"Hey Milas, you don't mind if I join you on your adventures, do you? " Asher whispered to Milas as they were leaving the dining hall.
"What are you talking about? "
"I know that you plan on leaving the settlement, perhaps permanently, and I'm asking if I can join you. " Asher answered.
"What gave you that idea?"
"You are a slave that for some reason is allowed to study. You also don't seem to know anything about society. You also talk about vampires with so much hate it's like you aren't one yourself. And lastly, you mumble your plans everytime you are dazed."
"First of all, I'm not allowed to study, I'm forced to do it. Second, I don't give a shit about society. Third, I didn't choose to be a vampire I was forcefully turned into one. And lastly, quit listening to my private mumbling. It's weird. Also, why do you wanna leave the settlement?" Milas asked.
"Personal reasons. Just know that I can be of great help."
"Nope. I'm not taking you with me. I have more than enough to worry about, bringing someone else along will just be trouble."
"Your plans won't work without my help."
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" Milas asked sarcastically.
"That slave mark is a blood binding type. Based on the circular shape, it should be a range type binding. Meaning, once you are outside a certain range the binding will take control of your body and make you freeze in place. Then your master will be able to sense where you are and he can find you.
"The only weakness of this type of binding is that if your master doesn't find you and renew the binding within one day, the contract dissolves." Asher said seriously as they made their way to the classroom block.
"You make a great argument, let me think about it and tell you tomorrow." Milas said as they split up with Asher heading to his class. Step had been listening to their conversation but didn't say a word about it. "You won't tell anyone about this, will you?"
"I have no reason to do so. You are my friend, it's the least I could do." Step replied. Milas nodded to himself as they walked into the class. He didn't want to have to kill her just to keep Deogratius from discovering his plan. The class was boring as usual until the teacher mentioned in passing that their supply of blood for the month will be reduced due to trouble in the travelling routes. Milas rose his hand to get the teachers attention.
"May I know more about these travelling routes and why they are affecting the blood supply?" The teacher looked at Milas with a raised eyebrow before answering.
"We get our supply of blood from a rogue fiefdom in the human realm that borders the dark lands. The main problem is that a desert separates us from them. We are forced to go around the desert meaning we have to cross into the territory of other settlements.
"It's normally not a problem but the other settlements have been rowdy recently. They usually require a small fee to allow us safe passage but they decided to hijack our caravan. The Lord is handling it but it'll affect the supply for this month." The teacher said and went back to his lesson. Milas knew that he had to change his plans.
He had previously planned to disappear into the forest and hope for the best but a new idea was forming. 'I'll have to speed things up. I'll need Asher to come along because of what I'm planning.' Milas thought to himself then turned his attention to Van. "Old Bird, I need a small favor."
"I'm not even in the mood to argue. What do you want?" Van replied.
"You've lived for a long time, what are the most necessary requirements for surviving in a desert?"
"You're asking the wrong person kid. I was born powerful so I never had trouble surviving different environments. Plus, I'm a phoenix the desert feels like a cool breeze compared to the air I casually breathe out. But if it's for someone as weak as you, just carry a lot of mana crystals, I can use them to make sure you don't die. Also carry a lot of blood. You'll be exposed to the sun so you'll need it to heal. There are a few more things but I'll let you figure them out by yourself."
"What if I meet a beast that's many times more powerful than me? Will you at least help me escape?" Milas waited for an answer but nothing came. "Hey, Van. Come on Old bird, don't just leave mid conversation. Sigh, this fucking bird."
Milas suffered through the boring lesson, barely keeping himself awake. After the lessons for the day were over, Milas called Asher for a meeting in the library. There, the two teenagers made a long list of things they thought were necessary for survival. They then started eliminating most of the items on the list because they had no way of obtaining them. In the end, they came up with a shorter list that would help ease their time in the desert.
"So, to summarize what we found out." Asher began reading. "First is a map which we will find right here and add it to our bracelets. Second is food. Which we'll store in the bracelet storage and also bring along two horses which will be both transportation and emergency food. Third is shade rings. We'll have to find a bunch of them because of sunlight. The last is weapons. I can steal a few of my dad's old swords. We won't need armor since we can both heal and armor is expensive and heavy."
"That should be everything. The only problem would be how to get horses." Milas added.
"There's also the problem of what to do with Step." Asher said seriously.
"I figured that we would just ignore her. She won't get in our way." Milas turned toward one of the bookshelves and raised his voice slightly. "You wouldn't do something like that, right Step?"
There was a long moment of silence before Step's shy voice came from behind the bookshelf. "I.... I promise... I won't tell anyone."
"Good, can you please give us some privacy?" Milas said and it was immediately followed by Step running off. "So, let's go get the maps then we'll each go around and gather the items we can. We'll meet in my room everyday to see how much we've gathered. The issue with the horses isn't really important. If we can't find horses then we'll have to pack more food."
The meeting ended and the two teenagers left the library after adding the map to their bracelets. Milas went to his room and started cultivating. He had been feeding his blood energy to his bones ever since the announcement was made. Today, Van didn't drag him to the Subconscious Domain today. There was something different today, his bones were absorbing the energy faster than before. Milas was worried about running out of energy when the bones suddenly stopped. They didn't take anymore energy.
"Keep providing more energy. Forcefully insert your blood energy into your bones." Van's voice broke Milas out of his cultivation state but he quickly recovered. Following the instructions, Milas pushed his blood energy into his bones but the resistance was greater than he expected. He kept trying to insert his energy but it all ended in failure.
"Little idiot, try focusing all your energy on a single bone instead of spreading it to every bone in your body." Van suggested. He continued mocking Milas for not figuring out something so obvious but Milas had tuned him out. He followed the instruction and easily filled the bone with energy.
It took him hours of continuous cultivation but Milas eventually filled his whole skeleton with blood energy. His body felt so light and refreshed. He was enjoying the sensation when the world spun and Milas found himself inside Van's Subconscious Domain. Van was seated on his throne looking down on him while he was on his knees. Milas wasn't even surprised since he always materializes in this position.
"You don't have much time. Picture the structure of your bones. You should be able to picture it since you've been focusing on your bones for the past few days." Van spoke to Milas but his gaze remained fixed on the horizon. He couldn't be bothered to lower his gaze.
Milas was used to this too. He just followed the instructions and a copy of his skeleton made from blood formed before him. Milas stared at the skeleton curiously until Van cut in. "Ugh, that looks like a goblin skeleton. It explains why you look so ugly. I can't have that. I'll be possessing your body every once in a while, I can't go around looking like that."
Milas would normally ignore Van's comments but he had said the words with such disgust that he felt offended. He was about to talk when he saw the skeleton go into a T-pose and undergo slight changes. The skeleton then fused into his body which had been forced into the same T-pose. "That should be enough. It won't be perfect but it'll do for now. One more thing, congratulations on your improvement it'll hurt a lot."
After saying that, Van sent Milas back into his body. True to his words, Milas encountered unspeakable pain when he returned.