Hmm, everything here is as I have left it. I remembered building this Mana Tower in a small cave opposite of the Solntse base entrance, and Stone-Shape sealing all entrances that lead into the cavern shut when we left, after any notion of an alliance broke down. Didn't expect to come back this soon.

I can Sense the outside easily enough from where I stand, Blink. Micro Flight. Fast but not in all that much haste, I fly up and around the mountain before finding the Solntse base entrance. Only to find that it is abandoned and left unattended; with some splotches of blood, broken furnitures and even a few corpses lying around. Invaseviction. I maintain the conjured maw and proceed to enter. Only to be swarmed by a bunch of bats that dropped out of the ceiling straight ahead. Worst yet, two of the nearest corpses jumped out of their chairs and pounce at me.

Courtesy of Mana Sense I was quick to understand what in the nine hells is happening! Vampire ambush! The two corpses and swarm of bats, as if rehearsed, poofed and transformed into cloaked humanoids, one exactly behind and slightly above me, the other two diagonally to my 5 and 8 o'clock. All three with their arms out rushing to grab me and their fangs bared.

""Gyaaa!"" "Arhhh!" Almost at the same time, all three yelled when a piece of their hearts fall onto the ground before my feet… I did not stop at a piece each; more of their hearts, then their esophagus, followed by their tongues, and various random things I can Sense within them, even up until they are groveling on the ground with barely a shred of their lives left. If someone or something attacks me with the intention to kill—bar very special circumstances—they die!

Ignite. I am not taking the chance they can revive somehow, thus the cremation of three corpses turned corpses and their numerous pieces of organ. I continue to walk deeper into the cluttered caves whilst being extra wary of bats or the few suspicious bodies lying around. First find the living, then care for the dead!—Huh wait, I might have gotten carried away by the horror-like mood and just kinda felt that slowly exploring the area is my go to solution to my current situation. But didn't Igor have access to his VICOS?

Zen: I'm here, where are you?

Igor: You're the help?

Igor: We're saved!

Igor: What remains of Sonltse is currently holed up at the third bottom most room, the one one with thick metal double doors.

Zen: Well.

Zen: You're exaggerating!

Zen: No promises, but I'll do my best.

Zen: Otw

Now that I know where exactly they are, I rush down the tunnels unceremoniously. Every Flowing step are works of Arts as they take me several tens of meters forward through the winding paths and down broken stairways, all along narrowly dodging various obstacles. As for any barricaded door I can just easily Blink pass… true that I am capable of moving even faster with more uses of Blink, or Haste, and even Micro Flight. But there is something liberating and novel about running all alone through the insides of an abandoned building possibly infested by hostile blood-sucking creatures.

Unfortunately, not another assault happened since the entrance. Are these converted ex-humans seriously that lax? Only 3 people positioned at the entrance and not another soul within such a big area… Soon enough I find myself at the lowest floor where the stairs come to an end. So I backtrack 3 floors and very quickly managed to find the metallic double doors.

Zen: Yo, I would've sent you a snapshot if I could

Zen: But I can't

Zen: So, I'm looking at a double metallic door right now

Zen: There's only one pair of these right?

Igor: Yes! Thank you!!

Igor: Please wait a moment

I cannot help noticing that there are quite a few more corpses strewn about here, much more than any other place so far. After a while, the door opens up a crack, barely enough for an eye to peek through. I hear a familiar male voice say, "yes, that's him."

There were murmurs of some kinda discussion before the same voice speaks louder to address me. "Welcome sir Zane! I apologize but would you be so kind as to answer a few of our questions. There have been more than one breach into our midst even with such measures in place, so I am afraid this is not an option."

"Well, I can just choose to leave right now." I say with a grin, which caused an explosion of even more murmurs. I caught glimpses of; 'how did he … past … guard dogs?' And 'no, we … … help!' Along with numerous other different thoughts. "But, sure."

Igor released an obvious breath of relief before continuing on, "thank you! First of all, we have here a lie detector.

He shows me an incomplete view of a crystal-like spherical object through the door crack… Not this again?! "As you might remember, this is a lie detector. Please answer this first question with a lie. Are you male or female?"

"Female." The crystal gave out a familiar flash of red. This is gonna be lame, I can feel it, like an itch under my tongue!

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"Very good," he said again. "Let us continue. Please answer with the truth. Were you born human?"

"Yes," the orb flashes green.

"Are you still human?"

"Partly," the orb flashed another green. This earned me a commotion from all within. Which is giving me a heavy case of de'javu.

"Are you from Earth?" My questioning continues.

"Yes!" Green flash.

"How did you manage to pass by the guard dogs at the entrance?"

"They attacked me, so I killed them." This latest flash of green earned me another commotion.

"Are you omnivorous?"

"Very." I reply with certainty, the orb too flashed green in confirmation of my confidence.

"Do you drink blood for sustenance?" Igor asks, I can sense a slight cringe on his face. He probably remembers my previous questioning.

"Nope~," and the detector flashes green yet again. Nonetheless he continues with their set of questions.

"But you can drink blood? Do you gain anything out of it?"

"I can, and it depends." The orb flashes green for slightly longer. "But you already know this. Why are you using these old sets of questions?"

Unlike previously, he dutifully continued with another twenty or so questions. All of which are a rewording of what my diet is and what plans I have regarding their lives and why. And what I think about non-humans. Eventually, he finally said. "Lastly, please repeat after me."

He spoke a string of words in russian, needless to say, I have no idea what was said. Gift of Conversing. "Say that again."

"I pray to thee; Patron of Blood. My creator and he that preys upon me… That he's dumb and cringy and that he should go kill himself by drowning in virgin pee for all I care!" He repeated his words, every single one of which I understand this time... But seriously, what!?

Sounds like he's cursing at some higher entity, there must be something about it that rendered the Territory Core's translation function to skip translating the words. And Patron of Blood; like a vampire god? Well, since he is fine after saying it at least once, I repeat after him and dismiss the Spell before asking. "So what was that about?"

The orb flashes green, but he still squints and scrutinizes me for almost a whole minute before telling the people behind him. "Well, since he did not melt into a puddle of seething blood, I think he's fine."

The door opens large and before me stand a few hundred people who definitely could not vibe; help us we're suffering, any more than what they're doing. Thin, disheveled people in ripped and badly patched up clothes with hallowed eyes. Don't they know of Unsoil, Condense Water and various food conjuring spells!? "Sorry about that sir Zane. But we have found that this sentence was the best way to get rid of any spies."

"Please come in." At my silent questioning, partly judging eyes. He continues to explain as I walk through the doors of their humble abode. "We somehow figured out that cursing their gods does nothing to us humans, but will cause every single Vampires to dissolve into blood while screaming in pain. They get irritated at the questions and wants it to end as soon as possible, then in their impatient haste fall for the last part."

"Then how did the various breaches happen?" I ask him.

"By making use of our inexperience, trust and affection for another." He replies sadly. "A lover, a beloved child, or an elder we had thought dead. Seemingly injured or somehow in need of help. All had been converted, while we blindly welcomed them into our midst. The aftermath was very unpleasant. Happened a few times before we finally learnt our lessons."

"I see." I reply, that does sound way beyond unpleasant. "Sorry for your loss."

After a moment of silence, Igor started to elaborate on their current situation. "We're also running out of supplies; fresh food, clean water, medicine. And we're stuck in this hellhole of a base with no chance to go out and hunt for more Creds."

To summarize; only 2 of their 7 leaders are left; firstly, 2 went missing. Then another 2 died covering their retreat, while one's reputation fell due to a single act of cowardice. That leaves us with the 2 current leaders. One by the name of Maria, and the other Edmon. They were also very verbal about praising their two saviors; Grigori and Halene Morozov, a husband and wife couple who died fighting to give everyone here the chance they needed to actually get here. While nothing besides partial mentions was said about the last 3, not even their names.

"Alright, so what kinda help do you need exactly?" I ask him after listening to him give praise to his saviors for the nth time. We pass by numerous people along the way, most have a half dead look in their eyes, sitting there doing nothing with apparent symptoms of malnutrition. The few that have children shows a little more energy as they keep a close eye on their offsprings, while the childrens sit together and tenderly play with mundane objects.

"Well, I know for one that we need supplies. But you're gonna have to ask babushka Maria and Edmon for the whole answer." He then points at the most intact door I've seen in here, just several meters ahead of us, "they're waiting for you there."

"Are they hurt? Disabled or something? Or dying somehow?" I ask Igor regarding the two leaders, why can't they come out?

"No, why?" His face did nothing to mask the confusion he feels. Since they're fine; they've waited this long, they can wait a little longer.

Sometimes, actions speak louder than words. Condense Water. At my current Peak Mastery of the spell; a pseudo water elemental is conjured. It may fly away from me to collect pure water from the air, any collected are stored within its being up to a maximum capacity of 1 liter and may be extracted through various ways on command; poured like tap water, or a jet of pressured water, et al. The elemental zooms out and around the caverns on its own, or under my command. At it goes, it condenses what little amount of airborne water is available and only managed to collect a little more than 100 ml after a few minutes. The air in these caves is way too stale!

Ah! Dumping what food and drinks were left forgotten within my Repository—I had collected these maybe four months ago and had never thought about them since gaining Devourling Constitution—made every single people near me perk up, the childrens did not wait to scurry over and fight over a handful of various sweets within the pile.

"Can you keep things under control here?" I ask Igor, he snapped out of staring at the supplies, called a few healthier looking people over before confirming he can. I had wanted to give them some Creds to purchase supplies and various Spells that could sustain them. But changed my mind due to the impoverished state of this area.

While they feast, I make my way through the previous intact door. Why help them barely go by if they can join us at rumah and possibly thrive.