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“Y-You want me to help you hunt down criminals?” wondered Queenie. “Isn’t this a bit excessive? You know I’m a delicate maiden, right? To ask me such a thing…”
“Delicate maiden, my ass!” Chris said angrily. “Or either you help or we’re not going to share our fame with you, Queenie. You have to learn to compromise and sacrifice things if you really want to join our alliance. You’re the first other Player we ever consider joining us. We were going to make our Territory and Guild just made out of NPCs mostly.”
“Wouldn’t it be a good way to create content?” asked Vlad. “Maybe you could film yourself hunting and capturing the many bandits and criminals of this district, who had been abusing the naivety of newbie Players to steal them and create a terrible reputation for the city. You would be helping us kill several birds with one stone. Not only would we be able to destroy these annoyances forever, but we’ll also restore the city’s reputation and also its security, which you and your guild will benefit from if you’re planning to live here as members of our Territory Alliance… right?”
Vlad glared at Queenie’s pink eyes, as she started trembling a bit, her long pink hair shaking while she felt unable to refute his words.
The Vampire Prince was simply too good with words!
“F-Fine…” she sighed. “I’ll film it, but... no gore, ok? And take care of them yourself… I don’t rally like killing people… I mean, the NPC people.”
“It’s fine; I’ll take care of them,” said Vlad mercilessly. “Actually, they’ll take care of it.”
He pointed behind him, as there were several copies of him made of flames; his Blazing Doppelgangers had finished their mining duties and had come to help.
“Right, you can summon something like clones made of fire? That’s a really amazing technique!” said Queenie. “How did you even get something like that? No way it’s part of your class, right?”
“It’s from a Skill Book I got by defeating the Raid Bosses that spawned out of the Unending Crimson Raid,” explained Vlad. “We had quite the annoying time dealing with that bastard. But I’m glad he’s gone for now…”
“Ah right, that Raid!” said Queenie. “It was one of your first videos! It was the first ever Raid reported in the game! It is where you got your fame to begin with.”
“Kind of,” said Vlad. “Anyways, it’s a rare Skill that cannot be easily obtained. There’s other Skills alongside that one… Like Blazing Soul and so on. They’re all fire themed. Anyways, while we are here, I’ll have a meal first.”
The trio were standing over the rooftop of a house while looking at the district in the distance.
“Meal?” Queenie wondered.
Vlad opened his inventory and dropped dozens of giant armored monster corpses. He had several dozen of the freshest corpses he took down and stored during the war.
The Inventory function Players had allowed them to store anything and keep their freshness, so most of these bodies were still warm, as if they had just been killed.
There were two conditions for a Vampire to gain Blood Energy from their prey.
First, they had to have blood, of course. Skeletons and other creatures that didn’t have blood or even flesh didn’t count. But insects and other strange creatures, even if their blood had weird colors and textures, still counted.
And second, they had to be fresh, recently killed. Prey that had been lying around for too long would become unable to feed the Vampire with fresh, warm blood. Once blood loses its freshness, it rots almost instantly. This is why most Vampires like to keep their prey or food alive, drinking their blood over time.
The prey didn’t even have to be hunted by them, as long as someone else brought it for them just fresh enough; by drinking their blood, they can gain power.
This is another reason why Vampires could grow strong so quickly; their parents would bring them big prey for them to feed on. Vlad had done something similar with Camilla, feeding her a lot of kills and making her strong right away.
There were certain items that weren’t the same though, such as the Blood Bottles that could be bought in shops; their blood was kept fresh through magical means, but they couldn’t grant Blood Energy to a Vampire.
And also, the stronger the prey, the more Blood Energy they gave, but the weaker, the less, until almost nothing at all. So although all vampires can drink the lowest-grade blood to remain alive and feed, to continue cultivating their Blood Core, they must continue to pursue stronger prey.
Hence, in their ravenous and ruthless chase for power, they would kill and cannibalize one another… Something Vlad had already done, as he drank the blood of his brother and his aunt, whom he and his mother had killed, and even ate their bodies.
He wasn’t particularly proud of that, though…
“Wow, big bro has a big storage of food!” suddenly, Camilla spoke, scaring Vlad and the rest.
“Wait, Camilla, you came with us?!” asked Vlad. “I thought you stayed at the farm…”
“I wanted to come with Big Brother,” said Camilla. “We’re going to hunt down criminals, right? I’ll help! I’m strong now, right?”
“I... yeah, I suppose,” said Vlad. “But killing people is different than killing monsters, you know? It could affect your head and…”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Huh?” Camilla tilted her head in confusion; she didn’t really get it. “Why?”
“Ah… Yeah, you’re a Vampire, never mind,” nodded Vlad.
Even the most innocent of Vampires were prone to being cold and rather emotionless in various aspects; it was simply a racial trait.
He didn’t really have to worry about Camilla becoming traumatized for seeing her brother killing criminals; she was naturally born to see blood and... dismembered bodies, maybe.
FLUOSH!
Vlad stared, absorbing the blood of his accumulated corpses; one after another, they were drained of all their blood, which turned into rivers of crimson liquid that flew towards his mouth.
At the same time, he released his Aura of Gluttony, which was shaped as countless jaws made of shadows and crimson energy, devouring the corpses.
Once a batch was eaten, he took out another batch until he had finished his meal, drank all their blood and ate them until he couldn’t gain anything else.
There were still a lot of corpses left, although without their blood. Their armor, bones, claws, fangs, and even meat were all valuable materials, so he saved them.
Vlad felt his Blood Aura grow incredibly stronger as his Blood Core was refined, ascending a Tier! His stats also increased, and his internal Arcana became larger.
Ding!
[You have absorbed a large quantity of Blood! You gained 270.000 Blood Energy.]
[You have devoured a large quantity of corpses! You gained an additional 80.000 Blood Energy.]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Your [Blood Core]: [Blood Empowering Realm (Tier 4: Rank 6)] has Ranked Up to Tier 5: Rank 5 of the Blood Awakening Realm!]
[Your Blood Power has increased by +4.650.]
[Your Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity have increased by +4.200.]
[Your Arcana has increased by +4.200.]
[You learned the Racial Skill: [Blood Bomb (A): Lv1]!]
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[Blood Bomb (A): Lv1]
[Skill EXP]: [0/15.000]
A Racial Skill for the Vampire Race, which only powerful Vampires learn naturally. It grants the ability to imbue Arcana into their own Blood or any other Blood they had touched or taken control over and make the Blood combust with incredible power.
Explosion Damage is based on the amount of Arcana applied and also the Blood Power and Arcana Stats themselves +100%. The area of damage from Explosions can be expanded as the user pleases.
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“Oh this is…? Blood Bomb! Nice, sounds like a strong Skill,” Vlad smiled.
Blood Bomb was an ideal Skill for Vlad, as its power was based mostly on Arcana, which he had plenty thanks to all his gross amount of equipment.
And unlike other Magic Skills, it was much more versatile and at a similar level to Spells themselves, while also scaling off his Blood Power Stat, which was very high right now.
“But there’s more…”
[You have absorbed and devoured several different bloodline fragments, which had been assimilated by your main bloodline.]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Your [Bloodline]: [Lesser Vampire Chimera Bloodline (Tier 3: Rank 1)] has Ranked Up to Tier 3: Rank 7!]
[You gained +1.800 Blood Power]
[You gained +1.500 Arcana.]
[Your Soul has eaten the remaining Soul Fragments within the still-fresh bodies of those you’ve slain.]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank Up!]
[Your [Soul]: [Spiritual Golden Red Sea Psyche (Tier 3: Rank 6)] has Ranked Up to Tier 3: Rank 10!]
[You gained +1.200 Soul Ether]
[You gained +1.000 Arcana.]
“I managed to absorb small Soul Fragments… I don’t think my Soul was ready to devour or absorb external souls like this, but thanks to Gluttony, it seems I can rapidly strengthen my soul now by devouring soul fragments,” Vlad thought, nodding. “Oh, there’s this too… New Skills!”
[The absorbed Essence of these corpses has been assimilated by your body, giving you a part of their Powers.]
[You learned the Skills: [Cursed Obsidian Insectoid Exoskeleton Creation (A): Lv1] [Flames And Thunder Of Judgement (S): Lv1] [Neburian Insectoid Vitality (B): Lv1]
[The Skills have been temporarily Stored in the Skill Storage. You can equip them in any Slot at any Time.]
“Oh, these are pretty interesting… the Neburians exoskeleton armor, then Judgement’s elemental powers, and lastly… vitality?” wondered Vlad. “Hm, well, I might try out the first two, but I lack a lot of slots. Right now I barely have one Skill Slot. I could probably fuse Skills later.”
For now, Vlad decided to rearrange his Skills, take some out, and equip a few others to “try out” while he took out the thugs.
His Status now looked like this.
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[Player Name]: [Vlad Von Sange VII]
[Titles]: [Iron Blood Empire’s Seventh Prince]
[Blood Core]: [Blood Awakening Realm (Tier 5: Rank 5)] (Blood Energy: 12.500/80.000)
[Bloodline]: [Lesser Vampire Chimera Bloodline (Tier 3: Rank 7)]
[Soul]: [Spiritual Golden Red Sea Psyche (Tier 3: Rank 10)]
[Race]: [Dhampir (Weak Bloodline)]
[Class]: [Arcane Vampire Prince of the Crimson Moon: ★★]
[Subclass]: [Spirit Ki Farmer: ★★]
[Blood Power]: [38.400]
[Soul Ether] [17.850]
[Strength]: [19.500]
[Arcana]: [27.050]
[Vitality]: [17.800]
[Dexterity]: [19.950]
[Credits]: [2.750.000]
[Character Background Traits]: [Insatiable Gluttony (Legendary Grade)] [Heavenly Demon’s Soul (Legendary Grade)] [Blessing of Achlys, the Goddess of the Crimson Moon (Epic Grade)]
[Character Background Flaws]: [Triple Shattered Meridian Physique (Legendary Grade)] [The Lonely Demon’s Last Wish (Legendary Grade)]
[Racial Skills (6/6)]
[Blood Demon’s Immortal Chimera Body (SS): Lv2] [Blood Bending (A): Lv4] [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv4] [Blazing Soul (A): Lv2] [Blazing Doppelganger (A): Lv3] [Blood Fever (C): Lv1] [Mist Form (B): Lv1] [Blood Bomb (A): Lv1]
[Class Skills (7/7)]
[Soul-Eating Fist Technique (S): Lv4] [Treacherous (D): Lv5] [Beast Hunter (D): Lv4] [Dual Blazing Blade Arts (S): Lv3] [Crimson Moon Arcane Arts (B): Lv1] [Flames And Thunder Of Judgement (S): Lv1] [Cursed Obsidian Insectoid Exoskeleton Creation (A): Lv1] [Magnetism Manipulation (S): Lv1]
[Subclass Skills (7/7)]
[Alchemy (C): Lv7] [Crafting (D): Lv5] [Runic Engravement (B): Lv5] [Sewing (D): Lv5] [Echolocation (D): Lv4] [Spiritual Ki Farmer Agricultural Arts (A): Lv2] [Blessing of the Martial Spirits of Harvest (A): Lv2]
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He replaced a couple of Skills that were only used in certain things, such as Bloodline Absorption, as he didn’t need it while fighting for example. And a few others were replaced for the stronger Judgement’s Elemental Skill.
Also, he added Magnetism Manipulation as he wanted to try out its power, something he had obtained from his malicious brother and his mother’s corpses.
“I might as well put to good use the power they gave to me…”
The moment he equipped the skill he already felt something within his hands, an electrifying sensation that generated sparks of electricity.
“Alright, I’m done. Let’s go.”
The party stepped forward, reaching the last dangerous area of Elderbridge.
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