“You have killed so many of your own kind, but you have not ranked up at all?” Shizuku did not understand. He lived in a castle full of vampires, so how was he unable to rank up?

“Do you think it is easy to rank up with nothing but pawns? You have to kill a thousand of them before you can even reach the rank of knight. Only a propagator can make a vampire a higher rank. Only knights can make a pawn a knight quickly. How am I supposed to jump in rank if everyone is dead? But luckily, you showed up. You see. You will be the last kill before I become a knight. Once I become a knight, I can leave this god-forsaken place. So you should be happy. You are about to become my stepping stone to greatness.” The young man replied while letting out a laugh. He looked at Shizuku as if he was looking at someone who was already going to die.

    “I see… You have answered many questions I had. For this, I thank you. Now die.” Shizuku snapped her fingers, and the young man in front of her suddenly exploded into a mist of blood. She had finally managed to force a trace of her blood into the young man’s body a while ago, but she wanted to try to get more information out of the young man. He was still a pawn, but he only had control over magic. She did not know if this was how it was for all vampires, so it needed more investigating, but she did know that pawns were very weak. 

It might be different if he fought someone else who could not control blood, but it seemed he had run into the wrong opponent this time. “I still have a lot to learn. I also need to verify this information when I reach Fallen territory.”

“Master!”

“Shizu!”

Both Miyumi and Mei ran over to Shizuku and began checking her from head to toe. “You didn’t get hit at all?” Miyumi asked, feeling very stunned. The room was basically a blizzard of ice spears, but Shizuku was completely unharmed.

“I got hit a few times. But they healed already. Miyu, remember, I am a vampire. Even if my head gets cut off, I can regrow a new one…. I think….” Shizuku wasn’t sure about this, but she did know if she died, she would be brought back to her last save point. 

“But still… you really made a mess.” Miyumi looked at the blood that was splattered all over the throne in shock.

“It was not easy to merge my blood into his bloodstream. I felt a strong resistance. But luckily, he was weak, or else I might have been in trouble unless I diced him up. I prefer the less gory version of what we are seeing.” If she had to dice him up, then there would have been chunks of flesh all over, which Shizuku did not wish to see. 

“If he was a knight, do you think you could have done it?” Miyu asked. She did not know much about vampires besides what Shizuku told her, so she was curious to see what she thought about this.

“Maybe. But it would have taken longer. If I could survive long enough to merge my blood into his, then I could easily win, but it all depends. There is a kind of strong rejection I noticed when it comes to vampires. We seem to naturally push against invasions of the blood. So my guess is if I were to fight a knight who had killed a few higher ranks, I might not be able to do what I did. I would have to do it slowly, little by little.” Shizuku explained.

“Well, no matter what, be careful and remember you also have us. So we can help when needed. Although this time, we were kind of locked out.” Miyumi pursed her lips. She hated seeing Shizuku under such an attack but was unable to do anything. She felt helpless.

“Don’t worry, this was just how this dungeon was. Well… I do not think this is a dungeon per se. I think this was a setup to begin with. It seems Goddess Yunni really has something up her sleeve for me.” Shizuku sighed as she turned to see Mei with her head lowered. She did not know why this girl was being so quiet. “Mei, what’s wrong?”

    “Master…..” Mei’s eyes were brimming with tears. This startled Shizuku, who began to panic. 

    “Mei? Why are you crying? Please don’t cry, okay? Cute girls look ugly when they cry, so you need to always look beautiful for me, okay?” Shizuku pulled Mei into a hug and patted her back gently. She was not good with crying girls!

“You really never change.” Miyumi smiled. She walked over and hugged both girls. She knew Mei had been holding it in. She did not say anything at the time, but Mei had been gripping her hands so tightly the entire time Shizuku was fighting. She wanted to say things would be okay, but she could not bring herself to do it because she was not sure of it herself. She did not wish to lie to the girl.