach convinced me to do something a bit more constructive with my time.

I left my room being sure to close the door then headed for the stairs only to meet Vanessa and Lilian on the way down a tray full of food in Vanessa's hands.

"We thought you could use something to eat." Vanessa told me.

I nodded eyeing the plate of sausage, bacon, eggs, and waffles hungrily.

"You can eat in your room while we talk." Vanessa told me.

I looked behind her to the stairs. "Is there a reason?" I asked.

"No, if you would prefer to eat upstairs we can do that, I just thought you might prefer the privacy." she replied.

She wasn't wrong so I agreed and reopened my door to find Zephirah peering around groggily.

"Up already?" I asked her as Vanessa and Lilian followed me into the room.

"Just a mild shock." Zephirah replied.

"If a mild shock makes you faint, I would hate to really surprise you." I commented.

"I thought you had things to discuss?" Vanessa asked seeming confused.

"We do." Zephirah replied.

"So what freaked you out so much?" I asked.

"Nothing important. Just a warning I received when I was stuck in that orb and stretching the limits of my authority." she replied. "She noticed sometime after the third or fourth master, and warned me to behave during the fifth."

"What kind of stretching?" I asked curiously.

Zephirah shrugged. "Hard to be specific, and none of it helps us now as everything reset between masters." she replied. "Just doing whatever I could to relieve the boredom of being trapped."

"Must not have been very nice to scare you so much." I pointed out.

Zephirah grimaced, "No, it wasn't anything bad, the issue came up when I overspent the dungeon's energy which led to a situation where my master at the time didn't have the energy he should have to protect himself costing him his life." she admitted.

I looked at the sprite surprised.

"Honestly, it was just little pranks like rearranging the tiles, changing the colors of different items, nothing that would have caused any damage. I was just trying to do anything I could from within the orb to let him know I was there. Then he pissed off a neighboring town, didn't have the energy to put up enough defenses, and the company had to send in their people to retrieve me." she explained.

"I see." I said thoughtfully. "I haven't made a big issue of your spending so far, just keep that mistake in mind, we never know when we might end up in the same kind of situation." I told her. My mother's words were still fresh in my mind. Hopefully the fact that she had screwed up once before will help keep her from doing it again. Besides she wasn't stuck in the orb any more.

"I will." Zephirah promised. "Just got a bit worried that she might see my upgrades to the house without your express permission as a similar situation. Let's just say I would prefer to have Lilian consume me than piss her off."

I shivered at the thought. "Well it doesn't seem to be the case. Was there anything else about the house I needed to know?" I asked.

"The orb is in the living room, it is set into the ceiling, I can show you how to bring it down later. You shouldn't need it very often, just thinking of the dungeon interface while inside the house should give you access to anything you could while actually using the core." she told me.

I nodded.

"Were you able to understand the information I gave you?" Lilian asked interrupting.

I nodded. "The basics of it yeah. Though I am curious as to where I am supposed to get the new information." I replied.

"Once you determine your path forward and form your mana heart you will understand." Lilian told me.

I nodded then looked to Lilian. "So bloodlines." I said returning to the discussion we were in before she fainted.

"Aren't you going to eat that?" Zephirah asked gesturing to the food Vanessa had.

I nodded then took the tray before sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Maybe I can help?" Vanessa asked.

"You know about the bloodlines?" I asked.

"A little bit. Nothing specific though. I don't have a bloodline myself, but I was told a bit to be useful. Do you have any besides carbuncle?" she asked.

"No, just carbuncle." I replied.

"Oh, I thought you might have gotten something from your parents." Vanessa said sounding a bit disappointed.

"My mother said there was something in my blood that let me understand runes better." I replied.

"Your mother?" Vanessa asked.

I nodded then explained about the meeting with the Overseer and my mother while I ate.

"Hmmm, that sounds more like a hereditary trait. It would be active from birth, but won't show up onto your status until you reach level five, or even ten." she told me.

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Same reason everyone has levels, it restricts everyone coming to this world." Vanessa replied then paused and chuckled. "We talked about how it restrains your opponents, but you probably never even thought about how it restricts you too."

"Me?" I asked.

All the girls nodded, "Yes you. The Mana Rebirth gave you five points per attribute, but there are bonuses to being a mana lord that you haven't received because you are such a low level. There might even be more points from the mana rebirth that you haven't received." Vanessa explained.

I was silent for a moment, "Alright, I guess I can understand that, everyone seems to treat this Mana Lord thing as being pretty awesome, but I didn't really think those points was all that." I told them.

"Don't underestimate the knowledge you have." Lilian told me.

"Fine, but what about the bloodline, if I didn't get it from my parents, where did I get it?" I asked.

"You get it from being a dungeon master." Vanessa replied. "The Carbuncle, not the feline beasts with stones on their head, but the true Carbuncle, is the father of the dungeons and some other magic creatures like the mana race."

"True Carbuncle?" I asked.

"Yes, he is a deity class being that make the carbuncle creatures your games have in them look like newborn kittens compared to a full grown Dire Tiger. He takes many forms so no one knows his true form. He is partial to the beasts that carry his name, so they could be his direct descendants for all we know." she elaborated.

"So what does it do? Will I become a carbuncle?" I asked.

Vanessa was silent for a moment then shrugged. "No idea. All I do know is it can give you bonuses, after reaching certain percentages you will be able to transform. I heard a rumor that when you reach twenty five percent you will get the small transformation." she told me, "But that is just a rumor."

"Small transformation?" I asked.

"Its like what the zoo upstairs will get when they reach level twenty." Vanessa replied using Lilian's term.

"I thought they would be able to turn human at level twenty." I told her.

"Not exactly they gain a humanoid form that is more beast than human. If you are into furries you would be in heaven." Vanessa told me.

I wasn't.

"If not you should wait until level fifty when they get large transformation, then they should look more like the beast girls from the anime in your world. Level one hundred will let them have a complete transformation." she finished.

I grimaced then relaxed. That would give me time to figure out where I and the girls stood on the harem Zephirah wanted me to have. Of the four of them I didn't think any of them were actually interested. Each were here for their own reasons, and in the fox's case we had saved her. Beside Zephirah claiming harem whenever she had a chance, none of them actually seemed interested in the idea. Though the talk of them being a part of my harem hadn't bothered them either, so I had no idea what they thought of it. Maybe I was the only one with a problem. Thoughts to consider for later.

"So how do I raise the percentage? And what about other bloodlines?" I asked.

Vanessa shrugged. "No idea." she replied.

I looked to Zephirah but she remained silent while staring at me.

I sighed as I recognized that look from earlier. "Can I have more than one bloodline?" I asked Zephirah.

"Yes." she replied simply.

It was like having teeth pulled.

"Will multiple bloodlines affect each other?" I asked.

"No."

I paused thinking on that. It wasn't what I expected. I had assumed I could become something new by gathering different bloodlines. Something like ten percent carbuncle, twenty percent dragon, twenty percent phoenix, and fifty human, though I didn't have a human bloodline listed. Hmmmmm.

"Do I receive bonuses from a bloodline?" I asked. Better confirm the basics.

"You can." Zephirah replied.

I frowned. I could, did that mean I wasn't, no, I wasn't I could account for all of my stats except two points, but those could be the natural growth. So I wasn't getting any bonuses yet.

"How high does my bloodline percentage have to be before I can receive a bonus from it?" I asked.

"One percent."

"How can I get a bonus?"

"You have to consciously activate the bloodline." Zephirah explained.

"Are there any limitations?" I asked.

"No."

"Can I have two bloodlines active?" I asked.

Zephirah hesitated then turned her head up as she listened to a voice, probably the Overseer pervert. "Not currently." Zephirah eventually replied.

I frowned but then a thought came to mind. "What does the bloodline bond to?" I asked.

"Your heart." Zephirah asked.

"My physical heart or my mana heart?" I asked.

Zephirah was silent for a few moments listening again before she replied. "Either." she replied.

I smiled happily at that then a new thought came to my mind but I pushed it away as something I could ask about later.

"Can you change the bloodline after you have activated one?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Will there be any effect on the bloodline you deactivated?" I asked.

"No."

I nodded then groaned. "How do I increase the percentage?" I asked.

"Drinking blood essence."

"How much blood essence do I need to drink to increase one percent?"

Zephirah paused again, "It depends on your current percentage." she replied.

"Can you elaborate on that?" I asked tiredly.

"Be more specific with your question please."

I groaned then began to ask her specifically. Turned out that for the first ten percent I needed one drop per percent, eleven to twenty I needed two drops per percent, twenty one to thirty I needed three drops per percent, and so on…

"Since the requirements changes, do the bonuses change?" I asked.

"Yes."

I nodded then shook my head. "No more for now." I said holding my head in my hands. While the information seemed important, I doubted I would ask about it again, at least not willingly.

"Figured it out?" Zephirah asked.

"As much as I need to for now. I need to help Elisia win a challenge for it to matter." I replied reminded of the three drops I would receive for helping her to win just one of her three challenges. Guess I was going to have to figure out what those challenges were and how I could help her.

"Oh right, I nearly forgot about that." Zephirah exclaimed happily.

"Though he didn't specify what kind of drops they were." I added. "I get the feeling that blood essence is only one kind of drop that people would want."

"True, there are all kinds of living water that are traded in drops, along with magic essence, and even magic fruit juice." Vanessa agreed.

"Fruit juice?" I asked.

"Sure, ever hear of the golden apples?" Vanessa asked.