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"Don\'t judge yourself too harshly, Ikaris." Malia tried to comfort him, but upon meeting his admonitory glare she immediately fell silent.

"She\'s right." Danchun took her side in a casual voice. "You have nothing to blame yourself for. For someone who has zero combat experience, your progress is frighteningly fast. I don\'t get it... In my home world, all the sects would have been killing each other to get a disciple like you."

"I know..." The boy grumbled cheerlessly.

He had indeed made significant progress. His Enhanced Strength Spell now raised his strength by 30% and was much easier to cast in battle. The value of the corresponding Secondary Spark did not increase, but Magnus had already told him why.

It wasn\'t that it wasn\'t increasing, but that Ikaris was constantly raising the standards of the spell. In fact, there were a whole bunch of Secondary Sparks in his body increasing his strength by 0.5%, 1%, 2% and so on.

Not having included in his spell the possibility of modulating his strength so as not to make it overly complicated, it was a foregone consequence. However, the Vampire had guaranteed that once the desired standard was reached, he would then be free to add additional components to his spell.

Furthermore, instead of losing in a move or two against Malia, he could now weather several dozen blows. With Danchun\'s valuable guidance and posture corrections, Ikaris had gone from being a total neophyte to someone who could use his sword well enough not to make a fool of himself with it.

The drawback was that he was now covered in bruises and contusions. Malia had already done him in, but Ezrog\'s arrival had made things worse. Not only did the Oni only know how to use brute force, but he was also incapable of grasping the concept of "nuance".

In the end, Ikaris had no choice but to throw in the towel and let Malia have her fun with the giant while Danchun bandaged his wounds.

"Your narcissism appalls me." The female Cultivator sighed as she rubbed her temples. "Malia, you\'ve made progress too. Ezrog... Well, I guess I understand why Nardor kicked you out. I\'m not sure you\'ll ever be able to build anything..."

Seeing Ikaris and his group approaching, Nardor trotted up to them and greeted them with a head bow.

"My Lord, the fence is finished, but it\'s only a basic fence just good for keeping cattle and ruminants at bay. If a boar like the carcass over there charges us, the fence won\'t hold. If I may suggest..."

"You may speak your mind in my presence." The teenager quietly allowed.

With the go-ahead from his Lord, the dwarf unabashedly voiced his thoughts,

"We\'re running out of wood, my Lord. Because of the danger posed by those lycans monitoring us, I didn\'t dare take the liberty of sending anyone to cut down a second tree. We might also run out of string and plaster. But with more wood, we could fortify Last Saint Village with genuine palisades and dig a ditch around them. By default, I was thinking of building a 3.5-meter high fortification with a 3-meter deep ditch. With that, we can stop Rank 1 and 2 Demonic Beasts easily as long as their numbers don\'t exceed a few dozen per wall section."

The teen was taken aback. Nardor wasn\'t fooling around. In one day, he had already learned everything he was supposed to know and had factored it into their upcoming construction plans. Having never seen, nor fought Demonic Beasts, Ikaris could only assume he had based his deductions on Horny.

"Good work, Nardor." The boy praised him sincerely. "We\'ll go get that wood tomorrow. With tomorrow\'s summoning, we\'ll have a few more men to carry it. Starting tomorrow we\'ll set up compensation in the form of Demonic Beast meat so don\'t forget to report the helpers to me according to their contributions."

" Yes, sir." The dwarf approved. That suited him just fine. He preferred gold and beer but meat was fine too.

Ikaris then went to the thatched cottage, but did not find all the meat he had packed. When they ran into Ellie, she explained that she had stored everything in the cellar behind the house with the help of Kellam and Marvin.

Paranoid as he was, the boy counted each piece of meat, checking their size and appearance to make sure nothing had been stolen. Satisfied that Ellie and her two willing helpers had just done their job, he relaxed.

Before nightfall, Ikaris cut up servings of Rank 4 Boar Meat tailored to each citizen, then personally distributed the day\'s food, giving larger portions to those who had contributed more.

As it turned out, those who did not contribute did not notice any difference. Taguchi and Juliette, the two recluses who refused to get their hands dirty, had enough fruits and vegetables to keep them from going hungry, so they were not jealous of the other villagers who received a little meat. They would soon come to regret it.

When the sun was about to set, Ikaris did not go to the thatched cottage with Malia and Ellie, but to another tent that had been set up during the day.

" You\'re not sleeping with us?" Malia questioned him grudgingly.

Her query was open to interpretation and Nardor winked admiringly at his Lord as he walked into his own tent while Ellie was being flustered.

"Not tonight. The cottage is too small and you girls need your private space and so do I. When the village upgrades to Grade 2, the Lord\'s Cottage will be upgraded and there will be enough rooms for the three of us. It\'s just a matter of 12 to 15 days to wait."

The boy did not admit to the pair that he did not yet fully trust them. Tonight he was going to do something he couldn\'t reveal to anyone. Not even to Malia.

It was just too dangerous. Both for him, but also for her if any ill-intentioned people were to find out what he was doing.

Before they had a chance to argue with him about being apart, the sun disappeared over the horizon and the usual black fog overshadowed the stars and the moon. The two girls swallowed their complaints and rushed into the cottage, mumbling a bashful goodnight.

Ikaris followed suit and as soon as he was in his tent, a glint of anticipation shone in his golden eyes.

\'Finally... Time to get stronger. Magnus, jewelry box.\'

"Right away." The Vampire cackled with similar excitement.

A delicately crafted dark wooden box appeared at the boy\'s feet and he immediately sat cross-legged before and then opened it. On a soft red velvet cushion, the priceless Bloodsparks collected by Magnus during his lifetime were laid out before him.

A red crystal egg, a blue scale shimmering like a sapphire, a wolf\'s fang as white as snow, a purplish eye with multiple hexagonal pupils as polished as a gem, a white feather, another black one, and yet another red one, and icing on the cake a gray pearl as cold as a freezer.

"Are you sure about this?" The old Archmagus said reluctantly to him.

"Absolutely sure. I\'ll start by assimilating this Bloodspark." Ikaris replied with determination as he gripped the black feather in his hands.

Over the course of the day, they had discussed this on several occasions, and this choice had stood out as the best one in an environment like the Warring Lands and even more so in an inhospitable region like Cutthroat Island.

"I have to tell you, it pains me." Magnus confessed in a saddened voice. " Deep down, I was hoping that you would choose my Bloodspark first. By becoming a Vampire, your physical abilities would have increased greatly, and I would have been able to guide you. But I can understand why sunlight vulnerability and bloodlust made you change your mind..."

Ikaris\'s lips twitched as he noticed the Vampire was trying to emotionally blackmail him.

"Stop it." The teen growled with annoyance. "If I can handle a Crawling-Thrall\'s Curse, I can handle a Vampire\'s. And like you told me all these Bloodlines suffer from equivalent Curses. The reason I chose this black feather is because it is simply the best choice in this context. As I promised you before, as soon as I get used to its side effects, I will start assimilating the others and your Bloodspark will definitely be my next choice."

This was not the first time Ikaris had made this promise to him, but this time Magnus accepted his plea.

"Fine. Let\'s go for the Angel of Faulch\'s Bloodspark." The old man capitulated with a dejected look. "I\'ve already told you that I\'m not too familiar with the Curse attached to this Bloodline, but let me tell you what I do know for sure first. Faulch and Zar aren\'t exactly best buddies and you could alienate the latter... But! Assimilating this Bloodspark won\'t necessarily make you Faulch\'s protégé either. After all, this feather wasn\'t even legally obtained...

"I stole it from House Morgunis."