***
The sunlit rays of the morning sky danced upon armor, yet none of the few people that dared to stray from their homes noticed the solitary presence atop the nondescript building. Through the silverine helm gleamed all-seeing eyes, observing, scouring the city, for something, anything, but ultimately... finding nothing.
Knight Xavier had exhausted every conceivable avenue, but even the AllSight CCV9 that blazed within his eyes could not find what he sought.
His desperation had even led him to that Faesycian Clinic, the one with the decommissioned security system, the very same he stood upon right now. All he had found was the premises were looted, security records wiped with thorough precision, and what were presumably the remnants of the Faesycian owner floating in the rat-infested drainage below.
None proved useful.
Worse yet, the beeping in his ear had grown frequent and agitated over the night, but he could afford to ignore them a bit further...
Time was scarce, but Xavier lacked the faintest clue on how to proceed.
In the end, this seemed fated to end the same as it always did.
Try as he might to circumvent contradictory orders, he would always be brought to a halt by jarring politics. The same as every other attempt to pursue those that lurked in the shadows.
Silver gauntlets tightened, creaking metal forming fists of silver that glinted in the feverish night sky.
Xavier had sworn this time would be the exception, but if even his best attempts couldn't succeed, what more could he do?
That was when his all-seeing eyes widened.
A faded pulse of red, marking a figure, captured briefly in a discretely hidden camera before it vanished into the video stream.
Had Xavier not been nearby, wholly focused on scanning the region, he would’ve missed it...
But he didn’t.
A cursory glance solved the mystery of the matter–the video was now being looped.
The Knight's glowing eyes rippled, peering through the data and the digital system, finally finding the evidence of tampering and an intrusive presence.
A net-weaver.
Decent, needing only a second to bypass the Capital Surveillance Protocols, and perhaps even talented, assuming they had remained hidden by weaving into the city security system throughout, only now having made a mistake by being a bit too slow to react.
Knight Xavier couldn't help but frown at the sheer coincidence. He had arrived at this clinic on a wild goose chase, but it appeared that the goose he chased and the orders he had received shared some common threads.
Perhaps the ones he chased, his own personal crusade, could be progressed now?
With nothing else going for him as a lead, the Knight decided to pay this net weaver a visit.
His eyes flickered, zooming towards the face in the half-second footage, highlighted by the red hue of those wanted by the law.
This was a person of considerable interest. A wanted man, if he wasn’t mistaken.
In fact, they should be the person of interest right now, the most wanted, whom Capital Corporation, and supposedly even the Blades, the Hakuryuu, and the Craven warred over the borders for–a certain mid-tier gangster, one Hayato Ryota.
***
Zhan Shen had been patient enough to allow Miles the courtesy of returning to the darkness before he began his interrogation, his face emotionless, “Master Miles, am I right to assume you are no longer capable of walking in the sunlight?”
Miles was guzzling another can of the terrible Boundless Energy, trying and failing to cool off from the remnants of the fading heat, when he stopped to answer, “Yes, but again–I can remain in the sun while fully covered. All I need are some gloves and a hat.
“The latter might be a bit off-putting, but it could be replaced with a hood of some sort. Don’t worry old Zhan, I have reason to believe I am in much better circumstances compared to most Vampires–”
“Does that matter?” the old butler slammed a fist into the Pirisidium operating table, leaving a solid indentation of his knuckles in the metal. “You cannot walk in sunlight again! Does that escape your understanding? Do you have any idea how debilitating that weakness will be? You can never make public daytime appearances again, not without being covered like… well, like a Vampire!”
Miles froze, caressing the back of his neck. He could only remain silent even as he dropped another half-empty Boundless into the waste disposal.
Logically speaking, he could not be upset about Zhan Shen’s words, for they were objective truth. To be honest, he had been trying his best to avoid thinking of all that, but the old butler had no intention of allowing him to live in blissful ignorance.
“I understand old Zhan. But…” Miles crossed his arms over his chest, “I believe that this power that comes at that cost, is worth it.”
The elderly butler prepared to speak again, but Miles cut him short,,“I know! I know you disagree, but… I can see its potential.”
He paused, reaching for another Boundless can, but stopped, “You know, I didn’t choose this myself.” In the end, Miles didn’t take any, just stared at the pack of energy drinks, “Honestly, I probably would not have chosen it had I been given a choice, or known about these shortcomings, but…”
He raised his head, meeting Zhan Shen’s gaze, “Now that I have come where I am, I see the potential in this.”
Miles leaned forwards, cracking a grin, “Besides, the System mentioned form switching, did you forget? As soon as I gain access to a different one, one that is not so affected by the sun, this problem will be solved, would it not?”
For a few minutes, Zhan Shen did not reply.
Only the tapping of his wizened fingers against metal was heard, and an uncomfortable silence hung between them.
Finally, the elderly butler heaved a sigh, giving in, albeit begrudgingly, “Very well, Master Miles. I cannot argue that there aren’t some benefits to being a Vampire. But,” his eyes sharpened, “let me repeat what I said before, adding onto it.
“If, after a reasonable duration of time, a duration of my own choosing, should you still remain averse to the sun, unable to change this ‘form’... that shall be the end of this discussion. I shall personally take it upon myself to change your path.”
Miles raised an eyebrow at the ultimatum, “Assuming the duration is reasonable, I have no objection.”
He could go onto argue about specifics here, but it was better to yield here. One step back to take ten forwards later.
Zhan Shen nodded curtly, the agreement set. “With that, I shall allow you the peace of conducting the rest of your experimentations Master Miles. This old man will be taking a short leave.”
“Why?” Miles narrowed his eyes.
“It’s not that I don’t trust the Faesycian, in fact,I believe she will keep her word, but there is something strange about this clinic. I can’t really sense or pinpoint it, and it might just be the overwhelming number of will-o-wisp signs she has decorated the place with, but it’s just… strange.”
Miles scoffed, “You’re confident it has nothing to do with attempting to track down Hayato Ryota again for that fight you missed?”
Zhan Shen froze as if caught with the proverbial hand in the cookie jar and began to laugh, “Alright, maybe that too.”
Miles shook his head in exasperation, “Well then, happy hunting old Zhan," and grabbed a can of boundless energy, lifting it with well wishes.
Huh, another thing he’d never thought he’d be doing. Toasting... with cans.
***
Despite having been awake through the entirety of the previous night, Miles was not the least bit tired.
This was quite unusual for he was generally a proponent of healthy and timely sleep, often feeling the call to rest when the time was right.
Perhaps it was a side-effect of his undeath, but he felt none of it, and Miles wasn’t complaining. If he could forego the time waste that was sleep without adverse effect, he was all for it.
With that, Miles was back in the Lefayescan, lying within the uncomfortable human shaped indentation of metal and staring at the refrigerated bag, eyeing the final three special blood bags.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
What was unique about these was that two of them, one appearing rather ordinary, the other with a greenish tint, contained blood sourced from–Faehumans.
The first was from an Eta-55, supposedly having used up his fatality with some basic physical enhancement serums for a balanced and reasonable build.
Miles didn’t take long to get himself to gulp it down.
Ding!
[Faehuman (Eta - Enhanced) blood consumed.]
[1 BP gained.]
[Stored in Blood Bank: 12/100]
But besides the system acknowledging the fae-human source of the blood, nothing was different.
There was a barely noticeable change in the taste, like a faint indistinct flavor, but owing to the fact that this was only a week old, it was mostly the standard delicious blood.
Frowning, Miles reached for the next, the greenish blood bag, sourced from a fellow Zeta-730 faehuman. Records stated that the woman had focused purely on strength enhancement serums, and as a loyal Capital Corporate employee even managed to get her hands on a basic Fae Ability Serum - Super Strength.
The ability in question was extremely rudimentary, but even at the Goblin tier, the ability could temporarily triple or even quadruple the user’s base Strength Attribute.
It may sound overwhelming, but there was a reason why Fae Serums were held in such high regard compared to cybernetics. This woman must've packed quite the punch.
Intrigued as to what the results might be, he guzzled down the bag.
Ding!
[Faehuman (Zeta - Enhanced Super Strength) blood consumed.]
[1 BP gained.]
[Stored in Blood Bank: 13/100]
The 'added' flavor was clearer now, a sharp tang blended in with the taste of iron and metal, but Miles frowned.
He wasn’t even sure what he had been expecting, but he had at least expected the other skill he had been unable to use, the even more elusive [Hereditas Sanguinis (Blood Inheritance) - Unique] would react, but nothing of the sort had happened.
Well, before he threw in the towel entirely, there was one more blood bag left…
Miles reached for the pure green bag of liquid, the one he had left for last.
A bag of Goblin blood.
Technically not sold legally, but not at all difficult to acquire if you knew where to look. There were always mercs and solo faehumans who’d venture into the Everglades outside the city to hunt fae for a few credits.
There was one problem here though, the fact that a goblin’s blood could not be compared with the medical database to satisfy Miles’ requirements.
Well, he had confirmed that this wasn’t expired at the very least. Anything beyond that, he had to chalk up to sacrifices in the line of science.
So, without much further thought, he guzzled it down.
Ding!
[Fae (Goblin - Lesser) blood consumed.]
[1 BP gained.]
[Stored in Blood Bank: 14/100]
The taste was completely changed. A distinct earthy, bitter flavor, what he would expect a mixture of moss and earthen minerals to taste like, yet it too was standardly delicious. But once again, despite the system acknowledgement, nothing had changed notification-wise.
The goblin’s blood had been treated more or less the same as that of a human.
Miles chewed on his lip.
The system's show of racial equality was... disappointing.
There were two possibilities here.
Either he was completely incorrect on his assumptions about Blood Inheritance, and the skill had nothing to do with drinking blood or, there was something wrong with his approach.
Perhaps drinking blood from blood bags, without contact to the actual source, was not allowed?
Miles wasn’t entirely on board with the idea of basically leaving hickeys on random people, but… thus was the price of science, and eventual power.
He heaved a sigh, his hopes for the skill mostly dashed. It was time to give up on the unique skill, at least for now.
Fortunately however, there was another avenue that he had left to explore and mentally called out the system screen, the one that he had left unconfirmed last time.
Ding!
||Class Activation Reward||
[The Vawulan may choose any of the following.
10 free Attribute Points {+}
OR
Skill: |Haemomancy| – {Sanguis Ardeat - Inferior} {+}]
It was decision time.
10 free attribute points could be useful, but based on the Newborn class he would be given physical attribute points with every level up, along with a free attribute point. He even had four of those stashed right now.
So, did he really need more?
Sure, higher numbers were never counterproductive. One could even argue that these 10 points equaled all the free attribute points he would be getting with the ten levels prior to the ‘evolution’, and could augment him in numerous ways, bolstering any skill set.
Comparatively, the potential of a skill held a different allure. An irreplicable, unique power, akin to the distinction between enhancement and ability fae serums.
So pure attribute points going up, or, a potentially useful skill?
Sure, there was some risk that Sanguis Ardeat could be challenging or confusing to use, but Blood Inheritance was a unique skill, and his only other inferior skill, Blood Bank, was nothing short of amazing.
Honestly, was there even a choice here?
Well, yes, and with a mental confirmation Miles made it.
Ding!
[You have unlocked Skill: |Haemomancy| – {Sanguis Ardeat - Inferior}]
Miles felt something shift, markedly different from when he had received the skills Blood Bank or Blood Inheritance before. It was like he had been given a big red button, mentally. It wasn’t knowledge or understanding, but an instinctive awareness of what needed to be done to activate the skill.
He breathed deeply, scrutinizing himself, but despite this newfound awareness everything else remained unchanged.
So, without further ado, he followed the instinct and 'pressed'.
HISS!
Miles had been so immersed in the act of activating the skill, that the sudden blaze that ignited within his body shocked him, even prompting a yelp of pain.
A flame-like heat pervaded his entire physique, invigorating to the point of eliciting near spasms, and an excruciating pain that felt like he was being immersed in boiling water. No, it was more like he was boiling water.
Fortunately, it was also shocking enough to stop him from continuing with whatever it was that he had initiated.
Ding!
[The blood burns.
-0.1 BP (Negligible. Not considered.)]
Miles shuddered, glad that he was in the Lefayescan, because he would have collapsed otherwise, ‘What in the Sidhe was that?’
For a moment there, it had felt as if liquid fire had replaced the blood that should have been within his veins. Even now, he could feel the residual heat spreading through him, the unnaturalness of suddenly reaching boiling temperatures difficult to just ignore.
It was comparative to how he had felt when he had put his bare hand in the sunlight, but there was a distinct difference.
‘Blood Burning’ felt less pervasive and invasive compared to the heat from the sun, not that it made the pain any better. In fact, since it wasn’t just a hand, but his entire body, it was actually several times worse.
Through agonized, uncomfortable breaths, Miles turned to the Omnisight and the chained animation generated by the FRIs, hoping to at least distract himself from the pain.
And distract him, it did.
The blood energy had been flowing through his veins normally when, all of a sudden, it just deviated into complete... chaos.
Like a hive of enraged bees, the blood energy lost its standard flow, falling into a tumultuous rumbling around, chaotic, with no direction or intention, even phasing through the veins into his muscles and flesh as it did so, similar to what had been observed with Conditional Undeath.
Even though Miles had instinctively halted the skill, the process of the energy calming down was much slower. The shuddering blood energy seemed far easier to agitate than pacify. Even now, it was only gradually settling, taking several seconds despite Miles only having used the skill for a mere moment.
The FRI analysis was completed, but just like the agitated blood, Miles found himself unable to sit still.
He hopped off the Lefayescan, still reeling from the pain, and began to pace around the clinic in the hope of walking off the pain and forcing the heat to dissipate faster.
A few minutes later, Miles was still fast walking around the clinic, actively sweating due to the pervasive heat, even though he had stuck his hands inside the refrigeration bag, the ice-cold air helping considerably.
‘Hah, a vampire that sweats! I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere.'
He relished the moment of amusement, because honestly, Miles was disappointed. He had truly drawn the short end of the stick with this skill.
The potential ability of shooting flames of blood with Sanguis Ardeat had ended up being a pipe dream. It was actually about inducing 100-degree fevers, for himself.
'What the hell am I supposed to do with this?'
Miles wracked his brain for ideas, when a stray thought struck him, 'Wait, Cadmus did report marginally lower body temperatures, and paler skin.’
He stared at his face in the reflection of Haruka’s Pirisidium table, the glass-like reflective metal depicting his visage in perfect clarity. Miles had been very grateful to realize that despite being a Vampire, he could still see his own reflection. That would've been quite an annoying trait to hide and get around.
Regardless, Miles could now see that his appearance was considerably more flushed, the red of the heat and the sweat making him look considerably livelier.
‘I suppose it could be helpful in hiding my Undeath?’
He knew he was grasping at straws here, but he didn’t feel like cursing himself for the bad decision either. In fact, he wasn't in the expected bad mood at all.
Mostly Miles just felt energized... Like he wanted to hop around the clinic, like a street kid drunk on a dozen cans of Boundless Energy.
Huh, that was unusual.
Miles' eyes widened in excitement, 'Blood Burn! Could this be a side-effect of the agitated blood energy? Agitating my own physique is energizing as a side-effect?'
A temporary enhancement in stamina did not compare to 10 free attribute points, but it was still something.
Miles was quite relieved as he began to ponder on the possibilities, when...
His eyes fell upon the multiple discarded energy drink cans he had consumed over the previous night and even recently to cool himself down.
With that, he had a truly ridiculous thought, “There's no way it's the Boundless Energy, right?”