Peyton waited for the higher ups to take their seats patiently. She seemed calm but she was shaking inside. This was her first hearing.

"Guardian Captain Gerard Atkins" the man in the red robes announced as a study man with dark shiny hair took his seat. Just like everyone else, he too had a cold look on his face,

"You too believe that Captain" Peyton stuttered,

"Save it for the hearing" the man coldly shut out Peyton,

"Second in command of the Alpha Guardian of Hunter Guardians, Tiriana Valren" Followed by the man's announcement, Tiriana appeared beside the chair and took her seat.

"Alpha Guardian of Hunter Guardians, Tanulia Valren" Tanulia, the Alpha guardian teleported beside the seat in the middle of the table. Peyton subconsciously bowed as she was used to.

She didn't even nod, in fact, she didn't even look Peyton in the eyes,

After Tanulia, only one seat remained. Peyton wondered who was going to come until he got her answer,

"Guardian Captain Xanali Harthill" as soon as Peyton heard the man, her heart skipped a beat. She was so stunned that her mind went blank. Her lips instantly became dry as she looked up at the stage to see Xanali slowly approaching the empty chair,

The last time Peyton talked to Tanulia, she said there was only one Guardian Captain spot remaining. How could they give one spot to two guardians? It was evident to Peyton the one spot remaining talk was just bullshit. Still, she couldn't believe Xanali and Noah, two of whom she recruited got promoted instead of her.

Looking at this, Michael was laughing aloud. He knew Peyton was on the verge of defecting but after seeing this, he was utterly positive. Moreover, he really felt bad for Peyton. She deserved better. She put her blood and sweat into the guild and all she got in return was scorn and negligence.

"Xanali"

"Captain, Guardian Captain Xanali" Tiriana coldly corrected Peyton,

"Shall we begin?"

The trial of Peyton began with Tanulia's words.

************************************

Three hours later, Michael was in the pocket dimension attached next to his room in the dark forest. He was not alone as Azazel and Victor accompanied him.

Michael had a workbench near the pole Victor was tied to. He had various toolstorture tools as well as an alchemy apparatus set up on the table.

"So Victor, sorry to keep you waiting" Michael pulled up the sack covering Victor's head to see Victor growling,

"Doesn't feel great to be tied onto a pole, does it?" asked Michael.

Victor couldn't see the amused look on his face because of the mask on his face. He was not in the mood or situation to wonder how the Dark Lord looked behind the mask.

"Were you always a vampire Victor?" Michael asked while sharpening a wooden stake,

"They say wooden stakes through the heart could kill a vampire instantly. But again, who wouldn't die huh?"

Azazel grinned hearing Michael's joke,

After putting the stake down, Michael put several cloves of garlic into a pestle and crushed them into a paste.

Victor wanted to respond to his remark with an extremely antagonizing reply but when he opened his mouth, Michael shoved the garlic paste into his mouth.

"Argh!"

Victor coughed and coughed and coughed and kept coughing but unfortunately, it was not due to vampires being allergic to garlic as Michael expected.

"Fuck!...You crazy bastard!" Victor spat out, cursing Michael,

"So no garlic allergy. Hmm, only direct sunlight seems to hurt you bloodsuckers"

"Let me go!" Victor squirmed but he couldn't get himself out of the bonds,

"Not until I find all about your kind" As he said, Michael stabbed Victor in the neck with his APD needle and sucked out vampire blood from him.

Victor saw the Dark Lord pouring his blood into a vial,

"Whatwhat're you gonna do?" Victor stuttered,

"I forgot you have regeneration" Michael put the vial on the table before slashing Victor's chest with the hidden blade,

This time, Michael collected the blood in a bowl.

"Son of a-"

When the cut closed up, he swung the hidden blade again, opening another wound.

Michael repeated this process until Victor's body turned paler than it was.

"I need a tissue sample" Victor was breathing heavily. His heart skipped a beat when he heard the Dark Lord,

"ARRGGHHH!" Victor used all his remaining strength to get out of the bond looking at the hidden blade on his wrist,

He knew the Dark Lord was going to cut him again like a pig. His struggle was halted by a flick of the butler who stood a couple of meters away from him. Victor couldn't even move a muscle. He felt as though he was being clutched by an invisible hand,

Like cutting slices of meat, Michael cut the flesh out of various parts of Victor's body. Michael bought special boxes from the system to store to keep the flesh fresh for future experiments.

After seeing Peyton's trial, Michael had a plan for Victor.

Victor regenerated all the flesh Michael cut out. Michael was truly surprised by the speed of the regeneration speed. Only the Dark Flames seemed to stop the regeneration. So if he wanted to kill a vampire, he either had to cut the head off or stab them with a blade covered in the Dark flames.

Unfortunately, the latter was not efficient as no blade or metal could withstand the heat of Dark Flames. After fighting with Victor back on the Southern continent, Michael had to replace his hidden blade.

He turned to the system for a strong enough metal only to know that the current system level was too low.

"My Lord, it's ready" Azazel informed Michael,

"We'll continue this after I return"

Finally, Victor heaved a sigh of relief. He could finally regenerate his blood and cuts and also, try to escape the place which seemed like a lush canyon.

Reaching his room, Michael activated the runic teleportation and disappeared from the room. In a few minutes, he appeared again in the room.

"Twenty million" he willed the system as a pile of gold coins materialized on the floor.

"System, convert them into badass points. It's time to upgrade your lazy ass"

[Took you long enough host]

[Activating Banker function]

[The current conversation level, 1000 gold coins: 40 badass point(s)]

[20 million gold coins will be converted into 800,000 badass points]

[Does the host wish to convert the coins into badass points?]

"Yes"

The bright beam of light shot out of Michael, enveloping the stack of coins. The coins slowly began to look ghostly, losing their tangibility until the stack completely disappeared from the room.

[Conversion successful]

[The host has received 800,000 badass points. Available badass points 874,000]

[The next system upgrade will cost the host 600,000 badass points. Does the host wish to upgrade the system to 5.0?]

[The Experience Cap for each level in the Soul Refining stage will be reduced by 25% after upgrading the system]

"Yes"

The system began to upgrade itself. It took longer than usual. Meanwhile, Michael went to the workbench in his room and took out several empty parchments to design a new device.

"Ghost" the door on the other side opened as Vedora flew into the room. Now that their wings had grown a little bigger and wide, they could fly but not like Nightmare though.

Vedora landed on Michael's shoulder,

"I was thinking how could the vampires were able to use Arch energy inside the void line and I might have an idea how," Cain said to turn Michael's attention to him,

"Sarba, tell him," Cain asked Sarba,

"When you fought Victor, I sensed vaguely familiar energy radiation from him"

"Familiar?" Michael stopped drawing on the parchment as he put Vedora on the table to look at them directly,

"Yes, the energy Victor radiated is similar to the Stormville mountain crystal"

Hearing Sarba's words, Michael took out a stormville mountain crystal from his system storage.

"What if the Hydra sleeping in the stormville mountain and the vampires have some connection?" Cain asked,

"I too have the same feeling Ghost" Ayag opened her mouth,

"That hydra is the reason no one is able to use arch energy in the Southern continent right? Then how can these vampires use spells and shit without an issue? What if these vampires were created by the hydra?"

Michael couldn't completely deny the possibility that the vampires have some kind of connection with the hydra. In fact, he too had this question in mind. The unfortunate thing was he didn't dare to bring Victor to the stormville mountain. He was already risking himself by mining the crystals where the Hydra was slumbering. If that hydra chose to come out of its slumber, he didn't think he or anyone in this world could stand in its way.

"We watched Peyton's trial. Things went just as we guessed huh"

Michael nodded at Ayag,

"We have to turn her now Ghost," said Cain,

[The system upgrade is completed]

[Current System level 5.0]

The system sounded in his mind interrupting their conversation.

[The host can now have up to twenty subordinates]

Michael was waiting for the system to afford more subordinates. Now he could make Peyton as well as Daniel his subordinates.

"Speaking of Peyton, she could come to the location any day from now"

Sarba said,

"Before we meet Peyton, I still have got some answers from Victor"

Vedora saw several herbs and weird-looking objects appearing in his hand.

After taking out these alchemy ingredients, Michael conjured the dark flames and threw the ingredients one by one into the flame.

"What are you making?" asked Ayag,

"The normal truth extracting pills aren't working on Victor. So I'm making my own"

"That's amazing. If we can make our own potions and pills that make our foes spill out the truth and secrets, we could stay two steps ahead of them always" Sarba grinned only to see Michael shake his head,

"Unfortunately there aren't any pills and potions that will make people tell their secrets without some kind of side effect or restriction"

"What about the one you're making? What kind of side effect does this one have?" asked Ayag,

"Nothing big, he will just die after few hours"