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Ding!
[You have chosen the Rank Up Class: [Arcane Vampire Prince of the Crimson Moon: ★★] sponsored by the {Goddess of the Crimson Moon}!]
[Your [Blood Power] has increased by +5.000!]
[Your [Soul Ether] has increased by +3.000!]
[Your [Arcana] and [Dexterity] has increased by +2.500!]
[Your [Strength] and [Vitality] has increased by +1.500!]
[Your Class Skills Slots have increased by +1!]
[You learned the Class Skill: [Crimson Moon Arcane Arts (B): Lv1]!]
[You received the Character Trait: [Blessing of Achlys, the Goddess of the Crimson Moon (Epic Grade)]!]
[With the new [Crimson Moon Arcane Arts (B)] Skill you will be able to channel the power of your Divine Blessing of the Goddess of the Crimson Moon, unleashing her Divinity temporarily to create all sorts of special effects. The higher the level of the Skill and also of your devotion to the goddess, the more Spells become available.]
After Vlad felt the growth that his new Class gave to him, in both stats and his new divine protection, connecting him to a powerful yet benevolent divinity that might help him from now on, he quickly looked at his subclass.
What he had initially believed to be the simple yet useful Farmer Class, which he assumed could help him give him bonuses to crop growth, production, and quality, ended changing into something he couldn’t believe.
Mostly due to the mischievous Heavenly Demon’s intervention!
Ding!
[You have chosen the Subclass: [Farmer: ★]!]
[Because of the interference of the Mysterious Divinity: {Great Demon of the Nine Heavens}, the Subclass has been modified!]
[The Subclass: [Farmer: ★] has evolved into the [Spirit Ki Farmer: ★★]!]
“Spirit Ki Farmer?!”
Paul couldn’t really understand what he just read. Not only the Subclass went from one star to two stars, but it suddenly was given a completely different name.
Now, it possessed Spirit and Ki as words added to it! The possibilities of what this meant were practically and virtually endless…
Ding!
[Due to having taken upon the Subclass [Spirit Ki Farmer: ★★] all your Stats have increased, and you learned new Skills!]
[Your [Blood Power] has increased by +2.000!]
[Your [Soul Ether] has increased by +5.000!]
[Your [Arcana] and [Dexterity] has increased by +3.000!]
[Your [Strength] and [Vitality] has increased by +1.500!]
“Those are insane stat bonuses for a mere subclass…!”
They were indeed worth a two-star class of stats bonuses, but even then, it still felt very high! It was most likely because it was enhanced thanks to the Heavenly Demon’s divinity.
[Your Subclass Skills Slots have increased by +2!]
[You learned the Subclass Skill: [Spiritual Ki Farmer Agricultural Arts (A): Lv1]!]
[You learned the Subclass Skill: [Blessing of the Martial Spirits of Harvest (A): Lv1]!]
“This is… two new skills too!”
Vlad couldn’t help but feel slightly fascinated about everything, even though his sister and Chris were just staring at him wondering if he was actually fine or not.
One second he was about to get his soul eaten by Outer Ones, and the other he was back, obsessing over game mechanics.
Well, it was a video game so it couldn’t be helped anyways.
The skills themselves also had weird names, they weren’t just the farmer’s Agricultural Arts or the Blessing of Harvest either, they had been modified into weird things.
“Hey Heavenly Demon, what did you do to the farmer class? Not like I am complaining but it feels weird…” Vlad said. “I hope it can at least still do what I wanted it for!”
[“HAHAHAHA! Fear not foolish reincarnation! It does possess the same base abilities, but further amplified! I noticed how this little Subclass had great potential! If you can’t cultivate Ki within your body, then why don’t we cultivate it in the land itself?”]
“What? You’re not making any sense with that, isn’t Ki an energy of the body?”
[“Certainly, Ki is an energy of the body, but also of life itself, vitality, and strength. In my Realm, Murim, this energy coursed in every inch of the world. There was no such thing as Arcana or Blood Energy or whatever! Everything was Ki. The land was Ki, the rivers was Ki, the heavens was Ki!”]
“Okaaay…?”
Paul really thought the whole Ki thing was just Martial Arts, but it ended being more spiritual and mystical than he had originally believed.
[“Once you begin doing the farmwork itself, you’ll realize its unique power. Such as, for example, how about creating crops that contain large quantities of Ki? So once you eat them, you can temporarily wield Ki and reinforce your body.”]
“Oh?! I didn’t think about that…”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[“Not only could these special foods that will be very similar to my Realm’s food help you temporarily wield Ki, which would enhance your physical prowess a lot, but it will also, slowly, heal your body as you both satiate Gluttony and also reinforce it.”]
“But didn’t you say it was impossible to recover? Gluttony is the only way, but that’s not something you knew beforehand…”
[“I did say that, but only because it wasn’t within the possibilities of my Realm. If you could fill yourself with Spiritual Ki Fruits, Vegetables, and many delicious preparations with them, your body will grow healthier! You vampires are all skinny and pale! You need more nutrition in your life! Vegetables, fruits, roots, beans, and rice are necessary for you to grow strong and big!”]
“You’re treating me like I’m a kid still growing up, old man…”
As Vlad sighed, he noticed Camilla and Chris glaring at him dumbfounded.
“A-Ah! Well, it all went… well, at the end,” he sighed in relief. “Anyways, shall we get going for now? Camilla can’t really change classes yet, though I let her inside because leaving her outside in the streets wouldn’t have been safe.”
“O-Okay then,” nodded Chris. “You ok, dude?”
“I’m fine… Just… trying to process a lot of things that happened,” Paul sighed.
At the end, the trio walked back to Vlad’s family house, where they were able to finally rest.
“Hahhh… I can finally relax.”
Vlad rested over his bed, and so did his sister, who immediately fell asleep after that.
“So we’re finally done?” wondered Chris. “So what happened there? Will we see the gods try to fight us every time we choose a Class?”
“I hope not; it would be so damn troublesome and annoying... terrible game design, if so,” said Paul. “I think that- Hm?”
“What?”
Ding!
Suddenly, in front of the two, a new message appeared.
[Congratulations! You have Completed {Background Event}: [Defend Elderbridge from the Black Fang Bandits]
[Not only have you defended your city from this attack, but you have managed to discover the true minds behind this raid: your brother Asthartez Hector Von Sange and his mother, your aunt Helena Silver Moon.]
[Although the battles were arduous for both you and your family, you’ve managed to pull through by the skin of your teeth, while also uncovering a clue behind their sudden growth in power and their strange, cursed abilities.]
[Something to do with a strange entity not from your Realm known as the {Desecrated Shadow King}, you begin to uncover what could possibly be a greater scheme than you could have ever expected.]
[For Completing this Background Event, you and your Party Member received the following Achievement Rewards]: [+100.000 Credits] [Skill Evolution Grimoire (S Grade)] x2 [Equipment Enhancement Magic Hammer (S Grade)] x2 [Curse Magic for Budding Sorcerers Grimoire (S Grade)] x1]
“Oh, what’s this?! We got rewards!” Chris celebrated.
“It seems so…” nodded Paul. “An achievement, huh? Come to think of it, I think we forgot about the draconic beast. Let’s hurry to see how it’s doing before things get chaotic.”
“R-Right, well, it was so weak it might die on its own if not treated,” said Chris. “But let’s see if I can tame that thing with my new Subclass or not!”
“Alright.”
As the two left Camilla sleeping in Vlad’s room, they moved near the walls, on the outskirts, where the draconic beast was placed for obvious reasons. It was too huge for them to risk staying inside and suddenly waking up and terrorizing citizens after all.
“It’s here…”
Both easily flew over the sky, descending as they landed near the creature, whose glistening, dark purple scales shone brightly below the moonlight coming from the night sky.
“What was your new Subclass?” wondered Vlad, looking at Alitheus' face as his eyes suddenly turned silver-colored, resembling the moon itself.
“Moonshine Contractor…” Alitheus slowly flew to the side of the sleeping, unconscious draconic beast and gently touched its scales. “Now shut up; I have to concentrate… I don’t even know if it’ll work.”
[Moonshine Contractor] was the new Subclass of Chris’ Avatar, Alitheus. By channeling the power of the Silver Moon Goddess, it was possible for Chris to create contracts with beasts and tame them.
However, these contracts were limited, and currently, he could only create two until his next Class Rank up. The benefits outweigh the limits, though, as this contract would essentially evolve the contracted creature into some sort of Moon Beast.
Though Chris was still nervous, he had no idea how such a strong monster as the Tier 6 Draconic Beast would react towards his one-star subclass Skill…
But he had also received the blessing of the Silver Moon Goddess, so he hoped he could receive her divine powers to help him.
Hopefully…
“Let’s see… {Moonshine Contract}”
FLASH!
The Silver Moon just happened to be the one shining right now, allowing him to activate this ability, which only activated below Silver Moonlight.
His body rapidly absorbed the Moonlight, creating a silver and gray-colored aura of silver moonlight, which he then imbued into the creature.
Slowly, resembling a small hand, the divine power reached the draconic beast’s soul.
FLUOSH!
And then Chris was suddenly sent elsewhere.
His eyes opened, realizing he was within a completely black space.
And in that space, a large creature was slowly fading away.
It was the draconic beast.
No, it wasn’t just that.
“It’s the draconic beast’s soul?”
Chris walked towards it as he began hearing a voice coming from it.
“It hurts…”
“Hm?”
“My body hurts… so much…”
“…”
The closer he got, the more he heard the beast’s agony.
“Someone, please end my suffering…”
“Please…”
“Please kill me… already…”
“You’re in pain? Is it the curse? I’m fairly sure it came undone once the staff was destroyed,” the incubus spoke, trying to caress the draconic beast’s soul. “I’ll help you.”
“Hmm…” the draconic beast’s soul slowly opened his eyes, shining bright blue.
This creature wasn’t a feral beast or some random monster; Chris immediately realized this being was intelligent—very intelligent.
“You… are you part of my nightmares?”
“I’m not a nightmare! I came here to… save you, I suppose. Let’s make a contract! Become my… err, familiar? And I’ll heal you, I think.”
“A Familiar you say… I was captured by them, tortured, humiliated, and cursed… They made me into a berserk, a beast without mind… And now you want me to serve you? What does that change? I would rather die now… let me die…”
“Y-You’re not a simple beast, aren’t you? From where did you come from? And I don’t want you to serve me; just help me, and I will help you back—a relationship with mutual benefits!”
Chris was doing his best to convince the creature; although it seemed very depressed, he wanted to keep trying to convince it to live.
“Hah… I’m known as the Tenebrous Swamps’ Guardian… I am the descendant of Ancient Venom Dragons… Perhaps the last of my kind… I’ve lived alone for almost two hundred years…”
“Oh… And… what happened? Who cursed you and enslaved you then?”
“They… the… ugh… The Knights of the Desecrated… Shadow… King…”
“That thing has knights?!”
“They call themselves like that… but they’re nothing but a group of crazed… cultists. They’ve been amassing power… for a long time… Those orcs, those vampires… all of them were their new recruits. Tempted by the power of the malevolent king’s curses, which make you stronger based on your own hatred and negative feelings… yet it corrupts you, it turns you into the worst version of yourself… A damned, cursed power… I became what I didn’t want to be… a beast… a monster…”
“A cult…” muttered Chris. “Then don’t you want revenge? I can help you! I am not alone; I got a friend, and also… a few other people; we could work into helping you take revenge then!”
Chris figured out that if the dragon wasn’t going to be nice with him, he would tempt him with something he simply couldn’t deny.
Would a prideful dragon prefer to die or to take revenge first?
“Hmm…”
The Guardian of the Tenebrous Swamps immediately opened his eyes with interest.
“We slew the vampires and the orcs controlling you, and you’re free now! But you’ll die at this pace. So make a contract with me so the Silver Moon Goddess heals your body and soul!”
“There’s such a thing…?”
The dragon’s eyes began shining brightly.
“The Silver Moon Goddess… I didn’t realize!”
He slowly stood up, glancing at the small figure of Alitheus.
“This presence… You’re… Are you her divinely blessed?”
“I… guess so?”
“I… apologize for doubting you; what is your name?”
Suddenly, the dragon changed completely, noticing the presence of the goddess.
“Alitheus... Chris,” the incubus said. “So? How about it?”
“I... very well, if you’re someone who has been blessed by the maiden of silver, then you’re probably someone of pure heart and trustworthy!”
“Ah?! Ahem! I mean, yeeah, totally!”
“Then let me give you my strength… And in exchange, you will heal me and let me have my revenge, right?”
“Yes, those are the terms of this contract!”
“Very well.”
The dragon’s head approached Chris, touching his forehead.
FLASH!
And their souls were connected, forming a Moonshine Contract.
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