Damian arrived at the Spartan training camp.
The facilities had been expanding more and more; by this point, there were 1000 Spartans.
They could now be considered a small army.
Seeing Damian appear, the thousand people quickly formed in front of him.
Damian felt a kind of satisfaction seeing his elite soldiers, it's a pity he can't take them into battle.
Setting aside those thoughts, he made a small pillar with a glass sphere on top appear by his side.
"Guys, I promised I would teach you how to strengthen your body with magic, so you'll each come up one by one and place your hand on the sphere. It will cause magic in your body to circulate automatically, reinforcing your body."
"You have to remember the sensation and replicate it on your own. Don't worry if you don't succeed the first time, you can try as many times as necessary," Damian said, smiling at them.
"I'll be watching today in case there's any accident, so don't be afraid, even if you explode in a bloody disaster, I'll bring you back," Damian said, giving them a friendly smile that scared several soldiers.
Frank, Laura, and John couldn't help but curl their lips at the sight of their king trying to intimidate the newbies.
Frank, as the leader of all the Spartans, was the first to step forward before touching the crystal sphere.
Immediately, he felt something warm pass through his body, making him feel very strong.
Withdrawing his hand, he felt what he assumed was his magic slowly stop circulating, and the sensation of strength faded away.
Moving aside to make room for the next person, Frank walked with a pensive expression, remembering the sensation.
Laura was next to step forward and touch the crystal sphere.
Damian watched them as he was attentive to everyone's situation; if he saw anyone's magic getting out of control, he would have to quickly intervene to control the situation.
They constantly rotated until each person had gone a couple of times.
A few hours later, he could see several soldiers beginning to get the hang of it.
Still, he could see magic overflowing slightly from their bodies, indicating they were wasting energy.
On average, all the Spartans had around 30 in their physical statistics, and in magic, they all averaged around 300.
With this amount of magic, they could operate physical reinforcement in combat for about half an hour. Of course, this was if they used their magic correctly and without wasting it.
The Spartans ate the best meat from mutant animals caught far out at sea, where the animals were much larger than on land; it was to be expected that they would have such statistics.
Suddenly Damian's gaze focused on Laura, who had taken a great leap before quickly running around.
He noticed she was improving her body, and her physical statistics had reached around 100.
She was quite talented in magic, had good control, and her magic was over 400.
Later on, he would surely offer her the chance to learn the magic circle system.
A couple of hours later, everyone had managed to move their magic on their own and partially reinforce their own bodies.
Some were better than others, but the objective had been achieved.
"Good job, guys, from now on, remember to train using all the magic in your body before resting."
"Magic behaves in a certain way like a muscle, so it depends on your own effort how strong you can become," Damian said, looking at all the soldiers who had reformed.
"You can go back," Damian said, finishing what he had to tell them.
"Yes, sir!" they all said before dispersing cheerfully.
Damian, who smiled slightly, began to walk back home; he could hear the soldiers enthusiastically commenting on their training.
...
Circe appeared through a portal and arrived at a rather dark and gloomy place; several coffins were arranged in a circular position.
Feeling the magic, she immediately noticed that there were vampires sleeping in the coffins, so with a big smile, she kicked the coffins wanting to wake them up.
Her kicks made little noise, and there was no movement from the vampires.
Putting on a grumpy expression, Circe took out two metal pans before slamming them against each other forcefully.
The loud sound echoed through the gloomy catacombs, causing the lids of the coffins to fly off as incredibly pale and terrifying beings emerged.
Circe looked at them and couldn't help but think about her theories with Wanda about Damian being a vampire.
She couldn't see how the incredibly attractive Damian would be similar to these things in front of her.
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They had sickly pale skin, and several purple veins were occasionally visible.
The vampires looked at her with annoyance but also as if she were a sweet candy.
Circe just put on a disgusted expression before using an ancient spell that immediately caused great pain to the vampires and made them kneel.
"Does anyone here know who created you?" Circe asked a little curious if the information had been passed on after so many years.
The vampires looked at each other before looking at her and shaking their heads.
"Fine, then who among you is the oldest? Where is your progenitor?" Circe asked a little impatiently.
"I am the oldest here; my progenitor is sleeping on an island to the north. We've slept for hundreds of years, so we don't know what the situation is outside," one of the vampires said, bowing his head.
"Why were you sleeping?" Circe asked curiously.
"We broke an agreement with the sorcerers, and they started hunting us. We had no choice but to sleep and hide our aura so they wouldn't find us," the vampire said.
"Let's go find your progenitor," Circe said, waving her hand and creating a portal to the north.
She had read the vampire's mind and understood the direction.
Arriving on the island, the sun shone on the group, causing the vampires to scream terrifyingly. Circe frowned at them before waving her hand, creating a protection over them.
Looking around the island, she immediately noticed that it was quite small, with ruins rising in the center, and she could immediately feel the characteristic aura of the vampires.
She quickly started walking towards the ruins, followed by the group of vampires who still looked at the sunlight on their bodies with fear and fascination.
Descending through the ruins, she soon found a false wall that she quickly broke before continuing to advance.
Finally, in a dark room, a coffin was in the center with many gold decorations.
Circe approached before opening the coffin lid and saw a pale, bald vampire; his face was not familiar to her, so she assumed he was not from the pre-cataclysm era.
It was a bit impressive that they had survived since vampires are somewhat weak to fire.
Circe slapped the vampire directly, causing him to open his red eyes with force before sitting up, surprised.
Looking at the woman who had slapped him, the vampire immediately showed a murderous look before suddenly starting to twist inside the coffin.
The other vampires couldn't help but look in another direction, remembering the terrible pain they had been subjected to.
"Who is your progenitor?" Circe asked, deactivating the spell.
The vampire quickly spilled everything he knew before Circe created a portal in another direction.
Circe went through the portal with her entourage, which was growing larger.
The group arrived at a large snow-covered mountain, an ice-covered cave being the first thing they saw when they emerged from the portal.
Circe frowned, feeling the piercing cold; she didn't understand why this guy would choose to sleep in such a deserted place.
Using a simple spell, the ice covering the cave was undone before they entered.
Inside was a simple wooden coffin that looked very old.
With a little curiosity, Circe opened the coffin and was disappointed to see that she didn't recognize the sleeping vampire's face.
Although this vampire really looked very old, normally a vampire's appearance doesn't change even after a thousand years.
After abruptly waking up the vampire, Circe prepared the spell to make the vampire twist, but to her surprise, the vampire, who had initially looked at her with annoyance, now looked at her with amazement upon seeing her closely.
"Mistress," the vampire said, lowering his head submissively.
"Do you know me?" Circe asked, raising an eyebrow.
"My progenitor spoke of you to me, even showed me a picture," the vampire said, looking at her adoringly.
"Did your progenitor survive the cataclysm?" Circe asked, looking at him.
"Yes, he was the only vampire to survive. He told me a little about how the world was, but didn't give me too many details; he just told me that you would return someday," the vampire said, looking at Circe.
"I see. Where is he?" Circe asked, nodding thoughtfully.
"He died," the vampire said, noticeably disheartened.
"It was a thousand years ago; his body began to fall apart, no matter how much blood he drank, he couldn't recover."
"He finally told me to keep sleeping and cease any activity. Without the witches' magic that created us, our bodies reach a limit. It turns out we're not so immortal," the vampire said, smiling ironically.
The vampires behind Circe had their eyes wide with surprise before looking at Circe with more fervor.
"Wow, that's really interesting," Circe said, her eyes shining as she looked at the vampire.
That was something she didn't know; never had a vampire been put in that situation, and an experiment spanning over 12 thousand years is in very poor taste, so they never attempted it.
The witches' magic slightly strengthened the vampires and was used as a reward for doing their tasks; who would've thought it was so important?
"Well, come with me," Circe said, nodding before waving her hand and creating a portal.
Circe took the group of nearly ten vampires directly to Wanda's room.
Wanda was surprised before immediately hiding the book she was reading behind her.
"You and I need to talk about privacy and not showing up in my room," Wanda said, giving Circe a sweet smile.
Circe made a frightened grimace as Wanda would surely deal with her later.
"Cough... I know you were looking for vampires, so I specially went to find them, ta-da," Circe said, stepping aside and extending her arms towards the vampires.
Wanda looked at the group of people who looked like corpses with red eyes before wordlessly looking at Circe.
"Aren't vampires supposed to be handsome?" Wanda asked, looking at Circe.
"You should stop reading those books of yours," Circe said softly, suppressing a smile.
Wanda suddenly appeared next to Circe before showing her status.
"Do you see that? The system says the creator of the magic circles is a very handsome vampire, like a consciousness that knows that every person in the world must have high standards," Wanda said, looking at Circe.
"Why don't you just say you want this person to be Damian?" Circe asked, looking at her speechlessly.
The vampires, who had apparently been forgotten, couldn't help but feel offended; try being handsome after living thousands of years without a mirror, and they had just woken up.
"I just want to keep improving my magic; besides, it's just a platonic crush because he's very handsome," Wanda said, denying it with a calm voice.
"Why don't you let me see those blushy cheeks?" Circe teased, seeing her avoiding eye contact.
Wanda cleared her throat before looking at Circe; her blush had disappeared, showing a queenly appearance.
"Anyway, I'll leave you guys here; you can definitely solve several minor problems for her," Circe said without commenting further.
"In fact, we look like this because we haven't drunk blood in a long time; although we may not be as handsome, at least we'll look more normal," a vampire said quietly.
"How are your statuses?" Wanda asked, looking at them and completely ignoring the one who spoke.
"Status?" the vampires asked, confused.
"Have you been living under a rock?" Wanda asked, speechless to see that they had no idea what she was talking about.
''Something like that," several vampires murmured and nodded.
"Say 'status' and tell me what you see," Wanda said, raising her hand and stopping their murmuring.
"Status," the vampires almost chorused before showing surprise when holographic text floated in front of them.
Vampire Name
Species: Undead Vampire
Magic: 0
Strength: 20
Agility: 25
Intelligence: 2
(Result of an experiment conducted by witches, due to the long sleep and lack of magic from their creators, their condition has degenerated, without any comparison to a certain attractive vampire the scarlet witch is enamored with)
Wanda's cheeks turned the same color as her hair upon seeing the status of one of the vampires.
Circe couldn't bear it and burst into laughter.
"I'm not in love," murmured Wanda, annoyed; it was just a small crush on his appearance, why didn't anyone respect her privacy?