The Most Evil Kind.

"Semyon, remember I said we wouldn't kill prisoners because we are human," he continued, waiting for an affirmative nod, "I was wrong. We are no longer human; we are vampires."

"Well, I didn't participate in your bloody orgy!" Olga smiled, slyly observing those present.

The meeting to discuss the outcome of the attack had been going on for some time now, in a limited but quite expanded composition, so to speak. Limited, in the sense that not all vampires took part in it, and expanded, because the composition differed significantly from the usual nine people.

Although they had been discussing for several minutes, serious matters were not brought up; instead, they shared their emotions about the results of the attack while they were still fresh. They gathered in the trophy tent of the knight, which they set up not far from the dugout.

The day had long passed its halfway point, but few in the camp went to sleep. Vampire activity was severely limited—the cloud cover was not dense, and occasionally there were breaks in the clouds. But even the death occasionally peeking out from behind the clouds couldn't calm the people down.

The division of trophies took quite a long time. And the trophies themselves aroused envy among those who chose not to participate in the attack. At the very least, everyone received their set of clothes, which, as Eugene had said, became a status item within days.

And if previously only a very small number of people in the camp wore such clothes, after a successful raid on the camp, immediately a quarter of its inhabitants transitioned to a new status. Besides clothing, there were other trophies that demanded attention. And the most important trophy became magic.

As it turned out, the abilities that all vampires had in terms of magic were also present in humans. They were called personal or individual magic, unlike other magic—real or true. A person with personal magic could do almost anything, using only their personal power.

But since these powers were usually very limited, the application of abilities was limited, and such people became paladins, healers by laying on of hands, illusionists, artifact makers, alchemists. Real mages could also use personal magic, but they also had access to spells—patterns of energy lines that they drew and, by filling them with their own power, released into the world.

"So. Let's sum up and brainstorm," Alexander decided to turn friendly banter into a business conversation, "And let's leave discussions of bloody orgies and the like for later."

Olga was slightly embarrassed under his gaze—right after their return, she and her husband had secluded themselves in the dugout and released the accumulated tension.

"Why do we need to sum up?" Semyon nervously chuckled, "The situation, to put it mildly, is insane. We're in another world, we're vampires, and now we're also mages. It's easier to shoot oneself, but we don't even have anything to do it with. They say in Ancient Rome they threw themselves on their swords."

"Are you sure we can be killed by a sword in the stomach?" Leonid asked mockingly.

"No, I'm not sure, but I don't want to test it yet."

"All right, let's stop discussing all the side topics," Alexander began to get irritated, "I'm more interested not in the repeated consideration of the obvious fact that we are vampires, I'm interested in recent discoveries in the field of magic that we made thanks to the fact that there was a mage among the people in the camp. Our trophies. And of course, the main question—what do we do next?"

"Still, Sasha," Eugene looked at him questioningly, "I don't understand what you want to hear from us about magic?"

"Well, the most obvious thing is... Although, let me summarize my knowledge, and you correct me. So, we have magical abilities, they are present in everyone without exception. It is also believed that everyone has magical abilities, but only about one percent can possess and operate them, and approximately another one percent can use magic for themselves and around themselves, using pure power. These are the so-called personal mages. Spells are power lines arranged in a pattern, which are filled with the mage's power."

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