As soon as Vlad got his vision back from the white light, his eyes widened in shock as he bore witness to the tragic scene before him. He was no longer in the Colosseum-like chamber and was now back on Earth, but not the Earth he knew. He was transported in the middle of a massive city with various buildings and towering structures all around. And it was all burning. From the ground to the cars, to even the buildings themselves; all of it was in a blazing inferno.

The Blood Hunter couldn’t help but frown at the sight. Why was he in the middle of the city instead of back at the college campus? Did something happen to redirect him to this part of the city or was this on purpose? Although he knew what city he was in, it didn’t help that he was pretty far from the campus at this point.

His initial plan was that when he returned to the campus, he could scour the area and find his friends since all four of them were in the same place before getting transported off the campus. But now, that plan was a bust. If Vlad was redirected to another part of the city, then his friends likely experienced something similar. Whether they were currently at the campus or not was an even bigger issue, since he’d be forced to go back there to check. Just when Vlad thought he was free from problems, he was presented with more without warning.

Vlad could smell the sulfur and ash in the air, forcing him to cover his nose and mouth to prevent himself from breathing it in. As he looked around, all he could see was an entire city that had gone to hell. There were cars scattered all over the streets; some of them burning, others upside down, and the rest destroyed in some way whether the entire roof was caved in or a car was just split in half.

To make matters worse, there was something else that was all over the city. That being human corpses. They were sprawled all over the streets and sidewalks. There were even buildings filled with dead bodies along with a copious amount of blood splattered around. The rich scent of iron quickly made Vlad’s stomach grumble loudly. He clutched his stomach while grimacing, still not used to this new body of his.

Back when he was human, the smell of blood made him gag. He didn’t have a fear of blood but wasn’t too fond of the smell. And now, every time he got the scent, he would get hungry from it. That in itself was not something he was going to get used to any time soon. Honestly, he wasn’t much of an eater before turning. He would usually eat a light meal, and he’d be golden. Even when his stomach would grumble for food, he could hold out since he was used to the feeling. But things were different now. His hunger was a lot more intense and painful, to the point where he couldn’t control his desire to feed. Even now, his stomach was writhing around in pain, demanding food by the second, or else it would start eating itself out of retaliation.

Doing his best to ignore the iron smell, Vlad frantically looked around to try and find a place to take shelter for a moment. His eyes soon spotted a small convenience store up ahead. It was tucked in between two other buildings. A clothing building on the right, and a restaurant on the left. Thanks to his enhanced sight, he could see that the lights were still on, which meant the store was still operational. With the lights on, he should be able to take shelter there and collect his thoughts before planning his next move after coming back to Earth.

With his decision made, he carefully strolled over to the store. As he did, he had to occasionally walk around corpses littered on the street he was on along with cars and massive building debris. He couldn’t help but glance at the bodies, unfortunately taking in the horrible state they were in. Some corpses had caved-in chests, others had squished heads like a watermelon with blood and brain matter oozing out the cracks of its skull, and then there were the ones with missing limbs from arms to legs, and so on. A couple of the corpses still had their eyes open, making it all the more creepy when Vlad’s eyes met theirs in a haunting manner. Just when he moved past another destroyed car, the young vampire stopped in his tracks, his senses warning him of nearby presences.

Suddenly, he heard familiar grunts coming from behind him. When Vlad spun around to catch a look at whatever he was sensing, he furrowed his brows as he encountered a very familiar group of monsters. They were short, green, pointy ears, and piss-color eyes that were filled with malice and bloodlust.

“Goblins…” He muttered, his tone filled with annoyance and anger. His mind went back to how he nearly died to the goblin horde before he turned into a vampire and slaughtered them. As he remembered that moment, his hands tightly clenched into fists as his urge to butcher the green bastards again grew stronger by the moment.

As he continued to glare at the goblins, some panels abruptly manifested before him.

[Goblin – Level 2]

[Goblin – Level 1]

[Goblin – Level 1]

“Oh…?” Vlad tilted his head, curious about the panels.

It looked like he was finally able to properly see living creature’s status windows now. He got sick and tired of seeing only question marks during those stupid trials. Even if the monsters were more or less easy to take down, the fact that he couldn’t collect proper information annoyed him when he got into battle.

But now, he could, and judging from their levels, these goblins were incredibly weak. Which also made them good fodder to test out his skills after becoming a Blood Hunter. Since it was the apocalypse, he had plenty of test subjects to practice on.

A smile crept up his face while Vlad slowly pulled out his spear. The other goblins noticed his movements and took battle positions as well, all of them drawing out their weapons to prepare for a fight. This didn’t bother the vampire as his sinister smile remained plastered on his face. Before the goblins could even react, he rushed at them with his spear and thrust it into one of their chests.

The pierced goblin croaked and yelped in pain while Vlad’s spear dug deeper into its body. The other goblins were surprised by this at first, their eyes wide and mouths a gap after witnessing Vlad’s feats of speed. However, their eyes soon glowered at him as they then lunged at their opponent.

Vlad jumped back, spinning his spear around while cutting through one goblin’s stomach and severing the throat of the other one. Both creatures collapsed on the ground, slowly dying from their grievous wounds. The first goblin had its guts spilling out all over the concrete and the other one had blood leaking from its neck, coating the street even more red than it already was from the previous corpses. Vlad couldn’t help but smile at how easy it was to kill them. He could tell his body felt lighter and stronger than before, courtesy of his new vampiric awakening.

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[Goblin has been defeated! 15 XP has been received!]

[Goblin has been defeated! 15 XP has been received!]

Oh? It looked like he was finally able to gain XP from killing monsters now. It must be because he was an official player compared to before. Vlad still found it annoying that he wasn’t able to obtain any EXP from his trials. Imagined how powerful he could’ve become after defeating those Ethereal Hunters, Skeletons, and even Cerberus. He likely would’ve been level twenty at this point, and that would’ve been before he obtained his class.

Considering he was still level 1 with base attribute stats and his enemies during the trial were part of a simulation, and obviously, not the real deal, the highest level for a monster like Cerberus would’ve been level thirty. Maybe even level fifty if he was unlucky enough. Then again, Cerberus was a legendary monster, so it likely would’ve been over level a hundred. Or maybe didn’t possess a level at all and was just incredibly powerful. Thinking about it rationally, Vlad was very lucky that he didn’t encounter the real Cerberus. He slightly trembled, remembering how he became the three-head monster’s chew toy while getting thrashed around.

Vlad groaned, scratching his head irritably. Before he could put his spear away, his attention was drawn to the faint, raspy breathing of a goblin. When the vampire spun his head toward its direction, he looked down at the already dying goblin that he attacked first. The monster wheezed, desperately trying to take a proper breath to survive while blood leaked from the chest wound he inflected earlier.

Vlad raised an eyebrow, surprised by the goblin’s tenacity. “You’re quite stubborn, aren’t you?” He walked over to the creature, towering over it as it struggled to crawl away. Its faint breathing shifted to hasty inhales of panic, fear clearly overwhelming its mind while trying to get away from its enemy.

For some reason, Vlad found it amusing, watching the monster struggle to survive while crawling away in fear. It was likely due to his recent vampirism that he was displaying such sadistic thoughts. Of course, that didn’t stop him from finishing off the monster to collect his well-earned EXP. Raising his spear, Vlad then slammed the head through its back, piercing right through its body. The goblin gasped, its body spasming as if having a seizure before it stopped moving altogether. Then another panel appeared, confirming its death.

[Goblin has been defeated! 45 XP has been received!]

“Nice,” He smiled, satisfied with the results of his fight and reward. “That should be a total of seventy Experience. Only thirty more, and I can level up.”

Thanks to his status window displaying his Experience bar, he could know when he was close to gaining another level. He’d have to figure out the XP amount he gains from monsters later when he had a better grasp of his situation.

As for his battle, he was liking his [Blood Hunter] Class very much. He felt a lot stronger than before. More so than when he became a [Divine Hunter]. It was probably why he wanted the class compared to the others since it reminded him of the Hunting Goddess’s blessing. While remembering the goddess, he also recalled who the deity was.

Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon and Hunt. He was certain that was the true identity of the Hunting Goddess considering that his next Fable trial was delivering her bow to Hades. Still, he had no idea how the Greek gods were connected. More than that, he was even more confused by the fact that they were somehow related to the Yggdrasil system, another Pantheon of deities entirely. Just what in the world was this apocalypse really about?

While questioning this, Vlad suddenly felt a powerful presence bearing down on him. His body instantly froze in place while at the mercy of the oppressive presence towering over him. At first, he had no idea what was happening and feared he just encountered a powerful monster that was about to kill him. That was until several panels manifested before him.

[Several Factions from the other realms are aware of your presence!]

[The Pantheon Faction is wary of you!]

[The Demon Faction is curious about you!]

[The Angel Faction is wary of you!]

[The Dragon Faction is cautious of you!]

[The Beast Faction is curious about you!]

Faction? What the hell was this about?!

As soon as it appeared, the oppressive presence from before faded away, allowing Vlad to move without restrictions. However, before he could even question what the hell he had just experienced, his eyes panned over to the store before scanning his surroundings. Realizing that he wasn’t in a safe place to question his situation, he decided to hold them off for now until he was safe from harm.

Leaving the goblins' corpses behind, Vlad quickly made his way toward the convenience store. He ignored all the chaos and destruction happening on the street and sidewalk, afraid that he might attract more trouble. He soon made it to the store, instantly pushing the glass doors open to enter the building.

Once inside, he was greeted with a rather haunted and frightening environment. The fluorescent lights attached to the ceilings were ominously flickering on and off and the food shelves were completely ransacked, with a good majority of the food that was on the shelves now scattered on the floor. Vlad could hear the buzzing light from above, its noise being the only sound in the building.

Vlad closed the doors behind him before cautiously walking further into the store, noticing all the chaos that happened in here. There was blood splattered on the floor and walls yet there wasn’t a single soul in this place, dead or alive. And from what Vlad could hear, he was the only one in this building at the moment, which gave him a little bit of relief.

Since he was alone and not faced with ravenous monsters, he now had time to process his thoughts and come up with his next move on what to do in this apocalypse. Especially about those factions from before. Just from seeing one of the panels say “Pantheon”, Vlad knew that there was more to this apocalypse than meets the eye.

Just then, a new panel made itself known to Vlad, appearing right in front of him, giving him a scare. And what he read concerned him deeply.

[Main Quest: Survive the Blood Moon – In five days, there will be a Blood Moon event where all monsters are enhanced and increase by the dozen, their only goal is to slaughter any players they see. Within these five days, players must gather together and form a large group to combat against the horde of monsters on the Blood Moon event. There will be several side quests that allow players to mitigate the number of monsters, thus ensuring their survival of the Blood Moon. Reward upon completion is Extra XP. Time Remaining Until Blood Moon Event: 3 Days.]

After Vlad had finished reading the new quest, his eyes widened at the concept of this Blood Moon Event. From what he got, it seemed like a Horde survival game mode, where you have to kill a lot of monsters and defend your base. However, what he saw after that only alarmed him more.

“T-three days till the Blood Moon…?!” He muttered in horror. “I’ve been gone for two days?!”

Instead of being gone for a couple of hours before coming back to Earth, Vlad’s been missing for exactly two days. This meant he missed 48 hours of the initial apocalypse after all players chose their Class and returned to Earth. And he had no idea what happened during those two days while he was suffering through the Apocalypse.

It was at this point, that Vlad realized just how bad of a situation he was thrusted in after completing his trials.