BXBX NOVEL Chapter 447 446: Research
By the time that I had entered my True Vampire form, I was blushing slightly with shame as I glanced towards Mother, who was staring intently at me.
"Mm... Perhaps it\'s the blood from your Mom that\'s dredging down the shifting time? Even a rather inept Vampire shifts in around a minute flat, but you were over... Though, it certainly feels far larger of a boost than that of a normal True Vampire form."
She reached over and stroked the two small crimson horns that sprouted from my brow, before her eyes narrowed as she flipped over my collar, staring at the skin hidden by my dress.
I frowned as she looked like she was about to try and rip my dress off my body, before she lifted my arm and stared intently at the outstretched limb, her fingers trailing over my skin.
"Leone, could I... taste a drop of blood? This is curious..."
My frown deepened at that, but I nodded anyways since I was sure this would lead somewhere - to have some meaning behind it that I wasn\'t seeing just yet.
Her nail lengthened into a talon, and she pricked my wrist before guiding the small bead of crimson liquid onto her tongue, using her Blood Magic to instantly seal the tiny wound.
She pursed her lips as she tapped her finger against my wrist, saying "Peculiar. Obviously, your blood should have faint traces of both my own taste and your Mom\'s taste, since you are our daughter, but there\'s something far too similar between you and your Mom. It\'s... the heat. Like a spicy curry, how it burns your tongue? You share that with her, just on a smaller scale. It\'s not the taste that\'s the same, but the very blood itself... Hmm..."
"Would it be something related to whatever race she is? How that could be affecting the Vampiric heritage on a vastly different scale compared to other races?"
"Most likely yes, but it\'s odd. For instance, there was a Catkin and a Vampire that run a teashop down in the city. From an old, yet weak clan. Their daughter takes entirely after her Mother, the Vampire - that\'s how our blood works; it overpowers the other races and allows only Vampire\'s to be born inside us. The child still retains some traits from their other parent of a different race, and that usually shows inside their blood, right?
That girl had a more... feral taste. Untamed, unruly, however you want to describe it, she had a far different taste, and it affected her Vampiric Abilities quite a bit. She had a small - minuscule even - amount of talent in Shadow Magic, which helps make her harder to detect with sight or sound. So maybe, since your Mom is of... some race known only to her, that it is something that could overpower even a Vampire\'s blood? Or at least force such a complicated merging..."
She turned and opened a blank notebook, using her nail to guide her mana onto the page and write down her thoughts.
As for me, I looked inwards, towards my Core, and observed it, looking for any changes that might have occurred to it.
Not finding any, I began a swift analysis of the rest of my body, but found little more than the normal changes of a Vampire - streamlined veins, compacted muscle, potent mana...
Though...
"Perhaps her blood is what is enhancing the Fire Magic I have? You were both Fire Mages, but she... well, Mom is Mom. So perhaps her race has a disposition to Fire Mana, which would improve the mana inside me even more? I mean, I do have an above average sized Core, better control, and the mana itself is extremely potent compared to most other wielders of Fire Magic."
Mother stopped writing as she glanced at me, her crimson eyes narrowing slightly as she nodded, adding "We knew as much already for your normal state, but are you saying it might be for both? Where a normal Vampire slowly shifts their attunement for whatever legacy magics their Clan inherited - Blood and Moon for us - your magic remains relatively the same? You just... add on those inherited magics? That... yes, I suppose that would explain a bit..."
"Or perhaps it\'s tempering or mixing with those magics? I haven\'t really delved into them yet, so I couldn\'t be certain, but..."
"Oh... Oh, yeah... That might be it? Maybe even giving your already mana sensitive body a further boost in a direction normal Vampires don\'t have? Which would explain the differing times; so many changes happening would certainly need to take some time. After all, everything has cons."
We both nodded, before she stood up and tossed her notebook back onto the bed, beckoning for me to follow.
"Come. Let\'s go to my courtyard once more. I want to see the difference in your base spells and spells inside your True Vampire form. That might give us some clues to what is changing? Besides, we would need the space anyways. I also want to see the fundamentals of your Fire Magic, alongside your more complicated spellwork."
Mother led me outside, and we continued our conversation as we walked, giving the others brief nods as we exited the Sanctum.
We discussed theory and traded speculations on my True Vampire form - which I had exited when we stepped outside the Sanctum - and came up with some ideas for what it might give me.
Returning to her private courtyard, we moved around some things before she gestured towards one of the many boulders filling her space, saying "Simple fire bullet, once in your normal form, once in your True Vampire form. A quick way to test the potency of your mana. There\'s also a smaller boulder that you should be able to lift now, and I want to time a sprint as well. Just some basic tests, but useful."
I nodded, curious to figure out the rough increase of my different form, so I started to do as she asked.
Starting with the bullet spell, I pointed my finger at the boulder and shot off a small bolt of flame, which cracked against the boulders surface and scorched it.
A few thin cracks webbed out from the impact point, and Mother nodded before gesturing to the smaller boulder.
Squatting, I wrapped my arms around it before lifting it up, the heavy weight forcing me to put it back down moments later - we had no exact weight for it, but still, big rock = heavy, especially for someone who trained their mind, not their body...
Which led into the sprint, going from one side of the courtyard to the other.
It was a hundred feet - roughly - from the start to the finish, and I did it in around 5 seconds; Anput and Kat could probably do it in half that, maybe even less...
With those basic tests out of the way, I walked back over to Mother and closed my eyes, returning to my True Vampire form to redo everything and see if we were right about some of our speculations.
As well as to gauge just what I gained from this form of mine.
The plan afterwards was to shift everything back to the more conventional training and research, to have me experiment with Blood and Moon Magic under Mother before seeing if Mom or Aunt Igna could give me insights on their \'versions\' of Fire Magic, which was different from Mother\'s - albeit slightly.
For now though, I stared back at the boulder and raised my hand, preparing to launch a bullet spell.