Aurora

I clenched my fists hard enough that my nails were digging into my skin. I wasn’t sure if I had even been so insulted in my life. Aliens! Seriously!? Who did this man think he was, trying to lie like that?

“Look! I know it sounds super farfetched, but I have it on good faith that there was a message to all the players in the cities. My friends all confirmed it. There’s no other explanation! If it was an actual system error, the Game Masters would have fixed it by now. I doubt a conspiracy to experiment on us or something like that is possible since there are at least two million players trapped in here.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I refuse to believe it.”

“I wish I had some way to prove it, but I don’t. We might as well be in another world.”

Blood was dripping from my hands by this point. I was sorely tempted to call for Varroth. The elven man had been smart enough or cautious enough not to come into my aura. I might be able to hit him with my magic, but there was no telling if he was higher level than I was. Plus, I had no idea the size of his forces. If he was strong enough to revive a god, then there was a good chance I was out of my league.

I looked more closely at the elven man trying to size him up. I had seen him yesterday spying on me, but this was the first time I got a good look at him. He had bluish-purple skin with purple hair. At first, I thought he had jewelry in his hair, but a closer look revealed that the hair itself had been crystalized somehow. A gauntlet with magical disks floating around it appeared to be the only weapon or armor he had. That I could see at least.

I refused to believe his story about aliens, but I could understand the aura thing being an accident. I had done much the same thing when I had created my legendary painting which had inadvertently revived the demon lord. That still didn’t mean I would forgive him for it. Losa was still in a coma. The man continued to stare at me noticeably doing his best and failing not to look at anything other than my face. Strangely, even now, I felt nothing about being nude in front of him.

“I won’t forgive you. But I’ll leave you alone for the time being, on one condition.”

“What’s that?” Maxwell asked, his expression brightening a little. I could assume that meant he was afraid of me and my forces, but it could also be a poker face. To lure me into a false sense of security.

“If my imp, Losa dies. I promise, I will hunt you to the ends of this world and whatever other world might exist in your alien’s database and kill you repeatedly.”

“Then I better look into ways to heal a demon,” Maxwell replied, though his voice was a bit shaken. I took that as a win for now.

I huffed with a glare at him then turned and walked away from the annoying person. I would leave them alone, but I would make sure that if the time came, I would have enough strength to crush everything precious to him. I licked my lips as the thought was more appealing than I thought it would be. I had always been pushed around in my life on Earth. If I was truly stuck here for good, that would not happen again.

A growl pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up at Varroth. He rubbed his head up against me much like a dog would. I rang my hand through his coarse and still slightly blood matted fur. “I’m fine,” I said giving him one more petting. He licked my face before making his way back to his room while I rejoined the others.

“Are you alright, my queen?” Roland asked.

I smiled and shrugged at his question. “Not really, but there’s really nothing you all can do about it.” I sighed before slapping my face to clear my head. “I’ve struck a ceasefire of sorts with Maxwell. Leave his people alone for the time being.”

“What of the goblins?” Carson asked.

I turned to take in the Goblin Champion that he held down. The massive brute of a goblin looked more like an ogre. His muscles bulged to ridiculous proportions. His strength was on another level, but he lacked any intelligence from what I could tell. The captains easily outpaced him in that department.

“We will not have anyone telling us who or what we’re allowed to hunt. As for these guys,” I paused as I thought about it. I could drain them here and now, but that would be short term. I had already drained one of the captains. I needed to start thinking long term. With more vampires populating the dungeon every day, I would soon start to run into food issues. “I’m going to build a prison for them. That will allow us to keep them and use them for more than a onetime meal.”

“As you command,” Carson replied with a head nod. He couldn’t bow right now due to holding the Champion with his magic. I had already memorized the sigil floating around his hand that allowed him to create bindings of blood. Since I had access to blood magic, I was able to use the same magic.

Without any other issues to handle for the time being, I left the entrance and headed into the spiral area. I now had a job to do in constructing a prison for creatures that we captured. My spiral was getting nice and large, but I felt that the three circles I had so far were too close to the core room for my taste. Making my way to the other side of the dungeon that I hadn’t worked on much, I started carving a new path while installing traps.

It wasn’t long before I had a hundred meter stretch of tunnel that was nothing short of a corridor of death. At the end was a fifty-by-fifty-meter room that was three floors. I had cells that were just a bit larger than a meter cubed. There was a stone cot in each room. There was a fountain at the back of the main room that my future jailors would use to water my future guests. Food would be an issue, but I had access to the forest now. I’m sure we could find a few sources here and there.

With the entire thing being constructed out of Demon brick, my prisoners would suffer mental anguish which would keep them beaten down. I did construct a section that was just normal bricks. That section would be used for prisoners that were valuable to me for one reason or another. I might be a dungeon, but it looked like I had plenty of opportunities to act like a village or country.

“I’m a bit evil it would seem,” I mumbled as I leaned against the wall once I was done. I thought about everything I’d done up to this point and then even further back. Thinking about it, my former boyfriends had complained that I was a bit too sadistic for them. Vague memories of when I first played the game had been coming back to me lately. While I hadn’t enjoyed drinking from humans, I hadn’t cared too much about the animals and monsters that I’d drained. Other than the blood drinking, I had been fairly evil in my actions. Sticking to the vampire troupe of attacking in the night and so on.

“I might just be a bad person,” I said then snorted. What did it matter? I guess I was trapped here forever. Even if the man had been lying, there was still the fact that the NPCs weren’t calling the Game masters when I asked them, rather it was like the game masters had never existed in the first place. I shook my head trying to clear the thoughts. “Time to paint. I need a change of pace.”

~~~

Laying on my back in the middle of the prison floor, I stared at the ceiling. I had gotten carried away again. Not that I minded. The trance had let me turn off my brain for a few hours and just ignore the world and all the problems that I was dealing with. I was covered in paint and in need of a bath. A state I was actually very familiar with.

“My queen,” Roland called. Tilting my head back without moving, I saw him standing in the entrance of the prison. I had thrown off his coat at some point and was completely naked in front of him. Even so, he appeared nonplused about my state of attire.

“What is it, Roland?” I asked, rolling over and putting my chin in my hand.

“You’ve created quite the masterpiece,” he said glancing around the room.

I looked back up at the ceiling with a grin. Even in my trance I had made sure not to focus on any one being. I’d rather not revive any more demon lords. Instead, I considered what the room was going to be used for. That lead to the creation of a mural depicting equal amounts of suffering and pleasure. Since the vampires would be drinking blood in here which was pleasurable, I wanted to take that into account.

There were some touches of Vlad the Impaler along with a few other famous vampires. I had been diverse and giving all the fantasy races I could think of representation in the heads that were impaled in the mural. My vampires stood under the heads, showering in blood that poured out on them. Looking it over again, I nodded to myself. Yeah, I was mentally unbalanced.

“Thank you, Roland.” I held out my hand. He came over and helped me to my feet. “I have a few matters to attend to for the dungeon. Feel free to start bringing anything you capture here.”

He gave me a bow. “As you wish.” He then handed me a glowing crystal that felt different from a mana stone. “An activation crystal. This was heavily guarded by the goblins and seemed quite precious to them.”

I took the crystal and played with it for a second. Even its texture felt strange. “I see. Good work.”

Looking at the mural, its description popped up like my other paintings had so far. The Border between Suffering and Pleasure – You have created a work of art that will shake the very mind of anyone that sees it. Being a dungeon core, the artwork is endued with magic allowing it to persist through the ages of time. Bloodletting will automatically stop before the creature dies while blood consumed with be worth twice its actual value.

That was just what I wanted. It would prevent my vampires from accidently killing anyone, at least I hoped. The more vampires I summoned, the more food I’m going to have to find for them.

I grabbed Roland’s coat off the ground and threw it back over my shoulders. An interesting fact about my body that I hadn’t noticed at first, was that the six leathery wings I got from when I became a Night Lord, folded up nicely when I wore the coat taking up only a few centimeters worth of space. I wasn’t used to the appendages; thus, I had completely forgot about them until I needed to fly while painting.

Making my way back to the core room, I was soon standing next to the coffin. Losa remained asleep with no indication that he would awake any time soon. All his wounds had been healed and I’d tried to make him as comfortable as possible. I was worried that something had happened to his soul or more likely his programming.

Sighing, I left the coffin and took a seat in my chair. Last night had gotten the dungeon a level along with a few other goodies. The Crystal outcrop for one had fallen into my aura. I had to see what bonus that had afforded me. I planned to select the next vampire level as well. I started with that and pulled up the summons menu list. At first, I thought it was exactly the same as last time. That was until I was about to select Vampire – Knight. There was another option under it. Paragon Vampire – Knight. If I remembered right, paragon meant perfect or peak.

I groaned and put my head in my hands. “Losa. I wish you were here,” I moaned. Rubbing my eyes, I returned to the list. I had no idea if it was a good idea considering everything I’d done so far had been down the evil path. Not that I really cared, I just worried that people might try to eliminate me in the future. Though as a player, I bet that would be hard without game masters to regulate the situation.

Licking my lips, I decided to take the plunge. I selected the Paragon option. A spark of pain rippled through my head but passed quickly. Pain was becoming more common in this stupid place. I rubbed my head then took a look at my summoning menu. The cost to summon one was mindboggling. Nearly four times that of my Greater Vampires.

Checking my stock of mana stones, I debated on how to proceed. I could summon several more Greaters, but the difference in strength between my Greaters and the normal had already been extreme. I couldn’t help but wonder just how strong a single Paragon vampire Knight would be.

Since I couldn’t come to a decision, I closed the summoning menu for the moment and turned to the other section. The Crimson crystal outcrop bonus. Like Losa had explained, the crystals themselves could be used in making magical equipment and higher-grade materials. I couldn’t outright create them with mana. The place of power was required to grow them. I could however, pump mana into the area to accelerate their growth if I was in a rush.

As for the bonus, I got a ten percent discount on all summoning spells. That felt like a full on cheat for a dungeon core, but the fact that the cost for the Paragon was that high even after the discount was being applied, I greatly appreciated the bonus. I had barely scratched the surface with the vampire line. The next level would only be more expensive.

While I was looking through my status, Carson walked into the core room. “Prisoners are secure, my queen.”

“Good. Find out what they eat and organize a party of vampires to hunt. I’ll leave you and Harvey in charge of them.”

“As you command.” I watched him go before turning back to the menu. Reopening the summoning menu, I activated my Death sight. Moving through the dungeon, I focused a dozen rooms. In the first three, I set four points for Worg spawning. They were cheap and efficient when I came to hunting in the forest. In the next three, I created Ghoul spawning points. They were vampire ghouls and not zombie ghouls thankfully, and while they were frenzied, they weren’t too hard on the eyes or nose.

After that, I created two demon and two more vampire spawn points. They might be low leveled and lack intelligence, but they served well as shock troops. It never hurt to have more of them. For the last two rooms, I created Greater Vampire spawning points. Completely emptying most of my mana in the process. It would take about three days for a Greater vampire to spawn, but it doesn’t require me to devote another drop of mana to them.

I called for Frederick once I was completed. The roguish vampire appeared a few minutes later without a sound. “You called, my queen?”

“Yes. Take all the Worgs and begin mapping the forest. I want to know all the enemies we have around us.”

“As you command.” He vanished into the darkness as if he was part of it.

Leaning back, I thought about what to do next.