“Castle Lamia: An ancient vampire stronghold. Currently level 1, uninhabited” read the screen. I stared blankly at it for a moment, surely this was not the strangest thing I’ve seen. However, it was jarring, walking around and having some screen in front of your face is quite strange. Then, a notice popped up:

“You have been selected by the castle’s core to rebuild the castle and protect the core. Congratulations, Count Lamia.” The castle then began to transform in front of my eyes. The doors and walls were reconstructed and repaired, new pristine chairs were put in place of the old, mangled ones. The floor’s broken tiles were repaired too, and in their place was a beautiful and ornate black and golden pattern. Candelabras and floating candles around the room suddenly swept to life, and the banners hung on the eight large pillars either side of the room were filled with the vibrant colors of a new family crest. The red orb in front of my throne pulsated, and a new message popped up in front of me.

“The reconstruction of the first stage has been completed. Please interface with the core of the castle so that your aptitude can be determined.” I felt like I had no choice but to follow what the messages in front of me said. Afterall, I barely even knew who I was. I reached towards the orb and blood shot out in the form of a hand, grabbing mine and pulling me closer. It flowed into my body, revitalizing me and filling me with some unknown power. I felt strong, and confident. My body surged with strength and for a second my head was filled with the memories of the core. I struggled for a moment to take it all in before I began to recall its earliest, hazy memory: the throne room filled with vampires, all conversing fiercely. Then, a vampire walked in and yelled something at the table. As everyone turned to look, its chest was pierced by a stake. Moments later, a group of heavily armed humans with platemail armor stormed into the room. On their chest were golden crosses, and their helmets held a similar shape. They immediately burst into battle, some of the vampires attacked with blood magic but it was to no avail, as the seemingly enchanted platemail took no damage. The humans slowly worked their way from the door to the throne, massacring each and every vampire in their path. The memory stops right as they attack the vampire sitting on the throne.

The next memory is of humans coming and pillaging golden ornaments from atop the table. One of the humans mentioned something about the “purity of the vampire's bloodline” and how that equated to their wealth. Every memory afterwards is something similar, humans or various other creatures stealing from the castle, damaging the walls, breaking things. Slowly, the walls degrade, the doors are broken, chairs are destroyed. However, the throne and core remain untouched. It’s like they can’t even see it.

After a moment, the screen popped up with a new message: “Before explaining your aptitude, you must be aware of the rating scale. Vampires follow a strict scale: Petty, Lesser, Common, Greater, Grand, and Crimson. This scale indicates the amount of skill or potential you have for something, but it can also be used to summarize the usefulness of an object, person, or place. It is a general scale, from worst to best. There also exists some modifiers to certain skills or items, sometimes even people will possess modifiers. You will gain more knowledge about these as you learn more about the world. Your current knowledge is of [Holy] and [Cursed] items. [Holy] items are extremely dangerous to vampires, especially newborns such as yourself. Their effects range from causing mild pain, to instantly killing vampires. Holy armor has also been known to completely nullify attacks from vampire magic. [Cursed] items are items which contain strong curses which will hurt the user. However, because vampires are a [Cursed] race, the strength of the curse will turn to their benefit instead, providing a bonus of equal strength to the curse. You may also drain curses from items and absorb its power.”

The volume of information was truly staggering, but I didn’t have the time to take it all in before another message popped up.

“Your aptitude has been determined:

[Summoning: Petty]

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

[Swordsmanship: Petty]

[Sorcery: Common]

[Blood Magic: Lesser]

[Transformation: Grand]

You may earn new aptitudes, or upgrade existing ones through practice, enlightenment, and combat.”

While I was quite unaware of how useful any of these aptitudes were, my [Transformation] skill being at Grand must have been a good thing, so despite my shortcomings I was happy. I took another glance around the room, my hand still within the orb, before asking something. “Could you give me information on my current strength? I know I have aptitudes, but I’m not sure how strong I actually am.” The room was quickly filled with silence, and nothing happened. I truly pondered for a moment if I was just hallucinating everything I had seen so far. Afterall, I was talking to an empty room with my hand in a ball of blood. I wasn’t sure what was normal, but my intuition told me that it was probably not that. Luckily, after some time a message popped up in front of me: “Your current abilities have also been recorded:

[Intelligence: Greater]

[Strength: Petty]

[Charisma: Greater]

[Willpower: Crimson]

[Mana: Greater]

[Dexterity: Crimson]

Please take these stats into consideration in the future, especially when challenging enemies or taking on new subordinates.”

“I see, is there anything else? Like my bloodline? From your memories, it seems that may be an important factor.” Again, silence rang out in the room, save for the crackle of the torches. This time, though, I noticed that the orb was moving, swirling, and bubbling. Perhaps it was processing the information it was gaining, and calculating a response.

“The last thing to take into consideration is your bloodline:

[Bloodline: High Noble]

The purity of your bloodline will dictate the amount of control you have over other vampires, and how much they respect you. Vampires are typically ranked as follows, but exceptions do exist: Dhampir, Lesser, Low, Common, Noble, High Noble. Most vampires cannot change their blood from birth, but vampires with particularly strong willpower may undergo a blood transfusion to gain abilities of a higher ranking vampire, if absolutely necessary. The risks involved in this procedure are life-threatening, though.”

With this in mind, I took my hand out of the ball of blood and sat down in a nearby chair. It wasn’t until I sat, though, that I realized I was wearing a completely different outfit. It was likely changed when the castle underwent construction, I thought. It was regal, definitely befitting of a noble. I wanted to know what I looked like, so I stood up and immediately went searching for a mirror. However, I could not find one anywhere in the throne room. However, there were chests filled with gold, jewels, and gems as well as two sets of armor. One set was adjacent to each pillar closest to the throne. One set of armor was black, with red accents. It also glowed slightly red, and was closest to the platemail of the humans I had seen earlier. The other set of armor was also black, but with golden accents. This armor was much closer to what I had been wearing previously, much lighter than full platemail. There was no helmet, only a metal chest piece and light leg guards. Underneath the armor was a crimson colored silk shirt and pants. After taking a moment to admire both sets, I sat down on the throne, staring at the still-pulsating red orb in front of me.

I could go outside, but there was too much danger without knowing anything. For all I knew, there could be a group of knights outside ready to charge at me and drive a stake into my heart before I could even take my first step. I would need information before I was ready to go outside, and the only answer to that lie just in front of me. I continued to stare at the orb, though, not willing to ask for help just yet. First, I would need a plan. The orb stated this castle was only at its first stage of reconstruction, which probably means that if there is more to this castle outside of the double doors at the end of the hall, it is likely destroyed. I do not have any subordinates, despite being the Count of Lamia. I also don’t have any idea how safe it is to cast magic inside of this room, much less how to even do it in the first place. The orb did say I had a rank of [Grand] for transformation. Maybe as a small animal, I could scout the outside world and discover what kind of predicament I am actually in. First, I should ask the orb if it knows of the state outside, if it can guide me on how to transform, and how I should go about getting my first subordinate.