Chapter 27 : Development

Development

Rumble!

The sound of thunder startled Serea awake from her sleep. She groggily opened her eyes. Through the broken window, she could see the gray, overcast sky outside.

"Is it raining...?"

Still drowsy, Serea hazily heard the sound of rain. As she became a little more awake, she could confirm that it was indeed raining outside.

Moist air blew into the ruined house through the window and the damaged wooden door. The dampness made Serea feel uncomfortable in her body, and she struggled to sit up, leaning against the wooden wall.

Serea complained softly.

"A woman's body really is troublesome..."

After saying this, she looked up at the window outside.

The gray, overcast sky matched her current mood—sullen and hard to express. Out of boredom, Serea started recalling the events from not long ago.

It was her fifth day in this world. After fighting and seizing resources on her first day, Serea had led her Undead squad straight into the depths of the Corrupted Forest, arriving here at midnight on the very first day.

This was the small wooden hut she had first appeared in upon her arrival. Since the surrounding environment was familiar, Serea chose it as a temporary base and had stayed here until now.

For the following three days, Serea led a squad of Skeleton Warriors to hunt monsters from the surrounding area.

Though they were referred to as monsters, they were mostly low-level, only around Tier 1. Goblins made up the majority, with the rest consisting of beast-like creatures such as rabbits, deer, and wild boars.

Through a few days of hunting, Serea had accumulated a decent amount of materials, but it was still far from enough for her true rise to power.

To increase her strength as quickly as possible, this monotonous monster-hunting life would have to continue for some time. Fortunately, with Little Black and the others around, she never needed to personally fight the monsters, so the past few hunts had been relatively easy.

At least, until yesterday...

Originally, Serea was supposed to go hunting monsters today with Little Black and the others, but due to certain physical reasons, she was unable to go out.

So, Serea instructed Little Black to lead the Skeleton Warriors on the hunt, while she stayed at the base waiting for them to bring the corpses back.

Thankfully, spiritual control over the Undead had no distance limitation. With Little Black leading, there was absolutely no problem dealing with lower-level monsters.

Thus, Serea became a hands-off supervisor, even though she herself was not entirely willing about it...

What's that? You're asking what physical condition forced Serea to stay behind at the base?

Well, it was something difficult to explain and rather embarrassing to mention...

Leaning against the wall, Serea summarized her gains over the past few days.

"Unknowingly, I've already gathered this much material."

Saying this, Serea looked at the materials list displayed by the system:

Blood Crystals: 35

Terror Crystals: 43

Death Crystals: 42

Soul Crystals: 45

That's right, in just three days, more than forty monsters had perished at the hands of Little Black and the Skeleton Warriors, over twenty of which were Goblins lured over by Serea and Celia acting as bait.

Without realizing it, Serea had nearly wiped out the master Goblin clan of these hunting grounds, and she herself was happily counting up materials.

Now that she had collected so many materials, Serea shifted her gaze to a blueprint on the system panel.

Blood Well: Basic structure for blood clan units. Consumes Blood Crystals to create blood clan units or confer blood clan abilities to others. Unlocking construction requires consuming 20 Blood Crystals.

This blueprint had been a complimentary gift when Serea awakened as a Vampire Queen—the effects were as stated above.

Just reading the description, the Blood Well seemed extremely useful, so with enough materials and a stable base, Serea had set her sights on building it early on.

But when she clicked on the blueprint...

System: Construction unavailable. Please build the prototype structure first.

Seeing this prompt, Serea let out a frustrated sigh. The so-called prototype structure was...

A well! Specifically, a circular structure similar to a pond or a hot spring.

That's right, building this structure required not just twenty Blood Crystals, since those only unlocked the structure's functions; she also had to dig an actual well to construct it...

Such an unreasonable setting left Serea speechless. As a result, in addition to their hunting duties, Little Black and the other Skeletons had a new task: dig the well...dig the well...dig the well...

However, when it came time for actual construction, Serea found herself at a loss since she had only been an assassin in her previous life—not a construction engineer.

Therefore, she couldn't share any construction knowledge with Little Black and the others, so this project had to be put on hold for the time being.

Every time she thought of this foolish system and its idiotic settings, Serea would let out a long sigh.

"Phew... Forget it, there's no use arguing with you. Anyway, I'll be the one getting mad in the end, not you."

Her gaze drifted back to the window. As Serea stared outside in a daze, a strange sound suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

Gurururu

"So hungry..."

Feeling the hunger in her stomach, Serea remembered that she had gone to bed early without dinner due to feeling unwell the previous night, so now she was famished.

Just as Serea was about to rummage around for food, a delicious smell drifted in from outside.

"Smells so good!"

At the scent, Serea clutched her stomach and stood up. She headed outside and saw Celia setting up a stove and cooking under the eaves.

"Hm?"

Seeing the red-haired girl cooking with her back turned under the shed, Serea curiously approached, recognizing the aroma came from there.

Just as she got closer, she heard Dogsius muttering instructions:

"Add 300g of rice with a small amount of vegetable oil and a suitable amount of water, simmer for twenty minutes, then slice the three-quarters cooked roasted rabbit meat and add it to the pot. Next, add chopped spring onions, ginger, and special herbs in order. Season with salt and reduce to low heat for another twenty minutes. That's the process for making meat porridge—got it?"

After Dogsius finished, Celia nodded silently.

"If you can't remember, just recall the steps when I was controlling your body earlier."

Dogsius reminded her patiently, but Serea didn't quite understand what the two were up to.

"All right, the time should be up. Let's taste it."

Saying this, Dogsius, controlling Celia's body, ladled out a spoonful to taste.

Each grain of rice was plump and full, mixing with the aroma of roasted meat—the flavor and the texture were just perfect!

"Mmm, as expected of me."

Dogsius boasted, and Celia seemed satisfied with the porridge as well.

"In that case, her Highness..."

Just as Celia was about to say something, Serea's voice rang out from behind.

"Hey, you're cooking without inviting me?"

Startled by the voice, Celia jumped and turned around, her wine-red eyes reflecting Serea's stunning face.

Seeing Serea awake, Dogsius shouted excitedly:

"Oh! My master, you're finally here! I've already prepared a delicious breakfast for you."

(To be continued...)

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Dogsius wasn't lying when he said he could cook, clean, and wash....