"Bless my luck, haha. I didn't wish for General Artica to see this. She wouldn't stop worrying about it." Regriel laughed as he sprinted through the forest, feeling the wind bristling past his face as he ran, "Being able to tun like the wind is amazing. Why did I never think of it before? And thanks to my 100 Darlac, I can run for a considerably long distance without feeling even the least bit tired."
Smiling along the way, Regriel hopped from one uneven foothold to another, running through the flatter forest path, watching his footsteps on the snow trailing behind him. Within ten minutes, he reached a forest clearing, noticing a rather humble mansion come into view.
It was made from stone and hence remained standing firm even though it seemed to be a century old. The signs of an obvious lack of maintenance were present everywhere as numerous vines grew over the walls of the estate.
Regriel noticed that the gates were locked, with the key not with him. Though, it didn't matter as he approached the wall, grabbed hold of the vines growing on it, and yanked, climbing over. Once he reached the top, he descended to the other side similarly, landing within the estate grounds.
The grass was thick in the place, peeking through the snow as they reached his knee. Regriel was slightly cautious, unwilling to step atop anything that might be sleeping within the grass. He was beaten up almost daily on numerous occasions as General Artica instilled in him a sense of caution.
Even though his rashness caused him to screw up time and again, he still tried to be cautious. And, upon slowly inching forward through the grass while first gently poking around with the top of his shoe to see whether anything was sleeping, Regriel slowly lost his patience.
And, upon doing the same for 10 steps, he sighed, "I guess there is nothing here."
Thinking as he sighed in relief, he casually began to walk, soon sensing something amiss after walking a couple of steps as he set foot on the ground, noticing that it sunk into the snow only half as much as before. And, the contact surface seemed to be slightly…rubbery.
"Shiet!" Regriel shouted in alarm as he jumped back, noticing something in the ground spring up as the snow was brushed aside like a rope placed within had been yanked out forcefully.
Quickly coiling around itself was a serpent, one that was three metres long, having a thin body as it slithered around, using the snow-covered, grass-filled ground to camouflage itself while it headed towards Regriel.
"Dammit!" Regriel flinched as he pulled out his Armament, activating the long sword as he slashed on the ground a couple of times, hitting anywhere the snake might have gone over. But, all he noticed were the grass getting cut up and the snow being sent flying.
The snake wasn't injured. And, as he flailed around in such a manner, his long sword got stuck in the ground as he had lodged it in quite deep. At the moment when he was trying to pull it out, the snake sprang out of the grass, biting him in the thigh.
"Kyak!" Regriel screamed in a fluster, only now realising that he could simply deactivate his Armament instead of trying to pull the long sword out. He deactivated it, activated the sword, and slashed at the snake, severing it into two.
But, its teeth were firmly lodged in his body as he hurriedly pulled it out, throwing it in a fluster. "That was scary!"
'System, activate inferior Healing!' He bellowed in his mind. Immediately, a faint white light enveloped his thigh, causing the poisoned blood to gush out of his wound. It then began to slowly heal up as he muttered, "Damn, that cost me 6 Darlac. Just how potent was this poison? Had I been a normal human, this would have killed me."
He expressed his worry, heaving a sigh of relief once his injury finished healing, "Now, onto the real reason."
He pulled out the scroll he had brought with him, opening it partially to reveal a tiny map of the estate. And on it was marked a rather bold 'X' sign. Locating it based on the structure of the estate layout, Regriel soon arrived at the backyard of the mansion, noticing an enclosed altar in the place.
The altar resembled a miniature steeple, sporting an open section in the front that spanned a height of 30 centimetres. The space inside was only enough for a person to place his hand. After looking at the map and double-checking it, Regriel arrived before the altar, looking into its interior, soon noticing some grooves around the edges.
Using a thin piece of metal he had brought over for this, Regriel inserted it into the groove, tilting it as the floor within the altar moved up. Soon, he removed it, noticing another floor underneath, "So, this is the false altar flooring that was mentioned in the scroll. Right, this is enough to fool the average trespasser. Thankfully for me, I have the scroll."
Regriel noticed two impressions on the floor, resembling a palm each—the left and right. There were faint needles on the impression, less than a couple of millimetres tall each. Upon seeing it, Regriel's heart began to thump automatically as he asked in his mind, 'System, can you really change my blood imprint to resemble Kalluto's?'
<Ding!>
[Temporarily for a minute, yes. But, if it takes longer, then it would fail]
'Hopefully, it doesn't take that much time.' Regriel thought, looking at the instructions as he read them aloud, "Place your palms over the impressions. Once the impressions are full of the successor's blood, the mechanism activates, and the key is handed out."
Regriel took in a deep breath and placed his palms on the impressions, firming himself before pressing them down viciously, shrieking in pain as the needles pierced into his palms, drawing out blood profusely.
Regriel watched his blood fill up the impression with anticipation, expecting the key to be handed out when his Darlac was sucked in a bit. And, from the outer edge of the altar formed an energy blade, severing both his hands.
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