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Teressa also had access to the civilization system and all its functions. She had her own ideas of what she could assign, and she even had her own separate list of people and their trust levels.
Some of these people Vlad had never met, but they had very high trust levels with her, for example.
"You've assigned three right now… I suppose I could assign myself? Is that even possible? Well, not like I need to do that right now… Camilla, on the other hand, could benefit from this, right, dear?" Teressa asked.
"I dunno…" Camilla said. "I don't think I need power right now, Mom… I'm plenty strong myself…!"
"I don't think that's the case. The foes we're going to face will definitely be very powerful," Vlad said. "But for now, I think those three vassals are enough… Heracles and Gofumina came to mind, but their trust levels aren't at level 100 yet."
"W-We aren't?" Heracles asked. "I-I apologize! I truly do trust you both…!"
"Me too…" Gofumina nodded.
"Hm, well, your trust levels are indeed not at max, but perhaps that'll increase over time, hopefully," sighed Teressa. "It's not like it's something we can force either way."
"What do you think, Insecta?" Vlad asked. "I remember you said you once had another master who had a similar power…"
"Yes, he was rather different from you, Master," she said. "Perhaps one of your many ancestors. I would guess his name is now lost to history. The vassal system was something he obtained much later through his journey. I suppose you obtained it much earlier, however. Maybe it has to do with potential, or how late you started using such powers. My old master used a powerful grimoire to perform his Civilization Magic and Summoning Magic. And he could even steal the powers of others who had Otherworldly Origins, which, back then, were invading the Realm."
"Interesting. The more you talk about these times, the more intrigued I become. When was this exactly, Insecta?" Teressa asked, and Vlad would've asked the same thing, as he nodded.
"Ah, I simply cannot remember that much, however," Insecta said. "But I would assume… hundreds of thousands of years ago."
"Oh yeah, that's… a lot of time," Chris nodded. "Hey, Queenie, you've been pretty silent so far. How was your dungeon diving stream? Eh? Eh?" He began teasing the poor Queenie, who had teary eyes.
"I-It was pretty awful…" Queenie cried. "I wasn't strong enough, and we ended up getting humiliated."
"What place did you go to explore?" Vlad asked. "You could've asked us to help at least…"
"But you were so busy with your own things, I didn't want to bother you…" sighed Queenie. "I can't depend on you to make all my content, after all! …Luckily, it seemed to have made the audience laugh a lot, so… I guess it was good engagement in the end? Ah! And we went to explore the Crimson Forests, near the Toxic Swamps."
"You went there? It's a very dangerous place where high-tier monsters roam. What a foolish girl!" sighed Teressa. "Luckily, you and your companions were players, or you'd all be dead by now."
"Y-Yes… There was a very scary assortment of monsters. We could barely hunt a few before we were chased away. It was like a very scary sort of specter… of a giant monstrous woman screaming at us," Queenie cried.
"Abyssal Banshees?" Vlad asked, recalling a monster whose bloodline fragments he required to evolve his own bloodline.
"I don't know what their names were, but they had the Abyssal…" nodded Queenie. "And were Banshees, I think? But I thought Banshees were also people…"
"There are people who are Banshees and also monsters that are Banshees," explained Teressa. "The same way you can enter a tomb filled with undead monsters and skeletons and find Undead people here. It depends on their own mind and growth—and also their origins. The Undead we usually talk with are either old magicians who turned themselves into Undead, raised by Necromancers and given intelligence and free will, or something similar. Banshees are different. The monster variant is related to the tribe of people we interact with, but their ancestry is very ancient—like vampires and bats, for example."
"We originate from bats?!" Vlad asked.
"No, but they're our very distant cousins," explained Teressa. "Naturally, we Vampires are also more like a high caste of demons! Nothing like bats, hahah! But you get the idea, right?"
"Kind of, yeah," nodded Queenie. "Thank you for your help, Your Majesty… I'll bring along my army of followers for tomorrow! We were looking forward to the battle. It'll bring a lot of viewers if we livestream it."
"Hey, you better not get distracted doing only that, understood?" Chris asked angrily.
"I-I know… Of course, of course," Queenie muttered.
"Anyway! My son, I suppose we should level up this civilization, right?" Teressa wondered. "You're linked to it the most, so you gain some bonuses, if I remember correctly."
"Indeed, Mother. Let me do it then," nodded Vlad, as he looked at the civilization system, tapping a few things here and there. "It should be done…"
FLAAASH!
Suddenly, a wave of crimson light washed over the entire city once more, though only across the skies.
In that moment, the city's interior expanded again, by a few hundred meters, the walls magically moving outward and expanding accordingly.
"Impressive, the city expanded!" Teressa said. "So every time you level up the civilization, this happens?! It is indeed pure magic! The ancient civilization magic is real…"
"Calm down, it's mostly the power of the system…" Vlad said. "Now let's see… did I get bonus stats again?"
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