"They've both requested private audiences?"
"Yes, Young Master."
So inviting them to a joint dinner was out of the question. That would cost even more time.
"Then let's meet with the Temerian delegation first—Redania can wait a bit longer," Lann decided. "Redania's journey was longer anyway. Let them rest a while more."
The old butler nodded and went to inform both delegations.
"Shall I prepare a bath for you?"
Lann shook his head. "No need."
He had no time to go through the whole routine of bathing, changing clothes, and perfuming himself just for two diplomatic missions. It wasn't like he neglected hygiene in general.
And besides, Cintra was a nation founded on military strength—it wasn't exactly known for such formalities. Queen Calanthe herself had once attended a banquet in bloodstained armor right after battle, greeting visiting envoys without hesitation. That had only made her reputation all the more legendary.
The old butler nodded in acknowledgment.
After flipping through his notebook a bit more, he suddenly added, "Young Master, one more thing."
"You previously instructed me to remind you, at regular intervals, to check your, uh…" Enns hesitated. "…your 'experience points'? You mentioned it was important to you."
Lann slapped his forehead and immediately opened the system interface—visible only to him.
[EXP: 1919 / 2000]
That was close. He had almost missed his level-up.
These days, he had been stuck in the loop of 'approve documents, take assignments, delegate tasks'—which racked up experience points fast.
It wasn't that leveling up was a bad thing—on the contrary, the stat boosts and ability points gained with each level were immensely helpful. But at this stage, those experience points had a more important use.
Still, even if he used up all the experience needed for this level, Lann was confident he could earn enough to level up again within a week. After all, Cintra was in full reconstruction—tasks and missions were everywhere.
"Make the arrangements," Lann said with renewed energy. "I'm heading to the dungeon."
…
Two guards opened the iron-barred gate and greeted Lann respectfully with a bow.
One of them lifted a torch and took the lead, guiding him down to the deepest level of the dungeon.
Hearing footsteps approach, two figures suddenly sprang toward the bars of a cell, hurling curses at Lann the moment they caught sight of him.
The leading guard immediately frowned. How dare anyone hurl insults at the Lion of Cintra in front of a Cintran soldier?
But Lann simply waved a hand. "Ignore them for now."
He walked straight to the very end of the corridor and stopped in front of a particularly clean room.
The interior had been carved out to resemble a bathing pool, now filled with a red, viscous liquid that reeked of a metallic sweetness.
Floating in the liquid were two pieces of what looked like charcoal-blackened bodies. One could still clearly make out the sharp fangs on the face and the elongated, inhuman claws extending from the fingertips.
Lann studied the scene for a moment, then shifted his gaze to his system interface.
Standing before him—
Was a higher vampire: Regis.
To put it humorously—the many parts of Regis.
After subduing Vilgefortz and clearing the battlefield outside Brokilon Town, the group had quickly found Regis and managed to recover all of his remains.
Mousesack had initially mistaken the pieces for high-grade monster materials and nearly took them for his own research.
But once Ciri explained the situation, Lann immediately decided to preserve every single fragment of Regis—because he understood the most central, most crucial trait of higher vampires:
—Immortality.
Never mind the fact that Regis had been torn limb from limb and left half-charred—higher vampires could return to life even if reduced to pure ash or melted into glass alongside the pillars, as long as they were given enough time.
Granted… that time might be extraordinarily long.
Mousesack was deeply intrigued. He had a small soaking pool constructed in the deepest part of the dungeon and filled it with a variety of rare monster blood, restorative potions, and even a few death-row prisoners and worthless captives.
The reason they hadn't moved Regis to the druid lab was to avoid any potential misunderstanding upon his revival. First impressions still mattered.
Unfortunately, while Regis's remains still retained some faint trace of 'life', he had shown no signs of regeneration despite the many days passed and all the resources spent.
This left Mousesack and the rest of the magical researchers rather disheartened—without recovery, further study was impossible.
So now, Lann was ready to take matters into his own hands.
A high-level combat asset like this—better to awaken him sooner than later.
He opened the system panel.
The last time Lann had allocated ability points was during the Mahakam Red Dragon pact. Back then, he had absorbed the fire-elemental magic core the Red Dragon had collected for incubating dragon eggs, earning four skill points.
He already had one ability point in reserve, so that made five in total.
One was used to contract a dragon egg, sharing the [Primordial Lifeform] trait. Another was spent contracting the Red Dragon itself, unlocking the witcher skill [Enhanced Metabolism] to match.
As for the remaining dragon eggs, since all of them only had the same [Primordial Lifeform] trait and no skills of their own, the skill points used to contract them had been refunded.
That left Lann with three ability points.
Recently, he'd been focused on restoring Cintra and hadn't collected any new magical items. He'd also been holding off on leveling up in order to accumulate more experience points. So he still only had those three.
And now, he would spend one of them here.
"Regis, I am Lann Lannister, child of Elder Blood."
Even though Regis's charred remains might not be able to hear him, Lann still took a deep breath and spoke.
No one knew what sort of state a higher vampire might be in. For all he knew, Regis might still be semi-conscious—and might even resist the process. If that happened, he'd end up wasting a lot of precious experience points for nothing.
And any amount saved was still worth saving.
"Nanomi and Ciri have probably told you about me. Now, I'm going to use my unique Elder Blood ability to heal your injuries."
He opened the [Followers] tab and spent a skill point to create a new, blank follower slot.
"Soon, the power of Elder Blood will begin seeping into your body. It will restore you. I need you to cooperate as best you can."
Lann placed his left hand on the half of Regis that still had a head and focused his mind.
Follower—Contract.
Experience points began to drop.
Single digits… then tens…
Finally, it stopped just past the hundred mark.
Whether Regis had truly heard him, or it was simply a higher vampire's instinctual drive to cling to any chance of survival—even in a state of near-death—the contract process ended up going more smoothly than Lann had expected.
A brand-new panel unfolded before him—
[Follower: Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy]
Gender: Male
Race: Higher Vampire
Level: 1
Trait: Immortal Being
HP: 1/10,000
MP: 1/5,000
Inventory: None
Skill Panel:
Bloodline Command, Intermediate Shadow Magic, Advanced Occultism, Advanced Alchemy, Advanced Botany, Advanced Biology, Advanced Pharmacology, Advanced Geography, Advanced Linguistics, Advanced History, Advanced General Knowledge, Advanced Art Appreciation
Quest: None
[Sharing Follower Trait]
[Shared Trait: Immortal Being]
Immortal Being: Under natural conditions, the bearer of this trait cannot die. Under extreme conditions, they will retain a minimum HP value and recover slowly. Only irreversible, extreme circumstances can result in death for the bearer.
As soon as the trait was shared, Lann felt a wave of indescribable power surge through his body. It began to fuse with him, gradually altering and enhancing the very essence of his life.
His HP didn't increase, and none of his other attributes changed, yet a sensation of vitality and energy surged from every corner of his body.
For a moment, one singular thought flashed through Lann's mind: I'm invincible.
Thankfully, the arrogance only lasted a moment.
Lann quickly regained his composure and began thinking rationally about the trait—
Obviously, 'invincible' was just a joke. Everyone knew that was a cursed word. Anyone who ever claimed to be 'invincible' ended up meeting a very bad end.
Among the known beings of this world, there was one higher vampire referred to as the Elder of Shadows, their leader—he possessed a method of killing even higher vampires, these so-called 'Immortal Beings'.
Moreover, Lann was sure that a certain nameless dimensional wanderer and peddler could also easily kill a higher vampire if he wanted to.
Besides, just because something couldn't be killed didn't mean it couldn't be defeated or subdued. The current state of Regis made that abundantly clear.
Lann took a deep breath and re-centered himself.
If this trait were truly all-powerful, the world would've been ruled by higher vampires long ago. They wouldn't have had to hide in the shadows of history, branded as monsters, afraid to show themselves in the open.
Still, now that he possessed this trait—it opened up many possibilities.
At the very least, he could afford to act a bit more recklessly from now on.
Just a tiny bit more.
Calling himself 'invincible' would be going too far.
Let's just say… beneath the mirror, I'm invincible.
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