<h4>Chapter 22: Level 10</h4>


    The inside of the carriage was pitch-ck, but for Lyle that was no problem. Therger problem came from bumps on the road that the carriage would go over from time to time, which would make it shake a bit and almost make him lose his footing.


    Lyle checked out the inside of the carriage, there were multiple pouches that were neatly put on the side and a couple of crates. That was it, there was nothing else.


    Most of the carriage was empty, except for those items.


    But upon inspecting what was inside, Lyle stood in the carriage shocked.


    Gems, jewelry, weapons, armor…


    The inside of the carriage was full of such things, the wealth that was now put in front of Lyle was something that only nobles could possess.


    ''What the hell are these things doing here?!'' Lyle shouted inside his mind as he stared at the weapons and armor in the carriage. Even though there were only enough armor pieces to equip 10 men, all of them were of very high quality.


    Their red color and sleek design would bring the best out of anyone, in terms of looks at least. The defense they provided was great since they were made by a high-ranking cksmith that the duke had contacted.


    Yes, the armor pieces that were inside the carriage were from the private troops of the duke. Even though Lyle was able to easily kill the death soldiers inside the castle previously, it was mostly because they themselves were weak, too weak to possess such good armor.


    As for weapons, there were about 20 of them, all swords.


    ''The jewelry and gems were probably also from the castle.'' Thought Lyle before putting everything in his spatial ring and going back outside.


    ''I definitely can''t let them see me now.'' Lyle thought as he looked around him.


    The caravan had actually gone inside the forest.


    Even though they were passing through the shallow part of the forest where they would face no enemy strong enough to truly threaten them, it was still weird as there were better paths to take.


    ''It doesn''t matter, I can use this to my advantage and leave without being seen.'' Lyle thought before slowly moving to the edge of the carriage.


    As soon as the carriage passed next to some dense bushes that even got a bit entangled in the wheels of the carriage, Lyle jumped.


    The sound of the bushes did not rm the guards or anyone else since they all knew that the path was narrow and that taking it would result in them hitting nts.


    Lyle''s escape was not only sessful but pretty much perfect.


    A couple of seconds had passed before Lyle got up and dusted himself off. He stared at the back of the caravan that was now far away and smiled.


    ''I can''t believe I managed to do this.'' Lyle said to himself before pping himself a bit to calm down his emotions.


    ''Let me get a bit further away before checking out my gains.'' Lyle thought before taking his leave.


    He only stopped after he had moved for about 2 minutes. Climbing on a tree, he leaned back against it as he sat on a big branch before checking the inside of his spatial ring.


    Just a brief scan of the items made his smilee back.


    ''All of this is worth more than 100 000 gold coins, hell, it might be worth two hundred thousand!''


    ''With this much, I can buy better gear and pay the organization for many things like someone to guard me, assassinate others, information…''


    ''I''m only going to get paid 20 000 coins for killing the duke, but that was because he was an easy target and nobody thought that the archmage would be so powerful, plus it was a given that anything I found in the castle would be mine, which further lowered the payment.'' Lyle thought before smiling again.


    ''But this, this will be enough for a long time, Ilya himself had about 110 000 coins in the ring, after I find some good jewelry stores, I will be able to easily sell the jewelry and gems quickly.''


    ''But for now, I need to get stronger.'' Lyle said as his face went back to his usual, deadpan self.


    Lyle brought out his gear and put it on. His ck suit of armor was made of the leather of a demonic beast that was almost as powerful as a Golden Knight. There were metal pieces on the armor as well, they were sewn on and served to protect the vital areas of the body.


    Lyle''s whole body was now covered in a suit of armor that clung tightly to his body but didn''t impair his mobility at all.


    His two daggers were put on their small sheaths that were on his waist while Lyle also took out a couple of smaller items.


    sh bombs that upon hitting the ground would not only explode and produce a bright light that would blind enemies for a couple of seconds but would also create a loud sound that would make their ears ring for quite some time.


    Smaller throwing knives were also included in Lyle''s gear. The knives were about 7.5cm ( 3 inches ) long and had no handles on them. Lyle would simply grab them with his fingers before throwing them at the enemies.


    Finally, there was also a spear. Lyle liked having a spear with him, it allowed him to possess means of a powerful long-range attack as the daggers were too small to be able to deal with some enemies.


    Lyle checked his gear once again and after confirming that everything was fine, he took off and went deeper inside the forest, ready to begin hunting the monsters.


    A couple of hourster.


    Lyle was sitting atop a branch as he looked down on multiple bodies of dead monsters. The monsters had their bodies cut apart and their blood was spewed around everywhere in the area.


    That was because Lyle had used his ability in order to manipte the blood. The stench of blood permeated through the forest as the many monsters smelt it. They moved closer to the origin of the smell, just like Lyle wanted them to.


    A couple of minutes before, just as Lyle had finished the battle against the humanoid monsters that were lying dead below him, he hit level 10. A notification appeared at that time.


    [ yer has reached level 10, please take on the trial challenge ]


    [ The yer will be unable to continue leveling up before taking the challenge, the ss halls have been spawned in all bigger cities of the world and one can now ess them in order to get a ss after hitting level 10 ]


    Ding!


    [ ss found, the yer has already received a ss thanks to his bloodline ]


    Ding!


    [ yer has gained a ss and evolved to a stronger being, awarding stats.]


    [ Strength + 4 , Agility + 6 , Endurance + 3 , Vitality + 2 , Willpower + 3, Spirit + 3 ]


    Name: Lyle


    Level: 10 – 310 / 3000 Soul Power


    ss: Blood Lord (more info in the ss menu)


    Race: True Vampire Lord (more info in the race menu)


    Attribute points : 0


    Strength: 18


    Agility: 21


    Endurance: 13


    Vitality: 13


    Willpower: 13


    Spirit: 16


    Ding!


    [ The yer has reached the first threshold with the ''agility'' stat, new skill gained ]


    Ding!


    [ Warning, a problem has arisen. ]


    [ Thanks to the yer''s bloodline, the system is unable to give out rewards for thresholds since the yer has none at this moment. ]


    [ Please improve your strength in order to gain the benefits and bonuses from your bloodline ]


    Lyle was a bit confused over what the system meant by thresholds and how he had none right now, but he didn''t trouble himself much with all of that.


    He was surprised to see therge increase in stats after hitting level 10 as the bonus was more than what he had received from all the previous 10 levels before.


    That had given him an idea. He was now much more powerful than before and knew that he could deal with arge group of enemies. He used his ability to spread the blood around before climbing on a tree.


    The humanoid monsters he had killed were called the Eijas. They resembled humans a lot, they walked on two legs and had two arms, a neck, and a head. The main difference was the size.


    Eijas was at least 2 meters tall and their bodies were very thin and bony. They were monsters that didn''t possess intelligence and liked to eat the organs of other beings. Their elongated necks and heads made them incredibly creepy, as did the smiles that were always stered on their faces.


    They had no nose, ears no teeth. Their mouths were like the beak of a bird and they used that to tear off the flesh before swallowing organs whole.


    Lyle had previously killed a group of 7, but he knew that where there was a group of them, there were multiple other groups close by.


    The blood and spilled organs would attract the others as the Eijas were cannibals as well. Any fallen Eijas would have their corpse destroyed by their brethren as they tore the body apart in order to reach the organs.