Chapter 124 – Midnight Snack (2/2)

Releasing my claws, I licked my finger tips for the last traces of the creature's blood.

At this point I was sure, this floor was a good one to pick. Even if all the other monsters on this floor weren't things that would fill my belly, this one monster alone would make it worth it.

”Master!”

As I climbed off of the overgrown lizard, my ever faithful familiar called out to me.

”Are you fine? What happened to you?”

”Huh? Oh. Umm...I was just in thought. Sorry.”

”No no! You don't need to apologize! It's my fault for realizing so late that you didn't notice this monster!”

(What the hell is this girl talking about?)

”I'm apologizing because I have to. I was careless, and you saved me. That's the truth. Alright?”

”...Yesh Mashtah!”

For some reason, those words made my little dark spirit drip tears down her cheeks and slurred her words. But it didn't look like they were sad tears, so I just turned away from her and took a look at the remains of my prey.

”Hmmm...”

It had been quite a while since I had last used this skill on my own, but knowing more about what it was I had just faced would be a good thing.

[Lesser Fire Dragon. Level 264.]

There was a bit of a level jump, but aside from that...

”A dragon huh? So one finally appeared.”

It was no wonder that this thing tasted so good.

”A dragon?! This is the first time I've seen one.”

”Do you know much about dragons?”

”No. Just that they're very strong monsters.”

”Well, this one's a lesser fire, so that means there's got to be at least a greater at some point.”

It really made me wonder what kind of level the other dragons had. Would one be over level 300? 400?

(A level 400 dragon? That's pretty scary actually.)

I hadn't even seen something over level 300 yet, so the idea of something still being over a hundred levels above me was quite a scary one. And if such a thing was inside of this dungeon, then there wouldn't be any space for negotiations aside from with our fists.

(I'd die. I'd seriously die if I found something like that as I am.)

That being the case, the chances of finding something like that anytime in the near future was basically nonexistent as long as I didn't try to break the rules of the dungeon. Well, even if I did, there was a good chance something like that wouldn't happen. The worst I ever got was getting mobbed by the monsters of the same floor, and that basically stopped when I returned to the proper path.

That said, it wouldn't be wrong to call that event a bit of a personal trauma.

Thankfully it was when I was still alone, so there wasn't a single witness to that event. As long as I never mentioned it, it would never come up in a conversation.

As I was wrapped up in my thoughts, the dragon's body disappeared, absorbed back into the dungeon. All that it left was a sheet of scaly hide larger than myself, as well as a fist sized mana crystal.

As for what I would use them for, I wasn't sure, but it would be a waste to leave them be.

”Hmm...”

I tapped my belly just below my rib cage.

I felt pretty good at this point. That one monster had done a good job filling me up, so I wouldn't feel too hungry for a while.

Going back so quickly wouldn't be too bad, but at the same time I didn't exactly want to leave so soon.

”Let's go a bit further before heading back Claret.”

”Y, yesh Master!”

It looked like my favourite spirit was still trying to wipe the tears from her face.

”Aaah! That was an annoying one.”

That was the first thing I ended up saying as I squeezed the neck of the dragon I had just killed. Under my left arm was the severed neck of the deep blue scaled monster.

As I was kinda full, I opted for a different way to kill this monster, but perhaps in doing so, the fight itself ended up getting pretty annoying.

The most valuable thing monsters offered me was their blood. Not something solid like their hide or internal organs, as was the case for the other races. For undead and constructs, it didn't really matter how I fought, but because the living were filled with blood pumping through their bodies, I generally wanted to fight in a way which preserved as much of it in my prey as I could.

The easiest way to do that was to just make my only direct attack be the one which I sucked out the target's blood.

But if I wanted to preserve the blood for later, then I'd have to find a different way to do things. The fact that these dragons' blood was especially nice meant that those little pools of blood that was being absorbed into the ground was particularly heart wrenching.

It was like spending a lot of money on a really nice cup of coffee first thing in the morning, only for someone to bump you and cause half of it to spill onto the floor before you could put the non-spill lid on. It didn't feel like simply losing part of your drink. That caffeine, that precious precious caffeine had been stolen from you.

drip...drip...

”Huh?”

I looked down.

Despite how tightly I held the neck of this dragon, blood was still dripping from the point where the head was originally connected.

”Gah! Damnit! Then how about this?”

With a wave of my free hand, the craggy stones below my feet merged into a flat sheet, then rose up in the shape of a massive bowl. The bowl's walls continued to rise until it turned into a giant vase.

Pushing out my aura and encompassing this dragon's cooling body, I lifted the scaled mass of meat into the air with the neck stump hanging directly over the vase.

The moment I let go of the neck, the blood which had been backed up in the creature's body freely flowed down as if attracted by gravity and went to fill the vase up.

At the same time, I made a few more vases of the same size and lined them up. Right before the first vase was filled, I switched it with a new one.

The sight of some of the blood spilling in the brief gap in between the two containers made me bite my lip in frustration. But being an intelligent creature that is capable of learning from her mistakes, I cupped my hands below the dragon's neck the next time I needed to swap containers and caught the blood which missed the lips of both vases.

Since it wasn't really a large amount, I brought my hands to my lips and licked from the small pool that had gathered in my palms.

It was only a little bit of blood, but even then, that minty chocolate goodness felt so incredibly refreshing.

Despite how annoying it was to fight, now that I got a taste of its blood, everything seemed like it was worth the effort.

The first dragon was quite easy to deal with. Between the ice mist and freezing attacks, the monster was both blinded and unable to move well. While these things didn't seem to exactly be ectothermic as the monster didn't stop moving entirely when chilled, it did slow down quite a bit, making keeping ahead of its attack quite easy.

But this blue dragon seemed to maintain a lower body temperature. Combined with the high pressure water jets from its mouth along with the fact that it was naturally surrounded by a cold aura with icicles generated and used as attacks, it meant that the method I took against the lesser fire dragon was mostly useless against this one.

In the end, I simply mounted the back of its neck and hooked my claws at its throat. Using as much strength as I could muster in that position, I pulled my mana based claws right through the scales that protected the dragon's neck and severed its head while being bombarded with heavy javelins made from ice.

The bruises along my back and shoulders still hurt a bit, but the fact that that was all it managed to do when I opened myself so badly was a bit of a surprise. It made me wonder if it was because of my stats or my robes simply worked that well as armour.

Most likely it was a combination of the two.

(Ah, another thing to be thankful of to those fairies.)

It really was human to need the from others to accomplish things. Even when they aren't there to help you directly, you still received their help.

Though I was a vampire, not human, the thought stayed the same.

Once the last drips of blood freed themselves from the heavy corpse, I flung the useless dragon body away and turned to that which was much more important.

Licking my fingers was a bit of a pain, so instead I levitated a large orb of blood right from one of the vases and brought it to my face. Pucking out my lips, I sucked from the orb directly until it shrank like a balloon having its air stolen.

”Ah, this really is great!”

This dragon blood, despite the difference in species, was quite a treat. It was pure decadence, and I didn't care what others said. Even dessert could make a great meal as long as it fulfilled your nutritional needs.

I pushed forward and collected the materials and blood from one more monster before turning back for the night.

”Ah, this really is so nice.”

I mumbled to myself as I enjoyed the flavour which gathered between my cheeks as I sucked from a blood orb I had formed from the third monster I had defeated.

”Mint chocolate for the lesser water dragon, and orange chocolate for the lesser wind dragon. I wonder what the lesser earth dragon tastes like? Hopefully there'll be lesser dark and light dragons as well.”

Pausing for a moment, I retracted my previous statement.

(...maybe not the light one actually.)

I continued my way back, my XP counter filling quite satisfyingly.

But perhaps the best part of all, was this new way to drink blood I had discovered. It wasn't perfect, but was pretty fun and felt like the sort of thing which any vampire should aspire to learn.

Ninetailed_Furball

Hi everybody! It's your usual furball! (^o^)丿

Not much too special. Just reusing a joke and some friendly dungeoneering. (^_^.)

I wonder though. What would a lesser earth dragon taste like (if you had Scarlet's sensibilities, that is)? Is orange chocolate a bit weird for a wind dragon? Honestly, I wanted to keep going the chocolate theme for the dragons, but since water used mint, I was having trouble with wind. Cucumber came to mind, but I can't imagine cucumber chocolate to be very tasty. (-_-)

Anyways, I had a look back through my chapters and realized, if this arc ends u being about the same length as the others, we're already halfway to the end of the arc! I didn't expect the pregnancy to take so long when I first planned it out. At most the implantation would happen by the fourth chapter of the arc or something, but now it was close to ten chapters.

The end of this arc might have to be pushed back a bit, but thankfully my plans are generally flexible like that! Hooray! (⌒▽⌒）

Though, I keep trying to go back and fix some issues with previous chapters, but either I get stuck, not have time, or just plain forget. It's really unfortunate. There's some real big issues here and there. Not continuity issues at least. Mostly. (>.>);

Well, it does make me wonder how long this story is going to end up. I have a solid ending in mind, but the arcs tend to be so much longer than I originally expected.

Hope everyone's still doing well!

I'll see you in the next one! (≧∇≦)/