The world in Kiera’s eyes blurred, the violet scenery replaced by utter darkness even her enhanced eyesight couldn’t penetrate. Eerie silence permeated the imperceptible surroundings, its intensity enough for Kiera to be able to hear her own heart beating, and the blood flowing in her veins as a result of that action.
She activated Eye of the Tyrant, immediately irritated by the fact the violet couldn’t suppress the darkness.
Deciding it was better to let her other senses take hold of the situation, Kiera stepped forward. A single silent step from a 10-year-old girl, but the moment her foot rested upon the ground, it was as if a behemoth advanced forward.
The world suddenly awakened, as the dark veil scattered and was replaced by a grand black marble hall. Its walls were not illuminated by a chandelier, but by horizontal blue lines holding shining crimson liquid. The creepy light source blended well with the hall's color, dying the world a shade of dark red.
Kiera studied the lines, unsure of what to feel about their alarming similarity to veins. She moved her gaze from the peculiar lamps, her eyes resting on the plethora of statues that riddled the hall.
The statues were no different than humans, of both genders, the only difference they had with normal humans, however, were the two pairs of fangs in their grinning mouths.
“Vampires…” Kiera smiled in amusement, reminded of the fiction she used to read on these nightwalkers. Suddenly, a notification drew her attention from the statues.
[Trial of the Three Vampiric King— Royal Blood Palace
Dungeon Difficulty: F (adjusted)
Main Objective: death of the Three Vampiric Kings
Main Objective Reward: {Pure Blood Vampire Heart} x3
Bonus Objective: death of the Royal Minions 0/500
Bonus Objective Reward: {???}]
Kiera mused, should she strive to complete the bonus objective as well? After all, it wasn’t mandatory. Heh, who was she kidding? Of course she’d do it, a question-marked reward should be amazing. Walking around the statues, she soon reached the hall’s exit— a pair of huge black doors decorated by pulsing, intertwining lines.
Placing her palm on the door, Kiera decided to use her full strength from the start but was shocked to see the door didn’t even budge.
Suddenly, her figure blurred as she squatted down, avoiding an unexpected claw swipe by a hair’s breadth. Spinning around, her hand reached toward the ambusher’s chest, her own clawed palm tearing off his ribcage from his torso.
[Copper Apprentice Magician Lv.1 (Blood Demon) defeated, EXP received]
Kiera looked at the dead assailant, her gaze immediately rising to the rest of the hall upon recognizing what attacked her. The statues disappeared, replaced by dozens of gray-skinned humanoids that stared at her ravenously.
Individually, they were weak as a chicken, but the combined aura of dozens of them was enough to send a chill down her spine. However, Kiera didn’t let the perilous situation cloud her mind with fear. She calmly assessed the circumstances, exploiting their stillness due to the wariness she inflicted on the creatures with her previous display.
Her mind analyzed the situation instantly— there was a distinct hierarchy in the room, between the overwhelming majority of the creatures, otherwise known as ‘Blood Demons,’ who stood in the frontlines, shielding two humanoids, a male dressed in a butler suit and a female dressed in maid uniform.
[Copper Apprentice Lv.3 (Blood Servant)]
[Copper Apprentice Lv.3 (Blood Servant)]
She could also feel the Blood Demons’ auras were somehow linked to the Blood Servant’s aura, as if… As if they were puppets on strings, controlled by the pair of fancily dressed servants.
Kiera guessed it was a matter of bloodline ranks, Blood Demons were the lowest of the ladder, and the Blood Servants were at least a step ahead of them. And due to the fact she couldn’t sense any degree of intelligence in the weaker blood creatures, she guessed they were directly controlled by the Servants.
Meaning, if she killed the Blood Servants, the Blood Demons would be in a state of disorder— akin to lambs to the slaughter. Well, it was easier said than done when they had a literal meat shield of dozens of fanged humans.
Deciding to ‘test the waters,’ Kiera vanished from her place and appeared in front of the wall of Blood Demons, her dagger piercing through the chest of two blood demons, obliterating their hearts, while Destruction charged in the tip of the dagger, blowing up the corpse and killing five other Blood Demons with the aftermath.
[Copper Apprentice Lv.1 (Blood Demon) x7 defeated, EXP received]
[You defeated 7 creatures in a short time frame, bonus EXP received]
Before she could be swarmed and ripped apart by the claws and fangs of the Blood Demons, Kiera pulled back, her dress saved from being disfigured by a small margin. From this brief contact, she understood that her firepower was unfortunately inadequate to simply push through, the only viable plan was to utilize her superior speed and slowly thin out their numbers.
It would consume a vast amount of stamina and mana, but the benefit was that she’d surely level up her skills quite nicely. And so, her long game of tag with the vampiric spawns had begun, with both of the sides playing both as the tagger and the tagged.
Kiera guessed it was the bloodiest game of tag in the history of all dimensions, as every time she tagged someone, several demons either exploded or were robbed of their hearts and throats.
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One time, her arm blurred as Flashburst created gaping holes in the torsos of the enemies, the other, Destruction shattered their bodies, and some, she simply used Way of the Tyrant to slit their throats in order to conserve mana.
The hall lit up with a variety of spells, flames that made Kiera’s dress both burn and corrode, water that made Kiera’s dress corrode, and wind that made both lacerated and corroded her dress. For some reason, all the enemies’ attributes involved corrosion, ah, there was also that crimson attributed which drained her from her vitality upon contact, “scary shit” or so she thought.
She had to check the attribute list later on with the Guide, it would give her a certain edge over enemies.
The opponents fought savagely, with no form or grace to be seen, it both helped and burdened Kiera— on one hand, their lack of form and insanity-stricken moves accompanied a lack of predictability but on the other hand, that same lack of form made Kiera’s moves unblockable.
Kiera briefly gazed at the two servants standing behind the safety of their constantly slaughtered minions. She was surprised to see there was no fear or nervousness on their faces due to their meat shield’s whittling down, no, there was only a fanged grin and ridicule as they stared at her flickering figure.
She raised her eyebrows, doubt welling up in her mind— was there any brooding plan she wasn’t aware of? Did the servant install a trap hidden in the shadows?
Anyhow, there was no way she could continue fighting with an unknown threat constantly looming over her. Kiera didn’t waste any time and decided to scan the servants’ perimeter, killing a single demon and using her entire strength toward the servants’ position
The body flew like a missile, crossing the sea of savages in a second, but the moment it reached in a five meters radius from the two servants, a sudden transparent crimson barrier appeared, draining the body from all its already dwindling vitality, leaving it an ashing husk.
Kiera’s eyes widened in surprise, a nefarious grin immediately replacing her shock as the two servants’ own grin disappeared from their faces.
They wanted to drain her vitality after she was done with killing the Blood Demons? Heh, she’d give them all the vitality they wanted.
Now, Kiera replaced the game of tag with a game of catch between her and the barrier, as gray bodies flew across the hall while she dodged the anger of their still alive friends, only to become even emptier by the terrifying spell.
Tens of bodies later, an ear-deafening crack resounded as the barrier shattered from the massive influx of vitality, like a dam trying to hold off an entire ocean only to be soon breached.
The two servants’ expressions twisted and reddened as they both coughed an arrow of blood. Now, fear held their faces, their arms flapping around as they silently yet loudly ordered their minions to attack faster.
Skills were left aside for the sake of swarming as Kiera was repeatedly jumped by an insane mob of dozen demons. She dodged around as the entire group chased her, like bees to their abducted queen.
The game of tag resumed, evolving into a bloody dance accompanied by gruesome deaths to the vampiric spawns, but Kiera wasn’t unscathed neither, her breathing already ragged by the immense expenditure of both mana and stamina. Tyrant Regeneration was barely able to keep up with the number of injuries she now continuously sustained due to her decreasing speed.
Nevertheless, her guerrilla-like tactic proved useful— only around thirty Blood Demons now remained out of the few dozens. She was also stronger, both her stats and skills rising exponentially from the constant killing. Unfortunately, her mana and stamina reserves were nearly empty even if their overall capacity soared, so it was time to break through or else she’d die.
Activating Eruption, Kiera’s tattoos surfaced, her body coated by a veil of violet mana and flickering lightning as she felt explosive power coursing through her mana veins. She took a stance, placing her left foot forward, her waist slightly bent with back straight, her right arm rested on top of her head with the dagger pointing ahead.
A thunderclap reverberated in the hall as Kiera vanished, leaving a strick of lightning in her wake as Destruction charged in the tip of her dagger in the form of a compressed lightning ball.
BOOM
An explosion occurred as Kiera came into contact with the flesh wall, Destruction shattering its first and middle defenses, the momentum from the explosion tearing through the last and into the two Blood Servants, their bodies immediately bisected in the midriff.
Kiera shook her head, using Tyrant Regeneration to alleviate the slight concussion. The stance she took was maybe peculiar, but it was more effective than she thought it’d be.
[First Floor’s First Hall objective completed, please proceed to the second hall]
[Bonus Objective Progress: 92/500]
Upon receiving the notification, Kiera felt a surge of a foreign power entering her body, instantly returning her to peak form. Her tiredness immediately disappearing as she relished in the feeling.
And as she previously suspected, the Blood Servants really did control their inferiors like puppeteers— the twenty remaining Blood Demons, who stood in a perfect yet savage formation until moments ago, walked around in confusion and unfocus in their gray eyes.
Kiera slaughtered them quickly, their deficient minds unable to react to her offense without their superiors’ orders.
“Open Status Window.”
[Name: Kiera Ashborn
Race: Human (Dimension Crosser)
Gender: Female
Age: 0 (physical age: 10)
Magician Rank: Copper Apprentice Magician Lv.11
Attribute: Tyrannical Lightning
Titles: Voidborne (command ‘Voidborne’ to show details)
General Stats:
Health: 53,406/53,406
Stamina: 53,682/53,682
Mana: 53,406/53,406
Battle Stats:
Strength: 387
Dexterity: 388
Agility: 389
Wisdom: 387
Skills:
Active:
General-
{Identify Lv.1}
Attribute Skills-
{Tyrannical Regeneration Lv.21} {Eye of the Tyrant Lv.4} {Eruption Lv.5} {Destruction Lv.13} {Flashburst Lv.9} {Vanishing Step Lv.15}
Passive:
General-
{Crafting Lv.1} {Lightning Resistance Lv.15} {Physical Resistance Lv.18} {Pain Resistance Lv.19} {Heat Resistance Lv.15} {Corrosion Resistance Lv.3} {Water Resistance Lv.2} {Slaughter Resistance Lv.5}
Attribute Skills-
{Tyrannical Lightning Body Lv.7} {Way of the Tyrant Lv.7}]
She leveled up eight entire times, well, it was a given considering she killed 93 creatures close or equal to her own level, the bonuses from multiple kills also helped.
Smiling in content, Kiera looked at the now opened doors and breathed in, starting her preparations in order to step into the second hall.