[Goblin has been defeated! 420 XP has been obtained!]
[Blood has been consumed! 35 BP has been obtained!]
[Skill [Hemophagia] has been activated! 7 Extra BP has been obtained!]
Vlad pulled away from another goblin that he just fed on, blood dripping down his mouth as he let go of the monster. He didn’t even bother watching it plop on the ground before moving on to his next position. He remained crouched down, his [Stealth] skill, activated while moving from pillar to pillar, table to table, and whatever else he could hide behind.
While his back was against yet another pillar, Vlad took a moment to catch his breath after taking down every goblin he saw on the third floor. The moment he moved down from the fourth floor, his [Blood Sense] skill showed him a lot of goblins. In fact, just when he made it down the stairs to the floor, he had to take down a goblin that was near the steps. Since then, he had been moving around the floor and killing all the goblins around him, making sure that he stayed quiet and did not get caught.
Taking a deep breath, Vlad decided to check his status window to check out his progress.
Name: Vlad Stoker
Age: 20
Species: Vampire
Class: Blood Hunter
Profession: Blood Ritualist
Level: 10
EXP: 4710/5500
SP: 0
BP: 460/790
Attributes:
Strength: 21
Endurance: 19
Agility: 24
Senses: 20
Intelligence: 35
Soul: 25
Skills:
[Blood Strike] (E), [Blood Sense] (F), [Stealth] (F), [Blood Dash] (F), [Hemophagia] (F)
Profession Skills:
[Blood Ward], [Healing Sacrifice], [Siphon Circle]
So far, he’s been doing well. He’s slowly reaching level 11, and his BP was around halfway full. His stats were pretty decent since he was evenly distributing them except for Intelligence, which was the highest, though considering how reliant he was on his blood skills, it was necessary.
The only problem was his skills. None of them like [Blood Sense], [Stealth], or [Hemophagia] had experienced a Rank Up, yet. He had been using them the entire time, but nothing had changed. He was able to increase the [Blood Strike]’s rank, so he figured that he could do the same for the others. Could it be that he wasn’t using them enough to increase their rank?
Vlad did use [Blood Strike] a lot when he finally took down that Lizardman. He eviscerated the monster to the point where it was nothing more than chunks of flesh and blood plastered all over the floor. He didn’t even care how much BP he wasted as long as he killed his enemy. Perhaps he needed to do the same for his other skills. But how?
His ears perked up while suddenly hearing another pitter-patter sound coming from a goblin. With [Stealth] activated, Vlad also used [Blood Sense] to locate the monster since there was no light in the building aside from the outside light, peering through the glass windows. But even that wasn’t enough to fully illuminate the floor for him to see.
A part of Vlad wished that he took the [Night Vision] skill since he was clearly in need of it right now. Honestly, if he had known that he would be moving around in the dark like this, he would’ve gladly taken the skill. But, there was no use crying over spilled milk. Besides, [Blood Sense] was at least capable of guiding him around, allowing him to see living creatures as red silhouettes. It was kind of like thermal vision, but instead of seeing body heat, he was seeing blood.
Peering over a pillar, Vlad quickly spotted the goblin. It was alone and slowly wandering the area, likely acting as patrol like the other monsters around him. It wielded a dagger in its right hand, frantically looking around and scanning its surroundings, possibly looking for any enemies that were trespassing. Its back was currently facing Vlad, giving him the advantage to take it down. As Vlad observed the goblin for a little bit until he finally made his move.
With the help of [Blood Dash], he dashed toward the monster, instantly covering its mouth and grabbing its wrist that held the dagger. With a firm squeeze, he easily broke the green menace’s hand, making it drop its weapon. Without letting it call for help, Vlad sunk his teeth into the monster, draining it of its blood.
[Goblin has been defeated! 420 EXP has been obtained!]
[Blood has been consumed! 35 BP has been obtained!]
[Skill [Hemophagia] has been activated! An Extra 7 BP has been obtained!]
[Skill [Stealth] is experiencing a Rank Up! [Stealth] is now Rank E!]
[Skill [Hemophagia] is experiencing a Rank Up! [Hemophagia] is now Rank E!]
[Skill [Blood Sense] is experiencing a Rank Up! [Blood Sense is now Rank E!]
“Finally…!” Vlad smiled, scanning the stream of messages.
He finally managed to rank up his other skills. It looked like using them all in this Monster Nest really paid off. Maybe he’ll be able to rank them up more since there are a lot of these goblins that he had to kill. For now, though, he should stay focused and find his friends.
According to [Blood Sense] none of them were on the third floor, which meant they were either on the second floor…or the first floor. Vlad prayed that they were on the second floor, since if they were not, it meant they were on the ground level, with all the other goblins. If that was the case, his friends were likely tied up and turned into their prisoners, which would’ve made it a lot harder for him to save them. Hopefully, he was just worrying over nothing.
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Out of the corner of his red vision, Vlad immediately spotted three more goblins. They were grouped together and are currently making their way toward him. After scanning the rest of the floor, he realized that these three goblins were the last ones left. Which meant they were easy pickings for the young vampire.
He wanted to sneak up behind them using [Blood Dash] and kill them, but instead, he chose to give them a quick death. That and he wanted to find his friends as fast as possible, so he needed to get rid of them quickly. He didn’t have all day, anyway. Tyler was going to bring back some more players to assist him in taking down the nest. He at least needed to get to Chloe, Arthur, and Lucy before he came back.
Without even bothering to stay hidden, Vlad moved away from the pillar, completely exposing himself to the enemy. The three goblins instantly spotted him, one of them making a grunting noise while pointing in his direction. Before they could say anything else, Vlad used [Blood Strike] and launched a blood blade at them, effortlessly killing all three. The Blood blade cut through their torsos, severing them in two, as their two halves fell apart.
[Goblin has been defeated! 420 XP has been obtained!]
[Goblin has been defeated! 420 XP has been obtained!]
[Goblin has been defeated! 420 XP has been obtained!]
[Player is experiencing a Level up! Player is now Level 11!]
[Player has obtained 5 SP!]
“Nice!” Vlad grinned.
He was racking up a lot of EXP from this building. Maybe by the time he was done with this monster next, he’d get up to level 15 or higher. With all the monsters here, he was hoping for that to be the case.
With the entire third floor cleared, it was time to get down to the second floor. Using [Blood Sense], he looked down and scanned the floor below him, curious as to what to expect when he got there. Not surprising, he saw a lot of red under him. Not only that but thanks to his heightened senses, he could tell that the second floor was causing quite a ruckus. There was a lot of screaming and grunting.
“Hmm?” Vlad tilted his head. “Hang on…some of those screams sound…human.”
For some reason, he could definitely hear a human on the second floor. It was faint and muffled, but he was certain.
Before he could further hear the sounds, he stopped where he suddenly heard distant shouting getting closer to him. Turning his head toward the source, he stared at the stairs leading down to the second floor. The sound from before got louder, and much like what he heard before, it also sounded human.
The screams got louder along with the sound of stomping as whoever it was climbed the stairs to the third floor. A moment later, a lone human emerged from the stairs, running up as if his life depended on it. And it was.
Behind the human were several more goblins gaining on him. They were rallied together like an angry mob, chasing after the person. Once on the third floor, the human quickly spotted Vlad before running toward him.
“H-help me…!” He pleaded with a shout. “Please save me!”
Vlad was a little hesitant before he realized that this person could know where his friends were. Knowing this, his next goal was clear. With the help of [Blood Dash], the vampire blurred forward, dashing past the human to face the other goblins. Appraisal showed that they were all level-five goblins, making them easy targets.
The moment [Blood Dash] was deactivated, Vlad quickly hurled two [Blood Strikes], launching them toward the angry mob of goblins. They didn’t have a chance to try and dodge the blood blade as all of them were cut in half instantly. Their bodies collapsed as blood pooled all over the floor.
[Goblin has been defeated! 225 EXP has been obtained!]
As Vlad’s was flooded with kill notifications, he dismissed them while turning to face the Player he just saved. The guy stood before Vlad, eyes widened and mouth open after watching how he took down the monsters.
“T-thank you…!” He said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Don’t mention it,” Vlad muttered.
It wasn’t like he saved the guy out of the goodness of his heart. Vlad still needed information regarding his friends, and he figured this person would know something. If anything, he was merely saved out of convenience.
Patting himself down, the player started stammering. “W-we have to get out of this place! T-there are way too many goblins for us to take down! W-we…I-I barely managed to survive before getting to this floor.”
Considering that there were a lot of monsters below him, Vlad wasn’t all that surprised. But, that made it all the more imperative for him to find his friends before it was too late.
“What’s your name?” Vlad asked.
“R-Rick…” He answered with a stutter. “M-my name is Rick.”
Rick, huh? Why did that name sound familiar for some reason? Vlad pondered over this for a moment before realizing that this guy was the same person who was a part of his friend’s group that came here to gather materials from the base. Tyler told him this when they were making their way to the warehouse.
But if that were the case…where the hell were Chloe, Arthur, and Lucy?!
“Hey, whe…” Just before Vlad could question his friends' whereabouts, he paused, hesitant to ask.
He wasn’t sure why…but this Rick Player didn’t seem trustworthy. Vlad’s vampiric instincts told him that he couldn’t trust this guy. He gave off a sleazy aura, like a crook or something. With a quick appraisal, he scanned his status window.
[Rick Collins – Class: Rogue – Level 13]
A Rogue class, huh? That explained the shady aura he was giving off. But there seemed to be more to it than that. And he wanted to find out what.
Vlad cleared his throat before he tried again. “Are you alone, by any chance? Or did you come into this place with anyone else?”
Hearing this, Vlad caught Rick flinching in response to the question, as if he wasn’t expecting to be asked that. Nor wanted to.
“N-no, I-I’m alone. I-I mean, I came here alone,” Rick nervously stated, scratching the back of his head. “I-I, uh, came here to because I thought it would be safe to hide in. Big mistake, that was, huh?”
Instead of responding, Vlad remained silent. However, his hands slowly clenched into fists while a burning rage swelled up within him.
This guy was lying. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew who it was, he likely would’ve believed him. Not only that, but his story was a problem too. Instead of saying that he was part of Tyler’s group and stating that he came here to gather supplies, he lied and said he came here to seek shelter. But why?
Then it hit him. This bastard did something to his friends, and he wanted to avoid getting caught, making up some lie to act like a victim.
If Vlad revealed himself as an ally of Tyler, this bastard would’ve likely spun up another story like he was with his friends, but they got killed and he barely managed to escape. He could already imagine this piece of garbage coming up with all kinds of excuses so he could avoid getting caught.
But that wasn’t going to work on Vlad.
“U-uh…dude?” Rick spoke up, sounding confused. “A-are you oka-aaahh!”
Without hesitating, Vlad slashed a blood blade at Rick’s legs, severing them as the Bandit fell to the floor, screaming in pain. Blood spurted out from his wounds as he continued to groan and yell.
“A-agh! F-fuck!” He swore, his eyes turning to the vampire with a glare. ‘W-what the hell are you….?!”
The bandit was immediately silenced as Vlad coldly scowled at him; his crimson eyes firmly trained on him. He was so taken aback that no words left his mouth as he silently gawked at the Blood Hunter.
“Let’s try this again…shall we?” Vlad said in a cold tone.
It was time for a little interrogation…