It has been 3 years now since my abrupt arrival on this world and I am now a sprawling 8 year old. I have learned much from my teachers. My worlds teacher (This worlds version of history) has caught me up on the state of things and well, they aren’t as good as I’d hoped.

First off my parents are strong, reallllyyy strong. My basic skills teacher taught me scan, so I scanned them, well they let me anyway, as scan is easily blocked. But holy crap, Dad had a Body score over seven digits; Mom was the same but with Mental. So when I found out that the Vampire race had fallen into ruin and was in hiding, and that my mother and father only barely fell into the top ten thousand strongest beings on the planet, it was rough for me to accept.

Second I learned I was the hope for my race. Natural born Vampires were rare, like four leaf clover rare, and I was born of the strongest pair there is.

From my skills teacher I learned that not all skills are listed on the status screen. Vampires have “racial” skills that are just considered inherent. Like improved healing, an ability to sense nearby prey, and external mana control. Apparently my True Blood skill was a varied skill too, which means it could be weak or strong depending on its sires, stronger parents stronger skill. So when my skills teacher examined the depths of my skill, he were quite surprised at its strength. It had a 10% bonus absorption rate.

This didn’t sound like much to me but my parents assured me it was amazing. The bonus was additional so if I had a 30% absorption rate, it would be 40%, and according to my father, the closer in strength you were the better the rate, for monsters anyway. Vampires had a rule against feeding off “enlightened races”, we could do it, it was just considered rude and uncouth. Except for the Demovin, and maybe the Elvari, I guess the later has some caveats. I’ll get into the races later.

I couldn’t exceed 100% absorption, or “Perfect Absorption” but this meant I could fight beings that are weaker by some rather significant measure and still get full absorption. The perfect absorption was important too, it was the only way we could get skills, anything less than perfect got only stats, but a perfect had a “chance” of getting a skill. Lots at play here, what skills the target has, the skills level, compatibility (like if it uses an acid gland to do Skill: Acid Shot, probably not getting that skill,) and much more, it was pretty confusing and made me tired when the teacher lectured on it. My passive did seem like it was a bigger advantage than I first thought. For reference my dad was pure as well, but he only had a 1.5% bonus, and it’s this bonus he credits for being able to raise to the strength he has.

Lastly I learned that there were tons of races on this planet, many of the fell into earth tropes of races. Other than us there were 6 races, totaling 7, dubbed the “elevated races.” Basically meant capable of thought and speech. I’m sure there was more too it but, meh, I didn’t pay enough attention to remember.

There's the Dwarn, which were basically the classic Dwarf, smithing and all. They even ate minerals to survive.

Also the Elvari were basically elves, but not nice or nature loving, rather think long-lived humans and that’s them. There is also Humans, they are short lived and mostly ignored.

Orin is a tribal race similar to Orcs, tall with tusks but no green skin, they are large bodied and pretty hairy, also very hostile to any outsiders. Think an 8 foot tall partially shaved wookie with big ass tooth tusks and you’ve got it pretty close.

Then there’s Beastkin, tribal as well, with a cast system based on predatory might or something.

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Mezaghnome, which made me think gnome right away, but wrong. They are a race of Fae, like fairies and dryads, who have merged their bodies with technology; by the images it looked pretty steampunk in nature.

Finally the Demovin, they are your typical assholes. Basically kill on sight with these guys. They have a council system known as Archdeamons that rules them. One for each archetype of Demovin. They have your basic imp and succubus, but also some weird things that look more lovecraftian that demonic.

The Demovin haven’t been seen in some time though, they attacked around one hundred years back and all the other races fought them. Apparently the Elvari betrayed the Vampires during that war too, its why we are in decline and hiding.

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As for today, I am supposed to pick my weapons and start training with the master at arms. I must choose the weapon “that speaks to me the most.” As my father said, I found it to be little help.

Arriving at the training yard I found several weapons lined on a rack, some in pairs, some with a shield, and some that just looked unwieldy, like a chain spear, not a chain attached to a spear like a harpoon (which would be badass) but a spear with several oddly linked chains as its haft. Really?

Browsing the weapons I started setting aside any weapons I liked, trying to narrow down my selection, this got a nod from the master at arms observing on the sidelines. After about an hour (there was seriously a lot of weapons) I narrowed it down to three choices.

First a classic sword and board, or shield, it didn’t really speak to me but I figured it was practical.

Second was a big hammer, or maul I think is what it’s called. I could see myself smashing everything with it, seemed fun and made me smile. Something about an 11 year old kid with a big ass hammer got a chuckle out of me.

Lastly a set of twin axes, larger than a hatchet but smaller than a full axe. They looked like Viking bearded axes, I know the beard had a purpose too, cant recall. Either way they looked badass and were really fun to hold, but I was not ambidextrous so duel wielding might be an issue.

I set for another five or so minutes debating when the master at arms came over. “What holds your attention most?” he asked.

“The axes” I answered without really thinking it through, then stuttered on “but I’m not fit for them, I’m not able to wield my left hand like my right.”

“Nonsense, fighting skills are trained, choose the axes. I will teach you the talent to wield them.”

The next few days were hell, I thought farm work was tough but damn this old man ran me ragged. Lap after lap of the training yard, for literal hours and I was never allowed to let my axes fall below my waist.

After that I had to swing the axes in this or that manner, you’d think this would be easier, nope! He would say “swing the axe in a downward angle from right elbow and stop at the left knee, do this 100 times, I will count.” So I start swinging right? Do I get a 1,2,3 NO! All I hear is Zero, Zero, Zero. I ask why is it not counting, he’d say “You don’t do it right, so I don’t count, go again!” This would last for hours, even with a Vampires natural healing; he still made me so sore I could barely move the next day. This continued for days upon days until finally I heard it. I was swinging my right-handed axe from elbow to knee as I had been trying to do when I hear “One.” I froze and nearly fell over at not hearing zero. Who knew a single word could sound so good, so perfect. I straightened my stance and got back to it.

Within 3 weeks from that glorious “one” I had gotten it to where I could finish most of my right handed swings with no mess-ups, The left hand however was still firmly in the zero zone. I had noticed I was getting better, stronger and more accurate with it though, I was confident I’d get out of that zone soon.

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It has been almost a year of training now, I still swung my axes daily, though I did so in what was called a flow. A flow is Kinna like those forms martial arts use, only now I was also learning to move my mana with the correct patterns and paths through my body to use the moves properly. Stats were great but I needed skill, actual skill or else I’d just be a big punching bag.

At the point of each swing were I was visualizing contact with the enemy I was instructed to add a small amount of my mana to my joints, the contracting muscles, as well use my external mana control to add a layer to the tip of the blade its self. This was a lot to take in but eventually it became second nature and I could do it without thinking. That took another 2 years to master though. I was now 11 and my father, pleased with my progress said it was time that I went out and hunted my first creature to began my absorption training.