"Did you figure it out?" Midnight asked as she saw that he was muttering something to himself.
"Yeah… I just realized the voice… It wanted me to kill… does that mean that by just killing I will get stronger?" Zaroth asked as he shifted his gaze to her.
"… It is possible, but honestly, it sounds too easy. If killing someone was enough for you to get stronger, then if you just go on a killing spree, you would become invincible. Not to mention, while a vampire can't drink endlessly as its body wouldn't be able to hold all the blood, you can kill as much as you want with no downside."
"That does sound too good to be true…" He had to agree. If just killing made him stronger, then what would stop him from going to the center of the capital, summoning Luna, burning the capital to the ground, and becoming unstoppable?
Also did he personally have to do the killing, or would his beasts and their kills count as well?
'It kind of makes sense, actually,' hearing Luna's voice in his head, Zaroth raised an eyebrow.
'It does? How?'
"Think about it. They are vampires, so the only logical way for them to get stronger would be to drink blood. But what about you? You are a human, right? Yet there is something different about you—you are a beast tamer, and not just an ordinary beast tamer, but one who could—"
"Raise the dead," he muttered under his breath in response to Luna's thought.
He didn't know what kind of blessing he had received and from which god, but seeing that he could raise dead beasts, it was pretty clear that his god had something to do with death. So, in a way, it did make sense for him to get stronger by killing.
He couldn't help but gasp as a realization hit him. When he was fighting, no matter if it was in a friendly duel or in the tournament, he always tried to go for the kill. He had gotten so used to this that he didn't even pay it much attention, but was it possible that he had been doing it because he subconsciously felt that killing his opponent would make him stronger?
A menacing smile spread across his face as his eyes shined green.
Some people might consider that a curse—the only way for them to strengthen their skills being through killing, which would be devastating for those who were too pure to even hurt a fly, or those 'heroes' often talked about in fairy tales.
But him? He wasn't a hero, he was living solely for his desires, and his biggest desire was to gain strength. He wouldn't even blink if he were to kill a person that he didn't know if it was going to benefit him in any way, shape, or form.
Zaroth felt his blood running hotter as excitement ran down his spine. He wanted to try it. He wanted to kill something to see if that would make him stronger.
"Zaroth?"
Hearing Midnight's voice, he snapped back to reality. He glanced at her and asked, "Yes?"
"Don't forget that even if you get stronger by killing, it will only make the skills that you learn from me stronger. You can't strengthen something if you don't have it in the first place," she explained.
He laughed awkwardly. "Ah… yeah, I knew that. Totally wasn't thinking about going on a rampage just now."
She sighed as she picked up a sword.
"You said you wanted to learn defensive abilities, right? Well, the best way to teach you is to beat it into you, so from now on, you are not allowed to attack, block, or parry. You must tank all my attacks."
"What? How will that help me learn anything?!" he protested.
"The skill you will try to learn is Darkveil, basically you will use the darkness around you to create a form of shield around your body. Of course, that means that if you are in a brightly lit area, it won't have much of an effect, but that is the only defensive skill I can teach you."
She walked toward the light switch connected to the crystals on the ceiling that emitted light and turned it off. The room was plunged into pitch blackness.
"I made it easier for you. Now, the darkness around you will be easier for you to control… oh, and you can use the chance to try and learn Darkgaze, which makes it possible to see in the dark."
He took a few steps back in panic. "Wait, wait, wait! This isn't enough of an explanation! Even if you attack me now, there is no way I would learn a thing!"
Zaroth heard Midnight sigh. "You can walk, breathe, and blink, right?"
Hearing the strange question, he replied, "Well, yes, everybody learns those things as soon as they are born."
"Then can you teach me those things?" she asked.
"… These are things that you just learn, like walking. You see the grown-ups do it, so you start to move your legs trying to mimic their movements, and eventually you learn it," he responded.
"Exactly. The process here is the same. You know that you have to make the darkness come around your body to protect you, and that your eyes must adjust to said darkness for you to see. You know what you have to do now, so now you just have to learn it." Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire
He shot back, "Sure, it may come naturally to you, but you are a vampire and I am not!"
Midnight laughed, her voice echoing across the pitch-black room.
"That is true…" Suddenly, Zaroth's symbol appeared and began to glow crimson in the darkness.
"But we are connected, aren't we? So the process must be the same. Now enough chit-chat, get ready."
She went quiet afterward, so Zaroth put his hands over his face in a defensive position.
Midnight had essentially told him that to learn the skills, he simply needed to try using them. So, he did, but of course, nothing happened.
The next second, he felt a kick from his side and staggered back.
He was about to strike back, but remembering that he was supposed to endure, he gritted his teeth, lowered his center of gravity to prevent himself from staggering back so easily.
This was going to be one hellish training.