Chapter 41 : Change

Tap tap tap!

“Hahaha! Charlotte! Hwanggu is so fast!”

In the end, Aurel and I decided to ride on Hwanggu, who had transformed into a wolf.

Since Hwanggu herself wanted it so much, there was no real reason to refuse.

Just as Aurel said, Hwanggu was incredibly fast.

She ran with her own thoughts in mind.

In other words, as long as I told her the destination, she would automatically head there without me needing to guide her direction.

It was much faster and more convenient than riding a motorcycle.

“Woof woof!”

Hwanggu ran excitedly, as if being ridden by me made her extremely happy.

For some reason, my thighs felt empty.

I wrapped my arms around Hwanggu’s fluffy neck.

She was warm and soft, and holding her made me feel sleepy.

As we were speeding along, lost in the exhilaration of the ride, suddenly…

Boom… boom boom boom!

A giant rumbling sound began to echo from below the ground.

The ominous noise caused Hwanggu, who had been running so smoothly, to come to an abrupt stop.

Boom boom boom—

Was it a new boss appearing? Or just an earthquake?

I held Aurel’s hand tightly and looked around nervously.

Then, with a thunderous roar, the asphalt road began to crack.

From beneath the cracks, twisted, withered trees were rising up.

“Trees…?”

The towering trees grew higher and higher, as if they were unaware of the sky above.

How long had passed?

Finally, the massive tremor began to calm down.

“Growl!”

Hwanggu suddenly bared her teeth as she saw the towering trees, showing her caution toward the unfamiliar object.

However, the appearance of the trees felt strangely familiar.

I tilted my head and patted Hwanggu’s back.

“Hwanggu, go to that tree.”

“Woof…!”

After a brief hesitation at my command, Hwanggu nodded and approached the tree.

I dismounted from Hwanggu’s back and began examining the tree.

The texture seemed no different from that of any ordinary tree, and its withered appearance made it seem like it could have died a long time ago. However, there was an eerie vitality radiating from it, which felt out of place.

“What could this be?”

“This is…”

“Woof!”

I gently touched the tree and activated my Mana Eye.

The Mana Eye, which grants knowledge of everything in this world, would reveal the tree’s identity.

Ugh!

As soon as I activated it, my left eye began to burn intensely.

Blue flames erupted, and the world seemed to be engulfed in blue.

[Object_001252]

“What is this…?”

I groaned as I checked the information about the tree.

Object 1252?

Based on its appearance, this tree definitely seemed to be one connected to blood.

But the information that the Mana Eye provided about it was absurd.

Object number 1252, with no name?

Of course, it made sense that the tree didn’t have a name in this state.

This world was simply using the information from the Blood Carnival.

“Do you know what this tree is, Charlotte?”

“It seems like a tree that’s connected to blood…”

I trailed off at Aurel’s question. And then, at that moment—

Zzzt!

A sudden static noise filled the air.

As the faint sound tickled my ears, the information about the tree changed.

[Bloodwood]

I quickly pulled my hand away from the tree, startled by the unexpected change.

Was this a real-time patch update?

The name of the tree had been updated, but the description field remained blank.

“Charlotte…?”

“Just a moment, I was just surprised.”

I slowly took a deep breath. A real-time patch had updated the tree’s name right after I revealed its nature.

This was a very suspicious situation.

I looked up at the sky.

Perhaps the god who created this world was watching me right now.

“Can you see anything in the sky?”

“Maybe they are watching.”

“Who?”

“The god.”

“The god…?”

“Yeah. The one who created this world.”

“Wow…!”

Aurel was startled by my answer.

Hwanggu also curled her tail in surprise, clearly shaken.

“Ah…! Charlotte, look! Something’s opening on the tree!”

While I was staring intently at the sky, Aurel tugged on my clothes and pointed toward the tree.

Following Aurel’s words, I turned my head and looked at the tree.

Just like how branches sway in the breeze, the tree began to move slowly.

At the end of the tree’s branches, red fruits were hanging.

In that moment, the information about the fruit was transmitted through my “Maahn.”

[Bloodfruit]

A fruit that alleviates the thirst for blood.

It has a composition similar to human blood.

As expected, it was a description like something straight out of a game. The effects were probably the same.

I stood on tiptoe and reached out my hand.

Stretch!

“Ugh…!”

“Charlotte?”

“I can’t reach it…”

I frowned.

Yes, the tree was too tall. No matter how much I stretched, I wouldn’t be able to reach it.

But even if I couldn’t reach it, it didn’t matter.

I had an amazing shadow.

“Ha!”

As I reached out toward the tree, a black shadow began to rise from below my feet.

Just like climbing up the tall tree, the shadow swiftly plucked a bright red fruit.

“Huff huff!”

Hwanggu showed great interest in the unfamiliar fruit.

Her tail spun in the air, clearly wanting to try it.

I decided to experiment and took a bite of the fruit.

Crunch!

It had a texture similar to biting into an apple.

At the same time, a rich juice burst out.

The thick fragrance from the flesh of the fruit filled my mouth.

Whoosh!

The overall taste wasn’t much different from human blood.

It was, quite frankly, incredibly delicious.

I widened my eyes in surprise and took another bite of the fruit.

Crunch!

It didn’t take long before I had finished the entire apple-sized bloodfruit.

I sucked the juice off my fingers and smiled subtly.

“Haah…”

“Sniff…!”

Aurel and Hwanggu swallowed dryly as they watched me. If left like this, drool might start dripping from their mouths. I picked two more blood fruits to feed the kids.

“Thank you!”

“Woof!”

Aurel received the blood fruit politely with a bright smile. Hwanggu also wagged his tail wildly to express his joy.

Crunch!

Hwanggu opened his large mouth and bit into the blood fruit in one go.

“Chomp…!”

Crunch-!

Aurel used his small mouth to eagerly bite into the blood fruit. Both seemed to find the blood fruit delicious. Just in case, I hugged the large blood fruit tree.

“Hyah!”

I took a proper stance and pulled the blood fruit tree with all my might. But the blood fruit tree didn’t budge. All objects in the Blood Carnival were indestructible. It seemed they had brought that system over as is. I sighed deeply with regret. If I could have taken the blood fruit tree, I would have created a blood fruit orchard in a secret place only I knew…

Putting my regret behind, I wiped my lips and climbed onto Hwanggu’s back.

“Woof?”

Hwanggu was startled as I suddenly climbed on. I scratched the back of his neck. Now was not the time to worry about the gaze of an unknown god. In this world, blood fruits were a very important resource for vampires. Therefore, I had to record the location of the blood fruit trees in detail. For the record, I needed crayons. I reached out to the shadow.

“Yeppi.”

The shadow began to stir at my call. Soon, a small girl peeked out from the shadow, holding a 48-color crayon set tightly in her arms. It was Yeppi.

“Give me the red one.”

“O-Okay…”

Yeppi made a tearful face at my command. I sighed and said,

“I’ll return it after I use it.”

“…”

However, it seemed her feelings were still hurt. Yeppi handed over the crayon and then quickly disappeared into the shadow.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to mark the locations of the blood fruit trees on the map.”

Hearing my answer, Aurel nodded and climbed onto Hwanggu’s back. Then, he approached and hugged my waist. The position of his small hands was rather awkward. I sighed and adjusted his hands.

“Run, Hwanggu!”

“Woof!”

At my command, the large wolf Hwanggu started running quickly.

Tap- Tap- Tap- Hwanggu’s large paws pounded the ground, slicing through the wind.

Hwanggu ran very fast. Thanks to that, I was able to save a considerable amount of time looking around all of Seoul. If I had been riding a motorcycle, it would have taken much more time than I thought.

The number of blood fruit trees identified was 30 in total, spread out with Seoul Station, where Fenrir was hunted, as the central point.

I hadn’t looked outside Seoul, so it wasn’t accurate, but these blood fruit trees probably only grew near Seoul. Once I left Seoul Station, I couldn’t find any blood fruit trees.

While riding on Hwanggu, I fed the blood fruit trees to my subordinates. Watching the girls pop out from the shadows and munch on the apple-like fruit made me smile unconsciously.

The total number of blood fruits harvested while circling the blood fruit trees was 150.

Five fruits grew on each tree.

After feeding each of my subordinates, more than 100 fruits were left.

I looked at the blood fruit tree, which had been completely picked.

In the Blood Carnival, the fruit-bearing cycle was very short.

Did one fruit grow every day?

This blood fruit tree, which seemed to have been brought over directly from the game data, likely followed the same cycle.

Other than that, I checked for any changes after defeating Fenrir, but the only noticeable change at the moment was this blood fruit tree.

As expected, the cycle for the blood fruits to regrow was 24 hours.

Being able to gather so many blood fruits meant that it was okay to increase the number of subordinates.

Of course, this was under the assumption that I monopolized all the blood fruit trees at Seoul Station.

I didn’t monopolize the blood fruit trees.

I handed over the ownership of the blood fruit trees to each clan that participated in the Fenrir subjugation.

I took 10 blood fruit trees, and the remaining five clans shared four trees each.

Maybe that’s why clans living far from Seoul Station began moving their hideouts.

It was a natural choice to easily and quickly harvest the blood fruits.

Although unintended, I was able to have the allied vampire clans close to me.

A week after the blood fruit trees started growing, a noticeable change occurred.

The level-up function that had been blocked started working.

The first to level up was Aurel.