∼ Day 53 ∼

Sitting in the bumby caravan of the mercenary group called 'Azure Claw', I was conversing with one of the group's leaders/officers called Elora. She was an energetic and salacious woman, who definitely didn't hide her obvious lust for me as we spoke; even sometimes seductively caressing some of my more private areas while innocently fluttering her long lashes. Causing no small amount of awkwardness from me, unsure exactly how to handle this woman.

When I had originally spotted this caravan of somewhat strong humans, I was very intrigued as to what information they could possibly bring me. As of now, I was still heavily in the shadows of what the hell was going on all around me in this wonderful, but obscure world. This world's dynamics were essentially still just a big question mark for me.

As such, I stalked the group to get a general understanding of their language, Cealish, with Language Adaptability. Once reaching a suitable level of understanding and getting a skill level-up in the progress, I began devising a plan to get the information I wanted from them.

Of course, I was still very much confident in my ability to take on this group of motley human, however, torturing them for the information I wanted was something I didn't want to do. Don't get me wrong, I was no saint or righteous hero, I had tortured before. But the reason was I didn't want to, was because it would stir up bad memories. It was just too early to start remembering or delving into that type of stuff just after just having escaped the clutches of the Mistress.

So for now, I wouldn't be torturing, it would only leave a bad taste in my mouth and make my mood sour for the next few days. No torture was to be had for a bit of time to allow my mind to rest easy. Foregoing forcefully bringing out information in such a way naturally led to another course of action. Simply dominating their minds with blood plague.

However, just as I was about to do so, I stopped in my tracks, not sure what came over me. I didn't leave using domination off the table, but for now, I simply wanted to try and go about this another way. I didn't decide this because of anything having to do with efficiency or what would take the least effort, I simply wanted to know how different from humans I've truly become.

To sate my curiosity and the fact I was facing virtually non-existent danger by doing so, I decided to disguise myself as a human.

I of course couldn't just show up looking like my natural form as a Strigoi, so in my search to conceal the various features that would single me out as not human, I had found one of the functions of the Blood-Born skill. Due to my body and blood becoming one, and the fact that I was a creature very much adapt in the controlling and manipulation of blood, I now had the ability to somewhat alter my body's structure and features.

Making my excessively handsome face dim some of its charms, I also it softer and less sharp. I had also restructured my body to have less muscle mass and less toned muscles since I hardly believed that a physique that literally looked like a hand-carved masterpiece would go easily unnoticed and unquestioned.

I even had my height changed to a slightly above average human height to seem less imposing. So after removing the [Heirloom of Sanguinity] and shortening my ears to that of a human, the last touch to allow me to blend in was changing the silky and silver hair that ran down to my shoulders into that of auburn and normal looking hair.

Surprisingly enough, changing the hair follicles to normal auburn or brown hair was extremely easy, in fact, I could grow out my hair by simply a few handfuls of minutes just concentrating.

I wished to alter my body further, however, there were limits to how much I could change it. But it still made me wonder if sometime in the future when I had increased Blood-Born's skill level and improved my ability to control blood, could I then morph and shape my body in any which way I wanted?

But even though I had done all this to seem less noticeable, I had apparently severely underestimated my looks since even after changing my body this much to look less attractive and more inconspicuous, I still had most of the women of the mercenary caravan practically fawning at my feet.

Having more than thirty points in charisma was apparently no joke, the influence on others' minds almost scary.

My charisma combined with the undetectable dangerous air and powerful might wafting off me in waves was drawing these women to me like moths to a flame. While I couldn't do anything about the women's natural attraction to powerful and handsome men, and the fact that I didn't mind their own unnoticed infatuation of me, this had already caused some problems for me; that is, practically all the men of the caravan who were collectively shooting me gazes of hatred and poorly hidden jealousy.

Stealing the attention of females usually never went over well with other men, especially when I was an outsider. It could also be seen when I had played unconscious before, and the leader of this group suddenly decided to slap me awake purely just in jealous spite. At that moment I had almost let my temper slip, but I barely managed to restrain myself from tearing that asshole's body limb from limb.

The indignation of having such a petty and weak man hit me, even though I literally couldn't feel the pain from such a weak hit, the disrespect was almost intolerable for someone like me; somebody who could literally in an instant tear his head from his body and shit down his throat if I wanted.

But I kept my cool... if barely.

I totally didn't use Shadow Manifestation to manipulate the leader's own shadow to trip him and make him look like an idiot in front of his whole crew, no-no, I could never dream of doing something so petty. Not-at-all...

...

Okay, I might've done it once or twice...

But he deserved it!

...

Anyways, during the short day I've spent with the Azure Claw mercenary group, I've learned quite a few things about this world. Since I made my identity to that of a Mordrian Merchant's rich and lost son, I had to play the part so I couldn't ask too obvious questions and had to scoot awkwardly around the conversations with off-handed questions that didn't arouse too much suspicion as to if I really was someone from Mordria. However, using the guise of a sheltered and unwitting young man, the curiosity I displayed towards pretty much anything under the stars usually went unquestioned.

Although I did manage to catch a few odd glances at some of the weirder questions I asked, I managed to learn mostly what I wanted. This mercenary group was apparently from a neighboring country to Mordria, called Cealmor. From what I could discern from conversing with Elora, it would appear that Cealmor was a lot larger and generally many times stronger than Mordria which was more of a countryside to her than an actual kingdom.

It would appear that countries were grouped into ranks, Modria being a simple 1st-rank country, barely considered a kingdom while Cealmor was a fully-fledged 2nd-rank country. What exactly those ranks truly entailed, I wasn't sure, but I could easily guess that it most likely correlated to the strength of the living beings in the country and its general size.

Other than that, I only managed to glean some random and miscellaneous information that wasn't all that useful to know. I realized that this way of getting information by posing as someone else and slowly getting tidbits from conversing about tedious subjects was extremely inefficient, and by now I was getting to the point where I was just going to say screw it and start killing until I found someone who'd be more than willing to spill the beans without the need for torture or simply one to dominate.

But just as I was contemplating doing so, I was suddenly interrupted by the commanding voice of the mercenary leader spilling into the ears of everybody.

"The scouts have discovered the Ebongrave caravan headed directly in the path of the camp, prepare yourselves, we will engage in less than half an hour or so. Assemble into your groups!" - Adran

Elora's gaze turning serious while simultaneously adapting the glint of greed, she turned to me.

"You can just stay here at the camp, no monsters should be in the vicinity and the monster dispersing incense have already been set in place so it will more than safe if you just stay here." - Elora

Before I could respond, her lithe figure had already jumped out of the carriage, but just as she was about to leave she turned to me once again.

"I won't be gone long. When we return, there will be a night to celebrate! Drinks on me." - Elora

Giving me a meaningful wink, Elora disappeared out of sight. I could only sigh at the salacious woman, having no intention of taking her up on the offer although I liked her forward and friendly attitude.

But the mention of Ebongrave roused my curiosity seeing as I had heard these mercenaries talk about it with obvious greed coloring their eyes. This Ebongrave was apparently some monster city, however, compared to Maldrak the greenskin city, Ebongrave was a true civilized monster city that easily eclipsed the size of Maldrak.

Putting off on creating a bloodbath with the bodies of these humans, I decided that some entertainment was in order. All these people were the strongest humans I've seen, other than Lily that is. However, I couldn't actually be sure if the Azure Claw's leader was her match or not since back then when I met her, I had a lot worse grasp on other's strengths.

But what I was most excited about was just seeing the abilities of these humans, especially that Ireli girl of theirs. She was actually a bonafide human mage.

***

Disguised by the canopy of an old tree, I looked from above at the procession of greenskins moving along a weathered road that had relatively dense forest flanking them on both sides. They consisted of two large wagons and a carriage drawn by stowlers, about fifteen peak-leveled orcs, and lastly the core of their strength, an ogre and a great orc both at the D- rank.

The surroundings were silent as the greenskins below moved along and bickered boisterously amongst each other. However, the sudden roar of a beachball-sized fireball flying through the air and the succinct explosion that followed, caused chaos to sound out.

"AMBUSH!" - ???

The great orc roared and brandished his large broadsword to engage the many humans that suddenly started sprouting from the wood in every direction. Seeing the show start, I made myself comfortable.

"Urgh- where's the popcorn when you need it?" - Me