It didn’t take an awfully long time for Ti to reach the manor, he of course stopped to marvel up at the gothic european styled home and he couldn’t help but think he might have seen one of the gargoyles up above turn to look at him. He had more pressing matters to deal with though, he didn’t want to waste this day of extra play by getting out of his pod to eat, that was just horribly inefficient and though he hadn’t played a VR game in a long time he felt almost compelled to play this one and he didn’t know why…

His menu slipped into his vision and he logged out, there was darkness for a few moments before the pod hissed open and he stepped out, already moving towards the kitchen. Every minute he wasted out here was 4 minutes wasted in the game where he could be grinding, questing, trying to get a head start.

Every VR pod was equipped similarly, there was a nanobot gel inside that you laid in that took care of Waste and sent tiny shocks to your muscles to prevent atrophy, and on the back were two large tanks, one held water and the other held a long shelf life nutrient gel. Both would be fed into your mouth whenever you needed them and the connection between your brain and the pod allowed the pod to swallow for you.

Ti hoisted a single 24 hours worth barrel of the Nutrient Gel over his shoulder and carried it easily into the pod room, the barrel opened easily enough and soon he was dumping a decidedly delicious looking amber gel into the mostly metal container. It filled to only a tenth of it’s full volume and it closed with a mechanical whir and hiss.

The water tank was even easier to fill, as he simply turned a nozzle on the tank on and watched as crystal clear water filled to about halfway. Content he stripped down and slipped back into the gel, the door closing and sealing Ti in for the next 24 hours.

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The light damn near burned his retinas as he appeared outside of the vampire manor, he floated simply through the barred gate and looked around. The lawn was not in the best condition from what he could tell, at one time it had been taken care of daily but now it was left in disrepair.

He continued casting his gaze around when he noticed something was different from the last time he was here… The gargoyle he though had looked at him was no longer on the roof but was instead on the ground smashed into pieces in the yellowed grass, the front door was slightly ajar and now that he was on alert he could hear muffled banging and voices coming from inside.

Ti wasn’t one to stick his nose where it didn’t belong, at least out of games, but this just smelled like a quest to him so he slipped into the manor, his undead eyes seeing perfectly in the dark. The foyer was littered with scattered ashes in piles of clothing and armor, blood, there were a few corpses belonging to humans and elves alike, all wearing a holy symbol on the chest regardless of armor or clothing. “Get this damn door open Rivalt, I will not leave until every abomination in this place has been dealt with!” Even his voice sounded sanctimonious, like a television pastor.

Ti floated over one of the ash piles and touched his hand to the blood red chestplate dusted with ashes and the second he did a menu popped up.

[Would you like to Ride Leather Rogue Armor(Vampire)?]

He immediately clicked yes and his vision blurred for a moment, and suddenly he found himself standing on solid ground for the first time since logging in, his body felt oddly heavy and it took him a moment to get used to moving his limbs around again especially clad in armor as they were.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

In Moonflare the most he’d had to wear was a flight suit and that wasn’t heavy like this leather armor was. A beep sounded in Ti’s mind an alert to let him know he had a new skill or two to play with thanks to the armor.

[Hoard Lv. 1 (Common:Active): The ability to create a small dimensional storage space only you can access, size increases with level.(Granted Upon getting your first Item)]

From the look of the skill he had space enough for 60 items, weight and size didn’t matter, and as usual money could be held infinitely. He spent the next several moments collecting loot from the corpses and ash piles in the foyer, he managed to get a set of [Iron Paladin Armor(Human)] and [Cloth Priest Robes(Elven)] which let him realize what was happening, some holy order decided these vampires needed to be wiped out.

He’d also picked up a few other things from the corpses, accessories and weapons mostly. Ti stood up and activated one of the abilities his armor gave him [Stealth] it was a straightforward passive that just reduced his chances of being spotted when he was trying to go unnoticed.

The soles of his leather boots made little noise as he slipped through the hall and peeked around a corner, he saw two people standing in front of a large door one was an old looking human priest, and the other was an elven warrior, probably a paladin. The warrior was hefting his large two handed hammer high and striking it down onto the door which resisted as best it could but splinters and cracks were beginning to show on the deep colored wood.

He thought his approach had gone unnoticed by the time he’d come halfway down the hall, his eyes on the priest who he was going to try and kill. It was his only real shot at winning this fight, take out the healer and do your best to dodge the giant fuck off hammer… And with barely a motion the priest whipped around and threw something, a glowing cross made out of holy light soared through the air towards Ti.

Suddenly he remembered why he had stopped playing after ‘Moonflare’ because instead of moving his body to dodge the incoming projectile he moved his hands in the way he would have to dodge in a Mech. His self hatred at this slip up was cut short by the searing pain of the cross lodging itself in his shoulder.

A grunt of pain tore out of his throat as the flesh sizzled around the holy energy, He hated pain… ‘Why did I agree to this?... I can’t fight I must have been crazy, if only this were a mech instead of armor...’

Looking up he saw the Paladin walking towards him, steps heavy and foreboding, the hammer hefted up into the air a moment later, but then Ti heard a beep..

[The skill Armor Rider(Max) has transcended it’s limit in response to your thoughts and has become Armor Rider(EX)]

[Congratulations on becoming the first player to Create or Learn an EX Skill!]

Ti’s consciousness faded for a moment before he realized the pain was gone, and that he was seated in a nostalgic chair, with controls in front of him. Almost as if in slow motion he saw the hammer on it’s downswing and his hands moved in those practiced motions. The vampiric body he was in control of slipped to the right, dodging the hammer by a hairs breadth. “This is more like it.” He felt comfortable, truly comfortable for the first time in 5 years

“Sorry big guy, no hard feelings.” He said, a little grin on his face as he swung his hand downward. “Vampire Claw” His fingers sprouted a blood red energy and made a satisfying squelch sound as he lodged them into the paladins exposed fleshy throat. Taking a moment to look at his health bar he saw he was at half, that holy spell was still chipping away slowly at his health, it broke easily enough when he grabbed it and yanked it free of his shoulder. “Now as much as I’d love to mess with you gentlemen all day I’m afraid I just don’t have the time so I’m gonna need you to die.” He didn’t have any weapons he could use just yet, Vampires generally preferred to use their claws and fangs, and magic to take care of foes.

The paladin went down in a couple more swipes of those claws, the armored lump of flesh slow compared to Ti now, it was like watching a tiger play with it’s meal, a dodge here, a light slice there… But the priest wasn’t simply standing there, he was throwing more holy magic at Ti but all of them were either dodged or quickly met with a slash of his claws.

The priest fell quickly after the Paladin was dead, and Ti stood in a puddle of fresh blood staring down at the two men he had just murdered and he shook his head. “I know these games are supposed to be a replacement for war but do they need to make everything so...Visceral?” He sighed and found himself in natural control of his body again, it seemed like he could only pilot his armor like a mech in combat.

He heard the door crack open and there stood a female vampire, obviously a royal from her clothing and the tiara on her head. “Took you long enough to defend your princess…”

[https://puu.sh/BXvhJ/1d7b9921df.png]