After we dodged the attack, we were all on standby with the Groggs all in front of us. The first to make a move was Lily, who immeadietly cast her Ice Magic to immobilize our targets.

  Lily: Ice Magic - Freeze!

  A quick and smooth yer of ice spread from her to the Groggs on target. Although some of them leapt out of the way, most of them were stuck frozen in ice as easy pickings.

  Although the remaining Groggs tried to counter attack with more acid, but I quickly put an end to their hopes.

  Sean: Light Magic - Light Cutter!

  Large wheels of light flowed out of my hand and shot out at the Groggs stuck in the air. This spell is one of my favorites and I rarely get to cast it.

  In the end of the attack, most of them were almost cut in half due to my cutters. The scales on their back were surprisingly hard and kept them all attached. If I had attacked at from their backs, my spell may not have been so effective.

  With the still moving Groggs all dead, we then turned to deal with the frozen ones. They were all only frozen under a light yer of frost so Millie was able to actually participate by swinging her giant dual swords around and cutting them apart. Due to the fix up from the bcksmith, her weapons were freshly sharpened and easily cut through these Groggs with ease.

  That really shows how strong she is that her swinging her bdes can deal out a greater cutting effect over my prided Light Cutters.

  All of this was quite anticlimactic as we easily finished the job and cleaned out all these Groggs. All of us went and started harvesting the scales and eyes of the Grogg as material for our base. The scales were surprisingly hard and light while the eyes were the target of our mission.

  Maybe these scales could be used as armor parts? They might also have other uses once we bring them back to our base.

  By the time we were finished, the day was still going and we collected plenty of eyes. Due to Mist's instructions, the eyes were all harvested cleanly and stored in proper containers for ease of carrying. He then went and put them away in his package. I wonder how he pces all of his stuff in there? Oh well.

  Now that we finished this trip, I guess we could go back onto target and head to the town to submit the request. Of course, it would be perfect if it were not for these flies around us.

  Back when we were in our base, our golem teachers told us that insects like flies and mosquitoes are not as attracted to more extraordinary creatures. Rather, the extraordinary nature of people with various powers makes it so that they can't absorb what they want out of us so easily. Although there are some exceptions to the rule.

  Specifically, mutated or extraordinary insects bypass this rule. Because of their evolution, they now seek out the extraordinary and become a new nuisance that exceeds the problem of its predecessors. Not only can they absorb the energy in our bodies, they are also significantly faster and more perceptive while being just as noisy for us.

  This all cumutes into another reason why those guys were looking at us with such pity in their eyes.

  Kris: Why didn't that darn receptionist warn us that this pce would be bug city when we arrived?! If I knew the pce was this annoying I would have just had us go all the way to our goal instead!

  Sean: Calm down Kris, Just hang in there. Once we leave the swamp, it won't be nearly as bad as it is here. These bugs only appeared when we arrived there after all.

  Marianne: Sorry. It was my fault that my curiosity lead us to go and explore such a harrowing pce.

  Kris: I'm not bming you, it's just that I didn't expect this kind of problem here.

  While we were talking, Mist was out and about collecting herbs around the swamp. When I asked him what he was collecting them for, he answered.

  Mist: I was watching and noticed these flies tend to avoid certain pnts. I was thinking of making an extract out of these pnts and using them as a bug repelnt to deal with this rampant issue. Of course, I have to check for poison in these pnts as well to make sure it does not cause bigger problems.

  As he said that, he picked up a few more pnts and finally called for us to wait a bit. He then aimed his open right palm at the pnts in various little pouches he prepared and started casting his magic.

  Mist: Pnt Magic - Poison Detection!

  A green light shone from his palm and lingered on the pnts. Soon they began glowing in a variety of shades of white and green.

  Sean: What does this mean?

  Mist: White is safe and green is poison. I will just use the white glowing pnts as the ingredients for this paste.

  He then pulled out a bowl and a thick stick and started mashing the ingredients together. Soon the pnts all accumuted into a thick green paste that emitted a faint soapy scent.

  When the mixture was complete, the scent wafted over and showed its immediate effects. The flies that bothered us began to quickly flee and we were finally out of the thick of it.

  Seeing this situation, Kris exhaled a sigh of relief and could finally pay attention to the situation on Mist's side. Before, she was busy attempting to combat the bugs using any method she could think of. With Lily warning her not to use fire magic to burn down the entire swamp, she was trying various normal methods to deter insects.

  Now that she saw what scared the flies off her, she gave Mist a pat on the back before thanking him.

  Kris: Thanks Mist. I wouldn't be able to figure out any method out of this mess without burning the swamp down. Hey, lend me this for a moment.

  Mist: No, wait! I haven't tested if the mixture caused a reaction to make a poison yet!

  Before his warning reached her, Kris had already spread a yer of the paste on her forearm. When the warning finally clicked in her head, she felt a sudden wave of fear and panic as she tried to wipe it off with her hand. Mist hurriedly took her hand off and grabbed a water bottle to quickly try to wash of the paste.

  Unfortunately, the paste was already partially absorbed through her skin so simply washing it would not do. Just to check, he went and casted poison detection once more onto the paste to see if they had any changes when blended together.

  Green.

  Thankfully, the green light was quite faint so Mist told us that that meant that the poison is only painful and not lethal. With a sigh of relief, Lily went and started lecturing her for being so impulsive. Just because she wanted to get the bug issue over with does not mean that she can make mistakes like that again.

  Of course, Kris was feeling bad and accepted the lecture while we were walking on our way out of there. Soon, we left the swamp and Lily decided to end the lecture there. Because of the poison, Kris was overall feeling a little queasy so Marianne and Lily were at her sides to take care of her while us three remaining were left in the lead.

  As usual, Millie was feeling slightly sleepy and hungry, but I asked her to endure it for now. We were soon to be headed to the first town we have encountered here in the Alliance territory.

  Unlike the Church, the towns here are not really responsible for vilges that are found around. Because of this, it is not recommended to head into vilges in the alliance's territory due to the unknown dangers and the sporadic nature of them appearing and disappearing.

  Because the towns do not care for these vilges, any rge threats can easily wipe them out so the map we got said to not rely on the location of these vilges when dictating a road map.

  Personally, I feel like the Church has done a better job in this regard since more vilges would result in easier access to areas with potentially unique materials.

  Anyways, we quickly headed on over and eventually found the town in question. In comparison to the other towns we have been to, this town does not give me as good of an impression as the towns we had been to before. The walls were a bit dipidated and the roads were generally more inconvenient to traverse.

  Even if the conditions were bad, we still headed on over since it is generally safer to deal with injuries in a pce like a town with access to things like pharmacies.

  We headed on over and were stopped at the door of the gate. At the door were a rather unique pair of lizard men. As the first people we have encountered in the Alliance's territory, it was rather refreshing to not see a pin human. They had green scales and a pale underbelly with some leather protection to provide decent defense all over at a good price. When we were arriving, the lizard men were wary of course, but thankfully they spoke the same nguage we did.

  Lizard Guard 1: Halt! Hand over a piece of identification.

  I quickly took out my adventurer's card and handed it over. After a quick once over, he handed it back and signaled the other guard to stand down.

  Lizard Guard 1: Let your companions show there identification as well.

  We all in turn hand our cards over and he nods in approval. He then yells above himself that the coast is clear and the gate opens up for us.

  Lizard Guard 1: We can only open up the rge gate for people to enter or exit so we need to be wary of any evildoers before anything happens. I hope you have a nice trip here in the Alliance.

  Hearing that, I was confused. How did they know that we were visitors not from the alliance. Likely seeing my confusion, he spoke an expnation for me to hear.

  Lizard Guard 1: Being a guard for so long lets me see things that others would not notice. First of all, your surprise at seeing me was one indicator that you were a visitor. There was also the fact that this gate is facing the Church territory as well. Finally, you should really start learning to disguise yourselves. Pure human parties are quite rare here so if you want to evade a well trained eye, disguises are a must.

  He then started ughing as he patted my shoulder. I wave goodbye and we headed into the first town we have encountered here.

  Although the outside left a lot to be desired, the inside of the town was quite ordinary. Except for some more unique building structures to better suit the tastes of some of the more unique denizens here, it was quite simir to the towns back home.

  While we walked through the town, I couldn't help noticing the variety of different races that lived here. From lizard folk to dark elves, even goblins could be seen rarely walking about. One thing that there was in less quantity was humans. Because of this, our team seemed a little abrupt in this town of variety.

  Soon, we arrived over at a pharmacy pce in the middle of town. There was a sign that showed the symbol of a green fsk. It has certainly been a while since our team had restocked on medicine. So we walked in hoping to see if the doctor here could find out how to help Kris with her small problem.

  As we entered the building, a wave of herbal scents wafted into our noses. I took the lead to enter and found that the pce was more like a flower shop than a pharmacy. Soon, a dark elf came and stood waiting for us.

  Dark Elf: Welcome to the Green Fsk Pharmacy. Need any help?

  Hearing this, I moved to the side and the dark elf saw Kris's current state.

  Dark Elf: Oh my, come this way, the boss will see you shortly. If possible, bring whatever caused the affliction on the side and beled.

  After nodding our heads, we were lead to the back part of the pharmacy. In there was a clean white space that gave me a slight uncomfortable feeling. She told us to sit at the seats provided and headed in to find a doctor.

  Lily and Marianne helped Kris to sit comfortably at a seat on the side and we all stood a little worried. Soon the dark elf returned with an elderly lizard woman in shaman like robes.

  Lizard Shaman: Bring the patient over to the third room on the left side along with whatever made the affliction if you have it.

  We hurried along following her instructions and id her in a bed in the center of a rather rge room. We all sat on the sidelines as Mist went to talk to the shaman. He expined how the problem came to be and described the various pnts in the concoction. Soon the shaman shook her head.

  Lizard Shaman: The poison itself is not a rge problem. The main problem is that we are missing a key ingredient to neutralize the poison here. If only the adventurers had brought those Grogg eyes already.

  As soon as we heard that, surprise showed in everyone's eyes. I walked up and asked her is she was the one who put up the request for Grogg eyes at the adventurer's guild in the town of Bde's Edge.

  She nodded and then looked surprised as Mist took out a container filled with Grogg eyes.

  We then started expining the situation. She then took the container and after examining it for a bit, she nodded and told us to wait here for a second.

  A few minutes ter and we finally saw the shaman returning with a bluish gray paste.

  Lizard Shaman: Give me your hand.

  Kris followed as the shaman said and showed her hand still seeing the remnants of the paste. The Lizard Shaman then took out a fan like leaf and spread the new medicinal paste that she made with it and then after painting a thin yer, she raised a hand and a magic circle appeared on it.

  Lizard Shaman: Shaman Technique - Blessing of Health!

  A fsh of green light glowed and was eventually absorbed into Kris's skin. Soon she started feeling much better and was soon able to move freely on her own. After thanking the doctor, we used some of the money for the request to pay the fee for the commission and we finally headed out to the main pharmaceutical area.

  Then, Mist went to ask about the medicines offered and stocked up on new medicines for us on our trip. He also asked if there was any pce to purchase an herb encyclopedia and was pointed towards a book store not far from here.

  We thanked the kind Dark Elf dy and Mist and Millie headed on over while Lily took the opportunity to search for a hotel for us to stay in for the night.

  The rest of us were now here with a lot of free time on our hands. Since that was the case, we decided to take a walk around and to see if there was anything of interest on the way.

  As we walked, we found that many of the establishments could actually find traces from familiar pces in the Church territory. I went and asked around and found out more from an old man on the way here.

  Due to the frequency of wars, different parts of our culture happened to slip into both sides which lead these towns to become more human.

  While we were walking around, there was something I heard that caught our attention again.

  Civilian 1: Hey, bro. Did you hear about the new princess of the vampire cn?

  Civilian 2: You mean that one time the Mester family got wiped out? Yeah, what's wrong?

  Civilian 1: Well, that princess has gone missing for a while and now the city of Blue Cw is currently on full alert trying to find the missing princess. The Mester family used to be the family that owned the city so the people there are scrambling to find someone to take over temporarily until she returns.

  That was the only part of the conversation that I heard. But that little bit was enough. Before, when we were learning about where Varuna was now, we learned that a vampire family known as the Mester Family was the family of the city lord there. That means that this vampire princess and Varuna were both in this one pce.

  I looked at the others and they all nodded their heads in agreement.

  Nothing exceptional happened the rest of the day. I went and headed towards the adventurer's guild to confirm that we completed the request. They were able to quickly confirm it and we received the payment that we earned.

  Then we took to getting some food stockpiled up so we would not regret it if we ever needed it. Then we finally all reunited with Lily who already got us our rooms from the hotel she chose. After sleeping the day away, we woke up early in the morning and everyone was fully energized.

  We all got ready and headed out according to our map and left the town in another entrance. After waving goodbye to the lizard man guard, the rge gate once again smmed shut and we were on the dirt path over to our final destination.

  There has been so much talk and things about this city, so we decided we should head straight there to see if I could reunite with Varuna again.

  So we headed out to this new destination of ours.

  Over in the city we were looking forward to, a few days earlier.

  Ravi: Thank you master for freeing me.

  In the city lord's mansion of Blue Cw, A certain green haired girl was bowing to a white haired vampire.

  Celine: No problem, as one of my friends you deserve freedom.

  In her hand was a burning document that slowly turned to ashes. In Ravi's soul, a small chain was disintegrated when the document disappeared. Next to Celine, a certain animal eared girl was there sighing on the side.

  Lu: How long will we have to py the bastard child again? All just to py a joke on the five kids coming?

  Celine: Don't sweat it! If we don't want to py here anymore, we could run away right? Like Now!

  Suddenly, Celine makes chains of blood in an instant. She immediately ties up both Ravi and Lu to her side and jumps out the window just as a maid was coming into the room. With a scream, the guards all rush in and see the maid colpsed on the ground with their newly found princess nowhere to be seen. The window at the back of the room was swung wide open dictating what had happened.

  Immediately afterwards, the guards called all they could to get everyone to find the missing princess.

  Now that she already started, she now had to commit to the current bit. So Celine did what she was best at, finding a secluded pce and building a secret base. Of course, she had to go and inform her friends so that they know she is actually safe. So, after some thought, she headed to a manor secluded on its own a distance away from her current location.

  With the help of the hide of the Shadow Hunter, she was able to easily sneak around and enter the building through a higher window.

  Inside the room was a very vish interior and a vampire lying on the sofa in the center. The moment she entered, the vampire opened an eye and saw her visitor. Seeing that it was Celine, she closed her eyes again and spoke tiredly.

  Varuna: Oh why does the high and mighty princess of the new Mester family have to do with a down and out noble family like ours?

  That's right. This vampire dy was the vampire that the five kids were looking for. Back when I entered this city to take care of the Mester Family to help free Ravi, I went and saw the kids mention this name when I was checking my communicator. I then went around to check and was able to find out about her once I finished off the Mester family.

  I happened to ask one of them if they recognized the name and they were surprised and started mocking her. I guess their family really is looked down upon here. So I finished them off and saved her specifically to give an extra surprise to those kids. Of course, surprise is two ways so I did not tell her about them either. It was up to fate about whether they will get together.

  Anyways, the Mester Family was quite simple to take down. When I was rushing to this city, I used various spells and my newly contracted Bloody Eyes to search around. Through various searching abilities, I was able to find out that this family has no connection to any Silver level beings. In fact, the Mester family is actually looked down upon so me destroying them was actually doing them a favor.

  The only reason they were still the leader here was due to their family being quite rge and having many 'strong' Bronze level vampires.

  Strong is the main thing. Even Lu was able to solve several of them. Their reputation is far overblown. In that fight, I was so bored, I even used it as a training opportunity for Lu and Ravi.

  How did it go again? Oh, now I remember.

  It was day and the vampires were all resting due to being nocturnal. The three of us snuck in to the manor evading the various guards around with the help of magic. I first cast my blood magic to hide us.

  Celine: Blood Magic - Bloody Immersion!

  This spell is a rather unique one. It was in the family library after I started learning magic. It was an anti vampire technique that uses an enemy vampire's blood sense against them. By detecting a trace of blood in a vampire's territory, it allows the user's aura and scent to match that of the trace of blood in their base.

  Using this spell invalidates most vampire families defenses who do not use other magic based detection.

  This was a special warfare type magic used by vampire hunters long ago to deal with us. Of course, a prince level bloodline family was absolutely infuriated and immediately annihited all traces of the vampire hunters of that time and researched methods to deal with it.

  Of course, for local vampires not from the Dark Lands of Eluseus, this level of spell is completely overkill so I just used the original to sneak in. When I did, the three of us were all covered in a certain smell of blood. We then snuck in and started searching around for everything. Once we saw everything, even the dirty and disgusting feeding basement, we started our cleansing operation.

  Since I knew that no Silver level enemies would be appearing, I just stayed in the darkness using my Shadow Hunter hide to sneak around. Thankfully this hide is usable even when not fully processed into gear.

  So Lu started by summoning all of her shikigami and alerted all of the vampires of her presence.

  With her attracting most of the attention, Ravi went and spoke to some of her new animal companions to distract them. Because I don't know how to build an inner pet space, she had to make do with just small animal companions whom she can carry on her.

  Using my strength, I was able to search for two specific beasts to serve as temporary pet beasts. First was a small bird that looked like a cardinal. It is known as the Red Flicker and is known for being as fast as the wind and for being able to shoot out small shots of fmes. The other beast is known as the Wind Sickle and is a Weasel with a long and thin tail that sharpens at the end. By flicking its tail, it can shoot out wind bdes and is fast and flexible enough to easily fsh past and around opponents.

  With the two working together, Ravi can be considered as a weaker Bronze level fighter.

  The main force of the fight was Lu who used her various summons to face her opponents. Ravi would also interfere where Lu could not see and together they were able to beat down the whole family.

  In the whole fight, there was only one target that was able to face them and actually become a threat. The patriarch of the family, Russel Mester.

  Russel Mester: Blood Technique - Star Cloak!

  As the leader of a family, he had to have his own skills. First of all was his technique, Star Cloak. I was surprised when I first saw it, but after the fight I thought about it more and found that it made a lot of sense. Star Cloak is a technique that can only be obtained when a vampire is born when a full moon reaches the top of the sky with at least three consteltions surrounding it in a circle.

  In Eluseus, there is a dark canopy that blocks the stars at night so such techniques are only found in smaller pnes like these. Just because the technique is born out of our main homend does not mean that the technique is bad. In fact, there is a powerful Bloodline with this technique at its core.

  The Star cloak has three abilities. First, it absorbs the power of the stars at night to regain energy for itself and its user. This means that at night, these vampires have near endless blood to use magic and their technique. Second is the absolute starry defense that is on the cloak that blocks projectiles and melee weapons. Finally is that once the user reaches the Silver level, they can actually start traveling in the void.

  All of this makes the technique quite coveted, but the harsh conditions deter most people from trying it.

  With the help of this technique, he was able to hold of a majority of the shikigami that were summoned by Lu and even get in close proximity to her. I almost wanted to step in multiple times, but with Ravi on the sidelines I had to just awkwardly sit back and watch again.

  In the end, it was a rge brawl, but we were able to finish of the family in time. However, the guards of the pce finally arrived. Not the guards of the manor, but the guards in the main hall of the city. Because of this, I had to hide everyone and sneak around. Even then, I was eventually found and I was able to get away with disguising myself as a newly found daughter by disguising the scent of my blood with my Bloody Immersion.

  Thus I became the princess taking care of the pce. Well, rather than taking care of, I just delegated positions to those worthy of it after a little investigation.

  Among the ones chosen, I had Varuna selected. She was quite convenient to select and was quite trustworthy from Lu's research. When I asked what she did for research, she merely looked at me with a weird stare.

  I simply accepted her judgement and she went and chose the other people who would govern the pce. Because of my apparent age, they accepted the idea and helped me govern the pce. Well, one was rather unwilling though.

  Varuna: You better not be coming to remind me of any paperwork. I just got finished with a set and I am currently on break right now. I can't handle much more, please find someone to repce me.

  She was quite unwilling to take this position, but her parents forced her into it because it would help their family out of their current predicament.

  Celine: I apologize for interrupting your well deserved beauty sleep, but I regret to inform you that you may have an incoming problem your way. Okay bye bye!

  I quickly ran back out and ran all the way to hiding after saying that to avoid her coming after me and stopping me. Although I feel sorry for what is about to happen to her, I still would do it again if the situation was applicable. Instead of being cooped up in her room and office, having her actively out and searching would increase the likelihood of those kids meeting her while here.

  That was the best I could do while still being discreet. Now, how will I encounter and interact with those kids. What kind of fun will I be having this time.

  I quietly slipped into one of the safe houses that I built here. Although I don't need them as much since I reached the Silver level, old habits die hard I guess. I then pulled out my communicator to check up on their progress. With the help of their daily reports, I have a good idea of where they are.

  Only a few days away.