Chapter 19 - No Thai Ladyboys For You.

While Shiori was taking care of the ‘weaklings’, Asmund was still fighting the Alpha. Surrounded by the dried corpses of Death-Hounds, Asmund was facing his rival, his body covered in shallow wounds yet only being soaked by the blood of his enemies, as for each new wound he forced the flowing blood back inside before turning a layer of it solid to seal the hole.

Unexpectedly, the Alpha was also covered in cuts despite the death of numerous meat-shields who tried to protect him. Frankly, the Alpha had the advantage at the start of this fight, and he was pretty confident in being able to kill Asmund, but… The more time passed, the more of his comrades that fell, the more Asmund's swordsmanship became deadly and made the Alpha slowly lose his advantage, now being on the contrary at a disadvantage.

To the Alpha, the pace at which his rival was improving was downright disgusting. He couldn’t think of him as anything less than an unkillable abomination, and unlike said adversary who was absorbing the blood essences of the corpses surrounding them, the Alpha was losing a lot of stamina.

Feeling cornered as almost none of his fellow front liners were left, and Asmund was still growing stronger as the fight was going on, the Alpha used his last trump card…

Retreating with a jump, the Alpha barked orders to the front liners still alive, and hid behind them as those Death-Hounds recklessly charged Asmund, not even caring about their life anymore.

“Too easy!” -Asmund

With a slash of his blade, Asmund cut into pieces any monster who dared to come too close to him. His attacks were so deadly that no matter how the beasts tried to defend themselves, the swords would always cut through them as if their body was made out of butter. The walls were painted in blood, and it was starting to become difficult to walk because of the amount of entrails spread on the floor.

But not minding those details, Asmund continued to force his way through the kamikaze Death-Hounds, who were obviously trying to slow him down and gain enough time for the Alpha to turn the tables on him.

Yet, they couldn’t even slow him down… Asmund acted as if they weren’t there and walked forward while humming a song. Keeping his pace, he ended up killing every front liner besides the Alpha before reaching him. Only… It was still too late, and the Alpha was able to use his trump card.

“Wha?! What’s this fog?!” -Asmund

As he was going to finish the Alpha who wasn’t moving for unknown reasons, the black fog-like fur on its body started to expand in size and spread around in the air. In such a thick form that light was gradually not able to pass through, and plunged the hallway into pure darkness, blinding Asmund entirely.

Shit… So he still had this move left. -Asmund

Giving up on his sight and focusing on only his hearing and instinct, Asmund closed his eyes, trying to determine the position of the Alpha. When suddenly he felt an acute pain coming from his side, soon followed by the warm sensation of blood flowing out of a gaping wound.

“Fuck! How come I didn’t hear…” -Asmund

Wait! I can’t hear my voice either?! Is that damn fog the reason?! So I’m not only blinded I’m also deaf? Great… Just great... Not only that, I’m not even able to feel its presence anymore. As expected of a boss monster, it still had such a cheat like ability hidden...-Asmund

Sealing his biggest wound yet since the start of this battle, while trying to think about a way to deal with this annoying ability. Asmund waved his swords around hoping to scare the bastard enough that it wouldn’t immediately attack. But a moment later he felt two fearsome rows of fangs pierce his calf.

“Dammit! Die already!” -Asmund

Angry, he tried to slash the beast who wasn’t able to completely rip a piece of his leg, yet the beast retreated before he could reach it.

His instinct or wild personality being powerless in this situation, Asmund returned to his calculative self, staying calm and composed as much as possible to find a solution…

Should I try this? This is a total gamble though and I will have to release all blood coatings on me to be able to achieve it… No point trying to be cautious and wait for death I guess. Let’s do this! -Asmund

Releasing the blood coating of his sword and boots, Asmund's two Black Longswords turned back into liquid and every thin layer of blood sealing his wounds instantly flowed down to the floor. He then spread the blood into thin threads in all directions, making him look like some sort of human cactus as he solidified them.

Now… Come at me, I dare you… -Asmund

Relaxing his body, Asmund now completely relied on nothing but his sense of touch. Hiding in the darkness, the Alpha was looking at Asmund's current strange appearance with a hint of fear in its eyes. This man’s ability was just too much of a mystery and too polyvalent for the Alpha to get careless and grow cocky at this point. He wouldn’t dare to drop his guard until Asmund kicked the bucket, he wasn’t that stupid.

However, what was worrying him the most, was that he couldn’t feel any threat coming from those blood threads. At least he was certain that they wouldn’t be able to pierce through his skin. Because of that, with its slight lack of intellect it wasn’t able to understand their purpose. If that wasn’t enough, it couldn’t use one of his underlings to probe it as they were all dead already and the ones at the back were too far to hear the Alpha, since it also couldn’t leave this ‘black cloud’ which happens to have the capacity to blind anyone but the user and absorb all sounds, it wouldn’t be able to give orders either way though…

Being at a dead-end as it couldn’t stop using its ability as the Alpha would be forced to fight Asmund directly, and in a weakened state at that since this ability has the drawback of exhausting the user after it ends. As he still couldn’t find anyway to attack Asmund without coming in contact with those blood threads either, the Alpha gave up and charged Asmund’s open back, aiming for his throat and ending this fight for good.

As he jumped through the solid threads, just as it expected, they broke as they came in contact with the Alpha… What was unexpected, however, was the fact that Asmund turned around immediately while swinging both his swords in the direction of the Alpha’s flanks. That’s when the Alpha understood the use of those threads… Too late, sadly for him.

Emitting a low howl filled with despair, the Alpha died as its body was sliced into three parts…

[ Congratulations! You gained a level! ]

[ Congratulations! You gained a level! ]

[ Received 3174 Credits. ] (A/N: Boss Credits are multiplied by 6, while Elite are by 3.)

Seeing those screens appearing in his mind, and the fog slowly disappearing, Asmund shouted at the top of his lungs in joy.

“FUUUUUUUUUCK YESSSSSSS!” -Asmund

His cry was so loud that the walls surrounding him slightly shook from the vibrations. But his exhaustion soon calmed him, and he forced himself to absorb the boss’ corpse after it dropped a gacha, to regain some of his vitality.

[ You gained a point of Agility, a point of Mind, a point of Spirit. ]

Nice! More stat points! -Asmund

Already happy with those new gains of points, a bigger smile appeared on his face as he noticed the white gacha ball at his feet, which also happened to have a gold star painted on it.

[ Rank 2* (100%) (White) Treasure Capsule ]

Rank 2?! This is even better than I thought! I really want to open it, but I should hurry and go help Shiori finish off the leftovers beforeha…! -Asmund

[ Congratulation! You contributed to the complete extermination of a monster species!

Reward: 12 000 Credits. ]

“… Heh? Did that just really happen?” -Asmund

Staring at the new screen that appeared in his mind out of nowhere, he had a hard time believing this much good news would happen at once. As he was daydreaming, he heard a girly voice coming closer to him.

“Masteeer~! We did it!” -Shiori

It was of course Shiori, who just finished off the last puppy of the Death-Hounds and was now going back to her Master's side with the hope of receiving his praises. She was so happy with the rewards she received from this fight in addition to the bonus Credits that she leapt into Asmund’s arms, who didn’t avoid despite the fact she was covered in blood because his mood was just that good!

“We sure did! You really did a good job too! I’m very glad that you proved yourself to be this useful!” -Asmund

Receiving such praise and even having her head stroked gently, Shiori felt like she was going to faint from happiness. To her, Asmund’s recognition, praise and pats were worth much more than the experience or the Credits she just won.

Resting while hugging for a short while as both of them were short on breath after fighting for this long. Asmund finally released her as he decided it was time to collect ALL the rewards left to obtain. Giving a big bag made of flexible blood to Shiori so she could collect the treasure capsules, Asmund proceeded on absorbing all the corpses of the Death-Hounds. After all, he wouldn’t have anymore occasion to absorb a Death-Hound’s corpse, and so have no reason to fear dropping his absorption rate for this species.

Done with both the absorption and collection of the gacha balls, they walked back to their ‘home’ to wash up and then calculate their total rewards for this last hunt.

For Asmund: 3 levels, 9 331 Credits from kills, and a point in each stat. Lastly were the 12 000 Credits he earned in bonus thanks to his contribution in exterminating the Death-Hounds from this world.

As for Shiori: 5 levels, 4 581 Credits from kills, and 4 000 in bonus for her contributions.

In addition, they obtained a total of 157 Rank 1 treasure capsules and a single Rank 2*.

“This… This is quite the haul we got here…" -Asmund

“What should we do now, Master? Should I buy the ‘Elite Maid’ class?” -Shiori

“Hmmm, that sounds good, but before you do I need your help with something.” -Asmund

“W-What is it?! Please ask away!” -Shiori

“I’d need 358 Credits more to be able to buy two new skills, so I need to take that amount from you.” -Asmund

“No problem! Please wait a second… Here you go, it’s done!” -Shiori

Looking at his status screen to see if his amount of Credits changed, Asmund did notice that his Credits turned to exactly 25 000.

So it’s really that easy to transfer Credits huh? -Asmund

“Thanks Shiori! Now I should be able to buy 2 of the skills I really wanted. Since you did such a good job today, after buying your class you are free to buy any skill you want with your current Credits!” -Asmund

“Yes! Thank you, Master!” -Shiori

Shiori wasn’t so happy about being free to buy her skills as she sees fit, but more about the fact that Asmund now trusts her at least enough that he would let her use her Credits at her own volition.

Both made their shopping in silence, but with a smile of excitement on their faces. Spending pretty much all their Credits kinda hurt, but seeing more skills appear on the skill list of their status screen just made it so worth it. Especially for Asmund who was able to buy two skills from the really expensive Blood Overlord class.

After finishing their shopping, they told each other what they bought and the effects of each skill, and then tried them out…

The first skill Asmund tried out was Strong Blood, which is supposed to turn his blood into something which is as dense as lead and reinforce its toughness. At first he thought that it would make him, or to be more precise his blood, more heavy, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Because magic.

Making a simple liquid ball of blood float in front of him, he grabbed it and noticed that his blood was as light as usual, but when he kneaded it to try out its texture he was surprised to feel much more resistance than before, as if it was rubber ball.

The change in thickness of the blood is a real surprise! And wait… Wouldn’t that make my blood wings even better?! If I make them larger than the ones I made in the basement while running away from the Alpha, maybe I would even be able to fly! I really should try it out once I’m outside! -Asmund

Already quite happy with his first skill, he tried out the second one he bought, which was none other than ‘Blood Familiar’. Using the skill, he created four balls of blood which gradually took the form of Blood Weasels the size of a small dog.

“Sooo cuteee~!” -Shiori

Falling in love at first sight with the weasels, Shiori leapt like a predator on its prey and caught one of the weasels, which showed absolutely no reaction to her behavior.

“... Buuu~, even though they are this cute they aren’t fluffy… The fur is really rough and doesn’t really feel right.” -Shiori

“What did you expect? They’re made from my blood, not from a teddy bear… Also they aren’t real living creatures, they do have some form of intelligence akin to an AI, but it only goes as far as being able to understand and obey my commands.” -Asmund

“Oh…” -Shiori

A little disappointed by learning that those weasels were pretty much robots made out of blood, Shiori released the one she was holding and sat back on the bed.

Still… I didn’t expect to be linked to them mentally, I can feel what they feel, so they are perfect for scouting. Not only that, if I focus my mind on one or all of them, I can directly take the control of their body. -Asmund

Done with his skills, it was Shiori's turn to try out her 5 new skills! Or so she wanted to, but among them one was a passive which only shows effects in battle and another was ‘Eyes of Truth’, so she already tested it when she starred at Asmund. Either way, she at least tried her other 3, starting with the least impressive one.

And to try it out… She cleaned the room…

The skill in itself wasn’t anything really fancy after all, it was ‘Superior Housework Mastery’, which makes the owner of the skill more efficient at housework. Since it sounded like a way to prove herself more useful to Asmund, she not only bought the skill she also upgraded it to level 2.

Which as soon as she began cleaning, immediately showed its effect as she was able to dust things in a single swipe, fold clothes in an instant or put things back at their places in an orderly fashion…

So unflashy… But it IS useful… Still, it’s so unflashy that it’s impressive in itself. -Asmund

Unlike Asmund, Shiori was not disatisfied at all with it, and smiled proudly at Asmund waiting to receive more praises. Which Asmund did gave her, but lazily, as if he was just giving empty ones to make a dog happy. The target of his praises wasn’t a dog, but she was happy all the same.

The next skill she tried was ‘Spark’, a common skill useful to light a fire.

Grabbing a sheet of paper that she held above an empty plastic trash bin, as to not accidently ignite the floor, she used Spark and small sparks actually did come out of her stretched finger like miniature fireworks. They easily burnt the paper sheet, which turned into ashes an instant later.

Like last time, she seeked praises from Asmund, who once again gave them half-assedly…

And at last, she tried out the skill Asmund himself was looking forward to! ‘Healing Massage’, the first active skill of the Elite Maid class! Which not only makes the user more efficient at giving massages with any part of their body, but also healed internal wounds and the exhaustion of the one it is used on. She also upgraded this skill this skill to level 2 using her free upgrade point.

“H-Here I go, Master!” -Shiori

After making Asmund lie on the bed while being in the nude, his back facing the ceiling, Shiori sat down on his waist. She then took off her own clothes, before using her skill, which gave her body a dim glow.

Now ready, she started the massage by first delicately rubbing her palms on his back, and smoothly moving to each part of his body, using more of her own body to massage him as time passed. Like using her chest to massage his shoulders, her chin for his neck, or even her thighs for his legs.

At the beginning, Asmund’s body relaxed at the sensation which was out of this world. But, soon he felt himself being full of ‘vitality’... Unable to contain his lust anymore, he ended up fully enjoying the ‘best’ application of her Healing Massage skill for the rest of the day...

------

These are Asmund's and Shiori's statuses at the end of this chapter. The skills that Shiori acquired are described at the bottom.

#

[ Name: Asmund Dreyri | Race: Human | Level: 19 ]

[ Class: Blood Overlord ]

[ Power: 35 ]

[ Agility: 29 ]

[ Constitution: 35 ]

[ Mind: 35 ]

[ Spirit: 41 ]

#

[ Skills ]

[ Heart Of Magic Blood ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

[ Blood Manipulation ][ Level 2 ][ Active ]

[ Blood Siphon ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Blood Familiar ][ Level 1][ Active ]

[ Strong Blood ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

-

[ Water Channeling][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Eyes of Truth ][ Level 2 ][ Passive ]

#

[ Credits: 0 ]

[ System’s Shop -> ]

#

--

#

[ Name: Shiori Fukuda | Race: Human | Level: 14 ]

[ Class: Elite Maid ]

[ Power: 20 ]

[ Agility: 15 ]

[ Constitution: 23 ]

[ Mind: 13 ]

[ Spirit: 11 ]

#

[ Skills ]

[ Healing Massage ][ Level 2 ][ Active ]

[ Superior Housework Mastery ][ Level 2 ][ Passive ]

[ Will of Servitude ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

-

[ Water Channeling][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

[ Eyes of Truth ][ Level 1 ][ Passive ]

[ Spark ][ Level 1 ][ Active ]

#

[ Credits: 7 ]

[ System’s Shop -> ]

#

[ Superior Housework Mastery ][ High Class Maid - Butler / Elite Maid - Butler Skill ][ Level 2 ]

[ You are much more efficient in all kind of housework. ]

[ Higher level raise the skill effect. ]

[ Upgrade: 2 000 Credits (Level 1+ req.) ]

(A/N: Low Citizen’s and High Citizen’s skills don’t have a level requirement for upgrade or to learn. And this skill happen to be one shared with the High Citizen rank ‘High Class Maid - Butler’ class. )

[ Healing Massage ][ Elite Maid - Butler Skill ][ Level 2 ] (Elite Maid starting skill.)

[ This skill let you heal someone internal wounds and exhaustion through the use of a massage. This skill also affect your proficiency at giving massages. ]

[ Higher level raise the skill effect. ]

[ Upgrade: 3 000 Credits (Level 15+ req.) ]

[ Will of Servitude ][ Elite Maid - Butler Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ The more you wish to serve and protect your master(mistress), the more your body Defense and Constitution increase in a fight. ]

[ Higher level raise the skill effect. ]

[ Upgrade: 3 000 (Level 15+ req.) ]

[ Spark ][ Common Skill ][ Level 1 ]

[ Enable you to create hot sparks which can easily ignite burnable materials. ]

[ This skill can’t be upgraded ]