"Where do you think would be best?" I asked Isadora.
We were in my personal office, storming ideas.
The office had black marble walls, crimson curtains draped over the windows. In the middle was two comfortable sofas facing each other, with a small table in between them.
Shelfs filled with various books, and there was even a wine shelf.
I was seated in the office chair, slowly swirling the blood in my glass, which I poured out from a wine bottle that was titled: Legend of Dracula.
Isadora, Mila and Nala were looking at the map of the Empire that Father gave us, trying to figure out the best place to built new churches.
"I think it's best we keep them in the capital." Nala suggested.
"I agree with her, Saintess, but the decision is ultimately yours." Mila added.
"We don't even know if there will be enough followers, but we are already planning on building a church." Isadora said.
"Followers won't be a problem, Saintess." Mila said. "Millions of awakened vampires have received the goddess' blessing, and millions of unawakened vampires saw when it happened, all they need is a place of prayer."
"You might be right, Mila." Isadora said.
"I have a crazy idea." I put my glass down, leaned forward and intertwined my hands. "Instead of just building a couple churches, why don't we built an entire city. We'll call it: the Holy City, or the Celestial City, or the City of Moon and Stars."
The silence was loud, and I immediately wanted to kick myself for saying something so stupid.
"That's a great idea!" Isadora suddenly exclaimed.
"Wait, are you serious?" I asked in confusion.
"Yes." Isadora said. "I mean, it will be a lot of work and will take a lot of time, but we can do it."
"We know nothing about building cities, Isa." I argued, realizing the absurdity of my own idea.
"What do you do when you don't want to, or can't do something yourself?" She asked, making intense eye contact.
I instantly remembered the story she told me earlier, about the reason mom was created. The Goddesses didn't want to take care of their own angels, so they created mother.
"You get someone else to do it for you." I said.
"Exactly!" She exclaimed. "All we need to do, is gather the right vampires, tell them how we want the city to look like, and let them built it."
"It's going to cost a lot of money." I reminded.
"The Empire has been around tens of thousands of years, I'm sure there is enough money to built a single city." She scoffed.
"Actually," Mila spoke, "the treasuries are nearly empty, Saintess. The current capacity won't even last a decade."
"Oh." Isadora walked over to the sofas and unceremoniously threw herself on it. "Well, that plan was a dud."
I let out a soft laugh at her antics, which I found very cute.
"Nala." I called out.
"How may I be of service, my Prince?" She asked while inclining her head.
"Summon everyone in the capital that can be of help with this task, and tell them to gather in the throne room early tomorrow morning." I ordered.
"As you command, my Prince." Immediately she carried the order out, leaving the office.
"And Mila. I want every single paper of financial data from the last two hundred years on this desk by tonight." I told her.
"As you command, my Prince." And then she left.
"And Isa, come here." I gave her a order too.
"What are you doing?" She asked in confusion, but still made her way over to me.
"Show me where you want to build this city and leave the rest to me." I said, while pointing to the map.
"I don't know what you're doing, but if you think that I'm just going to sit around while you do all the work, then you will have a problem." She warned, her crimson glowing brighter.
"That won't happen." I assured with a small laugh. "Now, tell me where you think is best."
Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. I just gave out some orders that I thought would be best in this scenario.
I have no idea what I'm going to say at tomorrow's meeting, and I have no idea what to look for in financial data.
I'm basically just winging it.
Isadora turned her attention to the map, scanned through it for a few seconds.
"How about here?" She asked.
The place she pointed to was at the southern part of the continent, thousands of kilometers away from Drucalis, who was dead center, in the middle.
The place she pointed to was near a thick forested area that nearly covers the whole southern region.
"I do—." I was about to tell her that I don't agree with her, but then I remembered one of my skills.
********
>Dragon's Eye View(Active)–You can view any space within the Empire, not restricted by line of sight.
********
I immediately activated the skill.
A circular window appeared in the space in front of me and I saw a clear aerial view of the forest.
The forest had tall green trees that was densely packed, a strange cloud of thick fog clung to the ground of the forests, obscuring one's vision.
But that didn't work on me, I could clearly see through the fog, making out the silhouettes of countless creatures.
"Is that a skill of yours?" Isadora asked.
"Yeah." I answered still scanning through the forest.
"Is this the place I pointed out?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, I don't think we can built a city here. You may have to choose somewhere else." I told her.
"Wait, before you decide that, can you bring it to the entrance of the forest?" She asked.
"Okay." I saw no reason to not comply and did as she asked.
My vision shifted, bringing us one hundred meters away from the forest.
"Are you coming?" I heard Isadora ask.
I turned my head to her and saw her disappearing through what can only be described as a portal.
I immediately followed after her.
The portal closed behind me, making the Shadow Legion that was protecting us from the shadows instantly alert and filled with panic.
********
"Woah." I said, my voice filled with wonder.
I scanned the surroundings and saw that we were standing in front of a forest, the same forest that I just saw with my skill.
"How did we get here?" I asked Isadora, who was standing with both hands in her hips and a smug smile on her face.
"Heh." She giggled. "I have a unique skill that allows me to open a portal to anywhere I laid my eyes on. And it costs absolutely no mana.
That means I could use it endlessly."
"Wow, that is a great skill, Isa." I praised while clapping my hands, feeding her ego.
"Are you jealous?" She asked.
"Honestly? Yes. I am jealous." I said with honesty.
"Hehe. Too bad, brother. It is a 'unique' skill, so only I can have it." She bragged.
"I'm happy for you, Isa." I said while laughing at how childish she still is, despite looking like she's in her mid teens.
"So, what are we doing here?" I asked, looking for any signs of danger.
"To see if this place is suitable for a city to be build here." She said.
"And what do you think?"
"Definitely not."
"Really?" I asked with sarcasm. "And why do you think so?"
"Too foresty." She said, pointing to the forest.
"Too wet." She said, kicking the wet ground.
"And too many monsters." She said, pointing to a herd of monsters that was charging our way.
I used my Perception Stat to focus on the herd, and the closer they got, the more I could figure out about them.
Correction: the herd wasn't charging, they were jumping.
It was a herd of frogs, but they were not ordinary frogs. Nothing in this world was ordinary.
Their skin was dark green and slimy, the spores all over their bodies were wide open, strange liquids gushing out of them.
They had dozens of sharp teeth and a long pink tongue in their mouths that never seemed to close.
And they were big, each one bigger than a toddler.
But these were just the henchmen, the leader was truly something else.
Instead of jumping, it was running on all fours. Or should I say, on four of its eight limbs.
It had two pairs of arms protruding out of its side, each arm ended with long sharp claws. Three unblinking orange eyes with dark slits, a mouth full of deadly teeth, and a long tongue.
All of the henchmen were Novice Realm and the leader was Advanced Realm.
'I'm not sure the two of us can handle it. Maybe if the herd was smaller in number.' I concluded.
"Isa, I think it's time you ope–." I turned around only to see Isadora dressed in her armor with staff in hand.
"I guess we're fighting, then." Isadora was my only ticket out of here, and it doesn't look like she was planning on opening any portals.
And I couldn't leave my sister fighting all these monsters alone.
I willed my armor out of my inventory and it automatically went around my body, it was the perfect fit, the crimson cape billowing in the wind.
Dheadris and Zakhristos appeared in my hands, already unsheated.
I turned to my status window and allocated some stat points.
********
『Stats』
[Strength: 70->100]
[Speed: 82->100]
[Vitality: 1000]
[Agility: 81->100]
[Constitution: 100]
[Perception: 92->100]
[Magic: 49->100]
[Willpower: 110]
[Mana: 1000(×2)]
[Charm:––]
[Unallocated Stats: 18]
********
I instantly felt the changes in my legs and arms, and I was more confident.
"There are 60 of them, the big one included." Isadora said. "Let's see who kills the most."
"Crazy girl." I said while laughing.