Chapter 94

The warrior chief of the Dwarven Village, Trail, hurriedly moved his short legs and ran without stopping.

To be precise, it wasn’t Trail but Damian, who had merged with his body.

He had used his minions as bait, taken advantage of the chaos to merge with Trail, and then fled.

“Damn it…! Damn it…!”

Thanks to that, he managed to buy time and escape the inn, but in doing so, all the plans he had prepared for so long went up in smoke.

The plan was to turn the entire Dwarven Village into his minions.

If he could make the Dwarven warriors, who were naturally as strong as well-trained soldiers, into his own army, he could use his unique ability of assimilation to house an entire knight order within his body.

So, step by step, he had finally gotten the plan on track and secretly turned half of the warrior squad into his minions.

Then, he deliberately left traces of a vampire to lure the remaining half to a remote location, betrayed them from behind, and subdued them all.

All that was left was to slowly turn the subdued Dwarven warriors into his minions while keeping them within his body.

Indeed, the Dwarven bodies were ridiculously tough compared to ordinary humans, making it no easy task to subdue their minds and turn them into minions.

Especially when trying to turn dozens of warriors into minions simultaneously.

If they were ordinary humans, the assimilation would have been done long ago, but with the Dwarves, it was progressing so slowly that even after several days, he still hadn’t completed the process.

That’s why, during the battle with Kurt, he didn’t release the minions from the start but only revealed them at the very last moment when he had to abandon all his plans and flee.

“From here on, it was just a matter of time…!”

If the plan had gone as intended, in a few more days, he would have perfectly assimilated the entire Dwarven warrior squad and used them to take control of the entire village.

With the Dwarven warrior squad as his army, he could have even surpassed the rank of Count and aimed for the title of Marquis.

But at the very last moment.

That monstrous lizard had to interfere and ruin everything.

Overwhelmed by the frustration, Damian could only flee outside the Dwarven village, suppressing the curses rising in his throat.

“After all that effort, all I got was one Dwarven minion…!”

The only consolation was that the one minion was the most skilled warrior in the Dwarven village.

Even in the chaos of half the warrior squad betraying, this one had resisted to the end, forcing Damian to reveal himself.

After running for a while, Damian, who had taken over Trail’s body, finally reached the village entrance.

“With such a big commotion here, I’ll have to hide in some rural village for years, sucking the blood of young maidens.”

“No. You won’t be able to do that.”

A Dwarf blocked his path.

It was Nail, his son, who had kept his eyes on Trail’s figure even amidst the chaos at the inn.

Startled, Damian looked around, but fortunately, no one else seemed to have followed.

Seeing that Nail had come alone, Damian immediately changed his stance, putting on a confident expression and speaking in an arrogant tone.

“Hmph. You think you can stop me alone? You must think very little of me.”

“I’m not underestimating you. I may be foolish, but I’m not so foolish as to not know how terrifying a vampire like you is.”

“Then step aside, brat. I don’t want to cause any more trouble in this village. If you just move, I’ll leave quietly. No need to risk your life.”

Damian pretended to show mercy as he spoke.

In truth, he had suffered significant damage from his one-sided battle with Kurt and had lost a lot of blood. He didn’t know when Kurt might notice his disappearance and come after him.

“I can’t do that. That body belongs to my father. I need to get it back.”

At those words, Damian looked at Nail’s face with interest.

“Your son? You don’t look anything like this ugly Dwarf.”

Gritting his teeth, Nail clenched his fists at Damian’s insult, but Damian, uninterested in how angry Nail was, continued the conversation.

“So, you have no intention of stepping aside. Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll have to turn you into a handful of blood at your father’s hands!”

With that, Damian immediately drew his blood claws.

Though the body was Trail’s, the one assimilated within was Damian, allowing him to use his vampire abilities.

The Dwarven warrior chief’s body combined with the vampire’s blood manipulation ability.

Damian, who could use both simultaneously, stopped talking and charged fiercely at Nail.

Just before Trail collided with Nail, Nail quickly drew his weapon and blocked the attack.

*Clang!*

“What is that! That huge lump of metal.”

It was a massive sword with intricate geometric patterns engraved on its surface.

A sword that could temporarily enchant the power of magic stones, reinforced for durability beyond ordinary swords, making it much larger than a typical greatsword.

But as a result, it was excessively heavy, weighing over 30kg, making it impossible for an ordinary human to wield.

But if an ordinary human couldn’t wield it, what about an extraordinary one?

When Nail first requested Kurt’s group to escort him to the Dwarven village, he had easily carried not just the 30kg sword but also a box filled with various other weapons onto the carriage.

So, wielding one greatsword from that box was no difficult task.

Gritting his teeth, Nail blocked Damian’s attack with the flat of his greatsword and then swung it to push Damian away.

*Whoosh!*

Nail’s rough push sent Damian flipping through the air, landing gracefully and calmly observing the sword Nail was holding.

“…So you do have some combat skills. But even so, it’s nothing impressive. A weapon like that won’t be enough to defeat me.”

“I will defeat you here and take back my family.”

“Ha! This brat really thinks little of me!”

Thinking Nail was mocking him, Damian extended his claws several times longer and charged at Nail again.

This time, Nail, who had already drawn his weapon, calmly swung the greatsword with some composure.

Under the quiet moonlit night, where only the full moon asserted its presence, the two Dwarves clashed.

One, with blood-red eyes and claws made of blood, looked like a monster.

The other, holding a greatsword he had forged, glowing silver.

‘…Wait? Glowing silver?’

Seeing this, Damian was startled and looked at the silver blade rushing towards him.

‘Wasn’t the sword he was using just an ordinary iron greatsword? Why…?’

It was the ability of the greatsword Nail had made.

By inserting a bottle containing a magic stone into the rotating magazine on the hilt, the sword could temporarily imbue the properties of the magic stone.

And the magic stone Nail had grabbed before chasing Damian.

It was a silver-like magic stone from the Mikaelis Plains, also known as white silver salt, which Kurt had used in Aglio Olio Pasta.

The white silver salt magic stone ignited within the greatsword, causing the entire blade to emit a dazzling silver light.

Silver, which was like a deadly poison to vampires.

Unconsciously, Damian tried to block with his claws, but his blood-made claws evaporated like paper in a fire, and Nail’s greatsword cut through Damian’s defenses, slashing his body.

*Cough!*

Damian, with a thin but long wound across his chest, spat out dead blood.

The amount was several times more than what he had spat out after eating Aglio Olio Pasta.

“This is… silver? Why the properties of silver…? But even with silver, how could it cause this much damage…?”

No, it wasn’t ordinary silver.

Even if it was silver, the opponent was a Count-level vampire.

Even if he had been injured by Kurt, a single strike from ordinary silver shouldn’t have been enough to cause such critical damage.

*Sizzle…*

*Click…*

*Bang!*

At that moment, the magazine of the greatsword Nail had swung opened, emitting smoke and spilling out the spent magic stones.

There were six in total.

Unbeknownst to Damian, Nail’s strike had compressed and unleashed the power of six magic stones in one blow.

The rotating magazine, which could hold up to six magic stones at once, thanks to Kurt’s advice.

Nail had used it in reverse, compressing all six magic stones into a single strike.

The result was a greatsword attack emitting a chilling silver light, far beyond ordinary silver, specialized to cut through the very existence of a vampire.

So, even a Count-level vampire couldn’t possibly block it.

With that single strike, Nail defeated Damian and, under the moonlit night, calmly looked at Damian, who had taken over Trail’s body.

A boy who couldn’t become a warrior as his father wished, nor fulfill his dream of becoming a blacksmith.

A boy who cursed his own weakness and shut himself in his room.

Finally, he stepped out of that room and became a warrior, a blacksmith, and a man.