Alex uses Gyo and carefully scans the elderly vampire lord.


    As Alex slowly moves toward the exit of the large hall, he notices a few goblins entering. In fact, it’s almost fifty—nearly every single armored goblin Alex saw earlier, who he mistakenly assumed would help them fight the vampires.


    Alex focuses on his Aura and listens attentively as they approach the elder vampire.


    “Greetings, Lord Drakul—I hope you enjoyed our offering. We have use for your food’s possessions, their sacrifices carefully arranged by us, so we are here to collect what belongs to us. Let us quickly collect them, and we’ll be gone. You can continue to enjoy your festivities, and hopefully, we can continue our partnership in the future,” one of the goblins leading the pack says in a stern but respectful tone.


    Lord Drakul barely looks at the goblins and dismissively raises his hand.


    “Greedy goblin! Do you realize who you are talking to?! You are interrupting the most important part of our sacred night! SHUT UP and collect your trash after we are done. MOVE AWAY NOW, and don’t ruin our ceremony with your disgusting, greedy presence,” one of the guards of Lord Drakul rudely responds. The goblin is visibly angered, doing his best to stay calm, shaking with rage.


    “Now, everyone, as part of our yearly festivities, please offer your tribute to Lord Drakul, who is not only sheltering and protecting you but also supplying you with a steady supply of fresh blood!” Another one says towards the gathering vampires.


    Every single vampire looks a bit torn but resigned and begins to line up in front of their lord.


    As Alex tries to leave the hall, trying to get back outside, a few vampires guarding the door scream at him: “Hey! Where do you think you’re going? If you want to leave, deliver your tribute first! You better be grateful that I’m in a good mood and don’t want to ruin the party! Are you rebelling and refusing to pay your tribute to the lord?!”


    “Of course not… I needed to go to the toilet. I’ll quickly take care of it and return for the tribute, okay?” Alex responds, hoping for an opportunity to leave quickly.


    “You can go AFTER you have presented your tribute, you filthy, greedy part-vampire. No wonder you’re hiding your face—you must be poor, unclean, and traitorous! Your kind shouldn’t be welcome in these sacred halls! MOVE BACK NOW!” the guard orders.


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    Alex quickly moves back into the crowd, lining up at the very back.


    Vampire after vampire kneels in front of their lord, offering various pieces of tribute, ranging from statues to rare books to exotic blood, presented in artistic vials.


    Lord Drakul shrugs his shoulders at most of them, quickly giving them to his subordinate, who puts them inside huge chests made out of stone.


    Alex, with a shocked expression, notes that nobody offers Galleons, and he begins to doubt his choice.


    As Alex slowly moves up in the queue, vampire after vampire presenting their tribute, he spots the goblins, obviously annoyed, some even with their hands on their enchanted goblin swords, not used to getting treated like dirt and mere servants.


    It’s finally Alex’s turn, and he quickly takes out a large cloth bag from his inventory and puts in 10 round-shaped metal balls, keeping only 4.


    Alex rigs the grenades inside the bag to have extremely long fuses. He lights them up as it’s his turn, giving him 20 seconds until they explode.


    “To the honored Lord Pussyblood—I mean, Lord Drakul! On behalf of the superior goblins, I present you what you shriveled-up old fossil deserve!” Alex says with a crazed expression as he forcefully throws the bag toward Lord Drakul, whose face instantly turns sour—half insulted, half shocked—but still catches the bag. Alex swiftly unleashes his Aura, drawing attention to himself, everyone’s eyes magically glued to him.


    Alex then quickly jumps back and loudly screams: “NOW, MY GOBLIN BROTHERS! KILL ALL THE VAMPIRES! LIKE WE PLANNED! WE ARE TAKING OVER THE CASTLE!”


    Everyone, including the goblins, stares at Alex in shock, but before anyone can say a thing, 10 violent explosions ring through the room. Lord Drakul is torn apart in a violent inferno of explosions, flames, and deadly shrapnel.


    Alex, looking slightly shocked because of the sheer terror he has caused, blends out every notification aside from one.


    The hall erupts in chaos. Multiple vampires and even goblins get hit by a violent inferno of metallic death, some even killed by the explosions, flames, and shrapnel, which now at lvl 4 has an effective range of 18 meters at base, not including the various improvements from his innate skills. The once rather harmless shrapnel, now a hellish tool of mass destruction, is like a storm of metal shards violently ripping through everyone, piercing everyone in a radius of 20 meters.


    Some shrapnel hits vampires in their eyes, face, throat, and chest, some using their arms to desperately shield themselves, but everyone around Lord Drakul suffers a horrible fate.


    A total of 10 grenades, able to produce 140 deadly shrapnel shards, unleash a cruel fate onto everyone unlucky enough to stand inside the effective radius of the explosions and shrapnel.


    Thanks to Alex’s LUK, not a single shrapnel hits him, though it closely flies around him, hitting the vampires next to him.


    Using the smoke to hide himself, Alex immediately uses Zetsu, his forceful aura vanishing into nothingness. Thanks to the chaos, Alex immediately manages to avoid everyone’s gazes. As Alex wants to leave, he can’t help but stare at the mangled corpse of Lord Drakul—now just a pile of meat and bones, unrecognizable as the once-proud vampire lord. He can’t believe his eyes as he sees a majestic-looking golden glowing chest, a chest he’s never seen before, lying in the middle of the carnage.


    Despite the now tens of vampires desperately surrounding their fallen lord, various weapons like swords and daggers drawn, Alex decides to risk it all.


    Alex activates Sealion’s Icewing Embrace lvl 4 and throws another 2 grenades toward the guards.


    …


    Two explosions echo through the hall, some of the guards getting torn apart, one poor vampire getting his eye pierced by a shrapnel shard, while others avoid the explosions thanks to their comrades’ bodies protecting them. Alex draws his [Sword of Pluto] and [Shield of Pluto], uses Ren, and applies Shu to his blade as he violently charges into the surprised guards.


    He slams his shield into one of the guards, his frost imbuement—sadly extremely ineffective against the vampires—dealing a pitiful amount of damage.


    His follow-up strike with his sword, thanks to his various skills and his Aura, however, forcefully cuts into the injured vampire.


    Using the confusion, Alex desperately sprints toward the fallen Lord Drakul, now with a clear path. Alex, seeing a few more white chests, decides to ignore them, not willing to risk his life. His only target is far more important, and he picks up the wonderous golden chest.


    “KILL THIS GOBLIN SPY! HE KILLED OUR LORD! ON THE HONOR OF OUR HOUSE, HE HAS TO DIE!”


    Multiple vampires charge at Alex, others casting spells. Alex dodges the charging vampires but can’t dodge the spells.


    “Confringo!”


    “Diffindo!”


    Alex raises his shield, a mighty unshakable bulwark enhanced not only with Aura—specifically Ken—but also Sealion’s Icewing Embrace lvl 4, and manages to block the spells almost perfectly. However, Confringo’s explosion still deals a lot of damage to him.


    A few of the royal guards, crazed by their lord’s demise, use this opportunity to go even further.


    “CRUCIO!”


    “AVADA KEDAVRA!”


    Alex hears the chants and desperately jumps into the air, grabbing onto a huge chandelier near the ceiling. The spells narrowly miss him, flying toward the confused and unorganized goblins. One goblin drops dead instantly, while another collapses, screaming in pain.


    The goblins, now angered, draw their weapons and begin to fight back against the crazed vampires, a violent brawl breaking out.


    Alex uses Zetsu and In, floating from one chandelier to another, moving toward the exit.


    Thanks to the brawl, he momentarily manages to shake off the vampires hunting for him. He sees the two guards who denied his exit earlier and have now barricaded the door.


    Alex throws his last two Annihilation Grenades toward them from above.


    …


    …


    Alex smiles as he sees the two arrogant guards instantly get torn apart and the door blown into pieces. He floats down and grabs two more chests on his way out, praising his LUK again.


    Alex, feeling the cold wind against his face and noticing it has begun to rain, feels like he’s been reborn! His adrenaline still empowering him, he madly laughs and sprints toward the indoor garden.