Congratulations! You have met 3/3 requirements to unlock the Fighter class!

- Endure receiving more than 50% of your total hp in damage from a single attack.

- Deal more than 25% of an enemies total hp in damage with a single attack. (Enemy must be of equal or greater level)

- Defeat an enemy of equal or greater level single-handedly.

Accept? Y/N

Raymond woke up to a rancid smell and a blue screen. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying on top of the dead Lesser Roc, it’s body already decomposing.

She felt something crawl across her leg.

She looked at it curiously and then squealed. A maggot was inching up her bare leg. She flicked it off and quickly pushed herself up, jumping away from the corpse. The body caved in slightly with a squelching sound. She ran her hands over her body, checking for maggots or other foreign creatures. She pulled another one out of her hair and threw it on the ground, squashing it with the heel of her bare foot.

Raymond sighed. “I hate mornings.”

She returned her attention to the blue screen flickering at the edge of her vision. She read it, frowning slightly.

“The Fighter… class? What’s a class?” she muttered.

She didn’t really know what the blue screen was offering her, but if it was a reward for those other three tasks, it couldn’t be too bad, right?

She tried to touch the ‘Yes’ option but her hand passed through the screen. She then tried to mentally give permission and the blue screen was replaced by several new ones.

You are now a Level 1 Fighter!

Fighter Skill - Power Strike has been unlocked!

Power Strike is now level 1!

Class unlocked - Racial Pathways have now been unlocked!

For meeting 1/1 requirements, you have unlocked a unique racial pathway!

Path of the True Vampire Lord

-Requirement: Drink the blood of an individual over 30x your own level.

Would you like to take the Path of the True Vampire Lord? Y/N

Raymond paused for a moment. Someone 30x her own level? The only blood she’d drunken was that of the dead humans on the mountain. They must have been pretty strong then. She selected ‘Yes’. She already had three unique traits and they were awesome. A unique pathway was bound to be good too, right?

Welcome to the Path of the True Vampire Lord!

You are now a

A true Lord is respected. Spread your name and power throughout the night by drinking the blood of one hundred entities of a higher level than yourself.

4/100 until next tier.

True Vampire Racial Abilities unlocked:

Vampiric Bite, Vampiric Strength, Summon: Vampiric Familiar I

Level 15 Lesser Roc defeated!

Level Up!x4

You are now a Level 5 Fighter!

Fighter Skills: Rend and Devastate have been unlocked.

Fighter Passive Skill: A Fighter’s Strength has been unlocked!

Loot:

All items the Lesser Roc was carrying are now yours.

You have been awarded: Adventurer’s Bag of Holding (Soulbound)

A small bag appeared in front of her and Raymond carefully picked it up. She read through all the information on the screens carefully, taking note of her new abilities. Vampiric Strength and A Fighter’s Strength were both passive and increased her base strength values by 4 and 2, respectively.

The rest were all attacks with needlessly vague descriptions like Power Strike’s ‘Your next strike will hit extra hard!’.

That is, except for Summon: Vampiric Familiar I.

Summon: Vampiric Familiar I

A True Vampire Lord has a will of steel that inspires even the lesser creatures to serve. Upon initial activation, this skill will materialize and bind a chosen creature to your soul.

You may have: (1) soulbound familiar.

Available Contracts: Bat, Rat, Cat, Spider, Raven, Wolf, Mimic

The ability was interesting to Raymond, but she figured she’d better wait to use it until she learned more about the listed creatures. She willed the blue screens to disappear and then stretched, groaning as the muscles in her back unknotted.

She didn’t really feel any different after unlocking all the abilities and such...

She walked over to the edge of the tree, looking up at the huge nest resting far above her. She drew her fist back and then drilled it into the tree. The skin on her knuckles split and she felt a sharp pain but she ignored it. The tree, on the other hand, had a small crack in its bark. A few minutes later, her hand finished healing and was back to normal. She drew her arm back for another strike.

“Power Strike!”

Her fist started to glow with a purple aura tinged with little streaks of red light. She took a step forward, pushing all of her bodies momentum into the strike as she hit the tree where it was cracked.

BOOOM!

Her arm exploded in pain as her wrist shattered. A hail of splinters covered Raymond as she stumbled away from the tree. Her eyes landed on the huge crater in the bark and she smiled while half grimacing in annoyance at her throbbing wrist.

Twenty minutes or so was all it took for her wrist to put itself back together. Raymond spent the time gathering information on her surroundings. From the brief glance she’d had from the top of the nest, she knew the walled city was to the north. Around her were several trees that were dozens of meters tall and devoid of leaves. Snow spotted the dull branches and could be seen in small piles here and there along with the occasional patch of ice.

With her surroundings secure for the moment, she turned her attention to the Adventurer’s Bag of Holding. It was the same bag she’d taken from the dead bow user. Presumably, the Lesser Roc had eaten it or something because it was carrying the bag when it died. The bag looked no worse for wear.

She opened the bag and looked inside, but was puzzled to see only a dark void.

She turned the bag upside down and shook it, but nothing came out.

Then she grabbed a nearby rock and put it in the void and it disappeared. Then a blue window appeared.

Dull Rock has been added to your inventory!

Raymond stared at the window for a moment. Inventory…?

She willed her ‘inventory’ to appear.

Evelyn Raymond’s Inventory:

Magic Rope x2

Adventurer’s Rations x12

Small Black Cloak x1

Cooking Knife x1

Suzy’s Underwear

Dull Rock x1

Steel Arrows x2000

Raymond hesitated only for a brief moment before pulling out the underwear and the cloak and putting them on. She didn’t know who ‘Suzy’ was but she felt very exposed and wanted to cover herself up if she could.

The underwear was a little bit loose, but it didn’t fall off. The cloak was the more important part. It was called a ‘small black cloak’ but because of her extra small frame, it fit her perfectly. It had a hood that she pulled up to cover most of her head. She wrapped the rest of the cloak around her figure to cover herself up completely.

She grinned widely. Though she’d had a rough start, she couldn’t help but feel like things were starting to go her way. She started whistling to herself as she dismissed the inventory window.

*ring, ring* *ring, ring*

Raymond’s grin grew even wider as she opened the mental connection.

“How’s my little girl doing? My friend Auto here says you got a class and some new skills. Anything good?”

“I got the Fighter class and the True Vampire Lord racial pathway.”

“Huh… gimme a sec. Hey Auto! Are those any good?”

A moment of silence.

“Are you serious?! That’s awesome!... Yo, Raymond. You’re going to be the most badass True Vampire on the planet!”

Raymond laughed delightedly at the enthusiastic tone.

“Interesting that you chose Fighter though. I was thinking along the lines of an immortal healer cause everybody always focuses the healer… but I guess an immortal warrior is cool too… maybe you could become a tank!”

Raymond had no idea what the voice was rambling about, but she liked the enthusiasm. Her own mood, which had only been going up since she awoke, soared even higher as she felt his happiness bleed into hers.

“So what do we do now?” she wondered.

“Remember my request from before the bird got you… about going to the human city?”

“Yeah?”

“I still need you to register me at the Temple there. I can’t grow in power until you do.”

“Sounds good!”

“Since it’s been over a week since I last granted you knowledge, I have enough power for a single lesser miracle. I’ll do my best to use it to help you out. Get me more power and I’ll do even more for you in the future.”

Over a week… did that mean she’d been asleep for multiple days again?

“Got it!” Raymond replied.

When the voice had first asked her, she’d been going along with it because she didn’t really know what else to do. This time, however, she genuinely wanted to help the Overseer out. His ‘advice’ had helped her out significantly in the Lesser Roc’s nest. She had only known him for a short time, but just knowing he was cheering her on and trying to help her made her feel warm inside.

She closed the connection and started moving north, towards the human city. She didn’t know what was waiting for her there but she felt confident. She wasn’t quite sure why, but she had this feeling that nothing in the world could stop her.

She whistled on autopilot, an unfamiliar tune filling the air as she skipped down the mountain, blissfully ignorant of her surroundings.

Which might have been why she didn’t see the humans until she was surrounded.

A man with a sword and shield stepped out onto the path in front of her. Raymond skid to a stop a few meters away from him. She sensed movement from the side and heard rustling in one of the bushes lining the path as a white-robed young girl stepped out, an angry sneer on her face.

Raymond startled in recognition. She looked behind her and saw the dagger user in a new set of leather armor. Beside him was the bow user.

They were the same four humans who she’d found dead when she woke up. The same four that she had drained of blood. The ones who were over 30x her original level.

“Looks like we found a little puppy lost in the woods.” the swordsman said nonchalantly.

Raymond met his gaze, unflinching.

“See, we met a vamp a week ago on this mountain. Know anything about it?” the man continued.

Raymond shrugged. “I dunno.” she replied evenly.

The white-robed girl raised her hand and it started to glow with a white light. Raymond felt a tinge of unease. Her body filled with dread.

“The hell is that light?”

“You bitch! That’s Bill’s extra cloak. You obviously know where the vamp is.”

“Now, now Suzy. There’s no need to get so heated.”

Suzy… so that’s who the underwear belonged to. Raymond didn’t know why her underwear had been in the bowman Bill’s bag, but she filed the information away.

Suzy reluctantly lowered her hand as the swordsman took a few steps forward.

“Little girl, the vampire is dangerous. I don’t know why or how you got our stuff, but if you know where she is we need to put her down. She’s a danger to all of humanity.”

Raymond gave him a weak smile. “Sir, I don’t know where she is. I found this bag when I killed a Lesser Roc.”

The man blinked in surprise. “Uh.. a Roc, you say? How old are you again?”

Raymond just shook her head. “Not important.”

“Right” the man replied quickly, “Where are you going? If you can kill a Roc by yourself then you can obviously pull your own weight. Maybe we can help each other?”

“I’m headed for the city to the north.” Raymond replied.

“Cairel? I’ve never seen you around the guild there. Are you an adventurer from another city?”

Raymond shrugged, “Is that any of your business?”

The man held up his hands. “Fair enough.”

He took a few more steps forward, reaching out his hand. “My names Jonathan. I hope to see you around more.”

Raymond stared at his hand for a moment, perplexed. She saw his face fall slightly and quickly reached out to grasp it. His grip was firm as they shook hands. Raymond looked up and met his eyes.

What she saw there was shock. Now that he was closer, he could make out her eye color previously hidden by the cloak and he saw the characteristic red of a True Vampire in one eye and purple in the other.

The man released her hand and stepped backward, reaching for his sword.

“You almost had me.” Jonathan growled. He drew his sword and pointed it at her. “You vamps are real good at deception. I was almost convinced that you were a human until I saw that red eye.”

Raymond took a step back, unsettled by the sudden twist in the conversation.

“Thing is, you’re a pretty little thing. A little branding and I bet you’d fetch a good price.”

Raymond didn’t like where this was going. She didn’t know what branding was, but the man’s greedy expression and hostile tone told her that she really did not want to find out. She looked around for a way to escape, but she was still surrounded.

With an annoyed grumble, she prepared to fight. After her recent experiences, she wasn’t really afraid of ‘dying’, but she was still scared of the unknown.

And right now, there was an awful lot of unknown if she let them catch her.