Ash immediately saw the look on Maria's face and quickly blocked her way.
"Hm?"
"My Lady, it's a bit harsh to assume that these mere soldiers will be worthy of crossing blades with you. Please reconsider since they were all once just lowly adventurers and wanderers. They're all simply too weak for you to test!"
"Well... I guess you're right. Hurry up and train them then! I don't want any weaklings in my army~" Maria said with a grin.
"Of course, my Lady, I'll immediately put them under the strictest of training so that they'll be able to live up to your criteria!" Ash hastily said.
He really wanted his Master to just let the new recruits go because if Maria did try to test them, the new soldiers wouldn't be able to last long and there was even fear that some of them might incur some life-threatening injuries.
After having been persuaded by Ash's words, Maria let all of the soldiers off and only said a few words of encouragement before walking past them and into the city.
Maria walked around and felt that the large castle which was constantly being remodeled by her vampire dwarves was feeling a little bleak and empty. She appreciated the fact that her people wanted what was best for her, but it was a little lonely just being here all by her lonesome with only Lilah, Alexa, and her 2 maids to keep her company.
There was also her new dog, Little Red the Blood Hound, which would sometimes show up from time to time, but this fella was always patrolling around the castle like a gatekeeper. Thanks to having been leveled up by Maria, the Blood Hound had grown in size and level. It was already level 40 and was almost as large as a sports car.
Maria always thought that the bigger the better so she couldn't wait to see her doggy grow to be as big as the castle when it reached level 100. Of course, this wouldn't happen since the size and growth rate of all the pets were restricted by the system once it reached a certain criterion.
From there, the only way to level it up or have it grow was to evolve it. Lilah had been able to rank up herself, but she hadn't yet experienced an evolution since she was still lacking the dark core of a high-ranked demon or dark attributed monster.
Maria could only wait until they had amassed enough strength to attack a marquis ranked vampire or higher before she could try feeding the monster's core to Lilah. For now, the issue of Lilah's level cap had been taken care of due to her rank up from A to S, but for a long-term fix, it was better if she evolved.
Monsters could rank up after fulfilling certain conditions. Unfortunately for Maria, she had missed the timing of Lilah's rank up so she didn't know about the specifics, but what she did know was that Lilah had ranked up after they defeated Greed.
And speaking about Greed, Maria finally remembered something about that little bugger.
"Shouldn't the absorption of Greed's soul be finished by now?"
Maria quickly opened up her [Status] and saw that the cooldown until Greed's Soul was absorbed had indeed finished and all she needed to do was complete the process by clicking on the [Yes] option which had been laying around for who knows how long.
There was always an uncomfortable heat that accompanied her when she played the game during the soul's absorption process, but Maria had gotten used to it by now so she didn't even realize that the heat had suddenly disappeared because the process had long since been over.
This was just like her, she would completely forget about such crucial things whenever there was something more interesting presented in front of her. Maria had been busy with many interesting things lately so she had forgotten.
"Alright, let's complete this now. I'm pretty sure I'll get stronger, right?"
Complete Soul Absorption? YES/NO
Maria tapped on the [YES] and another window popped up warning her of the consequences of her actions.
Take note that any changes to your character's status, racial, or other attributes will be irreversible after the absorption. Will you proceed? YES/NO
"Yes, yes, I've already made it to this point so let's just see this through all the way!"
Maria once more tapped on the [YES] to confirm her choice and right away the soul absorption process was completed.
Congratulations! You have completely absorbed the Devil Greed's Soul! Your taint value has increased sharply! Your Mana has increased by 6,000 points! Your INT has increased by 60 points! Your VIT has increased by 60 points! The SIN stat has been generated! From absorbing the Sin, Greed, your SIN stat has increased by 5 Due to possessing the SIN stat, the Negative Energy resource has been unlocked! Your Title, [The Knowledgeable One] has changed to [The Sinful One]
Maria braced herself for the pain that would come at her after receiving the log info about the rewards for her fully absorbing Greed's Soul, but after waiting for 5 and then 10 seconds, nothing happened.
"Oh? I-I'm not getting hurt this time?" Maria said with a little confusion.
This game really liked to punish her for every little power up she got so she had been waiting for it so it came as a surprise to her that nothing actually happened.
"Hmm...Well, I got a few good things! Now, let's see what new things I've got!"
Name: Maria Level: 59 Race: Fallen Angel Class: Dark Priestess
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Subclass 1: Magus
Subclass 2: Queen Titles: Angel of Death, The Sinful One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, World Traveler, Queen of the Dire, Wolf Slayer, Boar Slayer, Sprite Slayer, ... HP: 8,960/8,960
MP: 223,600/223,600
SP: 847/847
NE: 66/66 EXP: 1,809,912/5,900,000 ATK: 781 (+200~300)
DEF: 1232 (+115~215)
M.ATK: 2,394 (+20)
M.DEF: 11,968 (+15) STR: 132 (+10)
AGI: 275
VIT: 440 (+8)
INT: 4,326 (+26)
LCK: 11 (+10)
SIN: 6 Free Stat Points: 80 Universal Currency: 158,412 Gold 54 Silver 11 Copper
Vanhal Currency: 14,600 Blood Gold
Faction Currency: 1,001,000 Universe Gold
Maria loved looking at the high values of her status window. It made her feel a good sense of accomplishment although she was a bit irked by how low her level was.
Title: The Sinful One Rank: Unique Description: You are well learned and have immense knowledge in all sorts of fields. Provides a passive 5% boost to all stats. Equipped Effect 1: Increases SIN by 10%
Equipped Effect 2: Increases Skill proficiency gained by (50 – SIN)%
Equipped Effect 3: Decreases Cooldown of all skills by (SIN)%
"Hmm... okay? Now, let's see what this SIN and Negative Energy is..."
SIN: Stat gained by consuming the origins of Sin. Current acquired Sin: Greed
Negative Energy: Resource gained by unlocking the SIN stat. Negative Energy can be used to amplify the damage of all skills and hits. 1 NE will increase the damage of a skill by 2% while ignoring the DEF stat of the enemy by 4%.
While Negative Energy is at 100%, all damage received from Fatal or Critical Hits will be reduced by 50%
Maria quite liked the new resource she just unlocked. From the description, Negative Energy served as both a shield and a sword. She could use the new resource to amplify her damage or leave it at full and be virtually immune to all critical and fatal attacks.
The loss of her previous title was somewhat unfortunate since she would lose out on quite a bit of skill proficiency, but she did receive an increase in her overall stats from the new title.
"Hmmm... since my INT stat is so high, I should focus more on finding and learning skills that deal magic damage... Calamity's Axe form has turned a little obsolete at this point, but luckily I still have the scythe form. Maybe I should focus on leveling up Calamity and replacing my equipment with new stuff... I can't keep using this low-level gear forever..." Maria mumbled to herself.
She then remembered that she commissioned some equipment from her blacksmiths a while ago. It should be finished by now.
"I'll go pay them a visit later," Maria said before she stood up from her seat and walked over to the large bathroom which was connected to her chambers. Her maids stepped forward and began disrobing her.
Maria wasn't embarrassed that her maids saw her bare body since they were all women and it was already a routine anyway. She was also accustomed to being served like this in real life so she didn't shy away, but instead, she just gracefully and nonchalantly walked into the bathroom and took a dip inside the very large bathtub.
"Hwaaahhh... whether it's inside or outside the game, this feels so~ good~" Maria said blissfully.
"Big sis, do you want me to scrub your body?" Alexa suddenly asked from beside her.
Surprised to see that Alexa was already in here, Maria turned towards the little girl and slowly asked, "Eh~? When did you get in here, Ali?"
"Just a few seconds before you got in, big sis."
"Oh~? Well, I can take care of that, but you can if you want~" Maria lazily replied.
After receiving the okay, Alexa took a cloth and a small bin filled with soap from beside the bathtub and went over to Maria.
When she got closer, Alexa couldn't help but be mesmerized by Maria's flawlessly beautiful body. Maybe it was because of the game, but the racial correction and beautification had improved Maria's beauty by a few degrees.
She was already beautiful, to begin with, but it wasn't to the point where even another woman would be mesmerized by her beauty.
Her milky white skin and platinum-silver hair which cascaded down her back added with her 3 pairs of black angelic wings that further accentuated the divine picturesque scene in front of Alexa who remained dumbstruck and could only stare at her big sister in awe.
The droplets of water on Maria's flawless skin somehow gave Alexa the thought of licking it off her arms and legs... Alexa immediately shook her head and drove away all of those bad thoughts and waded her way next to Maria and began gently scrubbing and wiping down her body.
"Ugh...I regret being born a female..." Alexa mumbled.
"Hnn~? What's that Ali~?"
"N-Nothing, big sis. You're really beautiful..."
"Hehe, thank you~ I'm pretty sure you'll grow into a beauty yourself one day!" Maria replied with a smile.
It was a smile so angelic that Alexa thought that she was going to be purified of her race's evil alignment even though the angel that smiled back at her was also technically of an evil alignment.
Alexa couldn't bear to continue staring at Maria so she lowered her head and just single-mindedly focused on cleaning up her body.
Maria hummed happily as she waited for Alexa to finish cleaning her. It started from her back then to her wings. Maria praised Alexa for being diligent enough to even scrub and clean her wings.
Having her wings scrubbed and cleaned, Maria felt very relaxed. Taking a relaxing bath after a long grinding session was always the best and if she could, Maria wanted to just laze around all day.
However, it was a bit different for the little sister vampire that was cleaning her up. Alexa had a feverish look on her face despite being a vampire. Alexa had just finished cleaning Maria's wings so she moved in front of Maria and began wiping her chest and the front part of her body. Alexa's pale vampire face flushed a deeper red at this.
'She's my big sis, she's my big sis, she's my big sis—' Alexa kept on chanting this inside her head as she wiped down Maria's body.
As she was about to wipe the two floating melons on Maria's chest, Alexa had the serious impulse to just plunge into Maria's bountiful chest, lick her way up her neck and bite down for a meal.
Seeing the feverish look on her face, Maria unwittingly asked her, "Something wrong Alexa? Your face is so red... maybe the heat's getting to you?"
"Y-yeah... A-anyway! I've finished wiping you down, big sis!" Alexa hastily said as all of the negative thoughts immediately dispersed from her head after Maria called out to her.
She felt dirty for even thinking of blaspheming her big sis like that. She couldn't hold full blame for thinking that way because it was Maria's fault for being so nonchalant and defenseless. Also, it couldn't be said that it was Maria's fault as well because it wasn't like she chose to become such good eye candy.
She just wanted to cut back and relax. Grinding for levels, questing, managing her territory, and whatnot, it was all just too much work for her. Not to mention that she still had to study for school in the real world so, in her busy day, this was probably the only time she had to just laze around and relax.
"Big sis, don't stay in for too long. Uncle Ash wants to discuss a few things with you later," Alexa said as she got out of the large bathroom.
"Okay~"
"Also, make sure you wear proper clothes before meeting anyone. Or else it'd be bad...for them at least..."
Alexa slurred on the latter half of her words so Maria only heard the part of properly wear clothes which she of course responded with a lazy yes and nod.