1000x Random Returns: Investing in My Crippled Demon Wives!

Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Empty and Disappointingly Dry on the Inside!

The silence pressed in, heavier with every passing second.

Lucien’s hand drifted toward his storage ring, closing around the newly bought scythe’s handle as he pulling it out.

He activated Sanguine Perception, letting his awareness stretch outward.

Nothing.

No heartbeats sounded, no blood flow that he could see and no presence at all.

’Either I’m completely alone in whatever place this is,’ he thought, his pulse ticking upward, ’or whoever’s here knows exactly how to hide from my senses.’

Neither option felt reassuring.

As he thought, a presence suddenly bloomed behind him, not approaching from behind and announcing itself with footsteps.

It was just suddenly there, like it appeared from nothing.

---

The figure said nothing and attacked immediately it’s short sword came in a silent stab, aimed straight for his spine.

Lucien spun on instinct and due to picking up its presence, his scythe snapping upward to block.

CLANG.

The impact sent him sliding backward several feet, boots scraping stone.

’Yep, he’s definitely stronger than me.’ He thought, activating his mana sensing skill he got from investing and focused on the figure.

’With this amount of mana, it should be B rank atmost, hopefully.’

He straightened, studying the attacker properly now full black cloak, face entirely obscured in the hood, no crest and no insignia, nothing identifying it beyond the short sword still gripped in one gloved hand.

’What are you, an introvert’s final form?’

He squinted, trying to find even a millimeter of exposed skin.

’Seriously, are you an assassin or just aggressively allergic to the sun?’

Scarlet Perception flared again, straining against something that refused to resolve into a clean reading.

’Fantastic, very helpful, thanks for barely anything.’

The figure didn’t speak or move, it just watched him.

”You know,” Lucien said, rolling his shoulders, ”most people at least introduce themselves before trying to gut me.”

Nothing, it didn’t respond or even appear like it heard him at all.

”Okay, skipping the polite part it seems. Got it.”

---

He reached into his storage ring and pulled out several small vials, the various kinds of blood he’d bought the day before, still untested until now, which he was regretting a bit now that he thought about it.

The figure tilted their head slightly, clearly confused by the sight of their target casually drinking blood from vials mid-fight.

Lucien drained them one after another. One. Two. Three.

Then he pulled the last of the Alpha Ironfang blood free from his blood storage ability and used it to activate Crucible Overdrive.

’Let’s see how much I can actually squeeze out of this. Lets hope that it is enough to defeat him.’

He ignited the blood using his mana.

Crucible Overdrive roared to life, the blood erupting into crimson flame that didn’t simply vanish but flowed through him, it refined, breaking down into raw, usable power that flooded through his body all at once.

[Crucible Overdrive Activated.]

[100 Units of C Rank Ironfang Wolf Blood (Mutated Alpha) Ignited.]

[Strength: 310 (+64)]

[Agility: 360 (+128)]

[Vitality: 400 (+71)]

[Mana: 350 (+42)]

[Constitution: 335 (+58) ]

Lucien clenched his fist, feeling strength surge through muscle that suddenly felt denser, faster and stronger, like every part of him had been swapped for a superior version mid-fight.

’The Wolves were fast compared to their strength. Makes sense the agility spiked hardest.’

The assassin finally reacted, head tilting.

”...Blood?”

Their first word.

Lucien grinned. ”You noticed.”

---

He activated the scythe manual next, letting the knowledge flood in, angles, momentum, range, how the curved blade could hook and redirect an opponent’s weapon, how to flow from a sweep into a thrust without wasted motion.

’Knowing it isn’t the same as doing it, though.’

He checked his remaining Technique Comprehension and burned five full days of it in an instant.

[Technique: Reaper’s Crescent (Rare) ]

[Technique Comprehension Used: 5 days.]

[Technique Comprehension Left: 2 days]

This felt almost the same as the sword manual form the previous time. It felt like remembering and like his entire body experienced it, his fingers tightening into a new grip, stance dropping lower, center of gravity shifting without conscious thought.

’Oh,’ he thought, marveling at the sudden clarity.

’So that’s how you’re supposed to move. Though it seems my Scythe does not fit the Technique, the technique needs two smaller scythe’s or sickles attached together with a chain or rope. But this will do for now, I can still use some basic moves.’

Although it felt like minutes had passed in truth only a few seconds passed since learning the technique.

---

The assassin decided to stop watching the show and finally attacked again.

This time Lucien didn’t retreat.

He surged forward instead, and the assassin’s eyes went wide behind the cloak’s shadow, his acceleration had jumped dramatically.

The scythe swept in a wide arc. The assassin barely got their blade up in time.

Lucien rotated the weapon mid-motion, curved edge hooking around the short sword, and pulled.

The assassin’s balance broke.

He followed immediately with a second strike, forcing them to scramble sideways to avoid losing a limb.

The exchange picked up speed, blade against scythe, feint against counter, both of them finding their rhythm and attacking one another.

Lucien deliberately let a slash catch his forearm, blood welling instantly.

He seized it before it hit the ground, weaving it into thin crimson threads that lashed toward the assassin’s ankle.

’Haha, eat blood threads.’

The attacker cut through them without hesitation.

’ Totaly expected that.’

He used the half-second distraction to swing again, the blade tearing clean through the edge of their cloak.

---

Then he found his opening.

He reached for Blood Manipulation, pushing his awareness toward the assassin’s veins, ready to seize control and end this cleanly.

Yet nothing happened.

He pushed harder.

Still nothing.

’What the actual hell?’

He increased the pressure, his mind straining against whatever should have been there, the familiar pulse of blood, the pathways his talent had amde him instinctively understand.

Yet there was nothing to grab onto.Who would have guessed his first ever obstacle was not him being too weak, not his opponent resisting him but their being nothing to manipulate.

’He’s dry and empty.’

He was pretty sure the attacker wasn’t dead, obviously or that he wasn’t an undead. Just that something was wrong with the thing in front of him.

The assassin noticed his confusion.

For the first time, they smiled, visible even through the shadowed hood.

”Interesting, what did you try and do to me?” they said, voice flat and strange.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed. ”You have no blood?”

They said nothing further.

’That’s why Sanguine Perception never caught him coming. There was never anything to detect.’

---

The assassin lunged, blade aimed for his throat noticing his distraction.

But Lucien was ready and highly on alert against this thing, he ducked low, twisted, and brought the scythe up in one clean, decisive arc. At the same time he used his blood to blind the enemy and made blood threads to catch their ankle.

SHNK.

The blade cut clean through, upper half sliding one direction, lower half collapsing the other.

Lucien exhaled hard, breathing ragged.

’Got you.’

”Phew, that was easier than expected, maybe he wasn’t B Rank after all?”

Then he noticed.

No blood sprayed from the wound. No organs spilled loose. No corpse settling the way a corpse should.

The two halves dissolved instead, breaking apart into fine blue particles that scattered and vanished with the air.

Lucien’s satisfaction drained away.

”That’s not normal.”

His mana sensing skill caught something faint just before the particles finished dispersing , a line, thin and strange, going to somewhere else entirely.

’So it wasn’t a person, a puppet, or maybe a clone, but whatever it actually was, it wasn’t what I thought I was fighting.

’Its more likely someting produced by a talent than a bloodline. Now who do I know that has a cloning ability?’

He stood alone in the silent street, scythe still raised, adrenaline slowly draining out of him.

---

Back at the estate, the afternoon carried on undisturbed.

Aurelia moved through another set of forms in the training ground underneath the estate, sweat glistening, focus absolute before finishing and heading up.

Seraphina hummed to herself in her make do workshop, running gentle hands over the surface of her new Epic furnace like it was something precious. Finished playing with it she went down to start making lunch.

Evelisse sprawled across the couch, snacks scattered around her, eyes glued to the television.

Then she paused mid-bite. ”...Where’s Lucien?”

Seraphina glanced at the clock. ”He should be back soon.”

Aurelia’s brow furrowed slightly, some instinct prickling at the back of her mind.

She dismissed it after a moment.

’He’s probably just delayed.’

---

On a treetop in the forest surrounding the estate, a cloaked figure knelt in the shadow of a branch, a small communication crystal glowing faintly in their palm.

”Report,” a voice said through it.

”The target left the estate,” the watcher said quietly. ”He encountered some sort of assassin.”

”Who sent them and what rank were they?”

”Unconfirmed, but from what I sensed they were at B Rank.”

A pause. ”And?”

”The assassin has been eliminated, from what I sense..”

Silence stretched long on the other end.

”...Eliminated?”

”Yes.” The watcher hesitated.

Another pause, longer this time.

”His strength is increasing faster than anticipated,” the watcher added.

”Should I attack?”

The voice on the other end considered this for a long moment.

”No,” it said finally. ”Not yet, wait for Malrith.”

”Carry on observing, I want to know exactly what we’re dealing with first.”

---

Lucien stood alone in the empty street, scythe still in hand, the last blue particles fading from the air around him.

He looked down at the blade, then back toward where the direction of his estate was supposed to be.

Something cold settled low in his gut, refusing to ease.

’That wasn’t an ordinary assassin, it wasn’t even a normal person, as far as I can tell.’

His grip tightened around the scythe’s shaft.

’Whoever sent it,’ he thought, jaw setting, ’already knows more about me than they should.’

’Also why the fuck am I still here, shouldn’t I be back in the city already?’

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.