Roberta looked at her hands. "This power... with my skill evolving from Blood Master to Blood Lord, I can now control ten times the volume, and my range also expanded by ten times. Then on top of that, the 100% stat boost doubled it."
She closed her eyes. "My previous range was about twenty meters and only to those I can directly see... but now..." She could feel every single living being with blood in the entire city block. Her range had expanded to almost 400 meters. But what surprised her the most was that Leon now had that skill as well."
"This isn't a mere management skill... it sounds more like a King or Emperor Class skill." Skills were divided into several classes of power that ranked them.
No class skills like Beatrice's Shockwave. Then there were Lesser, Proficient, Master, Lord, King, and lastly Emperor. But there was a catch: every skill would have the class in its name, like Flame Lord or Proficient Archery.
Leon's Sultan's Harem skill didn't have any class in its name, so the wizard must've thought it was a No Name weak skill. Those classes were also referred to as letters going from S down to F.
S-Emperor
A-King
B-Lord
C-Master
D-Proficient
E-Lesser
F-No Name
Roberta stared right back at Leon. "What the hell is a Sultan anyway? I never heard of a skill that allows its wielder to gain more skills or rank up the skills of other people. Not even the Emperor Class skills should be able to do that."
"I told you that I don't know." Leon quickly started picking their things up, and Noel helped him. "We first need to get out of this city and out of my father's domain, and then we can find a place to stay and hide in while I find what I can do. If my power can really grow that high, then we should be safe if I have enough time to grow."
In less than a few minutes, they were already sneaking out of the inn's backyard and into the dark streets. There was a sewer entrance not that far away behind the border of the slums and the merchants' district, so that was their current goal.
As they ran and avoided the guards thanks to Roberta's skill and sharp senses, Leon took that time to try and adjust to his own skill. He now had access to [Sword Master] [Blood Lord] and [Shockwave].
His senses still haven't adjusted to all of these skills yet. He could sense the blood of everyone around him a bit, but everything was still blurry and outside of his reach. He couldn't control his own blood well yet. It might take him days or weeks to master just one skill, let alone a lot of them.
A minute later, they reached the sewer gate and found it locked with a massive padlock. "Damn it!" Roberta growled. "It's locked... we need something to open it with." She looked around, and her eyes landed on the nearby blacksmith shop. "I'll go bring us a wrench or something. You all hide."
Leon looked for a large bush and rushed toward it. Noel, who carried Beatrice on her back, was just behind him, and they all hid there to wait for Roberta to return. Of them, she looked to be the oldest and most skilled in stealth and combat, so they had no other choice but to trust her.
Roberta really didn't take long, and she was back before they could even fully hide themselves. What surprised Leon more was that she didn't just bring a wrench, but two swords, a dagger, and a shield with her.
She had already concluded that Leon must also possess Noel's [Sword Master] skill, so she brought swords for the two of them, and even got a shield and a dagger for Beatrice so she could protect herself.
"You stole them?" Leon took the sword anyway. In this situation, even he would steal a weapon to be armed and not dive into the sewers barehanded. Roberta smiled. "Burrowed in an emergency." They quickly used the wrench and opened the sewer door, and Leon looked around with a worried look. He didn't see a single guard around here.
"There are no guards around here. Something is off." He told Roberta, and she smiled. "There are a few, but I made sure we avoid them. I got your brother to lower the security around here to make it easier for me to catch you if you ran away without the guards helping you."
The moment they got into the sewers, Beatrice quickly closed her nose in disgust. "This place stinks worse than a horse stable."
"What did you expect?" Noel who carried her growled. "This place would never smell of roses."
Roberta pulled a tiny lantern and gave it to Leon. "You know the way, go ahead. I'll keep everyone protected." She pulled her dagger and looked at the digesting sewage water flowing in the middle of the large tunnel. "I can sense a lot of rats, a few slimes, and even two caimans."
"Follow me. Let's run." Leon started jogging ahead of them. The faster they got out from here the better, so he didn't waste a single second.
As they moved, Beatrice looked at them, and the sewer's walls. "This is a shitty place, isn't it?" Hearing that, Noel sighed. "Stop it! You're not a kid."
Beatrice giggled and looked at her. "What got you pissed off?"
"I'll throw it into the water." Noel growled at her and quickly shifted her attention forward as Roberta got in front of Leon. "What is it?"
Roberta replied with a worried voice. "Rats, a lot of them." She pointed forward and from the darkness, tens of dog sized rabid rats rushed at them.
"Oh! Shit!" Noel stopped running, as she was the only defenseless one, and Beatrice, on her back, also cried. "Which one?" At that moment, Noel really considered just throwing her off her back.
"Don't worry!" Roberta threw a fist forward with an evil grin and opened it up, spreading her fingers as wide as they could go into an open palm.
All of the rats froze for a second, inflated like balloons, and then exploded as all of their blood gushed out of their bodies, leaving them as dry as ash. The blood flew closer to Roberta and formed seven homing blades.
"I never thought that a Lord-class skill would be this powerful! Mine before would've only been able to kill those rats by stopping their blood flow. To draw blood out, I always needed a wound, but now I can just force it out." She laughed and threw a glance back at Leon.
"You can already control it?" Leon asked, and she smiled. "I could control my Blood Master skill since I was nine years old, and I've spent more than a decade mastering it. I've got enough experience."
They immediately got back to jogging as they all wanted to get out of the sewers as soon as possible. "How did you use it before?" Noel asked. "I've got the Sword Master skill, and I trained with the blade, but I don't think I can be as deadly as you with Blood Master."
"We lived different lives. You merely trained. I had to kill to live. I used my skill to block the blood flow to my enemy's brain to knock them out, to make them bleed faster, and to stop my own blood loss." Roberta looked back at Noel. "I'm certain that if you fought to death a few times, you'll start finding creative ways to make your skill deadly."
"We'll worry about that when get out of here." Leon looked back at them, and Beatrice nodded. "Yeah, this place smells like dirty socks marinated in rotten milk for a day or two weeks."