Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 184: Plans For The Coming War

In a chamber lined with towering pillars, blue runes snaked their way up to the ceiling, pulsing with energy. In the center sat a bald man, strong and muscular, draped in a flowing blue robe adorned with yellow lightning patterns. His exposed skin was covered in intricate blue tattoos, each glowing brightly whenever a bolt of lightning struck him. He didn’t even flinch as the electricity coursed through his body. Instead, he reveled in it. With every strike, his aura grew stronger, pulsing with raw power.

Logan had endured hardship ever since the vampires discovered them on the fifth stage. His life in the tutorial had been good until then. He had established his own base, and after receiving the legendary blessing from the goddess Aurora, the Rising Star, he had become nearly unstoppable.

As the leader of nearly five thousand humans, his monthly income was already massive. There had been some opposition at first, but he had silenced it quickly. His power far surpassed that of anyone else in his base, and they depended on him. Especially since he was the only one with a legendary blessing. The rest had only been baptized, which was a great advantage but nothing compared to the overwhelming benefits of a legendary blessing.

Aurora wasn’t the most powerful deity, but she was close to the top. If his performance in the tutorial was exceptional and if he contributed to Ankhet’s downfall. She would reap massive benefits. That was why Logan worked tirelessly on his cultivation, pushing himself beyond his limits.

They had been forced to flee from the vampires on the fourth stage, but he had managed to take some of them down before retreating. Vampires were formidable enemies, their gaze capable of unleashing devastating mental attacks that left victims vulnerable to a killing blow. Logan had never fallen prey to such an attack, but many of his men had. In his opinion, vampires were overpowered, and it was completely unfair that they had to compete against them.

That made the current situation all the more baffling. The undead likely had overwhelming forces on the fifth stage. This was supposed to be where all their elite fighters gathered, yet none of the powerful vampires had attacked him directly. They hadn't even launched large-scale assaults with the massive swarms of undead they undoubtedly controlled.

There were still a few decently strong vampires roaming near his base, but it was far from the overwhelming force he had expected. Instead, the vampires lurked in the shadows, waiting for his hunting parties to venture too far from safety. Aside from Logan himself, only a handful of his fighters could hold their ground against a vampire, even against those who weren’t the strongest in this tutorial. So why hadn’t the undead launched a full-scale attack?

As far as he knew, his was the only human base in this tutorial. He had conquered every settlement they had discovered, so there shouldn’t be many human strongholds left. And yet, rather than attempting a direct siege, the vampires merely waited, preying on those who strayed too far.

This was a major problem. Many of his people hadn’t even reached level eighty and still needed to hunt to grow stronger. Even those in early E-grade weren’t safe from the vampires. Reaching E-grade didn’t make as much of a difference as many assumed. While it granted access to new skills, most classes didn’t provide truly powerful E-grade abilities in the early levels. Only those with exceptionally high-rarity classes had access to such benefits. Logan, however, possessed a Legendary class, and the power it granted him was utterly insane.

His patron, the goddess of storms, had blessed him with the Stormborn Warrior class. Under normal circumstances, he might have only received an Exalted or maybe an Ancient class. But with her divine assistance, he had achieved the unthinkable. His class wasn’t just any legendary class either. Some legendary classes provided great stats but weak skills, while others granted powerful abilities but lacked strong attributes. His, however, excelled in both areas. He was likely close to qualifying for a Mythic class, which explained the sheer power of his abilities.

Logan wielded no weapons; his body itself was his weapon. Storm energy, a fusion of lightning and air, coursed through him. The tattoos covering his skin allowed him to absorb the power of lightning and strong winds, converting them into devastating attacks or refining them for cultivation. His most powerful skill, Stormborn Forge, was his first legendary ability and it had changed his life forever.

It summoned a raging storm around him, allowing him to direct bolts of lightning onto his enemies. For tempering, he simply had to target himself. The skill transformed mana into storm energy, which he could then use to strengthen his body. In battle, he could even strike himself with lightning to further empower his attacks.

His class was particularly effective against vampires. The blood they manipulated was powerful, but it was also a decent conductor of electricity. While it wasn’t as effective as he would have liked, it was still enough to deliver unexpected shocks mid-battle, disrupting their attacks. Logan couldn’t wait to complete the tutorial and meet the Chosen One of his goddess. That individual had to be incredibly skilled and powerful. Just being near them would be an opportunity to learn and grow even stronger.

The future after the tutorial looked promising, but getting there would be more than just a little difficult. The undead were powerful, and so far, Logan hadn’t even encountered the strongest among them. That would likely change soon, as a special quest was set to appear in just a week.

When it did, he would have to locate the catacombs and launch an attack on the undead. He wasn’t looking forward to that part, but he had prepared himself well. Normally, he invested in storm-related materials for cultivation, but when the system shop opened in a few hours, he planned to prioritize escape tokens instead. Those tokens were invaluable for survival. When activated, they would instantly teleport him several kilometers in a chosen direction.

Logan wasn’t sure if that would be enough to escape the vampires, as they were probably the best bloodhounds in existence, but he was confident it would at least buy him some time to recover. Alongside the tokens, he had also acquired talismans that could fully restore his mana and stamina once broken.

The drawback was that they drained a portion of his health and suppressed his regeneration for six hours, but they were perfect for situations where he simply needed to keep running. Even though he hadn’t lost a fight since receiving his blessing, that didn’t mean he was invincible. He wanted to be prepared for everything.

His fighters, however, couldn’t afford such treasures and would likely be left behind. Logan hoped the time they unknowingly bought him with their lives would be enough for his escape. His tokens were powerful, allowing him to activate a second one within two hours, whereas regular escape tokens usually had a cooldown of an entire day. He hadn’t bought them yet, but he had more than enough money to do so once the system shop opened. After securing them, he would finally start actively hunting the vampires outside his base.

Until now, he had focused solely on body tempering and growing stronger, mostly ignoring the vampire threat. So what if a few of his people died? It wasn’t his fault they were too weak. Losing some of his men wouldn’t make much difference in the grand scheme of the war. Hunting down the vampires would be difficult, but not impossible. At least not for him.

With multiple movement skills and a fast-recovering stamina and mana pool, Logan was confident he could track down and eliminate them, even if they had the numbers advantage. In fact, he was looking forward to it. It would be a good warm-up for the war ahead and, more importantly, perfect for propaganda.

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He would gladly frame the entire thing as a noble effort to protect his people from the vampire menace. Morale was crucial, and they needed to believe in him. The truth was, most of them would die in the war ahead, but as long as they trusted him until then, it wouldn’t matter. They would never see it coming when he used the escape token to leave them behind. He wondered how many other humans had made it to the fifth stage. He doubted any other human force was stronger than his.

<--

"We cannot attack the human base if Sirva’s story is true," Valeria hissed.

She was the strongest vampire with a Sanguine Thorn. Valeria always told the others that her superiority was due to her unmatched talent and skill. She had believed that herself—until her patron revealed a secret about the Sanguine Thorn that changed everything.

No two Sanguine Thorns were the same. From the moment they formed, they had their own personalities, though they could also be shaped by the will and determination of their wielder. A powerful vampire could influence their Thorn’s development, making it far stronger than the rest, capable of dominating other Sanguine Thorns with ease. That, however, was only the beginning.

The Sanguine Thorn didn’t just crave blood. It hungered for its own kind. The Vampire God had gone to great lengths to alter the Thorns, ensuring they wouldn’t be able to recognize or detect one another, even when vampires used skills related to them. But all of that changed the moment a Sanguine Thorn fed on another. That single act shattered the restrictions the Vampire God had so carefully put in place and awakened the Thorn’s true power and potential.

Since vampires were forbidden from attacking one another. Not that it never happened, just never openly. These mutations were dangerous to their entire race. That was precisely why only a select few vampires were granted a Sanguine Thorn. However, the Vampire God desired Ankhet’s knowledge so badly that he had abandoned caution, granting over sixteen Thorns to vampires in this tutorial alone.

Funny how that noble brat, Lucius, hadn’t received one. If another Vampire God hadn’t blessed him, he might have had a chance—but such was life. Valeria remembered him and his family well. They had always looked down on her and her kin as if they were nothing more than insects.

Now, the positions had been reversed.

Lucius was still powerful, but nowhere near the level of a vampire with a Sanguine Thorn. That was precisely why his entire family had gathered in their chamber, discussing the upcoming special quest and the arrival of the human who possessed a Sanguine Thorn. Sirva had told them everything about this human. How he had fought over thirty vampires alone as if it had been nothing. According to him, he commanded a force of fifteen thousand humans, and his base was a true fortress, with multiple walls, skyships, and all kinds of powerful defenses.

To test his own strength against the humans, Sirva had experimented with his abilities, trying to determine whether he was stronger than the human. The mere thought that a bloodbag could surpass him was absurd. He was a mighty vampire, a master of blood, with six hundred years of experience in controlling it. Yet, even with all his confidence, Sirva couldn’t say for sure. His power was immense, but something about that human made him hesitate. He had mumbled something about him feeling more powerful, but Valeria refused to believe it entirely. Still, the arrival of this human would make things very interesting.

Now, Lucius had a chance to claim a Sanguine Thorn for himself. Valeria’s patron had warned her that many gods possessed items capable of manipulating the Sanguine Thorn to their advantage, even transmuting it. While that process wouldn’t allow them to create new buds of the Sanguine thorn or a plant equally powerful, it would still provide immense benefits to whoever wielded it. Lucius likely had such an item, one that would align the Sanguine Thorn with his affinity for darkness. That was something Valeria could not allow. With a Sanguine Thorn, Lucius might even become strong enough to challenge her. That was unacceptable.

Her family wasn’t helping either. They still had a close relative who, they argued, should receive the Sanguine Thorn once they retrieved it from the human. But Valeria knew the truth. Whoever got their hands on it wouldn’t hand it over. They would absorb it to strengthen their own, just as she intended to do. She was confident in her ability to control the bloodlust that the plant would flood into her mind. The real difficulty lay in their current situation.

They had already found two human bases, yet no one wanted to attack them. If they did, they wouldn’t be present when the human with the Sanguine Thorn arrived alongside his massive fortress. At the same time, they were reluctant to use their undead army on any smaller base, knowing they would need every single one of their forces for the battle ahead. There was no reason for vampires to die needlessly. Especially not her own family. They needed each other.

She didn’t trust Elias or Nathaniel. Both were incredibly powerful and likely had their own plans for the end of the tutorial. The Blood Witch was also strong, but her abilities were useless against vampires since they could feed on her blood curse. Valeria suspected that was the very reason the witch had allied herself with the orc, helping him create his so-called perfect pet. An undead wyvern infused with the witch’s blood mist. She wondered if the orc even realized where the beast’s true loyalty lay. Not that the wyvern could do much against her or any other vampire. Neither the orc nor the witch had enough power to truly threaten them.

Valeria had often pondered how much experience the witch actually gained from spreading her blood curse and turning so many beasts. The witch always claimed it was insignificant, but Valeria doubted that. In her mind, the special quest would change a lot, beyond just some humans arriving for them to feed on. As long as the elves stayed out of it, everything would be fine. But the most important thing at the moment was the Sanguine Thorn that the human carried. They needed to claim it.

If Lucius was allowed to get the Sanguine Thorn… Valeria didn’t even finish that thought as Serine made yet another attempt to convince the others to attack one of the human bases. Funny how the one who constantly shrouded themselves in secrecy truly believed they hadn’t been noticed. Silly humans.

"We can’t just let the humans regroup," Serine said, her voice smooth and deliberate. "A single base might not be strong enough to withstand the undead, but if we allow them to unite… they might have the potential to kill many vampires." She finished her argument with a dramatic pause, her sharp gaze sweeping over the gathered family.

Valeria had to fight back a smirk. This was how vampires operated. They always tried to act noble, pretending to guide discussions toward matters of greater importance while secretly plotting against their allies. After all, one less vampire meant more blood for the rest. And if there were no "rest" left…

"Yes, maybe I shouldn’t hold the Sanguine Thorn back and simply kill my kin for more power," Valeria mused to herself, nodding approvingly at Serine. What did she care if there was less competition for the Thorn?

What her dear family hadn’t realized yet was that, in the end, strength was all that mattered. And she was the strongest. As long as they remained together, the Sanguine Thorn would inevitably be hers.

She doubted the human and his fortress were strong enough to defeat her, her siblings, and the undead they had gathered. There was no way a single human could pull off something like that.