…?
[Masochist]?
What kind of bizarre trait was that?
Kurose Akira stared fixedly at the three drops of blood condensed in his palm. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he decided to set the matter aside for now.
He hurriedly helped Xu Feiyan and Vilora to their feet, his face filled with remorse.
"I'm truly sorry! I lost control of myself!"
Akira hadn't expected the curse of the Vampire Progenitor to be this severe. Even the earlier Moon Ritual and Petico's assistance had failed to suppress it completely.
Vilora shook her head gently and forced a faint smile."It's alright, Guild Master. You were already very gentle just now~"
…?
"There's no serious harm," Xu Feiyan said calmly while tidying her disheveled hair. "I only lost some blood—think of it as a blood donation. And in this world, recovering blood is far easier than it was on Blue Star."
Before her words even settled, she took out a small red potion bottle and drank it in one gulp.
Very quickly, color returned to her complexion.
She then handed an identical bottle to Vilora, motioning for her to drink it as well.
"Compared to that," Xu Feiyan continued, taking out what looked like a compact mirror and gently dabbing her cheeks with the crystalline droplets inside, restoring the image Akira had ruined, "what exactly is going on with the curse on you? Even Petico's method couldn't suppress it?"
"Yes," Akira nodded. "The Vampire Progenitor's curse is still unstable. I can even hear two different voices echoing in my head."
He couldn't determine whether the Progenitor had misled Petico through bloodline memory.
But now, two Vampire Progenitors' voices existed in his mind.
That meant the bloodline curse was far more complex than he had imagined. And the cause was definitely not as simple as merely touching the Progenitor's portrait.
Akira suspected that the moment he learned the locations of all three Vampire Progenitor portraits, the [Vampire] trait itself had already undergone a mutation.
"That's… not good news," Xu Feiyan said softly, worry flickering in her eyes.
She hadn't expected Akira's vampire curse to be this troublesome.
Fortunately, he had regained consciousness at a critical moment.
Otherwise, if that bloodlust state had continued, she might truly have been devoured clean.
"Oh—right. These are for you," Akira suddenly said.
He handed two drops of the Vampire Progenitor's blood to Xu Feiyan and Vilora.
"What is this?" Vilora asked curiously as she accepted the drop. The dense life magic within it made her rainbow-colored eyes sparkle brilliantly.
"This is… the Vampire Progenitor's blood?" Xu Feiyan stared at Akira in surprise, confusion and curiosity written all over her face. "How did you obtain something like this?"
"I can't fully explain it either," Akira replied. "It might be related to a change in the curse inside my mind. After my bloodlust subsided, another Progenitor's voice appeared. She wanted me to give these two drops to you—as an apology."
"An apology?" Xu Feiyan accepted the vividly glowing blood, amber eyes shimmering.
After studying it for a moment, she smiled faintly.
Then she stood up and said to Akira,"This is indeed a rare treasure. I accept her apology. Since you've regained your composure, I'll leave battlefield command to you. I'll go change clothes."
"Alright."
Akira nodded and watched her enter the inner room.
Her cheongsam and stockings had been torn apart earlier—changing was unavoidable…
Cough.
Akira turned his attention to the adventurer perspective screens.
Loserine was currently locked in combat with a massive beast-kin warrior.
Despite the warrior being level 58 with terrifying strength stats, Loserine—thanks to the [Crystalline Construct] trait granting 100% strength amplification and 100% hardness enhancement—was able to fight him head-on despite a thirteen-level gap, and was even gradually gaining the upper hand.
"There's an opening!"
Suddenly—
A sharp glint flashed through Loserine's eyes.
Her Oathbound Sword erupted with dazzling light.
A streak of dark-gold sword radiance shot forth like a meteor, slashing precisely at the beast-kin warrior's left arm.
Thud!
His arm was severed instantly, blood spraying as it crashed to the ground.
"AAAAH!"
The warrior roared in agony, yet his battle instincts drove him to swing his axe with his remaining arm, cleaving down toward Loserine with all his strength.
At that critical moment, Loserine's soul-light wings fluttered lightly, allowing her to evade the deadly strike with effortless grace.
In the same motion, she reversed her grip—
And her sword sliced cleanly across his throat.
Crack!
The massive head rolled to the ground.
The lifeless body collapsed moments later.
Without pausing for even a breath, Loserine surged forward, sword in hand, toward her next target.
The adventurers watching were completely dumbfounded.
A level-45 knight—solo killing a level-58 beast-kin warrior?
Even with differences in quality, skills, and equipment, such a massive leap-kill was extremely rare.
The guild leader who owned that beast-kin warrior stared in disbelief.
That warrior was Epic-grade, fully equipped with elite-grade gear and weapons!
Why?
Why couldn't he defeat a level-45 knight?!
Where did things go wrong?
Could she be a Legendary-grade adventurer?
Could she even be wielding a Legendary weapon?
"Well done, Loserine," Akira praised calmly.
"Guild Master, are you finally finished?" Loserine asked coolly as she paused.
"…Finished?"Akira blinked. Finished what?
"Mr. Akira's breathing earlier was quite… intense~" Ivsha's sultry laughter chimed in.
In that instant, realization struck him.
His voice channel had been left open.
Everything that happened inside the Fairy Concubine Guild—including his voice—had been transmitted to Lucia and the others.
Cough, cough.
He cleared his throat awkwardly."I just drank some blood. I really didn't do anything else."
Lucia's voice came back cold and sharp."I don't care about your explanation. Next time, disconnect the mental link. You were noisy enough to interfere with combat."
"..."
After a brief pause, Akira changed the subject."How's the situation now?"
"Just a group of rabble," Lucia replied flatly. "They pose no real threat."
"Good."Akira nodded, then asked, "What about Ivsha's side?"
Ivsha sighed."Mr. Akira… it's hard to describe. Miss Rhine seems to be enjoying herself. Forget other adventurers—even we can barely approach the battlefield…"
"…Huh?"
Akira immediately opened Marle Rhine's battlefield feed.
The moment it loaded, her mocking laughter rang out.
"Insignificant little insects~ I grant you destruction~ Submit beneath my power! Heeheehee!"
"…What chuuni nonsense."
Akira muttered—but he was extremely satisfied.
Out of tens of thousands of demons, over ninety percent were trapped within Marle Rhine's flames of destruction. Other guilds couldn't even get close. Only Petico, relying on sheer strength, could still fight within the inferno.
The battlefield had become completely one-sided.
Akira and Xu Feiyan were harvesting contribution points at a terrifying rate.
That said, Akira noticed that other guilds hadn't deployed many adventurers here.
They likely assumed Fairy Concubine Guild's strongest—Petico—was stationed on this battlefield, so they sent most of their forces elsewhere.
What they hadn't expected was—
Neither battlefield was within their reach.
Akira shifted his gaze to Lucia's side.
After the B-rank guild's adventurers were wiped out, Chen Feng's offensive had slowed drastically.
"Damn it… how can the gap be this big…?"
Chen Feng's voice trembled.
He had now fully grasped the terrifying disparity in strength.
He had assumed Fairy Concubine Guild's strongest weren't here—and with two B-rank players and several C+ players, they could at least contend.
The first clash shattered that illusion completely.
Despite being on the verge of promotion to B-rank himself, Chen Feng found that he was nearly powerless in front of Fairy Concubine Guild's adventurers.
So this is the strength of a B+-rank guild…?
Just then, Lu Bo's mocking laughter rang out.
"Hahaha! The number-one B-rank guild's already been dealt with! Chen Feng, looks like you're done for!"
"Damn it… miscalculated!" Chen Feng snarled.
He knew that continuing would only deepen their losses.
"Retreat!"
He issued the command without hesitation.
Compared to event rewards, adventurers mattered more.
Only three spots earned prizes anyway—most players wouldn't make top three, so there was no reason to fight to the death.
"Fuck! We got bled dry this time!"
"No contribution points—and we lost two adventurers!"
"So this is B+-rank strength? We never stood a chance!"
"They say Fairy Concubine Guild is about to promote to A-rank. Losing makes sense…"
"Damn it, all those adventurers are Epic-grade—how much did their Guild Master whale?!"
"Move! If we don't leave now, we won't escape at all!"
…
Under Lucia's magical suppression and Loserine's decisive kill of the highest-level beast-kin warrior, guilds rapidly withdrew.
Only a few solo groups lingered at the edges, picking off stray demons fleeing the center.
As for Chen Feng's final words—
Lu Bo only sneered.
He looked toward Lucia and Loserine in the distance.
He now understood exactly who had crushed Chen Feng's core combat strength.
At last, Lu Bo understood why Xu Feiyan had insisted on bringing Akira along.
His guild's power truly surpassed everyone else.
Rubbing his beard, Lu Bo muttered,"Damn… Xu Feiyan's eye for people is scary accurate."
"They ran fast," Lucia said coldly, glancing at the retreating adventurers.
"Well, that's only natural—"Delorie started to flatter instinctively, then abruptly stopped herself, correcting mid-sentence."Miss Lucia's strength is extraordinary. They were never your equals."
Lucia merely shot her a cold glance before turning back to the demon horde and resuming her chant.
Delorie smiled awkwardly to herself.
Same old Pope—aside from Saintess Winnisan, she never liked talking much.
"Have the other guilds all withdrawn?"
At that moment, Xu Feiyan emerged from the room.
She had changed into a red cheongsam—its cut and color perfectly accentuating her curves, making her look even more enchanting. Compared to the porcelain-blue dress before, this one amplified her allure unmistakably.
"Yes," Akira replied with a nod."Other than a few scattered groups, it's just us now."
"Oh?"
Xu Feiyan sat beside Akira with composed elegance, amber eyes scanning the battlefield through guild feeds.
After a moment, she turned to him.
"Since only our two guilds remain, the next phase is between the two of us. Let's make this a harvesting match—see who comes out on top. What do you say?"
A calculating gleam flashed in her eyes.
Akira nodded.
He understood perfectly.
A fair competition for contribution-point supremacy.
With only the final two high-danger demon lairs remaining, this battle could very well decide first place.
As for the ultra-difficulty lair—it was assigned to the Star Kingdom's Star Knight Order, making it irrelevant for players.
"Guild Master Akira is so straightforward~" Xu Feiyan smiled confidently, waving her fan."Children, we have advantages in numbers, levels, and equipment. We cannot lose~"
"Understood!"Honglian gripped her greatsword, flames roaring around her. She glanced at Loserine with a grin."Want to compete?"
Loserine merely looked at her once—then charged straight toward the demons.
"Hey! I didn't say start yet!" Honglian froze.
In that instant, Azkman also shot past her.
"Don't act like a child, Honglian," Azkman said calmly.
…
On the other battlefield, Petico also received Xu Feiyan's command to go all out.
"Understood."
She clasped her hands together.
In the next instant, dozens of swords formed from condensed crimson blood materialized behind her, radiating murderous intent.
"Go."
The blood swords launched outward like arrows.
Red light flashed.
Dozens of demons fell instantly.
Akira was genuinely impressed.
A level-70 Legendary-grade vampire—just a wave of her hand was enough to extract blood from enemies, condense it into weapons, and use it for slaughter.
Vampires' control over blood magic truly surpassed all other races.
If Petico had already reached this level—
Then just how terrifying was a Vampire Progenitor's mastery of blood magic?
Akira found himself… oddly looking forward to it.
Just then, the Vampire Progenitor's lazy, seductive voice echoed in his mind.
"This child is quite impressive. The purity of her blood rivals some of my earliest creations. Such a beautiful and capable girl… I truly want to inject my blood into her~"
"…Hm?"