Chapter 277: Vampire meets goddess again...
The Lost Club.
Six months after Victor first met Aphrodite.
He was met with an unpleasant surprise.
"Witch, I need something from you..." Looking at the woman in a Greek dress and long pink hair, Victor's face distorted visibly.
"Geh…"
"What do you mean 'Geh'? It looks like you're not happy to see me." Aphrodite spoke with a pout on her face.
"...It's just your imagination." Victor quickly turned around and tried to leave the office.
...Yes, he tried.
Aphrodite touched his shoulder, and with a gentle smile on her face, she said, "Since we haven't seen each other in a while, how about we talk a little?"
"I refuse." Victor spoke without turning around, and opened the door.
"Hahahaha~, no need to be shy, come on, come on, come talk to me!" Aphrodite started pulling Victor back.
"I refuse." Victor kept trying to get out of the office.
'Ugh, why does he refuse to talk to me so much?'
In these six months that had passed, Victor along with Ruby, with Esther's assistance, had tried to do everything he could to find a way to get back to Nightingale.
But as expected, all his attempts were in vain, which meant that anything that would enable him to invade that world were inaccessible to him now.
Frustrated and angry with this result.
He devoted all his time to training.
He traveled to the ice castle he made for Ruby at the North Pole and focused entirely on getting stronger.
Of course, he also didn't forget to pay attention to Ruby or his Maids, who were quite concerned about his mental state.
Despite being extremely worried, and annoyed at not seeing his wives for over six months, Victor didn't completely freak out because of Ruby, who was with him, and his Maids.
... And also the security that the girls were fine, after all, if something happened to one of them, he would know through their connection.
"Lord Victor, have you come…?"
Hearing a familiar voice, Victor turned and looked at a woman, specifically speaking...
Roberta, who had a not very kind smile on her face as she faced the goddess in front of her.
She appeared to be trying to suppress her hostility, but evidently, she wasn't succeeding.
In the meantime, Roberta, a woman he had become interested in because she had an unknown heroic spirit, began to grow quite close to Ruby and began doing work for his wife.
Since he knew the woman was bound by a contract and couldn't hurt anyone close to him, Victor didn't care too much. Actually, that was a good thing, at least she did something useful, and at the same time, she could get stronger.
Victor was waiting for the moment when this woman was strong enough that he could fight her.
"Are you here too, Roberta?"
"Yes, Lady Ruby asked me to do something with Esther."
"I see..." Victor wasn't surprised.
In the time they were alone together, Ruby had told Victor about her plans.
If I sum up in a few words what she wanted to do, it would be the same thing as Victor, she wanted to go back to Nightingale.
But her methods were more 'peaceful' or 'intelligent', they could even be called 'political' methods too. She used everyone around her to get any kind of information about why the Nightingale King suddenly closed the gates.
Her thought was this, "It is not possible that nobody knew what was going on."
There were many powerful beings in the world, and beings like gods who could spy on other worlds also existed, and using 'politics', she was trying to extract information from these beings.
... But even with all these efforts, everything was in vain.
Nobody knew what was happening.
Nobody!
A vein bulged on Victor's head as he sensed an irritating scent near him, a scent that invaded his entire being and was slowly forcing him to 'submit'.
"Do not touch me."
Victor's entire body heated up, and Aphrodite quickly removed her hand from Victor's body.
"Ouch, Ouch. Why did you do that!?"
'Your smell disgusts me.' Victor thought to himself, but he didn't speak aloud. Instead, he just made a face and walked away from the goddess.
"Hey! What was that face!?"
He really hated being around this goddess since her very nature went against his very being, the very idea of submitting to someone else's whims disgusted Victor. His kingly innate pride wouldn't allow it, he'd rather kill himself than bow his head down and be the 'puppy dog' of a goddess.
'Tsk, since I'm here, I'll finish what I came here to do.'
"Anyway, Esther. Give me some Martial Arts related books."
"Oh?" Aphrodite seemed interested in what Victor was doing.
"...." Esther flashed a small smile when she heard Victor speaking her name.
'He must be in a hurry to want to get out of here, he even used my name.'
"Sure, which martial arts do you want now?" She spoke with a professional smile, and then added, "Just to let you know, I already gave you all the martial arts I had that were made by humans."
"Any one will do."
"Okay." Esther pulled out a drawer and put her hand on it, and soon her hand disappeared. As she removed her hand from the drawer, Victor could see that she was holding two books.
She pointed to a red book, "This book is about a martial art that uses only the fists... This is a werewolf race book."
She pointed to a black book, "This book is about a martial art used by the tengu of Japan, they use a weapon known as a 'naginata'."
"Oh... This will do." Victor ignored Aphrodite and approached Esther to get the book.
"...I know I've repeated myself thousands of times, but... You won't get better even if you learn these various martial arts... Even though I'm a witch, I know what you're doing is just wasting your time."
"... I know." Victor responded as he touched the books.
But what could he do? Though he didn't show it, he was at the point where if he didn't have something to do, he was going to freak out.
Therefore, he was doing this 'useless' work. He would take several strange martial arts books, and try to learn them. He knew that this was a waste, considering that these books were not created for beings of the vampire 'race' to use.
Take the example of Tengu's martial arts book.
As the name implied, this was a martial arts book that was used by the Tengus themselves, individuals who had wings, and used these wings as a form of attack.
A martial art exclusive to the Tengus race.
Victor didn't have a wing, which was a special feature of the tengu, but... it didn't matter since he could create wings with his blood power.
That was the excuse he gave himself.
If someone said:
"Werewolves are stronger because of their special bodies, so you can't learn this technique."
Victor would say:
"And? I am strong too, I can learn it."
Banshees are a type of unique being that use a type of sound attack, this martial art is useless for you, after all, this race uses a type of weapon that looks like a musical instrument that increases the potency of their racial attacks.
"Fuck, they're just street performers, I can learn that too."
"Werewolves have a martial art that they use when they transform into full werewolves, this technique is unique-..."
"'Screw this! Just give it to me!"
He used various types of excuses for himself, and took up various martial arts incompatible with his own race.
Even with human martial arts, he asked the witch to collect all kinds of martial arts books and send them to him.
Spears, axes, fist, western sword, katana, whip, etc.
All kinds of martial arts that used specific weapons, he read it all.
And learned everything...
Just the basics of course.
He was like a beginner who knew how to use various weapons, like a student who learned to use a weapon properly after training the basics for a long time.
Of course, he didn't forget to practice the martial arts that he'd learned from Scathach.
But while practicing the martial art of Scathach, he had a sudden thought…
"What if I use Scathach's martial arts and all these martial arts that I learned, together? Like a merger?"
It was an absurd, stupid, and reckless thought...
But even knowing that, he went ahead with that thought.
The result?
He failed of course...
Victor was not a bullshit system user, or a super genius who could learn everything and master it in less than 1 day.
But… He was a persistent man who was trying to distract himself, a man who was doing everything he could to contain himself, and not fall into a cycle of anger.
He is also a 'Night King', a rare type of vampire who could be said to be the king of an entire species.
'The progenitor.'
And with these strange motivations, along with his progenitor status that gave him many benefits, he achieved a strange miracle... He didn't merge the martial arts techniques that Scathach taught him with the 'beginner' techniques he learned when reading books.
He failed to achieve this impossible feat…
Instead, he adapted.
When learning to use various weapons, it was the basics of every martial art that these weapons were used.
And using the martial art of Scathach as a base.
He achieved the strange feat of using multiple weapons in the midst of combat without losing strength or performance.
Normally, when a fist user used a weapon, he'd be unable to achieve the full potential of the new weapon, and performance would drop.
But that didn't happen with Victor.
Whether with a spear, his fists, or a sword, his performance and efficiency would be the same.
Despite being in the initial phase, the experiment was a success.
'This miracle' could only have happened because the very martial art that Scathach taught was an amalgamation of several martial arts.
If Scathach heard what Victor just did... She would literally call him a freak.
After all, it may seem easy to 'adapt' a technique for your own use, but it's not as simple as it sounds, it takes time, and a great deal of battle experience.
Even Scathach only managed to do something similar after spending 200 to 600 years of intensive study.
But even then, she couldn't do what he did, after all, her main weapon would always be the spear. Of course, she could use other weapons, but just giving it up will take away all of Scathach's potential.
But Victor did all this in 6 months? And to make matters worse, didn't lose any efficiency? Even if he had a 'shortcut' which came in the form of Scathach's personal martial arts, he would still need to understand all the martial arts that Scathach taught and master it completely.
You couldn't just skip training steps and go straight to the end, and then go back to the beginning! That's not how martial arts work!
If you put it in gaming terms, what Victor just did was literally take some level 1 martial arts and bypassed all the restrictions on those skills and adapted them to a MAX level skill that he already had.
He was literally walking down a path that was 'mastering' everything at the same time, that was fucking bullshit!
Yes!! He was breaking the rules! A cheater! Call the admins!
"Hey, hey~."
Victor awoke from his thoughts and looked at the woman with long pink hair, seductive body, and clothes that seemed to be made on purpose to stoke a beings' desire.
"Why are you taking martial arts books that weren't made for your race?" she asked with her eyes glowing a little pink.
"This..."
"This...?" Her eyes gleamed in curiosity.
"This is none of your business." Victor turned, and walked towards the exit.
"… Wha-." Aphrodite's entire body appeared to have been broken when she heard what Victor said.
"...." Roberta's eyes widened a little when she saw the way Victor treated Aphrodite.
'He's treating the goddess of beauty like trash...'
"Isn't that very rude!?" Aphrodite was at first irritated.
"Why are you treating me like this!?" She thought about it for a while and then found out why. "Ah… Are you still angry about what happened!?"
Aphrodite's expression turns annoyed, "Don't be mean, that happened six months ago! Why don't you forgive me?"
"What are you talking about, woman?" Victor looked at the woman with a confused look all over his face.
"Eh...?"
"Since when am I obligated to answer your questions?" Victor's eyes narrow, "Just because you ask for something, you expect me to say; 'Yes, I will answer all you want'?"
"…Of course?" She was the goddess of beauty, don't you know? Literally every man and woman was a SIMP for her, she was the queen of cattle!
"Treat me with more respect!" she demanded.
"…." Victor flashed a neutral smile but everyone could see veins bulging on his head, he was irritated, he really didn't want to offend this woman, but the woman seemed to click on every point that pissed off Victor's entire existence.
He really didn't want to meet this woman again...
But fate was a whore, and he met her again.
With the same neutral smile on his face, Victor made a respectful gesture, he touched his chest and lowered his head a little.
"My Goddess..."
Seeing Victor's gesture, Aphrodite made a happy smile, "Oh... You're finally getting it." She looked like she was going to say something, but Victor interrupted her.
"With all my respect, and my sincerity embedded in my words, I, Alucard kindly say to you." Victor lifted his face and looked at Aphrodite.
"Fuck off, bitch" He gave her the middle finger.
"....." A silence fell on the place.
Esther and Roberta looked at this situation with wide eyes in shock.
"Wha-..." Aphrodite couldn't believe what she heard.
Victor soon turned around, opened the door, and slammed it shut.
BAMMMMM
"Ugh." Aphrodite put her hands to her ears as she was taken aback by the sound of the door slamming.
'He really is crazy...' Esther wouldn't be surprised if Aphrodite decided to kill Victor now.
She glanced at Aphrodite, and was shocked at the sight of the woman. 'She is smiling...? Huh...?' Esther's brain couldn't process what was happening in front of her.
Everyone knew that calling the goddess of the Thots a Bitch was a big no since she would get very angry.
"Esther… I'm leaving, we're done with our business." Aphrodite turned and looked at the witch.
"…Huh…? Sure…" She could only say that.
Aphrodite was then covered in pink light and disappeared from Esther's vision.
When the goddess left, Roberta woke up from her stupor and looked at the door that Victor left from in pure shock. Her head started to spin, several thoughts running through her head, and soon she displayed a smile:
'Can he grant my wish...?' That smile turned into a cold, cruel smile.
"!!!?" Esther felt a chill down her spine, and looked at Roberta, but all she saw was the woman's usual gentle smile.
"What happened, Esther?"
"... It's nothing..." Esther looked back to the front and thought; 'Am I imagining things?' For just a few seconds, she felt that thousands of snakes were entwining her body, and eating every part of her being.
"Anyway, I'd better let Ruby know what happened." Esther took out a cell phone and called Ruby.