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[Grand Duke of the Xavier Bloodline - 301]

Beads of sweat manifested on Avan's forehead, and he tried to calm his treacherous heartbeat as much as he could while inwardly cursing his situation. *Of course, the boss himself is walking the halls!*

The only ray of hope at the end of the tunnel, however, was that the Grand Duke continued on to one of the other rooms and did not stop in the small library where Avan was currently hiding with his heart racing.

*Level 301, DEFINITELY not something I can do on my own! I need the help of the others if we are to clear the dungeon.... Or we can escape directly?* If Avan would level up a bit more somewhere else, he could come back at some other time and finish the dungeon here.

With these thoughts, he paused for minutes, and even after the Grand Duke had long since ceased to be heard outside and disappeared somewhere on the other side of the building, Avan waited a few minutes longer until he finally ventured out into the hallway again.

The way back to the window on the lower floor was fortunately uneventful and except for the fact that Avan had to hide again behind a curtain from the patrolling guard, he arrived smoothly back in the courtyard outside.

"So..." Avan murmured, glancing up at the artificial night sky glittering with all its glory on the ceiling of the gigantic cavern. "Patris first. With him, we can get the two women out and take out the prisoners' guard... Maybe among the other prisoners there are even battle-hardened women who can help us?"

Quietly creeping from one shadow to the next, he hurried between the buildings and a few minutes later found himself back in the small side alley between the houses where he had left Patris behind the water barrel. "And I need to find out what the vampires' weaknesses and strengths are in this world..."

Avan stood next to the water barrel, slightly bent over with a smile on his face, one hand resting on the barrel, and looked down at the snoring Patris. "And the bum just keeps on sleeping.... Okay, to be fair, he has a lack of blood to use as an excuse."

On the floor where Avan had left food and the short sword before, there were only crumbs to be found, and leaning against Patris' side directly behind the barrel, the short sword was within immediate reach. "Good..."

Avan squatted down in front of Patris, bobbing slightly on the balls of his feet, and looked at the now reasonably healthy-looking warrior. He had regained some color in his face, and a light pinkish tint was visible on both cheeks, while a fist-sized mark was clearly visible on the left. It was right next to the place where Patris supported himself with his clenched fist while he slept and probably left this imprint. "How he can sleep like that without toppling over sideways is a mystery to me..." Avan whispered while observing the odd sleeping position of his comrade.

"Well, let's wake him up and keep watching."

With first careful and light blows with the palm of his hand on both cheeks, very gently, Avan tried to wake up the sleeping warrior. However, Patris seemed to be in a deep sleep, and only after Avan struck with a little more force did his tired eyes slowly flutter open. Slowly focusing on his surroundings, Patris blinked a few times and then looked heavily sleepy into Avan's face, quietly muttering something to himself. "I just slept so good, buddy!"

When Patris noticed the conscious grin on Avan's face and realized how he had been temples here, he quickly got up and leaned properly against the wall of the house behind him, rubbing his eyes sleepily and slightly ashamed. "Yes, yes. Go ahead and tease me. Like you wouldn't sleep like a baby if they took gallons of your blood..." Came softly from Patris, followed by a hearty yawn.

Avan just kept grinning and gave a light slap on Patris' shoulder. "I get it." And stood up to stretch himself, while he kept squinting one eye at the entrance of the small alley between the houses to be on guard. Glancing back at Patris, who was just holding his hand in front of his mouth when a second yawn had to come out, Avan cracked his neck. "There's some news. And I need info... Well, the boss in here seems to be a Grand Duke, level 301." He began his story while waiting for his counterpart's reaction.

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Patris looked up at Avan, and blinked. A second and a third time, until he stared up in shock with visible understanding on his face. "Are you kidding me? Fucking level 301?..." And lapsed into silence at the end, his own words and the information digesting. "Damn..."

"Well, I'd say we get the two girls out, kill the guards at the prisoners, and then escape with everyone as quickly as possible and let the adventurers guild know.... The quests are completed and we have found out more than enough info..." Avan explained further, but this time again seriously, and nodded in the direction of where the prisoners were. He continued to tell Patris how Linob had died, and what the situation was with the two young women. "And with four guards patrolling, two at a time, I need to know what exactly the weak points of vampires are. Since I've never fought any myself, I don't know these creatures at all..." He finished his story, and looked at the seriously thinking Patris, who was just processing the information of his story.

Summoning some berries from behind his back, throwing them into his mouth and chewing on them, Avan watched silently, waiting for Patris' answer.

After a few minutes and odd facial expressions, Patris looked back up at Avan. "With Linob, this really sucks.... Not only that I'm sorry for his death, but also because our chances with him would have been much better. But okay. About the vampires... That's not so easy. There are noble vampires, some of which have only the weakness against the sun, but there are also normal vampires, who perish in ashes at the lesser contact with fire or sunlight. Each of the vampire bloodlines itself also possesses other abilities that can be passed on from the parents to the younger ones. While noble vampires can even, very rarely, father children, the normal vampires are a subspecies and in the eyes of the noble vampires are not worth much more than slaves. The only thing all vampires have in common is their susceptibility to holy mana. Celestial mana, to be exact. The very element you seem to be using, right?" He explained, looking at Avan expectantly at the end.

With a sigh, aware that his element was very rare and scarce, Avan looked up at the sparkling ceiling. "Yes, my element is indeed celestial.... What a coincidence, huh?" And looked down at Linob to read in his face what the young warrior thought of it. Satisfied not to find any ulterior motives or other signs of negative feelings in Patris, Avan sighed again. "Then my spells and forms should suffice.... If we can take on a few patrols at a time, four at a time, with the two girls together, that should be doable quickly.... But..." Avan thought about it briefly, as he remembered an important point of criticism that he had almost forgotten. "We have to take out the guards on the wall first! The risk is too great that they will look into the courtyard, see us, and then sound the alarm!"

With a nod and satisfied to have thought of such an important detail after all, he focused on Patris again.

"Sounds good, and reasonable.... I don't have a shield, but my life force is massive and I can distract the vampires until you finish them off." Murmured Patris first more to himself, and then more confidently to Avan. "And once the guards on the wall are down, we'll quietly get them out of the cage and take care of the guards! Then we'll check on the other captured women.... Since the men all seem to have been drained of their blood immediately.... and escape as quickly as possible so that a high ranking adventurer team can take care of this breeding ground here!"

A mutual agreement reached, Avan helped Patris to his feet, and both made their way stealthily to the nearest staircase leading up to the parapet on the right side of the fort.

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