"Vampir! So you were the one behind the disappearances!"
Oh, fuck.
I really am screwed.
The thought drifted through his head without his meaning it to.
How on earth had Kim Tae-hyeon walked in with such perfect timing?
It was enough to make him think someone was toying with him on purpose from behind the scenes.
'No, forget that. First I need to think about how to escape this situation.'
For now the cave was dark enough that he couldn't be seen clearly.
But if Kim Tae-hyeon came even a little closer, it was obvious he would be found out as Kim Garam.
The clothes he was wearing were the very ones he had on before.
'There's no way he wouldn't notice.'
No matter how hard he ran his wishful-thinking circuits, even if he ran them until they overheated and blew, "he won't be found out" wasn't a thought he could entertain.
While he was thinking that, Kim Tae-hyeon took a step toward him.
"Don't come closer."
Garam's voice echoed through the cavern.
Fortunately, they hadn't talked enough for Kim Tae-hyeon to be able to tell his voice apart.
He hesitated for a moment at Garam's words, then snorted and started forward again.
"A filthy Vampir bastard dares give me orders? I'll tear you clean in half."
Kim Tae-hyeon advanced, his face twisting more savagely instead.
'To get away from this, I'll have to use at least True Progenitor Form.'
Kim Tae-hyeon might be a punk whose character was thoroughly rotten.
But he was unmistakably a member of the Holy Knights.
Which meant that he too was a B-Grade hunter.
Meaning he was stronger than the Bat-Man that had gorged on two Blood Point Stones, the one Garam had just brought down after putting on a whole circus.
'And against that, my body is in about the worst shape it could be.'
He had leveled up in various ways, but the blood he had spent and the wounds he had taken remained.
There hadn't been a large number of individuals like when he killed Kobolds, and he had burned the Bat-Man to death, so the amount of blood he had absorbed was small.
He hadn't been able to use Regeneration properly either, so his body was a complete wreck.
Escaping Kim Tae-hyeon in this state was close to impossible.
Was it fortunate, perhaps?
When Garam looked around, there was an ideal place to hide himself.
'In that pile of corpses.'
The place where the man who called himself Pyo Dae-rim had left the humans who died after he made his Blood Point Stones.
If he could turn Kim Tae-hyeon's eyes away for just a moment and lie there pretending to have been struck down by the enemy, it would work.
'If I use True Progenitor Form now, I can hold it properly for about thirty seconds.'
An impossibly tight window.
Even so, he had to do it.
'Carmilla.'
He called her quietly.
Carmilla, who had been far off, flew to his side in an instant.
[What are you going to do about this? Do you have a plan?]
'I do. For now, hide right behind Kim Tae-hyeon.'
[What?]
Carmilla frowned as if she couldn't understand.
But when Garam simply held her gaze without a word.
[F-fine.]
she relented at last and flew behind Kim Tae-hyeon.
'Good. The groundwork's laid.'
Carmilla's Concealment could be said to have reached a divine level.
It was Concealment that could hide even from Hae-rang's eyes.
'Now I just have to do my part.'
Whew.
Exhaling slowly, he drew up the True Progenitor's power.
Deeper than merely handling blood.
That power, as though it were engraved into every single drop of blood.
HMMMMM
Behind the mask, Garam's eyes stained red, and wings of nothing but bone unfurled at his back.
'I don't need the wings.'
He wasn't about to fight for his life right now.
So the wings were nothing but dead weight, wasting blood.
At Garam's will, the wings vanished at once.
'Crimson Flame.'
FWOOOOSH!
Flame bloomed from Garam's body.
The risen Crimson Flame wrapped around him.
Crimson Flame carrying a force entirely different from what he normally used.
Garam covered himself thoroughly in Crimson Flame so that nothing could be seen at all, his clothes above all, except for his masked face.
'One chance.'
With his blood already short and Crimson Flame on top of it, blood drained away like water.
TANG!
Thanks to his enhanced physical abilities, Garam shot forward faster than an actual bullet.
"Damn fast."
Kim Tae-hyeon raised his sword to block him as well, but.
'Carmilla, now!'
[Hah!]
The instant Garam gave the signal, an Avatar (Flame Body) shaped exactly like him appeared right behind Kim Tae-hyeon.
The same Avatar he had used in training.
It had no physical force, of course.
But it was enough to turn Kim Tae-hyeon's eyes away for a moment.
"What?!"
In the gap while Kim Tae-hyeon's attention was pulled away, Garam's Crimson Flame struck home.
BOOM—!
With a huge blast, acrid smoke filled the cavern.
'That's it. Now to bolt.'
SIZZLE—
He snuffed out the Crimson Flame quickly.
If light leaked through the smoke, it would all be for nothing.
'Carmilla. Keep the Avatar up. Avoid direct attacks and focus on scrambling his attention as much as you can.'
[Haah, you owe me an hourly wage for this. I mean it.]
'Ha, sure. Once we're out of here I'll pay you as much as you want.'
Smiling briefly at Carmilla, who talked just like him, Garam disappeared into the smoke.
Through glimpses in the smoke, he could see Kim Tae-hyeon still fighting the Avatar.
CLATTER.
He withdrew the mask and axe made of blood and picked up the sack of Blood Point Stones Pyo Dae-rim had dropped.
Then he lay down beside the corpses left around the rock where Pyo Dae-rim had been sitting.
Ignoring the stench of rot stabbing at his nose, he released True Progenitor Form.
His reddened eyes returned to their original state.
And Garam began to feel the rebound slowly setting in.
"Guh."
Pain like his blood vessels being slashed apart.
Since he had held it only briefly, it wasn't as bad as when he killed the Kobold King.
'At this rate I'll need at least a week of rest.'
Still, thanks to using True Progenitor Form, his identity wouldn't be exposed.
And since a large amount of blood had been spent, it was the perfect setup to be mistaken for having been drained like the corpses beside him.
'Good. Carmilla, make your escape now.'
[Okay.]
As the smoke slowly cleared and Carmilla dismissed the Avatar, only Kim Tae-hyeon was left there, having been chasing the Avatar alone.
"Where did you go?! You filthy Vampir bastard! Come out and fight me right now!"
Like hell I will.
After scanning the area and fuming for a long while, Kim Tae-hyeon sighed and started toward the place where Garam lay.
"Damned Vampir bastards."
He checked the corpses one by one until he reached where Garam was.
"Hey! Wake up! Hey!"
Kim Tae-hyeon shook the fallen Garam to rouse him.
There was a faint urgency in his hands.
"Cough, guh. Kim Tae-hyeon?"
He opened his eyes, playing up the pain as much as he could.
So that Kim Tae-hyeon couldn't suspect a thing.
"GUHAAACK!"
In that instant, blood erupted from his mouth like a waterfall.
Uh.
'What is this......?'
Thinking about it again.
On top of the wounds from the fight with the Bat-Man, there was True Progenitor Form.
Right now, this wasn't an act; I was genuinely hurt.
"Damn it all. Hold on. I'll get you out of here soon."
Whatever grief he had given him, Kim Tae-hyeon apparently hadn't wanted him dead; he hurriedly hoisted Garam onto his back.
'Carmilla, set the Blood Point Stones aside somewhere.......'
In his current state he couldn't secure them himself.
After passing that message to Carmilla, Garam's consciousness flickered out.
***
"Ngh."
The sharp smell of alcohol lingering at his nose.
The moment Garam opened his eyes, he knew this was a hospital.
Looking around, he saw a fairly upscale private room.
Garam put strength into slowly sitting up, but.
"Ugh, this is killing me."
pain like his muscles tearing forced him to give up.
[You're awake.]
The first to speak to him was Carmilla, perched primly on a shelf.
The moment she confirmed he was up, she flew straight over and settled on his chest.
[Stay lying down. Your body is a total mess right now.]
'How bad is it?'
[The True Progenitor's power suddenly getting stronger, and True Progenitor Form on top of it, have left your blood channels in tatters.]
Carmilla sighed and put a hand to her forehead.
[From now on, don't use True Progenitor Form at least until you've gone through the First Molting. Your body as it is can't withstand the strengthened power.]
At Carmilla's words, Garam forced his stiff neck to move and barely managed a nod.
Certainly, his Lower Skills, which had averaged level 3, had jumped all the way to level 7 at once.
He had no idea why they had risen so suddenly.
'Ah, come to think of it, the Blood Point Stones?'
[Don't worry. I set them all aside. I took them to your place.]
Settling down beside him, Carmilla launched into a speech about how hard it had been for her.
Certainly, hauling a sack with that tiny body couldn't have been easy.
All the more so since she'd had to avoid being seen by people.
[Oh, and there's another visitor besides me.]
"Huh?"
He had barely begun to question the words that followed when.
CLATTER!
A woman burst through the door.
"Ha-yeon?"
A woman with striking pink hair.
It was Yeon Ha-yeon.
She hurried into the room and grabbed the hand of the bedridden Garam.
"Big brother, you're not dying, are you?"
Ha-yeon, having come through the door, approached him with her face screwed up.
"I'm fine. I just pushed myself a bit."
"What kind of person in this world pushes themselves 'a bit' and ends up lying in a bed unable to move?!"
Ha-yeon's words came down like a thunderclap.
She had a point.
For someone who had only cleared one gate, the injuries were excessive.
Ha-yeon glanced around for a moment, then whispered softly into Garam's ear.
"This is all because of the Holy Knights, those bastards, isn't it?"
"Uh... well......."
It was hard to flatly deny it.
He had gone to the gate because of the Holy Knights, but going to the Deep Crystal Cave in particular, and using True Progenitor Form at the end, wasn't because of the Holy Knights so much as.
'because of Kim Tae-hyeon, that punk.'
Thinking about it now, he wondered whether he should have just beaten the man to death back then, but.
'Forget it. No point blaming anyone at this stage.'
While he sorted out his thoughts.
Ha-yeon went on.
"Big brother, just quit even now and be an ordinary hunter."
Her eyes as she said it were almost pleading, but.
"I can't do that."
He couldn't.
If he hadn't known the Elixir existed, maybe.
But now that he knew the Holy Knights had a way to cure Ha-yeon.
he couldn't walk out on them.
Perhaps she read that resolve.
"Haah, all right. I said something I shouldn't have."
In the end it was Ha-yeon who backed down first.
"But if there's anything I can help with, tell me. If you need something, I'll help."
As she said it, Ha-yeon pulled a bundle of papers from her coat and handed it to Garam.
"It's a little late, but this is the list of gates where people go missing that you asked me for."
Ha-yeon called it late, but it hardly mattered.
'Chasing the trail earns money anyway.'
The more material the better.
While Garam sorted through the bundle of papers.
"What are you two talking about that's so entertaining?"
"You scared me!"
Hae-rang had suddenly appeared behind Ha-yeon.
She was such an uncannily elusive person that he had no idea when she had come in.
[She didn't hear that conversation, did she?]
'It's probably... fine? Probably.'
They hadn't said anything Vampir-related, after all.
Hae-rang, who had appeared out of nowhere, set the drink she held in one hand on the side table.
"Don't worry about the hospital bill. We're processing it as a workplace injury."
Ah, he had wondered how he ended up in such a dazzling room; so the Holy Knights had covered it.
Even so, Ha-yeon glared at Hae-rang and tossed out a remark.
"If it weren't for your lot to begin with, he would never have ended up somewhere like this."
Her voice was small, but everyone here was a hunter.
Which meant there was no way it went unheard.
"Haha... it is a matter I owe our little sister an apology for. But we're treating him with the expensive stuff, so cut me some slack?"
Hae-rang set the sack she had brought on the bed.
When she opened the mouth of the sack, inside were dozens of mana stones.
"Kim Tae-hyeon asked me to pass on an apology. He said he lost the bet."
Lost? Strictly speaking, Garam was the one who had lost.
"He said it looked like you fought the Bat-Man and the masked Vampir at the same time. He says that if a D-Grade fought like that and won, then he's the one who lost."
How to put it.
He was more conscientious than expected; it was surprising.
Garam had figured he would insist he won to the bitter end.
"I told you. There aren't any truly bad ones. Their personalities are just a bit twisted."
"Is that so."
He was rude, though. Quite a lot of it.
"Anyway, feel free to use these mana stones. And this drip is a gift from me."
Hae-rang retied the sack, lowered it beneath the bed, and turned her gaze to the drip Garam was receiving.
"This drip is made from finely ground mana stones. Take it and your wounds close faster, and your mana capacity increases too."
"At that level, isn't that practically a spirit medicine?"
Now that he had heard Hae-rang say it, he could certainly feel his tattered blood channels stabilizing.
Like soaking his body in a hot spring, perhaps.
A drip like that had to cost worlds more than the tens-of-thousands-won kind.
"Of course, this goes under the workplace injury claim too."
Insane.
Survive one brush with death and you get a free pack of spirit medicine?
'Then should I just spam True Progenitor Form and file it all as workplace injury?'
As if they had caught wind of the thought, he saw all three women's expressions harden.
"Big brother..."
"Garam, I don't know what you're thinking, but..."
[Hey, a hospital isn't some respawn point where you die and come back.]
Three voices driving into his ears set his whole head ringing.
"A-all right."
In the end, the plan to abuse True Progenitor Form had no choice but to collapse under the three women's fierce opposition.