Chapter 5: Reporting a Vampire_2

The Church Knights had torn open the scroll, and a surfeit of Identification Spirit Light flared up, enveloping the entire house and its surroundings.

Among the crouching crowd, an abnormal red glow suddenly lit up on one person. Peggy fixed her gaze and realized it was the butler of the Aske family!

Before the butler could identify what was happening, the Armored Knight closest to him struck him down with a sword. High-frequency vibrations tore his upper body as smoothly as a hot knife through butter. The bisected corpse of the butler was still writhing, desperately trying to fuse back together, but eventually, it ceased its struggles in resignation.

Aske stared at the butler's corpse as bloody radiance gradually emerged from it, condensing on the surface into a viscous red droplet. That was the butler's materialized, partially intact Flesh I Extraordinary trait. All he needed to do was to pick it up and gently squeeze it to absorb the unclaimed Extraordinary Power. If primary and secondary ingredients were added to make a Flesh I Magic Potion and drink it, one could become a Level 1 Vampire.

Of course, he wouldn't do that.

The Church Knight who had acted pulled a Magic Copper Box from his bag. Inside was a gleaming yellow tweezer. He carefully picked up the droplet with the tweezer and solemnly placed it into the box. Upon closing the lid, the surface of the Magic Copper Box immediately lit up, seemingly activating some Sealing Array.

The Knight looked up and nodded towards Aske, who had been watching the scene, "The energy that spills from a vampire after death is a particularly dangerous substance. Without proper handling, it could kill all the residents on this street."

"I understand, Sir." Aske nodded in agreement.

Two Church Knights rushed to the door, raised their Engine Warhammers, and began smashing it. The end of the warhammer was fitted with a jet device that, on swinging, instantly blasted a jet of flame backward, speeding up the warhammer and shattering the door into pieces. The Church Knights then swarmed into the house, which instantly resounded with chaos, screams, roars, and the noise of steel clashing with flesh.

Less than five minutes later, the Knight Captain reappeared at the doorway. His Power Armor, stamped with Holy Runes, was still gleaming, though now it was covered with red flesh, white bone marrow, and things that looked like intestines. He tapped a rune on his armor, which activated the Divine Light to clean the armor, and then stepped down the stairs to speak to Aske:

"All have been purified, including the corpse outside, making a total of 23 vampires. Also, your cohabitant wasn't in the house; she escaped the net. I suggest you stay in the church tonight to avoid any retaliatory harm from her...A woman's thirst for revenge can be strong. Just yesterday morning, I forgot to take out the trash, and my wife didn't even prepare dinner for me."

"Thank you for your suggestion, Sir." Aske bowed and said, "However, I believe my cohabitant is no fool. Unless I hide in the church year-round until she loses patience, she could easily wait a few days to take her revenge after I leave. Besides, shelter from the Church isn't free, right?"

"As a reward for your effective report," the Knight Captain paused for a moment, "shelter from the Church is free for the first week for you, then only a pound per day thereafter."

"Then I'll pass," Aske stated lightly, "I believe even if I don't hide in the church, you'll still monitor the area. Perhaps this vampire will even expose herself faster in trying to take revenge on me."

"Of course," said the Knight Captain nodding, "In that case, Mr. Aske, you are not to leave this street for this month unless the target vampire exposes herself first."

"No problem," Aske replied.

Peggy stood by the windowsill, gazing far into the distance. Half an hour later, Aske returned to the hotel room.

"All the vampires are dead, except for the ringleader," Aske said.

"That doesn't really constitute as fulfilling revenge," Peggy subtly reminded him of the Soul Contract.

"I know where she is," Aske said, "let's go."

"Are the Church Knights currently monitoring this block?" Peggy asked cautiously, "Will they not discover me if I go with you?"

"Identification Light Scrolls are expensive, the Church Knights can't afford to throw one at every single person," Aske said. "All you need is to not wear a mask and avoid drawing unnecessary suspicion. In five days, when your Chain Armor arrives, we'll go hunting."

"Okay," Peggy responded coldly.

"For now, we'll go train," Aske said.

In the hotel's basement, there was a publicly accessible training ground that included close-combat samurai's steel dummies, gunmen's moving targets, and spellcasters' meditation rooms. Why was there a training ground under the hotel? This brings up the history of the East Solomon Empire.

Starting from the early Sixth Epoch, alongside the rapid development of commerce and industry in the East Solomon Empire, the quality of the Empire's military manpower also rapidly declined. On one hand, complacency is human nature; on the other, the number of Extraordinary Creatures within the Empire was dwindling.

On the Bithynia Plateau of the Anatolian Peninsula, the Empire designated large swathes of forest as "Extraordinary Creatures Conservation Zones," attempting to farm Extraordinary Creatures in this way, periodically harvesting Extraordinary Power from them. However, the results were less than ideal. After all, Extraordinary Creatures still need large territories to thrive. Low Rank goblins might only need a small hill to support their families, but High Rank Cyclops require vast wildernesses and large ecosystems to survive.

This contradicted the Empire's needs for civilizational development. Agriculture needed large tracts of land, industry needed abundant minerals, and transportation required developed road systems. As long as human society continued to develop, it was inevitable that the territories of Extraordinary Creatures would be encroached upon. Since only Extraordinary Creatures could draw power from the Magic Tide, the decrease in their numbers would inevitably lead to a decline in the quality of the Empire's troops.

Today, the entire world had fallen into such a vicious cycle: the most powerful civilized nations had the fewest Extraordinary Creatures, resulting in a decline in accessible Extraordinary Power. Then, civilized nations would be defeated by barbaric nations, which after harvesting vast wealth would begin to develop themselves, turning into civilized nations, and setting themselves on a path to decline again. From the City-States of Ancient Sirius, through the Ancient Solomon Republic, to the Solomon Empire and the Frank Kingdom, all had followed this path.

To solve this issue, the West Solomon Empire had once opted to hire foreign mercenaries, only to have the Alien Race mercenaries take over, resulting in the Emperor's assassination and the nation's ruin. The East Solomon Empire learned from this lesson. The previous Emperor, Basel II, once proposed that "state-owned military should be the main force, and foreign mercenaries should handle the tough tasks." This two-pronged national defense policy influenced the entire Macedonian dynasty, resulting in a large influx of western mercenaries to Constantinople in recent years, such as the elite Royal Shield Guard, consisting of Norman mercenaries from the north known as the "Valangia Guard."

In Constantinople, if you see someone walking around in armor and carrying weapons, it's definitely an Armed Mercenary. For this reason, taverns and training grounds are particularly numerous in Constantinople. Low-level mercenaries usually find a vacant lot to vent their excess energy. Meanwhile, training grounds like the one in the basement of this hotel, which fall into the medium tier, are open to mercenaries who need specific training equipment on a fee-paying basis.