The walk took a while, but with the Fitness stat, it was made much easier than walking a similar distance might have been if we were just 'normal' people. Personally, I was busy observing my surroundings. It might be because I'd been stuck in a cave for such a long time, but I thought everything was beautiful. For some reason, i'd imagined that I'd have to trek through a desert or something to reach civilization. Luckily, that wasn't the case. The Jehkall House was only a few miles out, and the way there was lined with gorgeous green plains, tall trees, creeks and lakes, and so on. It was wonderful.
"This place is beautiful. Does your family own the land?" My question caught Sybil off guard, I guess she'd thought I was going to be quiet the whole time. "Ah, yes. We've been cultivating it for some time now. My family acts as the nobility for this area, and offers leadership and protection to the common people. In return, they allow us to feed off them."
I frowned. "Why would the people agree to that, though? Certainly they could lead just as well, if not better, without having to act as livestock."
She frowned right back. "You misunderstand, Abel. The Count is a very kind man, and an extremely talented leader. As vampires, we cannot produce children. Many old vampires simply adopt younglings, and make them into vampires themselves. That is what happened to me. With the Count, though, it goes further. In his mind, all of the people are his children. He would never hurt them. The blood we take, it isn't much. Not enough to kill, or even weaken. We are left hungering, but the Count warns us that feeding our base instincts, the demons within us, is how we become monsters. We vampires personally act as defenders of the people, and help them grow and develop wherever we can."
That was... fair, I supposed. They offered supernatural help to their people, and in return, were given enough not to starve. I nodded at her to show my understanding.
Not long after that, I found myself standing before a mansion. The Jehkall House, obviously.
Sybil knocked on the door, and not long after, a maid answered.
"Ah, Sybil! It's great to have you back. And who is this? The Count won't be happy about you bringing home a human. Well, that or he'll be very happy," the woman giggled.
I couldn't see Sybil's face, but she managed to push through the awkwardness and explain, "This is the adventurer I found in the old Halls. The one who completed the quest. I thought that father might want to speak with him."
The maid's eyes widened as she looked at me, and from her expression it was obvious that she'd Inspected me, finding that I was early Tier 3. Inspecting her, I found that she, herself, was a Low Tier 2 Vampire, named Greek, like the yogurt, or the place. Not that I'd ever been there, or would ever have a chance to do so.
Sybil and I were motioned inside, and I found myself sitting next to her on a couch in a gothic living room.
It didn't take long before a tired-looking man entered the room. His blood-red eyes and pale skin let me know that he was a vampire, though I examined him just to be certain.
Count Jehkall, Low Tier 3 Noble Vampire
Wait, was his name actually Count?
"Hmm. I guess you'll do." The man, Count, glanced at me. "This was the adventurer who completed the quest? Ah, then I guess you'll be looking for that third reward. I did feel you complete the optional objective, yes? Then, come with me."
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Count Jehkall
The Count was not in a good mood. For years, he and his family had looked for an adventurer willing to take on their quest, but never had any seemed interested in venturing all the way out to their region. They were too far from the rest of the cities within their kingdom, yet they hadn't been allowed to settle any closer due to their semi-monstrous nature. The Order of Purity had advocated for their destruction, but luckily, the current queen was generous and open-minded. Or at least, she had been. Then she was just open-minded, in a literal sense.
Now, the king was more interested in whoring around than performing his duties. It was frustrating to the Count just how foolish the so-called 'enlightened' humanoids could be. Hopefully, that young man would wisen up to the folly of his actions sooner, rather than later, when he saw his people rebelling and his funds drying. The Count knew that he, as a youth, had made poor decisions as well.
The Count's mood was further affected by seeing that the human was similar to him in level. Had he been focused into combat, rather than leading, perhaps he could have dealt with the problem himself. Sadly, vampires, just like all the other monstrous humanoids, only got a Class or a Profession. Not both. The racial benefits easily made up for it, but it was still a struggle at times. Had his foolish, younger self picked a more fitting Profession, maybe he could have handled the cave alone? But no, he just had to pick the Profession named "Cruel Monarch." Issue was, he wasn't cruel. Nor was he a monarch. He leveled very, very slowly. While the stats the Profession gave were more aimed towards combat than many other Professions he'd heard of, it didn't much matter when he leveled perhaps once every few years? It was a decent pace for a ruler, but he'd gotten to Tier 3 by being powerleveled by his own father, so it felt oh-so-slow to the Count.
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Having to fork over precious items to a lucky human due to his own mistakes bothered him greatly. Sadly, he'd added that objective, and he wouldn't go back on his word. The fact that the System enforced such quest rewards merely helped reinforce the fact that he'd made a mistake into his memory. Even ignoring his own foolish progression decisions, he could have attempted to level Sybil faster. She was, after all, being groomed for the life of an adventurer, to be a mercenary for his House. That said, it was unfair to place any of the blame of this situation onto the girl. She'd been added to the family after some very unfortunate circumstances had occured in her life, and she'd deserved to have a good childhood.
The Count shook himself from the distraction, finding himself before his treasury. With no small amount of discomfort, he pulled out the key to the room, and opened the door.
"In this room, you will find many powerful and mysterious items. Do try your best to find some items that fit you, and remember that the System will tell me if you try to take more than the reward offers. If you end up disliking the items that you pick out, well, no refunds." The Count let out a small chuckle. His treasury held some items that would make Tier 5's blush from greed. Hopefully, this human, Abel Halloran, Inspect told him, wouldn't find anything too valuable.
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Abel Halloran
Well, damn. That was a lot of wealth on display here. And he could only pick three items? This was going to be tough. Abel wanted a lot of stuff, but what really mattered? What did he need? He needed to be logical here, he couldn't just grab a couple things because they looked cool.
Well, for one, Abel needed some armor. Well, maybe not armor, but something that would suit his style. A family of vampires had to have some dope Blood Mage robes laying around, right? Abel started looking. And he kept looking. And then, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything, he did another round of the room, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything.
There were a ton of robes and armor pieces that would suit him. The issue was that they were all cursed to Khaos.
Mage's Robes of Lifedrinking
A cursed version of the standard Mage Robes, these robes are light, soft, and will stay out of the way during combat.
Curse of Lifedrinking: These robes will recover a small amount of durability whenever you deal damage to an enemy. However, if the durability of these robes gets too low, then they may turn their fangs upon you!
These fanged robes actually tried to attack me when I picked them up! Who the hell would ever want that?! It took me quite a while to find something that I actually wanted, and even then, it wasn't quite the mage's outfit that I'd been looking for.
Articulating Blood Alloy Plate
A full suit of plate armor, forged from alchemically solidified blood that was enchanted with protection and mobility in mind.
Articulating: This armor will move perfectly with your body, tightening where necessary and folding over itself in order to avoid reducing flexibility.
Blood Alloy: This armor is made entirely out of hardened, solidified blood. As such, this item is able to absorb blood in its surroundings in order to repair and reinforce itself.
The armor was sleek, and colored dark red. It was unembroidered, though the color was eye-catching enough. Based on the slight wince from the Count when I found this armor, I guessed that it was the best I was going to find.
Next on the list, I wanted some kind of weapon. A staff or something would be cool, but something that I could use properly in melee would perhaps be even better, as I didn't really have any options for that right now. Honestly, I was rather missing my Autodidact's Sense. I was certain that it would be quite useful for helping me find something useful to me.
After a few minutes of rummaging, I found a sacrificial dagger, shaped like a acinaces dagger, though with a glittering ruby embedded into the pommel. Considering my Class and Profession, I figured that it'd probably be helpful to me.
Bleeding Edge of Sacrifice
A Bleeding Edge is a common dagger for rogues, though this one has been enchanted to improve the efficiency of sacrifice rituals performed with it.
Bleeding Edge: This weapon has a chance to apply Bleeding to those it strikes.
Enhanced Sacrifice: This weapon slightly improves the effects of Channeling while performing sacrifice rituals.
Well that was... edgy. Heh. I decided that I'd spent enough time digging through the items.
The Count raised his eye at me as I approached. "That was only two items, Abel. You have one more."
"Well, yeah, but I wanted to ask if you had any spatial storage devices in here. Y'know, like a Bag of Holding, or something?" I smiled at him.
"No. We do not." Oh. Well that was disappointing. I had another idea though.
"Well, in that case, do you think you could lend me a person?" Seeing the annoyed look on his face, I elaborated, "Not a slave, or anything like that, I'm not alright with slavery, but just a guide. If I'm being honest, I have no idea how I got here or what the area is like, and I'd like someone to help me navigate, both geographically and socially."
He pondered for a moment, before responding, "Well, I suppose I could spare someone. Who, though? Hmm..." Sybil, who had been sitting on a couch near the entrance to the treasury, seemed to shrink inwards at the statement, though I didn't quite know why. If I understood their relationship correctly, then they had some father-daughter thing going on, and there was no way that any self-respecting father would send their daughter out into the wilderness with a stranger, right?
The Count turned to look at his daughter before stating simply, "In fact, I do have someone who has been having trouble finding things to do as of late. Perhaps such a task would be well-suited to them, and help them learn that to face life on their feet, rather than on a couch." He looked back at me before continuing, "It's getting rather late, and while me and mine do not need sleep, you are likely tired after your journey. My daughter will take you up to a spare room. Tomorrow, I will send the person you will be travelling with to help you don your armor. They will have supplies that you may find useful. I hope that you find this arrangement acceptable." It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyways.