Chapter 12: (10/12)

Kain knew he was being punished, which means he can’t use [Life Drain] to heal himself while receiving punishment. “My apology.” Kain softly whispered.

“F**k your apology! I placed the entire future of my Guild on your shoulders by using the Tykan Eye on you! In return, you bragged about it to an enemy? Not just any enemy, a very important one too! What happened to the Kain Bersk that always carefully planned each step he was going to take? What happened to the Kain Bersk that never looked down on any enemy regardless of how weak they are? If I knew you were this stupid, I wouldn’t allow you to join the guild hunt in the first place and probably give you some easy tasks like cleaning up the toilets while I’m gone.” Etgar casted two more [Wind Strike] spells toward Kain’s stomach. Then he said, “Heal Yourself.”

After receiving permission to heal himself, Kain activated [Infused Blood] then casted [Life Drain] spell. Right after the injuries were healed, Etgar casted another [Wind Strike] spell toward Kain’s stomach again. This went on for four hours straight. Kain healed himself just so he can receive another [Wind Strike] and it hurt like a bitch every time. Kain ran out of blood pools in all of his Blood Equipment and could no longer heal himself. But the punishment was not over yet, Etgar lent Kain his Blood Equipment before continuing to punish him for another twelve hours. Etgar then threw Kain into a dungeon cell so he can have time for self-evaluating and learn to be ‘smarter’.

How did Etgar find out about Kain telling Aber of Kain’s true identity? Not because Aber told someone else after he was revived. Remember Etgar had his [Wind Detection] and [Whispering Wind] spells activated for the entire war battle, from start to finish. Etgar heard Kain whisper into Aber’s ear, but because Etgar was too busy fighting a war, he couldn’t slap Kain in the face at that time for such stupidity.

Two days later, the Blood Mage that guards the dungeon cells of the Blood Mages Guild released Kain’s Second Soul and escorted him back to Etgar’s room. After the Blood Mage dungeon guard left the room, Etgar allowed Kain to sit and asked him, “Kain, have you ever fallen in love with a girl?”

Kain respectfully answered, “No, dear Guild Leader.”

“Uhm… One day you will. And when that day comes, I will kill the girl that you love to remind you of not making another mistake again.”

“Understood.”

“You don’t seem to be happy about it. Are you mad at me?”

“I dared not to, dear Guild Leader.”

“Ah… Does that mean that you agreed with me about killing the girl you love?”

“I have no objection.” Kain bit his jaws after giving his answer.

“Oh really? From my observation, it seems like you didn’t mean so. Let me give you a bit of free advice. If you want to change any of my rules, then you have to be stronger than me in order to do that.”

“I understand.”

“I heard you have a girlfriend in the Mages’ Academy. Do you like her?”

“Sofia Verardi? She is nothing but a tool for me to gather intel in the military of the Commonwealth Of Krorg.”

“Is that so? Are you lying to me, Kain? You should know better about not lying to me, isn’t that right?”

“I will lie to anyone else in this world. But I will never lie to you, Guild Leader. I have no reason to. At least not at this time when I am still weaker than you.”

“Haha… Great! Now lets the punishment continue.”

After that, Etgar continued to punish Kain for another eighteen hours. After the blood pools in all of the Blood Equipment that Etgar lent to Kain were depleted, he said, “Looks like I have to kill at least ten thousand people to refill the blood pools for all of my Blood Equipment. Give me your Blood Equipment too so I can refill them for you.” Kain gave Etgar his Blood Rings, Blood Pendant, and Blood Daggers.

After storing all of those Blood Equipment in his Storage Ring, Etgar said, “Go back to the dungeon and learn from your mistake. Next time I won’t take it easy on you.”

“Thank you, Guild Leader.” Kain humbly answered as he left Etgar’s room.

A day after that, Kain’s Second Soul was freed from the dungeon cell under Etgar’s approval before he left the Blood Mages Guild. The dungeon guard advised Kain that Master Whistler was looking for him for the past few days. Because Kain was secretly being punished, no one else knows about the mistake he had made except for Etgar. Kain went back to speak with Andrella where he received ridiculous tasks from her including that he had to make a marriage proposal to Sofia Verardi. The Blood Mages Guild wanted Kain to gather military intel from Sofia’s parents, Jandar Verardi, the tenth-tier warrior, one of the generals in the North Army, and Elayne Dawnfowl, tenth-tier warrior, one of the Admirals in the West Navy.

At Kain’s current power, he can easily crush Jandar Verardi and Elayne Dawnfowl like little bugs. But the Blood Mages Guild didn’t care about how strong Jandar and Elayne are, they wanted to gain access to classified information that Jandar and Elayne possessed of both the Army and the Navy. This information will show the Blood Mages Guild how the military of the Commonwealth of Krorg operates so they can learn from it. There is an old saying, “Learn from your enemies and thank them later by using what you have learned to kill them.” The Blood Mages Guild have gathered intel from the military of all nations in the past, but that information was outdated and is no longer useful anymore.

That was why Andrella wanted Kain to marry Sofia. From Andrella’s perspective, it was a win-win situation for Kain. Kain liked Sofia. Kain married Sofia. Kain gathered military intel from Sofia’s parents. Kain gives the intel to the Blood Mages Guild. Win-win. But Kain didn’t see it that way. If you truly love someone or at least you liked them very much, then you shouldn’t use them in any way whether it is for financial gain or access to classified information. It doesn’t matter how much he wanted to, the fact wouldn’t change for Kain that he is a Blood Mage. If he marries Sofia, she will be his wife. This means if Kain ever gets exposed to the public as a Blood Mage, Sofia and her entire family will be executed by the Mages Council despite knowing nothing about it.

Kain had made a mistake of exposing himself before, what would stop him from doing it again? Etgar’s harsh punishments and threats? Nah. Kain is a human being, and human beings make mistakes. There is no such thing as a perfect human being. Does Etgar dare to say that he never made a mistake? No. Just because no one dared to ask him that, doesn’t mean he never made a mistake. Etgar was so eager for revenge that he almost publicly exposed the Blood Mages Guild by declaring war with the Mages Council when he first stepped into the Saint-tier level 51.