Chapter 49
Back in his base, Zeth lay on the floor and tried to get some sleep. It was already late at night—enough so that if he spent four hours conducting Demonic Covenant, he’d barely have any time left in the dark to hunt Garon down. So whether he summoned one now or later, he’d have to wait until tomorrow night before he took any action. And he wasn’t about to go to sleep with a demon sitting around in his base.
Despite the fact that his Poise Stat helped him fall asleep when he wished to, Zeth had a very tough time forcing himself into unconsciousness. His heart was pounding, his mind racing. Tomorrow he would prepare, and that night he would do it. That would be his last chance—he’d find Garon, wherever the damn man was, and kill him. He’d put an end to all of this.
Eventually, though, he ended up drifting off.
When he awoke, Zeth went to do upkeep around his base, and when he finished that, immediately got to work on an Empowerment Ritual. After the one he’d done on the previous day, this one would take a whopping twelve and a half hours to draw, but it looked like, if he drew and completed one and then instantly moved on to creating a Demonic Covenant circle, he’d have just enough time to finish as the cover of night fell over town. From there, he’d set up his demon with as strict a set of rules as he possibly could, and head out.
Empowerment Ritual was getting to the point, now, that even with Vile Focus operating at full effect, it still felt like it was taking forever. Twelve hours was the majority of his waking time in a day; it wasn’t really possible to skip past that and not feel a thing. He was even beginning to feel that signature mental exhaustion of overspending his mana once again, after not having felt much of it ever since he’d left the cave. Ritual Circle Mastery—now Ritual Nexus Mastery—was supposed to protect him from that feeling, but he supposed it only did so much; it seemed like the intense time requirement of Empowerment Ritual was beginning to catch up to him.
But that was all the more reason to hurry and Level up as much as he could, so he could push his Stats higher and be as powerful as possible when heading into the unknown situation that would be his attempt to kill Garon.
[Ritual Nexus Mastery’s Rank has increased to 11.
+1 Skill Point. You have 1 Skill Point.]
Eventually, he finally completed the ritual, collapsing onto the stone floor the moment he drew the final line on the ground. But he didn’t have time for rest. After taking that moment to reorient himself, Zeth went and grabbed a container of blood, opened it up, and began pouring it out, where the liquid sank into the ground as usual.