Unwanted Undead Adventurer - Episode 32

“…So, you’re saying that, to become a Vampire, I should just keep doing what I’ve been doing?” I ask Lorraine.

If Lorraine’s explanation is correct, it basically means that if I continue to absorb monsters’ power with the intention of becoming a Vampire, I will eventually become one. However, Lorraine surprisingly shakes her head at this.

“That’s not necessarily true… Well, that course of action isn’t wrong, but there’s a possibility that that’s not all you’d need to do.”

“…What do you mean?”

“This is where the problem lies with your existential evolution. If you could achieve existential evolution simply by defeating monsters, then wouldn’t you have done so in the labyrinth?”

Lorraine’s question leads me to believe that she’s right. If all I need to do is defeat monsters and absorb their power, all that power I gained from defeating the Giant Skeleton should have been enough to evolve. It’s possible that it wasn’t enough, but after that, I returned to the city like I usually do. On the way back home, I killed a few monsters at most, but that wasn’t when I achieved existential evolution. It happened somewhere between when I fought with Lorraine and when I woke up after passing out. I have a hunch that existential evolution doesn’t happen just by defeating monsters. I see, so that’s what she was talking about…

“It was because I ate your flesh and drank your blood…”

“That’s right. I concluded that the reason you were able to evolve this time was because you did that. Well, I still don’t know the details, but I can infer that there are some conditions for the existential evolution of monsters. In any case, the fact is that you couldn’t evolve just by defeating monsters.”

So, even if I want to become a Vampire, I might not be able to do so just by defeating monsters. But why was it possible to evolve with Lorraine’s blood and flesh…?

When I ask about it, Lorraine says, “That’s hard to say… Thralls are a type of Lesser Vampire, after all. Vampires need to be able to drain the magic and life force of their opponent by sucking their blood. That doesn’t mean that they’ll die if they don’t do it, but they will gradually weaken. The same may be true for Thralls… In other words, by consuming human blood, they can gain power.”

“What about flesh?”

“Didn’t that urge come from your Ghoul side? At the time, you were crazy, but… was it that strong of an urge? Other than that time, did you ever feel anything like an instinct when you were a Ghoul?”

Now that she mentions it, I was constantly thinking about how I wanted to eat human flesh. It was a light impulse that I was able to resist, but it wasn’t something that I really wanted to do. However, as I fought the monsters and gradually became stronger, the urge also became stronger. When I met Loris, the man from the restaurant, that urge was pretty strong. After defeating the Giant Skeleton, it became so powerful that I could hardly stand it.

When I tell her that, Lorraine nods.

“Maybe it’s just that even monsters need to consume energy. The instinct to eat may have been strong. And when you came to me, it exploded… As a result, you were able to eat my flesh and blood and achieve existential evolution… I don’t know if you just happened to meet the conditions, or if monsters have something like an instinct to meet those conditions. So, I think you need to not only defeat monsters, but also take evolutionary conditions into account,” she replies.

I have my doubts about this line of thinking, to which Lorraine says, “Nothing I can do about that. I don’t know everything either. Everything I said was just a hypothesis. Oh, I need a bigger sample size… That way, I can get a more accurate picture.”

I don’t think there are many people like me, so the day when Lorraine’s wish will come true will probably never come.

Well, Lorraine may be jumping to conclusions, but her explanation helped me think a lot of things through. On my own, I wouldn’t have been able to analyze things this far, and I wouldn’t have thought to analyze it that deeply in the first place. I think to myself, “It sure is nice being good friends with an academic.”

“Well, I’ve said a lot of things, but whatever the case, you’ll probably just have to keep at it. The path you’re walking, this may be the first time it’s ever been walked in human history… I’ll be there to support you.”

I’m grateful for it.

“…Thanks,” I tell Lorraine.

“Don’t worry about it… Now, how about I study you in a bunch of ways?”

“Eh?”

Just as the atmosphere is about to turn somber, I’m taken aback by Lorraine’s sudden suggestion.

Lorraine, on the other hand, says, “What are you doing? Anyway, take off your clothes. I have a video crystal here, so I’ll film you in your current state. Oh, and you can eat, can’t you? I know you can put things in your mouth, since you ate part of me as a Ghoul, but you can try regular food later. Oh, and in addition to that, scrape off a part of your body for me later. If it hurts, there’s anesthesia… Will anesthesia work for you now? I’d also like to do some research on the effects of medicines… Let’s see, what else…”

She proposes one experiment after another and seems to be planning to make me do all of them. Hearing her say this is daunting. Usually, Lorraine is a laid-back person, but once she gets passionate about something, she will work on it day and night, forgetting to eat or sleep until she finally passes out. Every time she does this, I have to take care of everything around her. Every time, I get fed up by the fact that, even when I tie her to the bed and tell her to rest, she just keeps doing whatever she wants to do. And now, that bad habit is showing up once again.

However, when I listen to the experiments she’s proposing, they all seem to be necessary, and I think it might be better to do them all at once. I’ll need to know if medicine will work on me when I explore the labyrinth, and I probably should eat if I’m able to. It’s better to eat, even if just for peace of mind, than to suddenly collapse from hunger or lack of nutrition. I like to eat, anyway. If I can, I will. It’s very likely that I won’t need to or won’t be able to eat, since I haven’t eaten anything other than the bite of Lorraine ever since I became a Ghoul… but it’s worth a try.

“Come on, Rentt, let’s hurry up and start the experiment. …Or so I’d like to say, but I’m sure you’re tired today, so we’ll start tomorrow… What’s with the face?”

With how excited she is, I didn’t expect her to say, “Let’s put off the experiment until tomorrow,” so it seems I ended up making a strange face.

“I thought you would start right away…” I say to Lorraine.

“Even I use common sense every once in a while.”

I consider retorting, “Once in a while, huh?” But then, I think, “Well, yeah, she does sometimes,” so I let the chance slip by.