Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Evaluating Abilities

At the Latuule estate, there was a space called “the yard” that was sandwiched between the manor itself and the hedge maze. There was also a courtyard located on the other side of the manor, but a garden and plots of medicinal herbs took up the entire space, which made it unsuitable for our purposes.

As we stood in front of the hedge maze, Isaac explained, “Even if you make a bit of a mess, it’s easy enough to repair using the maze’s power. So please, feel free to unleash your powers as you see fit.”

I knew it was a little late to be wondering about this, but I couldn’t help but ask, “I heard a magic item created the hedge maze. Is that true?”

“Ah, yes, it is. I’m told it’s an ancient relic that was designed to artificially recreate the conditions of a real dungeon. However, it can’t create monsters or expand its territory like a real dungeon can.”

I was relieved to hear that. It was a bit frightening to think that this, too, was a dungeon with a dungeon core.

Laura was a dungeon master, and since she wanted to protect the city of Maalt, perhaps it wasn’t much of a problem. But, one day, she might decide to step away from the role. Laura had lived for a long time, so it wasn’t something I needed to worry about. Still, my mind couldn’t help but jump to the worst-case scenario. Of course, even if that did happen, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it. I could take her place as dungeon master. That didn’t sound so bad, but Laura had mentioned something about lots of constraints to the role. It probably wasn’t a great idea.

“So,” I started, “it’s okay if I break something, right? Good to know.”

Isaac nodded. “Yes. Then, shall we begin? First, we should test your physical abilities and other capabilities.”

◆◇◆◇◆

I started with testing out my arm strength. I picked up a rock from the ground and squeezed it in my hand. The rock immediately cracked and shattered before crumbling into dust in my grip.

“I know you have a monster’s body, but it’s still remarkable,” said Lorraine as she watched from close by. “You aren’t using any physical enhancement spells, right?”

“Nope. Seems like my arm is quite a bit stronger than it was. It’s kind of a problem, really. I even crushed a doorknob earlier.”

“Rentt, you better not break the doorknobs in my home,” Lorraine said with a stern look.

It wasn’t like I had wanted to break it. Obviously, I didn’t intend to crush any doorknobs in Lorraine’s house, but I’d be in trouble if I couldn’t figure out how to hold back.

This reminded me that I wasn’t the only one adjusting to a new body. Someone else here was acclimating to their new existence.

“What about you, Rina? How’s your strength and all?” I asked.

“Ah, I haven’t tested it yet.”

I picked up another rock, put it in her hand, and told her to squeeze it.

“Hrrrm!” She really put a lot of effort into it, and finally the rock shattered. “Wow!” she said, looking surprised. She probably hadn’t been able to do that when she was a human.

There were plenty of ridiculous people in the world, and it wasn’t that no one else could crack a rock with their bare hands. I was pretty sure Mithril-class adventurers could pull off that feat. Maybe even some Gold- and Silver-class adventurers who had made a name for themselves could do it too. But before she became a vampire, Rina had just started out as an adventurer. There was no way she would have been able to break a rock.

“Looks like your physical abilities have increased as well,” I stated.

Isaac nodded. “I believe Miss Rina is comparable to a lesser vampire. Ghouls are often stronger than that, but she’s still much stronger than an ordinary person. How are you feeling about your mana?”

Isaac had directed that question to both of us, so Rina and I decided to test out some magic. Rina, however, didn’t know much magic, so I decided to go first.

“Let’s see. Fire, use my mana as your fuel and manifest before me. Aliumage!”

It was a basic spell that I’d used before. Still, since it had behaved strangely the last time I cast it, everyone had stepped back to give me plenty of space. It turned out that they were right to be cautious.

“This is closer to arson than it is to ignition,” I mumbled as I watched the pillar of flame burn in front of me.

I was a bit worried that the hedge maze might catch fire, but it only smoldered when the flames neared it. Was it because the plants were alive and wet, or was it something else? Given the scale of the flames, I was pretty sure even a living tree would combust. Perhaps the hedge maze had special properties that kept it from burning.

Once the flames had subsided, the three of them approached. Wide-eyed, Rina said, “I can’t use a spell that powerful! You know that, right?”

“You seem to be operating under a misunderstanding,” Lorraine explained. “That was Aliumage, a basic life magic spell. As long as they have enough mana to activate magic, anyone should be able to use it. There’s no reason you couldn’t cast it, Rina.”

Rina and Lorraine had apparently had plenty of time to get acquainted while I was asleep. They seemed pretty comfortable with each other. Evidently, Lorraine felt she’d gained a little sister and a lab rat, while Rina felt she’d gained a big sister and a delicious morsel. That sounded pretty creepy, but if they were fine with it, it was probably okay.

While I was thinking that over, Rina looked at Lorraine in shock. “Wait, that was life magic? I mean, that’s the incantation he used, but are life spells supposed to be so strong they burn down an entire house like that one just did?”

“Life magic spells have very limited effects, but they don’t require a lot of mana. They’re only useful for things like mundane chores around the house. Well, the term is an imprecise phrase in common parlance. There’s a more technical academic name for them, but since only scholars use it, let’s set that aside for now. At any rate, by that definition, Rentt’s spell was life magic but not actually life magic.”

“Just as I thought,” I murmured.

The snack and the lab rat looked at me like I’d grown two heads. They were being a little mean, in my opinion.

I was only joking about the whole snack and rat thing. Although, I figured Rina would feed on Lorraine at some point, and Lorraine would absolutely experiment on Rina. At any rate, we needed to continue our evaluation.

◆◇◆◇◆

I could tell my mana had increased quite a bit. Still, there were plenty of people who had a lot more mana than I did. But compared to when I was alive, I was now about as strong as 150 Rentts. Well, that was just a guess.

In terms of class, I was probably on par with an average Gold-class adventurer. However, I still wasn’t that good with magic, so I was pretty sure I’d lose to a Bronze-class mage in an actual fight. I was okay with that as long as I took into account overall ability.

“Rina, you don’t need to compare yourself to Rentt,” Lorraine said. “He’s odd in all sorts of ways. You can’t include him in the sample set, because as an outlier, he throws off the average.”

I guess I wasn’t suitable for comparison, but she could’ve been a little more tactful about it. Then again, this was nothing new either.

I was aware that I had always been a bit of an oddball, even before I became undead. For example, I hadn’t been all that strong, but I did possess spirit, mana, and divinity. And I had been fixated on solo adventuring despite my weaknesses.

Ordinarily, most adventurers at the level I’d been before I died would have given up and gone looking for a new job. Or they would have teamed up with other adventurers, working jobs appropriate to their level until they’d saved enough to become an innkeeper or a merchant. That was an average adventurer’s life.

All the people I used to be friends with who never really blossomed as adventurers all ended up going that route in the end. Sometimes I wondered how they were doing. Not many stuck around Maalt. Adventurers were really just wanderers with a need to roam; few put down roots in their hometowns.

I was getting off topic, though.

“Still, I’m also a lesser vampire, or something like one, so aren’t I also an outlier like Rentt?” Rina asked Lorraine.

Rina seemed surprisingly calm about all this. Or maybe it wasn’t that surprising. Even when she first met me, she’d been surprised and a little shy at first, but once she accepted who and what I was, she hadn’t hesitated to help me. When I’d said I couldn’t go home because of my appearance, Rina had kept insisting it was possible. When it came to optimism, she was always far more upbeat and forward-looking than I was.

Lorraine thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s certainly possible given that Rentt gave you some of his blood. That’s something we can confirm through testing. Which reminds me... It’s a bit late to ask now, but aren’t you shocked or surprised that you’re now a vampire, Rina? You seem awfully nonchalant about the whole thing. You didn’t panic when Isaac described you as a lesser vampire. At the time, you hadn’t had time to process it. But that’s certainly not the case anymore, is it?”

“Oh. You know, when you put it that way, you’re right,” Rina replied. “I guess normally I’d be a little more confused. But I already knew Rentt. Good people are still good even if they become monsters. Besides, it seems like my emotions are a little more subdued now.”

“Ah, so you’d already processed that shock because you met Rentt as a ghoul. I believe Rentt mentioned something about his emotions becoming less pronounced when he became undead. Is this a common occurrence, Isaac?”

“Yes,” Isaac confirmed. “Given that I was born a vampire, I haven’t experienced it myself. However, it does appear to occur when a human becomes a vampire. It’s not as though they lose all emotions or anything of the sort, though. A gentleman I knew who’d become a vampire described it to me. You do become calmer, and you think more rationally.”

“I thought Rentt and Rina were rare examples,” Lorraine remarked. “There are still humans who become vampires?”

“As my mistress noted, sometimes a vampire will create a partner by turning a human. However, it’s not a common occurrence as far as I’m aware. Modern vampires mostly choose partners from among other vampires. There are some that couple with humans for a lark, but even in those cases, it’s rare that they’ll turn them.”

That meant vampires could have children with other vampires. I didn’t know anything about vampires creating a partner, but every so often I’d hear rumors of that sort of ‘play.’ Most of the time, the rumors about half-vampire, half-human children—dampirs—were outright lies or a misunderstanding.

In rural villages, sometimes people would be mistakenly labeled as a dampir and ostracized for it. However, it almost always turned out that they weren’t actually dampirs, but people who had a special magic eye that they couldn’t control, or people who had too much mana and were unconsciously manifesting magic around them. Real dampirs were probably about as rare as Mithril-class adventurers. I’d never seen one. But there were countless monsters I’d never seen before in person.

These fake dampir reports tended to gather a lot of attention, so I usually went out of my way to investigate them for spending money. I usually found something useful like someone with a magic eye or someone with too much mana. I didn’t want to do anything creepy like using them as sacrifices or transplanting their magic eye into me. I did it because it was useful for mages looking for apprentices or knightly orders and armies looking for promising recruits. In the end, very few really had those unique abilities.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I’d certainly like to ask more about vampires and their ecology,” Lorraine said, “but I suppose that can wait. At any rate, it’s safe to assume that Rina’s nonchalance stems from a combination of the effects of becoming a vampire and the fact that she’s already familiar with people who have turned into monsters. I’m glad she’s not the sort to fall into a blind panic.”

Rina tilted her head. “What would you have done if I had panicked?”

“If you would’ve listened to reason, I’d have sat you down and talked to you about it until you understood. You’ve suddenly become a vampire; a little panic or confusion would be natural. But if it seemed like you might start declaring you’ve become a vampire...”

“And if I had done that?”

“I might’ve had to eliminate you. You would have been a threat. I would have had no choice.”

Lorraine had said this casually, as though she was stating the obvious. That made her words all the more unnerving. It wasn’t that she was heartless. She just tempered her emotions with rationality. If she only had two choices, she’d immediately choose the more important outcome and discard the alternative.

In this case, it would’ve been a choice between Rina and me. It wasn’t that she saw Rina as a nuisance, but if she had no other choice, she’d eliminate her.

I was really glad that Rina was such a positive person. When I thought about it, most people would have reacted a bit more negatively to Lorraine’s words. Rina’s sensibilities, however, were a bit different from normal. Perhaps it was due to the fact that her emotions were a bit more subdued now as a vampire.

In a perfectly level tone, Rina said, “I see. But is that something someone would actually do? I mean, if you went around yelling you’d become a vampire, you’d end up in jail or worse, right? I’m not in any hurry to die. Though, I guess it’s unclear whether a vampire is actually alive or dead.”

“True,” Lorraine agreed. “But some people don’t think too deeply and immediately go to the church for help, thinking they could do something for them. I couldn’t dismiss the possibility out of hand.”

“Ah. That’s true. I could see that happening.”

Most people would probably think the church could fix them if they became undead. That was because all religious organizations treated the undead as unclean or tainted creatures. They were stocked with priests and saints who could use divinity for this reason. Someone who had become undead would naturally cling to the hope that such a power could cure them.

That was definitely not the case, though. The cleansing that priests and saints utilized erased tainted creatures from this world; it didn’t turn them back into a human. They might be able to help if someone were possessed by a wraith or the like by exorcising the monster, but if the person’s body had already turned completely into a monster... As far as I knew, it wasn’t possible to reverse the process. It was a waste of time to even try. If anything, it was pretty much like volunteering to be beheaded.

“I definitely wouldn’t do that,” Rina assured Lorraine.

“Seems so. Well, then you’ll be able to get by, I think. But we’ve digressed quite a bit. We need to see your magic, Rina. You know the incantation now?”

“Yes...but I don’t have much confidence it’ll be substantial.”

“It doesn’t need to be. If anything, I’m starting to think that Rentt’s demonstration was an example of what not to do. Are you confident you can trigger the spell?”

“That won’t be a problem. While I’ve used mana primarily for enhancing my body and my weapon, I can still cast basic spells. Anything more than might come out a little off.”

“How off?” Lorraine asked.

“I learned almost everything from my older brother, who’s a knight. So while I’m good with enhancements related to swordplay, I didn’t really learn any other magic?”

If I remembered correctly, Rina’s older brother was Idoles Rogue, a knight of the First Brigade of the Kingdom of Yaaran. He was probably off working in the royal capital. I wondered how he and the rest of Rina’s family would react. Obviously, it’d be a pretty big problem if they learned she was now a vampire. I decided I should check with her on that later.

“Mm, a knight. I don’t know about the Yaaran knights, but most Imperial Knights can use at least mid-level spells. Well, if you can cast it, it shouldn’t be a problem. Try it.”

At Lorraine’s urging, Rina stepped forward. Isaac and I watched from a short distance away. I didn’t think something like what had happened with my spell would happen this time, but...I couldn’t say it definitely wouldn’t.

Rina began chanting the incantation. “Fire, use my mana as your fuel and manifest before me. Aliumage!” A thumb-sized jet of flame erupted from Rina’s palm.

“It’s normal,” Lorraine remarked.

Isaac nodded and added, “Yes, very normal.”

It wasn’t a disappointment or anything, but my weird spell made Rina’s spell seem anticlimactic. I felt a bit bad about that.

After the fire had burned out, Lorraine asked, “How did it feel when you tried using magic? Was there a difference from before?”

“It didn’t feel as tiring as usual. I don’t feel like I used any mana either.”

“Hm, yes. For a novice, you’ve got a lot of mana. Of course, I don’t know what’s average for a lesser vampire. Isaac?” Lorraine turned to Isaac for confirmation.

“Let me see. It should feel like you could cast everyday magic without exhausting your mana. Since vampires also regenerate mana much more quickly, you’re probably equal to a mid-level human mage.”

“Lesser vampires are that powerful?” Rina said, a little surprised. “Mm. So those above them must be rather intimidating.”

That might not have sounded like much, but mages possessed an incredible amount of firepower. With that level of mana and the training to make use of it, it’d be more than enough to earn a good living. Of course, it was wasted if you couldn’t use magic.

◆◇◆◇◆

“So, we’ve tested your physical strength and your mana. What else? Do you have anything to add, Rentt?” Lorraine asked me.

“Let’s see. I guess because I gave Rina my blood, she’s one of my familiars?”

“That would be true for a standard vampire,” Lorraine said as she glanced at Isaac.

Although Lorraine knew a fair amount about vampires, since we had an actual vampire here, it would be easier just to ask him.

Isaac nodded. “Yes, I believe that would be the case. A vampire’s familiar can break that bond if they become stronger than their master, but that’s an exception. I don’t think this is well known among humans, though.” he said, looking at Lorraine.

Lorraine tilted her head. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. I suppose it’s because humans have no way of finding out. Is it a common occurrence?”

“Not particularly. It’s an extremely difficult thing to achieve. If the familiar strengthens their own abilities, their master takes their mana and blood, so it’s impossible for a familiar to achieve it through ordinary means. If the master wants their familiar to do so, however, then it would be possible. But vampires that can afford to do that would be extremely powerful. Just surpassing them in power would be difficult in and of itself.”

“I see.” Lorraine paused and then asked, “What did you mean by a master taking their mana and blood?”

“A master can forcefully take any blood or mana that a familiar obtains. It sounds as though masters treat ghouls and lesser vampires like slaves, but since the masters can also provide their familiars with mana or blood, it’s not a one-way relationship. For example, say a master with multiple familiars has them gather blood, but the amount of blood that each was able to gather differed. In such cases, the master can gather all of the blood and distribute it equally among their familiars. It decreases the risks associated with a failed hunt.”

It sounded like there were disadvantages to that too, but human blood was pretty hard to obtain. Since there were also vampire hunters, I’m sure there were plenty of cases where careful hunting resulted in failure.

“So can I do that too?” I asked Isaac.

“I cannot say either way. However, since you can consume blood and obtain familiars like a vampire, your familiar will probably require blood. Edel, the puchi suri does, yes? How have you handled that up to this point?”

I’d been giving Edel Lorraine’s blood. But he was much smaller than me and didn’t need all that much. He could last three days on a single drop.

After I explained that to Isaac, he replied, “It seems you don’t need very much blood, which must be why Edel is the same way. That, or perhaps he’s just taking blood from you without your knowledge.”

Wait, what did he just say? Without my knowledge?

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“If the master hasn’t set any restrictions, a familiar can freely take blood and mana from them.”

Isaac was suggesting that Edel might be doing the same. Now that he mentioned it, I could think of a few examples. There were times when Edel had taken either my mana, my spirit, or my divinity without my permission. It must have been the same with blood. What was I, a supply cache? But if Edel could do it...

“Can you do it as well?” I asked Rina.

Rina used to be human, while Edel was a puchi suri, but they were still both familiars. It was probably safe to assume that Rina could do the same. Or rather, this was what I was trying to ask in the first place.

If Rina could borrow and use my mana like Edel, it would be pretty useful. It would boost her abilities too. After all, the most important thing with mana was the total amount available. Since I now had a fairly big reservoir of mana, it’d be beneficial if she could tap into it. Now that she was a monster, there was no telling who might try to attack her. Even though we weren’t weren’t technically vampires, just pseudo-vampires, and we looked human, there was no such thing as being too cautious.

“Hrrm. I don’t know. How do I even try?” Rina asked.

Edel, who had been sitting on my shoulder this whole time, suddenly hopped onto the top of Rina’s head and patted her forehead.

“Oh?! Ah, okay. I see. Like, this?”

Rina began talking to herself. Immediately after, I felt some of my mana leave my body.

“Looks like Rina’s mana has increased,” Lorraine murmured.

I looked at Rina. “Were you able to do it?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. Edel taught me how.”

Evidently, the moment Edel hopped onto her head, she could understand what he was trying to communicate. He’d then taught her how to pull mana from me. According to Rina, Edel’s advice was to just yank it from me without hesitation. It didn’t feel like she’d taken much, so I guess that was the right approach.

I checked with Edel when he returned to my shoulder, and he confirmed that he hadn’t been able to draw much mana from me at first. But with a little practice, there was no real limit.

That sounded pretty dangerous. Edel responded to my thoughts by telling me I could restrict the flow, so I needed to learn to control that on my end.

Was this my test as their leader? My subordinates were a pompous rat and a young woman. That was kind of a weird combination.

Anyway, I wanted to see if Rina could pull more than just mana, and maybe use some divinity.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Okay, so I know you can draw mana from me. But what about the other powers, spirit and divinity?”

Rina tilted her head. “I don’t know about spirit, but maybe divinity? Hrm...”

Rina furrowed her brow and started to concentrate on something. After a moment, I felt divinity flow out of me and into her.

It still wasn’t a large transfer, about the same amount I could use when I was alive. The most it could do then was purify water. That was extremely useful when adventuring, but it was pretty pathetic compared to the miracles that priests and saints could accomplish.

I got the impression that Isaac was keeping a bit of distance from Rina and me. Was that because he didn’t like the sensation of divinity?

“Isaac, I guess divinity—”

Before I could finish, he turned to me with a sour expression on his face. “It’s disagreeable. Unlike a minor monster, a little bit of cleansing won’t do much to a vampire. But even then... How should I describe it? It feels like I’m being smothered by smoke.”

“Well, I guess I see what you’re trying to say. Definitely unpleasant.”

Even if divinity didn’t kill him, it was still uncomfortable to be around. Still, I wanted to test what Rina could do, so I needed him to bear it for the moment.

Isaac seemed to understand without me having to say it. “There’s no need to hesitate on my account,” he said. “At this distance, it doesn’t bother me much.”

Despite the fact that Isaac disliked the feel of divinity, Rina seemed completely fine. Perhaps she wasn’t a typical vampire either.

“Can you manipulate the divinity?” I asked her. “As in, can you use it for cleansing or healing, or imbue it into your weapons and armor?”

Divinity was different from mana. You could intuitively use it even if you didn’t understand its composition or its mechanics. However, Rina had borrowed my divinity rather than used her own. For most people, divinity was either a power they were born with or a direct blessing from a spirit or a god. Then again, since Edel could use it, there was a good chance that Rina could too.

“I think I can sort of grasp how to do it,” Rina said. She looked around, as though she was unsure of what to target.

Lorraine added, “Just randomly use it. Like this.” She aimed her divinity at the weeds growing at her feet.

Lorraine was now a follower of one of the gods—I think it was Viro or Gedo-something—and they had gifted her with divinity. Because that god wasn’t particularly powerful, Lorraine didn’t have a lot of it. Still, she was able to lightly cleanse and heal. From a religious organization’s point of view, that made her a holy priestess. Well, there was nothing particularly holy about her. If anything, she was more of a witch.

The weeds that Lorraine had cleansed grew a few millimeters, and they looked healthier. Speaking as the resident walking fertilizer, Lorraine still had a lot to learn, but it was easy to see a god of plants had blessed her. She couldn’t imbue objects with divinity, though. I was still kind of unique in that sense.

Rina watched Lorraine’s demonstration and nodded. She directed the divinity at some nearby weeds. They also grew several millimeters and looked fresh as a daisy. But like with Lorraine, it didn’t infuse any divinity into them.

I did the same, and the weeds grew a dozen centimeters. They also had a faint amount of divinity in them. Isaac wrinkled his nose as though he’d run into a particularly odiferous flower. He seemed to be struggling.

“Sorry. I guess I should take this home,” I offered.

Isaac shrugged. “It’s a small corner of the yard, and I believe my mistress would like to see it, so you can leave it.” A dry laugh escaped his lips.

One of Laura’s hobbies was collecting rare magic items. In a really broad sense, my holy weeds would qualify. Even if they technically didn’t count, they’d still probably be useful for making magic items, so it made sense why she’d want them.

“I guess I’ll leave them there, then. But if they end up being a problem, let me know. I’ll come pick them up.”

Isaac nodded.

We had determined that Rina could pull mana and divinity from me and use it, but evidently, she couldn’t do the same with spirit.

“Is there no way for you to draw any spirit from me?” I asked her.

Rina furrowed her brow and tried several times, but nothing happened. “Doesn’t look like I can,” she said, her shoulders slumping in disappointment.

I had no idea why that might be, but Lorraine offered a theory. “This is just a hypothesis, but you ordinarily need training to use spirit, right? That’s probably the difference. Rina already knew how to use mana, and divinity is intuitive to use, but that’s not true of spirit.”

That made sense. You couldn’t use a power that you didn’t know anything about. But in that case, did that mean that Edel already knew about spirit before we met? Edel was pretty tough for a puchi suri. It was possible he knew how to use it. Spirit was based on the life force of every living creature, so it would make sense that things other than humans could use it.

That probably meant that Rina just wasn’t used to it yet. We could work on that. I could always teach her how to use it too.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I think that’s everything. No, wait, there’s one more thing we need to test. There may not be any changes, but it’s worth checking,” Lorraine said. I tilted my head quizzically at her, and she sighed in exasperation. “Wings. Specifically, your wings. Since you’re much stronger now, you might very well launch yourself to the far side of the moon. We should test them in an open area first.”

I’d forgotten about my wings. There was a good chance I’d end up as one of those meatheads who crushed someone’s fingers with a simple handshake. If I imbued my wings with my increased mana and spirit, I might blast off to who knows where.

“All right,” I agreed. “Let’s give it a try. Oh, that reminds me. Vampires usually don’t have wings, right, Isaac?”

“No, they don’t. However, there are avians among the beast-folk, for example. When those sorts become a vampire’s familiar, they’re technically winged vampires.”

Well, they were a bit different from me, considering they already had wings before becoming a vampire. Of course, Isaac’s explanation begged the question of just where mine had come from. It seemed Isaac wasn’t sure either, so figuring that out would have to wait.

“Well, guess I’ll try it. Wings— Whoa.”

When I unfolded my wings, something much larger than I’d expected sprouted from my back. I didn’t remember them being that big. They had been, at most, a couple dozen centimeters. This time, they felt totally different. I hesitantly turned my head to check my back and found...

“They’re huge,” I remarked.

They were so large that a single wing was longer than I was tall. Not only that, but in the past, they had looked more or less like bat wings. Now they had scales of some sort on them. The membranes were red, but everything else was a dull green. They reminded me of—

“They look like dragon wings,” Lorraine interjected. “How fascinating. Why would they be growing from your back?”

She was right. Mine definitely looked like those of a dragon. Compared to a real dragon, they were still small and unimpressive, but they did look draconic.

“They look really cool! I wonder if I can grow them too,” Rina muttered from behind me.

Oh, right. We hadn’t checked that yet. There was a chance she could grow them too.

“Among the greater beast-folk, there are those called dragon-folk. I believe they have similar-looking wings,” Isaac said as he studied mine.

I knew dragon-folk existed, but I’d never encountered their race before. Maalt and the Kingdom of Yaaran itself were on the fringes of civilization, and the population here was predominantly human.

Compared to other races, humans were rather plain looking, without any real distinguishing characteristics, but they were also extremely adaptable and could live wherever they wanted. That combined with their ability to produce a large number of offspring was one of their strengths as a race. Other races tended to be very picky about where they lived, or they needed special environments to survive, so they weren’t able to spread across the world as easily as humans.

A good example of this would be the elves. They struggled outside of woodlands. They wouldn’t come down with “woodlands withdrawal” or something and die as a result, but they would fall into depression when they were away from the woods too long. It could chip away at their will to live. Apparently, in the long run, they could even die from it. There were elves who weren’t bothered by being away from woodlands, but they were a small minority.

This was why I’d never met any dragon-folk, though if I recalled correctly, they were extremely rare to begin with.

“Have you ever met any, Lorraine?” I asked. “Dragon-folk, I mean.”

She shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I’ve read that they’re special even among the beast-folk. That’s why they rarely show themselves to other races. Since the empire, while not explicitly human supremacists, tends to be pretty discriminatory, beast-folk in general don’t go there much in the first place. Isaac, how about you?”

“Yes, several times, but it was quite a while ago. However, we didn’t sit and converse with them. It was more of a run-in. They were difficult opponents.”

Difficult opponents? It must not have been a peaceful encounter. Well, that did make sense. Isaac was a vampire. I’d imagine that most encounters ended up in bloodshed.

“Do you mind explaining why you fought them?” I asked.

“We were after the same thing they were, and it escalated into a conflict of ownership. During that fight, they sprouted wings like the ones on Rentt’s back. I’ve heard they’re extremely skilled wielders of spirit.”

Spirit wielders relied more on physical combat than magic. Most beastmen were like that, but a few races among them were good at magic, so it wasn’t always the case. That wasn’t all that important right now, though.

“I guess my wings resemble those of a dragon-folk. Would be nice to meet one and ask.”

If I could ask them directly, they could tell me either “Nope, not ours,” or maybe “Oh, hello fellow dragon-person!”

I hadn’t meant that seriously, but Isaac shook his head, his brows furrowed. “No, you should refrain from that. They’re a proud people. If your wings aren’t the same as theirs, they could interpret that as you mocking them by imitation and attack you. Besides, the fact that you’re a pseudo-vampire might also be a problem. Since they’re extremely proud of their own heritage, it’s not likely they’d forgive a vampire having one of their prized traits.”

That sounded a bit scary. Plus, it might be a problem if too many people saw my wings. I couldn’t casually use them on a whim. I’d never used them much before anyway, for that same reason, so I didn’t mind refraining. Still, they were a nice option in an emergency. I just needed to be careful.

“Then I guess I need to visit the God of Appraisal,” I concluded.

That was my only option to figure out my race and to evaluate this mask. Although, I was skeptical whether the God of Appraisal would directly do the appraising.

“That would be the safest course of action,” Isaac confirmed. “For the moment, if we’re going to give your race a temporary name for convenience’s sake, I’d say you’re a vampire-dragon-folk. Not that such a race exists.”

Isaac had evidently gone with the easiest name for the time being. Maybe he had put some thought into it, but it was just a touch too literal. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

◆◇◆◇◆

In the end, though we had tested all my physical changes, I wasn’t able to find out anything concrete about what I’d become. The most important thing, though, was having a good grasp of what I was capable of. Or at least, that’s what I told myself.

The next thing we needed to discuss was the city.

“Feels a little late to bring this up, but the dungeon’s expansion has stopped, right?” I asked Isaac.

“Yes. I believe it’s because Lady Laura is controlling it. There’s been no sign of any expansion since that incident. However...”

“However? What’s the issue?”

“Not so much an issue per se. It’s best that you see for yourself. At the very least, it’s not a particularly serious problem.”

“Well, if you say so.”

Lorraine noticed my skepticism and nodded at me to indicate that there was no immediate problem. I supposed that meant things were fine.

“What about reporting to the guild?” I added.

“We haven’t made any formal reports yet,” Isaac answered. “We thought it best to get our story straight first. In particular, we’d like to keep the fact that Lady Laura has become the dungeon master a secret.”

That would be important. If we mentioned anything about that, it might inadvertently reveal that Laura was a vampire. Laura and Isaac were familiar with the concept of a dungeon core, but that knowledge wasn’t widespread among humans. I hadn’t known about them despite my long years as an adventurer, so I suspected that the guild was ignorant of them as well. However, if they did know at least something about them, if they knew a core’s characteristics, they could guess that Laura was an unusual, remarkable figure of some sort.

In addition, Nive was still in Maalt. It was clear from our past dealings that she would obsessively hunt a vampire to the very ends of the world if she found out one was around.

“I agree. If people found out Laura is a vampire, then they would also suspect that we might be vampires as well. But what should we say in the report?” I murmured that last part with a sigh.

“You might be overthinking it,” Lorraine offered. “After all, you told Wolf you were going after Shumini. The easiest thing would be to report that things settled down when you defeated him.”

It was an extremely simple explanation, but it was the truth. Wolf probably wouldn’t ask too many questions if I told him that we’d defeated Shumini and left out all the parts about the dungeon core and dungeon master. Laura had restored the city’s peace by absorbing the core, but Wolf would assume it was because Shumini was dead. Things had returned to normal, so there wasn’t much room for suspicion. However, the dungeon was still there under the city, and I was sure the guild would send in their own parties to investigate. However, Laura had the core, and she was its master. Examining the dungeon wouldn’t reveal anything else.

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” I said, nodding. “Isaac, does that work for you as well?”

“That sounds fine. As for Miss Rina, perhaps note that you found her bound in a back room. You could report you found her by chance, but Miss Rina was there because Shumini had captured her, right?”

Isaac looked to Rina, and she replied, “That’s right. I suddenly lost touch with my two party members, so I went to look for them. That’s when he captured me. He then fed on my blood. By the time I realized what had happened, you found me.”

So Shumini had captured Raiz and Lola first. I asked Rina for details, and she elaborated that they’d been using an inn as their home base. Neither had returned that night, so she had gone to look for them, only for Shumini to capture her and turn her into a vampire.

“In that case,” I said, “the inn you guys used is probably wondering why your party hasn’t returned. We can’t just leave out her capture. It’d be easier to say she had been captured but was okay.”

We could have noted that I ran into her by chance, but since there were people who knew she’d been missing for some time, it could turn into a problem. They could decide to check into that part of the city themselves. Constructing a lie that was as close to the truth as possible would work much better. It was true that she had been captured, and it perfectly explained her disappearance. We would just leave out that Rina had become a vampire and Laura had become the dungeon master.

“Very well. I’ll answer that way when someone asks me,” Rina said. “Although, I don’t know if anyone’s going to ask anything to begin with.”

That was probably true. It sounded harsh, but not many people would care if an adventurer went missing. At most, they’d assume that the adventurer had ended up dying somewhere and treat it as an everyday tragedy. As for the guild, unless it was someone extremely important or someone they needed for some special reason, they didn’t bother searching for missing adventurers. Rina wasn’t one they’d look for.

“But the circumstances this time are a little different,” I pointed out. “People turned into monsters, and a few adventurers turned into thralls. If an adventurer that has been missing for a while suddenly shows up again, they’ll at least ask some questions.”

They would carefully check to make sure that the adventurer wasn’t a monster or a thrall. It would be terrifying if there were vampires and thralls wandering around and working as adventurers. Admittedly, I’d been doing just that, and Rina would be doing the same from here on out.

“When you put it that way...” Rina paused for a moment and then said, “Yes, you’re right. I’ll make sure I don’t give anything away.”

“Then I guess we should report to the guild. Our story will be the one we just discussed, and as for the details...we’ll figure them out when we get there.”

It would work out. I mean, there wasn’t any real reason to be suspicious of us. Wolf had a knack for sniffing things out, though. I tried to convince myself that it would be fine.