After an hour of steady running YuJu stopped suddenly once they entered a forest, Ellis did as well and looked behind in puzzlement, they haven't been moving for long so why would he stop?

"Change of plans, we will hunt a few beasts around here, but don't kill on sight, let me take a look at them first"

His orders confused her as it didn't stand in line with their plans, still she complied without much thought

Ellis and Anput started to run around the forest they were in, trying to attract as many monsters to her as possible while YuJu looked through them one by one, each time he would shake his head and the two would take it as a sign to kill them

The whole morning went by like that, the dead bodies of the beasts were starting to outnumber the living beings in the forest as more and more fell to the blade and maws of the two unstoppable killers, meanwhile, the man behind this was laying on a tree gazing dully at the scene

'What a disappointment, not a single good beast'

He sighed, all he wanted was one beast that was strong enough to be useful in the middle of the invasion, strong enough to just protect his land while he went on this trip, but such a beast wasn't easy to find

He knew that all too well, that's why he was also looking for something growable, easily growable at that, so easy to grow that Subrina could use her Essence Extractor class to grow it fast enough that nothing could harm her until he came back, of course he didn't humour the idea that it would defend against the invaders, no, he chose this land to begin with because none of those monsters took this road

'I just need something to serve as a temporary guard, even if her way of growing it doesn't lead it to the apex'

He was willing to sacrifice one of his contracts to keep her safe, she deserved this much at least, but it seemed this task would be harder than he thought, and he didn't have much time as it is

He searched through his memory for areas with good beasts as he watched Ellis cut yet another bloodroot sneaking from under her, she was using a cool blue sword that they found in the mansion along with a few other fancy yet effective swords

'Easy to grow, good at defence. not too much of an attention grabber...'

He filtered the beasts through his brain at fast speed while watching the battle approach its end, the beasts were either dead or escaping, only cluster of blood roots remained but those were being weeded out pretty fast by Ellis

'I guess there aren't any more beasts here to hunt, we should move on to the nearby hills, they should have a few Battle Ram's, even though they aren't that easy to grow if I use my skills I might end up with a decent one for Subrina to use'

He jumped down and walked toward the two, as he did his eyes settled on the blood roots that were fighting like crazy, even after being cut down they still wobbled in defiance

'...Blood roots, what were they for again?'

Blood Roots were a pretty common flora that was found almost anywhere with a good soil that was drenched with some blood, they were practically common weed that was only known for their annoying growth rate and some medicinal usage

'Growth rate huh...'

It did grow fast, and since it was just a bloodroot it didn't grab any attention at all, the only problem is that no matter how much it grew it was still just a bloodroot, the most it could do would be piercing a few small beasts, and if it evolved into something better then it may be able to contend with some humans but that's the limit that's their limit, they couldn't grow beyond that no matter the resources put into them

The more he thought about it the more he realized how useless this thing was, it was practically impossible to raise it into anything good

For that reason, he decided to form a contract with one

Yes, he decided to choose this useless and ungrowable bloodroot to be the guard, the one to protect his home, the first thing one would see when they entered his territory

Why? It was simple really, he wanted to show everyone who would come to know him that even this weak undesirable weed that has no future whatsoever can become a great being under his hands, this was his complex, it was what he lived for, his unending passion for impossible paths

He motioned Ellis to stop and head somewhere else in search of beasts, knowing full well that there aren't any, he only wanted some secrecy after all

After he saw her leave the vicinity with a confused face he turned toward the cluster of blood roots, there were about thirty or something of them sprawled around in a small area, they were quite young but looked strong none the less, possibly due to the blood from all these beasts that were killed

He strolled casually toward them, the plants didn't react when he came near, it was a normal strategy of theirs to get the drop on their prey when it came close enough by bursting from under them, though anyone with a keen eye could see some parts of the roots sticking out the ground slightly and avoid the fight completely

But the expected sudden attack didn't happen as he relaxedly strolled among them, it was as if they didn't register his presence, and they indeed had not sensed him at all

He scanned the roots around him looking for any difference between them, he thought he should at least choose the best one among them, sadly his knowledge of bloodroots was almost none existent, so he could only choose the one with the bigger roots

He bent down next to it and outstretched his hand toward the root to establish a physical contact to make a contract

'Now that I think about it didn't Subrina and I establish a contract without physical contact? I should look into that method'

Once he touched the root it sprang into action instinctively, puncturing a hole into his finger, but that's as far as it got before the contract stopped it dead in its track

'Too easy'

It was expected though, it was merely a plant with some instincts, its soul was still an infant that had no resistance toward his invasion

Once the contract was complete YuJu opened the status to check it

_________________________________

Name: None

Race: BloodRoot

Gender: N/A

Level: 9

Class: N/A

STR: 3

AG: 2

VIT: 13

INT: 0.1

INS: 0.1

Titles: None

Special Status: Contracted Master: Yuju

_________________________________

It was a normal looking status for a plant type creature, most of them focused on vitality and strength, this one had some agility since it depended on it a lot, as for intelligence and insight they were just the bare minimum any creature must have

'Now it is time to use my second classes skills for the first time'

He was pretty excited to be using them, not only would he finally see their effects in person but he would also personally evolve a creature for the first time

Before he began he looked over the skills he would be using once again

_________________________________

Master Evolution: Evolve your subjects. Evolution line dependent on the qualification of the subject

Master Blood Purification: Purify the blood of your subjects uncovering hidden bloodlines or strengthing already existing ones

_________________________________

'Alright, lets begin'

He looked at the root that was puncturing his finger and allowed it to take a drip of his blood into itself before he took his hand back, his blood was needed for the skill to be used anyway

He sat in front of the root and closed his eyes, Anput was by the side ready to jump if the roots sensed him since he was vulnerable during this process, though he didn't believe these brainless plant could ever sense him

After he closed his eyes he felt himself sink into a peculiar state, it felt like the time when his senses overwhelmed him but it was on a much smaller scale

He easily adapted to the feeling thanks to his experience and started to try and understand these senses

He found out his body was changing shape by the second, while he moved at a fast speed in what looked like a raging river

On closer look, he found out this river was actually a bloodstream

'Am I my own drop of blood then?'

He guessed, but that didn't matter, for now he needed to quickly look for some unique blood to use as a base to purify the rest of the blood into it, that's how this skill works

Thus he started to spread his sense into the stream trying to ascertain if any unusual blood drops were passing through

'Ugh, what is this'

He felt the blood around him start to eat at him so he instantly grouped himself again

'is it treating me as a foreign object and attacking?'

He didn't know if all blood did this or it was just because this was a bloodroot that absorbed blood

Whatever the reason was he had to figure out a way to work through this problem fast as he now knew the blood around him was thining him out slowly

First, he tried to pan himself out while keeping some thickness but that didn't get him anywhere since he couldn't cover much space and his body prevented the blood from flowing smoothly making the blood around him stick longer than he needed

Next, he turned himself into a long line, extending toward the sides, that idea was worse than the one before it though as he had limited his senses in a single dimension making the difficulty of identifying the blood very hard, plus he wasn't sure he could follow the blood easily in this form

"Ngh"

He opened his eyes and found himself back in his body, beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, he looked like he had exerted a lot of effort even though he was sitting there for no more than a minute

"Changing form wastes a lot of time and ends my time there much faster, plus this is a very consuming skill"

He didn't know that using this skill was that hard, it made sense now why that man always looked anaemic even though people at that level shouldn't look to be so

'Will I also look like a pale stick if I use this skill too much?'

He instantly shook his head at the horrible thought, vowing to make sure Subrina cooks him the greatest supplementing food she could, he would not look like a pale stick!