The caravan formed by seven carriages and some which were surprisingly all in the Lord rank, riding on top of all the carriages with the exception of Daimon's, in which there was only a coachman, advanced through the wasteland.
Surprisingly, contrary to all expectations, magic beasts didn't increase their activity at night, in fact, during the blood moon week, even the magic beasts felt afraid of the almost lightless night.
Naturally the guards and the merchant would have been the same, if they weren't using special magic lamps, on all the carriages which illuminated the area in one hundred meters, and also kept the cold away from them.
Still, there were some eyes coldly glaring at them, since a source of light moving in the darkness was quite eye-catching, but the merchant was prepared and used a powder that would scare away all the beasts whose realms were lower than the middle stage of the Lord rank.
Under normal circumstances that wouldn't be enough to travel through the wasteland at night, were the magic beasts lived in packs.
But during the blood moon week, unless they passed through the specific area where a middle stage Lord rank or above, magic beast, lived, then there would be no problem, as the scouting magic beasts would coward in their own hideouts.
Merchants, of course had to be informed of the safest routes, and Gary had paid a lot to secure a route to the next cities, in which it was confirmed that strong magic beasts didn't live.
Of course, this safe travel will only last until they reach the last of the five cities in which Gary has been, after that, they will have to be more careful, but that's why he was going to hire more guards in the nearby cities.
Originally, he was going to hire Hal among the guards, since Ismael was a certified douchebag, but now that Hal died, then he directly left to the next town, luckily, he found that couple whose strength should be enough to reach the next town easily.
But before that, they had to take a stop at the mining area near Brown Wind town, which was located underground at three hundred kilometers from it.
Around an hour after they left Brown Wind town, the caravan reached a small outpost in front of a rock formation, and stopped outside of it.
At the same time, inside of Daimon's carriage, Daimon's shadow waved a bit, before Rita's soft voice could be heard coming from it.
"We have arrived at the mine, young… Gabriel", the self-claimed head maid, nearly called Daimon young master, but she stopped midway.
Daimon's eyelids trembled a bit before he opened them, with his high vitality, unless he emptied his battle aura reserves completely, an hour of sleep was enough to be at his prime.
He stood up from the cushion covered seat, and turned to see the crazy girl, for a split of a second, Daimon was surprised.
'She actually looks like a normal person when she is asleep', he thought, he was woken out of his daze, when the crazy girl suddenly jumped at him.
Daimon still managed to dodge, so Sarah fell on the seat which Daimon was previously using as his bed.
"Can't you give it a rest for once…", Daimon wanted to scold her, but was rendered speechless when he saw her, rubbing her face on the cushion, where he had his face resting a second ago.
Daimon felt his right eyebrow twitch, he grabbed Sarah by the collar of her blouse and lifted her up to drag her out of the carriage, just to be seen by the guards that were sent by Gary to knock on the door of the carriage.
Needless to say, but being treated "roughly" by Daimon, made the crazy girl joyously smile, so the guards of course misinterpreted what was happening, Daimon could feel the accusing, knowing and even some jealous gazes on him, which made him sigh.
To Sarah's displease, he let go of her and then walked towards the entrance to the mine, where Gary was already talking with the people stationed there to keep an eye on it.
Which were only a few early-stage Lord ranks, for a simple reason, no one really wanted to rob mana crystals, in fact even magic beasts weren't interested in them, so they didn't approach, making it a relatively safe area, that's why weak and normal people could work in the mine.
"He is the person mentioned in the letter of the old chief, young Gabriel", Gary took the initiative to present Daimon to the one in charge of guarding the mine area, a man who seemed to be in his late twenties, who resembled the old Collins a bit.
"I can't believe that the old man finally was able to get rid of those idiots, he is even cured, those are some nice news", mumbled the man, Daimon wasn't interested in that so he directly went straight to what he was looking for here.
"So, have you seen a place in any of the mines that fulfills the description in that letter?", asked Daimon.
Riman thought about it for a couple of seconds, before he pointed at a small dark brown patch of land far away from the principal area of the mine.
"The underground area of that place fits the description, I have seen a small patch of dark brown earth deep inside the main mine, but the temperature and pressure down there is insane, that idiot Ismael once came to take a look but couldn't even set a foot into that place".
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask, he nodded at Sarah and the crazy girl went to retrieve the two prisoners from the cargo, just to casually drag them along as she returned to Daimon's side.
"We'll return in a moment, I suggest you don't come no matter what you hear, unless you want to die of course", said Daimon as he walked towards the area signaled by Riman.
Riman frowned, but Gary simply shook his head at him.
"They were the ones who cleaned the town, I wouldn't go against them if I were you, in any case those two were going to be executed", he said.
Ultimately, Riman limited to nod and then returned to his own duty, while Gary ordered the guards to place a temporal campfire, so that they could have a warm meal in the meantime.
…
Sarah who was dragging Jeremy and Beni through the ground, casually making them hit some stones just for her amusement, and to the anger of those two who woke up while they were still trapped inside one of the carriages, turned to see Daimon to say.
"So, what's in that place, after getting all those mana crystals, it must be something even more valuable than that right?", she curiously asked.
"Do you know why even though high-grade mana crystals though can be found, there is no constant flow of them?", said Daimon.
"Beats me, probably mom knows about it", answered the crazy girl with a shrug, making Daimon chuckle.
"Even normal mines can give birth to some high-grade mana crystals, but for them to be constant, there is a need for something called "Mine Core", which is basically an agglomeration of mana encased into a rock with millions of years of age, as far as I know, no one has managed to get one, because they are often buried near the core of the planet".
"Even if the planet is destroyed, in a try to get it, the thing will disperse for some unknown reason, so it can't be forcibly obtained, also once some of the energy contained in it, leaks, that's when high grade mana crystals form, way above it, the mines that produce high grade mana crystals are formed that way".
"Who would have thought that one of those things, will be blooming near the surface right there", said Daimon as he pointed at the patch of dark brown land a few meters away from them.
If you wonder why Daimon knows about this particular subject, the answer is simple, those mine cores are the contrary of antinite, since instead of restraining mana they boost it naturally, without the need of any formations, and without any element restrictions, unlike unexplored elemental mana crystal mines, Daimon investigated the subject to help Narasha dissolve and absorb the cover of antinite that hasn't been fully removed from Disaster's blade up to this day yet, but that option was discarded soon.
And now, all that research paid off, he thought that since there were so much high-grade mana crystals produced in this place, there might be a mine core which hasn't been exploited yet, and he was right.
'I have been thinking about it… but maybe all the mana of the forest that used to be the waste land, filtered into the ground back at the first blood moon mentioned by Ender, otherwise, there is no way that a mine core would appear so close to the surface', thought Daimon.
Still, it's not like anyone could take it just because it's near the surface, by law, something that can empower Stellar ranks, can also harm them, in other words, under normal circumstances, to take a mine core a Stellar rank is needed too.
And judging by what Daimon has seen, there is a 90% chance that Stellar ranks doesn't exist here, maybe half stellar do though, but they would be early-stage old fogeys with a foot into the grave, at least that was Daimon's calculation.
Luckily, there were some things that ignored realm levels, like the inventory for example, but before that, Daimon needed to call some people to help him reach the mine core.
Once they reached the patch of brown land, Daimon walked into the entrance to the excavated part that the miners made, before they had to stop due to the blazing heat that assaulted them.
It was a tunnel of around fifteen meters deep, Daimon narrowed his eyes and then activated his infinity eyes just for a split of a second, it was as if everything had gone blank for him.
The brightness that he was seeing, was such, that a drop of blood came from his eyes, which he had to close almost immediately.
The crazy girl threw Jeremy and Beni against the wall, and rushed next to Daimon with a genuinely worried expression, this time Daimon didn't avoid her, since she just approached to give him a recovery potion she had in her ring.
"Here, can you drink it… if you can't, I can give it to you with my mouth~", she said trying to lessen the tense atmosphere.
Daimon chuckled, he took the potion from her and drank it, to be honest, he just needed to keep his eyes closed a moment, for his retinas which nearly melted, to fully heal, but the potion did help him.
Daimon opened his eyes and blinked a few times, once he confirmed everything was okay, he returned the bottle to Sarah.
"Thanks", he didn't say to much, but the crazy girl still sweetly smiled at him, Daimon then walked towards the east wall and used one of his claws to draw a cross on the rock.
"Now then, how about you start talking, how many of those things will that scroll call to your aid, I know there is a portable gate array engraved into it", said Daimon to Jeremy whose face paled.
Sarah removed the cloth which was preventing Jeremy from talking, and seeing that he wasn't answering, she kicked his face, making a couple of teeth to fly out of his mouth, before she pointed at his left foot.
"Aghhh, wait I-I'll talk!!!", seeing the flesh of his left shin falling of his bone, which caused him an insane amount of pain, Jeremy immediately gave in, not enduring even half a minute of torture.
"Oh, come on, at least let me have some fun, I have to drag you all the way here you know", said the crazy girl with a pout.
The way of how she casually mentioned such a thing, made Jeremy try to get away from her, while the woman called Beni was trembling in fear.
Feeling Daimon's gaze on her, the crazy girl happily frolicked towards him, stopping at his side, since she didn't try to jump onto him, Daimon didn't avoid her, though she was quite close to him.
"If I detect even the smaller lie, you'll be her test subject", said Daimon, which made Jeremy immediately spill the beans.
"I'll talk, but you must sign a blood contract to let me go, those guys will appear here and once they notice I called them into a trap, they'll hunt me down".
Just when Sarah was about to give Jeremy another taste of her poison battle aura, Daimon shook his head and then used one of those blood contracts to make a vow.
"Sure, I'm not interested in you, but in the flesh-eating demons anyway, I promise that neither one of the two of us, nor the guys outside will do anything to you, now talk", he ordered.
Beni wasn't included in the deal, but Jeremy didn't care, very much to the anger of the woman who was still restrained at the corner of the room, with a hatred filled expression on her face.
"That is a blood portal scroll, it is a legacy knowledge of the flesh eating demons, that only the nobles among them can put their hands on, the one I got is a simplified one, since I got it from the son of a Blood Earl, who I happened to have encountered and managed to convince of letting me serve under him".
"So, who will come if you call them through that scroll?", asked Daimon.
"That guy likes to inspect the "goods" first hand, so he always comes himself, accompanied by two peak Lord stage bodyguards, though they are secondary branch nobles, they aren't far from the level that Blood Viscounts have", answered Jeremy in a hurry.
Daimon nodded and then threw the scroll at Jeremy before saying.
"Call them".
Jeremy nodded, while he was inwardly sinisterly laughing.
'You arrogant fool, during blood moon week, all the nobles get a boost, those two should be early-stage Arch ranks as of current, that bitch has a strong poison affinity, so she should be of the liking of that psycho, I'll use her as an offering', he thought as he opened the scroll.
Daimon didn't open the scroll earlier, he could tell that it had some spatial properties thanks to his infinity eyes, but now that it was open, he couldn't help but frown, the thing stank of blood.
It was a really pungent smell of blood, also there was no runes on it, but the draw of an emblem in red ink, with a beast core embedded into the center of the thing.
Now Daimon understood why only those so-called nobles had these things on their hands, that was an early-stage Arch rank beast core, and Daimon could tell that it was going to be destroyed after a single use.
That being said, such a thing shouldn't be enough to safely create a portal to wherever those guys lived, especially with the outdated technology that this place had, which made Daimon feel interested into it.
'Liz will have so many things to play with once I return', he thought.
Daimon came out of his daze when he saw Jeremy cutting his palm, to let a large amount of blood fall on the scroll, the thing absorbed the blood and the red emblem shone, before it left the scroll, to float a few meters in front of him.
A breach on the space opened, and after a few seconds, a group of three people came out of it.
Two women in their late twenties and a man who was in his early twenties to be specific, though the women were exuding the pressure of early stage Archknights, the man who was only a middle stage Knight Lord, was walking a meter ahead of them.
"Finally, you called, you bastard, I was already starting to get impatient, you better tell me that you were able to only get female meat as I ordered, otherwise my party will be ruined, which will result in your death of course".
Daimon was a bit surprised looking at the newcomer, they all had pale skin and blond hair, the two women had brown eyes, while the guy who was speaking with arrogance, had blue eyes, it's not that Daimon is too fixated on looks, but certainly they were above average in terms of appearance.
But that wasn't what caught his attention, but the fact that they gave a somewhat familiar sensation, a sensation similar as the one of vampires, but different at the same time.
[Ding]
[Ghoul Lineage detected in the vicinity, collecting and reining it will be positive to the host]
Daimon was a bit bothered that this didn't trigger a mission, but Evangeline had already told him, that this place would make it really hard for that to happen, in exchange she adjusted the system to temporarily notify him if there was anything related to the missions or objectives that were active, in this case the goal was to complete his and Aisha's original vampire lineage.
"Oi, what the hell is this place, why do you always call me in such obscure locations, well, I guess you'll be hanged if others see you with me…", said the arrogant guy as he walked towards Jeremy, who immediately rushed and grabbed onto the guy's legs.
"Young master Dilan, I found you a special toy, but I was betrayed and now they want to kill us all, please save me so that I can keep serving you!", he shouted, not forgetting to point at Sarah when he said the word "toy".
Dilan didn't put that much attention to Jeremy, he instead whistled as he gazed at Sarah.
"Oh, damn, I was about to kill you for being stupid, but I must admit that this is some really top level material, not even those old fogey Dukes get to enjoy such a delicacy more than once every thousand years, good job, I'll give you some hunting dogs in reward, now get out of my way, I'm feeling quite energetic tonight so I'll…", before Dilan could finish his sentence, his legs and Jeremy's arms turned into puddles of flesh and melted bones.
"Aghhh!", both the master and the dog, shouted in unison.
"Young master!", the women were the same, the both released their battle auras, which were light red blood colored, and proposed to crush the girl who attacked their young master, but then they felt as if a mountain fell on their backs.
"Blegh!", they were shouting when they suddenly were pressured from above, so they closed their mouths and cut their own tongues by accident, and that wasn't all.
"Booom!", Daimon appeared behind of them an grabbed the two women by their necks, smacking them against the ground, making them sink a whole meter into the durable rock floor.
Blood could be seen coming from the area where their faces were located.
"I'll leave the pair of idiots to you, now that the last materials I needed are here, I'll go get that thing", said Daimon as he lifted the two women whose faces were a bloody mess, which had started to heal already.
"Fang less huh, I guess you are outdated even in terms of lineage, that would explain why you need flesh and not only blood at the very least", said Daimon as he walked towards the wall in which he carved a cross earlier.
