Chapter 3: New Blood Source

At the castle gate stood an elf, dressed in practical leather attire suitable for rigorous training in medieval times. Her strong physique hinted at countless hours spent in physical exertion, her leather bodice and fitted shorts allowing freedom of movement. She had short shoulder-length white hair, snow white skin and bright green eyes.

She knocked on the castle door and waited, her nervousness written all over her face. 

Jasper's door never knocked in last three hundred years. Usually Kael would come or adventurers would burst in with the idea that they were going to kill the demon king.

Jasper didn't think much of it, he opened the castle door as he continued to lie in his bed...

The elf peeked curiously inside the castle but did not see anyone around, so she leaned in and called out,

"Helloooo?''

She waited for a while and after getting no response, she walked in and said,

''I am a friend of Kael's, I am here to ask for your help, great alchemist so please forgive my intrusion''

She entered and was faced with a wide staircase leading upstairs and long corridors on either side of the staircase.

She decided to go upstairs and called out occasionally,

"Heeey, anybody here?"

When she reached the top of the stairs, there was a wide corridor and dozens of doors. She went to the nearest room and knocked on the door...

There was no answer so she opened the door and looked inside.

Inside, two distinguished gentlemen were sitting across each other around a table playing chess.

They were both identical looking golems, about a meter tall with a round body made of clay and a red orb in the center of its head.

When they noticed her they turned their heads to the side and looked at her as if they were trying to figure out what she was, then they turned to each other and started making strange noises.

"Aba aba aba aba?"

"Aba!"

"Aba Aba Aba Aba Abaabaaa!!!"

"Aba?"

"Hm, Hmm!"

…

Their fierce discussion seemed to have come to a conclusion, they looked at her and waved with smiling faces with their big mouths.

She waved back with a stiff smile and closed the door.

She thought to herself that if he could produce a golem, he must be a really ingenious man, maybe he really could find a solution to our problem.

She went to the next nearest door and opened it.

Everything inside was in a constant state of falling from top to bottom. The ceiling and floor of the room were made of interconnected portals. After looking inside for a while, she felt nauseous and closed the door.

She opened the next room, which was filled with water. Although she opened the door, the water had not rushed out, she shut the door and went to the next room...

Meanwhile the elf was getting more and more nervous because she still hadn't found the owner of the castle. And Jasper's appetite was whetting as his blood for this week had not been delivered...

When the elf opened the next room she found a very ordinary room, a bed just across the door, bedside tables next to it. To the right of the door was a drawer with a mirror, to the left a cupboard with shelves and a brown leather rug on the floor.

She walked in, looked at the bedside tables, there was a book on one and glasses on the other. She sat down on the bed, it was a quite comfortable bed and as she sat on it she sunk into it a little.

She looked at the shelves on her right, there were dozens, maybe hundreds of books and a few small portraits with pictures.

She decided to get up and check out the photos.

There were four pictures in total, one of a man in his thirties with glasses, one of a petite woman in her thirties, one of a toddler, and the last one was a happy family picture of the three of them together with a puppy.

After looking at each of them one by one, she turned to the mirror behind her and approached it. When she saw her reflection in the mirror, the nervousness disappeared from her face for a moment and she started flexing her muscles.

As she lost herself in posing, something began to appear in the mirror...

An old bespectacled man with no eyes, dark red blood flowing from his eye sockets to his cheeks, shouted at her in a deafeningly thin voice,

"HELP US!!!"

She was startled and took a few steps back, behind the man in the mirror a woman and a child appeared, hugging each other. they all looked at her in synchronization and shouted in unison,

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!! HELP US..."

She was scared and ran towards the door in a panic. They shouted once more,

''BREAK THE MIRROR, RELEASE US!''

She tripped on the ledge of the leather rug on the floor, and when she turned and looked at the rug she saw that the ledge was the head of a dog. 

The dog in the photograph had been skinned and made into a rug.

A shadow fell on her from the direction of the door and when she looked up she saw a cloaked figure with glowing red eyes.

She had nowhere to run, she said in fear of her life,

"I-I am so sorry for trespassing in your castle. I-"

"I realized when you started flexing in front of the mirror"

"Y-you saw th-"

"Kael was going to send a fit elf for me"

"Y-yes, Ka-"

"So you know why you're here?"

"Yes I-"

"Great!"

Jasper snapped his fingers and instantly they were both in the alchemy room.

Jasper went to his desk drawer and took out the tool for drawing blood. Turning to the elf, he saw her slowly undressing and he thought about it,

'I think she's trying to show how fit she is to ask for more money'

He asked as she continued to undress,

"What's your name?"

"If you stop inter-"

He approached the face of the elf, who had meanwhile taken off her top, and looked down at her. Jasper was so fast it was as if he had teleported,

She finally saw his face clearly and thought, 'What a handsome man' Her face blushed, Jasper said in an impressed voice,

"Wow, you are really fit! You have breasts big enough to fill my hands and they don't sag at all. I can't wait to get a taste of you."

She covered her breasts with her hands and tried to avoid eye contact. Jasper held her chin with one hand and turned her towards him and made eye contact. She was getting more and more embarrassed and said,

"Aren't you going to undress as well? It's really embarrassing to stand like this alone"

"Oh yeah? Then you can get dressed, I saw what I needed to see"

"So, you don't like it? Why do you want me to dress up?"

"I said I can't wait to taste you, of course I liked it. Now get dressed."

She was confused but she listened to Jasper and got dressed, Jasper put the tool on the table and asked,

"Did Kael tell you how to use it?"

She had no idea what the teeth on the table and the pipes connected to it were. She said,

"No."

 Jasper pointed to the fangs and said,

"You stick these sharp ones in the vein, that's all and the tool takes care of the rest"

"Is that really all I have to do?"

"Yes, it is. Now use the tool, I'm starving here!"

She sank the fangs into her forearm and watched her blood run into the glass in front of Jasper. When the glass was full, Jasper smelled it and took a sip.

After testing the taste for a short while, he said,

"Good, very good"

Jasper put the glass down on the table and reached his hand forward, his hand disappeared.

When he pulled his hand back, he was holding a pouch of gold.

He gave it to the elf and said,

"See you in two weeks"

She looked disappointed and said,

"Uhm, I'm not he-"

"Oh, yes, you want more."

Jasper took out another bag and handed it to her, she said,

"I'm not here fo-"

Jasper snapped his fingers and before she could complete her sentence, she found herself at the castle gate.

Her patience was running out, even though he was a great alchemist, he should have respected her a little and let her finish her sentences.

She started shouting, banging angrily on the castle door,

"HEY, I DIDN'T COME HERE FOR MONEY, I WAN-"

"Ahh, it's so loud"

With another snap of Jasper's finger, the elf found herself back in her village in the forest. She was very furious and shouted in anger,

"Why don't you let me comp-''