Let's rewind time a bit.
This is right after chapter 210.
Melazophis carefully laid the sleeping vampire girl into the tent.
She'd been through a lot, so she was probably exhausted.
"Melazophis, you should rest too. You've only just become a vampire, so you're quite drained. As for what to do going forward, you can discuss that with the young lady and decide together."
"Very well. I'll take you up on your kind offer."
Melazophis disappeared into the tent.
"Now then. No matter what those two decide, our course of action doesn't change. We're heading for the Demon race's territory. Shiro, would you rather take it slow, or rush?"
"How long would taking it slow take?"
"About three years, maybe? Rushing would be about half a year. Ah, that's by our sense of time."
One year in this world was 411 days, wasn't it?
So three years in this world meant just under three and a half years by Earth's standards.
Rushing meant half a year—roughly 200 days.
Since there were no cars or other means of transportation, rushing equaled running the whole way, but I really shouldn't make wisecracks about that.
Well, I guess the three-year route it was.
The vampire girl would end up following us regardless.
Actually, she had no other choice.
In this situation, choosing anything else was basically volunteering for suicide, right?
That meant the fast route back was out.
Me and the Demon King could handle it either way, but there was no way the vampire girl and Mela could keep up.
Besides, I wanted to do some sightseeing, so the slow route it was.
It wasn't like the world was ending tomorrow or anything.
"Let's take it slow."
"I figured you'd say that."
Oh, right.
"By the way, did you do the Appraisal?"
"I did."
It was about the vampire girl and Mela.
Being the same kind of creature—halfway, at least—she read my intentions almost instantly. She pulled out some kind of paper from somewhere and wrote down the Appraisal results for both of them.
Not paper, exactly—it was thread that had been flattened into a sheet.
So thread could be shaped like this.
That was good to know.
I looked at what was written on the thread-paper.
Weak.
Oh, no, wait.
They weren't weak when measured against the general population.
From my perspective, all of the Human race was weak, and the vampire girl was still a baby anyway.
But these were the kind of Stats that would get you killed instantly in the Great Ello Dungeon.
Could the vampire girl even survive with such pathetic Stats?
She was a baby, so she might improve with growth, but considering how fragile humans were, even with normal development...
Dragon-class creatures were out of the question—even wyvern-class ones were plenty threatening to humans.
The current vampire girl would probably be killed by the frogs in the Great Ello Dungeon.
Mela had slightly better Stats, but even she wouldn't stand a chance against a snake.
Hmm.
Should I train them a bit?
I wasn't in the mood for anything intense, but even some light training while traveling could make a big difference.
Yeah.
Let's do that.
If the vampire girl and Mela's Stats went up, we might be able to cut down travel time.
More importantly, once they could defend themselves, I wouldn't need to protect them.
With that decided, I built a simple home and went to bed.
Oh wait, before that—let me go collect the eggs I'd scattered in various places.
They'd all hatched already, but using the same principle as my minion domination, I made them my subordinates—or rather, part of myself—and stashed them in my pocket dimension.
Thankfully, they'd been docile since hatching.
If creatures like these got loose into the world, it'd be chaos.
The Great Ello Babies?
Those ones had grown up nicely.
They were surely living strong, capable lives.
Actually, they'd probably already established their sense of self, so I couldn't exactly collect them anymore.
Those ones would surely be recognized as new Monsters of the Great Ello Dungeon from now on.
Not my problem, though.
Call it child abandonment or whatever you want.
Once I'd finished collecting most of them and returned to my simple home, I finally went to bed.
There was no real need to sleep, but if I stripped away my desire for sleep and food, nothing would be left of me.
Sleep, wake up, eat, sleep!
Yep, perfectly healthy.
Goodnight, then.
The next day, we set out.
I had the vampire girl walk.
She was a baby, but based on her Status, walking shouldn't be a problem.
So walk she did, nice and brisk.
The Monsters kept their distance thanks to the Demon King's intimidation, so it was just a simple walk through the forest.
Mela had been saying something, trying to object, but why the strong resistance over just walking?
Ignored.
I'd given Mela a bottle of elf blood.
The vampire girl didn't need to drink blood thanks to the True Ancestor Title effect, but Mela's Stats would keep dropping if she didn't drink.
Her face had been all twisted up about it, but she had to drink, so I wished she'd just accept it.
Besides, it was still better than my situation—having nothing but poison to eat.
Oh, right. Poison.
Poison, huh.
Hmm.
Should I have them raise their Poison Resistance and grab the Evil Eater Title while I'm at it?
That could work.
They'd get Corrosion Resistance too.
So I consulted the Demon King.
The Demon King had the Poison Synthesis Skill and could easily produce poison.
If I diluted it to a non-lethal level and used it to cook, I'd have poisoned cuisine ready to go.
Until they got the Evil Eater Title, I'd keep feeding them poisoned food.
The vampire girl and Mela reluctantly ate every bite of the poison meals.
The next day.
I taught the vampire girl and Mela the Magic Combat Technique.
The method was simple.
I used my power to forcibly activate the Magic Combat Technique for them, and then had them maintain it.
Simple in theory, but Mela struggled a bit more.
The vampire girl got it on the first try, but Mela failed over and over.
Was it because her Magic Power Operation Skill level was low?
She managed to do it eventually, so it was fine.
When I'd learned it, I'd had to figure everything out from scratch, so the least they could do was maintain something I was providing them.
I'd started this thinking it'd be a piece of cake—just a little light training—but the road ahead looked rough.