16 Stupendous Wealth

Vampires were a highly-gifted noble race, and they did not even have to study or fight like humans to gain strength.

Every vampire who had lived over a hundred years, was inevitably in the middle class. Humans who wanted to break into this class required constant hard work and decent talents.

Now, Reed had a goal for the development of the vampires.

He would use the protagonists of that world, humans, to help the vampires.

But now, there was one thing before him that needed to be settled: food reserves.

The vampires also needed food items like bread or milk, but the amount they needed was not large. It was more similar to human beings eating some snacks to relieve their peckishness, rather than being necessities.

There were not many food items like wheat or flour stored in the castle, and whatever they had could not even support two hundred vampires for a month.

Once the residential area cleanup was done, Reed would personally bring the vampires to the border, the war zone between the Norland Empire and the Orc Empire.

There were a large number of war refugees there, and that was the population the castle needed.

For the next phase of the plan to proceed smoothly, he needed to go to Grimm and purchase a sufficient amount of food supply to prevent the humans from having nothing to eat.

The long winter was not conducive for food production.

The vampires had more than two hundred years of history, and they had accumulated a fortune over the years.

After Reed left the hall, he returned to his manor.

Drawing upon the Progenitor Vampire's memories, he found his way to the master bedroom on the third floor.

"The Progenitor Vampire really hid his money well."

Reed looked at the wardrobe made out of Blueheart Firminia and shook his head, feeling a little amused.

When he opened the wardrobe, it was empty without any trace of Gold Pykes or treasures.

Reed closed his eyes as he began to project the power of his mind, and he could feel a magic circle being engraved into the shelf of the closet.

Mind Contact.

Snap!

The closet moved and a stone door with several dozen alchemical traps appeared before Reed.

Reed still did not open his eyes and continued to project his mind power on the stone door.

Snap!

The alchemic traps on the stone door slowly dimmed as Reed opened his eyes. After he recalled the Progenitor Vampire's memories and was sure that there were no more hidden traps, he opened the door and entered the secret chamber.

There were faint dots of magic light inside the dimly lit room.

The moment Reed stepped in, he was dazzled by the glow on the ground.

It was a sea of golden light.

The glittering Gold Pykes filled ten oaken chests.

The wealth accumulated by the vampires over the past two hundred years was hidden there.

When Reed saw it with his own eyes, his heart rate increased a little.

Based on his memory, each oaken chest had 2,000 Gold Pykes...

It was a stupendous amount of wealth.

Stepping forward and grabbing a handful of Gold Pykes in his hand, the unique coldness of gold made it impossible for him to calm his heart.

Such wealth could drive someone insane.

A baron in Grimm would not even have so many Gold Pykes even after two hundred years.

"The vampires may not excel in other aspects, but their desire to collect wealth is comparable to those avaricious dragons."

Reed shook his head and slightly unfurled his fingers. The Gold Pykes slipped from the gaps in his fingers and fell into the oaken chests with a loud clatter.

Money was wealth when used. Otherwise, it was just a pile of metal.

Storing wealth like that might have been the best way for ordinary nobility to avoid any unknown risks, but for a faction, it seemed a little short-sighted.

In addition to the ten oaken chests, there were hundreds of precious gold and gemstone items in the room.

Necklaces inlaid with rubies, sculptures made of pure gold, pearl jewelry, and so on were all luxurious items with values no lower than those ten chests full of Gold Pykes.

As expected of the Progenitor Vampire, the wealth he had gathered in those two hundred years was indeed magnificent.

However, taking one out had him scratching his head. An oaken chest full of Gold Pykes weighed more than a hundred pounds.

As a Progenitor Vampire with such a high status, lugging a chest out by himself would cause the loss of his status if his underlings saw him.

Opening the attribute panel, his eyes lit up when he saw one of the skills.

Reed Kaschar

Race: Vampire (Progenitor)

Level: Mage - Level 10 (123/5,000), Warrior - Level 5 (level cap reached)

Mana: 652/652

Talents: Progenitor Vampire (Unique), Bloodline Shackle (limited), Magic Affinity (Ultimate)

Racial Ability: Bat Transformation, Blood-sucking Recovery, Powerful Physique (passive)

Spells: First Circle of Magic: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Puppetry, Mage's Hand, Mana Shield, Waterfall.

Second Circle of Magic: Detection, Greater Fireball, Thunderstorm, Puppet Master, Mana Surge, Haste, Strengthen, Charm.

Third Circle of Magic: Teleportation, Voidwalking, Pyroblast

One of the First Circle Spells caught his interest... Mage's Hand.

The Mage's Hand was always the first spell that mage apprentices learned. Not only was it simple with only thirty magic nodes, but it was also the most reliable partner a mage could have because magical experiments often came with unpredictable dangers.

Mage's Hand: Use magic to form a giant shapeless hand.

The spell could replace the mage to perform some very dangerous experiments, and of course, it could also be used to... move boxes.

After Reed selected the top oaken chest, he started to draw mana into the magic model.

The Mage's Hand had a total of thirty magic nodes and was one of the simplest spells in terms of casting difficulty.

Reed had not really cast many spells, but he was quite confident.

Focusing his mind, his mana started to follow the trajectory of the magic model.

After continuously inputting mana, the magic nodes for the Mage's Hand spell started to flash with blue light.

Whoosh.

Once the last magic node was activated, a giant hand three times the size of an ordinary person appeared out of thin air in the secret chamber... It appeared translucent with dense magic fluctuations.

The spell was successful, and Reed laughed out loud.

He would feel particularly excited every time he cast a spell.

Reed could clearly feel how it was like to manipulate Mage's Hand before him. It was a very strange feeling as if it was the embodiment of his own mind. It was also not very different from using his own limbs.

He then took a look at his mana.

Mana: 642/652

His maximum of 652 mana had reduced by 10 after a successful casting. That meant, Mage's Hand required 10 mana to cast, and he would need two points of mana to maintain the spell every solhour. It was a very practical spell indeed.

Bang!

With one thought, the huge Mage's Hand grabbed the hundred-pound oaken chest.

Reed smiled in satisfaction. The more he used it, the more he could feel the wonder and charm of magic.

No wonder the previous Progenitor Vampire was so obsessed with magic.

If it had not been for the upcoming agricultural plan, he would have also liked to return to his mage tower to study arcane magic.

He ignored the remaining gold coins and gemstones. Two thousand Gold Pykes was more than enough.

Walking out of the secret chamber with his hands behind him, the Mage's Hand floated up in the air with the oaken chest in tow and followed him closely.

"Greetings, Lord Progenitor."

The guard at the door saw Reed walk out, and he placed a hand on his chest as he bowed.

Reed nodded. "Greetings. Go and get Dylan for me."

"Yes, please wait for a moment."

Reed watched the vampire in front of him transform into a bat and fly away before he turned back to his room.

It was early October now, and there was still some time before the cold winter, so the fireplace in the manor was not yet lit up. The walls, which were made out of squared rocks, were covered with colorful oil paintings.

After he entered the room, Reed looked at the closed oaken chest on the carpet, feeling a little conflicted.

If he could bring the chest full of Gold Pykes back to reality, he would not need to worry about anything anymore. It was a pity that only his soul could pass through. If only his body could also...

No.

Having his physical body come through was not necessarily a good thing. The magical world was far too dangerous, and no one could guarantee absolute safety.

At least, when only his soul crossed over, he could still return in the event that he ran into insurmountable danger, and he would not be truly killed.

With that, Reed felt a lot more comfortable.

Dutch comfort was really the universal truth.

Not long after, a knock on the door interrupted Reed's thoughts.

"Father."

When he opened the door, a gallant-looking warrior in full armor appeared before Reed.

It was a second-generation vampire, Dylan Kaschar.

The only warrior among the seven second-generation vampires, he had reached Level 9, and his secondary assassin class was at Level 4.

Dylan was also the person responsible for managing the hexbats.

The hexbat was a type of magical beast unique to vampires who were higher than Level 5, and it was powerful.

An adult hexbat could grow to have a wingspan of up to 12 m, and its combat effectiveness was no weaker than a vampire of the same level.

The castle had about four hundred hexbats at the moment.

He could not very well carry an oaken chest of Gold Pykes with his Mage's Hand back to Grimm alone. Not only would it take a lot of time and effort, but it would look freaking stupid as well.

The vampires often used hexbats to transport goods and as combatants during war. They were a veritable, multifunctional monster.

"Ready two hexbats for me. I want to use them tonight."