Paths in the Crimson Mountains never stayed the same. Just like the fog, this was also one of the mysteries of the vampire territory.

It was a common legend that there were magical formations beneath every one of these mountains. These formations made sure that the location of two mountains never stayed the same for more than a few hours.

A road that existed at dawn could be a cliff by dusk. A pass you trusted yesterday might be swallowed whole by a root-backed slide the next hour.

That meant travel here was never about maps alone. Drivers and scouts earned their stripes by reading the skies rather than the ground. There was an entire network of vampires dedicated to this.

However, the information was only available to high-tier nobles. Commoners like him had to either cough up the gold coins for the carriage rides or go through endless struggles just to reach a random place.

There were instances where many had died directly because of this issue. The only saving grace was that there weren't any C rank or above monsters in the territory. There were mostly only harmless F rank beasts or slightly annoying D rank and E rank beasts.

Players could still die to those beasts if they got caught off guard. A wrong step, a collapsed path, a surprised burrowed thing, and one was done before they could blink. Damon had died many times like this in his last life.

Now things had changed so much that he was casually hiring a carriage just to not waste time and procrastinate about the other things on his to-do list. He chuckled inwardly as he turned to look at the elven girl who was now fast asleep.

At least now she was comfortable enough to fall asleep, which was progress.

Damon took out a skill book while he waited. His hands had been itching since he had bought them, and this seemed as good a time as any to start learning everything.

With a big smile on his face, he mentally activated the first skill book. [Blood Sense]. This was the skill book he was most excited about. He wanted to see if he could somehow combine it with his primordial senses and boost the power of the skill.

[Blood Sense (Passive, D rank): You subtly sense blood and blood auras in the nearby areas.]

The explanation was simple, but Damon felt a rush of information flooding his brain as he learned the skill, and the skill book in his hand disappeared. He closed his eyes and focused on everything.

Even though he already knew how to reach out and get a feel for blood auras, he still paid attention to the skill book contents. After some time, he closed his eyes and tried to sense the blood auras nearby.

There were mostly small ones, probably of the demonic beasts around them. Damon then focused and really tried to sense the world around him, activating his primordial senses. The next second, everything changed.

Instead of the normal world around him, he saw veins of blood. Thin threads of red lines running around everywhere and bright blobs where life or mana pooled.

For an instant, he could see every single blood aura that was present on the mountain they were closest to. He was used to reading blood auras, but never like this. Never spread out so wide, never so bright.

Damon's mind could only hold so much before he felt a searing pain and was forced to stop.

However, in that last second, suddenly his eyes widened. Blood tears dripped from his eyes as he stared in shock at the bottom of the mountain. There was something there!

A strong blood aura, the strongest he had ever seen or felt. A single blood aura so huge and hot it felt like a sun, infinite energy contained within it. What the hell was it?

Just glancing at it for a fraction of a second made him feel extreme danger. His senses screamed danger, and he immediately snapped out of it.

He forced himself to step out of the focus. The red map snapped closed like a book slammed shut. The pain in his head eased, but the image of that brightness was already burned into his mind. He could feel it beneath the mountain, beating like a monstrous heart that contained infinite blood essence.

"Fuck." Damon cursed under his breath as he tried to calm down. For a moment, he still felt as if something was going to pop out of the mountain and stand in front of him, but no such thing happened.

The carriage continued moving, and the horses continued to beat the ground into a steady rhythm. Outside, the mountains rolled by in slow shapes, black stone, twisted trees, the pale smear of sky.

Damon forced his breathing to slow. The image of that blood-sun kept flashing behind his eyes, hot and impossible. He rubbed his temples until stars popped in his vision. The pain eased, but the cold knot in his gut didn't.

He had felt power before, but nothing had ever hit him like that. Not even the aura of that woman back in the abyssal zone or the avatar of the demon god he had faced back on earth. What the hell was going on? What was that?

More importantly, was something like that beneath every mountain? Was that perhaps the trump card of all the vampire clans in the crimson mountain territory?

Several questions popped up in Damon's mind. He had no answers to any of them. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't use his primordial senses in this region again, at least until he became strong enough. Otherwise, his jig would be up, and some insane old monster would easily grab his bloodline even if it meant tearing him apart cell by cell.

Damon shook himself and tried to snap out of it. After a few minutes, he was finally able to calm down a little, and he went back to the rest of his skill books.

The first one had worked out just like he had hoped and had even given him a small heart attack. He could only hope that the others would be more straightforward and give him a straight dose of power.

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