Side Story 4 - Bloodlines: A cursed blessing (Patreon)

”To possess a bloodline is to be a chosen of the system itself. Power only the privileged few can ever hope to grasp.”

Learutit sat cross-legged as she expelled the mana from her body. She didn’t meditate, as that would be… suicidal. Her excess mana took a while to safely discharge as she finally managed to nearly empty her reserves.

With a sigh, she got up and walked out of the chamber.

Outside she met the caretaker of the tower, who looked at her with clear concern.

“How much remaining?”

“Less than a tenth,” Learutit answered with a tired sigh.

“That… puts you in category seven already… I am sorry,” the caretaker answered with a comforting tone.

“We knew it was coming.”

Learutit put on the bracers presented to her by the caretaker and instantly felt her mana regeneration hampered after binding. They would work for a while, but she knew it was only prolonging the inevitable.

From the day she was born, this was her fate.

“A bloodline is a burden, neither chosen nor wished for.”

She had heard stories from her aunt about her birth. Her father had possessed a weak version of the bloodline, making everyone expectant to see if it would result in a child also retaining it. After all, the first child had the highest chance, and it only fell from there with every subsequent child.

However, their expectance was mixed with a feeling of fear. Learutit’s father had a weak version of their bloodline, but they all knew what a powerful version would result in. It was their factions blessing and curse, after all.

Yet even before they did the test, they noticed that something was wrong with the newborn child. She had screamed in pain from the moment she exited her mother’s womb, and no matter what they did, it wouldn’t subside.

Her aunt had quickly called one of the higher-ranking members to help.

They had done the test and found her bloodline powerful. Her parents had cried that day, despite the higher-ranking member’s apparent happiness that had conducted the test.

From birth, Learutit had a powerful bloodline. Some even compared her to their Matriarch from eons ago, the founder of the family and the bloodline’s origin.

Moving to her chambers to try and rest, Learutit glanced at the curse on her status screen.

[Bloodline of the Unceasing Mana Spring (Bloodline Ability)] – Dormant power lies in the very essence of your being. An innate ability inherited from Ilastias Jualnatar Poltam. Increases natural mana regeneration significantly. Passively absorb far more mana from your surroundings. You do not have a maximum mana pool.

It truly was a curse.

Yet, it was also the only reason their family could survive with the kingdom and why their Matriarch had been granted the title of a duchess and gotten her own territory. She had been a caster beyond reproach in her time. Dominated several planets for the king - all on the back of her bloodline.

A bloodline she had passed down before her death, and even to this day, the family served the kingdom.

It was powerful, without a doubt - the mana regeneration alone, making all who possessed the bloodline unstoppable casters with near-infinite mana. Where the real issue lay was in the uncapped maximum mana.

Learutit knew that others had maximum mana determined by their wisdom. She did, too, technically, but not in the same way. Normally if one had 1000 wisdom, they would have 10.000 total mana at a max. For Learutit, this maximum of 10.000 wouldn’t be total, but she would still feel the cap.

Whenever she went too far over, the creeping pain came first. A silent headache that soon turned into a skull-shattering pain. At 25% above, she was still fine. At 30% above, the pain began, and at 35%, it was unbearable.

At 40% above, the outer layer of the soul would give out.

At 45% above, the second layer would begin to take heavy damage.

At 50% above, she would die.

It was an unavoidable fate for all with the bloodline to eventually die that way. No none had ever reached the end of their natural lifespan with even a slightly powerful iteration. And Learutit’s iteration was potent… so at the age of 120, heading towards the peak of D-grade, she had begun reaching her limit already.

She would need to spend half her day just draining her mana, either through powering the towers or through combat.

But she could no longer fight too much as she would soon reach her next evolution… and with it her death. That was how the Matriarch died too… the day she evolved to B-grade.

They had tried everything through the ages. Items that would constantly drain mana did help, but the issue was that the mana regeneration kept accelerating. Eventually, the items would run out of mana storage and become unable to absorb more.

It didn’t help just disperse the mana into the atmosphere either, as they would reabsorb it.

Some had even attempted to evolve into races that didn’t possess mana. An ancestor had undergone Ritual of Vampirism to try and cure himself but had died shortly after the evolution… from too much mana. Yes, despite not having any mana on the status screen, his body kept absorbing it… he just had no way to let it out anymore and died a painful death less than an hour after becoming a vampire.

“A bloodline is eternal. Bound to your being. You are your bloodline, and your bloodline is you; to reject it is to reject your own existence.”

So now… Learutit only had a few things left to do.

As she was sitting in her chamber, one of the clan elders soon entered, having been notified that she had reached category seven.

“Learutit, my dear, I heard the news,” she said with a stoic voice. “The matchmaker has put together a list of candidates, and you have till the end of today to choose one. We need to be as quick as possible.”

“Yes, elder,” Learutit answered with a nod and received the papers from the elder.

“These are some of the best there are, so it shouldn’t be too unpleasant. With the potency of your bloodline, the chance of the firstborn having the bloodline is nearly inevitable.”

“Yes, elder,” she just answered again with a nod.

“Good. I will return in the morning, have your pick ready by then,” the elder said with a nod as the middle-aged woman turned and left.

Learutit just looked as she walked away, her eyes already glancing down on the parchment in her hand.

It was a list of names with attached pictures and short descriptions. All of them depicting young men who Learutit assumed looked positively dashing to most young maidens. Sadly… she didn’t find any of them to her liking. She had never been into men, but this choice was never about like or dislike, to begin with.

She quickly went through the list and quickly crossed out all the nobles and went with the one that appeared the least annoying. If she had to spend her last few years with someone, it had to be someone bearable.

“To pass on the bloodline is a privilege… nay, a responsibility. To keep the system’s blessing alive is the greatest honor there is.”

The king had set down a commandment to their family a long time ago. They had to keep the bloodline alive for the sake of the kingdom, meaning every man or woman who had the bloodline was forced into having at least one child. If they wanted to or not.

Her parents hadn’t wanted to have her, and neither had their parents before that. Before that, devout believers in the family doctrine and ended up having four children with the bloodline. She knew her father also already had one other child, her half-brother, with a bloodline. She had never met him but only heard of it in passing.

Not that she had met her parents that many times. They had split up after her birth, as was rather customary, and her mother had not wanted to become too attached to a child she knew would die before her. The only family she really talked to was her aunt, who took care of her throughout her life and was the caretaker assigned to her at birth.

The months quickly passed as she met the young man assigned to her. They did their duties, and despite the young man being nice and accommodating, she hated every second of it. Luckily, she got pregnant quickly, and after only two years, she gave birth.

The child had the bloodline… but a far weaker version of her own. Learutit sighed with relief once she was alone, knowing her daughter would at least live to be older than herself. The young man had also decided to raise the child himself, which was also fine. He was also close to C-grade and would likely advance within the next decade, making him an elder.

Learutit kept up her duty after that. She charged the towers and slowly practiced her own control. A few years later, the young man did advance to C-grade and was celebrated by the family and the kingdom.

Five years after giving birth, she reached category eight.

Even without leveling, the mana regeneration speed would increase. It depended on the bloodline’s potency, but with hers as powerful as it was, it went fast.

Another seven years later, a war broke out with a neighboring kingdom. Learutit was deployed on the frontlines as her time was limited anyway.

A year into the war, she reached the pinnacle of D-grade. With nothing to lose, she chose to accept and finally undergo her evolution. She only had a few years left either way.

In a torrent of destruction, she ravaged the battlefield after evolving. Dying 27 hours later as her soul gave out.

Her family was rewarded, and the bloodline went on.

“May your bloodline prevail.”