The Reincarnated Vampire Just Wants to Enjoy Her New Life

Chapter 63: Alicia’s Growth

The three of us continued on through the dungeon, speeding our way past the weak monsters while I looked forward to facing off against something strong or unusual. It had been quite a long time since I had been challenged, and I didn't count that hydra as one considering the state I was in.

<High Orc Warrior level 73, Captain level 78, and Bruiser level 72. The captain has [Leadership III], but otherwise there are no remarkable skills.>

Alicia's voice reverberated in my head while the monsters' stat pages appeared in the corner of my vision. Ever since Alicia discovered she could use [Scan], she had started practising its use, and as soon as she could started to give me combat advice however she could.

At first it took quite some time for her to find the section to display the monster's status. Part of it was my fault, as I just flew past all the mobs and only engaged the bosses because I had to. Even then I generally just took them out with a simple shot of magic.

For the first six floors, that was basically all I did. But when I got distracted admiring the shape and colour of a red leaf that was falling from above, a lone orc started charging at me in the autumn forest themed boss room. Out of nowhere, a window of the monster's stats opened up front in centre of my view.

<I did it! It's an Orc Fighter!>

Of course it was blocking my view of the boss. Not like it was really a problem for me when the opponent was so low level. Just feeling its presence, I gauged the distance it was from me, and simply sidestepped out of the way when it got within striking range. As I could at least see its club from beyond the edge of the status window, it wasn't a problem predicting the direction of its swing.

<Umm, so its level is 36, and its HP is really high, but doesn't have much MP. Strength and constitution is also really high at...>

<I can see it so you don't have to tell me all of it.>

<Oh, right, I already sent it to you.>

<You did.>

She had, and it was still blocking my view of the monster. But for the first time, I knew what I was fighting before actually taking it on. Even if I had let it charge at me with its overbearingly ponderous steps.

In fact, she was able to locate and snip out its status page much faster than I could've found it. It was only then that I realized that she must've been quietly practising it with the monsters we were encountering along the way.

<I gotta say, this is pretty impressive.>

<Really?>

<Yea, at the very least, I couldn't have done it myself, at least not so fast.>

<Yay! Hehehe.>

<Congratulations Alicia!>

<And while the monsters so far are too weak to be much of an issue, this information would be really handy in a tough fight, especially since I wouldn't have the leeway to find it on my own.>

<Eheheh. I'll make sure to practice a whole ton and do my best then!>

<Just, see if you can make the information show up in the corner of my view. If it shows up in the middle against something strong, we'd be in a ton of trouble.>

<Oh, ah, alright.>

With that little acknowledgement, that was exactly what she had done. By the time we reached the 18th floor, she was able to make the status screen show up somewhere convenient within moments of encountering a monster. Even for the ones I avoided, as long as I looked at it for more than a split second, Alicia was able to show me its information at will.

It made me wonder if the lack of a physical body made it easier for her to concentrate her entire being into that single task, allowing her to do it so quickly and efficiently.

But not only was she fast and efficient, but she learned to cut out unimportant information, and presented me only the things she felt were important for me to know. For example, if a monster was armed with a weapon, I didn't need to know its skill in that weapon or weapons it didn't have, unless if there was a special reason to know like the skill being unusually high ranked, or could be used to surprise me if the fight lasted long enough.

Not only that, but she had started to tell me the most relevant information so that I only needed to glance at the monsters' status page if I wanted to get more information. Even though it was against monsters that I didn't need even the slightest amount of help with, I had no doubt that the ability to get that sort of information was tremendously useful, and would probably save my life sometime in the future.

Going back, as I looked at the high orcs in front of me, I was reminded of the taste of their blood I had back home. Last time I had any it was still quite delicious, so before I knew it, I was licking my lips.

The three high orcs came charging at me with the captain waiving a crude stone axe as long as I was tall while roaring. While whatever it yelled was incomprehensible to me, it seemed to be understandable enough for the other two orcs, and their charge increased in speed and ferocity. Most likely, a part of it was due to the captain's [Leadership] skill. The warrior held a smaller stone axe up high while holding the broken trunk of a tree in the other in front of it, while the bruiser held both hands in front of it like a crude mockery of a boxer's pose. In place of boxing gloves, the bruiser had stone slabs held in place on its knuckles with dirty looking strips of some animal's hide.

Being lighter, the bruiser reached me first and swung with its fist. Faster or not thought, it was still slow to me, and trivial to duck under the big and heavy fist. Kicking out a foot, I shattered its ankle, causing the large green-skinned brute to topple like a felled tree.

Even before the bruiser hit the ground, I moved to the warrior. It tried to swing down its axe in panic, but I simply stepped inside of its swing, then with a light hop, I brought myself in range of the orc's neck and bit down, sucking hard to fill myself as fast as I could.

The high orc tried to swing its weapon at me a second time, but due to being inside its range, it was unable to land a hit with the heavy blade, and instead bopped my back with the hilt. Realizing that I was too close to use its weapon effectively, the monster dropped its weapon and log, and instead tried to punch me off of it. But by that point, I had sucked enough blood out that it couldn't bear its full strength and its slow movements felt more like it was just teasing rather than actually trying to hurt me.

After two tries, the high orc warrior was too weak to stay on its feet, and limply fell to its knees.

<Ah! Scarlet! Behind you!>

Already aware of it without Alicia's warning, I simply let go of the warrior and let gravity take me as a massive fist flew, or rather sauntered, over my head, dryly smashing into the orc warrior's chest. Despite the monster's chest bursting open from the impact, the lack of blood in the body prevented it from splattering in all directions and instead its chest caved inwards, leaving a crater from the impact.

As the bruiser pulled back in frustration, I took advantage of the opening and pushed off of the long dead orc, sliding across the floor between the bruiser's legs. Unfortunately I got a face full of unwashed unmentionables forcing me to suppress the urge to hurl.

I hoped it wouldn't negatively effect Alicia's upbringing.

Pushing myself off of the ground, I leaped up and spun around before biting into the second high orc's neck, quickly draining it as it tried to grasp over its shoulder to pull me off. Within moments, the monster's efforts grew weak and in a few seconds it too fell lifelessly to its knees before toppling over entirely as I kicked off of its back.

Last, and while not least, certainly not very impressive, the high orc captain roared in fury. As its delay when it gave the other two instructions forced it to get a late start and was now all alone before it even got within melee range.

The captain swung its weapon with all its strength, but I simply sidestepped the wild swing, slightly annoyed at all the dirt that was sent flying and pattered against my robes as the stone weapon created a small crater in the grassy dirt. Without slowing down, I shifted towards and around the orc as it tried to follow up its attack with a quick back swing, but by the time it raised its weapon over its shoulder again, I was already behind it, and simply hopped up, a bit higher than with the previous orcs, and bit into its neck, quickly draining it as it thrashed around, trying to dislodge me.

Soon, I was the last one standing, as the high orc captain's body lifelessly collapsed onto the ground.

<Thanks for the warning Alicia.>

<Ehehe. No problem!>

As the monster bodies disappeared, I grabbed the drops. Unlike the beginning, the drops might have been worth a decent amount of money, or had special uses that I wasn't aware of, so even things that I wasn't aware of its use went into my bag.

<Umm, so it's an earth mana crystal and high orc meat from the warrior, another earth mana crystal and high orc tusks from the bruiser, and again an earth mana crystal from the captain.>

As I picked each up item the monsters had dropped, Alicia identified them all swiftly. Having her do that was quite convenient as it was too much effort for me to bother doing on my own, and the results were quite useful. I had found something truly convenient more than once. For example, a vial of a dark green liquid ended up being a form of healing potion, or a spear had a fire enchantment on it. Not like I'd use either, but it was something that I was really appreciative to know at least.

Not least of all, Alicia really enjoyed identifying the items as well. The joy in her voice every time she did it made it hard to avoid smiling all the time.

The last item I picked up was a pair of meaty orbs, roughly as big as tennis balls. For a moment I thought they might be kidneys, but they weren't quite the right shape and most likely far too small for a creature as big as that high orc captain.

<Scarlet, what's a testicle?>

<Huh?! Where did that come from?!>

My mouth gaped open as the unexpected question came.

<Apparently those are high orc testicles, but what are testicles?>

<They're what?!>

I immediately dropped them and jumped back to make some distance. I could still feel their weight and squishyness in my hand, and it almost felt like my hand was soiled. Without a moment to lose, I conjured up a ball of water and rubbed my hands in it. Then I took out a bar of soap and scrubbed my hands as thoroughly as I could as I repeatedly rinsed and rewashed them.

In the end, I used up half the bar before I was even remotely satisfied.

<Are you alright Scarlet?>

<Ah, umm, yea, I am.>

<Really? What happened?>

<Ah, no, it's nothing. Just...no, it's nothing.>

<Umm, if you say so.>

It really wasn't something I wanted to explain. Even starting to would open an endless can of worms filled with things that was way too early for Alicia to know.

<So, umm, those things, it says that those things enhance fertility and virility.>

<No! It's okay now Alicia! You don't need to read anymore! I know enough already!>

<Master! That sounds great! Wouldn't those things be perfect to help achieve your dream?>

<Really? Then you should pick them up Scarlet! If it's so important for you, you shouldn't be dropping them!>

I glared at the dark spirit.

(I thought you were my ally!)

<Scarlet! Hurry! hurry! You don't want them to be taken by the dungeon right?>

<Umm, yea.>

All I could do was sigh as I used magic to float the orc testicles over and dropped them into my bag, careful to avoid touching them.

<Master! With this, you're one more step closer to being able to give birth to Alicia's new body!>

<Really? It's used for that?>

<I think so! Don't forget Master! You need to eat them entirely to maximize the effects!>

<That's right Scarlet! For the sake of becoming my mommy, you need to eat every bite of it when it's time!>

(Someone kill me.)

We arrived in an empty fountain room for the next floor, my hand lightly rubbing my lower belly as my mind was filled against my will with thoughts that came about from Alicia and Claret's words.

The thought of touching, much less eating, those orc testicles made me want to hurl. But even beyond that, the very idea of becoming pregnant was something I had difficulty wrapping my head around.

Logically and conceptually speaking, it was a simple story. I was a woman, and while I didn't understand how my body worked in countless places, if I were to have a child, it would be as a mother, rather than a father. I would be the one to carry that child, for however long it took before reaching term.

If it came to wanting to go through that experience, I could confidently say that I never even considered it between both of my lives. At least until it was brought up earlier in the day.

My eyes went to the room's exit, but I wasn't really feeling up to continuing immediately.

<Let's take a break.>

<<Okay.>>

I quickly formed up a stone bathtub and transferred the fountain's water into it and heated it up until it started filling the room with rich steam. Stripping down and tossing my clothes beside the fountain to be washed later, I stepped into the hot water, savouring the feeling as the warmth seeped deeply into my bones.

<Here you go Claret.>

<Thank you Master!>

I made and tossed a large mana treat to the dark spirit that was staring at my nude form. Fortunately, once she caught her meal, she focused herself entirely into enjoying it and stopped watching me so closely.

Technically I didn't have anything to be embarrassed about, as we were both woman, and even beyond that, different species. But it was like being stared at by your cat while you were naked. No matter how much you understood in your head that the cat didn't have any sort of sexual attraction towards your nude form, the fact that they refused to look away still made you feel uneasy about it.

Now that the cat, I mean spirit, was distracted with her meal, I turned my attention back to myself. I levitated over my bag and took out a bar of soap.

<Ah! This soap!>

<Aha, you remember it?>

<How could I forget?>

The soap I pulled out was made from cocoa butter and orange essential oil. It was the favourite of Alicia's, and I held off this entire time from using it. It was supposed to be her exclusive scent, but now that she was inside of me, I thought it might be good to use it myself so she could enjoy the scent.

I lathered myself up carefully before rinsing myself off. A quick sniff confirmed that my body emitted the same scent that Alicia loved.

Next, as a bonus, I pulled out the hair oil Alicia made before and gently rubbed it in to my hair. It had been a while since I last used any hair oil, so even as I applied it I could feel the difference it was making.

<It smells really nice.>

<It does.>

I had to agree with her. I secretly liked the mixture Alicia had come up with, but avoided using something too similar so that it could be her exclusive scent. For now though, using it myself was the closest thing I could do to letting her enjoy it.

Personally, I thought the scent was pretty childish, but I still liked it quite a lot.

If it was for Alicia's sake, I would move mountains. It felt like there wasn't any lie in that thought at all.

(Move a mountain, yes, but somehow this feels even more difficult than that.)

I hefted up a breast in my hand, feeling its weight as the majority of the flesh spilled out of my small palm. Next, my fingers traced the lines of my body, from my pinched waist to my flared hips.

There was no doubt that my body was incredibly sexy, but that also meant that it was practically tailor made for having children. Wide hips for easy childbirth, bountiful breasts for plentiful feeding, as well as a small stature and attractive face to encourage protection.

It was frankly depressing how much my body suited having babies from at least a purely aesthetic standpoint.

In the end, my hand ended laying over my belly once again.

It was a bit ironic, when I looked back, I actually had quite a lot of experience when it came to childcare. I spent a lot of time helping out children of various ages at the orphanage, and even raised Alicia for a year. I've even experienced what breastfeeding was like due to her early nighttime habits.

On one side, I had already experiences almost all the most difficult parts of raising a child, but on the other hand...

(While I would do almost anything for Alicia, but this really is a high hurdle for me.)

From a practical standpoint, if it was somehow possible for me to bear a child, it was most likely both the safest and most effective method to go for. Growing a body like a test tube clone or a magical homunculus involved a countless unknowns unless if I discovered information about someone who had successfully done it before. But that also presumed that the outcome was something that would be acceptable for Alicia's body as well.

(It's probably impossible.)

I couldn't see how it could be even remotely safe enough for me to accept it as a possibility.

(But the alternative...)

And that presumed my body was even capable of bearing a child in the first place. I've never experienced a period in this life, but since not all creatures experience them, it wasn't really a reliable factor to base any presumptions on. Apparently most mammal species on Earth didn't even have periods.

That said though, the fact that I spontaneously appeared at my final appearance in the wild without any parents suggested that vampires didn't breed like that at all unless if I was missing something somewhere.

Claret did seem to be pretty certain that both vampires and spirits spontaneous appeared from concentrations of mana.

(Actually, maybe that's an option?)

If I could figure out how to create a new vampire through the condensation of mana, then that was a better option.

(But then again, how would I insert Alicia into that body before another soul appeared?)

That was the biggest problem with that solution. Rather, the other problem of not knowing how to make the mana become a vampire instead of a spirit was almost as big of a problem in the first place.

(But the soul bit is an issue no matter what.)

If I couldn't control or at least prevent a different soul from entering the body, it was all pointless.

But if I had a choice...

(Creating a body by compressing mana in a single spot is most ideal.)

For me, that was the best solution if I could manipulate the process to fine tune the resultant body. It was the best...for me...

(But Alicia might not like that so much.)

I pulled my knees in and wrapped my arms around them, resting my chin on them while squishing my boobs in between.

<Claret, could you remind me what it was that your old master wanted the most?>

<Huh? A family of course. You wanted that more than anything in the world. You always talked about wanting a family.>

Thinking about it, considering that vampires weren't born from copulation, I could understand that she was likely jealous of the other races having families. Of all the things she was capable of, it was the one thing that eluded her no matter what she did.

As a former human, the idea wasn't novel in the slightest. In fact, I was one of the weird ones for not really being interested in starting my own family.

(But now that I have one, I can't let it go.)

It was a bit ironic how things went, even if my family wasn't really anything like a normal family.

But the most important thing, was that the previous Scarlet was unable to make a family of her own. I didn't know everything that she tried to do, and most likely Claret didn't either, but it was likely that the issues for it ran pretty deep.

<Alicia, if I could create a new body for you in the same way spirits or vampires naturally are born, would you prefer that over spending most of a year sleeping while I was pregnant with you?>

<...If you think that's best.>

(She hates it. She really hates the idea.)

I had no doubt of that. She was doing her best to not be selfish, but the way her voice quivered in my head left no doubt in my mind.

There wasn't really any options for me at this point. I simply had to do my best to find a way to make Alicia's dream come true.

<I don't know if I can even get pregnant, but I'll promise you that if it's possible, I'll do it. Alright?>

<Okay!>

I could only sigh internally to how excited the little girl sounded.