Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Soon after, after catching his breath, Hughes disguised himself and went to the Throat-Slitting Tavern.

This time, he teleported himself directly through the teleportation point he had previously placed in the secret passage.

"Buzz—"

Soon after, the silver light flashed again, and Hughes returned to his residence.

At this moment, he held a large, reddish-brown ceramic goblet in his hand.

The cup looked heavy, and it was filled with thick, dark red blood.

This cup of blood is only relatively easy to buy in places like the throat-cutting tavern.

Because this is the blood of vampires.

"..."

Hughes then went into his basement and poured the blood from his cup evenly onto a pre-marked area of ​​ground.

"Splash, splash..."

A strong smell of blood instantly filled the basement.

Soon, the viscous blood slowly spread across the ground, but never reached the designated boundary.

"Clang—"

A few seconds later, there was no more blood in the cup. Hughes casually tossed it aside, then bent down and placed his hands over the blood.

"..."

Looking at the pool of blood beneath him, his pupils flickered, and then he slowly closed his eyes.

...buzz

The next moment, the blood suddenly lit up, and a layer of fluorescent blood light rippled on the surface.

Immediately afterwards, Hughes' hands began to tremble slightly, and an invisible force pulled the blood-red light out of his blood and around his hands.

These scarlet rays of light are what is known as blood energy.

But in fact, the book that Cyrus left him contained more than just the language of vampire communication and magic.

The latter half of the book also records many of the current witchcraft systems of the vampires, including the "rules" for converting magic into blood energy.

(As mentioned in Chapter 262, Cerons: a language master who taught Hughes the elven language, and gave Hughes a book for learning the vampire language before parting.)

However, Hughes currently has no intention of becoming a blood witch, which is why he chose to extract blood energy through external means.

As for his purpose in extracting blood energy, it was to set up a vampire ritual.

Of course, this ritual was given by Iluya.

Once all the blood energy has been extracted from this pool of blood, he will use this blood energy to draw bloodline runes on the pool of blood.

"..."

A few minutes later, as the last wisp of blood wrapped around Hughes's palm, the pool of blood in front of him quickly dimmed and even lost some of its color.

"Buzzing..."

Looking at his hands, which were covered in blood, Hughes swallowed hard.

Only now did he finally understand why Therons had said that blood witches were now easily assimilated by blood energy.

Blood energy is essentially a distorted form of life energy.

This distortion makes it extremely alluring, and this allure, which originates from the vitality of life, is enough to sway any wizard who thirsts for immortality.

"No wonder that after becoming a blood witch, one has an endless thirst for blood."

Hughes murmured to himself, while struggling to resist the temptation.

"And, one can never escape this identity."

He dared not linger on this tempting energy, and immediately spread his mental power, continuously drawing strands of blood energy to the ground, beginning to outline vampire runes.

Soon after, scarlet runes were imprinted on the ground.

The next moment, as Hughes chanted the incantation, the runes began to wriggle slowly like living things, converging towards the pool of blood in the center.

"Gurgle gurgle..."

Meanwhile, as the runes continued to merge, the pool of blood began to expand, undulate, and sway strangely.

The next second, as the last syllable fell, the swollen blood burst open with a bang.

"Bang—!"

Unlike dull, lifeless blood, the blood mist produced after the explosion was bright red.

As the blood mist dissipated, a phantom figure made of blood mist appeared before Hughes.

And this lifelike, illusory figure was none other than Iluya, whom we hadn't seen in a long time.

"It's been a long time, Lady Ilya."

Thinking about what had just happened, Hughes said jokingly.

However, "Iluya" on the other side ignored her, looked around, and then spoke:

"Where am I?"

"A basement somewhere."

Hughes shrugged.

"The academy must have devices to detect blood energy, so of course I can't set up a ritual in my dorm."

Iluya nodded upon hearing this and then turned the conversation to more important matters.

"It seems you've returned safely, and they didn't do anything to you."

She glanced at Hughes and, seeing that there were no marks of blood energy left on him, felt much more at ease.

"What happened after that? I need to know."

Upon hearing this, Hughes recounted to Iluya everything that had happened after he entered the hall.

"..."

"That's how it is. After that, I gave the badge to Valerius. As for whether he will use it, I can't say for sure."

"It's okay, as long as the badge is there too."

Iluya nodded, then looked puzzled and asked:

"Has that Barossa ever revealed his true colors?"

"No, he only revealed his vampire eyes; his appearance is still that of Barossa."

Hughes shook his head, but then changed the subject.

"But I accidentally asked a question that revealed something, and I don't know if it will be useful."

"speak."

"Barossa has a very keen sense of smell."

Hughes looked serious as he spoke.

"And the reason he targeted me was because he sensed your scent on me before."

Upon hearing this, Iluya's expression suddenly changed, and she almost blurted out:

"It's Aldec!"

Upon hearing this, Hughes's expression darkened, and he said:

"Aldec? That vampire's name?"

The moment he heard that name, he was completely certain that the previous Barossa was either dead or replaced.

It's hard to imagine that the former head of the apprentices at the Everfrost Spire has long been replaced by a vampire.

Meanwhile, Iluya's expression returned to calm.

"That's right, he was a vampire, and the current Barossa is him in disguise."

As she spoke, a hint of seriousness crept into her voice.

"His full name is Aldek Nasir. He has an exceptionally strong sense of smell and is a vampire with remarkable talent."

Finally, Ilya added:

"Second only to me."

Noticing the change in the other person's tone, Hughes couldn't help but ask:

"His appearance... must signify something else."