"Creak"Crowley slowly opened the carriage door and stepped inside.
"Sorry for making you wait, I was talking to the king"
"There is no need for apologizing, I just wanted a breath of fresh air"
"Mephesto… If I beg the king, maybe you won"t have to go towards the northern forest"
"Father, the bird needs to leave its nest and spread its wings sooner or later"
Crowley looked down dejectedly and said
"I just don"t want anything bad to happen, I don"t know the reasoning of them putting you as a candidate. Be careful son"
"I will"
"Creak"
The sound of the carriage door sounded out again and Sebastian walked inside
"Pardon my tardiness, I was being held up by the other servants"
"You have arrived just on time," Crowley said with a smile
The carriage driver started moving moments after Sebastian got on. the knights that were stationed around the carriage also started marching alongside it.
As the carriage moved slowly through the night Caesar was thinking about the beast cores he had asked for…"Depending on the amount they give me I could potentially reach 100% evolution progress" Caesar thought to himself.
The carriage entered into the manor and arrived safely, as they stepped down from the carriage they saw a minister already waiting for them at their doorsteps. He took out a scroll from his bag.
"The imperial decree states that Mephesto Pheles will now be temporarily elevated to the military rank of Brigadier General, and as his award, he will be given 65 low-mid beast cores"
After the minister shouted, two knights carried and dropped a large looking chest and opened the top. Inside were a lot of shiny spheres… They shined a bit brighter than the ones Caesar had gotten from the foxes.
The minister finished his speech and proceeded to bow
"Have a nice night Duke Crowley and Lord Mephesto" the minister walked away faster than Caesar could thank him.
"They are quite fast at delivering, haha" Caesar scratched the back of his head and chuckled
Crowley looked at his son confused
"Why did you ask for so many beast cores? With your latent physique, you would only die if you consume them"
Crowley knew that his son wouldn"t kill himself so he was quite confused
"Trade secret" Caesar smiled slyly and said
"Sigh, I"m incapable of understanding you anymore"
Caesar didn"t reply and carried the chest of beast cores towards his room. The two knights that dropped the chest were staring wide-eyed "How is he carrying that so easily"
After entering his room and dropping the chest on the ground, he opened the chest and started inspecting all of the beast cores. "If they all give me 4% as the last one did then this will more than sufficient"
Caesar grabbed one of the beast cores, he hesitated for a second but then his eyes flashed with resolve.
"Gulp"
Caesar swallowed the beast core directly, the beast core went down into his stomach and started to dissolve. It felt like a wildfire was spreading inside of Caesar"s stomach.
"Drip"
"Drip"
Beads of sweat dropped on the ground, "swallowing these beast cores is fuc*ing painfull" Caesar muttered through gritted teeth.
[Vampire physique evolution progress: 9%]
A robotic voice rang in Caesar"s head and the pain abruptly stopped.
"Gasp"
Caesars was gasping for breath while sitting on the ground. Caesar gritted his teeth and picked up another Beast core
"Gulp"
Loud grunts and roars could be heard from Duke Crowley"s Manor throughout the night.
"Knock"
Caesar barely opened his sleepy eyes to see a maid girl trying to wake him up.
"Young master, the 500 soldiers you are to lead are waiting for you outside the manor"
Caesar opened his eyes and stood up.
"Bring me the military outfit I used last night"
"I already bought it at your father"s orders" The maid girl pointed towards his bed
"Thank you"
The maid girl left Caesar"s bedroom and stood outside the door with a confused look."Were young master Mephisto"s nails always that long and beautiful? And was his skin always so white without blemish?" The maid girl tilted her had in contemplation
Caesar started dressing in his outfit moments after the maid left. Caesar thought back to last night. He kept relentlessly swallowing beast cores but he pa.s.sed out from the pain. The last message he remembered was…
[Vampire Physique evolution progress: 83%]
The beast cores started giving him less and less percentage, it seems the higher the percentage the richer the beast core needs to be.
Caesar placed his storage ring over the white gloves to store the last 10 beast cores and walked out of his room.
Caesar started walking through the halls of the manor, the maids and butlers all bowed respectively as he pa.s.sed by them.
Crowley was waiting for his son at the doors of the manor
"Promise me you will be safe," Crowley said sternly
"I Swear on my name of Mephesto Pheles that I will come back, safe father"
Crowley hugged Caesar with all of his force and stayed there for about 10 seconds until he finally let go.
"Be safe…."
Caesar nodded solemnly and walked outside of the manor. Outside there were about 500 knights waiting for him, there were standing as straight as pillars.
"There are about 50 calvary men and 100 archers, the rest footmen," Caesar thought to himself after looking at the soldiers.
Caesar walked through the middle s.p.a.ce the men naturally left for him, Awaiting at the front of the forces was an elegant white steed. It had armor around all of the vital spots so its movements were not too restricted.
Caesar never learned how to ride a horse in his past life, thankfully the previous owner of this body was taught as a child.
Caesar jumped on top of the horse, a bulky man on a horse soon reached in front of Caesar and handed him a belt that contained two swords.
"Your weapons, general"
Caesar nodded his head and tied the belt around his waist. Caesar turned around and looked at all of the soldiers awaiting his order.
"FORWARD" Caesar yelled
"BOOM"
The knights stomped the ground with their feet and started marching forward with Caesar at their lead.
"This actually feels kind of cool" Caesar shamelessly thought
*thump"
The sound of a large force sounded throughout the capitol and civilians waited by the gates to send them off.
"Be safe honey"
"You have a son on its way, you better come back!"
"You better marry me within the next year you b.a.s.t.a.r.d"
Many different kinds of encouragement were yelled out towards the knights.
*clak*
*clak*
The horses were especially loud as they walked through the streets… Caesar looked at the bulky man to his right, he was smiling and waving to all the civilians on the streets.
"What is your name?" I asked him
"Ivar Bloodfallen"
"Brief me on the situation" Although Caesar was confident in leading people, he didn"t actually know what the situation was besides that there were elves and fairies in a forest.
"Ahem, I don"t know much either sir. We were just told to follow orders"
Ivar took out a map from his pocket and handed it to Caesar, "I have a map, however, I don"t know how to actually read it" Ivar said while scratching his head with a bashful smile
Caesar grabbed the map that was handed to him and took a look at it, the "northern forest" was about 300 kilometers north of their kingdom. "It should be about a week to travel," Caesar thought to himself If he rushed it could take 4-5 days but he didn"t want his men to be exhausted.
Caesar rested his hand on his chin and contemplated "why would they send us off on an expedition without briefing anyone about the contents of the mission?"
After traveling for about 7 hours Caesar found a decent spot to camp out at and roared
"We will rest here for the night!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers roared back and started setting up their tents, every one of them was a trained soldier that followed orders splendidly. Caesar went inside of the middle and biggest test and took out the last 10 beast cores.
"I can feel my body changing with my evolution percentage going higher," Caesar thought to himself as he raised his hand and a beautiful pale blue spear that was made of ice was created.
Caesar moved his finger and the ice followed his orders and floated to where his finger pointed. "Controlling the element is easier than I expected, it seems the ice affinity was quite strong after all"
Caesar dissipated the ice and focused back on the beast cores, he took one and swallowed it. He was already used to the pain, they also stopped hurting as much the stronger his physique got.
After about 5 minutes a voice rang in his head...
[Vampire Physique evolution progress: 84%]
"Sigh, only one percent again"
After about an hour of time pa.s.sed all of the cores were gone, "G.o.d d.a.m.n it, I should"ve asked that sleazebag prince for more" Caesar thought inwardly
[Vampire Physique evolution progress: 93%]
"General, I have bought you dinner"
A gentle voice sounded outside of Caesar"s tent
"Bring it here"
A very slender woman entered and placed the bowl of stew on his table and walked out with fast footsteps
"I don"t remember seeing a woman among my ranks," Caesar thought as he sniffed the stew given to him.
"Magic power?" Caesar whispered to himself, he smiled deviously and drank the soup to its last drop.
[Vampire Physique evolution progress 95%]
If I was without the vampire physique I would have died…"An a.s.sa.s.sination attempt?"
Caesar"s eyes turned sharp and cold, the atmosphere in the tent felt like it dropped below zero. A large killing intent suddenly came from his tent. The veteran guards around his tent starting sweating profusely.
Caesar at this time didn"t know that his personality was slowly changing...