Aldritch, being rather curious about the world Lodestar came from, spent the entire journey asking questions, learning new things as they moved.
Lodestar himself had dropped his guard considerably, but even then, Aldritch didn't remove any restrictions.
Aldritch had thought of turning him into a vampire, but whether it was the right thing to do was still undecided.
They soon arrived at their destination. It took a few minutes, actually, maybe 10 or 20 minutes, for all the slaves to be brought down from the carriages to stand beside the roads. Because of their numbers, they completely covered the road and surrounding forest areas close to the road.
Once everything was done, the head coachman reported to Aldritch before bidding him farewell.
For Lodestar, who couldn't walk on his own, Aldritch left him to some slaves to carry along while Ingrid led all of them towards the location they had used before, close to the river.
As for Aldritch, while Ingrid took care of moving the slaves, he scouted the area first, then visited the two guards who were stationed there to put them to sleep, just like he had done before. Coincidentally, it happened to be the same guards as the ones who were there before when he had been there.
Aldritch quickly took care of them and came down. He had checked around already, but he couldn't find any traces of Lyla who was supposed to be waiting for them there. For the time being, he decided to just shrug it off.
The first thought that came to his mind was the possibility of her regaining her memories and breaking his hypnosis, but that would have to be possible if witches at such levels roamed about freely and in big numbers.
Just like before, Ingrid brought slaves to him in batches, this time increasing their numbers since he had found a more efficient way to collect the blood into his blood bank.
Before Aldritch, a maroon coloured orb hung, floating. Once the slaves came, he would make a deep cut on their necks, severing the major vein. Using his blood manipulation, he would draw out blood from the slaves until nothing could be drawn out. Once the blood came within a certain range of the orb, it would automatically be sucked into it.
This time, even with the larger numbers, Aldritch was able to finish everything within a few hours. After everything was done, the only ones left were the 20 he had bought separately. They also saw what happened, all of it, and most certainly, they all thought that was going to be their faith.
Even though they wished to flee using all of their might, it would be impossible, as they were bound by the slave contract which recognized Aldritch as their master, and unlike Lodestar, the rest didn't seem to be able to break out of the restraints so willfully... even Lodestar didn't seem to be able to do so freely.
"From the one closest to me, start coming this way." Aldritch ordered. Compelled by the power of the contract, they had no choice but to follow his commands.
The first person walked to him with apprehensive eyes. Fear was evident in her gaze. Unlike the others, these slaves had not been hypnotized. They were fully aware of their situation.
Once the girl approached Aldritch, he saw that she was around his age in looks, perhaps a bit younger.
Without lingering around, he made a small sharp cut on her shoulder, drawing blood. Her expression worsened, and she even started shedding tears as she shook her head from side to side, her face molded into an ugly expression of fear.
"Relax, I won't kill you... well, that actually depends on your fate, I guess." After all, he couldn't control who would turn successfully into a vampire or a ghoul. There was also the case of a vampire ghoul which was a bit complicated.
Once the catalyst entered into the open wound, it took some time before the reaction started.
After all the frantic shaking had occurred for a brief moment, Aldritch found out that she turned into a ghoul.
It was quite sad, but then there was nothing he could do about it. Without wasting any time on her, he released her, putting her to rest as she turned into ashes, pouring on the ground as the gentle breeze blew some away.
[Evolution: Blooded Vampire]
[Blood Bank: 30]
[BP: 2,500]
.
[HP: ====]
[SP: 85/85]
[Strength: 25]
[Agility: 25]
[Dexterity: 15]
[Vitality: 15]
[Intelligence: 15]
[Racial Skills: {Blood Manipulation Lvl 7} {Minor Compulsion Lvl 6} {Healing Factor} {Blood Bond}]
[Skills: {Hypnosis (Lvl 8)}]
...
His stats hadn't changed much, but some of his skills had increased in level. He got several notifications from the system, but ignored them, so he was also just finding out about the skill leveling up. Once he reached level 10, there was a chance of some skills evolving into more powerful skills, so he also waited for that future event.
If he had more BP to spare, perhaps he would just level them up directly, but given his current condition, that wouldn't be possible.
For the time being, he could only choose to strengthen himself and one of his companion.
'That'll be when I return to Lada's, for now...' Aldritch thought to himself, reclining on the chair he was on.
A few thoughts about the future were on his mind, and he was yet to make the final decision, as whatever decision he came to in the end would massively change how he would interact with this world, and the world would come to see him... 'I still have time, I shouldn't rush things and just think it through slowly. For now, I can just focus on what's before me.'
...
"I need some kind of appraisal skill for people, seriously."