First Blood

Returning home, he felt a weird sense of accomplishment. It was actually like he was worth something.

Soon enough, he could actually have achievements to his name.

'This thing is perfect!' Lycanos claimed, looking at himself in his bathroom mirror.

The following day, his feeling of achievement had not faltered. He hadn't done really anything of substance in years, being excused by the death of his parents.

However, there would no longer be an excuse.

Instead of spending his money at school, he would strugglingly contain his hunger there and head to a very cheap corner store in Kol Heights. Very questionable people would walk in and out of the store, and he was sure that there was going to be something dodgy in the meat they'd sell.

He couldn't cook and decided to buy things like cans of tuna, sardines and chicken fillets that he could find.

It would tick off his meat requirements quite quickly, and he was getting more protein per buck for this process.

He continued to complete his daily quests and shocked himself with his discipline. He still felt no desire to continue working hard in school and this system only exacerbated that feeling.

This was going to be his way forward. It wasn't going to be through studying things he would never even use in the future anyway.

5 straight days of daily quests passed -6 days after he received his system- and he was woken up to quite the worrying panel and hunger.

[Your hunger grows!]

[Consume human blood within the next 24 hours.]

[Energy will drop by 10 every 2.4 hours and HP will decrement by 2.4 hours]

'Decrement? What does that even mean?' Lycanos wondered.

It reminded him of his boring maths classes, and he hadn't listened intently enough to even know what this meant.

Upon searching it up on his phone, he found its meaning and then opened his stats worriedly.

While doing so, he was also bothered by the intense hunger that he was feeling. It was much stronger than before, that he usually just satisfied through buying a little bit more meat. The thought of blood -human blood- gave him a different, unique feeling.

It was a soothing, tantalising emotion.

He found it odd, but just opened his system.

[~MENU~]

[Stats]

[Quests]

[User: Lycanos (Ramio) Damaskus]

[Level: 1]

[XP: 8/10]

[HP: 10/10]

[Lunar Empowerment: 1]

[Regeneration: 1]

[Strength: 1]

[Speed: 1]

[Durability: 1]

[Stat Upgrades: 0]

[Energy: 100/100]

[Talents: 0]

He had only 10 HP points and he knew that if it would drop every 2.4 hours, it would drop to 0 by midnight. The same would happen to his energy. He was labelled an 'immortal werewolf' so he wasn't entirely sure if this was supposed to be worrying.

Would he be immortal as long as he had some HP? What would happen if he lost all his energy?

He had so many questions but tried his best to brush it off. How was he going to acquire human blood anyway?

Surely the same punishment wouldn't be in place for this weekly quest, right?

In his school day, he was even more zoned out than usual. All he could think about was that quest and his agonising hunger. Soon enough, he could smell the blood of those that was sit next to him.

He wasn't sure at first, but its coppery, metal-like scent was easily identified as the smell of blood.

At first, the smell was present but had a minor effect on his mind. Soon, as the hours passed, he could feel himself becoming more fatigued but also more attracted toward blood.

At lunchtime, he couldn't wait to return home to complete his meat quest.

Nearly rinsing the money that he had remaining, he bought as much chicken as he could that was on display today. It was chicken, along with dense, creamy Greek gyros.

As he finished his meal, the meat wasn't satisfying his hunger. It felt insatiable at this point, and he just looked to the ceiling of this large canteen in pain.

"Are you good, man?" Enzo asked, looking at his friend.

He was truly concerned for him because his hunger didn't look like it usually did now. It seemed to be hurting him in some way.

As Lycanos heard this statement, all he could hear from Enzo was the blood pulsating through his body and the scent of his blood overpowered the food that was literally in his face.

Leaning over, he grasped the bottom of the table between them and clawed at it. Little did he know, claws had taken form and dug into the table, leaving deep claw marks.

"I'm good." Lycanos replied, weakly letting his head rest on the table.

Upon making it back to his home, he couldn't wait for the final meal he was to be given. Totally finishing his stores of tuna and sardines, it did nothing to help his hunger.

As soon as he heard plates being placed on their dining table, he rushed out of his door and swiftly took a seat before he began eating.

"What's up with you today?" His auntie asked, with a chuckle.

His uncle, Samson, just watched on in surprise as he saw him eat way more than he would usually do in a whole day.

"You better be happy with what you have there, because there's nothing more to give you." He said, but Lycanos wasn't even paying attention to his words.

The plates of pasta and Bolognese were rinsed, and he even licked the residue on his plate and the one next to him.

Leaning back, his hunger still lingered and he grunted from feeling this. It infuriated him, because he started to realise what he would have to do.

However, he remained resilient and rushed back his room to try and take his mind off things.

Reaching for his alcohol, he realised that he felt no need to have it in moderation. There was no buzzing effect, and instead of taking his usual shots, he just started taking gulps from the bottle.

Its cool liquid gave him seconds of refreshment but he was still utterly ravenous.

He could only spend minutes inside and he rushed outside of his apartment as fast as he could.

[User: Lycanos (Ramio) Damaskus]

[Level: 1]

[XP: 0/10]

[HP: 2/10]

[Lunar Empowerment: 1]

[Regeneration: 1]

[Strength: 1]

[Speed: 1]

[Durability: 1]

[Stat Upgrades: 0]

[Energy: 20/100]

[Talents: 0]

Now, there was instead pain in his stomach from all the unnecessary food in there. He simultaneously felt intensely stuffed and totally hollow.

Stumbling through the streets like he was drugged, he looked around him with the eyes of a beast. His breaths turned into low, intimidating growls.

Not immediately seeing anyone in the vicinity, he turned a corner, and saw a lone woman walking down the street. He heard her footsteps, but could also faintly hear her heartbeat, even from 30 metres away.

Whoosh!

He rushed off with immense speed. He ran faster than 30 miles per hour in his advance and snarled as he approached her. Beside them was a thin alley between two adjacent buildings and so, he pulled her right into this area.

"Get off me!!" She screamed, before falling from his unstoppable force.

Pulling her back up to her feet with ease, he opened his drooling mouth to reveal razor sharp canine fangs.

Chomp!

Digging his teeth right into her neck, he began to suck as aggressively as he could. His mind was commanded by his inner instincts, and his mouth was filled by a taste he had never experienced before.

It was a flavoursome, caramel sweetness that he couldn't get enough of.

She attempted to break herself free but, in reaction, Lycanos slammed her into the wall ahead of him as he continued sucking her blood. This knock to her head knocked her out cold, and her skin swiftly started to become pale.

Her body fell totally still, and she started to slip down the brick wall until Lycanos finally released his fangs from her neck. His mouth was covered in her blood, and his tongue licked all the residue around his lips.

The hunger was gone, and his body felt warm from the pain he had gone through and what he had just done.

[Weekly Quest Complete!]

[+4 XP]

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

[First Blood]

[Consume human blood for the first time]

[+4 XP]

[LEVEL UP]

[+1 Stat Upgrade]

[+2 HP]

[+5 Energy]

[New Talent!]

[Talent: Immortal Sinew]

[The user's healing factor and durability increase with every battle.]

He just fell back onto his bum, looking at the panel that descended as he did.

Instead of remaining seated, however, he ran out of the aisle he was in and gave his surroundings a quick but attentive glance, before powering off.

His speed wasn't like how it was with his long-distance run. He wasn't crossing as much distance and felt like an elite sprinter as he sprinted.

The sky was now a midnight black, and he snuck back into his apartment before rushing past his uncle's room.

He hadn't even gotten the time to look at the panel that was following him in his sprint.

[Weekly Quest Complete!]

[+4 XP]

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

[First Blood]

[Consume human blood for the first time]

[+4 XP]

[LEVEL UP]

[+1 Stat Upgrade]

[+2 HP]

[+5 Energy]

[New Talent!]

[Talent: Immortal Sinew]

[The user's healing factor and durability increase with every battle.]