Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ruin Master Vitae collapsed. His final words almost sent Ryu into a tailspin…

What if it was him next time? He worked harder than anyone, but what if it still wasn't enough? Even worse, what if he lost his life to someone who wasn't qualified to stand before like Ruin Master Vitae had?

Ryu sighed, closing his eyes. He had never regretted killing anyone, even his first kill hardly shook him. But this felt different. Even knowing Ruin Master Vitae had just taken an innocent life just moments ago, Ryu couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

Ailsa remained silent, simply allowing Ryu to absorb these truths. If Ryu wanted to one day become an expert, he had to understand the essence of life. The more he experienced, the more feelings he felt, the better it was for his future development.

If he allowed this to stall him now, he simply was never meant to reach the peak he sought for…

Ryu forcefully moved his gaze from Vitae's lifeless corpse, gazing toward the others. Two Peak Divine Vessel Realm experts, four Middle Divine Vessel Realm experts, six Lower Divine Vessel Realm experts, and two dozen Spiritual Severing Realm experts, all dead under the schemes of one man.

Ryu didn't count this number to help justify Vitae's death. Instead, he did so to remind himself how fleeting life was. In this situation, so many died, but how many were right and how many were wrong?

Amarice and Delonte had slighted Morake, but they left him alive. Did they deserve to die for a betrayal? And what about their adventure squads? Maybe they had done other things in their lives to deserve this death, but how would Morake know that? His only goal was the death of the two leaders…

And Vitae, he killed the seemingly innocent Morake, but was Morake innocent at all? For the sake of his revenge, he didn't care about the lives of more than thirty other individuals. How could he be labeled as innocent?

'There really is no objective right or wrong…' Ryu mumbled to himself.

Ryu seemed to have comprehended something, but the feeling was fleeting. Maybe he wasn't yet qualified to grasp it in its entirety…

One after another, Ryu placed the corpses within his spatial ring. Since Ruin Master Vitae had been so kind as to prepare so many undead for him, there was no reason to turn his nose up at it. Because he had opened his Spiritual Vessel, Ryu was qualified to control Sixth Order corpse puppets. But, being qualified to do something, and being able to do it, were two different matters entirely. Ryu hadn't learned a single thing about Necromancy yet, so for now, it was impossible.

Gazing at Ruin Master Vitae's corpse, Ryu sighed once more. Considering the damage Ryu had done to his innards, he wasn't a viable corpse puppet any longer. Though there were many branches of Necromancy that only required the skeleton, Necromancy Hecate's path required the whole body to be intact.

Taking off his three rings, Ryu observed them closely. With a thought, he slipped on the ring that he believed increased Vitae's awareness.

A moment later, Ryu's eyes widened. 'This is the Ruin's Core. No wonder… Its abilities would definitely be greater here than it would be elsewhere. It can help create a pseudo-symbiotic relationship with the Ruins but that's as far as it goes…'

Looking around at the various lab tools that took up the central portion of this hive-like space, Ryu understood. Hecate used this place as her base of operations. All of her experiments were run here…

'It's no wonder she'd create something that helped her keep control of it all. This likely means that these Ruins can also move…

'… This ring should be of the Heaven Grade. It's able to increase my Spiritual Sense range by twenty percent and has a built-in threat warning. Within these Ruins, it can increase my Spiritual Sense by one hundred percent and can warn me against the threat of even an Immortal Ring expert. Not bad…'

Ryu didn't know how useful this ring would be to him, but as the core of these Ruins, he would keep it by his side. He hadn't forgotten the two guards outside, both of whom were Peak Spiritual Severing. But, Ryu didn't think he needed much to defeat them. Plus, they should be expecting this expedition to take another several days, so there was no rush to deal with them either.

Taking his attention away from the Ruin Core, Ryu focused on the remaining two rings, both of which was spatial rings. Without a doubt, there was something that immediately caught his attention.

'Ruin Matrix!' Ryu turned his gaze toward Vitae and shook his head. Though this Ruin Matrix was far inferior to his personal matrix from the Shrine Plane, there was no doubt that it was excellent.

Ruin Matrices were versatile tools for Ruin Masters and were most definitely their most important possessions. They could be used to do everything from sensing nearby Ruins to calculating the Order of an unknown Ruin.

Of course, Ruin Matrices were divided into grades of their own. Vitae's Matrix was actually of the Mystical Grade! This meant that it functioned without loss for Ruins up to the Tenth Order. Functionally speaking, that covered more than ninety-nine percent of Ruin in all of existence.

Expert Ruin Masters could do without Ruin Matrices, which was why Ryu was still confident in his ability to clear this Ruin. But there was no doubt that a Ruin Matrix made things easier. With it, Ryu could probably clear a Seventh Order Ruin now without increasing his battle prowess.

'Convenient. I wouldn't have been able to afford a decent Matrix for a long while without this encounter..'

Pouring through the rest of Ruin Master Vitae's belongings, Ryu found several thick leather books that detailed the Ruin Master profession. This had likely been his fortuitous encounter. With the Ruin Masters being such a noble profession, its secrets were deeply protected. Vitae was very lucky to find this despite how his life ended.

'I could definitely sell these books. They alone are worth several Higher Immortal Qi Stones considering they come from the teachings of a Mystical Grade Ruin Master. I'll only sell one. If I bring out too many books from a Ruin Master of that caliber, anyone with half a brain will guess I stumbled upon a legacy and will assume I've hidden the Matrix… I'll keep the Matrix, though it would likely sell for several Cosmic Qi Stones… It's worth more than that to me right now. Plus, I can't protect that kind of wealth nor can I reach an auction house capable of taking such a sale on…'

Finally, after continuing, Ryu found the essence of Hecate's legacy. Dozens of thick, black books, refinement materials, an odd staff and a black half-mask… This was what remained of Necromancer Hecate.