Back at the Immortal Galaxy, it is thoroughly known that only trash level lineage vampires are obligated to drink blood.
Those who have even the slightest shred of the lineage of the three major noble clans, in other words, the Naktis, the Nosfear and the Silverheart families, aren't forced to drink blood to survive.
That being said, they instinctively have a desire to do so, either for pleasure or power, at least the vast majority, with the exception of those with high purity lineages, like Aisha.
Vampires hate being lumped in together with the undead who consume flesh of other rational humanoid beings, most of the cases, humans.
Because they think of themselves as superior nobility, while being proud of their above average looks, they disdain undead as ugly and savage beings.
Which is why, vampires who go astray and consume flesh and not only blood, are captured and executed, not as a reparation towards the victim or to put them out of their misery, but because they consider them a disgrace.
'Guess I'll take a sample of the guy, for the time being since he is the son of an Earl, which should be an Arch rank at least', thought Daimon as he walked towards the wall with the mark.
Why didn't he consider taking blood from the two women he was holding by their necks, you wonder, the answer is simple, because there isn't going to be anything left of them in a moment.
"Crack!", under the terrified gazes of Jeremy, Dilan and Beni, Daimon's grip tightened as he crushed the necks of the two women killing them on the spot.
They were knights yes, but unlike him, whose body is innately monstrously tough, and has no need to increase his physical strength with battle aura, normal knights have to use their battle aura to use their whole strength, without that, they can at most draw out half of their power.
And with they being immobilized by Daimon's Overlord's Pride, let alone move, they couldn't even circulate their battle aura anymore, it was more surprising for him that they didn't have any life-saving measure, but considering the outdated rune mastering level of this place, it made sense, they were just guards after all.
Daimon's hand covered in white flames which then spread to the bodies of the two women, he didn't kill them out of mercy so that they wouldn't suffer being burned alive by his Demon Light.
But because certainly their screams would have been annoying, as he wasn't going to be able to use his sight where he was going.
"Booom!", with a swift movement, Daimon kicked the wall, making the cave tremble and opening a hole into it, revealing a hollow space from which an insanely high temperature could be felt.
It was hot to the point that the opening turned red hot in a matter of second, the heat was contained because the other side of the wall was covered in some kind of ore that was isolating it.
Daimon covered his body in his white flames, and then jumped into the hole in the wall, disappearing from the sight of the presents in the cave.
Dilan observed the whole thing and he was as pale as paper, as he coldly glared at Jeremy.
"You bastard, even from this far I can feel my skin burning and that monster just casually jumped into the source of the heat, if you want to die that's your problem why the hell did you dragged me into this… aghhh!".
Dilan was in the middle of complaining, when Sarah casually kicked his face once again.
"Why was that!", he exclaimed, just to feel a vein bulging on his neck when the crazy girl spoke with a bored voice.
"Just killing time until my beloved returns", she said to then kick Jeremy this time, the cave was soon filled with loud screams and wails, which were heard by the Gary and the others who were standing far from that place while keeping guard just in case.
…
While the crazy girl was giving Jeremy and Dilan a nice beating, Daimon descended through the hollow space that led deep into the ground, the more he advanced the higher the temperature.
The walls were covered in that ore which was isolating the heat, keeping it under the melting point of the rocks, that were reinforced by mana to begin with.
This insane heat is why he called the flesh-eating demons, or ghouls to be more accurate, before jumping down here, though he had some anti-fire protections in his clothes which were his armor, and his body was highly resistant against fire.
The first was kept for an emergency, and this didn't count as one, and he wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could use his body to withstand heat that could burn a peak Arch rank away with his bare body.
So, he used the propagation property of his Demon Light, which worked better in organic material, in this case the two corpses which were being used as fuel to increase the power of the white flames without Daimon needing to supply more of them, but just keeping some control over them, to protect himself against the high temperature, combined with the natural boost to his mana which came with using Core Synchrony, he was just in the state but didn't use more mana than to lit up the corpses, so that he would get no backlash from it, he wanted to keep Sanctuary just in case.
In truth, Demon light wasn't fire, it wasn't hot, unless he changed the composition to include more fire mana, in which case, they were hotter than even Liz's fire if they were at the same level, the properties they attained if all the energies involved in their creation were balanced, was not only all the ones of the elements that Daimon put into it, but an extra destructive power, with an exponential strength akin to the number of energies that conformed it.
This property of propagation was obtained thanks to the fire mana contained in it though, with his body covered in white flames, and the two corpses slowly turning into more white flames, Daimon soon landed, he used blink a couple of times to slow his fall, because he didn't want to make the cave crumble by accident.
'Even if it's close enough to create that dark brown area, it was still a fall of around thirty kilometers, I guess it's really good, considering the guys who have seen a mine core, were tens of thousands of kilometers into those planets', he thought.
As for the signals of brown land seen by Riman, in the main mine, they were at around three hundred kilometers into the ground, and that was only the surface area formed around the mine core, the thing should be at least a couple of thousands of kilometers deeper, which is still incredibly superficial for those who know about mine cores.
That's why he counted himself lucky, to have been able to find a mine core that was forming so close to the surface.
Seeing that the fuel of his Demon Light was holding pretty good, Daimon walked towards the origin of all this heat, or more accurately to the thing that was amplifying the heat that was stored underground due to the high temperature of the wasteland, which was constantly released.
And soon he found himself in front of a fifty meter unperfect spheric pale rock, the area of fifty meters surrounding it, was lava, and the walls of this part of the underground cave had crystalized due to the heat.
But the area twenty meters around the rock was perfectly fine, in fact it didn't even look as if it was hot in there at all, and that's how it should be, otherwise, Daimon would have cursed.
"It hasn't broken its outer protection yet, it's an immaculate mine core… damn", Daimon smirked behind his mask, an element less mine core was the jackpot, if he could take it, then he they can turn it into a mine of high purity mana crystals, or turn into a mine of element mana crystals, there were many possibilities appearing in Daimon's mind right now.
But first he had to get it, the reason as to why the heat of this place was so high, was because the natural heat of the underground area of the wasteland, was being amplified by the mine core, naturally the amplifying effect of something that could produce high grade mana crystals, was really strong.
Even with all the protection he had, without actively using the effects hidden in his clothes, he had already started to feel the heat, luckily while others would probably fry the moment they tried to fly or jump over that sea of magma, he simply used blink and appeared in the area of twenty meters around the pale spherical rock.
The heat and any discomfort immediately disappeared, this was a "safe zone", created around the rock, for self-preservation purposes, as it will break its outer layer on its own, when the time for it comes.
Daimon let out a sigh of relief, once he was ten meters afar from the rock, he knew it could be stored in the inventory, though so far it hasn't failed him once, being able to even contain something like Disaster which couldn't be stored in anything so far, he doesn't know the limits of the inventory.
With a single thought, the pale rock disappeared, and Daimon did so too in a split of a second, just in time before the sea of magma which wasn't being repelled anymore, converged into the previously safe zone.
Sarah who has gotten bored of kicking Jeremy and Dilan, suddenly brightly smiled, as she saw Daimon appearing out of thin air, in the previous spot in which he was when he smacked the two women on the ground.
Daimon coughed a couple of times, as he deactivated Core Synchrony, the two corpses burned on the spot when the rock was taken into the inventory, due to the insanely hot magma, he used to immediately return to where he left the mark earlier.
But he still got his by some of the blazing heat, it was a fraction of a second, and he temporarily felt as a non-smoker in a smoking zone, but it soon returned to normal.
'Damn, magma produced by natural mana amplification is sure something', he thought.
[Ding]
[New skills have been unlocked due to a specific action]
[Lava Affinity (Passive)]
Daimon couldn't help but smile, it hasn't been a while since he got a special affinity at Neptune, and now he got a second one, though he could create lava by using both a fire and an earth element spell at the same time, he didn't have this affinity.
That girl called Riley left quite an impression in Aisha back at the Academy, simple affinities weren't that hard to get, Aura helped him obtain them, but that way they were rather weak, the only ones in which he was highly skilled from the very beginning, were darkness and poison, since he got them by himself when he was not even a mage, from the Manticore.
Maybe because the system needed another update, but he couldn't see the level of his affinities, luckily, he could more or less "know" it with his sixth sense, and so he was actually happy, because this lava affinity was at the same level of his secondary affinities, in other words, fire and ice, but this one had it as its starting point, being only a bit behind his darkness, poison and lightning, from back then.
Noticing the crazy girl's gaze on him, Daimon nodded at her, he didn't want to disclose any information in front of enemies, though they will be dead pretty soon, but before that, it was time to loot.
"Now, what can you offer me so that I let you live?", casually said Daimon as he sat on a rock, Sarah sat next to him, but surprisingly didn't try anything, maybe because she could tell, he was a bit tired, though he didn't use that much mana or stamina, having used around 20% of his reserves, which wasn't enough to make him suffer the recoil of Core Synchrony, to be at his prime again he needed some rest.
Dilan was about to offer the contents of his ring, when he remembered that the crazy green haired girl had took it from him.
"Y-You humans get benefits from killing nobles right, I can call a Blood Earl from another family, so you can kill it, you'll receive all kinds of rewards from that!", he said in a rush.
As for Jeremy he didn't say anything, as he had already been promised his life, though the crazy woman had tortured him and he lost his arms, she didn't kill him even when he tried to have them killed by Dilan, so he felt as the real winner.
"Oh, that sounds like a decent offer, here put this on, you'll be of course a prisoner until that moment, also let a drop of your blood fall on this right now, unless you want to die of course", said Daimon as he threw a generic mask at Dilan, and a black scroll, which was of course a soul contract.
Surprisingly, he could make soul contracts with the natives of Kerrol, and since Dilan didn't know about this kind of thing, he signed it without opening it, which made him feel uneasy, but the scroll was taken by Daimon, after he confirmed the contract successfully tied Dilan.
He then gazed at Sarah who nodded at him, Daimon nodded back and the crazy girl grabbed Beni as she walked towards the exit of the cave, once they were out of sight, Daimon looked at Jeremy who suddenly had a bad premonition.
"You need new legs right, eat that useless idiot", he said with an indifferent voice, just as Jeremy was about to shout "You can't kill me", his tongue was cut by a shadow thread, so he wasn't able to produce any coherent noise.
Dilan on the other hand, gritted his teeth, he hated Jeremy's guts right now, but still, he only ate female's meat, it was a personal preference, not a racial trait though, so being forced like this also made him hate Daimon.
Unfortunately, he had no say in this, as for Jeremy, he was forbidden from being able to tell on Daimon, who previously tricked him when he signed the blood contract, not that he or Sarah were really restrained by it.
But he wanted to keep that a secret, so he just played with the promise he made, by saying that neither one of them, or the people outside will kill Jeremy, this is why blood contracts were obsolete, they were really easy to mess with, because the promise was made orally, soul contracts on the other hand had to be written.
There were still flaws, both parties had to agree to it, but the two didn't have to fully know the contents of the contract, that's why it was really important to read the contract thoroughly.
Of course, in an agitated state, something heard will be less taken into consideration, that something that has been put in paper, and Daimon simply played Jeremy like a fool, even if he didn't have Dilan to kill him, he said neither he or Sarah, not the ones "outside", so Rita wasn't included, from the very beginning there was no salvation for Jeremy.
Daimon saw Dilan's face becoming twisted, as a murdering expression appeared on his face, he looked way different than the refined and arrogant fa?ade he put on earlier, as he jumped onto Jeremy to brutally bite his throat off.
Daimon had no interest in Jeremy's final moments, so he stood up and then left the cave, with his tongue having been cut, Jeremy couldn't even scream while he was eaten alive by Dilan.
He didn't know those women who were killed by Jeremy, nor cared about them, at the end of the day he wasn't a good person anyway, he was just stronger than those two, and they happened to be in his way, so they will die, it was as simple as that.
On the other hand, if that made this crappy world a bit better, then that was not bad at all as well.
Dilan came out of the cave already wearing the mask, his clothes were a bit thorn and he was stained with blood, since Jeremy tried to resist, after Rita who watched the whole thing making sure everything went her young master's way, confirmed Jeremy's demise.
Daimon burned any traces using Demon Light and then stomped his foot, making the cave collapse, the dark brown patch of land had started to return to its normal sand color already.
"You will only talk or move when I allow you do so, for now keep silent and just sit in your cage", he said.
Just as Dilan was about to complain, his body acted on his own as he started walking in the direction Daimon pointed him, only then he realized he was tricked.
He gazed at the silver haired masked young man from the corner of his eyes, and felt the indifferent gaze coming from the mask, it was as if this was meant to happen no matter what he or anyone did.
'D-Demon', was the only word that came his mind, as he entered his cage, which was next to Beni's.
The woman could tell that he wasn't Jeremy because she knew what happened in the cave, but for Gary and the others, they just thought that it was Jeremy wearing different clothes, and with his hair dyed.
"Don't worry young Gabriel, I have prepared another identity for those two, since it is probable that you want to change them at Tiria with the best bidder", said Gary with a knowing gaze.
Daimon didn't say anything about it, letting the merchant make his own assumptions, since that worked for him.
"Let's go", he said as he got in the carriage where the crazy girl was already waiting for him, with the word "curiosity" written all over her face.
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