I didn’t like where things were going. A vampire asking me to do things. He certainly wanted me to kill someone or something.
We walked together through the dark tunnel. Not only us, but the other vampires were walking around us too. I knew they wouldn’t attack me because their leader asked them not to, but having them there was quite terrifying.
After walking for about 10 minutes, I saw a double door, similar to the one we saw when we went inside the tomb. The vampire pushed it open, revealing what was on the other side.
A house, like, literally, a nice house. I saw new furniture inside, tables, chairs, coffins where the vampires slept, everything one might see inside a house.
The chandeliers hanging on the ceiling were quite pretty. Expensive-looking.
Of course, there were no windows, and both the walls and the ceiling were just pure stone, like a castle dungeon, but it was still a nice place. I would live there if the vampires disappeared.
Anyway, he turned to the vampires.
"We’ll speak in private now," the vampire leader said, "if I see or hear anyone snooping, heads will roll."
The vampire showed me to his room. It was different from the rest of the tomb. There, I saw plenty of stuff tossed around, boxes, and random items. A storage room where nothing had been organized.
"I keep valuable things here so no one steals them from me," he said.
He pulled two wooden chairs, one for me and one for himself. I sat. We were both staring at each other.
"Your name?"
"Vincent, but you can call me Vince."
"Jeremy, pleasure," he said.
Jeremy. A vampire named Jeremy. What the fuck? Not that I have anything against Jeremys, but the name just didn’t strike me as intimidating.
"Let’s not waste time. You see, I let you live because I want something from you. If you pass this test, then we’ll be even, and you can go on with your life. How about that?"
It was not like I had any choice. Either I accepted his offer, or I would die. That fucking simple.
"I’ll take your silence as a yes. You see, we, vampires, already have some of us outside, infiltrated in your...Earth, right? But the vampires I have under my command are just...too weak or stupid."
"But you, a human, you can get into places that no other vampire can. So, can you get inside a place called The New Order Hunter’s Academy?"
Everyone knew about that place. It was the most prestigious hunter’s academy on Earth. That’s the place where the best hunters came from.
It was tough to get in. Like, really tough. One needed either lots of money to buy a spot, a prestigious family backing, or being straight-up talented.
I was none of that.
"I don’t think I can," I said, "I’m weak with a shit ability, and no money."
Jeremy wasn’t taking that.
"You’ll find a way to get inside," he said, "or I’ll go find you and kill you. Are we on the same page here?"
Jeremy got up from the chair, walked across the room, and tapped his fingers against the sides of his clothes.
"After you get inside, I’ll send someone to talk to you. In three months’ time."
Three months. I knew the New Order would hold a test for new hunters in one month. But how could I prepare for something like this? It was just impossible.
"To help you out, I’ll give you something. You can choose one thing from my personal storage," Jeremy said as he opened both arms, "take what you want."
I had no idea what the vampire wanted from the New Order Hunter’s Academy, but it was certainly big if he was willing to give me something valuable from his personal storage.
I also got up from my chair and looked around the storage to see if I could find something useful. No matter what I found, it wouldn’t make me, a useless man, get into the hunting academy. That was impossible.
But maybe I could get something to sell for some good cash, and use the money to hire people to protect me from Jeremy or his vampires. That sounded like the best option I had.
I saw weapons and armor. These looked quite expensive, but my knowledge of items crafted from materials found inside the rifts was nil. I couldn’t tell if something was valuable or not.
Jeremy was standing there, watching my every move. He wanted to be sure I wouldn’t take more than one thing.
Some boxes with jewelry inside. Those were expensive, for sure. I was inclined to get those.
But something happened. A calling, you could say. My eyes couldn’t stop staring at a blueish egg sitting on top of one of the boxes. It caught my attention.
I don’t know, but I felt a connection to it, as if we had been destined to find each other. It sounds stupid, but that’s how I felt.
Jeremy noticed that I was looking at the egg.
"Are you thinking of getting that egg? Not a good idea, mate."
"Why not?" I asked him.
"I’ve tried to hatch it, be it inside the rift or outside on Earth. Talked to some people about the best methods to do so, but I couldn’t. Nothing seems to hatch this thing. It’s useless."
Despite him saying that, the feeling of being connected to that thing didn’t disappear. I had to gamble.
Getting anything else from his storage wouldn’t help me much in getting into the academy or even selling for a reasonable price. But the egg still gave me a chance to find something valuable.
And I never ignore my instincts.
"I’ll keep the egg," I said.
Jeremy walked over to one of the boxes and took out a leather satchel. He tossed it to me.
"Then put it inside the satchel and get the fuck out. You have a mission to complete."
I did as he told me, placing the blue egg inside the satchel. The moment I touched it, I felt the connection growing even stronger.
"Can’t you send one of your vampires to help me leave this place? I don’t think I can survive alone out there."
"Not my problem," Jeremy said, "if you can’t survive the weak monsters outside, then you’ll fail your mission anyway. Take this as a test. Now leave."
I left the tomb on the same path we had taken before. Jeremy kept all the vampires inside their home to make sure no one would try to kill me there.
Once outside, I passed by the vampire’s body, the one Mike killed. They had left so abruptly that they forgot to take the monster crystal from inside the vampire.
I had a knife in my pocket. I brought it just in case I needed it. With it, I cut the vampire’s chest. Fucking gross. But I endured it, cutting as fast as I could to get it over with.
When I saw the monster crystal, it was worth it. The disgusting feeling from before disappeared.
There were different types of monster crystals. The most basic ones were used to increase attributes like STR and AGI.
The ultra-rare crystals were used to directly improve someone’s ability. These crystals were rare and expensive. Everyone who found them never sold them because it was much better to just use them and improve their own ability.
But even these rare crystals had different tiers. Anyway, the vampire had one of those crystals inside him. A crystal that could improve the powers of my pocket dimension!
That was huge. It was a low-grade one, but still, much rarer than the ordinary crystals I had inside my pocket dimension, the ones we got from hunting.
I activated my pocket dimension, placing this new crystal inside just in case I lost it.
I gazed at the egg inside the satchel. Why not put it inside the pocket dimension, too? It was the safest place.
So, I did that.
That’s when something incredible happened. Once inside the pocket dimension, the egg began to move...
I even spotted a tiny crack. The egg was hatching!