Fay, Imyrll, and Walter watched Damien casually sit in his seat as if the battle going on outside was of no concern. Despite the soundproofing, the clang of swords, smashing of bones, and the screams of the dying soldiers outside caused them all to flinch.

Imyrll knuckles turned white from gripping the parchment of Luna Runes a little too tightly. She kept looking between the parchment and Damien. She was sure she could escape with her Spatial Magic, but would the Princess forgive her if she leaves behind a man who can read runes? Not only does he know Luna Runes, but he is a vital person for the world of magic as a whole.

The car rocked slightly as another full-plated elf was slammed into its side as he died to a zombie's swipe.

Damien seemed completely calm on the outside, with perfect posture, calm breathing, and undisturbed eyes. This however was all a farce, a fake facade due to his noble aura trait forcing him to act composed in all situations.

He was in fact rather terrified. He had fought zombies before and likely this exact necromancer in a previous playthrough. Furthermore, he knew how to win and planned to. Not only that, he was glad his body was showing no reaction, but his human soul was struggling with seeing so much death and the grotesque appearance of the zombies.

They had pale yellow skin that was cracked in places, allowing these little black bugs to enter the zombie's rotting flesh freely and scuttle around below the skin. Even the smell of the zombies had filled the car, it was the smell of rotting blue cheese along with manure. Flies surrounded the bodies in swarms, and Damien even saw a bird with purple feathers land on the shoulder of a zombie and rip its ear off before greedily swallowing it.

Damien was even suspicious that his [Germaphobe] was about to ascend with how badly it was acting up. He wanted to step outside and help the elves, he really did. But his body refused.

“It's filthy outside”

“Let the livestock die for you”

“Resting in here is much more relaxing than fighting, right? Just sleep”

The battle continued and eventually, enough elves had died that they broke formation. The car became surrounded and began shaking constantly from the zombie's assault.

Damien's expression became worse and worse. All his traits suddenly switched their opinions now that the battle had come so nearby.

“THE FILTHY THINGS ARE COMING, KILL THEM QUICKLY!!!”

“THEY DARE TO DISTURB OUR SLEEP?”

“HOW CAN WE CONCENTRATE WITH ALL THIS SHAKING?”

Damien just let out a deep sigh, ‘I’m going to become schizophrenic at this rate. I really need to get more control over this body…’

For the first time since this entire battle started Damien spoke “Imyrrl.”

The girl whipped her head around and answered “Yes Master?”

Walter gave her an odd look, ‘why is she calling him master?’

“Sigh… don’t call me master in front of others, now I have to kill this guy.”

“Oh sorry…” Imyrll responded, her eyes turning from red back to green.

Walter’s face paled, “No Sir Damien I heard nothing…”

Ignoring Walter's protest, Damien continued, “Imyrll, would the Princess gift me this car if I defeated the zombies, saved the Captain, and maybe even some of the elves?”

Imyrll thought deeply for a moment, “The Captain is her cousin so it's likely she would gift you handsomely, but the car is quite a tall ask…”

Damien sighed again “How unfortunate, guess there's no use for you then Walter.” he said with a sad look.

The poor water mage shuddered in his seat, “Please reconsider Imyrll…” Walter pleaded.

Imyrlls face suddenly brightened up “Actually Sir Damien, if you were to both save this situation and agree to tutor the Princess in magic I am sure she would gift you the car.”

Damien nodded in agreement. He was planning to save both the situation and tutor the Princess to gain her favour anyway, so to get a car out of the deal was just the cherry on the top.

“Alright, it's a deal, lean over here Imyrll.” The girl leaned over and Damien sunk his fangs into her tender neck. Walter was shaking like a leaf but said nothing.

After a minute, Damien extracted his Fangs and let out a satisfied sigh. Imyrll fell back into her chair gasping for air and promptly fainted.

Damien then glanced at Fay and she had already moved her jet black hair out of the way, behind her ear, her sky blue eyes watched him and she wore a smile and she traced her neck with her slender fingers.

“Saving me for desert master?” She asked and Damien just chuckled, embraced her in a hug, and sunk his teeth in once again.

She lasted far longer than Imyrll but eventually fell limp in Damien's embrace. He carefully extracted his fangs and laid her down on the car's back seat.

The car’s shaking had become extreme, and he could hear them climbing on the roof as well.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Damien put on a grin and opened the car door with force. He emerged and surveyed the surroundings. There were nine elves surrounding him. Damien counted eight males, including the short Captain, and one particularly beaten up female elf left standing.

The zombies groaning, and foul stench filled the air, causing Damien to almost gag, but considering he was about to engage in combat with the things he managed to control himself.

Damien had been waiting in the car for a good reason. Although his traits also agreed with his decision at the time, he waited for a more important reason. Although the elves feel like all their fighting has been pointless, that's a lie.

Making the zombies rise once again after being defeated requires mana from the necromancer hiding nearby. It's a human instinct to protect oneself, so the necromancer will always raise the zombies that are nearby first.

Damien noticed that the zombies to the south always raised faster compared to any others. Also, every time a zombie is raised it loses some vitality, it becomes easier to kill the next time and takes longer to stand back up.

The elves never noticed this because they were being exhausted at a similar, if not faster rate. Therefore, the zombies always felt to be at the same level of strength.

At the start, the elves needed to use skills to repel the zombies but thirty minutes later, just a single sword slash is enough to down the zombie.

Of course, Damien assumes he is the only one here that knows that. Damien turned to look at the south and with his enhanced vision from being a vampire he could see a slight shadow hiding behind a bare tree, luckily it's January and all the leaves have gone otherwise he could never spot someone so far away.

Damien pushed the Captain through the car's open door and slammed it shut. He was certain the zombies would start to focus on him, but he couldn't take any risks. The Captain’s survival was important to him receiving this car as a gift.

He looked around and was surprised that all the zombies seemed frozen with fear. The other knights look at me with confusion.

‘Since the knights are safe for a moment, I need to draw the necromancer's attention.’ Damien thought and walked towards the south.

The zombies seemed to break out of their trance and all started swarming towards him. Damien could see the black shadow in the distance begin to retreat. He upped his pace while trying to weave his way through the disgusting creatures.

Fight them? Hell no, just the idea of getting near the things disgusted Damien. Unfortunately, he was quickly surrounded and didn’t have a choice.

Pyrokinesis would work amazingly here, shame it would hurt himself more than the zombies. Damien glanced down at his dagger-like claws and made a terrible decision. Before his soul could even protest, he used Phantom Form on his claws and slashed them inside a zombie's head.

Phantom Form [E → D]

The claws passed harmlessly through the zombie's skin and bone, easily entering its brain. Damien then cancelled his skill and his claws rematerialized inside the zombie's head, causing it to explode from the sudden pressure.

Rotten skin, bone, and brain matter along with an extra serving of black maggots flew towards Damien.

In the game, when an enemy is defeated, it just vanishes and leaves behind an item drop and some experience points. But of course, this is no longer a game, enemies don’t just disappear without a trace.

Damien's soul had cried out before, sometimes even shouted at him. But never had he felt like this. His [Germaphobe] trait went into overdrive. The world seemed to slow down as immense pain entered his brain. Knowledge he never had before was forcefully interjected into his deepest consciousness, and his soul quickly made use of the information.

The chains that bound Damien's Psychokinesis to the C+ grade were melted away by the power of enlightenment.

Damien's only thought was, ‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’

He was in a dark realm within his own soul. Within the vast abyss, a page of golden words was written.

The world is but a mental construct, what you believe to be true is your own reality. You know this used to be an artificial world, but to the residents of this world, this is their reality, and now it is also yours.

If you believe it should be so, then let it be so.

[Damien Nightshade]

[Noble Vampire]

Schools Of Magic:

[Psychic Magic (C+) → (B)]

Psychokinesis [C+ → B]

Levitation [F] (New) - The ability to float or fly by mystical means.

Clairvoyance [F] (New) - The ability to see things and events that are happening far away, and locate objects, places, people, using a 'sixth sense'.

Automatic Writing [F]

Telepathy [E]

Pyrokinesis [E]

[Spatial Magic (D+)]

Phantom Form [E → D]

[Blood Magic (D)]

Blood Contract [F]

===

Mana Control [C]

The black realm of Damien's soul slowly faded away, and the world returned to normal. With his Psychic school of magic upgrading to B grade, he unlocked Levitation, but before Damien could try and fly, he needed to deal with this wave of incoming rotten flesh and maggots.

The enlightenment made him realize he needed to utilize Psychokinesis for defense, instead of only projecting control over objects. Why not have control over his entire surroundings? He quickly spread his control out in a 360-degree circle of about one meter. Within this domain, he could affect anything with Psychokinesis. It was incredibly taxing on his mind to maintain his control over such a large area, instead of just on a few objects at a time.

The shower of zombie bits rained upon him, but they all paused around a meter from his body, locked in place by his domain. He then drained some mana to throw the zombie bits back at the oncoming horde of undead.

Finally, Damien's soul relaxed, he could almost feel his [Germaphobe] trait clapping in delight at the new level of protection. Enlightenment comes differently to all mages and results in varying usage of abilities. Damien was sure he was the only Psychic mage to gain enlightenment from the fear of germs touching him.

Damien grinned and willed mana into his Levitation skill. The zombies tried to claw their way through his domain but it held strong, although every swipe took a small amount of mana to repel, so Damien had no wish to stick around.

As the Levitation skill greedily sucked up both his mana, mental power, and stamina, he slowly rose into the air.

Levitation [F → E → D]

Damien couldn't hold back his excitement, it took him hours to raise his Phantom Form to E grade, but just a single swipe at a zombie had raised it to D rank. He was worried his Levitation skill wouldn't be usable, but sure enough, using it to escape a life or death situation caused it to level up incredibly quickly.

Well not really a life or death situation, none of these zombies have silver weapons, so he could probably sleep in the middle of the horde and wake up tomorrow with no injuries. His favorite red wine suit wouldn't survive the night though…

‘I will come back and kill this horde after dealing with the necromancer, too much free experience for my spells.’ Damien thought while ascending through the air.

Damien stood calmly in the sky, hands behind his back, and gazed down upon the world. From this vantage point, he could see the necromancer around a hundred meters away trying to flee to the south.

“Why run, little lamb?” Damien grinned. Vampires always did enjoy a good hunt.