Tina held her chest. “I feel, something, weird.” She looked at me with needy eyes. “It’s like, I want to get closer to you.”

Solina grumbled. “I’m not getting off this bed just because you two wanna make babies. It’s way too comfy!” She suddenly clutched her chest too. “Wait, hold on, I feel it too!”

“Yes, um,” I scratched my chin, “just accept the feeling, it’s nothing dangerous.”

Tina shrugged, and soon after the grimoire reported that she accepted the party invitation. So, we weren’t actually grouped up all this time. I rolled my eyes. The rest of them joined my party and I explained the XP system to them. They believed me, somewhat, because all of us could feel each other’s location and detect if the other person had buffs and debuffs.

After the raptor quest, I felt that the group improved. My fingers massaged Tina’s scalp as I thought about our next move. This world was a strange mix of reality and fantasy games, to the point where it was hard to tell what was dangerous and what wasn’t. Well, considering that I had yet to hear about respawning, I figured death meant death in this world, just like my old world.

Can I use skills? The grimoire shook its figurative head negatively. Eh, so I can’t. Can Solina learn spells? The page switched, and explained that she can only use lifestyle spells. So what kind of NPC uses both skills and spells?

My eyes almost popped out. Interesting. I breathed. I almost found it funny that such a thing was real. A monster? Intriguing. It made sense a little, because my undead revenant used skills, and could also use spells, but mainly through the skulls floating next to it.

It made sense, because Sam did feel different from a normal human to me. But what really confused me was exactly what type of monster he was. A monster that looks exactly like a human… Even though I tried, nothing came to mind.

Just then, I felt a little notification from an undead knight that I had a visitor in my castle. It was my steward. We stood in the corridor outside my room. “Great One,” he kneeled, “it appears my property has, had contact with you,” and looked quite nervous, “without my permission. I humbly apologize for whatever unsavory occurrences that might’ve transpired.”

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I twitched my brow. “Come again?” I leaned against the wall. “Stand up, man. You don’t have to kneel. What’s your property?”

His usually cold eyes were meek; all monsters or demons who knew who I was always showed utmost respect. “The vampire in your room, Great One. I’m not sure how you two met, but please understand that it wasn’t my intentions.”

My head tilted. “What? You mean Sam?” Oh damn, so he’s a vampire! This, makes a bit of sense. “Were you the one who made him a vampire then?”

“Yes, Great One.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It, was mainly for experimental purposes. I wished to see the effects of vampirism when mixed with the unliving. And, he, asked for help.”

That, actually is interesting. “And now that you know, what will you do with him?”

“I have no further need for him. You may use him as you see fit, Great One.”

I stood up straight instead of leaning, and asked him about the girl I saw when I first met him.

Unlike the other times he spoke, this time he hesitated just a little. “Your whims outweigh my needs, Great One. If it is your wish, you shall have her.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly my intention, but I’d like to speak with her. “Good. Send her to me immediately. Dismissed.”

In five minutes, the girl appeared before me and I teleported us to a random empty room and cast Soundless Space for some privacy. She looked much the same as the first time I saw her, at least in terms of physical appearance. But now she was much more, docile, almost like a mindless fiend. She stared emptily at me, through me, as if she didn’t even know where she was or what was going on.

According to the grimoire, she was ‘Tezzen’s Vampire Thrall’, which I found interesting. Compared to her very lively movements when I first saw her, I could tell she still somewhat had a piece of her mind then. I read up on vampirism as I saw the debuff on her. Hmm, so it’s a debuff until it becomes a buff. She’s in the middle of the transformation, then. I sighed.

The resemblance was uncanny, and she even had Sam’s last name. I was sure she was his younger sister. He wasn’t pressured to tell us his whole story, but I wondered why he didn’t say anything about a missing sister. Maybe he didn’t realize she went missing? I rubbed my face stressfully. Was it a coincidence that Tezzen did, vampire stuff, to both siblings? The difference between them was that Sam died, was raised as undead by Tezzen, and then converted to a vampire. He was somewhat of a special case. His sister on the other hand never died.

My mind reeled with all the things, big and small, that was happening around me. It felt like so much to think about, and I couldn’t just throw my powers around either because I didn’t know the circumstances of these people good enough to be so nonchalant.

I teleported into my room where everyone else was, grabbed Sam, and went back to his sister’s room. Without hesitation, his fist lit up just like his weapon would when activating a skill, and he swung a punch to me.

I almost blacked out, but I felt like something prevented that. He stood over me as I fell and was about to lay into me.