Chapter 34 – Mission Portrait
To speed up our retreat, I changed to my Crimson Incubus Form and repurposed my 13x Mind Buff to Muscle Buff instead. My MPM easily took care of the cost and it attributed another 7,800 to Strength and Dexterity. A while later, I returned to my Vampire Form to be less conspicuous. Just weeks ago, we would have been planning which vampire outposts to attack along our way, but Shamash didn’t even bring up the idea any longer. I knew he would have preferred otherwise, but he’d resigned himself to doing things my way. For that I was thankful.
We flew for a day before stopping in an outgrowth of a stone forest. My Embar was summoned as extra protection. As much as I wanted to fly straight through, pick up the Head Mistress’s item, and head home, I needed to completely refine my mana in case things didn’t go smoothly.
I asked Shamash about power leveling my new spell Energy Vortex. He said that, for now, it was something I shouldn’t bother with until we were already returning home. The reason was that it cost a massive amount of mana to rotate a vortex large enough to cover enough area, but also the environment had to be just right. Without these two things I’d just be wasting mana.
Persepolis was the name of our destination. It was Lord Darius’s city of residence before his death and had a population of just over 100,000 vampires. Shamash spoke much of it during my time refining and power leveling. He was trying to prepare me for the worst. That was obvious. These vampires were not like the family of Tir. They knew only cruelty even toward vampires of lesser rank and slavery wasn’t just a means of labor to them. Lord Darius had collected people like trinkets, and for the women that fell into his grasp, it was—unspeakable. In terms of morality, even the Head Mistress was a girl scout when compared to his perversions. At least as far as I knew.
I couldn’t exactly go in there with the idea of killing as many people as possible though. His slaves didn’t deserve death, nor would it be accurate to assume everyone in his household was as evil as he had been.
I’d never cared about the item Lilith had sent me to collect, but when Shamash revealed its true nature, it should have angered me more than it did. A portrait. It wasn’t even a certainty that the portrait she sought was in Lord Darius’s vault. This portrait was of Lord Darius’s relative from a few centuries ago. He was the vampire that once ruled the manor, so it was likely to contain enough historical significance that Lord Darius would never get rid of it, but he’d also be just as unlikely to keep it hung on the wall.
Shamash was quick to remind me. “How could a young vampire lord possess any weapon or item of worth that would entice the Head Mistress of the Succubi? It might seem absurd to the current you, but after a thousand years, whether it contains personal significance to her or a mocking one, this is the only type of object that can draw her attention. This is also for your growth and testing. It was only after Darius’s Master Ring fell into your possession that she cared enough to send you to seek it. It’s not wise to overestimate your worth in her eyes, but you also shouldn’t underestimate it. Her plans for you are far grander than simple item retrieval.”
After a few days of mana refinement, the lich told me it was time that I implant the other elemental gemstones. The process of manipulating my body was much easier this time than the first. It was mostly because I wasn’t as repulsed by the idea. Within an hour, the job was finished. I didn’t implant any gemstones to enhance sub-elements, only the main ones. By having all major alignments, it caused a synergy that ultimately enhanced every element and sub-element I cast. The main elements were enhanced at 100%, but even the rarest sub-elements would be enhanced at a minimum of 50%. If I added or took away any of the gemstones, then the synergy would break, and I’d lose the universal buff.
It was impossible to hide my enthusiasm as I began testing every spell I knew. Ice Shard, Flamethrower, Boulder Throw, Water Magic, and even mixed element spells like Smog were evidently more powerful. Even Wail of the Banshee, of the Sonic sub-element, nearly doubled in strength.
“Is this common?” I said, trying to understand how it was possible.
“Common, no,” the lich replied. “Even among the vampire and succubus nobility, it’s rare to have this kind of implant, but not unheard of. The difficulty is that most people can’t implant such gemstones themselves and instead equip items to try to get a similar effect. Having gear that can create the same level of synergy is even rarer than it is to have the gemstones implanted. That is because it’s not just necessary to possess items or jewelry with the right kinds of bonuses. What you’ve done is actually set up an Alignment Array inside your body. It’s among the simplest arrays in existence, but because it supports some of the most powerful natural laws, it will dwarf any items you’ll have access to for many years. Even Lord Darius’s vault won’t contain any items that will surpass it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be anything of use there, but for enhancing magic, you won’t find anything better unless you’re lucky enough to find or steal an ancient or legendary item. Even then, its usefulness could last you many lifetimes.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me. You’ve gained these gemstones and implanted them with your own power. Also, there’s something you need to remember. Many items you wear or wield won’t be able to further enhance your magic, including sub-elements. Just like your old scepter is no longer of any use for enhancing your Light Magic because this array interferes with it, most of the items you find, or purchase, will have the same issue. There are exceptions though. The Metal bracer and the Wind necklace you purchased are of the highest quality and will directly enhance any magic from those elements. The bonuses won’t stack though.”
As we continued traveling, we avoided monsters and the main roads. Even though there was experience I could gain, there were a couple things I was working on that were even more important. My blending of Blue and Dark Magic continued with even greater emphasis than before. I made orbs of all ranks with the blended magic which steadily improved my control. I also spent a lot of time playing around with Mana Manipulation and just casting blended Dark Magic in every way I could think of. I was well on my way to completely blending the two, and when that day came, I’d defy what was normally possible.
I also spent a lot of time with Core Creation. After seeing Sai’s core repaired by Rishi Tir, I’d found a new direction for what to do for my future advancement. I made partial orbs, then set them aside only to pick them up later to try to complete them. I also completed orbs, then fractured them on purpose before trying to repair them. It required an almost completely different skillset from simply creating orbs from scratch and my Core Creation level started to near Grandmastery.
That was only the beginning. My experimentation with Core Creation as a basis for the offensive and highly compressed Magic Discs had truly begun. I perfected how much mana to use for each rank of the disc and also worked on manipulation of the shape and size. Because of my work on repairing and finishing faulty orbs, I also found that I could premake discs to be used at a later time. I soon had a couple hundred Master Light Discs ready to use in battle, and besides the cost of directing them through Mana Manipulation, they cost me nothing. It would save me millions of MP and precious seconds of casting time during intense battles.
After a couple days of getting used to the gemstone array I’d personally implanted, Shamash suggested it was time for me to create my second core. I’d already refined over half my mana, so it seemed like creating my second one would have been useful when I first started to refine my mana again. His response wasn’t what I expected.
“Having two Master Cores will certainly improve your ability to refine mana, but utilizing two cores while maintaining your Alignment Array can be dangerous. Implementing everything in the right order and developing your skill so that you don’t blow yourself up is paramount. You’ve already had sufficient practice with the refinement process with one core, and now that you’ve gotten a chance to get used to the flow
of mana in your body with the array present, you’re ready.”
As he walked me through the process, what he’d said about it being dangerous because of the mana flow was the least of my problems. Having two energy vortexes inside my body could be a grave threat, yes, but my second core wasn’t going to be placed i the space between my organs like my first core was, it was literally going to be placed inside my heart. What’s more, I’d need to manipulate the muscle, nerves, and flesh so that it connected the right and left ventricles, or blood pumping chambers, of my heart. Having my mana-rich blood coming into physical contact with this core was the point. It didn’t just have the chance of doubling my refinement rate but of increasing it by a magnitude of five. So instead of a week to refine all of my mana, it would take a day or two.
There was also an undeniable fact that once I was capable of creating Grandmaster Cores, I’d have to replace my master ones. So not only would I have to have closed heart surgery once, I’d have to have it twice…
The lich reassured me that if I put myself in a life-threatening situation, he’d fulfill our contract and save my life.
We found a small cave where he sealed with a barrier for me to play heart surgeon in. I now had more experience manipulating the flesh of my body after implanting one core and multiple gemstones. There was actually no pain involved, but parting the skin and moving essential nerves were two different things entirely. Also, my first core was placed in my lower intestine in a normally fat-rich environment. The gemstones were placed in a circle in the upper intestine with the Dark one on the left-hand side of my body and the Light one on my right. None of them were actually inside any organs and didn’t restrict or change them.
I had a sudden desire for a drink of Smith’s Dregs, which made me a little disturbed considering I was in my Human Form. I’d developed a genuine taste for a beast-blood mixed drink. Telling myself that it wasn’t the blood’s taste that I enjoyed about it helped, a little…
Lying down on the mostly flat stone ground, I closed my eyes and internally scanned my body. Finding my heart was easy enough. Its constant beating sent ripples of energy through me, and also pumped the main source of mana, my blood, throughout my entire body. Even finding the location inside my heart that I was supposed to manipulate was too easy. It was the concept of permanently changing my human body that stood as a bulwark against what I was about to do in my mind.
It wasn’t just manipulating my flesh to open a hole, but to rearrange everything in such a way that it would not restrict its natural function. Gaining great mana refining capabilities wouldn’t be as tempting if it gave me a weakened heart… I was already arguably a magic cyborg with the Core and gemstones added to my body. Or would that make me a Mageborg, Magborg, Magorg, Manaborg, Morg… How much more so once I fused a literal Master Light Core into the meat of my heart?
I knew that I was more than capable of following Shamash’s directions. I’d just spent weeks in my Vampire Form, which transformed my entire being down to its very life-sustaining Alignment. My Blue Mage manipulation ability was only really limited by my willingness and imagination.
I lay there for more than an hour before I began. Simply creating an opening between my ventricles could put too much pressure on certain nerves even if I didn’t sever any. I could also cause leakage between both chambers in my heart. If I didn’t get the muscle right, it might eventually rip itself apart or cause atrophy. Any of those things could kill me, and a simple Heal spell wouldn’t fix it because I was planning on implanting an object inside me which would restrict such magic.
Forgetting everything that could go wrong, I began. All that mattered was the next step. The moving of my nerves was the worst part. Not only did I need to move them aside, but I’d need to resituate them after my core was placed as well. It was the feeling of movement that left me queasy, but I did my best to ignore it.
I used mana itself to block the blood that my heart was pumping from leaking. My new Master Light Mana Core started to form. After making thousands of Master Orbs of multiple Alignments, quickly creating a perfect core was no longer a challenge. I stretched the muscle of my heart to hold my new core like the most precious jewel. Not only were there no gaps, but I wrapped the muscle in such a way that there was overlap which helped to hold the core in place, and also secure my heart’s function.
When I was finished, I didn’t open my eyes for a long time and just watched the little miracle I had a hand in creating. Shamash fed me instructions on how to rotate my mana to both cores at the same time. It was similar, but different. In some ways, it more resembled blending my Dark and Blue Magic than creating a separate vortex except they weren’t on top of one another. Even as I failed to correctly guide my mana, Succubi’s Caress was already pulling in more than twice the mana of my first core because my heart core was directly in contact with my mana-rich blood.
I began to understand why Shamash hadn’t just filled me with cores and gemstones as soon as we’d come to the Vampire Realm. The process sounded so simple, but it was far from it.
I focused on nothing else for an entire day except for refining the rest of my mana. In the end I decided on keeping 10x Mind Buff active at all times, and even refining the 3,000,000 MP it gave me until I ended up with 47,800,000 MP. That left me with 700,490 MPM to work with.
This would allow me to implement 10x In The Buff for an extra 6,000 to all stats if needed while still keeping 300,000 MPM available even then. Going up to 11x would give me an extra 600 to my stats, but it would also cost twice as much. 12x would cost double that. Keeping it at 10x seemed to be a good middle ground between having the most maximum mana and available MPM.
I’d also be continuing to practice staying oversaturated with Vampire’s Might’s Mana Buff, which would push my total mana past 53,000,000.
As we continued traveling, my attention once again turned to researching Calamity, or the reaction between Light and Dark Magic. At first, I tried to figure out its secrets through combining the two directly. Because of the placement of the Light and Dark gemstones in my body, funneling Dark Mana through my left hand was faster and more efficient. It was the same for Light Mana through my right hand. Taking advantage of this unexpected result of the Alignment Array, I cast Light from my right hand and Dark from my left to join them in front of me. At one time, the smallest amount of mana possible was all that I was comfortable playing with, but now, I worked with a cataclysmic reaction the size of a pea all the way up to one the size of the Adolescent Metal Dragon I killed. I always blended my Dark and Blue magic when experimenting, so it got a little messy sometimes. That didn’t stop me.
We were closing in on our destination when I had an unexpected breakthrough. I’d had an idea of using Light and Dark Discs at the same time, then combining them in the air to form a Calamity bomb. But, because of the density of the discs, if they collided with one another, they’d just bounce off each other. The density that made them effective weapons even against strong defenses delayed the reaction between discs. It was only when they were pressed together for a few seconds that they would explode. The less compressed they were, the quicker the explosion would happen. Of course, Minor Discs would be much less powerful than Master Discs.
Once the idea came to me, it took me a few hours to figure out a solution. At first, I thought of creating a container with some kind of ignition or trigger. The benefits would be that they could be created en masse, become fairly safe through research, and even be used by others. It wasn’t an idea that I threw out completely, because once I returned to Sanctuary they could become great assets. Calamity was the kind of reaction that not even high level monsters could easily deal with.
Then the simplest solution came to me. I was already blending Blue and Dark Magic while casting spells like Dark Lightning, so why not just blend the flight pattern of two opposite discs. Without the right amount of skill with Mana Manipulation it would have been difficult or even impossible. For me, it worked the first time I tried
it.
Creating a Minor Light Disc in my right hand, and a Minor Dark in my left, I sent them flying only to bring them together ten feet out in front of me. About a second later, a Cataclysmic grenade went off. I could hardly contain my excitement. I just needed to join their flight pattern at the right angle and boom…
One set of discs after another, I sent them flying. The real trick was to figure out the timing for the different ranks of discs to know when they’d explode. Even though I hadn’t unlocked any secret Calamity Alignment, I had officially figured out a way to utilize it as a powerful weapon.
I continued to perfect my Discs and Core Creation until we stopped for the last time before our arrival. I no longer had to worry about garnering unwanted attention during our travels and could finally rank up my Vampire Form’s Bloodline to Trueblood.
Chapter 35 – Bloodbath
The thermos-like containers and jugs were placed in groups on smooth dark-stone ground. There was a cliff behind them, and Shamash’s barrier was up to hide what I was about to do.
“First drain the Quarter-blood, then Half-blood before the Trueblood,” the lich said. “It should be more than enough to get you to the Trueblood rank. With Vampire’s Might at the Master Rank, Draining these should also cap out the amount of stats you can get from the vampire race. So in the future, unless you Drain a high level Trueblood, or the rare bloodlines like beast-feeder, you will no longer gain any stats from them. Gaining experience will be your main reward for killing them, as well as their cores. Even though you can make Mana Orbs at will, higher level cores will still be worth collecting because they can contain unique features. They can also help you gain mastery in Dark Magic and further your pursuit of Light Magic Grandmastery by understanding their characteristics. After you become Trueblooded, I will finish preparing you for the final stage of your mission.”
Underworld - Scorching Sun: A LitRPG Series Page 33