The Primordial Bloodseed had never been more upset.
Thalion had begun corrupting the crystal, which required far more blood than the Primordial Bloodseed was willing to part with.
"Now don't be so stingy. I already finished one crystal and this one is halfway done."
Thalion tried to calm the plant down, though it clearly saw things differently.
"Okay, I promise I'm not doing this again anytime soon. I might need a little more for the armor, but after that no more for a while. We have to prepare for a trial against the elite of the elite, and their blood will be worth the effort."
The Primordial Bloodseed remained stubbornly silent while Thalion continued his work.
There wasn't much blood left anymore.
Even the Primordial Bloodseed only held roughly a hundred liters at this point, which was practically nothing compared to its usual reserves.
After working so hard to empower the blood, seeing it hammered into a crystal where it seemingly vanished forever wasn't exactly encouraging.
If Thalion could have used anything else to corrupt the crystal, he would have done so.
Unfortunately, his blood was by far the strongest crafting material available to him.
The second crystal already burned with power.
Just a little more.
That was all he needed.
More blood flowed over the crystal while Thalion repeatedly struck it with his smithing hammer.
The hammer itself didn't damage the crystal.
It merely helped drive the blood essence deeper and deeper into its core.
Through the constant clinking and clanking, Thalion could still hear loud voices outside.
Something was happening.
Before trouble had time to reach him, he increased the speed of his strikes, hoping to finish before someone arrived with another problem demanding his attention.
With one final blow, the crystal changed.
Its color shifted into the deep crimson of his blood.
A moment later it began pulsing in rhythm with his own heartbeat.
Success.
The very next second the entrance door above burst open.
Rushing footsteps echoed through the building.
Only moments later, Maike entered the cellar containing the blood pond.
"Good, you're feeling better. There are thousands of humans coming out of the forest together with a few vampires. You need to come take a look. This is serious."
She was speaking incredibly fast and looked completely on edge.
The news itself sounded unusual, but Thalion didn't quite understand why they needed him.
"You mean an army?"
For a brief moment he thought the Chosen had finally discovered them.
But an invading force wouldn't be traveling alongside vampires.
An alliance between humans and vampires should have been impossible.
"Well, not really. Most of them are pretty weak, but there are so many of them. They want to speak with the leader. The vampires aren't weak though."
Whatever was happening, it clearly worried Maike.
"Fine. Luckily I just finished here, so let's see who decided to pay us a visit."
Internally, however, he hoped it wouldn't take long.
The crystals still needed to be shaped and integrated into the armor.
He had no intention of wasting valuable crafting time.
Thalion followed Maike through the city and toward the walls.
Several elves were already standing on top of the fortifications, clearly unsure what to do.
The moment Thalion looked beyond the wall, he immediately understood why.
There were humans everywhere.
Thousands of them.
And more were still emerging from the forest.
The vampires stood out clearly in his blood vision.
Every single one of them overflowed with blood energy.
Since they were merely waiting outside, Thalion decided to make the first move.
He jumped over the wall and landed before a group of humans and three vampires.
"So who are you and what do you want here?"
The humans immediately stepped back in alarm.
For them, it must have looked like he had crossed an impossible distance in a single leap.
Now that his strength had returned, such a display required almost no effort.
Only now did Thalion notice that all three vampires were female.
That alone was unusual.
Traveling together with humans was even stranger.
He wondered what they saw when they looked at him.
Could they sense the blood still hoarded by the Primordial Bloodseed?
Even a few drops of his blood were probably more potent than everything the three vampires carried combined.
One of the humans finally stepped forward.
"Hello. We have traveled for a very long time and are searching for a place to stay."
He glanced toward the city behind him.
"Normally elves and humans are at war, but here it looks like you've somehow managed to live side by side."
"Eh, so do you need a few helpers? We won't fight in a war though."
A young man who appeared to be one of the leaders of the group spoke up shyly. He wasn't doing too badly in terms of levels either, having already reached level 146.
The vampires observed everything with skeptical expressions. They clearly weren't enthusiastic about any of this.
"To be fair, I don't know how much free space we have. And if you don't want to be part of the war, it's probably best if you keep moving. At some point the Chosen will find us too."
Thalion felt honesty was only fair, especially considering how exhausted the man looked. Some of it was probably from all the traveling, but Thalion suspected it was also because of the numerous bite marks covering his neck. Given how recovery worked, those couldn't have been very old.
For some reason, his answer seemed to make the man and the nearby humans quite happy.
The vampires didn't share their enthusiasm.
"This is more than we could have hoped for. We can build our own homes, but we'll need enough food. Even in this new world that can become difficult from time to time. We need less food than before, but when you have this many people and no established farms, it quickly becomes a problem."
Another human spoke up excitedly. He too had several bite marks on his neck.
"Okay, I feel like someone needs to address the elephant in the room. What's going on with the vampires?"
Thalion finally couldn't hold back any longer.
The entire situation was just too weird.
"Oh, yes, yes, yes. They helped us. Protected us in exchange for only a little blood. We can fully trust them. The biggest difference is probably that they'll fight for you too."
The first man explained enthusiastically.
For some reason, Thalion didn't quite share his optimism.
Sure, anything was possible in the System, but he doubted the vampires would simply become a positive addition to the settlement. On the other hand, they had allowed the humans to come here and negotiate. It was obvious the vampires possessed the overwhelming majority of the group's combat power and could have easily guided their flock of humans somewhere else.
"The vampires helped you for just a bit of blood? To me it looks like they're filled to the brim."
Thalion commented while studying the vampires, who had mostly stayed out of the conversation and were instead watching him with visible curiosity.
"How is it that you have the eyes of a vampire? You're not one of us, are you?"
A red-haired vampiress finally asked.
"Not exactly." Thalion shrugged.
"So what's your game in all of this? If I'm being honest, my past experiences with vampires haven't been particularly positive."
He wasn't going to make things easy for the five vampires. The Primordial Bloodseed had already reminded him multiple times that it wanted their blood.
"It's exactly as the human said. We fight in exchange for blood."
Another vampiress answered calmly.
"They protected us from countless dangers during our journey. Without them we'd already be dead. What better proof could there be?"
The first human once again tried to vouch for the vampires.
This was a surprisingly difficult situation.
Thalion knew he had to make a decision.
Simply killing the vampires on the spot felt excessive, especially if the humans were telling the truth. On the other hand, he couldn't just invite them into the faction with open arms.
Thanking them for bringing the humans here and then sending them away also had a high chance of backfiring.
In the end, he chose the middle path.
"Hmm. This is quite a difficult decision. My allies will have to determine how much space we actually have for the humans. You'll also have to work. If you're not fighting, you'll contribute in other ways. That part isn't negotiable."
He then turned toward the vampires.
"As for you, you'll have to prove yourselves first. There will also need to be a strict system determining who you're allowed to drink from."
Surprisingly, those words brought smiles to everyone's faces.
Humans and vampires alike.
Then Maike landed beside him. She must have noticed the good mood and immediately arrived to undo all of his hard work.
Well, to be completely fair, it was about to become her work anyway.
"Thalion, have you come to a decision? Solan wants to speak with you."
That came completely out of nowhere.
Fortunately, he was pretty much finished here.
"Yep. We're adopting the humans and we should be able to find enough work for them. As for the vampires, they'll join us too, but they'll need to prove themselves first."
Thalion nodded seriously.
"As the leader of this faction, I officially assign this task to you, Maike. You should feel honored."
Maike didn't look particularly honored.
"Great, I can't wait to get started. If it gets too annoying, just tell some elf to do it."
Thalion grinned before activating Scarlet Maelstrom and flying back toward his mansion.
If Solan wanted to speak with him, it had to be important. Most likely it concerned the forms they planned to send through the portal. At least Thalion couldn't think of any other reason the god would want to contact him.
Filled with anticipation, he stepped onto the communication circle inside his mansion.
"Okay, Thalion, listen carefully to what I have to say."
The Golden Lord began speaking the moment his projection appeared.
Yeah, I wasn't planning on doing anything else, Thalion thought but wisely kept quiet.
"I've been thinking about your forms and what would complement them best. Then I got an idea. You have a skill that allows you to move skills between forms, right? So why not transfer your fire skills to your wyvern form and fuse them with its ice and storm affinities?"
Solan looked rather pleased with himself.
"It would make your wyvern significantly more powerful. As for your human form, I could send you creatures I personally blessed in the past. That way you could acquire several strong light-based skills. Light works exceptionally well with plants anyway."
It was an interesting suggestion.
There was just one major problem.
He would somehow need to transfer his bloodline to the wyvern as well, and that wasn't currently possible.
More importantly, after his last experiment he wasn't willing to risk another backlash.
"Interesting idea, but I have a bloodline tied to my human form. Part of it is heavily connected to fire, so that won't really work. Why not simply add light skills and a light affinity to my human form instead?"
To Thalion, gaining another affinity sounded like a solid improvement.
It would also give him an advantage should he ever have to fight Eric.
"A bloodline? So you got a bad one."
Solan frowned.
"Yes, light affinity would suit your human form well, but I'm worried about the wyvern falling behind. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly powerful form. In all my years I've never seen anything quite like it. It's definitely high tier."
The god paused.
"The problem is that you're planning to fight D-grade Chosen while remaining E grade yourself. You need every advantage you can get."
"We also shouldn't forget your water serpent. For that form I have another idea."
Now that caught Thalion's attention.
Unlike Solan, he didn't believe the wyvern was in a particularly bad position. Sure, it had missed some of the larger upgrades, but more improvements would come eventually. Besides, if close combat became necessary, he could always switch to another form.
The serpent, however, was a different story.
"Have you ever heard of the Great Affinities?"
Thalion hadn't.
Apparently Solan didn't require an answer.
"Space and Time are Great Affinities. Normally those can only be obtained at much higher grades, but your forms are so exceptional that it might be worth attempting."
The god leaned forward slightly.
"Time has always paired exceptionally well with water. In general, I think it would be a perfect addition to your serpent."
"This will likely be a long-term project because I need to find a D-grade beast possessing passive abilities related to time. On top of that, Great Affinities can be extremely dangerous to their users and are notoriously difficult to understand."
He shrugged.
"Even so, I think it would fit. What do you think?"
In Thalion's opinion, controlling time sounded fantastic.
There was absolutely no reason to refuse.
"Sounds great. I'm fully on board. Any other suggestions?"
Unfortunately, Solan shook his head.
"No. That's everything for now."
The god then crossed his arms.
"Now tell me, when are you finally finishing that armor so we can send through the forms we've already collected for you?"
At this point, Solan looked genuinely frustrated.
"I still have no idea what goes on inside your head, but you really need to get moving. Level do matter. You need to get as close to D grade as possible before the third system event."
The seriousness in the god's voice was obvious.
Thankfully, Thalion wasn't worried.
The local flora and fauna were progressing rapidly. More and more creatures were reaching D grade, which meant vastly better experience gains than hunting ordinary E-grade monsters.
The only things left on his list were finishing the armor, checking the new forms, and then he could spend the next five months leveling like a maniac.
At this point he could barely wait.
Almost all of the tedious preparations were finally finished and the fun part could begin.