“The Power of a Not-So-Lesser Vampire”

Ever since, Blanc would spend nights in the game grinding in the wild outside the castle. Whenever the sun was about to rise, she would return to the old castle and either logout—sleep—or chat with the count. That was how she spent her time in the game. There was a day when she couldn't log in, and then the game officially launched. There weren't any issues, though, since her virtual wallet was already linked to her account, so the subscription fee would be paid automatically. She barely glanced at the terms of service before agreeing to them.

Back then, after reincarnating, she selfishly refused the [Subordinate], like the original Masked Biker, expecting to get beaten black and blue, but that actually left a good impression on Count Habiland. He really respected how she chose to become a Lesser Vampire under her own will and treated her as a close friend, saying that she was free to use his castle as she wished.

"Had you become my servant before becoming a vampire, then I would be able to control you. However, since you became a vampire as a result of your own choices, I cannot easily bend you to my will."

After one of the castle's guest rooms was prepared for Blanc's exclusive use, she got a system message saying that room was now her personal area. To put it another way, instead of buying land and building her own house, she was renting a room from a landlord.

That said, if she had the chance, she'd sure love to get her own castle or country one day. Blanc just meant that she wanted her own home, but the count took it literally and laughed while saying he'd point out a convenient country nearby that was ripe for destruction. Once she got stronger, she should try attacking it, stuff like that.

"So that country, on the official… I mean, uh, I heard before that it's not a rich or poor country, but its national power is very stable, or something like that…"

"Mm. It is indeed often said that it is stable. However, for both man and kingdom, stability is but a delayed decay."

"I see, I see… I think I've heard something like that from somewhere else, too."

"Even still, that country has long since become stagnant. A country whose human resources have stagnated will start to rot. Eventually, while it may or may not completely fall apart, its central pillar will certainly crack. There is already a fierce faction war taking place in the shadows, so it is simply a matter of time."

"Even though you're always holed up in this old castle, how do you know so much about what's going on?"

"'Old castle'… Well, fine. I have rats keeping tabs on them."

"You have spies?! That's so cool!"

"Nay, I mean literally 'Rats.' I have [Subordinated] rats monitoring various organizations."

"Hmm… Hum… I think that squeaks in!"

"Fuh hah hah! I see, it 'squeaks in,' does it!"

"But that sure sounds nice. It'd be so cool to have my own minions."

"Are you not already capable? When you reincarnated into a vampire, [Subordinate] should have become available to you within the [Discipline] group. Learn [Discipline] and see for yourself."

Blanc did as he said and took [Discipline]. It cost 20 XP, but right now she had a good amount of XP saved up.

"You're right! [Subordinate] showed up!"

"If there is not a large difference in strength, then [Subordinate] by itself will not be very effective. You would do well to combine it with [Charm] and [Control] from the [Mental Magic] group."

Oh, sure, that must have been the status effect combo that the count used before. It would take quite a lot of XP to get down to [Control] in the [Mental Magic] tree, but there weren't any other skills she wanted at the moment, so she went ahead and got them.

"I learned everything up to [Control], Coach!"

"Fuh hah hah! So I am your coach! How amusing! Now, [Control] and the other spells connected to [Mental Magic] rely mainly on mental fortitude for their effectiveness. It would therefore be prudent to train that mental fortitude."

The "mental fortitude" that the count was talking about must refer to the MND stat. She had a feeling that the explanation for stat points had said something like this. Blanc decided to trust in the count and spend the rest of her XP on her MND. Now it was about as high as her INT was.

"All right! I'll head out when it gets dark and find something to [Subordinate]!"

"Indeed. Go forth and do as you wish. If you are able to [Subordinate] a combat-capable monster, the efficiency of your training will improve."

As the sun set, Blanc left the old castle and thought about what she should try to tame. Normally, she hunted zombies and skeletons in the castle's vicinity. These zombies were wild ones, not the count's servants; Blanc didn't really understand how zombies could be wild, but she decided not to think too hard about it.

Since she had gotten her hands on the vampire-exclusive skill [Subordinate], if she was gonna use it, she wanted to tame some kind of cool monster. Zombies were already the count's thing, so she didn't want to tame one of them. But it's not like she hated zombies or anything either!

For now, while killing zombies and skeletons like usual, she decided that today she would venture out further. Ever since she turned into a vampire, she raised her STR and VIT much more than when she was a skeleton, to the point where she could probably beat up a skeleton with her bare hands before being hit back even once. No one knew how little stamina skeletons had better than Blanc did.

After delightfully reporting this to the count, he looked at her with pity and presented her with a stick. It was made of iron or some sort of metal, and it was way better than using her bare hands to whack things. It also assisted in casting spells; it wouldn't affect their firepower, but it did lower their cooldown times a bit. Blanc primarily used magic to deal with zombies since she didn't like getting close to them, so she was very grateful for the stick.

Along with the stick, the count also gave her clothes. Apparently he couldn't stand the fact that a vampire, one of the ruling races, looked so shabby. Which referred to her starting equipment. What Blanc had on now were the count's hand-me-downs, which was a standard outfit for vampires: clothing for nobles. These were clothes that nobles would use when going hunting. Of course, the count's old clothes were for men, but since she hadn't done a full body scan during character creation and also hadn't touched the shape of her body, her current appearance was androgynous, so with men's clothes on she looked like a smaller man. Blanc was quite taken with this look, since it was "different from the usual her." She didn't like the idea of actually being a different sex, but acting like a man seemed fun.

That being the case, Blanc, looking for all the world like a full-fledged vampire, energetically made her way north while defeating trash mob zombies and skeletons. She chose her bearing at random, deciding not to worry about it too much. However, she was a bit concerned about her XP intake. Compared to yesterday, she was earning a lot less; killing all these monsters was barely getting her anything.

"Ah, it's because I learned [Subordinate] and [Mental Magic] and got stronger. I think I got some kind of explanation about that before. Using those skills could make fighting easier, sure, but it's not like using [Control] or whatever will let me kill these guys in one hit or anything. This must have just been bad timing."

She felt like she should've found something she wanted to tame first before learning all these new skills. However, she was also ecstatic at getting advice from the count, so she didn't regret it either.