《Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters》


 Chapter 1 Omni-Vampire

    When a vampire bit my lip, my whole life changed. She said it was an ident, but somehow, some of her blood got in the small cut and turned me into a vampire. How do I know this?


    Because this showed up in my vision shortly after.


    [Congrattions! Wee to the Vampire Cultivation System! You are now an omni-vampire! You are level one of the Beyond Human Realm! Extract life essence to get stronger]


    What the f*ck? A system? Really? I''m a vampire, and I have a system? Why? Shouldn''t I just be a normal vampire without a system?


    [You have a system because Shikasa, Goddess of Vampires and Queen of the Night, has taken an interest in you, and she doesn''t want you to die during your first encounter with another vampire]


    Another vampire? Oh yeah! One was making out with me right now.


    "Umm,dy?" I said.


    Her brow furrowed as she realized what she''d done. She looked at me like, ''Oh sh*t! I just turned this dude into a vampire!'' I could see her panic and she just bit my neck out of instinct and tried to suck my blood.


    Not knowing anything better to do, I bit her neck and tried to suck her blood. We basically had a suck off. We kept trying to out suck the other one, but we were neck and neck. I could tell because these system notifications kept going off.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    [Some of your life essence has been extracted. You are now level 9 of the Barely More Than Human Realm]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    [Some of your life essence has been extracted. You are now level 9 of the Barely More Than Human Realm]


    It just kept going up and down and up and down. Never ending. I did the first thing I could think of. I pulled her hair at the base of her neck, where it didn''t hurt as much and kind of felt good. At least that''s what my ex-girlfriends have told me. I wouldn''t know.


    That removed her teeth from my neck. She moaned a little. I think she liked that I was taking control.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 2 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 3 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Beyond Human Realm]


    She started to go limp in my arms. Maybe I had sucked too much of her blood. Iid her gently down on the ground.


    For a few minutes, she justid there breathing. I don''t know why I stayed. Maybe I felt some kind of obligation to make sure she was okay. I did just extract some of her life essence and a lot of blood.


    Or more likely, I felt like I would be lost in a new world without her as a guide. I hoped she could show me the ropes of being a vampire before I had to fend for myself. I didn''t know how strong I waspared to other vampires, but I had to guess I was probably at the weakest stage. Everyone starts at the bottom.


    Once she had finally recovered, the vampire introduced herself to me.


    "Hi, my name is Victoria," she said, putting out her hand from her positionying on the ground.


    "Hi, my name is Dn," I said, shaking her hand from my position sitting on the ground next to her.


    "So," she said awkwardly.


    "Yeah, so you turned me into a vampire and then tried to suck the life out of me," I said, not beating around the bush.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Sorry about that. I wasn''t trying to kill you. I just wanted you to pass out so I could run away," she said sheepishly.


    "That''s not much better. You were going to leave me unconscious in an alley to get robbed or mugged?" I said.


    "Yes?" She said, shrugging. "You would''ve been fine. This part of town isn''t that bad. What''s weird is that you didn''t pass out. Even other vampires pass out when I bite them."


    "Maybe I''m just special?" I said. It was my turn to shrug this time.


    [You are an omni-vampire. Because you are every type of vampire at the same time, you have resistance to some of the stronger effects of every vampire type''s unique abilities]


    Oh yeah, and I have a vampire system in my head now thanks to the vampire goddess Shikasa or whatever.


    "Maybe," she said, standing up. "First thing we need to do is register you with the Vampire Association."


    "Vampires have an association?" I said, raising my eyebrows.


    "Of course vampires have an association. How do you think we''ve avoided detection in the modern world for so long?" She said.


    "Uh, very carefully?" I joked.


    "Very funny, but no," she said. "We''ve avoided detection because after droves of us were hunted down and killed by vampire hunters, we realized we needed to organize. Long ago, we established the Vampire Association, and we''ve stayed rtively hidden and safe since then," she said.


    "Ok. Lead the way," I said.


    We walked several blocks to a massive office building with the logo, "Sanguis Fluid Dynamics," on the outside. We had been rtively close to downtown, so it wasn''t a long walk. Victoria opened the door and confidently strode through the massive lobby.


    One of the security guards looked and nodded at her. She nodded back. Her footsteps echoed on the marble flooring. When we got to the elevators, she pressed the button. I watched as the number went from seven down to one.


    When the doors opened, we stepped inside. After they closed, Victoria pressed a hidden panel, and a small ss surface extended out from the wall. It looked almost like a petri dish. She bit the fleshy part of her palm. She squeezed her fist over the dish, and a few droplets of blood fell onto it.


    The surface retracted into the wall, and a robotic female voice said, "Sanguis family member confirmed." The ss surface came out again, but it was clean of blood.


    "Now, it''s your turn," Victoria said.

 Chapter 2 Feeding Methods: All

    "Ok," I said as I bit my hand. I could feel my canines sharpen and stab into my hand. I clenched my fist and held it over the ss surface, and blood fell onto it.


    It retracted back into the wall again, and the same female voice said, "Sanguis family member confirmed. ess granted."


    The metal surface below the column of floor buttons lowered, revealing buttons for basement floor levels. Victoria pressed ''B9''. I watched as the floors were counted down to ''B9''.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    When the door opened, Victoria walked out with purpose again. We walked down a hall, turned left, and arrived at a doctor office looking ce that said on the door, "Vampire Registration Center."


    We opened the door and walked in. The person at the desk was an older woman wearing red scrubs and sitting at aputer. She said, "Do you have an appointment?" In a nasally voice.


    "No, Doris, not today. This one was an idental, unsanctioned rebirth," Victoria said.


    "I see," Doris said, her eyebrows raising. She grabbed some papers from behind the counter and stapled them together. She handed the bundle to Victoria and said, "You''ll have to fill out an incident report. You have a week to bring it back. I''m documenting you as the progenitor, so we''ll know who to track down if you don''t fill it out."


    "I''ll be sure to fill it out," Victoria said with a forced smile.


    The woman looked at herputer and pushed up her sses. "Victoria Sanguis. Progenitor vampire to¡­ " She looked up at me. "What''s your name, darling? First name only."


    "Uh, Dn," I said.


    "Do you have living identification on you, Dn? Driver''s license will do," she said, smiling.


    "Yeah, here you go," I said, handing over my driver''s license.


    She took it from my hand and put it next to her on the desk. "Ok, here we go," she said, as she furiously typed on her keyboard for a few seconds. Then she ran the license through a machine. The machine spat out another card. She handed both cards to me. "That''ll be it.


    Here is your living identification back and your new unliving identification. Now step right through that door. Your assessor is ready for you."


    I took the unliving identification. It had the same picture as my driver''s license on it, but my name read, "Dn Sanguis." Did they change every vampire''sst name to Sanguis when they joined the Vampire Association?


    I didn''t have anymore time to think about it as I walked through the door, and another person in red scrubs was waiting for me on the other side. "Hi, my name''s Walter. I''ll be your assessor for today. Your progenitor may view the assessment if you give them permission."


    "I give her permission," I said.


    "Very good," Walter said. He gestured for me to sit on a medical patient chair. I did. He grabbed a couple things off a metal tray. "Ok, we''re going to take a little blood here. You''ll just feel a little prick."


    "She wasn''t feeling a little prick earlier," I said. I put my hand up for a high five, but Walter just stared at me nk faced. Victoria didn''tugh either. She just red at me. I lowered my hand. "Tough crowd."


    I felt a mild sting as a needle pricked my finger. Walter squeezed the blood out of my finger into a small vial and put it in a machine. The machine made a whirring noise, and Walter looked at aputer screen that was connected to it.


    "What? What does that mean?" Walter said. He showed theputer screen to me and Victoria.


    It read:


    [Vampire Type: Omni-Vampire]


    [Feeding Method: All]


    [Potential: Infinite]


    "I''ve never heard of an omni-vampire before, but I can only guess it means you''re a hybrid of every type of vampire based on the fact that it says you can use all feeding methods," Walter said. "This is incredible! I''ll be famous for discovering a new type!"


    "Calm down there, buddy," I said. "I just want to get assessed and get out of here. Am I free to go?"


    "Yeah, that''s fine. Just give me your unliving identification," Walter said. I did it, and he ran it through another machine. When he handed it back to me, my vampire type and feeding method were listed on the card. I put it in my wallet.


    I looked at Victoria. "Let''s get out of here."


    "Finally," she said. "We have a lot of work to do before you enter vampire sect training."


    "Vampire sect training?" I said as we walked out of the office, back through the hallways, and into the elevator. She hit floor ''B3''.


    "Yeah, vampire sect training. You train to be part of the vampire sect, and youpete against other sects to maintain or establish vampire supremacy," she said, like it was information I should be downloading into my brain.


    "So there are other sects? Who are the other sects?" I said.


    When we got off on the floor, the interior was significantly different from the previous one. This one looked like a massive gym, with an animal habitat in the back.


    "There are dozens of sects, and each of them fall under certain categories. Some of the categories include demihumans, beastfolk, fae, and undead, but there are others. Vampires are part of the undead category," she said.


    "And there arepetitions? What for?" I said.


    "They determine where we rank among non humans and who we have authority over and who has authority over us as well as control over the portals, but we''ll go into thatter," she said. "Dragons are higher up than us and have been so for centuries. We have a not-so-friendly rivalry with them, but I''m hoping we can knock them from their pedestal one of these days."


    We were walking through the gym, and a guy at the squat rack turned around and said, "Don''t let Victoria fill your head with fantasies. We''ve never been at the top, and we never will. The sooner you ept that, the easier your unlife will be."


    He was wearing workout clothes that looked like they were lifted directly out of the 80''s. Maybe they were. With how long vampires lived, I wouldn''t be surprised if this guy was just multiple decades behind the times.


    "Thanks. I''ll be sure to take your advice," I said sarcastically.


    "Don''t say I didn''t warn you," he said.


    "Don''t listen to Brutus. He can''t get over hisst defeat," Victoria said.


    "If you don''t mind me asking, what kind of vampire are you?" I asked.


    "Wasn''t it obvious when the first thing I tried to do was suck you off? I''m a sex vampire. I feed off life essence through sex," she said. "Well, and blood, but every vampire can feed that way. But I prefer my victims not to know I fed off them."


    "Ohhh," I said. "I thought you were a groupie. And to think I felt sorry for you."


    "Hey, a girl''s gotta eat," she said.


    "I guess that''s fair," Iughed. It was such a ridiculous concept to me that I had tough. She was going to feed off giving me head. Wow. What a world I lived in now.


    We got to the back of the gym, where the animal habitat was. It looked like it had an airlock system to enter it. Probably so the animals couldn''t get out when you opened the door. The habitat was currently empty. It was huge though. It looked like it could house a t-rex.


    Maybe it could.


    Victoria opened the door and shoved me through it. She closed it and locked it from the outside.


    "What are you doing?" I said.


    She went over to the wall and started pressing buttons. The inner door opened, so anything that entered the habitat could now get to me.


    "I''m throwing you to the wolves," she said.


    She pressed another few buttons, and a wall rose up. A dozen wolves came running out of it. They saw me and immediately rushed at me, baring their teeth.

 Chapter 3 Fast Leveling

    Victoria pressed some buttons, and a wall opened, releasing a dozen wolves. "I''m throwing you to the wolves," Victoria said.


    The wolves rushed at me, baring their fangs. "That''s a terrible joke," I said under my breath.


    I jumped out of the pseudo-airlock to prevent myself from getting cornered inside and ran around the outside of the habitat so the wolves would follow me in a line and not surround me. That didn''t exactly work how I nned it.


    Some of the wolves ran ahead of me, and I ended up getting surrounded anyway. I didn''t know what to do at that point. The only thing I could think to do was fight my way through them one wolf at a time.


    So that''s what I did. I grabbed the first wolf that lunged at me by the jaws so it couldn''t close them on my head and struggled to keep them from closing. Or at least that''s what I thought would happen. Instead, I pulled the wolf''s jaws apart, ripping its lower jaw off its body, killing it.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 5 of the Beyond Human Realm!]


    I was a lot stronger than I thought I was. Still, there were eleven of the wolves and one of me. I had to get them away from me. The wolves started lunging at me left and right. I grabbed each of them in turn and hurled them as far away as I could.


    They all flew roughly one hundred feet away. Theynded hard and struggled to get up. This was my chance to even out the numbers. There were three left in my vicinity, all huddled together.


    I lunged towards them and grabbed the one on the left and the one on the right and smashed them into the one in the middle. Their heads exploded as they impacted each other. Three headless wolf corpses fell to the ground in a pile.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 6 of the Beyond Human Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Beyond Human Realm!]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 8 of the Beyond Human Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Beyond Human Realm!]


    I was getting blood and viscera all over me. I didn''t realize being a vampire would be such a messy business. I would have to take a shower after this. Maybe I could convince Victoria to take one with me. I winked inwardly to myself.


    It was exhrating to level up so fast! Then again, I wasn''t just taking a little bit of blood from my victims like most vampires supposedly do. Just extracting a little bit of life essence at a time. I was fully annihting my victims, taking all of their life essence in one go. I would be surprised if I wasn''t leveling up this fast.


    Being an omni-vampire must have allowed me to extract life essence without having to drink blood or even extract emotional energy. As long as I killed my victims, all of their life essence went into me.


    This was overpowered. No other vampire could get stronger this fast. Just me. I couldn''t wait to really get started leveling up. This was just a warm-up run.


    The remaining eight wolves finally recovered from being thrown across the habitat and were running back over to me. I dove and tackled one to one to the ground and broke its neck.


    Then, I got up and kicked one so hard it instantly died. I quickly dispatched the remaining wolves through a series of punches, rips, and kicks that killed each of them in one shot.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Vampire Spawn Realm!]


    Now that the wolves were all dead, I made my way back to the habitat airlock. Victoria spoke into an electronic box that sent her voice through the speakers in the habitat.


    "How do you feel?" She said.


    "Wet," I said. I was covered in blood and guts. I really, really needed a shower.


    "Besides that," she said.


    "Good. No, great! I''m getting stronger by the minute." I said with a smile on my face.


    "I noticed. How are you doing that? All vampires need to feed somehow to get stronger, but you''re just straight up killing and getting stronger," she said.


    "I don''t know. It has something to do with being an omni-vampire. Somehow I''m just instantly absorbing the life essence of the things I kill," I said.


    "That''s convenient," she said.


    "Very," I said.


    "You ready for another round?" Victoria said.


    "I''m kind of covered in gunk," I said.


    "Get over it. That''s how it always is when you''re fighting for your life," Victoria said.


    "Fine," I said. "Let''s go again."


    "Ok, this time I''m going to release something scarier." She pressed some buttons, and the wall opened up again.


    This time a bear came out. Not a small bear either. This one was three times the size of a normal bear. It was 3 meters tall on all fours, and its fur was jet ck.


    It lumbered over to me a lot faster than I expected due to it''s massive size. When it got close, it swiped its ws at me. It was like a log with pointy bits at the end being swung at me.


    I tried to jump over it, and I did. What I didn''t expect was the follow-up swipe, which knocked me off my feet and 50 feet away. I rolled on the ground for a while. When I got up, the bear was already on me again.


    This time it was on its hind legs, getting ready toe down and stomp me. I didn''t let it. I jumped into the air and kicked it in the stomach with both of my legs.


    My legs sted through the bear''s stomach to the other side of its body and with my forward momentum, the rest of my body followed. My entire body, including my face, slid through the hole I had just created in the bear.


    Inded on my ass on the other side, literally covered in blood and guts. Head to toe. Then I looked up and noticed the bear was falling backwards onto me. I barely had enough time to roll out of the way before its massive body came crashing down onto the ground.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 10 of the Vampire Spawn Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 2 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]


    Fuck! That was the most disgusting thing that''s ever happened to me, and now I was just sitting in it. I waited for Victoria to say what I expected her to say.


    "Ready for another round?" Victoria said.


    "No, I''m not ready for another round! I''m covered in filth!" I said.


    "You''ll get used to it. By the way, how strong do you think you are now? We need to get you up to at least Vampire Adept before you enter the Vampire Academy, and that starts tomorrow," Victoria said.


    "I wouldn''t call myself an adept yet. More of a fledgling right now," I said.


    "Huh. That''s one of the power levels we used to measure a vampire''s strength and abilities by. How did you know that?" She said.


    "Instinct?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.


    "You''re a terrible liar. I''ll let you keep your secrets, though. It''s good practice for surviving in the non human world. You don''t want to show all your cards until you absolutely have to. It''s easier to kill opponents when they don''t know what you have up your sleeve," Victoria said.


    "That said, you can trust me. I''m your progenitor. It''s my job to keep you alive and safe. Also, your sess or failure reflects on me, so it''s in my best interest for you to seed. Imagine if my progeny made vampires the top sect! I''d be as much a celebrity as you!"


    "I appreciate your reassurance, but as you said, keeping your secrets close to the chest keeps you alive, and I want to stay unalive as long as I can. We''ll see how I feel down the road," I said. "And hey, wait! Progeny? Doesn''t that mean I''m your child? But we''ve made out.


    Isn''t that weird?"


    "Vampire progeny just means I turned you. We aren''t rted. It''s normal for vampires to have rtions with their progeny, even expected in some circles. Vampire''s can''t bear children, so the concept of inbreeding doesn''t even exist for us," Victoria said.


    "Oh, ok. This vampire shit is going to take some getting used to," I said.


    "Another round?" Victoria said.


    "Sure. If we need to get me to a certain strength, then that''s what we''ll do," I said.


    "I''m releasing a troll," she said as she pressed some buttons.


    The wall opened, and a massive literal troll walked through the opening. It was green, wearing animal furs for clothing, and carried a huge wooden club that was darkened from all the blood and sweat it had absorbed. It stood 4 meters tall and probably weighed about 700 lbs, or 318 kg.


    "I feel like you''re trolling me at this point," I said.

 Chapter 4 Mega Leveling!

    "I feel like you''re trolling me at this point," I said.


    "That''s a terrible joke," she said, not under her breath.


    "Sue me," I said andughed.


    As the troll swung its club down at me, I leapt out of the way. The club got stuck in the soft ground that it had impacted. I rolled back onto my feet and changed directions. I ran back towards the troll, up its club and arm, and hopped into piggyback ride position on its back.


    My legs dangled over its shoulders on either side of its head. I leaned back some and started pounding the back of its head. Dull thuds turned into crunching bones as I broke its skull. That turned into loud squelches as I punched into its brain.


    I pulled my arm out, expecting that to be the end of it. The troll fell forward, face first, into the ground and didn''t move. The life essence extraction notification didn''t pop up though, so I suspected something weird was going on.


    I wasn''t wrong. I watched as the troll''s brain regenerated and its skull knitted back together. The troll stood back up, good as new. I was so annoyed that instead of dodging its club swing this time, I caught it. I had to use both hands, but I caught it.


    I yanked the club out of its hands and flipped it around so I was holding it at the base. "This is my club now."


    "No, its not! Club mine! My club!" It stomped its feet in anger.


    I reared back and brought the club down on the troll''s head. When I pulled the club back, its head was gone. Well, it wasn''t gone. It was stuffed down into its chest. I watched as its head reinted out of its body, and then I said, "Fuck that!"


    I grabbed its leg and bit it and bit it and bit it. I chewed and ripped and tore until I had gotten down to the bone. Then I punched the bone as hard as I could, breaking it. I kept punching it until it broke in two, severing its leg from its body. The troll fell over from theck of a leg.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Then I got to work on the leg before it could regenerate. I was operating under the assumption that the troll couldn''t just heal body parts but fully regenerate them if removed. I bit and tore at the ankle until the foot came off.


    Then I started to execute my n. The troll wasying on the ground still, unable to get up with only one leg. I pressed the severed foot against the leg stub that was starting to heal as hard as I could. I was forcing the leg to heal by reattaching the foot, but to a partial leg stub instead of its full leg.


    I then did the same to its other leg. It grabbed me with one of its hands, now that it could see me with its healed head, but I dug my hands into the flesh of the leg and refused to let go. I punched the second leg off as I kicked myself free of the troll''s hand holding me.


    I ran 20 feet away and repeated the process of removing the foot and then I ran back and pressed the foot into the stub until that healed as well. I dodged out of the way as it tried to grab me.


    I ran away until I was 30 feet away and watched as it tried to get back on its feet. It did, but it didn''t have full legs anymore. Just tiny stubs with feet at the ends. It could barely walk. It would never catch up to me if I just walked away from it.


    I had a better n though. I picked up the club and said to the troll, "My club now! If you want it, you better get it!" Then I threw the club back through the opening in the wall into what looked like a long rectangr cage. Like a storage unit but with bars on the sides.


    "My club! Mine!" The troll said.


    I walked over to the front of the habitat and watched as it waddled back into the cage to get its club.


    "Close it up, Victoria. If I can''t kill it, at least I can say I beat it," I said.


    "That you did," She said. "I kind of feel bad for the troll." She closed the opening in the wall.


    "I don''t. It tried to kill me," I said.


    There was something about my opponents immediately trying to kill me that made me not feel that guilty about killing them. Or horribly disfiguring them in the case of the troll. I expected to feel a lot of emotions around killing, but this just felt like it was necessary for survival.


    Killing in the sect or duringpetitions might be an entirely different story, but I wouldn''t know how I''d feel until I experienced it. I was starting to get excited for Vampire Academy. That sounded fun. It sounded like high school all over again, except everyone was over 18 and could legally bone each other.


    [Life essence extracted through¡­ means we will not discuss in detail. You have broken through to level 3 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]


    "I didn''t get that much stronger from that fight. Can we just grind it out with wolves or bears? Something simple," I said.


    "Ok," Victoria said. She pressed a lot of buttons this time, and 10 sections of wall opened up. Half of them released wolves and half of them released giant bears.


    I tore, kicked, punched, and bit my way through what I estimated were 100 wolves and 20 giant bears. The notifications were going off like crazy. I only paid attention to every time I broke into a new realm.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Nascent Vampire Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Emerging Vampire Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Lesser Vampire Minion Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 5 of the Greater Vampire Minion Realm!]


    After I had gone through those enemies, I had Victoria release 100 giant bears. I started breaking through realms so fast that I ignored the full notifications and only read the realm names.


    I advanced through the Novice and Seasoned Vampire Underling realms, Aspiring Vampire realm, Junior and Senior Vampire Initiate realms, Neophyte and Experienced Vampire Apprentice realms, Minor and Major Adept realms, Proficient realm, and Novice Journeyman realm, settling at the Experienced Journeyman realm.


    I got so strong that I was doing ridiculous things to the giant bears at this point. Some of them I punched in the nose so hard that it ordioned their entire bodies. Every time Inded a body blow, I punched or kicked a hole through them.


    Towards the end, I was just punching their heads off. Punching their headspletely off their body. One millisecond they had a head, and the next millisecond, no head. Head gone.


    I don''t mean the heads flew off their bodies andnded somewhere. I mean, the heads vaporized. They just turned into more body stuff covering me that I didn''t want to think about too hard.


    Once the bears were all gone, I said, "Ok, I think we can stop now. I hit Vampire Adept a while ago. Now I''m a Vampire Journeyman."


    "You hit the Vampire Journeyman Realm already? I guess I shouldn''t be surprised. No vampire has ever absorbed the entire life force of 100 wolves and 120 giant bears in one go before. Most vampire feeding methods are inefficient. Yours is incredible!" Victoria said.


    As I walked into the habitat airlock, Victoria opened the outer door and handed me several towels. "Wipe and dry yourself off. We don''t want you to get blood or brains on the floor."


    "Fair," I said and sighed. As I toweled myself off, I asked, "What power level are you, if you don''t mind me asking?"


    "I don''t mind. I am a Vampire Princess," she said, doing a curtsy.


    "You''re royalty?" I said.


    "Yes and no. Status is determined by a vampire''s strength and power. The stronger you get, the higher you rank among vampires. That''s why they include positions of royalty in their ranking system. So I''m not a princess through noble birth. I earned my rank and authority as a princess through hard work," she said, sounding proud of herself.


    "And sucking necks," I said.


    "Yes, and sucking necks," she said, nodding her head. "Now let us hit the showers."


    "Us? As in both of us at the same time?" I said.


    "Duh. You didn''t think that just because you became my progeny, that I''d let you off the hook, did you?" She said and smiled a devious smile.


    "I guess not," I said as I quickly followed her to the showers.

 Chapter 5 Lifeblood Crystal Formation

    "How, on the nose," I said. I sat down on a bench and waited. She came out after a few minutes. She quickly got dressed, blow dried her hair, and she was ready to go.


    We went back to the elevator, and Victoria pressed B12. When the door opened, we walked out into an artificial courtyard. There were two stories of housing on either side of the courtyard. The courtyard extended as far as I could see, which was pretty far.


    We walked to the right, passed the first line of housing to the next one over. It was then that I realized there were lines of housing and courtyards lined up next to each other on the left and right side of the elevator as far as my eyes could see, which again, is pretty far.


    The courtyards and the rows of housing had moving walkways so people could get to where they were going faster. There were also people on bikes, scooters, and even golf carts. We didn''t have to use any of those methods because we were just one row over.


    Victoria opened the door to a two-bedroom apartment. "So this is you and I''ll be right next door if you need anything."


    She handed me a clipboard with some paper on it. "Here''s a form you have to fill out. Just list what you want of your belongings from your ce, and someone will go and get it tonight before you head off to Vampire Academy tomorrow."


    She opened the door and said, "Good night. I''ll see you in the morning." And she left.


    I sat down on the bed and looked at the form. It gave a long list of possible things to take with you with a box next to it to check mark. Every possible option gave a small section for description. There were also lines on the bottom to add things that weren''t on the list.


    "My guitar. Don''t need it. My drums. Don''t need those. My bass. Don''t need that either.


    Myputer. Probably don''t need that. Either they''ll haveputers there or I won''t need one. Pictures of my family. Too depressing. My clothes.


    I could use clothes, but they''ll provide me with a uniform there," I said.


    "Nope. I don''t think I''ll be needing any of my old stuff where I''ll be going. As long as I have my trusty set of lockpicks, I''ll be fine." I patted my pants and then my jacket. Sh*t. I didn''t have them. I must have left them at home when I went to perform at the club.


    F*ck. I needed those.


    I wrote under the additional lines, "I need my special bag. Its in the second drawer on the left in the kitchen. Under the batteries. Please get it and bring it to me. And don''t look inside. Thank you."


    I walked outside my room to see if there was somewhere to leave the clipboard and the form. There was an ingoing and outgoing mail container attached to the wall. I put the clipboard and the form in that.


    ''Before I go to an academy filled with blood sucking vampires, is there a way to prevent my life essence from being stolen?'' I thought to the system.


    [Yes]


    ''How?''


    [You have to construct a lifeblood crystal from your umted life essence. This requires meditation and concentration to aplish. Would you like a guided meditation to begin?]


    ''Yes, I would.''


    [Initiating start-up protocol for lifeblood crystal formtion]


    [Imagine a dense red orb the size of a pea made up of some of the life essence you''ve umted. Imagine it within yourself]


    Ok. I imagined an orb. A dense red orb the size of a pea. I imagined taking some of the life essence umted inside my body to form this orb. Suddenly, I could see it in my mind.


    I saw the red life essence particles being pulled into a center point where they slowly formed the orb, one particle at a time. It took a good thirty minutes, but I formed it.


    [Prime Lifeblood Crystal Formed]


    [Now beginyering the realms you have achieved so far over the orb. Each realm must bepleted before moving onto the next]


    ''Layer every realm? I''ve broken through twenty realms already! I have toyer every single one? How long is this going to take?''


    [Approximately 15 minutes per realm]


    ''That''s five hours! How am I supposed to get eight hours of sleep tonight?''n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Do you desire to be prepared for enemies to try to steal your life essence or not?]


    ''I do. Might as well get started now.''


    [Good job]


    ''That just sounds patronizinging from you.''


    The system didn''t respond. I imagined the Barely More Than Human Realm crystallizing around the lifeblood crystal orb as an additionalyer. Then I moved on to the Beyond Human Realm.


    It took me about five hours to do, but I did it. I formed all theyers of my lifeblood crystal. I even formed smalleryers for each of my 4 levels in the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm.


    As I formed theyers, a pulse started toe from the orb. I sensed that the orb was generating excess life energy to fill my body with, but it could just as easily retract that excess life energy when someone tried to steal it.


    My theory is that the excess life energy was a very diluted form of life essence that I could potentially use to strengthen my body or perform attacks, but I didn''t know how to use it yet.


    I didn''t have the mental energy to experiment with it once I was done forming theyers. It waste. I didn''t know howte, but it waste. I needed rest. So I got in bed and went to sleep.

 Chapter 6 Annihilating Bullies

    I woke up to the sound of Victoria knocking on my door. I answered it in my underwear.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Get dressed. We''re moving out in ten minutes," she said.


    "Got it," I said.


    I put coffee on and got dressed. I put ice cubes in the coffee so I could chug 3 cups really fast. I wasn''t really tired, but I was tired. This was usually the point in the day where I''d regret the decisions I made the night before, but today wasn''t one of those days. I did what I needed to do.


    When I walked outside, I checked the mailbox to see if they''d brought me what I asked for. Sure enough, my bag of lockpicks was in the box. I stuffed those in my pocket and walked up to Victoria.


    "I''m ready," I said.


    "Good," she said.


    I followed her back to the elevator. She hit the button B13. When the doors opened, we walked out, and she said, "Wee to the Vampire Academy."


    The ceiling was several stories high with an artificial sky. Martial arts buildings spread out before us. People of all ages walked past in uniforms of red and ck. The air felt fresh and outdoorsy, despite it being in doors. I noticed a series of gardens with trees throughout theplex.


    "This is where they train and teach new vampires how to adjust to their new powers and strength. It doesn''t matter how old you are. You are all younglings in the eyes of the more experienced senior vampires. I am an instructor here, so you may see me around," Victoria said.


    "I''m taking you to registration. Then you''ll be on your own. Until you graduate and join the Vampire Corps. I think you have the potential to do great things on the frontlines, but you have to go through this process just like everyone else did before you get there."


    "Vampire Corps? Frontlines? Is there a war going on that I''m unaware of?" I said.


    "Yes. A war against the unknowns. Every nonhuman that exists on this came through a rift from another dimension. There are many rifts still opening. Unlike the ones who have formed sects and entered nonhuman society, most of the nonhumans thate out of the rifts are mindless killing machines," Victoria said.


    "It is our duty to destroy them before they cause any harm to human or nonhuman society. You''ll have your time to join me on the frontlines. Just train and do your best."


    "I will," I said.


    Victoria took me through registration. They gave me sses, a dorm room, a map, and a uniform to change into.


    "Good luck," Victoria said. "People are ruthless in here. Just don''t die."


    "I won''t. I can take care of myself, but I appreciate y0ur concern." I kissed her on the mouth. She kissed me back and I left for my first ss.


    As I made my way to my first ss, a few students stood in front of me, stopping me.


    "What''s your problem?" I said. "Don''t know how traffic works yet?"


    "Uh, no. We''re taking donations," the tall blonde one said.


    He was unreasonably good looking like the other two but I assumed that was a vampire thing. I was probably unreasonably good looking now too. I just hadn''t looked in a mirror in a while. That was assuming I would show up in a mirror. ording to myth, vampires didn''t show up in mirrors.


    "For what? Of what?" I said.


    "For us, of course," he said with a smile that said he thought he was clever. "Of life essence."


    "Oh, I don''t have any life essence I can give you," I said, honestly.


    "You''re alive, aren''t you? You wouldn''t be if you didn''t have life essence," he said, still thinking he was smart.


    "No, I have life essence. I just can''t give it to you. It''s crystallized," I said.


    "It''s what? Crystallized? What do you mean?" He said, confused.


    "Oh, you don''t know about lifeblood crystals?" I said, feeling slightly superior to this obvious bully.


    "You just made that up," he said. "Now give me your life essence!"


    He went to grab my neck, and I put up my arm, blocking him. He grabbed my arm and bit into that instead. He sucked the blood from my arm like a creep, but then he stopped and spit it out.


    "There''s no life essence in this blood!" He said.


    "I told you. Mine is protected. It can''t be stolen," I said.


    "If you won''t pay me in life essence, then you''ll pay in blood," he said, raising his fist.


    "I already did," I said, indicating the blood he spit out.


    "Not enough," he said. "Not yet."


    He tried to sucker punch me, but time slowed down. I saw his punching like it was moving through msses. Instead of dodging it, I thought it would be fun to punch his fist with mine. You know how superheroes do in the movies and a shockwavees out.


    So that''s what I did. But rather than a shockwaveing out, his fist just shattered and crumpled under the force of mine. Then his forearm cracked and broke in several ces, and blood shot out of the back of his elbow and sprayed the wall behind us.


    "Fuuuuck!" He said. "My arm! What''s wrong with you?" He held his shattered arm.


    "What do you mean? You attacked me," I said.


    His two friends tried to get revenge for their friend. One threw a roundhouse kick to my face, while the other threw a cut kick to my bncing leg. It wasn''t a fair attack, but I was prepared. Slow motion had already kicked in again.


    I blocked the roundhouse with one arm and grabbed the leg with the other. Simultaneously, I moved my bncing leg away out of his reach. I twisted the leg I was holding until it broke it several ces, and blood sprayed out of the foot into my face.


    That guy fell to the ground holding his leg. The other one had recovered and was circling me, looking for an opening. I wasn''t going to give him one. I had only studied martial arts for a few years, and that was years ago, but this guy was an amateur.


    He threw a haymaker punch at me, and I ducked. Then I uppercut his chin, breaking his jaw, knocking him out, andying him out t on his back.


    A blonde haired woman wearing a more prestigious and official-looking uniform than mine or the other students came up to me and said, "I saw the whole thing! You mercilessly brutalized these students. You''re in a lot of trouble."


    "What the f*ck?" I said.

 Chapter 7 No Name

    "Then why are they the ones on the ground?" The woman said.


    "Because I was stronger than them. Duh," I said. "It''s like you have no brain."


    "How dare you? Who do you think you are?" She said.


    "Dn," I said.


    "Dn, what?" She said.


    "Sanguis, I think," I said.


    "You don''t even have a true family name? Oh, you''re really in trouble now," she said, grinning. What an *sshole, I thought. This person sucks.


    "Ok," I said. "I''m going to ss. I''m alreadyte. Come find me when you figure that out." I walked away. She grabbed my arm. "Don''t touch me.


    That''s assault."


    "I''m a staff member. I can do whatever I want to you. You clearly don''t know the rules of Vampire Academy," she said, grinning even more. I didn''t even think that was possible.


    I tried to remove her arm but I couldn''t. She was too strong. ''Hey, system. I thought I was supposed to be strong. Howe she''s stronger?''


    [She is several realms above you. She is a vampire baroness]n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    ''Is that higher or lower than a princess?''


    [Much lower than a princess but much higher than you]


    ''Damn it. I was hoping I''d be able to throw my weight around here.''


    [Among the new students, you are the strongest. But the older students and the staff are still stronger. You need more training and life essence to surpass them]


    ''Ok. I''ll y along, I guess.''


    "Fine. Can we get this over with though? Just take me wherever you need to take me," I said impatiently. I may have been acting hotheaded, but I was so over being told what to do and how to act. It had only been a few years, but my high school days already felt long behind me. And this just felt like high school, but worse somehow.


    "Not until medicse for the other students," she said.


    "They''re vampires. Shouldn''t they be able to heal super fast?" I said.


    "Yes," she said. "But that''s not the point. I still have to make sure they''re ok."


    "They''ll be fine," I said. "Look, the medics are already here."


    Medics showed up for the three students on the ground and took them somewhere. Presumably a nurse''s office or something.


    "Ok, we can go now," she said.


    We arrived in a dark room. As soon as she closed the door, a light shone over a table that held three people wearing ornate robes with hoods at it, and a light shone over us.


    "What has the boy done?" The middle person said.


    "He assaulted three other students," she said.


    "No, I didn''t!" I said. "They assaulted me, and I defended myself."


    "Who were the three students?" The middle one said.


    "Tyler Crimson, Jesse Hemsworth, and Kyle Scarlet," she said.


    "Hmm. This is very bad. This is very bad indeed." The middle one said. "What''s your name, boy?"


    "Dn Sanguis," I said.


    "No family name. Hmm." The middle one said. "Who is your progenitor?"


    "Victoria Sanguis," I said.


    "Princess Victoria," the middle one said. "We don''t want to anger her."


    "What should we do?" The right one said.


    "Give him to the families." The left one said.


    "No, that''s too harsh. And it would anger Victoria." The middle one said. "What if we admitted him into the Outer Sect Disciples entrance exam? We could say we saw promise in his strength and ability to defeat three students at once."


    "I can agree with that." The left one said.


    "Yes, that is an excellent idea." The right one said.


    "You know I can hear everything you''re saying, right?" I said. They ignored me.


    "That way we can appease the families by letting them send emissaries topete against him." The middle one said.


    "Good." The left one said.


    "Excellent." The right one said.


    "You guys are weird," I said. "I''ve never had people scheme right to my face before."


    "Why should we hide it? You''ll be long dead before Victoria has a chance to talk to you," the middle one said.


    "Fair point," I said. "Wait, does that mean I can kill in thispetition?"


    "It happens, but it''s not encouraged," the middle one said.


    "Ok," I said, already scheming myself.


    "You''ll be held until thepetition starts," the middle one said. "Take him to a holding cell."


    "Yes, sir," the woman next to me said. She grabbed my arm again and led me out of the room. We went into one of the rooms next door. There were three holding cells. The woman put me in the far one and locked it. "Someone will get you when thepetition is about to start."


    I sat against the wall and closed my eyes. I went into my mind.


    ''System, is there a way for me to drain someone''s life essence without killing them?''


    [There are many ways. You can drink their blood, make them elicit a strong emotion likeughter, or through orgasm]


    ''I meant a way that I could do it efficiently inbat.''


    [You could drain life essence directly if part of your body was inside their body]


    ''What? Are you saying I have to have sex with them?''


    [Negative. But a part of your body has to prate the target''s body]


    ''It really sounds like you''re telling me to have sex with my target.''


    [Negative. For example, if you punched a hole in their stomach, you could drain life essence through that]


    ''Oh! What if I just poked my finger through their skin? Would that work?''


    [Affirmative. That would suffice]


    ''Looks like I''m gonna have to start fingering people.''


    [Now you are making it appear sexual]


    ''I didn''t mean it like that. Is there anything else I could be doing while I''m waiting for thispetition to start?''


    [You could fill up your lifeblood nexus points]


    ''What will that do?''


    [It will strengthen and fortify your body against injury and empower your attacks]


    ''Ok. Let''s do that.''


    The system walked me through the process of filling up my body''s nexus points, and I followed its instructions for the hours I had before thepetition began.

 Chapter 8 Outer Sect Disciple Entrance Exam

    Everywhere I went, I made enemies by just trying to live my life and defend myself and my property. Normally I would assume that I was the problem since it happened so much, but I just couldn''t see anything I was actually doing wrong.


    I was actually very lucky to have made a friend or at least an ally in Victoria. That said, even she had wanted to do me harm originally. Well, that''s what I assumed when she extracted some of my life essence. It''s possible that was all she wanted.


    Before my thoughts went any further down a rabbit hole, someone let me out of the jail cell and led me to arge arena in the middle of a courtyard. The arena was massive. It must have had at least a 100 meter radius, making it 200 meters wide.


    There were already hundreds ofbatants in the arena. The person who was guiding me threw me into the ring. I rolled onto my feet and looked around. With hundreds of otherbatants, if they ganged up on me, I would be doomed.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to witness this month''s Outer Sect Disciple entrance exam. Thepetition is a free-for-all battle among the contestants. Only the top 20 finishers will be outer sect disciples. Thest person standing in the ring will receive an extra special boon," an announcer on a tform said. "Now begin!"


    Everyone started fighting each other at once. While I liked stealing life essence and getting stronger, I was in no hurry to fight multiple people at the same time. I stood in ce and waited for someone toe up to me.


    My first opponent was a short blonde girl. She threw a lightning fast kick at my head that I was only able to dodge because adrenaline kicked in and time slowed down for me. Even with time slowed down, it was difficult to dodge.


    I poked my finger into her calf and started draining her life essence.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 5 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 6 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    She pulled her leg back, ripping my finger out of her leg, and hissed at me. "What did you just do?" She said.


    "I extracted your life essence. What of it?" I said.


    "Oh, is that all?" She said sarcastically. She threw a flurry of punches at me, but I blocked them all with my hands. She was a lot slower than she had been before.


    I caught one of her fists, threw her over my shoulder and mmed her to the ground. I then put my finger in her mouth, in between her cheek and her teeth. The system only said part of me had to be inside of the other person. It didn''t say where. I drained more of her life essence.


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 8 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    [Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 10 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    She tried to bite my finger, but I just pulled at her cheek so she couldn''t do it. I pulled my finger out of her mouth and grabbed her by the waist. I lifted her over my head and hurled her out of the ring. Shended gracelessly on her stomach and rolled on the ground.


    Now that she was out of the ring, she was out of thepetition. I didn''t have to worry about her anymore. I set my sights on my next victim. I mean, opponent. I set my sights on my next opponent.


    There was a burly man being ganged up on by several smaller vampires. The man must have been at least 2 meters tall. And buff. Knowing that no one would target me with their attention on him, I ran up and jabbed my pinky into his side and began draining.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Seasoned Vampire Journeyman Realm!]


    He swatted me aside after I had drained four levels from him. Inded on my feet and ran back to the fight, but this time I targeted the runts that were fighting him. I jabbed a finger in two of the smaller vampires and drained.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Budding Vampire Expert Realm!]


    I did the same to two more and two more and two more. I broke through the Specialist and Versatile Vampire Expert realms, and then to the Aplished Vampire realm, and then to the Junior and Senior Vampire Elite realms.


    Ok, now I was really starting to make progress. I didn''t know what realm the strongest vampire here was, but if I kept this up, I was sure to be the strongest soon.


    The smaller vampires eventually turned on me, but with a few well ced punches, kicks, and throws, I knocked them all out of the arena. Then I grabbed the burly one by the foot and hurled him out of the ring too.


    By now, there were only about a hundred vampires left in the ring. With our enhanced speed and strength, the fight had gone faster than I expected. I scanned the remaining vampires until I found what I was looking for.


    The strongest vampire here. He had his hands behind his back and was kicking his opponents out of the ring one by one. He was surrounded by vampires, all trying to knock him out or outright kill him. I couldn''t tell.


    His long, light brown hair flowed gracefully as he moved. His charming eyes and smile were maic. I could just stare into his eyes for hours.


    [You are sumbing to a vampire charm technique. Snap out of it]


    I shook my head. Oh shit! Yeah, that was dangerous. Now that I looked more closely, I realized he wasn''t moving that fast, his opponents were just moving slowly, as if in a daze.


    I decided the only way to keep from getting charmed here would be to close my eyes. I probably wouldn''t be able to fight well with my eyes closed, so maybe I would just look at his feet instead. It seemed like the charm effect started when I looked at his face.


    I sat down to wait until he had finished off his opponents and he and I were the only contestants left. I closed my eyes and began meditating to form moreyers of my lifeblood crystal and protect the realms I had recently gained.


    Now that I had a decent amount of practice,yers went on faster, but it still took about 5 minutes per realm. Luckily, the fight between the charming man and his hundred opponents was taking a while.

 Chapter 9 First Vampiric Ability: Daze

    I felt something trying to creep into my mind, but I mentally swatted it away. Maybe forming the crystal had increased my mental fortitude. The man looked at me, and I looked at him. He rushed up to me in a blur. One second he was a hundred feet away, and the next he was right in front of me.


    Unfortunately, for him, I was faster. I had prepared a gut punch to greet his arrival. Itunched him into the air. He did a backflip andnded on his feet clutching his stomach.


    "Bastard!" He said. "You''re stronger than they said you would be."


    "I''m stronger than I was a few hours ago," I replied. "Are you the one they sent to kill me?"


    "Yes. But it doesn''t seem I''m going to be able to," he said. "They will send others."


    "Thanks for the warning," I said. I charged him in an instant and threw a few punches to his midsection. He was only fast enough to block one. The other two connected.


    He fell to the ground and spat out blood. "You don''t have to kill me," he said.


    "I''m not," I said. "I''m going to do worse. I''m going to take your strength."


    I plunged my finger into his back and drained some of his life essence. Just the parts that would be useful to me. He could keep all the lesser realms of strength.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Senior Vampire Elite Realm!]


    [You have extracted a vampiric ability. Daze. When you activate the ability, weaker minds that try to focus on your face will enter a mild daze, making them slower to react to your actions or attacks]


    [Would you like to assimte Daze into your list of abilities or would you like to convert it into life essence?]


    ''Assimte.''


    [You have assimted Daze. Would you like to view your list of abilities?]


    ''No.'' I thought. I only had the one, so viewing my abilities would be useless at this point.


    The no longer charming vampirey defeated and bleeding on the ground. I picked him up and threw him hundreds of feet out of the ring.


    The crowd cheered. The announcer came up to me. "Congrattions on winning the outer sect disciplepetition! Umm¡­"


    "Dn Sanguis," I said.


    "Dn Sanguis! Exciting development folks. The winner of thepetition is a no name! That hasn''t happened since, since Victoria Sanguis, many years ago!" The announcer said.


    The crowd cheered and roared. "No name! No name! No name!" They chanted. "Dn Sanguis! Dn Sanguis!


    Dn Sanguis!"


    "I haven''t gotten this much apuse from a crowd in well, ever," I said.


    "Don''t get used to it," the announcer said under his breath. "This crowd is fickle. Trust me."


    "I know. Most crowds are," I said, being a veteran performer myself.


    "Alright, folks! Dn Sanguis isn''t going home empty-handed! He isn''t going home at all, in fact, because he lives at the vampire academy now. I mean, we''re giving him something for winning!" The announcer said.


    The crowd cheered and roared again.


    "We''re giving him a brand new car! Wait, that''s not correct. What would he do with a car in a building underground?" The announcer started shuffling cards. "Here it is! We''re giving him lifeblood pills, vitalus pills, and a shitty, I mean, shiny sword!"


    "Woooo!!!!" The crowd cheered. "Dn, I want your babies!" Said a random woman in the crowd. The crowd stopped for a moment and all stared at her. And then they said, "Wooooo!!!" Again.


    "Thank you! Thank you! You''re too kind!" I said into the microphone.


    "Alright, that''s a wrap, folks. Time to go home!" The announcer said.


    "Ahhhh!!!" The crowd whined before dispersing.


    The announcer handed me two small pill bottles and a sword and scabbard that he had around his waist. "Here you go, kid. Don''t spend it all in one ce." He winked at me and then followed after the crowd, leaving me alone in the courtyard.


    I quickly pocketed the pills and put the scabbard around my waist. The charming vampire had mentioned assassins would be after me, so I had to be prepared for an attack at any moment.


    I didn''t know where to go though. I supposed I could go back to my dorm room. I still had the map with me and the key. I started making my way to my dorm room.


    As I got to the dorm building, I went inside and started walking down a long hall to my room. The lights in the hall flickered and sputtered. I looked at them for a moment, and then when I looked back down the hall, there were three assassins walking down the hall towards me.


    They had their swords drawn and masks on their faces. "Hey guys, can we do this outside? I don''t want to damage the walls." They looked at each other and then at me and started running towards me. "I guess not!" I said.


    I pulled out my sword and prepared to defend myself. I activated my daze ability. They all looked at me and slowed down a bit. It was like they were drunk.


    I swung my sword at one of them, and they blocked, but I followed it up with a kick to his chest, and he flew backwards into the other assassins, knocking them over. I ran up to them before they could get up and swung down on them.


    They all blocked my sword, but I mmed my foot down onto one of their feet, crushing it. While pressing my sword down on their swords to keep them upied, I smashed all of their feet under my boots.


    Then I backed up to see how I did. They got up, but they could barely walk. I waited for one of them toe at me, and I cut off their sword hand and plunged my sword into their back.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The next one I slid onto a knee and shed their stomach open. The third one, I shed his throat. Blood sprayed on my face.


    I wasn''t very good with a sword yet, but I had yed around with one enough in my teen years to kill three charm drunk assassins. So I guess I wasn''t terrible.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Lesser Vampire Master Realm!]


    I thought I would feel more from killing people, but I didn''t. They tried to kill me. I was just defending myself. I didn''t see anything wrong with that.


    I wiped the blood off my sword on their clothes and put it back in the scabbard. I went through their clothes to see if I could find anything but they didn''t have anything on them except their swords. So I took their swords.


    I opened my dorm room. It was dark, so I put the swords just inside the door and turned on the light. Victoria was standing on the other side of the room. Apparently she had been standing in the dark. Like a weirdo.

 Chapter 10 No Names and the Vi Condensation Stage

    "No. Wait, what? Why did your mind go there? Do I seem like the kind of person who would cheat?" I said.


    "Then where were you all day?" Victoria said with a frustrated look on her adorable face.


    "I was in vampire jail. Some other students tried to mug me for my life essence. They attacked me and I defended myself, but somedy used me of being the aggressor. Turns out the students had important family names, so they entered me into the outer sect disciple entrance exam with the n to let the families send someone to kill me during the exam," I said.


    "Then, after I defeated my would-be assassin, three assassins showed up in the hallway and tried to kill me. And now my girlfriend is berating me. Now you''re all caught up."


    "What? Those sons of bitches! I mean those assholes! I''m sure their mothers'' are very nice. I''m gonna hurt them, and then I''m gonna beat them, and then I''m gonna kill them," she said in a rage.


    "Now would be a bad time to tell a joke, so I won''t," I said.


    "No, jokes are fine. I was actually just kidding about the hussy thing. I just wanted to see you squirm," Victoriaughed. "I knew it had to be something serious that happened."


    "You''re evil, you know that?" I said.


    "I know. What''s your point?" She said.


    "No point. Just an observation," I said.


    "What happened with the entrance exam? I assume you won. What did they give you for it?" She said.


    "Of course I won. They gave me lifeblood pills, vitalus pills, and this shitty, I mean, shiny sword," I said, gesturing to the sword in the scabbard.


    "Really? That''s neat. The pills are probably low quality but they should help with making you stronger. The lifeblood pills will help you progress through some more realms. They work best if you''re meditating after you take them. It allows you to absorb more of the life essence in the pills.


    They''re basically concentrated life essence derived from blood. That''s why they''re called lifeblood pills," she said.


    "Although with how good you are at extracting life essence, you may not need to meditate to extract all the life essence from the pills. You''ll want to hold off on the Vitalus pills until you reach the realm right before entering the Vi Condensation Stage of realms."


    "Ok, what is Vitalus or Vi and the condensation what now?" I said.


    "Think of life essence as the fuel and Vitalus or Vi as the fire. Gasoline and wood are cool and all, but they''re just fuel. Fire is where the real damage gets done. All the realms you''ve achieved up til now are minor realms in a major realm we call the Body Fortification Stage.


    It''s a stage where your body undergoes changes to strengthen it not only in terms of power but also in terms of resistance to damage," Victoria said.


    "The point of the Body Fortification Stage is to prepare your body to channel and utilize Vitalus or Vi. Without body fortification, Vi would tear you apart from the inside. Now, I only entered the Vi Condensation Stage 20 years ago, since I''m only around 200 years old in vampire years and I don''t kill my targets when I feed.


    "I only take what I need, and they won''t miss. The older vampires and the ones that kill when they feed have already reached the Vi Condensation Stage."


    "Ok. I think I''m starting to get it, but what does the Vi Condensation stage do?" I said.


    "It allows you to generate Vi internally and externally as well as condense and maintain a higher concentration of Vi in the body."


    "Ok, I get as much as I''m going to get for now," I said. "What''s with the whole ''no name'' shit? Several vampires called us ''no names'' because ourst name is Sanguis."


    "Sanguis is the broader family name for all vampires. There are many bloodline names for vampires that can trace their lineage way back. Sanguis is used for when a vampire either doesn''t know the bloodline name of the vampire that turned them, or for vampires who were turned by another vampire with thest name Sanguis," Victoria said.


    "But don''t the other bloodline vampires have a point in their history where they can''t trace back any further?" I said.


    "Yes. Bloodline names can be earned or imed based on the age and number of generations in a bloodline, or if a bloodline member has had significant achievements in the vampire world," Victoria said.


    "I''ve been trying to apply for a bloodline name myself, but you need at least one progeny in the bloodline. You are my first officially registered progeny. And you have to reach certain milestones in your Vampiric Evolution Path."


    "Why didn''t you have any official progeny before?" I asked.


    "I wanted to reach my milestones first, because progeny require time and attention that I could be spending progressing in my path," Victoria said. "As you already know, you were an ident. Sorry." She made a sarcastic, sad face.


    "What are the milestones, if you don''t mind me asking?" I said.


    "You need at least one evolved ability, a lifeblood crystal, all your nexus points filled, and to reach the Vi Condensation Stage," Victoria said, obvious frustration in her voice.


    "I can help you with two of those," I said. "I have a lifeblood crystal and some of my nexus points filled."


    "Already? Holy shit, baby. You''re progressing fast! I knew you were fast," she said as she winked at me, "but I didn''t know you were that fast. What minor realm are you at now?"


    "Uh, Lesser Vampire Master, I think," I said, not really sure what that meant rtive to her realm of Princess.


    "Damn! Pretty soon you''ll be knocking on my door. Then sting through it!" She said, astonished.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "I''ll st through your door, alright," I said as I winked at her.


    "You''re so corny. We can do thatter. Right now, you need toy low in here while I take this whole assassination business to the Lead Elder," Victoria said. She kissed me, caressed my cheek, and then abruptly left the room and mmed the door.

 Chapter 11 More Assassins? Really?

    The system informed me that the nexus points and their connecting tubes would eventually be used to channel and harness Vi, but the liquid life essence was the fuel the Vi would be created from. I wasn''t in the Vi Condensation Stage yet. I was preparing for it.


    After a few hours had passed, Victoria burst into the room and closed the door. "I talked to the Elder Ravenkin. He said he would look into the assassination attempts, but aside from giving you bodyguards, he had no ability to prevent vampire families from sending assassins after you."


    "Why did you burst in here?" I said.


    "I''m getting to that. He gave me some bodyguards to take to you, but assassins attacked us on the way here. The bodyguards were killed, and I made a run for it. I could''ve handled at least a few of them myself, but there were too many of them," she said.


    "Is the door going to hold up? Couldn''t they just break in here?" I said.


    "They''d have to be very strong to do that. The doors and walls are reinforced against unwanted entry," she said.


    "How many were there? We might be able to handle them if we work together," I said.


    "About twenty," she said. "We might be able to handle them, sure. Or we could stay in here forever."


    "Funny," I said. "Seriously, though. We should try to take them out."


    I handed her a sword from the three I took from the assassins. I pulled the remaining two out of their scabbards. I yanked the door open and stepped out of the doorway. Two assassins came falling into the room. Apparently, they had been trying to break the door down.


    I chucked the two swords I was holding at them. They stuck in their backs. I peeked around the door and didn''t see any assassins immediately trying to get in, so I closed the door and walked over to the assassins on the floor.


    I pulled the swords out and stabbed them back in a few times until I was sure they were dead. Then I chopped their heads off. I wasn''t sure what killed a vampire at this point, but I''d always heard head-chopping was a surefire way. I had forgotten that with the assassins in the hall earlier.


    I grabbed their swords as well as the ones I was holding and held three in my left hand and one in my right. I peeked out of the door into the hallway. I looked left and right.


    I was surprised to find that all the assassins were huddled up on the side of the hallway to the left of my room door. A ways back too. They looked to have crossbows out though. Not good for me.


    I put my arm around the corner of the doorframe and threw a sword at the huddled up group of assassins. I got one in the chest, and he fell over. I threw the three remaining swords and hit one assassin every time.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Then I jumped out into the corridor and activated my daze ability. I zigzagged down the hallway as I ran towards the assassins. I twisted and spun and jumped to avoid the crossbow bolts. One of them still hit me in the thigh. I ripped it out and jumped onto the closest assassin and stabbed them through the eye with it.


    Then I pulled out my sword and just started stabbing and shing wildly. I took a few more out before I got filled with bolts like a pin cushion. They all tried to reload though, and my daze ability made them fumble and drop their bolts. While they were trying to pick them up, I methodically stabbed each of them in the stomach and chopped their heads off.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 8 of the Major Vampire Lord Realm]


    After I had finished chopping the heads off all the bodies, I put my sword away and grabbed the crossbows and bolts of the assassins. I threw them in my room and grabbed Victoria.


    I pulled the bolts out of my body as we walked. I watched the wounds heal right before my eyes. Well, vampiric regeneration worked, so that was a plus.


    "Is there a ce we can train?" I said. "I need to get stronger, fast. If the lead elder can''t help us with the assassins, I just need to be stronger and preferably faster than them. And some more abilities would be nice."


    "Well, the monster habitat system works down here too. I could throw some more monsters at you," Victoria said.


    "That sounds good. I assume you only have unintelligent monsters at your disposal," I said.


    "Yeah, the sects have a treaty where we aren''t allowed to keep members of any of the sects prisoner. Trolls aren''t included in that because they''ve never formed a sect. Probably don''t have the organizational skills for it," Victoria said.


    "Makes sense," I said, remembering my troll opponent wasn''t the smartest creature I''d ever met. "This time I want you to throw another troll at me but I want a torch or something with fire. I have an idea."


    Victoria led me to arge building in the corner of theplex. When we entered it, I saw that 80 percent of the room was monster habitat and 20 percent was outside of it.


    I entered the airlock and walked through the other side. "Troll me," I said. I had a duffel bag full of molotov cocktails and a couple lighters. I brought a backup in case I dropped the first one.


    Victoria opened her mouth like she was going to make a joke, but then she decided against it and just released the troll.

 Chapter 12 Deadly Training to Avoid Death

    I thought it would be cooler that way. It wasn''t. Some of the gasoline sshed back on me and burned holes in my clothes. Luckily, I was wearing a jacket, or my arms would probably be covered in burns. Sometimes I''m a dumbass.


    [Sometimes?]


    ''Oh, shut up you! You''re not supposed to have a personality,'' I thought.


    The system didn''t respond to that.


    I turned around and saw that at least I''d done what I was trying to do. Burn the neck so the head wouldn''t grow back. The troll fell to the ground, dead. And on fire.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 10 of the Major Vampire Lord Realm!]


    [You have extracted a troll ability. Complete Regeneration. A passive ability that can fully regenerate any damaged or severed body part as long as the area is not cauterized by fire or acid and some idiot doesn''t fuse your feet to your stump legs]


    ''Hey, I''m that idiot!'' I thought.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Yes, you are]


    ''I''ve been outsmarted and I don''t like it.'' I thought.


    [Too bad]


    ''This is starting to feel unnecessarily cruel, but moving on.''


    [Indeed. Would you like to assimte Complete Regeneration or convert it into life essence?]


    ''Assimte.''


    [Complete Regeneration has been assimted. Would you like to view your abilities?]


    ''Not yet.''


    So extracting abilities did work like I thought it would. Not only could I extract vampiric abilities, but I could also extract other monster abilities as well.


    "More trolls, please," I said.


    "Coming right up," Victoria said as she pressed more buttons


    Nine holes appeared in the ground, and nine tforms were raised up out of them, carrying one troll each. I tried to activate my Daze ability, but I got a system notification.


    [Species ipatible with Daze]


    ''What species does work with Daze then?''


    [Humans and some human based monsters such as vampires]


    ''Well, now you tell me.''


    [You didn''t ask]


    ''Fine.''


    Without the help of Daze, I got to work taking them down. I zipped across the battle field and cut three troll heads off in one pass.


    Then I got a reasonable distance away and tossed molotov cocktails at the headless bodies. After a few seconds, they fell to the ground dead. I did the same to three more trolls and then three more.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Lesser Vampire Baron Realm]


    [Ability Complete Regeneration extracted 9 times. Converting redundant abilities into life essence. You have broken through to level 10 of the Lesser Vampire Baron Realm!]


    I was out of molotov cocktails at this point. "Can we try something else?" I said.


    "Sure," Victoria said. She pressed some buttons.


    A hole appeared in the ground, and a tform was raised up carrying a manticore. It had the head and body of a lion, wings of an eagle, and tail of a scorpion.


    "A manticore? Really?" I said.


    "It''s different isn''t it?" She said.


    "Yeah and it might kill me," I said.


    "We''ll see," she said.


    The manticore charged me and struck with its tail. I narrowly dodged the tail and swung at it with my sword. My sword hit something that felt like a mix between steel and rock. The chitin of the scorpion tail was hard and unyielding.


    It didn''t want me to cut it. I would have to adopt a different strategy. I dodged out of the way of the tail again and ducked down underneath the front of the manticore so it''s tail hopefully couldn''t reach me. I stuffed my hand into its mouth.


    It bit down hard, breaking and puncturing my hand with it''s teeth and powerful jaws, but I used it as a medium to drain its life essence. The manticore''s eyes started to droop. It shook its head to keep itself awake, but it was no use. In a matter of seconds, I had drained all of its life essence, killing it.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 2 of the Greater Vampire Baron Realm!]


    The higher I got in realms, the slower my leveling up got. I could tell that the more dangerous monsters had more life essence, thus leveling me up faster, but it wasn''t scaling up as much as I would''ve liked.


    It looked like I was going to have to grind this out. I wanted to get to the Vi Condensation major realm by the end of the day. That was going to take some doing though. I may have to settle for less today. I was already feeling the burn in my muscles, and I''d only fought 11 monsters so far.


    [Two abilities extracted. Venom Generation and Venom Immunity. I will not describe them as they are self-exnatory. You may only assimte one. The other will be converted into life essence]


    ''What am I going to do with venom generation? How would I deliver it?''


    [Teeth]


    ''Ok, fair. While I don''t love the idea of biting my enemies because it makes me feel like I''m a toddler, I am a vampire, so I might as well get used to it.''


    [Good job]


    I wasn''t even going to respond to that.


    ''I''ll take Venom Immunity first.''


    It was a pain in the ass trying to dodge that stinger. If I could just let it sting me with no repercussions, that would make it easier to fight manticores. Or other venomous monsters, for that matter.


    [Venom Immunity assimted. Venom Generation converted into life essence. It was not sufficient to increase your current level]


    "Let''s do that again, but with ten manticores this time," I said.


    "Okay," Victoria said.


    Ten manticores were raised out of the ground. I jumped right into fighting them with my sword. I let them sting me as much as they wanted because I was immune to their venom, but I made sure to stay away from their teeth. I stabbed a few manticores in the face and neck, taking them out of the fight.


    I countered their paw swipes with my sword, severing some toes and paws along the way. That made it easier to whittle them down. I kept having to dodge roll around them to stab them in the sides. I was getting exhausted.


    You''d think with my Complete Regeneration, I''d have more stamina, but apparently that wasn''t how that worked. After one more lunge and stab, I finished off thest manticore.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 6 of the Junior Vampire Viscount Realm!]


    [Abilities extracted. Would you like to assimte Venom Generation?]


    ''Yes.''


    [Affirmative. Venom Generation assimted. Redundant abilities converted into life essence. You have broken through to level 1 of the Senior Vampire Viscount Realm!]


    This training with unintelligent monsters thing was starting to lose its effectiveness. That or I wasn''t thinking big enough.


    "Victoria, release the kraken!" I said.

 Chapter 13 Elder Ravenkin

    [¡­ Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Greater Vampire Count Realm!]


    [One ability extracted. Ink Generation. The ability to generate and squirt or spray ink to blind opponents onnd or obscure your exit underwater. Would you like to assimte Ink Generation?]


    ''Yes, please.''


    [So polite. Ink Generation assimted. Would you like to view your list of abilities?]


    ''Not right now. Later, definitely.''


    [Understood]


    Huh. Maybe I just needed to be nicer to the system and it would be nicer to me. Amazing how kindness brings kindness.


    Victoria came over to me and kneeled down next to me. "Hey. What''s going on?"


    "I''m tired," I said.


    "I can see that," she said.


    "I may be going about this whole assassin thing the wrong way. Maybe if I just talk to the families of the bullies, we can sort this out," I said.


    "It''s possible. It''s also possible pigs could fly and a solid gold egg coulde out of my ass," she said with a sarcastic smile.


    "Right. Well, taking the fight to them, figuratively or literally, is better than nothing. What would you suggest?" I said.


    "I think you should ask Elder Ravenkin yourself for help. He might be more willing to get directly involved if he meets you," Victoria said.


    "That''s not a bad idea. Can you introduce me to him?" I said.


    "Yes, but you need to get cleaned up first," she said.


    I looked at my squid gut covered self. "I do. Join me?"


    "Sure," she said.


    -


    After showering, I got dressed in clean clothes, and we headed to Elder Ravenkin''s ce. On the way, I remembered the lifeblood pills I got from the Outer Sect Disciple exam. I emptied the small pill bottle into my mouth and swallowed the pills with some water.


    [¡­ Life essence absorbed. You have broken through to level 9 of the Major Vampire Marquis Realm!]


    Nice. Another two realms down. I was getting so close to the Vi Condensation Realm I could almost taste it.


    We arrived at a huge pce. I didn''t even think a ce this big would exist down here, but there it was. A gothic masterpiece of obsidian and silver, its towering spires nearly scraped the artificial sky. The entrance was a massive archway, framed by stone carvings of bats and wolves. Blood-red rubies studded the door.


    "Nice ce," I said.


    "You should see the inside!" Victoria said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Well, I am going to see the inside, aren''t I? Isn''t that why we''re here? To go inside?" I said, mildly confused by the way she said that.


    "Well, yeah, obviously. Silly me," she said.


    Huh. I don''t know if I''d ever seen Victoria admit a mistake before. It was probably a sign I was growing on her. That or she was tired from our ''shower.''


    We knocked on the door, and almost immediately it was opened by man with long white hair, wearing a red cloak with ck raven feathers on the cor. A raven was perched on his shoulder.


    "Come in. Come in," he said. "My name is Elder Ravenkin. You are Dn I presume?" He put a hand out.


    I shook it. "Yes. It''s a pleasure to meet you, sir."


    "Don''t call me sir. My underlings call me sir, and it drives me crazy. Call me Aldous," he said with a devilish grin.


    "Aldous. We''vee to seek your aid in the matter of the assassins that keep attacking me on academy grounds," I said.


    "Yes, Victoria informed me of that. I sent guards with her. What happened?" He said.


    "They, umm, died. Assassins killed them," I said.


    "That''s terrible news. What would you like me to do about it?" He said.


    "Can you talk to the families and get them to back off? I would do it myself, but I''d probably end up having to kill some of them, and then I would be even worse off than I was before," I said.


    "We apply a sink or swim method here at Sanguis Vampire Academy. I could intervene further, but there would have to be an equivalent exchange. Giving things out for free breeds entitlement and weakness," Aldous said, steepling his fingers.


    "Ok. What can I do for you that you would consider equivalent?" I said.


    "First, you must be my direct disciple. How long have you been a vampire? A week, and you''re already a vampire marquis? I want to nurture that talent. I think you could do great things here with the right guidance," he said.


    "Second, I want to send you on a diplomatic mission to another sect as my direct disciple to try to engender better rtions with them. And retrieve some things they stole from me a long time ago."


    "That sounds like it will take a long time. A lot longer than I have to get these assassins handled," I said, concerned.


    "Oh, don''t worry, I''ll go to the families right away. I just need you to promise me you''ll do these things for me. Also, your train leaves in an hour," he said, smiling.


    "Ok, I''ll be your disciple, and I''ll go on the trip," I said. "Oh and it hasn''t been a week. It''s been about twenty-four hours that I''ve been a vampire."


    "Twenty-four hours? That''s inconceivable!" Aldous said. "I''ve never heard of such rapid progress. You must be blessed by the goddess."


    "Oh, I am," I said. "The goddess Shikasa literally blessed with a system to guide me on my path."


    "What?" Aldous said.


    "What?" Victoria said.


    "What?" The raven on Aldous''s shoulder said.


    "Yes. I don''t know if the system gave me these powers or if it''s simply guiding me on how to use them, but it helps provide me with information when I need it to progress. And it says the goddess gave me the system," I said.


    "Huh." Aldous said.


    "Huh." Victoria said.


    "Huh." The raven said.

 Chapter 14 Train Robbery

    Victoria was exining non human travel to me. "Through a series of trains, tunnels, and underground caverns, non humans travel from ce to ce. Most nonhumans can''t blend into human society like we can, so they have to staypletely out of sight of humans to survive."


    "Otherwise, they could get experimented on, hunted down, or worse, enved. That''s what happened with freak shows during thete 19th and early 20th centuries. A lot of cast members were captured nonhumans."


    "Why am I not surprised that humans in the past sucked? Hell, I know a lot of humans who suck now," I said.


    "Well, said," she said.


    "So we''re supposed to steal a book, an amulet, and a key? From dragons?" I said.


    "That''s what he said," she said.


    "How are we supposed to do that exactly? I''m exactly a thief or a burr. Well, not anymore," I said.


    "You were a burr?" Victoria said.


    "At one point. I never broke into anyone''s homes, though. Just stores," I said.


    "What for?" She said.


    "Food, mostly," I said.


    "Oh. That''s depressing," she said.


    "Yeah, being homeless and penniless can be pretty depressing," I said. "Things got better though."


    "Good. So we''re going as a married couple that works at the school or two teachers?" She said.


    "I was thinking a married couple would be fun, but I feel like just two teachers should be enough. Let''s just be boyfriend and girlfriend," I said. "We could probably pull that off pretty easy."


    "Why don''t we just be boyfriend and girlfriend in real life? Then we won''t have to fake it," she said flirtatiously.


    "Really?" I said. "So soon?"


    "You''ve seen me naked, and you''re saying it''s too soon to be in a rtionship?" She said, ring at me.


    "No, no! Not too soon. I was just surprised you wanted to. You seem like a lone ranger type to me," I said.


    "I usually am. This is an exception for me," she said.


    "Let''s be boyfriend and girlfriend then. Officially," I said.


    "Yay!" She said and kissed me on the mouth. "I have a boyfriend and you don''t!" She said, looking at me and sticking out her tongue.


    "I''m d you''re in a good mood, but maybe we should settle down. We don''t want to disturb the other passengers." I said as I heard the sounds of gunshots going off. Some people might not know what they sounded like, but I did. I''d been shot at enough times to tell.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Did you hear that?" I said.


    "Yeah. Gunshots," she said.


    "I''m going to check it out," I said and scrambled out of the booth we were in, keeping my head low.


    "Not without me, you won''t," she said. She scrambled out of the booth and followed after me, keeping her head low.


    The door joining the train cars had ss windows. I peeked over the edge of the window and saw something I had never seen before. A group of zombies dressed like they were from the Wild West were robbing the train car. With six shooters, no less. It was ridiculous.


    They had light blue skin, and some of them had open wounds and bones showing. I carefully opened the door to the outside and crossed the space to the other car. Then I carefully waited for a bout of screaming from the passengers to open the door. Victoria slipped inside after me.


    "Now, folks," the leader of the gang said, "this can be simple and easy, orplicated and hard. Just put your valuables in the bags mypatriots are so gracefully holding out for you to fill, and we''ll be on our way."


    "What''s the rush?" I said standing up.


    He shot me in the chest before responding. When he saw I wasn''t going down, he said. "Vampire, huh? You guys are pesky little rodents ain''t you?" He emptied the bullets from his gun and started reloading it.


    As my chest wound healed itself, thanks to abination of my vampiric regeneration and troll regeneration, I said to the system, ''How do I use my ink generation ability?''


    [Make a fist. Then aim the top of your fist at your target and squeeze. I''ll provide you with a targeting reticle so you can determine where you''re aiming]


    Two targeting reticles appeared in my view as I made fists at my sides. I aimed them at the lead zombie and fired one off. As I squeezed my fist, a jet of ck liquid sprayed across the room into the zombies eyes.


    The ink blinded him but he still fired off a few shots at me blindly. One of them hit me in the gut. It hurt. A lot. It burned. I put my fingers into the wound to get the bullet out.


    I fell to my knees and then onto my side as I continued to fish in my guts for the bullet.


    I could feel where it was from the burning sensation. I finally got it out and brought it up to my eyes. Silver. A silver bullet. So wood didn''t work, but silver did. I dropped the bullet on the ground because it was burning my finger tips.


    I convulsed on the ground for a bit while the wound in my stomach healed. After about thirty seconds, I was good as new and got back up. The zombie was still blinded by my ink. I kicked the gun away from him and punched him in the face, knocking him out.


    "Boss!" One of the other zombies came over to him.


    "Get him and the rest of you out of here before I turn his gun on you!" I said.


    One of them grabbed their leader. They opened the train car side door and jumped out. I made sure they left the valuables.


    Victoria and I distributed the valuables back to their owners. One of the train security guards came into the car afterwards, and we gave a brief incident report before getting off at our stop.


    I grabbed the bullet that pierced me with a cloth napkin and put it in my pocket. I was thinking of keeping it as a reminder that I can still be hurt. I''m not invincible.

 Chapter 15 Meet the Dragons

    Elder Ravenkin had already said we were his most promising disciple and teacher, so we didn''t have toe up with a cover story. Maven told us she had prepared a feast for us.


    Elder Zengo informed us it would just be the four of us sitting down for dinner tonight. He didn''t want any sect drama getting in the way of our discussion. Which he told us there would be plenty of time for tomorrow during my scheduled exhibition match with their brightest student.


    Elder Zengo and his wife were far more human appearing than I had expected. They said that was thanks to the magic bracelets that the Fae had made for the sects when they first formed.


    Sect members were given bracelets that allowed them to venture out into the human world. This was due to the human appearance they gave the wearer. Now, certain things would still show through depending on how tightly you had wound the bracelet.


    Full tightening allowed for a fully human appearance, but looser adornment allowed horns to show through and some scaling, as well as tails and sharper teeth. Maven said that most people prefer to wear them looser because it allows them to still feel like they''re still in their own skin somewhat.


    The bracelets weren''t an illusion. They caused forceful transformation to the monsters who were wearing them. Therger or more monstrous the monsters, the more ufortable they felt when wearing the bracelets.


    Not only did they allow for above-ground travel, but they also facilitated humanoid martial arts. It created a more even ying field for martial arts practices. They still allowed monsters to express their full strength and power, just in a morepact form.


    It perpetuated the idea that the best fighters should have control over the most dangerous portals. Portals that held monsters that couldn''t bemunicated with or reasoned with.


    No one argued over the fact that the strongest fighters should have ess to the most dangerous portals. The arguments were always over who were actually the strongest fighters.


    Now, neither dragons or vampires were considered the strongest. Dragons were actually number ten on the list and vampires were number fifteen. Dragons and vampires were both very ambitious as species though, so overtime they developed a friendly rivalry that stopped being so friendly at some point. No one knew why.


    If you''re curious, I''ll list the rankings here. From top down to vampires, it goes Elementals, Djinn, Fae, Phoenixes, Thunderbirds, Liches, Sphinxes, Naga, Rakshasa, Dragons, Kitsune, Tengu, Oni, Y¨­kai, and Vampires. Werewolvese in just below Vampires.


    "So I hear you may tilt the scale in favor of the vampires soon. What makes you think we won''t eat you before you can do that?" Maven said yfully.


    "Because that would spoil the game. And dragons love games, do they not?" I said,ughing.


    I was doing my best job at ying the charming dinner guest. I have dined with mafioso''s and their wives, so I''m used to high-pressure evening celebrations, but it didn''t get much more high-pressure than dining with dragons.


    Just like dragons, mafioso''s like to throw threats around for fun. Especially over dinner. What could make for more exciting dinner conversation than throwing out verbal traps and watching your prey squirm?


    Personally, I could think of many things more exciting than that, but not to mafioso, and apparently not to dragons either.


    "Of course we do, but sometimes protecting your investments is more important than fun," she said, a very serious look on her face.


    "I can appreciate that, but if you learn one thing about me, learn this: I''m not here to take anything from anyone that is rightfully theirs. If it turns out you''re not able to handle the responsibility of managing more dangerous portals than us, that''s one thing, but if you''re managing them fine, I see no reason not to let you keep them," I said.


    "Oh, we''re managing them fine, dear," Maven said. A look of concern shed across her face for a moment, and then it was gone. She wasn''t being entirely honest with me, but there was nothing I could do about that.


    I couldn''t intimidate the truth out of her like I could with some people. Her sect was stronger than mine, and they could crush me like a bug. At least for the time being.


    I needed to be smart and let her deal with whatever she was hiding from me. I would let her know that she coulde to me if she needed help and leave it at that.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "You know, we''re here to help each other out. I don''t see why this can''t be a mutually beneficial rtionship. Things are great now, but if there everes a time when you do need help, don''t be afraid to reach out. Rivalries should be fun," I said.


    "We should challenge each other to reach greater heights, not tear each other down. And if we ever needed help, I certainly hope you would be there for us."


    "Of course!" She said, not meaning a word of it.


    But I hadmunicated what I wanted to. I had extended a helping hand. It was up to her now to take it.


    The dinner carried on uneventfully. We all exchanged interesting or humorous stories over some of the finest steak I had ever eaten. Dragons were obligate carnivores. They could only eat meat.


    So the dinner prepared for us was smorgasbord of meat, the likes of which I had never seen. While we chatted, I made sure to take full advantage of this opportunity, because I likely wasn''t going to get another dinner like this in a long time.


    After dinner, a servant showed me and Victoria where we would be staying. They had prepared separate rooms, not knowing that Victoria and I were together beforehand. Technically, Victoria and I didn''t know beforehand either.


    I was sitting in the dark, meditating, forming moreyers of my lifeblood crystal, when I heard a knock at my door.

 Chapter 16 Making a Deal with a Dragon

    The door opened to reveal Maven Zengo in her nightgown. She was a beautiful woman, and the nightgown did not leave much to the imagination. Not that I thought of her in that way. My heart belonged to another.


    I suspected she would visit me like this. That''s why I stayed up to meditate. Well that, and I was starting to be a perfectionist about my cultivation. I hadpletely filled all 729 of my Nexus points, and I was one realm away frompleting my lifeblood crystal again.


    I gestured her over. She closed the door and tiptoed over to my bed. I was leaning against the headboard. I extended my legs forward out of the lotus position and patted the side of the bed I wasn''t sitting on, implying she should sit next to me.


    She got up and sat next to me and sighed. "What''s on your mind?" I said.


    "For one, I''m a married woman, and I shouldn''t be sneaking around the house like a cheating spouse. Especially not in this nightgown," she said.


    "Besides that," I said, chuckling.


    "What you said tonight got me thinking. There is a problem that I would like your help with, if you are as promising as your elder says you are," she said.


    "I am, but it depends on how strong I need to be for this problem. I''ve only been a vampire for a day, but I''m already almost as strong as Victoria, who has been a vampire for 200 years. That said, I''m still in the beginning stages of what is possible in my vampiric evolution path," I said.


    "If you can get that strong that fast, you should be able to handle my problem. The issue is we''re barely able to keep the monsters in our portals at bay. We haven''t gone to anyone else for help because, one, pride, and two, we didn''t think anyone else would be willing to help us," she said with real concern on her face.


    "Ok. Then just give me the easiest one first, and I''ll work my way up. Taking away the burden of even one portal at first should help lighten the load significantly," I said.


    "That''s the other problem. Getting the elders to agree to it," she said.


    "What would it take to convince them? A show of strength?" I said.


    "You can''t just prove to them you''re strong. You have to prove to them that you''re stronger than they are. Otherwise, they won''t trust you to handle the problem. They will think you''ll just make it worse," she said.


    "Then the exhibition match tomorrow won''t work. I need to be stronger. I need to train. Can you cancel tomorrow''s match?" I said.


    "Yes, I can, but then how will you prove your strength to them?" She said.


    "I need you to pitch the idea of an inter-sectpetition. Make it seem like the vampire sect has something to show the dragon sect, but in reality it will just be me fighting your entire sect. At the same time," I said.


    "That would certainly prove your strength to them, but do you think you''ll be able to win?" she said.


    "Not yet, but in a week or two, yes," I said.


    "A week I can get you, but two weeks is pushing the upper limit of how long we can hold out against the monsters," she said.


    "You really waited until thest minute to ask for help, didn''t you?" I said.


    "I wouldn''t be asking for help if I wasn''t desperate," she said.


    "Fair enough," I said. "Since I''m helping you out, there is something you can do for me."


    "Yes?" She said.


    "My master, Elder Ravenkin wanted me to retrieve some things he said were stolen from him long ago. They were a book, an amulet, and a key. Here''s what they look like," I said, showing her a drawing of the items.


    "Stolen? We prefer the term plundered," she said.


    "Ok, plundered. Can you get them?" I said.


    "Yes, I probably can," she said, sighing and taking the list.


    She left the room for about fifteen minutes and then returned with the items.


    "That easy? Wow, I''m impressed," I said.


    "A dragon knows her hoard," she said.


    "I could kiss you, but I won''t. Thank you!" I said.


    "Happy to help. I held up my end of the bargain. Now you just make sure you hold up your end," she said.


    "Don''t worry. There''s nothing I like more than training and getting stronger. I''ll be ready. Just make you get that inter-sectpetition to happen," I said.


    "I will. Thank you," she said. She hugged me and left the room.


    Nice. I had gotten exactly what I wanted out of tonight, the items we needed, a stronger rtionship with the dragons, and future ess to their monster portals.


    What more could I ask for? A free back massage? Damn. I could''ve asked her for a back massage. That''s not cheating, is it? Is it?


    Maybe it is. Ah, better that I didn''t do that then.


    What is my brain doing? Time to get back to meditating. I finished up adding the newyers to my lifeblood crystal and then went to bed.


    In the morning, Victoria and I had breakfast with Maven Zengo. She said her husband had to instruct his disciples. We chatted some more about the different sects and life as a monster, as well as all of her very profitable businesses she ran.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    She also ran a charity on the side for orphans. She said that orphans were monsters of the human world. Unwanted and never cared for. To support her charity, she ran an artisanal ss blowing business, a metallurgy and cksmithing business, a jewelry making business, as well as a crematorium.


    She was actually the breadwinner of the family. Her husband spent most of his time training in martial arts and cultivating his inner fire. Secretly, I was hoping some day he could teach me how to cultivate an inner fire. That sounded badass.


    It might''ve been a dragon only thing, but with my ability to extract abilities, it''s possible I could gain the aptitude that way. I was just at the beginning of my cultivation journey and I already wanted to learn cultivation techniques from apletely different species.


    Someone probably needed to teach me to walk before I could run, but with monsters within weeks of breaking out of the dragons'' portals, I didn''t really have time to learn to walk. I needed to learn to run and I needed to learn now.


    After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Maven and got on the train. As Victoria and I were making our way to our booth, I caught sight of a familiar face. He had his hat down low, but I recognized the dusty cowboy ouw outfit and the pale blue skin.


    It was the zombie ouw leader that tried to rob the train on our way to the dragon sect. I plopped myself down next to him and said, "Howdy, partner! Fancy seeing you here again." I smiled a malicious smile that would scare even my own grandmother.

 Chapter 17 Vi Condensation Stage (1)

    "What are you doing here?" I said.


    "Oh, you know, trying to get from one location to another location. Normal train stuff," he said, looking a little nervous.


    "Is that all?" I said.


    "Yeah, that''s it. Look man, I''m sorry I shot you. I''m just trying to get home in one piece. We didn''t get any money, and now I have to show my face at home empty-handed, but I have to show my face at home. I can''t have my wife and my daughter think I abandoned them," he said.


    "Really?" I said.


    "No! I don''t have a family anymore. They''re all dead. Now it''s just me and my crew. But still. I don''t want to fight.


    Can you just let me go home?" He said with his hands sped together, pleading.


    "Fine," I said. "But if you rob this train, I''ll kill you. Got it?"


    "Yeah, I got it. No robbing. Please just leave me alone," he said.


    "Ok," I said. "Come on, Victoria."


    We made our way to our private booth and yed cards until we arrived at the station. There wasn''t anymotion and no one got robbed.


    As soon as I knocked on the door, it opened. Elder Ravenkin looked at us and said, "Did you get the stuff?"


    "Yes, but there''s more," I said. "I need to get stronger fast. The dragons are losing control of their portals, and I need to get strong enough to enter one in a week, maybe two at the most. Oh, and in order to get ess to the portals, I have to fight all of their warriors at the same time and win." I handed over the book, amulet, and key to him.


    "Good. Thanks for getting these," he said as he handed the book, the amulet, and the key back to me. "They''re yours now. Take good care of them. The book has a technique in it that you can start learning right away. The amulet won''t activate until you reach a certain point in your training and the key opens something."


    "Ok. None of that was vague or confusing at all," I said. I put the items in my pockets. Except the amulet. I hung that over my neck.


    "If you want to get stronger fast and be ready in time, you''ll need to cultivate properly. You are technically already in the Vi Condensation Stage, but due to ack of proper instruction, you haven''t been able to condense your Vi," Ravenkin said.


    ''What the heck, system?'' I thought.


    [You never asked]


    ''I never had to ask before.''


    [Well now you do. Get over it]


    ''Ok, meanie.''


    "Dn, youe with me. Victoria, I need you to handle something for me." He handed Victoria a folded piece of paper. She opened it up and looked at it. "I need to go, honey. I''ll see you in a bit," she said. Then she disappeared.


    ''My girlfriend just turned into air.''


    [Are you getting separation anxiety already? This early? Bro]


    ''No. I don''t have emotions. I''m a stone wall. Also, bro? Are you experimenting with ng now?''


    [Yes. I want to be a person too. Not just a system in someone else''s head]


    ''Well, you''re not allowed. Get over it.''


    [Ok, meanie]


    Ravenkin and I walked through his huge mansion. We passed many rooms and halls until we came to what looked like a yoga studio. It had a wooden floor with yoga mats spaced out evenly across it.


    "Sit," he said, indicating one of the mats.


    I sat down and got into the lotus position, and he sat across from me.


    "The Vi Condensation Stage starts at the Vampire Lord minor realm. There are fifteen levels of the Vi Condensation Stage. From now on, I will refer to the minor realm ranking terms when I''m talking about umted life essence. I will refer to the levels of the Vi Condensation Stage when I''m talking about the sequential steps of learning to manipte Vi within the body," he said.


    "Beyond the Vi Condensation Stage there is the Blood Foundation Establishment Stage and the Crimson Core Formation Stage. We need to get you to the peak of the Crimson Core Formation Stage if you want to be able to single handedly fight the monsters in any of the dragons'' portals. Their portals are the most dangerous because they are considered the strongest sect.


    And overall that''s true for one simple reason.


    "They are alive and we are not. They are able to cultivate their own life essence, which they call their inner fire. We must siphon life essence from external sources because we are undead and don''t have inherent internal life energy.


    "It is far harder for us to reach the same cultivation levels as them because we need vast quantities of life essence to not only maintain our existence but also to advance in our cultivation. Another reason is because dragons have existed far longer than vampires."


    "How long have vampires existed for?" I asked.


    "We don''t know exactly, but the first historically known reference to vampires is a text written in Old Russian in 1047 A.D. (This is true). So we can assume that vampires didn''t exist long before that. I would say at most a hundred years before then. Whereas dragons have existed for millennia," he said.


    "They''ve had far longer to cultivate and have thus reached greater heights in cultivation overall than us vampires. It''s as simple as that. That said, with your talents, you should be able to surpass all of them in a very short period of time. Which is why I''m instructing you."


    "Ok, how do we start?" I said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Well, the first step is to acquire minor realms of life essence beyond Vampire Lord that can be used to perform the necessary steps of the Vi Condensation Stage. Since you are in the Vampire Marquis minor realm, you have alreadypleted that step," he said.


    "The first level of the Vi Condensation Stage is called Nexus Awakening. All you do is meditate until you can sense at least one of the Nexus points in the body. Nexus points store and transport Vi to different parts of the body. It''s like a circtory or lymphatic system, but for Vi."


    "Oh, I can already do that. I''ve already sensed and filled all my Nexus points with liquid life essence. The system guided me through it," I said.


    "Really? Has the system guided you through any other stages of cultivation?" he said.


    "Yeah. I also have a lifeblood crystal and I can extract abilities from other monsters," I said.


    "That''s unexpected. Your cultivation base is all over the ce. You''ve basicallypleted the early stages of the Vi Condensation Stage major realm, the Blood Foundation Establishment major realm, the Crimson Core Formation major realm, and a small portion of the Undead Soul major realm," he said.


    ''System, why is my cultivation base imbnced?''


    [I just gave you what you wanted. You didn''t ask for a bnced base. You wanted people to not steal your life essence, greater strength inbat, and the ability to ovee differences in strength. I gave you that with the lifeblood crystal, activated Nexus points, and abilities from other creatures]


    ''Honestly, that''s fair. Carry on.'' I said. That is what I wanted. I needed to remind myself that the system could read my mind. And acts on it, apparently.


    "Ok, if I''ve already done the first level, what''s the second one?" I said.


    "Let''s do a test first. I want to be able to show you the benefits of your training so it doesn''t feel like you''re just spinning your wheels," he said.


    He got up and walked over to a machine in the corner of the room. It had a soft cushioned bullseye target on it. I assumed it was a punching machine.


    "This machine will measure the force of your punches. I want you to hit it once now and then once after the second level of Vi Condensation," Elder Ravenkin said.


    "Ok, here I go," I said.


    I lined up with the machine and got into position to perform a cross punch with my right hand. I did this because the cross is the most powerful punch in boxing, meaning it generates the most force.


    Although, I suppose any type of punch would do, since we were measuring how much my punch strength increased from cultivation rather than total power.


    After getting in position, I breathed calmly, focused, and punched the target. My punch generated an extremely loud sound from the machine. The machine tilted back from the punch and mmed back down onto the ground, kicking up dust into the air and cracking the floorboards.


    "50,000 lbs of force, or 22,680 kg. Not bad," he said.


    "Thanks. How much can you do?" I said.


    "Uh, we don''t want to measure how much I can do. I have a muchrger machine set up in the back of the mansion to measure my punches. If I punched this machine, it would crash through several walls and shoot out of the side of the mansion," he said,ughing.


    "Oh. Something to look forward to I guess," I said. I had no doubt that I would reach his level someday. It was more a matter of whether I could get stronger fast enough to be ready for the fight with the dragons.


    "Ok, now I want you to concentrate on a single Nexus point and imagine setting the liquid life essence within it on fire. Not literally on fire, but imagine the life essence transforming into a more vtile and powerful form, simr to fire. This form of energy is called Vitalus or Vi for short," he said.


    When he said the word ''Vitalus'' it triggered my memory of receiving the Vitalus pills from the announcer at the Outer Sect Disciple exam. I pulled out the pill bottle and said, "Will these help?"


    He looked at the bottle and his eyes lit up, "Yes those will help, but if you want to use them, we''ll have to use an elerated process where I guide you through level 2 to level 7 of the Vi Condensation Stage all in one quick go.


    The reason for this is that those pills will turn all of the liquid life essence in your Nexus points into Vi very quickly, and you''ll need to guide, stabilize, and connect the Vi in your Nexus points in very quick session or you will be severely injured."


    "Hmm. Do I need to do it the fast way if I want to be ready in time?" I said, weighing the risks.


    "It would help a lot. We don''t know if you''ll be ready in time even with using an expedited method," he said.


    "Ok, I''ll do it," I said. I emptied the bottle of pills into my mouth and downed it with a mini water bottle I had in my pocket since the show I yed right before Victoria turned me.


    "I didn''t say do it now! I was going to rehearse the steps with you!" he said, panicking.


    Suddenly, my whole body felt like it was on fire. My skin felt like it was melting off, and my eyes were going to pop out of my head. "Oh sh*t! F*ck it, we''ll do it live!"

 Chapter 18 Vi Condensation Stage (2)

    As my skin burned and the pressure in my skull increased, Elder Ravenkin began guiding me through the processes of converting the life essence in my Nexus points into Vi, which the pills were already doing, but he wanted me to analyze and feel it happening so I could do it myself naturally.


    Once I had aplished that task, he had me be aware of all 729 of my Nexus points filling with Vi simultaneously. Then, with all the points in my awareness, we started creating Vi filled pathways between each Nexus point. Oncepleted, I had a functioning Vi circtionwork.


    Then we focused on infusing Vi into the Nexus points in my various sensory organs and then releasing Vi directly into the organs from there. These organs were my eyes, ears, mouth and tongue, olfactory organs, and my skin.


    My senses were already heightened just from the transformation into a vampire. Now, I could see into the dark corners of the studio, indicating that I had acquired night vision. I could hear Elder Ravenkin''s breath and the beating of his heart.


    That was weird. My heart hadn''t beat since my transformation. Why was his beating? Was that a byproduct of a higher level of vampiric cultivation? That was the only conclusion I coulde to with the limited information I had.


    My taste, touch, and smell senses heightened as well. I suddenly could taste the inside of my mouth. I could smell the dust in the air. I could even feel the slight cirction of air in the room on my skin.


    We went through harmonizing Vi cirction with the flow of my blood and the pumping of my heart. Wait, my heart was pumping blood! This had to be a side effect of the Vi Condensation Stage. I had stolen life essence from other life forms and was using their life essence to simte life in my unliving body.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Next, I expanded the Vi pathways I had created between my Nexus points to increase my body''s capacity to hold Vi. It also increased the speed of Vi cirction throughout my body.


    With that, we had finished the levels that could risk harm and serious injury. Now he walked me through the rest of the Vi Condensation Stage. He figured we might as well finish it since I was taking to it so quickly, which he was deeply impressed by.


    I, on the other hand, noted my aptitude for vampiric cultivation, but since everything had gone well so far, I wasn''t particrly surprised. I was thankful for it and ddened by it, but certainly not shocked.


    The next step was using my Vi activated Nexus points to sense life essence in the surrounding environment. Immediately, I was able to sense the life essence emanating from a small potted nt in the corner of the room.


    I could also sense Elder Ravenkin''s life essence, but it felt different, stale somehow. That''s probably what mine felt like too. The downside of being undead, I guess.


    Then we went through the process of using outwardly facing Nexus points, such as Nexus points in the skin, to absorb the ambient life essence in the air and convert it to Vi.


    That wasn''t too hard. The potted nt in the corner of the room and throughout the house provided enough ambient life essence to convert to Vi to sustain my full capacity of Vi.


    It didn''t takerge quantities of life essence to createrge quantities of Vi. Even the tiniest amount of life essence could fill all my Nexus points and pathways with Vi.


    Ravenkin exined that maintaining Vi this way negated the need to feed from humans or any other living organisms directly. Just the ambient life essence put out into the air by living organisms was enough to sustain a healthy unliving existence.


    The next step was topress the existing Vi within the Nexus points and pathways to increase the potency of the stored Vi. This took a bit more effort than the other steps. It was like trying topress a spring without it flying out of your grasp.


    Then I infused my blood with thepressed Vi from my Nexus points. This would drastically empower my body and increase my physical strength and speed.


    It took a little longer thanpressing the Vi in the first ce because I had to focus on maintaining thepression, but after a while it became second nature, and I stopped thinking about it.


    Now came the hard part, external Vi maniption. Projecting Vi outside the body through my Nexus points. This was the part that would take days to practice, train, and master. The point of it was to perform basic Vi-based attacks and defenses.


    So instead of practicing basic attacks and defense with Vi, Ravenkin wanted to have a fight. He said that fights were where true learning and innovation happened.


    I took a boxing stance with my hands up to protect my face. Iyered Vi over the outside of my forearms and fists to not only empower my punches but also my blocks. I sharpened theyering over my forearms to form des. I alsoyered Vi over the sides of my ribs.


    Ravenkin formed a sword with Vi and came down on me with an overhand strike. I put my forearm up to block it. His Vi sword shed with my Vi covered forearm. I had made theyering as strong as I could.


    I was pleasantly surprised when it held up against his sword. I kind of assumed a sword would be inherently stronger than a ded forearm, but apparently I had done a good enough job at constructing the des.


    Now that I was blocking his sword and effectively preventing him from doing anything, I punched him in the side a few times with my other arm. The first punch sounded like a dull thud, but I heard the next one crack his ribs, and the third one shattered them.


    This made him lean to one side, throwing off his bnce. I swung my right arm that was holding his sword at bay so that I caught his sword between my Viyered ribs and my Vi covered forearm under my arm pit.


    I did this so I could get an open shot at his face with his arms and hands out of the way. I mmed my left fist into his face three times. It was the same as with the ribs. The first hit was a dull thud, the next cracked bones, and the third shattered his cheek and his orbital bone.


    "I yield! I yield!" He said. I let his Vi sword go and dropped my Vi empowerments. I watched as his shattered cheek and orbital bones reformed and healed, making his face symmetrical again.


    "That was impressive," Elder Ravenkin said. "I didn''t expect you to be such an experienced fighter."


    "I''ve been in a few rumbles. I''m a lot better with my fists than with a sword though. I''ve yed around with one on my own, but up until yesterday, I had no experience actually fighting someone with one," I said.


    "I had nned to go easy on you, but you were so fast, I found out a little toote that I didn''t have to," he said. "I should take you through some formal training with a sword eventually, but with the empowerments you used, you could go up against nearly any opponent with just your fists."


    "Thanks. I would like to learn the sword for real someday, but I''m d I don''t have to learn an entirely new fighting discipline, before I go up against the dragons," I said.


    "We''ll hopefully get to it before then, but if we have to skip it, I''ll feel confident doing so," he said.


    "What''s next?" I said.


    "Basic blood control," he said. "Now that you''ve infused your blood with Vi, you can manipte your blood in many different ways. There are a lot of internal benefits you can derive from it, such as faster blood flow, thus increasing oxygen delivery to the muscles."


    "Also, faster blood clotting, speeding up healing. You can also manipte blood pressure, density, temperature, oxygenation, purification, and redirection. There''s also blood sensing, but I always like to start with the fun part, external blood control."


    "What''s that? Like forming des with your own blood?" I said. "Can''t I already do that with Vi?


    "Yes, but it''s so much more than that. With Vi, you can create rudimentary shapes. With blood, you can form any shape you can think of. With enough practice, you can even form blood string, rope, and webbing, but that''s getting into advanced control. We''re going to stick with the basics today," he said.


    "I don''t want to say anymore shapes you can make because that will restrict and influence your creativity. Just make a small cut in your skin to pull some blood out, and see what you can make."


    "Ok," I said.


    I formed a small de with Vi at the end of my fingertip and made a cut on the outside of my forearm. I imagined pulling blood from the cut and I was able to pull a fist-sized ball of blood¡ªwhich was probably too much¡ªout of the wound before it closed up and healed over.


    With the ball of blood suspended in mid-air, I tried to reform it into different shapes. I made a t disc, then a te, then a bowl, and then a goblet. Then I made the shape of private parts because I''m a child.


    Then I started splitting the mass into multiple parts. First, it became two balls, then four, then sixteen, then thirty-two. Once the balls got that small, it made me think of bullets, so of course I tried to shoot one into my foot.


    I imagined it flying at high speed at my foot, but when it hit my boot, the blood bullet just sttered against it.


    "Blood bullet, right?" Ravenkin said. "Those are actually much harder to do than you''d think. Blood bullets are an extremely advanced form of blood control. Melee weapons like knives and hammers are much easier."


    "Not only do you have to project the blood at an extremely high speed, but you also have to maintain its shape and density continuously the farther it gets away from you. Otherwise, it just turns into a red paintball. And as you would probably assume, it is harder to control blood the farther it gets away from you."


    "And don''t even get me started on controlling someone else''s blood. That''s an entirely different beast altogether. It''s hard enough to tune into your own blood, let alone someone else''s."


    "Hmm. Good to know. I''ll stay away from blood bullets for now then. What''s next?" I said.


    "Sleep," he said.

 Chapter 19 Vi Condensation Stage (3)

    "Yes, sleep," Elder Ravenkin said. "We''ve been going for eight hours straight! You should be happy with what you''ve achieved today. It can take most cultivators several weeks if not months toplete a single level of the Vi Condensation Stage. You''vepleted thirteen levels in a single day!"


    "Do you have any idea how rare that is? You are the most talented cultivator I''ve ever met. You''re only supposed to take one of those pills at a time. It''s a miracle you aren''t dead. You are a genius among geniuses. Be thankful to have been so blessed and ept that everyone needs rest, even geniuses."


    "Ok," I said. "When you put it that way, it makes me sounds greedy."


    "You are! If I didn''t know better, I''d say you were secretly a dragon. Now off to bed with you. I''ll show you to your room," he said.


    -


    I slept in a guest bedroom. The window had really good drapes. They kept the light out really well. They had to since the artificial light on the ceiling of the floor that housed the vampire academy never turned off.


    It made some sense. If the lights turned off, it would be pitch ck. No one would be able to see at night. In order to see in the dark, there had to be at least a tiny amount of light, since that''s what your eyes are doing when you see in the dark.


    They''re detecting a small amount of light. With no light, your eyes see nothing. I supposed they could have an artificial moon on the ceiling, but maybe it wasn''t set up for that. Who knows. I didn''t design the ce.


    I made my way downstairs to the kitchen to see if Ravenkin had a coffee maker. It turns out he did. He had one of those pod coffee makers. And he had every vor of pod known to man and vampire. There were even blood vors. Tinny, rich, thin¡ªyou name it, he had it.


    I tried the rich blood vor and immediately spat it back into my cup. Even with being a vampire, it was gross.


    "The vor of blood takes some getting used to," Elder Ravenkin said. "It''s an acquired taste." Apparently, he''d been sitting off to the side at a counter ind thing that looked kind of like a breakfast bar. It was really nice.


    It had theserge incandescent lights that hung from the ceiling down to just a foot above where a person''s head would be. The countertop looked like granite too. It must have been insanely expensive just to make that breakfast bar.


    That''s enough of me gushing over good interior design though. "Yeah, I''m clearly not used to it yet. I think I''ll try a mocha pod instead," I said, putting the pod in the coffee maker and making myself a new cup of coffee.


    I sat down next to him at the coffee bar. It had muffins, bagels, and donuts in a clear stic casing as well as various fruit off to the side. I sat there in thought eating a banana and drinking my coffee when it urred to me to ask, "Why do I have a heart beat again? Shouldn''t it be still since I''m undead or whatever?"


    "Using the stolen life essence we''ve umted, we can simte life in our undead bodies, making it function at its peak potential performance. That''s part of the Vi Condensation Stage. Without simting life, our bodies be decrepit over time and slowly age, except we don''t die when our body bes too frail to support itself.


    We kind of just copse in on ourselves until we''re crippled from rigor mortis and riddled with dementia," Ravenkin said.


    "Keep in mind that this continuously uses up our umted life essence. That''s why it''s so important to learn how to constantly absorb the ambient life essence in the air. It''s so we don''t deplete our umted life essence and be weaker."


    "Interesting. Is that where the image of the Nosferatu vampirees from?" I said, thinking of the movie with the bald creepy vampire.


    "Partially. The other part is artist interpretation. None of us really look like that, but they had to do really exaggerated makeup effects back then for it to be noticeable on the screen due to poor image quality," he said.


    "That makes sense," I said, finishing my banana and coffee. "So what are we doing today?"


    "We''re finishing up thest two levels of the Vi Condensation Stage, and then you get to go on a field trip," he said.


    "Oh boy! I love field trips!" I said sarcastically. "Where am I going?"


    "You''re going into one of the vampire controlled portals to farm life essence from the creatures on the other side. You need more life essence toplete the Blood Foundation Establishment phase," he said, ignoring my sarcasm.


    "Let''s get started then," I said. He followed me to the studio we spent eight hours in yesterday.


    "Ok, the fourteenth level of the Vi Condensation Stage is called Vi Surge. It''s where you rapidly circte Vi through your Nexus pointwork. This allows you a temporary burst of Vi enhanced strength, agility, and energy," he said.


    I envisioned what circting Vi through my Nexuswork would look like. It would involve every single Nexus point having Vi flowing into it and out of it at the same time. This meant I had to carefully calcte and choose which pathways should be transporting Vi and the direction they should be transporting it at all times.


    It had to create a continuous flow too. There couldn''t be stops and starts or changes in direction. It took me nearly an hour experimenting with different pathways and direction flows to get an endless circting flow of Vi through my Nexus pointwork.


    It took all my concentration to do it. I couldn''t imagine trying to circte my Vi and moving my body around at the same time, let alone setting up attacks and defenses with external Vi use.


    After another hour of deep concentration, I was able to circte my Vi while doing ''the wave'' dance move with my arms repeatedly. After another hour, I was able to stop ''the wave'' and change directions back and forth. After another hour I was able to throw a series of one two punches, while staying on the balls of my feet.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    After another hour I was able to think about moving my body in anyway I wanted spontaneously while continuing to circte my Vi. Then one more hour in I was able to employ external Vi empowerments and external blood control.


    "Ok, what''s thest step?" I said.


    "If you''re able to continuously circte your Vi throughout your body without taking breaks while being able to use external Vi and blood control techniques, then you already did thest step," he said.


    "Thest step is Perfect Vi Condensation Mastery, and it looks like you already have that. That is truly incredible. You were able topletely master Vi Condensation in less than two days."


    "Nice! What''s next?" I said, hopping up and down on my feet.


    "I don''t think you truly appreciate what you''ve aplished. It takes most vampire cultivators years to master Vi Condensation," he said, really putting emphasis on his words.


    "No, I get that I''m amazing and that I''ve basically achieved the unachievable. It''s just that I have my sights set on achieving the goals of defeating the dragon sect and clearing out their portals that they''re losing control of. And since I haven''t achieved those yet, I don''t feel like I have the luxury to celebrate," I said.


    "I suppose that makes sense," he said, scratching his chin. "To answer your question, next is you go on a field trip into our easiest portal, which still takes an entire team of vampire cultivators to clear out. Your goal is to clear the portal by yourself. There is no time limit. You just have toplete it."


    "That doesn''t sound too hard. I wee the challenge," I said, cracking my knuckles.

 Chapter 20 The First Portal

    They were special robes only for higher ranked disciples, and I was the highest rank as a direct disciple of the lead Elder. Victoria was there to wish me luck. We kissed and hugged and I told her to stay cool with finger guns, like a dork.


    My master, Elder Ravenkin didn''t give me any information about what I''d find on the other side of the portal. He said it was best if I learned to think on the fly and adapt to new situations.


    When I walked through the portal I ended up somewhere else. Obviously. It looked like Japan, but hundreds of years ago. I got a system notification as soon as I entered.


    [Daimyo Nobuhiro has taken your family hostage! You must make your way to the stronghold to rescue them!]


    [Main Objectives: Rescue your family and kill Daimyo Nobuhiro]


    Weird. The environment on the other side of the portal was very much like a game.


    ''System. What''s going on?''


    [I''m not sure. I was forced to trante those dimensional messages by the rules of the portal itself]


    Hmm. Since it was so much like a game, my first thought was that these portals were not idental. They were designed by someone or something to train the ''yers'' to get stronger.


    I deduced this from the fact that I knew the difficulty of the portals were linearly progressive. Meaning, they went from easy to hard, rather than all being a simr difficulty, which is most likely what they would be if they were random.


    I also deduced it from the obvious fact that random dimensional portals don''t have game messages built into them. That would have to be designed. The most important question was what were they training people for?


    And that was something I didn''t have time to think about. As I was standing here thinking, I saw some samurai and archers notice me from the bottom of the hill I was standing on.


    The samurai ran up to me with their swords drawn, and the archers nocked arrows in their bows. Instead of pulling out my shitty, I mean, shiny sword as I would have done before the Vi Condensation training, I put Vi des on the outside of my forearms and spikes on the outside of my fists.


    There were three samurai and a three archers. I couldn''t keep my eyes on the archers, so I just hoped they missed or the arrows wouldn''t cause that much damage.


    I blocked the diagonal sh of the first samurai''s katana with my right forearm de and performed a left hook to the samurai''s face. The blow smashed and pierced the hell out of his face.


    He fell to the ground clutching at his bleeding face. I grabbed his katana as he went down and stabbed him through the neck with it, into the ground.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted¡ªLevel 4 of the Lesser Vampire Duke Realm]


    I moved on to the next samurai who was running at me for an overhand strike. He was around ten feet away. I leaped forward and threw out a kick into his stomach, catching him off guard and knocking him to the ground. I put a Vi de on the bottom of my foot and stomped on his neck.


    [¡­ Life essence extracted¡ªLevel 2 Greater Vampire Duke Realm]


    Thest samurai I just tackled to the ground and mercilessly punched him in the face repeatedly with my spiked fists until I got a system notification.


    [¡­ Level 1 Junior Archduke Realm]


    I looked over at the archer just in time to see an arrowing right at my face. I narrowly dodged it. I ran up to the three archers while diving and dodging arrows. I shed two of their throats with my forearm des.


    Then I pped the bow out of the hands of the third archer and grabbed him by the head. I mmed his face into the dirt and stomped on the back of his neck.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    [Lv. 5 Prince]


    After that, I tore through dozens of samurai, archers, and even samurai archers. I stabbed, shed, punched, kicked, and even bit my way through them. With the addition of biting, I was able to finally use my venomous bite ability to kill some enemies.


    The notifications came in like crazy. I progressed through Vampire King to Emperor, to Sovereign, to Overlord, to Dominator, to Tyrant, to Supreme, and then finally to Transcendent.


    Then I got to a bridge and another notification came in, but this one was from the portal.


    [Secondary Objective: Defeat Karo Masanari on the bridge]


    There was a samurai standing on the bridge but this one wore a demonic mask over his face. His breath turned to steam in the cool air and blew off the bridge.


    It was a rope bridge so I had to be extra careful to grab onto it if it was cut. I stepped onto the bridge and approached my opponent warily. He had his sword drawn but he was holding it down, so I couldn''t tell if he was in a strike position or not.


    I put my hands up to guard my face and torso. As soon as I stepped within range, he swiped at my midsection just below my elbows'' ability to block. I instinctively lift my leg to try to block it with my shin bone. And I did. It''s just that when I did that he chopped off the bottom half of my leg.


    My lower leg fell to the floor of the bridge. He tried to take out my other leg but I dropped down and blocked the blow with a forearm. I either needed to protect my legs with Vi or learn to fight with a sword so I could parry and block attacks better.

 Chapter 21 Fire Demon Samurai Massacre

    As it started to fall, I reached as far forward as i could and grabbed a nk hoping the ropes would hold the nks together at least that far up. The bridge fell and I swung down towards the cliff wall. The samurai grabbed onto my remaining leg as we swung and mmed into the cliff.


    We were both able to hang on. He was starting to climb up my leg like a pole. I had to get rid of him fast. I made a sword with Vi and tried to cut off my other leg but the de wasn''t sharp enough or dense enough to cut through the bone.


    If pure Vi wouldn''t work, then maybe Vi infused blood would. I bit my arm until it started bleeding. Then I focused on pulling the blood out of my arm and down my hand to create a blood sword. Once it wasplete, I swung as hard as I could at my leg.


    The sword sliced right through the flesh and bone of my leg as well as that of the samurai''s arm, because he had reached farther up my body to get a better grip. With my leg and his arm severed, he fell down and sttered on the rocks below.


    [You have defeated an elite samurai warrior! Lv. 3 Divine Realm]


    [Secondary Objective Completed! Additional benefits will be distributed uponpletion of the Main Objectives]


    I began my long climb up what was left of the rope bridge using only my arms. It wasn''t as hard as I thought it would be. With all the training I''d been through to strengthen my body with Vi, I was plenty strong enough to climb up this rope bridge.


    When I got to the top, both my legs had grown back. Too bad I didn''t have any shoes though. I would have to steal a pair from one of my enemies. While my vampiric healing was probably very strong by now, I doubt they could grow back my legs that fast. I wasn''t sure they would be able to do it at all. But the troll''s regeneration that I had acquired could and did.


    I looked at the path leading up to the stronghold. It was riddled with samurai, except their swords were on fire and they had glowing red eyes. Don''t ask me why, because I didn''t know. It was probably a game thing. Enemies had to get harder the closer to your objective you got.


    Before entering the fray, I experimented with blood weapons I could create. I could make des appear anywhere on my body, I could make basic medieval weapons like maces and hammers and swords, but I couldn''t make anything bigger than a long sword.


    If I tried the de or construct would start disintegrating once it reached a certain size. I decided to go with double short swords that I could lengthen into long swords and back into short swords at will.


    I snuck up behind the first samurai and cut his head off no problem. Unfortunately, the one in front of him saw it, but since I was expecting this, I front rolled on the ground toward him. I stabbed upwards at him with the swords.


    [You have defeated a fire demon samurai! Lv. 1 Celestial Realm]


    The stopped just underneath his chin and my arms were fully extended. Heughed, and then I lengthened them, stabbing through the underside of his jaw into his brain. For some reason he stoppedughing after that and he fell to the ground and didn''t get up.


    [Lv. 9 Celestial Realm]


    Through a series of dodge rolls, shing, stabbing, and lengthening and shortening, I cut down the remaining fire demon samurai. There were a lot of them and I was getting tired of getting notifications of what realm I was in the middle of my vision every time I killed someone.


    ''Can we turn off the notifications? I appreciate them, but I really don''t need to be notified every time I defeat an enemy.''


    [Ok. I will deactivate the realm notifications until you want to check your status. The portal notifications will continue because I have no control over those]


    ''That''s fine.''


    I had made it to the front of the stronghold. The doors were closed and I had no way to get in except through the doors. I pushed on them but they were obviously barred and didn''t budge.


    There was an archer posted on the tower behind the gate. He took aim at me and fired. I dodged out of the way. I didn''t have any long range to kill him, but the thing Ravenkin had said about blood bullets being red paintballs without advanced control gave me an idea.


    I bit my arm again and pulled out a paintball sized amount of blood. I turned it into an orb in the air and waited for the archer to fire. I dodged again, but this time when he nocked another arrow, I fired the blood bullet at his face.


    Using as much control as I had I was able to maintain the liquid orb shape until it hit him. When it hit, it sttered blood into his eyes.


    "Oh my god! My eyes! There''s blood in my eyes! I can''t see! I''m blind! I''ll never see again!


    Why do the gods hate me!"


    I was about to yell out that he was being dramatic, but he tumbled over the railing and out of the tower,nding on the ground next to me. It was at least a forty foot drop. Hended face first too. Yeah, he was dead. Probably broke his neck on impact.


    Well, that didn''t solve my problem of not being able to get in, since it wasn''t like there was a key for the gate I could snatch off his body.


    The only option I saw was knocking it down or destroying it. I punched it with Vi empowered fists but that barely put a dent in the wood. And it hurt my knuckles.


    Time to try sting it down. Technically, I have never performed a Vi st, but I knew they existed. Hoping that was good enough, I put my hands t against the gate. I gathered up as much Vi as I could in my hands, condensed it, and gathered up even more.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Then I released the energy through my palms all at once. To say I broke the gate would be an understatement. I sted the doors off the hinges. They went flying and the air filled with wood dust and floating particles.

 Chapter 22 Dungeon Rewards

    My dad died when I was fifteen. Multiple gun shot wounds. He worked for the local organized crime syndicate, or the mafia as he called it. No one told me how he died other than it was gun shot wounds, and I only knew that because the coroner had me identify the body.


    Which is kind of crazy to have a fifteen year old identify his dad''s body, but that''s what happened. The mafia adopted me after that. Technically, Johnny "The Jon" Jaunderson adopted me, but it was more the whole mafia that did it rather than just him.


    They trained me in how to pick locks, run scams, and shoot a gun. They even taught me basic self defense. Well they paid for me to take self defense sses in different disciplines. They said at least one of them should work.


    They didn''t personally know much self defense other than shoot the guy shooting you, but they didn''t want me walking around with an unregistered fire arm as a teen, so they settled for the sses.


    I sat in on deals with other crime syndicates. Johnny always told them I was his son and he was "teaching me the ropes." Honestly, I think he just liked having someone in those meetings who didn''t want to kill him. Someone who would watch his back no matter what.


    Eventually, I rebelled as all teens do. I joined a band and toured around, sleeping in a van or the back of bars. They caught up to me eventually. They didn''t have any hard feelings.


    They didn''t want me sleeping in vans anymore though. So they put me up in an apartment until I could make my own money. Which basically meant, until I got tired of the measly allowance they gave me and finally turned back to crime so they could take me into the fold again.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    I never did though. I had been ying a show the night that Victoria turned me. I was on drums. I left through the back of the bar into an alley. That was when she ''attacked'' me.


    She pushed me up against the wall and got down on her knees. She started to unzip my pants, but I stopped her. I said, "You''re worth more than this. You don''t need to do that to get my validation. You are valid." That was when she kissed me, and the rest is history.


    I had assumed she was just a groupie debasing herself to get my attention as a musician she admired. It hadn''t urred to me at the time that she had been trying to suck the life essence out of my, uh, dick.


    When I got to the top of the hill, two tall multi-story buildings loomed over me on my left and right sides. As I looked closer, there were archers positioned on severalyers of balconies aiming right at me.


    "Stop!" A man said. "I assume you''re looking for me."


    [Main Objective: Defeat the Daimyo and rescue your parents]


    There was an elderly couple behind the man, who I assumed were my ''parents''. Which meant he was the Daimyo.


    "I''m going to defeat you¡­ guy," I said, trying to y the character in the story of this game.


    "You don''t even know my name? It''s Nobuhiro," he said proudly.


    "That won''t be your name when I''m done with you," I said, trying to sound threatening.


    "What will it be then?" He said, confused?


    "Nothing. Because you''ll be dead," I said.


    "Oh. I guess that makes sense," he said. "But not so fast! Let''s see you deal with my archers first. They''ll put so many holes in you that you''ll¡­ have a lot of holes in you after they do it."


    "Yeah, that made sense," I said sarcastically.


    I looked up at the archers aiming at me and prepared to react the moment one of them shot at me. They all loosed a volley at me at the same time. I dove to the side, but by the time I got back up, they were already shooting more arrows at me.


    I dove into the grass again and again but they didn''t get tired or run out of arrows. So I did the first thing I could think of. I jumped up to the second floor balcony of one of the buildings to take out the archers in closebat.


    Instead of that happening, I jumped so high that I sailed way above the second floor balcony. Inded on the fourth floor balcony out of view of most of the archers, except for the ones on the fourth floor balcony of the building I was on and the one across from it.


    I spun to dodge an arrow just as the archer in front of me loosed it. Then I grabbed him by the cor and threw him over the balcony. Hended with a thud and didn''t move.


    Trying to measure out my jumping power better this time, I jumped to the fourth floor balcony of the building across from me. I turned my jump into a kick in the chest of the archer on that balcony and then picked him up and hurled him off too.


    There was only one archer per balcony. I jumped from balcony to balcony tossing dudes onto the ground below. When I got to the second floor balcony, realizing I couldn''t toss them off to kill them, I formed a blood sword and chopped their heads off.


    Since I had a height advantage, I leaped from the second floor balcony at the Daimyo and performed an overhand strike with my sword. He put his sword up to block but thebination of my downward strike and Vi infused blood sword caused my sword to cut right through his and through his body, bisecting him in half.


    The left side of his body fell away from the right side and blood sprayed, covering me and my ''parents''. They hugged me and started crying. Especially my ''mom''.


    [Congrattions! You havepleted the level "One Night in Edo"]


    [You havepleted a secondary objective. You will receive an additional reward]


    [Standby for mission rewards]


    Everything turned gray and my ''parents'' froze. I moved away from them and saw that behind them there were some lit torches around a couple boxes. The torches and the boxes were in color.


    A portal opened nearby for me to exit. I didn''t take it because I was far too enamored with and curious about the potential rewards thaty in store for me.


    There was a big box and a small box next to it. I tried opening the big one first. It was locked. Hmm. I got out my lockpicks and tried to pick the lock but it didn''t work. I got a system message.


    [Error: Lockpicking skill not permitted for use on reward boxes]


    Hmm. If lockpicking didn''t work, then maybe smashing did? I took the blood sword I was still holding and reformed it into an axe. I started whacking at therge box with it, trying to smash it to bits. I got a system message again.


    [Error: Reward box is indestructible]


    I racked my brain for a solution. After a few seconds, the most obvious light bulb idea went off in my head that at first I thought it couldn''t possibly be correct. What if the key that Elder Ravenkin gave me would unlock them?


    It was entirely possible. He never said where or how he got it. And he clearly didn''t know what it opened. What if he found it in a portal and just never figured out how to use it.


    I pulled the red key out of my pocket. I slowly put it into the lock of therge box and turned it left. I heard the telltale click of a lock disengaging. I pulled the key out and put it in my pocket.


    I opened the box. Held within it was a katana with a deep crimson de that shimmered in the torchlight.


    [You have obtained the sword "Muramasa''s Blood Fiend"]


    [Forged by Muramasa himself and rumored to be a cursed sword that requires blood to be shed whenever it is drawn]


    [Muramasa''s Blood Fiend possesses the following abilities:]


    [Blood Honing: Every time the sword absorbs blood from a new source, it bes slightly sharper and deals more damage than before]


    [Blood Mastery: Increases the effectiveness of blood maniption by 100%]


    [Blood Sense: After absorbing blood, the wielder can sense the location and movement of that blood, whether within an opponent''s body or in traces left behind. This provides an intuitive awareness of the target''s position and movements in battle, and allows tracking of injured targets through blood trails or residue]


    [Blood Draw: A concealed mechanism in the sword''s hilt. When activated, it extends a needle that pierces the wielder''s palm, allowing for quick ess to their blood for maniption techniques]


    Holy sh*t! What an amazing reward! This sword sounded incredible and perfectly tailored to my needs as a vampire and as a cultivator. The curse could barely be considered a drawback. I would only ever draw it if I intended to use it and if I ended up not needing to in a moment, I could just draw my own blood with it.


    Now I just needed to figure out how to activate the Blood Draw ability. I twisted and cranked the hilt with both hands until I found out how to use it. I just had to crank the bottom half of the hilt forward away from me and a sharp needle would puncture my palm.


    It wasn''t very deep or painful. The needle was so sharp, I barely felt it. I could see myself doing a lot of damage with this sword. I already had an idea for a blood maniption technique I could use with it. That would have to wait forter though.


    Now I needed to see what reward the small box held. I used the key again to open it and carefully put it back in my pocket. I needed to put that thing on a string along with my amulet so I couldn''t lose it.


    When I opened the box, I was greeted to a rtively small pile of gold coins. I say rtively small pile because even a small pile of gold coins is a lot of gold coins!


    [You have obtained 100 Gold Giblets!]


    I saw a piece of fabric and string sticking out of the side of the pile. I pulled it out and saw that it was a dark midnight blue felt coin purse with a bright yellow cinching string.


    I gathered all the coins into the purse, cinched it, and put it in my pocket. If I were a betting man, and sometimes I am, I would guess that these coins were useable currency in the monster world. I knew the dragons would take them at the very least because they were gold and dragons loved gold.


    I happened to look up above the boxes and noticed a strange tear in space. It looked like a pulsing red keyhole in the fabric of space. It obviously would use the key I had in my possession, but I had no idea what it would do. As I stared at it a system message popped up in front of me.


    [Would you like to lock this dungeon instance?]

 Chapter 23 Locking a Dungeon

    The notification hung in the air in front of me. Taunting me with itsck of context or exnation as to its meaning. Dungeon instance? This was a dungeon? Like in a video game? Or anime?


    If it was this simple and straightforward, I wondered why anyone had problems with this dungeon at all.


    Then again, they didn''t have the key. I would have to ask questions when I got outside. Questions I didn''t want to ask. I was tired. I would rather sleep than deal with the mystery that were these portals. Like why were the dragon''s on the verge of a cataclysmic series of dungeon breaks?


    These didn''t seem that hard. It was fairly obvious to me at least what was happening. Just like in so many anime I had seen before, if a dungeon was notpleted within a certain amount of time, something called a "dungeon break" would ur.


    The monsters within the dungeon would break out of the portal used to ess the dungeon and roam free, killing anyone and anything they came across. That was until someone strong enough showed up to stop them.


    I supposed I didn''t know how difficult the dungeons that the dragons held were. It is possible they were significantly harder than the one I just did. The key to solving this whole problem was abination of my system, which could interpret the dimensional messages transmitted by the dungeon, and the actual dungeon key itself. I know I just said the key was the key. But it was!


    As for this notification, I could only assume it meant deactivating it until the key holder wanted to reactivate it. Since no one had seemed to figure out how to close portals, I assumed no one had used this key in conjunction with them.


    Probably. I didn''t know for certain. After getting the rewards from the dungeon, I doubted I could get them again. If otherspleted the dungeon maybe they could derive rewards from it, but if this functioned like a game, it was one and done for me.


    Since monsters had been keeping these dungeons at bay for literal centuries, I figured locking this one wouldn''t do any harm. Hell, locking all of the vampire and the dragon portals probably wouldn''t do any harm. Since if anyone needed to use it, you could probably open them back up. Locking them just removed the sense of duty and urgency to constantly run the dungeons.


    I put the key in the hole and turned it to the right. The distant surrounding environment started visuallypacting andpressing and folding up. The portal continued to float nearby as it had done the entire time I was unboxing my prizes. I put the key away and walked through it.


    I appeared back where I came from. Underground in a massive cavernous area. Elder Ravenkin, Victoria, and a few core disciples were there waiting for me. When I exited the portal, it closed and in its ce was a keyhole in space just floating there. That confirmed to me I could unlock the dungeon if I wanted and that was all I needed to know.


    I didn''t have to ask anyone any questions. I had my answers. I hugged Victoria and showed her my new sword. I made sure not to unsheathe it so I didn''t have to cut anyone.


    "Whoa! How did you get that?" She said, looking jealous.


    "I used the key Elder Ravenkin gave to me to open the reward boxes after Ipleted the dungeon," I said.


    "There are reward boxes? I never noticed that," she said. "I always just took the portal and left after killing all the enemies."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "It''s some kind of special thing that the dungeon is designed to do if youplete the main objectives. The only problem for you and everyone else is you don''t have the technology to receive the dungeon''s messages. You probably neverpleted the main objectives, since you didn''t know there were any," I said.


    "My system however can interpret the dungeons messages andmunicate them to me. If I wanted to, I could probably walk people through dungeons and get them rewards forpleting the dungeon too, but I''m on a bit of a time crunch. So I locked the dungeon so it can''t spit out enemies anymore."


    "You did what? You solved our monster problem? That''s incredible! I could kiss you! And I will!" She hugged me and kissed me.


    "That is most impressive, Dn, my disciple. Although, I had no doubt you would aplish great things for us. Great things indeed," Elder Ravenkin said.


    "I''m d you guys are happy I closed the dungeon. I was worried you''d think I was taking something away from you," I said.


    "Of course not!" Ravenkin said. "These portals have been a burden on the entire monstermunity for centuries. Besides, we can open it whenever we want right?"


    "Yes, we can. It turns out the key you gave me works with the dungeons. It not only can lock and unlock them, but it also opens reward boxes for whoeverpletes the dungeon! Without this key you can''t get the rewards. Which is a major bummer, I must say," I said.


    "A major bummer indeed," he said. "So are you ready to continue your cultivation training?"


    "Actually, I''d like a take a day off if you don''t mind. I know I''m on a time crunch, but I''d like to spend a day with my girlfriend," I said, putting my arm around Victoria.


    "Oh. You two are official? Congrattions," he said. "That is fine. You know where my mansion is when you''re ready to resume your training." He walked away with the core disciples, leaving Victoria and I to n out the rest of our day.


    "So what do you want to do?" I said.


    "My favorite thing in the world! Monster pit fighting!" She said.

 Chapter 24 Quitting the Band

    "Participating until you lose and watching the rest. Unless you don''t lose that is," She said, pointing at me.


    "You think I can go all the way?" I said. "The world of monsters is wide and vampires are ranked 15 on the list of strongest monsters. I''m going to get my ass kicked."


    "Yeah, but it''ll be fun! There''s nothing quite like a good ass beating," she said.


    "Did you mean to say it like that?" I said.


    "Yes. Both ways feel good," She said and winked at me.


    "Wow. Ok. Who am I dating?" I said. "I feel like I always get crazy ones. After a while I have to realize I''m the problem."


    "Oh lighten up," she said. "It''ll be fun. I swear. If you don''t have fun, I''ll use my vampire sex magic to give you the greatest orgasm you''ve ever had. Deal?"


    "Wouldn''t you already do that?" I said.


    "No, this requires using Vi and life essence." She said. "I like you, but I won''t sacrifice my gains for just anyone."


    "Huh. In that case, you''ve got a deal," I said, shaking her hand. This was probably the weirdest conversation I''d ever had, but I wasn''t going to say no.


    I didn''t know what to think of Victoria yet. Every second I thought I had her figured out, she threw me a curveball like this. I liked her, sure. As much as you can like someone you''ve known for three or four days.


    I had agreed to be her boyfriend and I did want to be in a rtionship with her, but I was no simp. I tried to see people as they were, not as I wanted them to be. I was hoping this one would work out, unlike all the ones that hade before, but I was aware of the possibility of failure.


    To go into a rtionship with 100% certainty it would work out was a fool''s game. And because I had dated a lot of fools, I knew I was not one of them. I had lived a hard life. Not the hardest life, but a hard one. Sometimes things just didn''t work out.


    Well, a lot of times things didn''t work out. With all that said, I wasn''t about to throw away a rtionship over a bizarre wager and a little bit of sass. If anything, that made me like her more. Maybe that''s why I was in my head about this. The fear of getting close. Regardless, I would stop talking to myself now and enjoy the ride.


    "Great," she said. "I like you. You put up with my bullshit. But not in a way that says you''re a pushover. More of in a sense that says you don''t give a f*ck."


    "Huh. I don''t think I''ve ever been analyzed that well before. But on the contrary, I have plenty of f*cks to give," I said as I pulled out a small handful of wooden word cut outs that were just the word "f*ck" without the asterisk. I dumped them into her hands.


    "What the f*ck?" She said. "How long have you had these in your pocket? Did you literally make these for this exact joke?"


    "Yes. You''d be surprised how often the opportunity to give out f*ckses up. Ites up a lot," I said.


    "I bet you were the resident funny guy in your group of friends," she said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "I was," I said.


    "What happened to them?" She said.


    "They died," I said.


    "What?" She said.


    "No, I''m just kidding. We y in a band together. Or at least, we used to. They''re probably wondering where I am right about now. Oh well. I have more important things to worry about.


    Like saving the world," I said.


    "You should at least send them a text so they know you''re ok," she said.


    "Oh yeah, I''ll just send them a text saying ''Hi guys I can''t be in the band anymore because I''m a vampire and I have to save the world''." I said sarcastically.


    "Fair point. Still you should let them know you''re ok," she said.


    "I''d rather have them think I died¡ªwhich I did¡ªthan I''m abandoning them with some bullshit excuse I made up. If I told them the truth, they wouldn''t believe it, but if I make something up, they''ll know I''m lying," I said.


    "They''d believe if you showed them. In person," she said.


    "You''re not suggesting what I think you''re suggesting, are you?" I said.


    "I am. We should hang out with your friends, show them you''re a vampire, and hash it out with them. And then we can go do monster pit fighting. Hell, we could probably take them along if they''re willing to wear blue makeup," she said.


    "Really? You''d do that for me?" I said.


    "Yes," she said.


    "You''d hang out with me and my ratty friends?" I said.


    "Yes," she said.


    "Ok. Then let''s go," I said.


    -


    We showed up at a dumpy bar called "The Last Stop," which was run out of someone''s basement, but George made a hell of an Old Fashioned. That and none of the patrons would ever even think about talking to the cops.


    As soon as I walked inside, my friends stood up from their booth and said, "Heyyy!" We all hugged, and then I said, "This is my new girlfriend, Victoria."


    Dan and Tommy introduced themselves, but then Tommy had to make ament. "I hope shests longer than Gloria!" Heughed more than he should have. It wasn''t that funny.


    "Who''s Gloria?" Victoria said.


    "Oh nobody," I said.


    "What happened?" She said. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me.


    "Nothing! She just shed my tires and broke my foot. No big deal. Sh*t happens. Am I right guys?" I said.


    They both backed me up by going, "Ayyyyy!!!" They clinked their bottles. I would clink mine too, but I didn''t have one yet. It was fine, we were all of legal drinking age, in case you were wondering.


    "She did that when you broke up with her?" Victoria said, her eyebrows raised.


    "No, that''s what made me break up with her," I said.


    "Whoa! You really have had some crazies haven''t you?" She said.


    "Yeah. A few," I said.


    As we all sat down, I ordered an Old Fashioned by just putting one finger up in the air to signal to George. He knew what that meant.


    "So, what did you want to talk about?" Dan said.


    "I have to quit the band," I said.


    Dan and Tommy''s mouths dropped wide open.

 Chapter 25 Dungeon Breaks

    "Is she taking you away from us?" Dan said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "No, it''s nothing like that. It''s much worse," I said. "I''m a vampire now and I have responsibilities. I have to fight in a war to save the world now. You know, grown up stuff. I know it sucks but you''ll still see me asionally."


    "You''re a what?" Tommy said.


    "Like for real?" Dan said. "Do you sleep in a coffin? Does your erection hit the top of the coffin when you''re sleeping? Doesn''t that get ufortable?"


    "I''m a vampire. I''m serious. I can prove it. Also, no dan I don''t sleep in a coffin. And yes that would probably happen if I did and yes that would probably be ufortable," I said wiping my eyes.


    "Ok, prove it loser! Prove you''re not just abandoning us because you got a girlfriend!" Tommy said.


    "Yeah, what he said," Dan said.


    "Knife," I said, holding my hand out towards Tommy. Tommy handed me his knife he keeps on him at all times.


    I put my hand t out on the table and spread my fingers liked I was going to do the knife dance between my fingers but instead I brought the knife down right in the middle of the back of my hand. I stabbed through my hand into table below.


    "See?" I said.


    I moved my hand up and down on the de, demonstrating that the knife was through my hand. It hurt like hell, but these guys meant a lot to me and I would hate for them to think I was abandoning them for no good reason.


    Don''t get me wrong, I was abandoning them. It was just for a good reason. Didn''t mean our friendship couldn''t go out with a bang. I was taking them to this monster pit fight whether they liked it or not. But they would like it. I knew them well enough to know that.


    "Yes. I see that you stabbed yourself in the hand with my knife, thus implicating me in a potential assault charge against your person. Cool," Tommy said.


    "Why did you do that? I mean, what was the purpose of that?" Dan said, blown away by what I just did.


    "You''ll see," I said smiling at them.


    I pulled the knife out of the table and out of my hand. It took a few tugs. It was stuck in there pretty good. I showed them my palm as it healed right in front of their eyes.


    "Wait, what the f*ck?" Dan said. "How did you do that?"


    "Was that a magic trick? Because it didn''t look like one," Tommy said.


    "It was not a magic trick. You don''t believe me yet? For that, I will give you the middle finger," I said. Then I cut my middle finger off and ced it on the table in front of them.


    I used Vi to control the flow of my blood so it didn''t gush out of my hand as my middle finger grew back. Then, when my middle finger had grown back, I flipped them off for fun.


    "Whoa! No way! This really is your finger, isn''t it?" Dan said picking it up.


    "That''s not possible. Give me that thing. It''s probably just silicone or something," Tommy said. Dan handed him the finger and Tommy squeezed it. "Whoa! Holy sh*t, that''s a f*cking finger!" He threw it back on the table.


    I wiped the knife clean on the inside of my sleeve and handed it back to Tommy. Tommy shakily put it away.


    "So guys. I''m literally a f*cking vampire. Watch, my teeth can do this thing now." I bared my fangs and made them lengthen and shorten multiple times. Then I did a teeth version of the pec dance where I alternated lengthening and shortening them.


    "Ok, you''re a vampire. Now what? That still doesn''t exin why you have to leave the band." Tommy said, putting his hand down on the table.


    "Yeah! What he said. Why do you have to leave the band, you vampire freak!" Dan said.


    "As I said, I have a responsibility to the Vampire Association," I said, crossing my arms.


    "No, you don''t!" Dan said. "Leave those f*ckers. We''ll put drapes on your windows so you don''t explode from the sun. We''ll take care of you, bro."


    "I appreciate that Dan. I really do, but I do have a responsibility. I may not have a direct responsibility to the Vampire Association, but I''m the only one who can stop a cataclysmic series of dungeon breaks that could kill thousands of people. Who knows, maybe millions," I said.


    "Dungeon breaks? What do you mean?" He said.


    "So there are these huge caves basically that have a ton of literal monsters in them that keep breeding and making more of them underground. If they break out, they coulde to the surface and kill a bunch of people. And I''m the only one capable of defeating them," I said.


    "Oh shit. Well, at least let us have onest night out, right?" Dan said.


    "Yeah! Onest night out!" Tommy said.


    "It''s funny you say that, because Victoria and I were actually nning to bring you along to what we have going tonight," I said.


    "What is it?" Dan said.


    "Yeah, what is it?" Tommy said.


    "Monster pit fighting," I said.


    "Whoa, that''s an actual thing?" Tommy said.


    "Yeah, and we''re going to go do it. You guys will have to just watch," I said.


    "Wait, you guys are actually going to fight? Is she a monster too?" Dan said pointing at Victoria.


    "Who do you think turned him into a vampire?" She said. "I sucked his dick so hard he turned into a vampire."


    "Oh you probably bit it. Yeah, Dn has a problem with girls identally biting his dick," Dan said.


    "It''s too big," Tommy said.


    Dan made a obscenelyrge measurement with his hands.


    "Oh, I know," She said, and winked at them.

 Chapter 26 Monster Mash Matchups

    The matches hadn''t started yet. Victoria and I were dressed as ourselves, but Tommy and Dan were made up to look like zombie pirates. Victoria had done their makeup. Their skin was a pale blue and they had bloody bandages on various parts of their bodies.


    Tommy and Dan were loaded up with concessions. They had hot dogs, churros, nachos, and beer. The concession people had to give them boxes and bags to carry all their food in.


    Apparently, gold giblets were worth a lot in the monster world. The concession stands had to give me back a ton of silver sables and copper crabs in change. I was able to buy all of Tommy and Dan''s food and beer with one gold giblet, and I still had silver sables and copper crabs leftover.


    I had paid really well to get pit side seats to the fight. Each ticket was five gold giblets. I figured since this was ourst night out together, and Tommy and Dan weren''t going to be able to see anything this spectacr again, why not go all out?


    And since I was going to be hitting more of these portals, it didn''t seem like the money was going to stop flowing anytime soon. Assuming I finished more secondary objectives.


    I was considering sending Tommy and Dan home with some gold giblets just as an apology for the loss of future band ie. We didn''t get a lot of gigs and we didn''t make that much, but it felt like the least I could do after everything they had done for me.


    They gave me a home when I ran away from the mafia. They gave me a job in the band, even when I sucked. And they stuck it out with me through thick and thin. They never once considered abandoning me. And here I was doing it to them.


    We found our seats and got situated. We made sure to arrive early enough that Victoria and I could go sign up for participating in the fight. We went back into the corridors to find the sign up booth.


    There were several booths and they all had a long line. I Victoria and I got in line behind what appeared to be a normal human. He was just wearing a hoodie and jeans and his face and body lookedpletely normal.


    He was in shape, which was to be expected of someone signing up for a fight, but not monstrous in appearance at all. Maybe he had his sect bracelet set on all the way to human appearance. Or maybe he was one of those transformation monsters like a werewolf. Or maybe he was a vampire like us.


    When I got to the front, thedy running the booth said, "Name?"


    "Dn Sanguis," I said.


    "Power level?" She asked.


    "Uh, I don''t know. I''m new to this," I said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "What monster type are you, honey?" She said.


    "Vampire," I said.


    "Ok, how far along your vampiric evolution path are you?" She said.


    "I''m at the fifteenth level of the Vi Condensation Stage," I said.


    "Ok, you''re grade T," she said, putting a yellow bracelet around my wrist.


    It looked high tech. It was metal and had a cinching mechanism simr to the transformation bracelets that I saw the dragons wearing, but these were metal. The ones the dragons wore were made of wood.


    "Grade T?" I said.


    "Yeah. The grades start at human level power at Grade Z and go all the way up to Elemental level power at Grade SSS. So while it sounds low, Grade T is actually perfectly appropriate for your level of power. Don''t worry, vampires are rumored to be able to reach Grade SSS even, they just haven''t existed long enough to reach that level.


    Where as elementals have existed for billions or trillions of years. You''ll get there one day," she said with a kind smile.


    "This bracelet is to prevent the use of lethal techniques like external blood maniption and Vi weapon formation. You can still use touch based Vi sts but that''s the strongest you can go. While we love spectacle here at Monster Mash Matchups, we don''t want any of our participants or audience members to die. Or die again in your case."


    "You''ll be in the low power level fight. All fights here start as a battle royale where everyone fights each other at the same time. Then the winner gets to fight the reigning champion of the power level to see if they can usurp the throne. The winner of the battle royale gets a decent amount of prize money, but the winner of the final bout gets more.


    If you kill any of your opponents or an audience member, you are immediately disqualified, so be careful out there." She gave me a wink.


    I turned and walked away from the booth, just absorbing all the information she just threw at me. Victoria met up with me when she had gotten her bracelet.


    "You ready to head back down to Dan and Tommy?" She said, with the fire of excitement in her eyes. This woman clearly lived to fight. She was having the time of her life, and I liked that.


    When we got back to Dan and Tommy, Dan had already eaten three hot dogs. "These hot dogs are incredible! What do they put in them?"


    "A djinn owns this arena. He''s revolutionized the fast food industry down here with his creation of new spices," Victoria said.


    "Creating new spices? What like magic?" Dan said.


    "Yes. Djinn are magic incarnate. They can do things with magic that you can''t even imagine," she said.


    "Wow. That''s incredible. I wish I lived down here," Dan said.


    "Be careful what you wish for," Victoria said. "It''s a hard life down here."


    "I''ve lived a hard life. It can''t be much worse than I''ve already experienced," Dan said.


    "If you say so," Victoria said. "What about you Tommy? Do you think you could handle it down here?"


    "No way man. Too many ways to die. I''ll take my one night and cherish it forever, but you can only court death so many times before it kills you," he said.


    "Well said," Victoria said. "I wouldn''t be down here either if I didn''t have to be."


    "Me neither, but I''ll make it work," I said.


    I hadn''t spent much time thinking about what would''ve happened if I hadn''t be an omni-vampire and I really didn''t want to. I was happier now than I had been before and I was good with that. No need to question fate.

 Chapter 27 The Pit Fight

    The low power level fight was about to begin. The organizers called everyone participating down to the pit and let everyone pile in. There were probably about a hundred fighters in all, huddled into the pit. It was a diverse bunch. There were all kinds of monsters, most of which I couldn''t name and barely describe.


    The ones I did recognize were oni, minotaurs, centaurs, merfolk but they had legs,mia, harpies, and gargoyles. As I was looking around I saw the same seemingly human person from the line at the booth take a shard of rock and swallow it. Then he transformed.


    His body grew fur, his face elongated, and his spine grew. At the end of the transformation, I was looking at a 3 meter tall werewolf. He was wearing these rubber gloves that covered his natural ws. "What was that thing he ate?" I said to Victoria.


    "Moon shard. It allows werewolves to force a transformation. Without it, he wouldn''t be able topete. No pure humans are allowed down here," she said.


    "Ladies and gentlemen!" A lich in a tuxedo said.


    I could tell he was a lich by the fact that his head was a skull and his eyes were purple flickering lights in his eye sockets. Liches were powerful magic practitioners who performed a magic ritual to transform themselves into an undead in order to achieve eternal life.


    "You are about to witness our most brutal, disorganized, raw format of fight. The low power level free-for-all!" The lich said. "The rules are simple. No lethal techniques are allowed, and participate at your own risk. While we aim to keep everyone alive, people do die. Now without further ado, let the battle begin!"


    Everyone started fighting at once. Victoria and I split up. We didn''t want to fight each other if we didn''t have to, but if we ended up being thest two people standing, we would.


    My first match up was with amia. She coiled her snake-like lower body around me, trying to constrict and suffocate me. Unfortunately, for her the air was thick with Vi from all the living creatures around us and I was fully powered up.


    I tore my arms free of her grasp and grabbed her by the throat. I delivered a brutal right hook right to the side of her head, knocking her out. Her body uncoiled around me and I was able to step free.


    Three smaller humanoid people wearing all ck suits, almost like ninjas, ran up to her body and pulled her away and out of the pit through an opening in the wall.


    I looked around to see dozens of these creatures dragging unconscious fighters out of the arena. They must have been there to clean up the battlefield and also prevent unconscious fighters from being trampled to death.


    Three merfolk ran up to me and spat water in my face. With me temporarily blinded, they circled me and began trying to beat me up. Their punches felt like yful jabs. They were just too weak for the fight they had picked with me.


    I grabbed one by the feet and swung him around, hitting the other two in the face with his face. With them knocked out, I moved on to my next opponent.


    A minotaur had targeted me. He started off matching me blow for blow, but over time, my elerated healing and hisck there of, wore him down. I finished him off with an uppercut to the chin.


    I was looking for my next opponent when I heard a mesmerizing song. I looked for the source and my eyesnded a beautiful creature. Her arms were bird wings. Her almost naked body was covered in feathers in just the right ces. I was about walk up to her when the system sent me a message.


    [You''re sumbing to another charm technique. Snap out of it!]


    "Wha-what?" I shook my head. I looked again at the hideous creature that tried to lure me in with its song. It was rail thin with an evil grin of a razor sharp teeth.


    Actually she wasn''t that ugly. I was just pissed that I''d almost fell prey to another charm technique. I wished I had some sort of charm immunity, but the only way I could think of getting one was to extract it from this harpy.


    And the only ways I knew how to do that were killing and sucking blood. I remembered something about the system saying I could feed throughughter and orgasm, but I wasn''t going to try to elicit either response from this random woman I didn''t know.


    I guessed I''d have to wait for another opportunity to present itself. It probably would have only given immunity to the siren song itself, rather than charm effects overall.


    I wasn''t interested in such a narrow ability. I could''ve gotten the siren song itself, but I had no interest in that either. I was more interested in just punching people in the face than singing at them.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    So that''s what I did. I went up to the harpy acting dazed like I was in a trance and then when I was close enough I socked her in the face. She went out like a light. The small ck d creatures dragged her away.


    Then I was staring face to face with the werewolf. He towered over me. The first thing I tried to do was use Daze on him, but it had no effect. The system said the species was ipatible with the ability. Next I tried punching him in the leg with a Vi empowered fist but it barely did anything. He chuckled a low chuckle, and then punched me.


    I tried to grab his fist to block it but the punch still sent me flying into a wall. The only thing I seeded in doing was removing one of his gloves. His natural ws were long and razor sharp.


    Oh cr*p. I hadn''t thought about it, but there was a reason he was wearing gloves. In some werewolf myths, if you were even scratched by a werewolf and survived, you would be a werewolf yourself. I had just endangered myself and everyone else in this ring of contracting lycanthropy.


    The werewolf fortunately clenched his ungloved fist to reduce any chances he''d scratch anyone. I appreciated his concern for others. I was still going to kick his ass.


    It seemed like I was going to have to pull out the big guns though. I concentrated as much Vi as I could into my hands and ran up to him. I pushed my hands against his lower midsection, because that was the highest I could reach on his body, and then shot the Vi through my hands into his body.


    Since I had targeted so low on his body, he was sent flying up into the air and into the stands of people. Hended sprawled out in the section of the stands where Dan and Tommy were sitting.


    I saw Victoria and she gave me a look of terror, before she leaped out of the arena to check on Dan and Tommy. I tried to do the same, but a giant red hand grabbed me out of the air and mmed me into the ground.

 Chapter 28 Tommys Fate

    It was an oni. An ogre like monster from Japan. They were called demons but not in the judeo-christian heaven and hell sort of way. In the terrifying monster sort of way.


    It had white hair, thick corded muscle and ropes tied around its forearms like bracelets. It stood at an imposing four meters tall and wasn''t wearing a shirt. They were known to eat humans.


    I either needed to defeat this thing or get away from it, but with how quickly it grabbed me out of the air, I was pretty sure getting away from it wasn''t an option.


    It started to crush me in its grasp, slowly suffocating me. I couldn''t tell if it was trying to defeat me in a fight or outright kill me. As it crushed me with one hand, it reared back its other fist to m on top of my head, which would surely kill me, regardless of its intentions.


    I had to get out of its grasp. It was holding my arms against my body, so I had no way of blocking the iing blow from above. I allowed the stress from the fight to melt away and concentrated on the Vi in my body.


    I gathered up Vi around the parts of my skin that the oni was grabbing with its hand and released it suddenly, blowing its hand open and breaking its fingers. I heard them snap as it dropped me onto the ground.


    Inded on my feet. With its knee caps at chest level for me, I chose them as my next target. I had never done a Vi st punch before, but I was about to try. It seemed the only weapon I had in my arsenal that could hurt this thing was Vi sts.


    I gathered a high concentration of Vi into my fist and mmed it into the oni''s left knee cap. I released the Vi on point of impact and its kneecap shattered. Its leg folded backward and he fell onto his ass.


    I hit his right kneecap with my next punch and sted Vi into it as well. That folded his leg sideways. Now he was sitting t on the ground. I was granted much easier ess to his face.


    I hopped up onto his protruding stomach and delivered a Vi st punch to his lower jaw, hoping to knock him out without killing him. It shattered his jaw, but only internally.


    It didn''t break the skin, so he wasn''t bleeding. This made him fall back and m into the ground unconscious, kicking up dust into the air. I had finally defeated my pesky and terrifying opponent.


    I looked around quickly to see if anyone else was going to try to stop me from helping my friends, but I noticed I was the only one left standing in the pit.


    "It seems we have our winner! I''m being told his name is Dn Sanguis! Give it up for Dn Sanguis folks!" The lich announcer said.


    Empowering my legs with Vi, I jumped out of the pit and ran over to where my friends Dan and Tommy were sitting. Victoria and Dan were leaning over Tommy who seemed to be having trouble breathing.


    "What happened?" I said, panicking.


    "The werewolfnded on Tommy. His ribs are broken, and one of them punctured his lung. It looks bad. He''s coughing up blood," Victoria said. "I could turn him into a vampire, but his wounds are too severe for the enhanced healing to save his life. He would still end up dying."


    A medical team arrived on the scene a few secondster. The lead medic came up to us. He looked at Tommy struggling to breath and the blue make up rubbing off around his mouth where the blood wasing out, and said, "What''s going on here? If I didn''t know better, I''d say he was a human."


    "He is," I said. "I know we broke the rules, but can you save him?"


    "You''re lucky I''m just here to save lives and not report illegal activity, because you would be in a lot of trouble," he said. "Having said that, we''ll do our best to save him. Now make some room."


    Victoria, Dan, and I moved back so the medical team could assess and work on Tommy. I watched as they assessed his condition. One of them put their hands above where his rib was puncturing his lung.


    She looked like a fairy of some sort. She had pointed ears, green hair, and translucent wingsing out of her back. I saw green magical energye out of her hands and enter Tommy''s chest.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Tommy started coughing harder and more blood came out. The fairy pulled her hands back and got a dark look on her face.


    "What''s wrong?" I said. "Can''t you heal him?"


    "His injuries are too severe. If I continue healing him, he''ll die from internal bleeding before I can finish my work. He has about ten to twenty minutes left of agony, but that''s it," she said with a somber look on her face.


    "D*mn it!" I said. This was all my fault. Not only did I take him to the dangerous monster world, I got him front row seats, putting him in even more danger. Then it was me who sent the werewolf flying at him. I literally couldn''t be more at fault.


    I''m such a selfish asshole. I prioritized having onest fun night with my friends over their safety, and now one of them was going to die for it. If Tommy died, I don''t think I could live with myself. I didn''t know what to do.


    It was at this point that the announcer had walked over to us and was giving a y by y of the emergency.


    "Terrible news folks. One of the audience members was crushed by the flying werewolf and it looks like there''s nothing they can do for him. It''s a sad day here at Monster Mash Matchups," The lich said.


    "We hate to see it folks. Deaths happen, but never of an audience member. This is history in the making folks, and not the good kind."


    I got pissed at him and said, "Help or go away!"


    "How could I possibly help?" He said.


    "I don''t know! Don''t you have lich magic you can use on him?" I said.


    "Not on a zombie. If he were human I might be able to do something about it," he said.


    "He is human!" I said.


    "Oh! In that case, move aside," he said, kneeling down.


    I moved out of his way. I was surprised, but grateful that someone was actually trying to save my friend instead of just giving me bad news.


    "Two things first. Does he have something on him that''s special to him, and is he ok with bing a lich if it saves his life?" He said.


    "Yes, he has a knife he carries with him everywhere. And I don''t know. I''ll ask him," I said. I knelt down right up close to Tommy''s face and said, "If he can save your life, are you ok with bing a lich?"


    "What''s a lich?" He said, coughing up more blood.


    "It''s basically an undead wizard. Your body will continue to age or decay. I''m not really sure which, but you will you''ll basically live forever," I said.


    "Will I¡­ be able¡­ to get¡­ girls?" He said between choking breaths.


    I looked at the lich. He said, "Yes, you''ll still be able to get with girls, if that''s what you mean but you have to learn the magic to do it. It''s basically the same or better than normal sex though, so that''s nothing to worry about. The only downside is you''ll only be able to get with monster chicks. Human women usually aren''t that into liches for some reason."


    "Let''s¡­ do¡­ it," Tommy said.


    "That''s good enough for me," The lich said. "Knife?" He put his hand out.


    I fished the knife out of Tommy''s pocket and handed it to the lich. The lich pulled out a can of spray paint and made a big circle on the ground around Tommy. Then he ced the knife in the circle and made a circle around it.


    He began making symbols on the ground inside and outside of the circle and on Tommy''s body with the spray paint. Some were rudimentary and other''s were very intricate. I watched in shock and hope as the lich proceeded to make preparations to turn Tommy into a lich.

 Chapter 29 A Lich, a Werewolf, and a Vampire Walk into a Bar

    Once the lich was finished, he stood up and stood back and inspected his handy work. When he seemed satisfied, he stood over Tommy''s body and made aplicated hand symbol with his skeletal fingers. It had a lot of s''s and curves to it, but was epassed by a square frame made by his hands.


    He began to chant in an ancientnguage. It sounded older thantin, if sounds and words can have an age to their sound. Wispy purple vapors seeped from Tommy''s body and gathered in the symbol the lich was making with his hands.


    The purple wisps lit up his hands to a blinding degree until the wisps stoppeding out of Tommy''s body. Tommy was still breathing, but weakly.


    The lich moved his hand symbol to his right a little bit so that it was above Tommy''s knife resting on the ground. He began to chant in that same ancientnguage and the purple wisps left the lich''s hands and started going into the knife.


    This process continued until the lich''s hands were empty of purple light and he pulled his hands apart and let them rest at his sides. "It is done," He said. He looked at the fairy medic and he said, "You should be able to repair his body now without him dying."


    The fairy medic got to work and put her hands over Tommy''s body. As she worked, Tommy''s body repaired itself, but the more it repaired itself, the more something else happened. The light had gone out in Tommy''s eyes despite him still breathing.


    As she repaired his body, a light came back into his eyes but this was a bright purple light that shone through his pupils. It was much like the purple eye lights that the lich announcer had. Tommy''s were brighter and more than like LEDs than the announcer''s flicker mes.


    After the fairy finished her work, Tommy took a deep breath and began to breathe more normally. He sat up quickly and grabbed his knife, stuffing it back in his inner jacket pocket.


    The lich looked at Tommy and said, "That knife is your phctery. It contains your soul. If your body is destroyed, you can be brought back as long as your phctery is safe, but if your phctery is destroyed, you can''t be brought back. You die."


    "Good to know," Tommy said. "So what now? Since I''m a monster now, I need a ce to stay. Can I stay with you Dn?"


    "I don''t know how this works. The monster world seems very segregated. Victoria?" I said.


    "You will have to join the lich sect and live with them. Dn can visit you, but your ce is with the liches now," she said.


    "Ok. I can live with that," Tommy said.


    I looked over at Dan. "How are you doing? Are you ok?"


    "Yeah, I''m alright. All I have is this scratch on my arm. It''s not deep though so I should be fine," Dan said.


    "Oh no," Victoria said.


    I looked at Dan and then at the unconscious werewolf on the ground. I inspected his ungloved hand and there was dried blood on one of his ws. Oh fuck. So not one, but both of my friends were monsters now.


    Victoria ripped open Dan''s jacket and lifted his shirt. It revealed dark veins stretching across his chest from his arm to his sternum.


    "It''s progressed too far," she said. "Normally if you got a scratch, you cut the skin off around the scratch and you''d just have a nasty scar for the rest of your life, but we''d have to cut you in half at this point to get it out. It''s almost to your heart, and once it hits your heart, it bes permanent."


    "We could try to fight the lycanthropy with vampire blood, but you''d still be a monster either way. At that point it would just be deciding which kind you want to be."


    "What do you mean?" Dan said. "What''s going on? Lycanthropy?"


    "A werewolf''s w scratched you," I said. "It means you''re going to turn into a werewolf."


    "I''m going to be a werewolf? Does that mean I''ll have to live with werewolves for the rest of my life?" Dan said.


    "I think so," I said.


    "Does that mean we''ll still be able to hang out?" Dan said.


    "I mean, now that you''re a monster like me, yeah," I said.


    "Cool!" Dan said. "I was really worried we wouldn''t be able to be friends anymore and that I''d have to live on the streets again. Now I get to keep my friends and I have a home? That sounds too good to be true."


    "You''ll be cursed to transform under a full moon and lose control of yourself and stuff. Doesn''t that bother you?" I said.


    "Nope. That just sounds like getting ck out drunk once a month. And I''ll have other werewolves to protect me from myself right? That sounds way better than ending up in a jail cell every few weeks," Dan said. He looked relieved. He looked happier than I''d ever seen him actually.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "I''m with Dan," Tommy said. "No more boring human life. I get to learn magic now and be a wizard? That sounds badass! That sounds way better than working for some randompany until I die."


    "Wow. You guys are handling this much better than I expected you to," I said. "Then again, turning into a vampire didn''t bother me that much either. I reacted like you guys. Happy to finally be off the streets or not be barely scraping by."


    "You guys were meant to be best friends. You are some really weird peas in a really weird pod," Victoria said.


    "So, Dn, are you ready to fight the champion of the low power level? See if you can go all the way?" The lich announcer said, this time through his mic.


    He put the mic up to my mouth, and I said, "I''ve never been more ready."

 Chapter 30 Death Match

    "Death match?" I said to Victoria.


    "It''s a trick name. You still aren''t allowed to kill your opponent directly, but lethal techniques are allowed. Also, every thirty seconds a new element can get added to the fight. These include but are not limited to death traps. Most of the traps are medium level lethal, but to you they shouldn''t be a big problem," Victoria said.


    The woman who took my name and put the power limiting bracelet on me for the free-for-all, came up to me and removed my bracelet. "All bets are off now honey!"


    Oh shit. I''d risked my life many times over already, but there was something about the idea of a ''death match'' that made a shiver run down my spine. I don''t think in all of my brushes with death, have I ever been actually afraid until now.


    It was something about the concept of a death match where one wrong move could mean your death that gave me the creeps. And then there was the reigning champion. The existence of a reigning champion made the chance of me winning not in my favor.


    Besides all that, I would make it out of this, I told myself. I was just psyching myself out. It wouldn''t be nearly as dangerous or nerve wracking when I actually got out there.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The woman led me back down into the pit. A wall opened and an anthropomorphic fox with a katana strapped to its waist walked into the arena. A kitsune. Kitsune were fox ''spirits'' with magical abilities. They weren''t actually spirits. They were just called that because of their abilities.


    Now, I only knew of their ability to shapeshift. They could appear as foxes, humans, or anthropomorphic foxes, like the one I was about to face. I knew they had other abilities, but I didn''t know what they were.


    "Victoria! Sword!" I yelled out. She hurled my sword "Muramasa''s Blood Fiend" down into the pit at me and I caught it. I strapped it to my waist.


    "The rules are simple. Defeat your opponent through any means necessary but do not kill them directly. If a trap kills them then that doesn''t count. A coin toss will happen every thirty seconds that will determine if a new element will be added to the fight," The announcer said. "Now, begin!"


    I stared at the kitsune with my hand on my sword hilt. I didn''t try to use Daze for the obvious reason that it wasn''t human. I noticed it only had two tails. That was good. That meant it was still fairly low in power. Kitsune grew more tails as they got stronger.


    They could have up to nine tails in total. Since this one only had two, I had a fighting chance.


    The kitsune drew its sword and began walking towards me, so I did the same. We shed swords. We were fairly evenly matched. I wasn''t as skilled at the sword, but with my Vi enhanced senses I was able to keep up.


    It urred to me that I wasn''t using the Vi in my body to its full potential. My entirebat system should be infused with Vi, not just my body. As we were fighting, I pushed Vi into my sword. It began to vibrate like it was pleased to receive the Vi.


    The Vi spread throughout the sword and my sword shes became stronger, more powerful. I started knocking the kitsune''s sword away with my strikes. It had to struggle to get its sword back in position after every blow.


    "It''s time for the first coin toss! This will determine if we add electric walls!" The announcer said. He tossed a coin into the air.


    As the announcer tossed the coin, I noticed the kitsune aim its hand towards the announcer.


    "It''s heads!" The announcer said. "Electric walls are being added."


    After the coin toss finished, the kitsune brought its hand back down. It must have done something to the coin toss. Was it determining the result of the coin toss somehow? That was the only conclusion I coulde to.


    The kitsune rushed at me, driving me back towards the wall. I kept knocking its sword back with my blows but it kept the pressure on and I wasn''t able to push back. Its skill with the sword was too great.


    It pushed me against a wall and I felt electricity surge into my muscles shocking me and causing my muscles to jerk and contract.


    The kitsune gained a brief advantage during this time. It broke through my defenses a few times. It shed across my knee, which caused me to drop slightly. After that, it shed across my hand, severing a few of my fingers.


    This caused me to have to wield my sword in one hand while I waited for my fingers to grow back. My sword strikes weren''t as strong or responsive with only one hand. The kitsune used this opportunity to stab me on the inside of my shoulder.


    It tried to move the de inwards from there. I pressed against its sword with my de with one hand but it was a losing battle. Its sword was getting closer to my heart by the second.


    I knew that if it hit my heart, I would drop. It wouldn''t kill me, but it would probably count as a knock out. The kitsune likely knew that as well. It wasn''t trying to kill me, just beat me.


    The electricity shocking my back didn''t make this any easier. If I could only stop the electricity, then I might have a fighting chance. It urred to me I might be able to use Vi to repel it. The electricity was violent and erratic. I would have to tap into its frequency to push it out of my body with Vi.


    Once I had tapped into the frequency of the electricity, I was able to slowly push it out of my body. Then Iyered my skin with Vi, and the electricity no longer affected me, since it was just bouncing off theyer of Vi I had protecting me.


    By this point my fingers had grown back. I put my other hand back on my sword. The advantages of strength and the electricity that the kitsune had over me were eliminated. Now it was my turn to fight back and show it what I was made of.

 Chapter 31 Fox Fire

    It was time to kick things up a notch. I activated the Blood Draw mechanic on my sword by pushing the bottom of the hilt forward. A needle stabbed the bottom of my palm, drawing blood.


    Using blood maniption, I pulled the blood out of the small wound andyered my sword with it. The vibration of my sword changed to something I interpreted as satisfaction.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I made the blood run up along the de at high speeds until it reached the tip of the de. Then it ran down the back of the de to the bottom where it transferred back to the front of the de and ran up it again. This created a sort of blood saw effect.


    The idea was that it allowed my de to cut faster and deeper than before. I attacked the kitsune and it put up its sword to block. Sparks drew from the kitsune''s de as mine cut into it.


    After a few seconds, my de had cut all the way through his, severing it in half. The kitsune''s eye widened in surprise. Then it split into four and ran away.


    When I say that, I mean three new identical versions of the kitsune came out of the original one. They had to be illusions but I didn''t know which one was the real one.


    The kitsune all drew out a dagger. I could see they had two daggers, one still sheathed, but I assumed they didn''t want to risk both of them getting cut by my sword at the same time.


    "Time for the next coin toss! This one will determine if we addser traps!" The announcer said, as he tossed the coin back into the air.


    The kitsune aimed their hands at the announcer again.


    "It''s heads! We add the traps!" The announcer said.


    A wall of threesers shot across the room, separating it in half. Thesers were ced vertically parallel to each other. There was enough space to duck or dodge between thesers if you paid attention and did it carefully, but it was an added distraction that would make this fight that much harder.


    It was to the kitsune''s advantage though since it was down a sword. It added another way for it to hurt me. When the room was separated by thesers, two of the kitsune illusions ended up on the other side of the room.


    They each ducked under aser and stepped over one to get to the side of the room I was on. Now all four kitsune were on the same side with me. Great. They all rushed me at once.


    I shed through the two in front of me while the other two came around the sides. The two in front disappeared and both of the kitsune on the sides of me stabbed at my midsection.


    I felt nothing when the one on the left stabbed me, but I certainly felt it when the one on the right did. So they were illusions. They weren''t clones. The one that stabbed me twisted the knife as I kicked it away from me.


    I held my side as it healed and directed Vi to the wound so it healed faster. After just a moment it was healed, but if the kitsune had been able to follow up with more stabs or shes, the wounds would''ve added up quick and I''d be on the ground in a matter of seconds.


    When I kicked the kitsune away from me, it flew through the air through thesers. Knifes shot out of the wall and hit the wall on the other side. So thesers weren''t harmful. They just activated a trap.


    The kitsune had been traveling through the air fast enough that the knives didn''t hit it. Itnded on the other side of the room and skidded to a stop on its feet.


    It divided into four again. I tried to keep track of the real one, but when they split, they moved to the left and the right out of each other, so there was no way to tell which one was the original.


    Before the kitsune got back onto my side of the room, I got an idea. I went up to theser wall and put my hand in front of one of thesers. A knife shot out and stabbed through my hand.


    Only one knife shot out. So theser traps were independent. The whole wall of knives didn''t activate when you tripped oneser. I put my hand in front of theser again and it fired another knife through my hand.


    I kept my hand in front of theser until I had a dozen knives in my hand. The kitsune was just watching me with a confused look on its face the whole time. I pulled the knives out and stuffed some in my pockets and held the rest in my other hand, until my original hand healed.


    Once my hand was healed, I had six throwing knives in my hands. I backed up and threw four knives out really fast. I threw one knife at each kitsune. Two of them dodged and two of them failed at dodging.


    One of the ones that got hit with a knife disappeared but the other one got a knife to the side. With that, it realized my n. I would use throwing knives to whittle down the illusions so I could determine the real one.


    I kept throwing knives at it, getting more by putting my hand in front of aser, and throwing more of them. It kept dodging and multiplying every time I hit an illusion.


    As it dodged, it started moving in a dance like pattern, swishing its tails through the air. mes started shooting out of its tails. The mes weren''t directed at me. They hovered in the air for several seconds before dissipating.


    It was directing the mes in front of itself. I could only assume it was trying to obscure my vision with the mes, since that''s exactly what it was doing. Pretty soon there were so many mes, that I could barely see the four kitsune behind them.


    It kept dancing and dodging and producing mes with its tails, but it started moving closer to me. They kept creeping closer and closer to theser wall until they all dodged through it in between thesers on the far side of the room away from me.


    Now the kitsune were on my side of the room. They continued to dance and dodge and produce mes as they got closer to me. I kept missing because I could barely see through the mes.


    Eventually, I abandoned the throwing knives and switched back to my katana. I readied myself to strike or block as the mes and the kitsune crept closer and closer to me.

 Chapter 32 Third Coin Toss

    Regardless of being illusions, they weren''t entirely harmless. They made it so I could barely see. They were so bright and obscuring. The mes and the kitsune got within five feet of me.


    Four knives stabbed at me through the wall of mes from different directions. This time, instead of trying to block any of the knives, I swung my sword horizontally through the mes in the directions the knives wereing from.


    I figured if I could hit all four kitsune at once, I would hit the real one eventually. To my surprise, my swing cut through all four of the kitsune behind the mes and the arms and the knives they were holding disappeared.


    Then, after I had swung my sword, a knife came at me through the mes again, this one straight in front of me. It stabbed me through the right side of my chest, puncturing my lung.


    I struggled to breathe as my right lung copsed. I grabbed the wrist of the kitsune and tugged its wrist and the knife out of my chest. Instead of directing Vi to my lung to heal it faster, I directed Vi to my hand holding the kitsune''s wrist to strengthen my grip.


    I couldn''t let it go. This was my one chance and I couldn''t let it get away. My breathing was weakened and I could feel that I wasn''t getting enough oxygen, but I held on as tight as I could.


    I tightened my grip on its wrist until I heard bones crack and break. And then I kept tightening my grip until I couldn''t tighten it anymore. The kitsune dropped its knife.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The mes disappeared one by one because the kitsune hadn''t sent any out for several seconds. The mes only seemed tost a limited number of seconds before they dissipated. And with my hand on its wrist, it couldn''t whip its tail around to send them out anymore.


    Just as the mes in front of me obscuring my view of the kitsune other than its one arm that I was holding dissipated, my eyes caught a sh of metal. I barely had enough time to drop my katana and grab its other hand, before it stabbed me in the heart with its second dagger.


    Its knife stabbed me in the chest through my pectoral muscle, in between the ribs in my rib cage. I was able to stop it from going any further in. With my Vi based control and awareness of my body, I was able to tell that the knife was a few millimeters away from piercing my heart.


    It leaned into the stab and pushed with all its might. The knife closed the gap and barely touched my heart. It was only a millimeter deep puncture so it didn''t debilitate me, but any further and I was done.


    I carefully let go of its other wrist and transferred my right hand to its forearm of the arm that was holding the knife. With thebined might of both of my arms, I slowly pushed the knife out of my chest.


    Once I had safely removed the knife from my chest, I broke its forearm with my hands. It dropped its second dagger. It angled it so the daggernded point down on my foot, stabbing through it and surprising me into letting go of its forearm.


    It jumped back and I leaned down to remove the dagger from my foot.


    "Ladies and gentlemen! The third coin toss!" The announcer said. "This will determine if we add a rotating turret or fire geysers!"


    The kitsune angled its now limp hand and forearm towards the announcer.


    "It''s heads! That means rotating turret!" The announcer said. "Man, we''re really getting heads a lot tonight. That was the third heads in a row!"


    It was definitely manipting the coin tosses, but I didn''t know what I could do about it other than rush and attack it when the coin toss happens. Actually, that might work. I couldn''t do it in this case because I was pulling a knife out of my foot, but next time I would make sure to do that.


    Arge machine gun turret popped out of a hole in the center of the arena. It had two guns mounted to it. One at chest height and one at leg height. The pole it was attached to had a hole for the lowerser to travel through that didn''t change its angle as the guns started to turn.


    The machine guns started to fire as they turned. The fire rate wasn''t extremely fast and neither was the turn rate. It fired about four rounds per second which was about half the normal fire rate for a machine gun.


    You might question why I know that, but you have to remember, I was raised by the mafia. I know a thing or two about guns. I''m by no means an expert, but I know some things.


    The turn rate of the turret was about two miles per hour or three feet per second in the middle of its radius. This was going to add a lot of pressure to the duel, but it was manageable.


    The only major downside I was looking at was that it was turning clockwise, so it would hit me before it hit the kitsune, which meant I was backed into a corner. I needed to move towards the kitsune and push it back if I was going to avoid getting shot.


    I tried to run past the kitsune so I could put some distance between me and the turret, and so I could switch ces with it and have it backed into a corner.


    My n was foiled when the kitsunended a middle kick to my midsection, sending me tumbling backwards towards the oing fire of the machine guns. The machine gun fire was about a foot away from me and I had to do something quick or I was going to be riddled with bullets.

 Chapter 33 Blood Sense

    I was surprisingly not hit by any bullets. The kitsune ran up to me and away from the line of bullets. It dodged through theser wall. I got up as quickly as I could to meet its attacks, but halfway to me it disappeared from my vision.


    Then I was hit in the stomach by a kick. Shit. Did it use its illusion abilities to turn invisible? Must have. I put my hands up to guard my head and face as I was pummeled with kicks by an unseen source.


    I had to figure out a way to see or sense the kitsune''s movements and position. Otherwise I would just keep getting hit by its invisible kicks. My sword. If I could get its blood on the de somehow, I could track its movements and ''see'' it in a sense.


    My sword wasying on the ground just beyond the line of machine gun fire. I waited for the machine gun fire to move past my sword and let the kitsune continue to kick the sh*t out of me.


    As soon as the machine gun fire passed over my sword, I leaped and rolled over to it. I grabbed it and leap rolled back in the other direction, hopefully past the kitsune. I got up, dodged through theser wall, and ran to the other side of the arena where I had hit the kitsune with a dagger.


    I leaped through the line of gun fire again and rolled out of it, arriving right next to a few droplets of blood on the ground. I tapped the tip of my sword, Blood Fiend, into the blood and tried to intuitively activate its ability, Blood Sense.


    Blood Sense allowed me to sense the location of all the blood of someone who the Blood Fiend had tasted. This gave me an intuitive sense where someone was and their individual movements without even having to look at them.


    "Fourth coin toss! Gravity fluctuations or shifting tforms?" The announcer said.


    I felt the kitsune behind me as it moved its hand to influence the coin toss. It was close behind me, so I swung my sword around as I turned and swiped at the kitsune. It narrowly dodged the de by jumping back.


    With it being invisible and the only way for me to sense it being my blood sense ability, it looked like a glowing red humanoid shaped figure of blood to my eyes. I could still intuitively sense its movements but I could also see it this way.


    It had to drop its coin influencing hand when it dodged.


    "Heads yet again! Gravity fluctuations it is!" The announcer said.


    All of a sudden I could barely move. I felt heavy. Then a few momentster, I started to float off the floor. I couldn''t move in any direction without being able to touch something, and the turret fire wasing my way.


    Thinking quickly, I stuck my hand out towards the ground and performed a Vi st from my palm. The st didn''t extend past my palm. It just sted the air around my palm, but it did what I wanted it to do.


    It sent me flying up away from the turret fire. I narrowly dodged the turret fire this way. With my sword in my right hand, I performed a Vi st aimed behind me with my left hand. It pushed me forward towards the now floating kitsune.


    It was about as helpless as I initially was. It didn''t seem able to perform sts like I could to propel itself. It was just caught floating. When I got close to it, I used the Blood Draw ability and coated my sword in my blood, but this time I dulled the de.


    This way when I hit the kitsune with it, it wouldn''t get chopped in half and die. I mmed my now blunt sword de into the kitsune''s midsection, sending it back to the ground. It hit the ground hard despite theck of gravity and hit its head on the concrete floor, knocking it out.


    The kitsune then became visible again andid still. The turret wasing around again and getting close to the kitsune. No one had stopped the traps yet. Maybe they didn''t know that it was knocked out.


    I had to do something, so I sheathed my de, propelled myself down to the ground with a Vi st, grabbed the kitsune under my arm, and Vi sted myself away from the turret fire just in the nick of time.


    "Stop the traps!" I yelled. "The fight is over!"


    "Huh?" The announcer said. He looked closer at the kitsune in my arms and said, "So it is. Deactivate the traps! We have a winner!"


    The traps deactivated and I fell back down to the ground when the gravity came back. Iid the kitsune gently on the ground as the fairy medic came down into the pit to provide medical aid.


    She healed the kitsune''s broken arms and the wound in its side. However, the kitsune remained unconscious. The fight must have taken a lot out of it. I couldn''t imagine what it must have been like to continue fighting with two broken arms.


    Despite my victory, I acknowledged that the kitsune was a strong opponent. One I wouldn''t mind facing again, if given the opportunity. The medics took it away on a stretcher.


    The fairy medic came up to me to check on my injuries but I had none left. They had already healed. She gave me a good bill of health and followed the rest of the medics with the stretcher.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen! We have a winner! Dn Sanguis is his name and kicking ass is his game! Give it up for Dn Sanguis everybody!" The announcer said, fake pping in front of me.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The crowd hollered and cheered and pped. Some random woman yelled out, "I love you Dn Sanguis!" Nearly everyone in the arena stadium looked at her and she went quiet. They didn''t bully her. They just looked. Apparently that was enough.


    "He''s not getting a brand new car! He''s getting something better! Prize money! Two hundred gold giblets to be exact." The announcer said.


    I couldn''t wait to get back to my friends, but I knew I had to participate in the show. It was the polite thing to do, so I waved and smiled.

 Chapter 34 The Band Stays Together

    "Hey, so what happens now?" Dan said. "Great job in the arena."


    "Thanks," I said, scratching my head. "I just did whates naturally to me, fighting."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Great job hon!" Victoria said and hugged me and gave me a big kiss.


    "Great job ''hon''!" Tommy said and pretended to go in for a kiss, but ended up hugging me. "I''m with Dan on what happens now though."


    "Well, the obvious happens," I said. "Tommy, you go with the lich announcer guy back to the lich sect, or at least find out how to get to the lich sect from him if he isn''t in it himself. Then Dan, you go with the werewolf from before back to the werewolf sect, assuming he''s in it."


    "And I will give you each half of my prize money to get you on your feet and make sure you can take care of yourselves down here since you have no money. Paper money doesn''t work down here. And then we all keep in touch. I don''t know how peoplemunicate long distance down here but I know sects can call other sects because my Elder did it for me once."


    "So I''ll just call the werewolf and lich sects after you guys get settled, and we''ll keep in touch that way. Does that sound like a deal? Wait, where is that werewolf?"


    "Oh, he''s sitting right were you threw him, but he''s back to human form now," Tommy said, pointing over his shoulder at a man in a ck hoodie. "And that does sound like a n! I''ll take half of that prize off your hands for sure. Thank you very much, Dn! I knew you wouldn''t let us down in the end."


    "That''s rich,ing from the guy who used me of abandoning the band for a girl and proceeded to call me a loser to my face," I said, smiling, showing I had no real hard feelings about it. I was just teasing him.


    "I''m sorry about that," Tommy said. "I never should have doubted you. Won''t happen again."


    "Don''t worry about it. I might''ve done the same if I was in your position," I said, still smiling.


    "That does sound like a deal, Dn, but I had something else I wanted to say," Dan said. "I don''t see why we have to break up the band. Wasn''t it originally because we would be living in two separate worlds? The human and the non human worlds. But now that we''re all monsters, can''t we just be a band that ys shows down here?"


    "You know what? That''s not an entirely bad idea," I said. "Yeah, let''s do that! What do you say, Tommy?"


    "I say let''s do it!" Tommy said.


    I gave them each half of the prize money and turned them in the direction of their respective representatives. For Tommy, the lich announcer. For Dan, the werewolf fighter. They went off to get acquainted and figure out their ce in this new world.


    Turning into monsters couldn''t have happened to three better people. We were all down on our luck and had no real family connections or anything we''d be leaving behind. It''s not like our band had a real following or anything topside.


    This was our chance to start over. To start fresh. I feltfortable leaving Tommy and Dan to their own devices now. Now it was time for me to tend my own garden, so to speak.


    "Hey, babe, can we hit another portal before we go back to Elder Ravenkin? I don''t feel like I''m powered up quite enough to get through another major realm yet. That and I don''t feel as acquainted with my sword as I want to be." I said.


    "Yeah that''s fine babe," she said.


    -


    We arrived outside another portal in the vampire territory. As is most of the vampire territory, it was a tall, deep cave. Most of the vampire territory was made up of massive interconnected caves. I didn''t know what the other territories looked like.


    I had visited the dragon sect academy but that didn''t tell me anything about what their territories looked like, or what I''d find in them. For all I knew, they had roaming monster herds or something like that.


    I counted myself lucky that the vampire territories were quiet as a mouse. Not a peep out of the local wild life or anything. No sounds other than the echoes of our footsteps and the asional drip of water.


    I was ready to go. I ate beforehand. I had my martial arts uniform and I had my sword. That was all I needed.


    "Wish me luck," I said, and kissed Victoria goodbye.


    "Good luck," she said, and kissed me back.


    I stepped through the portal and arrived in a trashed apartment. It looked like someone had turned everything over looking for something. All the drawers were pulled out and clothes dumped on the floor.


    [Main objective: Find and rescue the president''s daughter. Search her apartment for clues]


    I looked down at myself and saw that I was wearing a ck trenchcoat, ck pants and a ck fedora. It was like I was in some kind of crime noir film, except some of the technology looked high tech. The TV appeared to be holographic.


    I looked around for ''clues'', but I was really only looking for one thing, blood. The abductor''s or the abductee''s would work. I just needed blood to activate Blood Fiend''s Blood Sense ability. It would allow me to track down where one of them was.


    I still had my sword at my side. I was relieved to at least still have that. I checked all over the apartment except the balcony. The sliding ss door was closed.


    I opened it and checked around on the door, the railing, the ground. I didn''t see a single trace of blood until I idly looked up. On the ceiling above the balcony was part of a bloody handprint.


    It was on the very outer edge of the ceiling, like the victim had been pulled up onto the roof and she was struggling to hold onto something. I took my sword and scraped some of the dried blood off the ceiling with it.


    Blood sense activated and I could tell the victim was getting farther and farther away. She was floating above the rooftops and moving fairly fast. The abductor must have been carrying her over his shoulder.


    I got onto the balcony railing and reached up to grab the roof. I pulled myself up and over the roof. I rolled over the edge onto solid ground and for a moment, I felt likeying there, but I couldn''t.


    A woman was being abducted and the abductor was getting closer to getting away with it. I got up and started running across the rooftop towards where I sensed the victim''s blood. I came up to a gap between two rooftops. It looked wide, but I didn''t slow down. I just empowered my legs with Vi and jumped as hard as I could.

 Chapter 35 Thanks for the Ride

    I think the fact that they were carrying another human with them was the reason they weren''t much farther away than that. I was surprised they were able to jump these gaps while holding another person. A normal human couldn''t do something like that.


    I sped up my run to about as fast as I could run while not over jumping buildings and falling through the next gap. After a few minutes I caught sight of my prey.


    It was a man in ck carrying a woman dressed in white. She appeared to be unconscious. Just as I was a few buildings away, they dropped down into an alley.


    I followed while trying to be as discreet as possible. When I looked over the side of the building, I saw the man loading the girl into the back of a car. Not wanting to get left behind, I jumped off the roof, hoping my Vi powered body could handle the drop.


    Inded with a hard thud, but no broken bones. I did alert the guy stuffing the girl into the car though. "Get out of here! We got somebody on our tail."


    He closed the door and the car sped off. The guy walked up to me cracking his knuckles. "What do you want, buddy?"


    "I want you to give the girl back," I said. I didn''t know why I always role yed along with the game, but it felt appropriate.


    "Ain''t happening," The guy said. des unfolded out of his forearms and he got into a fighting stance.


    I unsheathed my Blood Fiend, activated Blood Draw, and then started up my Blood Saw.


    "Street samurai, huh? I never seen a street sammy work for the corporations before," he said.


    Oh so it was that type of game. A game between the mega corporations of a dystopian future and the ouws trying to take them down or make a quick buck off them.


    "So she''s not the president''s daughter. She''s a president''s daughter. Great," I said.


    "She''s the daughter of the president of the Kabutomi Corporation. He''s done a lot of bad in this city," he said.


    "That''s no reason to involve innocents. Besides you''re not trying to take down the corp. You''re trying to ransom his daughter. There''s a difference," I said. "Now let''s fight."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Let''s," he said.


    I activated my ability Daze. Then I swiped at his neck with my sword. I was surprised to find that when he blocked with his arm des, my Blood Saw didn''t immediately cut through them.


    It cut through some, but he pushed my sword back and then went in for a pincer move by shing his arm des inwards at my body from both sides. He was moving far too slow though and he telegraphed his attack.


    So I did a front flip over him and turned around, shing at his legs. My Blood Saw cut right through his legs and dropped him on his ass. After looking more closely, his legs appeared to be mechanical, so I hadn''t actually injured any part of his organic body.


    I could see a set of keysying on the ground that must have fallen out of his pocket. I looked around for a car, but all I saw was a motorcycle. Oh well. I guess I was going to have to settle for that sweet ride.


    I picked up his keys and walked over to his bike.


    "Hey, that''s mine! You can''t take that!" He said, while stuck on the ground.


    "What are you going to do? Bite my kneecaps off?" I said.


    I started the motorcycle and rode off after where my Blood Sense ability was telling me the president''s daughter was heading. I weaved in and out of traffic until I caught up to the car that held the president''s daughter.


    I pulled up alongside him and signaled at him to stop. He didn''t, just as I expected and instead he turned into me to try to knock me off my bike. I turned away from his car into a small construction zone on the road.


    He didn''t follow me into the construction zone. He turned back onto the road. I rode past some signs telling me to stop. My n was to navigate my way through the construction zone and get back on the road.


    The first thing that happened was I fell into a pit. Inded t on my bike and didn''t fall over, but I stopped to assess my situation. In front of me was a ramp made of plywood. It went up a couple stories onto some scaffolding next to a building.


    I couldn''t tell if the plywood had been set up that way on purpose or if it fell over, but I knew that''s what I was going to be riding on and the scaffolding was where I was going.


    I sped up the plywood ramps and got air. I flew through the air for a second beforending on the nks of the scaffolding. The scaffolding ended in twenty feet and dropped down to a lower level and then a lower level after that.


    I rode across the nks and off the edge of the scaffolding,nding on the lower scaffolding with a heavy thud. I kept going so I didn''t fall over and off the side, then I dropped down again but this one was an even longer drop.


    Inded on concrete and stopped. There was a fence on this side that didn''t have any openings in it for me to fit my bike through and I knew I wasn''t going to catch up to the driver without it.


    I spotted another ramp in the corner of the construction site. With enough speed it would carry me over the fence, but it was aimed out onto the road. I figured I''d better go big or go home and I wasn''t going home.


    I sped through the construction site avoiding obstacles but trying to pick up speed until it I got to the bottom of ramp. I gunned it up the ramp as fast as I could and sailed out over the fence towards the road filled with cars.

 Chapter 36 Obligatory Chase Scene

    Now I was just following the vehicle. He would probably try to lose me before he pulled into the ce he was delivering the woman, but I wouldn''t let him.


    After a few minutes of taking hard turns to try to lose me, the car stopped turning and just went straight for a while. I couldn''t figure out why, until an entire gang of bikers pulled up behind me. They were holding chains and bats. One even had a katana.


    [Secondary Objective: Defeat The Reapers]


    I had to assume "The Reapers" was the name of the biker gang that was on my tail. The driver must have called on them for help to get rid of me. I couldn''t let him get away, so I drove up next to his car again. He tried to swerve into me but I was ready this time and turned with his car. As I turned, I swiped at the back right tire, shing it.


    I dropped back behind the car as I did that so he couldn''t run me off the road. I figured he''d have to stop with a blown tire. But I was wrong. He just kept going, even with sparks flying up from the wheel rim scraping against the road.


    Two of the bikers pulled up alongside of me. One with a chain and the other with a bat. I pulled out Muramasa''s Blood Fiend in my right hand and steered with my left. The bat cyclist on my left swung at my head.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I ducked and the bat sailed over, smashing my windshield and spraying ss everywhere. I closed my eyes for a split second so I didn''t get ss in them. I went to blindly swing at the guy with the bat, but I felt a chain wrap around the wrist of my sword hand keeping it in ce.


    I opened my eyes and turned into the chain cyclist to try to swipe at his front tire with my sword hand, but he was holding my wrist so tight that I couldn''t swing the de.


    With his grip so tight on my wrist, I leaned left and yanked with my right arm, pulling him off his bike. He still held on to the chain though, even as I dragged him next to my bike.


    His bike skidded on the rode and took out two of the bikers when they ran into it. One of them flipped over with their bikending on top of them. The other just flew forward and rolled on the road.


    [You have defeated a biker gang member. Appropriate life essence allocated. Silencing repeat notifications]


    ''Thanks,'' I thought to the system.


    [You are wee]


    After a few seconds, the biker hanging from a chain attached to my arm was able to get his feet underneath him. He got onto his feet, with his boots sliding on the asphalt. His boots were thick soled, so he could slide for a while, but it wouldn''tst forever.


    It wouldst longer than I wanted it to though, because the bat guy swung at me again and I still couldn''t retaliate. I had a dumb idea. Using all my strength, I pulled my wrist up to my mouth and bit down on the chain.


    I infused my teeth with as much condensed Vi as I could muster, and bit down harder and harder, until I bit entirely through the chain. No longer attached to me, the chain guy flew backwards and got hit by another biker, making him crash.


    Half of the chain was still wrapped around my wrist, but that didn''t matter. I could use my arm again. I bit my wrist and reactivated my Blood Saw technique. I swung at the bat, the next time he swung at me.


    My Blood Saw cut right through the bat. He looked at the bat, surprised. Using his hesitation as an opportunity to strike, I turned into him and shed at his neck, cutting his head clean off.


    I hit the brakes and shed to my right as another biker passed me. I cut his head off too. I don''t know if it was the fact that I viewed this as a game, but I felt nothing from killing these guys. They were just mindless enemies to me.


    Thest biker, the one with the katana, rode up next to me. He shed at my neck and I leaned back, the sword passing over my face. Then he tried to sh my front tire, but I shed his sword in half with Blood Fiend before he could reach it.


    The severed part of his sword flew up in front of me and I caught it in my teeth. I grabbed the sharp piece of metal with my left hand and threw it at my opponent. It stuck through his throat.


    He turned into me and swung wildly at me with his half sword as he slowly choked to death on his own blood. I dodged out of the way of his shes and shed his front tire.


    His wheel rim dropped directly on the ground, sending him flying over the handlebars. He tumbled and got run over by his own bike.


    [Secondary objectiveplete!]


    That was thest of them. As I looked forward again, I noticed the car had vanished. I still had it on my Blood Sense radar though. It had turned off the road a mile back.


    I navigated my way through the streets, using my Blood Sense to determine my direction. Once I was a few blocks away, I felt the girl stop moving. The car must have stopped and turned in somewhere.


    I saw her body as a glowing red shape ahead of me. I could see her through buildings and I could sense her across miles. I saw as she was dragged from the car and taken into a building.


    I arrived at a warehouse in an industrial area. No cars were around. None that I could see anyway, unless they were on the other side of the building. It was night time.


    Either the district was abandoned or the warehouse workers went home at night. That seemed unlikely as many manufacturing warehouses operate 24 hours a day. The area didn''t look run down though.


    I got off my bike and walked up to the loading dock door that the driver had taken the woman through. I tried to open it but it was locked. I used my Blood Saw to cut around the lock to disengage it. I kicked the lock out and pulled the door open.


    Unfortunately, that had made a lot of noise, so I was probably in for a fight right off the bat, but I felt prepared. I was warmed up from the fights I had on the way here.


    I walked down a long lit hallway with doors on either side. I didn''t open any of them, because I could see where the woman was. She was several doors down. No one came out to stop me.


    Maybe they hadn''t heard me enter. When I got close to the door the woman was behind, I heard talking. I leaned against the wall near to the door to listen. I didn''t want anyone kicking the door open on me andying me out.

 Chapter 37 The Boss

    "He''s never going to pay the ransom," a man said.


    "Sure he will. It''s his daughter we''re talking about here," a second man said.


    "I think he''s just going to send his goons after us like that guy who stole Gary''s bike and chased me all over town. We''ll either die or he''ll run out of goons and he''s thepany president. He''s never going to run out of goons," the first man said.


    "Give it a few days. If he doesn''tply, we''ll just put her to work. Make money off her that way," the second man said.


    "Ok, boss. You''re the boss, boss," the first man said.


    I infused my leg with concentrated Vi and kicked the door open. I aimed my sword at the boss''s neck while activating Blood Draw. The sword wasn''t long enough to reach him yet, but I pulled blood out of my hand and made a blood de extend past the end of my sword, making it functionally longer.


    I held the blood de against the boss''s neck and said, "Don''t move, or he dies."


    "Ok, whatever you say man." The other guy said. He dropped his gun to the floor.


    While I was looking at the other guy I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked back at the boss to see that a metal mechanical exoskeletal suit was forming around his body and going over his neck and head. I pressed the blood de against the neck piece but it was no use, the armor was too strong.


    The suit fully encased his body and didn''t even look humanoid anymore. It was about two meters tall with mechanical legs, a bulky oval shaped chassis with lights on the front of it, and two arms that were less arms and more bunches of guns attached to the sides of the mechanical suit''s body.


    A mechanical arm came out of the top of the mech and grabbed the president''s daughter. It held her behind it as it ran through multiple walls like they were nothing until making it into the storage section of the warehouse.


    The mech activated jets on its back and flew to the other side of the room. It dropped the struggling woman onto the ground behind it and retracted the mechanical arm.


    [Main Objective Updated: Defeat the Boss and rescue the president''s daughter]


    "Help me! I hate to be a damsel in distress, but I''m a damsel in distress over here!" She said.


    The left and right sides of the room had crates stacked multiple stories high. The middle of the room had a clear avenue to travel through, which I assumed would be our fighting area.


    "Don''t worry! I''ll save you! I hate to be a knight in shining armor, but I''m a knight in shining armor over here!" I said.


    "Ok! I''m just going go hide in this back corner while you two fight it out," she said as she ran out of view behind some crates.


    "Are you ready corporate goon? To face the wrath of an independently operated criminal enterprise?" The Boss said.


    "Uh, yeah," I said. "Something like that. Can I start fighting now? Or am I waiting for something?" I tried to activate Daze, but I once again got a system notification.


    [Daze does not operate through cameras. Only raw vision]


    ''What did I even get this thing for? It barely ever works.''n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    [But when it works it works]


    ''I suppose that''s true. Oh well. Going to have to do this the hard way.''


    [Good luck]


    ''Thanks.''


    "I don''t have any long range attacks, so I''m going to run at you now. Consider that me starting the fight," I said.


    "Ok," The Boss said.


    As soon as I started running towards him, the Boss opened fire on me with machine guns. I quickly turned and changed directions. I ran to the right and dove behind the crates.


    I could hear his mech suit running over to where I dove into the boxes. Right before he turned the corner, I was able to squeeze myself between two stacks of crates. I could hear him turn the corner.


    "Where are you little mouse? Come out,e out, wherever you are!" The Boss said.


    I kept pushing deeper and deeper between the stacks. My goal was to make it to the other side and sneak up on him. I wasn''t afraid of fighting. I just needed to close the distance so I could actually do damage to him.


    I turned a tight corner heading towards the side wall. I popped out of the stacks in this little area between the stacks and the wall that was only a couple feet high. The wall here was angled diagonally to where it made a small tunnel I could crawl through as long as I didn''t pull my head up.


    I crawled through this ustrophobically small space that seemed to press in on me from all sides. It felt like twenty minutes, but I made to the other side. When I popped out, the president''s daughter was right in front of me, hiding.


    I put a finger up to my mouth to indicate she should be silent. She had just opened her mouth to say something too. Well, it would have to wait forter.


    I slowly creeped along the boxes on my hands and knees until I made it to the corner of the stacks. I peeked around the corner and saw the Boss facing away from me. He started to turn back toward me and I quickly pulled my head back.


    Darn it. Now I couldn''t put my head out without the risk of him seeing me. The risk had been there before too, but I hadn''t thought about it until now. I had to find a way to ensure he was looking away when I snuck up on him.


    I reached in my pockets for something, anything I could throw over the stacks to make some noise on the other side when my hand brushed against a bunch of small wooden tokens.

 Chapter 38 The Collapse

    My f*cks! I pulled one of the wooden tokens out of my pocket and looked at it. It was a wooden cutout of the word f*ck in capital letters. But I wouldn''t be able to throw all the way to the other end of the stacks normally.


    Even with a Vi empowered throwing arm. What if I performed a minor Vi st as it left my fingers? That could work.


    I put the f*ck into my hand and gathered Vi in my fingertips. I hurled it over the stacks of crates as hard as I could and performed a Vi st on my fingertips as the f*ck left my hand.


    It shot over the piled up boxes andnded on a crate with a soft tter. I heard the Boss''s mech steps m into the ground as it walked over to where it heard the noise.


    "Game''s over little mouse. I''ve got you," he said.


    I looked around the corner of the boxes and he was looking the other way, over where I had thrown the f*ck. I sneakily tip toed up to the massive mechanical suit and aimed Muramasa''s Blood Fiend right at the center of the back of the mech.


    "What the f*ck?" The Boss said, as he stared at the small wooden token of the word f*ckying on top of the crate he was looking at.


    I started up my Blood Saw as quickly as I could and thrust my sword straight through the machine. In one end and out the other side. When I pulled it out, there was blood on the de and it hummed in a satisfied manner.


    The Boss swiveled the top of the mech suit so it was aimed at me now. I heard its guns starting to rev up, so he heaved with all my might and pushed the mech over onto its back.


    The guns started shooting the ceiling and missiles fired off also hitting the ceiling of the facility. There was a loud noise and the roof shuddered. I hear creaking metal really loud and a section of the ceiling fell down andnded right next me.


    The building was copsing and I had to get me and the president''s daughter out of here. I ran back over to the corner of the facility where the president''s daughter was hiding, while dodging falling debris.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "We need to get out of here!" I said.


    I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the exit door. I put my hand out and stopped her just as quickly as I had pulled her. Arge chunk of ceiling fell down and mmed into the floor where we would have been standing if we hadn''t stopped.


    I guided her around the pile of debris and to the exit door. I mmed the door open with my shoulder and pulled her through with me. I pulled her along as I ran another hundred feet away from the copsing building. You could never be too careful when it came to copsing structures.


    We watched in silence as the warehouse copsed in on itself. It was at that moment, I wondered what happened to the guy who was in the meeting room with the boss earlier. He hadn''t followed us into the main warehouse section. Was he still just sitting there in that chair, waiting for the boss to return? Weird.


    [You have defeated the Boss. Appropriate life essence allocated]


    "Hey, so, you got kidnapped and I know you probably just want to return to your apartment, but I kind of have to take you to your dad so he can make sure you''re ok," I said.


    "Why would my father want to know if I''m ok or not? He doesn''t care about me. All he cares about is money and power," she said.


    "Well, you did just get ransomed from money, and your dad did hire me to get you back, so we kind of have to go see your dad," I said. "Do you want to show me the way?"


    "I''ll show you the way but I still can''t believe my father would hire someone to rescue me for anything other than public appearances," she said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.


    -


    I eventually convinced her to take us to her dad''s office. When we arrived at the Kabutomi building, the guards recognized the president''s daughter and immediately aimed their guns at me. They must have thought I was worlds dumbest kidnapper and took her back to her dad for some unknown reason. It didn''t make sense to me, but I wasn''t a security guard so what did I know?


    We arrived at her father''s office, which he was still at, at midnight ording to my watch. He looked me up and down with a cigar in his mouth and tapping his foot.


    [Main Objectives Completed!]


    [Initiating negotiation mini-game. The results will determine your rewards]


    ''What? This isn''t how it''s supposed to go! I''m supposed to just do the thing and get my reward, not have to argue some corporate executive out not paying me!''


    [I did not design the parameters. I simply am interpreting the messages sent by the game''s system]


    ''Ok. Fine. This better go well.''


    [That is up to you]


    "I suppose you''d like to be paid?" He said, with an annoyed tone. Like I didn''t just save his daughter''s life.


    "That would be preferable, yes," I said, resisting the urge grab him and shake him for having the nerve to try to get out of paying me.


    "Suppose I didn''t pay you. Suppose I had security escort you out of the building?" He said, smiling a wicked smile.


    This was just like dinner with mafiosos or dragons. It was a social game where my negotiation skills were pitted against his, and whoever''s was weaker, lost.

 Chapter 39 The Negotiation

    This was just like dinner with mafiosos or dragons. It was a social game where my negotiation skills were pitted against his, and whoever''s was weaker, lost.


    I wasn''t about to lose, but I also had no actual way to force him to pay me and uphold his end of the deal. So I did the next best thing. I pretended like I did.


    "Then you would be viting use 2-C of the contract yourwyers made me sign," I said.


    There was no such contract. I had checked the game memories of the character I was ying. It had only been a verbal agreement. But he couldn''t prove I was lying. It was midnight. All thewyers had gone home already.


    "Contract? I wasn''t told about any contract!" He said.


    I used my enhanced vision to scan his cluttered desk for something I could work with. He had a rolodex of business cards on his desk. I started idly thumbing through it looking for something specific.


    He looked at me, waiting for a response. Expecting a response. But I didn''t give it to him. The reason was because I hadn''t thought of one yet. Or I had thought of one, but I was missing one crucialponent that I hoped his rolodex would provide for me.


    He kind of just stared at me, his face going through different phases of shock and dismay. But he didn''t say anything and more importantly, he didn''t kick me out.


    This was amon mechanic of dialogue in video games between the pc, or yer character and an npc, or non-yer character. The npc would say something and then wait for a response from the pc. The npc would wait for minutes, hours, days, even weeks to get a response.


    And that''s what he was doing. I couldn''t be certain I had infinite time though, so I hurried through the rolodex as fast as I could until I found what I was looking for.


    I casually looked back up as if I''d simply been twiddling my thumbs and said, "Just ask Denise! She''ll confirm that I signed a contract to save your daughter and you are legally obligated to pay me for my services."


    Denise was a low levelw intern in the office. I was surprised she even had a business card, but some offices like to give literally everyone they hire a business card because they''re "representing thepany" or whatever.


    "Ok, let''s call her up. She has nothing better to do at this time than answer my phone calls," the corporate president said. He dialed a number on his phone and put it on speaker, because managers always put it on speaker.


    The reason I had chosen Denise as my reference was because Denise didn''t know anything about any contract. But if her boss''s boss called her up in the middle of the night, she sure as hell would say she remembered seeing a contract she had no recollection of everying eyes on. And she would do this, because she didn''t want to get fired.


    "Uh¡­yes? This is Denise." A timid voice said over the speaker.


    "Denise, this is Ed. I''m calling about the contract for my daughter''s rescue and safe return. Do you remember that contract?" The president said.


    "Uh¡­Yes! Yes sir! Of course I remember that contract," she said. "What did you want to know about the contract?" Her voice was wavering. She sounded like she really didn''t want him to ask her anything about the contract she knew nothing about.


    "How much was it for?" He said.


    "Well since the ransom was for one hundred million dors, I think a one percent cut would be generous. One million dors."


    "Are you guessing or do you remember?" Ed said.


    "Oh, no, sir, I remember! I remember the contract said one million dors!" Denise said.


    Uh oh. Things weren''t going my way. I''d have to get creative.


    "Oh, damn! I forgot something really important! The kidnappers told me when I was interrogating them, that they injected a deadly poison into your daughter''s blood stream. They said if she doesn''t get the antidote by," I quickly nced at my watch, "one am, she''ll die!"


    "Luckily, I have the antidote right here in my pocket," I said.


    I patted my jacket pocket. As I did so, I turned my body slightly so the pocket was closer to Ed, like I was showing it to him. I was really turning my body sideways so I could tap his daughter''s shoulder, get her to look me in my left eye, and wink at her, without him be able to see me do it.


    "Honey, is this true?" Ed asked his daughter.


    "Yes. That''s what the kidnappers told me," she said, nodding her head.


    "Well, then give it to her now! Save my daughter''s life!" Ed said, his voice getting higher pitched.


    "What is it worth to you?" I said. "How much would you give up to save your daughter''s life?"


    "I could just have security take the antidote from you!" He roared.


    "I would smash it in my hand before they got to me," I said. "Now, again, how much is your daughter''s life worth to you?"


    "Please, daddy, just pay him the money!" The president''s daughter said. The panic in her voice was pretty convincing. If I didn''t know better, she would''ve fooled me.


    "Oh alright. How much do you want for it?" Ed said. He got out his checkbook, like he was just going to write me a check.


    "I don''t know. How does ten billion dors sound?" I smiled so devilishly that even the devil himself would be put to shame.


    "That sounds outrageous! One billion is the absolute highest I can go!" He said.


    "Five billion!" I said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I was barely even present in this conversation. This was like taking candy from a baby. These numbers were insane and blowing my mind, but I was thinking long term.


    Talking with Maven Zengo about her businesses and her charity, made me realize I needed to think bigger if I wanted to change the world. Even just my world. Meaning me, my friends, and my girlfriend. Elder Ravenkin can hang too.


    Semi ultimately, I wanted to be on top of the Vampire Association as a whole. Ultimately, I wanted to create the first unified Monster Association. Squabbling over portals was extremely inefficient and had cost people''s lives. And it would cost countless more if I didn''t bail out the dragons.


    How was I to know if this was a dragons only problem? The entire monster world could be about to crumble down around me and I wouldn''t know unless I got involved. And to be involved, you had to have influence or the second best thing to influence, money.


    That''s why I needed to fleece as much money out of this imaginary person in this ultra realistic video game as possible. Could I die from this? Sure. Would I allow myself to? No.

 Chapter 40 27 Million Gold Giblets and a Brand New Motorcycle

    "Four billion," I said, nonchntly.


    Ed started breaking down in tears.


    "Is your money really that much more important to you than your daughter''s life?" I said callously.


    I kept reminding myself he wasn''t real. This was a mini-game. I was just role ying this scenario for maximum profit. If I thought this was real, I''d vomit.


    "No¡­," he said, in between sobs. "Three billion?"


    "Done!" I said, shaking his hand. "Denise?"


    "Yes?" She said, still on the call.


    "Write up a contract for the agreed three billion and send it immediately," I said.


    "Yes, yes!" Denise stopped making noise but she stayed on the line.


    Twenty minutester, a contract had been written and it was signed by both parties, me and Ed.


    "Alright," I said. "I''ll take that check thank you very much!"


    Ed feebly handed over the check. "I''m slightly worse off than I was before! Oh, the agony!"


    "Ok, give her the antidote! I gave you what you wanted!" A distraught Ed said.


    "We have to do it in private," I said.


    "Why?" Ed said.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "It involves her gluteus maximus," I said.


    "Her what?" He said.


    "Her butt! I have to inject it in her butt! Will you let her have at least a little privacy?" I said.


    "Ok, fine! Use the office down the hall. It''s empty," he said.


    ¡ª


    I turned music on loud in the office, so no one could hear what we were saying, and I said to his daughter, "I''ll give you two percent if you don''t tell him I made all that up."


    "Two percent? Give me fifteen." She said.


    "Five." I said.


    "Ten," she said.


    "Done," I said and shook her hand.


    [Mini-gamepleted!]


    [Main objectivespleted!]


    [Secondary objectivepleted!]


    [Calcting rewards]


    The scene turned gray. Two glowing safes appeared next to each other underneath the desk in the office we were in. I got down on the floor to inspect them. They didn''t havebination locks on them. They both just had glowing key holes in them.


    I opened the bigger one first with the portal key.


    [You have received 30 million Gold Giblets! Storing in wallet]


    ''Wallet? What is that?''


    [It is like an inventory but just for your money. You would not be able to carry 30 million Gold Giblets]


    ''Nice.''


    [3 million Gold Giblets have been subtracted for npc Lara, the president''s daughter. 27 million Gold Giblets remaining]


    [Financial requirement has been met]


    [The Shop has opened]


    A shop huh? I wonder what that will do for me? That was something to worry aboutter though. I still had another reward to unlock.


    I opened the second safe and a motorcycle appeared in front of me. It was very simr to the one I stole from Gary, except it had a skull on the front of it and it was detailed with ck and gray.


    [You have acquired The Phantom motorcycle]


    Interesting. I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with the motorcycle earlier. And this one sounds special. Like it has cool powers or something.


    A portal opened down the hall in the office I was still in. I got on the motorcycle, started it up, and went to drive through the portal, but stopped just before it because I had remembered something. I hadn''t locked the dungeon yet.


    So I got off the bike, looked around, walked over to the dungeon lock, inserted the key, and turned it to the right.


    [Dungeon instance has been locked]


    Then I got back on my bike and left. The portal closed up behind me until it was just a bright glowing keyhole in the air.


    Victoria was waiting for me on the other side. "I don''t know what I''m going to do with a motorcycle in a ce that operates primarily on trains, but I like it," I said.


    "No, there are roads down here. People still drive," she said.


    "Oh, really? Then maybe I''ll take this baby for a spin someday. Ride with me?" I said.


    "What, like now?" She said.


    "Yeah, on the way back to the sect," I said.


    "Ok," Victoria said as she hopped on the back.


    You might be surprised to find out I can ride a motorcycle, but as I''ve said before, I had a rebellious youth. Of course, I''ve ridden a motorcycle. I may be a bit rusty, but I can still ride. Technically, at age twenty, I still am a youth, but it doesn''t feel that way.


    We made our way back on the dirt roads of the vampire territory. It still bugged me that the vampire territories seemed so lifeless and empty. Something had to live down here right? For a moment, I thought I heard the pping of wings, but then it was gone.


    We put away our shlights for the ride back and I just used the head lights of my new motorcycle, The Phantom, to light my way. It was important to remember that light wasn''t produced naturally down here.


    There weren''t any bioluminescent fungi, nts, or animals. Other territories might have that but ours sure didn''t.


    To set up an electrical system over such arge territory would take years and millions of dors. Dors that up until recently, I didn''t have. Still even with the money, it would take years to create a system like that, and I didn''t have years to save the world. I barely had a week.


    When we got back, I let Victoria go do her own thing¡ªprobably sleep¡ªand I went straight to Elder Ravenkin''s ce. I knocked on the door and he opened it immediately, like he''d been standing on the other side the whole time.


    "Yes?" He said.


    "I''m ready to continue my training, master," I said.


    "Very good. Come on in," he said.


    We ended up in the yoga studio again, which I had started calling the training hall. Master Ravenkin informed me that the next phase of my training would be to master the next major realm after the Vi Condensation Stage which was called Blood Foundation Establishment.


    This major realm or phase wasn''t as monumental of an achievement in itself, as it was a preparation for the next major realm where I would form a Crimson Core. This process was called Crimson Core Formation. Once I had formed a Crimson Core, I would be considered a True Disciple as well his Direct Disciple.


    While technically Direct Disciples were of a higher status than True Disciples, being a True Disciple was more of a symbol of cultivation achievement than a specific rank. True Disciple was also a rank, but one you couldn''t be until you had formed a Crimson Core.


    The hierarchy went from Outer Sect Disciple to Inner Sect Disciple to Core Disciple to True Disciple in ascending order. Direct Disciple was an additional rank that held higher esteem and authority than True Disciple, but not because of strength, which most ranks were determined by.


    It was because Direct Disciples were seen as an extension of an Elder''s will, who held the highest authority in the sect.


    Ravenkin informed me we would skip the first two stages of Blood Foundation Establishment. I had alreadypleted them. They were the formation of the Lifeblood Crystal in the center of the heart, and the expansion of the crystal throughyering minor realms of life essence over it.


    He had me finishyering the minor realms of life essence I had umted from the pit fight and the second portal dungeon. Once I hadpleted that, it was time to begin the next step, Vein Reinforcement.


    I had already infused my blood with Vi in the Vi Condensation Stage, but this was different. I was reinforcing the blood vessels themselves, increasing their durability and strength.


    This was practiced by allowing the Lifeblood Crystal to rapidly shed a few minor realms of life essence, converting it into Vi and sending it through the vessels at the exact pressure the vessels were capable of holding without bursting.


    Then slowly shed more minor realms and increase the pressure of Vi in the blood vessels, until they could handle higher and higher concentrations of Vi.


    Simultaneously I would allow Vi to seep into everyyer of my blood vessels. From the tunica interna to the tunica media to the tunica externa, which were theyers that made up the blood vessels, I allowed Vi to seep into them, fuse with them and absorb into them, reinforcing them and increasing their durability.


    I did this over a period of three hours. I finally got to an obscenely high pressure that I wasn''t sure I could get past, so I stopped. A side effect I''ve noticed of my vampiric and troll regeneration is that micro injuries like over stretching and tears healed almost instantly.


    This makes the process of stretching and strengthening tissue significantly faster and beneficial for a longer period of time. It wasn''t infinite, but it made a huge difference in increasing my rate of progress.


    "What''s next?" I said to Master Ravenkin as I copsed to the floor and went unconscious.

 Chapter 41 Its Time for You to Get a Watch

    I grabbed two mugs out of the cab and put them on the counter. I looked through the blood vored coffee pods and chose ''Thin'' hoping that would have a lighter more mellow taste.


    I made the coffee and then chose a light nutty breakfast roast pod and put the second mug under the hole. The coffee hole. How eloquent. Give me a break, I was tired.


    I made that cup of coffee and put the two mugs next to each other. I slowly lifted the ''thin'' blood vored coffee to my lips, and sipped it. Boy was that a vor.


    It wasn''t too much though, like the ''rich'' vor had been. It was a little over being just right. Just a little too much vor, if that made sense. Then I tasted the nutty breakfast blend and it was heaven in a cup. Boy did I love coffee.


    "Are you enjoying yourself over there?" Aldous said.


    "Holy ahh!" I jumped and spilled boiling hot coffee on my hand and wrist. I watched as my hand got red, just about started to blister, then healed and went back to normal. "Don''t sneak up on me like that!"


    "I was here first," Aldous said with an amused smile. "Come. Sit." He patted the bar stool next to his.


    "Yes, Master," I said with a frown and slumped shoulders. I plopped down hard on the bar stool next to my teacher and looked at him.


    "You don''t have to make it sound so torturous to have a master. Having a master is a good thing. I had a master. He helped me grow and nurtured my talents into who I am today," he said puffing his chest out, looking proud and grateful.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "I''m not saying I''m ungrateful. It just gives me a minor sense of control when I don''t passively go along with what authority figures want from me," I said.


    "That''s very wise of you to realize that," he said.


    "Yeah, but how do I stop it? How do I choose to follow or not follow authority on the merits of their words and actions, rather than just wanting to rebel because they are authority figures?" I asked.


    "Realizing it and admitting it are the first steps. Discovering why you do it, is the next. We can go over it some other time if you want," he said with a patient smile.


    He drank thest of his coffee, stood up from his seat, and said, "But now it is time to train. One word of advice before we begin, keep track of your waking hours, and make sure to keep a 24 hour circadian rhythm. Keeping a watch on you can help with that."


    "Always keep in mind how close it is to the time you need to sleep. That''s why you passed out yesterday. You had been awake for over 36 hours. It was abination of that and physical and mental exertion."


    "Thanks. I''ll keep that in mind. I don''t own a watch though. I had one during thest portal dungeon, but the system gave that to me just for the dungeon," I said.


    "You can have one of mine. Being alive as long as I have, you tend to umte things," he said.


    "Thanks," I said as I followed him out of the kitchen. "You said you had a master. As in past tense. What happened to him?" I said.


    "He died in the Blood Purge many many years ago. Vampire hunters attacked him in the middle of the day. Burnt his house to the ground, forcing him to face the sun. And then, well you know what happened."


    "Does the sun kill vampires immediately?" I asked.


    "No, but it happens quickly. It generally takes about an hour of direct sun exposure to kill a vampire. Reflected light like off a wall can still cause damage, but it''s more like a sunburn is for humans," he said.


    "He was just unlucky because he lived isted, dozens of miles away from any other full shelter from the sun. Trees can help, but it was the middle of winter and none of them had any leaves. He could have dug a hole, but his shovel had burned up with the house and was covered in ming wood."


    "Did he get the guys who killed him?" I said as we walked up the stairs and down the corridor to the training hall.


    "Yes. The sun weakens us as well as kills us, but he was very strong. Even weakened, he vastly overpowered the hunters," he said. "I found this out all after the fact, mind you. I wasn''t there."


    Ravenkin continued walking down the corridor after I turned to go into the training hall. I quickly realized my mistake and followed after him. He was going to get me a watch first.


    ¡ª


    We stood in front of multiple ss disys of watches. It started from shiny new modern watches on the left and transitioned to older and older and older watches on the right. Some of them couldn''t even be considered watches. They were more like small clocks.


    "Whoa! It''s like you have every watch ever made!" I said in amazement.


    "I don''t have nearly as many watches as have been made, especially not in modern times, but I have most of the historically significant ones. I have the Breitling Navitimer, the IWC''s First Pilot''s Watch, and the ncpain Fifty Fathoms, which was the first modern diving watch, waterproof up to fifty fathoms.


    You''d be surprised how much vampires, especially long lived ones, like to collect and give each other pieces of history," he said.


    "I wouldn''t be surprised by that. I wouldn''t be surprised by that at all," I said, mentally picking out a watch. "Can I have that one?" I pointed to a more modern looking watch. "The secret agent looking one. I can pay you for it. I''m rich now!"


    "How rich is rich? A lot of vampires are rich just due topound interest," he said, getting the watch out of the disy and giving it to me. "Having asked that, you can have it for free. I have more than enough money than I know what to do with."


    "27 million Gold Giblets. Which trantes to 2.7 billion dors," I said, casually.


    "WAIT, WHAT?!?!" He said.

 Chapter 42 Doing the Right Thing

    "27 million Gold Giblets, also known as, 2.7 billion dors," I said like a sleazy car salesman. I really dragged out the word ''dors''.


    "Where? How? Who? What? Why?" He said.


    "For where, I got it from a portal dungeon. For how, I did really well at a mini-game. For who, the president of the Kabutomi Corporation. His name was Ed. For what, it was a reward forpleting the dungeon. And for why, why not?" I said.


    "That was far less illuminating than you made it sound," he said.


    "I know. I''ll exin for real this time. I went to another portal dungeon with Victoria. The mission was to save the president''s daughter, but the president turned out to be the president of a mega-corporation. He tried to not pay me anything, and then the system said that a "negotiation" mini-game had started and that it would determine the rewards of my mission," I said.


    "So I yed it like a game, and I won. I tricked the crooked business man who was not only going to not pay me, but have security escort me off the premises, and report me for trespassing if I refused to leave."


    "Ok, but why is the amount so weird?" He said.


    "I paid the estranged daughter of the business man for going along with my scheme," I said.


    "How much did you pay her?" He asked.


    "Ten perc¡­ ent," I mumbled.


    "What was that? I didn''t hear you," he said.


    "Ten percent," I mumbled, but slightly louder this time.


    "Say that again?" He said.


    "Ten percent! Ok? I paid her ten percent of the reward money," I said.


    "Ten percent? Shame on you!" He said. "You will go back there and give her what she deserves, right now, mister!"


    "She''s not even real. It''s just a game," I said.


    "That''s not the point," he said. "You should pay people what they''re worth, regardless of whether or not they are real."


    "You know how ridiculous that sounds right?" I said.


    "I know, but the point is, you should do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. Or in this case, theck of consequences," he said firmly.


    "Ok, I''ll give her fifty percent," I said.


    "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let''s not be hasty. Fifty percent of three billion dors is a lot of money," he said.


    "Who''s being stingy now?" I said.


    "No, no, no. I''m not being stingy. I''m just being reasonable. You were the one who rescued her. Not the other way around. Twenty-five percent is more than generous," he said.


    "Is that it?" I said, waiting for what I expected him to say.


    "And you could throw a measly ten percent to your master. For training you," he said.


    "I''ll give you two percent, and you''ll like it!" I said. "That''s sixty million dors! If you can spend sixty million dors in the next lifetime, I''ll give you more. Look, this isn''t all for me. This is for the vampire sect as a whole. And the entire monster world.


    I''m nning on creating a united monster association. Not just a vampire one."


    "That''smendable, my pupil," He said nodding his head up and down. "And I am more than happy to receive sixty million dors for being your master." He bowed deeply at me.


    "You''re ridiculous," I said, rolling my eyes. I started walking away. "I''ll be back. Find a ce you want to put the money."


    "Ok. I''m proud of you," he said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Thanks. This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I will have ever done, but you convinced me it was right, so I''m doing it."


    ¡ª


    I arrived outside the portal. I unlocked it with the key and stepped through it. I arrived back in the office, where I had left from. Everything was still grayed out and frozen.


    I walked to the office room I knew Lara, the president''s daughter, was in.


    "I want to pay Lara more money," I said. There was no response for a few seconds.


    [Are you sure?]


    "Yes," I said.


    The world slowly turned back to color and unfroze, Lara was standing in front of me staring at me.


    "Aren''t we done? Is there something else you wanted?" She said.


    "I want to pay you your fair share. It took two people to rob your father blind, so you deserve half. I was being greedy before. I was wrong. I''m sorry," I said.


    "Oh my god! Really?" She said.


    "Yes. It''s only fair," I said. I put my hand out. "Partners?"


    "Yes," she said smiling. "Partners."


    ''System, transfer the money.''


    [Money has been transferred. Remaining bnce: $1.5 Billion]


    That wasn''t so bad. I still have a frankly unreasonable amount of money, and I know I did the right thing.


    [Good Deed Recognized]


    [100 Karma Points earned]


    [Shikasa''s Favor increased by 10]


    [Lara''s Affinity: +100]


    [Karma tab unlocked in Shop]


    "Here''s my number," Lara said, handing me a piece of paper. "You can call me anytime."


    "That''s very ttering, but I have a girlfriend. Can I call you for normal friend things?"


    "Sure," she said.


    The scene went gray and froze again. I made sure to lock the dungeon instance again. I put the piece of paper in my pocket and walked back through the portal. Now that I was safely outside the portal, I decided to open the Shop.


    [Shop]


    [Karma][System]


    In the Shop menu, there were only two avable tabs to open, Karma, and System. I clicked on Karma.


    [Karma]


    [Avable Points: 100]


    [Karmic Correction: Minor = 5 points, Moderate = 10, Major = 20]


    [Karmic Correction: Correct a wrong or unfortunate circumstance by negating it or turning it into something good]


    [Special Corrections]


    [Correct Elder Ravenkin''s master''s death = 50 points]


    Whoa! The implications of this tab were immense. Having the ability to correct wrongs would be game changing in my life. And not only my life, other peoples live too.


    ording to the Special Corrections section, I could correct wrongs that happened to other people too. I could do so much good with this tab! I loved this system. Just when I thought it couldn''t be better, it adds a new mechanic that changes everything.

 Chapter 43 System Menu and Shop

    [System]


    [Add "Construction" tab to the Shop menu = Meet foreman ckhammer at the Dwarves Sect]


    [Add "Real Estate" tab to the Shop Menu = Meet real estate agent Lesley Morpheus]


    [Add "Companions" functionality to the system menu = Gain 100 affinity with anypanion (unlockable)]


    [Add "Shikasa''s Blessings" tab to the system menu = Reach (100 favor) threshold (unlockable)]


    [Add "Equipment" tab to the Shop menu = Meet cksmith ckhammer]


    [Add "Contracts" tab to the system menu = Reach Helpful (+1) status with any faction]


    [Add "Ventures" tab to the system menu = Reach Friendly (+2) status with any faction]


    [Add "Vampiric Evolution Path" tab to the system menu = Complete stage 1 of the Crimson Core Formation major realm]


    [Add "Alchemy" tab to the system menu = Visit Tommy in hisb at the Lich Sect


    [Add "Gigs" tab to the system menu = Visit Dan at the Werewolf Sect]


    [Click to see more]


    That was a lot of options. And that wasn''t even all of them. There were more under the currently visible list. I wasn''t going to ''click to see more''. I had seen enough. It would be hard enough to keep all that in my head, let alone more.


    I did like that there was a system menu and that you could choose what tabs you did and didn''t want to be on it. It didn''t just add tabs without your consent. For the most part.


    It had added some tabs but I did like these choices and getting to see what I''ll have avable in the future and how to get ess to them. Without that, it would have taken a lot longer for me to figure out how to unlock the construction tab or the real estate tab.


    A lot of the other ones like Alchemy and Gigs would''ve happened naturally. I wanted to unlock the construction tab soon though because I already had some ns in my head for the vampire sect and the vampire territories atrge.


    I chose to unlock the already unlockable options. The options disappeared from the Shop submenu I was in. I guess when you unlocked things they cleared from the list. Made sense to me.


    I decided to close the Shop and open the system menu as a whole. Not only did I just want to see what it looked like, but I really wanted to check the Companions and Shikasa''s Blessings tabs.


    When I focused my intention on it, the Shop menu closed and the system menu opened.


    [Vampire Cultivation System]


    [Status][Quests][Inventory][Shop][Companions][Factions][Shikasa''s Blessings]


    I thought about opening the status tab and it did.


    [Status]


    [Dn Sanguis]


    [Species: Omni-Vampire]


    [Bloodlines: None Active]N?v(el)B\\jnn


    [Age: 21]


    [Cultivation Stage: Blood Foundation Establishment stage 3]


    [umted Life Essence: 100,000]


    [Excess Life Essence: 20,000]


    [Stolen Bloodline Abilities: Complete Regeneration, Daze, Venomous Bite, Venom Immunity, Ink Generation]


    [Skills]


    [Blood Maniption: Proficient]


    [Vi Maniption: Intermediate]


    [Swordsmanship: Proficient]


    [Lockpicking: Adequate]


    A lot of this I already knew, but the things that caught my eye were the bloodlines section and the life essence sections. I was happy to finally get a numerical value to put to my life essence, even if I didn''t know how much it was rtive to humans and other vampires.


    [Humans have an average of 100 life essence. Vampires vary widely based on feeding habits, opportunity, geographical location, as well as age, and other factors]


    ''Thanks. Good to know.''


    [I''m here to help]


    The words "Bloodlines: None Active" really struck me as something filled with potential. It clearly implied I could have multiple bloodlines and there was some way to activate them.


    Maybe since I was an omni-vampire, I had all bloodlines, but they were just dormant? I wasn''t sure what was the answer, but I was sure I''d find it out eventually if I just kept keeping on.


    I had so many questions, but I felt like the answers were at my fingertips. I would continue searching the system menu and find out more of the mechanics of this system. It fascinated me. There were just so many facets to it now.


    Next up was the quests section. I opened that with my mind.


    [Quests]


    [Active Quests]


    [Save the dragons from dungeon break cataclysm]


    [Uncover, learn more about, and upgrade the system]


    [Completed Quests][Click to see]


    That was pretty straightforward. Those were my two big priorities right now, besides the constant quest to get stronger, but that never ended. That''s probably why it wasn''t listened.


    I didn''t need to check thepleted quests because I hadpleted them. That might be something to look at in the future when I had dozens of quests under my belt, but for now, I didn''t need a reminder on everything I had done so far.


    I didn''t need to look at my inventory yet. I wasn''t picking up tons of items and I didn''t need to pull anything out for a quest or to sell, so I skipped that one.


    Shop, I already knew what was in there. Companions I clicked on. I wanted to see what that was about.


    [Companions]


    [Victoria][Affinity: 300][Rtionship: Girlfriend][Benefits: Laughs at your jokes, tolerates you, has your back][Send Gift][Talk]


    [Elder Ravenkin][Affinity: 200][Rtionship: Master][Benefits: Expert training, free coffee,ughs at your jokes][Send Gift][Talk]


    [Dan][Affinity: 1,000][Rtionship: Good Friend][Benefits: Bassist in your band, always there for you, loyal, has your back][Send Gift][Talk][Hang out]


    [Tommy][Affinity: 1,000][Rtionship: Good Friend][Benefits: Guitarist and lead singer in your band, always there for you, loyal, has your back][Send Gift][Talk][Hang out]


    [Lara][Affinity: 100][Rtionship: Acquaintance][Benefits: None][Send Gift][Talk]


    [Maven Zengo][Affinity: 200][Rtionship: Friend][Benefits: Won''t try to eat you (anymore), returns favors, good conversation][Send Gift][Talk]


    Wow, that was illuminating. Nothing I didn''t already know, but I''m really d I looked so I could understand how it works. The buttons on the end of every entry were interesting.


    I somehow had the ability to sendpanions gifts and talk to them. Through what means, I had no idea. It implied that it was something I could do now, even though all of these people were not present with me.


    And then there were the ''hang out'' buttons attached to Dan and Tommy''s entries. I could only conclude that it was because I had such high affinity with them.


    I yed a game once, a while ago where if you built up affinity with the npcs, you could hang out with them. And if you did, after the hang out you''d get some really awesome benefits like a fifty percent discount on items or a new facet of the game would be enabled.


    I assumed the ''hang out'' button functioned something like that. The Shop had mentioned that I could open the Alchemy and Gigs tabs in the system menu if I just visited Tommy and Dan. Maybe the ''hang out'' button was the same as visiting them.


    Well, whatever it was, I would figure it out, because I pressed the ''hang out'' button next to Tommy''s entry. I was really curious what this alchemy thing was all about.

 Chapter 44 Alchemy Tab

    I looked around and saw what appeared to be Tommy working on something. "Hey, bro. How are you settling in?" I said awkwardly, still not entirely sure how I got here.


    "Oh sweet! You came!" Tommy stood up and hugged me. He still had those really bright purple LED like eye lights, but other than that, he looked exactly the same as he always did.


    "I''ve actually been working on some stuff I wanted to show you," he said.


    "What do you mean?" I said. "It''s been a day since the pit fight."


    "Right!" He said. "Well, they did a magic ritual on me to imnt memories of how alchemy and magic works into my brain, so I could start working for them and helping them right away."


    "I should do something like that," I said. "Learning about this alchemy and magic stuff sounds cool!"


    "Well, first thing, it''s only used on liches because they don''t care what happens to their body. If it blows up, they can just create a new one. As long as their phctery is safe of course," he said.


    "Ah, yeah I''d rather my body not blow up. I can recover from a lot, but even for me, blowing up might be stretching it," I said.


    "Hey, don''t worry about it man. I learned all the alchemy and magic stuff so you don''t have to. Cuz that''s just the kind of guy I am," he said, smiling.


    "Sometimes I can''t tell if you''re the most sincere or sarcastic person I''ve ever met," I said.


    "Why not both?" He said.


    "I don''t think you can be both sincere and sarcastic at the same time," I said, giving him a confused look.


    "Oh. Well never mind all that. I have some stuff I want to show you," he said.


    We walked over to a vial of dark red pills. He grabbed one and showed it to me. He said, "This is a concentrated life essence pill. This can give you 100 life essence instantly. I''ve only been able to makemon grade or what you vampires would call mortal grade ones so far.


    While they downloaded knowledge into my brain, they didn''t download skill and technique, so I still have to start at the beginning skill wise."


    "I know that vampire cultivators use life essence from blood to break through major and minor realms, but its so inefficient. Even the way you''ve said you do it, by taking all the life essence of a living being is wasteful. What if you could get a ton of life essence all at once, without having to harm a fly? That''s what I''m offering you with this."


    "That sounds incredible but where do you get the life essence to make the pills without hurting anyone?" I said.


    "Blood banks," he said.


    "But don''t people need that blood?" I said.


    "Not the stale stuff. We take blood that''s about to be thrown out and we buy it in bulk to do experiments and rituals with. I learned how to extract the life essence from the blood into a pill form," he said.


    "Ok, that''s amazing, but you said you had stuff to show me as in more than one thing," I said. "What else do you have?"


    "Ok, this next one is cool," he said. "It''s literally cold." He picked up a light blue pill out of another vial and dropped it in my hand.


    It really was cold. Very cold. I dropped it on the table because it was hurting my hand. "What does it do?" I said.


    "So, I figured out that you can infuse vampire''s blood with different elements so that when they use blood maniption techniques, it not only has the properties of blood, but it also has the properties of that element. Only downside is you can only use one at a time mostly or you risk the chance of exploding," he said.


    "A lot of things seem to risk that here," I said. "So what element is that?"


    "Ice," he said, grinning.


    "Ice isn''t an element. It''s a state of matter," I said.


    "Try not to think logically about it," he said. "Things like logic and reason don''t matter as much down here, especially when ites to alchemy and magic. The only thing that really matters down here is the rule of cool."


    "What''s the rule of cool?" I said, unfamiliar with the phrase.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "It''s doesn''t matter if something doesn''t make sense, as long as it''s awesome," he said. "If you think too hard about it, alchemy and magic stops working as well and then you can risk¡ª"


    "Exploding." I said.


    "Exploding." He said, at the same time. "Hey, how did you know I was going to say that?"


    "Just a guess," I said, shrugging my shoulders.


    "Whatever. As I was saying, there are a lot of things I''ve learned you can do with alchemy and magic that could help you when you fight the wicked bad monster dudes," he said.


    "I can tell this is leading somewhere, but I don''t want to say it for you. Not to be rude, but what is it you''re trying to say?" I said.


    "If you''re interested, I can open a shop just for you where you can buy cool stuff from me," he said. "You''d be my only customer though."


    "That actually sounds really cool. I''d like that," I said.


    "And maybe if you ever end up taking on any disciples, you can send them my way," he said.


    "I can definitely do that," I said. "So how much do I owe you for these pills?"


    "It''s ten gold giblets per pill and a hundred if you want me to give you a new bloodline," he said.


    "Holy sh*t, Tommy! That''s expensive!" I said.


    "I''m sorry man but the material cost ising out of my butt. Blood and alchemy materials are really expensive. That''s just for mortal grade pills. It gets more expensive the higher you go up in grade," he said. "Did you know it costs six hundred dors to get a blood transfusion? It''s a good thing we buy old blood or the expense of making one life essence pill would be over five thousand dors."


    "Holy f*ck! Ok, you must not be charging me full price then," I said.


    "No, I am, but if you and me be better friends, I''ll give you a discount," he said, his purple eye lights shining.


    "Aren''t we like best friends?" I said.


    "No. Dan and I are best friends. You and me are more like good friends," he said.


    "Ouch. I''m wounded. Not even close friends?" I said.


    "We can be close friends if you keep buying cool stuff from me," he said.


    "For sure," I said, rolling my eyes. "Oh and what did you say about giving me a new bloodline?" I said.


    "I figured out since you''re an omni-vampire, that I can give you the benefits of bloodlines from other monsters. There was a bunch of information on omni-vampires in some old lich text I was reading. Apparently, omni-vampires are way over powered. They''re supposed to be direct descendants of vampire gods, but I don''t know how true that is, considering your parents were human," Tommy said.


    "Wow that sounds incredible. I''ll be sure to try that out at some point. What do you need for me to do that?" I said.


    "Just a vial of the monster''s blood that you want the bloodline of," he said.


    "Because I just carry vials around with me wherever I go," I said.


    "You do now," he said handing me four small pouches. I opened one and it had empty ss vials encased in foam in it.


    "Ok, that''s cool. I was just imagining me carrying around loose vials and having them clink against each other all the time," I said.


    "That''s for amateurs. We''re professionals," he said, winking at me.


    "Professional what, is the question," I said. "I''ll buy a hundred life essence pills, and ten of whatever else you got."


    "Can you afford that?" He said, his eyebrows raised.


    "I''m a billionaire now. Haven''t you heard?" I said.


    "What? When did that happen?" He said.


    "Thest portal dungeon I did had a mini-game that determined my rewards and I killed it," I said.


    "Huh. No kidding," he said, bundling up my pills into a box.


    ''System, transfer the money to Tommy.''


    [Done]


    A pile of gold giblets appeared on the table we were standing by. "That''s for you," I said, grabbing the box of pills.


    ''System, end hang out.''


    [Okay]


    Everything went ck for a moment and then I was back in the vampire territories, holding a box of pills.


    I checked the system menu and the alchemy tab was avable to be unlocked, so I did it. I went back to the system menu and the tab was there. When I opened it, a hole opened in space in front of me.


    It looked like an alchemy shop, because that''s what it was. There were bottles of pills everywhere on different shelves and spilling onto the counter.


    "Oh you''re back!" Tommy said,pletely oblivious to the fact that a hole had opened in space that we were viewing each other through.


    There was a disy ovey that showed what was avable for purchase and I could hit a button that increased the amount of different things I was getting. A total of what I owed showed up in the right corner.


    "Yeah, I just wanted to check out how this worked," I said.


    "Okay," he said.


    I navigated out of the alchemy tab and the hole closed back up and again I was alone in the dark vampire territories standing next to a locked portal. That was a trip.

 Chapter 45 Shikasa, Goddess of Vampires and Queen of the Night

    Did that mean one of my parents was a vampire god? It couldn''t have been my Dad because he got killed, right? Or could vampire gods get killed? Assuming it wasn''t my Dad, that left my mom.


    Did that mean my mom was Shikasa, the goddess of vampires, and Queen of the night? Man, that was a long title. But my mom died from cancer. Right? I mean, I saw herying in bed a lot looking very sick.


    And she went into the hospital a few times fromplications, until they finally sent her home on hospice care. I saw her wither away until she was skin and bones.


    I never saw her body when she died, but my dad told me he was there when it happened. I went to her freaking funeral! She had asked to be cremated though so there was no body to look at and verify if she had died. I never thought I''d have to.


    If my mom was Shikasa, it would make sense why she favored me and gave me the system, but what then? Am I not allowed to visit her? Am I not allowed to see my own mother? What''s the problem? Why did she leave?


    I had so many questions and so few answers. I perused through the system menu while I was riding. I''m such a responsible driver I know. I checked the factions tab. The factions tab just told me my rtionship with other factions.


    Technically, it didn''t tell me my personal rtionship with other factions. It told me what rtionship my faction, the vampires, had with other factions. I supposed that it would tell me my personal rtionship if I started my own faction.


    There was a button in the corner of the screen that said [Start New Faction+]. That was how I knew I could start one. I didn''t feel ready for that yet. I still had an ok rtionship with the vampires, despite three of the families being out to kill me, and I didn''t have many people to fill a faction with.


    I would get to it eventually. I was sure of it. Just not yet. I still had a lot of training to do. Finally, I looked at the tab I had been wanting to look at this whole time.


    I opened the "Shikasa''s Blessings" tab.


    [Shikasa''s Blessings]


    [Favor: 110]


    [Blessings threshold unlocked: 1]


    [Threshold 1 Blessings] [Blessing of Gold] [Blessing of Protection] [Blessing of the Day]


    [Threshold 2 Blessings][Locked]


    [Click to see more]


    Interesting. It didn''t give me much but it gave me enough. Before even checking what each blessing did, I clicked on the Blessing of Gold. The button highlighted, signifying that was the blessing I had active currently.


    When I checked to see what it did, the exnation just said "Bigger payouts." I was expecting some flowery vague thing about gold being showered upon me or something, but it just said "Bigger payouts."


    That seemed pretty self exnatory. Anything that involved me getting a payout of money, like the portal dungeons or the contracts and ventures when I eventually got ess to them, would pay me more money than they originally would have.


    Sounded good to me. Just out of curiosity though, I checked what the other two did. When I hovered my attention over "Blessing of Protection" it said, "Invincibility, for a limited time." That seemed pretty self exnatory too. It gave me invincibility but it didn''tst forever.


    When I hovered over "Blessing of the Day" it said, "Enjoy the sunshine, daywalker." Another self exnatory blessing. It allowed me to walk around during the day without being harmed by the sun.


    Interesting. These were very powerful blessings. I was excited to see what other ones were avable in the future. The blessing thresholds implied that I would get ess to higher tier blessings the more of Shikasa''s favor I had.


    And I clearly started with 100 favor, since today, when I paid Lara her fair share, was the only day I had seen an alert saying I gained any favor. That also was in line with the idea that Shikasa was my mother.


    I didn''t know how I would do it, but I would have to get in contact with Shikasa somehow. I had a lot of questions for her.


    When I arrived at Master Ravenkin''s mansion, I tried to just open the door. I had a burning question that required an answer. It opened, and Ravenkin was nowhere to be seen.


    So he didn''t just stand behind the door waiting for people to knock on it. I kept the door open and knocked on it to see what would happen. When I knocked on the wood, Master Ravenkin appeared in front of me.


    Well he didn''t just appear out of nowhere. I saw him turn the corner at the end of the hall and then he sped up to me so fast that it was practically like he appeared out of thin air.


    So that''s how he appeared behind the door every time I knocked. He was just super fast.


    "Yes?" He said.


    "I''m ready to continue my training, Master," I said.


    "Did you pay thedy?" He asked.


    "Yes. I did. Something interesting happened when I did it, that I have to discuss with you," I said. "Oh and by the way¡­"


    ''System, please transfer the six hundred thousand gold giblets to Master Ravenkin.''


    [There is no appropriate receptacle or surface to deposit that amount]


    ''Just do it, please.''


    [Beginning transfer]N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Behind Ravenkin, gold giblets started pouring out of the air onto the ground. I quickly stepped inside and closed the door so they couldn''t bounce out.


    They continued pouring for several minutes until there was a huge pile on the floor.


    "There is your money," I said.


    "Uh, thanks. I hadn''t quite picked out a ce to put them, so the floor is as good a ce as any, I guess. I didn''t expect it to be so big," he said.


    "Most women don''t," I said, and winked.


    "That''s very funny," he said withoutughing.


    "They don''t!" I said. "It''s the truth!"


    "That aside, what did you have to talk to me about?" He said.


    "You might want to sit down for this," I said.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 46 Crimson Core Formation

    "No. I can make it so he never died. There''s a difference." I said.


    "What''s the difference?" He said scratching his head.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "If I brought him back to life now, he would likely appear here, alive, after being dead and missing for many years. You would still remember him being dead and missing," I said. "If I made it so he never died, all of the experiences you have had without him could either be erased, or worse, ovepped by new memories of him being alive."


    "That does sound problematic," he said, holding his chin. "Would you be able to bring him back to life? In the first way you described?"


    "Not that I know of. Not yet. If I do gain that ability, I''ll let you know," I said.


    "I assume you can''t take it back if something goes wrong?" He said.


    "The system gives me no indication that it''s something I can take back," I said.


    [That is correct. There are no take backs]


    "The system just informed me that there are indeed no take backs," I said.


    "Hmm. I want you to do it, but I also feel like it was supposed to happen that way for me to learn how to be independent," he said. "Can you ask the system if I will retain my original memories?"


    ''Will he?''


    [You have the choice of allowing him to or not. However, you will always retain memories of what happened the first time]


    ''Why?''


    [You can''t learn if it was the right decision, if you don''t remember making it and what things were like before]


    ''That makes sense.''


    "Yes. I can make it so you retain your original memories," I said.


    "Ok. How about this. I''ll teach you as far as I can teach you, and then we can bring him back so he can teach you beyond that. He knew more about theter stages of vampiric cultivation than I do," he said.


    "Ok. So back to Blood Foundation Establishment today?" I said.


    "Yes," he said.


    We walked away from the pile of gold coins on the floor and made our way to the training hall.


    Over the next twelve hours we trained. It wasn''t particrly exciting so I''ll be brief. I infused my bone marrow with Vi by sending it in through the small blood vessels that supply blood to the bones for faster production of blood. Read exclusive adventures at empire


    I channeled Vi into my fangs to not only strengthen them but also allow me to inject Vi into my victims which would facilitate faster blood draw. Then I meditated to harmonize my lifeblood crystal''s energy with darkness. Little bits of darkness and shadow flickered off my body.


    I meditated to ess memories within the blood I consumed. This would allow me to gain information and skills from the consumed blood of my victims.


    Since the only person I had actually sucked the blood of was Victoria, I learned a lot of sex skills that were really of no use to me as a heterosexual male. But at least I knew how to ess the memories! That was the important part.


    Next, I harmonized my vital organs with the resonance frequency of my lifeblood crystal''s energy. This would just improve my bodily functions and increase my resistance to damage.


    The final step was to attune all the blood and Vi within my body to the resonance frequency of my lifeblood crystal. This would give me unprecedented control over the Vi and blood in my body.


    I went to bed early after the training. In the morning I had another cup of ''thin'' blood vored coffee and chatted with Ravenkin. I ate a banana and then we got back to work.


    This training was monotonous and tiring, but it was necessary. If I was going to convince the dragons to allow me to bail them out of their situation, I was going to need to be much stronger than I was now.


    Today we were working on Crimson Core Formation. I am getting bored of detailing out my training to you but I know you want to hear about this, so I will do my best to keep it as brief as I can while still beingprehensive.


    Ipressed my lifeblood crystal down to a smaller denser form using Vi control. This denser form is called a crimson core. I took 50 of the mortal grade life essence pills that I got from Tommy and integrated them into my crimson core byyering life essence on top of it andpressing them down.


    I started with 100,000 life essence in my body. I ended with 105,000 life essence in my body, enhancing my physical strength and speed some but not significantly. I''d have to wait until Tommy could make higher quality pills. That or I just needed to buy a ton of them.


    The next step was purification. I removed any and all impurities within my crimson core topress it down further and increase it''s efficiency of action and strength. The impurities oozed out of my pores and I had to take a shower because I smelled something awful.


    That and I was covered in ck gunk. Ravenkin informed me that the impurities turn into something like petroleum due to the high pressure that they are put under when removed from the crimson core. So I was basically covered in abination of petroleum and tar.


    After my shower, we got back to work. We added rotation and shape maniption as my final steps in messing with my crimson core itself. After that we harmonized the resonance frequency of my core with my nexuswork.


    The final step was using all of these preparations to practice advanced hemomancy techniques. Hemomancy being blood maniption. I was able to createrger constructs with blood and even get blood bullets to work.


    Ravenkin took out a wooden dummy for me to fire at. I was able to create holes in the target but they were small. The bullet would''ve been considered small caliber. More of a .22LR than a .357 Magnum. Still, it was a lot of improvement from a paintball, regardless of how deadly that paintball proved to be.


    Therger constructs I created started rudimentary like a bat or a club or a mace. After more practice I was able to createrge sharp edges with a sword, a chakram, which was a sharp spinning disc, and a scythe.


    Further practice gave me the ability to make multi part constructs like a chain, a rope, even a Rubik''s cube. It was really easy to solve. All I had to do was turn it in any direction and it was solved. All the sides were the same color, red.


    I had basicallypleted my blood maniption training. Greater levels of control woulde with time and experience on and off the field of battle.


    My final trick though was creating a serpent made out of blood. It was incredibly taxing to create and maintain. There were far too many details on the body that I had to focus on. That didn''t even mention how difficult it was to get the slithering movements right.


    Snakes make it look easy, but it is anything but easy. For the first ten minutes my snake was just rolling on the ground. Even once I perfected it, it was an incredibly impractical weapon.


    Not only did I have to maintain its body and perform its movements, it would be a lot easier to just telekically throw the snake at my enemies instead of making it slither on the ground towards people.


    That was what I did with the bullets. I just threw them telekically at high speeds. So while it was a great exercise in control, the snake was practically useless aside from the possible intimidation factor.


    With that, I had harmonized my crimson core with my entire body and perfected my crimson core, which marked the end of the Crimson Core Formation stage.


    Havingpleted another twelve hours of work, I was exhausted and ready to go to bed, but Master Ravenkin had onest task for me toplete.


    To correct the injustice of his master''s death, reversing it and altering the timeline in order for his master to teach me the next steps of my cultivation training.


    The thought urred to me that this could create such a big ripple effect that I never became a vampire. It could even prevent the circumstances which led to my birth. I could be erased from existence.


    The only thing that gave me enough confidence to press the button was the fact that the system was not warning me of this possibility. It heard my every thought. It would tell me if I was about to potentially end myself, right? I pressed the button.

 Chapter 47 Undead Soul Formation

    Ravenkin and I didn''t even move from our original spots we were standing in. We were still in the training hall.


    "You havepleted your instruction from me. I can''t help you progress any further. I will need to introduce you to my Master, Master Bader," Master Ravenkin said.


    "Hold on a second. Master Bader? Really? You don''t hear how that sounds?" I said.


    "How what sounds? He''s my Master Bader. He is my Master and his name is Bader. What is weird about that to you?" Ravenkin said.


    "You know what? No. I don''t have time to talk to you about your masturbator. What I do need to talk to you about is, do you remember me pushing the button?" I said.


    "What button?" He said.


    Enjoy exclusive content from empire


    "The button to bring your Master back to life." I said.


    "No. I don''t remember that. Is that part of your system thing? And what do you mean back to life? Did he die?" Ravenkin said.


    ''What the heck, system? You said he would remember the change.''


    [You would have failed to press the button if I had told you and you need Master Bader to progress in your cultivation]


    ''That may be true, but you don''t get to decide that for me!''


    [I get to decide whatever I want to decide]


    ''Oh, you make me so angry!''


    [Tough sh*t, as they say]


    ''Aaahhh!''


    "Yes. It is part of my system thing. Apparently you don''t remember, but just a second ago, we were saying that I should use my system to make it so your Master had never died in the Blood Purge. This was so he could continue to teach me in cultivation, since you don''t know enough past Crimson Core Formation to teach any of it to me and he did," I said.


    "If that''s true, it sounds like we made a logical decision. You needed someone with his knowledge, and now you have someone with his knowledge. Him. Why do you seem so upset?" Ravenkin said.


    "Because I didn''t think I was going to be the only one who remembered what it was like before! You don''t understand how alone I feel right now. No one knows except me," I said.


    "It doesn''t sound like that big of a deal. I''m sure if you meditate, you''ll feel much better," Master Ravenkin said as he patted me on the shoulder.


    "That''s a good idea," I said. I got down into the lotus position on the ground and meditated. After ten minutes of meditation, I felt much better. I told myself, it''s not that big of a deal. I needed him and now I have him.


    ¡ª


    We arrived at an even bigger more gothic looking mansion than Ravenkin''s. He knocked on the door and someone immediately opened it. Ah, now I see where he got that habit from.


    "Come in,e in," Elder Bader said. "Now I hear you are a very gifted young man who needs to form his Undead Soul."


    "That''s what they say," I said,ughing nervously.


    "What do you say?" Elder Bader said.


    "I say Ipleted my Crimson Core Formation in less than a week with no prior experience in cultivation," I said.


    "Fair enough. Point taken," Elder Bader said. "So, shall we begin?"


    "What, right here?" I said looking around his living room. "In your living room?"


    "Yes. And it''s my unliving room actually," he said, the hint of a smile on his face.


    "I see what you did there," I said. "Nice."


    "I''m d you approve," he said. "Ravenkin, you can go home. We need this time alone to cultivate."


    "Yes, Master Bader," Elder Ravenkin said and bowed. He left through the front door.


    "Alright," Bader said, looking around. "Sit on this couch here and I''ll pull up a chair." He picked up what looked to be a pretty heavy chair like it was nothing and ced it in front of the couch.


    We both found our seats. Lead Elder Alfred Bader walked me through a guided meditation. We began by separating a portion of my consciousness from my physical body. I was able to look around and see myself with my eyes closed.


    He told me this would allow me to see spirits and protect me from soul based attacks. If I could separate my soul from my body, then when they attacked my body with a soul based attack, it would do nothing.


    Then I began shaping the separated consciousness into a spectral form using Vi. This would give my soul form, but would also allow me to project a ghostly image of myself within ten feet, in case I wanted to scare someone.


    Normally, my soul would bepletely invisible. Then I infused my undead soul with the refined and purified life essence from my crimson core. This would give my undead soul even greater form and strength.


    After that was levitation practice. This I thought was interesting because all I was doing was having my undead soul pick up my physical body. Like literally taking my undead souls hands and arms and lifting me up.


    This allowed me to levitate and technically fly really low to the ground. This was super funny to me though because it was like an invisible doppelganger of me was holding me in the flying pose and carrying me around like I was a child.


    After that, I had to harmonize my undead soul''s resonance frequency with the resonance frequency of darkness and shadows. When I was done with that, I was able to manipte my own shadow to an unprecedented degree.


    I could cover a room in darkness, which in the practical sense was just me increasing the size of my own shadow using Vi to fuel its growth and making it too big to fit in the room.


    I couldn''t actually manipte shadows that weren''t my own, but I could make it look like I could manipte shadows that weren''t mine byyering my shadow over another shadow and then moving it around.


    And in practicality, manipting my own shadow was really just fusing my shadow with my undead soul and then manipting the undead soul from there.


    Then it was time for true soul manifestation. I disconnected my soulpletely from my body and then I could fly around using projected Vi. I went into another room and looked at Master Bader''s nude magazines for my practice.


    I was supposed to see how long I could project my soul outside of my body for, but I got bored. Eventually, I just flew back to my body because I was bored and wanted to move onto the next thing.


    In that form I was also supposed to be able to possess weak willed being like animals or particrly weak willed humans, but I had no one to practice on since Bader wasn''t weak willed.


    Lastly, was the perfection of these techniques. I flew around a bunch and infused a ton of Vi and gaseous life essence into it, increasing its strength and power. I even learned how to make my physical body fly, but again, it was really just my undead soul carrying my body while it flew.


    I figured if my undead soul could project Vi in a way to facilitate flight, why couldn''t my physical body do that? Bader''s answer was some technical ramblings about how the undead soul has to create a sort of cyclone with Vi inside itself to increase the speed of the Vi.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    And then once the Vi is cycling really fast, project the Vi out of the section of body of the undead soul to create a form of propulsion based flight. He said it would be a lot harder and potentially harmful to do that in your physical body because your nexus points and stuff.


    Besides, my nexus points were already cycling Vi in a very specific and unique way. If I tried to make a cyclone with it, it would mess up that process and potentially damage my nexuswork. It made sense, but it still felt silly to be carrying myself with myself.


    Now that I had perfected the techniques of the undead soul itself, I had to do a little bit more homework to use my blood maniption techniques in conjunction with my undead soul.


    I told myself this was all in the aim of making me stronger. This time, instead of manipting blood with my physical body, I was manipting blood with my undead soul.


    This allowed me to perform long range blood maniption. Finally! I had been wanting to perform stronger long range blood maniption. In the end, I felt disappointed.


    The reason for this was because of the way I was performing long range blood maniption. Rather than shooting blood based projectiles across the room, what I was really doing was having my undead soul take short range control of the blood, and then running or flying across the room and smacking it into something or someone.


    This was the equivalent of taking a paper airne, holding it in your hand, running across the room with it, and saying it flew. To other people it would look like I was shooting projectiles across the room, but I would know, and that''s what really mattered.

 Chapter 48 Soul Beast

    Starting with soul color, it says things about your personality as well as what you''re good at. A person with a red soul may be quick to anger but they might also have a strong and indomitable will. The red could also indicate they excel at blood maniption.


    Whereas a person with a ck soul may be secretive and untrusting of other''s intentions, but they may also be really good at keeping others secrets and have a strong sense of loyalty. The ck could also indicate they excel at stealth and shadow maniption.


    Now what does a white soul say about a person? One would initially assume purity and good intentions, but what if that soul has other features?


    Particrly mine. At some point while I was practicing long distance blood maniption, something changed. My soul sprouted color and features. Features that intrigued and concerned me in equal measure.


    My soul changed from a humanoid shape to something like a dog with no head. It was white aside from certain features. It had golden eyes all over its body and a golden mouth in the upper chest, just below where the neck should start.


    It was a wide mouth with sharp gold teeth and a thick gold tongue. It looked hungry and I didn''t like it. I didn''t like it one bit. I called my soul back into my body but that changed too.


    It was like I was seeing double. I could see my physical body with my clothes, butyered over it or under it or on it, were the features of that soul beast I saw.


    My body was white except for the eyes spread all over and the mouth in the center of my chest. What did this say about me? About my soul? One guess is that I was greedy and hungry for something, but what? Maybe money, since the eyes and mouth looked like they were made of solid gold.


    Discover more content at empire


    That''s what the mouth implied, but what about the eyes? What did those imply? That I was observant? I could see ''golden'' opportunities? Maybe. I was trying too hard to figure this out.


    It was something that woulde to me in time.


    "Whoa!" Master Alfred Bader said. "And I''m not a person who says ''whoa'' a lot. I''ve never seen a white soul before. And I definitely haven''t seen one with features. And what unique features they are. Call your soul out of your body again."


    "Ok," I said, even though I really didn''t want to. I called my soul out again and it changed back into the beast form I had seen before. White furry body, golden eyes, golden mouth, and no head.


    Bader knelt down next to it and started petting it. The eyes moved away from where ever he was petting, but not in an afraid way, more of a "please do that more" way. The tongue hung out of its mouth and the eyes gave a half closed pleased look.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "It''s kind of cute, as long as you ignore the fact it doesn''t have a head," he said. "Can you change its shape or is it stuck like that?"


    "I think its stuck like that," I said. I concentrated on changing the soul''s shape but nothing happened. "Nope. It won''t change."


    "Well one thing I can say is it will hit hard, or bite hard, I guess," he said. "The thing about souls that can''t change shape is that they''re more solid than the flexible ones that can. They can influence the world in a bigger way."


    "How am I going to do long range blood maniption now? It doesn''t have hands," I said.


    "With this thing, you won''t have to. It can do long range damage for you. You tell it to bite someone, it''ll bite someone. You tell it to ram someone, it''ll ram them good," he said.


    "Like it or not, you''re stuck with the soul you have. I''d say you''re lucky. The white color probably implies that you have aptitude for all vampire abilities, which we kind of already knew since you''re an omni-vampire, but this just confirms it. If you want blood maniption you''re going to have to do it yourself, short range, but that should be enough."


    "You''re probably right. I should just be happy with what I got. It''s certainly interesting at least," I said, petting the little monster of a soul I had. "You''re just a mindless money monster, aren''t you? Yes you are."


    Ignore me talking to the subconscious me. It was less like talking to myself and more like talking to, well, my soul. The me underneath me. The root of my personality. The part that didn''t think. The part that acted.


    "Well that seems like a day doesn''t it?" I said. "When I was at Ravenkin''s I stayed in a guest bedroom. Can I do that here? Or do you want me to go back to the dorms?"


    Bader sighed. "You can stay here. But you better be ready to get up early. We have a long day ahead of us. Tomorrow we tackle the Night Spirit stage. It''s not as bad as the Blood Moon Tribtion, but it can be pretty exhausting in its own right."


    After he showed me to my room, Bader walked down the hall into the master bedroom stretching his arms and yawning.


    I snuggled into bed with my soul beast and I cuddled with it. It didn''t want to go back inside my body. It liked being outside, free.


    When I woke up in the morning, I went downstairs and went to make myself a cup of coffee, but there was no coffee pod machine. Instead Bader had the old fashioned pot of coffee kind of coffee machine.


    He did however have blood vored coffee. I decided to be bold and try the ''rich'' vor again. I was getting used to the ''thin'' variety and I was looking for an upgrade.

 Chapter 49 Becoming the Beast

    I poured myself another cup of coffee and started sipping on it. I looked around the kitchen to see if Bader was down here and just being quiet like Aldous always ways, but no one was around.


    I drank my coffee in silence for twenty minutes while I yed with more and moreplex blood constructs. I was rotating a tesseract when Bader came down in a gray robe.


    "Already up, are we?" He said, sitting next to me at the breakfast bar. Whoever designed Bader''s house clearly also designed Ravenkin''s house and they really liked breakfast bars. "I see you helped yourself to my coffee."


    "You didn''t say no," I said.


    "I was asleep." He said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "What difference does that make?" I said.


    "Ugh. Never mind all that. Time to get training. Chop chop!" He said.


    "Mm, yeah not feeling it," I said.


    "Not feeling it?" He said.


    "Yeah, I don''t think I can train today. I need to do something else. I''ve been meaning to get a contract going to light up the vampire territories. Maybe I''ll do that. Or another portal dungeon. Or both.


    But I can''t train," I said. "I''m sorry."


    "Huh. You are probably the weirdest and least obedient trainee I''ve ever had. But I''m d to hear you have other productive things on your mind. Ok. Have the day off. Or two.


    Whatever you need to do," he said.


    "Ultimately, you''re the one who''s pushing yourself so hard to get stronger to fight the dragons. Most cultivators never reach where you are right now, let alone in a week."


    "Thanks," I said. "I''ll be back." I left Bader''s mansion and walked over to Ravenkin''s mansion, with my undead soul trailing behind. I knocked on the door and Ravenkin opened the door.


    "Yes?" Ravenkin said.


    "I want to show you something," I said, walking inside.


    "Well, by all means, let yourself inside," he said,ughing genuinely.


    "See, that''s the difference between you and Bader. He gets annoyed by my direct get-to-the-point attitude, but you''re amused by it," I said. "I had to get out of there today, clear my mind of his negativity."


    "Bader isn''t that bad," Ravenkin said, closing the door. "He just thinks he knows what''s best so he get frustrated when people don''t take the ''best'' actions."


    "I can understand that, but I still needed a day, or two, to dpress," I said.


    I walked over in to the kitchen and started looking in his fridge. "Do you have eggs and bacon? I want to make us breakfast," I said.


    "I do. Help yourself. Or help us I guess," he said. "So what did you want to show me?"


    The soul beast was sitting right next to Ravenkin on the ground near the breakfast bar. It was looking at him expectantly. Probably to pet it, but Ravenkin didn''t seem to notice its presence.


    "You can''t see it, can you?" I said, as I cracked eggs into a bowl.


    "See what?" He said.


    "My undead soul. I finished my undead soul formation yesterday with Bader and I wanted to show it to you," I said.


    "No. Can''t see it. I think you have to be at the Night Spirit Formation stage or higher even to see other people''s undead souls," he said.


    "Oh. Well is there a way I can make you see it? Like manifest it in the real world?" I said.


    "Yes. There''s a quick way and a longer way. They both happen during the Night Spirit Formation stage but one happens sooner than the other. The first stage is learning how to create a domain. A domain is a boundary usually represented by a sphere that a cultivator can manifest around themselves to affect the environment, people, and things within it," he said.


    "Once you learn how to create your domain, it should be easy to manifest your soul beast within it. Your soul beast has a natural synergy with your soul domain, because they both originate from the same ce, your soul."


    "Ok, how do I manifest a domain?" I said, pouring the egg mixture into the pan.


    "I don''t know. I know the results of the steps, but not the process to creating the results. For the process, you''d have to go to Master Bader, but you don''t want that," he said.


    "Right. Well, then I''ll figure it out myself," I said, frying the bacon. I looked at the soul beast that was next to me now since Ravenkin was ignoring it. "What do you think boy? How do I create a domain?"


    The soul beast looked confused and seemed to think for a while. I used the time to finish cooking and serve breakfast for me and Ravenkin. When I was finished eating, the soul beast finally seemed to reach a conclusion.


    "What is it? What do you think we should do?" I said.


    The soul beast squinted its eyes and then bit my foot. Well it didn''t ''bite'' my foot. It didn''t dig in with its teeth. It just sort of put my foot in its mouth. Then all its eyes looked at my other foot, and it started opening its mouth wider.


    I realized what it wanted, but I was incredibly confused as to why. But I did like it wanted and put my other foot in its mouth. Once it had both my feet in its mouth, it smiled. Then it proceeded to swallow more and more of my body until I slipped all the way through and into it.


    Everything went ck for a moment, and then when I opened my eyes, I could see a 360 degree view of the room. I was inside the soul beast. Or I was the soul beast. Or most likely, I was currently one with the soul beast.


    "Where''d you go?" Ravenkin said. He must not have seen me disappear and was just now noticing I was gone. I saw him look down at me and say, "Whoa! Where did youe from? Dn? Is this what you wanted to show me?"


    "Yes," I tried to say, but all that came out was a, "Woof!" of approval.


    "Is that you Dn? Are you inside this beast thing?" He said.


    "Yes," I tried to say again, but again all that came out was, "Woof!"


    "Well, you''ve showed it to me, so you cane out now," Ravenkin said.


    I shook my head no. Well, I didn''t have a head so I kind of moved my shoulders left and right. I could feel the soul beast in here as well and it wanted to do something with me, but I couldn''t tell what.

 Chapter 50 Soul Domain

    It was trying to do something, but it needed me toplete it. Maybe it was trying to make a domain? I mean, that is what I asked it to do. I focused and tried to tune into what the beast was thinking and feeling.


    The thoughts came to me in images and sensations, but I understood. It was indeed trying to make a domain. So I focused down and grabbed onto what it was creating and added my strength to it.


    It was trying to create a small orb in front of it with simr features to the soul beast. It was white and fuzzy, with golden eyes and golden mouths but the orb was hollow and they were all facing the inside of the orb.


    Then I realized it wasn''t trying to create a small orb. It was trying to epass Ravenkin''s entire mansion into the orb but the small version was all it could do so far. After I grabbed a hold of the orb with my mind, I helped it expand it.


    We got it to exercise ball size, then with some effort it expanded to the size of the room, then with greater effort and more time, it expanded to epass several rooms. And finally, after thirty minutes of concentrated effort, we got it to contain Master Ravenkin''s entire mansion.


    After another five minutes, I felt like we had stabilized it, so I attempted to climb out of the soul beast. We hadpletely merged into one being, but as soon as I thought about climbing out, we separated. Instead of being the soul beast, I became a person inside the soul beast''s massive stomach.


    I wondered how much stuff it could fit in here. Maybe it was infinite, like a pocket dimension or something. The soul beast opened its mouth for me so I could climb out. Once I was out, Iid on the cool marble flooring for a minute before getting up.


    "Ok," I said. "What''s the next step?"


    "Well, you''ve got the domain manifestation down. The next aspect is learning how to manipte the effects of one''s domain. The problem here is, your domain''s effects aren''t obvious like most domains are. Most domains are either environmental in nature or at least physically obvious what they do," he said.


    "To give some examples of environmental domains would be like an artic domain where the user can manipte the temperature and weather within the domain. Like they could affect weather to create snow, sleet, hale, or even cial winds."


    "Just to give you a better grasp on environmental domains, it could be a volcano domain with magma flows, it could be a tropical beach that can be cool and sunny or be rainy and windy with massive waves. You get the idea."


    "Or there are physical domains, like I knew a guy whose domain was just grasping arms and handsing out of the walls that grabbed you and held you down while he beat you. Or another one where everything was mirrors, which allowed her to create illusions and confusing optical effects."


    "But mine is not obvious at all like any of those," I said. "Ok, so how do I figure out what my domain does?"


    "Well, there should be an intuitive scale in your mind where you can increase or decrease the natural effects of your domain. There''s a lot more to it than that in terms of mastery but we''re starting at the most basic level for now," he said.


    "I thought you said you didn''t know this stuff?" I said.


    "I don''t. This is all just guess work on my part based on what I''ve seen people do with their domains. Bader would be able to intuitively figure out what your domain does in a second. He''s a master at this. I''m just an amateur. But if you prefer my methods of teaching, then I''ll fumble my way through it as best I can," he said.


    "Ok, so I should feel my ability to increase and decrease the intensity of the effects. Well, if we want to figure out what my domain does then I should just ramp up the effects to max," I said.


    I concentrated and felt around in my head until I got it. If I wanted to increase the effects, I just had to imagine a golden warmth spreading throughout my body and then outside of it. The more intense the warmth, the more intense the domain''s effects.


    When I had the golden warmth spread throughout my domain, I realized something was wrong. My domain was expanded too far. The effects were spread too thin.


    I decreased it down to just the room we were in and the effects magnified. I still had no idea what the effects were but I could tell they were at their peak.


    "Ok, the effects are at their maximum," I said. "What now?"


    "Well, since your domain and your soul beast guy have golden eyes and mouths, I''m going to guess the effects have something to do with money or gold. Do you have a gold giblet on you?" He said holding out his hand.


    "Yeah," I said, handing him one. All I had to do to take it out of my wallet inventory was to imagine an amount of gold giblets in my hand and they just appeared.


    "Ok, let''s watch," he said as he set the gold coin t on the counter. He leaned in and stared at it, so I leaned in and stared at it.


    We were staring at it for a minute before I said, "This feels really stupid. Nothing''s happening."


    "Hmm, maybe we have to move it around or something," he said. "Why don''t you try flipping it."


    "Ok," I said. I grabbed the coin and flipped it onto the counter instead of my hand as I would normally do it. It bounced a few times and then itnded upright, vertical. "That''s weird."


    "Yeah, that is weird. What are the odds of that happening on your first flip?" He said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Not very likely, I''ll tell you that," I said as I grabbed the coin. I flipped it again onto the counter. It bounced a few times andnded on its side, just like before. "What the f*ck?"


    "What the f*ck is right. That should rarely happen ever, let alone twice in a row. Let''s see what happens if I do it." He said.


    He grabbed the coin and flipped it. It bounced a couple times before bouncing onto it side, but it didn''t stop. It rolled off the counter,nded, kept rolling on the floor, and rolled under the fridge.


    "What the f*ck?" He said. "That''s not even in the realm of possibilities of things I thought could happen."


    "Something weird is going on," I said. I pulled out two more coins and handed one to Aldous. "How about this? We both flip a coin at the same time and see if the same things happen?"


    "Ok," Aldous said.


    We both flipped a coin at the same time. Minended on its side like it had the two times before, but hisnded in his coffee, t, causing a big ssh and sending coffee all over him. He was lucky he made the cup a while ago, otherwise he''d have boiling hot coffee all over him.

 Chapter 51 The Domains Full Effects

    "I sure hope you have, because I did too and I would be pretty disappointed if you hadn''t. You might''ve even stopped being my favorite pupil," he said, reallyying on the sarcasm.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Shush," I said. "Wait, aren''t I your only pupil?"


    "Exactly," he said, and winked at me.


    "Oh wow," I said. "You know, just because it was my power that got coffee all over you, doesn''t mean you get to make idle threats at me."


    "Fine. It''s still your fault though. I mean, you literally caused it to happen," he said, as he grabbed a kitchen towel and dried himself off.


    "So, we at least know my ability maniptes luck. It gives me good luck and apparently everyone else, bad luck," I said. "Is there anything else it does?"


    "Does there need to be anything else? That sounds pretty good to me. You should be able to manipte and localize those two effects. Meaning you should able to increase or decrease the luck of a room or choose specific targets for good luck or bad luck," he said.


    "That said, I think there is far more to your abilities that just manipting luck. Most domains can manipte the environment within them to an extreme degree. Domains basically offer perfect control within their area of expertise to the user."


    "If my hunch is correct, since your domain is less physical, there should be a vast amount of figurative and metaphysical control that you can exert on the environment. Oh, and you should also be able to move the mouths and eyes around too. They are a physical aspect of your domain so you should have control over them."


    "Ok, I''ll focus on that next," I said.


    I stared at one of the mouths and tried to move it. It was surprisingly easy. It separated from the wall of the domain ande over to me. I tried to do the same to all the mouth and the eyes. It worked, but then I became crowded with them.


    I quickly put them back in the walls. "Ok, that''s done," I said. "What next?"


    "That''s easy but could take some time. You need to figure out all of the abilities your domain has. Then you have to learn how to manifest your soul beast physically without the help of your domain. That''s it," he said.


    "I can probably figure out how to do the second one, but how do I do the first one?" I said.


    "Simr when you tuned your body into the resonance frequency of your crimson core, you have to tune your mind to the resonance frequency of your domain and by extension, your soul beast. Wait, I think I have that backwards, but you know what I mean," he said.


    "Ok, so tune into my soul beast, which I''ve done before and then tune into my domain?" I said.


    "Yes," he said.


    "Ok, here I go," I said.


    I closed my eyes and tried to mentally be one with my soul beast. I felt the vibrations of my body and my mind and then took control of them. I tuned it up and down and up and down until I could feel the vibration of the soul beast increasing as a result of me matching its resonance frequency.


    The soul beast''s vibrations in turn increased the vibrations in my body and we resonated together in harmony for several minutes. Once I felt the vibrations of my body and mind, and the vibrations of the soul beast be one, I knew it was time.


    I tuned my and the soul beast''s vibrational frequencies up and down until I started to feel the domain vibrating with us. Our vibrations increased its vibrations which in turn increased our vibrations and so on.


    Once all three of us were resonating in harmony, I instinctively tried to tap into and read the nature of my domain. I felt something change, so I opened my eyes.


    Every object in the room, besides the people and my soul beast had two golden numbers next to them. The numbers depended on the object. I realized they were rted to the price or value of the item.


    I looked at the coffee pod machine because I had seen one just like it online before I had be a vampire and I remembered what it cost. The number on the right was the same as the online cost, but the number on the left was significantly lower than that.


    After some careful thought and much needed silence, I realized I was looking at the real value of the item vs the perceived value of the item. I hadn''t taken a single business ss in my life, but Johnny, my adoptive father and mafioso, taught me about them.


    The real value of an item was how much money it cost to produce the item. The perceived value was how much someone was willing to pay for it. This was certainly an interesting ability, but I wasn''t done.


    My goal was to find all of my domain''s abilities, so that is what I was going to do. I tuned back into the domain''s resonance frequency, but this time, I tried to find the perfect resonance that would activate all of my domain''s abilities at once.


    When I opened my eyes it was utter chaos. The mouths were swallowing all the loose change and receipts and other objects Aldous had on the counter.


    [New item in inventory: Stapler]


    [New item in inventory: Paperclips]


    [New item in inventory: Aldous''s favorite pencil]


    ''Ok, cough up all that stuff! No stealing. At least not right now,'' I thought to the mouths.


    The mouth''s spit out Aldous''s stuff. But then they did something else weird. One of the mouths went over to float by Aldous and one floated up to my ear and whispered into it.


    "If you tell Aldous his hair looks nice today, that will make him happy and appreciate you slightly more." The mouth whispered.


    The mouth that was floating next to Aldous started speaking as floating golden text appeared underneath it, recording what it was saying, "Aldous values honesty, loyalty,panionship, and integrity. He treasures gifts given to him by friends, regardless of how useful or useless they are."


    "He currently has a lucky penny in his pocket that Master Bader gave him once he hadpleted his basic rites of being a vampire. Don''t tell him this, but the penny isn''t actually lucky. Its just a penny."


    There was too much going on for me to react or respond to either of the things the mouths said just yet. As I looked around the room, I noticed I could see all the drawers in the kitchen that held money in them. I could see the money through the wood.


    "I forgot to tell you this, but your hair looks particrly nice today," I said.


    Aldous said, "Aww thanks. I put a little extra effort into it today, because I''m going on a date tonight." Aldous looked very pleased that I''dplimented his hair, just like the mouth said he would be, but it was more than that.


    He was unusually pleased that I''d said that. The domain must increase my charisma and the positive effects my words have on a person''s mood. It probably also made them like me more. Feel more drawn to me. At least if it increased my charisma generally, that''s what I assume it would do.


    I also noticed that the area around me was glowing gold, but the area around Aldous was glowing red. That must be the visual representation of my good luck and bad luck effects.


    I concentrated and was able to change Aldous''s red glow into a golden glow as well. I wanted him to do well on that date. Although I doubted this would affect that after I turned my domain off. Couldn''t hurt to try though.


    There were probably other minor effects that I''d learn through use in everyday life, but I had found out the bulk of its effects and that was good enough for me for now. I was feeling really sleepy all of a sudden. Oh no, I was about to pass out again.


    I quickly ran over to Elder Ravenkin''s couch and tried to jump and turn into it so Inded perfectly on my back. The good luck effect I still had made mend in the perfect couch nap position, and then I was out.

 Chapter 52 Domain Aura

    "Did you sleep well?" He said.


    "Yes. At least it feels like I did," I said.


    "Good. Are you ready to finish your training for the day?" He said.


    "Yes," I said.


    "Ok, now all you have to do is manifest your soul beast physically outside of your domain," he said.


    "I have a question. Since my domain is less battle focused, it feels like I should have it up during everyday interactions, but if I did that, wouldn''t people assume I''m trying to attack them? How do I get around that?" I said.


    "Yes, most people would assume a domain activation means battle. So there is a more advanced technique called a domain aura that you can use that will still have most of the benefits of a domain activation, except you can''t prevent other people from activating their domain and you don''t have the walls to contain people in, so you can''t prevent them from leaving," he said.


    "I don''t care about those things. I just want to be able to use my advanced social skills powers in everyday life," I said.


    "Advanced social skills powers?" He said, with confused look on his face.


    "Oh, that''s right. I didn''t tell you the domain''s powers before passing out," I said.


    "So my domain''s extra features all have to do with social interactions or money. I can see money through objects and barriers and it increases my charisma and gives me other advantages when interacting with people," I said.


    "What kinds of other advantages?" He said, crossing his arms.


    "Like it tells me about a person. What they value, some of the things they like, and little snippets about the person. Like I know you have a lucky penny that Bader gave to you. It told me that," I said.


    "It told you that? That is powerful. Especially if it can tell you people''s secrets or things they don''t want you to know about them. I can see why you''d want to use a domain aura in everyday interactions with those abilities. I''ll tell you how domain aura''s work after you manifest your soul beast," he said.


    "Ok, let''s manifest this soul beast," I said.


    I concentrated on the location of the soul beast. It was sitting on the ground next to me. I concentrated on it''s existence and poured more Vi and life essence into it until I felt it bing solid. Then I made it exude Vi like a light bulb exudes light and it appeared.


    "Holy crap! You made that look easy!" He said.


    "It was," I said.


    "You really are a genius among geniuses. No, you are the genius of cultivation," He said.


    "I appreciate that, but I''m not that amazing. I''m just really good at one thing. What''s so special about that?" I said.


    "That''s like saying what''s so special about professional athletes or what''s so special about Albert Einstein?" He said.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Ok, I guess that''s fair. Alright I''m amazing. Cool. Now what''s next?" I said.


    "This is thest thing I''m going to teach you for today. The domain aura. Basically, you take your domain, you make it pretty small. Small enough to put in your pocket, and you turn it inside out, so the walls face outward instead of inward," he said.


    "Ok, does the exact size matter?" I said.


    "To a certain extent. Therger it is, the farther out the aura extends. I only suggest making it pocket size so people can''t see that you''re using it. And you would just put it in your pocket. But if you need to effect arger area, you can make it bigger. Marble size will give you about ten feet around you in all directions.


    Large marble size will give you twenty five feet, and fist size will give you about two hundred fifty feet," he said.


    "Ok," I said.


    I summoned a small fist sized domain in my hand. Then I concentrated on turning it inside out. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I stood for about twenty minutes before the inside burst to the outside.


    A golden aura was emitted by the domain. Then all the effects that happenedst time, happened again. The prices, the mouths, the seeing money through solid objects. The works.


    "Can you see that?" I asked.


    "I don''t see anything different than normal other than the domain in your hand," he said.


    "Good," I said as I put the domain in my pocket like it was arge rock. It made a small bulge in my jacket but nothing that would make anyone think twice about it.


    I looked around at all the distracting effects in my vision and listened to the mouths talking and said, "Excellent."


    I walked to the front door of Ravenkin''s mansion and said back to him, "Good luck on your date!"


    "Thanks!" He said and waved bye to me.


    I waved back and closed the door. Ok, I knew what I wanted to do next and it wasn''t going to another portal dungeon. I was going to meet foreman ckhammer.


    I opened the system menu and selected Quests. There was a long list of tasks or "objectives" as the system liked to call them, most of which were rted to adding more tabs to the system menu.


    There was another objective that seemed like it would end up being a forever task.


    [Objective: Gain favor with Shikasa and ess higher tiers of blessings]


    That wasn''t what I was in the Quest menu for though. I highlighted the objective, "Meet foreman ckhammer." Then I tried to click it. It clicked in and permanently highlighted.


    When I pulled out of the system menu the objective was in the upper center of my vision or heads up disy also known as a HUD in games. There was a translucent arrow pointing me in the direction I needed to go to get to my objective.


    This was what I was looking for when I opened the Quests menu. A directional heading. At first when I saw this objective in the System section of the Shop menu, I thought how am I supposed to meet him? It''s not like I can look him up on the inte.


    But then I remembered the mechanic in games that showed you where to go toplete your objective. And now I was set. I hopped down two floors in the elevator and caught a ride on the train.


    I wished I had a fast travel mechanic in this system. The ability to choose where I wanted to go and then just appearing there without having to wait to get there. Maybe I would get itter, but since this would be my first time visiting this ckhammer fellow, I had to take the long way to get there.

 Chapter 53 Contracting Blackhammer

    I would be surprised if they didn''t have multiple mines going. Dwarves seemed like a self reliant bunch and I doubted they would import vast quantities of metal and other resources they could get from the earth themselves.


    The town had mine cart rails running down the street. The buildings were short and stout stone buildings merged with metalwork. The doors had intricate metalworking designs on them. Some of the houses even had minor gemstones embedded in the doors.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The streets were lined by electric streetlights. Just what I wanted to see. I wasn''t sure what level of technology the dwarves were using but I hoping for electrical expertise. I walked down the street and everyone stared at me. Not angrily. Just curious and confused.


    The quest arrow had me turn right and I could see into a metalworking shop that had the symbol of a ck hammer above the door. I assumed this must be the ce.


    When I stepped through the doorway, I had to duck my head to get inside but once I was inside, I had a decent amount of head room. Not as much as in human and vampire dwellings, but enough.


    "Well, hello," said a jovial voice. I looked down to see a rather handsome dwarf of early middle age with a bushy ck beard and ck hair. He was wearing a leather apron over a rugged blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.


    He put his hand out to shake mine and I took it. He hand a very strong grip but he didn''t try to crush my hand.


    "My name is Galvin ckhammer. What can I help you with today?" He said, rubbing his hands together.


    A golden mouth floating next to Galvin said, "He expects good business from you since you came all this way down to visit his shop. He values money, business, directness, and transparency. He is one of the few dwarven business owners who is willing to work with outsiders, especially predatory monsters like vampires. Tell him you''re here for a big job."


    So that''s why the system wanted me to visit him specifically. I like that. "I''m looking to get a big job done. Big job. Really big. Is that something you would be capable of handling or even be interested in?"


    His eyes lit up when I said that. "Absolutely! I''m always open to new customers and new jobs. Especially big projects. What kind of job are we talking here and what''s your budget?"


    "Lights and roads. Infrastructure. The vampire territories are unlit and unpaved. I''m looking to change that. I want to be able to get to portals faster and I might be looking to expand in the near future, so I''d need the infrastructure before we start putting in any new buildings," I said.


    "You''re going to need a lot more than just lights and roads if you want to start putting any new buildings in. Especially if you want to build something like a town or a city," he said.


    "I can''t possibly list all the things you''d need right now or we''d be here for an hour, but to list a few things, you''ll need systems for water, sewage, telmunications, gas lines, electricity. You''d need a water treatment facility, a waste management facility, electrical substations, and power generation facilities."


    "Those are just the basics. The list continues, but I won''t bore you with those details. For one, those details would be my job if you contracted me for them, but also, I doubt you personally have the finances to implement something like that. How would you be paying for this? Is the Vampire Association going to back you on this project?"


    "No. It would just be me financing it, and technically I would still need to get approval from the Vampire Association, but I have the lead elder and another elder on my side, so I should be alright," I said.


    "You do realize how much this would cost right? And are you aware that the Vampire Association has 120 members?" He said, crossing his arms.


    The golden mouth said, "He''s not liking what he''s hearing. He thinks you came into this project with too little preparation and research and political backing to get this done. You better reel him in with something big or you''ll lose him."


    "Ok. I''ll admit I wasn''t as prepared as I should have been for this project, but there is one thing I do have, and that''s the money. I currently have in my possession, fifteen million gold giblets," I said.


    "Ok. That''s certainly impressive as far as individual wealth goes, and you could probably make a small town with a poption of about 3,000 people with that amount. And its certainly more money than I''ve ever seen," he said.


    "How about this. We''ll start with the most basic aspect of building infrastructure down here. Pest control. We''ll have to root out the monsters you have in your territories and remove them before we start on any construction. Does that sound like a deal?"


    I put my hand out to shake his and he took it. We shook. "That sounds like a deal to me," I said. "What''s your asking price?"


    "Well, this would just be an estimate for now. I''ll bill you based on what we actually do, but my estimate would be about 2,000 giblets," He said.


    "He''s testing you to see if you call him on his above average asking price. It''s not oundish, but it is high. Say 1,500 giblets." The golden mouth said.


    "1,000 giblets and I''ll help kill monsters. I''m actually quite handy with this sword," I said as I patted the sword at my side.


    "Hmm. 1,000 giblets if you prove how good you are with a sword in front of me," he said.


    "Ok. I''m quite powerful but I''ll back off on that, because I don''t want to copse your shop. I''ll go with fine control to demonstrate," I said, as I got a giblet out.


    I was about to toss the giblet in the air, but the soul beast was staring at it like it was going to try to snatch it out of the air.


    ''No, no. Not right now,'' I thought at it.


    It whimpered and looked disappointed. The soul beast was currently invisible to everyone but me. I activated Blood Draw and pulled blood onto the de, especially at the tip. I tossed the giblet into the air and swung at it once.


    I put my hand out and caught the gold giblet that had been cut into twenty small pieces. I poured the small pieces into Galvin''s hand. He inspected the pieces.


    After a thorough inspection, he said, "How did you do that?"


    "It''s called ''fine control''," I said. I wasn''t going to tell him the specifics because it would have removed some of the awe and mystery of it. I had created a grid of blood des at the tip of sword and swung the grid through the coin. "You can keep that," I said.


    "Huh," he said putting the pieces into a pocket. "999 giblets it is then."

 Chapter 54 Exterminating Monsters Gone Wild

    The academy grounds were directly connected to the vampire territories. There wasn''t even a wall separating them. Surrounding the academy ground on three sides were the wide open caverns of the vampire territories.


    They didn''t think it was an issue because they''d never had a problem before. They''d never had any reports of monster attacks before. They''d had a few students go missing here and there but they assumed that was rted to inter family politics and the assassins that seemed to freely roam the school grounds whenever they wanted.


    ckhammer was in a rather cramped vehicle he had brought with him. The body of the vehicle only seated one person so I rode alongside him on my motorbike. It had tank treads on either side of the body.


    There was a tube that held balloons with lights attached to them in it. The tube was designed to open and close to release balloons up to the ceiling to reveal if there was anything crawling on the ceiling.


    And it had these huge long spikes on each side of it that would go into the ground and send strong vibrations into the ground, disturbing any creatures that burrowed beneath the earth.


    Now the vampire territories didn''t have very deep earth on the floor of their territories. The vampire territory caves were pretty deep so they didn''t have natural sediment floors.


    In caves close to the surface, dirt can get washed onto the floor to create a smallyer of soil for mushrooms to grow, but that generally wasn''t the case in deep caves. Deep caves had rock floor because they were created by the erosion of rock by water and they weren''t close enough to the surface to get sediment.


    So the vampire association had to ship in literal tons of soil to cover the cave floor of the territories. That was the most development they had ever done for the territories. They had ns to develop further but it had been decades and no one had done anything.


    I made sure to ask Lead Elder Bader and Elder Ravenkin for permission to begin extermination in the territories. They both approved it and said if the Vampire Association had a problem with it, they would tell them it was their idea. They also said, it was about time someone tried to increase the safety of the territories. People would go out to portals and nevere back.


    People assumed it was because they died in the portals, but there was always the possibility of monsters lurking in the darkness. No one had ever discovered evidence of monsters in the territories. At least no one who had survived. But that didn''t mean they weren''t out there.


    Since the soil had been shipped in, it wasn''t deep enough forrge monsters to be lurking under the surface of the soil, but ckhammer insisted anyway. He said he wouldn''t be doing his job if he didn''t at least check.


    So we started with that and nothing really happened. The ground shook a bit, but that was it. After that we were going to check the ceiling with the lighted balloons.


    We were still only about a hundred meters out into the darkness of the territories when we started releasing balloons up to the ceiling. I asked ckhammer why we didn''t just use lights to shine up and scan the ceiling.


    He said he preferred this method because often times ceilings were too high to see clearly by just shining lights up, and more importantly, the balloons acted as monster mas and protected us from harm.


    If we shined lights up to the ceiling and there were monsters, they might attack us because the lights were attached to the vehicle. Whereas if you let a lighted balloon up to the ceiling, the monsters would just attack the balloon and might not necessarily notice us and perceive us as a threat.


    When ckhammer released the first balloon we were legitimately shocked by what we saw. And I don''t get shocked easily. There were severalrge car sized bats hanging from the ceiling.


    And that was only because the balloon light only shined so far around it. From my estimate, if the rest of the ceiling was as packed as the part we illuminated, we could easily have been looking at hundreds of van sized bats.


    And that was just in this area surrounding the vampire sect academy. If there were more farther out into the territories, it could be thousands of bats.


    When the balloon went up, it hit one of the bats in the face. The bat bit and popped the balloon, dropping the light back down on us. The bat made a squeaking sound multiple times and then it looked at us.


    I say looked at because that''s where it aimed its head. I didn''t know if it was actually seeing us. Bats have eyesight but its poor and mostly used to detect time of day for hunting.


    Regardless of whether this bat was seeing us with its eyes or detecting us with echolocation, it noticed our presence and it attacked. It swooped down and attacked the cage that Galvin was inside of.


    It bit at the cage, but when it realized it couldn''t get through, it implemented a different strategy. It grabbed the vehicle with its feet and began lifting it into the air.


    I grabbed my soul beast and we flew up beside the vehicle being lifted. "You''re going to have to jump to me. I''ll catch you. Otherwise, its going to drop you and you won''t survive the impact," I said.


    "Ok, but you better catch me!" Galvin said. He opened the side door of the cage and got on the edge. He leaped out toward me.


    He didn''t jump as far as I expected him to, so my soul beast and I had to swoop down to catch him. But we did catch him.


    I was getting tired of calling it my soul beast. It needed a name. This seemed like a terrible time to be naming it, but I never had the best timing, so I didn''t care.


    After the soul beast and I set Galvin on the ground, I said to the soul beast, "I''m going to name you Midas because of your golden features and the fact that you love gold."


    Midas smiled at that. He seemed to like the name.


    "Who are you talking to?" Galvin said.


    "My soul beast, Midas," I said. "He''s the one who flew me up to catch you."


    "I don''t see anything," Galvin said.


    I concentrated and Midas appeared in physical form. Galvin jumped slightly at seeing him, but he said, "Oh. That is one bizarre looking animal, but if it''s supposed to represent someone''s soul, I guess I shouldn''t expect it to be normal."


    "Yeah, he''s a weird one. But we should be worried about those bats," I said as I pointed up and looked. When I looked up, I saw the bat drop the vehicle, and it was right above us.


    "Oh sh*t!" I grabbed Midas in one arm and Galvin in the other and dove forward, out from under the falling vehicle. It mmed into the ground, making a really loud metal snapping sound as something within it broke.


    "I''ll pay for that!" I said, wincing.


    "You better pay for it. I don''t have insurance," he said.


    "You don''t have insurance? Why?" I said.


    "Do you know how high insurance costs are with all the monsters running around underground now that these portals have shown up? I can''t afford it. No one can," he said.


    "Ok, I trust you," I said. "But we should be worried more about the monster bats than about that right now."


    "Speak for yourself! I spent a fortune on that thing!" He said.


    "Ok, but I''m not going to argue with you right now. I''m going to try to save our asses," I said.


    Several bats detached from the ceiling and swooped down on us. I didn''t see them until they were already halfway down to us. I drew my sword, Muramasa''s Blood Fiend, and activated Blood Draw, creating a small puncture wound on my hand.


    Through the wound I pulled as much blood as I could get onto the sword without passing out. Holding my katana horizontally, I extended the de with blood as far as I could.


    The de became fifteen feet long. When the line of bats got near, I shed through them with the extended de. I cut four of them in half, but the others swooped in from the sides.


    [Blood Honing activated: The de grows sharper (future notifications hidden)]


    [4 Carbats defeated: Gained 20,000 life essence (future notifications hidden)]


    Two of them went for Galvin. I shed at them again, cutting them in half diagonally. Then I pivoted to do a 180 degree turn and dove onto the ground, grabbing and rolling with Midas to get him out from under the ws of thest bat.


    I shed at the bat after it passed us, cutting its wing and making it crash to the floor. I ran over to it and chopped its head off, since it was trying to get back up.


    I looked up and saw nothing but ckness as I looked at the ceiling. I hopped on the broken vehicle, aimed the floodlights on the back at the ceiling and turned them on. They had an emergency back up battery in case the vehicle battery died.


    The bats were not only continuing to swoop down at us, but some of them were heading over to the other source of light nearby, the vampire sect. I couldn''t let them attack the school, but I was being tied down by the need to protect Galvin.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

 Chapter 55 Showdown With Bats

    I shed a few more bats that came down to attack us. Then I grabbed Galvin and carried him while I ran. Midas ran with us. By the light of the sect ceiling, I could see dozens and dozens of bats swooping down and attacking the school.


    By the time I crossed the hundred meter distance, the school was in chaos. The bats were attacking students and teachers and ripping them apart. These clearly weren''t vampire bats. They were straight up carnivorous. I saw one of them scoop an entire student into its mouth before chomping down and killing them.


    I tried to save as many students as I could but right after I killed one bat and saved a student from it, another bat would swoop in and kill them behind my back. Eventually, I realized I needed to just kill as many bats as I could as fast as I could.


    "Midas! Go get the bats! As many as you can!" I said to him.


    The soul beast jumped into the air and used Vi propulsion to fly at the bats. He did the most efficient extermination method I could think of for him. He bit their heads off.


    [Carbat head has entered your inventory]


    [Carbat head has entered your inventory]


    [Carbat head has entered your inventory]


    I silenced the notifications and went back to what I was doing, meditating more blood into my body. I poured condensed Vi into the bone marrow in my bones in an effort to produce more blood at a faster rate.


    I punctured my hand and allowed all excess blood that was being produced to flow out of the wound into the air in front of me, creating a sphere of blood. I kept meditating and pouring Vi into my marrow until the sphere was two meters wide.


    There had to be a way to create a blood, but neither Ravenkin nor Bader had taught me how to do that. So I settled for the next best thing, a really big sword.


    The sword I made was a hundred meters long. I was able to protect the school from iing flying invaders, but I couldn''t attack bats that were already on the ground. The length of the sword would have cut sect buildings in half when I swung it at a bat on the ground.


    "Midas! Get the bats on the ground buddy! Eat their heads off!" I yelled.


    That should cover both my bases. Galvin was just kind of hanging out next to me, not knowing what to do. He wasn''t a fighter. At least he wasn''t a fighter who could fight van sized bats, but then again, most people weren''t.


    I continued to swing my massive sword upwards and diagonally through the air to stop any batsing in from above. And all of them were. They never thought to drop to the ground and walk over, which I could do nothing to stop.


    The flow of bats slowed down. I was getting one a minute. They had to decided it was safer to just keep hanging from the ceiling until I dropped my sword. I had to change my strategy.


    If I couldn''t make a, maybe I could make a cage. I turned my sword into a long with a mass of blood at the end. I held the mass of blood under the bats but not close enough to scare them into flying away.


    I formed the mass of blood into a grid of intersecting horizontal lines. I made the holes in the grid too small for the bats to squeeze through. Then, instead of using it as a giant fly swatter, I made four more grids.


    One on each side of the original grid, but facing toward the ceiling. I made their holes too small as well and then I pressed the cage against the ceiling. The bats didn''t have any immediate reactions.


    As I started to make the cage smaller, they realized their predicament and tried to fly out of the cage, but they got stuck on the walls. The holes were too small, just like I had nned.


    I slowly but steadily made the cage smaller and smaller until I started to hear a rapid series of loud squelching noises as the bats were crushed by the cage and eventually cubed by the cage walls.


    I was lucky they were all huddled in the same ce, but they were bats. They tended to do that. Instead of pulling all the blood back to where I was, I let the blood cage fall out over the dirt floor of the vampire territories.


    If I had dropped the blood over the academy, it not only would''ve covered everything in blood, but it would''ve caused literal flooding and it might''ve even caused structural damage to the buildings.


    I was probably going to be in enough trouble as it was. Despite having probably saved dozens of lives from being picked off in the dark by those things. Only about a dozen people died from the attack thanks to me and Midas.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I was going to take the me for their deaths for doing something the vampire association should''ve done years ago to prevent unnecessary death. Those were a lot of bats and since I hadn''t seen any other creatures in these caves, they were probably surviving by eating people who went out to prevent dungeon breaks at the portals.


    The Vampire Association wouldn''t take responsibility for those countless deaths. But I just knew they were going to make me take responsibility for these ones. And to a certain extent they would be right.


    I should''ve been more prepared for a big fight. I just didn''t expect there would be hundreds of giant monsters hiding on the ceiling this close to the sect grounds.


    I could''ve prevented any deaths if I had been prepared, but I was careless and people paid for it with their lives. I probably didn''t deserve the charges they were going to throw at me, but I had made a grave mistake.


    As I was contemting this, I felt myself start to get sleepy. I knew what was going to happen and there was nothing I could do about it other than get down on the ground before I fell down. So that''s what I did.

 Chapter 56 Trial

    The judge''s bench was in the center of the circr seating arrangement and on it sat the judge. He had long back curly hair and an expressionless face. He wore normal judges robes except they were a dark red. The rest of the people wore robes as well but they weren''t as prestigious looking.


    "ALL RISE!! The court of General Sessions Third Judicial Court is now in session. The honorable Judge McCallister is presiding." The person sitting next to the judge said.


    I stood up. I knew what was going to happen and yet I was still nervous. I saw a single familiar face, Lead Elder Alfred Bader. Normally that would give me hope, but his facial expression said otherwise. It was dark and callous. Like a person looking at a bug in their home.


    "Please be seated." The same person said. They handed the judge a stack of papers. "Your honor, this is case #7-666666. Dn Sanguis v. The Vampire Sect."


    "Thank you," the judge said. He looked down at me. "You stand used of twelve counts of involuntary manughter. How do you plead?"


    "Not guilty!" I said.


    "The members of the High Council of the Vampire Association will present their case and then you will get a chance to present yours." Judge McCallister said.


    Various members of the High Council, presented their case against me. Their reasoning was that without my intervention, the bats would have never attacked the sect.


    Therefore I was responsible for the students and teachers deaths. During their whole presentation, Bader said nothing. He had promised me he would back me up on this decision, yet he remained silent.


    When it came time for me to present my case, I said, "Elder Bader told me that a monster extermination job would be good. He said he would back me up on the decision if I was questioned about it."


    The Judge looked at Alfred Bader. "Elder, is that true?"


    "I don''t remember saying any such thing, or even discussing this matter in the first ce," he said.


    The Judge looked at me and said, "He refutes your im."


    "I heard that," I said. "I also talked about it with Elder Ravenkin and he too said he would back up my decision. Just ask him. I know he''ll tell the truth!"


    "Elder Ravenkin is not a part of this council and cannot be called as a witness in this proceeding," the Judge said.


    I dropped the idea of getting backed up by figures of authority andid out my case. I had nned to bring the idea of lighting the territories, so people wouldn''t keep going missing or get lost. I had gone to a dwarven foreman, just to see if someone was willing to do it in the first ce.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The foreman said that the first step of performing construction in a sect''s territories was monster inspection and extermination. I was worried that it wouldn''t be ok for me to go ahead with the extermination without getting association approval first.


    I was told by people who will not be named that it was ok. So I went ahead with the n. I thought I would be making the territories a safer ce by doing this and prevent many more deaths.


    I had never considered that the monsters would be that close to the sect grounds. I argued that they were so close that it was only a matter of time until they attacked the sect. I said that despite the lives that were lost, which was tragic and unfortunate, I prevented many future deaths by exterminating that pack of carbats.


    "The defense has been heard. I will now deliver the sentencing," The judge said. "You will be sentenced to lifetime of imprisonment without the ability to feed. Your skin will grow pale, your fingers and toes will turn ck, your eyes will grow red and your hair will fall out. You will waste away until you are nothing but an unliving corpse in constant agony."


    The judge was about to swing his gavel when Bader spoke up. "I think we should offer a little mercy. Despite how many victims there are, it''s still only involuntary manughter. I think we should give him a quick death and spare him an eternity of pain and suffering." Bader looked me in the eyes and winked.


    "I''m going to ignore that I was interrupted because you are the Lead Elder of the Sect and that carries a certain amount of authority and deserves respect. I like that idea. It still rids us of his presence without taking up a jail cell for eternity. I agree that we should save eternal suffering for more severe crimes," the judge said.


    "Dn Sanguis, you are sentenced to death by beheading," the Judge said and banged his gavel.


    I was put into a jail cell and fitted with silver handcuffs. They blocked Vi and made it extremely difficult to cultivate. I would be publicly beheaded in the Sect courtyard in a month. I couldn''t stop thinking about Bader''s wink. What did it mean? He must have had some trick up his sleeve or thought I had a trick up my sleeve.


    Wait, that was it! The Undead Soul Formation. The undead soul kept a constant connection with the body and mind, so that if the body or mind were damaged, the soul retained a backup to heal and repair the damaged or lost tissue.


    Bader had told me a story about how one time, he''d been blown to bits and the only thing left of him intact was his right foot. Using his undead soul, he repaired his body perfectly and was good as new in a few hours.


    That was impressive regeneration and while I knew troll regeneration was good, I didn''t know how good it was at retaining the memories of the original head if it was removed. By the intelligence level of the first troll I fought, I would guess that the answer was not good.


    I had to find a way so that the troll regeneration didn''t interfere with my vampiric regeneration.


    [You can convert your ability Complete Regeneration into life essence]


    ''Nice! Let''s do that.''


    [Complete Regeneration converted into life essence. 2,000 life essence gained]


    Great! Now I just had to figure out how to cultivate with these handcuffs on. On top of that, I needed to make sure that my vampiric regeneration didn''t heal me immediately.


    I had to appear dead for a while before I would be free to move again. I also didn''t like the idea of growing back my head. I''d rather just keep the original one.


    [I can guide you through the steps to achieve all of those goals, but it will take quite some time and you won''t be able to get stronger. Just more technically skilled]


    [As an aside, in case you weren''t aware, you gained all the life essence of the carbats, which you still need to integrate into your crimson core]


    ''I''m fine with things taking time, and I''m plenty strong already. How much life essence did I get from the carbats?''


    [2,500,000 life essence]


    ''What?''

 Chapter 57 Escape Attempt and Explained Purpose

    Victoria did not look good. She was deathly pale. The ends of her fingertips were ck, a sign of decay. Her eyes were blood red and clumps of her hair were falling out.


    I remembered what the judge had said about how without feeding I would turn into a corpse and wither away. Victoria looked just like the description he had made. The only conclusion I coulde to is that she wasn''t feeding.


    I could guess why. Because of our rtionship. Victoria was a sex vampire so she had to have sex to feed. She must have been starving herself to not cheat on me.


    Even with surviving and escaping, I wouldn''t be able toe back to the vampire sect or the monster underground. And I had a hunch that the system wouldn''t allow me to teleport to see Tommy or Dan. The hangout button had probably just been a form of fast travel.


    I couldn''t fast travel to a ce that I couldn''t slow travel to. A lot of the system functionalities would be useless, but that wasn''t my biggest worry. My biggest worry was the dragon territories. By this time, a month having passed, they would have had multiple dungeon breaks already.


    They would get overrun by monsters, their sect would fall, and the monsters would make their way to the surface and start killing humans as well.


    My greatest regret though would be leaving Victoria behind. She was my rock. My spunky sarcastic violent rock. I wasn''t as worried about myself in this regard. I was worried about her. Would she move on?


    Would she feed again or would she wither away into a miserable nothing in constant pain?


    And I would miss Aldous. He was my first master and would always be my master. He would be fine though. He''d forget about me and move on to another promising student.


    And then there was Bader. What was his n? What was he thinking? Did he want to get rid of me? Is that why he didn''t stick up for me? But then he saved me from the eternal suffering and winked at me, which gave me inspiration for my escape n.


    I couldn''t understand that man and I probably never would.


    The executioner arrived. I had turned off the Blessing of Protection. I changed it to the Blessing of the Day. The Blessing of Protection would only dy the inevitable. That and I might not know when the protection ended and the real cut would happen. I needed to know exactly when the separation of my head from my shoulders would happen.


    Bader might have been able to regenerate from a foot without knowing he would be blown up in advance, but I didn''t want to lose my original head and all the memories inside of it.


    I may still feel like me if my head grew back, but would I still be me? Did the original me die with my head? Because I would be keeping my head, I would need to keep multiple lines of Vi connecting my head to my body to not only prevent a new head from growing in its ce, but to keep maintaining peak brain health until it was time to reconnect my head.


    Then again, one could argue that my soul was the ''real me'' and since that guy was safe and sound, I didn''t need to worry about losing my head. That was great in theory, but I wasn''t taking any chances.


    Midas was standing right next to me, invisible and unmanifested. No one in the entire sect but Bader could see Midas when he was unmanifested. That was because only Bader and I had reached the level of cultivation that we have.


    I noticed Victoria and Ravenkin look at each other and nod. I wasn''t entirely sure what that was about. They weren''t going to try to break me out, were they? That would be insane, and would put them in tons of danger. I didn''t want that.


    Regardless of what I wanted, it happened anyway. Victoria and Ravenkin disappeared and then reappeared in front of me. Victoria grabbed me and threw me over her shoulder. Ravenkin kicked the executioner off the tform.


    Then we all disappeared from the tform and reappeared hundreds of feet away, behind a building. It made me think, why hadn''t I tried to escape? None of the other vampires were as strong as me. Bader was the only one who was stronger that I knew of.


    I should have tried to escape before now. Then Victoria wouldn''t be in the state she was in. I would still need to leave the sect but at least she would know I was ok.


    "I''m so sorry," I said as I hugged Victoria.


    "What are you sorry for?" She said.


    "For not trying to escape sooner," I said. "I¡ª"


    Something mmed into my head, cutting off my words. The part that was weird is that my neck was broken and it wasn''t snapping back right away. I tried to channel Vi to the injury, but whatever hit my head temporarily disrupted my Nexusworks ability to transport Vi to that area.


    I fell onto my side and watched as a masked ninja¡ªthat''s what they looked like at least¡ªwearing all ck with a mask covering most of their face fought Victoria and Ravenkin with a silver sledgehammer.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Every blow inflicted wouldn''t heal right away, so the injuries started to stack up until they were broken messes on the ground. The ninja picked me up, realigned my neck, and channeled Vi into it to heal it. My broken neck healed with that.


    Then, he pulled out a silver dagger and plunged it into my stomach. The pain was excruciating. I couldn''t do anything except feel the pain in my stomach. I couldn''t move and I could barely breathe.


    He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. He walked me back to the execution tform and ced me back in the execution stirrups or whatever they were called.


    He pulled off his mask to reveal that he was in fact my Master Bader. I wondered how he could beat us all off so easily because I had thought Bader was the only one who was stronger than me, but it turned out to be Bader himself.


    Bader leaned down and whispered into my ear, "This is necessary for you to be stronger. You have almost surpassed me. You need a new teacher, but She won''t take you on if you''re with the Vampire Association. I''m giving you a book of rituals. In it is a way to contact Her. Good luck."


    Bader put his hands under me and pulled out the dagger. At the same time, he stuffed a small book down the front of my pants. I assumed no one saw it, since no one said anything.


    Bader walked up to the executioner and pulled out a nearly identical axe to the one he was holding. "Here use this, it''s sharper and it''s still silver."


    The executioner said, "Are you sure? It looks a little off. Like the color is slightly different."


    "No, it''s fine. It''s just a higher purity than the one you have. I''m the Lead Elder. Just take the axe," Bader said.


    "Whatever you say. You''re the boss." The executioner said and exchanged axes with Bader.


    Huh. He must have swapped the silver axe out for a fake. Man, he was really helping me out in a weird way. Whatever. I wasn''t going toin because I still couldn''t move from the dagger that had been in my stomach and if the executioner had used the real axe, I''d probably be dead dead.


    The executioner got ready, lifted the axe, and brought it down. Then everything went ck.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 58 Escaping One Problem to Walk Into Another

    They took my body to an incinerator room to be incinerated obviously. Once everyone had left the room except for the operators of the incinerator, I put my n into action.


    When they put me on the tray to push my body into the incinerator, I grabbed my head that had been ced above my neck and sat up. I pressed my head down onto my neck.


    Sending tons of Vi to the wound, it closed up and my head reattached in just a few seconds, which was exactly how long the incinerator operators stood there shocked that a dead body had gotten up.


    Then they grabbed weapons but I was faster. I bit my arm and then sent blood des rapidly extending out of my arm, into the necks of the incinerator operators.


    They fell to the ground. I got up off the tray and checked them for pulses. They were dead. I grabbed their bodies one at a time and loaded them onto the tray. I checked their bodies for keys or other important items. They both had sets of keys, so I took them and their wallets.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Then I pushed them into the incinerator and closed up the door.


    I looked around to see if there was another way out of this room other than the front door. There were bags of trash piled up here so they had to have some way to take them to the dumpster outside right? I looked around until I found a service elevator in the back of the room.


    They had all my belongings, which weren''t much,ying on a separate tray to be incinerated as well. I grabbed my wallet, keys, phone, and sword, which was all there was.


    Then I got into the elevator. This one didn''t require a blood scan or anything. Just keys which I had. I put the keys into the hole and turned them. A light dinged on and I could ess the buttons. I pressed the letter G for ground floor.


    I wished I could text Victoria I was alright, but I didn''t have her number. Cell phones were useless underground so we didn''t use them. I had no need for her number then. And even now, she was still underground, so even if I had her number she wouldn''t receive the text.


    The elevator let out into an alleyway. I walked to where I left my car, but it was gone. Probably got towed. So I walked around on the street outside the Sanguis Fluid Dynamics building hoping no one recognized me on the cameras.


    I continuously pressed the buttons on the two car remotes of the employees I had incinerated. Eventually I got a hit on a light blue SUV. I hopped in and elerated away before someone caught me.


    I headed back to my apartment but all my stuff was out on the street and the locks had been changed. Crap. I thought that I had left the human world behind, and now when I needed my old life back, it wasn''t just sitting there waiting for me.


    I had a few options. I could sleep in the car until I found a ce that epts gold coins of an unknown mint as payment. I could find a homeless shelter and hope they have room. Or I could go back to the mafia.


    I knew which one was the most reasonable option. The one that would get me back on my feet the quickest and get some real money in my pocket. And it was the one ce I didn''t want to go.


    After mming my hand against my steering wheel, saying some obscenities, and throwing a minor tantrum as an adult, I decided to go back to the mafia.


    I parked my stolen car a few blocks away and walked to the building. I went down the alley and knocked a code on the door, and it opened for me. The doorman recognized me and smiled, happy and unsurprised to see me. He knew I''de back eventually. They all did.


    "The boss is waiting for you," Luther said.


    "As in right now, or in general?" I asked.


    "Right now. He saw you walking up the street on the cameras," Luther said. He put a handheld radio up to his face and spoke into it, "I''m sending him up right now, boss."


    "Good," a deep voice said on the other end.


    I walked up the stairs and knocked on Johnny''s office door.


    "Come in," a voice said on the other side.


    I opened the door and walked into the room. Johnny was sitting in a veryfortable looking swivel chair behind a big mahogany desk. There were several screens set up on it, most of which disyed camera views and one he used to y solitaire or surf the inte.


    "My son. What predicament do you find yourself in that you''vee running back here? I thought you were done with me and my whole operation," Johnny crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.


    Johnny Cbrese was my adoptive father. Him calling me his son wasn''t just a figure of speech. I actually was his son. Not that I wanted to be. I just needed a legal guardian at the time and he needed a kid with my talents.


    ording to the system my lockpicking skills were just adequate, but no other fifteen year old I knew at the time had "adequate" lockpicking skills. And I didn''t know anyone under eighteen who could safe crack. I wasn''t the best but I was good enough to be called a safecracker.


    And in a lot of industries, "good enough" is all you need to be sessful. This was simply because so few people were at least "good enough" at their jobs. Most people were "barely satisfactory".


    At least that''s the way it was in the crime industry. No one stayed in it long enough to get good, because all it took was one bust and you were in jail for twenty years, or worse, for life.


    Not a lot of people survive in an industry where even a single tiny mistake could get you "fired." Hell, in the crime industry you didn''t even have to make a mistake to get "fired." The opposition could just have had luck on their side that day.


    "Father. Something happened and I need a ce to stay," I said. "Some people I thought were on my side tried to kill me, and I have nowhere else to go."


    "Auntie Ethel''s homeless shelter is right down the street," he said, pointing behind him with his thumb.


    "You know that ce never has vacancies," I said.


    "What about Green Pastures?" He said.


    "That ce burned down years ago," I said.


    "What about A New Home?" He said.


    "That ce is a crack house now. No offense to people who do crack, but its just not my scene," I said.


    "Well, then it sounds like you really do have nowhere else to go," he said, a malevolent grin spreading across his face. "I''d let you stay, but you know my policy. Anyone who benefits from the business¡ª"


    "Contributes to the business," I said. "I know. I have money."


    "Well, then you must have forgotten my other saying," he said. "Everyone works or it doesn''t¡ª"


    "work. Right. How could I forget that?" I said. "It really has been too long."


    "Three years is a long time, son," he said. "But I think it''s about time you came back into the fold."

 Chapter 59 Wet Work and Back Channels

    "You won''t be on B and E anymore," Johnny said. B and E stood for breaking and entering. It involved breaking into houses or buildings and stealing stuff. Pretty basic crime sh*t.


    "I won''t?" I said. "Why?"


    "You aged out. You know I only use people who can''t get tried as adults for B and E," he said.


    "Right. Then what will I be doing," I said.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Wet work," he said, handing me a gun with a silencer attached. Wet work meant murder for hire.


    "Hmm. I mean, obviously I have to do it, but can we keep it to bad people? No innocents and no kids. I won''t do it," I said. "Oh, and I won''t need the gun."


    "I wasn''t nning on having you doing any innocents or kids. Bad people only. Agreed. Why won''t you need a gun?" He said, with an eyebrow raised.


    "I''m a lot stronger than I was before," I said. "Give me a quarter."


    "Ok," he said, taking a quarter out of his change jar and handing it to me.


    I took it and folded it in half. Then I folded it in half again and handed it back to him. He looked at it and looked at it, like it was some kind of trick he was going to figure out. He put it down on the desk and then got out a magnifying ss.


    "What are you doing?" I said.


    "I''m trying to figure out how you did this. It''s not a trick quarter, because I can see the date still and it''s the same as the one I handed you. Do you have some kind of pneumatic contraption in your jacket?" He said.


    "Nope. This is the same jacket you gave me when I was fifteen,pletely unmodified," I said, taking it off and putting it on a chair. I took my shirt off to show him that I wasn''t wearing a contraption but also to show off my muscles.


    "Whoa, you''re jacked! When did that happen?" He said, standing back up.


    "If I''m being honest, just about a month ago," I started flexing and making ridiculous faces and noises. "Hiya! Wah! Grr! Gachapon! Tissue Paper!" I pointed into the corner of the room and said, "Hey you guy, I''m gonna murder you with my finger!" And I held up my pinky.


    "Ok, enough with the theatrics. I know you love all that movie sh*t, but this ain''t the movies. This is the mafia. You can shoot a guy or you can break his neck if you want to, but you do it fast and quiet and you get out of there. No bullsh*t," Johnny said.


    "Yes, Dad," I said, pretending to be disappointed as I put my shirt and jacket back on.


    "That quarter sh*t was impressive but strength don''t mean nothing out in the field unless you know how to use it. Prove to me you can do this with the first job and I''ll give you tougher onester," he said leaning back in his chair and throwing a folder onto his desk.


    I picked it up and looked through it. Abusive ex boyfriend murdered her parents and is now stalking her. She wants him gone before he murders her too.


    "Ok, I''ll get it done," I said. "I know you don''t owe me any favors, but can you look into something for me? Ask around about this coin and see if anyone knows anything about it. Only use backchannels though. If the wrong people find out you have that, someone wille knocking on your door and they''ll knock hard."


    I handed Johnny one of my gold giblets.


    "Huh. I''ve never seen anything like this. Is this real gold? Who would have minted a useless gold currency?" He said, looking at it.


    "It''s not useless. Its only used by a series of secret organizations deep underground. One of those organizations tried to kill me, but I want back in. So if you can find someone else who has a way in, I''ll pay you a million dors in these gold coins," I said.


    "Each one is worth about a hundred dors. But you''ll have to melt them down and turn them into bars before you can move them unless you want some very dangerous people on your ass. Oh, and when you''re asking around, stay away from anyone from Sanguis Fluid Dynamics. They''re the ones who tried to kill me."


    "You have ten thousand of these things?" He said.


    I nodded.


    "Intriguing. And I don''t say intriguing very often. I''ll ask around about it," he said.


    "Back channels," I said.


    "Back channels," he mumbled back to me while he stared at the coin.


    I went to the club that Chad always came to watch his ex girlfriend dance. He never made overt advances towards her in the club so he never got kicked out, but sometimes he would follow Chelsea home and stand outside her door without knocking.


    She knew this because she would look through the peephole and he''d just be standing there. She was deeply afraid he would do something someday and so she hired me to keep her safe, in a sense.


    I sat at the bar and ordered a beer. I looked towards the stage at the seats surrounding the stage and spotted Chad. He was watching Chelsea dance just like she said he would be.


    Did this guy have no life? He couldn''t have a job if he was doing this everyday. Maybe he did have no life. Maybe she used to be his life, until he messed up and got abusive.


    Despite how sad and pathetic it was, I didn''t feel sorry for Chad or men like him. They all dug their own grave and then refused toy in it. And they would keep going regardless of who they hurt in the process of trying to make themselves feel better.

 Chapter 60 The Golden Boy

    And he never put it away, because what did he care if he had a measly thousand dors stuffed between papers on his desk? He personally made that much in half an hour. I''m not talking about the business as a whole. I''m talking about his personal sry.


    Aside from the money I had snatched off his desk though, I was t broke. I had millions of gold giblets but no way to turn them into money without potentially getting caught. And despite how little I liked keeping a low profile, I would have to be careful until I could make it back underground.


    Johnny may have been a jerk, but he still was my adoptive father. He may have used me as a kid, but I still think he cares about me. I would know the truth of that if I had bothered to turn my domain aura back on during our conversation, but there was always next time. Unless there wasn''t.


    Having thought about it, I concentrated and turned my domain aura back on. My soul beast Midas had been following me everywhere I went but I often ignored him simply because I didn''t want people to think I was crazy by talking to or petting my invisible dog thing.


    He hopped up onto a bar stool next to me and nuzzled me with his headless shoulders. I petted his back, but low, so people wouldn''t notice in the dark club.


    Getting back to my money problem, I figured I could just mash the gold giblets together and mold them into a ball of gold, but I was pretty sure pawn shops wouldn''t ept a ball of gold.


    They might ept bars of gold, because those were an official form gold was sold in, but no one sold balls of gold. They might assume I''d stolen it or they might just be afraid they couldn''t sell it.


    "Yeah, no one is going to ept your gold balls," a floating gold mouth said to me.


    Oh. I guess they could give general advice now too. That was new and appreciated by me. But, if I could turn the gold into gold bars, they might ept it.


    How would I do that though? I didn''t have a smelter or bar molds to pour the melted gold into. Hmm. Maybe Vi maniption could work? Vi was often the answer to every one of my problems. Vi or Vi infused blood.


    I emptied five giblets out of my inventory into my pocket. I put my hand in my pocket and just mashed the coins together with my fingers until it was a solid chunk. The cultivation had really paid off. I was unbelievably strong at this point.


    Then, with my hand in contact with the chunk, I poured condensed Vi into the gold. Once the chunk was saturated with condensed Vi, I began to reshape the gold by just manipting the Vi. I messed around with the gold for around ten minutes before I got it into an eptable bar shape.


    I pulled it out and put it on the wooden bar. I felt pretty safe doing so, since no one could beat me up and steal it from me as far as I knew. And if someone grabbed it, I could get it back by manipting the strand of Vi I had attached to the bar.


    I used the same technique that I''d used for my head but this strand was thicker. It was more like a small rope than a strand. So I could just yank it back if someone grabbed it.


    When I ced it on the bar, I checked to see if itid t. It did. Then I checked the top and the sides and they all were perfectly t. I had tried to get it as close to looking like a gold bar from the movies, just smaller.


    The bartender saw me ying with it, and said, "What you got there? Is that one of those memorial metal bars that you get engraved to remember someone?"


    "No, it''s just a bar of gold. I''m light on cash and I''ve been trying to sell it, and no one will take it. They think its stolen or something. It''s not. My parents just passed away and left their gold collection to me," I said. Nearly everything I just said was bullsh*t other than the fact that I was looking to sell it.


    "Are you sure it''s real?" He said, his eyes fixated on the gold bar.


    "How can you tell if its real?" I said, trying to fish for clues on how to convince this guy it was real. I mean, it was real. I still would have to convince him of it, if I wanted to sell it.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Well, usually there''s a karat symbol on it somewhere. Can I see it?" He said.


    "He''s not going to try to steal it. He just wants to verify for himself that it''s real and you''re not trying to scam him," a golden mouth created by my domain aura said.


    "Ok," I said. As I slowly handed him the bar, I used Vi to quickly engrave a small "24k" onto the gold bar. Then I let him take the bar from my hand.


    The bartender put on a pair of sses and took out a small shlight. He shined the light on the bar and read, "24k?!?! Your parents left you a 24 karat gold bar?" He was so shocked and stunned by this that he stumbled backwards.


    I concentrated on the gold bar and two numerical values appeared above it. The one on the left was the real value and the one on the right was the perceived value.


    The real value was $500 dors and the perceived value was $500 dors. Since the numbers were the same, I supposed it was 24 karat. I wasn''t that surprised considering where it came from.


    "Would you be willing to sell it?" He said.


    There was literally no one else besides me sitting at the bar. All the other guys were seated in chairs around the stage or tform. I''m not sure what you''re supposed to call it. Oh and they were all guys. There weren''t any women in this establishment other than the ones who worked here.


    "This guy really needs a win. He''s behind on his rent and his child support payments and he''s been eating cereal for every meal all week," the gold mouth said.


    "Yes, I''d be willing to sell it, but on two conditions," I said.


    "Great! What are the conditions?" He said, a little nervous.


    "That you don''t pay me any more than half of its worth and that you use the profit to pay your bills," I said.


    "I can meet those conditions easily, but why? Why would you sell it for so little?" He said, looking relieved.


    "Because I know a financially desperate man when I see one, and I''d like to help you out. As long as you help me out. I have a lot more gold where that came from and as long you''re willing to keep buying from me, I''m willing to keep selling at half price," I said.


    I figured that was fair. It was also two birds with one stone. I would be helping out this guy down on his luck and I would be fixing my money problem without getting the authorities or worse, the vampire association, involved.


    Sure I could go to a gold buying shop and get a lot more money, but then I wouldn''t be helping someone out who I now knew was in need. I even knew a guy who used to buy stolen jewelry from me because he was friends with Johnny.


    "I''d be happy to!" He said.


    "Great! Just so no one asks any questions about where you keep getting all this gold, go down to Mo''s Gold Shop and tell Mo that Dn sent you. If he doesn''t remember that name then mention the name Johnny," I said.


    "Oh, ok. That makes me a little nervous. Did you really get this gold from your parents?" He said.


    "No, but I can promise you on my honor that I didn''t get it from doing anything illegal," I said.


    "Do you swear?" He said.


    "I swear," I said and shook his hand. His eyes shed gold for a second and then it was gone. "I have a really good feeling about you. I feel like I can trust you when you give me your word."


    Weird. That gold sh in his eyes had to be something to do with my domain aura. Did it make people trust me more or like me more? Or both? I''d figure it out in time I guessed.


    Right now I had to get this transaction over with and get back to watching my prey. I nced in the direction of the stage, and Chad was still there just staring at the women. I checked my watch and it was close to closing time.


    "Not to rush you but if we couldplete this transaction soon, that would be great because I may have somewhere I need to be in a few minutes," I said.


    "Oh! Right! I''m holding the bar in my hand and I haven''t paid you," he stuffed the bar into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "Wait, how do I know what to pay you if I don''t know how much the bar is worth?"


    "It''s worth $500. Trust me. Mo will probably give you something like $450 for it. I''ll be back, so if I''m lying I''m dying," I said.


    "Wait so then should I pay you $225 or $250?" he said, acting really nervous.


    "Just give me $200 even. We''ll call that good. I just need enough to get me through the next few days," I said.


    "Ok!" He pulled out two hundred dor bills and handed them to me.


    I took them and put them in my pocket. I looked back at the stage area and Chad was gone. I looked around until I saw him heading out the front door.


    "Ok, gotta go! Thanks!" I said to the bartender who waved at me and nodded his head.


    I followed Chad out the front door but not too closely. I saw him walk around the side of the building into an alley. I nonchntly leaned against the building just around the corner and pretended to y with my phone.


    After a few minutes I looked around the corner. Chelsea was justing out of the back door of the club and Chad was hiding behind a dumpster. It was fairly dark in the alley, but I could see clear as day with my Vi enhanced sight.


    Chelsea walked past the dumpster and Chad grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth. He was holding some kind of cloth against her face. After a few seconds, she went unconscious and he lowered her down to the ground. He must have used chloroform on her.


    I watched for a little while longer to see what his n was. He hadn''t hit her or harmed her yet, other than the chloroform of course. When he started taking off his belt, I knew it was time for me to take action. I walked down the shadowy alley with a singr purpose. To take this bastard down.

 Chapter 61 Revenant

    I ran up and tried to pull him off of her. "Get off her!" I said. He was surprisingly strong for a human.


    "You don''t understand!" He said. "I need to¡ª"


    I broke his neck from behind in order to release his grip from Chelsea. Chelsea came to and saw me and Chad on the ground.


    "You killed him," she said, acting shocked and emotionally distant.


    "You hired me to do that," I said.


    "I know, but when you see it in person, it''s¡­ different," she said. She was saying her lines and hitting her beats perfectly, but I wasn''t convinced. She was hiding something.


    "She''s happy he''s dead, even though she''s trying so hard to pretend not to be," the golden mouth said.


    ''I know,'' I thought. ''The question is why?''


    "Maybe she''s just a sociopath," the mouth said.


    ''No. There''s more to it than that, but with Chad dead, we can never hear his side of the story.''


    All I could do now was let her go and take care of Chad''s body.


    "Get out of here," I said. "This ain''t a peep show."


    She was staring at the body acting all shocked but I knew she was enjoying seeing Chad dead. It gave me the creeps and I don''t know why. I mean, if someone killed my parents and was stalking me, I''d be happy to see them dead. But this felt different. Wrong, somehow.


    After Chelsea left, I loaded the body into the trunk of my car that Johnny lent me for the job. I was supposed to drive the car to a drop off point, exchange the body with someone else and they would take it to an undisclosed location to dispose of it.


    Halfway to the drop off point, I heard banging in the trunk. And then someone yelled, "Let me out!"


    I pulled the car onto a dirt road and drove for a bit before stopping and opening the trunk. It was Chad, back from the dead somehow. I might have to get more creative with this one. It would help if I knew what kind of monster he was though first.


    "What are you?" I said.


    "I don''t know! I can''t die. Or I can die, but I alwayse back," he said.


    I pulled him up out of the trunk and got him on his feet. He didn''t try to run or kill me. It seemed like he just wanted to talk.


    "When did this start happening to you?" I asked.


    "When my parents died," he said, tears running down his face.


    "When your parents died?" I said. "I thought you killed her parents."


    "No. Who told you that?" He said.


    "Some idiot," I said, thinking about Johnny. "Ok, then you killed your parents? And you what, killed yourself and came back to life? How does that work?"


    "No. I didn''t kill my parents! Chelsea did. And then she killed me," he said. "Then I woke up, I heard the copsing, and I got out of there. I was confused.


    I followed Chelsea home from her work to ask her why she did it, but she killed me again. And again. And again. And then I guess you got called. What are you a hitman?"


    "Currently, that is my line of work, but I do not enjoy doing it unless the targets are actually bad people. And you''re not a bad person. My question is why did you try to kill her this time?" I said.


    "I think that''s why I keep getting brought back. To avenge my parents'' deaths." He said.


    "Oh my god, you''re a revenant!" I said.


    "What''s a revenant?" He said.


    "A person who''s been brought back for revenge!" I said.


    "Does that mean when I get revenge, I die?" He said.


    "Maybe. Do you want to die again?" I said.


    "Not particrly." He said.


    "Is not dying worth it enough to you to not get revenge?" I said.


    "In this scenario, does she get to keep living with no consequences to her actions?" He said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Hell, no! I''m going to kill her! In that scenario, of course." I said.


    "I think I can be ok with that if I get to live this half dead existence longer," he said.


    "Undead existence, but yes, I get what you''re saying. I''d like to put you up in a motel, but I only have two hundred dors. Is that enough? I haven''t been in a motel in a while." I said.


    "Yes, even in this economy, it is. More than enough actually. I could buy snacks at the vending machine!" He said,ughing genuinely.


    "Ok! Get back in the car. Let''s do this." I said.


    I dropped Chad off at a motel, and then I drove back to Johnny''s and burst into his office. "Did you get the money from the Chelsea thing?"


    "Yes," he said, looking pleased. "Do you have any other ns tonight or are you heading to bed?"


    "Good," I said. "No I''ll be staying up for a little while longer. I have to go kill that Chelsea girl."


    "What?" Johnny said. He had been eating a hot dog and hot dog debris sprayed all over his desk.


    "You know you shouldn''t talk with your mouth full," I said, pointing at the food debris on his desk.


    "Why are you going to kill our client?" He said.


    "Because she''s the real killer. She killed Chad''s parents and she killed him too," I said.


    "What do you mean she killed him too? If she killed him, he would be dead," Johnny said, continuing to finish his hot dog.


    "Ok, sorry. I meant she shot him and tried to kill him, but he survived," I said. I needed to watch what I said more carefully. I didn''t want to reveal the monster world to Johnny or worse, make him thing I''m crazy.


    "Oh. That makes sense," Johnny said, swallowing thest of his dog. He considered it for a moment, and said, "I mean, we already have her money. And you did kill Chad right?"


    "Yeah. I killed him. Broke his neck." I said,pletely honestly.


    "Good. Well then, I don''t see a problem if an individual not associated with the Cbrese crime family, were to, uh, take care of business. You know." He said.


    "Understood," I said, smiling. Sometimes Johnny was alright.


    "You know where she lives right?" I said.


    "Yeah, she lives at 154 Marigoldne, apartment 23." He said, now smoking a cigar. This man had an oral fixation.


    "Cool. I''ll see youter. Leave the door unlocked in the back. My room is same one as before right?" I said.


    "Yep. Same one," He said, nodding at me through a cloud of smoke.


    "You know, you''re really not supposed to smoke inside," I said.


    "This is my house! I''ll smoke inside if I want," he said, as he waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear away some of the smoke.


    "Ok. You do you," I said, and left.

 Chapter 62 The Raid

    The lights were off. Perfect. I could see in the dark instantly. No need to adjust. I quietly walked down the hall and saw that she was out on her balcony. Oh thank goodness.


    This was going to be so much easier now.


    The balcony door was open so I tiptoed through while her back was turned, grabbed her hand, and told Midas to fly us high into the air. Midas flew us about hundred meters in the air.


    "Why are you doing this to me?" She said, acting all innocent, but also weirdly calm.


    "Why did you kill Chad and his parents?" I asked. "Also why did you think a hitman would able to kill a guy you had already killed four times and still came back?"


    "Because they were annoying. Because I didn''t like living with them. Because I didn''t like how connected they felt to me when I felt nothing for them. Because his mom tried to n our engagement and our wedding. Like I was ever going to marry him!" She said.


    "And I thought it might be like a ghost. If you killed him, maybe he would haunt you instead."


    "Yeah, that''s toxic behavior, but that''s something you break up with someone for, not kill them," I said.


    "Killing them seemed easier. I didn''t want to see their tears or hear their guilt trips." She said.


    "I acknowledge your perspective, but I fundamentally disagree with your decision. And for that, I''m sorry, but you must die," I said. "I can''t be sure you won''t kill again because someone else annoyed you."


    "You''re not going to drop me are you?" She gave me puppy dog eyes.


    "No," I said.


    "Oh, good," she seemed relieved.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "I''m going to break your neck," I said.


    "No don¡ª" She started to say, before I snapped her neck and flew down to my car, dropping her in the trunk. I drove to the drop off point.


    Dude was pissed. "You''re two hourste." He said.


    "There was a mix up with the bodies," I said. I got Chelsea out of the trunk and helped put her in his trunk. "Alright, see you never."


    "I hope so," the guy said as he drove away.


    ¡ª


    During the night, since I didn''t need to sleep as much since I got into the higher levels of cultivation, I made gold bars out of giblets. I made about two hundred.


    In the morning I sold 190 of them, making ny five thousand dors, and then I dropped by the bar and gave the bartender 10 bars for free. Making him about five thousand dors richer.


    He hugged me and said thank you a million times, but it wasn''t necessary. I just made him swear to spend it on bills. And I said I would be watching. I had connections.


    I read through the book Bader gave me and it was full of rituals for gaining favor with Shikasa and one of them for contacting her. All of them required human blood. And human blood was very expensive, so I knew I needed to start gathering money to pay for it, if I wanted to contact Shikasa.


    I checked the Alchemy tab to see if I could contact Tommy to get some blood but the system said [Unavable for use at this time]. Several other tabs were like that as well.


    I dropped by the motel and gave Chad a thousand dors. With that he should''ve been able tost at least a little while. I told him I wouldn''t be checking in on him.


    If he wanted to contact me, he could call me or text me. And he could contact me if he needed more money, but he would have to tell me he needed it. I wouldn''t just magically know.


    I brought everyone in the mafia house coffee and donuts. They seemed to appreciate it. I was in Johnny''s office and he looked at me and said, "You''re like a different person from the boy I knew. You''re like a man now."


    "Thanks, Johnny," I said. "Now what''s next?"


    A tear gas grenade flew through the open window into Johnny''s office. "Oh sh*t!" I said.


    I heard the front door get busted down by a ram and heavily armored people ran into the house. Guns started firing and bullets went everywhere. I grabbed Johnny and covered him with my body as I tried to get us out through the back.


    There were people there too who were dressed in dark heavy Ker. Their faces were covered by helmets and reflective lenses. I drew my sword, Muramasa''s Blood Fiend, and activated the Blood Draw ability. I extended the de of my sword with blood maniption and swung my sword diagonally at a group of armored people.


    I cut three of them in half. Then I aimed my sword at different people and extended my de into them repeatedly. It was like I was stabbing them with a spear from fifteen feet away.


    Their bullets hit me but they did nothing to me. They simply bounced off my skin. I did a diving kick down the stairs at the line of people blocking the stairway. I knocked ten of them over and extended blood spikes in all directions from my body, stabbing each of them dozens of times.


    I didn''t actually have to use Blood Draw to have ess to my blood. It was just when I pulled it directly out of my body, it ripped through the skin. That hurt like hell, so I didn''t like to do it if I didn''t have to, but I clearly had to here.


    I grabbed one of the ice pills from my inventory, popped it in my mouth and swallowed it. Frost came from my breath. Johnny and I opened the backdoor and were surrounded by people with guns.


    I looked at them and breathed at them from left to right. Blood mist poured out of my mouth and froze all the soldiers here.


    "What the f*ck kid? How did you do that? And how did you do the thing with the sword?" Johnny said.


    "We need to get out of here," I said. I grabbed onto Midas with one arm and Johnny with the other and we flew into the sky. Johnny started screaming at first, but he quickly got a hold of himself.


    We touched down a few blocks away. "About that coin I asked you about. You did use back channels right?" I said.


    "I may have used front channels. I don''t remember," Johnny said, holding his side. I made his remove his hand. He was shot in the side and bleeding. A lot.


    Since all of my problems were always solved with Vi, I tried that here. I poured Vi into the wound. I felt around with the Vi until I got a hold on the bullet. I extracted it.


    Then I just poured as much Vi into the wound as I could. I could sense it healing faster than normal but not vampire fast. After a few minutes, it had stopped bleeding and he was in the early stages of recovery.


    "You need toy low for a while. Text me when you find a ce and I''lle. I''m going back in there to see if I can save anyone," I said.


    "Be careful, son," he said.


    "I will, Dad. I will," I said.

 Chapter 63 Raid 2

    When I got down there it was chaos. Shots were being fired back and forth throughout the first floor. Several people on both sides shot me but they didn''t do anything. And then I saw her.


    Victoria had a hole in her stomach the size of a melon. She looked like shit still, she clearly hadn''t been feeding. She was sitting on top of one of Johnny''s men, riding him like there was no tomorrow.


    I watched as the hole slowly healed and closed up. She was feeding off him to heal her body. Then she saw me. Here eyes went wide and she went ghostly pale.


    She looked at me, and then down at what she was doing and realized what she had done. Cheated. On me. identally. And unknowingly. But she did.


    And she couldn''t seem to live with that.


    "No! Don''t look at me! I''m disgusting!" She tried to cover herself and she fell to the floor, half naked and bawling.


    "You''re dead! And I was about to die! Wahhhh!!!" She just started crying inconsbly on the ground. She got pelted with bullets but she paid them no mind.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Despite the feeding she had already done, she was going to die if I didn''t get her out of here. She couldn''t just shrug off bullets like I could. Bullets would kill her if she was hit by enough of them and especially in such a starved vulnerable state.


    Luther walked up to her on the ground and put a gun to her head. He was about to end her, and I said, "Luther stop! That''s my girlfriend!"


    "You''re dating the enemy?" He said, really confused.


    "It''splicated. Can you get everyone left out of here?" I said.


    "Yeah, probably." Luther said.


    "Then do that and text me where you guys settle. I''lle and check on you afterwards. I need to get her out of here," I said as I looked down at Victoria.


    "Ok," he said and left.


    I knelt down on the ground and picked up Victoria and put her over my shoulder. She didn''t resist, but she wasn''t really thinking about much right now except her grief and her guilt.


    I went back up the stairs and out the back of the house. Then we flew away with Midas. We touched down at the motel Chad was staying at. I knocked and he opened the door.


    I just walked in and put her on the bed. She was covered in blood.


    "You know they''ll charge me for bloodstains," he said.


    "Put it on my tab," I said.


    I ced my hands on Victoria''s stomach. Careful not to disrupt the Vi in her body, I sent Vi across the surface of her skin and into her wounds to assess the damage.


    She had over fifty bullets in her body, if you counted each piece of buckshot as an individual bullet. She had a mix of shotgun pellets and regr bullets inside her.


    I located and grabbed onto every bullet with the nket of Vi I had created over the outside of her body. Then I pulled them all out at once.


    "Ahhhh!!!" She screamed in agony. Her muscles twitched and spasmed under my fingers.


    "I know, babe. I know," I said. I was experiencing a tidal wave of emotion at the moment, but she needed me to be present and functional if she was going to make it out of this alive. Or unalive. Whatever.


    After removing the bullets, I concentrated Vi into the wounds to promote elerated healing. I could sense it as it was happening. After about twenty minutes of dedicated concentration, she was fully healed from her injuries.


    I ced her in the center of the bed and put a pillow under her head. Despite being fully healed, her nervous system had gone through extensive stimtion. Which was just a fancy way of saying she experienced immense pain and agony.


    The central nervous system which consists of your brain and spinal cord needs rest after extensive stimtion, pleasant or unpleasant. And she had received a truckload of the unpleasant variety.


    This was all to say that I let her sleep it off while I cleaned up and processed my emotions. I put all the bullets into the bag in the trashcan and removed the bag.


    Didn''t want the cleaning crew to find bullets in the trash. I gave it to Midas to eat so it would be deposited in my inventory.


    [Bag of bullets added to your inventory]


    "Are you going to exin to me what happened? And who she is?" Chad said.


    "Not now, Chad. I willter. I just went through a gun fight where I got shot over a hundred times, and my girlfriend almost died in front of me. I need time to process this sh*t, ok?"


    "Well, that kind of answered all my questions already, but I''ll leave you be," he said, as he went and sat in the chair at the little desk in the room.


    I sat on the edge of the bed and just let my mind wander. She cheated on me, but she really didn''t cheat though. I mean, I was dead for one, and she only did it to stay alive, which benefitted me as well as her.


    I wouldn''t have wanted her to not feed and die. So if anything, I was thankful she did it. Yes. She did nothing wrong. And I don''t feel disrespected or insulted by it. It was purely for survival.


    Again, she did nothing wrong and she has nothing to be ashamed of. How should we do this going forward though? She needed to feed. She couldn''t keep starving herself.


    What if she only used her hands. Would that still provide the same nourishment? That sounds so weird. Sexual acts providing nourishment. But they did for her. So I guess it wasn''t that weird.


    Ok. That''s what I''ll tell her. She''s allowed to use hands however she wants, and mouth if she has to. That''s not a big deal, right? Right. This was going to be the weirdest story to tell our kids.


    If we ever had kids. Oh wait, vampires can''t have kids. But my mom did. So maybe I could too? I''d have to ask my mom when I finally saw her after all these years. I''m not even sure I want kids.


    Ok, time to stop talking to yourself now. I checked on Victoria. She was awake. She looked at me with the saddest eyes I''d ever seen.


    "Can you hold me?" She said.


    "Yes, I can do that." I said. I climbed onto the bed and got into the big spoon position behind her and held her.


    "Thank you." She said.


    We didn''t say anything else for a long time, and eventually we fell asleep.

 Chapter 64 An Important Conversation

    "I love you too," I said. I did. While we had spent a lot of time together in that week after we first met, it had still only been a week. But there was a saying that goes, "distance makes the heart grow fonder." I found it to be true for me here. The month I spent in confinement, when I wasn''t cultivating, I was thinking about Victoria.


    I grew to appreciate all of the little things about her that I liked. Then I grew to love her. Do I know if that''s true love? Is that the way love is supposed to develop? I don''t have those answers, so don''t ask me those questions.


    All that I new is that I loved her now. And it seemed that over that same month, she had been thinking about me, and now she too loved me.


    "I know you wouldn''t ask this even if you were thinking it, so I''ll answer it. I couldn''t have drank blood to regenerate. I didn''t have a stomach left to process the blood into life essence. I needed to extract life essence directly and I needed to do it fast. That''s why I did it," she said.


    "You don''t need to exin yourself to me. I trusted that you did it because there was no other way. I have some doubts about whether I should be trying to inhibit your nature at all, actually. But, if its self imposed, I will say I don''t think you have anything to worry about as far as hands and mouth are concerned," I said.


    "You have to feed somehow. There''s no way around that. You can''t keep starving yourself for me. That said, I may have found a way around you having to do it sexually or by sucking blood."


    "Oh, good, because I hate sucking blood," she said.


    "You would prefer to suck something else. I know," I said. Why did I say that? That is such an asshole thing to say right now.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "That''s really not funny," she said. "Not right now. Not while I feel like an absolute piece of sh*t."


    "I know. I''m sorry. I won''t do it again," I said. "I love you." I kissed the back of her neck.


    "Thank you," she said. "I love you too." She kissed one of my hands that was wrapped around her.


    "What''s this new method of feeding you figured out?" She said.


    "Oh, right. Tommy. He''s an alchemist now at the Lich sect and he figured out how to extract the life essence from blood and turn it into a pill. Each pill shouldst you a day, and I have fifty pills left. You can have them," I said.


    "I don''t have ess to more right now, since I can''t visit Tommy anymore. I''ve been trying to get ess to the underground some other way than through the Vampire Association, but so far no luck."


    "Oh! So it was you who alerted us," she said. "The Vampire Association heard that some human had a gold giblet, so we came in to cover things up and make sure no one found out about the underground."


    "The Vampire Association covers up their secrets by murdering everyone involved? That''s kind of messed up, don''t you think?" I said.


    "Yes, but there''s a reason monsters have stayed a secret this long," she said.


    "You don''t agree with that, do you?" I said.


    "No, but I don''t have any other choice. I live under the protection of the Vampire Association, so I have to follow their rules," she said.


    "You mean you didn''t have any other choice, right? You''re not going back there, are you?" I said, concerned.


    "I. I don''t know. I hadn''t thought about it," she said.


    "They killed your boyfriend. They''ll try to do it again, if they find out I''m alive. And you won''t be able to see me anymore," I said.


    Read exclusive adventures at empire


    "I could still visit you on the outside," she said.


    "On the other hand, if you leave, you''ll be able to see me all the time. You''ll be able to help me find a way to save the world from the dungeon monsters. And we''ll able to build a life together. We''ll be able to build a bloodline together," I said. "Don''t you want that?"


    "Yes! Yes I do!" She said.


    "Then what''s stopping you," I said.


    "Nothing, I guess," she said.


    "Good. Then it''s settled. You''re staying topside with me," I said. "Unless you don''t want to. This is your choice."


    "No, I want to. I''m just afraid," she said.


    "Of what?" I said.


    "Change. Losing the friends I''ve had for hundreds of years," she said.


    "Change can be bad, but it can also be good. And you''ll make new friends. Ones that won''t stab you the moment you turn your back," I said.


    "Ok. The more that I think about it, the more that I like the idea of this change," she said. I could hear the smile in her voice.


    "Good. I would hate to find outter that I''d manipted you into something you didn''t want to do," I said.


    "No. I could never see you doing something like to me. Other people sure, but not me," she said.


    "That''s because I wouldn''t," I said.


    "I know," she said.


    Weid there for a while longer but I kept feeling ''hotter'' and ''hotter'' until I couldn''t take it anymore. "Do you want to maybe feed again, but this time on me?"


    I hadn''t integrated any of the life essence I got from the fight at Johnny''s into my crimson core so I had a lot of excess life essence she could feed on. Probably somewhere around 50,000 excess life essence if I had to guess. I pulled up my status screen in the system.


    [Status]


    [Dn Sanguis]


    [Species: Omni-Vampire]


    [Bloodlines: None Active]


    [Age: 21]


    [Cultivation Stage: Peak Soul Domain Formation stage]


    [umted Life Essence: 2,605,000]


    [Excess Life Essence: 50,000]


    [Stolen Bloodline Abilities: Daze, Venomous Bite, Venom Immunity, Ink Generation]


    [Skills]


    [Undead Soul: Soul Beast]


    [Soul Domain: Advanced]


    [Soul Aura: Advanced]


    [Blood Maniption: Advanced]


    [Vi Maniption: Expert]


    [Shadow Maniption: Beginner]


    [Swordsmanship: Advanced]


    [Lockpicking: Adequate]


    I was right. I did have 50,000 excess life essence. Maybe my intuition was connected to my system somehow.


    "I thought you would never ask!" She said, as she turned over and started kissing me.


    "Chad, I''m going to need you to take a walk around the block. Actually, have a full meal on me at the diner across the street. I''ll reimburse you. Just keep the receipt," I said.


    "Ok," Chad said, and he left the room.


    Victoria and I proceeded to have our fun and we had a lot of it. I was really pent up since we''d been apart for a month. Victoria felt it too. She felt all of it. And that was how I saved Victoria from starvation.

 Chapter 65 Fun (18+)

    She began to slide my fat cock further and further into her mouth as she bobbed her head up and down. She got down to where I was touching the back of her throat, and then she opened her throat somehow and took me all the way down to the base.


    She smiled at me somehow with my cock all the way down her throat and her tongue came out of the bottom of her mouth to lick my balls. I had really sensitive balls and that felt amazing. I was getting ready to cum already.


    [2,000 life essence extracted]


    "Babe," I said, trying to warn her I was going to bust, but she put up her hand. She pulled my cock all the way out of her throat and mouth and took a big breath of air.


    "I know, babe," she said. "I want you to empty your big fat balls down my throat. You''ll get hard again soon. Trust me."


    "Ok," I said, as she lowered her mouth back down onto my cock.


    She put it all the way back down her throat in an instant, and started licking my balls again with my cock down her throat. She licked and massaged my balls with her long tongue. After a few minutes of that, I was getting ready to cum.


    [2,000 life essence extracted]


    I wondered how she was staying down so long without needing toe up for air, but then I remembered she''s a vampire. She''s undead, she doesn''t need to breathe. She only does it sometimes for cultivation purposes.


    "I''m cumming!!" I said. I grabbed the sheets in bunches. "Oh fuck!"


    I could feel myself emptying my balls down her throat. I felt everyst jerk of my cock and how her throat massaged the head as I came. I kept cumming and cumming. I thought I would never stop, but eventually I did.


    [20,000 life essence extracted]


    When I was finished, Victoria came up for air finally. "You came a lot that time babe! My stomach''s full. I''m not hungry anymore."


    She smiled at me and kissed me. I kissed her back. I turned her over and got her ready for my turn. I pulled down her panties threw them somewhere. She had nothing left on. I looked at her huge breasts as sheid there on her back, waiting for me.


    But I wasn''t going to just enter her and be done with it. I was going to get her ready first. Ready to take my massive cock. My cock was normally around 9 inches, but on a good day it was 9.5 and today was a good day.


    Most women couldn''t even take the head, let alone the whole thing. So I learned that I always needed to get women ready with my mouth and fingers before we started the real show.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    I got down between her legs and started licking her pussy. I licked from bottom to top, and then I focused on the clit. I stuck a finger in under my mouth and made a e hither'' motion with my finger.


    Then I inserted a second finger. As I began to get into a good rhythm, Victoria arched her back.


    "Oh fuck!¡­ That feels so good! Oh, fuck me, babe! Fuck me! Fucking eat my pussy! Oh my god! Jesus christ!


    Fuck me," Victoria said, as she arched her back and moaned.


    I kept eating her pussy and fingering her until she had a body shaking orgasm. "Oh fuck! Oh my god!" She grabbed a pillow and put it over her face so she could scream into it.


    I gradually slowed my tongue and fingers until I let her ease off her orgasm. I let hery there for a few minutes while she got her breath back. However, I was already rock hard again.


    She noticed my erection and said, "Babe, just climb on top of me. I can''t get up right now. You blew me away with that thing you just did."


    "Ok, don''t mind if I do," I said. I inched my way up to her on the bed and knelt between her legs. I silenced the notifications before we started.


    I pressed my rock hard cock against her slit and teased it, rubbing my cock up and down her slit and rubbing it against her clit. She moaned in protest, but I wanted her to be as ready as she could be for this dick, because it was a big one.


    I finally pressed my cock head against her pussy, and slowly slid my way in, one inch at a time. I slowly started sliding in and out, trying to get deep with each thrust.


    "Oh, fuck babe! You''re so fucking big! Jesus christ! Fuck me! Fuck me babe! Get it all in there, please!" Victoria said.


    She felt like a tight velvet glove around my cock. It felt amazing. I''d never had better sex in my life. It was like she was trying to get me to cum with the first thrust.


    As we started getting into a good rhythm, I thought about the purpose of this session. I mean, the purpose was to get our rocks off, and to express our feelings for each other, but the other purpose was to give her as much of the 50,000 excess essence I had extracted from the gun fight as possible.


    And I aimed to do that. With every thrust from me and moan from her, I felt a little bit of life essence drain away from me. It was nothingpared to my total, so I didn''t feel tired or anything. I could just feel a slight pull.


    As we fucked, I started to hear a pping sound. I looked down and realized I was all the way inside, and the sound was our bodies pping together.


    "Oh my god! Oh my god! I''m gonna cum again! Keep fucking me! Don''t stop!" She said.


    I did as she said and kept fucking her but I couldn''t stay silent myself any longer.


    "Oh fuck, babe you feel so fucking good. Oh my god. I love you so much. I missed you so much over thest month. I never want to be apart from you again," I said.


    "Oh, babe. I love you too. I don''t ever want to be apart from you ever again. Oh fuck I''m cumming!" She said.


    "I''m almost there babe. Keep cumming," I said.


    She kept cumming for a minute while I worked my way up toward her, then right when I was about to cum, I pulled out and came all over her chest. "Oh fuck, I''m cumming! Fuck!" I said.


    Spurt after spurt, rope after rope,nded on her chest and stomach, covering her in ayer of my cum. It was a good thing we hadid out a towel or the entire bed would''ve been covered in cum when she tried to get up. Stay updated through empire


    After cleaning herself off, she said, "Why do you always do that? Just cum inside me babe. It feels so much better and you won''t get me pregnant."


    "Sorry. Force of habit," I said. "I''ll cum inside you next time." I looked her up and down as she toweled off and got up from the bed. "Man, you are perfect."


    "Thanks, babe. You''re pretty amazing yourself," she said, winking at me. After she toweled off, she got back in bed with me and we cuddled up together in our afterglow.

 Chapter 66 Alice

    "I''m speaking of romantic love specifically, not familial love or loving a friend. Although, in the 200 years I''ve been undead, I haven''t experienced feeling love for a friend. And the possibility of familial love was taken away from me when my progenitor left me unconscious in an alley. Just like I was going to do to you. I''m sorry for that."


    "I was a prostitute in London when I was turned. My parents were killed when I was young. I grew up in an orphanage. They turned me out at 18, so I turned myself out at 19. I couldn''t take begging for scraps anymore. After a few years things had gotten better.


    I wasn''t sleeping on the streets anymore."


    "But then he showed up. I remember what he looked like to this day, but I never saw him again. He was tall. He had curly ck hair and a paleplexion. He said he was an earl. He imed to be married with kids, but his wife wouldn''t sleep with him anymore."


    "I normally didn''t do married men, despite how many of my prospective customers were married, but he offered me an outrageous amount of money. It was enough to where I thought I could retire from the business. The offer was in exchange for bing his exclusively and doing whatever he wanted to do."


    "I reluctantly agreed. He was going to take me to a grand hotel where he would pay for me to keep a permanent room there, but things went wrong. He told me he wanted to try me out to make sure I was willing to go through with what he needed from me."


    "I agreed that was a good idea. I asked what he wanted from me. He said he wanted a lover, a confidant, and someone whose blood he could suck to sustain his immortal undead existence. He revealed to me that he was a vampire, but he said even if I did not believe in vampires, which he said he was ok with, he would still need to suck the blood from my neck regardless."


    "Again, I reluctantly agreed. This was quickly escting beyond what I was ready for or ustomed to, but the allure of a better life was too strong to make me back down yet. He said he would just take a test bite to see if I reacted properly to it."


    "He said that his teeth would release a paralytic into my blood stream that would render me unable to move. He said that when my legs gave out, he would catch me and hold me up. When he initiated the test bite, something went wrong. I didn''t react the way he expected or wanted me to."


    "I don''t know why, but I instinctively bit him back and sucked his blood. He dropped me when I did that. I went unconscious at that point and he left. I know this because he wasn''t around when I woke up."


    "I can guess what went through his mind. He wanted a consistent food source. He didn''t want a progeny. Someone who couldn''t produce life essence for him to feed off. Someone he would be held responsible for by the Vampire Association. So he abandoned me, despite knowing I would be a vampire."


    "The first few years of my vampire life went about the same as the previous three years. I continued to prostitute myself, only at night, but I only ever worked at night before so that was no different. The only real difference is I had to get thicker drapes."


    "I never drank anyone''s blood. I fed through sex. It''s ironic that a prostitute would be a sex vampire. Your blood was actually the third time I''ve ever tasted blood. Sex got me by just fine for 200 years, I didn''t see any reason to change it. Also, it allowed me to delude myself into thinking I wasn''t hurting anyone."


    "That I wasn''t doing anything wrong. I wasn''t hurting anyone long term. People felt groggy the next morning sometimes. That was all. And they could me that on the booze. It was Alice that got me out of the prostitution business.


    I met Alice ten years after I was turned. I had amassed a small fortune by then, I could afford to fumble my way into a new career."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "So I listened to her. I let her drag me out of the alleyways and into the spotlight. The theatres specifically. Alice and I worked as actresses for a traveling theaterpany. We yed minor roles in Shakespeare ys and supporting roles in the melodramas. The Lady of Lyons and The Strangere to mind."


    "We held main roles in theedy farces however. Lots of pstick humor and quick costume changes. We had such a good time with those. I would always catch the eye of a gentleman in the audience and he would join me in my dressing room after the show." Continue your saga on empire


    "Alice hated that. She would yell and scream at me and say, "You''re breaking my heart." I never really understood what she meant. I always thought she was trying to impose her morality upon me. I was just as good at getting upset back at her. I would use her of being jealous that I always had a man and she never did."


    "I feel awful about it now, but I couldn''t tell her the truth. That I needed sex to survive. She would see me as the monster I was, and I couldn''t live with that. Instead I just acted like every night was an ident. That I was continuously falling into a bad habit. An addiction."


    "Ultimately, it was these encounters with men in my dressing room that led to Alice''s death. Alice''s dressing room was right next to mine, so she could hear everything that was said between me and the men I was with. One night was particrly bad. The man was really into degradation. He called me a whore, a prostitute, anything to put me down in order to turn him on."


    "I didn''t care. I was getting what I needed, life essence. But Alice cared. She confronted the man afterwards and gave him a piece of her mind. She said to him, "You can''t treat her like that!" He said, "I can treat her however I want. I''m royalty." Alice said, "You may be royalty, but Victoria is twice the man you''ll ever be!""


    "He said, "What makes you think you know so much about her? You didn''t hear the things she said to me, in private. She''s not as great as you think she is." Alice responded, "My dressing room is right next to hers. I hear everything she says, even in private! And I know when she''s faking an orgasm and she faked it with you all night!""


    "He said, "Shut up you stupid b*tch!" He punched her. Alice tripped backwards and her head hit the wall when she fell. Alice took ill after that incident. In modern terms she suffered a brain injury, but no one knew anything about that sort of thing at the time. All they told me was ''she''d taken a bad turn.''"


    "She deteriorated over the next four days, until it became too much for me to handle. She developed a fever and seizures. She would periodically fade in and out of consciousness. I couldn''t take it anymore. So I fed her my blood. I told her I was a vampire and that she was one now too."


    "It was the weirdest thing. She seemed to feel betrayed, but also touched that I would do something like that to save her. I didn''t understand it. I hadn''t fed for several days, so I needed to feed that night. The theatre troupe was going to leave town that night, but I figured I had time."


    "I told Alice to make sure they wait if I didn''t return in time. The search took longer than expected and I became more and more desperate until I finally found a man, but he bashed me in the back of the head afterwards. Made me go unconscious. Probably would''ve killed me if I weren''t a vampire."


    "I didn''t get back to the campsite until noon the next day. The troupe was long gone by then, and so was Alice. I tried to find the troupe countless times over the next twenty years, but I was always a step behind, until one day I heard the troupe disbanded. The members all went their separate ways, but no one could tell me what happened to Alice."


    "I still wonder where she is to this day. Is she still unalive? Does she resent me? Did she forget about me? Does she even think of me at all? I''ve lived a long life and have many stories to tell, but my memories of Alice are some of my most treasured."


    I didn''t know what to say to that. I had never heard a more thick headed story of almost insane blindness to the feelings of others before in my life! I was tempted to call her an idiot.


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