Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 112

The Vampire Lord, Argoric Hermon, sat on his throne. The handsome man rubbed his pale white chin and said, “It’s boring…”

“W-What do you mean, sire?” a beautiful elf asked.

“My slave, everything seems meaningless,” Argoric said as he stared down at the elf from his throne. The elf, whose head was bowed, had a very charming aura but she was drenched in blood. The Vampire Lord continued, “I’ve lived for too long.”

The beautiful elf slave trembled whenever Argoric spoke. The blood that covered her was not hers; rather, it was the blood of a goat. The Vampire Lord had a unique hobby, in which he liked to drench his slaves in goat blood before bossing them around.

“Blood, slaves, and merrymaking. I’m sick of all that,” Argoric said as he crossed his legs and leaned on his throne’s backrest. The Vampire Lord did not seem to be interested in keeping up with appearances befitting his title as the king of all vampires.

Argoric stared at his slave for a moment before asking, “My slave. What was your name again?”

“L-Lemon. It is Lemon, sire,” the elf slave replied while trembling.

“Lemon? Why’s your name Lemon?” Argoric asked.

“I was a slave since birth, so I had no name. The slave trader just named me the first thing that came to his mind. That is why my name is Lemon, sire,” Lemon replied.

“Tsk tsk… What a foolish thing,” Argoric said as he stood up from his throne. The cape on his back did not touch the floor because of his height. He walked toward Lemon and stroked her cheek before saying, “Your name is as sour as the fruit you were named after. Is that why you’ve been shriveled up like a lemon all this time?”

“Ah…” Lemon whimpered as tears welled up in her eyes.

Argoric asked in surprise, “Why are you crying?”

“I-It is because I feel sad, sire,” Lemon replied while sniffling.

“Don’t cry. I hate it when people cry,” Argoric said with a grimace of disgust on his face.

Lemon tried her best not to cry as she closed her eyes tightly, but the tears kept falling despite her best efforts.

“I said, don’t cry,” Argoric said, sounding annoyed as he grabbed Lemon by the chin. The elf opened her eyes and saw the beautiful vampire right in front of her face; Argoric asked, “Do you know why I feel bored with life?”

“I-I do not know, sire,” Lemon replied.

“Look into my eyes,” Argoric commanded.

Lemon looked into his eyes that shone beautifully like a pair of rubies; his eyes seemed to be the only things that shone brightly in the dark black city.

“You will not be able to cry from now on,” Argoric intoned.

“I will not be able to cry from now on,” Lemon repeated the Vampire Lord’s words. She seemed to have been brainwashed, as her tears immediately stopped flowing. It was a strange and bizarre sight.

“You will smile and laugh from now on,” Argoric continued.

“I will smile and laugh from now on,” Lemon repeated. The tips of her mouth rose and she started to smile, but she was not smiling out of her own free will.

“That’s right, don’t you look much better now that you’re smiling?” Argoric remarked with a satisfied smile on his face.

Lemon, on the other hand, felt horrible and scared inside. She wanted to cry but she could not cry, and she did not want to laugh but she had to laugh. She laughed loudly. “Hahaha!”

“Such an annoying thing… Begone,” Argoric commanded.

“I cannot stop… Haha! Ple… ase… Make this… Haha… Stop… Heeheehee!” Lemon pleaded while laughing.

“Such a bother.” Argoric clicked his tongue and grabbed the slave’s neck. He did not even attempt to bite her neck, but all of the blood left her body.

“Such a waste. The sound of your laughter was nice to hear. Why did you have to ask me to make it stop? I don’t understand these creatures…” Argoric said as he nonchalantly threw the dried corpse away. Suddenly, another vampire appeared out of nowhere and took the corpse.

The Vampire Lord sat on his throne again, his chin resting on his hand as he grumbled, “It’s boring… It's too boring. If only there were someone who could entertain me with a good fight…”

Argoric was the most powerful being in Sanguineum; he was the supreme being in this place, who lorded over all of the other vampires. He was no doubt a pure-blooded vampire, and he was also a pinnacle-ranked vampire on top of that. He had enough strength to easily rip apart tempered steel, and he was immune to all diseases. Argoric Hermon had lived for thousands of years at the pinnacle of Sanguineum.

“I need someone to shake things up and make things entertaining for me…” Argoric grumbled.

***

Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo was climbing a steep cliff. There were a lot of sharp rocks, but it was easy to climb since a path had already been paved by someone else. Several black creatures lurked along the edges of the cliff that was painted red with blood.

“Kaaak!?Kaaak!”?The flock of Giant Bald Crows cawed. The creatures munched on the bones of the dead and sucked their marrow out. They had originally just been normal crows, but they had mutated after being exposed to the magical energy of the Vampire Lord.

‘The Vampire Lord is very strong.’

The Vampire Lord had made the blackish-red fog even thicker, and any creature exposed to the fog for an extended period of time had a chance of mutating like the crows. Humans and vampires did not have to worry about experiencing mutations, but that was not the case for small animals such as crows.

“You want to ride those? Do you plan to crash and kill us all?!” Renil complained about the nonsensical plan Kang Yoon-Soo had proposed.

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled out the Sword of Revelation and said, “We won’t ride them immediately. We’ll hunt them first.”

Then, a few of the Giant Bald Crows turned and looked at the party with red eyes filled with hunger and greed.

“Kaak!”?the Giant Bald Crows cried as they charged toward the party.

Kang Yoon-Soo ducked and swung his sword. He cut open the wing of a Giant Bald Crow, and black feathers scattered all over.

“This is the perfect warm-up before hunting vampires,” Deff said as he pulled out a blade that resembled a mace more than a sword with a large smile on his face. His giant sword was heavier than a mace, but his monstrous strength allowed him to swing it easily.

Pukeok!

“Kaaaak!”?a Giant Bald Crow cried out before its body was split in half.

Deff’s priestly robe was covered in blood, but he did not seem to mind as he continued swinging his sword.

Renil clicked his tongue and lowered his crossbow, remarking,, “It’s a waste to use pure silver bolts on these things that aren’t even vampires.” Then, he pulled out a silver dagger from behind his waist and charged.

Gasen was already on the forefront, grabbing a Giant Bald Crow’s head and smashing his other fist into it. His punches were so strong that the crow’s eyes popped and its skull cracked open.

“Fire Strike!” Shaneth shouted, and her fiery scythe burned a Giant Bald Crow.

Henrick used his mana threads to tie down the wings of any Giant Bald Crows that tried to escape by flying away.

Iris tilted her head in confusion and asked, “Henrick, why aren’t you summoning Rick?”

“I don’t want that punk to further lose her mental state after smelling blood. More importantly, can you take care of this guy?” Henrick asked as he pointed at a Giant Bald Crow he was binding down.

“Alright,” Iris replied, then smashed the crow’s head open. Her blows were stronger than Deff and Gasen’s, and a single punch from her immediately killed the crow.

“Kaaaak!”?the largest crow cried out. It was not only the largest in terms of size, but also looked ferocious due to a scar across its eyes; it seemed to be the leader of the flock.

“Abyssal Sword,” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

“Kaaak!”?the crow leader cried out as it dug its beak into Kang Yoon-Soo’s shoulder. However, Kang Yoon-Soo did not even wince at the pain; instead, he stabbed his sword into the scarred crow leader’s eye.

“Kaaaak!”?the crow leader cried out in pain.

“Abyssal Sword. Abyssal Sword. Abyssal Sword.” Kang Yoon-Soo used his sword skill three consecutive times as he stabbed the crow leader’s eye. The sword skill that exuded a dark aura consumed 20% of his stamina whenever he used it. He would end up exhausted if he used it five times in a row, so he could only use it four times in a short span of time.

“Kaaaaaaaak!”?the crow leader cried before it collapsed in a pool of its own blood.

Kang Yoon-Soo swung his sword to remove the blood on it; it was around that time that the other crows were taken care of by the others. He extended his right hand and muttered, “Mass Raise Dead.”

The dead Giant Bald Crows stood up from the ground as they were resurrected, their feathers turning blue. Their eyes were pale white, as opposed to the dark red they had had when they were alive, and their tongues were crooked just like those of ghosts—they had come back to life as zombies.

“Let’s ride these,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he hopped on one of the crows.

“So you turned them into undead. We definitely won’t have to worry about falling down if it’s these,” Deff said. He plucked a feather off a crow, but the Zombie Crow did not seem to mind at all, as it obediently stood still.

It was then that Renil suddenly butted in and asked, “But why have you been speaking so comfortably for some time? Where are your manners?”

“You do that too,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Hmm… I guess I’d better shut up,” Renil said and closed his mouth.

Kang Yoon-Soo sent all the crows except for seven to the summon dimension.

[12 Zombie Crows have been sent to the summon dimension.]

[Summons currently stored in the dimension: 12 Zombie Crows, Sally, White, Acle, Mini-Lich.]

[Remaining space for additional summons: 684]

The party mounted the Zombie Crows. The crows had some bloodstains on their feathers, but they were unexpectedly quite comfortable to ride on.

Iris grabbed tightly onto her crow’s back and muttered, “I have to hold on tight so I won’t fall…”

The Zombie Crows ran toward the edge of the cliff, then immediately fell as soon as they jumped off. “Graaak!”?the crows groaned before they flapped their wings and started to fly.

“I-I thought I was going to die, you asshole!” Renil screamed and protested.

Deff laughed and patted his crow’s back before remarking, “This is quite the new experience.”

The entire black city came into view from the sky above. Surrounded by the blackish-red fog that resembled blood, it looked quite sinister and eerie. Additionally, a row of stone mountains was present on the outskirts of the city.

“What are those mountains?” Shaneth asked.

“They’re the site of a mine. Vampires love jewels. They brainwash their victims and turn them into slave miners,” Deff explained.

Then, Henrick said, “I just remembered. Since you mentioned slaves, didn’t you say the werewolves were also enslaved over here?”

The smile on Deff’s face disappeared before he replied, “You’re right; they are mostly trapped in their human forms as they’re forced to do menial and dangerous labor.”

“Human form? Can’t they transform into their werewolf forms, though?” Henrick asked.

“There’s no moonlight over here,” Deff said as he pointed at the fog. The fog did not only block sunlight, but also blocked moonlight as well.

Deff grumbled, “There are many slave camps around Sanguineum where the slaves are being kept. It’s not only the werewolves, but also other enslaved races. I’ll definitely rescue them.”

It was at that moment that Kang Yoon-Soo waved his right hand and said, “Lower your heads.”

The crows suddenly flew upward as the group spotted several vampires flying in front of them, and they could hear the vampires’ laughter all the way in the distance.

“Hey, Sharick! Look! Those rubbish crows are flying around here again!”

“Tsk, tsk… How dare those trash enter this sacred city? I suppose we have no choice but to clean them up,” the vampire called Sharick snickered as he unfolded the large black wings on his back. Then, he flew behind the crows and spread his arms out, casting a spell, “May the ice be colder than the moon… Huh? What the hell? Something’s on its back?”

While Sharick was still confused, Kang Yoon-Soo jumped high off the crow and charged toward the vampire. He stabbed his sword into the vampire’s head while the vampire was still stunned.

“K-Kuheok!”

“Sharick!”

The sudden ambush crushed Sharick’s skull and he crashed down, but Kang Yoon-Soo immediately commanded the Zombie Crow to fly toward him. However, the other vampire immediately charged at the Zombie Crow and prevented it from reaching Kang Yoon-Soo.

“How dare you! You insignificant creature!” the vampire shouted as he ripped off the crow’s wings.

Kang Yoon-Soo fell from the sky as he had lost his mount, but he calmly muttered while falling, “Summon Zombie Crow.”

“Kaak!”?A Zombie Crow appeared from his summon dimension, and Kang Yoon-Soo immediately mounted it before continuing to fly through the sky on it.

The Vampire Hunters immediately aimed and fired their silver bolts toward the vampire.

Pshiiing! Pshiing!

“Heok!”?The vampire groaned as he was struck consecutively by the silver bolts.

“Pyrokinesis!” Shaneth shouted as she extended her hand, and a wave of flame shot out from it. The flames, much stronger than before, swallowed the vampires up and burned them.

Kang Yoon-Soo readied his sword as he rode on his crow, then muttered when he got close to the burning vampires, “Dance of Death.”

The four vampires crashed down into the city, and Kang Yoon-Soo turned his crow and urged it to fly faster. He thought, ‘The vampires’?corpses have crashed?into the?city, so I have to?hurry up now.’

They had only been able to deal with the vampires easily because the vampires were only average-ranked.

Not long after, a large building came into view; that building was the vampires’ ossuary.

“We have to hide behind the crows when we land so they won’t be able to see us,” Deff said. There were a lot of Giant Bald Crows nesting behind the ossuary, and the party discreetly landed among them.

Kang Yoon-Soo immediately moved toward the left side of the ossuary, but Deff suddenly stopped him and said, “Mr. Kang Yoon-Soo, that’s not the way.” He pointed at the right side and continued, “The vampire lords’ remains are on the right side of the ossuary.”

“I’m not going there,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

The party looked perplexed by his words. Was it not obvious that the most effective place to spread the disease was where most vampire foot traffic would be?

However, Kang Yoon-Soo proposed a plan that was more sinister and evil than anything the devil himself could come up with.

“I’ll spread the vampire disease through the fog,” he said.