Magic Blood Warrior

Chapter 4 Speculate

After a while – perhaps ten minutes, perhaps half an hour – the intense burning finally subsided.

The scorching heat radiating from his stomach had blurred Gray's sense of time. As the scalding sensation faded, his body temperature gradually returned to normal. He was drenched in sweat. His hair was clumped together, and his clothes clung to him, sodden and heavy, as if he'd been pulled from a river.

Simultaneously, he felt utterly exhausted, as though he'd just fought a fierce battle. Every muscle screamed with fatigue. Counterbalancing this exhaustion, however, was a distinct sensation of increased strength. Clenching his fist felt different – no longer weak and insubstantial, but strong and firm.

And he was ravenously hungry. Starving enough to devour a whole pig.

Gray picked up a brass bell with a handle from the nearby table and rang it. Barbara, clad in her black-and-white maid's uniform, promptly opened the door and entered. As Gray's personal maid, her duties centered solely on him; she wasn't responsible for general castle chores. She had been waiting just outside the door and responded immediately to the bell.

"Young Master Gray, how may I... Ah! What's wrong? I-I'll send for the physician at once!" Seeing Gray drenched and exhausted, Barbara panicked. She turned to dash off for help. If anything happened to Gray under her care, the punishment would be severe – possibly even being beaten to death with staves. In noble domains, lords held the power of life and death over commoners.

"No need. I'm fine," Gray quickly stopped her. "It's just... sweating after consuming the Bloodbeast blood. Just have a bath prepared for me." Though unsure what had caused this drastic change, he instinctively knew it was best kept secret, especially from the Viscount and others.

"Are you certain?" Barbara hesitated, worry still etched on her face.

"Yes," Gray stood up, stretching slightly to demonstrate he was unharmed. Remembering his sudden hunger, he added, "It's probably just my body not being fully recovered, combined with the blood. Just have the bath drawn. And... ask the kitchen to prepare another breakfast. I didn't quite get enough earlier."

"As you wish, Young Master." Relieved to see him apparently well and with an appetite, Barbara curtsied and hurried out.

She returned shortly, carrying a tray laden with three slices of honeyed bread, a large chunk of ham, and a cup of creamy milk. "The bath is being prepared, Young Master Gray. It should be ready once you've eaten," she said, setting up a folding table from within the room and placing the food upon it. Since his injury, Gray had been taking meals in his bedroom, hence the table.

"Understood." Gray sat down and practically attacked the food with knife and silver fork. His stomach felt cavernous, as if he hadn't eaten for days. It was deeply uncomfortable. Barely two hours since breakfast, and he was this famished? Undoubtedly, it was another "side effect" of the recent transformation. He managed to maintain a semblance of decorum as he devoured the ham, bread, and milk, though it only took the edge off his hunger. To avoid seeming too abnormal, he refrained from asking Barbara for more and headed straight for the bathhouse.

After a hot bath and changing into dry clothes and training gear, Gray made a beeline for the training ground. He was desperate to gauge just how much his physical capabilities had improved after the "transformation."

Approaching midday, the ground was deserted. Gray immediately launched into the Wind Wolf Blood Art sequence.

Feet apart, half-squat, torso forward, arms outstretched, palms down... like a wolf awaiting prey...Crouch.

Feet drive hard, body lunges forward, hands splayed like claws...Lunge.

Hands snap together, wrists touching, thrusting like snapping jaws...Rend.

Slowly sink back, arms loose, head thrown back, mouth wide in a silent howl...Howl.

Over half an hour later, he completed the full sequence of four stances. But unlike previous days, he didn't stop. He started the sequence again. He only halted, gasping for breath, after fully completing the first stance, Crouch, a second time.

Taking the towel Barbara offered, Gray wiped his sweat and sat on a stone bench in the pavilion. A flicker of barely contained elation shone in his eyes.

His physical fitness had undoubtedly improved dramatically.

A lower-rank Blood Warrior, with their Blood Power, could typically perform two full sequences consecutively. Due to his lost power and regressed physique, Gray had barely managed one sequence per session these past few days. Now, he had managed one sequence plus an additional stance. His physical capabilities had surged.

"This Bloodbeast blood is incredible! One dose and such a huge improvement? Judging by this leap, the time I need to reach lower-rank Blood Warrior should be drastically shortened."

"Hmm... Whether the next dose will have the same impact is uncertain, but this one's effect was unnaturally potent..." His brow furrowed slightly at the thought.

The original owner had consumed Wind Wolf blood twice before. Both times yielded improvements, but nothing remotely close to this magnitude. The sheer scale of this single boost was staggering, bordering on unbelievable.

"Is it because this body is no longer a lower-rank Blood Warrior?""No, that doesn't track," he immediately countered himself. "If that were the reason, my so-called brothers and sister wouldn't have taken nearly two years to reach that rank." He thought of his current weaker state but dismissed it. While the original owner hadn't had access to the blood before becoming a Blood Warrior, his legitimate siblings certainly had. Yet, all three still required about two years to achieve lower-rank status. It was precisely the original owner's one-year feat that had earned the Viscount's favor and a place in the castle.

"Could it be this body's innate talent? No, even with exceptional talent, one dose couldn't possibly cause such a leap."

"First, the Blood Power vanishes mysteriously. Then, a single dose of blood grants an enormous boost. Both events are profoundly strange. Could they be connected?" The thought inevitably linked the vanished power to this sudden surge.

He surmised the most likely explanation was that some bizarre, unknown change had occurred during his possession of this body. That change was the catalyst for the current phenomenon.

"Judging by what happened, this change likely increased my body's efficiency in absorbing the beneficial components of the Wind Wolf blood.""No, perhaps it's more than just absorption efficiency," he reconsidered, thinking of his ravenous hunger. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten so hungry so soon after breakfast."

"The intense hunger suggests an energy deficit. That deficit arose because my tissues and cells consumed vast amounts of nutrients in a short time – nutrients primarily used to enhance my physical structure."

"Speaking of which, after that bit of exercise, I'm hungry again. Why so fast? Could my Blood Power not be gone, just... depleted and needing massive nutrition to recover? No..." He dismissed this speculation too. "Before taking the blood, my appetite was normal. This desperate need for food only appeared after consuming it."

"Come to think of it, the blood was raw, unprocessed – active biological tissue. Could ingesting it have triggered some kind of... biological-level alteration within me?" While his past life's knowledge suggested eating raw meat risked parasites, not fundamental biological change, this world defied such logic. Blood Warriors wielding supernatural power existed here. Precedents existed, like implanting bloodlines using Blood Essence. A biological alteration wasn't impossible.

"What kind of alteration, though? It feels like I'm undergoing rapid metamorphosis, my body crying out for massive nutritional input." The furrow in Gray's brow smoothed. Understanding the exact nature of the change would require careful observation over the coming days. However, one thing was crystal clear: whatever the alteration was, it was beneficial. His strength had taken a monumental leap forward.