Lisa was picked up by Herald and promptly moved away from me. I thanked Herald and got up, brushing my clothes off. Lisa had this damn shiny look in her eyes that scared the crap out of me.

"How the hell do you even remember me?1 It's been hundreds of years! I thought you would forget in that time." I held my head as a headache was starting to creep its way in.I sighed and went towards the bar and asked the man downing drinks like there was no tomorrow, ignoring Lisa's cries of Zaane!! Darling! and got to business. I would deal with Lisa later but right now I had more pressing concerns.

The man turned to look at me and gave me this look as if to say 'what'dya want?'. So I cleared my throat and said "Joseph, I need some help. I need a mark of light removed, and I'll pay."

Joseph swallowed his drink and then smiled, revealing a set of white teeth with some abnormally long fangs. That's right, he was a vampire, just like everyone else in this damn place. He spoke to me, his voice a deep baritone voice with a hint of malice "Mmm, a mark of light eh? That's a relatively simple fix, but why should I help you in the first place? Your face seems similar to an old friend of mine's but unlike Lisa, I doubt you are really him, he was human after all."

Lisa shouted at Joseph, screaming "It's him Joseph! I can tell! It's a woman's intuition! Its the real deal!" Joseph merely sighed and muttered something about Lisa being a crazy and obsessed woman with a few screws loose. It seemed they wouldn't help me because if Lisa making such a scene. God damnit Lisa, why do you have to cause so much trouble.

I turned to the party and saw them looking at the vampires with a mix of fear and wonder. In this world vampires were first hunted down as evil creatures and monsters but later became accepted by the church and the rest of the world through a series of world events that the players did. That didn't mean that people weren't afraid of them, they were originally classed as monsters after all. Herald was still holding Lisa and making sure she didn't charge me, she was damn near close though. Herald seemed to have been using several spells and enchantments on his armour just to hold the woman in place temporarily and he was slowly losing that battle too. His feet were being dragged forwards as she used her muscle power to bull her way towards me.

I wanted to haver this be an in and out fix, just visiting a shop but as luck would have it, that wasn't going to be the case, unfortunately. I just resigned myself to having more trouble follow me with my identity as the crownbleeder being revealed. "Man that cringy name from way back then is really coming back to bite me in the ass huh." I chuckled as I said that and Ray said "Crownbleeder? Really?" I just shrugged and focused back on getting the mark removed from us.

"Hey fangless, I don't have all day man. I have to go and deal with other shit so just get rid of this mark of light already. I alread said I was going to pay alright?"

Joseph's face turned angry and he turned back towards me and yelled "How many times do I have to say, don't call me that! It was one time!" He turned to me with an angry look but then realized what I called him.

"Wait...hold up.." He looked confused but I cut him off as I had wasted several minutes dealing with this crap. "Joseph, I need this mark of light removed, 2 silvers per person as usual. There's the payment, I need to get going soon. He got up and called for some people to come over and get rid of the mark of light on our entire party. While he did so Lisa broke free from Herald and glomped onto my arm and held it there with a vice-like grip, smiling like an idiot with glee. He turned to me and said "While we get this sorted out Zane, mind telling me how you're alive after several hundred years? I thought you were human."

I laughed and said "It's a story and a half thats for sure but alright."

~~~

It was an hour later and had gotten the mark of light removed from everyone but now everyone seemed to be whispering about the revival of the crownbleeder and other random rumors. I could've sworn I heard someone call me an unkillable bastard as we left. I had told Joseph a made up story about me getting into a fight with someone after I had cleared a dungeon and took the treasure and how they beat me but cursed me with several magics, stripping me of my levels,spells, titles. Everything except my life. I told him of how I wandered the forgotten fields for who knows how long, before being found by this party. It seemed like a realistic story and everyone bought it. He asked if I still had the curses on me, preventing me from aging and levelling but I had said no, the curses were broken after I had been taken out of the field.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Once the mark of light was removed from everyone, we started to leave but Lisa didn't want to let go. She held on with her monstrous strength onto my arm for a while. I told the rest of the party to book a room in this tavern that also served as an inn. It wasn't anything fancy but it was a cozy place out of the way. They nodded and got their rooms and head off to get their things sorted. I on the other had was sitting here with an Origin Vampire, the oldest kind, clutching my arm with a scary look in her eyes.

~~~

Me and Joseph managed to get her to let me go after I promised to let her stay in my room. I told her to not get any funny ideas and she agreed but before I could even say anything, she turned and bit me in the neck with her fangs, the bite didn't even hurt or anything, instead I just felt a numbing sensation in my neck. She moved away after a second and smiled saying "Now you can't die of old age!" As if satisfied with herself she turned around and skipped to my room. I turned to Joseph who instantly said "Vampire bites are permanent! I can't get rid of it! Don't look at me like that! That woman has been muttering on about how she should have bitten you to make sure you never die."

"How obsessive is she?!" I quickly looked at my status and tried to remember anything that I could do to stop the vampiric curse. My status gave me a new title which I quickly read over.

Origin Vampire Newbitten: Origin vampires are the original vampires of this world, one of the most powerful as well as one of the noble classes of vampires that are immune to sunlight. This person seems to have been bitten recently and is being turned into a vampire. The process is irreversible.

I looked at Joseph with an angry look and said "If only you just took care of the damn mark, I wouldn't be in this mess."

He looked at me and said "That woman has been going insane over the past few hundred years about you, you don't understand! She's insane! You left her in a rather abrupt and terrible way you know, vanishing from the face of the world along with every other hero class individual at the same time. Look, calm down and take deep breaths. I know you are worried about the vampire turning thing but it is irreversible. If it was a lesser vampires bite then we could have helped, but I can't do anything about an origin vampire bite. Sit down and relax, you look like you are going to pass out."

I sat with Joseph and dealt with the stress and worry of abruptly turning into a vampire. He explained some things about origin vampires and how they didn't need to drink blood like other vampires. They were basically the same as a human but with superior strength, regeneration and stamina. Blood was only something they could drink if they wanted, like alcohol. You could drink it for the buzz but it wasn't needed by any stretch. We talked for a while and he explained a lot of my worries. Long story short I could continue living as a human and nothing would change other than me getting stronger. The church wouldn't even be able to tell I was a vampire unless I revealed my fangs. He helped me hide them, but telling me how to retract them. Long story short literally nothing changed other than be getting a free powerup.

After a long session of vampire 101 I finally went to bed. I had a few choice words for that insane woman but I was too tired to say anything. I simply hopped into bed, forgetting one very important fact. I couldn't remember what that was as I was too fried from the stress that woman made me deal with. "Whatever, I'll figure it out tomorrow, for now i'm sleeping" I fell asleep with a sinking feeling that I was forgetting something really important but couldn't remember what it was. I fell asleep and had nightmares about demonic creatures that tried to break my bones repeatedly and woke up to my entire body feeling sore with Lisa sleeping next to me. She was fully clothed so there was that at least.

"Why the hell do I feel like something broke my bones in the middle of the night??" I got up and got ready for the day and ignored the satisfied look on a certain woman. She nearly crushed me with her hug when I woke up. At least she didn't cling onto me and prevent me from leaving. That's all I cared about as I finished getting ready and left the room to meet up with Ronia and co. Everyone seemed to look a mix of embarrassed and annoyed. I just ignored it and went on to talk about what we were going to do today. I wanted to get ready for dungeon diving as we were going to need more funds soon.