I AM BACK

As I sit under the huge tree with Ahsa sleeping on my lap, I looked up and was confused. Was there always a young man on that tree branch?

"Hmm, I've been found huh? I did not expect that. I wanted to watch more of your sweet interactions, though I think now is a good time since your friend is already sleeping." the young man said as he skillfully made his way down the tree.

(This young man made it past my magic sense until now. Who is he? Appraisal…)

He patted the dust and leaves off his shirt and trousers then said, "Ahh, you must be quite confused. Hello again-" but was then disrupted…

"Ah- it's livestock, I see that you're doing fine. You even made it here," by me.

"What the hell do you mean by livestock!? Have you not tried avoiding saying that back then!? Now you just outright say it the first time we see each other again instead of greeting me first!" He pointedly said.

"That little teasing aside, what happened to you? Appraisal says you're a High Human. I assume you evolved some days after I left?"

"Yeah! I even rejuvenated back to my younger days like 10 years ago!" He flexed his muscles as he smiled brightly.

(Wasn't Kler kept imprisoned for his blood? He also said that because of his evolution he managed to escape from that place. Is being drained of their blood the cause of their evolution? Now that he's here, I can ask him what happened back then.)

"Though I have an idea… Say Orto, mind telling me what happened back then? When I brought you home as thin as sticks."

"Urk… That time, huh… Well, it was a hectic experience for sure, thaat is for sure," He sat as he spoke.

He then continued, "See, when we were tracing back to where you found the girls, I suddenly had a bad feeling. Kinda like a hunch or just gut feeling, you know?"

He stared at me as if expecting a reply and I only stared back at him.

"…"

He continued after realizing that he isn't getting an answer, "… So I just went back there to where we left you only to find a hugeass humanoid monster that had this huge hole in its chest and the poor thing looked like it was dried of its blood, but there wasn't much around it. Sure there was a pool of blood under it but that pool didn't look much compared to the size of the thing so I thought that just maybe a certain vampire entered her Blood Hunt so I went ahead and checked where a trace of blood lead me to. Then I found myself back where we saved that girl called Amy."

"What is a blood hunt?" I asked.

"Patience, I'm getting there now. So I opened the door that separated that room from the rest of the world and boy was I losing it. You were there sitting atop what could be called a hill of corpses as you were drying bodies left and right like a mindless monster. That is what we call the vampire race's Blood Hunt.

It was a state that will occur when a Vampire lacks the blood to maintain its body's functions. It was regarded as a shameful yet honorable act by the Vampires, reason is said to be because it was a show that the vampire that reached this state did their best but was also shamed because of their weakness that let such an unsightly appearance take over. It's a state where the vampire loses all rationality and becomes a killing machine that will hunt for prey to satiate their bloodthirst and will not stop until satisfied. They will also gain temporary unimaginable strength while in this state, none of them lived after letting out this side of them though. Most of them killed themselves right after because of shame. And this isn't a guaranteed state for the Vampires, it is simply their natural instincts taking over their bodies when the blood within their bodies reaches dangerously low levels. There was no knowledge known to mankind yet on how this self-defense mechanism works, except for the Celestial Vampires that stood atop all Vampires," he shrugged at the end of his explanation and then spoke again.

"Then you attacked me even though I was inside my shadow so I was forced to trap you on thick layers of gooey slime so you wouldn't attack me again and helped you drink their blood to satiate yourself and bring your consciousness back. There wasn't enough so I had to give you my blood, which you almost killed me by the way. That said, you owe me one."

"I see…" I was pulled into my thoughts after hearing about this Vampire Hunt that he talked about.

"… Hey, don't suicide on me now…" He wore a troubled smile on his face.

"I won't. I'm just thinking about how I could… weaponize this…"

"What? You've gotta be kidding me. YOU WANT TO WEAPONIZE WHAT COULD POSSIBLY END YOU!? What have you been eating while I was away, huh?" He brought down his fist onto my head only to meet a solid barrier.

"Garh! Dang, as good of a mage as always…"

"Also, I don't owe you anything. You evolved because of it after all. You won't ask for anything more unless you're just that shameless," I gave him a side glance and looked at him as if looking at trash.

He grimaced and shouted, "I get it! So please don't look at me like that!"

"Hmm…" I glared at him harder.

"W-what?" His shoulders flinched as he asked.

"Nothing, I just thought that maybe the age of the body does have an effect on the mind. That's one isekai mystery solved, I guess."

"AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!?" He once again brought down his fist onto my head this time I dodged and his hand hit the pointy barrier I made atop my shoulder.

Let's try some little experiments, yeah? Like how fast could you regenerate now that you're no longer human.

*****