chapter 11

The vampire lord looked at Shea and scornfully laughed.

「A mere daughter of a dog dares to come after me?」

「Shut up! I will definitely kill you with my own hands!」

「Even your father couldn’t kill me. What makes you think you can?」

Vampires are creatures who can speak the human tongue on top of their superior intelligence.

They have an awfully great amount of magic power and vitality, which makes them a formidable monster.

The vampire lord then turned his gaze over to me.

「However, to think that you brought a human along. Good work」

「What do you mean by that?」

「My charm is ineffective against dogs…… but humans, they can only fall for it」

「Wh…… What……」

Shea’s face paled. She looked uneasily at me.

I should calm her down.

「Relax. It’s only a vampire lord. No way it’ll work on me」

「FUHAHAHAHA! So you’re acting tough now? You humans are really interesting」

The vampire lord cheerfully laughed.

Its previous displeasure might be due to the death of its underling, the goblin lord.

It probably thinks that it’ll get a new one, so its mood improved.

「I see」

The vampire lord frowned at my nod.

「What do you mean by that?」

「Nothing in particular. I just realised that you faking the number of goblins is to lure adventurers here」

「Fufu. You are not as stupid as you look. That is indeed the case」

「That was a pretty neat idea. Good work」

If he gets to charm some adventurers, the number of tactics he can utilise will increase.

Even if that adventurer is but an F-ranker, he’ll still be more convenient than goblins.

「Rock-san, please retreat at once!」

「If you want to run, don’t drag me with you」

「There’s no reason for me to do that. If you were to be charmed by it……」

「I told you already. It won’t work on me」

Shea doesn’t seem to believe me.

「I have miscalculated……」

Among the various types of beastmen, the wolf tribe is the only one that can defend against a vampire’s charm, for some reason.

They can’t even have their blood sucked.

If a vampire were to try sucking a wolf-man’s blood, it’ll be the one receiving damage.

That is why many members of the wolf tribe decided to exterminate vampires as their job.

Shea as a member of the wolf tribe won’t be charmed by the vampire lord.

However, she most probably forgot that humans are weak against its charm.

She’s quite a scatterbrain.

It would have been a catastrophe if that human isn’t me. I hope she reflects on this.

The vampire lord shouted loudly.

「I will not let you escape!」

Its eyes shone with a dangerous light. It’s trying to charm me.

I purposely stared back right in his eyes. I stare, and stare, and stare.

The vampire lord is definitely handsome, but my heart’s not really beating for him.

「Locking eyes with another guy feels gross」

As I muttered that, the vampire lord started panicking.

「Why…… Why is it not effective?!」

「Well, that’s because my soul’s pretty strong」

「There is no way a human can withstand a vampire lord’s charm……」

「Doesn’t that mean that you’re not one?」

I purposely provoked it.

When facing highly intelligent monsters, it’s best to provoke them until they lose their composure.

If you do, you’ll have the upper hand when battling with it.

「A lesser vampire believing himself to be a vampire lord. This is really unsightly……」

When it heard me whispering that, the vampire lord’s bloodlust soared.

「You shall regret for mocking me!」

The vampire lord seems like it made up its mind to kill me first.

Seems like provocation paid off, as it doesn’t seem to have any intentions of attacking Shea.

The vampire lord closed the distance between us instantly.

It’s quite nimble. After all, it is a high ranking monster.

However, it really isn’t a threat to me. I sent out a kick at the vampire lord’s jaw as I avoided his attack.

「Ugh!」

The vampire lord’s teeth flew through the air.

To a vampire, its teeth is a powerful weapon it is proud of.

「Damn youuuuuuu」

Shouting loudly, it leapt at me.

Its attacks are monotonous due to it losing itself in rage. What a waste of intelligence.

I lightly dodged it, and caught the vampire lord by its neck with my right hand.

I then activated drain touch.

「AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh」

The vampire lord screamed.

Even though sucking the life force out of a creature is its forte, it’s probably weak at having its own one sucked.

The vampire lord raised its sword trying to cut off my hand.

No way I’ll let that hit me. I released my grasp, and took some distance.

The vampire lord’s sword hit nothing but air.

「Aren’t you pretty fast for a lesser vampire」

I didn’t forget to provoke it once more. It’ll be a pain if it started attacking Shea.

「Who in the world are you……」

「I’m Rock, an F-rank adventurer」

「Don’t lie!」

The vampire lord rushed at me in rage, but I dodged everything it threw at me.

I then accurately punched its vitals.

After those 10 years fighting with devils, my level seems to have risen considerably.

My arm strength has gone up quite a lot too.

While battling, I muttered a few words.

「……All due to the magic essence, huh」

I steadily grew stronger as I took in the magic essence into my body after killing the monsters.

Therefore, the more monsters you subjugate, the stronger you become.

Within the gap in dimensions, there was only magic essence.

I probably took in the surrounding magic essence as I killed the devils.

I freely used Drain Touch and Drain Sword when I was there.

In doing so, I probably sucked up not just the devils’ vitality, but also their magic essence.

I don’t know the exact reason, but there’s no doubt I had a sudden rise in strength.

「Maybe that’s why I de-aged……」

While muttering, I kept punching the vampire lord.

Probably thinking that she shouldn’t interfere, Shea just stood there waiting for orders.

The now lumpy vampire lord retreated backwards.

It leaned its back on the wall.

「You bastard……. You better remember this. I will make sure that you will never have a single night of peaceful sleep……」

It then started transforming into a thousand tiny bats.

A vampire lord is especially troublesome because of this skill.

There’s no way I’ll let it escape. If it gets away, the surrounding villages will be in danger.

I can’t pretend to be a warrior anymore.

Just when I was preparing to fire off a spell,

「I will not let you escape!」

Shea closed the distance in a single breath.

She slashed at the vampire lord, which had already started turning into bats, with the Devil King’s sword.

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH」

The vampire lord let out a deafening shriek.

The bats surrounding the cut were carbonised.

「Ooh, that’s amazing」

The Devil King’s sword is really amazing. It isn’t just any ordinary sharp sword.

It can even steal magic power and life force, no, even magic esssence.

That’s how strong it is.

「It didn’t seem to be that useful when I was cutting up the goblins」

Maybe it’s because the magic essence absorbed from the goblins was too little.

「HAAAAAAAAAHHHHH」

「GUOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA」 (TLN: God damn how do you even translate this)

Shea kept slicing it over and over.

The vampire lord practically had its whole body turned into charcoal in the blink of an eye.