Victor was on his way to his room so he could eat his breakfast after taking a shit. Meanwhile, some things started to weigh in his mind.
This is the third day out of six. After these six days, the plot will start and everything will go to shit.
Meanwhile, his production of Gold Coins was going nicely: Now his production is around half of what Luka asked for in debt, and that is on an hourly basis! How great it is to be rich this easily…
He also made up a plan to repair his leg. Since he is not some genius mechanic, he has to resort to other ways that don't involve prosthetics.
What other ways? Of course, genetic modification! The shop is filled up with every kind of stuff that he knows and doesn't know about, and there are many people in the story of anime, manga, and novels that regenerated broken bones and even lost limbs.
However, he has to be careful because his choice will involve his future. He could try to become a Hollow, but there are great chances that he will lose his individuality, and trying to reach the level of an Arrancar requires too much work and too much time.
The next choice would be obtaining Ifrit, from Date a Live, but it requires him to reach the abominable amount of 73'200'129'650 Gold Coins to obtain that. To be fair, it will probably include Kotori's Spirit Powers in its fullest as that little brat's firepower is not a joke at all.
There would also be Namekian Cells, but if Ifrit was as worth as the entire Ilias Continent, the Namekian Cells reduced Ifrit into a fucking pint-sized pebble with the terrific price of 32'929'866'299'110'049 Gold Coins.
Are those Namekian Cells this powerful? Holy shit.
Not to talk about the Mantra Reactor from Asura's Wrath, he didn't even bother looking at the price to know that he will take a great deal of time to reach that.
It was now that he realized that the amount of money he was generating at each hour was great only for products in this world. If he really wants to enjoy the benefits of his System, he has to reach a quantity that will permit him to buy the entire continent of Sentora.
"...Hmm?" Victor blinked in surprise as he found yet another thing that could help him, and had a surprisingly low price. True Vampire Cell's Serum, at the cost of 98'300 Gold Coins.
From the description of the effects that it can bring, Victor had a clear idea from which True Vampire this serum comes from… Alucard from Hellsing.
Yes, this is a more manageable product he can use. He might be getting a finger in his ass by buying this, as by the time Ilias' invasion will begin, her angels' holy attacks will hurt like a bitch.
Still, he will be able to fix that another time. There should be stuff that will make him immune to light-related attacks, right?
Anyway, is there something less pricey than that? Just to check around…
Stone Mask is worth 202'300 Gold Coins…
Life Fiber Injector is worth 56'300'102'894 Gold Coins…
One of the Ten Commandments is worth 4'938'219'999'010 Gold Coins…
Shinshou Vampire Serum is worth 52'001'288 Gold Coins…
Fountain of Youth is worth 78'201'839 Gold Coins…
Controlled Nemesis-Alpha Parasite is worth 17'110? That is a good one, what about the uncontrolled one, by the way? 29'019? Neat. Very good, but he didn't want to be the host of a zombie parasite.
Welp, True Vampire Serum it is… There might be less pricey things, but the Store works in a particular manner. There are possibly more than a quadrillion of products, and so the Store's way to bring out items is by looking for them in the search engine. There is no possible way to show a list of all kinds of regenerative products that will be useful to him, so Victor was limited by what he knows.
...Now that he thought about it, isn't there a Treasure Cave north from here, near Iliasport? Maybe he can find some good stuff over there. However, there are many monsters in the way, and he certainly can't deal with them; especially when he is now on a wheelchair…
Maybe he'll get a glock first… A pistol costs around… 1'500 Gold Coins? That's a bit too much for him to get in 4 days… Well, he will simply have to wait until he gets enough money, right?
He can leave the rest of the plot to Luka to complete, it's too much work for him… It's not as if Ilias is interested in him. He has no 'potential' to be a Hero that can defeat the Monster Lord since he is a cripple, and he doesn't belong to any kind of obscure lineage… At least not yet.
Anyway, the fact is that there is no way that Ilias should be interested in someone as common as him. And he greatly doubted that it was her the one who brought him away from his PC and handed him a money-making system; she is too weak for that kind of crap, and if she was strong enough, there was no need for this story to exist.
And so, until he can get enough money to buy a glock and a faster wheelchair, he isn't going to get out of Ilias Village. It was unfortunate that he can't simply stay here, as this place will not face a good end in the later months…
*Clank!* Something dropped in the ground, interrupting Victor's thoughts.
"AHH!" Following that clang, a frightened scream came from the middle of the hall where Victor was wheeling in, inside one of the guest rooms. Victor turned around and found the door from where the scream came from, before he approached the open door.
As expected, there was Luka sitting on his butt as his body shook in terror. He couldn't even hold the tray he was carrying before for breakfast. Meanwhile, inside the room…
"...What the fuck?" Victor let a heavy frown appear on his face upon noticing the reason why the little inn owner screamed.
On the beds, there were two skeletrical corpses of dehydrated skin and no flesh at all, while a familiar girl was lifelessly sitting on the floor. They were all members of the party that confronted Victor the day before, with the exclusion of one of the twins who was absent.
"Holy shit…"
"Did a monster come here?!"
"Thank Goddess that I am not them…"
"What happened?!"
Other customers began to group behind the door, watching the horrific scene presente in front of their eyes. Victor looked at the corpses with a pitiful expression, doing his best to ignore the stench of death emanating from the door.
He already saw corpses on the internet, so he wasn't as disgusted at the scene like everyone else. Still, the sight left a bad taste on his mouth…
"Hold up… Where's the other girl?" Victor noticed that the girl that insulted him was missing. Was she able to run away?
"..." Victor frowned and turned to the other people behind him. "Call the guards."
"Ah? ...Yes, right away!" A teenager nodded and started to run out of the inn, leaving behind the surprised crowd.
"And you guys. If you have done gawking at corpses, then let me pass." Victor said before he forcefully wheeled his way through the mob.
"Hey!"
"Watch out!"
"Ouch!"
Soon, people made way for Victor to pass through as he gradually reached for his room. He entered inside and closed the door behind him.
A long sigh escaped from his mouth before he inhaled the smell in the room. It stinked a bit, which he didn't notice before. Maybe he should take a shower soon… It will be hard with the crippled leg, though.
He wheeled in front of the window and opened it, letting fresh air come inside the room again. After that, Victor approached his table and waited there for the mess outside to calm down.
What happened? When did it happen? Who did it?
He will need to look deeper in this. If there is a Monster capable of infiltrating in Ilias Village without anyone noticing until it is too late, his life might be at risk.
Without noticing it, he already forgot about the second achievement he earned during his stay in this world, all thanks to his morning sleepiness…
Before he understands the situation, the better he can prepare himself. For him to reach 200 Gold Coins he will need to wait another day again as the coin farmers are stacking up over each other to give him 18 Coins at hour.
Now… The victims are the members of the hero party that arrived in Ilias Village yesterday, and two of them died because they had sex to death, probably. Since the other girl was, of course, a girl, the monster used another way to eliminate her.
The details of the last sentence are one of the few keys necessary to find out what attacked them. He would like to observe her carefully, but it would be impossible to focus with all of these people gawking in fear.
He could only wait for the guards to be dispatched now so they will calm down the mob surrounding the scene of crime.
However, while these three people died, the last girl of the squad was dispersed somewhere around this village or forest… The monster must have chased after her and ultimately killed, as monsters are stronger than humans.
Now, if he was in her place, what should he have done?
Run away in the forest and hide through the trees? If he does that, he might have a chance to elude the monster and escape. In that case, the woman should have been here in the village, or at least have contact with her deceased teammates…
Maybe she and the guards were able to kill the monster, but that didn't explain why no one woke up to check over. After all, for someone to be chased after a monster, there is no way they could stay silent like spiders.
"*Sigh* I'm hungry…" Victor sighed before he laid his head on the table. He is currently too hungry to think properly, so he simply waited until things calmed down.
A flash of white attracted his attention before he glanced at his arm, noticing a pure white feather stuck on his shirt. A frown appeared on his face before he slapped it away. "And now this shit is here to annoy me…"
As mentioned before, he preferred to sleep with two pillows instead of one, and one of them had loose feathers. Because of that, whenever he woke up, he would find at least one feather attached to his body.
If it wasn't for that, there would be a lot of things that he could have found out. Unfortunately, his caution didn't extend that further yet.
For now, he started to wait for Luka to come here and pass him his breakfast…
…
"Finally..." One hour later, Luka opened the door and entered his room carrying a wooden tray.
Luka served him his meal and replied. "I'm sorry for being so late, I was taken by surprise from what happened before."
Victor sighed and shook his head. "There is no need to worry. Anyway, before you go, there are some questions I want you to answer…"
"Huh? Sure." Luka nodded before Victor asked.
"What happened to the bodies?"
"The guards arrived here and brought them away. They will be buried together with their belongings." Luka answered.
Victor sighed. He held a bit of hope that he could get their stuff in some way and sell it on his Store to get more quick bucks, but it seems that it won't be going like that. Gulping down a spoon of soup, he exhaled.
"Tasty as always, good job Luka."
"Thank you! I practiced hard so that I could manage the inn better and also cook by myself when I am camping."
Victor hummed. "Anyway, was everything fine in that room when you served dinner?"
Luka nodded. "Yes, they were all okay. I think that the incident happened that night, and stealthily."
"I see… Are the guards still here?"
"Yes, they are currently cleaning the room to find any hint about what could have happened in detail."
"Good." Victor hummed. "You can go now, thanks for the breakfast anyway."
"It's just my job, bye." After saying that, Luka headed out of the room and left Victor alone to fill his stomach so he could have a better thought process. It would be annoying thinking with an empty stomach, after all.
When he finished to eat his breakfast, a burp escaped from Victor's mouth before he relaxed and began to wheel away from his room to talk with the guards that are supposed to be checking on the room where the party was murdered.
A bunch of armored people stood in front of the door, looking around and taking notes.
"Hello guys, found anything?" Victor asked. In response, one soldier adjusted his helmet and looked at him, revealing a young face with brown hair.
"Oh, hey. We are currently looking for anything that may help us."
From the guard's words, it was clear that they were new in this subject, throwing away his theory that the monster had been killed. "Did you find any trace of the fourth person?"
The guard blinked in surprise and asked. "Fourth person? There is another victim?"
"So you guards know nothing, huh?" Victor asked, although the question was more between him and himself. "Well, the group of heroes here were supposed to be 4, but one missed. So I thought that she might have ran away to escape the monster."
"Impossible." The guard shook his head. "We should have seen someone if it was indeed like you said. Especially now that the day of baptism is approaching, we have increased the number of our guards patrolling on the surroundings of the village to make sure no monster would assault the travelers."
Victor hummed and then he nodded in affirmation. "Alright, do you mind bringing the leader of your group? I wish to talk to him about this case."
"Umm… Sure, but I can't guarantee that he will receive you, as he is a bit busy now." After saying that, the guard stepped back in the room and called an adult man also wearing the same kind of armor everyone else had.
The adult man stepped out of the room and faced Victor. "I heard you wanted to talk with me, boy."
"Yes. What I wanted to ask is if I could help in this case. At the moment, I live here, so I don't want to risk being ambushed by some unknown monster without being prepared."
The man raised an eyebrow. "I appreciate the thought, but…" He looked down on Victor's legs, speaking with his gaze rather than his mouth.
Victor sighed and replied. "I'm not here to hunt a monster, I came here only to assist you to solve this case. The faster we do this, the better it will be for all of us. I only broke my leg, I'm not mentally disabled."
"In that case, we'll accept every help possible. My name is Fredrick, assigned leader of this squad."
"Victor, it's a pleasure making your acquaintance." After shaking hands, Victor began to notice the position he was in, which was basically blocking the way, and said. "Let's go somewhere else to talk, so we can understand the situation better."
"That sounds alright, it would be better making a summary out of what we found." With that, Victor and Fredrick reached for the dining hall. The place was less occupied with the fear of a monster freely traveling inside Ilias Village spreading around the inn, as the customers were holed inside their own rooms.
The two sat around a lone table and faced each other with a serious expression.
"So, is there anything you have found? Something that might indicate the identity of the monster."
Fredrick nodded. "I guess you are a stranger in this area as I don't think I ever saw you around, so I will explain something. As you know already, this continent holds the blessing of our Goddess Ilias, and with her grace, monsters are less spread around, and following that, only weak monsters live here.
Also, monsters are naturally stronger than humans, so they all try to go to the north. However, because of the stronger monsters already predating the humans, the weaker monsters returned here so they could also prey on humans."
Victor nodded, already imagining such a thing to happen here. "Depending on the strength of the monster and the area of our Goddess' blessing, they will also spread apart. For example, around Ilias Village, there are only the weakest of the weakest: Slime Girls who can barely manage to hold their shapes, small Imps that are as strong as the average human teen, and the slow Slug Girls mostly populate this part of the continent.
Maybe there are some exceptions of a bit stronger monsters appearing here, but these exceptions are extremely rare, and can still be eliminated with a great teamwork between veteran heroes. Things like Lamias, Minotaurs, and Insect Monsters never appear here because they can find more humans in regions that are more of their likings."
"So you say that the assaulter is most likely either a Slime Girl, Imp, or Slug Girl?" Victor asked, but surprisingly Fredrick shook his head.
"Actually, we are able to restrict the area even further. There is no mucus on the ground and no gel; only an Imp could assault someone without leaving marks of any kind. However, there is something really weird… How could an Imp kill a group of heroes without anyone noticing and them not resisting?"
"I heard that at dinner, everyone was alright, so this must have happened at night." Victor replied and Fredrick nodded.
"That's strange… It is normal for monsters to appear nearby at night, but we would be able to see them. There is no way that one could have escaped our notice… Besides, nothing was busted out; the windows and the door are left untouched."
"..." Victor stroked his chin and sighed. "I really need a cigarette…"
"Something on your mind?" Fredrick asked, and Victor looked back at him.
"What if we have a spy?"
"A spy, you say?"
"Someone must have let the Imp enter the village."
Fredrick's eyes widened in surprise at Victor's words. "That's impossible! There is no way a human would let a monster enter undetected in the sacred ground of Ilias!"
"Well, something certainly happened, you can't rule out that suggestion. Besides, the sister of the girl went AWOL."
Fredrick blinked. "What does AWOL mean?"
"Absent without official leave, it's an acronym used in the military in my hometown. Anyway, I suggest expanding the patrolling troops further away from Ilias Village, preferably in groups. If that woman is really collaborating with an imp, then she will certainly not have the guts to enter in Iliasburg."
"...Well, about that…" Fredrick hesitated before he continued. "Everything is left in the room: Weapons, Armors, Clothes, and Traveling Bags. Now that I remember, we found a woman's dress on the floor…"
"Hmm…" Victor frowned and stared down on the table.
"...Still, your idea is good. For now, we should expand the patrolling area and oversee more of our surroundings. There is still the possibility that the monster is still hiding. We will probably not find anything if we keep observing the room for more hints now… It was good to talk with you, I hope we can collaborate even further."
"It's not a problem, as long as I won't be one of the victims of the monster's ambush. I really want to keep my bodily fluids for myself, you know."
"Haha." Fredrick laughed before he passed Victor a small bag of Gold. "You don't seem equipped at all, use this money to buy yourself a sharp dagger and use it when the monster will have a hold on you. Even if it's an imp, you will certainly be able to kill her."
Victor raised an eyebrow but he accepted the money anyway. "Huh, thank you."
"It's nothing to me, stay safe." After that, Fredrick stood up from his chair and returned to the crime scene, giving out new orders.
Still… It couldn't be betrayal, it couldn't be an assault, and it was entirely focused on that team in particular instead of taking its advantage and have sex with the other tenants…
Maybe it's a special case that he can't think of at the moment… He will have to wait for a new report. Victor raised his hand and lifted the new bag of coins he received.
Checking inside, Victor found a total of 98 Gold Coins, which should be enough for a great dagger in Ilias Village according to Fredrick. He could use them to shorten the time required to obtain a new Upgrader, but… He's right, it's better getting a weapon first.
With that thought in mind, Victor headed out of the inn, towards a weapon shop in Ilias Village.
…
Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Imps.
Imps are the first stage of a Succubus' life cycle. When a Succubus is born out of a womb, they are called Imps.
They are a very common variety of young Succubi that is just barely proficient in black magic, and with a physical strength on par with a normal person.
It's easy to make light of their low-class status and mess around with them, and to do that is just as easy. They are small, slow, easily tired, and weak. The majority of them are barely able to reach the very minimum of proficiency of using spells, which are useless to them at that level.
However, because of that, they can make their foes lower their guards, and take that opportunity to assault them and sexually tease them. Weak they may be, they are still succubi in general.
Once they feed upon a sufficient amount of semen and spiritual energy, their power will increase to the level of a succubus, but they will also need to grow up naturally for them to fully reach the state of a Succubus.
Also, to take note of it, Imps learn sexcraft at the very young age of 1 year, just when they don't need their mother's milk anymore and have the ability to look for their own food with some help. Compared to other monsters, who teach their younglings how to properly use sexual techniques at the age of 5 or 6, this is incredible on its own.
Imps have a great natural affinity with sexcraft and wind, while also be somewhat better with fire and lightning. However, striking them with an Earth-Elemental attack is enough to exterminate them in one attack.