Chapter 45
It was gonna take almost eleven more hours to draw his next Empowerment Ritual—pretty much the entire rest of the evening, and then most of that night. But Zeth was determined to push through and do it.
He was well aware at this point that ever since he’d come out of that cave, he hadn’t taken even a single minute to just slow down and live his life. He was aware of the toll it’d been taking on him. The lessening hours of sleep, even if he technically had enough points in Endurance to help him shrug off some of the physical effects, had been taking a toll on his mind. Less time for rest, more time for work. Less time for unwinding, more time for near-death experiences. It wasn’t good for him. But as far as Zeth was concerned, it was a necessary expense.
Hopefully, though, this would all be over soon. Now that he could start Leveling up again, and now that Erza wasn’t a pressing issue, he could shy away from the daily risking of his life. Even if it wasn’t sleep, holing up in his fortified base and allowing Vile Focus to relax his mind as he drew away at Empowerment Rituals would be far more relaxing than most of what he’d done recently.
And, of course, once he killed Garon and the Blood Mage—who may have been one and the same—then he could really begin to relax. He wouldn’t be totally off the hook, of course—with an illegal Class, his life would never be a cakewalk—but it would be better. His goal would be completed, and then he could focus on the smaller things. Helping ensure Sophie made a good life for herself, earning some money, and consolidating his power to ensure he would be able to get quick, painful revenge on anyone who ever wronged him again.
That was the ultimate goal. And he wanted to get there quickly. So, he worked through the night, painting away on the swath of stone floor that he’d set aside for the four-foot Empowerment Ritual. He allowed Vile Focus to take over, and rested his mind for a bit.
His mind may have been resting, but when he finally finished the eleven hours of labor, Zeth’s body ached. Part of him wondered if it may have been worth putting Otherworldly Excellence into Endurance just so he wouldn’t have to feel this sensation rippling throughout his body after spending too much time drawing. But what was done was done. And besides, adding to his Dexterity would hopefully help with that issue in its own way, loosening his joints and muscles.
He took a deep breath, staring down at the completed Empowerment Ritual. Down in his underground complex, there was no way to tell day from night—no way to visually see how many hours had passed. But just looking at it, he could practically feel the time investment. It was half as wide as Demonic Covenant’s ritual circles needed to be, but took almost three times longer to draw. And Covenant’s circle was far from sparse when it came to inner detailing. So this one was truly, ridiculously intricate.
Zeth was pretty sure he’d figured out why the ritual circles had a required time to begin with. They didn’t care about how many lines were drawn or how much chalk covered the floor—they cared about how much mana Zeth poured into them. Erza had taught him how to examine magic items and look inward at their mana contents. And when he’d done so with his ritual circles, he’d found just how insane they were in terms of the mana stored inside. Each bit of chalk was practically flooding with the stuff.
It made sense that he’d gotten so utterly exhausted from just drawing an inch or two at the beginning of his career as a Blood Magus; even the most basic Hellfire Ritual required an absolutely massive amount of mana to operate. And so, if the chalk substance was what contained that mana, it made sense that more powerful rituals would require more of that chalk to work—more mana to carry out their effects. Taking a Skill to reduce that time requirement, then, wasn’t just decreasing some sort of arbitrary limitation the Class placed on him; it was effectively using Skill Points to make an up-front investment, making a one-time purchase of a Skill to permanently increase the rate at which he could pour his mana into the chalk and feed the circles.