Ch.14Inauguration Ceremony (Part 1)

After my meeting with Irina, a week had passed.

Since I had passed off the inauguration schedule to others, I’d been holed up in my room just browsing forums.

As a Transcendent, I maintained peak physical condition without needing to drink blood, so I didn’t need sleep and could look at my MagicPad all night.

You might think I’d get bored staring at my pad all night without sleeping, but I wasn’t constantly looking at it. Sometimes I met with Irina or contemplated what to do after becoming the tower master.

Community forums are the most entertaining thing…

Especially lately, as all the forums have been burning hotter than ever before.

‘What a mess…’

There’s a saying about being a lurker.

It means to keep your mouth shut and observe the situation for three days.

It seems the meaning varies depending on the situation or place, but the basic idea is to keep quiet and read the room if you’re unsure.

In reality, I hadn’t posted anything on the forums yet and was just reading posts—I hadn’t fallen deep into the community.

I was still only a week in, so there was a lot I didn’t know.

Since this pad has been around for so long, there were even posts from hundreds of years ago…

That Eterna person must have been quite remarkable, I realized anew.

Anyway, what I’ve noticed while browsing here and there over the past week is that the Blood Mages of the Blood Magic Tower seem to be showing behavior reminiscent of war.

You could call it the expansionist behavior of Blood Mages.

This is no joke.

Competition between Magic Towers has become overheated to the point where they’ve started fighting over various things, and the most frequently mentioned topic was the hierarchy among Magic Tower Masters.

This topic had been discussed extensively since the old days, and apparently posts ranking the Magic Towers would frequently appear on the Aether Tower forums.

But for some reason, relations between the Magic Towers rapidly deteriorated, and they kept engaging in ugly arguments, putting down other towers while praising their own.

And among these discussions, the most common topic was the power ranking among Tower Masters.

Every Magic Tower claims their Tower Master is the strongest.

[Of course the Red Tower Master is the strongest lol]

One meteor spell and they’d all turn to ash

Wanna see him drop a meteor?

Comments:

– Is the Red Tower Master your friend?? Will he cast Meteor just because you said so?

ㄴ Honestly, with his personality, I think he wouldn’t be able to hold back and would cast Meteor lol

– Honestly true lol Especially Green Tower and White Tower, I don’t get why they’re showing off when they’re just healing supports lol

ㄴ It’s a power ranking, not a magic skill ranking lol

ㄴ Which tower can beat Red Tower in raw power?

– This is definitely an Average Red… One splash of water and your trash fire goes out. Want me to freeze you?

ㄴ Average Blue;;

ㄴ From Blue Tower

– Setting everything else aside, Red Tower has the highest firepower, so why even try to compete? They’ll roast you alive

ㄴ Oh I’m so scared…

The Red Tower was the most confident.

Naturally, since fire magic is considered unmatched in terms of firepower among all magics, it was natural to think that the Red Tower Master would rank highest in terms of raw power.

Of course, that reasoning was valid.

Fire magic is definitely troublesome.

But here’s the thing.

‘It’s not that special.’

Go ahead and start a fire.

Sprinkle some blood on it and it goes out on its own.

The liquid prevents the fireball from gaining strength.

The fire disappears because the oxygen needed for combustion is blocked and the temperature rapidly cools.

Flames that rise from burning something become meaningless if you prevent combustion, so when I sprinkled some blood, those fire users were all pleased.

No matter how many fireballs they summoned and threw, blood would block and extinguish the fire.

Of course, the blood would evaporate too, but when facing mobs, there were so many that the evaporation of blood was insignificant.

And once my Blood Claw Art got on track, they couldn’t handle me as I freely changed the form of blood to attack and defend.

Surprisingly, the most annoying was water magic.

When blood mixes with water and gets diluted, it weakens… Plus, since blood is essentially water, I had no counter if it got frozen.

Of course, that was only when my Blood Claw Art was undeveloped. Now I could prevent it from mixing with anything and freely transform its shape, so that weakness was gone.

From my experience facing various enemies to defeat the Demon King, no attribute can match Blood Magic in terms of power or versatility.

It’s not because I’m a True Ancestor.

‘It’s a king-tier skill.’

At first, it’s a garbage skill that can only play with blood, but as your level increases, it’s hard to find a skill with this much versatility.

Blood Magic is also based on Blood Claw Art, so it must be similar.

It’s just that to become like me, one needs to reach an extremely high level, so this only applies to me.

Generally speaking, fire magic does have the highest power.

Since most of it involves direct attacks, fire magic is indeed the highest in terms of raw power.

Anyway… the reason I brought this up is because there was exactly one Magic Tower denying the Red Tower’s power that everyone else acknowledged.

The Blue Tower?

No.

If it were the Blue Tower, I would have thought it made sense because of elemental compatibility.

But it wasn’t.

[Fire magic <- Doesn’t it just disappear if you sprinkle some blood?]

(Crimson Blood Magic Tower.jpg)

I’m sick of seeing these losers whose magic disappears in mid-air with just a sprinkle of blood. Am I wrong?

Comments:

– Wow… a real Average Blood…

– Are you serious?

– If that’s the case, Blue Tower that directly sprays water and freezes is stronger, idiot

ㄴ This level of water magic in a place without water? lol

ㄴㄴ This is why you shouldn’t associate with people who don’t understand water magic. Do you know how amazing it is to create water in a desert?

ㄴㄴㄴ Someone’s triggered lol

ㄴㄴㄴ Trig?

[Red Tower Master, don’t mess around or you’ll die by my hand]

(Image of Midir looking with a confident expression.jpg)

Ah… just…

(GIF of a ceiling synthesized with Meteor being split in half by Blood Claw Art.gif)

^Red Tower Dog^ <- Hit like if you think they should be burned to death with the fire they love so much lol

Comments:

– This is Blood Magic…

– Red Tower guys have been too cocky lately lol Need to be taught a lesson? lol

– I really want to burn all these mosquitoes to death

ㄴ Triggered? lol

ㄴ This guy’s triggered lol

ㄴ Puhaha

– (Meme of a mosquito being burned to death with fire)

ㄴ (Meme of fire being pathetically extinguished by water)

– Don’t use the Blood Tower Master’s name to say whatever you want, you bastard

ㄴ How would you know lol

ㄴㄴ You’re not a Blood Mage, you piece of shit

These guys.

Why are they doing this?

‘I don’t want to fight…’

All the Tower Masters probably feel the same way.

Fighting each other would only result in losses, so why do something as stupid as fighting to establish a hierarchy?

I felt the same.

If someone challenged me, I wouldn’t necessarily refuse, but I didn’t want to go around challenging other well-run Magic Towers.

Even if I won such challenges, there would be no benefit, and the already poor image of the Blood Tower would only deteriorate further.

They’d say we practice primitive magic and act like thugs.

However, it doesn’t seem like it’s just Blood Mages causing trouble; it’s more likely that people from other towers are using the Blood Tower’s name to do this.

Posts on the Aether Tower forums don’t show which tower you belong to.

You become completely anonymous.

That’s why they commit such acts without hesitation.

‘This situation isn’t good…’

I did want Blood Mages to have self-esteem, but I didn’t want them to act in ways that make enemies of everyone.

It seems they’re going all out because they’re happy that I, who demonstrated incredible Blood Magic and destroyed the tower ceiling, decided to become the Blood Tower Master.

Unfortunately, this will only make our reputation worse and cross a point of no return.

To really change perceptions, you need to show something amazing from rock bottom when no one is paying attention.

There’s only one way.

“Master Midir. It’s almost time.”

“I understand. I’ll be right out.”

I got up from my seat in response to the voice from outside.

After meeting with Irina and setting the inauguration schedule, a week had passed.

Finally, the day of my inauguration had arrived.

When I opened the door and went outside, Jasper, dressed in a crimson suit, greeted me.

“I’ll guide you.”

“Please do.”

An inauguration ceremony.

It feels strange.

To think that I, who had only fought as a vampire, suddenly became a Magic Tower Master.

And a Tower Master who can’t use magic—any passing Archmage would laugh in disbelief.

However, no one knew that I wasn’t a mage.

They never would.

Because I’m the only one who has mastered Blood Magic and Blood Claw Art to the extreme.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes.”

Following him, I found myself standing on a platform surrounded by a crowd of people.

“Waaah!”

“Midir! Midir!”

“Long live Master Midir! Long live the Blood Tower Master!”

All the Blood Mages looked up at me and chanted my name.

Standing on the platform in the plaza filled with excitement, I stepped forward to face all the Blood Mages.

“It’s good to meet you all.”

“Waaaaaaah!!”

The inauguration ceremony had begun.