Vampire Nightlife

"Pfft… me? Be heard?" Lukas scoffed at Drusilla's words and rolled his eyes, but then tapped his finger on his forehead for a couple moments. "Either way, I think we should then check on her skills with blacksmithing or something."

"Huh? Are you thinking of letting me free like that Dream Eater of yours?" Drusilla said, a tad arrogant. "I'm not someone who you can easily form a blood bond with to make me subservient to you, boy. Have you forgotten that?"

"No. But well… hah. Yeah, it's a pretty stupid decision, but I don't think being cooped in one single place for who knows how long is good for you."

"Please, I'm plenty entertained. And surely, you should know that if you want to wield your mind's ability, time in solitude is quite an effective of training that." Drusilla said.

"Is that so really? Well, I certainly am surprised that you're talking me out of finding a way to freeing you. I thought you would be completely on board with it now that we've actually found someone who could make it possible."

"Save me from enough of your whimsical daydreaming. Shouldn't you be more concerned with I don't know, making these 'Nyx Credits' and going on dates with your little girlfriend and such inane things." Drusilla remarked.

"That's like normal life." Lukas said. "And there are other things I have to concerned about—but you know what, yeah, let's focus on other matters first."

"Good." Drusilla said. "Return to the room at once and I'll leave you be."

"That was my plan."

And soon enough, Lukas felt the presence of Drusilla vanish again. She had returned to wherever she was—and he had no idea of what would be going on with the Sanguise House Ancestor.

'Making promises to free me, I do not wish to get my hearts hope up for nothing.'

***

When Lukas reentered the room, he was once again met with the devilish look from Iolathane, that Lukas couldn't help but just grin and wave back before he returned to where he had seated.

Except he sat down with the meek Vampire young man instead.

"So what'd I miss?" he whispered.

"Um, list of monsters, sir. I don't think she'll be repeating it, but we'll be given it as a file to look over." The young man replied. "And ah, we'll be performing some basic tests?"

"Huh, like the actual hunter exam before." Lukas mused.

"You know, strength test and light sensitivity something?"

"Um, we already do that before coming here though." The young man said.

"Oh, huh. Guess I'll have to give my results to her then… so when are we actually leaving?" Lukas asked.

"The others have been asking the same thing as you, Mister." The Vampire young man sheepishly scratched his cheek. "I don't think she's so happy with it."

"—we'll be traveling later then. Know that there are various locations beyond the forest, as we've discussed." Iolathane said. "But for now, I want all of you to pay your attention to this."

A Vampire brought a covered box thing into the room, and it caught Lukas' attention.

He was almost certain that there was something alive in there, and quickly realized that he was right.

Iolathane pulled the drapes over a glass box and revealed a giant egg inside of it that was decorated with some green vine-like structures that swirled around it.

"Ugh, do they actually keep stuff like that?" Lukas scrunched his nose. Then heard some agreements from the people in front which made him cough a little—since Iolathane really looked at him again as if it was his fault that the others reacted similarly.

"Isn't it prohibited to bring monsters into the city, Miss Durand?" one of the Vampires in front said. "I've wanted to have one of those little jungle cats before, but—"

"Normal citizens are naturally prohibited, but those authorized to do so are allowed to conduct experiments—some of these creatures items can be utilized after all. But now watch, this one is actually about to hatch."

Lukas wanted to know whether these folks actually had eggs just waiting to be hatched, and the logistics for all of it but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene.

It writhed and wriggled, completely different from a chicken's egg cracking, before something putrid made itself out.

"What is that…?" Lukas stomach lurched a little and it was enough to make others uneasy too. He had been expecting something like a spider, but instead, a larva like creature appeared with almost a fungus like quality to it.

It was the color of something pink and fleshy, but in a bad way and it also had tentacle like appendages.

As far as Lukas saw, it had no eyes either or ears.

It made him wonder how it survived.

Either way, it was something that looked just completely wrong.

"These are but one of the several creatures that you'll encounter in the forest. Not all of them will be great giant spiders to slay, but sneaky stuff like this. This is a parasitic fungus that preys on spiders and other creatures, controlling the creature and using it for their own resources."

"Um, Miss—that doesn't work on our kind right?" a squeamish Vampire asked.

Iolathane smiled. "It attempts to, but fortunately we're immune from it, otherwise this would have been quite an issue. However, this thing increases the aggression of other creatures so be wary about it. While it can be mostly found on the ground, there are instances where it can even drop from trees and crawl all over you."

Lukas didn't know if this was really how the woman did things, but if she was determined to put others off then she was doing a great job. Especially when she opened the box and the creature practically launched itself against her, it was screeching and had a terrible smell.

Its tentacle appendages latched to her wrist, but then Iolathane picked it up and squished its head. Green pus like fluid popped and dripped down the now deceased creature.

"Now then, who's ready to encounter maybe… hundreds of these things?" Iolathane asked.