-----
After pressing [Yes], Vd absorbed the corpses, leaving nothing behind at all other than whatever they carried. Their entire bodies bee nourishment for his accursed Trait, the Insatiable Gluttony.
A wave of different kinds of energies reached his body, this time it wasn’t just the natural Blood Energy gained from abs it from another being, but something else too.
[You have absorbed the corpses of the [Night Werewolf (Tier 1: Rank 3)] [Bck Fang Tribe Orc (Tier 1: Rank 4)] [Crimson Imp (Tier 1: Rank 2)] and [Crimson Imp (Tier 1: Rank 1)]!]
[You gained +400 Blood Energy.]
[You have stolen the [Lesser Werewolf Bloodline Fragment], [Lesser Bck Fang Tribe Orc Bloodline Fragment], and [Lesser Imp Demon Bloodline Fragment] x2.]
[Your Bloodline is patible with the Fragments; they have been automatically absorbed.]
[Your own Bloodline: [Strong-Blooded Dhampir Bloodliier 1: Rank 1)] has absorbed all fragments and Ranked Up to Tier 1: Rank 3!]
[You gained +200 Blood Power]
[You have unlocked the Racial Skill: [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Racial Skill: [Ogre’s Muscles (C): Lv1]
[You have unlocked the Css Skill: [Treacherous (D): Lv1]
[You have reached the Racial Skill Limit of 5/5; unequipped Skills have been stored.]
[The Demonic Seed of Gluttony seems satisfied and is slowly digesting its meal.]
[You ot absorb any more corpses for the 10 Hours.]
Vd noticed he had gaihree strange Skills, it seemed these weren’t specifically from Vampires, but from the foes he had absorbed.
The werewolf’s Skill [Moonlight Boost], gave them enhanced speed, senses, aerity while below the moonlight.
The orc’s skill [Ogre’s Muscles], made them naturally bigger and strohan others from birth.
And stly, the [Treacherous] Skill, sidered a Css Skill, was used by Imps to more easily trid vince people.
“Gluttos me get Skills outside of my own Racial Limits?” he thought. “The only limit itself is the Skill Slots… Hm?”
Suddenly, he felt a tingliion inside of his soul, as if something else had entered and slowly digested, being part of it.
[You have used the [Soul-Eating Fist Teique (S): Lv1] to eat the souls of your foes.]
[Your Soul has fully digested their small souls; their Soul Ether has bee yours.]
[You gained +150 Soul Ether.]
[Your Soul is in a state of recovery, eating more Souls could cause ive effects, so be wary.]
“My Soul Ether increased? So that’s why the Heavenly Demon taught me this teique… I see it now,” Paul nodded.
He quickly realized that the strategy was simple: aside from the basic tempering he had to gh after eating the pills, by eating souls, he would also be able to more easily restore his soul after it suffered the tempering process of Soul Cultivation.
“So my entire progression system is about eating everything—souls, corpses, blood, anything…” Paul thought. “Well, that’s easier said than done; I only have five minutes left in this form, might as well quickly get bae for now.”
He didn’t want to drop dead on the floor thanks to his annoying Paralysis, so he hastily carried Camil in his arms as he jumped over the buildings and back to his house.
On the way there, he made sure that nobody followed him, using another of the Heavenly Demon’s Martial Arts known as {Void Walk}, which allowed him to walk through any surfad make no noise while also veiling his own preseo the void.
The sheer number of teiques and abilities in this ten-miate was immense, and Paul could only practice them as much as he could and remember them ter.
One of them was the {White e’s Flight}, which quite literally allowed him to use his own Ki to fly in the air like a superhero from ics.
The drawback was that it drained his Ki rapidly, and although he had a rge pool in this form, it wasn’t infiher.
Once bae, he quickly moved to the bathroom, where he decided to wash down Camil after he fed her some of her blood.
He wao do this as quickly as possible while he could move freely, so while little Camil enjoyed her blood bottle, he frantically washed her with all the soap and sponges he could find.
The pride of the Heavenly Demon affected his character. Vd, the brother of Camil, couldn’t accept that his sister was in such a state!
“Ouch, big brother, you’re scratg my head too hard…”
“Well, it has to be done because your hair is full of dust, my sister… Now, be patient; let me wash it.”
He made sure to leave her pipping ; even washing her little feet, which were almost pletely bck, made the Heavenly Demon side of Vd almost have a heart attack.
As a tyrannical overlord, he lived a life of luxury after reag the pinnacle, so seeing this level of filth was simply uable!
“Hahh… And we’re done.”
The golden and bck aura c Vd’s body dissipated in that moment, as he fell head-first into the floor.
“Ugh… dammit.”
“Oh… Big brother fell again…”
Camil was wearing the only dress she had, a pink-colored one, and bck-colored shoes with white socks.
Her long, red hair looked glossy and finally well ed, although still a bit messy because Vd was quite rough with his sister when washing her.
However, she finally stopped looking like a creepy and abandoned doll and more like a little noble vampire girl.
“Ugh… Camil, you carry me bay room, please?”
“Okay…”
Camil nodded as she carried her brother back to his room with her Telekinesis.
Finally, ba his room, Vd rested on his fortable bed and allowed himself some respite.
There were a few other things he wao che his Status and new Skills, so he decided to quickly s skills first.
[Racial Skills (5/5)]
[False Immortality (S): Lv1] [Blood Bending (A): Lv1] [Bloodline Absorption (S): Lv1] [Venomous Cws (B): Lv1] [Moonlight Boost (C): Lv1]
“They’re all good, but I want the Ogre’s muscles at least; that’ll give me some stamina, I think,” Paul thought. “Whie I throw away? They all look useful. Moonlight Boost is a must; the full moon is always in the sky most of the time. Maybe this is olves are always so fast, no matter what.”
After p for a minute, he sed Venomous Cws for the Ogre’s Muscles Skill for now. The Cw Skill was strong, but he already had strong Martial Arts that even ate his foe’s souls, so it was enough for now.
[You have sed the Racial Skill: [Venomous Cws (B): Lv1] for the [Ogre’s Muscles (C): Lv1] Racial Skill!]
The moment he equipped the Skill, Vd felt the ges right away.
His body started squirming, and the weak muscles of his physique began to bee reinforced.
This wasn’t the cultivation of a physique, but the effects of a skill tied to the bloodline of orcs.
“T-This is…?”
“Wow, brot a bit bulky?”
Camil noticed the ges as she sat down by her brother’s side, finishing to drink her blood bottle while pying with wooden dolls.
It was a bit surprising she wasn’t more affected after everything happened; Paul wondered if the NPC rogrammed to “fet things” because of her Broken Mind Fw.
“Yeah, kind of…”
Paul looked more closely at his Avatar’s body, it now resembled much more his own IRL Physique, rather muscur, even a bit taller. He eve more eic.
[What sorcery is this? No teique of mine could fix your useless body, but you got a new Skill, and it did?!]
“Maybe there’s a way to somehow mitigate the fws a bit…” Vd smiled with some hope. “Perhaps with new Skills, rarer and stronger ones… Or maybe equipment too.”
[Well there’s nothing mitigating my need for a beautiful man in my life, so you better get us one no matter what!]
“Hah…”
Paul was caught off guard by that ent, he sometimes just fot there was such a "fw," not like he liked calling being gay a fw, but that’s just how the game made the Heavenly Demon’s greatest wish be.
He thought that being gay itself wasn’t the fw, but the fw was his madness, which made him go insane because he cked the love he always desired.
“A beautiful man…”
Paul thought for a moment, as the image of Chris appeared inside his head right away.
“e to think of it, didn’t he log in already?”
As he thought about tag Chris after logging out, he quickly noticed Camil slowly crawling over the bed, c herself with the bs.
“Big brother, I’m eepy…”
“Wait, don’t you have a room yourself, Camil?”
“It’s scary to be alone… I don’t want to be alone anymore…”
“Hah…”
Vd sighed. He couldn’t really fight against the sister assigo his character; she had bee increasingly important as she was the only one capable of carrying him around, something he desperately ress.
And above all, even if this was a game… Paul pitied the poor child.
"Fine, but let me tell you that your brother snores a lot.”
“I don’t care…”
Camil cuddled with a teddy bear she had found in Vd’s closet and then fell asleep right away.
“She’s tired…”
[She probably spent all her Ara using that Telekinesis of hers. You better take good care of our sister! I won’t tolerate you mistreating her n her! I never had a family before, so you better appreciate the little we have.]
“Okay, don’t worry…”
Before he was to log out, however, Paul saw a new notification.
[gratutions! You have fulfilled all ditions.]
[You have received the background-only {Achievement Title}: [Hardw Big Brother]
[You have shown that you’re someone who takes care of their family, and you have not let Camil feel lonely. You fed her, you protected her, and you taught her to be . This alone is more affe than what the little dhampir had experiehroughout her whole life.]
[Your bond with your sister has grown slightly, and Camil now trusts her big brother more.]
[Acquisition ditions]: [Protect, take care, and help Camil feel less lonely.]
[Achievement Rewards]: [Ara Stat Unlocked] [Basic Magiu and Theuide for Dummies (D Grade)] x1 [Basic Magic Circle Formation Guide for Dummies (D Grade)] x1]
“What…?!”
Paul was left perplexed; he had no idea he would get an Achievement this quickly!
Achievements were tied to titles, and whenever you get one, you’ll usually get a set of rewards as well. They were tricky to get, and every background had its own personal set of achievements, so he couldn’t really look online for them.
He hought that ag kindly with this NPC, which simply surged naturally from his ki, would end up rewarding him in such a manner.
Paul noticed two new books appear on his iory, and his Ara Stat was automatically unlocked, with a stat number of... just 100.
“Thank you for this gift, Camil.”
He gently caressed Camil’s red hair before he decided to sleep as well, which would mean he would log out.
“I’ll check those books tomorrow; I am already getting tired of being ihis damn capsule.”
Paul quickly logged out after spending roughly four hours ihe game. He didn’t have much time other than that; as a busy student, he also had to do some homework the teacher gave everyone.
“Phew… What the hell?”
Paul opened his eyes wide as he noticed there were several unread messages from Chris…
[Paul]: [Shut up goblin]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Ok troll lol]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [gcat.jpg]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [What the hell man, I got this randomized character, and it's weird!]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Like… Ugh, it’s embarrassing to talk about it, at least I got into Obscuritas too, in some rural town. But this character is weird! I don’t like it…]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [But the game says that if I delete it, I have to wait six months to make a new one?! What kind of game is this? I want a refund!!!!11]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [dude you help me with this somehow? I don’t know what to do… -.-]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Paul!]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Are you there?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [’t believe I’m being ghosted by the loner…]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [imma just log out for now, I hate this…]
“Haha, looks like he got the short end of the stick too! At least he’s on Obscuritas…” Paul smiled.
[Paul]: Okay, I’m back. What’s wrong? What’s the character like?]
Paul sent the message ao the bathroom.
It looked like Chris didn’t have much to do because he answered very quickly after his message.
“Was he waiting for me to respond all this time?”
[Chris ;3 <3]: [you’re back dude! I was so bored… I mean, I was drawing… Anyway, this character, man… how do I even expin this thing? Ugh.]
[Paul]: [What’s wrong? What is it? Just tell me]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Aaahhh… I don’t know, it’s weird… embarrassing.]
[Paul]: [???]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [I’ll just show it to you ter… Err, what’s your town name anyway?]
Paul was feeling worried about how Chris was being so secretive about it, but he let it slide anyways as he started doing his homework, nothing too big, he just had to write down some things, iigate a few others, and do it in just thirty minutes. He was a very diligent student.
[Chris ;3 <3]: [what’s your town???]
[Paul]: [Calm down, I was doing homework… my town’s name is Elderbridge, it is oskirts of the Iron Blood Empire’s Capital.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Nice! I am at Moon Soce. There are a lot of werewolves and moon elves here, but I think I get there in a day. I’ll get moving there. Thankfully, this character fly, at least.]
[Paul]: [Wait it fly??? Did you get a gargoyle or something in the randomizer?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [Ahhh… not really, anyways, I’ll move my character there, then log out. Do we py together tomorrow or what? I am not pying this shit anymore if you’re not pying with me! You forced me into this!]
[Paul]: [I didn’t force you into anything… but ok, sure.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [nice, you’ll carry me??]
[Paul]: [I don’t think… I do that yet.]
Paul also had his ows and holy didn’t want to talk about his own character, which was quite pathetic even with the power of the Heavenly Demon.
The day went by, and Chris stopped messaging after he said he went to eat dinner with his family outside, Paul ate dinner, and then decided to go to sleep early.
Another day passed, and the one arrived.
It was Wednesday already, and Paul couldn’t help but think the week was going by really fast.
He somehow woke up more fident today, perhaps the experiences in the game had made him feel a bit more fident in himself.
The a, the story, and everything were very moving; it helped him feel better, and many of his worries dissipated into thin air.
It was a good, sunny day, with a few clouds above the beautiful skies of LA, the seagulls flying in the sky, and people walking dowreets.
“It’s a nice day for sure~”
He was really rexed; nothing could ever g in his life.
He had figured things out already; he would work hard, study, get a nice career, work, and occasionally help his mom in the bakery.
Aside from that, he really didn’t have any other pns, his life was fine as it was, and he didn’t really pn on ging that.
“Alright, let’s do our best today as well,” he thought, trying to think with good vibes.
Yet…
“Yo~ What’s up.”
A wild Chris had appeared!
“Ahh!”
Paul felt shocked to see him standing right to his left!
He could swear he didn’t even feel him moving there.
“Hahaha! What’s wrong? You got all spooked, lol,” Chris ughed. “Were you spag out or something? Seriously, you’re such a doofus.”
“Good m, Chris.” Paul sighed, trying to ignore his teasing words. “Anyways, csses are starting, so let’s just-”
“Hey, girls! So this is the guy~”
Suddenly, Paul felt like his soul was about to leave his body, as he saw Chris bringing three girls with him, they were some of the friends he had made so far.
And he just brought them to Paul?!
“W-What are you doing?!” Paul thought he couldn’t even scream because of the social ay he felt.
“Hey, you’re Paul, right?” A really pretty girl asked; she was tall and geous, with a fwless face, long blonde hair, and small green eyes. “Chris said you’re a pretty cool guy! Wanna hang out?”
“H-Hang… out?!” Paul muttered.
“Why is he screaming?” asked a girl behind Chris.
“Ah, he’s kind of shy, but that’s cute, right?” Chris giggled.
“I mean, kinda,” anirl said. “He’s handsome, though, yeah.”
Paul was slowly growing redder, Chris could swear he was seeing smoke ing out of his ears, he was barely taining his ughter after seeing him struggle so much with a basic human iion.
“Y-Yeah, sure, o meet you…” Paul muttered. “So did you girls… pick programming too?”
“Yeah!” said the blonde. “I’m Carol; by the way, that’s Stacey and Ely, my besties! We’re new here, like Chris, and he said you were a senior and really nice.”
“C-Chris did?!” Paul muttered.
He didn’t know if he wao kill the little goblin or thank him fiving him su opportunity!
However, his social ay was such a struggle that he might want to do the former.
"Alright, let’s go. e on, dude,” Chris said, as the girls walked ihe first. “You gotta be a bit more… You know, cool? Think that you’re a Chad alpha-sigma male or something like that. Girls love that, right?”
“What are you even talking about…” Paul ged as he sighed, walking behind Chris.
Despite havihree cute girls, his eyes still ended up stranding towards Chris's back as he ran ihe .
He really had a good…
“What am I thinking? Ugh…”
Paul quickly tried to just not think about anything and bee a living monolith instead.
He remained silent and calm through the entire day in the csses, barely talking other than nodding and the occasional “yeah” or “not really”.
He was trying to act cool, but he was actually just frozeo his social ay.
Chris was stantly facepalming as he saw his friend fail over and ain to have a proper, eaining versation with any of the girls.
Carol was rather ied in him, mostly because of his looks at the beginning, so there was a ce.
But at the end of the day, all such ces were pletely destroyed.
Paul was barely able to talk with the girls; their presend beauty were too overwhelming for his shy little heart.
“Hahh… I really screwed it over; I feel like dying right now…” Paul sighed.
“Hahaha! You sure did, man. What the hell was that? I told you to be a Chad alpha-sigma male, not to bee like… a silent protagonist or something. Were you imagining yourself as Cloud or Link? You weren’t even talking,” Chris kept ughing.
“Please shut the up…” Paul was dying inside.
Chris shrugged, patting his shoulders.
“What am I going to do with you~?” he giggled. “You’re such a helpless guy, good thing you got me as your friend. e on, we do it again another day, don’t worry. There’s a bright future ahead!”
“Of course, you’re saying that you have a natural talent for attrag girls…” Paul sighed. “And you talk so well all the time; how you be so social? It’s so hard for me…”
“I… dunno? I just am. I grew up surrounded by a lot of friends, and my parents are very talkative, and... well, it just came out naturally. I don’t really uand why some people struggle with it so much,” Chris sighed. “But well, that’s that, and this is this, bro; it’s not the end of the world~”
“It is for me!” Paul cried, he felt like the cute little imp at his side was enjoying his suffering.
After all, the cheeky brat was smiling teasingly as he talked, as if he would ever believe his words after looking at him with that face!
“So do you have a girlfriend or something?” asked Paul. “You get along with so many girls, I bet you dht? Or have you been with one before? you give me some tips?” Paul had grown more aced to talking with Chris, so he ended up asking him a lot of bold things.
Chris blushed a bit after hearing that, which surprised Paul.
“A-Ah! Well… I…” Chris muttered, beginning to sweat.
“Wait, don’t tell me you’ve never…?” Paul smiled; he was the oeasing him now! “Despite your popurity, you have never had a girlfriend?!”
“I-It’s not like that, dude! I just… am not into it,” Chris shrugged. “I-I mean, how do I say this… Err, fuck.”
“What?” Paul asked, he felt like Chris was afraid of something.
Of revealing something to him.
Something that could potentially drive him away and break their friendship.
Why? Mostly because not everyone en-minded as one would want.
“e on, tell me, I won’t rea any weird way, is there some big reason why not?” Paul sighed.
“Yeah, I mean…”
As the two walked out of the college and reached the train station, Chris decided to just not say anything for now.
“Nothing, I just don’t like promises, haha!” Chris gave a fake ugh, smiling. “See ya in the game then, Paul. Don’t be a zy ass and log in quickly, I’ll be waiting for you at the town square!”
“Eh? Sure…” Paul felt slightly down. “I guess he ’t just trust me so quickly either, right? I shouldn’t have asked that; did he get upset?”
Paul didn’t really know what to think. Chris looked like someone who was really social and popur with women, but when he asked him if he had a girlfriend, he flinched because he didn’t know what to say.
It either meant he was terrible at handling romantic retionships or...
“Is he…? Maybe?”
Paul had his suspis, but it would be rude to assume that of someone just because they were a bit feminine and didn’t act as the “standard male” or something.
Or maybe he just worried too much about everything; who knows?
“Just move on, move on.”
Paul got bae quickly and then sat on the bed, cheg for Chris' messages.
He sent me a message befoing to take a shower.
[Paul]: [hey Chris, sorry for asking you weird stuff earlier, I got a bit… err, well, a bit ahead of myself? I don’t know, sorry.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [it’s fine dude, fet it… were you thinking about that all the time?? lol]
[Paul]: [What’s wrong with that dude? Your response was a bit… well, whatever. Sain]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [there’s nothing to be sorry about, so are you going to show me your damn character or what???]
[Paul]: [I’ll do it once we meet. But he’s like a dhampir, with long white hair, red eyes, the typical fanfare.]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [oooh?? That sounds kinda cool! What the hell dude…]
[Paul]: [What did you get?]
[Chris ;3 <3]: [l-let’s keep that a surprise, I’ll show it… to you once I find you, just stay iown square once you log in.]
[Paul]: [sure…]
After finishing that frantiversation, Paul sighed, walked to his bathroom to take yet another warm shower, ate a sandwich, and then logged in.
“Ah…”
He slowly opened his eyes, finding himself resting on his bed again.
Camil was still there, sleeping soundly.
Unlike him, who yer and was given several bes, such as a body that wouldn’t seem to age, get nasty, or o go to the bathroom, it seemed that NPC did need such things.
Even a small nap for a Vampire sted three to four days, so Camil was fast asleep.
“Dammit, how do I wake her up?” he sighed. “ I go alone? I should have just told Chris about my damn fw!”
Vd started to panic as he saw his sister sleeping soundly, slowly crawling out of his bed to get some clothes on.
“Wait, right, Ara! I did get that, right?!” he thought.
He quickly opehe guides he got; the one about magic circles taught him how to create them, specifically the special Magic Circles that wizards fed iheir hearts.
By increasing their cirumber and runes, wizard characters would enhaheir Ara stats and gairid spells.
It was the standard progression system fis.
Vd was still figuring out what the css assigo his own character; just the prince character didn’t tell him anything.
Was he a magi? A swordsman? A ncer? A tank? A rogue? What was he?!
“I mean, the only path for me is magic; my body ’t move well without it,” he sighed. “Yeah, there’s no other option.”
He watched the block. Chris said he would log ihe game in roughly an hour, as he said he was busy having lunch with his parents.
So to use that time well, Paul started frantically reading both guides as much as he could, learning about their tents.
Iingly enough, as he read, the information was stored in mini folders of information within his own character background.
And once he finished reading everything, both guides turned into particles of light and disappeared.
“Wait, they’re gone?!”
He almost panicked before remembering everything that was stored inside his character background information.
“Okay, if I get the gist of it...” Paul thought. “I have to first imagine something, and the Ara will naturally e out? Is that it?”
He tried that out, Vd’s hand rising as blue-colored energy slowly started to e out, like tiny particles of azure light.
Spark, spark…!
And then these particles, through his owal input, started to take shape.
“Form the runes first.”
The spell he wanted was an obvious o required three basies, one elemental rune as the core, and two auxiliary ruo plement the entire formu.
Each rune had its own shape and form, and each of them represented something—a word of the world itself that represented an aspect of existence.
“Ara, Gather, Release, Wind, ect, Flight.”
These were the five runes he required, eae taking a little while to form as the particles of Are slowly materialized into them.
Slowly and steadily, he created all five of them, floating in the palm of his hand.
“Here es the harder part.”
After that, he quickly used the rest of the Ara energy and tur into ahereal ring around the floating runes.
This was the magic circle!
Slowly, the magic circle enpassed the runes, as they all ected into something singur, a single spell.
“{Float}!”
FLASH!
A wave of green light erupted as the magic circle was formed, enpassing Vd’s entire body.
“T-This is…”
His body slowly started to float, only around fifteeimeters above the ground, but it was more than enough for him.
“It worked!”
Vd started moving around the room, mostly by waving his own hands across the air, it helped him move as if he were sliding over the floor, even though he was floating.
“I look so dumb doing this, but it ’t be helped… Most people will think I am just ani who doesn’t like flying, right?” Paul wondered, smiling. “I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without her, though- Ugh!”
However, his celebration came short, as Vd found himself falling to the flasping for air.
His Ara energy was not specified pletely withiatus, but he only had 100.
If those 100 ran out, then any magic he had activated would run out alongside it!
“I k, I was only able to activate it for, like, three minutes,” he sighed. “My Ara is way too low; what do I even do now?”
[Aren’t there any potions or elixirs that could restore that energy?]
“I bet, but they’re probably super expensive; what about the Treasury?" I get something that could help me?
[Nothing of the sort; in Murim, there was no such thing as Ara, we all cultivated Ki. But you ’t properly cultivate Ki because of your fwed physique, unfortunately.]
“Damn. I o think about something… Wait.”
And then Paul remembered something—a small post in a forum he had read.
It was about the people who chose the Alchemist Css and how they were saying they would revolutiohe entire game’s ey by providing amazing magic items.
Alchemists are capable of imbuing magies and spells into equipment permaly.
Not only that, but they also give equipment their own Ara pools, so the pyer use the magic even if they ck the stat.
Paul just happeo have a Level 3 Alchemy Skill.
“I think I have an idea…”
He was making a very weird, creepy face right now, like he was thinking about some really macabre thing.
[Your face… I hope you don’t make such a fa front of your future male bride, or you might end up sg them!]
Paul wale the Heavenly Demon, but the bastard was already dead.
-----
Pach
