Alucard looked over the arrow and raised an eyebrow.
"Wait a moment… it can't be…"
He grabbed the arrow and studied it carefully before turning toward Sunny.
"How much?"
Sunny waved Al away and answered casually
"Oh, if we include the friendly discount, it should be only a few memories. I don't care if they're useful—in fact, the more useless, the better."
Alucard quickly nodded and shook his hand.
In an instant, white sparks flew between them.
Well… it was more like a flashbang.
Yes.
A flashbang went off the moment Alucard decided to transfer a total of 20 memories to Sunny.
Kai—and everyone else—was temporarily blinded.
Meanwhile, Alucard didn't even care. He was far too focused on the memory in his hands.
Now, why was Al so adamant about getting hold of this memory?
Technically, he was an archer—but that couldn't be the reason.
Maybe it was because it was an Ascended Memory? No. He didn't even use weapon memories anymore.
No.
The real reason he absolutely needed this memory was because it had sacrificial seals written on it.
And from his limited understanding of sacrificial seals…
He could barely comprehend what it meant.
But by combining what he already knew with what he could read from the enchantment, he could roughly guess the meaning of the sigil—and it was practically invaluable.
It could be broken into three parts.
The first part drained his blood and shaped it into an arrow.
In this case, the so-called sacrifice was his own blood.
Alucard recalled how Feltan had told him to never, under any circumstances, use his own blood as a sacrifice—but it wasn't like Feltan would find out he disobeyed orders all the way out here.
What's the worst that could happen?
But that wasn't the impressive part.
No.
Another section handled blood preservation, which he desperately needed to forge barrier sigils, since those required "fresh" hearts.
Key word: fresh.
But even that wasn't why he wanted this arrow so badly.
No—it was the final sigil.
If this arrow pierced an opponent's body, it would siphon an equal amount of blood from them as he had used to forge it—and return that blood to him.
Normally, this would be a balanced exchange, since missing a shot meant losing blood for nothing.
High risk. High reward.
And usually, it would take several shots to kill someone through blood loss.
For normal people, that meant you'd likely die before your opponent.
But with Gluttony, Alucard had a practically infinite blood supply.
So he could fire what—a hundred arrows? A thousand?
Hell, in the future, he could fire millions.
And the best part?
He would get that blood back.
So yes—he definitely did not overpay.
Still, he was curious.
"Hey… so why did you need useless memories anyway?"
Sunny was forced to answer due to his flaw.
"Ah, it's so I can feed my Echo. She's quite the hungry lady."
Alucard nodded.
"You're telling me. Both of my Echos are hungry as hell. In fact, one of them is literally named after the sin of Gluttony and is constantly begging me for more food."
Sunny nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, Kai was internally crying at the realization that none of them were lying.
Then something finally clicked in Alucard's head.
"Wait… you have an Echo?"
Sunny raised an eyebrow in genuine confusion.
"Yeah, of course I do. Didn't I introduce you to Saint? She's literally right there, standing watch."
Al turned to where Sunny pointed—and then heard a raspy screech in his mind.
"GYAAAAATTTTT DAMNNNN WHO THE HELL IS THAT FINE PIECE OF STONE—"
Alucard stumbled back and grabbed his head.
"Why the hell are you yelling?!"
Sunny and Kai exchanged confused looks.
"Who's yelling?"
the handsome archer asked.
"Don't worry. It's just my Echo. He's really annoying."
Meanwhile, Gluttony kept talking inside Alucard's mind.
"Man, Al, introduce me to her right now. Be a wingman—come on. She definitely needs to try some symbiote action."
Alucard muted Gluttony—though Gluttony didn't notice and kept simping over Saint.
Alucard could admit she was conventionally attractive, but having intercourse with an Echo was not for him.
He liked his women with actual blood in their veins.
Meanwhile, Gluttony continued rambling about how he would fill Saint's [ ] with his [ ] while she [ ] using his [ ].
Alucard ignored Gluttony's obnoxious commentary and continued talking with Sunny and Kai.
They kept chatting until Nephis announced they had to leave.
For some reason, everyone decided to head southwest—straight into what Al initially thought was a giant pit of mud.
The area was wide open, which made it dangerous.
Creatures above had a clear line of sight.
So they had to move quickly.
Given Alucard's luck, he assumed he'd be attacked.
So he stayed ready.
Fortunately, he was wrong.
They managed to reach the Crimson Labyrinth without being attacked.
And that's when Al became… a little disoriented.
And by a little—
"Damn, you're practically puking out your organs at this point,"
Effie joked, patting his back while he vomited his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
"Gods damnit—"
Al started throwing up again.
Nephis looked at him.
"Why did you suddenly fall ill? Will you be able to recover?"
Al managed to pause his gagging long enough to answer.
"I'm not sure… I think sensing all this blood around me is disorienting—"
And then he started puking again.
"Why don't you just stop sensing it?"
Kai asked innocently.
"...Gods damnit. Why didn't I think of that?"
Al focused and stopped sensing the blood around him.
Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't act as a scout anymore.
Which was fine.
They already had Kai and Sunny.
But since they were now in uncharted territory, they needed all the help they could get.
So Alucard reluctantly summoned his Echo—Blood Beast.
Beast appeared beside him in a pool of blood.
The moment Beast noticed all the surrounding blood, his tail began wagging excitedly.
Al tried to resist.
He failed.
He started petting Beast.
Kai joined in.
Then Effie.
Then Cassie.
And then the two party-poopers stopped the petting session.
"We have to move. We need to reach the arch before nightfall,"
Nephis said as she started walking.
Sunny almost petted Beast too—before following Nephis.
Then Alucard had a brilliant idea.
"Hey, Cassie—sit on Beast. He should be able to carry you."
Cassie hesitated, but after enough pestering, she agreed.
Al guided her onto Beast, and she fit thanks to her small stature.
Still, Al figured she could use more space.
"Hey Gluttony, summon some blood and feed it to Beast."
Gluttony reluctantly complied.
Soon, Beast absorbed more blood than he ever could've dreamed of—and grew to nearly double his size.
Cassie almost fell off, but Kai caught her and helped her sit properly.
"Hey, do you mind if I ride your Echo sometimes? Walking gets tiring,"
Effie joked, elbowing Al.
"Nope,"
Alucard replied, climbing onto the now-giant Beast himself.