∼ Day 54 ∼

‹ Xavier ›

With the swish of my hand, the flames that engulfed my body were blown away in one swell swoop. Standing completely unmoved, body unscathed of even a single burn mark, was I. My comment before the sudden attack hadn't been directed towards Adran's pitiful attempt to burrow his sword in my chest, but rather the petite Ireli who had been attempting to discreetly conjure a spell.

Trying to hide the use of magic in my presence was comical as a magical monster of the 4th-tier. My attunement with the ambient magic was extremely sensitive, and humans who drew upon it were so obvious that she was literally a bonfire in the dark to my senses as she forced the magic into being. That said, their attempt to trick and lower my guard failed spectacularly.

Breaking through my physical defenses was one thing, but overcoming my magical resistances was a whole other matter altogether. Mages or generally creatures more prone to magic seemed to usually all share the same focus in the magic power attribute. This coincidently also raised their innate resistance to magical damage with the resistances, so what happens when you have a mage monster that specializes in defense?

You get a fuck-ton of resistance.

Below my level of power, I would practically have immunity to any and all elementary magic. So if any magical creatures or opportunistic human mages tried to best me with unexpected magic, then they would be in for a rude awakening as the four mercenaries here had all just been subjected to.

Gawking with googly eyes that slowly turned into the despair of realization, the four humans were at loss at what to do next. Their plan of attack had completely failed, and they now knew just how out of their league they were.

I had not exactly wanted it to come to this, however, I wasn't that amenable. My original intention was just to get information from these humans while also wanting to take a different approach than simply killing or slaughtering, but I truly didn't care for their lives and if my first approach proved too inefficient I would just have to take the alternative. But after having been fed and clothed while also having the lovely company of Elora, I hadn't forgotten the small kindness she had shown towards me.

I was a killer who would end lives indiscriminately for my own gain, however, I wasn't somebody without their own set of morals or beliefs. Not living by the morals imposed by society anymore, I lived like I truly wanted. Kindness and goodwill went a long way for my impression of others and similarly would hostility and malice determine how I treat others.

Although I didn't bear any good intentions towards Adran, Elora had been very good to me, so I had simply intended to leave these humans alone to live their lives after learning human mercenaries and adventurers were in an abundance in this area. But it wasn't that simple to win over my favor and magnanimity. For me, it was just a small gesture towards Elora to spare her friends' lives, but now that we've reached this point, I was all out of patience.

Before Adran could recollect himself, I disappeared from sight with the use of Blink.

"NO!" - Adran

He screamed, the terror of realization in his voice.

But when Adran turned around, he could only sound out his protest in horror. He was already too late as Ireli's decapitated head fell to the ground with a tumble, causing her golden locks to be smeared in blood and mud.

[Human has taken 196 damage, a critical hit!]

[LVL: 38 - Human "Ireli" has been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 402 points of EXP]

Upon seeing his sweetheart's death, he fell into a maddening despondence and charged recklessly at me; completely abandoning all sense of caution. Right behind him was a solemn-faced Oren, and true to Elora's words, he seemed to not turn tail and actually accompany his leader in this futile last struggle.

Simultaneously, Oren and Adran launched their desperate attacks towards me. But before even Adran's sword hit me, his sword suddenly flung to the side, and his arm with it. While Adran was now missing an arm and screaming, Oren was listlessly staring into the sky with multiple blood spikes and holes in his chest, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.

Having dealt with the last threats, I was going to end Adran right then and there to put him out of his misery. However, in the corner of my periphery, I saw Elora's approaching form. She wore a forlorn expression, trying to keep tears in and stopping the slight tremble of her body. Ignoring my still form as I observed her, she kneeled beside Adran and slowly stroked the screaming man's hair in order to calm him down.

But all of a sudden, she drew a dagger from her belt and stabbed it under Adran's jaw, instantly killing him. Seeing his life escape his eyes, a single tear escaped and rolled down Elora's cheek. I didn't interfere, allowing her to collect herself.

"I-I'm sorry Adran, but I held my promise." - Elora

She whispered to the now dead man, her action of ending his life obviously having some other meaning that must've gone way back in their history together or as mercenaries; I wasn't sure, but not that it mattered to me. Wiping the runaway tear from her face with the cloth of her bracer, she locked gazes with me; determination and resolve obvious in her eyes.

But before she could speak the words I knew she was going to, I stopped her.

"Elora, you don't have to die today. I can take you back with me to the place I call home, but that would mean forsaking your country being under my influence... I would do this only for you because of the kindness you have shown me, however, it's your choice." - Me

With the shake of her head, she simply presented me with the dagger she had used to put Adran out of his misery.

"I'm sorry, but I won't be able to take you up on that offer. Under other circumstance, I would've loved to b-but..." - Elora

I nodded, not pressing her further as she obviously had her reasons. Looking intently at me, a slight amount of fear did finally manage to slip into her gaze.

"Just... don't make it hurt..." - Elora

I respected her choice, so I closed the distance between us. Foregoing taking the dagger, I went around to her back and with a slender finger removed the loose hair that ran down her shoulder and covered her neck. Embracing her lithe body from behind, I bit into her neck that actually induced a small groan that turned into a moan from Elora.

My newly gained instincts from becoming a Strigoi told me that this very vampire-ish gesture actually didn't exhibit pain from the recipient but rather caused intense bliss. The process was quick and seamless, and I soon felt her body turn cold and she died in my embrace.

[LVL: 45 - Human "Elora" has been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 785 points of EXP]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Human!]

[422 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Skill - Greater Puncture has reached LVL: 10]

[You've received 2 skill points for reaching max level with Greater Puncture]

Laying her body gently on the ground, I scanned the now silent surroundings. The blood puppets I had conjured had already killed off most of the remaining humans, taking two captives while only sustaining minimal damage. Looking at the many corpses, I just sighed.

Just because that fucking orc recognized my presence imprint. Although I had grown a lot stronger and my physical appearance has changed drastically, my aura imprint had remained unchanged even though my aura itself has.

This simply proved how much I really needed to find a way that could either disguise or hide my imprint from the scrutiny of others. This orc must've been someone with extensive knowledge on presences and auras while also having watched me fight in the Arena since she was able to realize my true identity.

I had wanted to shut up the orc called Merilyn by simply suffocating and snapping her neck by forcibly overcoming her natural magical resistance, but that Ireli girl had apparently picked up on my mana fluctuations. While the power gap between me and that orc was immense, pulling off such a feat on a living being was no easy matter which cost me a great amount of mana and mental strain.

This essentially meant I couldn't hide my use of magic that well and meant that the only other magic attuned person here picked up on it; that damned Ireli girl. But I could only glumly sigh at the situation as there was nothing to do about it now.

Calling back the blood orbs, I began conjuring forth the blood smattering the surroundings and the blood that had been used to construct the blood puppets, slowly absorbing it all.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of 4 different creatures 35 times!]

[14874 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 2]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 2]

Although I was somewhat surprised at the massive amount of EXP that was required for me to just reach level 2 in this new evolution, it hadn't been wholly unexpected. It was rather depressing to guess just how much EXP it would take for the later levels when you took it into consideration with this prompt, but since there was nothing I could do about it I just moved on.

Watching the blood orbs start to lose their solid states and liquify to enter my body once again, I finally smiled. The success of my magical experiments had proven extremely successful.

Ever since I had gotten hold of those magical books and texts from the Mistress, I had every now and then been going over the new information and unknown runes depicted in them. I hadn't really looked into the book about corruption and mental magic, but rather have my attention directed towards golemancy and summoning magic.

These were the ones that had intrigued me the most, however, I quickly found out some things that gave me pause. Golemancy was of course the magic of creating magical constructs, but the problem was that it wasn't really all that useful for me.

This was due to the fact that golemancy required you to create a core from a precious material and find other compatible materials that the core could use and control; thus creating a golem. But I couldn't really be going around with such constructs anywhere I wanted, making them mostly only suitable for defending certain places whenever I wasn't there.

As for summoning magic, it was rather similar, however, it proved to lean more towards what I was looking for. Summoning magic required you have a vessel, like golemancy and its cores. This could be anything like a crystal or precious material. But from the book, it was recommended that you used valuable crystals seeing as they usually had the most affinity with magic.

But you needed to use these vessels to trap the spirit or souls of other creatures. By doing this, you could permanently bind the spirits to the vessel and at any time conjure it to do your bidding as spectral familiars and summons. While there were a lot more restrictions and complicated intricacies involved in this intriguing magic, that was the general gist.

But these two types of magic didn't really fit my style or abilities so I was a bit at a loss. But not wanting to give up on some cool-ass magic, I persisted. With some slight mental tinkering, I suddenly came up with a solution that my peculiar situation of wielding all sorts of skills, traits, and abilities.

By combining some of the new runes from both golemancy and summoning magic I've learned, I managed to create a hybrid between the two magics. The result; my blood puppets.

There was a lot more dive down into, and I wanted to go over what I've learned once again, but for now I just wanted to get home. So postponing any more magical theory, I got to finish what I had started here. Dominating the human mercenary captives, I questioned and query them about various topics until I was satisfied.

After looting the mercenary's camp and the Ebongrave caravan with the use of my [Ring of Holding], I conjured my shadow wings and took to the air.

***

With the twin suns returning the call upon another morning, I saw in the distance something that left me shocked.

"I'm pretty sure the tribe wasn't 'that' big when I left it..." - Me

I muttered to myself absentmindedly. But before I could even scan the new developments further, I, with my supernatural senses, spotted an extremely teary-eyed drow girl at the entrance to the tribe.

I was finally home.