The Vampire's Castle

After finding a way to use the Setting Room indefinitely, I decided to build a dedicated computer lab inside the Academy.

My editors and managers weren't skilled enough to qualify for admission, but since they'd be coming in purely to work, there was no problem. If anything, I'd needed to fill the wide space anyway, so it worked out nicely.

At any rate, once I'd finished setting up the magic required for the design, I turned on the stream right away.

My current location was the blacksmith's forge — my class advancement site, and a place I had to visit in order to receive my 4th Advancement quest.

"Welcome! Go ahead and have a seat."

"The island? It'll be doing just fine."

There was plenty of unfinished business, but I'd left it in capable hands, so it would manage itself. Looking after the island was their job, after all.

"We just need to do our own jobs well. Today, first things first — I'm picking up my advancement quest."

Smoke curled up through the forge. Inside stood one burly middle-aged man, and it was from him that advancement quests could be received. As a hidden quest, the class advancement came with an absurd difficulty curve, for what it was worth.

I pushed open the forge door and stepped inside. The muscle-bound man was in his usual spot, holding a massive spear — unfinished at the tip, probably something he'd been mid-way through crafting.

"Welcome! You've grown stronger beyond all comparison to before."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Still not enough, though."

Compared to the past, I was hopelessly weak. Especially facing the Kraken that would soon arrive... I fell far short.

I studied the man before me carefully. In the old days, I'd been reduced to crawling, so I'd never truly looked at him...

...There's something to him, all right.

The power he held now was civilian-grade, but within it ran the strength of a special species — like Raccoon's kind. If I wanted to dig, I probably could.

"Have you a question for me?"

"...No. Give me the quest, please."

For now, I'd let it lie. I hadn't come to uncover his identity — I'd come for the quest.

"Very well! Here is the task you must complete!"

Ring!

"Ha."

Absurd as ever.

"This is way too harsh."

"This much shouldn't be anything to you, should it?"

"It is, though."

How was I supposed to hunt twenty of them? For that matter, fewer than twenty world bosses had appeared in Deoen in its entire history.

The muscle-bound man let out a hearty laugh.

"You can do it. Trust me."

"I'd rather not."

"That's how growth works. And only then can you face the threat that's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coming, no?"

I stared at the muscle-bound man. He was still grinning playfully. Does he know about the Kraken?

"Are you talking about the Kraken?"

"That, and more."

"?"

"Well, it isn't my place to say right now. Anyway, do well and come back safe. I'll even have a gift waiting when you return."

"...Understood."

I had no idea what he meant, but I might as well look forward to finding out.

Once the year turned over, the Kraken would awaken. Less than three months remained. Somewhere in that window — whether by advancing my class or raising everyone else's level of skill — the Kraken had to be stopped. A mid-tier Kraken, or perhaps something even beyond that, was genuinely dangerous.

"We'd better prepare."

But people had no sense of crisis about the calamity to come. Trusting in the level of the mass-produced copies that had appeared before, they saw it instead as an opportunity to upgrade their specs. It was the same reason the land prices of port cities that should be crashing were, against all logic, rising.

Before long, they'll understand.

Just how lightly they had taken it all.

"Today, I'm going to test what you've all been waiting for."

The Dimension Space Implementation Chamber. At last, I could open the 'door'.

The Dimension Space Implementation Chamber occupied a space of well over three hundred square meters, its floor and walls composed entirely of Blue-Red Stone. Every part of the structure, from the pillars bearing the building's weight on down, was wrapped in a protective mana barrier, while the ceiling was a ring of translucent mana glass. Floating at its very center, the Metamor hung ready to reshape itself at a moment's notice.

"Eh, I didn't take that much."

All I'd stripped was the mana stone from Akron's sealing ground and the area around the volcanic island. No one else needed sealing there anymore, so there was hardly any reason to leave it sitting around, was there?

With that said, I laid a light hand on the Metamor.

Grrooomm...! Light burst forth in a wave of blue mana, and the chamber's ceiling slowly began to open.

From the Metamor as its focal point, a divine magic circle etched itself across the center of the room, and the mana stone filling the space lent it support.

"Then let's head in."

The light swallowed me whole.

Splash!

The first thing I felt was my feet pressing against the earth. A gray sky cast a chill over everything, and dark, viscous blood seeped through the broken ground. My gaze traced the blood upward, slowly. At the end of that line of sight stood a castle wreathed in smoke.

A castle where everyone had died — and where everyone was still alive. Those invaded by the vampires, killed by the vampires, and granted life once more by the vampires.

"There we go."

It had materialized exactly as I'd pictured it.

Back in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠day, I had gone castle by castle, smashing each one to pieces in my war against Rasty the Progenitor — the being who had swallowed half a continent. This was exactly as it had looked back then.

"If you clear it, you can be admitted, and your stats will be equalized just like before."

As with the one-on-one duels where everyone's power had been capped at one percent, my abilities would be restricted here too. In practice, unless you knew how to work mana, you couldn't even use that one percent of your strength. Of course, anyone with a class or trait specialized against vampires would have an edge — but at that margin, it hardly mattered.

The silver sword and the crossbow. Having chosen my two, I started toward the castle with a stride far slower than usual.

"I picked the weapons I figure you'll all be using the most. You need to understand how this is supposed to play out today, after all."

That said, since this would decide admission, the difficulty would be raised further, and every pattern would be changed.

With the crossbow slung across my back and the sword in hand, I crept carefully toward the castle gate. Vampires stood guard there — pale-skinned and red-eyed, as every vampire was.

Click.

I smothered my presence, slipped past their gaze, and leveled the crossbow.

And then—

A vampire's throat was pierced clean through.