Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

"Like I said, I've made a breakthrough in my research!" Tommy said, his purple eye lights glowing brighter. Read exclusive chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

"Great! Let's hear it!" I said.

"I forgot!" He said.

"No, you didn't!" I said.

"You're right! I'm just being an asshole," he said. "I figured out how to turn diamonds blue. And other colors too, but that doesn't help you. I've already turned half of one of those steamer trunks into blue diamonds, but you're going to want to get a ton of diamonds if you want Hope to get as strong as other elementals."

"I did research on elementals just to get a idea of how many diamonds we're going to need to match the power of other elementals. And I found out, we're going to need a lot! Other elementals with more common elements like stone, earth, ice, magma, and metal can make themselves as large as buildings and can affect areas up to a mile away from them."

"Now, you might ask me why don't they just keep getting bigger and are eventually able to take over massive amounts of land and property? Well, for one, elementals are a mostly peaceful race of monsters. They try to achieve and maintain a natural equilibrium with the environment."

"Secondly, and more importantly, increasing their size by producing their stored up resources makes most of them vulnerable. For instance, ice elementals can only absorb and integrate ice into their bodies. Not water. So if someone were to melt parts of their body, they would lose that part."

"And making their body bigger, makes them a bigger target and makes it easier for people to break down their bodies. The same goes for many other elementals. Earth elementals lose parts of their body if it's turned into mud, magma elementals lose to their magma being solidified into volcanic rock, and metal elementals can't reintegrate molten metal."

"Now, here is where Hope is unique and potentially extremely powerful! Diamonds are incredibly stable forms of matter. They generally can't be broken down into another state of matter. Except in a laboratory environment like mine and even then the diamonds have to sit in a solution for a long time for them to break down."

"So even if enemies were to figure out how to make the breakdown solution, which they won't because I'm a genius and I don't take notes, but even if they did, it would do basically nothing if they splashed her with it. They'd have to submerge her in it for hours for it to do anything."

"What I'm trying to say, is Hope can always reintegrate diamonds if they get broken off or separated from her body through the use of her powers. So there is no risk to her if she over uses her resources. She just has to go pick them back up and reabsorb them. Isn't that amazing?"

"Wow! That is amazing," I said. "But what you were saying before, is I'll need a ton of diamonds for her to be able to reach building size and affect things far way. That is what you're saying right?"

"Yes. That is what I was saying," he said. Tommy knelt down behind the counter and picked up a huge plastic bin full of blue diamonds. "This is what I've been able to create so far. Now that will be $10,000,000."

"Damn! That's a lot, but it's worth it. I'm assuming a lot went into the synthesis process, so here you go," I said as I slapped down a big stack of cash on the counter.

"It's partially the material cost, but also labor and research costs. I mean, I'm the only person who has ever figured out how to do this, so there's no economy to figure out the right price. I just have to guess. If I was charging commercially for this service, I estimate it would be about 30 million dollars though," Tommy said.

"Sure thing. As long as you're not breaking my bank, I'm happy with it. And you're not," I said.

"Yeah, you must be loaded, with the dragon sect being gone and having access to their treasury vault," he said.

"I am to a certain extent. I don't have much in money though. A lot of it is in resources like gold and jewelry. So I'd still have to sell it to get the cash. Speaking of jewelry, were you able to preserve the magic of the jewelry items?" I said.

"I haven't melted any of those down yet or taken the diamonds out of their settings, but the magic isn't that powerful. It's a lot of charms and stuff. You can keep it all though," he said.

"I wouldn't melt those down, because the collection is only a fraction of the size of the bin I just gave you, and you'd be better off just having someone wear the jewelry or selling them on the magic market in the monster or human underground networks."

"Ok, thanks for the advice," I said, as I took the bin off the counter and set it on the ground.

It was heavy. It wasn't too heavy for me, because I was inhumanly strong, but I could definitely feel it. I couldn't imagine how Tommy could have lifted it though. Maybe he had some sort of strengthening potion or something. I don't know.

"Thanks, Tommy!" I said. "See you later."

"See you later, Dylan," he said and turned away from the counter.

I navigated out of the Alchemy tab in the system and the tear in space closed. I turned towards Hope. "Did you overhear any of that?" I said.

"Yes. Thank you so much for all your help in making me stronger. I'm sorry I'm so much bigger of a hassle than the other girls," she said, looking down.

"It's ok. Everyone needs what they need. Everyone is different and has different needs. I'm happy to make you stronger. It means the earth has a chance of survival when Lilith shows up. And it makes you happy. I like making you happy. I like you," I said, lifting her chin so she was looking at me.

"I like you too. It's just, everything's moving so fast, and you're so busy, and the other girls always get to you first. I want to have time with you too, but I'm afraid to ask for it," she said, looking away with her eyes.

"Look at me. You're just as special and important to me as the other girls. You've all committed yourselves to me and I've committed myself to you all. You all should get equal time and attention. If you feel you're not getting that and you need it, tell me," I said. I kissed her forehead.

She nuzzled her head into my shoulder. "Thank you. No one has ever looked at me like you do before. You see me. You think I have value and something to contribute. Everyone else treated me like an annoyance or a burden."

"I'm sorry that happened to you. I look at you like you have value, because you do," I said.

I looked down at her into her eyes, and leaned in. We kissed. It was the most innocent kiss I've ever experienced. No hunger, just care. Not that hunger didn't have its place. It did. But this was different.

I broke the kiss and said, "I would hold that kiss with you forever, but we don't have much time. I got you a bin full of blue diamonds. You should start absorbing them and then finish the jug you're working on."

"Absorbing more diamonds will give you more resources to work with, but the magicum will give you better control and more abilities. They have to go together for you to get stronger."

"Yes, Dylan," she said, smiling softly. She had blushed bright red after our kiss.

She plunged her hand into the bin of blue diamonds and I watched as the amount of blue diamonds in the bin gradually decreased.

"I'm going to check on other people. Here's another jug in case you need it," I said. I put another jug of magicum on the ground nearby and moved on to the next girl, Ophelia.