Chapter 75: [How it happened!]
[Adrian's POV!]
While others were busy doing their own things, I talked with the prince about a couple of questions that would solidify the direction of my plans. And much to my delight, the prince solved more than 70% of my queries as he answered everything honestly.
Though for the most part it was him getting a bottle of [Mana Blood], in exchange for each honest answer he gave me.
The story was pretty simple.
The vampire's power increases to at least 10 times at night in comparison to the day. It's not that they can't travel during the day, or the sunlight would kill them, as the usual myth goes, but more around the fact that the sun weakens their blood regeneration, putting a huge limit on their physical power.
If at night, they could regenerate even severed limbs, in the morning even a single scratch would take hours to heal. The severity was this bad.
Now, when the humans attacked the kingdom, they didn't give any form of warnings to the vampires. They simply opened up a portal in the central city and began killing all the vampires they could find.
The human's nature was completely opposite to what the vampire's was. Their power increases according to the sunlight they receive, and decreases in the absence of the sun. Under normal conditions, the power balance should have been neutral given how each part had an advantage over the others during a portion of the day-night cycle.
But the humans were far more cruel than the vampires could have anticipated. They took on the blood of the vampires and began experimenting on them, without any regard for morality or rules.
What was considered taboo for vampires, was done on a daily basis by the humans. Those experiments resulted in two things.
One was the decline in power of the vampires. Firstly, directly by the reduced man power due to the kidnapping and secondly, by the special holy drug that they developed after experimenting for months.
That drug was like a poison to the vampires, which kept them weak even during the night. And it made the condition far worse for them in the battle. Even though the stronger vampires somehow resisted the drug, the situation was turning unfavorable day by day.
The second result of the experiment was the growth of power of those humans using the vampire blood. It wasn't as potent as a true vampire's power, but it was able to give at least half of the strength to the humans that a vampire could possess.
For some reason, even though the humans could conquer more than just the city, they didn't. Instead they began creating a fortress, and in a way, a type of farm where they slaved the vampires and took their blood for experimentation.
"I do not know what happened after I was captured but that's the gist of the situation," the 12 year old prince spoke as he gulped down another packet of blood. His complexion was now pretty much good, with his body becoming much more healthy than he was when I found him.
His white hair and red eyes were pretty iconic. And his complexion and facial features were something that screamed 'I am a protagonist' kind of aura.
'I should find my own pushover protagonist fast as well… ' I thought as there were a lot of things pending in that area as well. I needed someone who can do all my work without making me involved… I wonder when I will find someone like that?
Looking back at the prince, I then thought of the [Hidden Quest!] that still wasn't completed.
[Quest: The cry of the Fallen Prince!
Difficulty: Insane!
Description: The Kingdom of Reiga has been taken over by the humans. Even though they could have killed all the vampires, they decided to treat them as livestock, using their blood for their own purposes. One of the Vampires, the Fallen Prince Lincoln, a mere 12 years old boy, was thrown into the underground prison, becoming a mere plaything for the Saintess' pleasures.
He is barely able to keep his sanity, but given how he is tortured every night, he won't be able to survive for long.
Objective: Save the Fallen Prince from the clutches of the Saintess
Time limit: 6 Days 23 Hours!
Reward: [ Next Chain Quest - The Last Hope of Reiga!] ]
And then focusing back on that guy, I asked," Prince Lincoln, are you all right? I mean after all those things that the Saintess did to you?"
As soon as I mentioned that Saintess name, a deep rooted fear appeared on the face of the prince. His complexion worsened as if I had triggered some form of PTSD. I was wondering how could he be so calm despite all the things that have happened to him so far… so this is how, huh?
'He has partial amnesia,' I sighed as the prince started shaking vigorously before I touched his head.
[Would you like to remove the memories of what the Saintess did to the Prince and cure his mental disorder?]
[Checking for permission from the Target! Error! Target is unable to give permission based on his condition! Checking for the optimal path! Based on the Laws and Regulations of Section 75ABE4, you have given permission to treat the prince!]
[The total cost is: 53,421 GM. Would you like to proceed with the cost?]
'Hmmm… ' I looked at the message for a few seconds before pressing [Yes]. I needed the prince for my future plans. Especially if I wanted to end the tutorial with a perfect rating.
The Prince then calmed down as he took a deep breath. His eyes were trying to focus but something was preventing him from doing so. He then observed me with a deep look as he asked,
"What… Did you do?"
"Nothing really. Do you feel better now?" I asked him, to which he touched his chest. I let him take his moment, in which he kept quiet for a few minutes. And then he looked at me before speaking,
"I feel odd. As if something is missing."
I pondered for a few moments before deciding to tell the truth. It would be better if he knows it, or else those missing memories would become another reason for his insanity. Not something I would really like to have.
I explained a bit about what the saintess had done to him, and how he reacted to my words. Given that he was turning pretty much useless, I told him that I decided to erase those memories along with all the trauma he had. I said that it was one of my skills, to which he was surprised.
As I explained everything to him, he calmed down much more. He then smiled as he bowed politely before speaking,
"Thank you. Given how I feel much better now, I believe you are telling the truth. Thank you for saving me. Though… you never told me. Who exactly are you? You said you were an otherworlder and it was your quest to save me.
Can you explain that in more detail?"
"Sure. But let's walk outside first. I need you to collect all the vampires for me, and give a bunch of orders. If we want to recapture the castle, we will be needing each and every person available here," I said as I stood up before beginning to walk towards the upper floors of the basement.
Since he has sincerely explained everything that I asked him, I thought it would be fine to give him all the answers as well. Hence, as we walked I began telling him a bunch of things about the tasks we received when we entered this world.
…
While Adrian was talking to the prince, everyone else was also busy doing their own thing.
The players were crazily hunting all the marked enemies in the castle, killing them over and over for points. Fights were occuring in each and every corner of the castle, as the hunt kept on going.
Some of the players, like the girls group, used this opportunity to improve their coordination even further and tried to kill the twin vampires faster than before. Similarly, Alice's group was also pretty much giving their all in trying to kill the saintess. Even though they haven't succeeded even once, they pretty much were giving a hard time to the saintess who could barely keep up with them.
Finally, there were three players whose task was much different from the rest of the players. They were the old party members of Adrian. Levi, Avida and Boss, who were tasked by me for three particular things.
One was to find out the secret treasure and steal as much as possible from there. It was Avida's task, and Adrian had given her the complete manual to where all the treasures were.
The second was to find out the main power supply of the base. That was also supposed to have the key to the barrier in the outer gate, and since the structure looked rather complex, Levi was tasked to find out more about the entire thing located at the south west of the castle, in a special room.
Lastly, the task to make sure the Prince doesn't get out of his room. This was because the Prince was the strongest among all the people present in the castle. Adrian might be able to take him on, but that would waste a lot of time for him, hence this task was given to Boss.
Though…
She failed.