Part 22: Update XX - Reading Rainbow

Update XX - Reading Rainbow



♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫

After that totally not foreshadowing segment, we cut back to the three sleeping, or at least attempting to do so, in their beds.



Not yet, Valnar. We've got a fair share of other shit to be doing first.



Just when I was sleeping so badly! Damn Valnar!
Come, we should speak with Jinnai now!
That was the worst night of my life! I'll never sleep in a bed ever again!
That guy is probably waiting for us on the roof, and will explain some more things to us...

Well, off we go!



And I assume you already have an idea what we are supposed to do next!?
That's pretty obvious. If you want the world you know back, you have to seize the stone fragments that are hidden inside the castles.
And how are we supposed to do that!?
Well, you are vampires... create slaves who can fight the battles for you!
We will not create new vampires!
Are you afraid!? Very odd...
New vampires would only lead to a new holy war! That is a price we are not willing to pay!
Then you will have to live in a foreign world that is ruled by insane humans and tyrannical Elras! Neither of them will tolerate your existence! You will be hunted forever either way!
Oh, having a few more vampires or less will hardly hurt...
Typical Asgar! Shortsighted as always!
Is there no alternative?
Well, as I mentioned before, there is a mercenary camp east from here. Provided you have the money needed, they should be able to support you, as well!
That sounds way more reasonable already!

Well, I mean, it doesn't, given that what we're planning to do is essentially taking over the world. If some mercenaries give us the firepower needed to take over the world, why the hell haven't they done that themselves? Or what keeps them from just taking over once they realize that they're our entire army and could just run shit themselves?

I don't know... we might as well keep all the nice money for ourselves!
We're going to manage somehow...
I trust you, Valnar... you will do the right thing...

Spoilers: We're going to create vampires.

Yes, create vampires!

See, Asgar knows what's up.

1) That sounds reasonable... - 2) We'll see... - 3) Certainly not!

The good thing is that this choice doesn't come up later again, and so we just get a free Humanity boost.

Pfff... you don't even believe that one yourself!

Man, Asgar's really got me scouted.

A very wise decision, Valnar!
First, however, you'll need to get rid of that monster on the bridge in the south. Then we can start to collect the first batch of taxes from the citizens of Syrahs. I will take care of that. If you also wish the support of the mercenaries, you should try to find their camp, too. It is hidden in the forest north of Syrahs.
I also would like to have some of my magical skills back!
In Mesdor, there is a group of thieves hiding in the sewers under the town. Those thieves are in posession of so called Magical Runes, which you can use to obtain some powerful spells. Perhaps you can even make the thieves work for your cause, as long as you don't kill them.
And how are we going to do that? I'm pretty sure they won't subdue to us voluntarily.
Just leave it to me, Alaine! When it comes to power games, I know my way around very well!
Here we go again...
As far as I'm informed, the leader of the thieves is currently in Syrahs. Maybe you can catch them there. If you can capture some of those runes, come back here. I will explain to you how to learn new spells with them.
Good, then we will take care of these three tasks. I hope this is the beginning for a better life in our old world...

So, our plans are now as follows:

1) Kill monster on bridge, get taxes.
2) Find mercenaries, pay them to conquer the world.
3) Find thieves, maybe kill them, maybe not, get runes.

Sounds straightforward enough.

Of course! If you trust me, I can bring you back to your old world!

Pictured: A Trustworthy Being

Well then, let's set out.
You might have use for this... you can egt some new equipment in Syrahs...
500 Filar received!

Pretty sure we're going to be spending like 0% of that on new equipment. It will probably all fuel The Secret Plan.

5 Healing Phials received! 3 Blood Phials received!
Thanks.
Oh, and if you should stumble over a rare artefact, be careful. Many artefacts cause negative status effects that aren't immediately visible! In that case, you shouldn't equip them if you notice strange behaviors in combat.

I'll be the judge of that, thank you very much. Anyway, with that said, let's now explore the rest of the castle. There should be some interesting stuff to find. Our first destination will be the Magic Chamber.



That sounds sooooo exciting...
A little intellectual education wouldn't hurt you, Asgar.
Pfff, I have already devoured so many intellectuals, I don't need to read their books, too...



The kind of stuff laying around here...



However, when we arrive at the Magic Chamber, we find that we're not allowed to read these yet. That will only come later, so let's keep that in the back of our heads for now.



"... and so, the silverfly hatches from its slimy cocoon and grows to the size of a rat over the course of a week".
Yeah, you wouldn't want to encounter one in the dark.



Children of the Apocalypse are fanatic cult members who turn little children into blood potions.
Hm, that would definitely explain the fresh taste of their potions...



Well, a lot of them are from my last visit to a book collector.
YOU bought books?
No, I inherited them.
YOU inherited books? From whom?
From the book collector, obviously. I killed him and then declared myself the sole inheritor...
Sometimes, you are really unbelievable.



Understandable.

Marlex just can't stop patting himself on the back for Dark Shadows, can he.



Eternity Potion obtained!

Secrets! Neat!



Yes, those were the days back then, when I was tearing their heads off one by one...



"Little Red Riding Hood and the Evil Asgar", "The Asgar's New Clothes"...
What is that?
Whoops, what are these books!? I have NEVER seen them before! Honestly!
Sure...



Oho, let's have a read.
"Vampires are creatures of the night, with a relentless thirst for human blood. Their long fangs are perfectly made for draining the blood of their victims directly from their veins. Because of that, it is advisable to always wear a collar made of iron around the neck during the night."
True, that way, I can attach my leash to it easier, hehehe...



Who reads something like that?
Well...



my lips' desire being close to ye, yet you keep on rejecting me."
What a corny load of crap.



Recipe 1 obtained!



Well, now this is interesting. This will come into play later, when we get into the spell learning system. And if we try to use it...



We should improve our skills in the ancient languages...

We'll come back to that once we get into the skill system.



Hehe, let me see...
Men...



"The owner of the appropriate stones will make the powers of the shrines their own..."

We'll need to find both stones and shrines first.



We also explore the courtyard, with the main interesting thing being this little house.



Yes, strange.

Come on, there's so obviously a secret passage behind that bookcase. Oh well, nothing doing now, we'll need to come back when the plot allows us to find that thing.



There's also this neat place in the courtyard...



...where passing under the bridge makes the bridge transparent. This is done by having two different maps and teleporting the player from one map to the other when they pass under the brige or back out from it again. Well, that'll do it for the castle for now, let's head out and deal with this monster problem. But before that...



...more letters!

if you want it then i can give it to you
I received offers like this all the time, thanks to all for thinking of me all the time like this

hy marlex i find myself to be totally megahorny hahahaha and i am hot
Once again, no comment just because LOL ROFL etc...

Ah good and then you can surely help me a little with my game can you?
In and of itself, mails like these are totally okay, and I like to help, but in 90% of all cases, the answer I get will be: "Ah good, I have a story here, you just neeed to make the game for it." Sometimes, I'm even offered an entry in the credits, how nice

Hi marlex, you stupid gay!!! give me vampires dawn 2! also, **** loves you!!! p.s I'm not ****! moreover, fuck you! give me some praise!
Even as a vampire, it's very hard for me to f*** myself, but here's your praise: "PRAISE" I should tighten my spam filter again...

Can I get all the VD2 Chipsets. I just want to see how you put them together. I won't use them. I don't have to.
Glad you don't have to. I was thinking you would, but puuh, that won't be the case. Here, I have sent you all the resources...

That'll do for now.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

Now, the first thing I do out on the world map is grind a bit. I know that I said that we needed to be a low level for The Secret Plan, but the thing is that we need to be level 10 or lower. Right now, we're level 1, or 2 in the case of Asgar. We're not just underleveled, we're severely underleveled, and it's going to make this upcoming boss a pain. So I decide that we're grinding up to level 2 at least, just to get the slightest bit of a boost.



It takes longer than you'd think, but we eventually make it there.



Alright, now, let's head to this bridge and beat up some monster.



♪ BGM: Asgar's Cave - blood008.mid ♫

Oh jeez, this looks wrong. I don't know what exactly it is, but it just looks wrong.

Okay, let's take that thing out!
No problem...



♪ BGM: Stronger Enemies - VD2Kampf3.mid ♫

And thus, we have our second boss fight!

Bridge Kobold:

Recommended level: 3

HP: 1000
BP: 40
Attack: 70
Defense: 40
Intelligence: 20
Agility: 50

Attacks:

- Normal attack (2 in 3 chance)
- A bite that does no damage, but can inflict Bleeding on us (1 in 3 chance)

Resistances: Resists Bleeding slightly (at 60% instead of 80% chance to inflict)

Well, ain't you just a big fucking tub of HP.



We basically win this fight with our first action: Alaine sucks blood from the kobold and immediately procs the Bleeding condition, meaning that the kobold is going to be losing an extra 40 HP every single action, which is going to make it a lot easier to whittle that mountain of HP down.



It does get a bit tricky, as the guy inflicts Bleeding on us quite a bit as well, but in our case, we just lose our spellcasting points, whereas he loses HP. We can live with being at 0 BP, we can recover that later. He can't live with being at 0 HP. Literally.



So he goes down without much trouble.



♪ BGM: Asgar's Cave - blood008.mid ♫

...



Spiffy.

As I already said... no problem!
Very well, let's keep going to Syrahs and find that thief. Jinnai will hopefully make sure that we will get some taxes from the population. I'm sure a few Filar more wouldn't hurt us!

And with that, we can move on.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

we get ourselves a few Sunblock Cloaks, in order to protect us from the sun.

Well, we'll be sure to do that eventually. Let's head into Syrahs.



Well, after all, this isn't the first time we're searching for a thief.
Exactly! This really can't be that hard!
Well, what are we waiting for!? Let's go...
In your inventory, you can now find a tutorial for sucking blood from people and converting them!

That'll be interesting, but I'm going to cut things here, because we're going to be exploring a town next, and that always takes forever. So, next time, we explore Syrahs, get some more tutorials, find our first quest, and I fuck up royally, so look forward to that.