Chapter 79: Treat yourself
From beginning to end, Ethan never actually saw the man who had defended him. He’d only caught the tail end of the voice, brief and unhurried, before the whole exchange resolved itself and the man was gone again just as quietly as he’d arrived.
The only thing he’d walked away with was the man’s title.
Fortune Maker.
Ethan had never heard a name quite like that before, and honestly it struck him as strange at first. But once he’d properly processed what the man had said, the pieces started falling into place. He had, in fact, killed a serpent creature that had latched itself onto Eric Algar of their clan, one member of the Blood Serpent line specifically, though the details of that fight felt hazy now, buried under everything that had happened since.
He remembered the fight itself well enough, the pit, the salamander, Eric’s collapsed chest. What he hadn’t fully understood at the time was what exactly the creature attached to Eric’s demi-human companion had actually been.
At first, Ethan assumed every Demi-god was capable of the same kind of possession, that it was simply how that entire category of beings operated. But with what little he now understood about the Blood Serpent Clan specifically, that assumption clearly hadn’t held up.
Something about it was genuinely strange, and he didn’t yet have enough information to explain why.
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Standing inside a testing room, Ethan pulled up his skill panel and studied it once more, the same way he’d done repeatedly over the past two days, each pass revealing some new detail he’d missed the first time.
[Blood Pact: After seriously menacing a member of a bloodline, you may cause anyone of close relation to inherit that menace, allowing you to instantly strike fear into their hearts]
[Fear Monger: When you kill someone who fears you, you may take a portion of their vitality, keeping you healthy and improving your strength while feeding directly into your tribulation force]
.
.
.
The Blood Tyrant class carried a surprising number of passive skills layered into it, but above everything else, its stacking mechanic stood out as the most powerful ability available at this level.
As long as an attack was parried or blocked rather than landing cleanly, every subsequent strike would double in force compared to the last. The more strikes exchanged, the harder each one became to defend against, the pressure compounding faster than most opponents could adjust to, until eventually blocking itself became the greater risk.
Essentially, he needed to break through some invisible threshold of resistance before the momentum tipped entirely in his favor, overwhelming whoever stood opposite him. Against Servos, that threshold had taken twelve grueling days to find.
"That’s enough for today. Honestly, quite remarkable."
One of the officials who had been observing Ethan throughout the testing session spoke up, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder with genuine admiration written across his expression.
Learning Tyrant Blade in twelve days bordered on insane by any reasonable standard. If anyone could actually understand the mechanism behind how he’d managed it, they would be looking at something close to unstoppable, a method worth guarding as carefully as any treasure White Tower possessed.
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As Ethan finished up with the day’s testing, he stepped out onto the street, where he found Fin waiting beside a small carriage, leaning casually against its frame.
"Hey, Lab Rat, I’m over here!!"
The moment Fin spotted him, he began waving enthusiastically, and a second later, Hela and Ella both stuck their heads out from inside the carriage to see what the commotion was about.
With a faint, coy smile settling across his face, Ethan crossed the street and climbed aboard.
"Out and about!!"
Fin shouted with genuine excitement as the carriage lurched into motion, wheels rattling steadily against the cobblestone beneath them.
As a reward for successfully completing the summoning ritual for the Dracontis family members, the High Regent had personally arranged and paid for a full day out at Windgrave’s premier care facility.
The Hot Springs High Wind.
It stood as one of the most luxurious destinations available, catering primarily to nobles, high-ranking military officials, and wealthy business figures. For most people, a visit there represented an entirely new experience altogether, though one many still felt pressured to endure at least once to remain relevant within the higher circles of society, a kind of unspoken checklist item for anyone climbing the social ladder.
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"We need a room."
Standing before the receptionist’s desk, Ethan stepped forward and produced a card, laying it flat against the counter with quiet confidence.
Aside from himself and Fin, neither Hela nor Ella carried any real means of accessing money on their own. Lady Arian remained notoriously strict on that particular front, unwilling to hand her daughters unrestricted access regardless of their standing.
"Hm? The most basic room here runs five thousand coins a day. Can you actually afford that?"
The receptionist glanced briefly at Ethan and his companions before returning her attention to filing her nails, clearly unbothered, her tone carrying the practiced dismissiveness of someone who dealt with this exact scenario constantly.
Plenty of hopefuls wandered through this establishment daily, desperate to feel like they belonged among the elite crowd that frequented the place.
It had become such a persistent problem that the reception desk had eventually been relocated entirely outside the main lobby, positioned specifically so anyone who clearly didn’t belong could be filtered out and turned away right at the gate before wasting anyone’s time inside. The staff here had gotten efficient at reading a person’s worth in a single glance.
These five, admittedly, didn’t look like they could scrape together enough for even the most basic accommodations, let alone a space large enough to comfortably house all of them together.
"Five thousand is indeed steep."
Ethan started to pull the card back, reconsidering, but a quick glance at the balance displayed along its edge stopped him mid-motion.
He eventually agreed to the price without further hesitation.
In his previous life, he hadn’t allowed himself much room for genuine enjoyment. Work had consumed most of it, patterns and civilizations and numbers on a screen, leaving little space for anything resembling leisure.
Maybe, he thought, it was finally time to loosen up a little.
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