Shortly after a group of ten other guards arrived at the hidden graveyard and a proper investigation was launched. The other ten bodies were dug up and those that could were identified and given to their families after they were thoroughly examined for a cause of death. Those that could not be identified due to decay were cremated and placed in a grave mass grave’.

“Mr. Arthur I on behalf of all the citizens of Antium would like to thank you for all your help in identifying the threat of this vampire cult that has appeared in our great city.” Captain Pelagius reached his right hand to Arthur’s.

Arthur took the hand and shook it. “Thank you captain. I just had a feeling.”

“Your feeling might just have saved this city many of its citizens. Since we uncovered the bodies of the few that hadn't decayed too much, we found similar wounds on the neck that were likely used to drain the blood from. If you learn of anything in the future regarding the case please inform us immediately .”

“I will be certain to do that sir.”

“And I am happy to hear that.”

After Arthur gave an official statement Captain Pelagius allowed him to leave the barracks and return to his civilian life.

“Sir, is it wise to allow him to leave without a proper investigation?” Captain Pelagius’s second in command asked as soon as the door closed to his office.

“If he is a part of the cult then what he has just done is by far the most idiotic thing possible. Do you know what makes a successful cult Lieutenant Aloysius?” Captain Pelagius turned to face Lieutenant Aloysius as he spoke. “A successful cult is one that goes unnoticed by everyone who is not a member, someone bringing them to light is by far the worst thing that can happen to them.”

Lieutenant Aloysius remained quiet for a moment as he thought on the captain's words. “We should still have someone keep an eye on him, the cult might send someone to kill him for exposing them.”

“I was going to have someone do that.” Captain Pelagius reached for a small pile of papers that detailed each of the elite members of the city's guard. “I am going to require your help in finding someone with a skill set that will allow them to remain undetected by both our enemies and this Arthur of Dom Badaher.”

*********

Auria stood with her two friends in the office of the boss while he paced around the room with a look of worry on his face. “Well I suppose that we should consider ourselves lucky, the cult is being investigated by the city guard and the one to kick it off was none other than our new hero.”

“That should be a good thing sir.” Auria felt the dread in her stomach slowly stirring.

“It would be but they want all the information we have on him.” The boss paused for a moment as he looked Auria in the eyes. “And they want to hear it from you.”

Auria’s eyes widened, she had heard the stories of what they had done to their victims to feed their monarch, how they hang them upside down by their feet and slit their throats to drain them of their blood like bleeding out an animal. The only way they could hear the information she had was to directly ask her.

The door slowly creaked open and a human wearing a deep red cloak slowly walked into the room and approached the boss. “Good day to you Mr. Metilius.” The human spoke with a deep and almost ghastly voice. “I believe you have information for the sect.”

“Yes we do. Auria, please tell this… gentleman all that you learned of this Arthur of Dom Badaher.” Auria could tell by the worried look in his eyes that it wasn’t a request.

“Well we know that Arthur of Dom Badaher is a mage and only entered the city recently yet he appears to have connections with a noble house, house Vettonius to be exact.” As she spoke the cloaked man turned to look at her. His face was quite pale, almost like a corpse. “Since he entered the city he has been staying in the The Free Parrot Bar in a room on the second floor.”

“Good, good. Now I think it is time that we remove this obstacle permanently.” The man smiled as he turned back to Mr. Metilius. “This young lady can help me with this, I can see just how eager she is to prove herself.” The man placed his arm around Auria’s shoulder, giving her a close view of his face. He smelt like blood and she could see with his smile his canine teeth were a bit sharper and longer than the rest.

“Of course, I think she is more than capable of assisting you. She is one of my best agents here after all.” Metilius gave an unconvincing smile as he felt his control over the situation slipping. ‘Why oh why did they send one of Darius’s blood spawn. Normally they just send a representative that we are able to push around a bit to get what we want, like them getting rid of our enemies and hiding the bodies for just a few coins and the rights to the blood.’

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“That is just splendid, the two of us will spend the next day preparing a plan of attack for our ‘hero’. We will most likely enact it tomorrow night when he should be getting ready to sleep. Come along now dear.” The vampire extended his hand to Auria and she hesitantly took it before they left the room.

Metilius let out a loud sigh as the door closed behind the two and sat down in his chair.

“What about us sir?” Auria’s friend asked after a moment of silence between the three who remained in the room.

“Keep me informed about the investigation into the cult, they are going to ask for details and I don’t expect them to continue acting the way they have been any longer. Just be sure not to get yourself caught, we don’t need any more complications.”

The two nodded and quickly left the room leaving Metilius alone in his office. ‘If only that bastard hadn't shown up here things would be different.’

**********

/- - - - - -\

Name : Arthur

Level 10

Exp : 7900

Next Level at : 8000

Mana : 30/30

Strength 15

Dexterity 30

Vitality 20

Constitution 30

Intellect 30

Perception 15

Charisma 10

Arcane 20

Faith 10 (Locked)

Devotion 10 (Locked)

Available points : 0

\- - - - - -/

‘I only need another one hundred exp before I reach level eleven. I wonder what I should put those ten points into. Charisma is definitely the lowest priority right now, dexterity, constitution and intellect are all high enough for now leaving my options as strength, vitality perception and arcane.’

Arthur had immediately returned to his room upon leaving the barracks and laying on the bed in the room he rented. While he was getting ready to sleep he looked over his HUD to see how close he was to level eleven.

‘Since my strength and perception are both the lowest of those four options I should probably split them between those two. That was a bit of a surprise just how useful perception actually is, I was able to hear most of the conversation those two were having.’

After a few minutes Arthur put out the small candle on the bedside table and drifted off to sleep.

***********

Arthur awoke a bit later than he normally did since he had to stay up later than normal to give a statement for the city guard. Based on the sun Arthur suspected it was about nine o'clock in the morning. Arthur walked downstairs and ordered three breakfast burritos like before and kept two in his dimensional bag while he ate the third.

The first thing Arthur did after was go straight to the mages guild to collect his class schedule. After waiting for twenty minutes in line and asking the clerk at the front desk he learned the mail was in room two. It took only half a minute for Arthur to find room two.

Room two was almost designed like a small shop with all the envelopes, paper, and ink that was on display and the three desks for employees to help people like at the front desks. Arthur was told by a man at one of the desks that he would need to fill out a form to receive a mailbox where he can collect letters and other documents sent to him by the guild or other guild members. The form was quite short to fill out, it only asked for his name, his age, his rank in the guild (Novice), and his signature. After half an hour Arthur was given mailbox number 1137 and he could find it by going down the hallway on the left side of the desks.

The room, if you could even call it just a room, was very very big, large alleyways of these strange metallic boxes that were about three or four feet tall lined the walls. Thankfully each had a number and the walls on each of the ends of the walls were the numbers of each mailbox. The first section was mailboxes one through one hundred, the next was one hundred and one through two hundred and so on. It took Arthur a bit to find mailbox 1137 but he did, using the key he was given he opened it and inside he found a letter that he immediately opened.

The letter was his schedule for the classes he selected from the guild, his basics of pyromancy would take place from 10:00 to 12:00 in room fifteen and his basics of aeromancy would take place from 12:30 to 2:30 in room seventeen, both classes would be ongoing for twenty eight days or a whole month.

‘It's good that I can finally get some proper teaching for magic, I have seen just how useful both pyromancy and aeromancy can be, hopefully by the end of the month I will have some skill in them.’

Since there was only about ten minutes before Arthur’s first pyromancy class he decided he should just go and be there a bit early. But as he was leaving he had a question about the mailboxes. ‘How can they be sure that no one will break into someone else's locker by picking the lock?’ As he was leaving the mail room Arthur asked the man at the desk.

“Both the mailboxes and the keys are enchanted, so that way even if you pick the lock without the magic from the key the mailbox will not open.”

“I am assuming that this was a problem in the past.”

“It was about 50 or so years ago the entire system had to be redone because people kept exploiting the rules and the way things worked to get away with things they normally weren't able to.”