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Paul and Chris looked at the donation in disbelief.
Not only that, but their newly created channel had already reached five hundred subscribers!
They had only just made a stream that lasted fifteen minutes, yet they got this much attention out of nowhere.
“M-Maybe you weren’t completely wrong, I guess?” Paul stuttered a bit, mostly because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “It’s incredible; it worked... People liked what I did."
“Of course they did, silly!” Chris laughed. “You were awesome back then; I have to admit it, bro. That trait you got is so overpowered, it’s insane. The developers should definitely nerf it.”
“I mean, it already ran off, and it only works for ten minutes every day; it’s not that crazy.” Paul shrugged. “Anyways, I think we should get back home; we have a lot of things we need to assess.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Let’s go~” Chris nodded, patting Paul’s shoulders.
The duo was thankfully not recognized out of nowhere in the streets of Elderbridge, and although they were being spied on by some thugs, in the end, nobody came to pursue them or assault them, as Vlad had feared.
They safely made their way back to Vlad’s home, where they moved to his bedroom. Little Camilla was fast asleep and seemed to not be waking up, no matter how much noise they made. Vampires had a very heavy sleep.
However, wouldn’t it be dangerous to be caught off guard while sleeping?
Paul thought that maybe they would wake up if their lives were actually threatened, but right now, Camilla wasn’t being threatened or something, so she continued sleeping.
“We made a lot of gains.” Chris said. “So, how do we distribute everything? Ahh, right, first of all, take all the stuff I picked up for you.”
Chris transferred all the items to Paul; after all, he had hunted every single monster himself; Chris didn’t kill anything, so he didn’t feel entitled to get anything from the drops or the monster bodies themselves.
In Fantasy Story Online, not all monster bodies would disappear once slain; usually, only specter, spirit, or ethereal-type monsters would disappear, if anything.
However, any other monster would always leave behind their entire body and everything they carried with themselves.
Their flesh, blood, leather, bones, internal organs—everything could be taken, butchered, and sold separately or used for a variety of other things.
Due to the realistic aspect of hunting, not many people could easily stomach butchering a monster entirely, so they were often sold complete, body and everything, to the many store owners spread throughout the towns.
Paul had even read about specialized Guilds Players could join, usually called Adventurer Guild, Explorer Guild, or Hunter Guild. They specialized in different aspects, but all of them would always buy any monster carcass from players at varying prices and sell exclusive items to those that registered in their guilds.
From what he could recall, the only guild here, however, was the Hunters Guild, and it was rather far away from the town square, so it wasn’t within Paul’s plans to go there for the time being.
More than anything, what mattered right now was splitting the earnings.
"So, how much did we earn?” Paul wondered.
“Roughly… A bit $267!” said Chris.
“T-That’s a lot!” Paul muttered. “To earn such a sum out of absolutely nowhere is really lucky.”
“Haha, yeah, I guess. As I said before, I am not desperate for money, so I’ll only take a small part of it. Consider it my payment for streaming and hosting the entire thing,” said Chris.
“Sure, how much do you want?” Paul wondered.
“I’ll be taking twenty percent,” said Chris. “So around 26 dollars.”
“What? At least take a hundred, or I’ll feel bad about it,” sighed Paul.
“Hmm… fine,” Chris shrugged. “I might use it to buy something later. I’ll quickly send you the rest. You can then send it directly to your bank account like that.”
“I see. Thanks a lot, Chris.” Paul nodded.
Ding!
[Player]: [Alitheus Lilithie] has sent you a deposit of $167.]
[Accept?]
[Yes] [No]
He pressed yes and received the money right away.
[$167 has been successfully received and has been deposited inside of your Wallet.]
[At any time, you may choose to transfer it to any Bank Account or Paidpal Account.]
[However, each transfer will have a 1% Tax.]
“I guess it makes sense there’s some Tax for transfers, though it’s pretty low, only one percent?” I wondered. “These game developers are quite generous…”
“Ah, I guess so,” Chris nodded. “It is one of the reasons why streaming in this game is progressively becoming even more profitable than Yourstube, Twitchy, or Toktok.”
“It sure is; they take a larger sum of the money, I believe, right? Interesting…” Paul seemed to have found a business opportunity in the game, something he had never considered before.
“Maybe with this, I could perhaps help my family a bit more,” he smiled a bit, making Chris smile in return.
“Glad I could help, dude!” he smiled. “Anyways! Now to the more juicy part: the loot! Did you get any good stuff? What exactly did we get? I just transferred everything, so I couldn’t really tell.”
“Ah, right…” Paul looked at his inventory.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Taking into consideration all the monsters he hunted, he had over a hundred low-grade Beast Cores, a few dozen mid-grade ones, and then a single high-grade Beast Core from the Obsidian Skeleton Lord.
“A lot of Beast Cores...” Vlad was already imagining what he could make with it. “As long as I have a lot of these, I can make all kinds of Arcana-infused items and accessories! This golden wand I have here was made using a lot of Beast Cores as the main ingredient; they help imbue Arcana into things.”
“Ooh, so that’s how it is, huh? You’ve got quite the knack for crafting, dude,” Chris smiled. “Despite the terrible flaw you had, you were able to overcome it a bit with that wand that lets you float around.”
“It's still a bit annoying; it only has a limited supply of Arcana, but I plan to change that.” Paul said. “I’ll try to expand the Arcana pool it has. Also, I might make some bracelets, rings, and other items that can help me have more Arcana to use in everything. The debuff doesn’t affect bonus stats from equipment either. So if I equip myself well enough, I could definitely fight better.”
"Well, that’s pretty sweet, I guess,” Chris said. “What else do you have?”
“Hmm, more of those dog corpses, the wolf... Then there are the skeletons, right? Their bones are really hard and seem to be made of a material similar to metal. I could use them to make all kinds of stuff, but I’ll still be selling the majority; there are too many. Also, they come with rusty pieces of armor, weapons, and so on; they could be useful as materials or to sell them, I’ll see.”
“Alright, I remember we went to the bat cave too; there were a bunch of those crimson-colored bats and the big bat,” said Chris. “Did they drop something?”
“Nope, nothing, unfortunately. Despite going to the Infernal difficulty on all three dungeons, we didn’t get a single treasure chest, just so you can see how low the chances actually are. We got extremely lucky the first time,” Paul laughed.
“Wait, not a single treasure chest?! What a scam…” Chris looked annoyed, making a rather unsightly face.
“Well, that’s it for now, and don’t worry, if we don’t get more equipment, I can always make us some more.” Paul smiled. He was gaining more and more confidence as he played the game. “Do you want to commission me to make something for you for free?”
“Wait, for free? Why?” Chris tilted his head, looking at Vlad’s red eyes.
“I know I said you had to pay for everything, but this is my payment to you for helping me out and... Well, give me the whole streaming idea. Also, you could take it as payment to help me out in future streams too,” Paul said.
“Ooh? You’re so nice! Okay, fine!” Chris smiled, patting Vlad’s head. “What are you making me then?”
“I don’t know, whatever you have in mind.” Paul asked. “What do you need?”
“Hmm, the trident is kind of shitty,” said Chris. “Armor... nah, that would slow me down. Also, can Incubus even wear armor? Maybe a weapon to attack from afar. Perhaps bow and arrows?”
“That’s smart; flying and bows and arrows make a deadly combination,” Paul nodded. “Alright, I’ll try to get something like that done; I have no idea how to make bows, though. I’ll need to buy blueprints in the store.”
Thanks to the Level 5 Alchemy Skill and his two other skills, Level 2 Runic Engravement and Crafting, Paul had grown rather confident in his crafting and creation skills.
Despite progressing rather slowly and having such drawbacks, he was looking forward to the prospect of crafting his own equipment and using it to overcome the many obstacles of this character’s background life.
He was feeling the same excitement and thrill that old games gave him when he was much younger.
“I wasn’t able to secure any Life Energy myself~” Chris sighed, as he was browsing his inventory. “Did you get any?”
“A bit of Blood Energy, yeah,” Vlad said, looking at his status.
[Blood Core]: [Blood Refinement Realm (Tier 2: Rank 2)] (Blood Energy: 1.700/2.000)
He was already a few points away from reaching rank 3 in Tier 2!
If he could absorb the corpses of some of the monsters he has later, he could probably further extract some more Blood Energy and get to Rank 3 of Tier 2.
However, that wasn’t all, as he would also be able to acquire new Skills.
“Not enough to Level Up, unfortunately, but we’re getting there,” Paul said. “For now, I think I’ll Devour some of the carcasses I have. I told you that I could do that and gain skills or bonus stats, right?”
“You did say something about stealing blood energy, bloodlines, and getting skills, yeah?” Chris nodded. “Can I see how it works?”
“Sure, let’s go to another place, though; I don’t want to disturb Camilla’s sleep more,” Paul tried to be considered.
“Aww, aren’t you a considerate brother~?” Chris teased him, poking his face with his finger.
“Well, I don’t want her to get upset at me.”
Once they made their way downstairs, in the “living room," which was dark and full of dust and spiderwebs, Paul got to work.
Calculating that Gluttony would get a full stomach if he ate too much, he chose one monster from each creature type they hunted.
One Wild Dog, the Black Wolf, the Blood Bat, the Blood Bat King, an Obsidian Skeleton, and the Obsidian Skeleton Lord.
His stomach was weirdly rumbling as he looked at the insipid corpses; his mentality had changed slightly after he had embraced the insatiable powers of Gluttony.
Was it more of a curse than a blessing? He couldn’t truly tell, but the exhilarating sensation of devouring living beings and absorbing their powers was really good.
He had eaten vampires and other beings before, and now he was moving on to monsters, at long last.
[Do you wish to Absorb the Selected Corpses?]
[Yes] [No]
He pressed yes.
FLASH!
A moment later, a dark power immediately engulfed all the corpses; such a dark power was interconnected to his very hand.
It opened countless jaws and started biting through everything, leaving absolutely nothing behind and making all the monster carcasses disappear entirely.
[You have absorbed the corpses of the [Wild Dog (Tier 1: Rank 5)] [Black Wolf (Tier 1: Rank 10)] [Blood Bat (Tier 1: Rank 7)] [Blood Bat Queen (Tier 2: Rank 1)] [Obsidian Skeleton (Tier 2: Rank 5)] [Obsidian Skeleton Lord (Tier 3: Rank 1)]!]
[You gained +250 Blood Energy.]
[You have stolen the [Lesser Shadow Wolf Bloodline Fragment] and [Lesser Sanguine Bat Bloodline Fragment]!]
[Your Bloodline is compatible with the Fragments; they have been automatically absorbed.]
[Your own Bloodline: [Strong-Blooded Dhampir Bloodline (Tier 1: Rank 3)] has absorbed all fragments and Ranked Up to Tier 1: Rank 5!]
[You gained +200 Blood Power]
[You gained +100 Arcana.]
[You have unlocked the Racial Skill: [Obsidian Bones (D): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Subclass Skill: [Echolocation (D): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Class Skill: [Shadow Spear (C): Lv1]
[The Demonic Seed of Gluttony seems satisfied and is slowly digesting its meal.]
[You cannot absorb any more corpses for the next 15 Hours.]
“Three new skills just like that… Obsidian Bones, Echolocation, and Shadow Spear?” Vlad looked at them with a lot of interest. “It’s pretty much what they had with them, right?”
“You got the Shadow Spear that annoying wolf had? That’s amazing!” said Chris. “With it, you can see most things from afar... Man, I want that too! Why can’t I get cool stuff…”
“Hah, well, you do have plenty of that yourself,” Paul said. “Chris, you have to learn how to conjure Spirit Magic, and also make a contract with a Spirit, it is in your trait. You’ll be wasting it if you don’t use its powers.”
“Ah… I forgot about that. Chris muttered. “Right, I'm supposed to be half-fairy, lol.”
“It’s hilarious, I know, you, a fairy? No way,” laughed Paul.
“Eh?! Where was that coming from, huh?” Chris muttered. “You’ve gotten pretty bold out of nowhere, loner.” He gave Paul a side-eye.
“C-Calm down, I was joking.” Paul muttered. “Ahem, anyways, I’ll research something for you because I know you’re lazy. I hope you can commit to it once I show it to you.”
“Yeah, sure~” Chris shrugged. “Something else?”
“You chose the random character, right?” Paul wondered.
As the two sat down near the manor entrance, admiring the moon above, Paul asked Chris this question.
And Chris froze.
“Wait, I did.”
“Then… Where’s your compensation ticket?”
“Ah…”
“Don’t tell me.”
“I-I forgot…”
Paul facepalmed as Chris giggled nervously.
He had really been missing out on the opportunity to get something really good this entire time!
“Use the damn ticket and get something good then! You’re wasting your time if you don’t, Chris!” Paul reprimanded the cheeky brat.
“Hey, who are you reprimanding?!” Chris got slightly irritated. “Fine, fine! I’ll use the damned ticket, whatever! Stop throwing your gamer rage at me, dude. You’re going to scare the hoes like that.”
“A-Ah, sorry…” Paul realized he was getting weird and promptly apologized.
At the same time, Chris took out the golden ticket from his inventory.
“Alright, here goes nothing.”
As the ticket was used, a giant golden roulette appeared in front of the two.
Paul saw with nervousness and tension as the arrow moved through the roulette.
"Please, something strong...” he was praying.
Chris was looking at the roulette with a dull expression.
Until it landed on something.
“Huh? Wait, what?”
“No way…”
And it was...
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