“Doesn’t look too bad”, Chloe commends my magic, “seems like you took out a dozen or so crawlers and dealt decent damage to everything that isn’t a golem.”

“I don’t think I make much difference. The golems and deers are too sturdy and the big slimes will just regenerate most of the damage before they get in range of our soldiers.”

She consoles me, “Eh, don’t beat yourself up over it. You should’ve gotten at least some nice exp out of this.”

“Slightly more than half of what I got from the training earlier.”

She says, “See? That should hurry you along on your way to take the Survivor class.”

Chloe stays silent for a moment, thinking, so I try to break the silence, “What now?”

She's directionless, “Oh, emmm. Honestly not sure what to do with you now. The early arrival of the flood broke my entire timetable. I wanted to show you around a bit, finish what Jack should’ve done...”

“Uh...”

She explains, “But now I have obligations where I can’t keep watch over you... Can you promise me that you’ll behave? Go a bit through town, familiarize yourself with the closer area. Don't wipe out humanity. Those kinda things. Uh, here’s a map. Just stay away from the slum section”, she hands me a worn-out map and points to a section marked ‘slum’.

Even in a fantasy world, there are still those less fortunate.

I wonder what kind of issues they have that they can’t be trained under this level system…

“Why? What’s wrong with that area?”

Chloe clarifies, “It is… outside the fortress’s jurisdiction. Meaning if you meet someone there like Therese who doesn’t like your face, you are dead.”

But wouldn’t that also go the other direction? Vampires can feed there without the law enforcement getting triggered?

Thoughts for later, “Ok, I’ll avoid it. Why even are there slums? From what I gathered from Therese, you would need all the help you can get."

She says, "That is... a longer topic and I don't have the time right now. Anything else urgent or can I let you off now?"

"We got a bit sidetracked earlier; what would I need to do to gain access to the library?”

She thinks for a second, “Ah that. Hmm… Not sure actually. I’ll see what I can do about that later.”

At least that is not a no yet, “Good enough for me.”

(Can I even read the local language, Elly? Speaking is one thing…)

Elly answers, (Only one way to find out.)

(Yeah, the chance is 50:50 – either I can or not.)

She scoffs, (Somewhere a statistician is crying...)

“One last thing I wanted to ask what is up with the soldiers’ equipment, why is barely anyone wearing a helm?”

Chloe elaborates, “Those are… expensive. Standard gear only encompasses a weapon and armor. Anything after that comes out of our own pockets.”

She gets lost in thought for a moment.

“Oh, right that reminds me, here”, she hands me 100 gold coins.

“What is that for?”

She responds, “A reward for your idea of throwing stuff at the monsters. No idea yet how much this will change the course of the flood but if it means we can save a few more lives by weakening the more dangerous monsters it's worth my savings to me.”

“Wait, that is ALL of your savings? Uh, how much salary do even we get per month?”

Chloe explains, “I get 5 coins, please don’t tell anybody; a regular recruit starts at a single gold and 50 silver. Though living expenses are already taken care of. As for you vampires, I think you only get like 60 silver. Though you get a share of the blood phials other people find in their dungeon hunts.”

(Ok, timeout. She just gave me 20 months' worth of her income!? This was just a stupid little idea.)

Elly adds, (I’m more concerned then how the three kids had 31 coins among them.)

(Yeah, those are the same type of gold coins as Chloe just gave me. Where did they get that much?)

She asks, (So what does that tell us?)

(Nothing really. They could’ve just saved up for a long time, could’ve originally been on an errand for their mentor Evan or even stole it somewhere – and honestly? That’s not my problem.)

Elly responds, (Fair enough.)

I put that thought to rest, “Are you really sure that’s it ok to give me that much money? Don’t you need it for anything?”

Chloe replies, “Not really, general expenses are already taken care of and there’s not really better gear I could buy – at least not until we get the ‘Lord’s Mansion’ active again and the new ruler decides to upgrade the smiths. The only thing I could think of would be another ‘Class Core’ and they are… ridiculously expensive. So if it can get you jump-started to becoming useful – worth it.”

“Ok, sure then, thanks.”

She waves goodbye, “Well then, see you tomorrow, same time and place as today. Just as a reminder, tomorrow is dungeon time. And please stay out of trouble.”

I shortly wave back, “Certainly.”

I make my way into town following the instructions on Chloe’s map.

I have some money now so I want to spend it on something to increase my survival chances.

My new robe is probably the best I can get here but I have nothing on my head so that has priority if I can afford something. Maybe some extra accessories or a ring, no idea what the stacking rules are, are two rings the limit? I never understood that arbitrary limitation, usually people have ten fingers to put rings on.

A better staff may be possible? Though I doubt there will be much on offer if magic users are that rare.

Blood probably won’t be sold at all.

Potions… may not even exist.

Eh, I’ll just look at what is available and then decide.

Between my cloak and ring, I have only 3 hours to work with so I do my best to stay in the shade on the way to my destination.

The way leads me just past the slums but I stay clear of them. No sense in risking anything right now. This can wait until I’m either stronger or at least certain my [Stealth] skill keeps me undetected.

Though I think I saw Niles, one of the other two vampires, heading into the slums. Alone.

If the slums are as lawless as Chloe claimed I can already guess what he is up to.

I’d be a hypocrite to stop him, I already had the same idea.

Damn, I should be better than this...

A few blocks later I see another disgusting sight: slave traders.

Presenting their ‘wares’ in the middle of town as if they weren’t talking about living beings.

Some were dirty and just dressed in rags, others slightly more cleaned up but still in chains. Most of them are just kids or teens...

They don't even refrain from hitting them with a whip to make a showing. Disgusting.

I have to suppress my desire to click my tongue at this, and I need to avoid staring too much as well. Until I know what the culture here really is like, I can't afford to let it affect me.

I don’t want to look at this any longer or I’ll hurl...

(Elly, please add to my list that this practice needs to be ended. Bloodily if possible.)

Elly replies, (Eh, sure, but currently you’re in no position to do anything about it. You have neither the political power nor the personal one to force a change.)

(I know… but then I have to take down a demon lord anyway, this is basically the same thing. Also, this doesn’t make much sense. Didn’t Eva and Jeff say that there were multiple Lost Ones before? Like sixty or so? Supposedly worshipped like minor deities? How come ALL of them were such horrible people as to tolerate slavery?)

(Yeah, no idea how to defend that one), she's clueless as well.

(Only way I could think of was if all of them managed to get themselves killed before they were revealed. Which raises even MORE questions.)

(Such as?), Elly doesn’t understand where I’m going with this.

(Simple. If ALL of them failed early, how could the deva guys figure out that the Lost Ones are oh so important to the people here DESPITE their weakness.)

She agrees, (True, so that can’t be the case.)

(So the next option is that they don’t do much of a background check on who they send, or even worse don’t care. Let's leave the lives of billions in the hands of apathetics or sociopaths, whatever could go wrong.)

She happily adds, (Well, they got you now.)

(That just proves my case.)

(...), Elly is speechless.

(Stop speaking ellipsis. And, well, you get the idea. Everything so far points to something being massively off.)

She asks, (But what if the gods are actually fine with slavery?)

(Then I'll have to become a proper Demon Lord and usurp them. If this is the world I’m stuck on for the rest of eternity there WILL be changes.)

She consoles me, (Don’t worry, I’ll be behind you on this. All the way.)

(With or without a knife?)

She sneers, (Ha, ha, funny.)

I leave the ‘auction’ before I do anything stupid and cause a scene.

But I WILL be back! You’ll rue the day you’ve offended my morals!

After some more minutes of walking, I finally reach the real marketplace.

I look around at the shop signs. Groceries, clothing store, cutler, dungeon supplies, shoe cobbler, weaponsmith… yeah, let's start with that one.

Oh, damn, it is closed today.

Wait, why am I going to a regular weapon shop? Didn’t I say I wanted to start with checking for a helm? Weird…

I look a bit more and find an armor shop. The shop owner shows me his limited selection of headgear.

Just look at the prices, (That is very expensive. Even the plain leather cap is 4 months of saving for someone of Chloe’s rank.)

Elly suggests, (I’d say wait for now and check the other shops if they have something more important. Considering your salary and lack of other income, I doubt you’ll get that much money again any time soon.)

I agree, (Yeah, you’re right.)

For comparison, I take a look at body armor. Cheaper for the defense gain but I’ve already taken a liking to my robe. And losing its +20 MAG would limit my exp gain even more which I can't really afford.

Kinda feels like an MMO with the protection making little sense compared to how much the armor covers the body and the near 100% price increase for barely any defense more each step.

More defense would be nice but I’m not paying 20 MAG from the robe and all my money for maybe being able to take one extra hit. I need a much bigger HP pool before that makes any sense.

And until then it seems like I can hide behind meat shields my fellow soldiers.

I ask the shopkeeper, “You wouldn’t happen to carry any items with MAG increases?”

He answers, “Oh gracious, no. I’d need to upgrade my license at least two more levels before I’d be allowed to sell any of them. Not that I could do that while the fortress is asleep. And honestly, I doubt you could afford such a thing anyway, they start in the four-digit range. Maybe 500 gold if you’re lucky and looking at a low-grade robe.”

“Yeah, that’s out of my price range for quite a while. Does that apply to weapons as well?”

He shakes his head, “Sorry, that I can’t tell you. I only deal in armors. Though the same license restriction should apply and the weapon shop owner is not old enough to have been around when it was possible to get a better license.”

“Got it. How about bracers or gloves? Cheap low-defense extra accessories?”

He quickly denies this option, “No one produces those around here. With the materials needed you’d be looking at like 200 gold for just +5 VIT gloves. Not worth it, unsellable.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

The shop owner scratches his chin, “from your queries I take it you’re a mage then?”

“Uh, yeah, though I only just got ‘Wizard’ a few days ago, still level 1. Even with my whole mana pool I only managed to pick off a few crawlers.”

He thinks for a moment, “Hmm… I think I might have a suggestion for you then.”

I hope this goes some place useful, “Ok, I’m listening.”

He rubs his hands, “Buy something from me and I’ll let you in on a little secret item I’m not allowed to sell. Anything is fine.”

He just said that with his current license he’s not allowed to sell +MAG gear, so maybe…

“Hmm… I’d take a leather cap then.”

The man is disappointed, “What, not even haggling? Spoilsport.”

“Uh, sorry, where I’m originally from haggling is illegal.”

He scoffs, “Whoever made that rule over there sounds like a total killjoy.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”, I laugh a bit.

I give him the 20 gold, “Mind giving me a few pointers on haggling then? Take the difference as a tutoring fee.”

“Now we’re talking”, he hands me a leather cap and teaches me a few basics in haggling.

The lesson takes about two hours.

He pats me on the back, “Thanks for indulging this old man’s haggling addiction. So as promised here’s my little ‘secret’ item”, with a satisfied smile he hands me… a book on crafting?

“Not sure I get it yet.”

The old man explains, “Two things. First, the book lists all the basic techniques and crafting recipes. You seemed quite curious about the whole process so that should sate your curiosity.”

“But I don’t have the necessary job to make use of that knowledge.”

He explains, “Maybe not but it should at least tell you what materials are needed if you’re looking for some uncommon items. If you should get your hands on those most crafters perform such custom orders for relatively cheap if you provide all the materials needed.”

“That’s good to know – and the second use of the book?”

He tells me, “Put it in your shield slot.”

“Huh?”

“Just do it”, he urges.

“Ok…”

“Oh, that’s neat.”

He pretends to not know, “I totally don’t know what you might be talking about, dear customer. Regulations aside all normal books give the same stats. If you want a better ‘shield’ for that purpose you need a proper magic tome. But those cost a fortune as well.”

“Don’t worry this will help quite a bit.”

After some more small talk, I bid the merchant farewell and take my leave.

Next up I visit the dungeon supply shop. More or less miscellaneous stuff as expected.

Not even antidotes or anything.

And 30 gold for 150 MP? So like two years of salary for a single spell? Who can afford that crap!!

I buy 3 First Aid Kits, 1 Rope, 1 Pole and 1 EXP Potion.

2 exp per gold seems useless but maybe this is as bugged as other stuff?

I try to drink the EXP Potion – it tastes like vomit.

I'm getting angry with all of these bugs and hidden mechanic traps, (What? Why?!)

Elly answers, (No idea, neither the skill nor the item mentioned such a restriction.)

(Do I at least gain alternative 2 exp for making this discovery?)

d20 noises

Elly checks my status, (Uh, yes you got 2 exp.)

(Seriously, the people in charge need to get their shit fixed...)

ding

I sigh, (I asked, I received... Is that the work of this Graham guy Eva mentioned?)

Elly guesses, (Not sure, wasn’t she saying his role was ‘balance’? This seems more like just bug fixes.)

(Well, if it is true that he is the only guy working on this at all there might just not be a difference.)

I hear a scream in the distance, “GODDAMMIT!!”

Seems like someone doesn’t like the update.

I check [Undead] again.

(Ah, good. The descriptions are still automatically updated), mumbles Elly to herself.

(What?)

She apologizes, (Oh, right, didn’t tell you. The skill descriptions aren’t entered manually but automatically generated from the internal effects of them. If someone asks you don’t have that info from me.)

(Riiight. Well, I think I’ve had enough for today. Any objection to going home?)

(None! Can we finally go over the titles? Please?), she requests.

I sigh, (FINE.)

I go back to my room.

It has been some days since… that incident. Hadn’t had any blood since then and I’m starting to feel a bit hungry. So I check if no one is watching and then take out one of my 643 blood pack starter kit.

I prick a hole into it and start drinking.

It is a very different flavor than what Eila’s or Tevin’s blood had. Not bad, just different. Ok, a bit worse. If the blood from the two was a nice steak this blood is like bacon.

I so have to watch out that I don’t get addicted to this.

(Ok, Elly, since you’re pushing so much for it, give me the rundown of the titles I have and can get.)

(Oh hey, my old friend, glitch text. Long time no see. Next?)

(Yeah, just about what I expected.)

(Ok, so nothing new here. Any other titles I already have?)

Elly answers, (No, these are all. Can I continue with your current title options? You don’t HAVE to accept any of them. The limit seems to be 20 titles total but they are less impactful than classes so don't waste too much thought on them.)

(Ok, got it.)

She continues, (so I’d like to start with this one. Given the goals you’ve outlined to me it should be an obvious pick.)

(Alright, tell.)

(That doesn’t tell me much about what that specific extra race does. Got any info on that?)

Elly responds, (Not until you pick it. At a minimum, you’d be the top of the food chain for the ‘Vampire Hierarchy’ skill. Meaning another +50% power if the two vampires give you trouble or there should be ghouls in the flood or dungeon.)

(I guess it comes with 2-4 skills like any other race.)

I can feel how the voice in my head wants to shrug, (Sorry, I have no information that either confirms or denies this assumption.)

(I’ll think about it later. Go on with the next title.)

(I… don’t remember having a cat in my previous life, did I have one?)

Elly guesses, (No idea. Maybe you didn’t have one but wanted it?)

(If it wasn’t for the title limit I’d take it. So… I don’t think I can afford it, doesn’t look very useful. If it behaves like a regular cat it'd sleep like 90% of the time anyway and be absolutely no help in combat.)

She pouts, (Pity, I’d like to have a cat.)

(Maybe we can find a real cat once all of this is over, Elly.)

She suggests, (If not you can always ask some of the slavers for a catgirl? Would be close enough.)

(...do you want to find out what it is like if I turn the ‘assistant’ feature, as in YOU, off, Navi?)

She sounds scared, (Please don’t…)

(I probably got that because I hid on the walls behind all the soldiers. Sounds way too conditional; like when one enemy is behind me and one to the side the bonus is gone. Or who even counts as an 'enemy'? Depending on how generously that is interpreted I may never get that bonus since there's always someone out in the world who is not behind me. Don’t think I want to risk that.)

(At a first glance this looks like a worthwhile title. As if I'd gain a way out of my 'human food' dependency.)

Elly agrees, (Correct, it’d allow you to also feed on monsters and animals. Though instead of 1-2 humans you’d need to hunt 60-100 monsters per week, I think. So you gonna take it?)

(...no, my gut says this is a trap title. Look how it doesn’t mention anything about taste. I don’t think I could mentally endure eating ‘sand’ for eternity. And more importantly, it SETS how much a drop of blood is worth and this DOESN’T exclude otherwise good types of blood. This would make the 643 remaining blood packs instantly useless. And just think about it, where would I find that many monsters each week? Or get the necessary MP/SP pool to fight them.)

She suggests, (How about from the dungeon?)

(No idea, we don’t know anything about dungeons. For all we know there are regulations in place that restrict me to either one dungeon trip per three days or only 20 slain monsters per week or something stupid like that.)

She says, (True, I guess we find out tomorrow?)

(Possibly. Put the title on the maybe pile and we’ll talk again when I drop below a dozen blood packs. But currently, I’m leaning towards no.)

She concurs, (Noted.)

(Guess pretending to eat human food had consequences. Useless. Pass.)

Elly agrees, (Yeah, gaining no nutrition isn't really a 'side effect'. Means it should do nothing for you.)

(I have so many questions and I’m not sure I want any of them answered…)

Elly inquires, (Such as?)

(What the hell have I done to deserve such a title? What is a divine class? And wouldn’t I need to be a demon in the first place? Last I checked I was an elf. Also, why is it ‘A demon lord’ and not ‘THE demon lord’?)

She adds, (I can spoil you that much, Gzeph’s files on that topic are also corrupted.)

(You had one job, Jeff. ONE!)

She teases, (Well, there’s always the hard way to find out. Wanna?)

(Tough one. By my understanding there should only be one Demon Lord, so stealing that position might be worthwhile. But the description implies that there can be multiple, worst case I’d only add one and not even prevent another hostile one from showing up anyway. And knowing my luck it would break the Lost One title so that I couldn’t even reveal myself as such anymore. ‘Oh hey, I’m the chosen one sent by your god and I’ve stolen a major power from the enemy, can you lend me some help?’ - ‘Oh no, it is a demon lord KILL HIM!’, yeah, no thanks.)

Elly suggests, (Then how about getting someone important on your side first and then taking it?)

(For now, no. I might change my mind depending on what we learn. But that can wait.)

She asks, (Even if I told you that ‘divine classes’ don’t take up one of your 10 class spots?)

(Yes.)

She gives up, (Uh, sure… so, that were all titles you could take right now. Well, looks like I failed at my job.)

(What job are you talking about, Elly?)

She sounds down, (Uh, you know how you stated your goals at the beginning? I try my best to support you but found nothing I can help with... We have no access to several Class Cores or sufficient stats to make use of them. Adding another race requires a method we don’t know nor do the stat increases from that look even significant in the first place. And exp wise… we’re looking at 2-3 years of intense training before you could even match a peasant in close combat.)

(Ok, I get that – but why does it sound like you desperately WANT me to take the demon lord thing?)

She hesitantly answers, (...just a hunch? Dunno, I just felt like it’d be your best bet.)

(Just drop it, ok? I don’t wanna hear another thing about becoming a Demon Lord. That is just way too much for what we know.)

Elly questions, (But what if a real Demon Lord appears before you decide? We could be in an even worse situation than now!)

(...preying on FOMO is not cool, for that you’ve earned yourself a timeout.)

She panics, (W-wait! Please, please don’t! Pl---)

Click

I’m probably overthinking this.

I did tell Elly that I want – need - to grow stronger, she’s just looking for ways to achieve that.

I'm pretty sure I stated that survival is my top priority and this demon lord thing is just a landmine waiting to be stepped on.

…

What am I thinking…

Both of us just need to cool off from the Demon Lord topic, I just need to explain it properly and then all will be good again.

…

I think back to the Progenitor title.

My biggest objection to it would be that there might be a way to expose me as such a monster. But… any method that could find those should also be able to find the lesser Vampire Lord that I already am…

Ah, screw it. I take it.

Alone the 50% advantage against ghouls and lesser vampires is worth more than the small bonuses other titles have shown me.

If the extra race comes with 1-2 skills that aren't complete garbage it is already worth it.

Now I'm curious what that one gives in detail.

Low stat gains, about as much as I could expect from an 'extra'. And there are its new skills.

Vampire Noble already had this, so just a skill level boost. I’d have preferred a new skill but it's not half bad.

I should’ve seen this coming.

The [Familiar] skill was just screaming that it needed something like this for synergy.

Charm someone then make them a familiar since they already count as 'willing' and 'bam' free new servant for life.

Not bad. I’d need the HP pool of a final boss to make this really annoying but not bad.

Well, and a way to remove the weaknesses. Even if I got this all the way to skill level 160 my three weaknesses keep this ‘balanced’.

I spend the rest of the night skimming through some of Jeff’s notes trying again to decode the nonsense he wrote on ‘Lord’s Mansions’, looking for a beginner’s guide to his physics nonsense – of course not included.

Is there even anything worthwhile in his notes? He could’ve just as well written all in Latin for the little sense that it makes so far.

I gained 38 exp total since bombarding the monsters.

Current status, barely made any progress...

With Elly in timeout, this is like the loudest silence ever...