The Demon Blood Packs

It swelled. It grew. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And only then did it become the Demon Blood Clan I knew.

Not identical, but close enough — an appearance not unlike the Desert Queen's.

From seven straight to eight in a single leap.

All that growth from a mere three drops of blood.

I wasn't anemic yet. So I got greedy.

BOOOOM!

The moment I fed it two more drops in succession, the Demon Blood Species' body couldn't take it and burst apart.

Grrk! Grrrrrk!

Blood sprayed in every direction. It had been blown to pieces as if struck by a bomb.

Krr!

Krrr!

Before long, the other Demon Blood Clans were greedily devouring the fallen scraps of flesh.

……So there was a limit after all.

Or perhaps some other condition was required.

Having learned that forcing too much blood would make the body explode, I moderated carefully. One I pushed to Level 9; the rest I raised only as far as Level 8.

And at the same time—

The moment the pack was completed, another line of text floated up.

Sacrifice Skill?

Offering them as a sacrifice. In other words, using a skill with these Demon Blood Species' lives as collateral.

Sacrifice Skills were extraordinarily powerful and extraordinarily demanding — abilities that could unleash force beyond one's level, but killed the user the instant they were cast. Ultra-high-output skills that ended in death.

So this is the Demon Blood King's true function.

Sacrificing Demon Blood Species to unleash overwhelming skills seemed to be his real authority. For all I knew, even the Dimensional Gate might have been forged through a Sacrifice Skill. Sending the Desert Queen ahead first fit the pattern too.

……So that's why the Contamination Sources took the form of Demon Blood Clans.

Once the thought reached that far, it only grew more interesting.

The Demon Blood King had sent the Desert Queen to Pangenia in advance to research Contamination. Then he had spread plague across all of Faisalmer, artificially multiplying Demon Blood Clans. And finally, he had intended to sacrifice the last Contamination Source so that he himself could descend.

There might be other conditions involved — I'd need to research further — but the core was clear.

The more packs of Demon Blood Species I gather, and the stronger they become, the higher-tier Sacrifice Skills I can use.

That was the most important part. Strengthen the packs, and Sacrifice Skills of an entirely different dimension become available. And depending on the attribute of the pack leader, the usable skills change.

I will tame every last Demon Blood Clan on this floor.

I needed to expand the packs. There might be Demon Blood Clans on the upper floors as well — or there might not. Either way, I had to gather as many as I could.

— Give us a mission.

— Shall we kill those two humans?

— My King! We shall begin the slaughter!

— Blood! More blood!

These things were drunk on blood. They were practically drooling as they watched the two people fleeing in the distance.

I did tell them they could grow stronger by carrying out my orders.

I nodded and pointed a finger at the two fleeing figures.

"Bring them. Alive."

"Please, spare us!!"

"Just let us live, my lord!"

Pat. Might.

The moment the Demon Blood Species dragged them in, both men pressed their foreheads to the ground. Then they traded a quick glance, reading each other's faces.

This has to be the Area Boss that rules these monsters!

But no matter how you look at him, he looks like a person.

A man who had appeared out of nowhere. He commanded monsters and fed them blood to evolve them. His appearance was unmistakably human — but nothing he did was.

"This doesn't seem like a tower a Level 4 should be challenging."

"W-we got tricked by Master into coming here! He said it wouldn't be hard, that we'd make a ton of money! That son of a bitch!"

……Watching them curse Master with such passion, I stroked my chin for a moment.

Master had recruited people to serve as lab rats and dumped them in en masse.

"Did this Master enter the tower as well?"

"Yes! He definitely said he was going in too. There were some strange monsters with him, I think……"

"With monsters?"

Master was associating with monsters? So he wasn't clearing it with a party of Players?

Forming a party with monsters was nearly impossible. Unless you did what I had done — transform into a Corpse Crow and deceive them outright. Just as humans loathed monsters, monsters loathed humans in turn.

Then the man beside him spoke up.

"Y-yes. Laktusha! I clearly heard that name. An orc and a dark elf…… I couldn't make out the other two because they had their hoods pulled low, but they looked incredibly strong."

……Laktusha?

Surely not the Swordmaster Laktusha I'd seen at the Mountain of the Cultivator?

He didn't die?

Baal had been unsealed at the Mountain of the Cultivator. I'd assumed Laktusha had died fighting him. Had his subordinates sacrificed themselves so that he alone could survive? And why Laktusha was working with Master was another mystery entirely.

Laktusha and a dark elf…… Black King's forces.

The reason the Black King's forces were with Master. Most likely, Master had sided with the Black King. I didn't know what he'd been given, but climbing the tower together meant Master possessed critical intelligence about this Rift Tower.

Master was famous for loving his experiments, after all. There was a real chance he held information even I didn't know.

The Laktusha I saw back then was Level 13. We won't cross paths just yet.

A tower of fractured levels. The highest-level member of my party was Serengeti — a 1-Star, meaning Level 11. So there was little chance of a direct clash with the Black King's forces.

But a clash was still possible. If I climbed all the way to the Level 13 zone myself.

— My King! May we eat them now?

— Blood! Flesh! Slaughter!

— Looks delicious!

……The Demon Blood Species circled the two men, drool hanging in thick strings. Left alone, they would clean the pair down to the marrow.

I gave a small shake of my head.

"Capture every remaining Demon Blood Clan. Alive."

Expanding the packs came first.

Pat and Might could scarcely believe what they were seeing.

In an instant, the monsters had spread across the entire area and dragged other monsters back alive. The captured creatures then prostrated themselves before the man and swore their loyalty.

Just what the hell is that guy?

A being that monsters followed on instinct. On top of that, the man fed them his own blood and strengthened them. The number of enhanced monsters shot past a hundred in no time.

……I've seen people who command undead a few times, but this is on a completely different level.

He led living monsters and made them stronger. Undead couldn't grow — but these monsters could grow without end. And all it took was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a single drop of blood.

They had never seen anything so impossible. For a moment a vampire came to mind, but this surpassed even that.

And then—

Whoooooosh.

……The man raised his sword, and a blizzard rose.

A freezing gale that seemed ready to strip the flesh from bone swept the entire area into ice in moments.

And then—

An Area Boss they never even saw died out of nowhere. No chance to confirm what it looked like, or how strong it was.

The two men were forcibly ejected. A warp formed beneath their feet and dropped them through.

But they saw it.

What the hell is that warp?

A golden warp that had opened in front of the man who commanded the monsters. A color and form they had never seen in their lives — completely different from their own. And the man stepping freely through it.

We climbed the floor with a score no one else could touch. Judging by the drop in total party count, some parties had been wiped out entirely.

Being strong relative to your level is definitely an advantage.

Excluding myself, Serengeti had also racked up a considerable score. A 1-Star, but with skill bordering on 2-Star. Almost nothing in a Level 11 zone would be able to stop her.

The Demon Blood Species can cross the warp as well.

The Level 5 area. The moment I stepped through the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠warp, the other Demon Blood Species transferred in around me. Their numbers had reached one hundred and twenty.

Beyond mere packs — once the count surpassed one hundred, a Grand Pack was completed, unlocking a climactic Sacrifice Skill.

Blazing Catastrophe. Just the name alone made its destructive power palpable.

But it was still too early to use something like that at this stage.

— I can grow stronger still. Bestow your blood upon me!

Then Pack Leader (1) spoke to me — the one with the Fire attribute, the first to become a leader. Perhaps completing several missions had expanded its limits.

I bestowed a single drop of blood upon Pack Leader (1).

And then—

Brrrrr!

The vigorously trembling body of Pack Leader (1) grew a little larger, and flame began surging across its entire form like a visual effect.

Its level rose by one as well. But that wasn't the only change.

When the pack leader was strengthened, Eternal Flames had become Grand Eternal Flames. As expected — the skill offered in sacrifice scaled with the leader's nature and level.

How far it could be strengthened was something I was genuinely curious about.

And that curiosity would be answered soon enough.

Kiiiruk!

Kirrrk!

……Because there were Demon Blood Clans on the Level 5 area as well. Slightly larger ones than those on the Level 4 floor.

"Capture every last one of them. Alive."

I gave the order. I would dominate every Demon Blood Clan here too.

Ziiing—!

A fierce aura condensed along Laktusha's greatsword. Not mere Sword Qi — the fully formed shape of Sword Gang.

Devour them all, Black Heaven Sword.

The blade, black as ink, swept out laden with Sword Gang.

KWAARRRRRRRNG!

The earth split open, and a horde of giant-sized Demon Blood Clans was blown to smithereens. Everything the blade touched was shredded into thousands — tens of thousands — of pieces, torn and split apart without even a chance to scream.

And then—

The settlement screen appeared at once. But Laktusha was not satisfied with this score.

Still only second place.