Serum

Dirk stopped by at his residence. His thoughts had carried him back here to seek out Pandora. 

His room was technically their room. She insisted that they shared because she was really into the delusion of him being her consort. 

But she wasn’t at the residence when he arrived. And since he couldn’t possibly guess where she might’ve been, he decided to attend to his main priority. 

His armor was almost finished. 

In fact, the snake scale body armor was already completed. He had finished the final touches on it while at the capital. 

But the last piece was something he couldn’t finish without a proper forge room. 

The helmet. It was already designed and was going to be made with the remaining chunks of turtle shell. 

So Dirk sought out a place that he could forge. He initially thought to go outside behind the stronghold and bring out Pandora’s mobile forge room, but deciding it would be too conspicuous, he opted for going to a forge within the city. 

There were plenty of forges, more than he could count. And there was one big place that many forgemasters went to in order to forge because they couldn’t buy or build entire properties of their own within the city. 

It was called the Palace of Bellows, and it was a tall structure that spiraled toward the ceiling of the stronghold. On all sides you could see vents that spewed smoke and waves of heat from all the active forges. 

Dirk went into this place and talked to the dwarven receptionist.

“A human forgemaster? This is a first.”

“I just want a room.”

“As long as you got the coin. What’s the grade of the metal?”

The dwarf asked while jotting down words on a sheet of paper. Dirk answered back.

“Grade 5.”

“Do you need a flame?”

“No.”

“Do you need a hammer?”

“No.”

“Alright…”

He finished and scribbled down more lines. Then, he tore out the sheet of paper and turned, finding a room on a long list behind him. 

He eventually found one and pasted the sheet down on top of it. He then retrieved a key. 

“We have an hourly rate of 200 silver for this room. You can stay for as long as you like, but the clock ticks for every second that you’re in there. Also, you can rent tools. They have their own hourly rates.”

“Ok.”

“Then once you give me a gold for deposit, you can head on up to room 480. In the event that you stay for less than 10 hours, your deposit will be partially refunded.”

“Fine.”

Dirk casually tossed a gold coin, and the dwarf gave him the key. He didn’t so much as ask for a name. 

With that, he ascended the structure, quickly finding his way to room 480. 

He entered and was hit not with a wave of heat, but biting cold. 

It seemed these rooms were really good a dissipating heat, and considering how hot temperatures could climb and how destructive it could be, this cold was a good thing. 

In the room was an anvil and a fire pit, along with an assortment of basic tools. 

With that, he called upon Obsidius. The blob bounced in response before covering his hands, turning into gloves and igniting with a vibrant flame. 

The living flame quickly warmed the surroundings, and after taking out the chunk of turtle shell, he walked over to the fire pit. 

He dipped his hands into the pit with the chunk of metal, and then, the living flame spewed forth, burning his mana as fuel. 

The temperature rose exponentially, but only within the fire pit. These pits were designed not just to produce heat, but to contain it, allowing someone to achieve temperatures far above the norm. It did the same with mana, insulating the fire mana and forcing it to affect the metal, making the heating process far more efficient and powerful. 

Dirk didn’t use these fire pits before because he couldn’t exactly throw an entire massive turtle shell into a fire pit. But now that he had gone through most of the material, he had a small enough amount to allow him to go about things normally. 

The chunk of metal quickly turned yellow hot, and Dirk could see and feel it become malleable. So with that, he brought it out onto the nearby anvil and retrieved a hammer. 

It was one of the hammers that was within Pandora’s forge, specifically tailored to the metal element. 

And with everything in front of him, he began. 

The process of shaping a helmet was complex. Dirk had forged a helmet before with Tobasden, along with all other pieces of armor and gear. So he knew the process and techniques, though he wasn’t as skilled as the dwarven master. 

But the beauty about these metals was that you could try for as long as it took. You could keep reheating the metal and there was no limit to how much you hammered it. 

So Dirk focused on making the general shape. He bowled out the chunk before refining the general structure. It was everything after this that took his utmost concentration. 

The proportions, the smoothness, the angles. All the little details had to be accounted for, and if there was one thing Dirk wasn’t magnificent at, it was art. 

Forging was an art form no different from painting. It required one to see their grand vision in the small steps that they took. And while there were techniques to help guide your steps, the path you took was ultimately up to you. 

Dirk wasn’t good at being creative like that. He could see the grand vision, the final product, but his method of getting there was more so through brute force. He forced his creation to bend to the image of the end product. 

He hammered away until he saw bits of the final product, and like that he would slowly refine. 

It was a brutish way of doing things. It was merely putting together pieces in a puzzle, not shaping the pieces and configuring them yourself. 

But Dirk was precise. That’s what Tobasden had seen in him. He didn’t see an artist. Instead, he saw a machine that would bend the unyielding metal under his hammer to his whim until it became what he needed. And it worked flawlessly.

The end result was always the product he wanted. And it was no different with this helmet. 

Dirk could gradually see the inklings of the helmet come to fruition with each hammer strike. In his vision, he could see the crude product in his hands slowly fitting into the mold as Spyte assisted him with measurements and small directions. 

Any small imperfections were handled with his fingers, like smoothing out surfaces or curving edges. 

And after several hours passed, Dirk was close to the final product. 

It would take a while to properly refine the helmet, bringing it to perfection before tempering it. But it was no longer crude. 

It wouldn’t be finished now though. Dirk stopped before exhaustion, deciding to go to his residence and recover. 

Spyte jumped out with her cat form. Now that she no longer needed to focus on helping him, she could walk around and personally explore a bit. 

The two strolled through the city before happening upon their hotel where Spyte took a place on Dirk’s shoulder. 

Making his way and opening the door to his room, Dirk entered. And this time, Pandora was there. 

Since it was now late into the evening, she was dressed in something like a nightgown, looking positively arousing. And perhaps it was this image that was desensitizing him, because no longer could ordinary women catch his eye. Not even those scantily clad ladies at the brothels could draw his attention. 

“Well hello there. Out exploring the feminine delicacies of the stronghold?”

She asked with a smile, causing him to respond back bluntly.

“Forging, which is arguably more enjoyable.”

“Yea, until you get that cherry of yours popped.”

“Are you speaking from experience?”

Dirk questioned back with a small smirk, already knowing the answer. 

And as expected, Pandora dodged his gaze. 

“Not really. I wasn’t normal back then. Any guy that tried often ended pitifully.”

“Well, I wasn’t normal either. Anyway…”

Getting to this point, Dirk blanked. 

He had wanted to ask Pandora some things, but it felt weird to actually ask. He wasn’t sure what to say. 

So he gathered himself for a bit. And Pandora watched him in silence, as if expecting him to eventually say something to her. 

“...I had a question.”

“If I can answer it, I will.”

She tilted her head while lounging back on the bed. 

Dirk also took a seat on the edge of the mattress, pondering before finally asking. 

“I wanted to ask you about, well, you. But I’m conflicted. I don’t know if I can trust your responses.”

“...I can’t say that I’m sure what would change that. Are you looking for my word? A promise that I won’t lie?”

“No.”

He shook his head. 

“But I want to trust you, so I will. Kind of. I feel like I have a decent grasp on who you are, so I’m going to trust my judgment until I no longer can.”

“Really? What gives you confidence in your judgment of me?”

“Well, we’ve spent a lot of time together recently. I’ve been pondering your every move, questioning your every action. I’ve seen several new sides of you, both good and bad. Like how you barely helped while fighting at the city, even though you could’ve saved many more lives. But in the first place, you agreed to go there and let me help even though you didn’t want to. I can see you actively trying to help me. So I ask.”

Dirk turned his head toward her in focus. And Pandora turned somber, not taking his question lightly. 

“Can I trust that the plans you scheme, the things you do, the places you bring me to, won’t end in my death? I want to get stronger, and I suppose I’m using you to those ends. And you’re using me for my combat ability in order to garner influence and similar strength. But I need to know that our partnership goes beyond us being useful to each other. I need to know that you won’t betray me, not because you may fear my strength or the ramifications, but because… you see me as something more than a tool to be used.”

Dirk found himself slowing his words, his voice deepening in slight emotion. 

Why did he seem to hate Pandora so much?

Several weeks ago when they first met, he hardly knew anything about her. He didn’t know anything about her habits, her mannerisms, how deep or shallow her psychosis was, or her thoughts about him. 

But he did know one thing. 

He had been used and betrayed, and Pandora was someone who excelled in that field. He hated that, and by extension had been unrelentingly distrustful of her. He only stayed with her because, as he said, he was using her for resources and strength. 

But things were different now. Many weeks later, he wasn’t so distrustful. She was growing on him. 

And now, his question could be said to be an ultimatum. 

Pandora surely saw it as such. 

According to what she knew, Dirk only trusted a single person in this world unconditionally, and that was his mother. He didn’t even show that trust toward his father, and especially not toward his brother Ethan. 

He was someone who would only trust the closest person to him, someone who had been with him since birth, had raised him, and who shared a deep connection through similar experiences. 

And now, he was offering some of that trust toward her. 

She could take it easily, and she could use it to her advantage. 

But if she ever broke that trust, then she would never see it again. 

She pondered in her mind. 

‘Taking something complex like the bonds of trust and making it simple. He gives it to me, and from now on, I either maintain it or break it. It lets him read our relationship easily. I could turn into an enemy on the flip of a dime. But… I can tell. He does this because he wants to trust me, at least a little. His mother changed him quite a bit. Not so heartless. He’s actually willing to make friends and develop a relationship instead of blocking everything out. So I suppose I’ve grown on him…’

Pandora got to this point in her train of thought, but then she suddenly stopped. 

‘...I always analyze things like that, don’t I…’

She sighed inwardly. 

Dirk wasn’t the only one who couldn’t navigate relationships normally. 

So she thought. 

‘Instead of going about this in a psychopathic way, why don’t I do it organically? But, what do normal relationships entail? Like, love, kissing, sex, presents, flowery words, money… No, maybe not money, mainly emotion. Then again, what’s normal about our relationship? I need to think of something that will please him but not come off as manipulating. In that case, it might be something that I don’t want to do, because why would I do something detrimental to myself in order to manipulate him? But maybe that’s exactly why I would do it, to lure into false security…’

Pandora wracked her mind, spiraling into a loop of self-contradiction and doubt. 

It led to a long bought of silence, one that confused Dirk. He wasn’t sure what to think as Pandora’s face scrunched while groaning came from between her lips. 

Was this that hard for her?

Finally, after waiting a while, Dirk got a response.

“Let’s… make a Seal.”

“Seal?”

He was more confused as she inched toward him, her eyes on his neck. 

“A Blood Seal. It’s the deepest blood pact you can make with a vampire. It seals the blood of both parties and ties them to each other. If I do that with you, then I would never be able to drink someone else’s blood again. You would be my sole source of vitality for the rest of my life. And for vampires, it’s no different from getting married. To some extent, we could also feel each other’s emotions.”

“You would actually chain yourself to me for the rest of your life in order for me to trust you?”

“That is what you want, isn’t it?”

She looked at Dirk with dead serious eyes.

“No matter what I think of, there’s no other way for you to trust me. I want your trust, Dirk. And I know superficial affection won’t do anything to you. So, this is my ultimatum.”

Bringing up her hand, the Book of Life appeared, flipping through until it revealed a set of pages with blood red inscriptions on it. 

She put it between them and then bit her finger, drawing blood and smearing it across the page. One half of it then flashed, waiting for another half to join. 

Dirk could feel the ritualistic power behind the complex runes. And if he put his blood in there, then he would be able to make this Blood Seal with Pandora. 

He gazed into her eyes, seeing the blood mana within her getting agitated. She was really going to make the Seal.

He asked.

“Do you want to do this?”

“If it's for you, then yes.”

“...”

Dirk went silent for several moments before reaching his hand over.

And he closed the book. 

The spell shut down, surprising Pandora. 

They sat there in silence for a moment before Dirk sighed and nodded. 

“I understand.”

“...”

Pandora watched as he started undressing, putting on something more comfortable before climbing into bed. 

“I’m tired from forging, so I think I’ll go to bed early.”

He mumbled while turning off lights, the room going dark. 

Snapping out of her daze, Pandora realized what was happening and slowly climbed over to his side as he got under the sheets. The Book of Life closed, all the agitated mana in the room dissipating.

She went under with him, seeing his back that was facing her. 

And after a few minutes, Dirk could feel an arm wrap around him. Pandora liked to get cuddly, and he would usually bear with her presence or push her off. 

But this time, he let it be. He fell asleep while feeling her press against his back, his mind filled with an odd sensation.