After the previous battle, killing a thousand barbarians rewarded Tristan with an increase of more than 6000 blood essence points.

[Blood essence: 13986]

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This was quite a comfortable number for him, but unfortunately, his blood monarch skills didn't really come with a manual that he could simply follow. He didn't know what the requirements were for the next upgrade, nor what those upgrades would actually be.

Currently, the only information that was available to him were the words and information that appeared in his mind whenever he checked for his status.

[Upgrade blood seal to stage 2 - 5000 blood essence]

It was quite a huge amount indeed, but he did not worry that much because he had made the preparations necessary to upgrade himself. This [Blood Seal] skill, after all, was the main reason behind his many successes in battle.

At this point in time, Tristan could somewhat predict the kinds of changes this upgrade would make. He then check the three women statuses to get a before and after comparison after upgrading the skill

He quickly explained the exact methods he was going to test out on them before analyzing all three with his blood seal ability.

[Human - female]

[Battle power - 25]

[Spirit force - 90]

[Blood seal - 350 blood essence]

[Success rate - 82%]

[High orc - champion - female]

[Battle power - 82]

[Spirit force - 10]

[Blood seal - 600 blood essence]

[Success rate - 69%]

[Human - female]

[Battle power - 56]

[Spirit force - 11]

[Blood seal - 250 blood essence]

[Already Sealed]

Out of the three, Astrid was the only one who was still under his influence. But he reckoned that her success rate percentage should be similar to the female magician's.

Mentally, Tristan took notes on the status of all three of them. They were good subjects for his tests due to the fact that all three of them were different types, and therefore had different abilities. A magician, a warrior and an orc.

This gave him more understanding and clarity regarding how much difference a second stage Blood Seal would affect them.

[Proceed]

"Yes!"

[5000 points of blood essence are currently being consumed]

Tristan could feel the blood circulating all throughout his body in a concerning manner. He was hot to the touch, gritting his teeth as he tried to resist the burning sensation that made his skin feel like it was crawling with fire ants. All he could do was groan in response, holding himself back from reacting too viscerally.

"Urrghh..."

"Are you alright!?" Asked the fire magician in a worried manner upon seeing him in pain.

Tristan raised his arm abruptly to stop her. He paused for a few seconds and tried to collect himself, before once again regaining his composure.

Just when he thought the pain had subsided, his vision suddenly went black, and a scene of the blood lake once again materialized in his mind. In his mind's eye, the stark red light made him recoil.

The deep, reverberating voice had returned again as well. This time, the sound echoed violently throughout the corridors of his brain.

"All shall bow to the monarch."

Just as quick as the vision appeared, his sight suddenly returned, and he was met with the sight of Herrera, Karra, and Astrid looking at him, brows furrowed in concern.

Apparently, everytime he upgraded the skill, he would see the vision of the blood lake once again. He wondered if there would come a time where he could truly converse with the voice.

After he gained full control of his body, Tristan could see the system whirring in his mind, like turning cogs in a machine.

[Blood seal upgrade to stage 2]

[Increase chances for blood seal success]

[Blood seal pool enlarged to 6000]

[Unlock Blood seal secondary power - Augmentation]

"Augmentation! Yes!" He was pleasantly surprised to see that the upgrade came with a new power. It was time to check out the full extent of the upgrade.

He focused on the skill and more information materialized in his mind.

[Blood seal usage 1700/6000]

[Human - 250 blood essence]

[Human - 1300 blood essence]

[Human - 50 blood essence]

[Beast - 100 blood essence]

The first one on the list was Astrid, the second was Chieng, the third one was information on the Trappers that he had almost forgotten about, and lastly was the blood essence status of his trusty red stallion.

The fact that the pool increased to 6000 points was definitely helpful for him. It gave him room to be able to control more people.

Now to check the increase in percentages, he walked closer to the three women. A slight trail of mist followed him as he walked, and a steady flow of steam was emanating from his skin.

[Human - female]

[Success rate - 82 - 99%]

[High orc - champion - female]

[Success rate - 69 - 89%]

The numbers were higher than he thought. A 20% success rate upgrade was definitely very useful.

Now, finally came the most exciting part of the process - augmentation.

[Enhance the target's blood with the monarch power]

Tristan decided to first try it on Astrid. The process would most likely go most smoothly with her, since she was already under his influence anyway.

[Augmented target requires 250 blood essence, proceed?]

"Yes."

Another cloud of mist appeared, thicker than the kind you would usually see during a blood seal. It was almost as if Tristan transferred his real blood into the body of the warrior girl. The scene somehow started the other two, who stood to the side as they watched in curiosity and slight concern.

[Target successfully Augmented]

[Human - female]

[Battle power - 97]

[Spirit force - 19]

Tristan was elated to see an increase of 80% within the stats. But he needed more tests, so he then explained to the other two about the specificities of the skill before testing it on them.

[Augmented target requires 350 blood essence]

The same thick mist floated towards the magician. As it occurred, she shook so violently she almost lost her balance, but Tristan could see from his scanner that her status showed a significant increase as well.

[Human - female]

[Battle power - 38]

[Spirit force - 152]

It was an overall increase of 70%. Hererra was so excited that she had passed the 150 point spirit force requirement to become Rank 4 magician. It appeared she was now able to learn Rank 4 spells.

Next, Tristan went over to the high orc. "Your turn."

Karra nodded with a hand placed on her chest. The blood mist seeped into her skin successfully.

[High orc - champion - female]

[Battle power - 115]

[Spirit force - 15]

This time it took him 600 blood essence points to augment Karra, but it only gave a mere 40% increase in her status.

This concluded that the second stage of [blood seal - augmented] required the same amount it needed to blood seal the person. But the buff seemed consistently lower the stronger the person was. Tristan could only assume that it was because of his limited strength. He wondered that if he managed to upgrade his monarch to Stage 5, he would get another increase in the augmentation.

Finally, he checked on the blood seal pool again.

Blood sealed

[Human - 250 blood essence]

[Human - 1300 blood essence]

[Human - 50 blood essence]

[Beast - 100 blood essence

Augmented

[Human - 250 blood essence]

[Human - 350 blood essence]

[High orc - 600 blood essence]

[Blood seal usage 2900/6000]

As expected, the augmented were included in the pool. He frowned a little when he saw that his newly upgraded skills had filled up half of the pool. His frown only widened upon seeing the number of blood essence he had left.

[Blood essence: 6586]

With the fear of his daily consumption and the beads to use blood essence in battle, Tristan really needed to find more battles to fight or perhaps find different ways to extract blood.

The Trapper he had blood sealed came to mind.