Waking up on his fifth day of training Zero woke up to get ready to go to school. As he walked out of the bathroom after his shower he received a system notification.
SKILL DHAMPIR PHYSIOLOGY GAINED
TRANSFORMATION INTO DHAMPIR AVAILABLE
TRANSFORMATION WILL CHANGE RACE AND SOUL TYPE AS A RESULT
SHOULD PROCESS BEING YES/NO
'Can I hold off on transforming right now?' asked Zero
YES PROCESS CAN BEGIN ANYTIME THE HOST CHOOSES
'Okay, then I'll wait until I've got the Dark Metamorphosis skill first. I'll need that skill to hide my body's new features anyways.' thought Zero
UNDERSTOOD PLEASE INFORM THE SYSTEM WHEN TO BEGIN TRANSFORMATION
'I still need 2 more days before my power assimilation skill cooldown resets. How long will it take to copy the skill?' thought Zero
APPROXIMATELY 5 HOURS
Zero then left for Hirosaki High. Arriving he was greeted by Soma and Mina. They walk to class together. Although he hadn't been around much these days due to training he was still quite close with the two. As they walked to class Zero was stopped by Mrs. Belnades who wished to talk to him.
"Well Mr. Hakuba do you know why I want to talk to you?" asked Mrs. Belnades
"I'm assuming that I've been performing poorly in class and you want me to try harder to improve." said Zero nonchalantly
"Yes that's why I'm recommending to your guardian for you to join after school tutorial." said Mrs. Belnades
"There is no need for that I'm well aware that I need to improve so I've been doing an intense lesson for the past 4 days." Said Zero
"Well, I'm glad to hear that then. I hope to see some improvement in your grades on the test next week." said Mrs. Belnades as she smiled and entered the classroom. She was happy to have a student who wished to do better in school without being forced to study. Little did she know that the intense lessons Zero talked about had nothing to do with school.
During lunch, Zero paid close attention to the teacher close to Mrs. Belnades and noticed a certain young female teacher always sat with her. When school ended Zero went to see the female teacher and used his hypnotic gaze to get the answers for next weeks' test. He didn't care whether he failed the class or not but the witch paid more attention to him which was stressful.
Arriving at the hotel Zero got changed and went to the underground gym. Hammer was already there and tossed a practice sword to Zero. "Get ready I won't be holding back today." Said Hammer
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
As soon as he caught the sword he was hit with bloodlust emanating from Hammer. This was not like the one he released on the first day. It made Zero tense and he found it hard to breathe let alone move. Zero then closed his eyes and slowed his breathing and he then took a stance as he prepared for battle. This fight was different than the others as he felt that if he lost he would die. He opened his eye and look at Hammer not as an instructor but as an enemy that he needs to kill for his survival.
"Good here I come!" said Hammer as he lunged forward. He slashed at Zero and although Zero tries to parry the blow as he did normally the force behind the attack was too great. It caused Zero to slide back and before he could rebuild his stance Hammer was already attacking with another slash.
Zero dodged the incoming and then and immediately responded with a counter-attack which Hammer dodged. Zero did not stop the attack and he redirected the attack to where Hammer was. Hammer could do nothing except aim an attack at Zero's slash to block the attack. The practice swords hit each other and broke. Zero didn't stop there he tossed the broken sword and threw a punch which Hammer blocked easily.
"That's enough! You passed my test. You have good battle instincts most people freeze during their first battle. " said Hammer as he released Zero's hand. He was truly impressed by the growth of this kid. It was only two days ago in which he had taught him the lesson of not letting your opponent dictate how you fight. This little monster had already incorporated it into his style in this short exchange no matter what Hammer did the kid stuck to his fight style and didn't make any mistakes.
Zero was unaware of it but as soon as the battle began he began to release bloodlust too. This shocked Hammer as he wondered how a kid did young had devolved killer instincts. What he was unaware of was that Zero had developed it during the short battles with him. Zero still had almost no life experience so he was quite observant and liked to imitate what he saw.
"Okay kid I was supposed to teach you for 7 days but you've grown so quickly there's nothing I can teach you anymore." said Hammer thinking he was getting too old to keep up with the new generation.
"So what will I do for the last two days?" asked Zero
"We'll just be sparing so that you can gain experience. After I'm gone you can ask that lass Hikaru to be your sparring partner. It's good to fight different people so that you can perfect your fighting style." said Hammer
Hammer then walked and picked up a bag in the corner. He took out two real Japanese katanas for the bag and handed them on to Zero. "We'll be using these for the sparring now. You can keep that one."
"Thanks!" said Zero excitedly
"Relax kid it's just a small gift no need to get so excited." said Hammer
"Sorry it's just you're the second person to give me a gift besides my mom." said Zero with a sad look in his eye.
"My bad kid. Well then you can get as excited as you want. I'll give you another gift on our last day." said Hammer, He was well aware of the type of man Hikaru's father was. Thinking that Zero was actually that man's child he began to feel pity for the boy. 'Good thing the bastard's dead.' He thought
Zero and Hammer continued to spar for the remainder of time until the evening. Zero arrived at his room and did his evening routine. As he laid in bed he was overcome with a sense of accomplishment. He was now strong enough to brave the lower levels of Dracula's Castle and when he transforms into a Dhampir he'll be unstoppable. Well maybe not unstoppable but combined with the 2 skills he would take from Soma no one in this world would be able to harm him not even Dracula at full power. Content that everything was proceeding smoothly Zero closed his eye and went to sleep.
Waking up the next day he was excited by the notification that he received.
SKILL DARK METAMORPHOSIS GAINED
DARK METAMORPHOSIS: THROUGH MASTERING SHAPESHIFTING AND DARK MAGIC GAINED THE ABILITY TO COMBINE BOTH AND CREATE THIS SKILL. THIS ABILITY IS ABLE TO SHIFT FORM AND PASS AS ANY TYPE OF CREATURE. DUE TO THE HOST NOT HAVING KNOWLEDGE OF DARK MAGIC CHAOS ENERGY WILL BE DRAINED FROM THE SOUL TO COMPENSATE.
THE HOST HAS CREATED AN ORIGINAL SWORD STYLE PLEASE NAME
STYLE HAS THREE FORMS
1st FORM: A DEFENSIVE STYLE THAT DEFENDS AND THEN COUNTER ATTACKS
2nd FORM: AN ADAPTIVE STYLE THAT DEVELOPS BY ABSORBS OPPONENTS STYLE DURING THE BATTLE
3rd FORM: AN OFFENSIVE STYLE THAT USES QUICK FOOTWORK AND QUICK DRAW SLASHES
PLEASE NAME SWORD FORMS
'Name the sword style Null. The 1st form will be named Counter. The 2nd form will be named Void. The third form will be named oblivion.'
CONFIRMED ORIGINAL SWORD STYLE NAMED
NAME: ZERO
RACE: HUMAN
SOUL: HUMAN C TYPE
SOUL RANK: G+
ATTRIBUTES: NONE
STRENGTH: 32
SPEED: 38
MAGIC ENERGY: 500
VITALITY: 40
SKILLS: POWER ASSIMILATION, WORLD TRAVEL, HYPNOTIC GAZE, SHAPESHIFTING, SWORDSMANSHIP MASTERY, INTERMEDIATE MARKSMANSHIP, DHAMPIR PHYSIOLOGY, DARK METAMORPHOSIS
NULL SWORD STYLE: COUNTER FORM, VOID FORM, OBLIVION FORM
His current stats were a far cry from what they were when he began his journey. It was a minuscule growth when compared to his final goal but he felt happy to see that he was getting stronger. He now had a fighting style that suited him and the constant sparring against Hammer had helped him increase his stats.