After clearing nearly half of the quest objective, Maria took Alexa with her into the mine.

The interior of the mine was pretty spacious and dark but thankfully there were glowing ores on the ceiling of the mine which served as illumination.

Maria fearlessly strutted into the cave with Alexa in tow. She had her Greed's Shackles at the ready and there was a [Fire] ready in her hands.

Her magic-related skills had all experienced a level up due to absorbing Greed's Essence of Life so she was now able to delay the full activation of her spell and keep it at the ready like this. The timer to the completion of the absorption was still over 30 hours but she couldn't wait to see how much of her skills and stats would change due to it.

Partial assimilation already leveled up all of her skills by 1 level so she anticipated the complete assimilation. Of course, there was a stat that kept on increasing every minute and that was her Taint Value.

She was rather perplexed at what this stat even did. Until now, the Taint Value only changed her avatar's appearance which was accompanied by a large pain that followed, but there had been no increases to her abilities.

Well, actually, since her Taint had risen, she had grown an extra pair of wings so her [Angel's Rage] skill had experienced a jump in damage but that was it.

"Hmmm... it's already over 70,000...I wish there was something more it gave other than just changing my appearance. Though I can't complain since I look pretty cool now~"

That couldn't be any truer and she quite liked the changes to her avatar.

While she was reveling in the changes to her avatar, the monsters inside the mine had unknowingly surrounded her. Alexa already had her guard up but she immediately became worried when she noticed that her big sis was just staring ahead of her with no notions of stopping.

"B-big sis?"

"Hm? What is it, Alexa?"

"W-we're surrounded..."

"Oh?"

Maria stopped looking at her [Status] screen and looked around.

"Oh! We are surrounded, hahaha~"

"B-Big sis! This isn't the time to be laughing!" Alexa exclaimed in distress.

"Relax~ there's always a time to laugh~"

Maria chuckled before flourishing her wings and sending an [Angel's Rage] at the monsters surrounding them. She didn't forget to throw her [Fire] spell at the monsters and swing her Greed's Shackles at one of the monsters.

After constricting one of the monsters, she pulled and slammed the monster onto another monster next to it.

"Hahahahaha~!"

With her feathers shooting out all around her, the monsters quickly began falling. They were only level 40 to 45 so they weren't even considered a threat to her.

"Hey, Master. Aren't these guys a little too weak?" Lilah asked.

"I dunno, but isn't it that they die pretty easily? I mean, I get easy EXP this way~"

"Hmm..."

"Anyway, let's keep going. We've got quite a few more monsters to kill before we can occupy this mine. Once we've got this place, we can acquire a good amount of Stones for our rebuilding quest!"

Update! Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to occupy it! (69/100) Update! Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to occupy it! (78/100) Update! Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to occupy it! (94/100)

Maria continued her way into the mines while killing all of the monsters that she encountered and soon enough, she reached the end of the mine. She was a little puzzled since there were only 6 monsters left but there were no more monsters in sight.

"Huh? That's weird—"

"Y-you! What're you doing here?!"

Maria quickly whipped her head around when she heard someone speak up from behind her. There, she saw 6 humanoids approaching her cautiously.

"...Who're you guys?" Maria asked.

"That's what we should be asking! We were just about to clear these mines for our Lord, though it looks like we won't have to do it anymore since you've done the heavy work for us!"

The person who just spoke up was a pale-looking man, and from his attire, Maria deduced that he was most likely an adventurer or something. The others around him were also dressed up as warriors and from the looks of things, they were hostiles.

"Since you've done the work for us, we'll be magnanimous and let you leave this place alive. Now get lost."

Maria's face darkened when she heard the man's words and she began chuckling darkly.

"Hahahaha..."

"?"

"Hahaha..."

"What's so funny?!" The man roared after seeing that Maria was only laughing instead of skedaddling.

"Walk away while we're asking nicely!" Another one quipped up in annoyance.

"Haaahh... this is funny. A puny little man like you is actually threatening me?"

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"Hah?"

"Listen up you bastards. I cleaned this place up because it was once my follower's home! Now, I'll tell you guys to—actually wait... I require workers right now... shouldn't I just enslave these bastards and force them to work in the mines?" Maria said thoughtfully.

She wanted to just do away with these ignorant fellows but after remembering that she needed more people to help rebuild her town, she decided against killing them.

"Yeah, let's do that!"

Maria whipped out her Greed's Shackles and immediately began attacking the party of 6 without notice.

"Dodge! This bitch, how dare she—"

"Ahhh!!"

The people Maria had attacked were rather nimble on their feet and they quickly dodged away from her attack but unfortunately for them, one of their members was hit by her chain and she quickly entangled it around the person.

The man, who appeared to be the leader among them didn't panic and quickly began commanding his lackeys.

"Break the chains! You two go and attack her! She's only 1 person!"

"Yes, boss!"

Maria smirked when she heard this and began quietly casting her [Fire] and [Earth Shock] spells.

"Die you winged bitch!"

"Hraaaahhh!!!"

"Hihihi~ why don't you two... burn?"

She sent her [Earth Shock] spell at them and destroyed their balance before she tugged on her chains and sent the one she entangled colliding with the enemies who were rushing at her.

The entangled enemy struck the ones at the front who had lost their balance due to her [Earth Shock] spell and she immediately threw her [Fire] spell at them before sending a shower of her feathers at them.

-10,580 -18,500! -9,805 -900 -900 -900

She made sure not to kill them. After she depleted their health to minimum levels, she jumped back and dodged the ax that was swinging down at her. She didn't dodge too far back and used her wings to slap the enemy who had just attacked her into the air.

Maria quickly chanted a [Terra Lance] and shot it towards the airborne enemy.

-12,780

"Hahaha! You're all weak and you want me to scram?!"

"How dare you—"

"Quiet!"

Maria sent a [Ruin] spell at the leader and the remaining enemy who were keeping their distance. She already saw that they were both using crossbows. After the two dodged, they immediately began shooting their arrows at her. Maria responded by sending her feathers at them.

"Dammit! Valenti, you go back and inform the lord!" The leader hastily ordered after seeing that they were being overwhelmed.

"Y-Yes, sir!"

"Go, now! I'll hold this monster off!"

"Hahaha~ I don't think so!"

Maria quickly took to the air and landed just behind the two men. After cutting off their escape, she grinned evilly at them.

"You're not going anywhere~"

"Yeah? We'll see about that!" The leader yelled and pulled something out of his bag and throwing it at her.

"Close your eyes!"

It was some sort of flask and before it even hit her, the flask blew up and a large flash of light accompanied it.

"Tsk!"

Maria closed her eyes and jumped back. She felt someone pass by her but before she could do anything, she felt danger in front of her so she used her wings to shield her body.

"Gotcha!"

"Hmph!" Maria felt multiple impacts on her wings but she didn't cower and instead shot her feathers in the direction ahead of her.

She quickly regained her vision and saw that the leader bleeding and pinned to the ground by her feathers. The other one, however, had escaped after she was blinded by the flask the leader had thrown.

Update! Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to occupy it! (95/100)

"Hmph, so these guys were the last of the 'monsters'..."

"Master, one of them escaped!" Lilah quickly informed.

"Never mind him, we've already cleared this place so it's ours now. I'll just have to reform these bastards and make them our slaves."

"Uhh, okay?"

"Why the long face, Lilah? They attacked us first and instead of killing them, I decided to spare their lives! Didn't we need more people anyways?"

"Yeah, you're right Master, but are these guys reliable?"

"Probably not, but we can change that~"

"Okay, should I go get Ash?"

"Yeah, bring him here. After I'm through with them, I'll have Ash continue their... education."

"Okay!"

The leader and his beaten-up party heard their conversation and shivered in fear.

"Y-you...what do you want from us?"

"[Inspect]."

Name: Markus Pelio Level: 55 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? Class: Ranger HP: 2%/100%

MP:67%/100%

Name: Emil Herr Level: 50 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? Class: Warrior HP: 1%/100%

MP: 100%

Name: Metil Jahn Level: 51 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? ... ...

...

The remaining people who Maria had just defeated had rather decent levels. It was a shame that compared to her raw stats, they were very much lacking. Maria's level 50 stats could rival that of an average player in their 70s or 80s.

The nearly 30-level difference in stats was enough for Maria to treat the level 50 monsters and NPCs she encountered with impudence. Only semi-recovered Ash was probably a threat to her, but Maria had no worries about him since he was her subordinate.

"Now, it's time for you fools to change masters!"

"Our loyalty to our Lord will not be shaken!"

"If you think you can enslave us, then give a crack at us!"

"I'd rather die than serve you!"

An hour later, just before Ash and Lila returned to the cave, the 5 vampires who were once adamantly rejecting Maria were now groveling at her feet.

"...What's this?"

"Master wanted to enslave them! So I guess everything is going well?"

"W-what? Enslave?!"

"Well, we need workers Ash! These people just decided to deliver themselves on a silver platter, it was only obvious that we wouldn't reject their 'kind' offer~" Maria quipped up.

Ash grimaced when he saw the pitiful state his fellow kin were in because of his Mistress.

"My Lady, let me take care of things from here."

"Alright, Ash, I'll leave it to you. I want these bastards mining this cave as soon as possible! Also, what about the lumber I asked you to collect?"

"I've only collected half of the amount for the repairs..."

"Tsk, so useless! I even lent you Calamity, why couldn't you finish it?"

"I-I'm sorry my Lady..."

"Never mind, take some of these idiots and go collect me some resources! I want to rebuild the estate before night falls! I'm not sleeping on the ground tonight!"

"We'll get things done, my Lady," Ash quickly said.

Maria was pleased with his answer and she replied, "Good! I'll be going back to the town now. I wanna find some weak monsters and see if I can help Alexa level up. She's too weak as she is now and quite frankly, quite useless as well."

"Alright, I'll make sure to deliver you the good news soon."

"Mhm," Maria nodded at Ash before turning to Alexa and beckoning for her to follow, "Let's go, Alexa, we'll go search for some monsters you can kill!"

"Okay, big sis!"