Kim Da-jeong sensed that the situation was getting unusual and used her skill.

“Blessing!”

Light shone from Ha Dong-geon and Oh Eon-ju, who flanked the Higher Vampire from both sides. 

At the same time.

“Rise!”

Kang Deok-su summoned the Steel Knights in perfect synchrony.

The Steel Knights that only had their upper bodies summoned under the feet of the Higher Vampire stabbed upwards with their halberds.

Stab!

 

 

 

Even though spears were embedded in his sides, the Higher Vampire remained unfazed.

Then.

Dududududu!

A sudden barrage of gunshots rang out from behind the vampire.

The Higher Vampire baptized with bullets in the back of his head slowly turned his head. Bullets were falling out of his head in the meantime.

He furrowed his brow, as the presence he had felt just moments ago had completely disappeared.

Perplexed, he lightly spun around.

At the same time the halberds that had been embedded in his sides shattered, his body shot forward towards the remaining party members.

“Haha!”

“!!”

Ha Dong-geon and Oh Eon-ju almost simultaneously swung their claws and spears at the vampire.

They appeared to collide with each other, and at the same time, the Higher Vampire charged towards the rest of the party.

The two exchanged glances for a brief moment, and Oh Eon-ju turned to the left first.

Then, Ha Dong-geon twisted his body in the opposite direction, pulling his hand holding the spear back hard.

Swoosh!

Black flames erupted on the spear blade and shot towards the vampire. 

The tentacles of blood that emerged from the vampire’s sides tried to block Ha Dong-geon’s spear shattered in an instant.

“Hm?”

Just as the Higher Vampire turned his head, feeling something was amiss.

Paak!

Kim Ga-yeong’s light arrow from the front struck him.

Crash!

Dozens of light fragments tore into his body, and a black flaming spear arrived at the same time.

The Higher Vampire clicked his tongue and swung his hand.

Kwang!

The spear shrouded in black flames fell out.

However, the vampire’s hand, which had not been hit until now, was burning black.

Frowning, the Higher Vampire muttered to himself.

“What is this?”

The Higher Vampire stared at the black flames burning on his hand, ignoring the deep wounds caused by Kim Ga-yeong’s light fragments.

In fact, the small wounds created by the light fragments were quickly filled with blood and then disappeared without a trace. It was a regeneration ability comparable to that of Oh Eon-ju in her werebear form.

As the Higher Vampire slowed down, staring at the black flames burning on his hand…

“Grahh!”

Oh Eon-ju swung her nails towards his heart.

Shwah!

At that moment, the blood that extended from the vampire’s body wrapped around Oh Eon-ju’s arm, then used her own power to throw her.

Baaaanngg!

Oh Eon-ju smashed through the walls of the apartment building, still in her charging stance.

Swoosh!

At that moment, another light arrow flew towards the vampire.

Since there had been no damage before, the Higher Vampire ignored it and tried to move forward.

However.

Wooong!

It was different from when the light shards exploded in all directions like a shotgun.

Feeling something ominous, the Higher Vampire tried to grab the arrow.

But.

Fwoosh!

“?!”

The light arrow infused with the Piercing skill shot through the vampire’s grasp and went straight towards his heart.

Thanks to a last-minute dodge, the arrow narrowly missed his heart.

“Heuk. Heuk.”

For the first time, the Higher Vampire’s face distorted like a demon.

“I was originally going to kill the supports first, you know? Because that’s the standard.”

His eyes filled with madness turned towards Kim Ga-yeong.

“If you had stayed still, you could have lived a little longer, you stupid—”

His words were cut off.

No one was interested in his muttering, and there was no reason to wait.

Kwaaang!

The vampire flew to the side to evade the spear covered in black flames, his eyes bloodshot with anger.

“Aaargh! You filthy beasts!”

With a roaar, the vampire’s thighs and calves swelled up greatly.

Then.

Kwaaang!

As the concrete floor shattered, the vampire’s body shot towards Kim Ga-yeong at high speed.

Shwah!

In addition, strands of blood shot out from both of his hands, aiming for Kim Ga-yeong.

However.

Swoosh!

Just before his attack could land, Kim Ga-yeong vanished like an illusion. It was Moon Byeong-ho who teleported her away.

Smash!

The tentacles made of blood only stabbed the empty ground.

Fwoosh—

At the same time, purple mist came out of the Higher Vampire’s nose. 

“Whew.”

And it coincided perfectly with the moment the vampire took a breath.

Bang!

The Higher Vampire managed to escape from the purple mist and gasped for breath.

“Cough! Cough!”

The vampire, having inhaled a large amount of Hye-rin’s poison, trembled as he got up.

His veins from his neck to his face were visibly swollen, and tears of blood streamed from the burst blood vessels in his eyes.

Slowly surveying the surroundings, the Higher Vampire could now see Ha Dong-geon and Oh Eon-ju approaching him.

Kim Da-jeong and Kim Ga-yeong, whom he had been targeting, had moved quite far away by now. Moreover, they were firmly surrounded by Steel Knights.

“Kek.”

 

 

 

The Higher Vampire chuckled briefly, then spoke.

“Amazing. Are you really humans? What are you?”

Ha Dong-geon matched the pace of the Higher Vampire who suddenly spoke to them well. 

“I’m actually more curious about you. What are you? Who is the one leading the vampires, and where are they? If you want to live, answer me.”

“I’m so pitiful. I didn’t expect to be threatened by prey. Did you say you wanted to know where we came from?”

The Higher Vampire chuckled inwardly.

‘Foolish beings.’

His goal was to buy time.

That was all.

“We are the new humanity who have been blessed by ‘him’. I don’t really know who he is, though I can tell you where he is.” 

Smirking meaningfully, the Higher Vampire looked at Ha Dong-geon with a smile.

“Where is he?”

“Before that, answer my question first. There must have been some of my cute little vampires here. What happened to them?”

“Killed them all.”

“…Oh…”

The Higher Vampire’s mouth twitched slightly.

“Even so, I don’t smell any blood at all. Do you drink blood too? They were my carefully crafted prey, you know.”

At that moment, the Higher Vampire smiled inwardly as the victor.

His preparations were nearly complete.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The Higher Vampire’s heart beat roughly as blood circulated rapidly through his body.

The rapidly-moving blood gradually expanded his body.

As his muscles swelled more and more with the overflowing blood, energy filled his body and was ready to explode at any moment.

Ha Dong-geon said meaningfully, “It seems like your purpose was to buy time.”

The vampire revealed a wry smile.

“It’s too late to realize now!”

Just before he could explode his muscular strength, the man in front of him said something strange.

“Did I keep up this unnecessary conversation for nothing?”

“What?”

At that moment.

Zing—

Something strange appeared right in front of the vampire’s nose.

A 20kg weight plate commonly seen in gyms.

“?”

The moment he recognized it.

Smash!

The plate, launched at an incredible speed, blew off the vampire’s head.

After the plate that was accelerated as much as possible with gravity smashed the vampire’s head, I used the Communication Ring to command Ha Dong-geon’s party.

[As I said before, the vampires’ main bodies are their hearts! Destroy the heart!]

Even though his head flew off, the vampire was not dead yet.

As evidence, the system message indicating a successful hunt did not appear.

Fwoosh!

Black flames erupted from Ha Dong-geon’s spear and penetrated the vampire’s heart.

[You have hunted a Higher Vampire (Lv. 49).]

[You have gained a huge amount of experience points.]

[36,124,284,637 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

A huge amount of experience and settlement money came in.

Thanks to the Absolute Dweller’s Crown, the amount of experience and settlement money was several times greater.

Thanks to that.

[Your skill level has increased.]

[Your skill level has increased.]

I leveled up continuously for the first time in a long time.

[The Absolute Dweller’s Declaration has reached Level 25.]

[You have gained 3 skill points.]

With a pleasant notification.

“Urk!”

It came.

The feeling of everything in the area shrinking and expanding around me began. It didn’t take long for the area to finish expanding.

‘!!!!’

I was somewhat used to doing nothing and just enduring the pain at this point. 

Crack!

I also understood why I couldn’t adapt now too. 

It was because the pain was getting stronger as my level increased. 

Was it because I jumped two levels at once? The pain lasted quite long this time, and the smell of blood began to drift from my mouth.

Unknowingly, my gums were being torn apart from clenching my teeth.

Fortunately, the wound was recovering in real-time thanks to Oh Eon-ju’s ability, Primordial Vitality. 

The pain of my gums being torn apart didn’t even register properly.

Because the pain of expanding the area was so intense that it was not easy to even notice minor pains.

After what seemed like an endless amount of time, the pain ended, and the tension in my body was released. A sense of exhaustion came over me.

“Mr. Jae-hyun…”

When I opened my eyes, Seo Ye-jin was looking down at me with tears in her eyes.

When our eyes met, Seo Ye-jin wiped away her tears and asked, “Did your territory expand again?”

“…How did you know?”

“You become like this every time your territory expands.”

It occurred to me that Seo Ye-jin was present when I leveled up many times. 

[A being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen has been found.]

[Would you like to grant citizenship?]

I saw the newly-expanded area and the people in it.

‘I just want to accept them all, but…’

I had to check them one by one just in case there were vampires among them.

However, it was daunting to see thousands of photos filling my view.

After painstakingly checking each one and confirming that they were all normal, I granted citizenship.

Among the new citizens, there were as many as three with awakened abilities, but I didn’t have time to check their abilities in detail.

[Thank you for your hard work, everyone. You can come back now.]

After sending a message to Ha Dong-geon’s party, I said to Seo Ye-jin, “Ms. Ye-jin.”

“Yes, Mr. Jae-hyun.”

“I’m going to rest for a bit. I’m so tired.”

 

 

 

Seo Ye-jin nodded her head.

My eyelids were heavy.

I accepted the incoming fatigue and fell into a deep sleep.