Chapter 67
It took a while, but eventually Zeth finished drawing his Empowerment Ritual—all eighteen and a half hours of it. He worked in silence as Astrys slept in the bed across the room, thinking about all the implications of the fact that not only was she going to stick around in this realm presumably forever—or, at least, until either one of them decided to forcefully unsummon her—but also the fact that any demon he summoned would have the same ability to remain in this realm.
So far, he hadn’t discovered any other demons that seemed like they’d want such a thing, but perhaps he’d be able to find more. Or, if not demons that would want to remain in the First Realm forever, at least demons that would be willing to make long-term deals that involved large payments in exchange for extended stays.
Once he finished the Empowerment Ritual, though, Zeth realized just how much blood it would need to activate. All of its requirements climbed as he completed more and more of them, and the necessary sacrifice strength was not exempt from that. So when he emptied out a container of blood from his dwindling storage, only finding the entire thing having filled a fraction of the cost, he realized his days of being able to Level up as much as he wanted as long as he had enough time to draw up a circle were over.
Sure enough, it took every single drop of blood in his storage to bring the percentage up above ninety-five. And he had to scrape the barrels clean of each and every drop to squeeze those last few percentage points out of his stockpile. By the time it finally hit one hundred, he had completely run dry.
But he didn’t let that news get to him as he read through the notifications that came with the completion of his ritual.
[Otherworldly Excellence’s Rank has increased to 6.
+5 Dexterity. You have 55 Dexterity.
+1 Skill Point. You have 10 Skill Points.]
[Blood Magus’s Level has increased to 12.