"AAAAAAAGH!"
At a pain more overwhelming than anything he had felt in his life, Garam reflexively raised his hand toward his severed shoulder.
Cold sweat streamed down him, and blood poured from the severed shoulder like a waterfall.
It was pain that would have killed an ordinary human of shock on the spot.
For some reason, though he was no hunter, Garam's body did not die from merely losing one arm.
THUD, roll, roll, roll.
Something rolled to a stop beside him.
A familiar face. And yet something unfamiliar.
What had rolled up beside Garam was a head.
The head of the hunter Kim Deok-su usually brought along.
"A vermin. Another one has crawled in. To steal my Blood Chalice! Again!"
THUD
At the sound of something dropping, Garam lifted his head.
A man was walking out carrying the hunter's body, withered and shriveled as though mummified.
Eyes glowing red to an eerie degree, a beard grown out at random, and blood smeared around his mouth.
In part it looked human, but Garam knew instinctively.
That 'thing' before him was not human.
"Hand over the Blood Chalice. It is mine! It belongs to me and me alone!"
It was speaking human words, but in the sight of it shrieking with foam at its mouth there was not a single grain of reason to be felt.
'Run. I have to run...'
Instinct rang an alarm bell.
Overwhelming terror. That thing in front of him was a monster on an entirely different plane from some Black Wolf.
A fear that left room for no thought except flight.
As Garam backed away in fright, his foot caught on the fallen bag.
One shoulder strap cut away, the bag drenched in blood.
The bag with the money in it.
That rag of a bag was, if anything, what sharpened Garam's consciousness.
'Hoo. Calm down. I can't die here, not like this.'
He slung the bag over his remaining shoulder.
It wasn't heavy. If anything, the thought of the mana stones, no, the stacks of cash inside it cleared his head further.
The searing pain drew away and the fear subsided, if only a little.
His 'goal' became clear.
Running was still the plan, but at least he now had room to think about how to run.
"I see... you came to become a True Progenitor as well, did you not? To take the Blood Chalice from me!"
The monster charged.
Not hurling something as it had before, but rushing in with sharp claws raised.
As expected, it was almost too fast to follow with the eye, but,
CRASH—!
Garam barely managed to roll his body aside.
'First I have to get the Blood Chalice.'
The Blood Chalice, dropped from his severed arm, had rolled a fair distance away.
The only way out of this gate in the first place was to offer blood to the Blood Chalice and open the escape gate.
Picking the chalice back up was essential.
So Garam broke into a run toward the chalice and, at the same time, threw the axe hanging at his waist.
WHOOSH—!
The axe flew with vicious force from Garam's superhuman strength, but,
CLANG—!
as expected, the monster before him batted it aside as though it were nothing.
"Petty tricks, is it."
Ignoring that voice, now close to the howl of a beast, Garam ran.
Toward the Blood Chalice on the ground.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Little by little the distance to the chalice closed.
'Just a little more.'
And at last, just as he stretched out his remaining right arm toward the chalice to reach it,
"Not a chance!"
the monster swung its hand with a roar.
At the same time, three slashes flew in from its fingertips.
Different from before, these slashes were wrapped in flame.
'I have to dodge.'
Using his superhuman physical ability, Garam barely evaded two of the slashes, but,
"Gakh!"
unfortunately, he could not avoid the last one.
The bag hanging on his back tore open and the mana stones inside scattered through the air.
TSSSSSSS
At the same time, along with a sickening smell, the wound on his back was seared shut.
"Damn it, I was so close."
Right in front of the Blood Chalice, at a distance where he could grip it the moment his hand reached, Garam collapsed.
Thanks to the bag he had avoided a direct hit, but that didn't mean he had survived.
An attack with the power to kill instantly had merely become a fatal wound.
With blood still pouring out of him, Garam too could feel death approaching, clear and unmistakable.
"I won't die like this. No, I can't die."
This was a chance.
A chance that could change his present.
Gritting his teeth, Garam pulled the chalice caught on his fingertips.
Filling it with the last of his hope, he poured the blood running from his body into the chalice.
There was so much of it that he wondered how a human body could bleed this much, so the chalice filled in an instant.
"There is no possibility that it responds to your blood. The Blood Chalice belongs to me alone..."
[The Bloodred Night quest has been cleared.]
[The escape gate is opening.]
[DING!]
[The Blood Chalice has taken in the purest blood.]
[The Bloodred Night quest is entering a hidden route.]
[Reward: Awakening is changed to True Progenitor Awakening.]
"What...?"
Perhaps because too much blood had drained from his body,
he couldn't properly grasp what situation was unfolding.
Unlike Garam, the monster seemed to realize how things were turning out, and its eyes flew wide.
"Impossible! How can the Blood Chalice respond to the blood of a mere human!"
At the same moment the monster shrieked, ripples rose across the blood held in the chalice.
POP—!
Something burst out of it.
Palm-sized, perhaps. Long golden hair and red eyes.
That was the most Garam could perceive in his current state.
The being that had sprung from the chalice looked around and then spoke to Garam.
"It has finally come. The time of revolution!"
The being from the chalice floated up into the air, surveyed its surroundings, and then met Garam's eyes.
"What's this? You're the one who woke me?"
He didn't know. Just holding on to his fading consciousness was hard labor, and he had no room to spare for anything like that.
"The blood I took in does seem to have come from you... though waking on human blood is unexpected. Still, I suppose there's meaning in that too."
With a sigh and a shake of its head, the thing rose higher into the air.
VWOOOOM
Wrapping itself in an aura that glowed dark red, the thing spoke to Garam.
"My name is Carmilla. The First Relic of Nosferatu. By the oldest promise, human, um... what's your name?"
"Kim... Garam."
"Nice name. Ahem. Then, by the oldest promise, the Guide, Carmilla, raises Kim Garam up as True Progenitor."
[You have absorbed the First Relic of Nosferatu.]
[You inherit the power of the first True Progenitor.]
[You obtain Skill: True Progenitor (EX).]
[You acquire Vampir-exclusive skills.]
[You acquire Absorb (C) Lv 1.]
[You acquire Hardening (C) Lv 1.]
[You acquire Regeneration (C) Lv 1.]
[You acquire Domination (C).]
[Domination is not affected by level.]
[It is a Vampir-exclusive skill.]
[Integrated into Skill: True Progenitor.]
[The target's race is changed to Vampir.]
[You Awaken.]
As the thing, no, as Carmilla finished speaking, the red aura wrapped around her began to be absorbed into Garam.
"AAAAAGH!"
Destructive power surged up out of his body.
Garam knew at once what it was that he was absorbing.
All the blood he had spilled, and all the blood the Blood Chalice had held.
It became an enormous mass of mana and was absorbed into Garam.
"Good, good. The resonance is strong too. Become a True Progenitor just like this, and we'll open a world of the Vampirs together."
"Do not make me laugh! Relic of Nosferatu! I am your master!"
He had been frozen until a moment ago by the unbelievable sight, and now he came toward the fallen Garam as though refusing to accept it.
With every intention of killing Garam right then.
"You're already too late. Looks like you're a Vampir, but what an ugly state you're in. Did you break a taboo or something?"
"Silence! That power is mine!"
The monster swung a fist at Garam, but,
GRAB.
his attack was blocked, futilely, by Garam's left arm, which had regrown at some point.
"Hand that power over to me, human! It is power far beyond your worth!"
He lunged at Garam.
But Garam only watched him with calm eyes.
[Vampir confirmed.]
[Sub-skill: Domination activates.]
[Grade is low. Domination applies only partially.]
[As the target has entered Domination range, detailed status is revealed.]
[Domination Active]
Name: Gallos
Race: Vampir
Title: Lower Knight of the Bloodflame Knights
Skills: Crimson Flame (B) 2Lv, Regeneration (B) 3Lv, Absorb (B) 1Lv, Hardening (B) 2Lv
->Crimson Flame (C) 1Lv, Regeneration (C) 1Lv, Absorb (C) 1Lv, Hardening (C) 1Lv
A status window rose before his eyes.
It was not Garam's own, but that of the monster in front of him, Gallos.
A monster he could never have beaten by rights.
But thanks to the skill called Domination, what had been B-Grade had dropped to C-Grade.
That was just as dangerous, but Garam found himself reaching a hand out toward Gallos.
VWOOOOOOM—!
Garam could feel it. The enormous energy raging inside his body.
Wings of blood spread out behind Garam's back.
Wings with no membrane at all, wings that existed as nothing but bare framework.
"Guuuurgh!"
The overwhelming energy crowding in on him clouded his mind, but only for a moment.
Garam unconsciously extended his hand toward him,
and behind Garam, an enormous crystal of blood took shape.
CRRRRACK—!
A crystal of blood, crude beyond description.
It shot forward at a speed hard to follow even with the eye,
CRAAASH—!
punched through Gallos' upper body, and then blew away the temple's ceiling as well.
"Yes, this is the level you need to be king of the Vampirs and to have a revolution. Good thing it seems I didn't pick the wrong True Progenitor."
Moonlight spilled down through the broken ceiling.
Beneath it, Carmilla spoke with a smile.
"Revolution? What are you..."
Unable to follow the situation at all, Garam tried to ask Carmilla, but,
[Intermediate Vampir: Gallos has been slain.]
[Sub-skill: Absorb is available.]
[Use? Y/N]
another message window rose in front of him.
Garam reflexively pressed the Y button without a thought,
[Sub-skill: Absorb activates.]
and the blood running from Gallos' body began to be absorbed into Garam.
Garam's body drank in Gallos' blood like a sponge soaking up water.
The mana that had been utterly empty moments before filled up, and vitality returned to his body.
[You acquire Skill: Crimson Flame (B).]
[Sub-skill: Absorb's Grade is low.]
[Skill: Crimson Flame (B)'s Grade is adjusted.]
[You acquire Skill: Crimson Flame (C).]
[It is a normal skill. It is not integrated into True Progenitor.]
Absorb blood, and gain skills and levels.
Dumbfounded by the situation, Garam sank down onto the floor where he was.
"Ha. At this rate it's like I've turned into some kind of vampire."
"You have, though? The precise academic term is Vampir."
"What?"
"Take a look at your status window."
It was just as Garam hurriedly opened his mouth to call up his status window.
-I cannot die like this. You above all, I will kill without fail!
Gallos' body, its upper half blown away, suddenly burst and came down over the whole temple like rain.
At the same time, the Full Moon Temple shook.
Soon skeletons broke up through the floor and appeared.
Enough skeletons to fill the vast temple.
-Die!
The sight of them all charging at Garam at once was like watching a pure white wave.
"Hey, hey, hey! What is that? Do Vampirs or whatever split into skeletons when they die?"
"Does that sound likely? He's just raised the corpses he's killed all this time as undead."
It was insane.
No matter how much mana he had filled up with Gallos' blood, he couldn't take down that many.
Just as turning on a faucet couldn't put out a fire.
It was more than he could handle, having only just Awakened.
In the end, Garam gave up on fighting the skeletons.
Fighting them was meaningless anyway, now that the escape gate had opened.
THUD.
He would have fled that very instant, if not for the woman coming in through the escape gate.
"Aww, what's this? My first fight in a while, and there's an uninvited guest."
She was a hunter in an unusual outfit, all of it a white suit and coat.
Her beaming smile felt cute at a glance, but look closely and she was a woman who gave off an air that brought the deep sea to mind.
"Shit, why is she here?"
"Huh? You know those bastards too?"
"Not knowing would be the strange thing. That person is an S-Grade hunter!"
That woman was an S-Grade hunter, the pride of Korea,
and a member of the Hunter Association's First Subjugation Team.
The Admiral of Ruin.
Han Hae-rang.
"Wow, we're screwed. You're in real trouble now."
"What? What's that supposed to mean?"
Why was an S-Grade hunter showing up a problem?
It was unexpected that she'd turn up here, but...
There was no way that person would kill him.
At worst it would be an arrest for illegal gate entry, wouldn't it?
"...That's a big deal too, though."
But what Carmilla said was something else entirely from what Garam had in mind.
"That's a Holy Knights uniform. Which means she's a specialist killer who hunts Vampirs like us."
"Hm?"
"And your race just became Vampir."
"Ah."
Right. On top of that, hadn't he absorbed Gallos' blood earlier?
"Forget the revolution, we'll be lucky if we don't die right now."
Just as Carmilla's expression hardened,
"Well. We'll take a detailed statement later."
whether she knew any of that or not, Hae-rang began to move her mana.
VWOOOOM.
As Hae-rang spread her hand, clear water gathered above it.
The water gathered and gathered until it became one enormous anchor.
WHOOSH—!
Hae-rang swung the anchor at the skeletons,
CRAAAAASH—!
and a clear blue tidal wave swallowed the pure white wave.
"Huh? Wait, what about me?"
And Garam was inside it too.