Maria and the others quickly swept through the other areas on the first floor. After entering the Training Hall and obtaining the key to the Storehouse, they met with a mini-boss there and took it down together for efficiency’s sake. After killing the mini-boss and destroying the Blood Crystal that was powering the barrier that blocked them from going up to the 2nd floor, they finally arrived on the new level which was honestly just a long string of numerous hallways and doors.
Since it seemed it would take a while for them to clear the second floor, Maria decided to split the team into 3 groups. Orh’bankhur and Maria would be in one team, Carmilla with Ash, and finally, Raijuu and Alexa. There were 3 areas they had to scout: the north section, and the east and west wings of the second floor.
Each group made their way towards one area to scout. Carmilla and Ash went to the East Wing while Raijuu and Alexa went to the West Wing. Naturally, the North Section was where Orh’bankhur and Maria were headed.
It wasn’t by choice though as the North Section was the only area where the large Orh’bankhur could freely move around as it was a terrace area with a large indoor garden. Why the garden was even placed here was something Maria couldn’t understand. It seemed pretty impractical in her opinion though after entering the garden, it was quite beautiful.
The place was brightly lit like it was daytime though Maria wondered why this was so when the vampires hated daylight. Looking up, she could see that the garden was being illuminated by artificial light coming from some kind of glowing stone.
“I guess artificial light from this thing doesn’t affect them?”
Maria could see that there were a few vampire mobs around and they were tending to the garden or just roaming around, patrolling the place.
Name: Bloodthirsty Gardener
Name: Cannibal Ghoul
Name: Vampire Watcher
“Queen, there is maze at center of garden.”
“Seems like an important place. Let’s clear out the mobs and head in there!”
“Yes.”
Maria and Orh’bankhur began attacking the mobs together and without caring how many came at them, Maria just kept on firing her skills and spells from the safety of Orh’bankhur’s shoulder. Orh’bankhur didn’t need to worry about the large number of mobs that were attracted to their side as Maria was able to heal him up the moment his HP started dropping. With their setup, Orh’bankhur acted as the tank while Maria was the primary damage dealer.
They steamrolled their way through the mobs in the garden. The unfortunate Cannibal Ghouls that were running at them on all fours would sometimes be squashed underneath Orh’bankhur’s feet. Maria was also using her [Undead Raise] and summoning skeleton soldiers and skeleton mages to the field from the corpses of their enemies. It was quite a handy skill as it seemed more usable than her [Shadow Puppetry].
To use [Shadow Puppetry], Maria needed to use a powerful corpse to create a powerful shadow puppet. If the corpse was bad, then the puppet would be bad as well but with [Undead Raise], all of the summoned undead would be randomized so there were times she would summon an elite Skeleton Soldiers or Mage.
She needed to raise the level of her skill so that she could summon better undead. With Orh’bankhur as the anchor, a small army of undead and shadow puppets swept through the garden and as more enemies fell, their number continued to increase. From all of the generated undead, Maria still hadn’t found one that was worthy enough to be stored in her necklace’s storage space to become a permanent undead familiar.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Orh’ba, keep going towards the maze. Let the little ones deal with the mobs and only focus on the ones that break through them.”
“Yes, Queen.”
There was now a shield of undead and shadow minions surrounding Maria and Orh’bankhur as they made their way towards the garden’s maze. The mobs continued to try and attack them but they were blocked by the undead and shadow puppets.
The undead and shadow puppets Maria spawned using the monster corpses weren’t too strong so they weren’t able to completely block all of the mobs, so for those that managed to penetrate the wall of undead and shadows, Orh’bankhur and Maria would just finish them off.
When they arrived at the maze, Maria ordered all of her minions to rush into the maze and scout the correct path. Once they found the way, Maria immediately had Orh’bankhur move through the maze. Once they arrived at the center of the maze, Maria saw that there was a lone vampire waiting there.
Name: Henry Dracul Level: 200
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
“Hm, he’s probably one of those Vampire Dukes serving the Blood Lord. I guess this means I’m lucky since I had to explore the North Section.”
Maria leaped off Orh’bankhur’s shoulder and approached the vampire who was sitting on a bench with his eyes closed. When she entered his aggro range, Henry Dracul’s eyes shot open as a red radiance flickered from those ruby-like irises that stared straight at her.
“So, are you the one causing a ruckus in the city?”
“Yeah, I am. Let’s fight now, okay?”
“Tch, what an uncouth lady.”
“Careful now tough guy. I’m the type to hold grudges so if you continue insulting me, I’ll make sure your death is painful,” Maria said as she pulled out Calamity.
“That’s if you can even hurt me,” Henry quipped back. He could see that Maria’s level was so much lower than his so he wasn’t going to take this little girl seriously. “I’d hate to ruin that pretty little face of yours.”
“Hooh…”
Maria pointed a finger at the arrogant vampire and fired off a concentrated [Blood Ray] at his forehead. Henry wasn’t going to dodge the attack at all but when he saw the dangerous amount of Blood Energy Maria gathered to form that [Blood Ray], he immediately jumped away. She had learned a few Vampire Arts from her vampire subordinates way back when but only thought about using them now since she was in a place that amplified all vampire-type abilities.
The [Blood Ray] she fired wasn’t an ordinary [Blood Ray] as the beam was far too thick and the power behind it was even more devastating. She completely blew apart the bench Henry Dracul was sitting on and even created a massive crater from the explosion that went off.
“Oh~ I missed~”
“...”
Henry Dracul saw that what Maria had used was a [Blood Ray] but the vampire [Blood Ray] that he was familiar with wasn’t a technique that was supposed to be that devastating.
“I guess you’re not all just talk, huh?”
“I wasn’t the one blabbering my mouth on and on earlier. If you just want to talk, then do you mind if I just go past you?”
“Let’s get serious then. You are a pretty lady but unfortunately, I can’t let you pass this place.”
Maria shrugged and said, “Well, it was worth asking but honestly, I’d rather fight my way through. It’s more fun this way.”
Maria activated her [Metamorphosis] and transformed into her battle form. She wanted to test the limits of her [Metamorphosis] to see how far she could go and what better test subject than the level 200 vampire boss in front of her.
“Orh’ba, you stay back. This guy is mine.”
“Yes, Queen.”
Orh’bankhur stayed back while Maria’s undead and shadow minions stepped up. Henry Dracul pulled out a magic tome and staff as he announced his name to Maria.
“My name is Henry Dracul, first of my name and the Vampire Duke of the Northern lands.”
Maria was about to attack but immediately stopped after seeing him be so courteous so she responded in kind.
“Maria Heltania, Queen of the Dire.”
Since Henry Dracul was a mage-type vampire, Maria thought that it would be fun to see how good her mage craft was in a battle against a mage so she put away Calamity and pulled out her [Necronomicon] and [Sekhem Scepter].
“Hm?”
Henry Dracule was rather puzzled by this change. He saw earlier that Maria was using a large battle-ax so the sudden change was odd since he thought she was a warrior-type. It didn’t matter though because he was confident he could beat this so-called Queen of the Dire either way.