Chapter 34: Plans To Improve The Fallen Duchy of Elderbridge

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"But why do you want to do it and not leave it to your mother?" wondered Teressa.

Although she had to admit her son was brave and rather intelligent, she didn't want him to do everything on his own and would only feel like an even worse mother if she let her crippled son have all these responsibilities.

"It's because if you do things on your own, you could be, for example, ambushed by the criminals," said Vlad. "Also, perhaps the criminals are cooperating with nobles too, which would make things even worse if they find you there. I know you're a strong mother, but what if you find yourself fighting some of the other noble vampires? If you die, then the entire city will become their territory. And nobody would have ever learned you were dead, as they would probably hide your body."

"That's… But what makes you think you'll fare better than me then, my son? I know you're strong, but-"

"I'm stronger than you."

"Excuse me?"

"With the ability I gained as a player, I can become stronger than you; that's why I am confident."

"That's…!"

Teressa quickly remembered her son yesterday and the incredible feats he had done. His abilities, without a doubt, far surpassed her own in raw power alone.

He also possessed the ability to control Ki, an incredibly strong essence that only a few Martial Artist could ever dominate, and he didn't have small quantities but tremendous, almost boundless amounts.

His technique, his strength, his prowess...

Albeit, she knew his weakness too; it was only a temporary power; he could only wield it for a couple of minutes.

However, he wasn't wrong.

In those couple of minutes, he was stronger than her.

And then there was Alitheus by his side, someone with an equally overpowered ability that only lasted a few minutes.

But as long as they could calculate things correctly, there was no foe that could stand a chance against them.

To properly start healing her own city, the criminals had to be exterminated before anything else.

The wealth they had accumulated through crimes must be returned to the nobles, and the nobles then must invest it in the citizens.

Then, once things have slightly stabilized, she will finally ask for proper taxes, and the balance could be restored.

"I understand…" Teressa sighed, swallowing her pride once more. "However, I dislike how you're trying to take responsibility for my own mistakes, my son. I want to do something too, not just sit around and wait for you to solve my problems."

"…I know," Vlad nodded. "You got your own challenges as well, mother, like doing a lot of paperwork. You should try contacting as many merchant unions as you can and offering them our products. We need to recover some of our treasury, which is almost empty right now. You also need to get in contact with as many talented people in our city—craftsmen, alchemists, chefs—and create guilds for them as well. Right now, there are only Hunter Guilds, and they're not near enough. They're also not unified and seem rather hostile to most people. You need to take hold of these organizations too. You have plenty of work, mother. I would rather let you do all of that annoying work."

"Oh! I see what you're trying to tell me, but Vlad, what products are you talking about? Our farms are small, and they barely produce enough yields; our cattle are small and weak," she said. "We mostly sustain ourselves through the dungeons. But the dungeons themselves offer monster materials, and their processing—wait, I get it now."

"Indeed, the reason why you must contact these talented people is so they can produce quality items with the monster materials," Vlad said. "I investigated a bit about this small city's production of items, and I was surprised to find there was close to zero despite having three dungeons here constantly yielding materials for us to use."

"As a prideful warrior myself, I had never considered the possibility, but seeing how dire things are, investing the little we have in a unified organization of crafters, alchemists, and even chefs could work. Make them work with the monster materials instead of just selling them to small merchants," said Teressa. "However, our city is not the largest; it makes me wonder if we even have talented people."

"There should be some," said Vlad. "It's your job to find them, mother."

"Hmph, an annoying one, but one that might end up being quite worth my time," she sighed. "Very well, do you have any particular clues about where these criminals might be hiding?"

"I have." Vlad smiled.

Well, he mostly knew because of the game forums. There were hundreds of players complaining constantly about the criminals in Elderbridge and how they were being robbed every day by them.

They were always saying it was the worst city to ever start as a new player in Obscuritas; despite the easy access to three newbie-friendly dungeons, it had been cataloged as a dangerous zone.

Many of these forum posts also specified where they had seen these thugs, and even pictures or videos of some players being assaulted by them.

They showed their faces very clearly, and even the places where they often walked around, mostly so other Players would just evade them.

"Players have a special communication network, and many of them have been victims of these criminals," explained Vlad. "So what I've been doing is collecting information from them; I am quite sure where they live and what they're doing. Once I get there and start beating them and asking, we'll eventually learn where their bosses hide and what exactly their connections are."

"Interesting! I had no idea players had such a thing either. What a blessing that our son has become one! Don't you think your brother is incredible, my daughter?" Teressa wondered.

"Yeah! Big Brother is awesome! Nom, nom, nom…" Camilla was stuffing herself with blood sausages and potatoes.

She was without a care in the world, but that was for the best.

"At the very least, let me help you with preparations," said Teressa. "Or maybe I could…"

"Nah, we're good for now," said Chris. "We'll be mostly preparing, right? We got plenty of things we need to assess; defeating those boss monsters dropped a lot of items, and we also need to get stronger by absorbing what they left behind, right?"

"Yeah, as he said," Vlad nodded. "Mother, there's also something regarding my powers we must discuss, especially this curse I have... I have been cursed by the Evil God of Gluttony."

"T-The what…?!"

Vlad and Chris went on a long explanation about their curses and how Chris was cursed by Luxuria while Vlad was cursed by Gula. In vampire society, these curses were often seen as more like blessings.

Why? Because Evil Gods never blessed, they only cursed. And their curses, despite having glaring flaws, also carried tremendous power within them.

Learning that her son had a curse and also his future fiancée was an incredible set of news!

Yet, after learning the reason why Vlad had been crippled since birth, she began to question why vampires saw evil god curses as a good thing.

"S-So the reason you can't move is that your body is so ruined... Is it because of this curse?" she muttered. "H-How have I been so foolish to never realize the truth?"

"It's fine, mother; you did what you could," said Vlad. "These things were bound to happen anyway; there was no way for you to know, and they are a thing of the past. My body is crippled, but I have found other ways to become strong. I can craft magic equipment, and I can use the powers and resources of my new abilities as a player to my advantage."

"You've changed so much." Teressa sighed. "Although I would usually not go by your whims, I feel like your words are sincere and your plans are quite smart. Very well then, my son. I will trust you and do as you ask me. Pride alone won't get us anywhere after all."

"Then we'll go prepare upstairs," Vlad started moving, using his Float Spell imbued into his staff, which was now fully charged with Arcana again. "By the way, we've taken over the large room where the butlers used to live; we need space for what we're doing."

"Oh, is that so? Well, if you want that room, it's yours," giggled Teressa. "Will it be the little love nest you'll have with your incubus, my son?"

"W-Wha…?!" Vlad became all flustered. "I-It's nothing like that!"

"Hahaha!" laughed Alitheus. "Your vampire mom's hilarious sometimes. And other times she's a bit creepy, though."

"Don't say that out loud; she'll hear you!" Vlad reprimanded Alitheus as the two destined souls moved upstairs.

As Teressa saw those two disappear to do their own things, she sighed.

"Hah, now I only have you, Camilla, dear," she sighed. "You won't leave mommy alone like your big brother?"

"Um… Not like I have anything else to do!" Camilla said. "Can I have a third plate, mama?"

"Well, there's a bit more stew left… Okay, but no more, alright? I wouldn't want you to become overweight now; vampires need to remain pristine in appearance, thin and beautiful," Teressa said, giving her daughter a third serving. "While your brother and his fiancée deal with their own things, we should do some work ourselves, shall we? Would you accompany Mommy to the city to deal with a few things?"

"Hmmm! What do I get in return?" Camilla smirked.

"E-Eh? You're asking for something in return for accompanying your mother?! Hah! Yes! That's the spirit of a true vampire! Be cunning, my daughter!" laughed Teressa. "Never do anything without a reward being offered beforehand. And of course, mommy shall reward you with... perhaps some blood candy we find."

"Blood candy?! I've never had that! What's that?!" Camilla wondered, finishing her third plate of stew and feeling rather satisfied.

"It is caramelized blood made into little candies for vampire children; they have sugar and sometimes fruit juice; they're delicious!" Teressa giggled.

Just two days ago, Teressa had forgotten about her family and had gone to sleep for an eternity, wanting nothing to do with anybody, too tired and humiliated to even wake up.

She couldn't believe how much her mindset had changed in so little time, perhaps because deep down, she still loved her children, and deep down, despite her vampiric pride telling her to recluse herself as a humiliated concubine, she wanted to be with them.

And right now, she understood that despite what the vampire society would say about her, about being close to her family, about loving her children much more than any vampire mother would, and about the humility she was slowly cultivating within her heart, she was much happier this way.

…

Paul and Chris walked into their new "studio room" after having taken away most of the butler's belongings and their beds and having sold them in the near market for some credit coins. The entire room had been cleared, and it was enormous.

"It is a big place now that we cleared it!" Chris said, flying around with his little demonic wings. "So what do we do now, by the way?"

"First, we must assess our gains; we need to get as much strength as possible." Paul said, finally sitting over his wooden seat, sighing in relief. His weak body was still tired from yesterday's battle.

"Huh~ You sometimes look like an old man, haha," Chris laughed at Paul's misfortune.

"Hey! It's not like I can help it; this avatar is just like an old man sometimes." Paul complained. "Anyways… Remember the Treasure Chests? We got one for each Boss, the Wolf and the Bat, and there's also a third reward for the giant vessel that you defeated; Vlad's mother retrieved it and left it for me, so I have it inside my inventory right now."

"And also… what about the boss corpses? Those guys were super strong! I gathered the giant vessel corpse too, but it's mostly just crystals and other monster corpses merged together," said Chris.

"Hm, they are so big and strong that, thanks to the inventory, they still retain their former Life Force and fresh, warm Blood," said Paul. "We should quickly feed off them to get stronger. So you can enhance your Lust Stigma and I can enhance my Blood Core."

"Right~ You're not wrong! Let's do that first, then!" Chris said, his sexy womb tattoo was glowing bright pink in excitement.

"I wonder though, why do you even have this womb tattoo if you're a male?" wondered Paul, squinting his eyes as he touched Chris' cute belly.

"I-I dunno! That's just how Alitheus is…" said Chris, looking embarrassed. "Why are you touching it so much?"

"Hm, nothing…" Paul quickly decided to leave that one thought he had for another day. "Anyway, even if this room is big, those monsters are even bigger. So I'll just take a piece of them, and we'll absorb them. That piece will be connected to the rest of the body, so it'll be the same. After that, I'll use the inventory function to dismantle their bodies into pieces, so we can process them into proper equipment."

"I like your idea; let's do that then, my crippled prince~" Chris nodded with a cheeky smile.

"Then... you first." Paul opened a portal to his inventory as the giant claws of the wolf boss emerged.

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Can't wait to see what's next? You can join my Patreon: 

https://www.patreon.com/pancakeswitch 

and gain access to all these Advanced Chapters:

53 Advanced Chapters of

The Protagonist's Sister Is Actually The Strongest

31 Advanced Chapters of

The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns

17 Advanced Chapters of

Fantasy Story Online: The Crippled Vampire Prince Walks The Heavenly Demon Path