CH31: Creating a Blood Bath

***

Two days after the Party Hunt, the meat of the strongest beasts and all the blood from our game was ready and delivered to my house in the Elite Camp.

The Guild Butchers were quite efficient, butchering scores of game within a couple of days. I was happy with the quality and quantity of the meat and blood I got.

It showed their high level of skill since not much of either product was lost from the amount delivered.

Of course as the saying goes, 'good soup requires money'. This high quality service was not cheap as I ended up paying around 200UP as compensation for their efforts.

Zora was with me the day the meat and blood were delivered.

The rest of the Party had gone to another low difficulty Nest to test out their skills. The nest they chose was also a pastoral nest of sorts, but it had some carnivores within.

Considering their showing from the previous hunt, I deemed their skill level sufficient to face such a place.

I didn't follow them because I didn't intend to babysit them any longer. I had given them the tools and I had assess that their target was well within their skill level. It would be on them if they failed or something happened to them.

That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Sometimes, failures and setbacks are fuel to push us forward.

If they faced some sort of setback, I was sure I would be able to get them back on the right path. So, I was comfortable in letting the growing lions leave the den.

In fact, I welcomed it.

I planned to close for the day to prepare the meat from the hunt. Zora knew this and the lass decided to stay behind to help.

During the past three-plus years, I didn't only train her combat skills. I also trained her in many life skills that were essential in saving her life in the wild.

Cooking being one of them.

I'm proud to say that the student surpassed the teacher in that regard.

The girl told me she would take care of cooking all the meat while I focussed on preparing the blood-bath I wanted to make.

I intended to eat the meat to stave off one of the restriction of using the Attribute points that I had.

That said, no matter how much one loved meat, you'd lose your appetite after eating it for too long and especially in the same way.

So, Zora took on the cooking responsibilities as she had more recipes than I did.

I taught her most, if not all, the recipes I knew. She also learnt quite a number of recipes from the Guild's cooks.

(P.S: Cooking is an important life profession in Arun and so there were quite a number of them in the guild.)

She knew the best recipes from both worlds.

The reason the lass was doing this was quite obvious.

I once blurted out that a strategy to conquer one's heart was through his/her stomach. And so we have this situation.

She took on a tomboyish vibe in the three years, however, one she stepped into the kitchen, no one could deny her female vibe.

Her enjoyment from cooking seemed to make her already stunning beauty, even that more transcendent.

While Zora cooked, I was in a separate room preparing a blood bath.

During my studies at the Academy, I came across first hand accounts of Hunters who claimed they developed a stronger body after they bathe in the blood of powerful beasts after gruelling battles.

The mere notion of bathing in blood was absurd and disgusting so many professionals of different field who could develop the method shunned it.

I found it strange.

Arun was a world where strength was pursued vigorously. I didn't understand why this simple method was ignored. After all, it wasn't like it was breaking any taboos.

I would understand if it were human blood, then it made sense they'd shun against it, however this was beast blood. It was essentially a waste product from killing beasts.

Humans find profit in every little thing.

If this waste product could be turn into a viable one, I didn't understand why it wasn't.

My guess on the matter was that the reason was apprehension.

There were many lunatics amongst humans. More so in a world like Arun. I guessed the higher-ups were worried that if they allowed the method to flourish, it wouldn't be long before some lunatic starts hunting fellow humans for blood.

It made sense.

In my previous life, I had heard many myths about human fluids.

A woman claimed the 'vitality' in sperm was the key to eternal youth. So, she would pay healthy youths money to fire their shots on her face.

Following this logic, another person claimed the sperm wasn't enough and it was better to go to the source... Blood. The person's obsession led to the deaths of at least a dozen youths, just so she could fill a pool with their blood.

I remember the word 'Bloodbath' was actually coined after the person was caught while bathing in the blood pool they had created from their massacre.

From these, I guess I could understand the higher-up's apprehension.

However, I didn't have that luxury.

I needed to use any humane method I could use to limit the restrictions of using the APs as well as increase my strength.

Hence, I was going to make use of the blood bath.

Beast bodies were innately stronger than humans. This was a reality that became increasingly obvious as the rank increased.

It was incredibly difficult for one Noble-ranked human to defeat an equivalent Destroyer-class Beast without external help such as Armour, weapons, potion etc. So, ability to afford and get these externals aids also factored into a Hunter's rating as well as the number of their mana rings.

(PS: Don't forget, the Hunter's Union is pragmatic. They only care that you can take down a Beast on your own to get the corresponding rank. Whatever external tool you use is in fact seen as part of your ability. Anyone who uses an external tool they can't consistently acquire would only be shooting themselves in the leg since the Union assigns missions based on rank. If a Knight uses a one-time external to become a Champion-rank for the privileges, well... that person is on the path to death as the Union would ask him to face Catastrophe-Class beasts. In that case, the person should write their will before leaving.)

The reason for the difference in body strength was the pure tyrannical mana flowing through their bodies. Most humans couldn't replicate this unless they had a body strengthening Pangea or some absurd physique.

By the way, Jaras ticks these two boxes hence why he is Zora's party's Tank and why I gave him a seemingly ruthless body tempering regimen.

Anyway, my studies led me to believe the method for moving this pure tyrannical mana through their bodies, and their difference from human bodies, was their blood.

Blood was a transport vessel that flowed through all parts of the body. For beasts, it was a good way to transport mana throughout their bodies. Hence, aside all the other important substances transported by blood, potent mana was also present in beast blood.

It was this reason why beast blood had such a good tempering effect on the body. The pure mana locked and transported by the blood tempers the cells of the body when it comes in contact.

This was something I needed.

That said, even with my mental fortitude, I wasn't going to bathe in red blood.

I added some herbal ingredients to improve the bath to my taste.

I first needed to remove the redness and the characteristic 'iron' smell in the blood. This meant I needed to remove the red blood cells containing the iron-based complex called Haemoglobin which was primarily responsible for both major physical characteristic of blood.

To do this, I added a special concoction I had created from various plants into the barrels of still-viable blood that I had.

After an hour, the redness of the liquid reduced quite a bid as coagulations formed on the surface of the barrels.

The coagulates were quite thick so it was easy for me to separate from the now red-tinted, white liquid by decanting into a cloth which then filtered the liquid.

I had a lot of AP to share and I only had so much viable blood.

Once this was done, I placed the liquid on low heat then added a bunch of other herbs.

I added some of the herbs to kill off whatever harmful microbes that might be in the blood, one herb to cover the residual smell of the blood, another to change the colour.

These were just supplementary herbs.

There were just 3 main ingredients.

The first was a sort of Mana-absorbing grass. It was used in herbology to attract more mana into a concoction.

(P.S: Contrary to how it sounds, its effects are quite mild and minimal, plus it grows easily so it isn't actually a precious herb. In fact, it is almost constantly used in concoctions in Herbology because it's dirt cheap costing only about 5UP per stalk.)

I added a type of Mana-absorbing grass which grew on land soaked by blood of beasts. I figured, considering its origins, it would have a good compatibility with the liquid tissue. Plus, it wouldn't conflict with the other herbs I was using.

I was right.

More pure and forceful mana, similar to the type flowing within the blood, flowed in.

The second main herb I added was a herb used to temper the body called Blood vine. Blood vines were a bit more expensive than the Mana-absorbing grass, costing me 70UP to acquire a stalk.

Fortunately, I didn't need much, just three stalks was enough for my needs.

The Blood vine contains bioactive compounds known to open the skin pores and increase its sensitivity as well as absorption of mana through the flesh significantly.

It causes mana to pierce through skin pores to reach into the body and strengthen it. If one stays long enough in a Blood vine bath, mana would eventually pierce into bones and Internal organs.

I hope you're seeing where I'm going with this by now.

The last main ingredient was more of a concoction than an herb per se. It was a powder made from different relatively cheap herbs.

This powder was used in Herbology for numerous things. Being a binder or a catalyst (a reaction initiator and a terminator) were just some of its uses.

I added it to concentrate and preserve the viability of my product. If I was lucky, this powder could also improve the effect of my product by about 20%.

It took me the best of half a day to finish everything. Now, I just had to let everything settle.

I returned to the kitchen where Zora was still hard at work.

The lass made quite a lot of food.

I asked her to make fifteen servings of as many recipes as she could make. She was already into her tenth meal recipe when I finished with the bath and returned.

She was still rearing to go on but unfortunately, the meat had been used up.

Zora placed the food in an appliance akin to a freezer in Arun.

The stasis box was essentially a large box with a stasis circle carved into it. Any food item placed into the box wouldn't spoil within six months of placing it in the box.

This particular Stasis Box was 3m long, 2m wide and 1m high. It cost me a fair 1500UP and requires a mana stone for six months of work.

This model was on the larger size and it went without saying that it wasn't something a common household would buy or could afford.

There were small sizes and cheaper prices for their pocket.

The reason I bought this model was.... well, it was more than one reason.

One, it could contain the insane amount of food required to add my APs, which I suspect would increase as I become stronger.

Two, it could 'explain' why I would be cooking in large amounts from time to time. I made a habit of cooking large quantities of food at a time before placing them in the Stasis box. I explained that I was too lazy to cook every time. It was more efficient to cook all at one since there was a convenient appliance for the job.

Third, I didn't want anyone to notice whenever I ate a large amount of food for my AP growth. Knowing this could give people a clue into how I increase my strength which I didn't want.

All in all, although the Stasis Box was expensive, I felt it was worth the price. I'd rather spend money than allow my secret to be revealed.

I watched the lass place all her cooking in the Stasis Box while humming a tone.

I wasn't dense. I could tell the emotion she had, however, I wasn't sure I could reciprocate it.

The girl had been making it increasingly obvious the more confident she became, which made me happy and troubled at the same time.

Happy because she was confident, troubled because I couldn't give her what she wanted.

As I stood there watching her, I remember the words of a medieval scholar from the West in my old world.

'Sometimes, cruelty is necessary. However, it has to be done in the right way. If you have to be cruel, bury your heart, do it swiftly and be completely thorough. For it is a prolonged act of cruelty that becomes evil.'

I couldn't let her continue to live in this illusion of hers. Not for a man like me.

What I said next became the first time I hurt Zora emotionally.

(To be continued...)

Last Chapter Next Chapter