Jensen ran through the forest, distancing himself from the battle while trying to get back home.
At this point he had already realised that it had been less than an hour since he began the trials.
"Time manipulation as well?" Jensen asked no one in particular.
"Yes, like I said, I had access to the majority of the paths." Xal'Zyraeth answered, his voice coming from the third ring on his finger.
At this point Jensen had already put two and two together. He knew Xal'Zyraeth wouldn't be of much help.
The moment he got help from him; the universe would balance it by increasing the difficulty of his trials and tribulations.
So, unless it was absolutely necessary, he had no plan on increasing the difficulty just to simply save time.
"I see you are catching on." Although he could no longer read Jensen's mind, he could still guess what he was thinking with high accuracy.
"But don't worry, because of the law of balance I have to reward you for allowing me to come on this journey with you." Xal'Zyraeth said.
"The bloodline and ring were my legacy to you, you won them, but the second ring is my payment for your service."
"The second ring allows you to hide your paths, disguise your mana signature, and more." Before Jensen could ask any question, he continued. "Yes, no one in your civilisation can see through it."
Jensen glanced down at the second ring; it looked more like a signet than a regular finger band, which is typically the shape spatial rings come in.
The ring looked like it was crafted from polished dark silver or steel, giving it a noble and slightly gothic appearance.
The ring was thick and solid, designed to look powerful and prestigious.
At the centre of the ring sat a circular face made of black enamel, smooth and glossy like obsidian. Engraved into its surface was Xal'Zyraeth's crest.
The emblem was deep crimson, contrasting sharply against the black background, making the crest stand out strongly.
Around the edge of the ring's face was a braided metal border, giving it an ancient, royal craftsmanship style.
Along the sides of the ring band were intricate engraved patterns, with small red gemstones embedded into the metal, echoing the colour of the emblem.
Jensen could already think of several applications for the ring's ability.
"Thank you very much."
As he made his way through the forest, he tried some of his abilities.
He had received nine abilities from his bloodline. Although most of them were passive, he still wanted to try them out.
Jensen continued to walk until he found four magic beasts that seemed ready to fight but were still gauging each other.
At this point he had gotten far enough from the battle between the level 4 beasts that he no longer needed to worry about being a casualty in it.
He snuck up behind the beasts, something his father's reaction to his presence had taught him to do.
His hands transformed into claws, and he jumped out from behind the tree, catching the first beast off guard.
His hands ripped right through its back like tofu, and he pulled his hands out of its back with its heart in his grasp.
Although the rest of the beasts were caught off guard, they weren't defenceless.
The blood from the heart was absorbed into his body almost instantly, leaving it looking like a dried fruit.
Jensen dropped the heart and immediately struck out at his next target, but the hare jumped backwards and a wall of earth rose to block Jensen's path.
Jensen tried to brute-force his way towards the beasts, but the more walls he knocked down, the more walls were erected.
Normally, magic beasts wouldn't be able to use skills like these, but these beasts were about to break through to Level 2. Not to mention they seemed to have mutated.
Suddenly a silver-scaled tiger jumped towards him with its mouth wide open, ready to bite him.
Jensen backed off and slashed at the tiger's head, taking out its first eye.
Before he could do the same to the second eye, a ball of acidic spit flew towards him from behind.
Thankfully his vampyre senses were strong enough to allow him to detect it quickly enough to jump away.
The acid spit splashed on the tiger's side, almost crippling it and causing it to scream out in pain as it backed off.
*Roooaaaaaar*
Jensen glanced back at the acid spitter, which seemed to be a lizard. His eyes squinted as he came up with a plan.
Two daggers appeared in his hands, and he charged at the walls, breaking them with a single punch while dodging the acid spit from the lizard.
He broke the first and second wall, but just as the hare was preparing for the third wall to be broken…
Jensen's dagger flew directly over the wall, stabbing it straight in the head and destroying its brain in an instant.
'2 down, 2 to go.' The thing about these beasts was that they were easy to deceive.
With his vampyre senses it was quite easy to pinpoint the hare's position, and all he had to do was distract it.
Turning around, he charged at the injured tiger. Seeing his back again, the lizard opened its mouth to shoot another acid ball at him.
Just before the spit could hit him again, he jumped over it. This time the tiger was smart enough to dodge the attack.
But Jensen was not after it. The second dagger flew into the open mouth of the lizard, tearing through its mouth into its stomach.
The tiger immediately dashed into the woods after seeing all three dead.
Jensen caught up to it quickly and ripped out its heart.
'Blood Absorption.' Jensen used the ability that allowed him to drain.
The blood from all the corpses flew towards him and was absorbed by his body into another ability he had 'Blood Storage'.
The blood he absorbed wasn't instantly used. Instead, it was stored up and only used to cultivate or use any of his other bloodline abilities.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Xal'Zyraeth chuckled.
"I see why regular races can't compete with primal races," Jensen sighed.
"Even though I still need to refine the blood and remove impurities before I should use it to cultivate, that itself isn't even a condition, it's a choice."
"Using it like that would be very stupid and…" Xal'Zyraeth suddenly paused. "I guess that is all I can say. Should I continue?"
"No, I don't need you to. I wouldn't be using it unrefined for any reason." Jensen replied before taking the corpses into his spatial ring and leaving the scene.