I sidered what I could do for a moment… getting the alchemist css would help me iure quite a bit. A lot of materials that I left behind could be used for potions, but I didn’t have use for them back then…

  Risking G's neck wasn’t an optioher, so while I hesitated in showing my amulets in a, it was better thaher options. I readied the Fireball amulet and then attached a mana core when the group of lesser chimeras showed up. I wouhe creatures just enough to give G enough of an advahe best option would be to burails, but I hem for their poison. So, I just half burheir heads.

  Ay crossed her arms and tried to study the amulet, but I hid it under my cloak. No one was going to learn their secret if I help it. e to think of it, she said something weird when the first group of monsters showed up. By the look of things, she imagihat the guys in the area were responsible for the massive number of monsters here.

  ‘They shouldn’t be stupid enough given how long they leave to make this kind of blunder, so they must have a reason for this… their elder ’t be that inpeteher. sidering how long they live as well, they should know that they are risking a dungeon break here. Still, if that was really their goal, they wouldn’t let anyone eveer the first se.’

  The math isn’t mathing… I was certain that Rowan and Louise father hadn’t e to this area yet to talk with the elder here, so I could only guess that the elder was risking causing a dungeon break in order to spread enough chaos and then give the dwarves the ce to attack, but that would be too dumb.

  No one would risk destroying their territory to give the ce for a war to start. Uhey were bat shit insane. Regardless, it was none of my business. I just wao get the alchemist css and then leave. The real problem was my mind, who liked to think about these kinds of things in order to find the answers… it was a lot easier to find those ahan the ones I actually need in my life, after all.

  In the end, we stayed at the entrance of the se because the lesser chimeras kept showing up. By the look of things, the other floors would be filled with them as well, so getting the alchemist css would be pretty hard and time ing.

  ‘These guys and those guys… everyorying so hard to make my life harder. I just ’t be unlucky that I am always walking into trouble or when people are sneaking around.’

  “ you make some stamina potions with the materials you have? I o cheething outside.”

  “... No… at least that is what I wao say, but given that you have stitched my arm back to its pce, I guess I ’t say that. Still, I ’t make the potions with a single hand.”

  I wao make her leave, so this was a good e to speed things up. The only downside was that she had seen too much from us.

  “I will make them then. It is better this way sihe potions will have the extra effect.”

  I wondered what kind of effects those would be… but even potions have ranks, so it wouldn’t surprise me that they could have extra effects. It was near impossible without the specialized css for a person to be able to make an item with ara effect, after all.

  In any case, I took the materials that Ay would o make the potions and wondered if they would actually make her gain time instead of just heading outside normally. Either way, it wasn’t my problem…

  Using her needle, she poked some holes in the leather of a kobold and then covered the mouth of a rge pot with it. In the moment, she poured the two types of poison on the leather. The leather began to absorb the remains of the poison as the liquids nullified the toxic properties of each other and the remaining liquid began to fall into the pot. This was exactly how things were described in the alchemy book of Crice’s family. It would seem that they either learned a lot from the dark elves or they shared their secrets with them.

  I wondered if I could make a business out of this… uhose ba earth selling beverages with this kind of potion, they would be real energy drinks. Not like anyone would buy anything that a half vampire had made.

  In any case, I tried not to watch Ay w that much, and so focused on dismantling the monsters, but after turning around enough times, my dark side began to stir up… my mouth began to salivate while looking at Ay’s nebsp;

  ‘Shit…’

  I turned around and then sat on the ground. I had to get used to this kind of temptatioing used to being thirsty when I was alone was easier, but not when I wasn’t.

  No matter what happens, I ’t let that feeling take over me… once I do it the first time, there is no going back since I wouldn’t stop the first time. Still, this made me wonder… why I didn’t feel that thirsty when I was with Crice. We spent some time alone, even though it was mostly awkward.

  ‘I guess it is because I see her as a friend… somehow. She be annoying, but she isn’t someone who would betray me, at least not as she is right now.’

  This made me think… I felt thirsty a few times retly, while the feeling was weak since my mind was somewhere else. There was still a pattern. I felt like that when I paid more than a bit of attention to some individuals… and they all had a sihing in on. They were quite pretty… at least from my perspective.

  The thirst was a lot stronger with Ay around, though, and that made me think that it was because she was geous. Among all the Elves that I had seen, she and Crice were at the top when it es to beauty, but Crice was more like a cute type, while Ay was more of the sexy type.

  ‘Is my thirst makihink of this or am I reag puberty with this body?’

  I felt like sighing… It looked like I had to return to my hermit life pretty often if I wao keep walking the straight path.

  I khat the e between vampires’ thirst for blood and their sexual desires came from the symbolid intimate nature of feeding. Blood represents life and passion, and for vampires, the act of drinking blood is often as deeply personal and physically close, paralleling the intimacy of sexual acts. This link is heightened by the vulnerability of feeding locations, like the neck, which are associated with sensuality. Additionally, vampires’ heightened senses make them more attuo beauty, drawing them to individuals whose allure symbolizes vitality and perfe. This blending of hunger and desire creates a powerful e between their predatory instincts and human-like longing for intimacy.

  Geous individuals are harder for vampires to resist because their beauty intensifies the temptation and internal flict. As creatures of sedu and forbidden desires, vampires struggle betweeraint and indulgence. A beautiful person embodies the perfect prey, triggering both their physical hunger and suppressed passions. This dynamic creates a pelling psychological tensiohe act of feeding bees more than suste’s a metaphor for succumbing to primal urges, makiy and desire inseparable in the vampire’s mythos.

  ‘I guess this would expin a lot…’

  The best way to get mentally strainst a desire was by resisting it nonstop. There was not just a little that would be fine… ohe dam is opened, fighting back would be a lot harder, so I had to make good use of Ay’s presence.

  In any case, after one hour, Ay was doh the potions and then began to prepare to leave.

  “You have my thanks. Don’t do anything harsh with your arm until I return.”

  “sider us even, and you don’t o return at all.”

  Ay studied me for a moment before disappearing into thin air. I wondered if she had the stronger version of the Ninja css or something. I wahat kind of power.

  … …

  Two hours ter, Ay was back at the entrance of the byrinth. The guards outside were still unscious and her leader was o be seen. Giveraces of his footsteps and the distaween them, she assumed that he had dashed bae.

  ‘Such a misfortune…’

  She felt torween looking for him and firming her guesses… She wao ask his opinion before doing something troublesome. It was better if they all just kept for themselves… they had been doing that for hundreds of years, after all, and thanks to that, they mao survive without suffering losses like they did in the past when they lived on the run.

  Even if the world ged, as long as they remained in their hideout, nothing would ge for them and they would survive just fihat was the truth for hundreds of years and there was nothing to say that it wouldn’t remairuth for more hundreds of years.

  Still, Ay’s instincts and curiosity made her move to firm her doubts… just firming things wouldn’t ge much for her and her people… in the end, the whole group would have to work together if they were to ge the status quo.

  With those thoughts in mind, Ay headed toward the closest town.

  WritingMaeGun