Chapter 160: Anyway, It's a Secret Meeting (2)
Chapter 160: Anyway, It's a Secret Meeting (2)
“Oh, right! Student Yandel, come to my office during lunch! I have something very, very important to discuss!”
Iona gave a playful wink, her blood-red eyes crinkling.
At that sight, someone in Class A whispered softly.
“…Is she scouting him for graduate school?”
Hey now. Stop saying such terrifying things!
*
Lunchtime.
Despite the horrific misunderstanding I’d just overheard, Iona obviously wasn’t trying to drag me into graduate school.
She likely had more to say regarding tomorrow’s raid on the cultist branch and wanted to fill me in.
With that in mind, I knocked on Iona’s office door, flanked by Carla and Elisha.
Knock, knock.
“Professor? You called for me.”
“Student Yandel? Come in! Come in!”
At Iona’s permission, I opened the door. The first thing that met my eyes… was a blood-drenched Iona and a laboratory that looked like the set of a horror movie.
“I called you here to register your ownership of this magical tool—”
“Uwaaaaah!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Pyaaaaah!”
Only after the three of us—me, Carla, and Elisha—screamed in unison did Iona realize the state she was in.
“Oops! My bad! I forgot to wash up!”
With a light snap of her fingers, she cast Clean magic without a chant, instantly washing away the blood staining her body and the surrounding area.
Then, waving her hands as if to reassure us, she spoke.
“Don’t worry! It’s all my blood!”
“Isn’t that even more dangerous?! Do you need a potion? Or since you’re a vampire, should I bring you some blood transfusion packs? …Wait. Is this actually dangerous? Considering a vampire’s regeneration…”
I stopped mid-motion, halfway through pulling a healing potion out of my inventory.
Perhaps finding my reaction amusing, Iona covered her mouth with her loose sleeve and giggled.
“Student Yandel, you’re quite funny! You’re really trying to give a vampire a potion just because she bled a little?”
“…What? So it’s really not a big deal?”
Feeling like I was the only one overreacting, I looked around. Carla and Elisha had been startled for a moment, but they were calm now.
“Calm down, Master. I was surprised because she was suddenly covered in blood, but I’ve heard that vampires possess an amount of blood incomparable to other races.”
“Yes. Furthermore, if it’s someone of Professor Iona’s caliber rather than an ordinary vampire… that amount of bleeding is probably equivalent to pricking a finger with a needle.”
“Really…?”
Vampires were never a playable race in H&A, so I didn’t know such detailed lore.
“Ahahaha! Student Yandel, you possess knowledge that no one else knows, yet you’re clueless about things everyone else is aware of! But that’s okay! This Professor Iona will teach you everything there is to know about vampires, one by one! …Gasp! Saying it like that sounds a bit suggestive!”
Iona mimed covering her own mouth in mock shock.
According to Iona’s subsequent explanation, the "ordinary blood" we knew was merely a type of resource for vampires, much like mana.
That was why vampires were the only race that primarily used blood magic.
Blood magic is powerful, but it’s usually limited in use because it consumes the caster’s own blood. However, if one has an overflowing supply of blood, those limitations effectively vanish.
Until now, I’d assumed they created blood through magic, the same way one might create water or fire… or that they used someone else’s blood.
The high-level blood magic seen in H&A could cover an entire battlefield in gore; how was I supposed to think that all came from a single person?
Of course, vampires did have specific parts that served as the source of their life.
Namely, the heart and a special type of blood called True Blood.
The heart functioned like a mana core, storing energized blood and manifesting it physically as needed.
True Blood was like a concentrated extract; by diluting it slightly, they could produce massive quantities of ordinary blood.
It was also the center responsible for the output of various vampire special abilities and the control over blood itself.
The blood crystals I’d received from Iona previously were also made by processing True Blood.
As a bonus, turning a victim into a familiar was only possible by draining their blood and then injecting them with True Blood.
Every single detail coming out of Iona’s mouth was lore I’d never heard in H&A.
Regardless of everything else, having played H&A for so long and so deeply, hearing new settings or backstories made things quite exciting.
However, perhaps my sparkling eyes and rapt attention looked a bit strange to her.
After answering my various questions, Iona tossed a playful question back at me with a mischievous smile.
“My, my. I didn’t know Student Yandel was this interested in vampires. It’s almost strange that you didn’t know these basics!”
“Well, I do know a few things about vampires myself… though the focus is a bit different, I suppose….”
“Oh? What kind of things? Go ahead, tell me! Since you have a real vampire right in front of you, it’ll be easy to check if they’re true or not!”
“If you say so.”
I took a moment to organize my thoughts before speaking.
“First, a vampire’s weakness is the heart.”
“…Huh?”
“A vampire’s regeneration is so immense that they won’t die easily unless you drain all their blood. I’ve even seen them stay alive after being decapitated.”
“Well, that’s true, I guess?”
“Yes. That’s why the heart is the weakness. It’s a delicate organ that’s difficult to regenerate, and since it causes a massive loss of blood, the regeneration itself weakens.”
“Uh….”
“Of course, a truly powerful vampire might avoid instant death even if their heart is pierced… but they’d be barely clinging to life. If you’re lucky, a vampire experiencing the fear of death for the first time in a long while might even fall into a panic.”
“If I’m lucky…?”
“Oh, and they’re also weak to light and holy power. Of course, this doesn’t apply to a vampire on humanity’s side like you, Professor, but for those living in isolation or those who have sided with the Evil God, light and divinity are no different from deadly poison. Strictly speaking, vampires fall under the category of undead, don’t they?”
“Mhm….”
“However, light attribute magic is difficult to synergize with other spells and has a high difficulty level. Holy power has the issue of limited offensive utility, so depending on the situation, there are times when neither can be used effectively.”
“Student Yandel…?”
“In those cases, using fire attribute magic is the best. Areas that have suffered burns have a significantly slower regeneration speed.”
“Excuse me….”
“That was the perspective of a mage. A knight, who possesses only aura instead of various attributes, would have to approach it differently. Of course, there are cases where the aura itself carries an attribute… but those are exceptions, so I’ll set them aside for now.”
“S-Stop….”
“No matter how excellent a vampire’s regeneration is, they can’t instantly reconstruct a severed limb. So, rather than aiming for a fatal blow, the standard strategy is to whittle them down bit by bit, cutting off even just a finger joint at a time.”
“…….”
After that, I went on to explain how to deal with escapes and ambushes using mist transformation and bat transformation.
I shared pro-tips on turning charm magic against the caster, the openings in the "Blood Frenzy" desperation pattern, the know-how to temporarily sever the connection between a Lord and their familiars, and so on.
I told her everything I knew about vampire raids.
While vampires weren’t playable in H&A, they frequently appeared as enemies.
Since every single one of them was a named character or a mid-boss level threat, I’d really struggled against them back when I was a newbie.
I’d been excitedly rambling as if I were talking about the game for the first time in a while, but then I paused.
Sensing the atmosphere had turned quiet, I glanced around.
Carla was holding her head in her hands, and Elisha was letting out a deep sigh.
And for some reason, Iona looked incredibly pale, even for a vampire.
“Professor? You don’t look well. Are you alright?”
“Um… Student Yandel?”
“Yes?”
“By any chance, are you… you know… a vampire hunter or something? Wasn’t that a profession that disappeared 300 years ago…?”
“Oh, uh.”
I think I see what the misunderstanding is.
“It’s nothing like that. It’s true I know a lot about how to hunt vampires, but there’s a reason for that….”
“I-It’s okay! It’s okay! I’m a good vampire! I go to church once a week, and I’ve never broken the treaty! Even if it was because of being backstabbed by Ayla, I haven’t touched human blood at all since that day! And also….”
Iona rambled on, using frantic gestures to plead her innocence.
So, her abstinence from human blood was due to a kind of trauma.
I’d heard that it was perfectly fine to drink it if it was in the form of a blood transfusion pack, or even directly if the person gave their consent.
Well… proof would be required to show that the person wasn’t under the influence of charm or other mental magic.
Regardless, it meant she didn’t have to force herself to drink animal blood while making a face like she was swallowing poison.
Iona’s pleas continued for quite a while.
I tried telling her in between that it wasn’t like that, but she didn’t seem to believe me, so I just nodded along.
“Yes, yes. I get it. I really get it, so please stop!”
“Really, really? You won’t just go slash from behind because I look tired, right?”
“Oh, come on! I never doubted you in the first place, so just tell me why you called us here! Lunch is almost over!”
“…Gasp! Right. I forgot!”
Iona hurriedly pulled three rings from her robe.
They were simple silver bands with a single gemstone—a rather plain design.
The only unique thing was that the color of the gems was a dark, blackish-red, just like Iona’s eyes.
“These, these. They’re tracking rings! They utilize the property of my blood to be drawn to itself, so they’ll work perfectly even if you’re far apart or facing magical interference! Just in case, take one each and register yourselves as the owners!”
As she spoke, I noticed an identical ring on Iona’s own finger.
“Oh… it would be good to have something like this. Carla. Elisha. Come here. I’ll put them on you.”
After sliding the rings onto their fingers one by one, I put mine on as well. The size didn’t quite fit, so I had to wear it on my pinky.
“Now you just have to register as the owners! Just drop a single bead of your blood onto the gem, and you’re done!”
Following Iona’s instructions, I dropped a bead of blood. I felt a strange pull from the ring for a moment before it vanished.
That pull must be how you track the locations.
“Good job! Good job! From now on, if you just inject a little bit of mana, you’ll be able to roughly tell the direction and distance through the attraction between the rings! That’s all for the important stuff! Sorry for keeping you so long! You can head back to class now!”
“Yes. Then we’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Mhm. See you then!”
After a brief farewell to Iona, we stepped out of the lab.
Now, all that was left….
“I just need to stop by Senior Fay’s workshop after school.”
There were a few things I’d asked her for.