Chapter 47. Run I can't breathe, my legs hurt. "Just leave me, Chloe. You'll be able to get away faster without me. They are after you, not me, and I'll make it somehow. I won't go down so easily." My brother coughed blood as he spoke. "You think I don't see that gash across your torso, the fact that you're coughing blood! I'll die with you if I have to." "No. That is the only thing I will never forgive you for." "Why do you keep bringing yourself to harm in order to save me! I'm tired of being saved, just leave me to my fate. I don't want you to get hurt because of me. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me!" "Chloe, you are not the bringer of bad luck. I was only able to make it so far because I had you, my sister, my only family with me." I didn't say anything and just kept walking. It was hard to breathe, my legs were hurting, but I won't leave him, this annoying brother of mine here. We will get out of this alive. 'Just a little more,' I thought and kept running towards the forest. These few weeks were fast and progressive. The inner city was nearly done, the boundary and buildings almost complete, at most one week to tidy everything up. The armors would be ready tomorrow, and the ground that would be used for training the military was also done. The wood was constantly needed, so there was no waste of resources. Arthur, Luke, and Lucy were also slowly learning about their responsibilities. Arthur being the leader was a surprise to them, and them being his secretaries was a bigger one. For now, they just had to learn about expenses, managing, resolving issues, and many such things that a leader should not busy himself with unless the matter is too big. They would learn now and then train other people to do such jobs for them. There was no currency now and everything was given out for free, they had time due to this. After we established a proper order, these things would be essential for a working city, and for maintaining its order. There were no monsters, or monster hordes similar to the ants and their queen which was a relief for now. The ants were probably a special case, seeing that their queen evolved so early. The normal monsters, similar to us also had to go through these stages, probably. And if they did, it was not rationally possible for them to reach that 'ascended' stage so soon. I was a whole tier behind, and so was the rest of humanity. If it really was so easy we were doing something wrong. I sat on a tree branch, grasping thorn and reading through my new notifications. [Blood Mage: Class skills available] I was not actively hunting stronger monsters, just those that could harm those that were clearing out the surroundings on a daily basis. And before I knew it, I had reached level 36. There were a lot of skills I had previously ignored and there were two skills that I wanted, probably needed to become a genuine 'blood mage.' The first was an active skill. [Outer blood control] [Use mana to control a small amount of blood that is not yours or is outside your body.] And the other skill was a passive skill. [Inner blood control] [Gain the ability to have a small amount of control over the blood flowing through your body.] These two skills were almost screaming that they were two halves of the same thing. One was outer control, the other was inner control. Together they gave an overall command over blood. Albeit it is only a small amount, as stated in the skill. Another active skill that grabbed my attention was, [Blood activation] [Using mana and blood activate or enhance the regeneration speed of a closed wound. The amount of mana depends on the wound.] This skill in use with my first two active skills formed a harmonious trinity of some sort. The first one clots the wound, the second one recovers lost blood and the last one speeds up its closing. Maybe these skills all formed such harmonies and a special connection may form between them. They could even fuse, it looked like they were made to fuse. Just like my passive skills in the first class. Every single of them was a 'demon' skill and enhanced perception in one way or another. A quadruplet. 'Maybe I should have given it some more thought while selecting skills in my Demon Fighter class.' But I wasn't regretting it, they had saved my life at some point and I wouldn't be here if not for them. So it was all fine in the end. I now had to select my last passive skill, but even after going through all of them, I couldn't find one that fit together with aroma or sight. I was at the end of the list when I found an interesting skill. [Bloodfield] [The more blood around you, the stronger you get.] It was a skill that was eerily similar to [Carnage]. The more blood around me and the more blood I lose, the stronger I get. I remember doing this experiment after I got [Blood Recovery] and [Clot]. I made a cut on my palm and let blood flow out, meaning I was losing blood. Now according to [Carnage], I should get stronger as I lose blood, and with [Blood recovery] I am always replenishing blood, so theoretically I should become the strongest if I have enough mana. But after half an hour, the skill stopped giving me a boost, like it had a limit, and was not able to increase my strength further. But you also can't expect a skill at my level to do such miracles. I still decided to go with [Bloodfield] as I couldn't find anything better. "Hang on bro, I'll do something about that injury once we are in the forest. Stay wake, we are almost there." He was starting to lose consciousness, I did not have much time left. The wound was also getting worse and I couldn't stop because of those bastards chasing us.