For a second, Ray didn't know how to quite take the news that he had just been told. It was quite possible the Divine being was lying to him. But why would there be a need to? After all, they both had a similar end goal in sight.

  Now knowing about this, Ray started to recall all the times he had used mana steal. Every time he had encountered a tough situation, he had used it. During his time as a human, it was just impossible to count.

  It had always saved him in a pinch.

  In some cases, Ray would use it directly with people, most of the time on his enemies, but there were times when he used it on Jack as well. 'Does it affect them more if I use it directly?'

  Then he started to think about when he used it as a whole. As long as they were contracted, Ray was able to use mana steal on them. When doing it this way, there was no way for him to pick and choose who he took mana from. The power that was taken was distributed equally.

  'That doesn't bother me……' Ray was about to think but then he started to remember those that were contracted. It included some of the elderly, such as Von. His first teacher.

  Ray didn't know how old he was, but taking life force from him, someone who probably didn't have long left in this world and one who had only helped him, started to make him feel a little sick in his stomach.

  Seeing how Ray had paused from the news, Bliss could see that this was affecting him quite a bit.

  'You really have changed Sen, and you don't even realize it yet.' At first, Bliss was unsure if even letting him know would be useful. The Sen she knew didn't care for human lives. As long as it benefited him and took him towards his goal, who would care if he took a little bit of their life source.

  But seeing the current outcome, she was happy that she did.

  However, Ray had become deeply connected with the people around him. Many of them had chosen to follow and trust him, and that was now a heavy weight on him. How could he betray their trust by taking their life force.

  "Thank you." Ray said. It was an unexpected phrase she had never heard from him and she was taken aback by it, suddenly after saying those words he had turned around and just left.

  "Wait!" Bliss said. "Don't you want an explanation, or a solution, or maybe you're going to tell me how you don't care?"

  "Why?" Ray replied. "The solution is a simple one. I just need to stop using the skill mana steal. I should have done this from the beginning. I need to rely on my own power and not that of others. This is good for me."

  A slight smile appeared on his face as he started to think of the effects of mana steal. "Besides, this is just another way to get back at those that deserve it. Not only will I take their ability to use magic or Ki, but cause them an even greater pain that they can't see with their eyes."

  With those words said, Ray had left the room, and Bliss was starting to shake her head. Although he had improved, he still had a long way to go. 'Cruel to your enemies but kind to your allies, huh? I guess this isn't a bad result.'

  The mana steal skill was a strong one, but it was made taboo a long time ago, and was classified as forbidden magic lost between humans. At first, it was used to take the life force out of plants and such. As a dragon, Sen's natural presence when he was angry allowed him to do this easily.

  It wasn't a surprise that Sen had never noticed this before, Bliss thought. Somehow, Ray had managed to surround himself with strong willed people. The mana steel didn't seem to affect them as much. Still, after spending some time in the company of the people at the redwing kingdom, Bliss felt like it was her duty to also look after the people that were currently looking after her.

  With everything that was going on and a plan of action, Ray decided there were a few things that needed to be done. If possible, he would have liked to head to the empire ahead of time, before the tournament would start. There were a few reasons for this, but the main one was because he wanted to get to the king tier level as fast as possible.

  Hopefully, there were plenty of beasts in the empire for him to hunt. Leaving the city, Ray decided he would disguise himself, covering up his red hair, and taking on the appearance of Nes the adventurer. His reason for doing so was now that his face was well known around the city, it was nearly impossible for him to walk on his own outside without getting recognized or stopped.

  His destination was the city gate, hoping that he would be able to catch Jack and the others at this time. As he arrived at the gate, just a little up ahead, he could see Jack and the several carriages that were coming towards them, and it seemed like they had managed to pick up Kyle along the way.

  The guards quickly approached them and allowed the slaves to deboard, as they took them off around the side of the gate This was because most of the city guards were busy dealing with the citizens who were registering to become a part of the Redwing kingdom.

  As soon as this happened though, a system notification suddenly appeared in front of him.

  [Task complete X10!]

  [32/1000 tasks remaining]

  [New skills have been unlocked]

  'I still have so many tasks' Ray thought looking at the daunting number.

  ****

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