Miles stared at the unrecognizable status before him, of black text upon white, colors shifting to and from the exact opposite, only to revert back again.

Identical to the manner in which the Beast Within and the Balanced title had affected the system messages, the status was now riddled with glitches, leaving all manner of confusing squiggles and scratches.

Miles let out a nervous breath, ‘This… isn’t necessarily all bad, right? There is no way I broke the system permanently, right?’

Surely not.

Confident in his assumption, Miles re-considered the situation.

The fact that the System Status was glitching, was telling in and of itself.

Glitching implied faults or errors, either due to unintended/unexpected actions and inputs to the system in question. But for there to be unexpected situations, the System had to have been operating under a set of fixed rules or accepted behavior. Which meant that the System he had assumed was omnipresent and omniscient, was… actually not.

At the very least, not in operation, for something was causing a situation the System was not prepared for and could not be handled by its basic rules of operation.

The final result was this, glitches and errors.

The earliest ‘glitch’ Miles had encountered was when he had exposed himself to the sunlight, when Sol’s blood tax had been lessened by Haemomancy, or rather, the Self-Control it had stemmed from. There had been confusion about the name of the skill he had possessed, but that had not cause further errors, simply remaining as it was.

The next had occurred due to the Beast Within, when it had been unsealed, manifesting over him to–

Then, the most recent glitch had occurred when the same Beast had tricked him into choosing his Fledgling evolution, thus causing the presumed imbalance between Vawulan and Wurkan.

The latter must have had a considerably greater effect, for that was what had led to the current state of his broken status. In hindsight, it was apparent that the core reason behind the most serious of these glitches was the Beast, the presumed unexpected system behavior simply being the side-effects of its actions.

‘Why though? I believed the Beast Within was a consistent aspect in the Cursed title for all Vampires, assuming all Vawul have systems of course, but, if the mere presence of the Beast can so easily cause glitches...I must have missed something.’

Miles tapped his fingers upon the cavern floor, ‘Either Vampires do not have such an aspect to their Curse, mine being unique, or there is something different about my Beast?’

He couldn’t tell, for he had no idea about the status of other Vampires, but what he could tell was that he was conflicted.

If any of these assumptions about System Inconsistency were actually true…

The tap of nails against rock sped up.

It was one thing to rely on an omnipotent system to gain power, but another thing entirely to put his fate in the hands of one prone to error, possibly created by someone or something that was… more mundane.

To be honest, there was a real possibility that the System was some manner of reality altering Fae Magic, given a seemingly logical facade in the form of a HUD.

'Unacceptable.'

If that were truly the case, that would mean he was reliant on another for this power, a pawn in a game played by betters, but... it was entirely possible.

'Is an attribute enhancing, reality altering system truly that impossible? When the Fae facilitate magically enforced Oaths? When even the World Court use reality enforced Intellectual Property Mandates?'

No, it was not impossible at all, for the extent of the abilities of the Fae was something many had attempted but failed to quantize.

Feeling stiff from lying against rock, Miles rose from the cavern floor, dusted his pants, and began a slow pace around the area.

'Then again, if the Fae are truly the architects of the System, why had they not spontaneously leveled up and overwhelmed humanity by now? Why be satisfied by the current state of the cold fae-human war?'

A welcome contradiction. So, perhaps it was not all the fae that had access, but only the Vawulan and possibly the Wurkan?

A promising thought indeed, but one without evidence.

At the very least, Miles could be confident that the megalithic corporations did not have System access, or, if they did, it was not with wide accessibility.

How would he know?

Because Miles was a corporate man himself, and he knew very well what he would be doing with his system access when things were right.

Regardless, he heaved a sigh. Musing on the intricacies of the system only revealed more questions than answers, and there was little he could do beyond speculate.

Thus, Miles wisely allowed those mysteries to remain mysteries, moving on to read through the System Status proper.

***

Over the last few minutes of brisk pacing around the cave, Miles had gone over his new status.

To be honest, it was almost as if the contents of two different statuses had been ham-fisted into a single screen.

The current [Form] was supposed to be Vawulan, but while glitched out, it mentioned Wurkan as well.

‘Does that imply I’m in a sort of mixed form right now? A hybrid?’

Is that why he felt his heart beating again? The warmth in his body? Maybe even the new enhancements to the senses?

Possible, and perhaps it was the same reason that had given him two different entries for [Class].

The [Vawulan Class] was apparently questionably Fledgling-Princeling(?). The evolution was halted due to some error, and Miles was grateful.

He wasn’t sure what would be the result of completing the evolution, but knowing what he knew now of Balance, it would have left him unbalanced beyond saving.

As for the glitch ridden [Wurkan(?) Class], it was… Newborn? The very same he had had first as the Vawulan Class?

It was interesting that the first class was identical for both forms, but this seemed functionally useless, for apparently the Wurkan Class could not be leveled, the cited reason being that the form unlock quest was incomplete.

‘Well, that’s unfortunate…’

If Miles intended to balance the Vawul and the Wurkao, leveling up the latter was the most obvious way of going about it. The source of the problem was the quest, and he found himself mentally calling out to it, instantly causing a familiar [Quests] screen to manifest before him.

[Form Unlock Quest #2: Unavailable? Conditions not met.

Objectives: Unknown.

Rewards: Unlocks Wurkan - Base Form.]

Miles could only huff at the sight. Seriously, how was he expected to maintain Balance, when one of the forms that were supposed to be balanced, couldn’t even be accessed?

With a deep calming breath, he released his emotions, and considered more pragmatic thought.

According to what he had heard from Pack, killing whatever was ‘corrupted’ was acceptable, and would not support the growth of Vinasha, which presumably referred to the Vampire.

That was good, but there had been no mention that it would level up the Werewolf either. Only something about it being Upatha who would reward the acts.

To be fair, Pack had not directly referred to levels in any way, instead mentioning something about fortifying and strengthening the… Lupine Soul?

That had to be something to do with wolves, but would that alone be sufficient for balance?

Miles could only hope it was.

He rarely ever believed anything at face value, to say less of eerie wolves in unnatural caves, but he believed Pack. It was an almost instinctual trust, of knowing there had been no falsehoods stated.

Miles should have been worried about mental manipulation, but he just knew that wasn’t the case. Pack had not lied and his only hope at survival was somewhere here, in the Domain of this Doorway. Confident in his conclusion, he continued his perusal through the System Status.

What came next was [Disciplines], revealing that Haemomancy was no longer at level 0 and had improved by one level. This had to be due to the actions of the Beast, for Miles himself had not done anything to warrant any improvement in the discipline.

It was interesting to see the Beast’s influence go beyond conflicting control, capable of netting benefits as well.

Perhaps Miles had to reconsider whether his Curse was entirely detrimental. If nothing else, the firsthand experience of how the Beast had used his skills was something invaluable.

The Beast was limited by the exact same skills, attributes and disciplines he had, and yet, it had done so, so much more. From the immense power gained with the use of Blood Burn of 20 BP, to manifesting blood weapons out of Haemomancy, there was so much to learn…

But that would come later.

[Disciplines] included another glitched out error message, mentioning that the new discipline selection was halted. ‘A side-effect of the halted evolution?’

Miles was a bit displeased, as the new discipline was one of the primary reasons he had chosen Princeling in the first place but considering that a second discipline could potentially worsen the imbalance, it was difficult to be too unhappy.

At least he had somehow earned a Discipline Expansion, which he also wasn’t sure was entirely safe, so again, later.

What came after were the even more intriguing Consumable Attributes.

Almost analogous to HP and BP from the Vampiric side, there was now another set displayed here. Spirit Points (SP) and Moonlight Essence (ME) connected via Luna Regeneration.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘Interesting…’

Although glitched out, Miles was sure these consumable attributes were related to the Werewolf. This was his first introduction to the apparently unique system of power the Wurkao used, but while he had some thoughts on what it might involve, he could not access any of it.

It was like the proverbial fruit hanging from a branch, but just a bit too far out of reach, while still being close enough to tantalize and mesmerize with mouthwatering potential. But Miles knew to be patient. Assuming the Doorway Trial went well, he would soon be improving the Wurkao, re-establishing Balanced and potentially accessing these new attributes as well.

He could be patient. Still, he made a mental note to re-conduct analysis of his physiology and faesiology, the first opportunity he got. If these attributes worked in any way similar to the theorized Blood Point energy of the Vampire, there may have been a drastic change to his physique.

Moving on, Miles also noted the system status now displayed a new entry for [Current Quest]. Shifting his attention to the name of the quest, Welcome to Hamelin, re-summoned the quest description he had received prior. A useful feature.

The Static Attributes had not been affected or changed in any way, excluding the increment of his Wisdom by the investment of 3 free points. Right, so as it turned out that had been the trigger for the mysterious Hereditas Sanguinis (Blood Inheritance).

To think that the skill was about investing the relevant free points gained from a blood source, into the Wisdom attribute to gain the memories and knowledge associated with it.

Miles had to admit, it felt almost logical.

Sure, he was reluctant to immerse himself in the foreign memories gained by the skill, but he had to admit, despite its perversity, the skill was rather… overpowered.

Not even the Delta tier Fae Ability of Psychometry, or Telepathy, which had none of the limitations of Blood Inheritance, was so thorough.

Truly, the potential of this skill was infinite, for theoretically he could learn from anything and anyone, steal experience and master every technique, all with relative ease.

With the memories of Knight Xavier alone, Miles now had a pool of life experience to draw upon, and if he was willing to risk the potential identity loss, there would be so much to learn.

But he wasn’t willing to, not yet.

Eager to move on from the topic, Miles shifted his attention to [Skills], noting those that had been newly added by no means of his own.

It was about time he gave the skills a proper testing.

The first to capture his attention was under the Haemomancy category. It was the Common skill Sanguine Aspectus, once again in Latin for some reason. Directly translated, the skill meant something along the lines of the appearance of blood, but…

Unlike Sanguis Ardeat (Blood Burn) Miles had not gained or used this skill willfully. It had been unlocked due to the actions of the Beast, almost forcibly.

Blood Burn had come with a mental toggle of sorts and that had been it. No understanding, no impression of the skill itself, just a big button in his mind, to turn on and off at will.

Sanguine Aspectus was different, for it was much less artificial. In addition to the presence of a new, different button, it also included a certain level of understanding about the skill itself.

Miles immersed himself in the strange knowledge, allowing it all to wash over him.

This wasn’t factual, only instinctual, but as suggested by it, he focused upon his eyes. He could almost visualize his eyeballs, feel the nerves and the blood vessels connected to it, pulsing with blood, and…

Miles felt the button toggle to another state, and his vision shifted.

From then on, all he could see was a world of crimson red, everything familiar yet painted in shades of red, as if his eyes were tainted by the same color. It was the exact same skill he had experienced in his fight with the Knight.

But, when his gaze shifted beyond the immediate vicinity, what he witnessed as present in all directions around him, it caused him to freeze.

A scattering of red splotches, of moving silhouettes with unusual figures. The majority were gnomish in scale, but considerably more bestial.

Sporadic in size and distribution, diminutive and rarer towards some directions, but larger and common to the point of overpopulation in most others.

Miles’ gaze wavered over one in particular, the largest of those he could discern. Perhaps the same height as himself.

He was utterly enraptured by the sight, the glowing web of red tendrils over its body, blood vessels pulsing with the nectar of life, a diamond-like object upon its chest, a heart beating with vitality.

Even as a familiar thirst, and an unfamiliar hunger reared its head, spurred on by the sight of those which were capable of satisfying him, Miles couldn’t help but take a step back in shock.

If the knowledge and memory from Sanguine Aspectus were any reminder, these were living, blooded creatures, and there were literally hundreds of them.

***

The revelation that he was completely surrounded by hundreds of unknown creatures was utterly unsettling, but after a few minutes of silent, nerve-wracking staring, expecting them to notice his presence and start rushing over, well… nothing happened.

Miles had only allowed himself to relax after he confirmed that they were truly unaware of his presence, but he continued to observe.

It was during this period, that for a short moment, he set the eyes of Sanguine Aspectus upon himself.

As expected, what Miles found was a human-shaped silhouette, the lattice of root-like tendrils being of a markedly brighter red compared to the creatures that surrounded him.

It was uncanny how similar this sight was to the FRI scans from Haruka’s ancient Lefayescan.

With Sanguine Aspectus alone, Miles couldn’t note his nervous system and nerves, but he could see the network of veins and arteries of blood, and unlike a static FRI, it wasn’t frozen mid-pulse.

Even as he watched, the blood vessels pulsed in tandem to his now un-undead, barely beating heart. This had to be the Blood Point energy they had theorized was the lifeline of the Vampiric Faesiology.

However, unlike the blooded creatures with gleaming, shining diamonds upon their chests, Miles’ was considerably dulled. Where his ‘heart’ crystal should have been, there was a faded, barely flickering stone. This slight variance seemed to represent the weak beating of his heart, suggesting that prior to his most recent change, it may have been entirely dark and dead. Perhaps identical to what he had seen in the FRI.

Miles considered this diamond-like structure with great interest, for it was not something that had been observed anywhere, not even in FRIs.

Perhaps since he had instinctively known what these crystals were, Miles could make out the familiar visage of a human heart, but otherwise, it really did seem like a diamond stuck inside the chest.

His gaze returned to the creatures that surrounded him. This was the same for them as well, though the size varied with the scale of their bodies.

For a short while, Miles continued to test the skill, mostly observing the strange blobs of blood moving around in seemingly sporadic patterns, occasionally huddling together, occasionally separating, even leaving the range of his skill.

Miles tried to discern the nature of the creatures, but the vague silhouettes had him guessing from anything that were small quadrupedal goblins to lean, bipedal orcs.

‘Not all of them can be goblins, some of them are too small! That one barely reaches my ankle! And since quite a few of them are walking on two legs, I don’t believe they are wolves or whatever was in Pack’s cavern either…’

Further observation had revealed that the majority of these creatures tended to avoid the area he was in, and his hallway. The closest that had come was a small foot sized creature and even then, it had zipped through the hallway faster than Miles could move to the crack in the wall to catch sight of it.

Soon enough Miles was confident about his safety within the cavern, and desensitized to the presence of the creatures.

Feeling considerably more relaxed, he fell into contemplative thought.

It was very possible that whatever these creatures were, they had something to do with his Quest.

This was good, because until now, he had not had the first clue on how to proceed. However, their close proximity did make the alcove feel less safe than his initial impression, for if he got trapped in here with hundreds attacking through the hole in the wall, he would be trapped, like a rat in a wall. But the vision gleaned from Sanguine Aspectus allowed him to afford that risk.

Any mass mobilization to siege his little alcove would not go unnoticed.

Miles considered the prowess of this new skill, ‘Sanguine is blood, so that is what I see? The presence of blood?’

To be more descriptive, while the skill was active, he could still see the cavern walls and objects around him, but all obstacles were transparent to anything that carried blood, allowing sight of the presence of blooded creatures regardless of obstructions to his vision.

In fact, Miles had attempted to cover his eyes with his hands, and still…

Well, his own blood glowing brighter than any present outside had made it quite difficult to see, but he could still barely make them out. It was the same for the Cold Iron walls, the absolute zero resonant frequency seemingly unable to affect the supernatural skill in any way.

Suffice to say, Sanguine Aspectus was a skill that highlighted blood, like one would expect thermal vision would operate. Its range was about a thousand meters, forming a circle of the same radius with himself as the center.

There was some cost to its use, a barely noticeable fatigue to his mind, and a minor consumption of blood points to fuel the skill.

That was it, for Miles had been observing the creatures around him for nearly an hour now, and still, the Blood Point cost had been negligible to the point it had not even been considered by the system yet. In other words, he could afford to keep the skill activated for a few days at least. Overall, the skill was bound to be useful, for even thermal goggles and most other observation tech could be obstructed.

With that, Miles decided to dub the skill as Blood Vision.

The name might not get any awards, but he liked it. Simple and straight to the point.

The shift in language was displayed in the status itself, proving his translation acceptable, and Miles moved onto the next skill.

In the category of General, was the uncommon Magicae Aspectus, and once again he considered the Latin. It was in line with the previous skill, now referring to the appearance of magic, and from what he remembered of using this skill, the translation made some sense.

When the Beast had unlocked Magicae Aspectus, Miles remembered seeing the blue thread joining Xavier’s Riyan Sun, to the Marionette Core that had been within him.

In a way he had seen the appearance of ‘magic’.

'But was that really magic? Was it not a fae ability?'

To be fair, most fae abilities could very well be considered ‘magic’, but considering they originated from FaeTech’s Serums, they also had a primarily scientific source.

According to the system notification that Miles had received back then, even Marionette Core was supposed to be an expansion of Telekinesis, merely trained and evolved in line with ‘the world behind the veil’.

Perhaps being involved with the Veil was the requirement for something to be considered ‘magic’?

Then again, that definition would mean that Zhan Shen’s Nameless Movement Art was ‘magic’ as well.

Which was also entirely possible, considering even Miles who had practiced that movement art for years, had not the faintest clue on how the skill actually worked.

Only problem was, with what he had learned from Pack, Miles was fairly sure the ‘Veil’ was connected to Doorways in some way. He was probably on the other side of the Veil right now, but then… what did it mean to train and evolve in line with it?

Miles had no idea.

A collection of memories he had been trying to ignore responded, letting him know there was some information with regards to this question, in the memories of Xavier’s life…

Miles really didn’t want to, but he couldn’t hold back the curiosity. For a short instant, he performed a very minimal recalling.

Pulling back out of the foreign memories as fast as he could, what he had managed to learn was disappointingly minimal.

All that Xavier had done to achieve Marionette Core was practice general telekinesis alongside Primeval Riyan meditation, eventually managing to combine the two, the science of Fae abilities with something far less logical.

‘Then does that mean the Riyan Meditation is something that is practiced in ‘line with the veil’? Whatever that's supposed to mean?’

It didn’t make sense though, considering his earlier assumption that the Veil was a separator of sorts between Doorway Domains and true reality.

He could try the strange meditation himself some other time, but again it would be another thing for later.

In the end, these weren't questions he could easily find answers to, and Miles decided to just take Magicae Aspectus for a whirl.

Just like before, he searched for the skill’s inherent knowledge… when he realized there weren’t any.

Sanguine Aspectus may have come with a toggle as well as general information, but this had none of that. It just was.

It had felt so natural he hadn’t even noticed the absence.

Come to think of it, even when Miles had witnessed the thread of the Marionette Core, he hadn’t learned anything new about the skill, he had simply seen.

‘The skill unlock notification mentioned something about achieving true sight, but beyond that, I know nothing more about the skill.’

Even by just comparing the two new skills in his mind, despite the similarity in their Latin terminology, Magicae Aspectus felt quite distinct from Blood Vision.

Miles wasn’t sure what to do with this skill now, for he didn’t seem to be able to activate it either. So, in the end, he simply settled down on the name Magic Sight.

The translation was accepted by the system, confirming that his understanding of the skill wasn’t entirely wrong. Miles was just about to move on, when a thought occurred to him.

He had taken the spontaneous manifestation of knowledge and thoughts for granted, ignoring the mental changes that had allowed him to use these skills rather carelessly.

Mental manipulation by the system, while it was entirely beneficial for him right now…

‘Could the System ever do more than this? Remove memory? Perhaps even alter?’

It wasn’t only skills, he had the memories of the dead Knight welded into his mind as well, and despite his best attempts to ignore that, it was there.

Then again, system level mental interference may be the last thing he should be worrying about, when he had the ticking time bomb that was the Beast sealed somewhere inside of him, capable of controlling his body, and even the system in his stead, to some extent.

Miles pulled a hand through his hair.

Truly, nothing beneficial ever came without strings attached.

He knew very well the value of data, inadvertently given by loyal customers who believed it was all harmless, a commodity that every corporation gathered, analyzed and sold, even weaponized if needed.

There was no reason to give the System the benefit of the doubt, when it had the capability to do much worse.

Maybe Miles was worrying excessively about this, but he would be damned if he would allow himself to get caught unprepared ever again.

He had only just started improving upon the Mind World meditation, and Zhan Shen had assured him the technique could help him control and rein in the Beast. Perhaps it could do the same about System Interference?

Maybe, but even if not, when Miles got back to reality outside this doorway, he could look into further measures. He had the resources to afford it.

For just a moment, his gaze fell upon the ring on his hand, his fingers tracing the silver like metal and the engraving of the visage of a wolf.

Since the Lykaon Ring had not reacted, he didn’t believe the mental tampering was substantial or intrusive, which would have to be good enough for now.

On that topic, Miles paused his perusal through the system status for a minor divergence. “Cadmus, you there?”