As I stood over the corpse of the goblin king, I looked at my Status window with disappointment. Even after wiping out the entire tribe, and slaughtering the king, It had still only earned me a single user level, bringing me to 25. Even worse, it was the first level I had gained in weeks. It was time to leave the forest. I waved my hand, moving the Goblin King’s corpse into [Inventory], and then took one last look at my status window, admiring my progress before heading back to Bizet.
Name:
Lucille
Age:
22
Sex:
F
Race:
[Vampire]
Class:
[Sole Survivor] lvl 25
Level:
25
[HP]:
-/2000
[MP]:
-/4000
[AP]:
-/2000
Status Effects:
[Adventurer], [Pawn of the Gods], [Undead]
Passive Skills:
[Dark Vision] lvl MAX
[Perseverance] lvl MAX
[Pride] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Superiority] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Weakness] lvl MAX
[Dagger Mastery] lvl 18
[Mana Sense] lvl 25
[Detection] lvl 6
[Enhanced Senses] lvl 25
[Imitate Life] lv 25
[Rapid Regeneration] lvl 10
[Fire Resistance] lvl 2
Active Skills:
[Pickpocket] lvl 17
[Pick Lock] lvl 16
[Stealth] lvl 15
[Appraise] lvl 11
[Meditate] lvl 25
[Deceive] lvl 9
[Charm] lvl 7
[Persuade] lvl 7
[Sprint] lvl 18
[Magic]
Stats:
Available Points: 17
Category
Base
Bonus
Total
[Strength]
100
100
200
[Dexterity]
100
100
200
[Agility]
100
100
200
[Vitality]
100
100
200
[Intelligence]
100
100
200
[Willpower]
100
100
200
[Charisma]
100
100
200
[Perception]
77
462
539
Magic
Attribute
Spells
Unattributed
[Mana Manipulation] lvl 25
[Magic Missile] lvl 22
[Telekinesis] lvl 25
[Magic Shield] lvl 13
[Hold Person] lvl 15
Light
[Light Manipulation] lvl 25
[Blind] lvl 25
[Laser] lvl 25
[Flash] lvl 24
[Light] lvl 20
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
[Dome of Darkness] lvl 17
[Cloak of Darkness] lvl 7
Illusion
[Disguise] lvl 25
[Illusion] lvl 25
[Invisibility] lvl 25
[Phantom Person] lvl 25
[Camouflage] lvl 21
[Obscure] lvl 20
[Phantom Beast] lvl 16
[Spectacle] lvl 15
[Illusory Terrain] lvl 14
Space
[Spatial Manipulation] lvl 25
[Blink] lvl 19
[Rend] lvl 18
[Swap] lvl 18
[Greater Inventory] lvl 16
[Teleport Object] lvl 15
Earth
[Earth Manipulation] lvl 25
[Stone Bullet] lvl 25
[Earthen Wall] lvl 15
[Earthquake] lvl 21
[Earthen Spear] lvl 22
[Pitfall] lvl 15
Air
[Air Manipulation] lvl 25
[Vacuum] lvl 19
[Propel] lvl 7
[Gust] lvl 5
Sound
[Sound Manipulation] lvl 25
[Ventriloquy] lvl 25
[Mute] lvl 20
[Phantom Piano] lvl 14
Fire
[Fire Manipulation] lvl 25
[Heat] lvl 25
[Flamethrower] lvl 5
Water
[Water Manipulation] lvl 25
[Water Jet] lvl 25
[Siphon Water] lvl 25
[Water Blade] lvl 25
[Drown] lvl 14
[Wave] lvl 14
[Dive] lvl 10
Ice
[Ice Spear] lvl 13
[Freeze] lvl 11
[Black Ice] lvl 9
Blood
[Hemokinesis] lvl 25
[Blood Blade] lvl 19
[Blood Spear] lvl 19
[Create Thrall] lvl 6
Aura
[Aura Sense] lvl 25
[Aura Control] lvl 20
[Body Strengthening] lvl 20
[Muay Thai] lvl 19
[Blade Mastery] lvl 16
Although I was disappointed after that battle, there was really no reason for me to complain. My time in isolation had been incredibly productive. I wasn’t able to get through every spell book that I had, or even half, but the ones that I had finished greatly increased my abilities, both in combat, and outside of it. The most useful progress I had made was definitely my progress on [Inventory]. Every time I improved [Spatial Manipulation], the volume I could store increased, and when the skill reached level 20, it had upgraded to [Greater Inventory], which removed the limit on the number of items I could store.
This was not the first time I would be returning to the city. A couple weeks after I started my isolation training, I saw something on my HUD that would have made my heart skip a beat if I were still alive. Even after three and a half months of seeing it, I still could not quite believe what I saw.
[HP]:
460/460
[MP]:
2984/4000
[AP]:
1536/2000
[Life Energy]:
99/100
[Pawn of the Gods] enemies remaining
5/6
One of the other incarnations had been killed.
I did not know which it was, or where, or who had killed it. I needed information. I went into town about a week after I noticed the change, hoping to learn something about it. I figured that the recruitment poster about the hunt for the Demon King was related to the change, and thought that if that was truly the case, then there would likely be some news about that in town. When I entered the city, I was worried about how I would subtly ask, because people might find it weird if I knew of the death of the Demon King, before word reached them, but it turned out that there was really no risk at all. The death of the Demon King and the valor of the heroes who had killed it were all anyone was talking about.
There were many conflicting reports, but a quick visit to Anatoly cleared things up nicely Apparently, his own daughter had been one of the leaders of the efforts to slay the King. A company of high leveled paladins and adventurers had discovered the Demon King and chased him to a mountain, where, after a long battle with many casualties, they finally managed to slay it. The official leader, and the one who was being praised the most by the people, was an Orderbound Blade, the highest ranking of paladin, who also happened to be Anatoly’s great grandson.
Hearing that the demon king, had wiped out over half of the army sent to kill him forced me to redefine my goals. The Orderbound Blades were among the strongest people in the continent, and the paladins that had gone with him wouldn’t have been too far behind, and yet, only a month and a half after the start of the game, one of the incarnations was already strong enough to go toe-to-toe with all of them. I was glad that he had been killed, but I knew that if I wanted to stand a chance against the other participants in the game, I would need to accelerate my learning.
Based on the way Anatoly described the man who had become the Demon King, it was most likely Greed or Gluttony who had died. I was leaning more towards Gluttony, based solely on the size of the man, but if it turned out that he was actually Greed, it would not have surprised me. Not that it mattered, since I didn’t know what any of the abilities of the others were, but it was interesting to try and guess.
In the time that I had been in isolation, winter had come, and then started to go. The ground was covered in a layer of dirty snow littered with footprints of animals that had passed through. I never felt any of it though, as I used [Heat] to melt the snow in front of me, and [Water Manipulation] to clear the remaining liquid.
It was night when I killed the goblin king, but it was nearly midday when I finally reached the gates of Bizet. I showed him my Adventurer’s badge and he let me in without question, though he did stare at me a little longer than I was used to. I was willing to bet that it was because of my face. I had learned how to use the [Disguise] spell, focused on my mouth to hide my fangs, so I no longer needed to wear my mask, and my face was now uncovered, letting the full force of my beauty shine through.
I flashed him a smile with my normal human teeth and continued on my way. There were only two places I needed to go: the Adventurer’s guild, to show Alyona my upgraded skills, and Anatoly’s so that I talk with my friend, and pass on the message to Sylvia that I would be ready to accept her offer shortly. I decided to go to Anatoly’s first, mostly because I hadn’t seen him in a while, but also in part due to the fact that I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be seeing Alyona again after what she had done to me the last time we met.
When I walked into his shop, Anatoly was sitting behind his desk, talking to a woman who was laying on her back on top of it. The woman tall and thin, and was dressed very casually, in nothing more than a shirt and pants, which was unusual, since it was still winter. It didn’t take long to find a reasonable explanation for her behavior, though. Her ears were the same as Anatoly’s, as were her eyes, which were staring at me with curiosity.
“Ah, Lucy is that you?”
“Yep, it’s me. Hey Anatoly,” I replied.
As soon as I said this, the elf woman suddenly sat straight up and started glaring at me, looking very angry.
[Pride] has nullified [Archmage’s] [Intimidation] mental skill
Seeing her face, and her title of [Archmage] almost made me pause, but Anatoly’s amused, laid back expression, led me to believe that I would be alright, so I walked forward confidently, ignoring her gaze.
“So,” she said when I got to the desk. “You’re the one who stabbed my granddaughter.”
Anatoly made a small cough, and looked away, and my suspicions were confirmed.
“Sorry, Anatoly already tried that one,” I said.
She glared at me for a few seconds longer before cracking a grin and starting to laugh. Once she started laughing, Anatoly stopped holding back his own laughter, and I joined in as well.
“You were right, dad, she is interesting,” said the elf woman once she stopped laughing. Then she looked closely at my face. “I never thought I’d get to meet another vampire.”
Hearing this, I immediately checked my status window to make sure that [Imitate Life] was working. It was, so I then turned to glare at Anatoly.
“Oh, it’s ok, he didn’t say anything,” said his daughter. “Your [Disguise] skill just isn’t quite good enough to hide your teeth from me.”
“Don’t worry too much though,” added Anatoly, seeing my look of disappointment. “No mage under level 50, or anyone else under level 75 will be able to see through it. That means that in this whole city, only my relatives and I will notice.”
“My name is Natalya, by the way. I’m his daughter.” Natalya smiled and held out her hand, which I shook.
“I’m Lucille, but you can call me Lucy. Are you the same daughter that helped to slay the Demon King?”
Her smile dimmed a little. “Yes, I am,” she said.
Sensing that it wasn’t a topic that she would want to talk about, I decided to leave it as it was. I put myself on guard a little too. If she was one who would go on an expedition to kill a Demon King, I didn’t want to reveal anything that could incriminate me. I would need to be more careful around Anatoly now, too.
“So, Anatoly,” I said. “Is Sylvia still bothering you?”
“Yes, but it’s not as much of a bother as it used to be.”
“Wow. She is really persistent.”
“Touché. She’s grown on me though. I’ve been seriously considering accepting her request. Not for anything she’s promised, but as a favor to a friend.”
“Wow, that much, huh. Well, I was actually thinking the same thing. Next time she stops by, can you let he know that I’m planning on accepting her offer once I clear the Halls of Abomination?”
“If you wait around for a while, or come back in a few hours, you can tell her yourself. She said she’d be dropping by this afternoon sometime.”
I considered for a moment, but then shook my head. “Nah, I have a few other things to do today. And I want to clear that Dungeon as soon as I can so I can head to the capital. I think I’m already nearing the limit of what I can achieve here.”
“Alright, I will let her know,” said Anatoly.
“Thank you,” I said.
“So, while you’re here, are you interested in picking up another book or 5? Sylvia is still more than willing to pay for them.”
“Nah, I haven’t even finished learning everything in the other ones you gave me.”
“Not even another romance novel?”
I hesitated. “Alright fine. I need to get going soon though.”
With help from both elves, I picked out another dozen books for pleasure reading. Natalya was especially helpful, since she had read every single book in the section, and was able to give me solid reviews for each one. It took almost an hour, and when I eventually did manage to extricate myself, Natalya started to follow me.
“Mind if I join you?” she asked. “You’re heading to the Adventurer’s Guild, right? I can say ‘hi’ to my granddaughter while we’re there.”
I shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
“Great!” she said.
“Good luck with your rank up!” called Anatoly after us as we walked out the door.
I started heading towards the Adventurer’s Guild, and then flinched and froze when I heard a strange, masculine, gravelly voice coming from the direction that Natalya had been. I looked over to find that the tall, beautiful elf women had been replaced by a dwarven man with a beard going down to his knees and worn steel plate armor.
“So, Lucy, where’ya from?” he said with a strange accent.
“What the- Natalya?” I asked.
The dwarf put his finger to his mouth and winked. “Call me Magne. Are you from some secret enclave of Vampires somewhere? Ah, and don’t worry,” she said when she saw me glance around. “No one else can hear us right now.”
I reached out with [Mana Sense] and discovered a thin film of wind mana that covered us on all sides. It felt very similar to my own [Mute] skill, though this was on a much larger scale.
“No,” I said. “I don’t know where I’m from. I just kind of woke up one day without any memories.”
“No memories?”
“Well, I knew how to talk and walk and read and things like that, but I have no memories of my life before that day.”
“Fascinatin’. Were there any clues about yer origins when ya woke up?”
“Nope. I just woke up in the woods one day and had to figure shit out.” I didn’t like the direction the conversation was going.
“Wow. Ya only woke up a few months ago with no memories, an’ yer already this strong. It’s almost unnatural, haha.” The atmosphere immediately grew cold
“I'm just naturally gifted,” I responded calmly.
She stared at me for a few seconds, then shrugged. “If ya say so.”
We walked the rest of the way to the guild in silence, but there was a palpable tension in the air between us. When we got there, we stood in the long line in front of the desk while I read the notices and quests on the Quest Board. I was in the middle of reading one about exterminating the goblins, which I had just done when I heard a vaguely familiar voice behind me.
“Lucy?”