NOVEL NEXT Chapter 157: I'm a Fraud
Richard stepped out of the castle and met Arthur.
"Has Liam arrived?" Richard asked.
"Yes, he said he wanted to meet you. He's waiting at the city park," Arthur replied.
"I see, let's go," Richard said.
He mounted Athena's back and set off. Arthur and several knights followed on their own horses.
The city had only one large park.
However, what people called a park here hardly deserved the name — there were no trees, only mounds of snow and many benches.
It was eerily quiet, perhaps because it was night and the air was far too cold.
Richard could barely see anyone except a few Magi training their bodies.
He looked around, searching for Liam, and found him sitting cross-legged in the middle of the park, puffing on a cigar with a confident look.
Richard approached him, unable to hide his irritation.
"Boy, you're late," the young man said as Richard stopped before him.
He stood up and tossed a small book toward him.
"That's what you wanted. Now return my teacher's slave," he said again.
Richard glanced at the book, its cover a deep crimson.
(Blood Devourer Arcane Art!)
He casually flipped it open, but before he could turn a second page, Liam called out again.
"Boy," he said.
Richard lifted his eyes.
"Leave. You're not taking anything back," Richard replied.
If he didn't teach him a lesson after what happened earlier, that man might really think he could toy with him.
"You?" Liam looked genuinely surprised by his response.
"What? You have a problem with that?" Richard smirked.
"Boy!" Suddenly, another voice echoed from above.
But only for a moment.
"Ahhh—" The voice turned into a short scream as crimson flames burst in the sky — not large, but intense enough to reduce the target to ash. The scream ended too quickly to even be called a scream.
Liam stood frozen in disbelief.
Before he could turn his gaze back to Richard, the latter's foot shot forward.
Richard's physical strength was overwhelming thanks to his Titan Skeleton.
As the kick connected, Liam's nose shattered instantly, and he was flung away like a mere insect.
He flew across the park and vanished into the distance, no one knowing where he landed.
Equal to Luca despite being young?
Unfortunately, even Luca would be no match for him.
"City Lord, you...?" Arthur looked shocked by Richard's action.
"I'm a fraud," Richard said calmly before turning and walking away.
Soon, the barbarians would be shouting that he was a fraud anyway — he might as well follow the flow.
After deceiving the Red Bear Tribe, now he had deceived Duke Ethan Holystar.
On the way back, Richard read through the contents of the Blood Devourer Arcane Art, which described the immense difficulty of mastering it — so great that even geniuses with strong Blood Element affinity often failed.
The main requirement to use it was 15% mastery. Any progress below 50% meant little — it merely made using it easier.
But once above 50%, one could start merging various Bloodlines into a single whole.
At 100%, it was said to even allow the user to absorb and inherit the abilities of others.
Of course, even achieving 15% mastery was beyond most.
Otherwise, there would be no need for the Blood Devourer Beasts to exist.
These beasts naturally possessed the ability to devour bloodlines — yet even they couldn't merge more than ten, and their mastery level was only around 15% of the true art.
To go beyond that, they had to train on their own or fully refine their innate bloodline — both incredibly difficult.
DING!
(You have obtained Blood Devourer Arcane Art!)
(Your mastery of Blood Devourer Arcane Art has increased from 0% to 15%!)
Blood Devourer (15%)
Richard smiled faintly when the notification appeared. With 15% mastery, he instantly understood how to use this Arcane Art.
Then a new idea crossed his mind — stealing Sterling's ability.
Abilities could be sold, after all. Their value depended on the type.
And Blood Devourer was an extraordinary one, capable of generating immense wealth if the stolen bloodlines were sold.
In the end, humans could only merge one or two bloodlines — unless their affinity with the Blood Element exceeded 90%.
Only the Bloodman Ancient Sovereign had ever reached that level.
Upon returning to his castle, Richard went straight to his room.
To his surprise, the Fire Spirit Queen was still there — she hadn't left yet.
Apparently, she didn't even need to move to destroy the Ruler who guarded Liam.
"Queen, help me for a moment. Make this man unable to resist at all," Richard said calmly, issuing the command without hesitation as he released Sterling from his Storage Artifact.
The Fire Spirit Queen furrowed her brows briefly.
Sterling looked startled, but before he could react, a tremendous power struck him, freezing him completely. He couldn't even blink.
"Watch, Queen," Richard said, extending his hand toward Sterling.
Blood began to flow from his fingertips — pure, bright crimson, yet strangely clear.
Even the Fire Spirit Queen's eyes widened in surprise.
The blood gathered in the air, forming the head of a monstrous creature — its mouth looked made for devouring, toothless but resembling a black hole that consumed everything.
Seeing that, the Queen froze.
Her insight was vast — even if she hadn't seen every Arcane Art in existence, she had at least studied the depictions of many.
Of course, she recognized this: the Blood Devourer Arcane Art.
Naturally, she also knew that Richard had just received this from Liam.
Yet the time between receiving it and fully manifesting it was merely the duration of his trip back from the park.
How could he have mastered it already?
Sterling, frozen in place, seemed equally terrified — beads of sweat rolled down his motionless face.
Showing off like this didn't matter. After all, only Sterling, whom he would soon kill, and the Fire Spirit Queen, who would never betray him — not even to Aldric, who had enslaved her — were present.
In truth, he simply wanted to shake the Queen's heart — to make her see something awe-inspiring from him.
Perhaps, if she became more amazed by him, she would start to resent her fate as his slave a little less.