After a little bit of preparation, the four of us set out to the dungeon.

The moon's cool light brightly lit up the quiet city as we made the short trek to the cave opening, and soon enough we were standing in the bright space of the dungeon's first floor. The fake sun shone above without heeding the time of day like usual.

Alicia and Fate shielded their eyes with their sleeves at the sudden brightness, but it didn't take long before they got used to the false sun. The two of them looked back and forth, their heads swivelling as they excitedly looked at their new environment.

Though it was only the first floor, with its simple grassland structure, it was still an environment that was vastly different from anything around the two cities that made up the Hourai Commonwealth.

"Ah, wait! Don't go off on your own!"

I quickly grabbed the two's shoulders to stop them from wandering off.

Though it was only the first floor, there certainly were dangers here, and the sort that I seriously doubted that Alicia and Fate understood. Though their levels were far higher than my own when I first faced this dungeon on my own, I couldn't say that the risks weren't high for them if they got careless.

"What did Mommy say before?"

"Do...what Mommy says?"

Alicia timidly gave me her answer.

"And?"

"Don't...stray from Mommy while in the dungeon."

But as I put on the pressure, Fate continued where her sister left off.

"That's right. The dungeon is full of monsters, and even the weak ones can still hurt you quite a bit if you're not careful. Now then..."

There was so much I needed to teach the two when it came to the dungeon, that I was a bit at a loss as to where to start.

"Stay with Claret, you two, alright? And Claret? Make sure Alicia and Fate don't wander off and protect them if any monsters come close, okay?"

""Okay~!""

"Yes, Master!"

With the three's affirmation, I stretched out my senses and found what I was looking for before taking off.

When it came to dungeons, the first thing you needed to worry about were the monsters that inhabited it. For that matter, monsters were the prime reason to enter the dungeon in the first place, either for profit or personal growth.

With that in mind, I found my targets, grabbed them, and brought them back.

"So, I think the first thing you two should learn is how to kill monsters and suck their blood."

I had a pair of light brown furred loam wolves pinned to the ground with their legs and snouts bound with shadows.

"Here. I'll hold them in place, so try killing these monsters, Alicia. Fate."

The two of them shuffled up to the struggling monsters, their hands held against their chests as they looked on with nervousness in their eyes.

"Just concentrate your mana on your fingers and trust your instincts. A vampire's claws are our amongst most basic weapons, so it's best you learn how to use them."

It was unfortunate that at the deepest levels of the dungeon, that my claws were of very limited use, but even then, they were reliable backup weapons in case all else failed. Our claws were always with us, and could be regenerated no matter how many times they were broken.

Their claws would serve extremely well as their final line of defence.

Alicia and Fate held out their hands, and doing as I said, claws made out of their aura stretched out from their fingers.

Little claws that suited their little hands.

It really was adorable and cute!

Then, as I instructed, they pushed their claws into the monsters' sides, quickly ending their life as their lungs were shredded and they drowned in their own vital fluids. My babies' claws were too short to reach the heart and I didn't want them to risk hurting themselves by trying to pierce bone right off the bat, so this was the best they could do.

Once I confirmed that the loam wolves were dead, I quickly cleaned up their necks and shaved the fur off, leaving a nice and clean patch for Alicia and Fate to bite into.

"Now, next is to suck blood directly on your own. Just bite into the monsters' neck and suck. Your body knows what it's doing, so just trust it."

""O, okay Mommy...""

Alicia and Fate looked at the blood on their claws, but once they erased them, the scarlet splotches covering them fell to the ground.

Then, the two closed in on their meals, bending down, they bit into the freshly cleaned and shaved necks and arched their backs a little as they drew the monster's blood through their fangs as their instincts told them.

But all too soon, without letting go, they opened their eyes and looked at me.

"C'mon. You need to practice, so finish your meals."

Alicia and Fate looked back down. For some reason they looked quite dejected.

But after a moment of hesitation, they closed their eyes again and resumed sucking the blood out of their prey. Despite the mirrored expression on their faces, both of them continued until the loam wolves' bodies had shrivelled by a noticeable degree.

I was worried that they'd refuse, as so often they used to when I was first trying to get them to drink blood, but seeing them obediently suck that blood out, it almost brought a tear to my eye.

On the other hand, Alicia and Fate released the loam wolves now that they were finished, and looked at me with teary eyes for some reason.

""Mommy~!""

"Uh, yes?"

""It wasn't tasty at all~!""

"Oh, uhh, I guess it wouldn't be. My bad."

It's been quite a while, but monsters on such a low level wouldn't be very tasty at all. It would be fine if it was just on the level of drinking water as a human, but even at best, it would probably be old stale water. Maybe even on the level of mud. Once you were able to enjoy high level monsters' blood, low level monsters just wouldn't be satisfying.

I've been holding back when eating together with Alicia and Fate by drinking the same blood as them, but frankly, regular orc blood was so watery and bland that I had to do my best to pretend it was delicious just so Alicia and Fate would continue on their path to be fully weaned.

"I suppose you two deserve to have something better to drink as a reward. Hmm..."

""I wanna drink Mommy's milks!""

As I was thinking about what I had in my inventory, this unsurprising response came out to me in perfect stereo. It was rare that both of their thoughts were so perfectly synced up, that I couldn't help but be impressed.

"Well, that's..."

I did just say they deserved a reward, and if that's what they were asking for, it would be bad to deny them that. While it would push back their weaning a little, having them hate being trained in feeding directly from monsters in itself would be a bigger problem. I was already making good progress on that front anyways, so a small setback shouldn't be much of a problem.

As a lesser of two evils, there really wasn't any choice.

"All, alright. Come here you two."

I sat down at the edge of the dungeon path and held out my arms.

""Yay!""

The expression of pure joy and expectation from the two filled me with mixed feelings, but I had committed to my path already. Giving mixed signals wasn't good for their development. I was already doing a bad job on that front, so I really needed to stop it wherever I could.

Once Alicia and Fate sat down on my lap, I spread out my shadow to hide ourselves before I opened my robes and my inner dress for my babies. Both of them latched on without hesitation and started their well practised motions.

With both of them enjoying their dessert and their eyes closed, I sealed our little hiding place.

The very thought that we were doing this in a public space made my cheeks grow hot. I couldn't understand those mothers that had no problem with breastfeeding their babies in a public space, but maybe I was just too sensitive in that regard.

But for me, even this was already pushing things. It was one thing to do it in the presence of those you trusted, but another all together when a stranger might see you at any moment.

"Ah..."

As I was stroking Alicia and Fate's silky hair, a group of four got caught in my detection range. And as I feared, they noticed the black dome we were hiding inside of and came to check it out. They circled around us and continued to examine my shadow and chucked stones at it a few times while maintaining their distance.

On one hand, I wanted to applaud this group for being as cautious as they were, but on the other, I really wanted them to move on. Even though it was next to impossible, the thought that somehow they might realize what was going on inside of this dome was enough to make my cheeks burn.

After a minute or two, they did eventually leave.

(Ah, I'm going to get an earful from Peitho, aren't I?)

People that acted this cautiously would no doubt report this on the off chance that it was something dangerous.

After a little while, Alicia and Fate finished their desserts and I fixed up my outfit.

I hated how my boobs deflated and sagged a little after they ate. It was a little worrying that once I finally managed to wean the two completely, my boobs will permanently sag a little, but that was the fate of all mothers, so I didn't really have the right to complain when I forcefully made myself pregnant the way I did.

"Alright, let's go kill a few more monsters so you'll get a hang of how to do it."

But a little surprisingly, Alicia and Fate gave me disgusted looks.

"...Don't worry. I won't make you drink their blood. The first time was just to teach you how to do it. We'll leave the rest of the blood sucking to later when we start facing stronger monsters."

Right as they heard my words, both of my babies' expressions brightened up and they pitter pattered after me as I lead the way deeper into the dungeon, explaining the general rules of how to dungeon crawl.

Meanwhile, Claret followed after us, diligently watching our surroundings, though it was entirely for show, as I kept an eyes out watching for any presences myself.

 

Despite how early in the morning we started, there was a distinct lack of monsters on this floor.

By the time I started to grow suspicious regarding this situation, it wasn't long before I figured out why; there was a goblin corpse laying on the ground in front of us. Its right arm was bent in three places and there were cuts all over the rest of its body. Of course, its chest was cut open and its mana crystal was gone.

(Someone's doing some hunting this early in the morning?)

I didn't want Alicia and Fate's lesson to get complicated, so we intentionally entered the dungeon while it was still dark out. Even though I called it morning, it was still a few hours before sunrise, so there shouldn't have been many people awake at this time. The only people in the dungeon should've been people who stayed overnight in one of the safe zones.

This part of the dungeon lacked branching paths, so unless if I wanted to turn back, it was better to just keep going and suck up the fact that there probably wouldn't be any prey until the next junction.

(Though, it's probably more than one person, considering the wounds on this monster.)

But everyone who could come to this dungeon was an ally, people from the Hourai Commonwealth, so it wasn't like there was any worry of conflict between us.

Here and there, as we continued deeper, signs of battle showed themselves; Goblins beaten down and their mana crystals removed from their chests, loam wolves naked without their pelts, globs of disfigured slimes laying unmoving.

Whoever was here, it was certain that they were here mostly to farm XP. Only the most valuable parts of the monsters were taken, and yet they moved on to hunt the next monster without waiting for the corpses to despawn, leaving their drops.

Though, considering how quickly it seemed like they were able to finish off these monsters, it seemed like their ability was high enough that waiting for a monster to leave their drops wasn't worth the time.

A little more and we could hear the sound of battle.

...Or rather, we did hear the sound of battle.

The battle seemed to only last a few seconds, and what little I could hear suggested they were already extracting what little was worth getting from the monster they had just beaten. By the time we reached the monster's corpse, the party had already moved on and were out of sight.

But as we turned the next corner, what I saw impressed me.

Four small figures were charging towards a lone loam wolf. The moment the monster noticed them and turned to engage, one of figures stretched his arms out and a ball of water shot out. But unlike how you'd normally expect it, rather than impacting against the monster to do direct damage, the water ball engulfed the wolf's head, causing it to stop its charge as it tried to pry the spell off of its face before it drowned.

The second figure closed in on the target first swinging a crude wooden club, likely looted from one of the goblins on this floor. The blunt instrument smashed one of the wolf's hind legs, severely hindering its ability to launch an attack before she backed off, making space for the next attacker.

The third figure raked his claws just as the wolf's attention was split between the water ball that was suffocating it and the one that just injured it. Four dark lines raked its exposed throat, its wounds profusely bleeding out as the monster lost its balance.

The last figure stood in the middle of the formation, watching the group's surroundings while ready to intervene. However, it was unnecessary as the wolf simply collapsed and expired.

Instead, she turned back and drew a hand back, extending her claws while channelling mana into the other, air compressing into a swirling disk.

But, as our group wasn't hiding or anything, she quickly withdrew her stance and extinguished her magic.

"Elder Scarlet and her babies huh?"

Technically Claret was here, but as usual, she didn't bother materializing herself when it wasn't necessary.

But still, the way the one that looked like the leader looked at me with surprisingly cold eyes.

I couldn't think of a reason for her to have such a negative impression of me, but then again, people can have grudges for things you yourself weren't at fault for. I've seen it enough times in my previous life, let alone how many times I've seen it in games and movies.

"You were...Iaso, right? Epione's girl?"

"You actually remember my name huh?"

"Well, your mother's been of great help over and over."

Epione was practically the first of the prisoners that helped me fix up their situation and became their leader in all but name. And it was thanks to her efforts that all of them, plus their children, were able to come to the Commonwealth to escape the prejudice they had suffered just because their children's appearance was a little strange.

Though, if their hair was silvery like my own rather than the jet black they had, together with their crimson eyes, there was an old horror movie that they would've reminded of. But as it stood, I kinda wanted to put them into black suits like those worn by the nobility. As long as nobody started making jokes about cereal killers, at least.

Instead, their outfits were all simple clothes common within the country. Though they all wore wide brimmed hats, long sleeves, and gloves. While it wasn't nearly as severe as us pure vampires, it seemed like the dhampires did suffer from sunlight sensitivity, far greater than mere albinoism.

"Sorry, the rest of you though, I don't think I've heard your names."

"I'm Machaon."

The one with the club introduced himself.

"I'm Podalirius."

Next was the one who cast that water ball.

"And I'm Aceso."

Lastly, the one who finished off the wolf with her claws introduced herself.

"Well, I'm Scarlet, and these are my daughters Alicia and Fate."

I gave them all a nod.

"We know who you are. Nobody in the entire country doesn't know the three of you."

(Well, I guess that makes sense, being one of the founding member of this nation and the owner of the dungeon.)

Though I was a little surprised that Alicia and Fate were also that well known, but maybe it was because they were so cute.

That aside, the four's appearances matched up eerily despite all the differences.

Iaso had those prominent cat ears on the top of her head just like her mother along with the tail that stood erect behind her. Aside from her, I could see the round ears of a bearkin sticking out from underneath Machaon's hair. Presumably he had a little tail sticking out from his butt, but I didn't see it when he was fighting.

The other two were human. At least, they had human mothers. Though being that all four of them had a vampire for a father, that made them dhampires. While for others that didn't know their circumstances, it would only be a strange coincidence, their red eyes made it clear that was the case without me even bothering to run a [scan] on any of them.

Just in case, I did make it clear to people that they were under my protection. Not only because their mothers swore fealty to me as their elder, but also because they were half vampires so I wouldn't tolerate discrimination due to their lineage.

Though considering that the Hourai Commonwealth was created for the sake of all people who were displaced from both sides of the unending war between the light and dark races, I had hoped that this was just a piece of excessive caution.

Or rather, from what I had seen, that last bit seemed to have been completely unnecessary. Everyone was already used to accepting people that they once considered eternal enemies. A new species that nobody knew about wasn't really that far out of line from what they were already used to.

Though, it did make me wonder why dhampires were such an oddity in the first place. Surely someone at some point would've tried to have a child between a vampire and another race. Or rather, it was strange that the only hybrid race I've ever even heard of was a mix with vampires.

I could only imagine that it was due to our constitution of being mana based lifeforms allowing us to mix our traits with the physical based lifeforms, but that didn't answer why dhampires were a previously known race. They didn't even fit in the light/dark dichotomy that's been prevalent with the races.

And that didn't take into consideration all the strange bugs involved with their info when I used [scan] on one of them.

Analyzing the info only brought up more and more questions to the point that it was endless.

It was as if dhampires were some sort of 'glitch in the matrix' or some such thing.

Yet, to the best I can tell, they were perfectly capable of living like normal people.

Why hadn't anyone ever heard of dhampires before, yet it seemed like they weren't particularly difficult to be born in the first place? Why was their information so buggy?

The deeper I looked into the issue, the more confused I just became. I had wanted to try to fix the problems, but my administrative privileges weren't enough to look into the information I actually needed, nor was it capable of fixing the problems I had already found.

Despite the term, my administrator access wasn't all powerful. For example, it turned out that I couldn't make changes to things that were in use, so I couldn't change a skill that someone was currently using. That also meant that I couldn't fix the race tags for the dhampires, as it was in use because they were currently living people.

The only exception was if I was the only person using that skill or whatever. Maybe the world system considered the administrator as some sort of QA tester as well?

Either way, I was still pretty hesitant to make changes even if I could. These dhampires were still all children, so I wanted to wait until they were older before I made changes I was capable of.

Though, it didn't seem like there were any particular problems to their daily lives due to these bugs; this was entirely for my own self satisfaction.

As things stood, their lives would probably go on without issue, though I did wonder what the next generation would look like, this was more something I'd have the better part of a decade before becoming an issue.