Chapter 169: Hunting Their First Veteran Train Conductor!
[Although thirteen days have passed since the Bloodthorne Clan Genocide incident, you haven’t killed those three vampire participants from the Bloodthorne Clan.]
[At most, you had sealed them and put them in an unconscious state. But since you didn’t kill them, it won’t alert the veteran Train Conductors who were summoned as their familiars.]
[You had no plan on taking them out. They weren’t useful as a hostage. The veteran Train Conductors wouldn’t even hesitate to sacrifice their own train crewmate, let alone a mere vampire contractor.]
[These vampire participants merely hired veteran Train Conductors, like an employer commissioning someone.]
[To make matters worse, half of the payment wasn’t even given, relying on an illusory reward that could only be obtained by winning the Millennium Vampire War.]
[The vampire participants and the vampire clans participating in the Millennium Vampire War were also familiar with the conduct of veteran Train Conductors. Naturally, they didn’t trust these train conductors.]
[Giving them a payment would be like throwing meat to a dog; forget about getting it back. If they received payment before the Millennium Vampire War ended, who knew if those veteran Train Conductors would go back on their own words and immediately use Early Departure.]
[’The vampire familiar contract is pretty much useless in binding a train conductor. Even the vampire participants didn’t expect it would bind those train conductors and prevent them from doing things against their orders.’]
[’At most, they only treated the familiar contract as a way to prevent themselves from being backstabbed by those untrustworthy train conductors. It’s also a way to give the Train Conductors a ticket to join the Millennium Vampire War.’]
[’Otherwise, if a Train Conductor backstabbed their vampire contractor, not only would the vampire contractor know beforehand, but the Train Conductor’s legitimate participation right in the Millennium Vampire War would be revoked.’]
[Precisely due to that reason, you didn’t kill these three vampire participants.]
[As long as they weren’t dead, you knew that those veteran Train Conductors would hold a bit of wishful thinking and luck mentality, hoping that their gamble was right and that their vampire contractor had escaped and hadn’t died.]
[After all, the wish granted by the Vampire Progenitor was just too tempting. Even you were tempted, let alone those veteran Train Conductors who had explored countless station worlds and knew just how valuable a Vampire Progenitor’s granted wish truly was.]
[Due to greed, it wasn’t even uncommon for some vampire participants to keep the Bloody Grail and wish-making right for themselves, merely offering some resources unique to this world to their train conductor familiar as payment.]
[Of course, that only happened if Train Conductors summoned as familiars were way weaker than the vampire contractor who summoned them. But if they were equals or even stronger, then such an event was very rare.]
[While you had such thoughts, you were snapped out of it after you noticed that the Zenith Train had arrived above a Level 22 Train parked in a deserted mountain range.]
[Looking at it, you used Hint Prompt on it and confirmed, "One of the train conductors we’re looking for is inside that train."]
["However, their train crew only has one Train Conductor since, according to the hint prompt, his duo had died due to protecting him and covering for his escape from a perilous station world."]
[Hearing your information, Jade merely asked, "How long will it take?"]
[Like Jade, Scarlet and Astraea didn’t think that these veteran Train Conductors couldn’t be killed, especially with a year’s worth of magic training arc.]
[Their death was inevitable. The only difference was that the time of their death would vary depending on how many trump cards they had and how high-quality those trump cards were.]
[If they didn’t have any cards up their sleeves, then they were destined to die a quick death!]
[Of course, while the girls didn’t believe these veteran Train Conductors could defeat the Zenith Train Crew, they still remembered your constant suggestion of being cautious and prepared for any unforeseen circumstances.]
[Not letting arrogance and overconfidence cloud their judgement, they didn’t rush to attack the train and instead, waited for your decision.]
[Knowing they instilled your teachings and precautions to heart, you were inwardly pleased, replying, "Even if we don’t use our Eight Circle Magic spell scrolls, just going all out will eliminate them in mere seconds."]
["However, if we did that, then, let alone their ashes, even most of their valuables will be destroyed. Moreover, we need their train to be mostly intact if we want to obtain the train core and materials from dismantling it."]
["I’ve also discovered that, like Terrans, this veteran Train Conductor also has his own newbie gift package similar to innate talents. It seems to be a soul-bound weapon similar to Spirit Avatars but also quite different."]
[Using Hint Prompt further, you added, "From what I know, his soul-bound weapon is the Skull Crusher Hammer. It can attack both physical and incorporeal entities."]
["Its power is comparable to a Peak Platinum-grade weapon. Soul-bound weapons seem to grow with the user and increase in grade proportional to the user’s power rank. Aside from that, its grade can also be increased using resources that it could devour."]
["This veteran Train Conductor is merely at Late Platinum rank. His other train crewmates, who are station world natives he had invited before and enslaved, were of the Mid Platinum rank at highest and Initial Gold rank at lowest."]
[Hearing you mention the soul-bound weapon, Jade’s interest was piqued.]
[Terrans like you and her had awakened an innate talent. It seemed that this veteran Train Conductor didn’t awaken an innate talent but a soul-bound weapon that could grow alongside it.]
[Jade immediately asked, "Darling, if you were to use Order King to extract his soul-bound weapon and make it ownerless, would you get a Skull Crusher Hammer or just the essence to awaken a soul-bound weapon?"]
[If it was the former, then the Skull Crusher Hammer was useless not only to her, but also to the rest of the train crew.]
[But if it was the latter... then they could awaken a soul-bound weapon suitable for themselves!]