Chapter 822
Bloodmew Clan.
Among the many other races, they are a race that manipulates blood, comparable to vampires.
Unlike Kamibarez, who was only half-born with Ursula’s blood, Elishia Rosenfeld was known as a pure-blooded member of the Bloodmew Clan.
Long rabbit ears that drooped down, flowing from beneath her robe.
Blood-red eyes that made anyone who looked shiver.
Though she covered her body with a puffed-out dress, patches of white fur still remained here and there on her skin.
The representative of Haematology gave off a slightly chilling feeling overall. Since it was Simon’s first time properly greeting her, he was a little tense.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Her long ears twitched as she approached.
“I am Elishia Rosenfeld.”
“Simon Follentia.”
The two exchanged a light handshake. When Simon tried to relax his grip, however, she didn’t let go first.
“Your hand veins are rather tempting.”
“Hm?”
“It’s nothing at all.”
She released his hand and turned her head away.
Perhaps because of the countless battles on the way here, there were many injured around. Even Malcolm, the strongest here, seemed heavily wounded.
“First, we should heal.”
Elishia opened subspace and took something out.
It was a rather unfitting object for such a brutal battlefield—equipment often seen in the Keyzen infirmary, medical IV gear, dangling packs filled with blue blood attached to long tubes.
Amazingly, the equipment moved on its own, sticking needles into the bodies of the wounded students. Before long, the students relaxed, closing their eyes or adjusting into more comfortable positions.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping regeneration. Our Bloodmew blood has special effects, you see.”
As the representative of Haematology, she was one of the rare Top 10 members whose specialty was not offense, but a support-type position.
The blood of the Bloodmew. That is, she would enchant her own blood with black magic, add special effects, then inject it into others.
For Malcolm, who suffered the gravest injuries, she drew her own blood directly and injected it.
“Ugh, thank you.”
“I hope you recover soon.”
His wounds healed, and his Life Gauge, which reflected his condition, also rose.
Simon watched this with keen interest.
‘A necromancer who enchants her own blood to aid allies.’
In this world of necromancers, where recovery and support roles were rare, Elishia’s value was undoubtedly immense.
On top of that, her personal combat ability was excellent as well—despite being a support, she had never once missed a top squad ranking in the duel evaluations.
“Oh, that’s right. Simon Follentia.”
“?”
“I almost forgot, I was asked to fight you.”
Suddenly, her expression grew serious.
“I dislike fighting, but I cannot ignore the earnest request of a friend.”
As she abruptly assumed a combat stance, Simon looked flustered.
“Wait, hold on! We really need to fight over something like that? In such a critical situation?”
“Ah, is that so? Then I won’t fight.”
“???”
She spun around sharply and went back to checking Malcolm’s condition.
Simon was dumbfounded.
‘What the hell is this girl?’
Meanwhile, Malcolm and the others looked on with the kind of familiarity that suggested they were used to her fickle ways.
“Elishia!”
Hearing the exchange, Dick suddenly stepped forward.
“Just now, you said someone asked you to attack Simon. Who was it?”
Would she answer if asked so bluntly?
“Meridiana asked me to join forces and defeat Simon, but I can’t say. She told me to keep it a secret.”
“?”
Seeing her genuinely innocent expression, it didn’t seem like she was intentionally letting it slip.
Perhaps her way of thinking was a little broken somewhere. He had heard rumors she was odd, but this was beyond imagination.
“So, it was Queen Bee Meridiana, huh?”
Dick stroked his chin in satisfaction.
“Now it’s clear who’s behind it.”
“Queen Bee or not, does that even matter now?”
Cindy Vivace pointed to the sky. Lava fragments were constantly raining down.
“In this situation, nobody has time for first-place sabotage. Everyone’s scrambling just to survive.”
“True.”
“More importantly.”
Now Cindy turned to Elishia.
“You—didn’t you ‘see’ anything about this exam?”
Elishia shook her head.
“Nothing useful yet.”
Simon, not understanding the conversation, tilted his head.
“What are you talking about, Cindy?”
“You don’t know about the Bloodmew Clan’s foresight ability?”
The reason the Bloodmew Clan became famous wasn’t because of healing.
They could see the future.
Of course, as time passed, the modern Bloodmews had lost much of that power, and could only glimpse brief fragments of the future.
“Actually, just before, Elishia foresaw me being surrounded by lava monsters.”
Malcolm, now healed, joined in.
“So she came to rescue me.”
“Ah, I see.”
While they conversed, the wounded students had all recovered and stood up.
Elishia, ranked 9th overall, Malcolm who had become a top-tier fighter, and four others besides.
It was quite a strong lineup, so Simon wasted no time getting to the point.
“I’d like your cooperation in targeting the Volcanic Lord.”
Simon gave a thorough explanation of the current situation. Malcolm nodded, but the others hesitated, unwilling to take on such risk.
In the end, they looked to their leader, Elishia.
“What will you do, Elishia?”
“Hmm.”
Elishia smiled.
“I dislike volcanoes.”
“?”
“When a volcano erupts, the land is smothered in pyroclastic flows and ash. Rabbit grass burns away. With sunlight blocked, plants wither. The poor rabbits that eat the grass starve. When the rabbits die, the foxes that prey on them also die. But fox blood is useful. I want to extract more and study it. So I will sit here and wait for the foxes to die.”
Cindy, giving up halfway through, covered her forehead.
“So is that a yes or a no?”
“It’s a no! We have to wait until the foxes die.”
Dick scanned the output device strapped to his arm and spoke quickly.
“Elishia? Milo from your department has been eliminated.”
“Oh! That’s unfortunate.”
“At this rate, Milo will be expelled. The only chance to save her is by defeating the Volcanic Lord. So, what will you do?”
At his words, her eyes grew fierce.
“Is that true? I cannot abandon Milo like this! Let’s go!”
“Okay!”
Apparently, the only way to make use of this eccentric ally was to adapt quickly to her way of thinking, as Dick had done.
With Elishia’s group joining, Simon’s party finally had the strength to challenge the Volcanic Lord.
Simon, ranked 1st overall, and Elishia, ranked 9th.
Malcolm and Cindy, both top-tier students.
Dick, whose combat ability was lacking but whose mind was sharp and strategy sound, and four mid-tier Keyzen students. Not bad at all.
The party quickly skirted around the volcano. They had to avoid the streams of lava and find a proper route to climb.
“Twenty native kobolds spotted ahead.”
Scout Cindy twitched her ears as she reported.
“Looks like they’re fleeing from the flooding magma. In five minutes, they’ll run into us.”
“Leave it to me.”
Malcolm stretched his arms and looked back.
“Please, Elishia.”
“Understood.”
Elishia pulled out a syringe, drew some blood from her thigh, and injected it straight into Malcolm. Blue blood flowed in, and his aura shifted.
“Here I go!”
<Doppelganger>
More than thirty Doppelgangers, far beyond his usual number, rushed forward, inscribing magic circles on their palms.
<Burst>
The Doppelgangers with magic circles on their palms collided with the kobold horde, detonating in a series of blasts.
The kobolds, troublesome with their poisons, vanished in the repeated explosions.
Dick turned wide eyes toward Elishia.
"What kind of blood did you just inject into him?"
"A haematological spell that temporarily strengthens the subject’s power."
She smiled.
"If anyone else needs it, just say so. I’m not dizzy yet, so I can inject as much as you want."
"Impressive! Then let’s keep mov—"
"Wait a moment."
Elishia suddenly cut Dick off, her pupils dilating, both ears pricking up toward the sky.
"Shh, shh."
The students all shut their mouths, fingers pressed against their lips.
Simon already knew what was happening.
She was seeing the future.
Like antennae, her ears shot up, then drooped down again as her pupils returned to normal.
"If we keep going straight, the collapsed ground will block the way, and we’ll have to detour. This way."
"As expected, foresight!"
"That saves us time."
Everyone followed her with smiles on their faces.
‘Good.’
Simon felt reassured as well. Foresight didn’t always trigger this often, but with her around, their battles ahead would certainly be easier in many ways.
Walking beside Elishia, Simon asked,
"Can the future you see ever change?"
"Yes, it can."
"Have you seen how this exam ends?"
She smiled.
"No."
Leaving only that reply, she hopped ahead like a rabbit.
Simon’s group pressed on, eliminating monsters as they went. Even now, the number of survivors was steadily dwindling.
[Remaining Time – 14:08:24]
[Survivors: 238/370]
A considerable amount of time had already passed, and Simon was growing anxious.
"This way!"
At the very front, Dick parted the brush and peered ahead. Then, he stopped.
"What is it, Dick?"
"Damn."
Kwaaarrrrrrr—!
A vast expanse of magma flowed before them. More a swamp than a river. It was only knee-deep, but the problem was the sheer breadth of it.
The opposite shore, where the magma didn’t reach, was quite far away. Dick clicked his tongue.
"If it’s blocked like this, we’re stuck."
"What happened?"
Cindy looked at Elishia.
"We came this way like you said to detour, and now it’s blocked."
"I didn’t see beyond that."
Elishia smiled brightly.
"If we’d taken the original path, the road would’ve been blocked twice, costing even more time."
"Ugh."
Dick looked around at his comrades.
"Anybody here able to fly? We need to get all nine of us across to the other side."
Silence fell.
Simon hesitantly raised his hand.
"If I use a high-ranking Royal Guard technique, it’s possible, but…"
"No, no. You’re our main force. If you waste your strength on something like this, who’ll fight the Volcanic Lord?"
Dick said this as he stepped forward.
"Actually, I just thought of something!"
"What is it?"
"Bricks!"
Everyone’s faces turned doubtful. Cindy chuckled.
"Going to build a fort again, just to have it stolen?"
"Just watch."
Dick purchased a single brick with the points remaining in his device.
A brick popped out from beneath the magic circle, and Dick grabbed it, throwing it into the magma swamp.
"Oh…?"
"See?"
The brick remained unscathed, even in magma. Dick shrugged.
"Whether it’s insulated or whatever, the test designers aren’t idiots. Obviously they made it useful. There’s a reason it can be bought with points."
Turning to the group, Dick said,
"The magma’s shallow. Let’s build a stone bridge with these bricks and cross."
And so, the plan began.
Everyone bought stacks of bricks with their points, then used a bonding potion mixed by Dick to secure them tightly. It didn’t even take that many bricks to stack them up to knee height.
Dick then enchanted the bridge so it would stay fixed in place, and a Darkness Dynamics student, buffed by Elishia, used a discharge spell to hurl the bricks with precision.
In no time, a stone bridge stretched across the magma.
"The magma’s shallow for now, so let’s cross quickly! We don’t know when it’ll gush again!"
Dick demonstrated first. He leapt from a platform of Darkness, landing on the first brick, then jumped to the next.
For a second-year Keyzen student, this level of martial movement was basic. Everyone followed carefully, jumping step by step.
Sometimes a brick wasn’t fully secured, or magma pushed one slightly aside, but then they simply dropped a new brick or skipped ahead with one big leap.
Everyone was focused. Though shallow, stepping wrong meant instant death—the Life Gauge would vanish in a flash.
"Careful, Elishia."
Simon was crossing last, with Elishia just ahead of him.
"Understood."
She said with a smile.
But just as she bent her knees to leap to the next stone, she froze.
"What’s wrong?"
Simon asked.
Her rabbit ears suddenly shot upright.
‘Here, of all places…!’
Simon readied black magic to catch her if she fell, but fortunately, even while foresight took hold, she kept her balance.
‘This foresight is lasting longer than usual.’
Was she seeing farther ahead? Simon waited patiently.
Moments later, her ears drooped as the vision ended. She blinked her eyes.
Hop!
Right after, instead of jumping forward, Elishia hopped back toward Simon like a rabbit.
“Eh, Elishia?”
“Simon Follentia.”
Her blood-red eyes stared straight into him.
Then, all at once, she pulled out every syringe capsule filled with blue liquid from her bag and shoved them forcefully into Simon’s arms.
“I will bet my victory on you.”
“What do you—”
In that instant, the surroundings turned gray, time itself slowing down.
Swwaaaaaashhhh—!
A crimson line surged across the world, splitting it in two. Simon’s hair whipped violently in the gust.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
Right before his eyes, Elishia’s smiling face was blown away by something unseen. Her large ears slapped against his cheek before being swept away in the wind.
‘!’
She was gone.
Simon’s head snapped around desperately, Elishia’s body had been flung into the magma.
“Elishia!!”
The others screamed, voices trembling, calling her name.
From where she had fallen, a great fountain of magma erupted upward.
[Elishia Rosenfeld has been eliminated.]
Staring blankly at the magma, Simon quickly turned his head toward the opposite side.
Whoooooooosh!
The volcano.
There, a circular trace appeared, as if the very air had been pierced, before vanishing into the wind.
‘…That attack, could it be?’
Simon, clutching the syringe capsules of blue blood in his hands, stood stunned as he gazed at the Volcanic Lord.
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