Devi stumbled as the shadows retreated, giving way to the familiar sight of a crystal blue lake she was currently standing in the middle of. The gentle red glow of the crystal bathed her surroundings in a red light. Thankfully, there was no swarm of bats descending down on her this time.
As she carefully scanned her surroundings, Devi realized that she could see much clearer than before. The dark recesses of the cavern ceiling did not hide anything from her anymore. She could make out the small shapes of bats nesting far above her, even without resorting to pulling out her array disk.
The colors were a bit hard to make out since everything was very muted, more shades of grey than actual colors. But that didn’t really matter.
This is going to make sneaking around so much easier. She paused for a second, I guess that makes sense, I am a predator now. Or at least I imagine that is how I would be classified. Vampires usually are hunters.
She shelved the more social implication of becoming an undead were, and started to make her way over the rocks to the shore. Now that she had inspected the gem, there wasn’t the same urge to inspect it anymore. Though she did feel like fighting the larger of the bats that had led the swarm in her direction. But the feeling was more in line with needing to go to the store to pick up ice cream. Not a necessity, but something that needed to be done and would be its own reward.
Very different than the feeling that had prompted her to inspect the gem. Thinking back on it, she would have never snuck across a wide open space with a ceiling teaming with hostile monsters. That was just a dumb decision any way you looked at it.
Did that gem do something to my mind?
She stared at the accused gemstone, narrowing her eyes. It was clearly magical, and so meant nothing was completely out of the question. She had been literally teleported, so a bit of mental compulsion seemed quite within the realm of possibilities.
Why would the gem need to do that though? She paused for a moment behind a particularly large stalactite. Is it that important for people to stumble into that vampire’s lair?
She had a sinking suspicion now that the whole thing was just a trap to get people into the Lady’s throne room so the vampire could turn them. For what purpose, Devi still hadn’t figured that out, but probably nothing good. Vampires were rarely painted in a positive light, and luring people to be turned did not help that image.
A few quick sprints from shadow to shadow saw Devi reach the tunnel she had entered without drawing the attention of the multitude of bats flapping around. They seemed more interested in finding a good perch than on the lookout for intruders. Or napping. The majority seemed fast asleep, hanging upside down along the roof.
Devi breathed a sigh of relief when she finally rounded the bend in the tunnel, cutting the cavern from her sight. And then realized that had been the first breath she had taken since being teleported back. She remembered instinctively holding her breath to lessen any sounds she made while sneaking but apparently hadn’t started breathing again after that.
Great, now I am stuck on manual breathing.
She held her breath for a bit, trying to count the seconds before she felt the urge to breathe again. It got up to 230 before she started feeling a slight need for breath and made it to 1000 seconds before letting her breath out. She didn’t stop because she needed to breathe, but more so counting up that high was tedious, and not really worth her time. It wasn’t precise anyways, so she felt no need to actually record exactly how long she could hold her breath.
So I still need to breathe, but not as much? Am I undead, or something else? My Status says vampire, but who knows if that really is an undead. She felt like if she was truly one of the undead, breathing wouldn’t be a necessity for her. After all, why would a dead body need to breathe?
She put two fingers on her wrist and felt for her pulse. It was there, but just like her breathing, slowed far below any normal person could ever hope to achieve. Her pulse came twice a minute or so, something that really shouldn’t be possible both if she was fully undead or still alive.
Devi leaned on the tunnel wall, her mind still spinning with questions and uncertainty. She couldn't deny the evidence that seemed to suggest she was now a vampire, but it was not the kind of vampire she had read about in stories. Her body seemed to defy the normal rules of life and death, leaving her in a state of uncertainty.
I guess I will have to figure this out as I go, Devi thought to herself. I can not believe I am a vampire now though. This is definitely not what she thought would happen when she ran into this dungeon. This wasn’t what she had thought her week would go when she commuted to work a few days ago.
Devi took a deep breath, feeling the cool air fill her lungs, and then let it out slowly. Okay, I need to stay calm and rational, she thought to herself. Panicking will not get me anywhere.
She tried to recall any information she had ever read or heard about vampires, hoping it might shed some light on her peculiar situation. There were countless myths and legends surrounding these creatures of the night, but they often contradicted each other. Some said vampires were undead, others claimed they were just cursed or supernatural beings.
Which meant she really couldn’t rely on any of the myths she could remember. The only reason she had assumed becoming undead would turn her into an undead was that the message said she had died. Maybe I got brought back to life by changing my Race? Magic is real, so who knows?
Figuring out what exactly she was could come later. Right now, she was hungry.
Not her normal hungry either, where her stomach would growl at her that it was empty. This was more instinctual. More of a craving, like how she’d randomly want to have pickles. But this time, the craving for something was a lot different. Blood.
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It was honestly the only thing that sounded appetizing at the moment. Not even her stack of frozen macaroni and cheese back at her apartment sounded good. They didn’t sound bad, but the thought of getting some blood was far more appealing.
Hopefully blood tastes better than bat meat.
~ᵥ----ᵥ~
Devi stared dubiously at the dead bat in her hands. It hadn’t taken much effort to locate it, and then subsequently kill it in only a few blows. Being able to actually see where she was going was tremendously helpful for fighting. Who knew, right?
But now, the only thing between her and a meal was getting the nerve to actually drink it. She had already cut a small slit and could see the blood dripping out. Even in the dim light, she could make out the dark crimson of the blood, though nothing else colored. Only the blood.
There was a primal urge to hurry up and consume the now dripping blood, but it was precisely that feeling that made Devi hesitate a little bit. She didn’t want to be controlled by this hunger and was a bit worried about giving in. What if I do not really have to drink blood to survive, and it is just all in my head?
It was only blood from a monster. People drank animal blood all the time. At least she thought they did. Blood pudding was a thing, right? Having a small taste of the blood wouldn’t hurt, right?
Hesitantly, she raised the dead monster to her lips. The thought of what she was about to do was still disgusting, but the hunger urged her on. She hadn’t eaten for days and was starting to feel it. If she could sustain herself solely on blood, that would be far better than dying of starvation. Eating bat meat was completely out of the question.
She almost gagged at the disgusting smell of the bat’s fur but tried to ignore it. Next time, I am draining the blood into a cup. Causitocly, she licked a drop of blood from the cut she had made, tasting it before trying to drink more.
It was passible. Salty and thick, with a strong aftertaste of iron, like she had sucked saltwater off a penny, but it didn’t taste bad. It should have tasted disgusting, but there was something else to it that she couldn’t put her finger on that made it alright. It wasn’t good by any means, and the texture wasn’t the best either, but, it was something she could consume.
A few mouthfuls later, she tossed the dead bat aside and wiped her mouth. The bat had been relatively small, but even that had satiated her hunger a little. Now that she had ‘eaten’ a little, the full force of her hunger reared its head. It had been easy for her to ignore just how hungry she was while she was focused on crafting, or fighting for her life. But now, now she was hungry.
She set off down the tunnel, only pausing to look at the notification that had popped up after killing the bat.
Congratulations
You have defeated your opponent
XP has been awarded
XP threshold reached
Novice Support (inferior) lvl 6 -> lvl 7
+3 Free
Sadly, there was no notification for her [Attribute Enhancmen] leveling up. It had been a while since it had, and quite a few kill notifications as well. But it has sat stubbornly at level 3. She had been using it pretty much every time she fought, but apparently, that wasn’t enough.
Sowling at the Skill that refused to level up as fast as her class, Devi stalked through the tunnels, hunting for more bats. On a hunch, she activated her Skill, hoping maybe that would help it. At the very least, the bump in Agility was nice as she slunk through the shadows.
Whenever she encountered a lone bat, she wouldn't hesitate to strike, ending the fight in only a few blows as her blade singed and burnt the monsters. She collected a few scratches and cuts, but they were shallow and she shrugged them off.
A few times she ran into a larger swarm of the flying monsters, and she quickly hunkered down out of sight until she heard their squeaks fade into the tunnels. Fighting the lone bat was easy enough, but a whole swarm seemed a bit much, even with her new weapon. She could probably manage it, but did not want to imagine what she would look like at the end.
After finding and draining the blood from the third bat, Devi started noticing an odd pressure building up in her head. She had gotten pressure headaches before, and this sensation was similar. The pain wasn’t too bad, so she pressed on, slinking down the hallway.
XP threshold reached
[Attribute Enhancment] (inferior) lvl 3 -> lvl 4
That was unexpected.
Devi dismissed the notification that had suddenly appeared in her vision as she quietly walked along the hallway. She had been getting slightly better at reading the odd message boxes whenever they showed up, but they had only ever appeared right after fighting something, or when she had finished crafting. But this one had appeared randomly as she walked.
Did I do something? She wondered as she activated the Skill to confirm if it had the same progression as before. Her Agility shot up by five points, but the shocking thing was the odd pressure in her head dissipated as soon as she activated the Skill again. It was as if her mind had been a taut string, and now it had slackened. Not all the way slack, as it still felt a bit strung out, but definitely relaxed a whole lot.
The only thing that made sense was if it had something to do with her Skill, since the feeling had gone away once she had recast it. Maybe there is a time limit on how long I can use the Skill. That would make sense, being able to go around with her Skill on all the time without having to spend mana on it. Not that anything else really made sense. But if she was making a game, not letting someone just perma buff themself seemed like a sensible thing to do.
It still didn’t tell her why her Skill had suddenly risen in level without her really doing anything besides walking around with it on. Unless that was exactly what had made it level up. Maybe she didn’t have to go around killing things to level up, and just using her Skills would be enough.
She had just been under the assumption that when the notifications said she earned xp, some of that went to the Skills used while gaining said xp. But now, she wasn’t so sure.
A scowl of frustration crossed her face as she continued to think about how opaque everything was. If she could just see how close she was to leveling, then a lot of things would be clearer. Or even just how much xp she was gaining each time a message box appeared. Was it all the same? Or did different monsters give different amounts?
She sent a gout of flame at the wall in frustration. Every time she sat down and thought about it, everything just made less sense. She just didn’t have the tools to try and figure anything out. There hadn’t even been any Skills to help with that either, and she still had no idea what to do with her empty general Skill slots. All three of them mocked her, sitting [EMPTY] but having no idea how to fill them.
With a disgruntled growl, Devi continued down the tunnel, the fury at the lack of any information raged inside, until she rounded a bend and suddenly realized where she was. She had been wandering around a bit, keeping a mental map of the turns she had taken, and if she was right, just a few more twists ahead was the cavern she had woken up in hanging from a spider web.
Her hand slipped into her pocket, brushing the mana crystals inside. Maybe it was time to go pay the spider a visit.