Chương 665: The Caged Dragon

Jonathan was walking beside Tobias. They were moving through ruins that had been swallowed by a forest of roses, the flowers releasing a poisonous mist.

"There really wasn't an easier place for your meeting?" Jonathan asked.

"I told you to keep quiet," Tobias replied. The lich kept walking at the same steady pace as always, neither fast nor slow.

"I just hope this ring is worth it," Jonathan said.

"That's what you came for, isn't it? The man you're meeting has it, right?"

"Correct, Jonathan," Tobias said, already sounding impatient.

"What a detour this turned into. First we helped that mysterious guy, the Narrator, get his poem, and now he gives us something the man with the ring wants."

"Our contact with Looking Glass is also a way of maintaining ties with the organization. Of helping you refine yourself through your time with them. They don't mind working with vampires. Let's just say their field of interest... attracts unusual people." Unusual was putting it mildly. He had met some truly unique people. Scarlett Blackwood was proof enough. She was insane, prone to drifting into her own little delusions. Strange. Sometimes childish, sometimes mature. Some kind of extreme split in her moods.

And on top of that, she talked constantly to her Blood Familiar, which took the form of a hand with a single eye in it.

"I want to know when I'm going to awaken a Blood Familiar. That thing's incredibly useful," Jonathan said.

"A Blood Familiar is not something every vampire gets. It is a very specific branch of power, though a versatile and valuable one," the lich said.

"Scarlett has one. I saw it spying for her, sneaking into places. It could even turn into a puddle of blood and slip into wounds or... other weird places."

"How large is your ego, Jonathan?"

"Hm? What does that have to do with anything?" The lich sighed.

"You really didn't study the material I gave you, did you?"

"Yes, I did."

"If you had, you would remember this. You would remember the note that said the requirement for awakening a Blood Familiar is a mystery and unique to each individual. But there is one pattern. They tend to awaken in those without inflated egos, perhaps as a reflection of their nature. A Blood Familiar is a helper. Someone with an oversized ego does not want help. He wants to prove his own worth. Do you understand, Jonathan? If you had learned to set your ego aside, you might have awakened one.

Now that you've advanced this far, it will be much harder for you. Your laziness with reading sabotaged you. Stupidity."

"I wasn't stupid. I just focused on what actually mattered to me, and it worked. I got a second class that uses an axe, and it's influenced by vampiric paths on top of that. I'm the only one in this universe with the Laziurus bloodline. So what if I don't have a familiar?"

"Yes. Ego," the lich said.

"There is nothing inherently wrong with having one, Jonathan. Don't misunderstand me. But ego must be matched by power. You need the strength to justify it. And you do not have that."

"I'm not the one serving a Rank E in the hope that he'll turn me into a vampire." A hand moved so fast Jonathan barely saw it. Tobias caught him by the throat and held him there, staring straight into him.

"Watch your words." Then he let go and kept walking. Jonathan kept quiet for most of the walk. Sometimes he forgot how unsettling the lich could be. I just need to reach Rank D, turn this man and the others from the church into vampires, then say goodbye and go my own way. Jonathan had no interest in joining their organization or their religion, no interest in worshiping the god who stood at the summit of the Laziurus bloodline. But he had made a pact with that god.

In exchange for the bloodline power he had been given, he would transform the church's members into vampires. For now, he would keep following orders, and so far that had worked out well enough, since it was helping him grow stronger. After that, Jonathan intended to go his own way. Toward what he had been meant to become. He had been the most special person in the tutorial. And he would climb the steps he deserved. He would build his own Bastion, like Bartholomew. He would be a king.

But to move forward cleanly, he was considering killing everyone else who had escaped the tutorial. Erasing every last reminder of who he used to be. And avenging his beloved Angélica as well. If she could see how powerful he had become, she would have chosen him.

"At this rate, I'm not going to reach Rank D before the event ends."

"What I'm about to do will help you reach Rank D before the event ends," Tobias replied.

"But it's not enough to hit Rank D at level one hundred. I need level one-ten too. If I'm lucky." At Rank E, vampire skills unlocked every five levels. But at Rank D, they only appeared every ten. And leveling race was harder than leveling class or profession, even though killing with vampire powers granted bonus race experience. That was why a class evolved under the influence of vampiric powers could be so rewarding. Those skills linked back to race skills and gave even more bonus experience on kills.

Not to mention the class synergies that opened up with vampire skills.

"Then pray you're lucky enough to unlock the skill to turn a human into a vampire at level one-ten," the lich said.

"Explain something to me. If I convert a Rank D human, do they automatically awaken the ability to convert another human into a vampire?"

"No. It's exactly as the material I gave you explained. The later in life someone becomes a vampire, the worse it is. A level one hundred human turned into a vampire is, in terms of potential, inferior to a level fifty human who undergoes the same transformation."

"I know that much. The paths are basic." Whenever a vampire skill unlocked, two options appeared. And when someone became a vampire, they instantly awakened every vampire skill they had previously missed. But they did not get to choose which ones. The System assigned the most basic version from each of the two options. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. For some, that did not matter.

But there were specific skils that could appear at low vampire levels and became far stronger, and much more useful, later on. Like [Blood Core Expansion I], which a few lucky vampires managed to unlock absurdly early. Normally, it did not even begin appearing as an option until around level one-fifty. [Blood Core Expansion I (Ancient)]: A natural evolution of the Blood Core that expands the vampire's capacity to store vital energy.

This enhancement allows the core to hold an additional 25 units of Blood Energy, significantly extending its natural reserves. A rare and ancient improvement, a sign that the vampire's blood is beginning to adapt, expanding its dark heritage and strengthening the core that sustains its immortality. And Jonathan had somehow unlocked that skill while still only Rank E. They kept running into enemies along the way. Tobias killed them easily.

Using one of his profession skills, he conjured a metal sphere, something very close to a cannonball, then used one of his telekinetic variations to launch it with crushing force. A group of vampires that crossed their path was flattened beneath the lich's cannonballs.

"This damned forest doesn't feel natural to this planet," Jonathan said.

"That's Damian's doing. Even before the System, I heard he worked with plants."

"The vampire lord? Interesting."

"It's his way of protecting his vampires and building a hunting ground for them. Follow the right path and you'll find Damian's manor."

"Then why didn't you take me to that meeting? It sounded a lot more interesting than wherever we're going now."

"Because I'm not foolish enough to take the only Laziurus vampire in this universe to meet a Vampire Lord from a rival bloodline," Tobias said.

"Maybe. But it's not like he'd know it was me. There's no detector for vampire bloodlines. You could've found a way. I was just curious to see what a powerful vampire is capable of."

"You wouldn't learn anything from Damian. The only thing he does is spend all day in bed with women, indulging himself with his little harem."

"When I become king of my own realm, I'll have a harem too," Jonathan said. Maybe he would even be merciful enough to spare a few of the women from the tutorial. He would need slaves, after all.

"The most astonishing part of all this," the lich said, "is that you genuinely believe you could not only win over one woman, but several, and convince them to form your harem. You have absolutely no charisma, Jonathan. Still, thank you for the joke. It made me feel human for a moment." The lich was laughing under his breath as he walked. Jonathan bristled.

"Who said I'd need their permission? I'm a vampire. I'm not specializing in hypnosis and charm for nothing. Any woman I want, I'll have." When they stepped into a clearing, twenty people were already there waiting for them. They had come out of ruined buildings and hollow trees, surrounding them. Most carried crossbows, and some of them even had sights attached like firearms.

"You two better not do anything stupid," one of the men said.

"The tall skinny one, lower your hood slowly."

"And empty your storage items too." Jonathan and Tobias said nothing. Then the lich lowered his hood.

"What the hell is that? Is that guy some kind of goddamn mummy?" Tobias answered by summoning several cannonballs in the air and firing them. Bolts flew toward him, but Jonathan was protected by a magical shield.

"My turn," Jonathan said, leaping high and pointing a finger. A blood bullet shot out and killed one of them instantly. He dropped between two others, axe already in hand, drove it into one man's chest, then bit a woman's neck, wounding her with one of his bite skills. Blood soaked her clothes. Jonathan hurled the axe into another target, and when that one died, the body burst apart in a spray of blood. Within minutes, everyone had been slaughtered.

They kept moving until the forest ended and they stepped out into the snow, heading toward two towers.

"Finally. We're almost there," Jonathan said. They had reached the transaction point.

"I can feel a disturbance in the mana here," the lich said, quickening his pace.

"And what exactly does that mean?"

"There's a battle happening. Focus your hearing." Jonathan was terrible at using his senses at full strength. Everything was too loud, too full of smells, too much all at once. They climbed the snowy hill, and halfway up they heard explosions from the top, and from somewhere beyond the other side.

"We arrived at a good time," Jonathan said. When they reached the summit, he saw two figures fighting, an archer firing blue arrows and another whose whole body was engulfed in flames. Below, on the far side of the hill, a large group was battling a smaller one. Farther off still, across a frozen stretch of river, two people were fighting. Then Jonathan recognized one of them.

"Luke." It could not be him. There was no way, in this world, that he would run into one of the people he most wanted dead.

"Stay close to me until I understand what's happening here," Tobias began, but he was already behind him, because Jonathan had ignored him.

"I'm going to kill you, Luke!" he shouted as he charged downhill toward him.

Luke hurled a knife toward the building the arrows had come from, and it detonated with [Shadow Mana Explosion]. Then suddenly, a figure dropped in front of them.

"You come to my home and still have the nerve to destroy it?" the man said.

"A Rhiannon." Luke recognized him at once. He was the Rhiannon from the citadel, Allison's relative. The man looked to be around forty, with long blond hair.

"Well now. So you know my family name. Don't tell me you're a subject of our kingdom." He paused for a moment.

"Though... no. You're not." The certainty in his voice made it clear he had some way of confirming whether someone truly belonged to his kingdom.

"I was there during the vote at the citadel," Luke said, even as he used his 360-degree vision to check where Charlie was. Farther ahead, another Rhiannon approached, younger, maybe twenty-five, also with long blond hair. It made Luke realize blond might simply be a signature trait of the Rhiannon family. Allison was blond too. The only exception he had seen was Queen Rhiannon, whose hair was white.

"At the citadel vote, hm?" the older Rhiannon said.

"We even spoke for a moment," Luke replied. At the same time, he studied the two enemies in front of him more carefully. They had already attacked, and if that arrow had landed cleanly, the damage would have been serious. The younger Rhiannon carried a bow that looked as though it had been carved from ice.

"We spoke?" the older man asked.

"I see. Still, I don't remember your face. There's no reason for me to waste memory on someone so irrelevant."

"But I remember his, Uncle Lucien," the younger one said.

"He's the one who spoke Allison Rhiannon's name."

"Ah, I see. Yes, I vaguely remember something like that, Curtis," Lucien said. Now Luke had their names. Lucien and Curtis Rhiannon.

"I've been curious since that day," Curtis said.

"How do you know the name of someone from the royal family? Especially the name of the one least known. The caged dragon."

"Tell us, irrelevant face. How do you know the name of that unwanted woman?" Lucien asked.

"I don't have to tell you a fucking thing," Luke said. Charlie moved to Luke's side, sword in hand.

"If that's how you want to do this..." Lucien said.

"Curtis, kill the knight. I'll make this one talk." Curtis raised the bow with blinding speed and fired. The arrow exploded into snow. It was so close that Luke could hardly believe the man would really detonate something like that at point-blank range. He dodged. Charlie tried to pull away too, but the blast of snow still caught her, and her body was thrown backward. Charlie!

"Knight down," Curtis said.