Allenwood Yoretree. It is a mouthful to say so he simply goes now by Allen.
The need for a shorter name becomes higher for the sake of improving efficiency. Especially with the increase of his apprentices.
"Oy! You bastard, you got the measurements wrong!"
He knocks some sense into a certain elf with a swing and scolds him harshly.
The other elves continue their own work, contributing to the assembly line. The sight of Allen's scolding is so common it is one of the elves' rules to get used to it quickly.
"And here I thought you deserve that promotion! I will demote you a learning apprentice!"
Allen sets off into a huff as he walks to the upper floor.
"Ugh... I hate this supervisory work. I should find a supervisor to oversee the tower's operations..."
There have been many times Allen's lab has had to relocate because of sudden variables. Kara's rule is quite overprotective of Allen.
Just because there have been sightings of stray monsters, they have to suddenly move their lab and rebuild.
This causes a setback to Allen's research.
Thankfully, that painful times have come to a stop.
This is where the Tower of Coal comes in. A relatively new organization under Allen's management. It is not really made out of coal but of obsidian.
From the outside, the Tower of Coal looks like a burnt-black tree. Its appearance however is not the reason why its name is Tower of Coal.
It is more of a play in words in parallel to the Tower of Fire.
Fire is the source of humanity's civilization.
As someone who belongs to the inner circle of the kingdom, Allen is privy to more secretive information all thanks to the record that the Gaia Ruins has left behind.
Since man's discovery of fire, they have been evolving at a rapid rate. Those ruins have more secrets than they might be uncovering from the surface.
It is worth a whole civilization worth an unknown length of generations.
The things they discover from the ruins might not be even the tip of the iceberg.
"I wish I can connect with those murals..." Allen regrettably whispers as he arrives by the topmost floor just below the rooftop— also the floor for dedicated experimentations.
The Tower of Coal continues to stack up every day, and progress is visible every year. The tower has over five floors currently. It might not be as grand as the Tower of Fire, or its inferiors, but it is not the height of the tower that determines the value of 'knowledge' but the people that dwell in the tower.
Currently, there are three levels for Allen's apprentices. The lowest level is learners who take classes every day to improve their knowledge and skills. The lower-level, junior apprentices join the assembly line to further hone their skills. And the mid-level, senior alchemists who are passable enough to aid Allen's experimentation.
"Sigh, my ears are tingling from the pain..." Allen takes a balm from his robe and applies it to his cut missing ears, thus reducing the excruciating phantom pain.
Various elves, young, middle-aged, and old gathers and waits for him. In the middle of them is a reinforced wooden coffin idly lying flat.
There are two Einherjar waiting by the coffin in case of any emergency.
"Open it up."
At Allen's permission, the two Einherjar pry the coffin open with their spears.
"Sigh...." Allen rubs the bridge of his nose with annoyance. "I hate it when my 'subject' of research is tampered to the point of broken."
The vampire, Angelica, dully remains in her place not even resisting the chains and nails wrapping around her flesh. Her gown has become rough rags from too much action. Her hair is disheveled, and her eyes are deader than a dead fish.
One word to describe her— is terrible.
"The way I see it. We have two options. It is either we rehabilitate her first which is time-consuming as fuck, or we recklessly experiment on her completely ignoring her broken state."
Allen places his fingers on his chin contemplating their next course of action.
"Any suggestions?"
When no one expresses their opinion, Allen takes the role of an independent judge.
"So we will take a vote then. If you choose to rehabilitate her, then don't raise your hands."
From over thirty senior alchemists, not a single one did not raise their hand. With a unanimous vote, they decide to 'torture' the vampire.
"Fair enough, we will have more experimental subjects as the war continues. Now, I shall open the table for discussion of research directions. Monitress, keep track of the suggestions."
"Yes, mastet..." A charming blonde elf with a weird lisp and wearing glasses respectfully answers Allen.
"Also," Allen takes out a small bound notebook and places it over the relatively large desk just beside the coffin. "Those are Varen's research findings on the anatomy of vampires that may be relevant to our studies. You are free to skim through it."
The monitress, Tanya, writes in her own little notebook as the proceedings peacefully move on the discussion.
"I suggest we test her limits. We have plenty of Life Potions. Lord Varen's research findings are quite detailed so we can skip the more minor and trivial experimentations."
"Yes, it eases our work, but I want to volunteer to double-check data and we might find unexpected gains through using a different perspective."
"I agree. But. Since Lord Varen has researched on it already, we should use his hard work as the origin of the research point until we learn something new."
"How about the mental state of the patient? Can we really recklessly experiment on her? We know that a creature's emotional state affects its physiological properties as we have tested on animals, monster species, humans, and even elves..."
"Hmmm... That means we cannot dissect her until we have more lab rats to work on. But since they have a healing factor, we can be rougher on them. We can do durability tests for example. See if they are weak to certain minerals."
"That's a good idea. We can also research their dislike of sunlight. We should also think if either they are a product of evolution or mutation. Maybe, they are not human at all just like what the Ratatoskr assumed."
"Something like a demi-human, maybe. But we have long determined that demi-humans come from their own unique points of origin and totally have no relationship with us. This is why we elves cannot reproduce with other species."
"Yeah, you are right. We already tried it with an elf and an orc, an elf with a gnome, and an orc with a gnome. It is the humans who are weird being capable of reproducing with other races."
"The vampire's method of feeding is also unique. We have little information about how they eat even with the Ratatoskr's resources. The vampires are very 'thorough' on cleaning up."
"What we only know is that they drink the blood of humans through the penetration of their protruding fangs. I wonder, do the blood of elves work on them? How about animal blood or of other races?"
"To be safe, we should request some humans. In the future, we will have more vampires to work on, thus the need for more human blood."
"It is a good excuse too to increase our human lab rats since our request for more has been rejected for some time because of the lack of manpower."
Cruel.
Wretched.
Horrendous.
Monsters.
All of this discussion is happening while the vampire helplessly lies in her coffin.
Allen watches the vampire outside from her periphery.
The vampire's mind is in turmoil and the straw that breaks the camel's back is the utter despair she is feeling right now.
Depriving her movement are the chain and nails pinning her on the coffin. Because of this, the only thing she can see is the dark ceiling above her.
Finally, she breaks down.
Tears pour down on her cheeks as she silently cries.
"W-who am I?" She sobs, but no one is hearing her.
Maybe except Allen who is academically studying her 'human' part.
This is the Tower of Coal.
Running in contrast to the Tower of Fire which keeps on burning, the Tower of Coal is something that feeds on those flames.
Allen already has a hypothesis in his heart with regard to the vampire's origins.
Just by passively reading Varen's accounts of his own experimentations, Allen is able to develop an insight of his own.
These 'vampires' is a product of alchemy. This means the vampire in front of him might once be a human.
To be truly certain of this requires Allen to study and experiment more.