Author's Note
Implied incest & what not, avoid if you're not into that sort of perversion.
Chapter 8 Herding Ogres & Ratede
Night 30
Tom and Tim spread out through the Ogre Forest on the hunt for groups of Ogres to provoke while Ren & I remained in the cave waiting. Tom & Tim both sent me videos of their actions through our party channel so I could keep track of the operation.
Tom used [Haste] & [Float] to move through the forest at high speed. [Haste] increased his speed while [Float] essentially allowed him to run on air eliminating the movement penalties of forest travel. Whenever he came across a lone Ogre, he'd simply kill it with a close range [Tempest Blade]. When there was a group of Ogres, he'd launch a [Wind Blade] from afar at the Ogres to enrage them into chasing him down.
The difficulty lay in trying to move quickly enough to stay out of range of their fists but not fast enough to lose the pursuing Ogres. The difficulty increased as multiple Ogre groups merged & conflicted along the way. Ogres were not a species that would group up nicely.
Tom's level & skill had increased a lot over the last couple of weeks after moving to the capitol & joining with the army. His level was level 105 & his new nickname of Armored Mage seemed very appropriate. Tom had chosen Warrior as his subclass, granting him the benefit of Warrior's health, multiplying his health by 5.
Tom moved like a hummingbird darting in between trees and Ogres as if they were equally as dangerous while wearing full plate mail. He used [Mana Shield] from time to time but mostly he relied on his Ogre enhanced plate mail to deflect damage from the Ogre's fists.
Tom benefited greatly from the combination of extra strength & vitality granted by [Blood Pact] & strength elixirs. This allowed him to tank hits from Ogres even without using [Mana shield] to soak up the damage, using his magic to move faster & hit harder instead.
Tim on the other hand had gained the nickname of Ghost Archer & level 102, he had chosen Ranger as his sub class, allowing him bonuses to stealth & mobility in the forest. He also benefited from Tom's [Mass Haste] spell which lasted ten times longer thanks to Tom's level 100 mage bonus Spell Stability.
Tim was equipped with a green tunic made from Phase Spider's Silk which increased his evasion rate & agility. He wore brown breeches made from Troll leather, which increased health regeneration. Both items were custom made by a level 100 Master Tailor with mana crafting & enchanting skills.
Tim took down lone Ogres by shooting Demon Deer arrows from his Long Bow. Tim's high strength made killing Ogres 40 levels below him child's play. Tim shot glancing blows at groups of Ogres to get them to chase him.
As Tim didn't have powerful armor or a [Mana shield] to rely on he used the Ranger's basic skill [Leap] to jump from tree to tree, a trail of angry Ogres following him.
They had both leveled quickly after reaching the Capitol making use of their higher than normal strength & vitality to level up by killing Giants, Lizardmen & Manticores in that order. The higher grade equipment & elixirs available in the capitol didn't hurt either.
After playing cat and mouse game with the Ogres for an hour Tim & Tom had managed to gather hundreds of Ogres behind them.
I sent them a message to bring in the Ogres.
Tom & Tim sauntered into the Vampire Cave trailed by hundreds of Ogres & promptly logged out.
I lured the Ogres deeper into the cave with Angus & Barta's help.
The Doom Wolves acted like sheep dogs, barking & biting until the Ogres were all in the Cave. Once fully within the cave, Ren used [Stone Wall] to block off the exit, followed by [Quicksand] upon the area, drastically limiting the Ogres mobility.
After another hour of tedious effort, all the surviving Ogres had been successfully restrained & entombed in preparation for tomorrow's visit to Ratede. 45 Ogres had died from excessive use of force while within the cave.
While my stats had improved drastically, it was getting harder & harder to rein in my strength so as not to kill enemies with a single blow.
Despite the amount of Ogres that died Ren was quite happy as it meant he had something to show his father that might make him proud.
Ren felt like a failure because while he was stronger in vampiric skills than a normal dhampir he suffered from a sunlight penalty which the majority of dhampirs did not. This meant that he could not serve as a double agent like the majority of dhampirs did in human society.
As his Vampiric skills were only half as strong as a typical noble vampire, he couldn't lead a vampire faction within Ratede either. He could have relied on his father's strength to lead a faction but his authority would be weak as a result.
Ren lacked the combat skills necessary to serve as a guardian of the vampires like the remaining dhampir warriors. Ren had been sent out to patrol the secret entrance of Ratede along with a handful of other vampires as a test of his resolve & fortitude. He'd either die or become strong enough to prove himself as a member of vampire society.
Tomorrow he'd introduce me to his dad, Lord Ratede, ruler of the uninspired named city of Ratede.
A couple of weeks had gone by since meeting Damon & Thad & I had learned a lot from them. Other than that they were filthier perverts than I was which said a lot.
I still found them totally fucked up in the head, especially Thad's research into developing a super vampire by attempting to breed multiple lizard women. He wanted to have vampire children with inherent [Total Regeneration] so they'd be superior to other True Vampires.
Despite their depravity, they had their good points, well mostly they were great sex & interesting teachers.
Thad incidentally taught me a lot about fighting against other mages, mostly by forcing me to deal with waves of stone golems. It gave me some useful combat practice since normal monsters posed no challenge to me any more.
Ren had learned a couple of earth spells from Thad, [Quicksand] & [Fissure], Ren used [Quicksand] to pin an enemy down & [Fissure] to finish it off. It was effective if very messy as the ground would be ruptured and broken rocks would be everywhere. It'd take several hours for the ambient mana to 'reset' the environment back to normal.
I ended up learning both spells because of Paramour's bond. I didn't put much effort into increasing my mastery of either of the spells as magic was Ren's specialty not mine.
[Quicksand level 1: create a small area of quicksand to entrap enemies for a short period of time] [Fissure level 1: a powerful force wave is sent through the ground in a straight path towards target]
Due to spending a lot of days draining various monsters during the night for the boost of stats & bottling the blood of our captives for sale later, some of my blood magic skills drastically improved. [Bleed] [Concentrate] [Clot] had leveled up to level 4 & my blood mastery had become more useful as an attack. After using blood mastery to directly control the blood in captive Trolls I learned a new offensive blood magic spell [Blood Burst].
[Blood Burst: disrupts the blood of a target, effects vary]
It varied from a one hit kill to a minor irritant on a target depending on its resistances, distance from target, mana used and blind luck.
Ren told me that over time, my skill with blood magic would become stronger and the effects would increase. Ren explained that powerful master vampires could increase their blood thralls abilities greatly for a month at a time. In exchange the blood thralls would protect the source of their enhancements with their lives.
It worked best with monster Blood Thralls like Doom Wolves as they could be brought back by their master sacrificing experience for their resurrection. Human Blood Thralls were less willing to rely on their masters to resurrect them.
Jason the only Blood Thrall that I went on hunts with frequently any more had advanced to level 70, thanks to our help. Jason had advanced considerably with his alchemy training as he could now safely gather materials for himself. He had chosen warrior as a subclass for Warrior's Health, multiplying his health by five times.
He was currently stationed in the Capitol for a couple of weeks to see what he could learn from the apothecaries in the city.
My leveling had slowed to a crawl due to hunting ground restrictions, Ren & I were level 80 while our Doom Wolves were level 79 & 78.
Day 31
Ren escorted me through passageways hidden within the large vampire cave, it felt like we traveled for miles in the dark. Angus & Barta flanked us while we dragged 2 shackled Trolls fatigued from extreme blood loss behind us.
We eventually arrived at the hidden Vampire city of Ratede. We had chosen to come during the day when the city was relatively quiet while most of the vampires slept the day away. His father and his dhampir guards would be awake and were aware that we were coming.
We were met by a squad of ten dhampirs, who were well armed with a mixture of holy swords, spears and nets. Each of them had shackles similar to the ones worn by the Trolls on a belt at their waists, like cops with handcuffs. They moved with military precision, looking fierce and prepared for a fight at any point. I couldn't tell what level they were or what their stats were.
"I want to see my father. I've brought Trolls to sell to the city." Ren said
One of the dhampir guards gestured to a couple of his men and said "Take the Trolls to the blood bank." He faced us and continued "It's good to see you Ren, I see you've made a new friend on the outside. I'll escort you to see Lord Ratede."
He introduced himself as Commander Keiran, I was only half paying attention as I was busy admiring his broad shoulders and muscular ass on the way there. The city was strangely quiet except for the sounds of animals, it sounded like Beast Forest, I recognised the sounds of Demon Bunnies, deer & Monstrous boars.
The city extended in all directions, as far as the eye could see, the buildings ranged from single story houses to the small fortress we were headed to. All the buildings were made of stone, the buildings varied in colors, size & the style of consturction. We walked past what looked like the coliseum. The entire city was lit softly by night rocks.
We arrived at the fortress in the center of the city where Commander Keiran led us through labyrinthine hallways & quite a few Dhampir guards before we managed to reach the 'Lord's chamber' where he politely knocked. "Sir, Ren and his new friend are here."
"Let them in." A deep voice replied, coming through clearly as if there was no barrier between.
Ren looked anxious as the door opened to reveal his dad who sat behind a small ornate desk. Ren's dad looked hot in a distinguished older gentleman kind of way, he had dark hair and was dressed in a formal suit that fit him very well, hinting at a muscular physique. Lord Ratede had a dignity that matched his status as a Lord of a city. Appearance wise he looked like a man in his early 30's, he looked more like Ren's older brother than someone that could be his father.
It was hard not to think about how nearby the bed was and that it had more than enough room for several people to roll around in comfortably, among other more exciting activities.
"Greetings Father, I hope you're well."
"Ren it's good to see you, you're looking well and your power has increased nicely. Who's this young man? He shares our blood."
Ren flushed, "He's my partner, I love him, so I turned him."
Lord Ratede gave a dismissive wave. "Well I hope he's been providing you with entertainment during your absence from the city."
Ren bristled. "He's a great man, he's helped me so much."
"Has he now." Lord Ratede said, his tone implying he was thoroughly unconvinced.
He turned his attention to me and I felt like someone punched me in the stomach and head at the same time. I felt light headed and nauseous all at once. The feeling passed within a few seconds.
He looked me up and down. "Well it seems like you're a good match for my son. Welcome to the family." and with that he rose from behind the desk & walked over & quickly embraced me. At first it was just a normal hug, but then his grip tightened turning it into a bear hug, his arms dangerously close to breaking my ribs. The next moment his hands were groping my ass as he bit into my neck.
I looked at Ren as his father drank my blood and groped my ass, Ren merely shrugged. I couldn't help noticing Commander Keiran closing the door behind us with a wicked smile.
My cock was rock hard and I found myself helplessly moaning as my blood was lost and my stats dropped by 20%. I was disoriented when he let me go.
"Now you've paid your blood tax. Come here son."
Ren looked at me before he meekly went to his father's waiting arm. I could tell that Lord Ratede and Ren shared something in common, they both had big hard dicks. When he was biting me, I could feel his hard cock up against mine through layers of clothing. I was curious as to what would happen next.
"Yes, daddy."
Lord Ratede sank his teeth into his son's neck for a moment drinking deep before letting go & healing the damage.
I couldn't help noticing that Ren had a glazed look & his breeches were tenting.
Ren was such a pervert, probably why I liked him so much.
"Now that the formalities are out of the way. I have a gift for the both of you. Something that may prove of use to you later."
Two small glass bottles partially filled with blood appeared in his hands.
Ren looked at them with happiness and said "Thanks Dad, you're the best."
Ren took them both & handed them to me so I could store them in my spatial inventory. I had become Ren's pack mule, carrying most of our stuff in my inventory.
Lord Ratede smiled indulgently "I've heard you brought some Trolls back to sell."
"Yes father, I've been capturing Ogres & Trolls to sell to the city."
"How many do you have to sell?"
"Ten Doom Wolves, 150 Ogres and 10 Trolls."
"Very impressive. Good work son."
Ren practically beamed from the praise. It was cute how excited he was but it was also sad at the same time that he got so excited over such faint praise.
"They're in my cavern. I couldn't bring them all this trip."
"You should show Commander Keiran where you're living at the moment and he'll arrange transportation for the goods back here."
"Yes sir." He bounced off eagerly before looking back at me and his dad.
"I'll be keeping your man company, I want to get to know him better. You should catch up with Commander Keiran and his men while you're back."
Ren looked at me but I simply nodded. He couldn't be any more fucked up than Damon & Thad. Probably. (I'd learn later how wrong I was)
Commander Keiran had waited outside the door, probably listening in on everything that had been happening. I wasn't sure if that was more amusing or annoying. Upon seeing Ren, Keiran smiled and wrapped his arms around Ren companionably & whispered loudly enough so I could hear him "I'm looking forward to you taking me to your new digs."
Then the bastard bit Ren's ear and the traitorous Ren moaned and his hand slid into the commander's breeches and fumbling with something that looked very thick & juicy. "Me too."
The door closed apparently on it's own. I looked back to Lord Ratede who presumably closed the stone door with earth magic.
I looked at him & realized I was alone with a Grandmaster Vampire & Ren's dad. I didn't have much experience with meeting potential in laws since most of my relationships had been of the brief and carnal type. Relationships formed from regular hook ups with guys online or from the clubs that rarely lasted longer than a few weeks.
I wasn't sure what the protocol was when your potential father in law had just drunk your blood and groped you and your boyfriend was probably off getting pounded by a hot soldier without so much as a "Want to cum with ?"
"So..." I trailed off shortly afterwards, lost for a point of conversation while Lord Ratede watched me expectantly like a cat with a mouse. "What's this blood tax you mentioned ?"
"All citizens of Ratede pay a blood tax to me as their lord & then the Queen collects her share from me. Congratulations, you're an honorary member of the city."
"Thanks I guess."
Lord Ratede smiled "This means that you're entitled to make use of our many facilities, the library, the arena, the springs, the tunnels, the various merchants, etcetra. I do warn you that this is a secret city & if you do reveal it's location I will have to rip off your head and hang it over the city gates." He said it so casually that it took me several seconds to appreciate the escalation from casual conversation to death threat.
"Of course." I replied blandly, I didn't think revealing the location would help me in any way. The less people who knew how to get here the better for me.
"Good, now that that is out of the way, I think you and I should get to know each other a lot better."
He pushed me down onto the table with a single finger pressing down on my chest. His strength was insane.
I tried to resist but it was fruitless as my clothes were torn off me by blades of stone that rose and fell from the ground. A moment later I was naked & his clothes had disappeared & I was pinned down by his body weight as his cock entered me. He was hung like his son, same length but slightly thicker. It took me just a moment to adjust.
He fucked me thoroughly on the desk, my cock pressed into the wood of the desk as he railed me, my face pressed against sheets of paper I couldn't read.
After he came into me, he released me & I thought we were done but I was wrong... so very wrong. He threw me onto the bed & I had only a brief moment to appreciate the silk sheets & softness of the bed before he pounced on me. His hard cock slid back inside me, this time, he took a grip of my cock, stroking me slowly as he long dicked me, easing almost all of his dick back out of me before slamming it all back in. He did it over and over again until he built up steam & I became lost in lust. I exploded against the sheets & he came moments later.
Several hours later Ren returned to the bedroom, looking tired but sated. I recognized that glazed expression, it was the look he got after he was thoroughly fucked.
I would have been more jealous but I had spent hours being railed by his dad, in multiple positions & had loads of cum in my belly & butt had lost me any chance at the moral high ground again.
Ren didn't look remotely bothered by the fact that I was naked in his father's bed, he stripped off his clothes and joined us. He cuddled with me, which felt nice. Commander Keiran started taking off his armor & while I liked the idea of sex with him, I also desperately needed a break.
I jumped out of bed & said "We should be going, we've taken enough of your time." I grabbed Ren and rushed him out of the room. Neither Keiran or Lord Ratede seemed in any hurry to stop us.
Too late, I realized we were naked, I equipped some armor & lent Ren some armor for the journey home.
We returned home slowly, Ren told me what he'd been up to while we were apart. He had gotten up to more mischief than I expected. Not only did Keiran fuck Ren, but he was gangbanged by 20 of his soldiers. They took shifts on his ass, half would escort a group of shackled Ogres while the others stayed behind to use Ren's ass and mouth to get off. It explained why Ren was walking even slower than I was.
Just hearing about Ren's adventure made me horny again. I kissed him, tasting the remnants of cum on his breath & tongue. I pinned him against the tunnel wall as I kissed him deeply, I recalled all the equipment he wore, leaving him naked & unequipped my armor, so we were both naked in the tunnels. I explored his body with my hands, tongue & teeth, his body already marked from his previous misadventures. I grasped his stiff cock and turned him around.
I sunk my stiff cock into his gaping ass, fucking him roughly within the tunnels between Ratede & home. After being the bottom for hours I really felt the urge to fuck someone until they couldn't think & Ren submitted nicely to my lust. I quickly added my load to the many already inside him.
As soon as I pulled out of his welcoming home, Ren's tongue found it's way into my ass, trying to get at all the cum his father left behind. I would point out how perverted it was to do so if I wasn't so crazy horny with lust & too busy moaning for him to fuck me.
Ren quickly shoved his cock into my ass which still had remnants of his father's cum easing his entry into me. Ren fucked me doggy style, fucking me jackhammer style, hard & fast, he didn't last much longer than I had.
I guess he needed to fuck someone as much as I had after being the bottom bitch for hours.
Now I had both the father's & the son's cum in me. What a night.
We didn't bother going hunting that night as it had been an eventful day.
Night 32
Now that we had delivered a month's worth of monsters to the city we had the ability to purchase items available only in a vampire's city.
Ren had told me previously how every monster we brought to Ratede entitled us to certain rewards. We would receive a one off payment for the monster, depending on whether it was alive or dead & what level & type it was.
If it was dead, the value would be less as it's only value would be for crafters to make use of or for monster meat if it wasn't too damaged.
If it was alive, we'd gain a portion of the profits from draining it for as long as it lived. The major currency of Ratede was blood, the value of which was dependent on whose blood it was. A master vampire's blood was the most expensive followed in succession by vampire blood, troll blood, Doom Wolve's blood, ogre blood, and human blood.
The gift from Lord Ratede was practically priceless as it was blood from a grand master vampire. Ren insisted it was too valuable to sell & we couldn't use it until blood digestion was higher as his father knew hundreds of spells. Once blood digestion was sufficiently high, then we could theoretically learn lots of spells & skills simply from drinking his blood.
I wasn't too fussed, according to Ren we had made quite a bit of money selling the living monsters to Ren's dad.
Now it was time for something fun, shopping. (Well fun for him, I don't usually find shopping that interesting but because it was somewhere unusual, I thought it might be more interesting.)
When we showed up at Ratede during the night the town had gone from a practical ghost town to a thriving monstropolis. There were Vampires, Dhampirs, Humans, Doom Wolves, Manticores, Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Lizardmen, Trolls & even fucking Minotaurs walking about.
I looked at Ren and asked "Why are there so many monsters about? I thought this was a vampire city?"
"It is, other than the Dhampirs & Vampires, the rest are blood thralls & most of the dhampirs work for my father or the faction heads. Vampires are citizens, dhampirs are the guards & spies and everyone bleeds for the queen."
There were way too many things to unravel in those couple of sentences so I decided to change the topic before learning more about vampire society gave me another headache. "Where to first?"
"The apothecary to sell off the dead monsters."
"Awesome. Something familiar at last."
Ren just looked at me and smiled evilly. I had a bad feeling all of a sudden.
We arrived at a stone building, 3 stories tall, with a sign at the front 'Eldritch Apothecary'.
Ren opened the door & I looked around, it didn't look too different to Ydris's apothecary other than the fact there were vampires manning the counter & there was a Troll standing next to a very expensively dressed man who was arguing with the vampire at the counter over prices.
I looked at Ren and asked the obvious question "Why is there a Troll in an apothecary shop?"
Ren smiled cheekily and gestured to the man arguing with the shop keeper. "He's a noble, a Troll blood thrall is a sign of status, it means that you can walk around with a treasure without worrying about someone stealing it for their own collection. Trolls can make for very good blood thralls as they're very durable warriors, especially when boosted by Blood pact."
Eventually the noble and the shopkeeper came to a compromise & exchanged goods then it was our turn. Ren had me empty out my monster inventory into the nearby merchant's spatial box. After hearing that the monster materials were worth over twice as much as I got from Ydriss I decided I would sell all my monster stuff here instead of at Ydriss through Jason.
After the monster materials were exchanged for money, I had a look around. I was curious what a vampire apothecary would be like as it seemed like it would be redundant considering how blood digestion worked.
I turned and asked Ren "So why is there a vampire apothecary when you could just go out & drink from a monster directly?"
"That works for us, but there are dhampirs with very weak vampiric natures so they rely on blood alchemy to compensate." He looked around briefly before moving closer & whispering in my ears "it's also used by nobles who have lots of gold in order to entice humans to work for us without sacrificing their own blood, our alchemy products are superior to those of the surface world. Unlike [Blood Pact] the enhancements don't disappear, it makes it a popular bribe or bait."
That made me a lot more curious, the elixirs ranged widely & their descriptions left me gaping in wonder. From what I could see there was regeneration elixirs, elixirs that would increase all 7 stats. I had a look at the range of vitality elixirs and they ranged from increasing vitality by 6 to all the way up to 48. None of the elixirs were marked with prices which was worrying in itself.
I asked the shopkeeper how much it was & he responded with "It depends on the method of payment you're offering."
I looked at Ren who helpfully explained "There's multiple methods of paying for anything in Ratede, there's blood, there's precious minerals, such as gold, silver, gems & so on or simple labor."
The shopkeeper added "Or you could pay with secrets, spells or souls."
"Or those" Ren replied.
Vampires were so frustrating. Nothing was simple with them. I asked him how much the highest rated vitality elixir was worth in gold alone.
"Today it's 1000 gold. Would you like to buy it?"
"Not today thanks."
"Just remember the price may change, depending on how much demand there is."
Ugh, merchants can be so annoying.
Ren familiar with my lack of patience for vampire answers, led us away. He mentioned that we could buy it if I really wanted it.
I declined, the vitality elixirs would be a great gift to the twins but that would eat up the lion share of our gold & it wasn't worth it.
After several hours of shopping with Ren dragging me from one shop to another we managed to buy one low level low level chain mail armor with Blood Absorption for me.
Blood Absorption returned health when blood was spilled onto the relevant item. It was useful to players but it was truly vital to vampires whose blood was precious. Blood Absorption on an armor allowed for a vampire to minimize stat loss when wounded.
Ren bought a low level vampiric ring which increased mana & health regeneration by 5% for himself.
I got a Blood Sword with Blood Absorption, it allowed for blood spilled to be used to recover health. It was bound to my soul with blood & soul magic by the shopkeeper Elandra.
Ren bought a couple of earth magic spell books which were the most expensive items we got. He bought a spell book with [Earthquake] & the other was [Stone Golem]. Once Ren learned them I would learn it too, it seemed like a good choice of purchase.
We bought all our equipment at Elandra's Armory. It had an impressive collection of items, which included rings, armors, weapons, scrolls & spell books. They were expensive and used up all our credit and all of the gold we had accumulated during the last month but Lord Ratede recommended her products for their durability and quality.
I thought we were finally done with shopping since we were running low on money and I was running low on patience but there were other things Ren wanted to show me.
We visited the military barracks where vampires learned advanced blood magic and vampiric techniques. It was humbling to see how quickly the vampire warriors could move & fight.
Ren said "One last place to visit before we can leave".
He took us to the Blood Temple, an ornate temple made with red veined stone, which gave the impression of the building bleeding.
Once inside Ren bought two blood phylacteries, one for me & one for him, from the Bloody Priest. According to Ren Blood Priests took offerings on behalf of Sharn, which would be counted towards a [Bloody Resurrection].
It was considered traditional for vampire warriors to make offerings to Sharn before they left in order to have Sharn take note of their souls & grant them the opportunity to be resurrected.
I asked the priest, how much blood was necessary to ensure a resurrection, which he replied with "It depends."
I was growing sick of vampiric non answers. "On what?"
"The quality & quality of the blood offered & the conditions of the resurrection & the will of Sharn."
At least the blood phylactery was pretty, it was essentially a small metal box with a glass bottle inside that could hold blood. Ren & I both dripped some of our blood into our phylacteries while supervised by the Blood Priest, who bound a piece of our souls to the blood.
Then Ren & I offered our blood to the priest as an offering & I lost another 10% of my stats.
Had been an expensive couple of days stat wise. Losing 20% to Ren's dad, 9% to Angus, 9% to Jason, 10% to Sharn. I would have to do a lot of hunting over the next couple of weeks to regain my stats.