8 - A Familiar Face_Pride, Greatest of the Sins

When my class changed, I didn’t feel any different than I had before. It was probably because the class I had picked had no special attributes. With [Fighter] or [Martial Artist], I would have been able to feel my aura, and with [Sorcerer], I probably would have had a better sense of the mana around me, but with [Sole Survivor] I did not gain anything like that. But something had changed, so I opened my [Status] window and looked at my new skills.

Name:

Lucille

Age:

Sex:

Race:

[Vampire]

Class:

[Sole Survivor] lvl 1

Level:

HP:

460/460

MP:

568/1400

Status Effects:

[Undead], [Pawn of the Gods]

Passive Skills:

[Dark Vision] lvl MAX

[Pride] lvl MAX

[Vampiric Superiority] lvl MAX

[Vampiric Weakness] lvl MAX

[Dagger Mastery] lvl 16

[Mana Sense] lvl 11

[Enhanced Senses] lvl 5

[Imitate Life] lv 5

[Rapid Regeneration] lvl 4

[Detection] lvl 1

[Perseverance] lvl 1

Active Skills:

[Pickpocket] lvl 17

[Pick Lock] lvl 16

[Stealth] lvl 15

[Appraise] lvl 11

[Deceive] lvl 9

[Hemokinesis] lvl 8

[Charm] lvl 7

[Persuade] lvl 7

[Create Thrall] lvl 2

[Inventory] lvl 1

[Sprint] lvl 1

Stats:

Available Points: 12

Notice:

Intelligence and Willpower have been automatically adjusted to match host’s abilities.

Category

Base

Bonus

Total

[Strength]

[Dexterity]

128

[Agility]

128

[Vitality]

[Intelligence]

150

[Willpower]

140

[Charisma]

118

[Perception]

Detection lvl 1

You have a 7th sense for danger. You can now sense danger around you. (Upgrades at lvl 20)

Inventory lvl 1

You can store important items in an extradimensional space that most others are unable to interact with. Useful for storing emergency supplies, or secret items that normally wouldn’t or couldn’t be carried normally. Will not store living creatures.

Max # of Items: 3

Max Volume: 1 cubic foot

Volume currently available: 1.0/1.0

Current items:

Perseverance lvl 1

When your [HP] or [MP] reach 1, the other will start to be consumed in their place. User will die if both are depleted.

Sprint lvl 1

You can use [MP] to increase your movement speed while running

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Current speed boost: 1.1x

Current [MP] cost: 50/minute

I had already been able to see short descriptions of the skills while I was selecting my class, but it was nice to finally be able to see the actually numbers. They were disappointingly low, but they would increase with level, so it was alright. A class focused entirely on survival would be of great use in the game of the gods.

However, with no combat skills, my combat power was lacking. Based on what had happened with [Imitate Life], I would be able to create, or at least earn my own skills independently of my class, but it also might be difficult to do that. I knew I was talented, but I also knew that gaining [Imitate Life] could have been a complete fluke. The System might have awarded the skill to me simply because it was original, or because I was the only one in the world who could use it. Gaining more common, combat oriented skills could easily prove to be a problem.

Or maybe not. If the reason I had earned [Imitate Life] was because it was a unique skill, couldn’t I do the same by continuing my experiments with using [Hemokinesis] to make weapons? And even if I didn’t earn any skills from doing that, it would still provide me some options in combat. I would definitely need to experiment with it more to figure it out, but for now, I needed to leave.

I walked up to the door of my tiny room, and opened it. As the priest had said, it was not locked, but it was not oiled either, so it creaked when I opened it. When I walked out, I found the priest sitting in the chair next to the door rubbing his eyes. It looked like he had been napping again, though not as deeply this time. I stood impatiently and waited as he slowly got up and stretched his arms, yawning.

“You done? Good. Follow me.” He turned to walk down the hallway and I followed.

Once we got back the lobby, I noticed that it wasn’t empty. A different, and much friendlier priest was sitting behind the receptionist desk, and he was talking to a hooded customer. The moment I saw the customer, I suddenly felt uneasy, so I watched him warily as I made my way towards the exit. He must have felt my gaze because he turned to look at me, and I saw a pair of familiar yellow eyes staring at me from under the hood.

When he saw me, I first noticed an expression of recognition, followed quickly by an expression of confusion. I knew what he was confused by. We had only parted half a day ago, but I suddenly had a heartbeat. As he processed what he was seeing, my mind was running at max capacity trying to figure out how to get out of this situation.

There was no way to pretend like I wasn’t the same person as before. He had already seen my eyes, and I was still wearing the same clothes that I wore on the journey. I could ignore him and leave as quickly as I could, but that would only cause him to be more curious and more suspicious. He might decide to let it go, but he also might search for me, and tell others about me. I couldn’t have that.

Earlier, he seemed to have accepted my lie about having unique circumstances that lead me to not have a heartbeat, here I was, just a few hours later, now with a heartbeat. I could try to lie, and say that my business was complete, and that I no longer needed to hide my heartbeat, but that might cause him to ask more questions. Or not. He might respect my privacy and leave it. It wouldn’t be good to act as if that were the case though. After all, his first instinct when he noticed that I had no heartbeat was to touch me.

“Hey, aren’t you the girl from earlier?” he said.

“Yes, yes I am. However, I have urgent business now, so, goodbye.” I turned to leave.

“Wait,” he called after me. “How come you have a heartbeat now?”

Shit, I thought. That was the worst possible thing he could have said. The two priests were looking at me strangely now. This was exactly what I was worried about. Even if I had a heartbeat now, if any rumors spread saying otherwise, I could end up in a very dangerous situation. It was more likely that nobody would care, but if the church of Order was preparing to crack down on the demon gods’ incarnations in the near future, they would probably be investigating every rumor. Even in this magic-filled fantasy world, I couldn’t think of any reason for someone to not have a heartbeat that wouldn’t warrant investigation.

I activated [Charm], [Deceive], and [Persuade] again.

“I’ve always had a heartbeat. You just couldn’t hear it,” I said. Then, I turned around and walked up to him.

“No-” he started to say, but I had anticipated his protests, which is why I had approached him.

“You shouldn’t rely so much on your basic senses, even if you are part beast person.” I made sure to put extra emphasis on those two words, causing him to flinch.

“But, you definitely-” he began. I cut him off by grabbing his shoulder and standing on my toes to get my mouth near his ear.

“We’ll talk about this later,” I whispered, cutting him off. “Go finish your class change. I’ll be waiting here, and we can go discuss this somewhere more private.”

“O- ok,” he whispered back, nodding.

“And don’t say another word about this until we talk. I’ll know if you do. I have good hearing too.” He nodded again.

I released his shoulder, and settled back down and he hesitantly turned back around and started talking to the priest behind the desk again. I noticed that he was blushing slightly. It wasn't my intent to make him flustered like that, but it wasn't a bad side effect. It wasn't entirely avoidable either. Having a woman as beautiful as me that close to them would make any guy nervous. A minute later, he handed over some coins, and the priest led him back through the same door I had just emerged from.

While I waited for him, I found a seat in the corner of the lobby and began fiddling with [Inventory]. I pulled up its menu next to me, so that I could see its data, and then I pulled my knife and its sheath off my hip and willed them inside.

Inventory lvl 1

Max # of Items: 3

Max Volume: 1 cubic foot

Volume currently available: 0.89/1.0

Current items:

Ordinary hunting knife x1

Ordinary leather sheath x1

I was pleased when the knife and sheath disappeared from my hand, but disappointed when I saw that they had taken up two slots. I summoned the sheath back out and it appeared in my hand. I strapped it to my hip again. There was no point in storing it when I only had three slots. There was really no point in storing the knife either, since it wasn’t worth hiding, and it didn’t weigh enough to be a bother. I summoned the knife out, trying to have it appear back in its sheath, but it just appeared back in my hand.

I sheathed my knife, and then tried to put my bedroll into my inventory. I wanted to test if the inventory was a one foot cube, or if it was one cubic foot of space that would stretch to fit whatever I put in it. The knife was about a foot long, so it could have reasonably fit in either, while the bedroll was closer to two feet, and wouldn’t fit inside of a one foot cube no matter which angle it was put in. Fortunately, there was no issue, and the bedroll went in without trouble. It very nearly filled up the whole space.

Once the bedroll was stashed away, I got a System notification.

[Inventory] lvl 1 -> lvl 2

Inventory lvl 2

Max # of Items: 4

Max Volume: 1.1 cubic foot

Volume currently available: 0.16/1.1

Current items:

Ordinary bedroll x1

I summoned my bedroll back out and reattached it to my bag, and began considering what I should put into my inventory. Eventually, I would probably be able to just put all of my belongings inside of it, but for now, I would need to save it for only important items that I needed to be hidden. I didn’t own anything important enough to put into it yet, thought. I could put my knives in, but that would hardly be an improvement over them being on my hips.

As I contemplated, I had a sudden thought. The description of the skill said “emergency supplies”. Normally, that would mean food, but I didn’t eat, so I didn’t need to story emergency rations in there. However, I did need to consume blood, and I couldn’t really just carry blood around with me in my bag. The inventory would be perfect for storing it, and it would extend the amount of time I could survive without hunting. I would need to test whether I could just store it directly, or if it would need to be in a container of some kind. The description wasn’t specific on its handling of liquids or gasses.

I looked around the room to make sure that no one could see what I was doing. It was still just me and the priest who had helped me, and he was already asleep in his chair again. I drew my knife and pricked my arm. A single drop of blood welled up as the wound started closing instantly. I used [Hemokinesis] to levitate it in front of me. Then, I willed it into my inventory, and checked the window

Inventory lvl 2

Max # of Items: 4

Max Volume: 1 cubic foot

Volume currently available: 1.0966/1.1

Current items:

Vampire blood .0034 cubic feet

It looked like it only counted the blood as a single item, but just in case, I grabbed my knives and willed them inside as well.

Inventory lvl 2

Max # of Items: 4

Max Volume: 1 cubic foot

Volume currently available: 0.9766/1.1

Current items:

Vampire blood .0034 cubic feet

Ordinary hunting knife x2

Perfect, I thought, before summoning the knives back out. Once I sheathed them, I double checked that the room was empty again before summoning the blood back out and moving it into my mouth. I would need to go find some other blood, but at that moment, the knowledge that I could was enough.

It had been a few minutes, so I stopped experimenting with my skills and stared impatiently at the door. I had taken around half an hour to select my class, but I had a lot of options. Cat-dude probably wouldn’t have as many as me. Then again, I didn’t really know his background, so maybe he would. Still, I wasn’t sure how common of a skill something like [Inventory] was, and [Hemokinesis] definitely wasn’t ordinary, so I didn’t want to be caught using them.

I soon found myself bored as the minutes dragged on. I wish I hadn’t stopped experimenting. At least, maybe I could have kept messing with [Inventory]. As long as I didn’t use [Hemokinesis], the worst that I could be caught doing would be making something disappear or reappear. But I didn’t want him to know too much about my skills. Our conversation, would involve me trying to convince him not to say anything about me to others, but if negotiations went south, they could turn violent, and if that were the case, I would want him to know as little as possible about my skills. With that thought, I took the risk and grabbed my knives and put them in [Inventory].

I spent almost an hour waiting for him, with my boredom only interrupted only three times. First it was by a new customer who arrived and roused the sleeping priest for a class change. Second was a System notification informing me that [Imitate Life] had leveled up once again. Third, it was the same new customer from before leaving with a disappointed look on his face.

When cat-dude finally emerged, I sprung to my feet.

“Finally. Now, let’s go. I have things to do.” I started towards the door, and he followed me.

We walked out of the temple down to the street, and then I turned to him.

“Do you have a room at an inn?” I asked.

“Y-yes,” he said.

“Ok, lead the way,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because we need to talk somewhere private, and I’m definitely not showing you where I’m staying.”

“Oh. Oh yeah. Ok, follow me.” He turned to the street and led me off to the right, opposite to the direction from which I had arrived.

At this point, I was beginning to think he might not be all that intelligent. Most people weren’t, compared to me, but he still seemed slow, even among ordinary people. It was possible that he was just incredibly naive, but he looked at least my age, and growing up with mixed blood like he had couldn’t have been easy, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to be so ignorant.

My opinion on his intelligence was reinforced when we nearly got lost twice on the way to the inn he was staying at. The second time, we had to double back almost a mile, and by the time that we actually arrived at the place where he was staying, I was sure that we had walked at least three times as far as we should have had to.

The inn he was staying at was much nicer than the one I had chosen. I had tried to find a more low-key inn, but he seemed to have chosen the biggest, fanciest one he could find. Maybe he’s just the bastard child of someone rich and powerful. That could explain the naivete, I thought. The “room” he was staying in was actually a suite on the top floor, complete with a sitting room, a master bedroom with a giant bed, and a private bathroom with a brass tub the size of an Earth hot tub.

I took a few seconds to be jealous of his accommodations before making me way over to one of the couches and sitting down. It was so soft that I almost involuntarily let out a small noise of pleasure.

“Sit down,” I commanded him, pointing to the sofa across from me.

He wasn’t my [Thrall], but he obeyed as quickly and meekly as if he was. The moment he sat down, he opened his mouth to speak.

“So now will you tell me-” he started

“Nope,” I said, cutting him off. “I’m not sharing first. I might not say anything at all if you don’t convince me that you can keep a secret. Now, talk. Who are you?”

“Oh. Ok,” he said.

I was a bit surprised at how readily he agreed to it. I had activated my mental skills, and he hadn’t exactly been difficult to convince before, but I still expected a little bit of pushback. It worked out in my favor though, so I didn’t comment on it.

“Well, uh, my name is Valentino Vivaldi, and my grandfather is the king of Vivaldi.”

8 - A Familiar Face

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