“Blood Donation”

At the time of the implementation of the transfer service on the first day.

Blanc was overlooking the town from the balcony of the lord's mansion.

"Isn't it already a bit deserted? They seem to be not coming in. Is there a meeting or something?"

"Since this town has no outer walls, there is no clear boundary between the inside and outside of the town. Even if they haven't entered, if they are within Blanc-sama's field of vision, it can be judged that they have already invaded Blanc-sama's territory, right?"

Weiss gave advice with a composed expression.

It's a refreshing morning, and Blanc, Weiss, and Azalea and the others have already reached a point where they can act comfortably under the sunlight.

If Weiss were not a Daywalker, it would have been necessary to send him to the Count for modification and enhancement, but that worry turned out to be unnecessary.

If Weiss was already a Daywalker before the event, when Blanc and the others became Daywalkers during the event, Weiss was already superior to Azalea and even Blanc at that time.

No, there is still a possibility that that is the case even now.

"…If Weiss-san says so, then it must be the case, hehehe."

"…I cannot fathom what you are thinking, Blanc-sama, but such words are unnecessary for me."

Azalea and the others are preparing tea inside the mansion. The tea leaves were given by Rare, and the tea set was given by Lyra.

As vampires, they thought they needed to consume blood, but system-wise, it only decreases hunger. Animal blood is the most efficient for hunger recovery, but other races require several times more than usual. In the absence of both food and blood, sap or plant juices are also acceptable.

When Blanc consulted with Rare and her sister, they unanimously suggested, "Then, isn't milk or vegetable juice fine?" Some fictional vampires occasionally use tomato juice, and it seems to be for the same reason. What is needed is bodily fluids, and while animal fluids are preferable, plant fluids are also acceptable.

After experimentation, it was found that hunger can be recovered to about one meal equivalent by turning black tea into royal milk tea and eating a fruit tart for tea time.

If processed, such as cooking, it is not recognized as bodily fluids, and items like blood sausages only recovered to the extent of regular food. Therefore, when heating the milk for royal milk tea, it is stopped before boiling. The tea leaves are opened with boiling water in advance, put into warmed milk, and allowed to steep.

According to Lyra, if the milk is boiled completely, the flavor of the milk becomes stronger, and the aroma of the tea leaves may be overwhelmed. Regarding bodily fluids, boiling is not considered if it is not brought to a boil, so it worked out well in that sense.

"When you think about it calmly, asking players to drink a living being's blood is too high a hurdle, so it's only natural to relax that aspect."

However, if there is nothing, the meaning of becoming a vampire would be diluted, so they are balancing the atmosphere with a combination of hunger and bodily fluids and other food.

"Blanc-sama, Azalea and the others have completed the tea preparation. Please leave the outside surveillance to me, and go inside."

"Is that so? Well then, thank you."

Inside, Dias was already sitting at the table, and Azalea was just pouring tea for Blanc.

"It seems like the players are already gathering."

"Yes, I saw a few here and there. It's not to the point of intruding into the premises yet."

Well, according to Weiss's theory, it could be considered that they have already invaded.

Blanc sat down, taking a sip of royal milk tea.

Today's tea time includes strawberry tart.

"What about Queen Beetle-san?"

"Ah, she is monitoring the town from above the roof. She was ordered by our Majesty to assist Blanc-sama, so she seems to be enthusiastic."

It's reassuring that she is watching over.

In the end, they have not been able to summon a convenient flying-type magical creature. They didn't know where to find such creatures, and there was no time to go looking for them.

They were busy allocating the experience gained in the event.

＊

The first thing Blanc did was to enhance herself.

Weiss and Dias often warned Blanc not to engage directly in combat. Blanc herself had no intention of standing on the front lines, as she didn't want to die. However, she was curious about the conversation with the Count regarding the blood of vampires.

According to the Count, one could strengthen their subordinates by giving them their own blood, and a powerful vampire could elevate their subordinates to even higher beings.

Judging from the context, that's what he was talking about.

If Blanc were to enhance herself, and her vampire race transformed into something beyond "Greater Vampire Baroness", she might be able to give blood to her subordinates again and strengthen them.

She hadn't confirmed it when she gave blood before, but Blanc probably became a "Vampire" at that time, not a "Lesser Vampire". The Count mentioned that the low-level status was shed when gaining skills like [Subordinate]. If that was correct, Blanc should have already shed the lesser status when she obtained her subordinates.

Since Blanc was already at a Greater level, there might be some change even if she gave blood now. Nevertheless, she wanted to try it since she had the chance.

According to Rare, when subordinates undergo reincarnation, they may occasionally require additional experience points. Blanc planned to stop just as her race name changed, checking her own stats.

Blanc had acquired all the skills related to enhancing subordinates, as advised by Rare. When there was no apparent change, she started allocating points to her attributes.

After a slight allocation, her race designation changed to "Vampire Baroness". This probably meant Blanc was granted a title. The source of this title was unclear, but the Count had mentioned something similar. In other words, if Blanc worked a bit harder, she could be on par with the Count after two more ranks.

Considering the future, Blanc decided it would be better to stop here for now. Next, she called the three Spartoi she had created initially: Scarlet, Crimson, and Vermillion.

Just like before, when she gave blood to the three, she felt an intense fatigue, even more so than before. Checking her LP, she found only a small amount left.

She would later be scolded severely for this. It should have been done more carefully, one by one.

After granting permission through the familiar system message, the change occurred immediately. The Spartoi had grown significantly in size, adopting a more aggressive silhouette, with impressive horns extending backward from its head.

It looked more like the skeleton of a dragon person than a lizardman. It seemed quite powerful, but fortunately, no experience points were demanded.

The new race was called "Dragontooth". A new skill, [Sky Drive], was unlocked. Since there was an explanation about being able to walk in the sky, Blanc decided to acquire it too.

Now, the only ones in her faction who couldn't fly were regular spartoi and zombies. In terms of numbers, the non-flying group was overwhelmingly larger, but having scouts that could fly made a significant difference in base defense.

Next, Blanc turned her attention to providing blood to Azalea and the others.

Naturally, they postponed the process to another day and were forced to do it one by one. Dias also brought potions from Rare. Although they weren't very expensive, Blanc had no idea about the monetary value of potions. Since she was told she could drink as many as she wanted, she gratefully accepted them.

Azalea and the others demanded experience points for their reincarnation—200 per person. Rare mentioned that when she became a Demon Lord, it required four digits, so Blanc was worried, but the number was surprisingly reasonable. However, it still amounted to 600 for the three of them, a painful expense.

Azalea and the others were reincarnated from [Mormos] to [Laestrygones]. Their appearance didn't seem to change much, but apparently, there were now giants in the transformation list.

In giant form, all magic skills couldn't be used, but STR and VIT increased significantly, and the speed of getting hungry doubled. Other than that, it was similar to the humanoid state, but since the three were developed with magic, it wasn't a very beneficial form.

The remaining experience points were used to acquire skills for Azalea and the others.

First was [Bare Hands], a skill related to melee combat without weapons, considering the transformation into a giant later.

Next was [Disassembly]. Blanc also acquired this because she complained to Rare, saying she remembered lines like "I'll disassemble them barehanded" from old comics. However, [Disassembly] required a small blade. [Bare Hands] alone was not enough.

When Blanc complained to Rare about this, she was advised, "If you also get [Pharmacy], you can unlock [Treatment]." Blanc ended up acquiring all three: [Pharmacy], [Treatment] and [Healing Magic] since she ran out of experience points.

As a result, the strengthening process came to a halt.

It should be noted that Blanc had forgotten about the Dark Magic skill, [Curtain of Darkness], which Azalea and the others had been requesting for a while.

The following day, Blanc went around the entire town, giving each zombie a drop of blood.

The squire zombies that received blood turned into low-level vampires. Although her LP was significantly drained, it wasn't as much as with Azalea, Crimson, and others. If things got dangerous, she could recover with potions.

However, the original residents were unexpectedly numerous, and after visiting only a few dozen houses, it seemed like dawn was approaching.

So, the next night, Blanc ordered all zombies in the town to come to the lord's mansion.

In a death march, she was continuously giving blood to the zombies coming in lines while receiving [Treatment] alternately from Azalea, Magenta, and Carmine. If it still wasn't enough, Blanc drank additional potions received from Rare.

When receiving the potions, Rare gave Blanc words of encouragement, saying, "I think it's tough, but do your best". It was a genuinely heartfelt expression. Perhaps Rare had a similar experience.

As the zombies would die when the sun rose, the process could only be done at night, but after three days, the task was completed.

Despite the hardships, a group of over 2000 vampires, all low-level, was born in the town of Erntal.

"Blanc-sama, players have appeared infiltrating the town."

Weiss, who was monitoring from the balcony, came to report.

Finally, the dungeon defense battle was beginning.

It seemed that this dungeon had a difficulty level of ☆3. Although it wasn't clear how challenging that was, considering that a considerable number of players were gathering, it might not be too difficult.

"Alright, let's all work together to repel the players! Don't kill them all immediately, or no one might come back. If someone starts running away, let them escape. But for those attempting to reach the depths, tear them apart!"