Mira passed through the light gate anticipating her next adventure.

The first thing she saw were two bright red eyes staring into her own. A voice said something but she didn’t pay attention.

Her first reaction was to create some distance to understand what was going on but even though she had the thought, her body didn’t move. She remained rooted, staring at the bright red eyes that were staring back at her.

Her IP said ‘You have encountered met a Rank 12 Original Vampire. You have stared into the eyes of a Rank 12 Original Vampire. Your Mind has been disconnected from your body’.

On instinct, Mira activated High Mind and she felt her mind quickly connecting back to each part of her body. She heard a voice say “I mean no harm” It was the same voice she had heard at first.

Her mind fully connected to her body and the voice said again “I mean no harm” as she jumped back and created some distance. The bubble armor started foaming as Mira saved many instances of her skill in normal bubbles and balloon bubbles.

With the necessary distance made Mira made out a smiling man, 7 foot tall and lanky. He had pale white skin and bright red eyes. Her IP showed [Rank 12 Original Vampire] on top of his head.

The man’s smile widened and he said “You’re quite good. Not many people can break away from my control”. Mira said “It’s quite rude of you to attack me all of a sudden like that”. She could sense that there was no mischievous intent behind his words and actions but she also sensed that he was on guard against her.

The man replied “Apologies. So, do you just appear out of nowhere often? Is that a thing now?” Mira said “Yeah, it’s what I do now, it’s my thing”. The man nodded and said “Can it also be my thing?” Mira nodded and said “Of course but you have to pay for it. The person that makes spatial equipment trades devices for knowledge. Magic, Martial arts and Scientific knowledge”

The man nodded, stretched his hand for a hand shake and said “Deal. I have some of those” and Mira shook his hand. The man smiled and said “I’m Jake, you?” Mira answered “Mira”.

All of a sudden Mira noticed she was surrounded by 23 people with red eyes. Her IP denoted them as [Vampire] only one of them, a girl that looked to be about 15 was different she was denoted as a [Rank 12 Original Vampire].

Jake said “These are my friends” pointing to the Vampires “and this is my daughter, Charlotte” pointing to the teenage girl who was an Original Vampire.

Mira thought ‘How didn’t I realize these people were here before? Crazy, to think there are other evolution options that aren’t necessarily human. This is amazing’. Mira’s eyes sparkled with admiration as she looked at the group.

Jake interrupted her by saying “We have to go, I can bring you to a settlement. With the new event happening the monsters are going crazy. If you don’t mind you can follow us”

Mira nodded and noticed the Ranks of the other Vampires, 14 of them were Rank 5 while 8 of them were Rank 4. Mira noticed ‘They’re the ones Jade saw with his Soul Map. That means Jake and Charlotte are Nobles and have the Fake Soul privilege and since they’re above Jade in Rank he could not see through them... I need to get strong enough to handle my own business; Jade isn’t without his failings’

Mira said “Ok, let’s go” and the group began to sprint. The first anomaly Mira noticed was that they were in a monster horde. To be more precise they were in between a battle between two hordes.

One horde had monsters that were horse sized lizards made of a weird gelatinous material which the IP denoted as [Rank 4 Poison Salamander] [Rank 5 Toxic Salamander] [Rank 6 Plague Salamander] and so on. The other horde came from the sky with most of its members raining down on the Salamanders, these monsters looked like sting rays made of different types of flesh, they flew and shot multicolored beams from their tails the IP denoted them as [Rank 4 Flash Ray] [Rank 5 Laser Ray] [Rank 6 Beam Ray] and so on.

The moment they started running was when the din of the battle became audible. Mira wondered how such a thing was possible.

The group ran with Jake in front and Charlotte at the back while the others ran in between them. The monster spawns didn’t seem to be able to sense them and they also unconsciously avoided the group.

The group’s escape path was blocked by a large snake, 30 feet long, with thick grey-black scales, blue horns and a mouth full of sharp green teeth. Mira’s IP denoted it as a [Rank 11 Decay Basilisk]. Mira heard Jake’s whisper as if he was beside her; he said “Don’t look at its eyes”. The Decay Basilisk was surrounded by other snake like monsters that were made of a mishmash of various poisonous substances.

The group stopped while Jake keep running toward the Decay Basilisk. A black aura covered Jake’s left arm, the aura was so dark that it absorbed the light around and made the dark morning even darker.

Columns of aura of all the colors of aura apart from black, even white stretched out from Jake’s shoulders and covered his arm. The colors mixed and spun together with the black aura on Jake’s arm. As the aura colors spun together as they compressed and formed a ball in Jake’s palm.

The ball of aura morphed and formed a rapier that seemed to be made of black aura. As if time had stopped for the creation of the rapier and it just started moving again, the Decay Basilisk spewed out a green smoke from its mouth. The smoke seemed to have life, it didn’t disperse, it focused on Jake.

Jake struck the approaching cloud of smoke with his rapier and it absorbed the smoke like a black hole. The other Basilisks lounged at Jake, their mouth wide open for a bite. Jake thrust the rapier toward the Basilisk and its head exploded with blood and red aura.

The lounging Basilisks and the Salamanders, that still hadn’t noticed the group, ran away in every direction. The rays in the air paused for a while before continuing their assault on the escaping spawns. Jake had a look of understanding when he saw that the spawns didn’t die even though their parent monster was dead. The lower Ranked monsters kept avoiding the group while the higher Ranked monsters didn’t want to fight Jake.