Chapter 49: Visiting Underworld, Blood Verification
"Adrian, you should go back," Nisha said, folding her arms.
He looked at her.
Then his gaze shifted to Melissa and Lucas.
Would his son end up like them?
Children who never knew what it meant to live normally, whose hands were stained with blood before they were even grown?
"Adrian," Elias said. "Just because your son becomes an Exorcist doesn’t mean he can’t live a good life.
"I know you never liked this life, but that doesn’t mean he won’t. I do. So do our siblings. So do these kids."
He leaned forward slightly.
"You shouldn’t force your own values on him.
"Maybe what you call normal isn’t normal for him.
"A life where he would not know about Cursed Spirits and their danger, where he wouldn’t know he can die any day, where he wouldn’t be able to protect himself...
"That’s the life of a prey. Of cattle.
"Let him fight. Let him grow stronger.
"That’s how he’ll build a life that feels normal to him," Elias said.
Adrian exhaled slowly and gave a faint, tired smile. "You always have a way with your words."
"Well, I do poetry as a hobby." Elias chuckled.
Adrian shook his head, smiling slightly.
"Alright. Let me talk to Lyra. We’ll come to House Daelthorn in a day or two."
...
??? POV
A figure sat in a dimly lit room.
Papers were scattered across the table, and a faint light flickered from a nearby lamp.
A man knelt before the figure, head lowered.
"Adrian is still alive. The Cursed Spirit who corrupted him was exorcised. And we still don’t know who did it."
The figure didn’t respond.
Only the sound of rustling paper filled the room.
"The Provisional House Head plans to bring Adrian back to the main estate," the man continued carefully. "That will make it harder for us to eliminate him. Should we act before he reaches the estate?"
There was a long pause.
The figure flipped through the report, eyes scanning each line slowly.
Then, a faint smile appeared on the figure’s face, to the man’s surprise.
"No," the figure said softly. "This is better. Let Adrian come back."
The man’s shoulders stiffened.
He didn’t understand, but the calm tone made his chest tighten.
No matter how he thought about it, bringing Adrian back would only make things more difficult.
But the figure’s smile said otherwise.
Something was already planned.
And that made the man shudder.
...
MC POV
The Underworld was open all day and night.
Its network reached almost every hidden city, Exorcist enclave, and secret user around the world.
People used it to hire hitmen, post assassination requests, trade cursed artifacts, sell rare alchemy materials, or upload information for collectors to buy.
Black markets like these weren’t illegal.
They were like normal markets, just for Exorcists instead of mundane humans.
"Now, let’s get started."
I opened a hidden folder on my computer and ran a program I had made over the last two years.
It was a custom script—a spoofing and cloaking tool that hid my connection and erased any trace of my location.
The code wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
My parents thought I used the computer to watch videos and play Flash games.
In truth, I was building this.
They never bothered to ask what I was actually doing.
Once the program was running, I opened the browser and typed the address.
The Underworld website loaded instantly.
At first glance, it looked like a normal site with just pages about old myths, monsters, and fake stories about gods.
To anyone outside the Exorcist world, it looked like a harmless fan site.
I clicked the crescent moon symbol in the corner.
A login box appeared. I selected [Create New Account] and a form showed up.
Name:
"Alan Veritus," I typed, using one of my prepared aliases.
The next fields were Age, Region, and Class.
Age and Region were optional, but Class mattered.
Most people lied here or left it blank, but I needed mine to be real if I wanted to make money.
I entered: 3-Star Mage.
That was an impressive rank, even for people who’d worked as Exorcists for decades.
After I finished, a message appeared.
...
[Registration must be completed through Blood Verification.]
Would you like to proceed with the test?
[Yes] [No]
Note: Upon selecting "Yes," a one-time portal will form next to you. Drop a small amount of blood into it to complete registration. Your account will be bound to your blood. Each person may only create one account. Password recovery is also blood-verified.
Reminder: We do not and cannot track the physical location of users. Portals are generated via relative-position artifact, not GPS.
...
I leaned back a little.
That part was true.
In my last life, when I came back to earth, I’d researched how Underworld created blood portals for verification.
The system they used was thanks to a Cursed Spirit, not artifact.
If people knew that, there would’ve been chaos.
Feeding blood to a Cursed Spirit was risky.
’I know it’s not harmful. And since the portal is made by a Cursed Spirit, they can’t control it completely. All they can make it do is open a portal near me and take the blood.’
That meant they couldn’t track me.
Even if my blood data leaked, I’d be fine.
I had drunk a Blood Veil Elixir a while ago.
I clicked [Yes].
A small red swirl appeared in the air beside me.
It pulsed softly, twisting like liquid light.
I took out a knife, pricked my finger, and let a drop fall into it.
The red swirl flashed once, then vanished.
The screen updated again.
...
[Registration Complete]
Welcome, Alan Veritus
Account ID: #U-349128
Class: 3-Star Mage
Exorcist Rank: Rank 0
Blood-Bound: Verified
Status: Normal User
Balance: $0
...
I finally had access to the Underworld.
The screen turned black with red and silver borders.
The top menu read: [Market] [Services] [Weapons] [Jobs] [Information] [Account].
I clicked [Market].
...
[Beast Fang - Direwolf, Rank 1] - $30,000
[Fireroot Ash (Alchemy Material)] - $5,500 per gram
[Cursed Dagger of Forgotten Vale, Rank 1] - $32,000
[Mana Core of Evil Turakh (Lesser)] - $45,000
[Nightshade Powder, Refined] - $21,000
[Service: Hire Tracker (Low-Grade)] - Starts at $2,000
...
I stared at the screen, speechless.
Everything was ridiculously expensive.
’I’ll need a lot of money for the ingredients I want.’
Even though Yuna could enchant basic materials, they still needed to be close to the real ones I needed.
I switched to the [Alchemy] tab.
Rows of rare items filled the page.
These were things grown by Exorcists or collected from Cursed Spirit domains.
"I don’t see a catalyst here. I guess I’ll have to make one myself."
"You can create a catalyst, Lord of Shadows?"
"Yes."
Even without Catalysts, the Underworld was valuable.
I could now buy rare alchemy materials.
More importantly, I could sell potions.
Potions were always in demand, even simple healing ones.
Selling them could earn money, or favors.
Delivery was quite easy too. It could be done through masked drop-points or teleport crates, depending on one’s security preferences.
Of course, I’d first need to prove I was an actual alchemist.
"I don’t need to sell potions yet," I said.
Yuna tilted her head. "Then what will you do?"
I smiled faintly. "I already have an easier way to earn money right now."