Rob found out that sites under the sea are good for strengthening his soul.
The deepest place in the world is this spot in the ocean, which has active volcanic activity.
It had nothing to do with magma and lava; Rob had already gone into an active volcano to try that.
This area, which is the place that strengthens his soul the most, happens to have an active volcano.
Rob looked around in his ghost form.
His eyes could now see a far wider frequency than when he was human. He could see both low and high frequencies, so even though there was no 'light' as defined by humans, he could see around with far more detail than even the most modern equipment.
Nothing was happening except for a few pale and weird-shaped creatures slowly moving around, as one might expect from 13 kilometers under the sea.
This place is extremely calming for Rob; it is quiet and soothing to ghosts.
"My soul is getting stronger and stronger!" Rob exclaimed.
A ghost is basically a soul with some extra abilities. A soul couldn't possess anyone, travel at high speed, or split itself, but a ghost could.
Everyone has a soul, but only Rob is a ghost.
Rob has no idea why the area under the ocean strengthens his soul, but it's undeniable that it does, slowly.
He has invented some measures for estimating soul power. One soul power is equal to the power of one human soul, and ten is equal to the power of ten human souls.
Counting like this, every year, his SP(soul power) increases by an average of one if he stays in this area under the ocean.
Technically, he has ways to increase his soul power much faster by swallowing other human souls, but that would have horrible consequences.
When he swallows someone, he also swallows memories and resentment.
Even devouring a single person burdens him, and he needs years to absorb and dissolve the resentment completely.
If he were to swallow hundreds, he would turn into a monster.
This deep-sea strengthening method, on the other hand, provides pure soul power.
It's like muddy water compared to pure water. Both can satisfy thirst, but one will make one sick, while the other makes one enjoy.
Rob checked the memory of his soul splits, and after seeing nothing horrible was happening, he closed his eyes again.
As of this moment, his SP is equal to 47,611.
He will stay here and increase his SP as much as possible.
Soul power has many uses.
For each soul split, he spent 5 SP and needs to spend SP when moving quickly.
But those are the simplest uses of SP.
Using SP, he could control objects with his mind; he could kill people directly with his soul and do all kinds of supernatural things as long as he had enough SP.
One should not underestimate the power of one SP.
Even a single SP is enough to explode with power equal to a small atomic bomb.
...
Alex III, like Rob, was idle, with nothing to do.
Time is ruthless.
In the last 50,000 years, many generations of mortals have been born and died.
By this point, nearly no record of Alex III remains.
Books and portraits have all eroded, and all the old palaces and cities, even Alex City, have been destroyed.
Now, the capital of the vampire Empire is Blood City.
That's right; the Mountains and Rivers Alliance have long been destroyed.
It was already suffering from incompetent leadership back then, and it only survived for so long because it had no outside enemies.
But gradually, as time passed, vampire agents began getting more daring.
45,000 years ago, Alex IV also went into retreat.
Vampires are immortal, but their brains are nearly identical to humans. Human brains are unsuitable for living much beyond 100 years.
Alex IV fell victim to this phenomenon, like his father. He got bored of everything, entered a deep cave, and slept.
As for what happens to the world, he didn't care.
Without the two top dogs present, another vampire took the mantle. His name was John.
It was said that he was a commoner and was made a vampire out of pure luck.
Most vampire agents were nobles before becoming vampires.
John was a very ambitious vampire who wanted to rule the world. They can rule all, so why allow humans to have power instead of them?
In John's opinion, vampires are stronger and smarter than humans; allowing the prime minister to be a human was dumb.
But his words were against the orthodoxy.
After all, this system was designed by Alex III himself.
John didn't dare to go against his creator.
But he argued that Alex III never said vampires shouldn't rule the world.
Many other vampires worldwide, bored, joined him.
All of these vampires were loyal to Alex III when they were made, but after thousands of years, they were so bored that they wanted to do something, anything that changed the status quo.
So, they took over the government and started a direct vampire dictatorship.
They couldn't make any new vampires, as Alex III had ordered against it. But even without creating new ones, the existing vampires numbered 200,000.
It was enough to establish an effective rule.
The vampire rule, however, didn't cause any slaughters as one might expect; after all, Alex III forbade such senseless killings.
John didn't dare to call himself a king; he didn't even dare to call himself nobility.
Nobility had been abolished by Alex III many years ago, but it gradually returned when Alex III left and gave the mantle to Alex IV.
Now, there are noble families again, with a caveat. Alex III or Alex IV must approve all nobles.
Without their approval, nobody can call themselves noble.
John couldn't call himself a vampire duke, as he would risk angering those two monsters if they heard him calling himself a noble title without their permission.
So, he just called himself the Great Admirer.
As for who he admires, of course, it was Alex III.
Nowadays, everyone calls him Great Admy.
After taking the position as the Great Admirer, he changed the capital from Alex City to another big city, which he named Blood City.
He created five new ranks:
The Great Admirer: The vampire who admires Alex III the most; The Great Admirer is the leader of vampires when Alex III and Alex IV are absent. He is also the ruler of the mortal government and can hire and fire all government officials.
High Admirer: These vampires are the first batch of vampires made by Alex III or those whom Great Admirer favors.
Respected Admirer: The vampires who act as lieutenants to High Admirers. High Admirers can choose four vampire agents as their respected Admirer lieutenants.
Acceptable Admirer: Most vampire agents have this rank.
Newbie Admirer: These are those who committed mistakes and have been demoted as punishment.
As for the old 16-rank system, like the prime minister being ranked 4 and commoners from 10 to 16, John left it untouched.
That system was created due to the express order of Alex III, and John didn't dare to touch it.
As a result, society today has two general ranks:
1. Ranks exclusive to vampires; only vampires could receive the Admirer ranks series.
2. Numbered ranks that everyone receives; it was as Alex III ordered.
All vampire agents are considered rank 4, and heads of state rank 1.
It's just that there is no head of state left; therefore, the vampire agents, who are ranked 4, are the highest rank, as there is no one left between ranks 1 and 3.
John has ruled the world for over 40,000 years.
However, even he, who had a weird desire for domination, got tired and retired a few thousand years ago.
The new Great Admy calls herself Silvergirl.
Silvergirl has been sleeping for thousands of years and only recently woke up. When she saw John retiring, she asked to be appointed as his successor.
She and John know each other well.
She was John's trainer, and they had a romantic relationship around 36,000 years ago.
John, who still liked Silvergirl, appointed her as the successor and went into retreat. He planned to sleep for at least 100,000 years.
As of now, out of 200,000 vampires, around 3,000 are left.
The rest are all in retreat, sleeping after getting bored of living.
The reason there has been no suicide or fight among different vampires is that Alex III has ordered against it.
Vampires cannot disobey the orders of their creator. It is something impossible to do.
Humans cannot understand how binding an order from the creator of a vampire is. It is like asking a human to grow another arm or leg or to fly; it is impossible.
Alex III did his best not to give too many orders, but he still gave some fundamental orders like 'never kill yourself.'
As a result, all the vampires Alex III created are alive, but the overwhelming majority have become so exhausted that they sleep.
The vampire rule, as a result, is mostly in name.
With only 3,000 vampires remaining, it is not enough to rule the entire world, which has a population of around 2.5 billion.
Moreover, most of the 3,000 remaining vampires don't care about the government. Only around 100 or so occasionally care about mortal government affairs.
Today, most ministers are humans, and recently, Silvergirl appointed a human man as the prime minister.
It is significant, as being promoted to prime minister means a human is equal in rank to vampire agents. He doesn't have to bow down to vampires any longer.