Diadel city, in an inn.

"How long are we going to stay in this city?" Liu Ying asked while she watched Bloed work in a bunch of metallic pieces.

"One or two days. I'm planning to recollect information about Academy City. We will leave after that."

"I see… But this city sure is different, huh."

Bloed agreed with Liu Ying's words.

Different from Calice, Diadel did not have so many mercenaries, hunters, or adventurers; in fact, few people carried weapons in the streets. On the other hand, you could see a great number of merchants selling their wares, together with beastmen and sometimes elves or demons selling the specialties of their lands.

Hence, xenophobic discrimination in this city was almost unexistent. And although the conflict between races was not completely eliminated, it was kept to a minimum.

Thus, Liu Ying was free to show herself as a demon. Due to that, Liu Ying had been in a very good mood since they entered this city. She had canceled part of the disguising device's functions and showed her demon horn proudly.

Of course, she still hid the true color of her hair. Liu Ying's original red hair was very unique, and although her name was not enough for someone to a.s.sociate her with the exiled demon's princess, if she also kept her original hair color then it was just a metter of time before someone starts to link the clues.

Five minutes later, Bloed finally finished the work he had been doing and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a smile of satisfaction.

"It's done."

"Finally!" Liu Ying spoke excitedly. "Quickly, show me! You told me you had a surprise for me!"

"Calm down first. I'll show you. But first, let's take a look at this."

Bloed waved his hand and a part of the metallic pieces on the table turned into metallic sand, before reforming into a gun on Bloed's hand.

"That is your gun, rig–Wait! This one is bigger!"

"Correct." Bloed nodded. "I call this form [Blaster mode]!"

This was Bloed's upgrade to his gun after the battle of Calice city.

During the fight against the Rank, Bloed realized the power of the gun mode was very limited. Unless he managed to hit the enemy's eyes or neck, the damage the gun could cause was unsatisfactory.

On the other hand, the sniper mode was too c.u.mbersome to use in close combat. So, Bloed decided to program a completely new mode.

Blaster mode.

Its power was five times as strong as the gun mode, so it could cause much more damage to Rank pract.i.tioners. Unfortunately, Bloed was forced to sacrifice the rate of fire in exchange for power, so while the gun mode could shot energy bullets continuously, the blaster mode could only shot once each three seconds.

But even like this, this change gave Bloed many more possible fighting strategies. Although the blaster mode alone was not enough to defeat an Rank, it gave Bloed a greater chance of victory when facing one.

Liu Ying smiled wryly. "I don't know what to think about the fact you are preparing to face Rank pract.i.tioners."

"Well, it's better to be ready. Just in case." Bloed shrugged.

Liu Ying could only agree with Bloed. After all, they had already faced an Rank before. Who could guarantee they were not going to face another after today?

"Okay, I already saw your new toy. Where is my surprise?"

Bloed shook his head helplessly. "I prepared two things for you. First, remember you were unable to go through the Body Enhancement Surgery?"

Liu Ying nodded. She had asked Bloed if she could go through the same surgery Gina went through, but after Bloed examined her body, he shook his head helplessly.

Liu Ying was a demon, not a human. Although demons and humans shared many similarities, their internal organs were a bit different from each other. It was just like a lion and a tiger. They were similar but different.

In such a situation, the body enhancement surgery that had been optimized for human use could not be used in Liu Ying. Otherwise, there was a chance of Liu Ying suffering some side-effects.

Therefore, Bloed could only promise her he would try to modify the operation to make it suitable for her body.

"You already modified it?" Liu Ying asked in antic.i.p.ation.

Bloed was a bit embarra.s.sed. "Well, biogenetics is not my camp of study, so my work with the body enhancement surgery has faced some… stumbling blocks? Anyway, I have not made much progress lately. I'll need a lot more time."

"Then why are you mentioning it?" Liu Ying pouted.

"You see, although I did not make progress in the surgery itself, I got an idea while working on it." Bloed then took a small tube and showed it to Liu Ying. "Can I?"

Liu Ying tilted her head confused, but she nodded. "Of course."

Bloed smiled and walked behind Liu Ying. He then lifted her hair and whispered softly. "This will hurt a bit."

"… Mm." Liu Ying hummed while blushing.

Bloed did not hesitate anymore and put the tube against Liu Ying's neck. He then pressed it against her skin and activated it.

"Ouch!" Liu Ying jumped away and looked at Bloed warily. "Hey, that hurts!"

"Sorry, sorry, but I'm already done. Try activating your aspect."

Liu Ying was confused, but she followed Bloed's instructions. And when she activated her aspect, her expression changed.

Instead of the Chaos t.i.tan denoting her bloodline, what appeared was a fearsome black knight wielding a glaive.

"This is…"

"Many people know that the Chaos t.i.tan is the aspect of the demons' former royal family." Bloed explained. "So if you use it repeatedly, someone is bounded to recognize it eventually. I thought about it a lot and finally found a solution. I injected some nanomachines below your skin. These nanomachines detect when you activate your aspect and use a bit of its mana to cast an illusion around it. Unfortunately, the illusion can't be too far from the real thing, so I just changed its red color to black, added an armor over it, and added a glaive. I think I did a good job."

Liu Ying was startled. She lifted her hair and looked at her back in a mirror. In her neck, a small black tattoo was shimmering dimly.

A complicated expression appeared on her face. She understood Bloed's intention, but she did not know how to feel about hiding her bloodline.

Bloed smiled as though reading her thoughts. "Don't worry, you can activate and deactivate it using your mind. When you are strong enough to show your bloodline proudly, then this little thing will lose its use. Try it if you want."

Liu Ying tried and realized that Bloed's words were true. She only needed a thought to deactivate the illusion.

"With this, you can use your full power anytime without fear of someone recognizing your ident.i.ty." Bloed said.

"… Thank you, Bloed."

"Stop it, you will make me feel embarra.s.sed. Okay, now that we are done with that, I let the best part for the end."

"The best part?"

"Yeah… well, I also worked in some other gadgets, but this one I created especially for you."

Liu Ying was interested. She rarely saw Bloed being so mysterious, so she was curious about what he did.

In fact, he had promised Liu Ying he was going to create a gift for her, but he never spoke about what it was. So Liu Ying had been curious for a while.

Seeing the look of curiosity on Liu Ying's face, Bloed took a box and pa.s.sed it to her.

"Open it."

"What is inside?" Liu Ying unraveled the box while asking Bloed.

"Well, I was not very satisfied with the armor I gave you last time, so I thought of making you a new one. And as you were always envious of my two pets, I–"

"… Bloed, this is…"

"So, what do you think? Do you like it?"

Liu Ying fell silent with a dumbfounded expression. But slowly, it changed into an excited smile.

"I have my own pet!"

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels