We reconvene with the girls in Himari’s bedroom... although I’m a bit reluctant to call it a bedroom since it’s almost larger than my parents entire living room.

Himari seems to have calmed down somewhat, so I think I now would be a good time to discuss my plans with everyone.

“We found the altar in Himari’s backyard and I bought some things to improve the overall strength of our group. I bought a book that can upgrade my powers, a physical enhancer rank 1 and a gene awakener. I suggest we give Himari the gene awakener since this is her house, and we’ll keep the physical enhancer for when we find ourselves in a dire situation.”

Everyone seems to agree with my plans so far, so I continue:

“After Himari has taken the gene awakener and I have practiced my new powers, it’ll probably be evening already, so I think it’s best we sleep here for one night and then head towards the mall in the morning.”

Nobody protested my decisions so I gave Himari the gene awakener and took Rina with me in the room next door to practice my new magic circles.

…

After a couple of hours of reading and experimenting, I found out that this book only contained 2 new magic circles. However, it also contained some other interesting information… It showed me a way to instantly cast a magic circle, which was one of my most pressing weaknesses.

The book contained information about a demon tattoo. When the tattoo is drawn with your own blood on your own right arm, you have the possibility to incorporate two magic circles of your choosing. This tattoo then permanently attaches itself to your arm and begins storing the necessary blood for those two magic circles. When the tattoo is fully recharged you can activate one or both of the stored magic circles instantly by just thinking about it.

After contemplating for a while, I decided to store the ‘Red Reaper Sword’ (the combination of ‘Crimson Blade’ and ‘life steal’) and ‘Blood Prince Armor’, a new magic circle I obtained from the book that could cloak my entire body in a glowing red armor with black accents, to be honest it looked pretty badass, even Rina thought it looked cool. The cost of ‘Blood Prince Armor’ is pretty high, but the defensive power is definitely worth it.

With this new tattoo I could instantly defend myself from oncoming attacks and also retaliate if I have to. I first draw the basic tattoo on my right arm with blood and then alter it to incorporate the two magic circles. After 2 hours I finally finish it and my arm starts to glow.

“AAAH FUCK! IT FEELS LIKE MY ARM IS BEING POKED BY A HUNDRED NEEDLES AT THE SAME TIME!”

After a hellish 10 minutes, the pain finally begins to fade…

“A-Are you okay now Ren? The tattoo on your arm finally stopped glowing.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine now, thanks for the lap pillow, it helped keep me sane through all that pain haha.”

She blushes and avoids my gaze.

I think about activating the magic circle of the Red Reaper Sword and sure enough, the sword instantly appears in my right hand.

“Well I’m glad I didn’t have to go through all that suffering for nothing…”

“Ren… you don’t have to push yourself like that... I-It was also difficult for me to see you in such pain…”

“No, I do have to push myself, I’m the leader, I have to work the hardest and endure the most… I have to protect you guys.”

“You’re like, really amazing Ren. I really admire your determination… but at least let me also take care of you sometimes…”

She pushes me down on the king-sized bed we were both sitting on. We were the only ones in this room, but the rest of our friends could walk in at any minute… I didn’t know she was so daring.

“Just relax Ren, I thought off a couple of techniques I wanted to try with you… oh and you don’t have to worry.” – she gets really close to my ear and whispers: - “Today... It’s a safe day for me.”

…

I snapped, I threw all my rationality and self-control out the window, I started doing it with her right then and there, even though I knew it was a bit risky.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Just as I had feared… In the middle of our ‘quality time session’ the door to our room suddenly swings open… Oh no, this literally couldn’t be any worse… It’s Aoi.

“Hey Ren, I wanted to ask about our plans regardi…WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!”

“N-No Aoi calm down, we were just testing my new powers and-“

“YOU NEVER EVEN TOUCHED ME LIKE THAT BACK WHEN WE WERE TOGHETER! AND NOW YOU’RE DOING IT WITH MY BEST FRIEND?!”

“Hold on Aoi I can explain…”

She storms of holding her head in her hands…

“Rina what should I do?”

“It’s okay Ren, she was probably just shocked to see us like that, I’ll go talk to her. You don’t have to like, feel bad or anything, remember that she broke up with you in the first place…”

Rina got dressed and chased after Aoi, leaving me alone in the room…

They’ll probably make up right? They’re friends afterall… but why does it feel like I just got caught cheating? Me and Aoi aren’t even together anymore. *SIGH*

I decide to just focus on my new powers instead.

The book also contained some new information about how to alter magic circles. You can enhance certain features of a spell by decreasing other features. I tried it with a couple of spells, but the only one that really worked well, was the ‘blood berserk’ magic circle. I could enhance my leg power and thus my speed by decreasing the power in my upper body. I could also do the reverse… This seems very useful in certain scenarios…

The final piece of information contained in the book was a new magic circle called ‘Devils Contract’, it should be able to give me certain powers from the underworld if I sacrifice something to its magic circle, I just don’t know what exactly that ‘something’ is… So far I tried sacrificing 5 liters of my blood and nothing happened.

‘Devils Contract’ either needs a lot more of my blood, or something else to be sacrificed…

“Fuck it.”

I only have about 11 liters of blood left in my storage, but I’ll probably regenerate all of it by tomorrow morning, my blood generation seems to be way above that of a normal person after I evolved to a blood borne.

I draw the magic circle in the air above me, which only takes a couple of seconds, and then sacrifice 11 liters of blood to it, about 2 adult males worth of blood.

Suddenly, the chair in front of me gets wrapped up in these fiery dark chains that spawned from small portals on the floor. After about a minute or so, the chains retreat back into their portals and leave severe burn marks behind on the chair.

“Hmm… that’s a lot of blood for just holding something in place… but I guess the more blood I sacrifice, the stronger and more useful the effects will be… If I sacrifice enough, I might even be able to spawn hellfire or summon Cerberus…”

I hear knocking on the door and open it.

“H-Hey Ren...”

It’s Aoi standing next to Rina.

“I-I’m sorry I yelled at you, it’s not my place to tell you what you can and cannot do. I was just a bit surprised, that’s all… although you guys should probably pick a more suitable time and place for those kinds of things!”

Rina playfully hits Aoi on her head.

“Auw! I’m sorry, You can do anything you want, you’re the boss afterall. I just hope you would also pay more attention to me…”

I couldn’t quite hear the last things she said, but I understood she was sorry about the situation.

“It’s alright Aoi, we’ll also be more careful about those things in the future. You can ask Himari for a room with a bed you can sleep in, we’ll regroup in the morning.”

“S-So Rina is going to sleep with you tonight ? And you’ll do those things again… together…”

“What did you say Aoi, sorry, I couldn’t quite hear you?”

“N-Nothing!”

She stomps off with a bright red face… what a weird girl. Suddenly Rina leans towards me and seductively whispers:

“Well well, looks like nobody will bother us anymore… I won’t let you sleep tonight.”

What a scary women…