Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Another 2 days passed on their long and uneventful journey. Yesterday, they had arrived at the Duchess's territory but it took them another day before they arrived at Sanguine City, Ecsed.

Along the way, Maria's entourage encountered a few monster and bandit attacks but they were easily taken care of by her personal army. She, Ash, and the others didn't have to lift a finger. It was nice but at the same time, it was boring.

Everyone in Maria's army was at a level much higher than her but no soldier in her army dared to look down on her who was of lower level than them because they knew that Maria could easily defeat anyone in her army without even putting up an effort.

A player's level was just an indicator and it was their stats that mattered and there were various ways in gaining stats. Leveling up was the most obvious and straightforward way but doing repeated actions, fulfilling certain conditions, and completing some quests will also grant players extra stats.

Whether they were fixed stat boosts or Free Stat Points which they could allocate to any of their desired attributes, there were certainly many ways. It was just like how Maria had gained INT stats when she was reading all the books back at the library where she was trapped at the initial start of her gaming career.

After that, there was the player's equipment that needed to be considered. Most of a player's stats came from the items they obtained and equipped to their character. While level was important, other factors contributed to how strong a player actually is.

Maria's set of gear was tailored and adapted to her playstyle and build thanks to her being the game's first faction leader. Her other gear was also adjusted and upgraded by her faction's blacksmiths so her stats had largely increased ever since she came to Vanhal and properly expanded her forces.

The only thing she needed to upgrade was her Calamity. It had remained unchanged ever since she had upgraded it the first time so the bonus attributes it gave were rather low but she kept using it because the skills were largely affected by her own stats and not the weapon's stats.

It was also a piece of unique legacy equipment for her class so she didn't want to look for another weapon to use since she was also quite familiar and proficient in using Calamity already.

There was news about how the game was going to implement a weapon proficiency level that could give bonus stats to the player for using a weapon they were proficient with.

At the current stage of the game, only skill proficiency was currently available and this was needed in order to level up the skill and let the players use them more easily.

Arriving at Ecsed, Maria took in the sights of the city and noticed that it was bustling and the citizens were all preparing the streets and buildings for a grand celebration. She didn't know what it was for, but apparently, this grand ball was held every 4 years and only vampires of Count rank and above were given invitations to attend it.

Earlier, all Maria needed to do was flash the guards her invitation letter before they were respectfully led inside and guided towards the accommodations the Duchess had allocated to them.

Ecsed was a mega-city that had one too many districts. The number of vampires that the Duchess had invited was allowed to stay in their own private place that she allocated to them.

This prevented anyone from causing trouble at the inns since they were packed to the brim with other visitors and tourists. It was always on this week that the city would experience a massive inflow of visitors.

It wasn't only the ball that was happening, but auction houses had opened their doors and were auctioning off rare items and materials, the blood market was open and many rare items were being bartered here.

There was even the summoning ceremony that would take place outside of the city on the day when the ball was being held. The ceremony was meant only for the common folk but some noble vampires would attend it as well since Duchess Bathory would be there as well.

Maria didn't know what this summoning ceremony was but it was the hype of every citizen in the city right now. Everything happening in the city was so interesting to her right now so she obviously wanted to quickly tour around after they reached their accommodations and settled themselves in.

The guards led them to the residential district's high-class area and they were allocated a large estate.

Maria didn't seem to mind that it was much smaller than the other estates that they passed through but Ash was rather incensed.

"That damned woman!"

"Shut up, Ash. Hurry up and get everyone settled in so I can go explore this place. One day, I want my grand capital to be even better and bigger than this place!"

"...As you wish, my Lady. I'll have a word with that woman once we meet her tomorrow."

"Whatever, you sort your feud with her at that time. I heard there were some auctions going on. I wonder if they have anything good!"

Ash nodded before he began giving everyone else a few commands. It wasn't long before Maria's personal carriage left the estate with a few additional passengers besides Maria and Alexa.

Ash had also tagged along and he was there only because he wanted to make sure his Queen was kept out of trouble. His Lady was a trouble-attracting magnet and he knew that although she would normally keep a prudent lookout, trouble would just come wandering over.

Maria had a cold smile on her face while sitting in the carriage. She addressed Ash who had insisted he followed them despite it going against her wishes. "Ash, don't you know that you're being a third-wheel? I'm going on a date with Lilah and little Alexa here but you're ruining it!"

"Forgive me, my Lady. Just treat me as a bodyguard and pretend I'm not even here."

"Do you really think I need protection? I and Alexa are strong enough ourselves!"

"Yes, but why should you go out of your way to handle every nuisance that comes your way?"

"And what makes you so sure something will happen later?"

"..."

Ash didn't even need to answer that question. He just stared back at Maria and after a while, she couldn't say anymore since inwardly, she knew that she was a trouble-magnet.

"Hmph, do what you want but if you spoil the mood later, I'll have your hide on a pike!"

Ash lowered his head before suddenly dispersing into a flock of bats.

"Hmph, even if trouble did come, it's not like I can't handle it!"

Not even an hour later, trouble did come finding Maria.

"25,000 BC! Wench, you better pull out before I―"

"30,000 BC! What? You wanna compare wealth with me?! This is an auction! Your threats are meaningless!"

Maria yelled this across the room towards someone on the fourth and highest floor of an auction building. She was currently on the first floor sitting among the common crowd because she didn't know that you could pay a certain fee to get a VIP pass to the upper floors.

Naturally, what she was arguing about was an item that she and her rival auction participant wanted. This item wasn't something she wanted for herself but rather for Alexa.

It was a unique vampire-race weapon that was known as a Blood Regalia. Regalia's had different ranks and it corresponded with the vampire's nobility ranks. This Blood Regalia was ranked on the Marquis level which was just below a Duke level Regalia.

A Blood Regalia was something that was required for a vampire to promote their ranks so every vampire was eyeing this coveted item. Maria didn't know what it was actually used for until Ash informed her of it.

Seeing that Alexa was a vampire that was only of the Knight-level, Maria naturally wanted it for her little vampire sister. Having a Duke and a Marquis-level vampire by her side... now that was something very tempting.

One of her S-ranked quests also required a few Marquis-level subordinates to complete so this was just her taking that step to fulfill the requirement. The amount of money didn't matter because she was rich.

Whether it was BC or Universal Currency, she was much wealthier than any of the NPCs here and she was confident about that.

Although she didn't actively do business to improve her faction's economy, the number of monsters she killed and the influx of denizens and merchants that flowed into her territory that traded with her citizens and stayed after they found out that the once treacherous and lawless area was now being properly governed gave her a good amount of income every day.

She never used the Blood Coins she acquired so it had piled up in her treasury. The Blood Regalia should only have a price of around 20,000-50,000 but Maria had over 100,000 Blood Coins in her inventory and over a million back in her castle's treasury.

She never used it and opted to use Universal Currency instead because it was more convenient and everything was 'cheaper' when using that.

Naturally, she wasn't the only one vying for this item but with the large jumps she took when raising the price deterred many of the Count and below ranked vampires. They could all see that she was determined to get this item.

Sabotaging in the auction house was strictly prohibited and if one raised the price, they would have to show the auction house that they had the money to actually raise it to the price they bid.

Thanks to this policy, the vampires couldn't sabotage the price of the item by raising it to an astronomically high amount just to get back at Maria.

Everyone saw that this person was not a vampire but she was taking away an item that belonged to the vampires. They were disgruntled and angered but they couldn't do anything.

They could try and attack her after her quest was over but that was a bad idea though they didn't know it.

After the price of the Regalia was raised to 45,000 BC, Maria finally won the item since no other vampire continued to bid for it. If they used up all of their money right now, they wouldn't be able to bid for any more items when the main event of the auction began tomorrow.

Maria knew that there was a final stage to this long auction period which was tomorrow, but she didn't feel any regret in using up all that BC. It was to strengthen Alexa which in turn would enhance the overall power of her faction.

Maria knew that she wouldn't be able to convince every vampire on the Blood Continent to join her faction so it was better to raise her own vampires and just kill off the rest that didn't join her to prevent any future troubles.

"My Lady, this is a good investment for Alexa's future."

"Mhm, but I won't stop here. We'll try and find a Duke's Regalia and get it for Alexa!"

"That won't be necessary, my Lady."

Maria had already received her item and paid the amount that was required and was having this conversation on their way back to their carriage. She had enough sight-seeing for one day and it was already getting late and she needed to return to their accommodations so that she could log out.

"Why's that, Ash?"

"In order to become a Duke, a vampire doesn't need a Regalia for it will manifest itself once that vampire becomes a duke."

"Oh?"

"Unlike these Regalias that are fixed in number, a Duke Regalia isn't."

"So an unlimited amount of vampires can become dukes?"

Ash shook his head and continued explaining, "To become a Duke, it isn't all about power but the purity of blood flowing within one's veins. Refining your blood until it's at the level of a duke isn't easy. You can tell from just how many vampire dukes there have been in history."

"Oh...well, we'll just have to help Alexa refine her blood then. Besides, we have you so you'll naturally give her tips...right?" Maria had an overbearing look in her eyes when she said this.

"It's only natural that I help. The more power you hold, my Queen, the stronger we are as a whole."

Maria smiled and said, "I'm glad you understand this, Ash...now, go deal with those dogs tailing us. Use a little discretion. I don't want to cause a ruckus in this city that isn't mine yet."

Ash smiled at her words and bowed, "It shall be done."

"Get to it then."

Maria was helped up her carriage by Ash who then dispersed into a flock of bats. Once Alexa and Lilah stepped inside, the carriage began pulling away.

"Hmm, I got quite a few things. I wonder what tomorrow's auction will be like."

Maria hummed happily when she saw the rare materials and items sitting in her inventory. She had gone to the Blood Market, the various auction houses, and some other places and just went on a shopping spree.

Any interesting looking item that caught her attention Maria immediately swiped away. A wagon was following after them and on this wagon was a few people in ragged clothes that had chains on their necks.

There was actually a slave market in the city and it had a few were-people up for auction. Maria's [Inspect] skill was rather high-leveled and she used this to pick out the slaves that had the best potential and bought them.

Naturally, she was going to free them after they arrived back at the estate but that was only on the condition that they swore absolute loyalty to her. If not, she'd just kill them and turn them into EXP.

"Hmhm~ what a fruitful day~"