Chapter 141:

32 hours after the players left Transia. At the collapsed area of the Blood Vulture Halls underground, a few dozen workers drafted from the survivors’ camp were busy here. They cleared away the boulders and debris, reopening the intricate stairways descending deeper into the halls. These workers laboring in the halls could earn 1.5 times the labor points of other jobs in the camp, and also enjoy a rather sumptuous and, more importantly, completely free lunch at noon. As such, only the most diligent and loyal were assigned here by Miriam. They were often the most trustworthy as well. This was, after all, the lair of the Blood Vulture Clan, containing many things that could not be known to the outside world. Adhering to the ancient vampire traditions, it had many strange secret chambers, and even Tris and Femis could not explain what lay in many areas. Such as the underground storeroom being opened now. Murphy stood not far away, his hands clasped behind his back, a demon sword at his waist, gazing at this place. His gaze swept the surroundings, still able to see the path leading to the Sacred Blood Hall, but that area had completely collapsed and was beyond repair. The devastation around the Sacred Blood Hall was catastrophic. Murphy had decided to seal off this entire area as the soon-to-be-opened “instance dungeon” until they had sufficient manpower. At his side, the loyal Maxim, clad in a heavy and imposing full plate armor with two swords at his waist, stood like Murphy’s shadow. He did not know what his master was waiting for here. However, at this moment, Maxim seemed still immersed in the meeting that had just ended, and finally could not help but voice his doubt in a soft voice: “My lord, what kind of magic did you cast? It made your servants howl like they had been injected with fighting spirit, ready to serve you. They completed the camp’s subsequent migration plan in just half a day. By the Night Mother, I even saw the usually cunning and lazy Portman personally leading the camp guards to transport supplies to the old city ruins. He’s like a changed man. Did you twist his personality? I know vampires can do such things, just as you turned the unruly Adele into your loyal hound.” “No, he has simply found the meaning of his life. And Adele is not my loyal hound, her soul and personality are independent. I have given her the opportunity to seek freedom. You must be mindful of your words, Max. Do not create unnecessary misunderstandings with language. As for Portman’s change, it is easily explained. After over forty years of drudgery, he has finally confronted the ambitions and ideals of his youth, long since ground down by life.” Murphy said softly: “Our Portman is a hedonist. One lonely night when he was twenty, after rewarding himself harshly, during the wise hours he vowed to sleep with at least 99 women in his lifetime. I merely told him his ambition was too pitiful. I told him that as long as he was willing and his body could withstand it, even 999 would not be a problem. I showed him the possibility of realizing his desire, needing only six months, do you understand, Max? Just six months for our domain to survive the Black Disaster, and he could live the lavish life of his dreams. In this sense, Lord Portman is perhaps the easiest of my servants to satisfy. The real trouble is Old Sister Jules. Her sincere devotion to faith is admirable, and exploiting her faith also troubles my soul. I truly did not unleash any evil magic, Max. I merely laid out their desires and let them see their own cravings with their own eyes, nothing more.” Murphy sighed. He raised his left hand, looking at his slender, pale fingers, feeling the increasingly active power within him called the 【Power of Desire】. He keenly sensed the tremendous might of this “original sin.” It was an extraordinarily powerful force, even more so than what Salrokdar and Tris had truly uncovered. Luckily or unluckily, Murphy seemed to have found the correct way to wield it. “Morality can only constrain oneself, but desire can dominate others.” Murphy silently recited these words in his heart. He curled his fingers into a fist in the darkness, as if grasping some intangible force, under Maxim’s reverent and loyal gaze. “My lord, my lord, the path down has been opened!” A few minutes later, a dust-covered foreman ran over to report the good news. Murphy nodded in satisfaction and said kindly to the sweat-drenched foreman: “Lead the workers to rest over there. Your work has been highly effective. Once you have cleared away the remaining rubble here, you may return to the camp. I will instruct Miriam to arrange leave for you all in the coming days.” “Thank you, my lord.” The foreman bowed obsequiously to Murphy. As the vampire lord walked forward, Maxim behind him looked the foreman up and down before speaking: “My domain also needs such excellent workers. Are you interested in going to Leim Village for the reconstruction work? I can appoint you as village chief and give you a quota of 50 men to choose your own assistants from the camp.” “Ah, this...” The foreman was completely caught off guard by this stroke of fortune. His face beamed with unrestrained delight as he eagerly accepted, then watched the two lords enter the underground storeroom that had just been opened, elated. The foreman did not know what was in the storeroom, he only felt he had encountered great luck today. “Well done.” As they entered the storeroom, Murphy said softly to Maxim at his side: “You have learned to properly wield power.” “Only to protect your secrets, my lord. What is hidden here is too important, those who know its location must be closely watched.” Maxim replied: “According to the old Blood Vulture traditions, these workers would have been disposed of, but I am well aware that you need manpower now.” “Yes, the correct thinking. People are the most important resource, the foundation of all great undertakings.” The vampire lord chuckled softly as the two delved into the dark storeroom. Small Illusion: Morland Village Ambush Battle, Smuggler’s Woods Harassment Battle, Jedd Gang Raid Battle. Large Illusion: Advance into the Blood Vulture Halls. Note! One Convergence Stone can only hold one instance snapshot segment. Note! Test administrators can select special targets within the instance snapshot and assign them ‘special drops’. This mode currently does not support physical forms and can specify the use of ‘special tokens’ for exchange operations. Note! Test administrators can freely adjust the internal rules, enemy strength, enemy scale, and cooldown times within the instance snapshot.】 “Cool! Three five-player dungeons and one raid. The equipment acquisition channels for the Black Iron stage are ‘completed’.” Murphy inwardly marveled. Being a newbie himself, he placed the snapshot segment of the simplest Morland Village Ambush Battle into the Convergence Stone. Like unsheathing his consciousness, he entered a realm akin to a “spirit illusion”. The experience was like turning on a game’s “edit mode”, incorporating the entire battle from the initial village entrance ambush to Natalie’s squad’s attack that Murphy recalled. He could even specify NPCs to say rather embarrassing lines. Murphy was a bit clumsy at first, but he quickly became Proficient. Compared to the difficulty of running a mere nine lines of code that would report ten errors, this simple scene editing and rearranging was practically nothing. Thus, according to his understanding of the instance dungeon, he soon made detailed modifications to the memory segment and confirmed the instance snapshot to take effect. A few minutes later, Murphy withdrew his finger, and spirit illusions began swirling around the Convergence Stone before him. Looking closely at the light encircling the stone, it projected the scenery of Morland Village within. “Try it out.” Murphy gestured an invitation to Maxim beside him. Without hesitation, the loyal servant stepped forward, touching the Convergence Stone and infusing it with his spirit energy. His form was enveloped in a mist and reemerged nearly three minutes later. What the hell! Finished in three minutes? Are you speedrunning this instance mode? Is Maxim just that powerful? Or did Murphy’s instance design suck? No way! Gotta up the difficulty! Murphy thought as Maxim, savoring the recent experience, gave him an odd look and said: “My lord, isn’t this just our experience in Morland Village? Only with some minor differences in details, and the enemies’ strength seems to have been enhanced somewhat. Also, I don’t recall shouting those strange lines during battle...what’s this about a ‘burning left hand calling for victory’? It’s too embarrassing!” “Do not dwell on those details! Your experience just now is the wonder of the Convergence Stone. Knowledge from the Astral Realm grants us the ability to revisit our past battles in the form of illusions, and everything you experience within this illusion can become actual combat experience.” Murphy explained: “Look at your Computation Bead.” Maxim immediately looked down. A “token” slot had appeared on the Computation Bead’s interface, recording three “Recruit Badges”, corresponding to the three elite Witch Hunters he had faced in the illusion. Besides Recruit Badges, there were similar “Veteran Badges”, “Elite Badges”, and “Warrior Badges”, likely obtainable by defeating enemies in more challenging battle illusions. “Use this virtual currency as proof that my warriors have passed the trials. Afterward, they can spend it with the quartermaster to exchange for corresponding weapons and armor. As their strength grows and they need more powerful equipment, they can return these pieces to the quartermaster to receive tokens worth one-third of the original price. This way, spirit-imbued items from low to high grade can be recycled for reuse.” Murphy expounded to Maxim and Tris: “Such a facility will undoubtedly rapidly enhance the warriors’ combat skills. Once our professional soldier system is established, I will also grant them access to this spirit facility. Our new recruits will then experience utterly realistic combat training as well.” “But if it is truly that perfect, your warriors may become immersed in this illusion and neglect changes in reality. Little Murphy, this is the common flaw of all scenario-type illusions,” the Spirit Sovereign Tris earnestly warned. “No matter how realistic, an illusion is false. You must make your warriors understand this! Only changes in the real world are worth pursuing, not being consumed by illusory power.” “They can only enter once per day, and more challenging team battles are limited to once a week,” Murphy explained. “Furthermore, the weapons and armor exchanged with tokens are mass-produced. I only wish to grant them the most basic ‘safety net’ of gains for each stage. If they want stronger, rarer, and more beautiful weapons, they must rely on their own explorations and trials in the real world to obtain them. I am well aware of the importance of this. So do not worry, Tris. However, each Convergence Stone can only hold one battle memory segment, so I need at least three more. Tris, I will require your assistance next.” “I feel like I, the Blood Vulture Grand Duchess, have degraded into your servant now,” Tris said wryly. “Isn’t this not how normal family relations should be? Count of Kadman, you order your clan leader to work for you without even a word of thanks?” “That makes us seem so distant,” Murphy smiled, taking Tris’s wrist and softly placating her as she pouted and made demands like one Convergence Stone for twenty crates of fine wine. The loyal Maxim tactfully withdrew from the area at this point. The private lives of the nobles should not be pried upon, this was the basic conduct of the faithful. Moreover, in Maxim’s heart, a ravishing beauty like Lady Tris could only be possessed by a heroic figure like Lord Murphy! Though their age gap spanned over 400 years, that was of no consequence! Who were these unseeing fiends to comment on the perfect match of such a talented man and beautiful woman?