Reincarnated into a New World As a Vampire

Chapter 79: Progress so Far

---Six Months Later---

It had been several months since Aldritch arrived in this world, and as his initial goal consisted of power, money, and women, it still hadn't changed much.

In these past months, Aldritch focused all his effort into increasing his own strength while his other subordinates also developed themselves in different aspects. Just as expected, not all of them were suited for fighting, so they took on different roles in his family.

Olgud for one had made considerable progress in stealth arts, and his talent in fighting reflected vividly in his learning capacity and frequent advancement. Since he couldn't evolve normally like the rest of the vampires, being a vampire ghoul, he could only develop himself further through other means like improving himself.

His major advantage came from the fact that his stats could be further developed, more than the stat of humans in this world. Coupled with his use of mana to strengthen himself, he was gradually becoming a force of his own.

Just like his subordinates, Aldritch didn't waste the opportunity of learning new magic spells and skills from Lodestar who proved to be a capable teacher even though he hated it, and Aldritch started honing his swordsmanship under Khal, who was diligent enough to take him through everything step by step, from beginner swordsmanship, working him through all the levels while ensuring concrete foundation. Experience more content on m v|l e'-NovelBin.net

Unexpectedly, him choosing to engage in these things brought a lot of benefits, and the one stat Aldritch was always skeptical about was now his highest stat.

During these months, there had also been a lot of progress in regards to other things that didn't concern training or learning magic, like Lada's age long plans to overthrow the kingdom and Aldritch's human blood farms.

The human blood farm Aldritch planned to build had been actualized, and its supervision was handed to Lada as she seemed to be the most capable, but eventually, that responsibility was also shared with Ingrid, who had shown the most development amongst Aldritch's closest subordinates.

She also started spending more time in the academy library once she returned to the academy, making good use of the knowledge contained in it. With her 'minor compulsion' skill, staying back even after the library had closed was no longer an issue.

Ingrid who had started with the least impressive stats while being unable to utilize mana had now developed herself greatly. Her turning point came after meeting with Lodestar who solved her inability to utilize mana easily like unwinding a toy for a child.

According to Lodestar, what plagued her was a case of clogged mana veins, so once unclogged, everything progressed naturally. Ingrid's hatred for the kingdom had been dutifully preserved, and her twisted sense of justice was now showing even more than before, and it was growing stronger by the day.

Aldritch for one was concerned for her, but for the meantime, he didn't see it hindering any of his plans or ruining her, so he chose to tackle it slowly rather than harshly.

With the ample supply of slaves, there were stable numbers in the blood arm. In the blood farm, the humans there ate special meals designed to increase their body's blood production, enabling the harvest to be conducted weekly.

If anyone was to drop dead in there once their bodies could no longer keep up, they would only need to be replaced, slaves were not a scarce commodity in the market with the ongoing war amongst the different kingdoms.

As for collecting the blood, Aldritch didn't need to do it himself if he wished, since he had taught most of the vampires who were 'blood suckers' to summon their blood banks physically, making the entire collection process easy and more effective. There was also no need for Aldritch to worry about anyone hoarding blood, because, why would they? Besides, with their high loyalty, they wouldn't.

Seeing as there were several such farms with each housing about 1000 slaves, the gain was surplus. Aldritch was concerned about some kind of blood addiction initially, but he was yet to discover such a case.

This particular day, Aldritch went out to collect blood from one of the major farms. On getting there, he was greeted by the guards, giving him passage into the property. All the guards and human workers belonged to Lada, they were all her slaves, so naturally, Aldritch was their lord.

This branch of his operations initially housed one of Gavik's wives and her children, and it still did. They didn't pose any trouble, and mostly, they minded their business while living a peaceful and luxurious life, just like nobles. Even in that sense, they were still Lada's slaves, so there was nothing to fear from them.

"Where's Sigmund?" Aldritch asked as he walked into the mansion, standing in the large open area with two huge staircases facing him on both sides.

Lada owned several of these houses.

These houses were more like bases of operations for these farms. Lada owned several of these houses all over the capital. At some point, their operation became less of an "underground work" and more surface, as digging underground havens all over wasn't really an easy task.

All the mansions had underground rooms and large spaces, as it was the style of the time, so there needed be expansions only in places that needed it. Other locations held the slaves within the property itself, the only drawback being that they held less.

With all that, the major bases of operations that held over 1000 slaves each were 5 in number, while the rest that numbered at about 13 held less than 300 each.

At the moment, Aldritch was at the "headquarters" of the entire operation, which was also where Sigmund was stationed for most of the time, unless he had a reason to leave, since his lab and every other thing he held precious was there.

"My lord, you're here?" Sigmund said as he saw Aldritch. He already knew what Aldritch's purpose for visiting was, so he gave his report swiftly so he could carry on with work in his lab. "They are all ready for this week's collection and I've done the needful." He said, bringing out his blood bank to make the transfer of blood to Aldritch.

Once that was done, he and Aldritch spoke for a short while before Aldritch left.

Since Sigmund was so diligent, Aldritch didn't have much work to do, so he returned home for the time being to wait for the rest to return with their harvests. He had entrusted those with the higher loyalty to him with handling the major farms, while the smaller ones were handled by others with lower loyalty.

Sigmund himself whom Aldritch allowed to run his lab within the farm's premises was one of his most loyal subordinates. He used to be a scientist, researching on different aspects and fields of science, mostly biology, and basing his core research around evolution.

Normally, that would be enough to stamp his name in the hall of fame for great contributions to the science field and community, as his works were truly ground breaking… the problem was that he held quite controversial points of view regarding many things. Because of this, he was labelled an extremist, and many people would go as far as to describe him to be mad and the sorts.

For such a world were ethics rules deeply in many hearts and religion was deeply rooted in their core functionality and tradition, science was already seen with some level of scrutiny, only receiving praise when they managed to do something tangibly beneficial to human health and society, like the discovery of drugs and various products and machines birthed through the early mechanical age.

Even then, once mana appeared in the world, people inclined themselves towards religion and such supernatural means to explain the abnormality rather than turning to science for explanation, not that they had any.

As for the religious and spiritual side, they had all the evidences to prove that this "mana", was a gift from their respective gods, or whatever divine being the particular religion worshiped.

Given such a background, Sigmund saw himself and his work shunned even more. In the end of it all, when old age drew closer, he was mocked for becoming a decrepit fellow, taunted for not being able to evolve himself first before talking about others. When Aldritch learnt about him, he had the move to acquire a very capable family member swiftly.

Aldritch happened to be lucky enough to arrive just in the nick of time as Sigmund was on his death bed, and with just a drop of blood, he saved Sigmund, riding him of all his physiological afflictions, while granting him immortality. Well, it was Sigmund who was very lucky, Aldritch could have found another person if he died.

That day, Aldritch had done two things for Sigmund that would forever gain his undying loyalty, he had saved his life, and he had proven all of Sigmund's research to be true, such evolution, the kind Sigmund envisioned, really was possible, he was right, he was never wrong. This rekindled the fire within him, who would have known such a loyal subordinate would be born like that?