Chapter 53: The Servant Fem Boy’s Questionable Secret Stash!

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: The Servant Fem Boy’s Questionable Secret Stash!

Lucien’s knees gave out.

He hit the ground hard, chest heaving with every muscle wrung completely dry.

"...Fuck, I’m spent."

The stat enhancement was gone, the adrenaline was gone and Aal that remained was bone-deep exhaustion and the dull throb of half a dozen wounds he hadn’t fully registered until now.

He lay there for several minutes, staring at a sky that wasn’t real, breathing through it.

’Okay. Okay. Not dying today, just resting for a brief moment.’

---

Eventually he forced himself upright and crawled toward Vane’s sliced corpse and started searching through the ruined robes for the artifact so he could leave this God forsaken place.

As he searched Vanes dead body, he brushed against someting, his fingers closed around a spatial ring, more expensive looking and luxurious than his own, the metal etched with intricate silver paterns while the ring itself was completely black.

He activated it out of curiosity and nearly choked at the what his mind viewed inside it.

[Internal Spatial Capacity: 250m × 250m]

Inside of which was thousands of D-Rank mana crystals and cores, hundreds of C-Rank Mana Crystals and cores, dozens of B-Rank cores and crystal and even several A-Rank crystals.

Gold coins numbering in the tens of thousands. Healing potions, antidotes, spare weapons, communication crystals, a phone, several sets of spare clothing, food supplies, various noble-house odds and ends.

And, tucked toward the back, a coil of rope, a set of handcuffs, several chains, and what appeared to be an assortment of very specific costumes that he would rather no one ever saw.

Lucien stared at that section for a long moment.

"...What the hell? What kind of servant carries this much money?" he muttered. "And this much... this?"

He remembered Vane’s exact words. ’Personal servant of Silas Dracul Aethernis.’

"Right," Lucien said slowly. "Guess being Silas’s favorite dog has its perks. And apparently its... hobbies, didn’t know Silas swung that way, damn wouldn’t have expected that." He glanced back at the corpse. "Still the amount of stuff he has is way too much for a servant, normal or personal, what did he do to get this much favor?"

’Got to remember this for when Sials returns, filing that under ’concerning implications for later.’ He thought, pretty sure Silas would come for him, personally servant killed or not.

With thoughts running through his mind he carried on searching Vane’s body for the artifact.

After several minutes of searching, he found the artifact tucked inside Vane’s coat.

’Luckily thus bastard kept it on him and didn’t keep it I some ridiculous place.’

He pulled out the artifact, it was a thin, rectangular black crystal plate, faint silver runes threading through its surface like frozen lightning.

[Magical Artifact: Netherbound Deathscape.]

[Rank: Epic.]

[Type: Spatial / Trapping Artifact.]

[Artifact Abilities:]

[Deathscape: Creates an isolated subspace containing and trapping the designated target and the wielder. The domain cannot be exited until one participant dies, requires mana to activate. Can contain targets of upto SS-Rank and weaker SSS Ranks.

Environment Mimicry: Mimics the basic surroundings from where the wielder and target enter from.

.

.

.

Uses: 3/10 uses left.<anno data-annotation-id="80c390ec-f1bd-41d2-85df-2eea2dfa8efe" data-title="<strong>]</strong>">]¹</anno>

"It should definitely be this thing, I hope." Lucien murmured.

’No idea if Vane’s death already ended the effect or if I still need to trigger something so it’s better test it.’

Before that, though, something else caught his attention.

He looked at Vane’s corpse again, then at his own depleted blood reserves in his Sanguine Infinite Cosmos and in his spatial storage ring.

’I killed him, might as well not waste the resource.’

He drew the remaining blood from the body with Blood Manipulation, compressing it into a small crimson sphere, and swallowed it whole.

’Sour and unpleasant, actually, compared to the wolves’ blood which was definitely sweeter.’

’Well, that’s one way to recycle, I suppose.’

He waited for something to hit him, guilt, nausea maybe even the weight of having taken a life for the first time.

But nothing came.

’Huh.’

’First kill, and... nothing. Maybe it’s a vampire thing. Maybe he was trying to kill me and my brain filed it under ’the justified tag’ without asking permission. Or maybe I’ve just gotten harder than I realized, living in this world this long.’

’Wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen to me this month.’

He set the thought aside, unsettled but not dwelling on it, and pressed some of his mana into the crystal plate.

---

The world bent.

WHOOSH.

Lucien reappeared exactly where he’d vanished, and immediately collided with a demon walking past.

"Watch where you’re—" The demon stopped mid-sentence after getting a good look at Lucien.

"...Sorry," Lucien said.

"You’re good," the demon said, already walking off, acting entirely unbothered while fleeing.

Lucien blinked. ’What’s up with him? Also is nobody even surprised at me just popping out of nowhere.’

A small ifrit child tugged at their mother’s sleeve nearby, pointing directly at him.

"Mommy! Look! That beggar just appeared out of the ground!"

’Beggar? Who me?’

Lucien glanced down at himself. Torn clothes, blood crusted into the fabric, hair a disaster, dirt smeared across his jaw, one shoe barely intact.

"Damn, I really do look like one."

The mother yanked her child along, murmuring, "Don’t point, sweetheart, it’s rude."

Lucien sighed. "I need new clothes."

---

He checked his status on the way, cataloguing the damage.

[Lucien Dracul Aethernis]

[Race: Vampire]

[Age: 18]

[Bloodline: Crimson Origin Bloodline (Mythical)]

[Talent: Sanguine Genesis Crucible (Divine)]

[ Rank: C (Beginner)]

[Stats: —<anno data-annotation-id="902a6a45-fb29-4f8a-adfb-f8c4fca02ff9" data-title="<strong>&lt;em&gt;]&lt;/em&gt;</strong>">]¹</anno>

[ Strength: 310

Agility: 360

Constitution: 335

Intelligence: 340

Vitality: 400

Mana: 173 / 350

Blood: 43 / 500 units <anno data-annotation-id="a5af97ea-27e8-4bbe-852a-fc0deb41a20e" data-title="<strong>&lt;em&gt;]&lt;/em&gt;</strong>">]¹</anno>

[Traits: Keen Smell (Uncommon) (Lv.5), Enhanced Musculature (Uncommon) (Lv.5), Predator’s Reflex (Rare) (Lv.2)]

[Cultivation Progress: 19 months]

[Technique Comprehension: 2 days ]

’Temporary stats are gone and Predator’s Reflex got added to the short list of traits, the Blood reserves are also critically low despite consuming Vane’s blood, worst of all the Technique Comprehension I collected is almost nearly spent.’ He thought as he checked through the rest of his interface as he walked.

He reviewed the fight itself while he walked.

’Relied too much on Blood Manipulation early. Should’ve realized faster that those were clones and they didn’t bleed. I also let him control the pace at the start instead of forcing my own rhythm. Wasted blood by brute-forcing instead of thinking it through sooner.’

’Never even tried the Blood Suppression bloodline ability. That would’ve cut his stats down significantly and might’ve ended things faster. Still not experienced enough. Need to fix that before it costs me something worse than a bad afternoon.’

’But,’ he added, ’I figured out his limits, that the Clones drained his mana fast. His Shadow Hopping skill or ability also had a range. Saturate the area enough and even shadows stop being useful.’

’Small win, and for an amateur, I’ll take it.’

---

As he walked to Blackstone Renovations remembering the reason he was heading this way, he stopped at the only clothing store on the way, just outside the red light district and decided to get himself some new and clean clothes.

’Can’t be walking the streets like some sort of criminal on the run now, can l?’ He said heading in.

The clothing shop’s clerk, a succubus with pale lavender skin, small purple demon horns on her forehead and neatly styled silver hair, took one look at him and froze mid-greeting.

"Are you... alright, sir?" She asked.

"I’m fine, don’t worry." He said smiling and trying not to appear as some crazy person.

"Are you sure, do you need a healer?"

"No need, I’m completely fine."

"Should I call a guard?"

"No."

"...Should I ask what happened?"

"I’d rather you didn’t."

"Understood," she said immediately her professional composure snapping back into place with impressive speed.

He asked if they had somewhere to clean up, a shower or something and she pointed him toward a back room.

"Why do you even have a shower back here?" he asked her genuinely curious why they had one in a store.

"Certain customers enjoy... private activities in the changing rooms, it can’t be helped as we are quite close to the red light district so," she said. "It’s there for them to cleanup afterward, the showers are clean so don’t worry sir."

’Didn’t need that mental image, but I didn’t think these things actually happened.’

A second staff member appeared to assist him with his clothes selection, another succubus, curvier, with striking violet eyes that dragged slowly over his frame the moment he emerged shirtless to grab a towel.

Her thighs pressed together, faint blush blooming across her cheeks, as she approached closer to him.

"I could help you wash up, sir" she offered, leaning forward enough to make her intentions extremely clear. "It’s really no trouble at all."

"No thanks, I’m good," Lucien said.

She sighed dramatically, disappointed but unsurprised, and wandered off.

The first clerk simply shook her head, entirely unbothered by her coworker’s antics. ’Succubi being succubi, can’t do anything about it.’

He cleaned up properly, bought several fresh sets of clothes, and emerged looking considerably more human or maybe vampire, at least considerably less like a crime scene gone wrong.

The first clerk’s eyes widened slightly, taking in the results now that blood and grime weren’t obscuring the view.

"Much better," she said, faint color rising in her cheeks.

Lucien checked his own reflection. "Yeah. Slightly less ’wanted criminal,’ slightly more ’functioning member of society.’"

He paid for everything and made his way to Blackstone’s as he first planned, after so many distractions.

---

Borin looked up from his blueprints as Lucien walked into Blackstone Renovations.

"You’re back already?"

"Yo Borin, l need the Master bedroom, I can’t wait anymore" Lucien said. "So let’s get it started."

Borin pulled out his notes. "Sure thing lad, what needs to be done is the expansion, reinforced flooring, larger bathroom connection, bigger bed space, right?"

"Exactly."

Borin’s mustache twitched knowingly. "So is it for four or five people?"

"It’s a family bedroom, so the bigger the better."

"Of course it is."

"...Don’t look at me like that."

"I’m not looking at you like anything," Borin said, entirely unconvincingly. "Crew starts tomorrow morning."

---

Back at the estate, Seraphina checked the clock for the third time in ten minutes.

"He’s late," she murmured, stirring the soup a bit more aggressively than necessary.

Aurelia, helping chop vegetables nearby, kept her expression neutral. "He usually comes straight home, so I wonder where he is?"

"Maybe he got held up."

"Maybe," Aurelia said, though something in her posture suggested she wasn’t entirely convincing herself either.

In the living room, Evelisse leaned forward, utterly absorbed in the show playing on the TV, a monkey like protagonist screaming at the top of his lungs while his hair inexplicably shifted from black to gold as he got more stronger.

"Why is he screaming?" she asked no one in particular.

The hair finished changing.

"WHY IS HIS HAIR TURNING GOLD?!"

A beat.

She leaned in even further. "...Okay, that’s actually pretty cool, maybe I should get a skill that does this, imagine my hair becoming yellow mid fight as I get stronger, that would be sick. "

"He’s screaming because his hair changed color?" Aurelia called from the kitchen, baffled.

"Apparently," Seraphina said.

"Humans are strange."

"I don’t think he’s a human, Sera."

Evelisse’s stomach chose that exact moment to announce itself like an awakening beast.

GRRRRRROOOOOWL.

Silence.

Every head turned toward her.

Her face went bright red. "...That wasn’t me."

"Really, should I ask the couch?" Seraphina said, laughing.

"I’M HUNGRY, OKAY?"

The front door clicked open.

All three of them turned.

Lucien stepped inside, freshly clothed, hair still a touch messy, exhaustion faintly visible beneath an easy smile he was clearly forcing into place.

"You’re late!" Evelisse announced immediately.

"Lucien," Seraphina said, relief plain in her voice.

Aurelia said nothing at first, eyes narrowing slightly as she studied him.

’She knows,’ Lucien thought. ’Of course she knows. She always knows.’

"What happened?" Aurelia asked.

Lucien smiled. "Long story."

His stomach growled loudly.

He paused. "...Is lunch ready?"

Evelisse pointed at him triumphantly. "SEE?! I told you he’s fine!"

<annotations style="display: none;">He can&#39;t see this, it&#39;s for the readers to see.1 unit ≈ 5 ml.Average beginner C Rank has around 250 stats in each attribute, it depends on what they are, how they cultivate, etc.</annotations>