Ah, vampires. If any race had been truly marginalized and suppressed throughout the history of the multiverse, it was them. The Risen and Holy Church both hated them, and most humans, elves, and other humanoids also weren’t fans due to the racial skills they possessed.

For a good reason too. Vampires had the ability to drain the lifeforce of others. In fact, they had to do this due to a massive drawback associated with their race: the lack of natural regeneration.

Pretty much all other races could live without any kind of sustenance until they died of age after reaching a certain grade. You could put Jake in a box, and he would keep living until he ran out of lifespan. If you took the same box and put a vampire in it, the vampire would eventually die due to starvation simply due to passive energy expenditure. They did have some racial skills to alleviate this drawback, such as the Eternal Slumber skill, but it wasn’t perfect, and there were many times Eternal Slumber truly did turn out to be an eternal rest.

Now, the usual way to drain lifeforce for a vampire was through drinking blood. It was easy and straightforward, but it had the issue of harming the victim that was used as food quite a lot and could easily result in a casualty. Even if the target didn’t die, they would lose resources, and continued exposure to vampires would result in a temporary reduction in stats and prolonged periods of weakness. It was like Jake overdrawing his own body with Arcane Awakening except far worse, and often items or extremely skilled and specialized healers were required to fix the ailment.

Jake had already learned all of this during his time in Yalsten, and he had now learned even more by reading a few basic tomes on vampires that were already present in his library. He had even called Meira, who had given him quite the negative input if he said so himself.

“Vampires are always part of powerful families and really ward their legacies and power. They also buy a lot of slaves to use as food and simply for pleasure. The most positive outcome for a slave sent to a vampire house is the vampires liking the taste of their blood and deciding to use them for crafting blood potions. Well, they would also get really lucky and one day become a vampire themselves… if that is even considered a better fate.”

So, yeah, Meira wasn’t a fan. Yet she didn’t seem alarmed or surprised when Jake said he would go and visit the Nalkar House. Jake learned the reason for this was quite simple: there was no way they would ever dare drink a single drop of his blood. No, not because he was blessed by the Viper or had a backer or something like that, but because drinking his blood would be what in the vampire world was known as a very bad time.

You see, it turned out that drinking from someone with highly toxic blood courtesy of Blood of the Malefic Viper wasn’t the most pleasant experience. It involved a lot of corroded flesh and overall just made the entire action futile as the vampire would lose more blood energy than they would gain.

The exact polar opposite of someone like Jake were slaves or servants bred to be used as food. Viewed as livestock or pets, these people were trained and nurtured all their lives to be valuable blood banks. It was somehow a recognized Path of the system, and they even had skills and professions focused on providing better and more tasty blood while not being susceptible to the weakness after a vampire used them.

For classes, they tended to still have one focused on combat, but nearly always of the physical variety for better stats-distributions. These were also specialized and worked in synergy with vampires, making them potential soldiers.

The classification for these people was Blood Thrall for the weaker and less recognized ones. Blood Servant was then used for the more qualified and influential non-vampires, and finally, the Blood Disciples. Blood Disciples were those who had the potential of joining the main family and becoming vampires themselves.

Jake had decided to read a bit more up on modern vampirism as he didn’t wanna go in with knowledge many Eras old from Yalsten. In fact, it was a bit funny to read the books from Yalsten and compare them with more modern ones. One difference was that in Yalsten, merely consuming health potions and potions made with herbs was considered adequate to regenerate blood energy, but in modern times, consuming such potions was only done in combat.

The Path of vampirism was inherently tied to the consumption of blood and life, so to try and substitute it was to stray from that Path. Short-term, it didn’t matter, but long term, the effects on Records became significant. Maybe some vampires in Yalsten knew this, as they still kept live humanoids to drink from, but Jake knew only the elite were able to indulge in this. Keeping the fact that using health potions was harmful in the long run secret made sense if the supply was limited and to quell dissent.

Now, needless to say, Jake wasn’t a big fan of how vampires did things. He could totally understand why many races and factions distrusted or were outright antagonistic towards a race that literally required the subjugation and consumption of other humanoid races. The worst part was that it had to be humanoid. Beast blood and such only worked for vampiric beasts, and often the best blood was the blood of the race you had transformed from. Human-turned-vampire would do best drinking from a human, and so on and so forth.

At the same time, Jake also saw the vampires take some level of responsibility. One big thing was how few there were, even with their ability to transform others. The Risen more or less had an open-door policy for any living who wanted to become a Risen, but for vampires, it was far different. You had to be part of a family or be hunted down and slain, as they did not want rogue vampires out there. They cared a lot for lineage, and the only way for an outsider to become a vampire was to join the family as a powerful expert deemed worthy or to be a Blood Thrall that managed to climb to Blood Disciple and then be gifted vampirism.

This did result in the average vampire being far more powerful than most other humanoid races, but it also meant they were more restrained and few in number. They were careful and wanted to avoid vampires causing trouble. The vampire families associated with the Order of the Malefic Viper were also incredibly loyal, not a single family having left. Ever.

So, yeah, to conclude, the vampires were truly a mixed bag of evil nature, loyalty, and odd social dynamics where family was everything. That entire thing where only the talented could become vampires also led to every natural-born vampire being the child of talented individuals. The weakest vampires were born at D-grade, the majority in C-grade, and the Nalkar House, as an example, had four S-grades and dozens of A-grades currently alive. This did not sound like a lot for a “faction,” but one had to remember this was merely a faction connected to the Order and did not contain all Nalkar vampires that existed. They were also just one of six houses.

Anyway, their strength meant they had resources, and Jake needed resources. As he researched them, he also concluded that him going there and receiving benefits would help obscure who his backer was, maybe even making some factions assume the Nalkar House or a member from there backed him.

The way of getting there also wasn’t as simple as merely taking a teleportation gate. Jake had to put in a request to be able to enter their area as it was always sealed off, which had given him even more time to consider his approach once he got there.

It had only taken him half a day to hear back and get a positive affirmation that he could come, which also unlocked his token and allowed him to teleport to them. He got no other information besides an approval, and the second he got it, Jake headed off.

He didn’t wear his fancy party clothes but stayed in his good old combat outfit. Jake didn’t think he would get into a fight, but he wanted to be in what he felt most comfortable with.

Jake used the token on the teleportation wall in his mansion, and after a brief goodbye to Meira, he stepped through, finding himself in an entirely new area. Jake stepped out of a large rectangular monument in the middle of what looked like a city square as he instantly felt hundreds of eyes land upon him.

Through his sphere, he spotted dozens of individuals staring at the newcomer. All of them were either elves, humans, a few beastkin, and some mixed races. Compared to everywhere else in the Order, there was a distinct lack of any scalekin. No vampires either.

All of the people around him looked relatively normal, and the entire area seemed like the outer area of a large medieval city. The only thing really distinguishing this place from anywhere else was the oddly familiar sky. It was red, and something that looked like the Blood Moon the Monarch of Blood had summoned using the divine artifact hung in the sky above.

Before Jake had any time to figure out where to go now, a dark red swirl appeared in front of Jake as a humanoid form condensed from mist. It was a young man that looked about Jake’s own age with black hair and one of those slightly androgynous yet also often considered handsome faces. However, the most striking feature was the two red eyes that met Jake.

[Vampire – lvl ???]

It was undoubtedly a C-grade, and Jake had a feeling that he was not a weak one either. The vampire looked at Jake briefly before smiling, revealing his fangs. “Welcome to our humble abode, Hunter. I am Alcor, and I am to act as guide without you becoming too uncomfortable."

The moment the vampire had appeared, Jake felt all the people observing back away while bowing deeply. The vampire Alcor didn’t even recognize their existence but just looked at Jake. The vampire also let his aura really go off, as if trying to assess Jake.

“I would sure hope for a pleasant stay,” Jake smiled in response, not getting intimidated.

“Then it seems my job will be easier. Now follow me; the Patriarch is ready to see you,” Alcor said as he opened his hand to reveal a rune of blood that then conjured a frame of red mist, where the center of the frame took on a mirror-like surface before it condensed into a gate.

Jake looked at the spooky-looking mirror portal for a moment before stepping through. He felt no sense of danger from it, and quite frankly, the C-grade wouldn’t need to use weird tricks if he wanted to kill Jake.

The other side of the portal revealed a giant, fully furnished hall, and Jake instantly felt dozens of auras far more powerful than himself. At least twenty C-grades, and one that was far above anyone else present. Below a god… but not by far.

Jake turned and looked at the figure, who gave off an aura that seemed to almost tinge the very atmosphere around him red.

He looked a lot like Alcor but was middle-aged and wore an old-timey suit. He had a well-kept beard and the same deep red eyes. The vampire was currently sitting on a large lounge chair with two barely-dressed women standing at his side – an elf and a human, both C-grade.

“Hunter… what a peculiar name, but not one chosen out of pure hubris, I believe,” the vampire said in a deep tone as he got up and began walking towards Jake. “All wish to be the hunter in any situation, but never the prey. And as you stand here, I come to believe that you do indeed adopt this trait, at least in concept. Immune to presences of those stronger… unwilling to recognize himself potentially a prey before a predator. You are a hunter indeed, with all the bravado that comes with it, young Bloodline Patriarch.”

Jake looked at the vampire, who stopped right in front of him. He was a good head taller than Jake and looked down at him, as he too was feeling Jake out, just as his junior had done mere minutes ago.

“You seem to have done your research,” Jake said, as he clearly didn’t need to explain who he was. When he had sent his message to the Nalkar House, he had only informed them that he had obtained an old item related to their lineage and the Order. He had not gone into any specific details, but it was evident that they had looked into him before inviting him over.

“I do appreciate the luck involved in me living through the phase of a new integration. Always such an exciting time bringing about change like never before. The Order itself has changed more than thought possible with the return of the Malefic One. A truly momentous and equally surprising event, do you not agree?” the vampire said with a searching tone while also taking a few steps back and walking towards his seat.

Jake felt the subtle waves of mental energy in the air, ever so slightly affecting Jake, but more than that, reading him. He only felt them due to how on alert he was and his sphere, making it clear the vampire had no intention of revealing his actions.

Alcor, the young vampire, also just stood silently back with his head lowered, same as everyone else.

“I don’t believe many would call the return of a Primordial anything less than momentous,” Jake just answered.

“But not surprising?” the vampire said with an inquisitive look.

“Of course it was, but why would it be more surprising than other events? We natives of new universes know nothing of the rest of the multiverse upon integration. The mere existence of gods was a massive surprise,” Jake again answered, speaking only the truth. Something the vampire recognized as he nodded.

“Perhaps as difficult as it is for me to recognize the possibility of a creature not living with the system,” the vampire sighed. “I am Fairleigh, current Patriarch of the Nalkar House. I do believe we skipped the formal introduction, did we not? Now tell me, Hunter the hunter, what is it you bring from your nascent universe you claim is related to my lineage?”

Without any further ado, Jake pulled out the High-Tier Alchemy Token of the Malefic Viper. Fairleigh looked at it deeply for a few moments before he sighed.

“Such items truly belong in the annals of history. They come from a time when we vampires were on our way to becoming a truly multiversal force. Able to stand toe-to-toe with the Holy Church and the Risen. Yet it is also a reminder that the Malefic One and his Order were our allies even in those times,” the vampire said with a melancholic tone. “Where did you acquire it?”

“During a system event, I went to a world once known as Yalsten. An old hidden world once inhabited and ruled by vampires. It had been destroyed due to its isolation, but the system does as the system does and brought back Yalsten of many, many eras ago,” Jake answered truthfully. “I found this specific token in a vault set up by the Nalkar of Yalsten, one created with the hope of passing down some of their treasures. When I got the treasure, I was asked by a projection left behind to have positive inclinations towards the Nalkar, so here I am.”

“A hunter that also keeps his word, it seems. Very well, if you treat me with honesty, I shall return the favor. Now tell me, what is it you desire of us in exchange for an old relic of the past?”