Blood demon leveling

Mike slowly awoke, he had just had the most dreamless sleep in a long time so he was a little disoriented when he came to, as always the first thing he did was to open his hand and summon the knife that quickly landed in his hand, after a few moments it began coming back to him

"Oh right… The academy…"

Mike sat himself up and crawled out of his sleeping bag before he opened the tent he was sleeping in and stepped out into the fresh morning air, he looked around the quiet camp for a bit before he walked over to the fireplace that had long since burned out and sat down before he restarted the fire with some dried wood and a piece of igniter paper

'We should arrive at the academy city later today…I hope everything goes well…'

Mike was a little worried about how and if the academy would enroll him given that he had… Well horns

'The whole non-human racism is starting to get on my nerves…'

Of course, no one in Tursk would say he was a dirty non-human to his face, but he could feel the gazes

'Well, it's a new feeling… Being discriminated against because of my newfound race… After all, I used to be a skinny white boy…'

"Master it pleases me that you are awake"

"And good morning to you too Elina"

Mike wasn't at all surprised by Elina's sudden appearance, after he was used to it, way past disturbed yes, but also used to it

"So when are we setting off?"

"We can be off within 5 minutes if you so wish"

Mike gave a nod before he spoke

"Then we set off in 15 minutes"

The reason why Mike gave them 15 minutes was simple, he had seen what getting ready in 5 minutes looked like… and it was not a pretty sight

'I never thought someone could get blue marks from packing a tent correctly…'

As Mike cleared his head of 'getting ready in 5 minutes' Elina pulled out a whistles and blew it, this signaled the start of the camp awakening, first, the personal belonging were removed from the tents, then the tents were packed, then the personal belonging was packed except for the food which consisted of nutrient bars which the adventures would chow on as they matched, they were stuffed into their pockets for now though, Mike spent the time that the adventures were packing by spoiling Serina as he fed her some dried meat, soon the convoy consisting of 24 adventures, one carriage dragged by some sort of big four legged lizard, (that didn't seem to mind Serina at all) the two loyal servants and finally Snow and Mike as the only members of the convoy that rode in the carriage

"You see… I never liked being in school or an academy if you want to call it that… There were too many people there that wanted to shine brightly, but when they found out they were mediocre themselves… They pushed others down. All in order to shine brightly"

Snow gave a nod, Mike was often talking to Snow even though she had been robbed of the ability to speak he still spoke with her, he could read her face pretty well by now so he continued speaking

"You see if you depend on something as simple as strength or personal will, then you won't last when things get rough… Enduring has to be a reflex, a basic instinct"

Snow gave a nod again, she showed a bright smile before she patted Mike on the head

"You mean I have endured well? Thanks Snow, you're so pure… Like snow"

Snow blushed slightly as she averted her gaze slightly, clearly she was not confident with receiving such compliments yet… Mike continued chatting with Snow as the carriage reached the academy city, when the carriage reached the academy the two of them stepped out of the carriage and stretched, Mike looked up at the academy's walls

'Seems completely like a city within a city… Oh well let's get the bothersome things out of the way…'

Mike walked over to the administrative office that was just past the gates into the academy, he found a reception just inside that were empty except for three receptionists that stood ready to receive visitors, Mike walked over to the pretty one and greeted her

"Hello"

"Good day sir, how may I help you?"

Mike showed a thin smile

"I am here to enroll"

"Certainly, please follow after me"

The receptionist turned and led the way into a back room where she gestured for Mike to sit down before she sat herself down opposite of him in front of what looked like a typewriter, she nimbly inserted a piece of paper before she looked up at Mike

"How many are enrolling at this time?"

"One"

"And How many servants?"

"Three"

"What about mounts?"

"One, carnivore"

The receptionist gave a nod and typed away before she looked up again and asked

"And what kind of magic do the enrolled use?"

"Blood magic"

The receptionist paused for a moment before she continued typing, then she removed the paper and rose to her feet

"Please wait here while I get you an offer"

"Sure"

Mike leaned back in the chair and waited as the receptionist walked out of the room, then after waiting for about 10 minutes the receptionist returned

"Please follow after me"

Mike gave a nod but Elina spoke up as she churned her mana around in her body

"Is there some sort of problem?"

The receptionist paled slightly as she spoke calmly

"The professor want to confirm if the blood magic is a real thing"

Mike gave a wave signaling Elina to calm down as he rose to his feet and followed after the receptionist out into a courtyard where a person in a thick robe stood

'That must be the 'professor'...'

Mike looked him over, it seemed to be a man in his late 50's, he lacked any defining features with in and of itself was a defining feature (oddly enough) so Mike mentally named him 'professor plain' beside the professor stood two buckets of very fresh blood

'Nothing wired here… Definitely seems like something to have on hand at all times…'

"Now Lina told me that you wield blood magic, is this true?"

���Yeah"

The professor gave a nod before he spoke again

"Then please demonstrate"

"Sure, Rebecca dump the one bucket over the target please"

"Yes master"

The professor raised an eyebrow and asked

"What purpose does that serve?"

Mike gave a shrug

"Well living beings have blood in them, by smearing the target with blood I'll be able to show you what happens with the target's blood"

"Interesting"

Rebecca returned from her task and sure enough, the straw doll was now smeared with blood, Mike then began circulating his mana before he lightly stomped his foot and the contents of the other bucket floated up and crystalized into numerous blood darts, then Mike pointed to the target and the blood darts instantly accelerated and hit the straw doll with little to no sound

"Ignite"

Then the blood that were smeared on the straw doll caught fire, at the same time a fire lit up in the professor's eyes as he saw something worth researching, he particularly wanted to know what would happen if a live subject got its blood ignited, Mike however only cared of one thing

"Now what's the admission fee?"

The receptionist looked to the professor that gave a nod before she spoke

"...500.000"

"Rebecca… handle payment will you?"

"Yes master"

Rebecca gave a nod and followed after the receptionist to settle the payment, meanwhile, the professor reached his hand out to Mike with a friendly smile on his plain face

"My name is Ivan… I am a senior professor here at the academy, you can come find me if you have any problems"

Mike shook his hand as he showed a slight slime and spoke

"My name is Mike… I doubt I will have any problems, but I'll take you up on your offer if I ever do"

The professor gave a nod, he didn't dislike Mike's confidence but knew from experience that non-humans had a rough time at the academy, not that he would ever guess that Mike was born human and if he did he would likely band together with all the other professors to capture Mike alive and do research on him. After Rebecca settled the payment by using a crystal card, what Mike figured was some sort of magical debit card the four of them were escorted to the dormitory were Mike were assigned personally by the professor that made small talk along the way

"So I heard you have a mount and a carnivore at that?"

"Yeah… Serina"

As Mike spoke the word Serian the professor suddenly shuddered before he kicked off the ground putting some distance between Mike and him as Serina appeared right behind Mike and put her head on Mike's shoulder as he patted her head

"...That's some mount… I would love to do research on it sometime"

Mike showed a thin smile

"Sure… As long as it's nothing harmful to her"