Bloodline

Though his disgust for the blood thrall had reached its peak, Adam still intended to make use of him.

Adam had never considered himself a good person. He had casually buried someone else's corpse, taken over their identity, enjoyed the affection of their family, and lowered a good man's moral boundaries—all to give himself a chance.

The difference between him and that humanoid piece of trash was that he knew full well that what he did was filthy and ugly, and he would not do such filthy things for matters unrelated to his own benefit.

If he had not been reincarnated as a supernatural being, perhaps he truly would have become a cleric by now, enjoying the worship of the people somewhere as he fought evil supernatural beings.

Unfortunately, reality was what it was, and Adam had no ability to change any of it.

After hiding the book he had taken from the blood thrall beneath his bed, Adam did not rush to read it. Instead, he immediately went to rest.

Even as a werewolf, he still needed rest. Besides, he had used his sensory state at full power earlier, and his mind was not in very good condition now.

The next day, Alva finally began work. He had Adam scrape away the outer layer of a section of wall. Once the wall had been cleaned, he told him to begin mixing materials according to their proportions. They were separated into several types based on the pigments used, then evenly applied to the wall in layers.

Murals were divided into painted murals and painted craft murals. What Alva used was the latter, which could be further divided into several categories. Strictly speaking, this was a combination of carving and painting.

Once the materials had been applied and gradually begun to harden, Alva got to work, using different carving knives to peel away the excess material.

Before long, a richly layered image appeared before Adam. Because the material layers differed, so did the colors.

Once the carving was nearly complete, Alva took out colorful pebbles, shells, and gemstones from a materials box nearby and embedded them in various places. Only then did he take out a fine carving knife and begin working on the details bit by bit.

Adam followed behind him, constantly replacing tools, clearing away the scraped-off waste, and occasionally mixing pigments to touch up the colors.

By evening, part of the mural had more or less appeared before Adam.

Its colors were vivid, its layers distinct, and its texture rich. The figures upon it were extraordinarily lifelike, as if even their skin were real.

Alva was unquestionably a master in this field. Adam was not merely doing odd jobs here either; at the very least, he had learned quite a bit from the proportions of those materials—if he intended to become a painter.

"Clean up." After saying that, Alva waved a hand. Without bothering with the tools on the ground, he swayed his way outside.

Adam lowered his head and looked at one layer of the toolbox. There were still quite a few unused gemstones there.

He smiled and shook his head. Taking out a wooden chip, he scraped the leftover materials onto it layer by layer. Then, after putting away the tools, he took the chip back with him.

Adam understood that details determined success or failure. Since he had decided to use a painter as his cover, he needed to do the things a painter's apprentice should do. Gemstones were valuable, but he did not believe he could truly pocket them, nor could they bring him any real benefit.

In that case, those gemstones were no different from stones by the roadside. They were not important to Adam.

As he walked along the road, Adam kept his head lowered, fiddling with the wooden chip in his hand. Without a carving knife, he used branches or stones.

He found that this was a good way to train his senses: the texture and layers of the materials, the changes in color, the speed at which the materials hardened, and so on.

Adam felt that Alva's sensory abilities must be very strong.

Before returning to the Boku Family home, Adam spotted a stray cat by the roadside. He crouched down and beckoned to it.

Perhaps sensing the affinity Adam gave off, the stray cat hesitated for a moment before coming over to him.

Adam placed the remaining half of a pickled-vegetable flatbread in his palm and fed it to the stray cat. He rubbed the little creature's head and revealed a pleasant smile.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, Adam stood and returned to the Boku Family home. He greeted Yalis and Maggie, played with little Lina, then returned to the attic with all sorts of calculations filling his mind.

The Church, the nobles, the garrison, supernatural beings... All the information he had gathered in daily life flowed through Adam's mind. He considered how to respond to every possible situation, repeating it to himself over and over, giving himself suggestions so that he could make the correct response the instant he encountered any of those matters.

Finally, he transformed into a werewolf and began reading the book he had taken from the blood thrall under the light of the waxing moon.

It was a disorganized handwritten copy, even mixed with a few diary entries.

"Of course. What normal person keeps a diary?" Adam sat on the bed, flipping through the handwritten book with one hand.

The book's owner was named Adel Rien. As expected, that was the name of that nauseating humanoid piece of trash.

The handwriting was sloppy, with quite a few misspellings. The content was also disjointed, and there were diary entries with incorrect grammar scattered throughout. It was truly a headache to read.

Still, Adam learned quite a bit from it.

Although Adel was a local of Roa, as a free citizen, he had possessed so-called lofty ambitions in his youth. He had planned to venture out into the world and become a great adventurer.

Then, during some botched adventure, Adel became the captive of a vampire. He was later transformed into a blood thrall and became half of the vampire's assistant.

This handwritten volume contained bits and pieces of information he had recorded during his time as an assistant.

Adel was undoubtedly lucky. The vampire later encountered a powerful ascetic, allowing Adel to escape rather than become the vampire's next test subject.

After that, Adel returned to Roa, but he did not dare enter the city. He lurked in the forest for several months before finally making contact with some supernatural beings in Roya City and meeting Hoda. Only then did he officially return to live in Roya City.

However, his failed adventure had left him penniless. Coupled with the high price of potions, he could only move into the slums, where it was also more convenient for him to hunt.

This information was good news to Adam. At least that true vampire was not in Roa.

The other information was equally enlightening. Werewolves were distinguished by whether they were purebred, while vampires were distinguished by whether they were true vampires.

The difference was that a werewolf's pure bloodline was determined through bloodline inheritance, while a vampire's purity depended on whether the ritual had been performed correctly.

The records showed that the true vampire had continued conducting bloodline experiments afterward. He kept creating blood thralls, then attempted through various experiments to transform them into true vampires rather than inferior products that were called vampires but were actually blood thralls.

"Why did this vampire come to the Holy Sound Kingdom to conduct experiments?" Adam frowned. The Holy Sound Kingdom was the domain of the Holy Sound Church. He wanted to flee only because he had been born here and had no choice. But what about that vampire?

Without an answer, Adam could only set the question aside and continue absorbing knowledge from the book. What helped Adam most, without question, were the vampire's experiments on werewolf bloodlines.

"Once a werewolf reaches adulthood and their bloodline fully matures, they undergo an awakening."

"At that moment, the power of the bloodline fully blooms, displaying miraculous power. It traces one's ancestors, traces one's past, excavates one's personal talents, and forms an awakening ability unique to oneself."

"Some gain even more abnormal regenerative abilities. Some gain highly infectious wolf venom. Others gain stranger abilities still."

"Since non-purebred werewolves are formed through infection, their bloodline awakening lacks the step of tracing their ancestors. The awakening abilities they uncover are often comparatively weak."

"One thing worth noting is that the closer it gets to the night of the full moon, the faster the bloodline matures. At the moment of awakening, even purebred werewolves find it difficult to suppress the agitation of their bloodline and become frenzied."

Reading this, Adam frowned and looked up through the skylight at the sky. It was currently a waxing moon. In another seven or eight days, it would be the night of the full moon.

If Adel's records were correct, his bloodline would indeed awaken around that time.

"Uncontrollable frenzy? I need to prepare for that early." Adam frowned.

"Tracing one's ancestors, tracing one's past, excavating one's personal talents?" Adam looked at his furry paws covered in white fur. He had only met his biological father a few times and knew little about his father's family. Then what did tracing the past and excavating his talents mean?

"My past... and my talents..."