CH 69

‘This is strange.’

Eugene was quite puzzled. Even after an hour of exploring the dungeon, he had not encountered any monsters. Usually, he would have at least detected the presence of monsters, but he could not feel even the faintest trace of their energies. The only thing that was out of place was the chaotic footprints of the monsters littering the ground. However, he was able to trace the direction of the monsters’ movement due to the trails.

‘If that’s the case.’

It was quite simple.

Fwoosh!

Eugene ran. He determined the direction of the monsters’ movement with his heightened senses, and Eugene ran like the wind.

Kuwaaagh! Kieek!

He could hear the cries of monsters as he continued. However, the sounds weren’t growing louder as quickly as he had expected.

After a while, Eugene was able to determine the reason for the strange phenomenon.

Kieeeeekk!

Even though an intruder was in their territory, the monsters were running away instead of rushing at the unwelcomed guest.

“…?”

Eugene felt rather flustered after witnessing the monsters jump in fear and frenzy away.

“It’s because the monsters are scared of you, sir! Kekeke! At least they have an eye for people, or rather, vampires!” Mirian chatted excitedly.

“That seems to be the case,” Eugene responded quietly before chasing after a group of escaping kobolds.

Kieeeek! Kuagh!

It was literally a slaughter. The kobolds were devoid of any fighting spirit from the very beginning, and they simply trampled over other kobolds in a futile attempt at escape. All Eugene had to do was to stick Wolfslaughter or his claws in their heads or backs.

In less than a minute, more than 30 kobolds lay lifeless on the ground, buried in pools of their own blood.

“This is too easy,” Eugene muttered. He had no intention of drinking the blood of low-ranking monsters. After shaking the blood off his claws and his blade, Eugene turned his gaze deeper into the dungeon.

How many monsters would be waiting for him? After all, the dungeon had been left unattended for more than half a year. How many monsters could he hunt in a day or two?

“It might not be a bad idea to put it to the test.”

“Kekekeke! And there it is! Today is the day, huh? We’re going to flip the dungeon upside down! Hundreds of mana stones are waiting for us! Kieeeek!? Hey, slow down!” Mirian started shouting with excitement, then hurriedly grabbed onto Eugene’s cape.

The Origin Vampire flitted through the dungeon like a crimson gust of wind.

***

A few hours later…

“Wow! How many is that so far?” Mirian asked.

“Did you really think that I was counting? I don’t know,” Eugene replied before sinking his teeth into the throat of a troll to quench his thirst.

Unlike low-ranking monsters such as goblins and kobolds, the troll attempted to fight back despite being frightened. However, all of its subordinate monsters, goblins, were busy fleeing, and Eugene was fully utilizing his abilities as a vampire. A troll could not be his match.

‘This should be enough.’

He wasn’t sure how many low-ranking monsters he had slaughtered thus far, but including the troll, he had killed three intermediate-rank monsters. Such an achievement could be considered successful in an ordinary subjugation, and Essandra would be satisfied. As such, from now on…

“It’s time to procure my own.”

Eugene had multiple reasons for entering the dungeon by himself after passing through Edrique’s territory. He would assist Essandra in becoming the new Marquis Archivold, however, that wasn’t the end of it.

Only a small portion of high-rank monsters possessed the red mana stones. Realistically, there weren’t many opportunities for Eugene to enter the evil lands of a great noble, since they were often unavailable to outsiders. If Eugene could help Essandra become a marquis, which would solidify his own position as a lord, while acquiring those red mana stones at the same time, he stood to gain much more than he could hope for. 

“Hmm. I should go this way.” Eugene muttered while looking over the map of the dungeon he received from Essandra.

He was headed towards a direction that was marked with a skull.

No one had ever seen the high-rank monster of the dungeon since the witnesses all died without telling the tale. However, considering the condition of the human remains, everyone inferred that the culprit was a ‘bloodsucking’ monster.

‘I’m certain it’s not a vampire.’

According to the words of Essandra and Geko, there were numerous traces of teeth marks on the bodies, and the distance between the marks was wide. As such, Eugene was certain that the marks didn’t belong to a humanoid monster, but a large, beast-like monster.

‘I’m looking forward to it. Let’s hide my presence for now.’

He was faced with an unknown, high-rank monster. Eugene was certain that there was a good chance that the monster possessed a red mana stone.

***

“Kiek?” Mirian was amazed.

Eugene also looked around with great surprise.

Ordinary dungeons did not exceed four to five meters in width and height. However, Eugene was currently looking at a place that was dozens of meters tall and as wide as the labyrinth’s stadium where he fought the minotaur.

However, the environment was significantly different from the labyrinth. There was no glowing grass to illuminate the area, and the floor was filled with water that reached up to the ankles. Moreover, the sharp rocks that stretched down from the ceiling were quite daunting. Even a considerable knight would be afraid to pass under them.

However, Eugene was no ordinary knight, and his eyes could see through the darkness.

“That’s…” Eugene breathed while looking over the ceiling.

Kekekekekekeke. Kilkilkil.

A horde of unpleasant laughs resonated from the ceiling. Moreover, it wasn’t just one or two, but hundreds or thousands of laughs. It was as if the disharmonious chorus was mocking Eugene.

Eugene quickly identified their identity after skirting the ceiling with his crimson eyes.

“Bats.”

An immeasurable number of bats were hanging upside down from the ceilings and the protruding rocks. Their large wings were black velvet.

“Kieeeek!? W-why are they so big!?” Mirian expressed her astonishment.

It was just as she said. Each of the bats was seemingly more than a meter in size.

‘Were those bats responsible for the deaths? I guess there wasn’t a high-rank monster after all. That’s a shame.’

A subjugation group would have consisted of fifty or sixty soldiers at most. If they were attacked by a humongous horde of bloodsucking bats, they would have been annihilated quite quickly.

“This has been a waste of time,” Eugene mumbled quietly before releasing his fear.

Kwaaaaaahh…!

The translucent energy expanded with Eugene at its center. The overwhelming fear soon reached the bats, who were laughing mockingly at the arrival of new prey. For a moment, the laughter stopped, and silence ensued. However, the quiet only lasted for a short moment.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

“…!?”

Eugene’s eyes filled with shock. He had been preparing himself for an attack, but the large bats burst simultaneously as if they were crushed by a giant, invisible hand. A waterfall of crimson washed down from the exploding creatures.

“…Hmm?” Eugene expressed his confusion while bathing in the pouring blood. He had simply released his fear, so why did the bats explode?

“…!”

Eugene narrowed his eyes while suddenly turning around. His heightened senses detected fine movements from one of the protruding rocks.

Tsssssss!

He was certain. The surface of the rock, which was quite bumpy, was moving little by little.

‘A high-rank monster!’

Eugene knew. There were no other reasons for so many bats to live in one place. It made sense that a higher-ranking monster reigned over the bats.

“Kuwuuuugh!”

Papapapapapa!

Eugene darted forward as he burst into a roar of joy.

The vampiric fear responded to the Origin’s murderous intent as it gathered before swirling towards the direction where Eugene was staring at. At the same time, the surface of the large, sharp rock exploded.

“It’s you!”

Kieeeeekk!

As if answering Eugene’s cry, a huge bat abandoned its disguise and shrieked while spreading its large wings.

Kwakwakwakwakwa!

The water on the floor suddenly began to split in half, and it was headed towards Eugene.

“…!”

Eugene instinctively realized that the monster was releasing an unidentified ‘power’ from its menacing jaws.

“Kuwwwuugh!” Eugene answered with a vigorous roar, and his Vampire Fear took on the form of a giant spear before heading straight for the splitting water. It then collided with the invisible ‘power’ of the bat monster.

Craaack!

A sound similar to cracking glass resonated instead of an explosion.

Boooom!

However, it only lasted for a moment before being replaced by a massive explosion. The humongous sound was carried forth as the invisible spear of fear penetrated through and shot towards the giant bat.

Boom!

The body of the giant bat, which had reigned as one of the rulers of the dungeon since the distant past, exploded into a million pieces. Eugene could clearly see an object amidst the pouring rain of intestines and blood.

A red mana stone was glimmering with a dazzling light.

***

“Sir! Sir! What power did you gain this time?” Mirian asked.

“…”

However, Eugene didn’t immediately answer Mirian’s question. It was because he had no idea how to properly explain it. Although his head was already filled with the relevant information, he was rather doubtful that it was actually possible.

‘Transformation…?’

The power he gained from the red mana stone of the giant bat was the ability to transform. Of course, there were certain restrictions, and it wasn’t like he could freely transform into anything he wanted. Firstly, he needed to have ingested the blood of the subject of transformation, and rather peculiarly, he could only transform if the object possessed a mana stone.

As such, he could not transform into humans, elves, and dwarves since they did not possess mana stones in their bodies. But it was possible for him to transform into all kinds of monsters with mana stones. It was unclear whether he could fully utilize the special abilities of the monsters, and it was a rather cumbersome requirement for him to suck the monster’s blood again each time, but it was certainly a great ability.

“I should be diligent in drinking blood from now on,” Eugene muttered.

“Huh? What does that mean? What do you mean by that? Huh? Huh!?” Mirian voiced her frustration.

“There’s something like that. Anyways… Hmm!?”

Eugene darted around as his heightened senses alerted him. Beyond the place filled with the blood and mana stones of the bats, he could feel an unfamiliar, intense energy deeper within.

It was rather paradoxical, but the energy felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

“Vampire? No, this is…”

There was a subtle difference from Delmondo. However, it was clearly different from the energies of the monsters he faced until now, including the bats…

“Something dead. Then, an undead?”

Huwwwwuuuuugh!

As if to answer Eugene’s question, a huge roar reverberated from the deeper parts of the dungeon. However, no vitality could be felt from the bizarre roar.

“W-what? What is it?” Mirian shouted with shock.

Eugene started to head towards the roar.

“Sir! Something’s weird. Shall we go back? We should go back. We already got a red mana stone, right? Right? Right!?”

Despite Mirian’s dissuasion, Eugene continued walking without answering her.

Curiosity?

Greed for merit and mana stones?

No. This was different. This was fundamentally different.

It was a kind of instinct.

His instincts as a vampire were screaming at Eugene.

That ‘thing’ had to be removed at all cost.

***

It was hard to believe that they were still in the dungeon.

The illuminating lights originated from the bodies of hundreds of low-rank monsters hanging from the wall. The torches of death burned bright using the fluids and oils of the monsters as their source.

And in the middle of it all, a giant monster with two heads roared with all four of its arms raised.

Huwwwwuuuugh!!!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Eugene began to walk forward after seeing the four-eyed monster. The grotesque monster was wearing a bizarre helmet made by forcibly crumpling human equipment together.

“Twinhead ogre…” Eugene muttered quietly.

It was an evolutionary form of a monster that could be called the strongest on earth. Moreover, it wasn’t a living being, but rather an undead monster that had been revived by magic.

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