After cal killed the first vampire he decided to continue hunting them for the rest of that day. Every one of them was just as easy to kill as the first one had been and he ended up killing around 30 of them in just that first day. There was still the problem of him not getting any experience but since there was nothing he could do to fix it cal decided not to worry about it. After cal had killed the last vampire on the first day he decided to head back to his cabin. He was able to get back to his cabin without running into a single vampire and after he got home he quickly fell asleep.

The next day Cal went out to hunt more vampires but as soon as he spotted his first vampire he was faced with a problem. The vampires were in a group of three, two of them looked like the ones he had fought yesterday but the third one was slightly taller and held a wooden staff. The staff wasn’t particularly fancy and other than that the only difference was an old raggedy black cape.

After observing them for a little bit Cal decided that he had to take the risk and moved to attack them. After seeing Cal approach the two normal vampires almost instantly charged and the vampire with the staff started chanting something. Cal easily defeated the two normal vampires but as soon as he turned to the third one an odd orb was launched out of the tip of its staff. At first, Cal was scared that the spell might hit him but it moved slow enough that cal was just barely able to dodge it. he then killed the mage who didn’t have any combat weapons and was helpless to Cal's attacks.

The rest of that day Cal only encountered the vampires in those groups of three and he defeated all of the groups in a similar manner. (quickly cutting down the normal vampires then dodging the mage’s attack and finishing him off too). However, there was eventually a change in the routine. the last group Cal encountered was different, instead of having two normal vampires it just had one.

This time When Cal charged in to attack he was able to cut down the lone normal vampire long before the mage was finished chanting. After a moment of hesitation, Cal ran in with his sword and slashed at the mage’s throat. Having his throat cut caused the mage to be unable to breathe let alone chant his spell.

The unfinished spell looked like a mass of mana at the tip of the mage’s staff. After the mage stopped chanting it quickly converted to pure mana and went back into the mage causing small burns along his head and neck. Cal had found the whole situation a little weird and in the end, decided that he would head home for the day.

Before the vampires had been in groups cal had always finished the fights by cutting off its head but now that he had more vampires to deal with he learned a few new things. The vampires had amazing regeneration and resilience and were difficult to kill, but they were still susceptible to blood loss and if you gave them a large enough cut they would eventually fall unconscious but not die. The only way to kill them that cal had discovered was still to completely sever its head and after each fight, cal would walk around and sever the vampire’s heads one by one.

The next day Cal once again went out hunting and once again found the group’s composition to be different. Each group now had three normal vampires, two mages, and one new type of vampire that Cal had not seen before. The new vampire wore armor and had a large sword held at parade rest with the tip in the ground. When he first saw it he couldn’t help but be reminded of a knight.

After observing the group Cal realized that there were more changes than just the new additions to the group. They were now on alert with the three normal vampires in a circle around the mages and knight. The normal vampires were scanning the area around them and the mages held their staffs at the ready. Cal realized that he probably couldn’t handle the new groups if they were watching out for him.

If he were to attack he would be quickly surrounded by the three normal vampires. He didn’t doubt that he could easily take handle them on his own but when you added mages to the mix the problem got harder to solve. By the time Cal would be able to have killed all of the normal vampires the mage’s spells would both be on their way and though it was possible to dodge them, Cal doubted his ability to simultaneously fight a normal vampire and dodge the spells.

Cal stared at the group for a while until suddenly an idea came to him. Cal took off his necklace and reached inside he then pulled out his bow and quiver. He had contemplated using his bow before but he had never felt like he needed it but now that he was faced with this new challenge he decided that it was the right time.

After Cal had his quiver tied to his belt he pulled out an arrow and took aim. At first, he was going to target the unknown, in the situation namely the knight, but Cal stopped himself and gave it some more thought. The knight may have seemed like the biggest threat but it was still a melee fighter and cal could hold his own in a melee fight. The ones who really posed a risk to Cal were the mages.

In the end, Cal decided to take down the mages first and quickly aimed and fired. Not watching his arrow’s path Cal quickly grabbed another arrow and aimed it at the other mage. before he loosed his second arrow the first arrow struck the first mage in the throat causing it to start clawing at its neck. Cal let out a small gasp as he realized how lucky he had just been. He hadn’t been aiming for the throat but it was a good thing that he had hit it. The vampires could only be killed by severing their heads and Cal had completely forgotten that crucial fact when he had fired his arrow.

As soon as the first mage had fallen the normal vampires had charged at him and the remaining mage had started chanting without taking any sort of cover. The knight vampire continued to stand there and cal worried about him but decided that his worries couldn’t stop the battle. He quickly fired his second arrow at the other mage and was able to hit its throat and cut off its spell this caused the same weird reaction as when he had cut off the other mage’s spell yesterday.

By now the normal vampires were almost upon him and Cal called for tana. As soon as the two groups collided the winner became apparent and cal laid waste to the group. After defeating them Cal looked over to where the mages were struggling to remove the arrows in their throats while the knight just stood there impassively. Cal walked down carefully and while he kept an eye on the knight he quickly removed the heads of the mages.

As soon as the second mage’s head was removed from its body the knight took action and charged at cal. Cal who wasn’t prepared for the sudden change was pushed off balance but quickly recovered. The knight seemed to be stronger and faster than the normal vampires but it was just as unskilled and Cal quickly took it down.

The rest of that day went the same as the previous ones with Cal only running into groups of five. After he finished hunting on the third-day Cal was exhausted. As he was stumbling into his clearing cal let out a massive yawn. While he was yawning he heard a slight rustle from behind him and acting on instinct dove into a roll.

When he popped back to his feet he turned to see a figure who was dressed like an assassin in tight-fitting black clothes with a head wrap holding her hair out of her eyes and a mask covering her mouth. The vampire seeing that it had lost the element of surprise charged forward and Cal quickly resummoned tana. The sparks that flew from the blade as it first summoned made the vampire wary giving Cal enough time to get into a stance.

Now that they were on equal footing Cal advanced on the assassin. As their blades clashed Cal could instantly tell that she was much more skilled than any of the vampires he had faced previously. As the fight went on Cal realized that this would still not be a difficult fight and he was quickly proven right, as Cal forced the assassin onto the defensive she started showing openings in her defense and Cal easily made use of one of those to disarm the vampire.

Now weaponless the vampire lunged at Cal who batted her down with the flat of his blade he was about to finish her off when she spoke. “You may have defeated me but the prince will end your life with ease.” Cal froze at her words. What she had said wasn’t what caused cal to stop but the fact that she was able to talk. Before now Cal had assumed that the vampires were like animals but hearing this one speak changed his perspective.

“Were all of the other vampires like you,” Cal asked in a quiet voice.

The vampire looked surprised for a second then smiled at him. “So you can speak our language that’s good to know and as to your question I’m assuming you were asking if they could talk.” Cal nodded at the question the assassin continued. “No, they were all unthinking brutes that were forcibly turned.”

Cal let out a sigh of relief then realized that he still had a problem. He had been worried that the vampires he had killed before had been sentient which to Cal's mind was the same as killing a human. It was good that the vampires he had killed before weren’t sentient but that still left cal with the problem of how to deal with the assassin.

Cal stood there considering his problem when he realized that there was only one solution. He raised his blade above his head and the assassin closed her eyes in a mixture of fear and resignation. Instead of slicing at her neck as he had done with all of the previous vampires, Cal slammed the pommel of his sword into the assassin’s temple and she lost consciousness. He then dragged her towards his cabin.

Once they had crossed the doorway a prompt appeared in Cal's vision that gave him pause.

[belinda of the umbra-vinis clan has entered a building that you own the curse of lights hatred has been activated she can not disobey any commands being directly given from you for the next 100 years]

after reading the message Cal sighed in relief. He could now keep her captive by just ordering her to stay in the cabin until he finished the trial.

cal sat there waiting for her to wake up. At one point he began to drowse off but before he could fall asleep he heard a groan from Belinda. The vampire rolled over on the floor clutching her head. Before she had time to come to her senses Cal quickly gave her an order. “Stay in this cabin and do not try to cause me harm in any way.”

upon hearing his words Belinda shot to her feet and glared at him. “What makes you think...” she stopped talking upon realizing where she was. She looked at the walls and open doorway. then realization hit her Belinda’s face went pale and she slowly sunk to the ground. “The lights hatred curse,” she asked in a quiet voice.

Cal nodded watching her warily. Belinda suddenly reached down and pulled a knife from a sheath hidden in her shoe. “Stop” Cal shouted before realizing that she wasn’t trying to attack him. She was poised with the knife a few inches from her throat being unable to force the knife even a hears breadth closer.

“Please” she begged dropping the knife as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I can’t betray that cursed prince of mine.”

Cal was confused by her words and asked. “Why would you obey the orders of someone you hate.”

Cal could see by her expression that it was a touchy subject but she started answering anyways. “As the prince of our clan, all the vampires born into the clan have to serve him for fifty years. Once those fifty years are up you can leave the clan but if you fail to listen to any of the prince’s orders you are required to serve him until the day one of you dies.” Belinda finished her quick explanation and was now just glaring at cal.

Meanwhile, Cal stood there speechless he hadn’t wanted this to happen but the only other option had been killing her. “I’m sorry” Cal started and Belinda just continued to glare at him “if it makes you feel any better I have to go kill the vampire prince anyways.”

Belinda looked at Cal for a moment then broke out in laughter “you go and kill the vampire prince you can’t be older than 12 and you want to go defeat a prince of the vampires.” she just continued laughing and Cal felt both embarrassed and annoyed at her.

Cal wanted to say something but Belinda was still laughing and making jokes at Cal's expense. Most of them went along the lines of so what are you gonna do ask him nicely to stop or oh no my prince must be worried when you go and cry to your momma. Cal's annoyance turned to concern as the vampire continued to laugh almost insanely and make even crazier and nonsensical comments about him.

Cal began to worry that him accidentally making her his servant caused her to go crazy but before he could try to do anything Belinda said something that she would have instantly regretted if she had been in her right mind. “Hahahahah if you can kill the prince I will serve you till the day you die hahahahahaha”

Belinda was still laughing and didn’t seem to realize what she had said but Cal certainly did as he got a prompt.

[belinda has given you a quest: kill the vampire prince: rewards: her eternal servitude]

Cal stared at the still laughing Belinda but no matter what he did she would not stop laughing and by now her insane laughter started to sound more like sobs.

Cal decided that it was useless to try to get her to do anything and quickly left the cabin. He began wandering around the woods while on the lookout for more vampires but he couldn’t find any. He eventually ended up staring into the depths of a cave. This is where he assumed the vampire prince was staying. He didn’t have any concrete proof about this but there was a lot of evidence pointing to this being the place. Not only were there more tracks left by the mouth of the cave than by any other part of the forest but it was also one of the few places in the forest that he hadn’t been to.

“If only I could see the quest progress,” Cal muttered to himself. He then looked around hopefully. The last time he had said something along those lines the exact thing he had been hoping for had appeared but this time it seemed like a lost cause.

cal had wanted to check and see how many vampires were left but he had decided that he would not go for the perfect clear if it would mean that he had to kill actual people. Cal debated heading back to the cabin to rest until tomorrow but with Belinda acting like a maniac in there he decided that he would be fine and prepared himself to enter.

With a sigh, Cal held out his hand and spoke the words to summon tana. “In manibus tana” the red and black sword appeared in his hand and Cal admired its beauty. He considered summoning iclyn but decided against it. Cal had never trained to dual-wield swords and thought that he didn’t want to go into such a dangerous situation while simultaneously trying to learn to use multiple weapons. As soon as he entered the cave a prompt appeared in front of him.

[your long time friend Arisu fay has been kidnapped by a group of vampires]

[possible ways to clear the trial]

[save your friend: easy clear]

[slay the vampire prince: hard clear]

[exterminate all the vampires (149/150): perfect clear]

[warning leaving the woods will constitute the end of the trial if one of the conditions has not been met you will fail]

[trial has been scaled to the unique entities calaeris windlab, kelaris, and calee-aris]

Cal recognized it as a nearly exact replica of the prompt he had received at the beginning of the trial. There were two differences the first was that the number of vampires he had defeated went up and now he knew for certain that the last vampire that he had to kill would be in the cave. The second difference was the scaling for the trial. It now said that it was made for him imparticular. The rescaling of the boss made cal worry a little but in the end, cal decided that it made little difference. he had decided that he was as prepared as he was going to get and waiting around wouldn’t do him any good.

After he took a few steps in lamps that were previously hidden by the darkness lit up with an eerie red light and led him down the tunnel. The tunnel stretched on for a couple of hundred yards and Cal was forced to walk through the eerily lit tunnel with the only sounds being his breathing and the echo of his footsteps. When Cal finally reached the end of the tunnel he was surprised by what he saw He was now in a spacious cavern. the walls were lined with the red lamps and hanging from the roof was a massive chandelier.

In the middle of the room was a throne and sitting on it was a vampire. Like most of the other vampires Cal had seen, he had black hair with white skin and fangs that reached out under his upper lip. This vampire had on a cloak that was red on the inside and black on the outside with a crown made of a mixture of gold and some weird black metal sitting on his head. Under the cloak he was wearing a pair of light leather armor that was dyed black and leaning against his throne was a sword with a lightly blue-tinted blade and a leather-bound handle.

The vampire cut an impressive figure but Cal wasn’t looking at him. Behind the vampire, there was a girl chained to the wall. She had long unkempt blue hair and Cal noticed gills in the side of her neck and a line of scales under her eyes. She was a merfolk. from where Cal stood he could see the small cuts and scabs that covered most of her body and this started to fill Cal with anger.

The man sitting on the throne started clapping his hands. “So you’ve made it here,” he said in a devilishly charming voice. “You have killed my entire clan to get here even Belinda, she was the sneaky one that I sent to you at night.” he stopped talking as he noticed that Cal wasn’t listening to him.

All of Cal’s attention was focused on the girl and the massive amount of anger that was growing in him. The vampire quickly picked up on where Cal's attention lay and he stood up and walked over to Arisu. He grabbed her face and forced her to look up at cal. “You see that my dear your little boyfriend is here to save you.”

Cal made eye contact with Arisu and her eyes widened at seeing him. She began to struggle but the vampire slapped her and then let go of her chin. “Well before you can try to save your friend here it is impolite not to introduce ourselves I am Tyranniel, prince of the umbra-nivis clan and you are.” for the first time Cal made eye contact with tyranniel. His gaze was so intense that Tyranniel even took a step back but he instantly covered it up and asked Cal again. “Might I have this great hero’s name?”

his words were sarcastic but Cal still decided to answer. “I am calaeris windlab last of the windlab’s.”

Arisu seemed surprised at his words but Tyranniel just smiled. “Ah yes I believe I remember killing your father he was a tall man with hair like yours his screams were exquisite.”

that confused Cal he had not known his father and was about to say as much but suddenly Tyranniel grabbed his sword and took an offensive stance. “I’ve grown bored of this conversation lets end this fight so that I can add you to the ranks of the umbra-nivis clan.” with that Tyranniel charged.

As soon as the vampire started running Cal saw that he would be much more dangerous than the other vampires he was moving much faster than any of them even Belinda and his technique was almost as good as Cal's own. As soon as their swords clashed Cal was forced to take half a step backward. This reminded him of what fighting his grandfather had been like just like then his opponent was able to put out force stronger than anything that Cal could but cal had been able to beat his grandpa and was confident in being able to beat this vampire too.

With a roar, Cal pushed forward and forced Tyranniel a step back. Their swords clashed a few more times before Tyranniel disengaged and jumped backward flying nearly 30 feet in the single jump. “Seems you are rather skilled but can you deal with magic,” Tyranniel said in his same charming voice.

With those words, he held up his hand that didn’t have a sword and started chanting. As he started chanting a pulsing red orb appeared above his hand and Cal recognized the spell as the one that the mage vampires had used. The difference was this orb was significantly larger and cal got the feeling that it held an exponentially larger amount of mana.

Before Tyranniel could finish chanting Cal swung his sword while simultaneously activating miniature shadow summon with imbue strike. Two small copies of Cal's sword were sent sailing at the vampire who because of the odd lighting in the chamber didn’t notice them. Once they were within a few yards of the vampire Cal used his ability corporeal shadow and the blades which before were almost harmless shadows detached from the ground and were now sailing towards Tyranniel's chest.

This attack was something Cal had been working on. During one fight with one of the vampire knight groups, Cal had cast miniature shadow summon 3 times and sent his summons to attack. This strategy ended up being doomed to fail. The summons could barely do any damage to the vampires unless Cal used corporeal shadow which not only consumed his mana but also didn’t make the summons that much more effective in combat.

After that Cal had been practicing ways of using his only spell that had been leveled up and he eventually stumbled upon this combination. First, he would use imbue strike with miniature shadow summon and launch two miniature swords at the enemy. Once the projectiles got within a few yards of his target Cal would cast corporeal shadow which would bring the two swords to the height of the original sword causing them to act as two throwing knives that were nearly impossible to dodge. using the miniature shadow summon with imbue strike caused it to nearly double in mana cost but Cal had enough mana to cast the spell multiple times even with the increased cost.

Once the swords hit Tyranniel's chest his chanting was interrupted and the mana that he had been gathering into his hands seemed to be forced back into his body causing him to cough up some blood. Though the blood may have been due to the miniature swords that were lodged in his chest.

Tyranniel reached up and removed one of the swords but when he let it go he was unlucky enough to have the sword pointing towards him. Once he let go of the sword it was once again not being held back by anything and started moving forward with its original speed and once again stabbed into Tyranniel's torso. The vampire prince growled and glared at cal.

Tyranniel's mind raced as he tried to figure out how the conjured blade had stabbed him again. In his mind, Tyranniel added two and two to get seven and he started shouting at Cal “So you have a spell that will hit me no matter what I do. No matter I can still fight with these conjured blades sticking out of me.”

that’s not at all how the spell works Cal thought to himself. Cal didn’t say anything to correct Tyranniel either as he prepared for the vampire prince’s attack. Tyranniel charged at Cal but he was now injured, this was apparent in the way that he was now fighting. His style earlier had been elegant and smooth far superior to that of his underlings. Now his style was reduced to flailing at Cal with his sword not worrying at all about his defense and the many wounds he was receiving as long as he was able to land a few scratches along Cal's body.

Cal was now covered in small wounds but he was much better off compared to Tyranniel who had allowed multiple major cuts to appear along his body. Tyranniel was about to lose this fight and they both knew it. Cal started forcing him back until the unthinkable happened. They were at the same spot where Tyranniel had been hit by Cal's miniature shadow summons. Cal's foot had landed in a patch of blood that had spilled from Tyranniel and Cal almost tripped but was able to stop himself.

As he was slipping Cal was reminded of his grandpa’s lessons about fighting. “No matter how good you are a single mistake can cost you everything” was one of his grandpa’s favorite sayings. This momentary lapse in attention was all Tyranniel needed, he lunged forward but instead of stabbing Cal like Cal thought was going to happen, he bit into Cal's neck.

As he did so Cal felt the vampire suck some of his blood which was a creepy feeling but even worse than that Cal felt something enter his bloodstream from the vampire’s fangs. The vampire stepped back with a satisfied look and was about to talk but Cal beat him to the punch. Cal swung his sword in three quick arches releasing 6 more shadow blades.

Once they were all on their way Cal cast corporeal shadow and watched as his enemy was poked full of holes. The loss of blood and surprise caused Tyranniel to fall backward and Cal who was waiting for just such an occasion took a quick step forward and swung his blade down like an executioner’s ax causing the vampire prince’s head to roll away.

[you have killed level 10 vampire prince Tyranniel umbra-nivis you have gained 0 XP]

Cal smiled at the confirmation that he had killed the prince he now only had to save Arisu and he would complete this trial. He walked over to where she was tied up. First, he removed her gag and waited for her to say something but she just stood there in shock. Cal grabbed her wrist to take off her manacle but there was a lock and he realized he didn’t have a key.

Cal looked around and saw a key ring sitting by the throne he took a few steps to go and get it when he suddenly felt extremely light-headed. As he began to stumble cal watched as a prompt appear.

[you have been forcefully given the vampire race your body will now undergo the required changes.]

after those words appeared pain started to race throughout Cal's body and he fell to the ground screaming. The last thing he heard before passing out was the voice of a girl calling his name. “Cal are you okay.”