Chapter 76: [Movements of the Enemy!]
[Location: ???]
In a huge hall, the aftermath of a battle was clear. The walls of the hall were barely holding together, while the roof was gone. Blood was splattered all over the floor, as the body of the bat-like being had fallen on the ground, barely breathing, barely alive.
"Who… are you people?" That bat-like being slowly lost his transformation, as it returned back into the human form. His red eyes and white hair gave a peculiar look on his face. If one has seen the portraits of any of the royal castles around the world, they would have recognized him at once.
He was the Sole King of Vampires. The Strongest Vampire to ever exist in this world.
"We? Just think of us as the new boss of the company. We are here to give you an early retirement from your duties."
The voice belonged to a 23 year old young man standing about 10 meters away from the vampire. The man wore a white robe, covering most of his body except the neck and above. His hairs were blue, while he had a strange white star shaped symbol in his azure eyes.
Wearing glasses, he flipped the pages of the book he was holding until it reached a particular page. And then that man raised his hand towards the vampire before speaking,
"[Skill Book Page 7: The Chronicles of a Necromancer: Spell 7: Command over the Enemy!]"
A strange circle formed around the vampire king, before purple chains appeared from the ground, holding the vampire tightly. The vampire king struggled his best to move, but it was useless. The glowing purple chains covered his entire body before slowly pulling him into the circle.
"Wait! Wait! WHO ARE YOU-" The Vampire king tried to scream but there was no change in expression of the people who captured him.
A few seconds passed as the silence covered the entire area before a being appeared from the same circle. He was the same vampire king, but something was different about him. His eyes were hollow and lifeless, as he looked at the man standing in front of me.
He walked closer to that man, before bowing down and speaking,"my lord! How may I assist you?"
The blue haired guy simply smiled before speaking," pretend as if nothing happened here. Keep on doing whatever you were doing till now. Though before that, come here first."
The vampire king moved forward towards that man, before he took out a purple knife and injected it into the vampire's shoulder.
"This is corrupted energy. Accept its power and let it evolve you one step ahead," that man spoke as he saw the drastic changes in the vampire king. His eyes glowed purple, and there was a strange symbol appearing on the vampire king's head.
"Good. Now, keep on with you work," that man spoke as he then looked at the surroundings before sighing as he spoke,
"I know you are here, 11. Did you finish the work?" He spoke as he looked at one of the bigger fallen rocks on the floor.
A girl, the same one who was sitting on seat 11 at the circular table before, appeared from behind the rocks as she smiled mischievously.
"Sigh. Looking at your expression, you must have finished with the task. Good, now let us depart to the Holy Knights Kingdom. The faster we take control over the two worlds, the faster we can start the next phase."
"I guess so, but not all work is done. There was an additional task given to me by 4, so I must finish that first," Seat 11 spoke as she looked at the man before adding,
"Your gift is really useful for situations like these, huh? Despite it being a non-combat one, you somehow ended up being seat 3. Though… is that really all to it?"
The same mischievous smile appeared on 11's face as she looked at 3. Her eyes were trying to look through 3, but he simply changed the topic.
"What do you mean by another task?"
"It's to find a certain player. His name is Crowley. I have already guessed where he should be, but given he is at least a thousand kilometers away from here, I don't think I would be able to get to him before sunrise," she spoke as she sighed.
"Then go. I will handle the Holy Knight Kingdom people in the meanwhile. Just return after you have finished the work. Since it's just one player, it shouldn't be a problem for you."
"You sure about that? It might get tricky in the holy kingdom. They are pretty vicious, you know?" Seat 11 spoke with a mysterious smile before 3 nodded at her.
He then turned a few pages before chanting,
"[Skill Book: Page 23: The Trials of the Wind Maker: Spell 4: One with the Wind!]"
The spell activated around 11 as she found her weight becoming much lighter than before. She jumped a couple of times before speaking," thanks for the boost. I think I can reach that place before sunrise now."
He nodded before speaking," then let's meet soon," as he vanished from there.
The joyful face of 11, turned pretty serious as soon as 3 went away. She looked at the Vampire king and the surrounding area that had been destroyed with a keen look.
'He is a monster,' she thought as she sighed before looking at the kingdom beyond the castle. All the vampires present there were now dead.
"I guess, it would take some time to catch up to him," she sighed as she injected herself with another dose of corrupted energy before preparing for a run towards the place where she found [Crowley!] was.
Since she couldn't find him out during the orthodox method, she used another method to find him. That is to check for the batch of players who arrived at the same time as him. And using that as a reference, she was certain that Crowley was in the vampire city that was supposedly at the edge of this world.
"All right. Let's see what you are hiding Mr. Crowley," she then ran as fast as she could, moving to the direction where Adrian was.
…
[Location: In the south west area of the castle!]
[Levi's POV!]
-Creak!
Opening the large ass door, I slowly entered the room. Since I was going to be on my own here, I decided to be careful and not get in any fights. The more I could avoid it the better.
Inside the room, there were many glowing machines with various buttons of sorts. I found about a dozen experimentation tubes, each containing different vampires. Some vampires were aged, while others were barely teens. I could see one where the kid seemed to be straight taken out of a pregnant woman.
'Disgusting,' I thought as I moved around the corners of the room. I saw about 5 people in laboratory clothes, working on an unconscious vampire woman. The woman's arms and legs were connected with IV tubes that carries blood out of her body to various machines, while the guys were taking a portion of her flesh and using all forms of liquids to test it.
Slowly moving behind one of the machines, I then tried using my gift on it.
[Gift: Mana Coding!
Grade: Upper Mortal Grade - 9
Effects: Allows the user to connect to any working machine and use mana to change its function! The user can provide input to the machine, making additional commands to the function!
-Unlocks: [Skill: Coding!] [Skill: Mana Engineering!] [Skill: Language Conversion!] [Skill: Binary Input!] [Skill: Mana Interference!] ]
And connecting to the machine, I began using my skills as I tried understanding the structure of the entire thing that this machine controls.
"Let's see what stories you have to tell," I smiled as I mumbled, enjoying the task that was given to me.
…
[Location: In the Treasure Vault Room of the Castle!]
[Avida's POV!]
"There you are!" A gleeful smile was present on my face as I carefully unlocked the room's lock. Breaking it wasn't hard, but the next part was. According to Adrian, the room had a defense system that would activate as soon as I stepped inside the room.
Taking a deep breath, I then focused on the surroundings before I activated one of my skills.
[Thief's Mindset!]
And then dashing into the room as fast as I could.
-Sling! Sling! Sling!
The traps activated at the first step, but I easily avoided it with my flexible body. The next few traps were easy to dodge as well as I could easily see through them before they could even come at me.
"All right. The first part is done," I crossed the trap-filled pathway, before looking at the 8 stone knight golems that were standing between me and the next door where all the treasures were kept.
"Guess, I can't avoid a fight after all," I sighed as I hoped there could be a way to ignore them. But since I don't see any, I tightened my fist as I prepared for a fast battle.
"Come. I have things to steal," I spoke as I looked at the knight who was the closest to me.
…
[Location: Outside the Prince's Room!]
[Evelin's POV!]
"Aren't you cute, miss? Did you really think you could defeat me?" The prince spoke with a calm smile as he looked at me, while I observed him with a narrowed look.
We were currently outside the room as he was cracking his knuckles, while I pressed my lips a bit. The quest failed before it could even start. The prince stepped out right before I could reach the room.
'What should I do now? Should I kill him? Or should I force him back into his room? Adrian said it would be better if the Prince doesn't find out what is happening in the castle. So, would it be all right to kill him? I don't know…'
Honestly. If Adrian wanted me to kill him, he would have asked me to. But if he didn't say anything, then he must have a plan for him.
"Are you scared, miss?" The prince asked with a kind smile before speaking," don't worry. I don't harm girls."
I sighed as I then decided," one arm and one leg should be enough," before I aimed my weapon at him.
[Partial Mana Enchantment: Eyes!]
-Whoosh!
I saw him appearing right in front of me, his fist almost reaching my neck.
[Blink!]
I then used my teleportation to appear just above him, while my crossbow was aimed directly at the weakest point of his shoulder joint.
-Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot! Shot!
Five shots at once, they hit his shoulder, creating a small dent there as I gauged the power required to actually do some damage.
[Blink!]
That prince almost turned around and caught me, but using teleportation, I teleported 5 meters behind, before jumping a few more steps back.
Taking a proper stance, I then observed him once again.
"3 minutes," I calculated as I looked at his shoulders again, while he stood there in the same position where he was trying to catch me. He observed me with the same annoying smile as he asked,
"3 minutes?"
"I think 3 minutes should be enough," I spoke as I then activated my skill.
[Camouflage!]