Ch.3Crimson Magic Tower (2)

“What are you guys? Where are you going?”

“It’s Cheolsu! Cheolsu! We found the treasure!”

“R-really?!”

At the man’s shout about finding treasure, people who had been spread out widely began to gather one by one with surprised expressions.

For a moment, I twitched my eyes thinking they were treating me like treasure, but considering they literally dug me out of the ground, I couldn’t really complain about being treated as such.

How could I object when they were simply stating facts?

“Where’s the treasure?”

“Can we finally go home now?!”

“I’m sick of eating hardtack…”

“Escaping a backward country depends on intelligence~ Nice~”

‘Why are there so many of them?’

Could it be that all these people are what they call Blood Mages or something?

Well, I’ve already decided to follow these guys, so it’s all good either way.

Even if I refused, the truth is I have nowhere else to go.

Honestly, the fact that a thousand years have passed is such an unrealistic story that it’s mostly just confusing.

For now, gathering more information was the priority.

Since these people seem to like me, it should be easier to get information from them.

Now it’s time to find out what information I can discover myself.

‘First, let me open my status window.’

While focusing on opening my status window, I followed them to where they guided me, got onto something, and took a seat.

Until a thousand years ago, the status window was completely broken and useless to me.

Back then, I thought it was because of the mod I had applied, so I completely lost interest in the status window afterward.

But…

‘If a thousand years have passed, maybe something has changed.’

No matter how much time had passed, I couldn’t be certain since the applied mod hadn’t disappeared, but it wasn’t a bad idea to try.

‘Status window.’

As I muttered “status window” in my mind, the status window that I hadn’t opened since I first fell into this world and defeated the Demon King a thousand years ago appeared before my eyes with a clear sound.

– □■■□□□□■■□□□■□□□□

‘Damn it.’

I knew it.

Seeing it completely broken and not even maintaining the form of a status window, I closed it with a disappointed expression, just as I expected.

No, I tried to close it.

‘…What is this?’

Within the broken status window,

There was a message that seemed like I could understand if I looked carefully.

And it occupied most of the newest window.

– Cannot find ■■■.

– Cannot find ■■■.

– Cannot find ■■■.

– You have achieved an incredible feat! The world admires your amazing achievement and sends praise. Your achievement will be passed down among Transcendents.

– Calculating reward…

– Error! Object not found.

– Searching for alternative value… No matching value found.

– AI searching… Found data matching conditions.

– Creating object.

– Applying…

– You are the first Vampire to defeat the Demon King.

– Achievement unlocked! 《Birth of a True Ancestor》

– You are a being revered by all things that constitute life. You are the master of all blood and flesh on this land, and no life unauthorized by you will dare to set foot on this land.

– Congratulations on becoming a Transcendent!

“Hmm?”

After that, content related to my original profession as a Vampire started appearing properly without breaking.

After clearing away the notification window, I could finally see the now-normal status window.

It was surprising that the status window had returned, but what caught my eye even more was the content stating that I had become a True Ancestor.

‘True Ancestor…?’

I know about True Ancestors.

The true progenitor, in other words… you could say the first Vampire.

‘Has the Vampire race, which was applied as a mod, been officially recognized…?’

For now, that’s the only way I can explain it.

Anyway, it was fortunate that I found a clue about my current situation from an unexpected source.

After that, I couldn’t find any notifications with noteworthy information.

Originally, notifications that appeared already broken didn’t return even after normalization, so there wasn’t much readable content.

I stopped reading the notifications and let out a sigh.

‘All I can understand from this is that I’ve become a True Ancestor… and because of that, I fell into hibernation and a thousand years have passed.’

Lastly, according to the system, this True Ancestor being is an entity that belongs to the realm of “Transcendent.”

‘So… there’s no way to return home, ever…’

Plus, now a thousand years have passed… Although I didn’t spend those thousand years awake, it was hard to think of myself as an ordinary modern man anymore after living for so long.

The gender change was something I really… never expected.

‘I never even got to do it once…’

I made a sulky expression.

What a waste.

As a Vampire, my looks were absolutely incredible.

For some reason, that little elf always interfered whenever I tried to meet women, so I never got to do it even once.

That little brat was such an enemy…

Life is really…

No, should I call it vampire life now?

…

Or blood life?

“We’ll arrive soon!”

Already?

I tilted my head.

Isn’t something strange?

“Didn’t you say we were in a different country?”

I asked, not understanding how we could be arriving so soon when only about three hours had passed since we departed. The person answered with a nonchalant expression.

“Each country has a Teleport Station. If we take that, we can go straight to the Magic Tower.”

“What…”

There’s such a thing…?

My mouth fell open.

These were things I couldn’t even imagine in my time.

A Teleport Station!

“I-is that even possible?! Teleportation should be high-level magic that even advanced mages can’t use casually… How can there be something like a station…?”

“Etherina, the master of magic and owner of the Aether Tower, redefined teleportation and spread it widely. It’s one of the prides of the Magical Kingdom.”

“W-wow…”

If the great mages of the past heard this, they would faint, saying what nonsense this was.

If something like this had existed, we wouldn’t have had to struggle so insanely to defeat the Demon King, starting with supplies and everything else.

“Then where are we heading now?”

“The capital of the Empire. In the Empire, the capital is the only place with a Teleport Station.”

“Hmm? Was it a village near the capital?”

That can’t be right.

Until a thousand years ago, my mansion was located in an area quite far from the capital of the Empire.

It couldn’t have been moved while I was sleeping, and if it remained buried in the same place, it definitely wasn’t a distance that could be reached in the short time of three hours.

Then there was only one possibility left.

The assumption that the capital had been relocated.

“Has the capital changed? To somewhere around Bayern?”

“The capital of the Empire is the same now as it was before.”

“Then how does it only take three hours?”

“It actually takes as long as three hours…”

Have these people lost their concept of distance?

The Empire’s territory is so vast.

“No, that can’t be right. From Bayern to the capital, it would take at least a week by carriage…”

“This isn’t a carriage.”

“Huh?”

If not a carriage, then what is this?

The man approached the window and opened it, revealing a vast forest.

“Huh…?”

And we were looking down at it from above.

“This is a small airship. Since the Crimson Blood Magic Tower is so poor, even our airship is an old model… I’m truly sorry for making you wait for three hours.”

Without even hearing the man’s voice, who spoke with an expression of having committed a mortal sin, I continued to look out the window with a blank expression.

‘What is this…’

A thousand years.

I actually know.

When living in modern Earth, humanity achieved tremendous development at an incredible pace in just 100 years.

Things that couldn’t even be imagined 100 years ago were surpassed, and even more unbelievable things were created and used without a second thought by humanity 100 years later.

But…

‘What era have I come to…?’

Suddenly, I recalled the male mage who was snickering earlier about finally escaping from a backward country.

Until then, I was dumbfounded about why they would call a country as significant as the Empire a “backward country.”

The moment I saw this airship, I could understand immediately.

‘It deserves to be called a backward country.’

And that thought…

“Wow…”

The moment I saw the sophisticated architecture and the fantasy-like yet futuristic appearance of the Teleport Station that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, I could be absolutely certain.

Looking around at the Empire, which remained virtually unchanged from a thousand years ago until now, in stark contrast to all this.