Bloodlines Online

Ezekiel followed the hybrid woman through the school while she told him about the different subjects taught there.

As he was following through the halls he noticed the mana in the area was shockingly thin but he assumes this might be due to the high number of mages.

During their walk Ezekiel kept a close eye on the classrooms that she told him about since they could be very useful later, a large number were focused on magical crafting as well so they would make a good place to practice.

Eventually they reached a vaulted entrance that led to what looked like the lunch room but it had features he wouldn’t have expected.

There were tables of course but he saw that they were lined up in the center of the room while the walls had booths surrounding tables, these booths looked much more comfortable since they were basically couches surrounding the table in a semicircle.

As he examined the room further he saw that there was a second floor that had a balcony looking down on the first, the entire place looked luxurious.

”My coven is on the balcony but do you want something to eat first?”

He stopped staring at the room and turned back to her.

”Uhhh... they let non students eat here?”

”As long as they have the coin and are guests yeah, anyone can.”

He nods before following her.

When she shows him the variety of food he looked for unfamiliar things first.

’If I’m in a fake world where magic and creatures exist then I want to try the cool stuff.’

He checked for prices but he couldn’t really find anything so he just started to stack up a platter like his guide was.

He first used his mana sight to find anything that had a high mana density which led him to a set of blue herbs, he grabbed a couple before just looking at the most interesting food he could find.

By the end of it he had a platter that held a plate of weird looking fish, some magical herbs, a rack of meat from some creature and a plate of what seemed to be a salad that held what he could only assume to be monster cores.

When he got to the counter with the devil she stared at him with a look of shock and barely hidden amusement.

”You have some expensive tastes huh?”

The worker approached and stared at him like he was a bug before speaking.

”You really want all that? You can’t put it back you know so I hope you can afford it.”

He nods and opened his inventory to remove the payment.

”Alright well all together you owe seven hundred and fifty gold.”

He nods before taking out a platinum dragon coin.

”This should be enough for my food and her food right?”

The worker and his guide stood there with hanging jaws as he set the coin down.

”Let’s meet this coven then?”

He waited for her to gather herself before he followed behind, the whole time people were whispering about this strange figure hiding behind mana that was showing off his wealth.

He ignored the women gossiping as if they didn’t exist and he just followed.

When she sat down at a booth he joined her, the group of women greeted her but when they saw Ezekiel they started to act a bit strangely.

”So Jamaya... who’s the mage?”

”He’s hiding his face so he must be pretty ugly.”

”Actually I never got his name but he just bought me lunch... and I think you girls will be surprised by what he paid for.”

As he sat down they began to gawk at the food.

He was trying out each dish, the herbs had a taste similar to mint but they were very sweet as if he was eating mint flavored sugar cane and while he was exploring what the mana of the herb did in his body he looked to the women.

”My name is Belial and I met Jamaya in the library.”

”Belial? What an odd name.”

Jamaya then spoke up on his behalf.

”He’s definitely not ugly and he’s apparently rich.”

Jamaya was laughing while telling the group about how they met.

”So he’s a hybrid and an otherworlder huh? Please tell me he doesn’t have a coven!”

”I don’t intend to join a coven since harems are usually frowned upon in my world’s culture.”

”A male with a spine? I like~”

He rolled his eyes behind the veil of shadows while eating.

”He said no so we should respect his wishes.”

”Jamaya said that your coven could teach me more about hybrids and how this culture handles them?”

”Well the only hybrids that can pass for normal devils without extra help are those with elven blood since we already have longer ears.”

She pointed to her own ears which were noticeably longer than the others.

Another leaned forward and gave a broad smile that showed a ranged maw.

”Those with a draconic lineage have to hide their teeth and typically have to use makeup to hide the scales on our skin.”

He nods as he listens to them speak.

”They don’t exactly treat hybrids well but if you inherited a powerful element or even an additional element from your parents the culture tends to tolerate you.”

He was eating the roasted meat now when he heard this so he asked a questionthat popped into his mind.

”If they are so determined to get their society to a stronger state of magical power then why would they treat you poorly for being stronger than them?”

”They tolerate hybrids because a hybrid would add the elements to the lineage of a devil that they may create in the future, if you had the element of ice in your lineage then your parents may try to marry you off to a family that has a latent or even active ice element in their bloodline.”

He frowned as he thought about this possibility.

”I see...”

He was getting annoyed by these stories, the idea of a child being forced into a marriage just because of a bloodline that their own parents caused.

A family condemning their child to suffer due to their half blood nature and then selling them to another family just to act as breeding stock for spreading this elemental power was easily the most disgraceful thing he could imagine.

”I think I’m ready to leave... the way this culture treats their children makes me want to go anywhere else.”

He was so disturbed by the way they described their culture that he stood up and began to leave without even finishing his food.

Jamaya quickly grabbed his hand to stop him and although he wanted to yank it away he did not.

”What do you want.”

”Listen Belial, our parents do these things out of love ok? My own parents fell in love so when they had my siblings and myself they made sure that we grew up with other hybrids.”

She was smiling and holding his hand carefully to try to pull him back.

”They loved you huh? Yeah I’m sure they did love you but how can they just try to put up into a marriage like that?”

”Your world doesn’t have arranged marriages?”

He stops as he remembered that even now there were cultures that arranged marriages for their children.

He eventually nods.

”Yeah but most people consider those cultures to be very backwards these days and those backwards ideas are ignored.”

”You ignore your culture?!”

One of the women gasps.

”No we don’t ignore our culture, this wasn’t part of my culture... think about it the way elves have multiple cultures among their race you know?”

They start nodding in understanding.

”Your world has elves then?”

”No we don’t have elves... whatever let’s change the subject.”

He holds up a bite of the herbs he had been eating.

”Tell me about these herbs, the mana has been moving through my body all this time but I don’t know what it actually does.”

”Oh those are cleansing herbs, they worm their way through your system and start to pull the impurities in your mana out to be removed with the herb when it... you know.”

He nods before picking at the salad.

”Why is this full of mana cores?”

They laugh a bit and one of them even takes a core to bite into, he decides to follow her lead and when he bites into the core it reminded him of a gummy.

The core was full of mana and the texture was much softer than the glass like orbs found in the creatures slain outside

”This doesn’t taste like anything... the texture is kind of gross too.”

As the mana in the core was absorbed by his body he kept eating since he wanted to finish before leaving.

The cores had low levels of mana in them but he was curious about what a core with high mana density would be like.

”What would happen if you ate a raw core?”

”Ooooh bad idea, don’t do that.”