Her breath caught in her throat, and her face shifted color slightly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Do vampires not drink blood?" I paused, realizing my mistake. "Oh, I'm sorry Sybil. I just assumed..."

"No no, it's fine. The answer is yes." She appeared to be gathering her thoughts. "Vampires absorb the energy from Blood Mana. The general perception is that we drink blood, but that's not always the case. More often, we just use Blood Crystals. They're cleaner and safer, but I've been told that they taste like nothing."

"You've been told?"

"I've never actually consumed blood the traditional way." Sybil shrugged. "Again, cleaner and safer. A lot of diseases can be transmitted from drinking another person's blood, or even just consuming their Mana. Some Affinities, Features, Skills, Blessings, Curses, and so on, can inflict certain effects upon someone who consumes another individual's Mana. I've even heard of magical diseases that get passed through Mana."

"Wait, but how would Mana cause negative effects without that intent?" My Grimoire had taught me a lot about Mana intents, which defined the Mana's actions, more so than even it's affinity. With a powerful enough intent, even water-attuned Mana could set flesh alight.

"Incompatible intents and affinities can cause that. My blood is specifically attuned to my body, stats, and Class, while yours is the same for you. While we vampires are capable of processing some amount of this difference, that scales with our Levels and Tiers. If your blood had some sort of poison affinity within it... well, that may well transmit to me. I wouldn't be able to handle that nearly as well as a dedicated poison-based Classer."

I guessed it was something like getting a bad transfusion. I knew a kid with chronic anemia, once. He wasn't a friend, per se, but he'd been in one of my classes.

One day, he'd suddenly stopped coming to school.

At first, I assumed that he was just sick, maybe with a cold or something, but after a few weeks, it became obvious, even to me, that it was something more than that. I'd asked one of his friends where he'd gone, and at first, I'd been shut down.

Eventually, it was revealed to me that he'd had an accident involving a kitchen knife, and they'd needed to rush him to the hospital. After a few days in the hospital, during which the doctors had little success in increasing his blood cell count, testing revealed that he had angina, which may have caused the original slip-up.

They'd needed to give him a transfusion.

At first, it had all seemed to be going well. The transfusion had taken, and his status was improving.

Then, he'd caught a fever, and blood had begun to show up in his urine.

He'd been weak for so very long, and his heart had already been under a large amount of stress.

The angina led him to a fatal heart attack.

A sloppy transfusion was all it had taken, and it could all be linked back to some sloppy paperwork, and a mislabeled bag.

"Abel? You in there?" I felt a light rapping against my skull.

"Oh, sorry, I zoned out."

"Are you sure you're okay? You've been doing that a lot lately..." She looked me over with suspicion.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just easily distracted is all." I gave her a smile.

"If you say so..."

"So, these Blood Crystals you mentioned, you've got enough to last, right?"

"Uh, well, you see..." She looked a bit flustered, and I could guess at what she was about to say. "I left it to my dad and maids to pack everything for us, but they only put in enough for a few weeks..."

"So you're almost out, then," I stated. The nod I got in return confirmed it for me.

"So, anyways, do you want to take a bite out of me?" I offered my arm up to her.

"Abel, I just explained to you why that was a bad idea..." She looked a bit nervous, even beyond catching some mysterious magic disease from drinking my blood.

"C'mon Sibby, I don't have magic AIDS. I'm attuned, like, entirely to Blood and Arcane, so the thing you're consuming and . Ritual, too, but I can't honestly tell if that's some fancy version of Arcane, or if it's just the same thing."

"...What's AIDS?" She asked me, her eyes innocently confused.

I stopped for a moment, mouth open as I tried to think up an explanation.

"Don't worry about it," was the best I could come up with.

A moment of silence passed between the two of us.

"Ah, anyways, about drinking my blood."

"Abel..." she trailed off.

I started up before she could finish her thought. "We don't know when you'll be able to get more of those Crystals, and it would be best to find out that I'm not a suitable juice-box for you now, rather than when you're nearly starving and it's either me or a bunch of theoretically-innocent bystanders."

She looked down for a moment, and then her voice got really soft. "But what if I hurt you?"

I looked at the top of her head for a while. When I'd first met her, Sybil had seemed capable, confident, and reserved. Now that we knew each other better, she seemed to be opening up. She seemed to trust me enough to be vulnerable, and tell me the things she was worried about, and express a greater amount of emotion.

In some ways, it was wonderful that she was worried about hurting me. It meant that she cared. That said...

"You couldn't kill me if you tried," I told her with a smirk.

Her mouth opened a bit, and her head rose slightly, but it mostly stayed down. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to," I told her, "but it's an option. One I'd be perfectly willing to explore with you."

She brought her head all the way back up, and her piercing red eyes met my soft blue ones. Our heights approximately lined up. I knew I'd been 5'9"-and-a-half back on Earth, but I was convinced that the System had somehow increased that, so I'd put myself at about 6'2" now. I'd guess that she was something like 5'10"? I doubted that the System directly made people taller as their stats increased; my theory was that it was instead making up for any height that I would've had naturally, but lost due to factors such as lack of proper nutrition and exercise.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I shook the thoughts from my brain and refocused on Sybil.

I let my hand slide off of her, thinking that it might have been too much. Perhaps she'd thought it was condescending? Maybe I should-

Fwish!

I found myself on the floor. Pinned by a hug.

I was reminded that, while I was of a higher Tier than her, Sybil was still a physical Classer of a similar Level to me. Of course her Physical stats would be higher than mine.

...maybe she could kill me if she tried?

I didn't try to fight the hug. I didn't say anything, either. It was a little awkward, and I couldn't really hug her back due to the positioning of her arms around my own, but it was fine. She needed a hug, so she'd be getting a hug.

...as if I could stop her.

A bead of silence passed as Sybil simply held onto my body, but, eventually, she let me go, and pulled me back to my feet.

Before I could say anything else, she moved swiftly away from me, back to the house.

I thought of following her, for a moment, but decided that she probably needed some alone time. Instead, I turned my attention back to learning the Lifeblood of Lazareth ritual.

I'd let her mill over her thoughts, and trust that she'd come back when she was ready.

Name: Abel Halloran Class: Arcanoccultist Level: 20 Class Xp: 34% Profession: Bishop of Blood Level: 20 Profession Xp: 0% Health Total: 650/650 Health Regen: 53 /minute Mana Total: 922/922 Mana Regen: 95 /minute Physical: 84 Constitution: 67 Vitality: 147 Fitness: 37 Mental: 115 Willpower: 133 Nerves: 98 Intellect: 115 Astral: 56 Balance: 58 Channeling: 101 Harmony: 10 Free Points: 0 Traits: Prodigy

Inspiration in Suffering

Class: Arcanoccultist (Arcane Mage -> Arcane-Blood Mage -> Arcanoccultist) The Arcanoccultist gains 1 Constitution, 6 Vitality, 1 Fitness, 2 Willpower, 6 Nerves, 8 Intellect, 27 Channeling, but loses 2 Balance and 1 Harmony, per level.

Features:

Mageblood Drinker: Damaging spells using Health as a resource gain lifesteal based on the amount of Health lost. Damaging spells using Mana as a resource gain manadrain based on the amount of Mana lost. (1% of max Mana/Health = 1% Manadrain/Lifesteal)

Ritualistic Recovery: Rituals replenish doubled Health and Mana.

Occultist's Charm: Reputation gain increased with certain factions. Reputation gain decreased with certain factions.

Major Skills:

Soul Mark Lvl. 1: Cast a curse upon a creature's soul, linking them to you. Ritual, Lifesteal, and Manadrain effects created by you that target it are increased by Channeling.

Arcanoccultist's Grimoire Lvl. 1: Summon a magical grimoire, containing knowledge important to the Arcanoccultist.

Blooded Ritual Lvl. 1: Rituals which use your blood as a component are empowered based on your Vitality.

Minor Skills:

Arcanoccultist's Bolt Lvl. 10: Fire a bolt of mana at your foes, aspected equally to Arcane and Blood, and dealing a small amount of damage directly to the target's soul. Deals damage based on Vitality and Intellect. A small part of the damage dealt passes through all shielding and resistance. This effect is slightly reduced by Balance.

Malefic Bond Lvl. 1: Reduce a creature's Health and Mana, at the cost of an equal amount of resources from yourself. Requires your mana to be in contact with the target. Effects increased by Intellect and Channeling.

Combat Ritual Lvl. 1: Perform a combat ritual with significantly reduced preparations and components. Effects are improved by Intellect and Channeling.

Profession: Bishop of Blood (Autodidact -> Tormented Autodidact -> Bishop of Blood) The Bishop of Blood gains 4 Constitution, 10 Vitality, 2 Fitness, 4 Wisdom, 1 Nerves, 3 Intellect, 27 Channeling, but loses 3 Harmony, per level.

Features:

Pantheon of Blood: Increases all favor gained with gods of the Blood domain significantly. Effects reduced by Harmony.

Soul Leak: Your mere presence radiates a near-physical pressure. Effects improve with Channeling, but are reduced by Harmony.

Fasting: Food, water, and sleep requirements are decreased by Channeling.

Major Skills:

Polytheist Lvl. 1: Why worship one god when you can earn the favor of many? Innate knowledge of the various gods of the universe, as well as their rituals and magics. Slightly increased favor gain with all gods. Effects reduced by Harmony, but increased by Intellect and Channeling.

Bloodmarked Sacrifice Lvl. 1: Infect a creature's soul with your own tainted blood. Improves favor gain and blessings from the sacrifice of said creature based on Vitality and Channeling.

Sacrifice Expertise Lvl. 1: Increased skill at creating and performing rituals of sacrifice. Favor, boons, and blessings gained from sacrifices improved. Effects improved by Intellect and Channeling.

Minor Skills:

Ritual of Blood Lvl. 1: Learn and gain mastery over rituals related to blood.

Sadistic Sacrifice Lvl. 1: Rather than dedicating a creature's entire life at once, you may instead sacrifice small portions at a time. As you deal damage to a creature, siphon off bits of its soul, sacrificing them for greatly reduced gain. Effects increased by Channeling.

Dedicate Soul Lvl. 1: You have learned to more effectively perform the final portion of any sacrifice: the Dedication. Critical blows dealt to restrained, unconscious, or otherwise motionless targets that lay upon a sacrificial altar and have no more than 3% of their Health remaining produce instant death.