kscans

Chapter 33 - Strengthening Our Forces, Testing Our Might

"Another day, another round of defense fortifications!"

"Yeth-chuuu!"

And so, we were hard at work remodeling the city again today. Solfi, our newest familiar, was full of motivation. Adolnel, by the way, was out directing the urban development, so she wasn't here.

"What are we doing today-chu?"

"Today, we're increasing our number of undead familiars."

"Don't the undead multiply on their own from your miathma-chu?"

Yep, that's right. By taking control of this land, the area around Fenesia Town became shrouded in Miasma, and anyone who died within its range would automatically reanimate as an undead.

"But that means waiting for corpses from old age or accidents. We're going to proactively hunt for prey."

"I thee-chu. So which town are we attacking-chu?"

Whoa there, I just said we're setting up defenses. Why would we attack another town? She's still just a newborn in that respect.

"We're not attacking anyone. Right now, I'm increasing our Animal Undead."

"Animalth-chu? Aren't they weak-chu? Wouldn't it be better to make human tholdierth or montherth into familiarth-chu?"

Well, yeah, if we're talking about pure strength, she's right.

"True. But Poisonous Snake Undead aren't about raw strength; their advantage is a single, venomous strike and their small bodies that can get in anywhere. Same with rats, which can be used for reconnaissance or spreading disease. Dogs and cats have the advantage of being able to conduct surveillance without arousing human suspicion."

Exactly. Even weak forces can become a major asset depending on how you use them. Being small might be a disadvantage in a fight, but it's an advantage for recon. Of course, I'm just parroting what Adolnel told me.

"I thee, but in that cathe, ith there any need for you to perthonally make them your familiarth-chu?"

"Huh?"

"If you're focusing on attackth that don't rely on things like recon or poithon, then weakneth ith fine-chu. Tho, if you have your other familiarth attack animalth at random, you can focuth on creating stwong familiarth-chu."

"...Are you a genius?"

Sh-she's right. Now that she mentions it, it doesn't really matter if the Poisonous Snake Undead are low-quality, familiar-made undead. If I ever need a high-performance one, I can just make it myself at that time. Which means, in our current situation where we just need numbers, doing it Solfi's way is overwhelmingly more efficient!

"Could it be... that my Mathter ith an idiot-chu?"

"Don't call me an idiot! The one who says it is the idiot!"

"Thith Mathter is hopelesth-chu. I'm going to have to keep a clothe eye on her..."

My familiar, who was born just a few days ago, is worried about my mental faculties?!

"From now on, Solfi will be checking all of your plans-chu, Mathter. I'll tell Adolnel, too-chu."

No way, my familiars are too strict!

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"Tho, with that out of the way, I'm going to have you learn about your own abilitieth-chu, Mathter."

I feel like I'm suddenly being managed.

"My own abilities?"

"Yeth-chu. You're letting your abilitieth go to wathte-chu, Mathter. Tho, to find out what you can do and how you can apply it, I'm going to have you fully underthtand your power-chu."

Wow, she's so organized. She probably makes life plans.

"First, let'th start with thimple combat ability-chu. I want you to fight variouth montherth one-on-one to thee just how stwong you are-chu, Mathter."

Ah, I was curious about that myself. According to my Master and the others, I'm a pretty strong Vampire, but it doesn't really feel real. I mean, I was able to defeat monsters near the castle and the kingdom's secret weapons, so I think I must be strong. But right now, I don't really know how strong I am without actually fighting.

"By fighting different enemieth and learning what rank of monther you can beat, it will be eathier to gauge the diffwence in stwength with future opponentth-chu."

Whoa, she has a proper, well-thought-out reason for this.

"Tho, for thtarterth, I want you to defeat the Blood Fangth that are wampaging around here-chu."

"You're really throwing me in the deep end, huh?"

"Blood Fangth are a C-rank monther that adventurwerth tackle in teamth-chu. They've been attacking our weaker undead, so we can use thith opportunity to meatheure your power-chu."

Ah, if they're attacking our undead, we need to thin them out.

"If you can beat them, it will prove that you can defeat a C-rank monther—and by extension, a C-rank adventurwer party—all by yourthelf-chu, Mathter."

I see. So it's an indirect way to measure my strength against not just monsters, but humans too. Is my familiar secretly a genius?

"By the way, what kind of monster is a Blood Fang?"

"They're wolf montherth-chu. They hunt in packth of about five-chu."

A wolf monster that hunts in a pack of about five?

"And a pack of Thousand Wolves?"

"There'th no compathethon-chu. A thingle Thousand Wolf could easily wipe out a whole pack of Blood Fangth-chu."

I see, a single one could wipe them out, huh.

"Um, I can wipe out an entire pack of Thousand Wolves by myself..."

"You can-chu?"

"I can-chu."

Solfi gave me a 'seriously?' look, so I gave her a 'yes, seriously' reply.

"...Then let'th just handle thith quickly and move on-chu."

And so, it was confirmed that I was equivalent in strength to a C-rank adventurer party.

"Next up ith the B-rank equivalent, the Desthtroy Grizzly-chu. B-rank ith a top-tier adventurwer-chu."

"And how does that compare to a Deadly Bear?"

"...You've beathen one-chu?"

"I have-chu."

I answered her question.

"...Let'th just wrap thith up and move on-chu."

And so, my B-rank equivalent strength was also confirmed. In the end, there were no stronger enemies nearby, so we couldn't confirm A-rank, but considering my battle with the Kingdom War-Force Knights, we decided I was probably around A-rank.

"We got lotth of new familiarth-chu!"

And when I asked our undead familiars to hunt animals for me, a great many new familiars were gathered, making me realize that I really didn't need to be the one drinking their blood after all.