7 Blood-kin

Ch7. Blood-kin

It's decided. I'll take back these 73 bandits to my base.

They have surrendered to me ..., and I guess they would be useful for cutting trees and quarrying the stones. Even after I gained Alice's magic, I'm still exerting my body on gathering the materials. I can't use the spells for that menial work.

After receiving Alice's Blood Magic, the Enchanted Talisman is sealed by the red tentacles around it. I don't know why though. But I leave it be and equip it as an artifact.

The horse bandits were using decently maintained bronze weapons. Though only some of them wear armor, and those are made from hard leather, not metal.

Still, I store the armor and bronze weapons in my inventory. No matter the quality, it's still loot.

The 73 bandits gasped in disbelief seeing the weapon and armor disappear into nothingness. They have seen my other form and the magic, why surprised?

Don't you already seen my humanoid bat form, and seen how I decimated your comrades using magic?

"You lot will be working for me starting from now," I said with conviction, my voice isn't that loud but still made all of them stop and listen.

"Y-yes."

"We follow the Killer God!"

What the fuck with this Killer God? Can't you come up with a better nickname? I shook my head and tell them my name.

"I'm Senjougahara Kou, you can call me by my name or Young Lord. I won't hear other titles from you. Understood?"

Damn ..., to think there's a day that I'd let them call me with that title. Did I get contaminated with Young Master syndrome?

"Un-understood."

"What? I can't hear you, speak clearly! Do you understand?" I shouted and they were shivering in fear.

""Understood!""

But the result is good, they didn't stutter and answered in unison. Maybe I should instill discipline in them.

"Good, now let's go back to my base."

I took one horse and mounted it on her. This poor little horse was a bit rebellious at first and avoided me as if I were a walking death. But I glared at her and she whimpered and lowered her head.

The other then began mounting the horses and we began the journey back. It took a while before I got familiarized with riding a horse. We began to increase our speed.

"Who's the most knowledgeable about this region among you guys?"

"I used to roam these mountains and desert, Young Lord."

"I know about the kingdoms!"

"Me, Young Lord ..., I know the villages along the river."

Only three among the seventy-three that answered ..., I called them to come forward.

"Tell me your name. Starting from you." I pointed at the one on my left side.

"My name is Feng Jie, Young Lord."

"I'm Qiang Ming."

"This one name is Tao Jun."

"Good ..., tell me, where are we now?"

"This is the northern part of the Zhao Kingdom. After a day ride to the south from the Great Rock Valley we will enter the forest." the one called Tao Jun answered.

I have put some blood marks along the way to avoid getting lost, but the farther the distance the less effective this mark become.

"I see, let's head back to that forested region. Does any of you know about the surrounding kingdoms?"

"I only know about the Zhao, Wei, Yan, and Qin my lord ..., I have never traveled that far to the south."

"Same with me my lord ...,"

"Tell me about the Qin, who is the current ruler in that kingdom ..."

"Uhmm ...,"

"..."

"... say something."

The three of them looked at each other and one of them nudged his elbows to the other.

"What is it?"

"Please punish us, Young Lord! But we never heard rumors about something like that."

Well ..., that's to be expected I guess. They're bandits who lived by plundering and robbing, why would they care about the ruler of a kingdom? I suppose they never even heard of the king's name.

"Well, it's alright ..., then do any of you have visited the big city?"

"A few years ago, I come with my brother to trade in Handan."

"I also have visited Handan, Lord."

"This one has visited Luoyang, yes."

"Where is Handan and this Luoyang?"

"Handan is the capital of Zhao, my Lord. It is located southeast of the Dashi Valley."

"Tell me more about it. How big is this city, how tall is the wall? What about the people there?"

"Handan is big ..., the wall is taller than a house, and the walls are all made of stones. The city is able to house maybe around forty thousand families."

"Luoyang City is way bigger than Handan my lord. It was the capital of the previous dynasty. The wall is very tall, like a ... very tall house! And it was as big as two Handan."

That was very informative. I'm being sarcastic, but really ..., their vocabulary is so limited. Or was it because they don't know about the measurement?

"Tao Jun ..., imagine this, you standing straight and your friends mounted on your shoulder. Imagine that, and how many men do you think standing atop of you until one of them reached the peak of that wall?" I put a gesture with my hand to explain it.

The man contemplated for a bit and think for a moment. He then stated. "Five men? Or maybe six, Young Lord."

"I see ..." so it was about 9 to 10 meters tall.

I then started asking them about the other kingdoms and their location. Right now, we're in the territory of Zhao. The Yan was located in the northeast, Wei in the south, and Qin in the West.

I asked them about a lot of things. And some pretty mundane things too. It was then, that day started to get dark.

We decided to take a rest on a side of a river and erect a camp. I pull out some foodstuff that I prepared in the inventory and let them cook it for me.

Alone in my tent, I operated the system and checked the item that I got from achievement.

I got 2 achievements and 1 title conferment. The 2 achievements were [First Blood] for killing other people and [Liege] for recruiting a subordinate for the first time.

This time also I need to choose one of the following two choices. But instead of blueprints, I need to choose items. [Hero's Ring]/[Skull Ring].

[Hero's Ring]: Golden ring once worn by an ancient hero.

[Stats]: +3 Defense, +3 Speed

[Unique]: <Brave One> "Increase +25% damage boost to all damages."

[Durability] Unbreakable

[Materials]: Fire Megacrysts x10 Ice Megacrysts x1, Silver Ore x1

[Skull Ring]: An eerie ring surrounded by an air of danger.

[Stats]: +10 Magic Power, +10 Defense, +10 Speed

[Unique]: <Curse of the Wight> "Curse laid upon by an ancient magician, cuts Mana by half."

[Durability] Unbreakable

[Materials]: Sorcerer's Ring x1, Devil Tail x1

Well, obviously I choose the Hero's Ring. The Skull Ring's additional stats is five times more than Hero's Ring. But the curse is just too much. I relied too much on magic. Cutting mana by half is a lot ..., and I'd rather not do that.

The second achievement asked me to choose between [Gold Upgrading Ticket]/[Random Summoning Ticket]

[Gold Upgrading Ticket]: An upgrading ticket with a 90% chance to upgrade to S Grade. And a 10% chance to reach the SS grade.

[Unique] Upgrade Perform the ritual to raise the grade of the target.

[Materials]: Silver Upgrading Ticket x10

[Random Summoning Ticket]: A summoning ticket that will summon a random individual from the vast omniverse.

[Unique] Summon Perform the ritual to start the summoning.

[Materials]: Essence of Universe x1, Lucky Wheel x1, Fulcrum's Breath x1

What? Huh? Why something like this popped out? Isn't this ..., I've seen these somewhere. Yes, these two were from that fanfiction with a system about upgrading something.

Maybe I can use the upgrading ticket to raise the grade of Enchanted Talisman and the Hero's Ring.

"But I don't know the grade of the two items ..."

I checked the inventory again and select the detailed information on the two items. The book is SS-grade while the ring is an S-grade artifact ..., so the upgrading ticket will be useless. Damn it, just why?

Well, a summoning ticket might be useful as well. I decided to not use this summoning ticket right now. I don't feel safe doing the summoning ritual in this place. I'll use it after returning to the base.

-—-

The next morning ..., I was woken up because of a commotion in the bandit. The trio who I talked with yesterday was lashing at a tied-up man. I approached them and asked.

"What's going on here?"

"Young Lord, Liu Nan, Ling Chen, Shao Kun, and this fucker Liu Mao tried to escape last night!"

So that's the case. Oh well ..., I don't actually care about it. It's their own decision, and even if I spared their life and accepted them to be my worker ..., they haven't contributed anything to me. So in a sense, the worker-employer relationship hasn't yet been fully established. But really ..., I wonder why they want to escape from me.

I approached the tied-up man, he looks scary with his unkempt long hair and sideburns. There was a scar on his nose down to his mouth, deforming his face.

"Hmmm ... why were you trying to escape?"

"I, Liu Mao, am a man! Even if I pillage and rob, I would never follow devil you! Ptui!"

I avoided his spit by tilting my head sideways. Damn, thank god I invested in my speed stats.

"Release him ..."

"... but, Young Lord." Qiang Ming called out my name without hesitation.

"It's fine, I don't care about people who don't appreciate kindness. Just let him go ..."

"... I understand." they cut the handcuff.

Liu Mao rubbed his hand and looked at his surrounding warily. He looked at me and then asked.

"So what now, demon?"

"The nerve of this fucking ..." one of the bandits pulled out his knife.

"Stop!" I stopped him before he began the killing. "There's no need for violence guys. And you, Liu Mao, was it? You can go for all I care. My mood is quite good this morning, I don't want to ruin it with bloodshed. This will be the last mercy I gave on you. If I see your crooked face again in the future ..., well, let's just hope that we never did."

"Heh, I have no need mercy from you, devil." he snickered, this man is so damn edgy.

The bandits were ready to pounce on this Liu Mao, but I stopped them with a wave of my hand.

He walked out of the encampment while glaring tensely at his former comrade. When he walked far enough, he turned and shouted.

"... you're gonna regret this devil! I will return with my brother, you'll gonna hope you never get born in this world!"

Someone on my side already shot an arrow at that man. Then Liu Mao ran zigzag as if expecting something like that. In the end, he succeeds running away still with life intact.

"Bwahaha!" and I couldn't hold back my laughter.

"Y-young Lord ..."

It sounds childish ..., but seeing someone so weak yet still dared to say something rebellious like that is damn refreshing. A comedic relief to be honest.

"Young Lord is this really alright ..., those fours know the leader of the bandits group. If Liu Mao and others convinced them to move, we might get doomed." Qiang Ming stated.

"Yeah, but that won't happen."

I waved my hand as I didn't take his words seriously. And even if those four rallied other bandits to hunt me, I'll kill them all.

"Alright listen up, I don't care what you do before be it you pillage, murder, or rape ..., but I'll tell you my bottom line. You follow me and you prosper, but if you betray then you would wish that you were dead. You can ask to stop working for me, but never betray me."

"Tao Jun, Qiang Ming, Feng Jie, come forward!"

"Yes, Young Lord."

"!"

"This one is here."

"You have been a great help yesterday, tell me do you desire a reward?" I asked as I eyed the three of them. They still have fear and aversion to me, but not as intense as yesterday.

"That is unnecessary, Young Lord. Your mercy for sparing our lives is more than enough."

"Young Lord, serving you is the best reward."

"This one also thinks the same too, Young Lord."

"That doesn't count as a reward ..., a merit must be rewarded."

I summoned a bat, and pull out three bowls from my inventory. This bat is quite different from the giant bat whenever I used Bat Impact. The bat is a small one, a bat-ling with reddish violet fur on its skin. I then squeezed the bats to death with my bare hand. The viscous red blood dripped into the bowl. I divide the blood equally into the three bowls.

I passed the three bowls onto them and said. "Drink it!"

They looked at the red blood and then at me with fear. I can hear their heartbeat getting frantic. But I keep my silent and cold gaze on them. Tao Jun is the one who's courageous enough to gulp the vampire bat's blood. Followed by Qiang Ming and then Feng Jie.

The clay bowls dropped and broke into pieces. Right after the blood entered their system, their body started convulsing with their blood vessel visibly wriggling.

"AARRRRGHHH!!!"

They screamed as the pain of reconstructing their body is immense. It might be more painful than receiving memories from a 500-year-old sorceress. The other bandits looked at them while also visibly shivering from their painful howls.

The process last about one full minute. Their body has successfully been changed into a Blood Demon. Their eyes turned ominous red, while their skin has become noticeably paler. Still, their rank was very low in the hierarchy of the Blood Demon Race. They only have a superior pseudo-immortal physique, vampirism, and maybe summon bat. But not with the more complicated spells like Bat and Blood Magic.

"Congratulation on becoming my Blood-kin. Discard your former mortals' name, from now on ..., your name will be Xue Jun, Xue Ming, and Xue Jie." I want to change their surname into Blood, but it seems it got auto-translated by my Omnilinggualism.

The three new addition to my race Blood Demon kneeled and bowed their head to me in full submission.

"This one feels the utmost obliged for your kindness."

"Thank you, my Lord."

"I accept this name, and I shall serve you in this lifetime."

"Listen up you lot! If you're still hesitating about why following me, then remember this. This ..., this is what I can give to you. Follow and obey me, and if you do remarkable feats, I shall reward you a portion of my power! I'll let you taste the power beyond humans, a power of a night predator! This, I promise it!"

"We will follow the Young Lord Senjougahara!"

"Everything for the Young Lord!"

"Everything for the Senjougahara!"

""All hail Senjougahara!""

The 69 people who decided to follow me all chanted my name.