Chapter 47 – Who Is the Vampire?
As Zwei held the highest Grade NT authority level, he naturally had complete control over the newly built Mana Lake, as he had with the other academy constructions.
If he wanted to, he could even channel all of the Mana Lake’s mana into his body!
Of course, it definitely wasn’t a good idea to let so much foreign mana enter his body. This remained true even if he could control this foreign mana as if it were his own.
In Zwei’s words, it would be “Courting death 10/10!”
While it was also possible to absorb the Mana Lake’s mana bit by bit and convert it into his own mana, the efficiency was so poor that he might as well meditate to gain more mana. Hence, he could utilize the Mana Lake only as a backup power source for now.
However, this didn’t mean the Mana Lake provided Zwei with no benefit whatsoever. Although he couldn’t make use of the mana generated from the Mana Lake, he could store his own mana inside the Mana Lake.
Just thinking about it excited him. If he were fighting in a fierce battle, he could draw out his stored Mana whenever he was close to running dry. The effects of this function were much better than taking out a potion and drinking it!
Of course, the premise for this was for Zwei to have stored up enough mana beforehand. Otherwise, there would be nothing for him to withdraw.
Unfortunately, this mana storage function had a flaw, similar to the Dean’s Mage Tower’s Bronze Storage Box, in that he couldn’t use it while inside the Trial Gate.
In any case, the Mana Lake’s completion had still come as a pleasant surprise for Zwei.
After his emotions had swung drastically from sorrow to joy, Zwei’s mind, which had been in turmoil over the vampire incident, calmed down.
In hindsight, he realized he had been incredibly reckless to charge into a swarm of monsters despite being a magician who didn’t specialize in combat magic.
However, it was also because of this recklessness that he had discovered his shortcomings in battle. This could be considered an important discovery, as he would soon face off against a vampire. In addition, having experienced stumbling into a big incident, he probably wouldn’t be so flustered the next time he got involved in a chaotic situation.
With things as they were, Zwei didn’t hurry to use his two remaining dungeon raid opportunities. Instead, he sat on the bed, shut his eyes, and began carefully detailing the general plan he drafted up before.
He had already guessed the vampire’s true identity some time ago.
This town did not possess any powerful magicians. Let alone a Basic Magician like Zwei, there wasn’t even an Apprentice Magician residing in the town.
This was a very strange situation. Normally, there should be a few rare professions, such as magicians, in such a prosperous town.
However, not only did Byk Town not have any itinerant magicians, but even the town mayor barely had anyone with magic powers working under him. Moreover, they were all magic swordsmen who were so weak that Zwei couldn’t bear to look at them.
According to what Zwei heard, the reason for this situation was that Mayor Holman had once suffered a huge loss on the battlefield at the hands of magicians. Thus, even after returning from the battlefield, the mayor still did not wish to have any dealings with magicians. Meanwhile, the magicians operating nearby also weren’t interested in coming here to make a fuss. As a result, Byk Town would see only the occasional uninformed foreign magician visiting it.
Although Zwei didn’t care about Mayor Holman’s hatred of magicians, unless the other party clearly expressed hatred of him, Zwei wouldn’t take the initiative to cause trouble, either. He wasn’t a hot-headed fool who would threaten to annihilate others’ families just because they looked at him funny.
Afterward, there was the incident of Tio fainting outside the church, Alyssa suddenly getting dizzy, and Old John and Old Vita also feeling unwell. Moreover, the children Zwei saw in the church also had looked a little dispirited.
Initially, Zwei had been rather shocked by these events. He had thought that an unknown disease had spread through the town. In this era, if no high-ranking clergyman took action, a plague could easily wipe out an entire city.
It wasn’t until later, when he saw very little blood flowing out of the gutted fish on the kitchen counter, that realization dawned upon him.
Tio and the others weren’t feeling unwell because they had caught a disease. Instead, it was because a portion of their blood had been sucked away. Moreover, even the fish, which eventually became lunch, was no exception.
After having lunch, Zwei even went out for a stroll and confirmed his conjecture.
Without his knowing it, a barrier had been erected over the town. The barrier was so thin that if he hadn’t focused all his attention on perceiving it, he wouldn’t have detected it at all.
Fortunately, the Magic Academy System had crammed a ton of knowledge into his brain when he got promoted to Basic Magician. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have recognized this gigantic barrier.
In this world, humans weren’t the only creatures capable of using magic.
In fact, the magic of many other creatures couldn’t be learned by humans.
For example, elves could communicate with nature and wielded nature magic that allowed them to control plants; dwarves could use dust magic to dig and smelt ores; thought entities could use spiritual magic to attack the spirit of other creatures directly; vampires could use blood magic that was closely related to blood.
These were collectively referred to as indigenous magic by humans.
Meanwhile, the oval barrier enveloping Byk Town was none other than the barrier-type permanent spell “Blood Palace,” categorized under blood magic.
According to the information in Zwei’s mind, this type of barrier spell was only at the second-circle standard. However, the process of casting it was incredibly cumbersome. It most likely took a lot of preparation time to cast a barrier capable of enveloping the entire town.
Meanwhile, the Blood Palace only had one function: drawing the blood of the creatures present within it.
The amount of blood the barrier could extract from each person wasn’t significant. This method would take at least two weeks to kill an ordinary person.
In the case of Zwei, though, due to the powerful mana flowing within his body, the barrier had no effect on him at all.
If not for Tio’s weak constitution, and Old John and Old Vita being old and physically frail, Zwei would’ve needed quite some time to notice the Blood Palace’s existence. By then, the vampire that cast this barrier would’ve most likely strengthened themself through the large amount of blood the Blood Palace absorbed. After all, although the barrier only sucked a small amount of blood from each person, the town’s population was large.
At that time, let alone defeating the vampire, even escaping would be a problem for Zwei.
However, discovering the Blood Palace’s existence didn’t just place a timer on Zwei. It also led to him realizing another problem.
With the Blood Palace’s presence, messenger kites wouldn’t fly into the town. After all, birds had much stronger instincts than humans.
It’s impossible for those useless magic swordsmen to complete long-distance communication, which requires high-precision magic control. They might have better chances of killing a dragon than this… Messenger kites also won’t enter the town because of the barrier. Zwei rubbed his chin as he looked at one wall, which was the direction the mayor’s house lay. Then, how did our respectable mayor receive the so-called “direct orders” from Horador City?
The answer had already been revealed.