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“Ugh…”
Vlad coughed some blood but felt his health rapidly healing thanks to his regeneration as a vampire, which acted as a passive healing ability that probably no other race had.
“What the hell was that…”
He groaned in pain, slowly sitting down and then trying to stand up, but without his armor to hold his sickly body, it became rather hard to walk more than three steps.
“Right, so annoying…”
He glanced at his body; his armor was completely torn apart into pieces, and every fragment was somewhere else around. He began gathering them while using his accessories to conjure Float.
“Thank God this place was not populated.”
He glanced around his surroundings; five houses were completely destroyed, and a huge hole leading underground was formed from the whole battle.
“I should have used the Heavenly Demon’s Transformation right away; what’s wrong with me…”
Paul felt a bit stupid right now; he could have definitely turned the tables if he had relied on his Trait. However, he constantly refused to use it, knowing that he would never get strong or figure out new things if he was always relying on such a supreme power to solve all his problems.
However, there was a line to such things, and Shamir, with his immense strength, had crossed the line. However, as he was caught amidst such an intense battle where Shamir surprised him time and time again, he was unable to use his Trait’s power before the assassin were to disappear.
“Who would have thought he was only summoned temporarily!” he sighed. “I guess someone as strong as him can’t be summoned by some third-rate thug like that hobgoblin…”
Shamir showcased a power equal to, if not stronger than, Vlad’s own mother, which was the strongest NPC that Paul had seen in the game yet.
But that quickly changed; Shamir was simply on another level, and it seemed that even after transforming into what he called a "Naga,” he had yet to unleash all the strength he possessed.
“Without a doubt, the people of Ennead are insanely powerful… Soul Artifacts are way too much of cheat,” Paul thought. "Well, that makes sense! If it is so difficult to get one to begin with, they better be good.”
[It looks like you tried to not rely on my strength for once, huh?]
“I’ve done it plenty of times already.”
The Heavenly Demon, who was awfully silent most of the time, started pestering Vlad again with his remarks.
[You still need my power and my reincarnation. Why do you intend to not use it? You could have easily destroyed that snake and made him submit to you!]
“Yeah, maybe… But I wanted to test my own power. Didn’t you look at Shamir’s face? He wanted to see the real me and what I could do for myself. So I showed him, and this also helped me see how far I can go without you.”
[And how is that even important?]
“I guess someone like you who became a god wouldn’t get it... It’s necessary; I need to see how far I can keep going. The wall I must break to get even stronger. Sitting on my ass and cultivating is not my thing. It makes you dull to the feeling of progress and growth.”
[What?! You dare insult the mythical ways of cultivation?! That I sat on my ass for ten thousand years to master my special techniques and cultivate the Venerable Realm doesn’t mean I was-]
“Shut up; I’m not in the mood, seriously.”
[Hah! Was that Desert Elf too much for you to handle? He left you a pretty good gift, though.]
“This thing?”
Paul touched his avatar’s neck, quickly sending a slightly burning sensation. He couldn’t see it, so he quickly took out a small piece of his armor, shiny enough to reflect things, and saw what was on his neck.
“The hell?!”
It was a purple tattoo in the shape of the jaws of a viper, opening and showing its tongue and sharp fangs. It looked weird and strangely… erotic.
“It’s as if he kissed me and left me a fucking mark, seriously?”
[He bit you pretty hard, yet there’s no poison in your body killing you, huh? He marked you, it’s probably one of his Sorcery Spells! So he knows where you are. You have to get ready; he’ll come to kill you once again.]
“Spells like this exist?! I’ll have to get stronger then…”
[That damn elf… He was quite attractive; I have to admit his face and eyes were very… alluring! And that slender body, his athletic shape, and the lean muscles—an amazing-looking man, I would say! Alitheus is beautiful; don’t get me wrong, but perhaps another man wouldn’t be so bad—a harem of beautiful men. I had never thought about this!]
“What are you talking about now?! Shut up already!”
[Uncultured foolish reincarnation…]
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Paul was grateful the conditions for the Heavenly Demon’s Flaw hadn’t changed. And it still remained as just one partner. He wouldn’t have been able to do it if this bastard started asking for a harem of beautiful men; this was too much.
“This should be the last one…”
Vlad finished gathering every fragment of his armor after a couple of minutes, then sensed Alitheus Avatar approaching through his Vampiric Senses.
“Chris? Are you okay?”
“Paul! Paul, come here!”
“Huh?”
As he heard Chris calling for him, Paul quickly leaped off the street and into the hole left behind from the battle against Shamir. Thankfully, he still had half of his Arcana reserves through his equipment; his sword was fine, as were all his accessories, so he was alright.
“What is it, Chris?”
He quickly conjured a small sphere of light, illuminating the darkness to find Chris calling for him, finding out that he was carrying a huge body with his little hand.
“Did you defeat that assassin? That was a huge explosion! I bet you used the Heavenly Demon power, right? I didn’t have to worry at all, hahaha!”
The cute incubus had no idea Paul almost screwed things up and that if it wasn’t because Shamir had a timed summon, Vlad might have died.
“Actually, he was unsummoned; his appearance was only timed,” said Paul, sighing. “I didn’t activate the ability, and he… well, he took a bite off me.”
“HUH?!” Chris gasped. “W-What the hell, Paul! Why didn’t you just kill him?!”
“Sorry, I got too cocky, and I wanted to see how far I could go,” Paul apologized, looking a bit sad.
His handsome vampire face was already hard to resist for Chris, but seeing his crimson eyes look sad almost broke his heart.
“Just what am I going to do with you! I guess you’re just hopeless without me, huh?” Chris sighed, patting his head as he flew above him. "Okay, fine, you’ll show me that bite later so I can heal it.”
Paul was a bit surprised; Chris was much nicer than he thought.
“You’ve become nicer... Is this because you like me?”
“W-What?! You want me to be mean instead?!”
“A-Ah! No, no, I was just wondering; please go on; you’re really cute, Chris. Angry, or… when you’re nicer as well.”
Chris was growing redder by the second he heard these words that came from Paul’s heart.
“This guy’s really in love with me.”
He couldn’t believe how fast Paul fell for him; it was almost too much.
Just a couple of days ago, he was complaining that he was so annoying.
He sighed, then bit his lips and approached Vlad’s handsome face.
“Mooch.”
He kissed his cheek and smiled cutely.
“C-Chris?”
“That was a little gift because you survived and did well, ok? Now stop acting so dummy and—Uwaack!”
However, Paul could hardly resist this adorable little devil, grabbing his legs, pulling him down, and beginning to kiss him.
A small kiss on the cheek? That was adorable, but Paul wanted a bit more.
“Hmm?! Aahh~ W-Wait, Paul!”
Chris moaned as Paul started kissing his tender neck and then his soft lips again.
“Chris, your avatar is too cute!”
“Y-You perv!”
“If you want me to let go, just tell me.”
“I-I…”
Chris didn’t really tell him to let go! Although he acted cocky, he was indeed consenting to this. And deep down, he liked when he was just grabbed and kissed by a larger and more handsome man.
“Enough!”
He pushed Vlad away a few steps before the two were to start doing something even lewder in the middle of some bandit’s lair.
“T-This is not the time for this idiot; calm down,” he sighed, crossing his arms. “I know you’re head over heels for me; I can’t be helped because I’m so handsome! But you have to calm down. There’s something I wanted to show you, and—ah, right, this dude! Look, I killed him.”
“You did?!” Paul just realized the huge, green-skinned body on the floor was Chuklet. Chris got him good and just outright blasted his head off. The rest of the hobgoblin’s body was slightly burned and frozen.
Alitheus was looking at Vlad while shaking that cute little devil tail he had, as if he were an adorable puppy that just hunted something for his owner. It was a gruesome sight, but the incubus expected praise.
“Well done! It’s amazing; wasn’t he super strong too?” wondered Vlad. “I guess you’re already at a pretty good level yourself!”
“Yeah, right? I’m pretty damn strong too!” Chris nodded cutely; his little devil horns seemed to grow larger as he kept acting selfishly adorable. “Fufu! Now, look, this stone is something like a Sigil thingy. It activates a hidden door to a huge treasury! I didn’t empty everything because my inventory slots weren’t enough!”
“I see. What about this guy? Did you absorb the life force?” asked Vlad.
“Done~! You can drink the blood left behind,” said Chris, flying away.
“Alright then, thanks for that.” Paul quickly stored the body inside his inventory for later consumption, quickly following Chris.
Because the incubus flew using his little wings, putting his legs in front, he always flew in a certain pose, puffing his buttocks upwards.
With that adorable tail wagging around, it was very hard for Paul to look at anything else but his butt, even sexier paired with those skintight black leather shorts.
“Here, here!”
Alitheus sped up his flight, reaching the end of the corridor and pointing at its depths. By waving the purple-colored stone and imbuing it with Arcana, a door materialized from the wall.
RUMBLE!
“Woah…”
Paul ran inside, following Alitheus, as the two found themselves in the middle of a huge treasury! Equipment, weapons, elixirs, food, and tens of millions of Platinum-colored Coins, Credits, filled several dozens of chests.
There were also precious magical jewels, spirit stones, fire crystals, mythical pearls, and ingots and large chunks of precious ores. Magic gold, arcane silver, and even...
“Mithril!”
Paul went insane as he grabbed a huge chunk of Mithril resting in between the money; this was a precious metal. It was both incredibly tough and capable of easily harboring Arcana within it.
This, coupled with the variety of other precious ores and jewels in the treasury, quickly told him it was his time to make new armor, and by using the pieces of his precious creation, something even stronger might resurface.
“Is it?! Nice! We’re rich!”
“Yeah, this is insane! We should have raided this place a while ago!”
“Holy shit! Look! I’m literally swimming in money, hahaha!”
“Let me join!”
The two idiots started swimming over piles after piles of coins, laughing, jumping, and dancing, until they grew exhausted.
“Hahhh… We’ll need more than my own inventory to bring everything,” said Paul. “Let’s go talk with Vlad’s mother. We’ll need her to help us mobilize everything, I suppose.”
“And Camilla too; she can lift a bunch of stuff with her Telekinesis, right?” wondered Chris.
“Right!” Paul nodded.
Like that, the two of them ran back home, told Vlad’s mother and Camilla about what happened, and then dozens of soldiers came running here, with carriages and giant chests to carry all the treasures.
It took over two hours to pack everything and gather it in the family’s underground treasury, but once they were done, they calculated all the earnings.
“At least over fifty million Credits…” muttered Chris.
“I-I think this might ease up the reconstruction of the city a lot more, and it could even improve the economy if the money is re-distributed to the people,” said Teressa. “I’ll hire soldiers so we can strengthen our territory’s defenses and the security of the streets.”
“Sounds like a good plan…” Vlad nodded. “But is it necessary to invest everything, mother? Can’t I keep some?”
“Fine, five million should be enough,” she said. “The rest goes for the city, Vlad. This is your home after all; don’t greedily take all the money for yourself; we’re a family.”
“R-Right…” sighed Paul.
His Avatar might be strong and have many unique abilities, but the restraints that his family put on him were quite annoying.
Nonetheless, his mother didn’t say anything about the other treasures, materials, equipment, and elixirs that could be freely taken.
“Alright, now that we’re done talking about money…” his mother muttered. “It’s time we begin talking about what exactly happened… And this man you fought, my son.”
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