Chapter 166: The Strange Voices - Epic of Vampire: The Crippled Vampire Prince Is Actually The Strongest

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Those voices echoing out of nowhere really scared Chris quite a lot, more than Paul had thought. However, in the end, they stopped and never returned, even after ten minutes of mostly silence, as Chris and Paul looked at one another without saying a word.

"Oh my gosh, what the hell was that?! I had no idea those bastards could just speak out of nowhere like that! It's scary! I-I thought they were limited to system messages or something?!" Chris asked.

"Hmmm, I think it might have been the Unending Crimson," Paul said.

"The Unending Crimson?" Gofumina asked. "What the hell is that?"

"Another of the Outer Ones," Chris explained. "The first one we met and fought against. He spawned inside a dungeon and started messing with it. We had to battle super strong monsters, and then there was a dungeon break, and ugh… It was stressful, especially since it was literally our first week here!"

"I-I see… So since the beginning, those beings have been haunting you two…" Ermelinda muttered.

The four of them sat on wooden chairs around a small black table in the middle of the garden, right next to Artemis' nest. Her aura of light seemed to ease their worried hearts while she adorably napped, cuddling in her comfortable nest after eating her own eggshells.

"But why do you think it was that creep? Didn't we defeat his damn avatar before?" Chris asked.

"It was a weak one made from that dungeon's bosses, so technically, we haven't seen what he can truly do yet…" Paul said. "But I think the Outer Ones are much different from Gods. They can 'manifest their presence' with 'fragments' of themselves."

"Fragments…?" Chris grew worried. "Wait, you don't mean… We've got some inside us or something?!"

"Yeah, I don't know if this was his plot from the beginning, but we did get a lot of Skills, and we're still using equipment dropped from his raid…" Paul sighed. "My most useful—and our strongest—skills all come from what we got from him… You could say we're being sponsored by him, or 'blessed,' though nothing like that shows in the status."

"N-No fucking way… So he'll haunt us forever?!" Chris screamed. "Wait, can he kill us?!"

"I don't know, but… He doesn't seem like the type to do that," Paul explained. "If he played around with us, I could tell he has no intention of killing us. That would only weaken his connection to this world. We're his 'anchors' in a way."

"Aaagggh! I don't like the sound of that!" Chris complained, grabbing his head. Even in panic mode, Paul found him really cute. "Can't we exorcise ourselves? Maybe delete the skills?"

"I'll keep mine, and I don't know how to delete skills. You could unequip them, but I bet some have already fused with others, right?" Paul wondered.

"Ugh…" Chris sighed.

"For now, it's clear they have limitations," Paul said. "At most, he can whisper words to us or try to get information by acting ambiguous. Or maybe he was just playing a prank… Compared to the other two, he seems like a jester figure, don't you think?"

"Hmm… Ah, well, kind of…" Chris rubbed his chin. "That slimy bitch was obsessed with eating everything and absorbing it or something… She's a possessive yandere. The knight… that shadow guy? He was very prideful and kind of… serious. Yet he didn't seem to like his own templars much, did he? When they died, he only blamed them for their weakness."

"Indeed, see? All three of them have their own personalities…" Paul nodded. "Well, there's that fourth, but I don't know if he's involved with them. Those three seem to be actively working together in some way or maybe competing. But that fourth seemed to just mind his own business until my sister… found him."

"What fourth—oh, that thing?" Chris wondered. "Ah, that's kind of scary… your sister suddenly doing that… Just what the hell is wrong with that little brat?"

"I seriously don't know… Hah, well, that's that then," Paul said.

"Are you going to do something else with the territory, Paul?" Ermelinda wondered while drinking tea. "Bleh… S-So bitter… I'll add some honey." She quickly took honey from Fantasia, adding it to the very bitter tea of Obscuritas. "Hmm, much better!"

"I was thinking about building new things, but I've reconsidered waiting until the ordeal tomorrow is done. I wouldn't want to build something only for it to get destroyed right away…" Paul sighed. "As for more Vassals, I might assign new ones tomorrow based on what we need in battle. Some candidates are my mother, my sister, and Insecta so far."

"Sounds good. I bet they'll get pretty strong," Ermelinda nodded.

"Hmm, Hercules is pretty loyal. Can he become a vassal too?" Gofumina wondered.

"No, his trust level isn't high enough…" Paul said. "One thing I wanted to get done before the day ends is the walls… Does anyone want to accompany me?"

"I'll go!" Ermelinda said.

"Sure," Chris shrugged.

"…" Gofumina didn't feel like going. "I'll stay here… It's not like we're friends or anything now… Right? We just met a day ago."

"E-Eh? We aren't friends?!" Ermelinda looked shocked, as if her heart had shattered into countless pieces.

"W-Why are you even looking at me like that…?" Gofumina facepalmed. "I'll go see my goblins. I think they might need me for something; they always do… Also, cute goblin girls."

Gofumina walked away after saying that, eager to see cute goblin girls…

In fact, it seemed one reason she made a female goblin avatar and joined a goblin mercenary group might be because she likes goblin girls.

"Wait, is everything because she likes cute goblin girls?!" Chris gasped.

"Well… Everyone can play the game however they want," Paul laughed. "Let's go."

"Huh? So she likes girls?" Ermelinda wondered.

As the trio flew into the skies, they continued discussing.

"Probably… Well, it's obvious now," Chris said. "I bet she's actually a guy like you, pretending to be a cute girl to get attention."

"E-Eh? I didn't do it for that… I just think playing as a cute girl is nice… that's all!" Ermelinda said, blushing lightly.

"Uh-huh… Sure, there's definitely no other reason at all~" Chris teased her with a cocky smile.