Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: The Vampire King's Rise
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When the existence of vampires was first revealed and the attacks began, Shaiven thought he had moved too hastily.
'I still need to build up more forces.'
Shaiven had cleverly conquered the three fortresses known to be the most difficult to attack, one after another, alongside the very first minions he had created.
This happened before the gods even noticed, and they had no real knowledge of what vampires were.
Shaiven and his vampires infiltrated the fortresses disguised as begging wanderers, unremarkable servants, or ownerless slaves. They killed the fortress lords or turned them into their own minions.
Afterward, the vampires scattered and hid throughout the five nations dominating the continent.
Even so, Shaiven felt uneasy.
'A full-scale assault would be dangerous.'
In the first three months, the vampires had rapidly expanded their forces, but not enough to withstand a united attack from all five nations.
Fortunately for Shaiven, all five nations held off on mounting an offensive.
The other races couldn't pinpoint the vampires' central hub.
If they gathered armies to strike vampires only for them to emerge elsewhere unexpectedly, allowing key strongholds in each nation to be overrun in the process, it would spell disaster.
Thus, each nation stationed only enough troops to defend the confirmed vampire fortresses from breakout attacks, while directing the bulk of their forces to raid vampire groups discovered within their own borders.
This was Wisdom's idea.
What worried Wisdom most was getting hit from behind.
Due to his cautious nature that avoided high-risk plays, Wisdom suggested encircling the known vampire fortresses with defensive forces while keeping the rest of the troops to defend their own nations.
The idea sounded plausible enough.
Vampires didn't consume ordinary food like other races; they sustained themselves through others. Tightening the noose around their fortresses would wither them away, or so they reasoned.
Moreover, redirecting troops inward would curb the vampires' growth within each nation.
Once the enemy vampires were sufficiently thinned out, they could assault the fortresses, slay the hidden priests, and end it all.
'But that approach was far too timid. It only bought us time.'
Of course, Wisdom's strategy was sound.
Shaiven had hidden follow-up vampire units far from the fortresses, prepared for all-out war.
These infiltrators existed systematically as wanderers, village notables, or shadowy noble cliques in the capitals.
Even if players checked each individual, they couldn't identify vampires faster than Shaiven could create new ones, rendering it pointless.
If Wisdom hadn't shared his thoughts with the other players, the weakest military among them—Renaud's nation—might have fallen first.
'But that would only be a matter of sooner or later. In the end, I'll hand victory to the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh.'
Each player ordered their priests to hunt down vampires.
The known vampire weaknesses were two: sunlight and silver.
But these only triggered mild allergic reactions in third-generation vampires and had almost no effect on fourth-generation ones.
The first generation was Shaiven alone, and second-generation numbers were limited, so this method wouldn't uncover many.
Finding hidden vampires was thus exceedingly difficult.
Finally, by the sixth month, Shaiven amassed the number of soldiers demanded by the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh: six thousand.
The vampires had been scattered, but gathering them was no great feat.
Vampires formed a pyramidal hierarchy, serving a vampire one generation superior as their master.
Inversely, a single command from Shaiven to one second-generation vampire would mobilize ten third-generation ones, each of whom could summon ten fourth-generation vampires—roughly a hundred in total.
Shaiven selected six capable second-generation vampires, dubbing them generals, each commanding a thousand vampire soldiers.
Three generals waited in the rear for their moment, while the other three attacked the main forces besieging the fortresses.
Since fourth-generation vampires—who suffered stat penalties upon turning—made up most of the army, even three thousand wouldn't overwhelm the five nations united.
Moreover, these "soldiers" were simply the fittest young vampires selected; many had never held a weapon before.
In contrast, the five nations' main forces consisted of battle-hardened veterans from frequent inter-nation conflicts.
The problem was that the five players had underestimated the crisis up to that point.
The garrisons defending each fortress numbered about five hundred and knew they had to hold off a thousand vampires.
Abandoning even one fortress to unite forces could have crushed the vampire detachments piecemeal.
But the three fortresses lay in different nations, so yielding one meant one player taking a loss.
A vicious game of chicken ensued among the players, but no team volunteered to sacrifice.
Around this time, Seong-un watched from afar, pondering whether to offer advice.
'But maybe they need to get burned once to heed the lesson?'
Seong-un stayed silent, and Shaiven drove off the besieging forces from all three fortresses, using the occupation troops to replenish his losses.
At the same time, honoring the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh's will, Shaiven ordered a thousand troops each to rise in the Troll Kingdom, Asbestos and Renaud's nation, and Zecca.
He then combined these three thousand with his remaining thousand to assault his long-cherished target: Nix's nation, the Golden Eye capital.
It was no easy task.
His forces numbered four thousand, while Golden Eye's army was only thirteen hundred.
Yet the Golden Eye king wielded divine power for devastating blows, and the colossal guardian beast protecting Golden Eye was a formidable foe.
Hundreds of soldiers perished before the rumored divine might.
Without countermeasures, even four thousand would have failed.
Thankfully, the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh did not abandon Shaiven.
Just as an unseen primordial god possessed the Golden Eye king, the god descended upon one of Shaiven's generals, Robein.
Robein slew the Golden Eye king with that power and dealt massive damage even to the guardian.
As the wounded guardian fell to the soldiers' onslaught, Golden Eye lost its capital.
Player Ar1026's level plummeted to 4 as a result.
Shaiven instructed his minions to bolster their numbers and incorporated sturdy Nix into his ranks.
Golden Eye did not surrender, but with its main force of thirteen hundred annihilated and only about two hundred scattered in the provinces, resistance was futile.
The vampires didn't win everywhere.
The thousand from Asbestos inflicted damage but were wiped out by trolls; Zecca's mere four hundred delayed the enemy with aid from Satyros's nation, Danyeom, saving their capital.
Still, Golden Eye suffered catastrophic losses, while Asbestos, Zecca, and Danyeom lost significant troops.
The vampires, meanwhile, retained four thousand soldiers.
Shaiven proclaimed himself the Vampire King and declared the founding of White Fang.
By the ninth month, Vampire King Shaiven's White Fang had risen as the continent's hegemon.
Shaiven presented a vision to his minions—the second-, third-, and fourth-generation vampires.
"We wandered wounded and forsaken. We will have vengeance on the kin who abandoned us. Ultimately, on the gods who discarded us. We will usher in a new world upon this land."
His generals—the second-generation ones—were mostly wanderers like Shaiven, so they understood and rallied to his cause.
Shaiven clearly demarcated borders with other nations, solidifying White Fang's presence, while dividing his army into thousands to pressure the frontiers from every neighboring country.
Splitting forces was risky, but White Fang sat centrally, bordering all five nations, most of which couldn't muster a full thousand even at full strength.
As Shaiven predicted, the players shied from even these divided forces, allowing White Fang's armies to expand borders irresistibly.
Wisdom and the others decided they needed Seong-un's help.
It was late, but not total defeat yet.
Shaiven had no way of knowing their discussions, yet he sensed something off.
Ten months into being a vampire, reports flowed between him and his generals via couriers, but all four divided armies had halted at once.
Each general offered excuses, but Shaiven doubted their validity.
'...Why aren't the generals advancing?'
Seong-un addressed the five players.
"Vampires have three weaknesses."
Krampus voiced his doubt.
"...Three? Not two?"
"Name the two you know first. Let's see if you're up to speed."
"...Everyone knows them: sunlight and silver."
Seong-un nodded.
Krampus raised a hand.
"Hold on. The third one... I think I know it."
"What do you think?"
"...That their abilities degrade with each generation?"
Seong-un shook his head.
"That's both an advantage and a disadvantage."
"...True."
The players classified vampires as upper, middle, and lower tiers.
Upper tiers boasted superior physical prowess but suffered greatly from sunlight and silver; lower tiers had weak physiques but near-immunity to those.
These tiers stemmed from who bit whom, leading to the natural inference that the first vampire was the strongest.
Some players suspected one exposed vampire general was the origin, but Seong-un believed the prime vampire hadn't surfaced yet.
Wisdom spoke.
"Nebula, if you're not just toying with us, there's no need for riddles."
"Sorry if I upset you."
"...Yeah, right. Now you apologize."
Wisdom ignored Krampus's mutter and continued.
"So, what's the issue? I wouldn't think it's a big deal myself... My scouts show no movement from Black Scale."
"It's not me. It started in White Fang."
"Nebula, you're not the vampire player."
Seong-un shrugged.
"Vampires carry their weakness inherently. And I seem to be the only one who's figured out the third one."
"Which is?"
"First, look at White Fang's army advances over the past few days."
Seong-un pulled up a prepared screen.
The map listed White Fang's army positions by date.
"What do you see?"
Runda said,
"Unless my eyes deceive me... they're all the same map?"
"What does that imply?"
"They haven't moved?"
"Exactly."
"That's the weakness? But couldn't they just be resupplying?"
"All four armies at once?"
Seong-un shook his head.
He manipulated the screen.
His video chat window expanded dozens of times, revealing the barren landscape of an unidentified mountain range where Seong-un stood.
Then he opened dozens more windows.
"Each shows a White Fang army's path, as you see. They rarely halt for resupply. They can't freely procure food or reinforcements. They only pause periodically to raid villages. Right now, all four detachments stopped for food... and stayed put."
Krampus said,
"Maybe there's a reason we don't know? You can't guarantee their halt ties to this third weakness you haven't named."
"Possibly, but I see a strong correlation."
Wisdom asked,
"What is it?"
"Simple. You treated vampires like zombies at first. Solid anti-zombie plague tactics, but vampires and zombies differ fundamentally."
Seong-un tapped his mask.
"They have intelligence."
"Intelligence."
"Yes. Zombies follow orders uniformly, but vampires vary. Different races, tier gaps. Most were forced into vampirism. Lower tiers obey middles, middles obey uppers—but lower-tier obedience is shoddy. What does that mean?"
Wisdom said,
"Ah, so that's it."
As Wisdom nodded to himself, Runda asked,
"What's that mean?"
"They lack legitimacy."
"Legitimacy?"
"Nebula, may I explain?"
"Go ahead."
Wisdom addressed the four players.
"Vampire cohesion relies solely on innate submission. It worked so far—they had to prey on others just to survive. But White Fang's a major power now. Survival's guaranteed without harming others. No cause left to fight for, only obedience remains. So some vampire generals surely..."
Wisdom paused, then nodded.
"...resent losses. Right. They don't want more casualties from their minions. Our armies took hits, but our divinity endures—we can handle a thousand. The generals know this and hope another moves first."
Seong-un added,
"They didn't notice hunger, but now they're full, doubts creep in. It's a game of chicken."