Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System

Chapter 584: Challenges Thea’s version (part 20)

Appearing in the bathroom after successfully escaping from those three, allowed Daimon to let out a sigh of relief, though he didn't know what has happened between Thea and Thalia, they were now being strangely aggressive to each other.

'Did they started to fight as soon as I was out… no, though they were arguing earlier I didn't sense any ill intent between them, what's more they easily agreed when it came to deal with Mirellia', thought Daimon.

He wanted to ask Eve what happened when he was out, but judging by how she was giggling at him, she wasn't going to spill the beans so he didn't bother to try.

Instead of that he opened the log of the system, since he fell asleep without finishing reading the surprise notification he got after getting rid of Dorian's projection, he quickly found his objective at the end of the log.

[Congratulations on obtaining "Memory Orb" X1]

[A new skill has been created due to a specific action]

[Tyrant's Rule Lv1 (Passive): In the presence of the tyrant, enemies can't raise waves, whether they like it or not, the tyrant's will is absolute]

[Deprives the targets within the wake of the host, of proper control over a selected part of their bodies, additionally one trait of the selected choice will be temporarily incorporated by the host (improvement, physical strength, stamina or special function), the selected part can be changed at as much as the host wants it, but a span of five seconds will be required between each change]

[Limited to two targets per day, for a maximum of five minutes per target (can be turned on and off by the host at will), the first effect can be resisted or weakened depending on the level of existence of the target, but the second one is absolute (the host must be fighting the targets at the moment of activation and the targets must be within the reach of the host's senses)]

[The Corrupted Treasure Trove has been partially filled 0/100 à 5/100]

Daimon couldn't help but be in awe as he finished reading the description of the skill he got, sure there were restrictions but its effect was crazy.

Imagine, not only hindering your enemy's movements but also obtaining one of their strengths in the middle of a fight, what's more he saw some resemblance in this skill and one of the skills that became the foundation of what he has become.

'Is it me, or this skill looks like a slightly weaker counterpart of Overlord's Pride, focused on knights instead of mages', thought Daimon.

Overlord's Pride has wide range of effect, it can be focused on specific targets to intimidate them, but as an aura type of skill, its purpose is to affect many targets at the same time, which is also the concept of mages.

Tyrant's Rule on the other hand, can only affect two targets at the same time, but the effect has a bigger impact in exchange, which is the concept of knights, of course Daimon has never encased himself to said concepts, but the initial focus of the skills is always one of those two, they change after leveling up as they adapt to Daimon's wishes and needs, with the sole exception of Core Synchrony which from the very beginning didn't differentiate between mage or knight, but is exclusively related to soulmates.

As to why Daimon considered it to be slightly inferior to Overlord's Pride, that's easy, this skill has limitations based on "Level of existence" and while as of current Daimon has no idea of what that means, Overlord's Pride isn't limited by that, so long as the target feels fear, it will be affected by it, still it was on par with his strongest skills for sure.

'That woman for sure had enough greed to contribute to the corrupted treasure trove, which hadn't advanced at all even after destroying those Naga fellows, but tell me Eve, did the system tailor that skill specially for me?', asked Daimon as he undressed and walked into the shower.

The familiar gaze of the undead head maid, reminded him that she also recovered during the past night and was at her prime as of current.

'Well, originally you should have only obtained the control depriving effect, since that was what was contained in the remaining existence of that guy but… you deserved a reward so I pulled some strings', pridefully said Evangeline, clearly wanting to be praised, which was rather cute.

'Sure, sure, you are the best, you even changed the memories of that guy into a universal use item', said Daimon as he observed the memory orb in the inventory, unlike what happened with that half part of Karla and the greedy Nethereal, the memories weren't directly absorbed by him, but became an item, it's obviously something that Evangeline did.

And it came with quite some benefits, for example he could show its contents to others, instead of having to share them through words like it happened with Marlene.

'Eve is feeling "threatened" by the appearance of so many girls similar to her, so she wanted to show off a bit in front of Daimon', innocently added Narasha, as she came out of the inventory as Disaster to float under the shower next to Daimon, making him chuckle, while Evangeline reacted like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

'N-Nonsense, I only did it because it was beneficial for me, that's all!', she exclaimed while thinking to herself.

'After all, if you would have killed that woman as you are right now, with help or not, you would have gotten an achievement that surpassed the SSS Divinity rank, so this much is nothing in comparison', a second later she didn't forget to add.

'Humph, go watch the memory orb along with your snake girls and let me rest a bit', and with those words, Evangeline returned to "sleep", while in reality the blurred image of a girl floating while holding onto a large pillow, rolled on the air while rambling about some impossible to understand things.

Daimon's eyes glowed for a second as he inwardly thanked Evangeline for the hint, she knew he was for sure going to watch the memory orb, so she mentioning the "snake ladies" part, meant that there would be extra benefits if Thea and Thalia saw it too.

'Thanks', Daimon limited to thank Evangeline and as expected he got no response, but he could feel the administrator girl brimming with happiness in his mind.

Leaving that aside, Daimon finished his shower and then left the bathroom, he was immediately welcomed by a couple of gazes that belonged to Thea and Thalia, apparently the Lamia queen had left along with her daughters, since a few minutes ago, not without inviting them to join them to eat lunch later.

"Hi you two, there is something I want to show…", before Daimon could finish his sentence, he saw Thea's smile sour a bit.

'I guess it's better to solve this first', thought Daimon before saying.

"Did something happen while I was asleep, you two didn't know each other enough to be in bad terms until yesterday?".

"It's because that old woman in disguise is nosy", mumbled the empress, making Thalia softly snort in response.

"I already told you that I'm younger, also who's nosy, I didn't interfere in your contract but stablished mine separately, it's a fair competition", she said.

Daimon was temporarily speechless, those two were fighting over both being in a contract with him, which he found a bit amusing, also it was interesting to see Thea be sulking because he wasn't her exclusive general anymore.

"How is that fair, go away you thieving woman, Daimon is my general so I won't let you steal him", declared the empress, which made Thalia frown.

"Hey, don't speak of the most honorable tradition of our race so lightly, for us of the royal lineage, the knighthood pact symbolizes more than a simple alliance, it represents the fact that we are close with the one we chose and are willing to be courted by the other party, it's the maximum expression of respect and gratitude and so it must be upheld with total seriousness", she exclaimed.

"…", this time let alone Thea, even Daimon was taken by surprise, the empress's face turned red like an apple.

"W-What the hell are you talking about, I… Daimon… courting!", the empress's brain seemed to have suffered a short-circuit, unaware to process what was happening, it was Thalia's turn to be confused.

"Wait a second, don't tell me you didn't know the meaning of the knighthood pact, but then why were you aiming at my throat?", she said.

"What you say makes no sense, I have other generals under me, not to mention my subordinates", mumbled Thea, ignoring Thalia's previous statement, all this while thinking.

'Is that why my always thought that my connection with Daimon felt different…', she wondered.

"We are royalty, of course we can have as many allies or subordinates as we need, however a princess can only have one titled knight, so the pact with a person of the opposite sex who possesses the same affinities on equal standing as us can only be used with one person at the time".

"Of course, if any of the parties wishes for it then the pact can be voided but as a penalty the two previous parts can never enter the pact again, at the same time a new knight can be chosen after defeating the previous one in a duel", said Thalia.

"I see, so that's why you asked me if I entered the contract with Thea due to external influence and also why you were surprised that I easily accepted the contract with you", said Daimon, finally understanding Thalia's reaction from back then.

He was also unaware of the meaning of the pact, but it made sense after all meditating in unison is something that mages won't do with just anyone, since it is a moment of weakness and the first thing Thalia did was to gather space laws with his help.

"Mm, also… it's normally the man the one who proposes so it was rather shameful to have taken the initiative myself, especially when I thought that you were already courting a princess, but since it was for recovery purposes, I paid no mind", she mumbled in response.

What happened was a double misunderstanding, Thalia thought that Thea stablished the contract with the purpose of considering Daimon to be his partner in the future, while Thea was angry at the thought of Thalia stealing his general from her.

'Well, they are definitely related to each other, even their misunderstandings are similar', thought Daimon, needless to say but Evangeline was laughing to death at Daimon's current situation.

At least until she heard Thalia saying.

"Since the nature of your contract with her isn't as I thought, then I would like to keep ours indefinitely, instead of terminating it when I recovery", before Thea could even react, Thalia turned to see her to then say.

"Sorry to have misinterpreted you, we had no reason to fight to begin with, I'll gladly teach you how to change the nature of your contract later".

Thea felt a vein popping on her neck as she saw the smile on Thalia's face.

"Dream on, you can't steal my… general in any way, form or whatsoever" said Thea, with a similar expression as when she saw Marlene's kiss mark on Daimon's cheek before.

"But you stablished it by mistake, you don't even know how to take advantage of the benefits from the knighthood pact properly", retorted Thalia.

Those two shared another thing in common, they were both incredibly stubborn which led to them starting to argue once again, the arguing continued until the empress seemed to have run out of arguments and instead turned to see Daimon with a slightly agitated expression on her pretty face.

"You are the one who has to cancel your contract, I was first, tell her Daimon!", exclaimed the empress in a cute childish way.

Daimon inwardly sighed before clearing his throat to get their attention.

"Ahem, stop with the arguing for now, while the situation with Thea was a misunderstanding I don't think it affect us in any way to continue as we are, you on the other hand did know the meaning behind of the contract, so why do you want to maintain the contract with me, Thalia, I don't think you see me in that way?", asked Daimon, which made Thea pout but she also felt strangely happy to that cancelling her contract with him was completely out of the window.

Anyway, back to Daimon, he isn't dense, he would need to be brainless to not notice when a girl harbors romantic feelings for him, like the Risha sisters for example, of course knowing and corresponding to them are two completely different things.

And so, he can tell that Thalia doesn't see him in that way, she does seem to have a good impression of him, despite him being a system user, which might be related to the fact that he saved her, but not love which is what the knighthood pact supposedly would represent for them.

"Like I said it's also the maximum expression of respect and gratitude towards someone of the opposite gender, also since this innate ability has evolved with time making it possible to be used as many times as needed, prior to choosing an official partner of course, so there is no down side to it, in any case it is beneficial for both parties as you saw earlier", said Thalia.

'That being said, it is indeed my first time accepting a knight and the same applies for her', she thought to herself as she stole a glance at Thea.

'Well, it's not like I am really restrained by contracts anyway, so I guess there is no

"In that case we can keep the contract, as well", he said, making the empress's mood darken on the spot, but it was solved by Daimon's next words.

"However, I want to ask a favor from you in exchange", he said to Thalia who nodded in response.

"Sure, if it's within my possibilities I don't mind, I owe you big time after all", she said, while glancing at Thea from the corner of her eyes.

"I want you to teach Thea about her ascendence, so that she can avoid future problems, like the one with the knighthood pact", the contract in question was an innate ability that the empress learned through the legacy encrypted in her bloodline, said Daimon.

She probably misinterpreted the word "knight" for the word "general" along the lines, not to mention she didn't learn the whole purpose of the contract, considering that her lineage was quite high ranked, there should be many more things to learn.

Seeing Thalia's smile turn bitter, the empress giggled to then kick Thalia when she was down.

"There is no need for that, the wall that was blocking my advance has softened after the Royal Fang was absorbed into my hand, there is information being assimilated into my bloodline as we speak, I can see the way to reach the high stage Stellar rank already~", she happily said, the meaning behind the lines was clear, "I don't need her".

'Mmm, I guess that's her reward for completing her challenge, the gaps in her lineage are being filled in with what was missing', thought Daimon, surprisingly Thalia was thinking something similar.

'Damn it, I forgot that a system user was involved, she probably got a copy of my own blood legacy as a reward', she inwardly cursed.

Daimon chuckled, those two had another thing in common, their thoughts were really obvious, at least for him to notice.

"Still, the process would be smoother if you are directly taught by someone who was born with that knowledge, not to mention you won't get information about the culture of your race from your bloodline, so this would be beneficial for you, as for Thalia, I'll help you with your meditation but we have to include Thea", and with that, it was Thalia's turn to smirk at Thea, who pouted as she gave in.

"Fine… but only because you think it will be better for me", she said.

Daimon felt relieved that those two were able to take a step back and compromise, he was worried that would try to solve this with their weapons, considering how alike they are.

Leaving the whole subject aside, Daimon extended his hand and a white hand sized sphere with a black snake emblem on it, appeared on the air, making Thalia frown.

"That thing feels awfully similar to Dorian", she mumbled.

"That's because this is a part of Dorian's memories", said Daimon, making those two's eyes sparkle in surprise.

[Memory Orb: Contains the leftover memories recovered from a fragmented being's existence, the important parts were selected and refined with the cost of using non important parts, in exchange the content can be shown to other people at the discretion of the host, in an immersive experience (can be reproduced as a whole a total of ten times before it disappears)]

Naturally, not everything could be saved since Dorian has been dead for a long time already, the projection of earlier is something that Gwen somehow made, so the system couldn't recover everything, but with a bit of help from Evangeline, the important parts were saved, she even changed the format into an item that could be shown to others.

The limit of times that could be reproduced doesn't pose a problem, unless we are talking about someone with really bad memory, but Daimon and the two snake princesses will only need to see it once to memorize it.

Also, in case you wonder if letting others see the contents of the memory of a system user, won't put them in danger, according to Evangeline it won't make much of a difference for those that are already close to him.

In other words, just being close to Daimon is already enough to cause the same effect on others as getting to know about system users, in fact others can mention and talk about it and they would remain the same, the only prohibition is that Daimon himself can't talk about his own system with others, exploiting the flaw that using alternative words can keep them safe from further influence, at least for now.

'There must be other reason for Eve to change the memories into this kind of thing, I guess I will get to know it at its due time', thought Daimon as he clicked on the snake emblem in the white sphere.

Then under Thea and Thalia's surprised eyes, the sphere raised into the air before it dissolved into light particles that then dispersed all over the room, the next thing they knew they were surrounded by a perfect projection of what would be a dvd menu.

'Really, Eve…', thought Daimon as he saw the available options, among which "Chapters" was included.

'Hehehe, I thought that since your girls love to see the movies you buy through the system, why not enhance the experience~'. Jokingly said Evangeline from within Daimon's mind.

'I like them too, they are entertaining', added Narasha, making Daimon sigh, certainly movie night was quite popular among the soulmates, but this wasn't a movie but memories from a dead guy, so it was kind of strange.

Also, the 3d holograph made it as if they were inside the projection, so he could tell that this memory orb thing produced a similar result as the scenes he got from the greedy Nethereal earlier.

"Is this some kind of illusion magic, it's amazing, if I didn't see that sphere, I wouldn't have noticed that this wasn't real until I tried to touch something", said Thalia, unlike the empress she had knowledge of the paternal side of her lineage which consisted in darkness related stuff, such as curses and illusions as well, so her words carried some weight.

"Bookworm…", Thea saw Thalia "bragging" about her knowledge and she couldn't help but mutter, before she sat on the bed to then tap the place next to her, the projection kept an empty space for the viewers, that consisted on ten meters around Daimon.

"Sit with me, earlier a certain nuisance got in our way, but we can now enjoy this "Snake Blessing Wine", it's a special piece of my collection that will multiply your recovery rate for a whole week with a single cup~", said the empress as she smiled at Daimon, making the latter chuckle.

If there is something the empress enjoys as much as battle or maybe even more, that is drinking and she recently discovered that drinking in Daimon's company is even more up to her liking.

"Sure", limited to say Daimon as he sat next to her, making the empress's smile widen as she proposed to pour a cup for Daimon, only to see Thalia sitting at Daimon's free side.

"What, don't worry I don't like alcohol, our race is strangely weak with it but even then, some "particular" people in my family branch have it as their vice, my aunt for example", said Thalia before she focused on the projection.

"Humph, I wasn't going to give you anything anyway", mumbled the empress as she softly snorted.

Daimon ignored those two's petty quarrel and entered the chapter menu; he couldn't help but notice that below some chapters there was a small comment with some familiar words.

For example, there was one which said "Watch with the Angelfish princess for more fun~".

Daimon could immediately feel the sharp snake-like eyes of Thea gazing at him, while Thalia who knew about system users, softly laughed finding Daimon's administrator amusing, something that she will come to regret but that's a story for another day.

"Ahem, ignore that", said Daimon as he surfed through the chapters until he found the ones that were marked with "For Snake princesses" comment, while inwardly swearing to get back at Evangeline for this.

Daimon clicked on the chapter and the surroundings blurred for a moment before they were "transported" into the initial scene of the chapter.

"What the hell do you mean with "You can't beat him", if I don't win that hero shit, I'm going to die!", yelled a tall young man with brown hair and slit pupils, similar to those of a snake, who Daimon and of course Thalia recognized immediately as Dorian.

"Don't blame me, you haven't fulfilled the objectives of the mission and to begin with, that guy has the local advantage in this planet, since his concept is related to water, anyway as you currently are you stand no chance against a hero type since their strong point is head on clash", said a second voice.

Dorian was alone in a room, so it was strange to listen a voice come out of nowhere, but then a second later the air in front of Dorian blurred and a tall woman with silver and red hair materialized, that was Gwen of course.

Daimon felt interested on her as soon as she appeared, not because she was pretty which was true, but because she could come out while still being with her system user and unlike the angel girl Ariel or that ghost woman that bullied Marcus, or Karla who tailored a body for herself and possessed another one with her other half, she had a physical body even before separating from Dorian!

"Useless, you said that my system was a high tier one so why am I being surpassed by a random character in my first joint mission", exclaimed Dorian.

"Not my fault, he leveled up more than you or probably had a fortunate encounter after having accepted the mission, which catapulted him above the required level for this mission, the only one who might be able to put up a fight is that Light Archer girl, but she was chosen to be his ally, so you can't woo her in", casually said Gwen, making a vein pop on Dorian's neck.

"Anyway, it's not like everything is lost, don't forget the major advantage you possess", she added, only for Dorian to throw a glass decoration making it break against the ground.

"What's the use of using my last summoning slot, they can't be as strong as me anyway, that guy has a whole damn kingdom behind of him, I won't have the time to develop the affinity after the integration!", he yelled.

Gwen sighed in response.

"That's why you are an idiot, still since you are my host I can't just let you die like that, why do you think I told you to focus on primary affinities, such as fire, water, earth, wind and the like, it was all to lay a strong foundation for when you needed an affinity that can be impactful even in its initial form, like space for example", she said with a cunning voice.

Her words not only caused a reaction from Dorian, but also from Thalia who clenched her fists, realizing why this chapter was marked for them to see, apparently this was the day when she would be kidnapped from her home.