Dungeon Battle Royale ~ Since I became a Demon King, I will aim for World Domination-Novel

Chapter 21

—Vampire.

As the final result of all my considerations, I decided to select Demon King (Vampire) as my evolution path.

Please be right, my theory.

I operated the smartphone with a trembling finger, selecting Demon King (Vampire)

—!?

Upon pressing it, a hexagram appears below my feet and I’m enveloped by a dazzling light.

Guaaaaaah!?

My entire body feels hot. It’s as if I’m getting burned to death…

As if my cells are being turned into ash one by one, the pain travels through my entire body.

…Hey…when’s this…going to…end…?

It was a mere 60 seconds. But, going by what I just experienced, it might as well have been an eternity until the suffering finally ended.

Haa…Haa…

Once the hexagram under my feet disappeared, the previous pain also vanished as if all of it had been an illusion.

While heavily breathing with my shoulders heaving up and down, I lower my eyes on to the smartphone’s display.

The usual, familiar entries were visible.

With a trembling hand I touch 【Status】.

Seeing the displayed status, I break into a large grin.

Name: Shion

Aptitude: Chaos

Race: Demon King (Vampire)

Lv.: 3

CP: 300

Body: D (E)

Mana: D (E)

Knowledge: E

Creation: C

Alchemy: B

BP: 6

Special Abilities:

My theory has come true splendidly.

Fufufun♪　While cheerfully humming through my nose, I operate the smartphone and check all of the new entries.

『Demon King (Vampire): Demon King owning a good compatibility to inhabit the darkness. They display their strength within the darkness. It’s possible to subdue blood relatives as bloodkin. Evolution Conditions: More than 30 days not moving from one’s own room while staying in darkness.』

Oh!? It informs about the evolution conditions. Though it’s kind of meaningless to learn about it at this point.

But, indeed, now that I think of it, I haven’t left this room…or rather the deepest part of my Domain since creating it.

I spent everyday commanding my subordinates, checking the situation of my subordinates intercepting invaders with my smartphone, and using the phone to gather information in my spare time.

Huh? Although it’s me saying it, rather than being a Demon King or vampire…aren’t I more like the useless type of human beings called hikikomori or shut-in?

Well, whatever…it turned out fine in the end! I can’t leave my Domain anyway.

Or rather, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill the vampire path’s evolution condition if I were to leave this room, right?

Whoa, scary!? Isn’t that an eternal life as a hikikomori?

Guh, I guess I will completely rethink and check the next entry for now.

『Dark Arrow: Firing an Arrow of Darkness.』

『Vampire: Body and Mana will be strengthened as long as the vampire stays in a space of darkness. In other other spaces, body and mana will weaken. They gain strong resistance against darkness and physical attacks. Their resistance against light, water and fire attributes declines dramatically. Resistance against items made out of silver declines dramatically.』

…Eh?

Aren’t there way too many demerits in comparison to the possible merits?

I offered an item that’s my weak-spot to my enemies…?

Hahaha…lol. Let’s never put any Silver items into treasure chests ever again.

I pull myself together and check the next entry.

『Absorb: By sucking out a target’s life force, they absorb the abilities of the target.』

『Blood Chalice: Creation of a chalice filled with one’s everything. To create it, all CP will be consumed.』

『Contract: To turn a target into a bloodkin by giving them the blood chalice.』

Going by my gut feeling, are 『Blood Chalice』 and 『Contract』 a set of special abilities? What bothers me is the line 『all CP will be consumed』.

Looks like it’s necessary to closely inspect this matter later.

『Absorb』. This is a special ability truly befitting a vampire. I thought that if I absorb — suck blood, it would be at a level of recovering stamina at the most, but it’s an atrocious, special ability that goes far beyond my expectations.

Or rather, in my speculations, I believed that if I bit someone, they would turn into my bloodkin, but instead the other person will only become my bloodkin by giving them my blood?

There’s all sorts of things I want to properly test out, but at the moment it will only be a pointless waste of the CP I’m recovering.

I guess I will properly verify things after creating some subordinates fitting my current situation first.

I operate the smartphone and tap on the creation entry.

—!?

“Fua!?”

Seeing the displayed entries, I leak a strange voice.

The 『World Salvation Project』…is truly lacking explanation about important details all the time.

What was displayed on my smartphone is—

『Slime: 2 CP; Rat: 4 CP; Bat: 2 CP; Wolf: 6 CP; Goblin: 10 CP; Kobold: 20 CP; Orc: 40 CP; Dark Elf: 100 CP』

Except for the bat, the creation costs of all subordinates doubled.

Moreover,

Giant Bat – Rank E. Huge Bat. It causes light headache by releasing ultrasonic waves. It likes sucking blood with its large fangs, but it doesn’t recover any vitality through that act. Creation Cost: 5 CP

Ghoul – Rank D. A mere shadow of a lifeform’s former self that had its life sucked out. Due to the missing sense of pain, its strength is amplified, but it has exceedingly low intelligence. Creation Cost: 10 CP.

Lycanthrope – Rank D. A species cursed to be possessed by beasts. It displays its true strength when basked in the moonlight. Until that happens, its true identity will remain unknown. Creation Cost: 30 CP

I am now able to create three new subordinates.

So the subordinates I can create differ depending on the race which I evolved to? Moreover, the CP necessary to create them is apparently different as well?

Even if I wanted to verify it, there’s no target to compare it to. I can only examine it based on the produced outcome.

I suppose I will use some CP to create the new subordinates for starters.

Using my smartphone, I create a giant bat, a ghoul and a lycanthrope. The total of used CP is 45.

I put aside 1 hour and 15 minutes to examine them in my current jumbled timetable.

Chapter 22

I check the three newly created subordinates.

First is the giant bat; it’s one size bigger than the normal bat, being a subordinate exactly as I had imagined it to appear.

Second is the ghoul; A rotten corpse with a fairly good physique, wearing tattered clothes? What’s the difference between a zombie and a ghoul though? It’s constantly groaning with “Voooeeeooo” Attempting to form any kind of communication with it seems impossible as well. In order to test whether it can equip a weapon, I tried handing it various kinds of weaponry, but all of them ended up being swung around wildly or not even accepted by it.

Third, the lycanthrope; it’s the subordinate with the most surprising appearance. That’s because it looks like a normal human. A medium build. I guess around 179 cm tall. Once I look closer however, it has dense body hair and the shape of its ears slightly resembles that of a dog’s. I guess this is the reason for it being declared as 『A species cursed to be possessed by beasts』?

Full of anticipation, I try to communicate with the lycanthrope.

“N-N-N-Nice t’ meet yo, I-I’m the Demon King Shion.”

I completely fumbled my words. In these last two months I haven’t spoken with anyone. It’s inevitable for me to fumble my words, right? Moreover, my attribute is that of a total loner, you know?

“※※※※”

God damnit!

Same as with the dark elf, I couldn’t understand a single word of what the lycanthrope replied to me.

If it’s the normal development of a , the protagonist would be equipped with an automatic translation function from the beginning, but…

Why is it so real only at such times? I harbored a slight grudge against the Mastermind.

Unable to speak with them in the end, I decided to summarize what I should do from now on.

1. Assign BP.

2. Check the creation conditions for the Blood Chalice.

3. Confirm the abilities of my current subordinates.

4. Create a bloodkin.

5. Check out the new special abilities.

I guess those are the five main points that should be my priority at first glance?

It was indispensable to immediately carry out those adjustments. That’s because I was confronted with two big changes.

First, the level-up.

Second—a Domain had been liberated by humanity.

◇

Three days ago. A single news report shocked the world. A domain located in New York was liberated for the very first time in history. Two hours after that, a domain in Europe was liberated as well.

Starting with those news, other news reports of domains being liberated from all over the world flooded the media.

Two days ago. At last, even in Japan the domain in Yokohama was liberated.

These reports greatly boasted humanity’s hope and courage.

After that, maybe as a coincidence or synchronously, one liberation after the other followed in Japan.

And finally, yesterday, a domain in Kanezawa was liberated, too.

The ones who liberated that domain in Kanezawa were a group of former students ranging from 18 to 24 in age.

They had joined various parties by themselves, but as they had obtained powerful weapons in a certain “generous” dungeon, they experienced a rapid growth. It reached the point of them forming a party, a『Hardcore Party』that was fully backed by the city of Kanezawa.

Or rather, this certain “generous” dungeon…that’s my domain, isn’t it?

The leader and one of the Two Matchless Heroes invaded my Domain after the JSDF. So to say, it was their debut battle, wasn’t it? The other hero is “Yay lol”-kun, right?

I want to pretend being unrelated to all this, but for some reason, one of the Two Matchless Heroes, Sayama Rina, has declared that she will absolutely liberate my Domain, hasn’t she? By the way, “Yay lol”-kun has said “Let’s leave the 『Farm』 alone for the sake of everyone!”, seemingly aiming to give a good impression of himself.

As a result of that, the public opinion shifted towards preserving my Domain, the 『Farm』, but…due to the influential voice of the girl, who’s called a hero by everyone, and as one of the main members, who liberated a domain in Kanezawa, Kanezawa City gave its permission to liberate my Domain once they liberated the other three domains designated by the city first.

As a result, I fell into a situation where I want to bolster the strength of my combat assets as soon as possible, and as much as possible.

How much time are they going to take to liberate three domains?

Based on the Internet, capturing guides for domains are made available to the public on a daily base on blogs. If you use the translation function of the browser, it becomes possible to read even the foreign blogs.

At present the standard capture method is to carefully advance while mapping the area. It’s a method where you repeatedly invade and retreat. Especially discovering rest areas seems to be a big point of the capture.

Or rather, even the existence of rest areas has been completely exposed!?

Also, because of humanity’s steady efforts, it was exposed that all domains have a size of 6 km², although their internal shapes differ.

The quickest domain liberation took 14 days after starting the capture, huh? The longest among those domains that were liberated took 32 days.

14 days to liberate a domain with a size of 6 km² at full force. It feels like they took too many days, but the Demon King, who was invaded, was desperate, too. The interior of the domain will become complicated like a maze. And, if they know that a deadly blade is steadily approaching them, they will likely create subordinates to the extent of exhausting their CP. Also, if the invaders suffer injuries, it’s necessary to treat it first as it will be the end for them if they die. As a result, that is the least number of days required to liberate a domain.

As for the information obtained besides that; “Yay lol”-kun, who loves SNS, has become level 8. I could even find out that his body is E, Mana is F and Knowledge is G.

14 days to liberate a domain at fastest, huh? By the way, Kanezawa’s 『Hardcore Party』 liberated the domain in 18 days.

Simply calculated, it will take them 54 days to liberate the 3 domains. But that’s not how it works. Their levels will go up, and above all else, they will have the experience of having liberated a domain before. Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that the domain, which they are going to liberate next, won’t have a lower level of difficulty compared to the domain they liberated first.

If that’s the case….it will take them around 10 days to liberate one domain? There are also plenty of cases where things speed up a little bit, aren’t there? Wait!? They will take a small break after liberating a domain, won’t they?

I frantically consider the time remaining until the 『Hardcore Party』 comes attacking.

I will assume the time remaining to be 30 days for now. I guess I will work out a plan to allow myself to grow to level 5 until then.

I operated the smartphone and started with selecting the entry on the very top of my priority list — assigning the BP.