A major event sent waves of commotion surging across the Southern Continent.
The old pope's seat was vacant.
The election of a new pope began.
Although the old pope had already chosen His Holiness Adam as the next pope, the ceremonial show still had to go on.
And just as His Holiness Adam had not known the papacy had already been decided before he himself was chosen, the other cardinals were unaware of it as well.
So, with the old pope's death, the entire Papal State fell into a strange atmosphere.
Every cardinal put on a frantic show in his own territory, holding one Church ceremony after another.
The Papal State's people were left destitute by this mad spectacle, but God's glory shone steadily on every street in the Papal State and into the home of every pauper.
Everything was stripped bare.
The people could barely survive.
And Norton, too, began a brand-new plan for surviving by keeping a low profile.
The good news was that he had gotten his greatsword and armor back. That proved there were no tracking signals on either of them.
The bad news was that Holy Lord City had suffered so many casualties from some unknown epidemic that the mass grave on its outskirts had become a veritable mountain of corpses, drawing large numbers of wolves, wild dogs, and all manner of scavengers.
And these creatures seemed to have bred into sizable populations.
Their abundance had in turn attracted certain strange creatures from deep within the forest to prey on them.
There were enormous birds and enormous pythons, for example...
He had even seen a Werewolf caught in a bird's talons as food.
Even though their physiques were among the most formidable in nature, Werewolves, those born hunters, were still a source of food in the eyes of certain creatures.
Yet those same birds would also be hunted by packs of Werewolves and become their bloody prey.
Nature truly was fearsome!
The horrifying gathering of creatures at Holy Lord City's mass grave forced Norton to abandon the idea of living in his old cave. A bear had taken it over, and it was too close to the mass grave. He was afraid that if he lived there, new monsters would set their sights on him.
A cool breeze brushed his face on the cliff, but the sunlight made Norton feel hot and restless, his skin itching as though pricked by needles.
Norton let go of the deer he had drained a little blood from. Only when he saw it lying on the ground, calm again and grazing on the weeds, did he feel reassured.
The arrival of so many carnivores and monsters had reduced the density of wildlife in the area somewhat, forcing him to spend a great deal of time and effort catching food in the dangerous forest.
So Norton had to practice sustainable development, using the deer as a blood slave he could feed from whenever he wanted.
Oh, damn, had he, Norton, started keeping blood slaves? This was what a real Vampire ought to do!
After he had resumed feeding during this period, Norton's body had returned to its former appearance.
The slight increase in his strength had returned with it.
Rather than saying his strength was increasing, it was more accurate to say his physique was improving. He could feel himself gradually changing, but the change was so slight that it might take years upon years of accumulation before any real difference became apparent.
It made Norton miss the two Gold Saints he had fed on before.
If only he could catch a few more to feed on, his evolution could progress another step.
Norton was somewhat tempted.
Of course, there was no rush. After all, he really couldn't beat them.
Norton reached out and pulled the vampire bat hanging from his wrinkled skin off him, then hung it on a nearby branch.
Right now, building a suitable shelter was the most important thing for him. More and more animals were gathering at Holy Lord City's mass grave, and what little sense of security he already had was diminishing by the day.
That wouldn't do. He, Norton, still had to live forever!
To ensure his safety, Norton had previously wanted to thin out these species by hunting them, lest they swarm over to hunt him someday, just like that strange bird had.
But there were too many corpses at the mass grave, and the creatures they attracted were more numerous still. Strange giant birds could often be seen flying over the area, and even more terrifying cries rang out from the direction of the grave.
Faced with this terrifying gathering of creatures, Norton had no way to hunt them and thin their populations.
With no way to resolve the danger through hunting, he could only choose to build a shelter and strengthen the defenses of his turtle shell to keep himself safe.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."
The vampire bat hanging from the nearby branch seemed unhappy with where Norton had put it. After squeaking a few times, it used its hands and feet to crawl over to him, then hung itself from his wrinkled skin again with its hooklike claws.
Norton stood up, picked up the greatsword he had brought over, and began chopping down the surrounding trees.
His new construction project was underway.
Norton felled and cut up tree after tree, splitting the wood into planks to build a house.
Being a Vampire was honestly pretty great. Although he, Norton, was withered and ugly now, he didn't need to exercise at all, or cultivate frantically to gain strength like in an immortal cultivation novel. Instead, as he fed and time passed, his strength and stage would naturally rise steadily.
It was the best possible blessing for a lazy person, and it also allowed Norton to spend all his time on other things.
As days and nights passed, Norton's house and its various anti-air spikes gradually took shape.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
The sun sank slowly in the west, and dusk spread across the land.
It was already late autumn, and the evenings felt lonelier still. If someone had a bit of mental illness, they could easily sense a touch of sadness in these surroundings where everything was withering.
"Awooo..."
A mournful howl rang out through the darkened woods.
As the howling carried through the forest, a dense mass of green-glowing eyes moved among the trees like ghost lights.
Judging by the height of those eyes alone, the wolves were bound to be large.
The wooden cabin's defensive system on the edge of the cliff had taken shape. Compared with the first cabin he had built, Norton's skills had improved immensely this time. At the very least, it was quite orderly.
A wooden cabin covering perhaps six square meters stood beside the cliff. Its roof was covered in sharpened wooden spikes pointed at the sky to defend against attacks from birds.
A row of barricades with outward-pointing spearheads also stood around it. They were useful against wild beasts, and it had been no easy feat for Norton to build such defenses under these crude conditions.
The cabin was pitch-black inside.
Yet faint noises came from within.
"Creak..."
The wooden window was pushed open a crack, and a blood-red eye abruptly appeared in the gap.
Night, a cliff, an isolated wooden cabin, a monster with blood-red eyes... Put those elements together and you could make a movie called "Midnight Freak."
But today, the midnight freak himself was a little panicked.
Norton's blood-red eyes gave him excellent night vision. As his body changed, the eye membranes he had once used to see at night and underwater seemed to have atrophied and fallen away.
He hadn't grown much in a year. He was still withered, though his body was a little tougher than before.
Perhaps a year was still too short a time for a Vampire.
But Holy Lord City's problem had only grown worse over all that time!
Norton had smelled the stench of decay from Holy Lord City two years ago, but for the city itself, people had begun dying three years ago.
Three years was a considerable amount of time for the various animal populations that had flocked there to grow.
Apparently, so many people had died in Holy Lord City that these species had never lacked food. As a result, they rarely hunted, instead eating their fill and mating whenever and wherever they pleased, causing their populations to soar.
But as time passed and the food gradually rotted and was consumed, their populations had grown too large for the food supply to meet demand.
Even Norton, who dared not clash with those populations, found his ability to obtain food greatly affected.
But Norton was alone and outmatched, and he didn't dare approach those packs of beasts and groups of monsters to talk to them. Because his nature made him easy to see as prey, he hardly ever entered their territory, afraid those groups would set their sights on him.
Unfortunately, running away was never a solution.
These populations began hunting one another or migrating en masse.
After a year of conflict, the major populations had either moved elsewhere or been gradually worn down in the struggle for territory.
At last, the final victor had emerged.
Werewolves.