Now that he had a clear enemy, he intended to take action. If one skeleton had been spotted roaming alone in broad daylight, then there would be more.
Ikaris feared the Black Fog and the countless abominations lurking inside, but he would never fear a single Undead. Instead of hoping and praying that an Undead Day wouldn't happen, he preferred to preemptively thin out their ranks while he could.
Conquering and seizing control of the Tartarus Gate and the surrounding forest became his new number one priority all at once.
"Starting tomorrow, I want all of our fighters to prepare to fight these Undeads in broad daylight." The teenager declared with a grave expression. "Coordinate with Nardor, Ellie, and Juliette regarding their equipment. Also tell the hunters and gatherers to keep their distance from the area where the skeleton was sighted. This weekend, when I don't have classes at the Magic Academy, I will personally investigate this area with a squad. I'll let you select those who will accompany me. They must be volunteers."
Liam listened to his series of instructions in silence, then banging his fist against his heart he bowed his head slightly and swore,
"It shall be done as you wish, My Lord."
Raising his head, he then proclaimed, "And I wish to be one of the participants. Few natives of this island know this forest and these Undeads better than I."
Ikaris stared at the Alpha Werewolf for a long time, trying to discern his true intentions but his gaze was resolute. After a moment, he grunted,
"Granted."
After this report it was getting late and Ikaris decided to go home before dark. Juliette and Ellie had already taken care of the accommodation of their new guests.
Since mid-afternoon his craving for human blood and fresh meat had been steadily increasing, but taking Magnus' warnings to heart he decided to starve himself as long as he could to build up his resistance to the lack of blood and limit the risk of addiction.
[Rank 1 Blood Energy(Vampire): 6/10 (if the Blood Energy gauge drops below 50% the rank bonus is lost. It becomes a malus below 10%. If the value falls to zero, the body stops working)]
'Half a liter of human blood will have lasted me about 10 hours.' Ikaris mentally calculated. 12 before I lose the bonus and 22 hours before my physical condition begins to be impacted. How do I compare to the other Vampires, Magnus?'
"No worries for now, you're in the ballpark." The late Archmagus groaned nonchalantly. "Many Thralls and young Vampires don't know how to control their bloodlust and kill their first victims. After that, they need at least 4 to 5 liters of blood daily to feel full and avoid withdrawal symptoms. You have drunk and absorbed a lot of blood and Blood Energy today, but you can also feed yourself by eating meat. It limits your blood requirements to some extent or your Blood Energy would have already dropped to zero."
"It won't do." Ikaris protested, refusing to be so dependent on human blood.
Since increasing his Blood Energy Rank in a short period of time was not an option, he had no choice but to proceed now with their morning plan. Besides practicing his I Am Me Spell, he would also have to create three more Sparks.
As he was about to open the door to his house, Ikaris remembered that he still had the ring containing his purchase from Lord's Paradise on him. It was quite big, so he went first to the cellar behind his house.
He opened the hatch with a swift movement, which woke up the prisoners chained in the dark inside. Thanks to Malia's hypnotic magic, they hadn't even thought of using their Divine Spark to free themselves. They still had drool on their lips and bloodless faces after being drained of their blood, their haggard eyes not even registering his presence.
Ikaris snorted and turned his back to them, making sure there was enough space in front of him. Pulling the ring out of his pocket, he studied it intently and then pressed the button Ramiro had mentioned.
Everything he had bought today at the Lord's Paradise materialized before him, filling the cellar. Food, necessities and tools, weapons, clothes, fabrics, furniture and equipment for Nardor's forge and Ling's sewing room.
With only 66 gold coins left after this day of shopping, Ikaris could literally boast that the goods in front of him represented his entire fortune. Ramiro had mentioned that Anaphiel had left a little something inside, and he immediately began to rummage around.
After a few minutes, his face froze, turning livid when he found what the "gift" in question was. It was blood stored in glass bottles and flasks. A lot of blood!
If it was human blood, Ikaris would have already been shaken, for it proved indisputably that Anaphiel knew he was now a Vampire too. He held out a tiny hope that it was actually a gift for Malia, but after Ramiro's insinuations he could only laugh bitterly.
The thing was, human blood was the most ordinary fluid contained in these vials. All meticulously labeled, upon perusing them Ikaris saw that this blood came from all sorts of humanoid races. There was blood from common races like elves, dwarves or orcs, but there was also blood from several Cursed Races and exotic species as well as blood samples from all sorts of hybrids.
Even more shocking, there was also Crawling and Glenring blood in these vials. That syrupy blue-black blood was impossible to forget. Finally, when he thought he had seen it all, he found some Nephilim of Faulch blood in the last box.
If he still had any lingering doubts about Anaphiel's intentions, Ikaris found a post-it note at the bottom of it with marked in neat calligraphy:
"For you and Malia. I don't know what your game is, but you must know that the best blood for a Vampire is that of his original species. This is not exactly true for hybrids that combine several bloodlines. The ideal blood is the one that most closely resembles your own blood. NB: This blood is mine and no one was killed or threatened except the Glenrings to get the rest."
Ikaris felt weirded out as he finished reading the short message. There was no sort of threat or price to pay implied in those lines, but he couldn't help but feel that such generosity hid a less avowable motive.
"Does she really place such high hopes on me, or am I a fascinating guinea pig to which she satisfies every need in order to research it?" He muttered with a grim look on his face.
At the slightest misstep or once she was bored, would she try to get rid of him? Or to make him her puppet? It should not be forgotten that House Morgunis had a hobby of breeding docile abominations like the Tartarus Enforcers through their necromantic magic.
"Magnus, did you know about this ideal blood thing?" Ikaris frowned sourly as he reread the post-it note.
"No... I'm not a hybrid but I had some suspicions." The old Vampire admitted, "However, since she offered you so many different blood samples, you can conclude that she doesn't know precisely what kind of hybrid you are either. She invites you to experiment and make your own cocktail. You can bet that in a few days or weeks she will ask you if you need blood again. Depending on the blood you ask for, she may narrow down her diagnosis. At that point, you'll have to lie and ask for a little bit of everything like she did today if you don't want to make it easy for her."
Anaphiel had also been considering Malia because Ikaris had likewise found blood samples from Daemon Fox, Kitsune, Gumiho and other variants of nine-tailed foxes that were not as prevalent. This legendary creature had distinctive reputations and abilities depending on whether it came from a Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese folklore.
Gumihos were for example the equivalent of the Korean nine-tailed fox and they cultivated a tail every 100 years as well as a pearl containing all their cultivation which they could use to do all sorts of things, the most notorious being to place it in a human's body to slowly absorb their vital energy.
Malia had always said she was a Kitsune, but Ikaris wondered what it truly entailed. After all, in this world, there was no such thing as Korea or Japan. A nine-tailed fox was just a nine-tailed fox, whatever it was.
As night was about to fall, he hurriedly took the blood samples to his room, then knocked on the door of Malia and Ellie's room. When he pushed it open, he found them chatting happily on the bed.
"Ahem... Malia, can you come to my room? I need to talk to you about something. It'll only take a moment." He said coolly, in front of Ellie's gawking eyes and gaping mouth.
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