"Is it possible to move this crystal elsewhere?" Aldred asked.
"It might be possible if we relocate the ground it stand upon," Corduul replied.
"Do that then. I don't want anyone to know about this thing. Wait, I have better idea."
"What is your idea, master?"
"Just watch." Aldred approached the crystal again, and then opened his palm.
Suddenly, a mysterious gray mist appeared and engulfed the crystal, making it vanish instantly.
Corduul's eyes flickered. "Where does it go?"
"To my Divine Dimension." Aldred smiled. "It's probably the safest place we can store that thing, and probably the best as well as my wives will benefit a lot because of it."
The mysterious crystal had the ability to made the brain into a state of extreme hyper-focus, but it also let the brain process other topics which was why when Aldred touched the crystal, he was like in a lucid dream situation. He was thinking about his skills at that moment. The hyper-focus effect let him comprehend the skill much better, improving it and strengthened it without him needing to use it thousands of times to increase its level.
But there seemed to be a limit to the crystal, as Aldred couldn't enter that state when he touched the crystal again. He also felt some sort of weakness as if his soul was depleted after the event. This meant that he might need to re-energize his soul again before using the mysterious crystal.
"Master," Corduul called. "One of the robots found a stash of treasure nearby."
"Oh, another treasure? What great luck we have."
Corduul led Aldred to walk to another cave, after walking for a few minutes, they arrived in the cave with a single treasure chest inside. The chest let out a golden glow with all sorts of magical carvings around it.
Aldred approached the chest and opened it. It smoothly opened as if the chest was newly made, and what he saw amazed him. His godly eyes activated.
"Elixir of Bloodlust! This thing can increase the quality of my blood essence, increasing my recovery speed and power!"
Aldred looked around and saw more amazing stuff. "This… Draught of Vampiric Blood. It strengthened my blood manipulation skill!"
Blood manipulation wasn't just an offensive skill. It was also a buff or debuff skill. If he used it to himself, he could increase his recovery further move coupled with the Elixir of Bloodlust's effect. If he used it against his enemies, he could slow down their recovery speed, drains their stamina, and increase their mana expenditure. Which mean, the longer they fought against him, the more likely they will lose.
Aldred could only be defeated if the enemy had an absolutely greater strength. A strength that could kill him in one single attack. For now, only Adamantite Ranks could be capable of that, so essentially, he might be invisible among Diamond Ranks.
With that thought in mind, Aldred quickly grabbed the Elixir of Bloodlust and drank it.
Suddenly, a violent force of energy rushed all over his veins. He could feel the searing hot sensation in his blood as if they were lava. Sweat poured out of his skin before they quickly turned into steam.
Corduul saw this and immediately sprayed a cooling agent all over him. The cooling agent immediately vanished when it touched Aldred's skin, forcing Corduul to keep spraying.
Aldred's health also dropped at an alarming rate. "Fuck, I should have drink half of the bottle first."
Just as his health reached the lowest bar, the heat and pain disappeared, then a soothing and cooling sensation rushed all over his body.
Corduul detected the change in temperature and stopped spraying.
Closing his eyes, Aldred took in a deep breath as he felt his blood circulation become so much better than before, perhaps more than 100 times. His health points also replenished itself at high speed. It was one of the benefit of becoming a vampire.
He didn't really use his vampiric skill that much, but the passive buff had always helped him in battle. The demonic bloodline within him also made him resilient in psychic attack, hallucination, illusion, charm, and other nasty things.
After making sure his body was healthy again, Aldred grabbed the bottle that contain The Draught of Vampiric Blood and drank it.
This time, he felt no pain or discomfort at all. Perhaps it was because he had already drink the Elixir of Bloodlust.
[Viscount Blood Vampire Lv. 5 -> Earl Blood Vampire Lv. 8]
[You have received a new skill: Blood Pool]
[Blood Pool]
Allows the user to store the blood of enemies and use it for magic. Spells when being used with blood will give extra damage and affect the target's mind in unknown ways.
Aldred nodded a bunch of time with great satisfaction. "This makes me even more undefeatable. Hahaha!"
He turned around and saw Corduul just stood there in silence. "What about you? Do you get something from the crystal?"
"I do, master. Right when I touch the crystal, all sorts of technical innovations and solutions came into my mind. I have sent this information to the database, and it will be applied to all of our machinery. In a few days, our military power will double in strength."
"What?! What kind of innovation is that? Do we need more materials to upgrade them?"
"No, master. It is simply a design improvement."
"A design improvement that can upgrade our military power doubled in strength… Corduul, you are even more terrifying than me."
"Master, this military power will be useless without a strong commander like you. Our tech priest has discussed about your power, and we have concluded that you are a one-man-army that could raze an entire nation in a matter of years perhaps months. Your rate of improvement was simply terrifying that even we cannot predict what will become of you the next decade. What we predict you could reach in a decade, you manage to achieve it in months. Our calculations to your rate of improvement has zero percent accuracy which made you a terribly terrifying existence."
"Hmmm, I never think of it that way."
Aldred always thought that making the Mechanicum his subordinates was the best thing that ever happened to him, but the Mechanicum was actually glad they get to be his subordinate. Aldred solved their biggest problem as an organization—an absolute leader.
The Mechanicum was an organization with absolute democracy. The Tech Priest discussed with each other and then concluded a decision. Although their decision all these times were good enough, they lack an active, and slightly radical leader who dare to take charge no matter what other people say.
Aldred basically owned the Mechanicum, so whatever he said had to be done. His ambition of becoming stronger and stronger let him to thirst for resources which in turn also strengthened the Mechanicum at a rapid pace.
It hadn't been a year, but the Mechanicum had become far stronger than what they had been.
"But, is your battle prowess increased as well?" Aldred asked.
"A part of my brain is currently processing a new design for me. It will be done in three, two, one."
Corduul's body lit up, and then some mechanical parts moved around. Aldred saw some sort of cables, screws, metal rods, energy cores, and other stuffs moving around within Corduul's body. Making clanking and clanging sound for hours, Corduul finally finished his transformation, becoming taller and perhaps cooler than before.
Corduul raised his right arm, a blade jolted out of wrist. It let out a ringing sound as it vibrated at high frequency while also covered in powerful energy.
"Nice." Aldred smiled. "Maybe now you match my strength."
"Far from it, master. I will not survive fighting against you. But my strength should be enough to aid you in battle."
The Mechanicum had always prioritized to be of use to Aldred. They were comprised of very smart and motivated people, so they knew that if they want to have Aldred as their backer, they need to be useful to him.
And useful they were.
Aldred's life become much easier with Corduul and the Mechanicum as his hands and legs. They did most of the jobs that he usually did by himself such as sending golems to designated cities, fixing and rebuilding, opening shops, creating roads, infrastructures, tightening securities, and conquering cities.
Diplomacy was also handled well by his newfound subordinate who he rarely met now because he was too busy moving around in the kingdom.
His business was also being dealt with by Tarrar and his other clone, and he also gained a lot of information from Withokere University.
Everything was going well.
"Where is the King's army?" Aldred asked.
"They are 5500 KM away from the designated point."
"Our main task is to distract the enemies from the sea. Send more robots to Ber and wreck havoc in this territory."
"Yes, master. And what will you do in the meantime?"
Aldred's eyes flashed. "I want to solidify my rule over this city. Even though, this city might not be handed to me, but I can considered it mine if all the wealthy merchants that controlled most of the market bow to me."
