"It seems that we have to part ways again." Nitarja sighed and put her tail around his leg, as if she wanted to hold him back with it, preventing him from leaving.

"Unfortunately, but there is nothing we can do about it." Frei sighed and half expected to be urged by Victor to leave without needless delays, but the old fox was too smart to rob them of all intimate moments, using their bond as his chain. He again considered telling Nitarja everything, but knew she would blame herself for holding him back and decided against it.

She did not answer, simply holding onto him tighter.

"Wait, I have something for you, a little remembrance I owe you." Frei pushed Nitarja away gently and presented a wooden flute to her. "It is not much, just what I have managed to scramble with my meager money."

"Oh, this is . . . !" Frei could tell that she had no words and was pleased that he chose well. The moment he had seen it, he remembered the flute he broke when they first met. Stumbling upon a similar one, he had decided to buy it, as It surely held some sentimental value to her, he had just never asked its origin.

She touched the flute all over while spacing out, a silly smile on her face.

"You see, you just need to make a sound and I will come for you!" He laughed, happy to bring some sunshine into the usually dreary courtyard of the Waldorf Castle. "A little bit of me that will be with you every time you play."

"You are full of jokes as always!" She lifted the flute to her lips and blew, making a sound right next to his ear.

"Agh! No, I am serious!" He dodged with his head and then looked into her eyes, when the tone faded into the distance.

"I am serious." He repeated like he was making a promise and in a way, he was.

* * * *

  Frei blinked multiple times in a row to get back into present, he had been sitting with his back leaning against a tree, staring absentmindedly at the distant elven city. His intention had been to plan ahead, but his mind ended up entangled in recent memories instead.

He had to move.

  He jumped back to his feet and walked with a spring in his steps in the direction of Lartherion. Recalling his plan for the mission awaiting him, he buried all his worries in the back of his mind to be able to focus on the task at hand.

What was the plan?

  This was the first time he was completely alone and Victor had no reliable way to spy on him, it was only logical to prolong the mission slightly and do some research instead. Fortunately, he only knew that his control did not work on him and should be in the dark about the fact that he could move around after down with the same ease as in the night. He should be able to use the extra time to better understand his circumstances, especially spells, magical items and special non-player characters, those were the three that might provide him with more options. He might need to increase his level to be able to interact with all of them, but spells were clearly the most important, as he could not lose them or damage them, spells would be forever his once he learned them.

  He had found a spell that he had almost managed to learn, but could not quite finish it no matter how much he tried, meaning he was probably only a hair away in terms of levels before he would be able to learn it. Its name was Sacrificial Blade, it was both an attack and a healing spell that summoned a sword for ten seconds that healed him for half the damage he caused with it. Of course, the effect was significantly reduced when exposed to direct sunlight, it was something that was attached to most dark attribute spells, probably because of balancing issues. The moment he was able to actually use the spell would most likely be the moment when he reached the next level. Using this simple indicator, he hoped to find out if quests still worked on the background and were only hidden beneath all the new realism that had recently crept in into the Fabled Universe.

"That is a sound plan, to hunt at night and do research during the day. " Frei smiled while clapping himself on his shoulder.

Well, someone had to do it, right?

"No, that is actually completely idiotic, the gifted surely sleep at night." He shook his head and decided to switch the two phases of his plan.

  With sunlight slowly making its way through the thick vegetation of the forest around him, he was entering the active phase of his plan and decided to head to the square of the elven city.

  For the last time, he suppressed the urgency that he felt because of the ever looming shadow of Victor and his blood bond and plunged into the outskirts of the elven capital. He did not need much deception, his face still that of an elf, all suspicion of him being a vampire should evaporate along with the moisture from his face under the rays of the morning sun.

  He strode slowly through the streets of the city, the design of which was already a bit familiar to him since his first brief visit and thought how would he fish for the Gifted in the spacious place that boasted with wide spaces and an abundance of greenery, but his first targets had presented themselves to him even before he could start to ponder about the problem further.

"Look! Some wolves are attacking the city! let's defeat the beasts!" He suddenůy heard an oddly familiar phrase.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No, please no!" Frei whispered and covered his eyes with his right palm while lowering his head.

"They are just standing there, moron! Do not scare us needlessly." A different voice rebuked the first speaker, annoyed.

"Ah, I see." Frei heard the response and his heart jumped with sudden joy.

"Splendid, it looks like my dear friend Aethon Cinibann had perished along with some other game elements. Rest in piss, Aethon." Frei sighed with relief.

"Em, peace." Frei corrected himself, his tone extremely insincere. For a second, he had thought that he would see his very first friend in the Fabled Universe for a second time.

"You, find a different group to suck onto, we need only the strong." The dominant speaker that had reprimanded the one Frei had mistook for Aethon directed at a petite female elf with long, green hair. The blue-eyed elf backed off immediately to prevent further harassment, looking with her confused eyes in the direction of the crowd Frei was a part of.

"Their actions are oddly familiar. if they are what I think, the elven girl will be my first prey. " Frei's eyes narrowed, following the bundle of misfortune that dragged her feet in the opposite direction to the suspicious party of adventurers.

  He distanced himself from her, while widening his stride. With a crowd of merchants in between them, he followed the shade of the vines at the side of the street and positioned himself inconspicuously while using Shroud all the way. It took him two attempts, but in the end, the expected scenario had come to pass as the girl's perception was affected by the spell and by her bad mental state.

"Ouch, where have you put your eyes girl!" The green-haired elf bumped into him, causing him to loose his balance and fall on his butt, his act nothing short of perfect.

"I-I am sorry, Sir! I have not noticed." She yelped weakly, frightened by the sudden situation.

"Are you perhaps new to the city? A lot of elves that come from the countryside are not used to a big city." Frei started to play the role of a decent elf from the city.

"Yes." She nodded quickly several times and kept staring at him.

"This is no place to make an acquaintance, let me invite you to a decent place nearby. You look like you could use a meal." He smiled warmly and gestured in the direction of one of the side streets. At first, she looked hesitant, but he had most likely hit the spot when he had offered her food. She was probably hungry and with no money to sate her stomach.

"I do not want to cause more trouble for you, Sir." She resisted weakly, but Frei saw that he had already won.

"Nonsense, call me Frei and let me be your guide to the city! But before that, no adventure had ever ended up good with an empty stomach." He laughed at her and walked onward, his posture the very picture of confidence.

"I, but I do not have any money to repay your kindness, Sir. Sorry, Frei." She followed him with quick steps and soon, they arrived to a remote place with thick vegetation that for some reason, did not seem to be cared for by the city staff that took care of other greenery in the city.

"Go pick a tomato in the bushes over there, a friend of mine happens to have a little garden in this neglected park." Frei said and the girl made a few unsure steps in the direction he was pointing in. She stopped and wanted to turn to ask about the suspicious area that seemed to have nothing even resembling tomatoes, but it was too late. Frei quickly maneuvered himself to stand right behind her and slashed his wrist with his sharp fangs. Hugging the girl from behind, he forced his fingers into her mouth and opened it, taking advantage of his superior strength. When he pressed his wound on his other hand against her mouth, she immediately began to choke, but he squeezed his hand tight against her mouth that looked so small compared to his hand and pressed her nose with the fingers of his other hand.

Unable to breathe or spit out his blood, she had to swallow a part of it while squirming, struggling for air and freedom while choking on his blood.

"I am sorry about this, but we all have our circumstances." Frei whispered and finally released her, when her resistance lessened significantly. He felt like a piece of him left his body and the girl looked at him in a daze, while desperately filling her lungs with air using quick breaths.

"Stop it, you are too loud." Frei rebuked her, worried that someone would notice them. He was honestly surprised that no one did, even though he had specially picked the most dilapidated place he could find.

  She immediately stopped all sounds, including breathing and Frei felt an unusual exhilarating feeling of absolute power flooding him. He had his personal slave now, she would drop dead with his single word, if so he wished.

Was it how tyrants felt? It was not half bad!

"You can do as you want, just try to stay quiet." He belatedly came to his senses again and allowed her to breath, but he noticed that her face had already changed color.

"Damn, this bloodline control is dangerous. I have to be careful." He whispered and decided that it was time to choose an inn where he could pretend to sleep. He had been given some money, well, quite a lot considering how important Victor deemed the operation to be and there would be no desperate scrambling for gold.

He was thankful for this convenience.

"Follow me." He ordered and walked onward, followed by his new blood slave.

"Actually, walk in front of me for a while." He commanded and she swiftly executed his order. When he looked at her small figure walking in front of him, he realized that he had done it simply just to look at her ass, on a whim.

"No, no, no." He took a deep breath to calm himself down while all kinds of thoughts began to race through his mind.

"Follow me again." He gulped, understanding a little more how Victor must have felt. "God, this is good, but I am actually . .. "

  His mouth dried at that moment, he was the one fighting against blood control. Held on a leash by it, he wanted to free himself and Nitarja no mater how long it took to achieve, but here he was doing the very some to another. In a way, it felt like he had just lost to Victor and he hated that he could now emphasize so well with him.

"In the end, is it really true that tools are not evil, only people that misuse them?" He mumbled. "Or are the tools that can be misused easily actually evil?"

  To rest, Frei picked an inn in the shape of a high tower, its base forming a pentagram, the five corners having five massive trees crawling up to the sky instead of pillars. It looked more like a mage tower of some freak into nature magic than an inn, but who was he to question elven design? He registered himself and Evelin as a couple to attract less attention and threw himself on a big bed that looked like carved out of some kind of deep blue stone that was surprisingly not cold to the touch, as one would suspect of stone.

"This will be a complication." Frei furrowed his brows when he tried to cast the prearranged spell and found out that he seemed to be even further from being able to cast it.

"Creating blood slaves has to consume levels. " The discovery left a bitter taste in his mouth and he had to suppress his anger to stop himself from exploding with rage, his hand trembling with an urge to hit something. At that moment, he noticed that his new slave, no, Evelin was observing him squeezed into the corner of the room. The moment his attention shifted to her, her pupils shook and she folded her arms on her chest.

"That is why he wanted me to convert so many by myself." He mumbled, his dull stare still focused on Evelin.

"Does he want to cripple me and throw me away when I have no more use?" He thought the exact same thing the person he was looking at was thinking.