Ryzen stared at the body of Analith who surprisingly had a smile on her face upon death. Truthfully, he felt nothing for what he did to her as she was a great liability. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like she had any special means of communication and Ryzen was able to stop her from revealing anything further. He would likely be safe for now.

Ryzen did foresee it being somewhat of a problem when she would fail to check in; however, he wasn’t overly worried. As long as the vampires didn’t know he was human, they would continue to underestimate him. He had already figured out that the vampires and apparently other species thought all humans to be useless piles of shit. At worst, the vampires would just send another one over to observe them and that was fine. They wouldn’t know about Enancia.

Next, Ryzen glanced at his notification list and smiled happily.

You have killed level 41 vampire!

Skill Shadow Step has leveled up!

He had been wondering what the one meant next to his skills for a while now and he was glad to see what it was. However, he didn’t want to continue to stand here in the dark hallway, basically asking for someone to find him. Ryzen zoomed back toward his living quarters and was about to jump down on his mat to look when a soft whisper stopped him.

“What are you?” Enancia asked with a slight frown.

Ryzen turned toward her and shrugged. “Just someone who is trying to get by in the world.”

“But…” Enancia started but Ryzen shook his head.

“That’s it,” he said with a frown.

Enancia looked like she wanted to say more but knew Ryzen would get annoyed. Instead, she rolled over in her bed with a “hmph” and went to sleep.

Ryzen became distracted with her question in his head. What was he in this world? What were his goals? He never thought much about it before because his chances of doing anything were low. Now, he was becoming a force to be reckoned with.

He eventually fell asleep pondering such a question.

After waking up, Ryzen immediately checked his status as he had neglected to do so for a while.

Ryzen Litfield

Race: Otherworlder

Class: Shadow Soldier

Level: 15

Hp: 80

Mp: 340

Strength: 16 (+5)

Dexterity: 46

Agility: 53

Vitality: 16

Endurance: 9

Intelligence: 34

Wisdom: 14

Unselected: 5

Skills:

Disguise: 1

Shadow Step: 2

Shadow Daggers: 2

Shadow Guard: 1

Everything seemed to be coming along nicely and it was safe to say that he was well beyond what a normal human could ever achieve. He was basically five times the speed of a regular human, could use magic, and could deftly handle a dagger. Not to mention, he was tanking hits that would have killed him five times over in the past. Overall, Ryzen was feeling pretty good.

“How strong are you?” Enancia asked not so subtly.

“Strong enough,” Ryzen responded, unwilling to give her any extra information

“Can I see your status?” Enancia said mischievously.

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Ryzen glared at her. “Absolutely, not.”

“Worth a shot.” Enancia giggled and then stood up and stretched. “What are we to do today?”

“You are to do nothing but wait. I already don’t have a clue how I am going to get you past the feeding hour without being noticed.” Ryzen sighed.

“Hmm, well good luck with that,” Enancia smirked, being absolutely useless.

Ryzen once again glared at her but his face soon morphed into a frown. He seriously didn’t know what to do and was even partly regretting taking her with him. The vampires would likely know she was not a human if they tried to feed off her. This would be a huge problem. They would also know if she just left as it would be pretty obvious.

Ryzen groaned to himself and glanced at his status which was still up. He noticed a two next to his shadow step skill and remembered that he had leveled up. This time he wasted no time in bringing up the status.

Shadow Step (Unranked): The first true skill of a shadow soldier whose first strike was usually their last. One component of this was their immaculate stealth allowing them to move through the shadows. Sometimes, shadow soldiers were required to bring their targets in alive. It was not an uncommon sight for them too to disappear into the shadows.

Consume 5 MP per second and speed as a shadow is double your usual agility. Consume 10 MP per second while carrying another person. Trap them there for 1 MP per second.

Fortunately for Ryzen, his good luck just continued. He had a solution to his problem and he was twice the speed! However, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to trust Enancia with that yet. Sure, she had probably seen his shadow knife but that was only one of his skills.

He gave her a sharp look and she looked him back with curiosity. “Oh? Do my regal features enchant you?”

Ryzen rolled his eyes. “No.”

Enancia looked a little hurt at the blunt denial and turned around in a huff. Ryzen did think she was pretty. Pretty dangerous. She said she was weak and helpless, but Ryzen has never had the chance to confirm that. For all he knew, she could be hiding her strength and waiting to jump him when the time was right.

Ultimately, despite anything that Ryzen thought of, there was no safer option. It looked to truly be that he would either have to show her his skill or risk getting the vampire’s attention.

“Enancia,”

“What?” she glared.

“I have decided that you will be joining me on my… hunts,” Ryzen stated in a way that made it obvious Enancia didn’t have a choice

She slowly nodded her head and didn’t argue. This surprised Ryzen as he had honestly expected her to vehemently deny doing so. “Good, we will be leaving during the feeding hour and returning before then.”

With the matter settled, Ryzen closed his eyes and let his mind wander. He imagined himself with his family. He imaged the smile on his sister’s face when his mom made her classic meatloaf sandwiches. He remembered the way his dad would passionately watch the football games. Ryzen never really participated but he was always watching and he enjoyed doing so. He smiled from the background where nobody could see him.

“So, what ya thinking about?” a feminine voice popped Ryzen out of his daydreaming.

“Nothing,” he responded with a sigh.

“Well, it had to have been something. You were smiling. I haven’t seen you doing that before.” Enancia looked curiously at Ryzen but he was not in the mood. He never was.

“It was nothing,” he repeated and then shut his eyes again.

“Dumbass,” Enancia hissed before going back to thoughts of her own. There wasn’t much else to do in this place. Yet, Enancia struggled to stay still and simply be.

Ryzen watched as she got up and walked back and forth like an animal trapped in a zoo. He remained firm in not engaging with her yet he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. Ryzen was surprised by this as he wasn’t particularly sure how Enancia could be doing that to him. He hardly knew her. Ryzen wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to kill him later on. He quickly forced down the feelings and patiently waited until the feeding hour.

Finally, the vampire came to take them and Ryzen lined up with Enancia.

“So?” Enancia asked, clearly referring to what plan Ryzen had come up with.

Instead of responding, he gripped her shoulder and plunged them into the shadows. Enancia started freaking out but Ryzen ignored her and started to speed up. Thanks to his recent skill upgrade, Ryzen moved at speeds that supercars back on earth would go. He quickly flew through the general area he liked to explore and went deeper into the sector. He wanted to find more.

Enancia kept squirming in his grip and kept trying to speak. However, it seemed like speaking was impossible in shadow form. Continuing to ignore her, Ryzen kept going until he came across a huge double door. He maintained a safe distance from it and came out of his shadow with Enancia.

“Who the hell do you think you are? You fucking…” Enancia screamed out until Ryzen covered her mouth.

“Calm down,” Ryzen whispered but that only made her get angrier.

Enancia pushed Ryzen’s hand off her mouth and continued to yell, “I will not calm down! You are an asshole! I know you have no reason to trust me but you can at least tell me if you’re going to fucking drag us into shadow hell!”

Ryzen glared at her but didn’t have time to do much more before he grabbed Enancia and disappeared back into his shadow. Less than a second later, a knife whizzed through the air, hitting nothing.

“Damn, I swear there was something there,” a vampire said as he walked over to where Ryzen was.

A second later the vampire grabbed at his chest only to find a purple dagger wedged inside. He quickly fell over, dead.

Ryzen appeared with Enancia in tow and nearly lost it. “What the fuck is wrong with you? We nearly got skewered because you’re behaving like a little girl!”

Enancia barely acknowledged Ryzen by glaring at him and turning away. Ryzen groaned and decided to just drop it. He was curious about the double doors anyway.

As soon as he entered through them, he gasped. Beyond those doors was a cavern the size of a city. It was all still underground yet the entire area was lit by large skyscraper-sized crystals that jutted out of the sides of the walks and roof. Countless dark buildings layered the entire cavern and Ryzen could numerous tiny figures walking around various streets.

Ever since Ryzen had heard this was a vampire city from the guards, he had wondered where all the citizens were. So far, he had only ever seen guards or the vampires that showed up in the dining room. After seeing this, it all made much more sense.

Ryzen turned to motion for Enancia to follow him but frowned instead. She was gone.