Empress' Evolution

"Did you get a good night sleep?"

"Huh? Master? Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You were sleeping so nicely; I chose not to wake you up. We will be working this morning, make yourself energetic, Dhampy."

"I understand, Master."

Asked Lilith as she heard the rustling and groaning behind. Her ears were twitching; she was nervous but masked it with a stoic voice.

She was taking sneaky glances at Dhampy. She was anxious. Having an underling stronger than you are can become a double-edged sword. Because more often than not, they were hard to control, and currently, one of the sharpest double-edged swords was in her hand.

She couldn't even break it as it would only regenerate itself. The only thing Lilith could do was care for her.

With as deep as a loli's voice could get, Lilith chose to speak.

"Can you move?"

"I am fully healed, thanks to you, Master."

"Okay, first of all, stop calling me, Master. If you wish to refer to me as something, call me boss. Do you understand?"

"Yes, boss."

"Good."

Lilith stood up, and Dhampy followed. Closely observing its new boss, Dhampy stared at Lilith's back with great interest.

She had seen a lot of people, all of which used her to reach their goals. In the end, she too was used by the Hobgoblin, as a food source, that is.

Dhampy just observed Lilith's back unbeknownst to her, Lilith's heart was pounding.

'Why is she eyeing me so? Should I just come out and say I am weak? No, that might end in her bossing me around instead. Wait that could work, hehehehe.'

After some contemplation, the loli who had been quiet all this time opened her mouth to speak to her first follower.

"I do not know your past, but if you wish to leave now, I will not stop you. Just leave quietly." Lilith didn't even turn to look at Dhampy.

Dhampy stopped dead on her tracks while Lilith continued on a leisurely pace. Her plan was simple. If she couldn't kill her, then drive her away.

But driving her away with force was impossible; after all, Dhampy exceeded Lilith in both LVL and passive skills.

'In the first place, how are her Passive and Active Skills over C? I thought that is how as strong as it goes for a common-tier?'

===

[There are exceptions. Dhampy is technically an undead, so her limits are not something we can calculate. Besides, she must be hurting right now, that Dark Heart skill sounds pretty dangerous. But I don't know what it is, wait, I'll request for the Akashic Records.

...the request was rejected. My Senior said reach Epic-Tier to gain access...wait, she changed her mind. She said she'd do something good once you reach Rare-Tier.]

===

'You have seniors? That sounds rather tedious.'

===

[Yeah, even though I am known as Alpha, I still have seniors up in the God Realm. It's tough you know, they always teased me when I was up there. The Goddess told them off, but they continued to do it.]

===

Lilith had nothing to say about the hierarchy of the place know as God Realm. It sounds tedious and troublesome; she shouldn't get involved with places above her. While Lilith was having a casual conversation with Alpha; something happened that made her brow raise.

[Dhampy's Loyalty +3]

'What the hell?'

Lilith had to stop on her tracks, turn around and look up to see the face of the tall Dhampy. The Dhampir was still following behind her, and its loyalty even increased.

"I will follow the boss from now on."

"Suit yourself."

Lilith sighed; the world was beginning to turn over its head. Why was this world so much complicated than human society? It was too hard.

But a new idea popped in her mind. Endless grinding, or so she called it, that was what she planned.

Ignoring it to have a peace of mind, the two of them ran up to a small hill; overlooking a particular area, there was a patch of dark soil. A group of worm-like creatures writhed about spewing deadly corrosive liquid.

[Corrosive Worm LVL 17 (Common)]

The average level of a Corrosive Worm would be 17 to 19. Lilith never went here for anything other than daydreaming the day she'd be able to kill everything here and gain their life essence. But now, she planned on using these worms to drive Dhampy away.

'Sorry kid, but you will have to leave.' It was the irrational fear of having too little of a loyalty. If you were aware that your companion had so little loyalty, will you not fear for betrayal?

Lilith had it bad, especially. She was betrayed by the man she called her right-hand man. Though Lilith didn't give him her full trust and was not hurt that badly, having been betrayed by her own people still caused her to have an instinctual fear.

Whether she admits or not, it was there.

"Those are our targets, get ready, we will hunt them and raise our levels. Tell me, what role are you most proficient in, are you good at supporting from behind or fighting in the front lines?"

"I was trained in killing with a sword, but I can fight with my bare fist when it comes down to it."

"Hmm, then you will be the one to tank. I can't provide you with a weapon so you will have to go with your bare fist. In the future, I'll try to provide you with a much better weapon, but that will have to wait for later. If you are to fail in performing here, it would be better if you leave."

With that said, Lilith observed Dhampy's reaction to her instructions. To her surprise, Dhampy jumped to the fray without much thought, even if she was suspicious of her intentions, Lilith still had to raise a brow to her bravery.

'This Dhampir is fearless, good, good; a good soldier needs courage — wait, why am complimenting her? I will kick her out remember?'

She said that but still eventually began supporting Dhampy on killing the worms. Lilith's eyes opened wide as she found that it was really efficient if she was with Dhampy.

[One Horn:

Level up

Level up

All stats +4

Free points +10]

[Ash Leopard:

Level up

Level up

All stats +4

Free points +10]

[Ravager Salamander:

Level up

Level up

All stats +4

Free points +10]

[Life Essence: +780]

[Dhampy:

Level up

Loyalty +15]

Only after going after three nests of Corrosive Worms did Lilith remember her original intentions.

'Oh shit, I was enjoying myself for far too long. But...Dhampy's a hard worker, and her Loyalty stat is increasing as time goes on. She's a little too trusting, isn't she?'

In all truthfulness, Lilith was amazed at the fact that Dhampy was becoming more loyal to her as time goes on. All this time, Lilith had been stealing Dhampy's kills depriving her of what's hers.

She was acting like an annoying bitch for a reason, but even she didn't want to continue.

In the end, she could only sigh.

"Sigh."

"Is everything alright, boss?"

"It is nothing. We should head back to the Den; the sun is about to set. This forest is too dangerous at night."

Even after all she had done, this little Dhampir was still with her. Maybe, just maybe, Dhamphy might just be a proper soldier who would listen to her and not betray her at least. Lilith thought as such and threw away the idea of kicking her out.

'I'll do something about it when it happens.' She had memorized a good portion of these woods. She was adequately prepared to dispose of and escape from her if she properly utilizes her wits.

The passage of time continued as usual. While Dhampy was watching over the surroundings, Lilith was concerned about her Life Essence.

[Life Essence: 999/100]

'It finally reached its limits.'

Acquiring a Life Essence was not that hard. If she kills a daemon of the same tier, the amount of Life Essence she would receive was equal to the daemon's level. She had already gone past the limitations of the Life Essence.

'In the first place, isn't it weird it can reach up to this level?'

She said to herself, expecting an answer from no one. But the ever so dutiful Alpha took the chance to explain why this was the case.

===

[It is a shared status, you will use it to evolve your every form, and it can also be used to fill up the Life Essence of your followers, helping them evolve. For a daemon, it is hard to gather Life Essence as they do not have me.]

===

The explanation was concise and straightforward, just the way Lilith likes them.

She then remembered Dhampy's previous Life Essence was not that high:

[Life Essence: 53/100]

From the number of Corrosive Worms they have killed, it should have reached at least 200. Unfortunately, it only reached 63.

'That is pitifully low.'

Turning to Dhampy, Lilith smiled deviously. She found a way to bargain with the Dhampir.

Lilith stood up on her loli form and walked towards Dhampy. With her dainty hands, she tried patting Dhampy's shoulders but ended up failing. She was pissed, but encouraged herself and then jumped up to tap the lonely-looking seated Dhampy.

Having her shoulders tapped, with a rather pitiful force, she turned around and saw Lilith with her stoic expression.

It was an amusing sight, but Dhampy didn't laugh for she knew that Lilith was serious.

"You are doing a good job, newbie."

'Even though she is little, she acts maturely. Is the boss always so serious like this?'

Lilith did not know what was going on in Dhampy's mind, nor did she care.

Lilith stepped forward and stood at the entrance of the Den. Her back once again turned to Dhampy who was sitting down.

A serious atmosphere blossomed from what was supposed to be a comical scene.

One adult size person was staring at the back of the loli One Horn, and yet the atmosphere was thick enough that one could slice through it if they could.

Turning around to exchange a severe look with Dhampy, Lilith opened her mouth to speak.

"Dhampy, do you know about evolution?"

Lilith asked in a severe tone, and when Dhampy was about to give her answer, a scream echoed through the woods piercing the wind and reaching both their ears.

"HELP!"

Dhampy abruptly stood up. She looked at Lilith her eyes showing the obvious.

Lilith abruptly turned around to where the loud shout came from. She scowled but in the end, gave in, fearing Dhampy's loyalty might decrease if she does not act

"Let's go!" She was the first to run to where the sound came originated.

'Goddammit, I'm going to kill the one who cut me off. I had a nice atmosphere going!'

Then, while she was running, she received a message.

[Chain Mission: Get to where the sound of plea originated.

Reward: Store

No punishment for failure

Do you accept? Y/N?]

She didn't need to think about it and accepted yes. There was no punishment for failure, so why not?

A golden light then appeared on her minimap, showing the exact location of the one who pleaded for help.

Her mind then went a complete 180, thinking.

'I'll think about her fate later depending on this mission.'