Here's chapter 10. I'm sorry that it took so long, but I've been a bit busy lately, so it took a while. But here it is.

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Betrayal

We were traveling in the wilderness, on our Night Wolves, making sure not to stray too far away from the road, so that we wouldn’t get lost. We would run up hills, venture into forests and traverse mountains, testing the traveling abilities of Iluvatar and Bane, our two Night Wolves. A few hundred kilometres away from the city, a few kilometres from the road, we came upon a place with a dangerous feeling aura. This aura seemed to come from a cave. Outside this cave there were 8 people. They seemed like adventurers, should be relatively strong. They were fully armed, some with swords and daggers, others with bows and crossbows, and then there was one that was in robes, holding a staff. He was a mage, no doubt about it.

These adventurers caught our interest. We stopped a distance away, making sure that they didn’t see us. The group of eight entered the cave. I decided to follow them in. I wouldn’t kill them or anything, I just wanted to see what there was in there. But if there happened to be some amazing treasure, then I wouldn’t hesitate to kill them and take the treasure.

I told the Night Wolves to wait for us outside, then we carefully followed the adventurers. All three of us were good in darkness magic, so we used it to hide in the shadows. One of good points of vampirism is that you become extra good at darkness and ice magic, but you get a weakness to fire. You can still learn fire magic though, it’s just that you take more damage from fire. Of course your own magic won’t hurt you, except if you use some dangerous unstable spells.

Shrouded in shadows, we followed. We didn’t meet a single living thing in the cave. It was empty. Or so I thought. After venturing deeper into the cave, we eventually came to a door. It was a very big door, it looked very menacing.

“We’re here. The tomb of Palazar.” A beautiful female, armed with a longsword and light armour, said. She had long blond hair, and her ears were slightly long and sharp. She must be an elf, or a half elf, I thought.

“Just as rumoured. I can’t wait to see what treasures there are in here. But remember, Palazar was a feared necromancer, and placed a curse on his tomb making it a dungeon. It will always be filled with monsters until the dungeon heart is destroyed. The deeper we venture, the stronger they get. Be careful.” A big man with a huge sword said. His body was fully covered in plate armour. He looked like a tank.

“Don’t worry, we know. Just how often do you think we’ve discussed this? We know already.” A shorter, thinner man said. He had a slightly menacing look on him. On his waist he had two daggers, on his back a small crossbow that could be held in one hand.

The group opened the door and walked in. They didn’t close it behind them, which made it a lot simpler for us to follow them. We quickly followed them in, as if we were their shadow. Inside the environment was a lot different. There were tiled floors and brick walls, as if we were in a castle or fort. We had entered a corridor. It was still empty for life, you could say. Because what we met as soon as we entered was a skeleton. A single, unarmed, skeleton. It just stood there, waiting. The big man with the plate armour walked up to it, then using the flat of his sword, he crushed it.

Our two groups quickly continued. At the end of the corridor there was another door. The adventurers entered through the door. We came into another corridor, but this one was bigger, and had many turns. There were also more skeletons in here, but these skeletons weren’t unarmed. They had swords, axes and maces. But they were still made short work of in front of these adventurers. They were really quite strong. They seemed to be at the C rank, the same as us. But of course there was a difference in strength still. We were stronger, I was confident on this. But it would still be quite a fight, since they both outnumbered us, and were more skilled and experienced than Amelia and I. Kato was quite experienced though.

We kept following them. Every time a skeleton would appear, they would easily get rid of it. Every time we got to the end of the corridor, we would be met with another door. On the other side of the door there would be a staircase. Down the stairs, we arrived in another corridor. In every corridor the skeletons would get stronger and stronger, until we came to the fifth corridor, where our adventurers had to spend quite a bit of effort to kill the skeletons. This wasn’t just because the skeletons strength increased. It was also the numbers. In the beginning they would meet a few lone stragglers, but now they met groups that outnumbered them quite a bit.

After quite a few hardships, we finally arrived at another door. But this door was bigger. Not as big as at the entrance, but still quite a bit bigger than the other ones. We arrived in a bog circular room. At the other end of the room was a big doorway. In the door way there was a huge abomination. The abomination was fat, with a huge eye in its stomach. On its face there was a helmet with two huge horns on either side. One curved upwards, while the other curved down. On its shoulders it had spiked shoulder guards. On its forearms there were some curved guards. It didn’t have anything guarding its legs, except its natural spikes made from bones. But the most dangerous looking part was its claws. They were huge! Even bigger than the body of an adult man, and they were made of steel!

But the adventurers didn’t falter. Even I was a bit scared from this, so these adventures had probably seen monsters like this one before. The menacing looking one with the daggers stepped forwards.

“Alright, let’s do as we planned. Liria, Aylard, you two distract it while we get behind it and deal it some critical blow!” He yelled. Then that half elf blondie with the longsword, and big plated guy stepped forwards.

The menacing rogue looked at everyone else and nodded with a scary smile on his face. They ran to the sides getting behind the monster, while the other two distracted it. Only a moment after they were behind the monster, but they didn’t stop, they kept running towards the exit. The rogue looked behind him.

“Hahahaha, you were too trusting! You just die here while we continue deeper into the dungeon for the treasures!” He yelled, as he ran out.

Liria and Aylard had shocked looked on their faces, Liria even started tearing. But they couldn’t get distracted, or they’d die.

I looked towards Amelia and Kato.

“Let’s help them. They seem very skilled and I need someone to teach me swordsmanship anyways. We’ll all fire a spell at the monster, aiming for its eyes, then I’ll rush in and grab them. Afterwards we’ll leave immediately, I don’t want to fight that thing. It seems very strong. ” I said. All three of us fired our spells at it. Amelia and I fired ice bolts at its eyes, while Kato used on of his most powerful blinding spells. There was a mechanism that would close the door, when everyone was inside. The adventurers hadn’t noticed that the door wasn’t closing because we weren’t inside, but now that we were it was slowly closing. I of course noticed this, so I rushed to them.

“I’m here to rescue you, don’t worry!” I said as I grabbed them. They weren’t prepared so I easily grabbed them and rushed towards the closing door. Amelia and Kato were already outside again. I was going as quickly as I could and just a second after I got out the door closed. I let go of the two adventurers.

“Thanks for rescuing us, but who are you? Since when have you been here?” The big man asked, a bit suspicious.

“I’m Isaac. We’ve been following you since you entered this place. We saw you outside and got interested, so we decided to follow you.” I said

“You followed us? But we didn’t notice you even once and we’ve been here almost an entire day!” The big man said in disbelief, as the woman stood beside him in shock

“And since you were following us you must have been harbouring ill intensions, so why did you rescue us?” He asked again.

“We weren’t harbouring any ‘ill intentions’. We just followed to see what was down here. Of course, I won’t lie, if you had found some amazing treasure I would have killed you all. But I rescued you because I could use you. One question though. Why did they betray you? Won’t they have to meet that thing again on the way up?” I said.

“They have some talismans that can transport them up to the ground again. And you could use us? For what? Joining your mercenary group or something?” He asked.

“Talismans huh. I have an offer for you. With this offer you will have the chance to get revenge. What do you say?” I asked nonchalantly.

“An offer? What kind of offer? Is it really joining your mercenary group?” He asked curiously. The blondie also looked at me, interested.

“Well not exactly. Have you ever heard of vampires? You see we are vampires, and I want to give you two a chance to become vampires too. Do you accept?” I asked.

“Vampires? Don’t joke around, vampires don’t exist!” The big man said sceptically. I was slightly annoyed at his answer, so I grew out my teeth and showed them to him.

“Vampires are real. But I can’t blame you for not believing in them, after all it’s only been around three years since I became one. You see I am the first vampire. Now do you accept or not?” I asked, as I looked at both of them. This time the girl spoke.

“I accept. I’ll become a vampire. Will I have to drink blood and do I get immortal? What about the sun?” She asked.

“Good. And yes you have to drink blood, and you will also live forever. And the sun won’t kill you, but it isn’t nice either.” I answered. Then I looked at the big man, with a look in my eye that said, live or die?

“Fine, I’ll accept you offer.”

“Good.”

After this we spent a bit of time getting out again. When we got out again it was daytime. Liria and Aylard were shocked when they saw those wolves. They looked big and menacing. I told them that we tamed them, then they relaxed. We jumped unto the wolves and started looking for another cave. We managed to find one soon. Inside the cave I asked Kato to find and bring us six humans.

“Lilia, Aylard, was it? I’m going to turn you now. It will hurt a bit, but not too much. I’ll into your neck and drain you for blood. Then I will put some of my venom and blood into you. After this you will lose consciousness for an hour. By that time Kato will hopefully have come back. Are you ready?” I explained.

“Yes, I’m ready.” Lilia said with a stern look.

I walked up to her, then immediately bit into her. This woman would be my swordsmanship teacher, since she also used a single longsword. I almost completely drained her of blood, then let my venom flow into her. I made her as powerful as Amelia, Kato and the rest. She was already at the middle C rank, so now she would be at the late stage. After the two week period she might even make it to the peak stage. Then she would be the strongest one, under me.

Now it was Aylard’s turn. I quickly bit into him and drained him, then let the venom flow. I decided to make him strong as well. He was at the early stage, surprisingly weaker than Lilia. He would be stronger than Amelia soon, since he would be at the middle stage, then late after the maturing period. But this didn’t mean that Amelia was a weak vampire. They just had different starting points. With time they would be almost equal. Amelia would probably make it to B stage a bit before Aylard, since she had been a vampire longer. It would take Aylard a few years to get there. Lila would probably make it before either of them though, since she would already be at the peak. She might make it soon after me.

An hour passed, and they woke up. Kato still wasn’t back, so I decided to explain them their newfound powers, and also tell them that they would have to drain two innocent humans dry, killing them. Lilia didn’t like this very much, but she was an adventurer. She’d killed before. As for Aylard, he didn’t mind killing them much. Just the thought of drinking their blood. He was very similar to Kato in this regard.

Soon after, Kato returned. With him were six scared persons. I quickly grabbed one of them and drained him dry in a flash. Then I grabbed another one. They were both girls. I didn’t drink this one as quickly, enjoying the savour. After my show, Aylard stood up and grabbed one. Lilia also stood up and grabbed one, deciding not to fight the hunger. It had already been an hour since they woke up, so the hunger was starting to swell up. Soon there were six corpses on the floor. Amelia burned them, then we left. I had spent quite a bit of energy turning them, but this time I wouldn’t need to enter a coma, as my mana capacity had increased since I turned Bogat and Serana. Amelia and Lilia joined me on Iluvatar, while Aylard joined Kato on Bane.

We were traveling at a relaxing speed so that I could explain our situation to Lilia and Aylard. I told them about Bogat and Serana and the Coldblood Organization. I also told them about when I and Amelia became vampires. I told them to be careful when they feed and to never leave any evidence. I also told them about our bond, and how it worked. I also asked them about the adventurers that betrayed them.

It turned out that they had been traveling together for about a year or two. I immediately felt hate towards those cowards. Even though they weren’t part of my “family” then, they were now. Anyone who hurt my friends would die. I consider those that I turn my family. In the vampire world I intend to create, they would be like the royal family. They told me that they were all registered in the Mercenary Association, and that they often stayed in Fenlai City. This would be our link to them, so that we could find and kill them. Of course I wouldn’t just kill them. I would kidnap them and let Lilia and Aylard torture them as they see fit.

End of chapter 1.