Chapter 2026

Marie Rose was gone. Of course, she was her own person. She could go out whenever she wanted. However, this was uncommon for her, especially since she was going to give birth very soon.

Grid instructed the three hundred and ten God Hands to search the entire castle and sent a whisper to Katz.

[Whisper to Katz: Does Marie Rose see anyone on a regular basis?]

[Whisper from Katz: Someone she sees on a regular basis...?]

Katz reacted strangely to the question. Grid cleared his throat. Did his wife regularly meet someone else? The question sounded like a line from a drama where the love interest was having an affair.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[Whisper to Katz: I’m worried because her castle is empty. Does she usually go out at this time? If so, then I can afford to relax.]

[Whisper from Katz: Who knows... Grid, you know that I usually only spend a few minutes a week with her. I’m only reporting the internal affairs of the vampire cities to her, so it’s hard to keep track of her schedule.]

From the time Beriache had tried to betray Marie Rose but failed and died instead, Katz’ situation had changed considerably. He still had the ancient class, Beriache’s Knight, but he now served Marie Rose. He didn’t feel like he was her confidant. He was merely responsible for managing the vampire race and looking after the city’s internal affairs on Mary Rose’s behalf.

Contrary to Grid’s expectations, he wasn’t close to Marie Rose at all.

‘That makes sense now that I think about it.’

The only one Marie Rose was interested in was Grid. Recently, she seemed to take an interest in Irene and Lord, but she generally showed absolute indifference to other humans. Katz also wasn’t the type of guy to flatter others. There was no way the two of them could have gotten closer.

[Whisper from Katz: If you feel anxious, I will send out a quest to the entire vampire race to find Marie Rose right away...]

[Whisper to Katz: No, let it go. I’ll take care of this, so keep your strength for the war.]

Grid was lost in thought for a brief moment. It was very unlikely that Marie Rose’s disappearance was a scheme organized by a third party. Who would dare to trap Marie Rose? That was impossible. She was wise and not easy to fool. She was also very strong. Others couldn’t suppress her using force. The fact that she would give birth soon didn’t change this fact. Even Grid with his Annihilation energy couldn’t guarantee that he would win in a duel with Marie Rose.

‘She can absorb other people’s power by drinking their blood.’

Marie Rose had managed to recreate Hayate’s Dragon-Killing Sword after drinking just a drop of blood. Unless the opponent never shed a drop of blood in the fight, Marie Rose was invincible.

What was the difference between her and Hanul? Hanul hadn’t been able to immediately fully reproduce the skill he absorbed. However, he could permanently store it, train it, eventually turning it into his own ability.

On the other hand, Marie Rose reproduced the skills of the person whose blood she drank to near perfection. What’s more, she even absorbed some of their stats. There was the disadvantage that this ability granted effects only temporarily, not permanently, but it was a huge threat during battle.

The conclusion—

‘There is no way she was kidnapped.’

Grid was certain that Marie Rose had left the castle of her own volition. He didn’t know if she simply went out for a walk or if she was going to be out for a long time...

‘In any case, it’s impossible for me to follow her.’

An Absolute leaving any traces in their movement? That was impossible, unless they were close to becoming an Absolute, like the cultivators in the great ascension realm.

The three hundred and ten God Hands had found no clues in their search. Grid touched one of the ten rings on his hands.

[Ring of Pledge]

[Rating: Unique

A token of eternal love.

You will be in a happy state when you are with your spouse. Movement speed will increase by 8%, and all stats are increased by 30.

* Depending on your level of affinity with your spouse, the emotions you will feel when you are with them will change. These emotions can range from happiness, joy, contentment, normal, dissatisfaction, depression, to hate. There are a total of seven emotions. The Ring of Pledge can have different effects depending on the emotion experienced.

If you spend a steamy night with your partner while wearing this ring, the EXP of all skills will increase by 10%.

* A steamy night is only available once a month (Penalty currently removed).

When wearing this ring, the affinity of all NPCs of the opposite sex other than your spouse won’t easily increase.

If you are caught by your spouse without your ring, your favorability with them will drop by 90%. Your spouse’s chances of getting pregnant will also drastically decrease.

Weight: 0.1]

Grid had four wedding rings. However, why didn’t they have a location tracking function?

'...If they had such a function, people might consider me controlling and skeptical about my wives’ faithfulness.’

Maybe he would’ve also been subjected to various restrictions by the game system. Grid stopped having regrets and sat down. He displayed the guild chat window on one side of his field of view. The guild members were in the middle of a war, so no one was sharing irrelevant messages. There were only orders from commanders and chats from members briefly reporting on the situation of each team. Thanks to this, Grid could form an image about what was happening on the battlefield.

‘Blood-sucking. Blood-sucking...’

Grid also had the status of Blood King. He had the ability to handle a bit of blood. Of course, he only used a few skills he had taken from the direct descendants, but he could pretend to be a vampire if he wanted to.

After reflecting on Marie Rose’s blood absorption ability, Grid thought of ways to use this power more efficiently than before.

‘Vampires don’t just absorb HP when sucking blood. They also regenerate their wounds in an instant.’

Grid had never escaped unscathed after fighting a powerful enemy. Aside from having to endure enormous physical and mental pain, wounds also made it harder for him to fight properly. He needed to make up for that.

'...The ideal way is to give the vampire’s blood absorption ability to a weapon.’

It would be tremendously useful if he could heal his wounds every time he attacked an enemy rather than just restored HP. Plus, it had become easier to grant skills to items recently. A few years before, Grid had developed the Highest-grade Skill Granting Stone at Reidan’s alchemy facility. When used in conjunction with Water Clan King’s Tears, there was a 100% chance of granting the desired skill to an item.

However, there was a problem.

‘It is unclear if the given skill will have the desired effect.’

For example, let’s assume that Defying the Natural Order was given the blood absorption skill. There was a possibility that the intrinsic effect of blood absorption could have an influence on the sword itself rather than Grid, who would swing Defying the Natural Order.

What nonsense was this?

Surprisingly, this wasn’t nonsense. This was just how things were. Something like this could really happen if the blood absorption skill focused on the durability of Defying the Natural Order rather than Grid’s HP.

Furthermore, this was the domain of luck, not blacksmithing. This wasn’t something that could be decided with techniques. As a result, Grid hadn’t granted skills to the recently crafted endgame items.

There were no better items than endgame ones. Wouldn’t it be extremely bad if he granted the wrong skills to them? His heart broke every time he thought about it.

‘But what if Marie Rose gives the blood absorption skill herself? There is a chance of failure, but it is worth taking the risk.’

Ever since he became an Only One God, Grid had been haunted by the illusion that no one could replace him.

In any case, I am the strongest.

It wasn’t because he had this arrogant belief. He was just immersed in the fact that he was the Only One God. But at this moment, the fog in his heart suddenly lifted as he sat in Marie Rose’s castle and reflected on her disappearance. His mind was now clear.

Rely on those close to you a bit more.

Don’t forget how many people you have relied on to get to where you are.

“...Let’s ask Marie Rose to give the skill.”

Twilight and Defying the Natural Order were swords that symbolized Grid. Grid had been planning to grant them his powers one day, but now he changed his mind. He decided to rely on Marie Rose. Of course, in order to do that, he had to solve the current problem at hand.

“......”

Grid closed the guild chat window he had been watching for two hours and slowly stood up. Marie Rose still hadn’t returned. Grid now knew where she would be.

“Asgard.”

Marie Rose’s castle was located in the depths of the Reidan Desert. At first, he hadn’t thought much about the location, but now he realized something. The castle was located in the center of the continent. He only became aware of this after two hours of extending his Absolute senses to search for traces of Marie Rose.

There was a reason Beriache had built a castle here a long time back. Here, an Absolute who stretched their senses to the limit could detect most of what was happening on the surface.

Grid momentarily put himself in Marie Rose’s shoes. Maybe she had been keeping an eye on him? She would feel a bit worried when he fought against tough enemies. In other words, Marie Rose had been watching when Grid was by the demon cultivators. Marie Rose surely knew that the demon cultivators were constructing a Full Moon Fortress in Asgard, and she couldn’t ignore that.

‘She must think that she has the ability to stop them.’

Grid recalled a memory which included Marie Rose. She had a rare warm smile on her face as she looked at Irene with affection. She sincerely praised Irene for being able to help Grid a lot in many ways. Perhaps around that time Marie Rose started thinking that she wanted to help him too.

‘That’s cute, but...’

He was a bit angry. Didn’t she realize that she was about to give birth? She was going to fight against Asgard in this state? The God of War, who had been training in seclusion and became even stronger after losing to Chiyou, as well as Metatron, Asujra, and countless other gods were still holding out. Plus, Marie Rose was more likely to experience all types of limitations in Asgard. He wasn’t talking about her strength. She was in a different position from Grid, who was the master of a great dimension like the Overgeared World.

Grid felt a bit nervous and sent a whisper to Lauel before using Shunpo. He remembered the coordinates used by Raiders, who had carried Grid on his back to get there, and headed to Asgard. He tried to be as optimistic as possible about the current situation.

The demon cultivators and Asgard were cooperating to build a Full Moon Fortress. Grid would eventually have to destroy it at some point. He decided to think of this situation as solving a problem he was bound to take care of in the future anyway.

He was getting closer to Asgard when he received a sound transmission from Braham.

-Marie Rose isn’t a fool.

Did Lauel tell him what happened? Braham was blunt, but it was evident that he was concerned for Grid’s wellbeing.

-

She doesn’t take unnecessary risks, so there is nothing to worry about.

Be careful not to make a mistake and fall into a trap.

“...You should’ve told me that earlier.”

By the time Grid came to his senses, he was already surrounded by angels. He smiled awkwardly.