Crack!!

A slight crack appeared on the surface before it spread throughout the egg. As if impatient, a hand tore through the shell and began to move out of it.

Seeing his first guardian back, Dhruv held his hand out, "Welcome back... it looks like the evolution went great."

Nodding his head, Lucian grabbed his hand and stood up.

While he weaves some cloths out of blood, Dhruv inspected the changes in his body.

Age-wise, he looked the same, no older than ten or thirteen, but his height had changed slightly. Not only does he look abnormally beautiful now, but there was also a charm of royalty around him.

His skin looked pale and smooth, almost like cold marble. As if king of the night, his soft black hair fell over his forehead. His eyes turned deep red, fitting for someone who manipulates blood.

The horns were gone, and instead of that, two pointed teeth that showed beneath his lips, Dhruv asked, "How was it? The evolution."

"Your blessing made everything go smoothly, master..." Draped in blood, Lucian knelt on the ground and bowed his head.

Patting him on the shoulder, Dhruv lifted him from the ground and asked, "No need to be this humble... tell me about the evolution. Ahh! And also, tell me how many options you have and their rank..."

"I’ve changed my species from demon to vampire, and the name of the evolution is The Thirteen Vein..." Answering them with the best of his ability, Lucian recalled the rest of the evolution.

Dhruv was a little worried hearing that the Goblin Witch somehow found a way to him as well.

’It’s good he didn’t choose the evolution. Well, the Thriteen vein is the obvious choice here...’ Sighing in relief, Dhruv was impressed by the choice he had made. If in his position, he would’ve chosen to sacrifice the curse manipulation.

Thinking about the manipulation, Dhruv remembered something.

"Let’s goo you need some clothes as well..." Moving toward the Armory, Dhruv looked at the little vampire and asked, " Lucian, I was wondering how you cast spells."

"Oh! Did you get a new authority master?" Lucian asked, remembering that the master’s greed’s authority couldn’t be manipulated.

"Yes, it is of a rot element," Dhruv replied, anticipating how he would react to hearing about the rot.

"Wow!! Such a good element... It fits you so well, master."Lucian replied, being all happy about it.

’Huh! I was foolish to expect anything else...’ Dhruv face-palmed. After all, his first guardian had never told him he was wrong, no matter what he did.

’Is it a good thing that I look like rot to him or bad?’ Still, he couldn’t know how to take this compliment.

Remembering how Lucian would always exaggerate things when it came to him, Dhruv didn’t take it to heart and asked about the manipulation once again. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"So, about the spell..."

Bowing his head, Lucian first asked for forgiveness, "Forgive me for getting distracted... I would like to ask how much you know about spells?"

"If being honest, I don’t know anything about the spell. For skill, I instinctively know how to activate them, but nothing or sort of spells."

"Don’t worry, master.. You will learn in no time. First of all, we have to keep in mind the authority. If what I understand is correct, then the authority resides inside our core and turns the ambient mana of the surroundings into the elemental mana..."

"Core!?" Dhruv asked, confused.

"Yes, master. After becoming a monster... a core must have formed inside you. Like the soul is to humans, the core is to us." Lucian explained, pointing toward his chest, "Usually it resides here."

"Ohh!!..." Thinking, Dhruv touched his chest. There he could feel his beating heart, but for the core, there wasn’t any feeling.

Furrowing his brows, he looked back at Lucian and asked, "I can’t feel anything."

"Hmm! That can be..." After pondering for a moment, he looked back at his master. Remembering his species before the evolution, he explained, "Maybe because you are human before... It’s difficult for you."

"Follow my lead...close your eyes... and imagine yourself floating in a dead space.... release the hold over your body, and trace yourself from within."

Heading to his words, Dhruv closed his eyes and let his body grow still. Slowly, the world around him faded away. In the dark, he felt like floating in a dead world with nothing above or below him.

Releasing the hold over his body, he turned his mind inward.

Slowly, Dhruv traced himself from within, feeling his blood, bones, and breath. Moving near the left side of his chest, he heard his heartbeat. Skipping it, he sensed something different beside it.

’The core...’

It was small and warm. As his mind touched the core, he got to see how his two authorities impacted his core.

Dhruv found half of his core woven from golden threads, but they did not shine with purity. They shone like greed itself with temptation and hunger. It was as if each of the stranded wanted more than it gave.

The other half was made of black, rotten threads, thick with filth dripping like old tar. He couldn’t make out of it, but between them, at the very center of the net of threads, something small was flickering.

It was not light, nor shadow, but something he could not understand, trembling quietly as if it were alive and waiting to grow into something stronger.

"I can see it, Lucian... there is a core inside of me." Smiling Dhruv told him about his findings.

"Great master. You learn quickly. You must have seen the threads inside of the core, right?" Lucian asked.

"Yes! I was about to ask you what they are?"

"Well, they are part mana..." Lucian replied, nodding his head.

"A part... huh! There are more to it?" Dhruv asked, confused by his implication.

Before getting straight to the point, Lucian explained something else.

"Well, weaving the thread in the core isn’t the only way to cast magic... for the element, its physical form exists in the world as well. As you know, master, aside from casting blood, I can also manipulate the physical blood present in the world as well..."

"And!?" Having never seen the physical manifestation of blood or rot, Dhruv didn’t understand where he was going with this.

"The mana in the physical form of the element doesn’t form any thread... no, they exist like points. Small cluster of points that are bonded by some force."

Manifesting a blob of blood, Lucian explained why he believes the thread in the core is just a part mana. And there is more to it.