Warlock of War: My Ares System

"Vampires are very arrogant at heart. Some can suppress it, but eventually, it takes over and blends in with their instincts. She has greater aspirations than just being a duchess to the demon lord's empire… and I'm sure he is very aware of that. You could almost say a civil war is bound to happen… and you just injected yourself into the midst of that,"

"You haven't answered my question, but I'll just assume you know this from common knowledge?"

"Yes, she normally sucks the blood of her servants in the open. Sometimes even draining them until their death, leaving their rotting and disgusting husks inside the meeting rooms, waiting for another servant to take them away."

This skill… is crazy good.

"Alright, then tell me more about this empire. I want to know everything about it. Down to the last detail,"

…

The next day, I had a match once again, and surprisingly it wasn't against some fodder but a monster that had apparently been ravaging the forests of this kingdom.

They had captured and controlled it but actually using it to their advantage was apparently too hard… well, that's at least what the dude in the cell next to me explained after I had completely slaughtered the monster.

No quest had appeared, so once again, I was just waiting around, meditating and keeping my body in top shape before I fought my next strong opponent.

But it's not like I was completely wasting my time with this monotonous routine as I was jotting down mental notes about the empire and throwing out the ones I didn't really need to know.

"Okay… that's interesting," I replied to the man before leaning against the wall and closing my eyes ever so slightly.

The world around me defended, and I couldn't help but slowly drift off into the place I had deemed my mind palace.

It was a certain technique I had picked up quite a while ago after reading it in some book, but it took years to actually create the visualization.

The man in the book was able to form a whole house with all the information he needed, but at most, I could barely create a room that held bits of information instead of stacks.

But, there was one thing I felt the man did inefficiently that I was planning on doing better, and that was efficiently using his space.

Instead of casually placing bits of information around his house that he could remember, he should've had one room that was easy to visualize, preferably a library, and then opened up the books in that library to obtain their information.

Upon opening my eyes, I found myself in a solid wood room with a singular bookshelf in front of me, containing what seemed to be around twenty books or so.

I walked up to the first one I could reach and opened it up, looking at the contents, which were information about dungeons I had already memorized without this technique.

But it seems it was working…

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG

A loud clanging resounded through the cell I was in, snapping me out of my palace and back into reality, where I glared at the guard who had intended to harass me.

"Wake up, bastard. You have another fight," He tauntingly grinned before unlocking my cell and then tugging on the chains locking my wrists and ankles together.

And as he brought me out and forced me to walk down a hallway I didn't even know existed, I couldn't help but let out a long sigh as I stopped in place upon seeing the dead end waiting with a few other guards.

"What do you want?" I groaned since this could completely ruin my plan if I ended up killing them right here and now.

But, just as my eyes grazed the surrounding area, I caught a glimpse of two hanging red eyes, and a pair of leathery wings creating a sort of coat that wrapped the beast with a layer of darkness.

"Do you know how much money we ended up losing on you? How about you lose once in a while, huh? Everybody bets on you because you're the lucky boy… so if you lose, we'll have a big payout, and we'll stop harassing you," One man smirked while the guard who brought me here kicked me in the back of the knee, forcing me to the ground.

To be honest, I could probably overpower them with pure brute force, but if skills came into play, it could get a bit sketchy.

These current chains locking my wrists and ankles together are meant to suppress my mana, meaning I was most likely at or maybe even below their current level of power.

But thankfully, there was no need for that…

"Just get it done," I rolled my eyes, and as the few men around me began to cackle softly, I saw mana slowly rise from their bodies.

"Will do, you fucking rat-"

Blood sprayed across the dark stone brick walls as five heads dropped and rolled to the ground, their blood soon being sucked into a singular red orb within the palm of a pale man's hand.

"Thanks," I muttered, licking the bit of blood that had sprayed my lips.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you. Who knows what diseases these rats have," the man smirked before helping me up onto my feet and then suddenly changing into the appearance of the guard that had brought me here.

"I don't really care… what about the corpses?" I softly whispered before taking a look at the illusion wrapping the man right behind me, acting like a guard as he occasionally pushed me through the halls.

"Mother ordered me to leave an ominous sign for the owner of this place to know we are here…. And those husks are more than enough of a sign,"

"That's right… I forgot to ask your mother, but what are you even doing here?"

As these words slipped from my lips, I activated [Heroic Persuasion] which took a while to kick in as the man seemed hesitant to answer, but eventually, he cracked open his lips and informed me of their plan.