Aurora

Shit! I didn’t think about other players when I set up Maxwell and Razz during the goblin inquisition. My mana income was decent to hold back the likes of these three, but if an entire nation started diving my dungeon… All it would take is someone finding the Primal Gold in the depths to paint a giant target on my back.

I glared at Maxwell, putting the full force of my death magic into my aura. “What to you want?” I asked through gritted teeth. This was not how I saw this meeting going when Maxwell asked Kaga to tag along. Damn it all!

Maxwell just shrugged. “I want a little assistance. That’s all. You have plenty of forces that are good at late night raids, or have the various attacks around here been by someone else?”

I had already planned to attack the goblin forces as they made their way through the forest. I wasn’t one to sit on good experience points after all. Plus, it was easy enough to tie the crime to Maxwell given the goblins rather low intelligence. If it were for the natural protection that the forest offered and their overwhelming numbers, then I doubted they would have managed to create something as large as a nation.

Turning my back to the three, I walked over to Zaras. “What do you think?”

Zaras bowed his head. “While I loathe working with your enemies, my queen. It is true that we would be hard pressed to fight an army numbering in the thousands.”

“You think so too?” I asked and got a nod. Sighing, I turned back to Maxwell. “Fine. We’ll deal a few blows to your latest enemy. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re good at making them.”

“We both know that this one was a group effort,” Maxwell shot back. I couldn’t help but grin. It looked like he must have worked it out that I was the one to cause the goblin nation’s response. The escapees might have been pushed to say rather… unfaltering things about the goblin nation on Maxwell’s behalf.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I stretched my hand out then snapped my fingers. The sound echoed through the nearby area. A sea of red eyes began to pour out of the shadows of my dungeon. A thousand or so common, a hundred Greaters, two paragons, and Zaras. That should be more than enough to make a sizable dent in the goblin army. Plus, this was only going to be my public army. “What do you think?” I asked a bit smugly.

Maxwell, to his credit, didn’t flee at the sight of the army, but my eyes could see the shake in his legs. I had emptied every drop of mana to create this force. With the boost from the newly acquired Nature’s Grotto, I would be able to send this army anywhere this side of the mountain within three hundred kilometers. They could go even further if I were willing to cause them to suffer from debuffs and other weaknesses. The biggest issue was the sun. Not that I would tell anyone that.

Maxwell finally sucked in a deep breath. “Not bad. If the scene in the pass was anything to go on, you might not even need our help.”

“Probably not.” I yawned and turned away from the trio, “If you’ll excuse me, I have more important things to deal with.” I walked back into the dungeon followed by my army. I peered outside with my clairvoyance to see that the trio had already teleported away. That spell really was annoying. I could never let anyone related to him see my core room. I refused to let him teleport directly to my most vulnerable spot.

Back in my throne room, I looked up at my core. Perhaps I should do as the Nature’s Grotto dungeon had and hide the core. I just wasn’t sure where a good location would be in my dungeon. I shook my head. That could wait. I turned my gaze onto Zaras. “Take the army to Nature’s Grotto. Begin testing your limits and the effects of being too far from the dungeon. Also, bring any monsters you find in the forest to the dungeon. We need to level up our newest foothold quickly.”

“Will your enemies not be using the dungeon?” Zaras asked. I knew what he meant to say. Should I let them find out that I had somehow claimed the dungeon as mine?

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. “I’ll head over there in a bit to create a separate section that will serve as your base of operations. I’ll speak with Drac about how to camouflage the entrance. He should have the lay of the land in that area down by now.” Maxwell doesn’t have a lot of scouts even with his NPCs. As long as Kaga was his only real source of eyes in the night, then I’ll have the advantage in that area. It would be nice with the pending war if he forgot about the dungeon.

“Very well, we shall set out during the next night.” Zaras bowed his head then left my throne room. I leaned back as I watched him go. It was still hard to believe that less than a month ago, I was just a painter that had gotten screwed over by just about everyone in her life. Gripping the arm of my arm until it crumbled into pieces of stone, I refused to let that happen again. Not matter what the cost.

I dusted off my hand before closing my eyes and picturing my body, Aru. Smelling the incense and the feel of fine silk under me was nice. I thought again about how while Nature’s Grotto had been a simple cave, there was an art to it. I had slacked on my dungeon. There were a lot of improvements that I could make if I put my mind to it. I had plenty of fine cloths, gems, money, and more thanks to my various connections. I could make the dungeon look like a proper vampire’s castle.

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“Quin.” The Greater Demon appeared like a ninja from the night. “Any changes since I was gone?”

“None of noted.” It felt like a week had passed, but it had only been two or three days. The Archanic were pretty laid back. Other than the tournament once a month, a lot of the time most of the people scheduled themselves to work on art or their crafts.

“Good.” I left my chamber and walked over to the Twisted Webs throne. I pulled up my friends list then called Opal and Mira asking them to come visit me. Thankfully, it looked like they weren’t busy and came over right away.

“You rang, and we came!” Mira cheered. Her eight eyes were slightly out of focus.

“Sorry! She’s really drunk,” Opal said while helping her friend walk.

“Oh. My bad. We can talk later,” I said. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get advice from a drunk.

“NOPE! You called! I delivered. Now talk!” Mira shouted before falling backwards. She rolled over until she was facing me. That was quite a feat considering she had spider appendages on her back.

I groaned but decided to just go with it for now. “Alright listen. I have a delicate matter that I need to discuss with you.”

“We’re here to listen, Aru,” Opal said. At least she was sober.

Tapping my foot, I eventually got up and started pacing. “So here’s the deal. My position was sort of, not my fault. I have another life so to speak and that life sort of, might of caused the city to become part of a Vampiric Nation.”

“Ah! I thought something was off,” Opal said catching me off-guard. I looked at her confused and she chuckled. “We’re players remember. We get a few more details than the NPCs. Like how my home city of Twisted Webs had suddenly became a city belonging to the nation of Scarlet Night.”

“Hmm… Yes. Exactly. Anyway, I want to break the news to said NPCs, but I’m not sure of the best way to do so.”

A painful groan escaped from Mira as she managed to sit up. “Just tell them during the next tournament. That’s how things work around here. Crush your opponents then announce that we’ve joined Scarlet Night. They don’t exactly have anywhere else to go.” I was amazed that she got through that without vomiting, but it wasn’t to last as she soon emptied her stomach on the floor.

“That is… an excellent idea!” The next tournament was in just over three weeks. Since the city had joined without issue, I wasn’t pressed to release the information. I didn’t plan to bring them into the war or anything in the first place. I dropped back into my chair with a sigh. I thought about inviting them to the surface, but decided to hold off. Letting them into my dungeon was dangerous. I would need a place that would be safe for both them and myself. I could capture or… or build a town.

I was planning to expand to the east and south. The Demon seal was to the east and north, but I would run into Maxwell if I expanded to liberally in that direction. I had to be careful not to step on his toes. At least not until I was ready to crush them to the bone.

Mira collapsed to the ground, nearly falling face first in her puddle of vomit. Opal gave me an apologetic look before she pulled Mira up and carried her out. I pulled my friends list up and sent a quick thank you to both of them.

~~~

I stretched out in the pool of blood that had formed under the Nature’s Grotto core. I would have been sick to my stomach before, but now that I was a vampire, there was something strangely appealing about soaking in the liquid. It also raised the question of whether my mind was starting to change after being a vampire, virtual or otherwise for so long.

Using my dungeon control, I was able to make it like a hot spring. Since my dungeon body didn’t need to bath to stay clean, I hadn’t worried about things like my smell or whatnot, but the bath I took as Kaga the other day had reawakened me to the simple pleasure of just soaking the day’s troubles away.

Sinking down a little further, I closed my eyes and used clairvoyance. The construction of the secondary section of the Grotto was coming along nicely. Golems were amazing. They put my demons to shame in regard to manual labor. There was now a nice gothic fortress underneath the Grotto. The only entrance was a separate opening almost a kilometer away from the original that was hidden through the use of a trapped passage.

The fortress allowed the thousand plus vampires to live comfortably enough while they were stationed here. It would be another week or two before the goblins were in our effective range, but they were already doing wonders for the Grotto. The number of monsters being hunted then tossed into the dungeon for the core to eat made even me jealous. I was getting the most out of it, though, I made sure to deliver the killing blow on as many of them as I could. Thanks to that, I was close to level fifteen on my main body.

If there was one issue I had, it was that I couldn’t use my Dimensional Movement – Shadow Walk when the damn sun was out. I believed the issue was that I had to have a solid connection to move between dungeons. When it was night, that was easy. During the day, however, a single clearing could easily break the connection.

I was already working on a solution. I had teams of golems with a demon overseer digging a tunnel from each dungeon. Once they were connected, I would be able to move here magically or physically. It would allow me to move around large numbers of soldiers if I was ever attacked at either dungeon. A vampire running in a straight line was ridiculously fast after all.

Three days had passed by this point. Maxwell and the gang had only attacked the dungeon once in that time. So far, they hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. I would know, I was there in more ways than one. It was a good thing that the others couldn’t see my experience gauge though. Sure enough, I don’t get experience points from monsters I had summoned myself. Even if they were originally designed by the system.

I would need to find a way to transfer my experience between bodies at some point. Otherwise, if I created another body, it would be like starting from scratch each time. That was a problem for the future. Perhaps when I encountered one of the Empires. The Holy Empire sounded like a nightmare to mess with. It was a good thing that it was to the north. I would leave it to Maxwell. Let them kill each other, I thought as I sank further into the blood pool.