Chapter 55: Sudden farewell
As we were leaving the auction venue, I’d felt someone who had been watching us before as they used appraisal. They felt familiar, but I couldn’t place why and they had run off before I could appraise them in return.
Susan, very sure of herself, opted to have sensitivity, pleasure and build-up all raised to five-fold. She only raised the other options by double though. And of course, she got an ‘on switch’. Whenever one of us would get too dominant, one of the others would push the ‘button’ to perform a reversal. In Sofy’s case, we would just team up on her until she’d get one of us. Round and round we went deep into the night.
We still somehow managed to get up at the crack of dawn and head to the dungeon. Sofy and I walked there alone. Flora is in the garden at Mary and Alice’s place and Trixy is dwelling inside of Sofy. I think I’ve already said this, but dwelling is a subskill of tamer that’s like a contract space. When we entered the dungeon, I felt those same eyes on us from last night.
Using the same bull(Trixy) riding method as last time, we quickly barged right through down to the thirty-fourth floor in a few hours before it got too risky. For the next week and a half we managed to trek down to the fiftieth floor and then back to the thirty-eighth. Going beyond the forties is still too much of a challenge for us. We picked up a number of great items along the way, including three of those collars. Sofy kept one and I kept the other two. Sofy has also been keeping all of the miscellaneous items as well. It really isn’t fair that she has already leveled her inventory skill up to level three.
We’ve been stopped on the thirty-seventh floor by some people we know and hate. As soon as we were close enough, they had used skill sealing divine crystals on each of us. They’re stage four goods, I even have a few in my inventory. Not that I can pull anything out of it now anyways.
“Well if it isn’t my half-breed sister and her little pet.”~crown prince
“What are you doing here?”~Sofy
“We came to bring back the heroes that ran away. I didn’t expect to see the two of you here. Imagine my surprise when I learned that my supposedly dead sister is wandering around town. Since she’s changed to a catkin, then I suppose that the two named Mary and Alice from that auction house really are those other girls. I don’t know how you’ve all changed your appearances, but I’ll make sure to drag the truth out of you once I make you mine. Do it as planned.”~crown prince
“Kill the princess, take the other one alive.”~stooge one
Two stooges for each of us, each at least rank four. Stooge one is even rank five. Trixy came out of her dwelling, but it doesn’t help much. Sofy only has a dagger right now to defend herself and they’ve separated us. Her bow is useless without the arrows she keeps in her inventory. These guys can easily deflect my crossbow bolts and none of us can seem to get a hit in. At the rate we’re being exhausted, they will wear us down long before our skills return.
Sofy took a hit, it’s bad! Their rogue had taken out a crossbow and hit her in the stomach with it. I lost my cool big time and so did Trixy. She might have even activated a beserk state. I’m now exchanging wound for wound, but I heal fast and Trixy has a thick hide, capable of taking a beating. We’ve injured two of them quite badly now and the others are backing out of the fight.
“S***, they’ve gone crazy. We’ll all die at this rate. The bitch is as good as dead. Retreat and we can try again later to capture the other.”~stooge one
One of them pulls out a divine crystal and then they all five disappear in a flash of light. It’s a divine crystal that can only be found on levels forty and up called group dungeon escape.
“Flora, let Camille know that the crown prince and at least four of his best are in Namiir. They would have just left the dungeon and may try to attack her, Mary and Alice. They may even reenter the dungeon to attack us again in here.”~me
“Rodger! I’m with her now. She asks if you’re alright?”~Flora
“Not alright. Sofy took a bad hit. We’re on the thirty-seventh floor.”~me
I staggered over to my dying Sofy. The wound she took is fatal and I can’t heal her with skills. All our medicine and divine crystals are in our inventories. There’s no guarantee that we could run into a group willing to help or find an item laying around that could heal her.
To save her life, I have only a single option left. Sinking my fangs into her neck, I use my innate ability to secrete my venom directly into her bloodstream. I then slit my wrist and place it over her mouth, forcing her to drink. Her skin starts to pale after a few minutes and the wound rapidly heals once the bolt is removed. A sure sign that it’s working. When she awakes, she will have become a vampire. The lowest ranking of vampires where all turned start, a blood slave. I somehow intuitively know exactly what that will entail.
Her race will be replaced and she will gain the trait: [Vampiric Body(Rank: Slave 0%)]
Those with a vampiric body have the following subskills and conditions: {Vampiric Bite}, {Hypnotic Charm}, easily burned by sunlight, bloodline suppression} by higher ranked vampire’s, obedience to progenitor. Only methods to rank up are to refine your own blood by drinking a higher ranked vampire’s blood or using a blood type treasure. Ranks include: slave, servant, knight, childe, baron/baroness, count/countess, duke/duchess, king/queen, emperor/empress. First three ranks have inherent obedience to their progenitor, next three require the progenitor to compel them via bloodline suppression in order to force them to obey, last three cannot be compelled to obey.
It’s only been about five minutes and I can feel her starting to wake. A stinging pain in my head suddenly interrupted my thoughts, followed by a strange, long notification:
[Error detected: logic feedback loop… analysing… slave ranked vampire’s inherent obedience to its progenitor conflicts with Destined to Serve’s control of the progenitor… extrapolating solution… obedience removed… error: obedience reasserted itself… removing… error… removing… error… analysing… obedience is embedded in the subject’s blood… executing a secondary solution… removing Destined to Serve’s relationship data… success… error cleared.]
Sofy has woken up and is looking at me with her adoration-filled blood red eyes, a sure sign of a newborn vampire. Then another notification appeared, one that I despised:
[Destined to Serve’s mistress data is empty. Activating temporary mistress mode.]
I tried to renew my pledge to Sofy once she woke up, but I got the following message:
[Service pledge disabled until meeting the temporary mistress.]
Kat then suddenly dragged me into her divine realm as an astral body.
“Why am I here? Ah, my head! She nearly killed me! Multiple times!! What the heck was she thinking and why would I just brush something like that off?!!!”~me
“You’re here to meet your temporary mistress, me. Your head hurts because all of your suppressed emotions have been unsuppressed. While the protections in your curse along with the don’t mind me blessing protect your mind, the curse is still able to temporarily suppress overly strong negative emotion toward your mistress in order to ensure a stable bond between mistress and servant.”~Kat
“Ugh, can’t you do something about that for me? Please?!”~me
“I already did something, because I figured you’d say that. Overly negative emotions toward the mistress will now trigger the abuse feature instead. I’ve also reset most non-essentials as well. Accessories, your eye shadow, and tattoo have all been cleared. Even your frustrating magic fingers are back!”~Kat
“Hm, strong negative emotions doesn’t seem to be triggering my abuse clause. Any thoughts?”~me
“Brat! Of course it wouldn’t work on me. You have a better idea to quickly get cozied up to your next mistress?”~Kat
“I think I do. Just change this line and that should give me plenty of hands on time.”~me
The line I referred to mentally to her just now was this one: The mistress is responsible to ensure the servant wears appropriate {Attire}. And I suggested changing it to: The mistress is obliged to ensure the servant is utilized properly and wears appropriate {Attire}.
This newly changed line keeps the old meaning while also obliging the mistress with no choice other than to utilize the servant for her daily life. Things such as chores, dressing, bathing and the like all have to be assisted by the servant. They will physically be prevented from doing them.
“Very well. We’ll use your idea this time, but we’ll switch back to the frustrating magic fingers if you can’t quickly build rapport with your new mistress. Now go say goodbye to Sofy before I randomly teleport you to an area rich in energies. It should put you near a settlement of some kind that way. You are prohibited from coming into contact with people you know before finding a new mistress.”~Kat
And que the sudden exit from her divine realm, once again! I quickly explained things to Sofy and said my goodbye. Then I was shrouded with light from the random teleport and vanished from the dungeon.
Oh and I still have a good amount of time left on that skill seal. What could possibly go wrong?!
End of Sofy Arc.
