After some time, the group of vampires and one dark elf went and took a break. Lu and I also followed along with them and also took the chance to communicate with each other and report our findings.

  When we each reported our findings, we found that our conclusions that we came to were quite simir. Since there was nothing to talk about, we started chatting about what we thought of this pne. We have been in this pne for a few months now so we have a general understanding of what was going on here and what it is like here.

  In the time that we stayed here, we have experienced quite a lot. From my initial caution to building up our base and finally reaching our current organization. Plenty has happened in the time we stayed here.

  Lu: Not only that, but we have also gotten closer right?

  Celine: Yeah. I wonder how this pne will be treated when we eventually leave it?

  Lu: Did your parents not tell you? After you conquer the pne, it will be yours to keep. In the future, you will need private forces for yourself after all. This pne was originally a talent pool where you can find and train a bunch of talents to be loyal to you in the future.

  I did not know that. I guess it might have been a surprise waiting for me when I went home? Oh well. After this, we went back to chatting about anything that popped up in my mind.

  Soon, we finally saw that the explorers were done with their breaks and proceeded with their exploration. During this time, the origami soldiers had soldiered on and mapped out more of the area. Unfortunately, nothing of note was found yet. They only found the equivalent of a kitchen and what seems like a regur dorm during our break.

  Although they did not find anything important, it still helps that we are further along then these guys are and will likely be able to find clues about the Church and any potential hints to find or deal with them.

  Time seemed to slowly pass as the origami soldiers had mapped out the entire base, at least the main areas that you would walk through. Currently, the soldiers have been sent to check the sewers systems and the vent system of the base in order to check if there was anything we missed on the way. We could not find anything reting to the Church that we did not originally know. So, after checking the vents and sewers, I decided to end the exploration and start heading back.

  I waited for the end while bored watching the yout of the base until I noticed something peculiar. I called Lu over to see if I was right and I was confirmed. There was a hidden path that one of the vampires had found. Apparently it had to do with using a blood sense of some type so the origami were unable to find it. The vampire then called his companions over as we took the opportunity to sneak a few origami around.

  I wonder why a base of the prototype of the Church that is xenophobic to anything besides humans has a mechanism for non-humans?

  As I thought that, the answer soon came to me. Through the camera origami, we saw that once the group had joined up, they headed right on in without any worry or preparations. With what they have show so far, it is a miracle that they have not died somewhere before.

  Soon, we found that this hidden section led to a hidden room where there was a full set of now expired survival gear and a notebook. Because of the groups presence, Lu and I had to read along with them by looking at the notebook through the camera while still remaining hidden from the group's view.

  In that notebook, there was a diary. It was a diary of a vampire who had been caught and experimented on in this base. Going through the diary, we learned about the experiments and what was truly going on in this base. This was a small research base that was researching about vampires. The owner of the notebook had noticed some vampires had gone missing and had gone to check out the situation. He then found the pce they were taken, but was found by the people in the base.

  After a struggle, he was captured and sent here for research where the vampire spent nearly 2 years undergoing experiments. One day, the base was researching as usual when they suddenly had found a breakthrough and were not paying attention to him. He then took the opportunity to break out and made this small retreat in order to help provide a solid retreat to escape from these guys. He then stayed here to help collect intelligence while passing on this location to his outside friends who then went and led a team to fight the base.

  Seeing as that was where the diary ended, it can be assumed that the vampires did not win because the base would have been dismantled and the information in the base would not be so clear.

  Even so, the fact that this little retreat is still here means one of two things. Either the room was never discovered and it was well hidden enough to remain hidden from these forerunners this whole time, or this is a trap and this pioneering group will soon face this old trap that these people left.

  Just as I was thinking this, I saw that the room's door suddenly locked with them in it and bring arms rang throughout the base.

  Like I thought, there was no way that this little retreat was out of the site of that organization. Through the origami soldiers, Lu was able to deduce that golems made of a crystal like material had fallen from various parts of the ceiling and dropped down all over the base. Soon the whole base was locked down by these golems.

  The group who invaded the base were about to be in a world of hurt. Before they could escape, the crystal golems had already fully surrounded the area they were in and locked down the entire perimeter of the base. Since they were already a lost cause, Lu had her origami soldiers begin to retreat from the base.

  After a little confirmation with the other origami soldiers, these golems only target living creatures so magic entities like Lu's shikigami aren't the target of these golems. In addition, Lu's shikigami prioritize stealth over combat abilities so that may also py a factor into why the golems in that base do not target them.

  So, the origami were able to quickly and effectively evacuate from the base while they were off to take down the vampire group.

  Now that the base was being cleared I had to decide on something. What should we do about the beast whisperer at the front of the base?

  I have now reached the level of Silver so there is no longer a reason to be frightened of any force in this world. Unless there is a hidden Gold level powerhouse or a Silver level powerhouse who is at the very limit allowed by the world, I will likely be able to survive with the tools and precautions that my parents had prepared for me. Now, all of my actions in this pne are only dictated on whether I am willing to intervene in such matters or not.

  After thinking about it, I decided to leave it all to fate. I took out a decorative coin from my storage bag and took a deep breath.

  Celine: This divination coin shall decide that girl's fate. Heads means that I intervene and save them, Tails means I leave her here and end any potential consequences right here.

  I held the coin on the top of my thumb and finally flipped it. The coin flipped back and forth in the air as I watched it in almost slow motion. Through my mind's calcution, I could guess where it nded, but I wanted to wait till it fully nded to check.

  The coin finally fell into my open palm as I grasped it. The feeling of having the life of the girl in front of me in my hands like this is quite exhirating, but I finally opened my grasped palm.

  Heads.

  Looks like we are getting involved this time.

  I inwardly chuckle at the situation. Finally it was an opportunity to get involved in this pne that I had found myself in for the past few months. It finally felt like I was going to get involved and start a pnar invasion in its fullest extent.

  After nodding to Lu, she gives me a relieved smile. She likely wanted this result to happen. Now that I think about it, I think that Lu is probably closer to the good side than the bad side. That is probably why we can get along at all. Although I haven't shown it much, I would probably shy away from turning evil if I could help it. Lu could probably tell since she has been with me for so long.

  I went over to the beast eared girl without hiding my presence. I could tell that she was shaken by my presence and didn't dare to move. Since I was not cking in time, I just stayed there and looked at her. She stayed there in that position shivering for over a minute until she finally pulled up the courage to look up at me.

  I was finally able to get a good and clear look at her face. She was always hiding it under her cloak and even if she wasn't under her cloak, her face was always hidden from the view of the camera. I can see that her face is quite dirty and dusty. Underneath all of the dirt and grime is unknown for now, but it is surely quite pretty in appearance. From the shape of her face and her slightly clear eyes, to the inhuman features on her, all of it is telling me that she has quite the appearance underneath her facade.

  As she was looking at me, she also got a good look at my face as well. I did not hide my face because she had already met a few vampires. They did not give her a positive impression of us, so I hope that she could learn to like us starting from me. I could see the fear in her eyes when her eyes met mine. I could even clearly see the slight shake in her pupils when our eyes met.

  Her meek and humble demeanor really wants to make me bully her. Although it will give her an even worse opinion of us, I almost could not hold it back. Before I lost control, I heard her whispering in a soft and quiet voice.

  Beast Whisperer: Please don't hit me...

  Hearing her let me refocus and let me finally do what I wanted to do and save her.

  Celine: Come with me, it is dangerous here.

  The girl looked at me confused before I finally remembered.

  Celine: The group you lead here is all dead, I secretly sent some summons to watch them. I was able to confirm that they were surrounded the golems in the base and died.

  The girl showed a look of surprise as I smugly informed her of such. Even so, she was still unwilling to follow me.

  Beast Whisperer: My actual master had lent me to them. I have to still follow their orders. Even if they are-

  I cut her off with a chop to the neck. I don't care about what duty and former master shew served under. now that I decided to save her, she can only belong to me. I quickly carried her and scurried over to Lu who shook her head and sighed at me for my decision.

  Lu: Celine, at least give her an option to follow or try to convince her to follow you. Don't just resort to violence for everything. It is unbecoming for a young dy such as yourself.

  I ignored Lu's chastising as I carried the beast whisperer away from here. What do you expect from me? I was born in this world as a vampire and I have always prioritized my strength over everything else. Do you think I would really pay attention during etiquette and dy csses when there is such a thing as extraordinary power?

  Of course not!

  So I ignored her words to care for my demeanor and continued to carry the unconscious Beast whisperer over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

  I headed over to the pce that we made our base before that I had hid when the group arrived. Since I had just hid the entrance with foliage, once we found the base, we easily cleared the foliage and headed back into the base again.

  I id the girl on my bed and headed to the living room of the base to talk with Lu about the next steps to take.

  Since I have decided to take her in, even if I am strong enough to protect her in this pne, it is always good to review our future steps so as to not be confused at a critical moment.

  Celine: She said she has an actual master and that she was just temporarily entrusted to this group of vampires and a dark elf. In order to reduce the possible future annoyances, we should strive to find out who owns her and how we should deal with them.

  We both agreed on this much and after some discussion, we finally decided on what we should do now.

  Celine: To recap, we should find out from her who owns her. Then we collect intelligence on them and then decide if we should purchase her directly from them or kill and rob them directly.

  Only then would she be firmly on our side. Unlike what the record show, she is a Beast Whisperer who can also communicate in nguage with intelligent life. In the records I saw before, Beast Whisperers could only speak to animals and not people so she is quite interesting for me. Since that ragtag group thought that she would be able to speak to a Shadow Hunter, then that means that she can actually speak to animals.

  This is quite interesting as this means that she could be quite useful even outside of the pne.

  You have to know, that one of the most populous factions in the world are a race known as the Star Beasts. I did not find them in books and I only heard about them when I recalled the lulbies that my mom sang me to sleep. One of them described the Star Beasts as one of the strongest factions that even rival the ultimate races like Dragons.

  After consulting further with my mom once, she told me about these mysterious creatures.

  Unlike the normal races who are all born on a pne and grow to the Gold level and gain the ability to leave their home pne, these beasts are born with the ability to naturally travel in the void. They grow by devouring time and space itself and grow endlessly. The longer they live, the rger and more powerful they become. There are theories that our entire universe is just a fragment inside the belly of an infinitely rge Star beast, although that is just conjecture.

  If Beast Whisperers can truly communicate with any beast, maybe they can communicate with a star beast?

  Although it is just a thought, the potential shown from being able to communicate with animals is already quite good. A beast tamer who can directly communicate with their beasts naturally is a natural talent. As long as her talent for training is not too bad, my family could definitely train her up to be quite good. My father happens to specialize in training and using various beasts, in fact my whole family usually specializes in it with the family Blood Oath.

  So, I think she will be able to fit in quite well in our family.

  This is all a matter of when since I have already decided to take her under me. So, all I should do for now is to wait for her to wake up. Since it would probably take a while for her to wake up, I decided that it would be about time that I got back to training and learning. Lu also decided to go ahead and go back to clean up all of the traces we left to keep our location as safe as possible.

  Time quickly passed and it was now early in the morning the next day.

  When my biological clock woke up, I found myself sleeping on a chair in my room. Since I invited the beast girl and id her on my bed, I couldn't just leave her in my room and do my own thing. So I sat on the chair and watched her sleep. It seems like I also fell asleep and so here we are.

  I looked on my bed and found that she was still asleep. Did I hit her too hard that she was knocked out this long? I went to check on if she was breathing and breathed a sigh of relief. She is alive and is probably just really tired.

  So I stayed there waiting for her to wake up. A little while afterwards, I heard movement in the living room. It seems that Lu is back from cleaning up the traces we left before. Just as I heard them, I also felt movement in the bed. I quickly went to stare at the Beast Whisperer who was waking up.

  After a few seconds, I could sense her waking up and slowly opening her eyes. When her eyes were fully awake and she saw me, I could feel her body immediately tense. When I saw this, I knew it wasn't going to be easy getting close to her. At least for me.

  I still waited patiently for her to slightly lower her guard when she suddenly bolted awake and quickly bowed her head.

  Beast Whisperer: I'm sorry for making you wait like this! Please forgive my misdeeds.

  I just looked at her a little confused. I then waved my hand to get her to sit back down. She notices but is visibly too scared to move. I sigh and finally speak to her.

  Celine: Can you sit down? I want to talk to you.

  She is visibly more calm and finally listens to my instructions. She sits down on the bed while fidgeting a little. I then finally begin asking her a few questions.

  Celine: First of all, what is your name? I don't want to call you something like green hair or something.

  Beast Whisperer: My name is Ravi.

  Celine: Ok Ravi, who was your original owner.

  Ravi struggles for a bit before finally answering.

  Ravi: The one who owns me is a vampire in the city of Blue Cw. He is the second son of the city lord there. The city is secretly run by a vampire family with the name of Mester.

  I nodded a little bit. As long as it isn't an old powerful Silver vampire then it is fine. Even if it is, it would just be troublesome for me to deal with.

  Now, I just have to wait until the organization helps to find out more of that city before being able to completely take in Ravi as our own.

  Since that is no longer so much of an issue, it was time I decided how I should treat her. Since she has so much potential, I can't just let her do nothing until we leave the pne. But, I don't have the professional knowledge to teach someone to be a beast tamer.

  The best that I can do for now is to teach her basic combat with a weapon and precise energy control I guess. My parents didn't expect that I could find a talent for beast taming after all. Or maybe they would want a beast tamer to tame beasts with higher potential?

  Either way, all I can teach her is just the basics. I went ahead and told her of my decision. She just quietly nodded before I heard her stomach growling. I chuckled a bit before inviting her to have a meal with us.

  Although she was a little apprehensive at first, I then forcefully brought her over to the table and had Lu take out some food to fill her up.

  I quickly finished my own meal before heading out to practice again. I left Ravi in the hands of Lu who she would most likely be more willing to be familiar with than me.

  I quickly got back into my training rhythm as I fought with my summons in various ways. While I was hard at work practicing, I didn't realize that there was now a pair of eyes watching me as I trained.

  Ravi was watching me train while in the base. She had a yearning yet sad look in her eyes while watching. Lu then pulled up a chair and sat next to her after she was finished doing the chores in the house.

  Lu: You can tell she is different from the others right?

  Ravi nodded in response.

  Lu: Let me tell you about how we met.

  She then began retelling her own story. About when she was working as a miko for a shrine in her pne. About the day it felt like the sky colpsed on her. When she was taken into the sve room and worried about how she would live the second half of her life.

  Then she detailed her encounter with Celine. It all felt like a dream as she was chosen from among the many different options in the catalogue they provided. She was then taught by the head maid Mifune. Finally she recounted her life as she took care of Celine in this pne.

  When Lu was done saying her story, the sun rose straight up into the sky. Ravi was just quietly listening as she recounted all of these things. Now that she was done, Ravi finally said her piece.

  Ravi: It seems you really like the life you are living now right? Because you feel you were saved by Celine's family, you feel that you should help someone else who feels simir to your past self?

  Lu gave a nod, but also shook her head.

  Lu: You don't need to get familiar with her right away. I just want you to keep an open mind and decide for yourself if she is the right destination for you as she was with me.

  She then showed a brilliant smile before heading back into the kitchen.

  Lu: I need to get cooking or else she won't have anything to eat when she is done practicing. I hope you can open your mind and truly join us as she hopes. Or else...

  She then goes into the kitchen leaving that faint hint of a threat.

  Ravi was left alone in the room, constantly in her own thoughts. Am I worth caring for? As long as I have been alive I have kept being forced to follow and obey. This is the first time I am actively being given a choice. Should I reach out towards this gentle hand? Is this just a trap to take advantage of my emotions only to break me further?

  Can I trust them?

  She could recall the words her mother spoke to her on that day clearly.

  Ravi's Mother: Ravi, my dear. One day you will find that special someone who will care about you more than the world. On that day, you will face a meaningless yet meaningful choice. Follow your heart, only then will you never regret a single step in your life.

  She then recalled how her life had changed afterwards. How she was found to be a Beast Whisperer and how she was hunted down and caught by that vampire, only to now be saved by this new one.

  Ravi then looked at Celine who was practicing hard in the open space outside of this temporary base.

  Ravi: Are you the one that mom told me about?

  Maybe... maybe I can take this opportunity to trust again. I have nothing to lose now after all.

  Ravi's eyes shone with the light of expectations and hope with a little bit of doubt and uneasiness.

  Soon the time came to the afternoon and I finally returned into the base.

  As I entered, I noticed that Ravi was seeming to be a lot cheerier than before. Although she wasn't looking directly at me, it was a good start. I wonder is Lu did that? If so, then it sure was right to have her instead of the others care for me.

  I didn't care that she was not looking me in the eye. I just wanted her to get used to my presence and to change her perspective on the vampire race. If the bad eggs here spoiled her feeling for the whole race, I would be quite sad. I have to go out of this pne and interact with other vampires after all. If she was still unable to speak properly to a vampire during an important group vampire meeting, I would feel quite troubled.

  But, it seems like it has all worked out well?

  I quickly ran over to Lu before getting chastised and told to take a shower and wash up. I wanted to steal a snack to eat, but I guess it can't be helped. I helplessly carry my clothes to change into and go to the bath where Lu had already prepared the water for me. After quickly washing and changing, I went down to the table and found that Lu had already finished prepping everything and both her and Ravi were sitting there waiting patiently.

  When I rushed to my seat, I quickly grabbed my fork and spoon to take what I wanted from the table. I quickly wolf down my meal and finally replenish all the energy from my practice today. When I looked up and saw the two of them staring at me while eating patiently and elegantly, I felt embarrassed for a moment before showing a smug smile.

  Celine: I don't need to do all of this etiquette nonsense, as long as I am strong enough to crush all opposition!

  Lu and Ravi look at me with confusion before looking at each other and smiling.

  I felt like that little interaction finally broke the ice between us as we began chatting about various different topics. It all ranged from our previous ways of living to things like health and skin care to other mundanities like food likings and such. We also spent some time chatting about what we wanted as our life's goals from now on.

  I, of course, want to see what is at the top of the mountain. To become so strong, I can only look down to see everything this world has to offer.

  Lu's goal for now is to take care of me and slowly find her own purpose while helping me achieve mine.

  Ravi's goal was to find a way of living for the Beast Whisperers who still wander alone and afraid. To become a shield to protect others from her own situation.

  After praising her goal, we finally finished our meal as we all helped to clean the dishes(with varying results).

  When all of that was said and done. I think that today was quite an interesting day for all of us. Now I needed to catch up on my sleep. I headed back to my room as Lu took Ravi over to the guest room in the house.

  Now that I think about it, I could have id her in the guest room and slept in my own bed... Oh well. No use pondering about the past when we still have the present to focus on.

  I then quickly fell into a deep slumber as the training of the day exhausted my body and mind.

  Meanwhile, over in the communicator, there was quite an interesting topic that would have caught my attention if I had seen it before I slept.

  Over in the Garden of Light, there was a meeting among all of the adventuring kiddos who were all in the town of White Lilies. In the meeting room was the main five highest prospects, the Ptinum Stars. Sean, Lily, Kris, Mist and Millie. They are all connected to the city lord and had found that the Church was sending a delegation over to the town.

  Apparently, there was a provocation of the Church in the nd between the Church and the territory of the Dark Race Alliance.

  Because the town was on the closest path to head over there, they would stop by and stay for a while.

  Previously, in order to maintain secrecy, the bases were all in locations that were not so frequented by the Church. Now this was the first time the base would be near the presence of the Church.

  Because I haven't informed the organization that we did not need to be kept so secret, they immediately put on a state of emergency and were meeting to discuss how they should act.

  Sitting at the head was both the first to reach the level of Bck Iron in the base, as well as the current strongest in the base, Sean the Padin and head of the Ptinum Stars.

  Sean: Now that we all are here, we can finally discuss what we should do in this state of emergency.