Skill Farm

I manifested within my soul space a large wooden room reminiscent of the Japanese style hut that my sire used to live in. The walls held shelves with stone bowls placed on top of them, many of which also held glowing orbs that signified a skill. Simple plaques hung below each occupied bowl describing the skill that they held. There had been some changes in my soul space. Mainly, the ceiling had risen and a second level had appeared, more empty shelves had appeared on the walls above, and there was an entire floor that went around the walls with a gap in the middle that allowed me to see up. To the side there was a ladder that led up.

I turned my attention to the floor I was currently on, looking for any more changes.

In the center of the room were three pedestals, the center one held my Mask, while the other two were empty and signified my ornaments which were incorporated into my Mask.

I approached and took a closer look. My Mask had changed again, the style was Mesoamerican and looked as if it was made out of obsidian and jade, with gold speckled through it.

The Mask was obviously a monstrous depiction of a vampire, though as it had changed it become cleaner, more predatory than just monstrous. The lower face resembled an Oni mask, with teeth being carved into the material with long incisors. Two horns stood on top of it like polished obsidian with gold lines and elaborate carving-like markings. Two more horns were placed lower and more to the side of the mask. Golden and jade ornaments were attached to those two horns, the actual Ornaments of my Mask, and they too had changed. They looked more like earrings now, but with detailed etchings pressed into them.

My Student Ornament had advanced to the First Investment, and was now the Ornament of the Practical Student, though I hadn’t advanced it since then. There was little opportunity for me to progress it further, as the Investment it required was learning—well, practical learning now probably. I hoped that I would have the chance to gain some Investment for it now.

Behind the three pedestals stood another seven, my six [Empty Slot] skills, three on either side and separated by the seventh, the [Swap Profile] skill. There were more pedestals on the other three walls around me, pedestals holding my other skills just below the shelves. Though I could see that one skill was missing.

I had a suspicion and walked over to the ladder and climbed to the next floor. I found my [Quick Swap Slot] skill up there against one of the walls. It made sense, it was my Second Investment skill.

The floor above was simple, the same as the bottom only with the hole in the middle that allowed me to see down. I jumped over the railing and back down.

Then, I turned and headed for the corridor that led to my Hallway of Doors. The familiar doors welcomed me, though a few of the ones I remembered being there were gone, the ones that whose skills I had used with [Overburn Skill]. The skill wording did suggest that I would be able to get that skill back if I found another source of it.

Either way, I continued down the corridor, pausing for a moment in front of Shadow’s door, the elaborate wooden carving of a mountain rising from the mist and a giant tree growing over it greeted me. Shadow, or at least a copy of him made by the Grand Spell, was a guest in my soul space, and he could leave his room—probably because he was far more powerful than me, or as he had once postulated, helped because of my trust in him. I didn’t know if any other powerful being would be able to do the same, which worried me. I had two doors that held powerful monsters within, the Reaper and the Sikiri that I had encountered on Ish Vimza. Both of which I was yet to test myself against.

The Reaper was a Sixth Investment beast, and had been killed by Shadow. I’ve gotten its blood afterward from its corpse, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to kill it, it had nearly killed Shadow. And a fight in my soul space was a lot different than real life. For example, Shadow and I had killed the Sikiri together by baiting it into a trap. I wouldn’t be able to do the same here. Fights in my soul space were a more straightforward matter.

I wondered why Shadow hadn’t left his room, he had to have noticed that I was here. I didn’t dwell on it though, even if he was a copy, he deserved some consideration. I didn’t enter his room, though he was the person I had come to see. Instead, I continued down the corridor, I could see another change ahead.

After another dozen or so doors, the corridor split into two, one heading right and one left. I glanced both ways, and saw that only the right side held doors for now, so I walked down it. There were another three dozen doors here filling the corridor up for a few dozen meters until it ended in a corner that turned to the right. I walked down the empty corridor until it wrapped back to the original split. My Hallway of Doors was now a square loop. I wondered how it would change once I fill it with doors.

With my exploration finished, I decided to enter a few doors and collect new skills. I stepped in front of a simple door with talon mark on them and with an effort of will manifested my weapons. It rose from the floor beneath me, along with my revolver. My soul space replicated any equipment that I carried on my person. That also meant that my revolver had only four rounds, the same as I had in the real world. The ammo would reset once I left the soul space and returned back in.

Most of the doors were occupied by beasts that were easy for me to deal with, ones that we’d encounter in the wild or the rifts we finished.

I entered the first one and was met by one of the bird-like creatures that we had just fought. It was flying above me in lazy circles, and moved to swoop down and attack as soon as it noticed me. I waited for it to come close, then stepped to the side and swung my serpent-tongue spear, splitting it down the middle.

The two parts dissolved and left behind the glowing orb that was the skill. I picked it up and carried it over to one of my shelves and put the skill in.

[Dive]

Dive down from the sky executing a powerful attack

It was a simple skill, though I wondered how it would work for me as I had no wings, not yet at least. Perhaps it only required me to be airborne. I would have to test it out, but I didn’t think that the skill was worthy enough to be put into one of my profiles. Which meant that it was destined to be used with my [Overburn Skill] if I ever had the need.

I returned back to the corridor, looking for the next target. There were no more doors for the bird monsters, despite me drinking blood from several different birds. That meant that all of them had the same skill, and I couldn’t have copies. Perhaps if I lost the skill and I drank the blood that contained the skill I lost I might be able to get it again, but I just didn’t have the time to test that out.

I went through another few doors containing various beasts, getting a few more skills, none of which were anything special, I looked them over on the shelves:

[Lesser Charge], [Lesser Tough Skin], [Lesser Stab], [Lesser Screech], [Lesser Stalk].

All of them went into what I called my burn category, useful as one use skills, but nothing more than that. Now, I was left with the doors that I held more hope for. I drank the blood of twenty Suul, and each of those had at least a few carvings, the two of their greater form Suul were probably at least in their First Investment. I was missing some doors, which told me that a few of the Suul probably held the same skills, but I was still hoping to gain some powerful new tools.

I entered the first door, picking one of the less ornamental ones that I knew indicated the weaker of them. The Suul stood in front of me on top of a small plateau where I had fought and killed him before, during the Trial of the Summit.

The Suul were a reptilian, or perhaps avian looking race. My foe was tall, towering over me by a full head, standing proud at three meters in height despite being hunched over. His legs were thick and muscled ending in three toes with curved talons at the end of each. He walked on digitigrade legs, and had a long muscular tail stretching behind him.

His skin was gray, but the edges of his body were covered in brown and yellowish scales, small in some parts like the torso and inner areas of his body. But there were also larger plate-like scales that covered his shoulders, more like those of a crocodile.

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A thin and narrow waist held up a wide torso with long and strongly built arms, though not really thick, more like the arms of an athlete, with clear muscles defined but not overly large.

His long neck had dewlaps from the torso up to the jaw, with barbs sticking out the bottom edge. A flat elongated snout for the head with two nostrils that stood above sharp teeth that had no lips covering them. The snout seemed to be covered by thin skin, but that receded to bone along the jaw. The teeth looked more like they were made out of a single piece than being individual teeth.

He had horn-like spikes growing out from the top of his head, sticking backward and parallel to the ground. I remembered that the other Suul had a different number of spiked, but this one had four, two on each side.

His body was covered in paint, swirl patterns covered his chest, and thighs had yellow painted lines drawn in curious waves that curled around his legs.

His eyes were circled by dark pain that made them stand out. Their predatory glint clear even in this place.

His clothes were slim, fabric pulled around his body like a wrap. Around his neck hung a strand of twined rope, adorned with colored stones. He had piercings all over his body, most of them bone, though some stone or metal.

His weapon was the one that most Suul seemed to prefer. A long and thin spear-like weapon that had a crescent like spurs sticking out from about one fourth way to the top, which could serve like hooks or spikes when the weapon was swung from side.

I had inspected the weapons after the fight, when I had the chance. They seemed to be made out of some incredibly tough wood, or at least a material that had a similar consistency. Though I had verified that it was as strong as steel. I could break the weapons with my strength, but I was a vampire that could tear a person in half easily enough.

I approached the Suul with my weapon raised high, my elbows parallel with the ground and the tip of my serpent-tongue spear pointed at the sky. I settled into the Azure Moon Style’s Stalwart Mist, the first Kata: In the Mist, Await. With bent knees and stable stance, I waited as the Suul charged.

It was a copy, one without any apparent intelligence, capable only of fighting. Only those whose blood was freely given seemed to retain something of themselves in here. That didn’t mean that my foe wasn’t dangerous, it held all the combat capability it held in life.

It just didn’t matter. The Suul dashed in and stabbed forward, stabbing me through the heart. For most, that would’ve been a killing blow, but I was a vampire. My heart didn’t beat nearly as often, the wound wasn’t even enough to tickle me.

My weapon was a cross between a sword and a spear, as tall as I was with one third of its length being the handle while the rest was a long, sinuous blade as wide as my palm.

The Stalwart Mist technique was built on the principles of retaliation, on using my fear and instinct to react. Shadow’s style was built on illusions of thick mist, of tricking an opponent to attack a mist clone then retaliating with a savage attack.

I had no illusions or mastery of the mists, instead I relied on my superior regeneration. The core principle of my style remained the same as that of Shadow’s. Wait for the opponent to commit, then retaliate.

The moment the Suul went all in on his attack, the moment he trapped his weapon in my chest, I responded. My weapon came down from above my head, cleaving the air in a whistle as it carved through the Suul’s head and split him from the top, down to the waist.

The Suul died, and the skill remained.

The wound in my chest healed in barely a second, and I left to deposit the skill in an empty bowl. The skill I gained was [Dash], which told me that the Suul I just defeated was probably one whose blood I drank after it had died. It was one of his lesser skills most likely. I turned back to the corridor and started making my way through the doors. The Suul didn’t pose that much of a challenge, they were a threat when in a group, but individually they couldn’t match my advantages. A few of them had fought with different tactic, some even using the acid that they were able to spit out, but ultimately I didn’t have any issues with them.

Most of the skills I gained were lesser or not that useful, but I did get two stronger ones, probably from the Suul that I had drained in the fighting. The skills [Triple Thrust] and [Crescent Swipe] were both combat related and from their descriptions looked strong. I put them on my list of the combat tagged skills. I planned on making one of my profiles activate that trait, as it gave me some bonuses that I wanted to test out.

Next, I entered the room that was occupied by one of the greater Suul, their leader caste, of which I had encountered two. These were a lot stronger than the regular ones, taller and with darker gray skin and black scales. From my conversation with them, I assumed them to be something like religious leaders of some kind.

I also knew that they were as strong as an Adult Vampire, at least, though I didn’t know if my new status as an Elder Vampire would impact our strength difference any. I had my [Lesser Strength] active, which did scale of my physical strength and made me even stronger.

Either way, I knew that they would be a challenge, and I didn’t want to risk it too much.

“Saia,” I called, and the dragon manifested inside my soul space. The physical form she had in the real world wasn’t really her, it was just a drone that she controlled from within my body. The actual Saia was bonded to my nervous system and my body in general. She lived inside of me, and this place considered her a part of me.

“Query: Yes Mari?”

“I’m about to fight one of those big Suul. Can you give me some help?”

Saia immediately flowed over my body; her mass now great enough that she could cover parts of me in armor. We hadn’t had much need to use it outside, but we had tried it. She covered my arms over my elbow and up to mid upper arm, then my legs up to my thighs and then around my neck like a gorget and up to cover my jaw over my mouth.

Those were the areas that I considered the most important to cover, my limb joints, and my neck. As a vampire, the only thing that could really impact my combat ability was an injury that needed longer to heal, like the joint bones, and losing my head—which was the reason for the placement of armor. A hit to the spine was a danger, but my reflexes were enough for me to move and avoid it the moment I felt something pierce my flesh.

Saia’s surface was smooth, marked only by the hexagonal patterns that were familiar to me and faint blueish light that shone through the lines.

I rolled my shoulders getting accustomed to the new weight, then stepped into the room. The Suul was alone in the forest where I had encountered him, standing at least four meters tall, he towered over me. In his hands was a giant mace-like weapon, a thick rod made out of the same wooden material as the other Suul weapons, with a round ball attached on top.

It noticed me immediately, but didn’t move to engage, instead it waited for me to come to it.

I had no choice but to oblige it. For this one, I settled into the Scarlet Moon Style’s second Kata: Tempest in the Mist. I ran forward, careless for any defense, I let my instinct guide me. I felt the thirst rise up from within, its hunger singing in my veins. The Suul reacted, moving to the side as it swiped its mace at my side. I jumped over it, swinging my serpent-tongue spear one handed, holding it by the end to extend my range. The tip of the blade caught the Suul across its snout, cleaving a large flap of flesh open.

I fell to the ground and whirled, attacking in a flurry from multiple attacks as I danced around the Suul. My speed was superior, even with Saia weighing me down. In seconds, the Suul’s body was covered in wounds as it tried to step back and recover.

It used a skill, its mace suddenly enveloped in a faint light as it surged downward with a speed that I hadn’t expected, intent on splattering me.

[Mist Step] turned me to mist and the attack shattered the ground where I stood. I reformed next to it, then stepped close.

[Swap Profile]

[Debilitating Wave]

My skill billowed out of me, staggering the Suul and giving me the opening I needed. I jumped on it, ramming my spear through its neck as I landed on its shoulder. I tightened my thighs on its body then caught the blade with my other hand on the other side of its neck where it was sticking out covered in blood. I flexed my arms and twisted, tearing its head off its body in a gruesome display of blood and gore.

Light red, almost pink blood gushed out of the wound for a second before it dissolved along with the body.

I fell to the ground and took a few quick breaths, my heart beat a single powerful thump, pumping oxygen through my slow moving blood.

I wasn’t sure how that worked exactly. This place was in my soul, it wasn’t real. Yet, I still had to follow rules it seemed. My body tired the same as it would in the real world.

My muscles twitched from exhaustion and I sat down next to the glowing skill orb. Vampires were strong, fast, nearly unkillable, but we were not the endurance hunters that the humans were. A vampire conserved its strength by operating at less than their optimum constantly, so that they would be able to move at incredible speeds and use great strength in shorter bursts. I had just gone through dozens of rooms, fighting and gathering skills. Even if this place wasn’t actually real, it seemed that I still needed to rest.

Thankfully, resting for a vampire meant just sitting still, without moving a muscle. The time dilation between this place and real world allowed me some time, but not too much.

Once I felt somewhat recovered, I stood and went over to deliver the skill to a shelf.

[Pulverizing Smash]

A powerful downward attack that amplifies your strength

The skill was powerful, and finally something that I could consider using in one of my profiles. With that done, I walked back to the corridor, heading for the second greater Suul room.

The second fight was harder, the other Suul had the chance to use more skills, but ultimately I prevailed and gained another skill.

[Harden Self]

Harden a part of your body.

A useful skill, though probably not essential for someone like me. It would be more useful as a burn candidate in emergency, the [Overburn Skill] actually improved the skill somewhat when used.

I went over to the shelves, and picked up skills that I’d noted before. I swapped out three skills from my second profile for new ones.

Then, once I was done I stepped back.

P2-Combat bonus

[Dodge]

[Triple Thrust]

[Pulverizing Smash]

I left my first profile as is, the beast bonus with two passive skills [Lesser Strength] and [Lesser Constitution] with one movement in [Mist Step]. It was a powerful combination that I didn’t want to change as I didn’t think I had anything better yet.

The new skills were picked in order to activate my new trait bonus, I wanted to test it out.

With all of that finished, I turned and headed for Shadow’s door, I had a lot to tell him.