There was still light out, enough for Alan to see, and he found his way outside of the town to the south. Apparently, according to the cultivator, there was an old temple in the woods to the south of the village, called the Darkwoods by the locals, and it was there that an ancient treasure lay hidden and it would unlock . It seemed almost too good to be true. When he had asked why no one had grabbed it themselves, the man had said that it had wards against the elements, meaning that no cultivator could enter. But he, as someone who was Flawed, was able to get inside. Honestly, if you asked Alan, it smelt like horse’s shit. Still, if there was even a fraction of a percentage of a chance that he could fix his status, it was worth it.

That was why he found himself out here near the dark of night, equipped with only a polished dagger made of steel. It was a rather ornate thing, and was the only thing that was with him when he was dropped off on the doorstep of his orphanage. The hilt was wrapped in fine leathers, with the initials A.B. engraved into it, and the pommel was shaped like a bird’s claw and held a colorless gem. The blade itself was about six inches long and as thick as two of his fingers. Engraved into the metal were the words “Live and let die”.

It was honestly a rather gaudy thing, and he had been tempted to sell it in the past, but had held off for two reasons. One was because it was the only thing that linked him to his parents, whoever they were. Sentimental, yes. But could you blame a guy? Second was because he doubted anyone in the town had the coin to buy it, so he’d likely get ripped off. Still, at least he had a weapon to use just in case he needed it. Thankfully the Darkwoods was home to only scavenging wolves and the odd rabbit here and there. While he wasn’t initiated into the System, he felt he could handle a mangy canine if it came down to it. Though not getting experience for killing a beast would be annoying.

“Come on, focus.” He mentally berated himself for getting off-track.

Alan walked south down the road, this one led to a neighboring town called Freece which was just northwest of the coastal city, Cape Sonara. To the north-east of Huddleburg there was Felton, which was known for its vineyards in the past, and north of that was Sherdon City, Old Northtown, and all the way in the middle of the continent was the capital of New Northington. There were other cities, towns, and villages of course. But Alan only knew those handfuls due to merchants and gossip from locals in the area.

He didn’t have to walk the ten or so miles to Freece however, and instead only had to walk a mile down the road. There, one could see a beaten and overgrown path that led to the entrance to the Darkwoods. So, steeling his nerves, Alan walked on that path.

For the first half hour, nothing really happened. The crisp air of the coming season gave Alan a slight chill, but thanks to having lived here his whole life he was able to brush past the slight discomfort. The way the wind howled against the dark brown and rickety trees as it passed was disturbing though, he had to admit.

It was roughly an hour into his trek through the Darkwoods when things became a bit more hectic. Alan's first sign of it was a very obvious rushing of feet from his blind spot, combined with sound of breaking twigs and rusted leaves. He turned just in time to see a scraggly Forest Hound lunged at him.

Alan dodged, but not completely, as a gash from the thing's claws scraped against his left bicep, making him swear in pain as blood began to dribble down. Gritting his teeth, Alan stepped towards the beast with his dagger poised and thrust into the exposed flank of the canine which had yet to turn around.

Startled from the pain, the beast pivoted in place, its paws digging slightly into the mud of the forest floor as it swung its maw at him in an attempt to bite him. Were the creature healthy, it might just have succeeded. Instead the beast's head and jaw whiffed and found only air as Alan did a backstep and swung the blade in a downward slash. While the dagger was likely more useful for stabbing, it was still a sharp blade and as a result, the sharp metal cut across the wolf's snout, making it whimper and back away.

Not one to give up and let the thing retreat to a pack and bring more of its kind towards him, Alan pushed his advantage. A slash here, a couple stabs there. He didn't let up as he attacked the creature with adrenaline-fueled fervor. Perhaps if it had actually caught him off guard, the wolf would have been the one with the advantage. As it was however, Alan soon found himself panting as he stood above the corpse, covered in blood not his own.

It took several seconds for Alan to come down from his adrenaline high, and once he did he sunk down to the base of the nearest tree to catch his breath. That fight had been intense, at least for him. The wolves around the surrounding forest were only Level 2 or 3, according to what he had heard from passing by adventurers. Still, since he was uninitiated by the System he was effectively fighting as a Level 0. Just another thing for him to grumble about, he supposed. But once he found this treasure or whatever, he would finally be accepted into the System. That was the slim glimmer of hope that kept him from turning around and outright walking back to town.

The next hour or so passed relatively calmly compared to the sudden attack by the Forest Wolf. There were a few jumpscares here and there were a squirrel would run across his path and seemingly glare at him as it held an acorn or nut close to its chest, only to run away. It was rather odd, but it was a weird world he lived in after all. Still, this was the first time he had come to the Darkwoods, mostly since it was dangerous despite its low area level. Eventually though, Alan found the location he was supposed to have found.

A clearing opened up a few feet from where he was, and in that cleared space was an old dilapidated temple of sorts. It stood about forty feet tall at its peak where once there must have been a religious symbol, or perhaps some other kind of ornament denoting what the temple’s purpose was. But it had fallen off or been destroyed ages ago. The building was made of a dark, almost purple stone that almost sparkled as the light of the rising moon shone upon it. The font of the building had a curved awning that was held up by pillars of the same material. At some point they might have been intricately carved, but time and weather had eroded any etchings they might have once had.

“I’m really going to do this, huh? Just walk into some likely dangerous and forgotten ruin just so I can access the System. Well, in for a copper, in for a silver.”

Alan mused over his current situation with a sigh. He was this far into the Darkwoods already, so he may as well see just what that cultivator had sent him into. Walking forward, Alan made sure to look around for any obvious signs of danger, but he found nothing. Then, with some trepidation, he entered the abandoned temple.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

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“Elder Brother, was it wise to send that Flawed in that direction? You know the rumors. If the Elders find out you sent an uninitiated into the wilderness, you could be forced to clean the latrines.” Came the voice of one of the sycophants that followed around the young master.

Said young master just gave the other man a deadpan stare before shrugging.

“Who cares, he’s just a Flawed. Odds are he’ll die in there and we won’t have to deal with having a Flawed near our sect. It’s bad enough we’re based in this dump of a town. Can you imagine the other sects finding out we have a Flawed nearby? We’d be even more of a laughing stock!”

The cultivator shook his head in disgust as he looked at the pile of trash that was Huddleburg. Oh how he wished the Elders would just wipe the village from the surroundings. Surely being around a crater was better than being surrounded by the poor. Alas, they said optics had to be adhered to. Apparently it would make the sect look bad if they killed random civilians, and not only would that bring trouble from the more ‘just’ Sects, but the System would not take kindly to such mass murder outside of war. Still, a water cultivator like him could dream.

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As Alan entered the temple, he had to suppress a slight chill. It was drafty here at night during this time of year, just before snow fell, and the area in general was pretty cold even in spring. Even having grown up here his entire life, it was still cold. Colder than it should be, really. But he had no idea why. Regardless, he rubbed his hands together to try and create some heat as he looked around.

He stood in a large circular gathering area that was about six strides long on either side of him, making it roughly thirty feet in diameter by his rough estimation. It looked like any temple would, though the architecture was pretty dated compared to paintings of modern ones he had seen. He had never been to one personally, as Huddleburg was too poor to afford a church to any of the nine gods commonly worshiped, but he was sure this structure was old.

On either side of him were stone pews, where people would sit and listen to the priest. Or rather, the remains of pews. All that was really left was rotting wood and broken down timber that had once made up the seats the commonfolk would sit on. That made him wonder just who the hell would worship all the way in these woods. Perhaps in the past, the Darkwoods was actually just a normal forest, he was no historian though so he had no idea the lore of this place.

Aside from the broken remains of pews, some of which revealed bugs when he kicked aside the rubbed much to his disgust, Alan saw two things of note. First was a lectern, where a holy book would normally be placed. It was empty at the moment with a strange groove where the book would likely rest. Unlike the pews, this was made of the same stone as the temple itself, so it had withstood the test of time and remained standing. The other thing that caught his attention was a doorless opening that led to stairs that led down.

Rather than a wooden or stone door as one would expect in a temple, it seemed to be open, covered only in a frame of dark, nearly black stone that had odd sketching carved into it with some sharp object like a chisel of a dagger. Honestly, the whole thing gave him a bad omen. Every story he had ever read or heard about always mentioned that going into an unknown area with an open entrance, especially when said entrance went down, was a bad idea. Still, it seemed obvious that whatever he was searching for, if anything, was down there. So with a deep inhale in an attempt to clear his mind, he exhaled and pulled out his dagger before descending into the basement, unaware that the markings on the frame slowly started to glow with a deep crimson aura.

The stairs descended in a spiral for about three minutes before it exited into an underground cavern. It was mostly the same as the upper part of the temple, but instead of pews, he was surrounded by catacombs. Pebbled walls of dark stone adorned with pale yellow and darker skulls of human origins were what consisted as walls in the area, adding to the ominous ambience he had felt earlier. Somehow, there were torches lighting up the area. Only the flames were not the usual orange, but instead a deep red.

“Shit.”

That was when Alan noticed something even more unusual. In the center of the area was a single coffin. A coffin whose lid was slowly sliding off. Soon after, a hand, so pale and gaunt it almost looked like one of a skeleton, slid the lid of the casket. Alan froze in horror as he watched something climb its way out of the coffin, the thing staring back at him in turn.

It resembled a human male, but had pointed ears and lacked any hair. It was thin and covered in gaunt pale gray skin that seemed like it could tear at any minute. While the creature looked frail, it gave off a very palpable aura. The two most important things he took note of were its eyes and its mouth. Its eyes were sunken in and had red irises with slitted black pupils. Next was its mouth, which would almost seem to be normal were it not for the sharp teeth that replaced normal ones in jagged mismatched placements, two of which were as long as one of Alan’s fingers. This thing could be only one thing, though he had never expected to ever see one at all, let alone this close. A Nines-damned vampire.

Alan gripped the dagger, but before he could do much else, the creature lunged at him as it spoke in a guttural voice.

“Fresh meat!”

The vampire was surprisingly heavy and it shoved Alan onto the ground. He desperately attempted to fling the thing off, but it was no use. He was Flawed, uninitiated by the System, he was like a child trying to overpower a sacred ox. Even the dagger in his hand did nothing, leaving only indents on the monster as Alan attempted to strike the thing and get it away from him. In the end, his struggle was for naught as the creature bit into his neck with a wet, gut churning crunch.

Blood leaked out far faster than should be possible as Alan felt his eyesight weaken and his grip on the dagger go limp as his vital fluid was drained from him by the vampire, which was making disgusting gurgling sounds as it ate its fill. So this was how he died, huh? Not as a hero, or helping someone. But in an abandoned temple’s catacombs from a fucking monster, where no one would even be able to bury him. Not that anyone living was around to bury him. Yes, he had to be dying for sure. Because for some reason he could hear faint singing from above.

Next was something Alan could only describe as his brain making things up. The roof of the catacombs crashed as a giant metal fist as wide as he was tall crashed into it from above, smashing it open.

“In the nick of time, the heroine smashes through. Have no fear, I’m here for you.” Same a sing-song voice punctuated by a grunt of exertion as a girl, one somewhat familiar girl, was attached to the large metal hand, which shrunk back to reveal it was some kind of gauntlet, one of a pair it seemed.

The girl spun on her foot and lashed out at the vampire, sending it skidding backwards. The girl took one look at Alan and grimaced before she turned her attention to the monster.

“With speed of flame and heart ablaze, evil be purged, as its soul is razed!”

The girl sang again, fire spreading from her stomach to envelope her limbs in bright orange fire. Then she approached the vampire as it roared at her in turn, swinging a ghastly, talon-tipped claw at her. The girl was not to be deterred however and she blocked the strike with one gauntlet and punched with the other. A resounding crack, followed by a boom, followed that sent the vampire, this time covered in fire, flailing backward into one of the walls where it slumped down, dazed.

“Gotta wrap this up quick. Guy over there might not make it, hopefully Master can do something…” She mumbled to herself before she took out a vial the size of her fist, which was shining with a gold liquid that seemed to radiate hope and life.

Then she tossed the vial at the still stunned vampire. The object shattered on contact, and showered the monster in the liquid. A loud hiss and scream of pain and fury rang out from the creature’s throat as it dropped to its knees and clawed at its flesh and eye sockets. It let out a string of various curses in some ancient language before the liquid finally dank into it completely and it fell back to the floor dead, eyes having burnt out of its sockets and its body turning to stone that quickly shattered on the ground.

The flames on the girl’s limbs receded and she grabbed Alan quickly, making his already dazed and fragile state worse as she jumped up onto the lip of the opening she created and started hopping from wall to wall upwards to the main part of the temple. When she got there, she laid Alan down at the feet of a man in strange green robes who was fiddling with a few vials of blue and red liquid.

“Master, this guy he...I don’t know what’s going on!”

Alan felt his blood boil as his heart began to thump faster, harder. Something was happening to him, but he didn’t know what. But he felt so hungry. He needed to eat, to feast. A growl escaped his lips before the man looked at him, dark eyes looking down at him from under a strange straw hat.

“Sanguinification, huh? Rare, but not unheard of. None of that now. Sleep.”

The man flipped a long piece of paper at Alan’s forehead where it stuck like magic, and the writing boy knew no more as he was knocked unconscious.