Blood Elf Monarch

"That's… frozen blood?" Illiana doubtfully asked.

Although it was clearly blood, it had a slightly different scent compared to the smell of human blood that she knew. It felt much more… familiar?

She looked up to meet Tristan's eyes.

"Elf blood?" the dark elf voiced her suspicion. Even so, despite her questioning tone, she was almost completely sure that she was right.

"As expected of you, princess," Tristan casually complimented. "These cubes of blood are from frozen Forlorn elf blood given by our donors. I will get straight to the point, i wish for some of your elites to donate some of theirs. Do you think you'll be able to do it?"

Although Tristan used the word 'donate', the dark elf understood what he meant and teh girl answer did not disappoint.

"I doubt they'll willingly serve their blood on a silver platter. Nevertheless, I'll find a way to get you as much as i can without breaking the peace that was just created" she assured with a firm smile.

"I'll leave it to you then," Tristan said with a satisfied nod. Extracting from the blood spit out by those dark elves sounded a bit unpleasant, but Tristan did not really care. After all, it did not matter what, who or where the blood came from as long as it could provide him sufficient Blood Essence for him to be stronger.

Now that he had said everything he needed, Tristan prepared to extract the Blood Essence. 

He first took today's batch of blood from the dungeon prisoners and began extracting, and after a short while, Tristan opened his eyes and checked the amount of Blood Essence he gained.

[Blood Essence: 134,014]

"A little over three thousand…" he murmured.

'It's less than yesterday.'

Tristan subconsciously frowned a bit as he thought about it. Even so, he did not dwell on it any longer and turned to the cubes of frozen blood on the table.

He took the ring again, and a moment later, more cubes of frozen blood came out. Now, there was about twice the number of blood cubes on the table than previously.

He took a deep breath before beginning the extraction, and after a while slightly longer than the previous extraction, he opened his eyes to check the amount he had.

His eyes widened.

'Over 12,000 Blood Essence!'

Two months worth of Forlorn blood donation gave him quiet a good number. If he have more of the wood elves to donor and added the dark elves then it would really help with his progress.

He quickly checked the skill upgrade requirement.

[Tristan]

[Blood Essence: 146,216]

[Upgrading Blood Synthesis to stage 4 requires 200,000 Blood Essence.]

[Upgrading Blood Seal to stage 4 requires 50,000 Blood Essence.]

[Upgrading Blood Monarch Body to stage 6 requires 100,000 Blood Essence.]

'55,000 more for Blood Synthesis…'

Tristan fell into deep thought. He was a little conflicted. He began contemplating whether he should collect enough and upgrade [Blood Synthesis] or upgrade his [Blood Monarch Body] instead. He wanted to upgrade his [Blood Synthesis], but there was not enough time for him to collect that much.

In the end, he chose to use what he had to upgrade [Blood Monarch Body].

[Upgrading to Stage Five Blood Monarch...]

[50,000 Blood Essence used.]

[Advancing to Blood Monarch - Sixth Stage…]

The moment the last notification appeared in his mind, Tristan immediately felt changes happening in his body.

He could feel the blood running through his veins stirred as it all flowed backward simultaneously and headed to his heart. The beating of his heart sped up, and came with it was a deluge-like sensation. New, more powerful blood pumped out and circulated throughout Tristan's entire body.

[Stage six advancement completed.]

[Advancement has affected the host's physical body.]

[Battle power increased significantly.]

[Battle Power: 350]

Tristan could feel the upgraded power throughout his body. This upgrade gave a quite significant boost and it made him much more confident for the upcoming battle, but…

'Not enough.'

He still felt that he still needed more power to go against them.

After the upgrade, Tristan felt some kind of call coming from inside him.

Tristan closed his eyes, and within seconds, he had already arrived in his [Heart of Monarch].

He went into the blood lake and to the construct in the center. As he neared the place, he found that someone was already waiting for him. It was Nara, the Bloodgem Dragon.

"My Lord Monarch, I have fully recovered," Nara conveyed the joyful news with a bow.

Nara previously could not be summoned as she was badly wounded from the last battle against the space knights, but now that she could finally be summoned again, Tristan felt much safer.

He quickly cast his innate skill, [Blood Summon].

His consciousness returned to the real world, and at the same time, blood started to form in front of him, slowly forming into the shape of the dragon Nara.

[Summoned the mythical beast Bloodgem Dragon.]

[10.000 Blood Essence required.]

He was momentarily taken aback when he saw that it required twice the amount of Blood Essence it previously did, but he immediately understood why when he saw the fully-formed Nara in front of him.

The Bloodgem Dragon was now at least twice bigger than she previously was the last time Tristan saw her. Curious about her change, Tristan checked her level.

[Bloodgem Dragon]

[Magical Beast - Level 70]

'Level 70…'

No wonder it cost that much more, her level upgraded from level 50 to level 70!

The little reluctance he felt from the amount of Blood Essence used to summon the dragon swiftly dissipated.

Seeing the dragon, Illiana was both surprised and elated. She had never even imagined that it would be possible for her to witness such a beautiful dragon from afar before, much less at such a close distance.

On the other hand, now that Tristan had achieved his goal of upgrading an innate skill, he felt that he could not think of anything that could help him become stronger within such a short time.

Except...

"Illiana, do you know of a way I can quickly obtain a spirit soul?"