41 Elder Vampire
Gerard took the first step into the castle, and an energy chilled him to the bone. The entranceway opened up to a lobby with several suits of armour standing on pedestals. With each step further into the castle along the worn velvet rug, the chill grew harsher. Just as Gerard moved to rub his arms, he raised his shovel to knock the blade of a sword away from his head.
One of the suits of armour with a broadsword between its gauntlets clattered to life.
[Living Armour - Armour that a user of magic gives limited sentience.]
"Really?" Gerard parried a blow from the armour.
"I guess magic can do all sorts of incredible things. You made our bodies, remember?" Sprite thrust her sword and struck the armour in the gap of its helmet.
The armour grabbed the blade and swatted it away.
"I guess we have to destroy the armour itself."
Gerard threw his shovel at the monster, and as it knocked it to the side, Gerard punched its leg, caving it in. The armour hobbled on the spot before going back into its stance.
With a downward arc, the living armour aimed to split Gerard in two, but Sprite kicked him out of the way. With inhuman strength, the armour changed the trajectory of the slash to follow Gerard.
*Shadow Step!* Gerard disappeared into the shadows before the blade reached him and re-emerged behind the armour.
He pulled back his arm, and with a quick successive series of punches, the chest plate of the living armour bent inwards.
The armour lifted its sword again.
Gerard stumbled.
The armour swung downward.
*Oh, this is the exhaustion from using the skill? Rose is pretty impressive to be able to use it constantly.* Gerard closed his eyes.
With a thud, he opened his eyes to see the sword and the arms of the living armour sitting on the ground, with the sword lying just shy of Gerard's jewels.
"Are you okay?" Sprite rushed over and held out her hand.
"Yes. I've got to test the limits of the skills before using them in combat, it seems." Gerard smiled wryly as he grasped her hand.
Gerard grabbed his shovel and used it as support as they continued down the velvet rug.
The sound of crashing metal reverberated in the chambers.
[You have gained 19,150 experience. The value is split between your human race and your classes. 10,342 experience until your Villager class reaches level 6. You have reached Grave Keeper level 4. 2,117 experience until your Grave Keeper class reaches level 5.]
"Sprite?"
"Hmm?"
"You don't have to tell me about my experience being split up anymore. I get it."
"Okay, then. Mr Smarty Pants." Sprite pursed her lips while they limped up a flight of stairs.
"No need to get all pouty."
They reached the steps to the second floor, where the chilling aura came from.
"Are we going to be okay?"
"I still have that Limiter Release skill as a last resort. Whatever comes, we can handle it."
Room after dust and cobweb-filled room, Gerard and Sprite searched until they opened doors leading into a conservatory. Surrounded by luscious and untamed plants, several figures crept out of the shadows. Beyond the figures, another sat beneath a pavilion in a marble chair beside a matching table.
The moon slid out from behind the clouds and lit up the entire conservatory. Six grey-skinned humans with yellow eyes and fangs stood between Gerard, Sprite, and a pale man watching over them.
[Vampire Spawn - Created by the upper levels of vampires by having humans ingest their blood.]
*And I guess that's the elder vampire.*
"Just kill them," the man croaked.
*I guess that answers my question.*
Immediately, the spawn rushed towards them. With as much strength as Gerard could muster, he took the head of the front-most vampire spawn with his shovel. Sprite moved fluidly, taking minimal damage from their claws while slicing their bodies up.
Three vampires moved on Gerard at once. Gerard knocked one away with a palm strike, pierced the chest of the second with his shovel, but received a bite to his neck from the third. He gripped the vampire's neck and squeezed tightly while it sucked on his blood.
[Disease Resistance prevented the contraction of Vampirism.]
*Not yet. I can't use Limiter Release yet. There's still a stronger enemy.*
Gerard watched as Sprite continued to cut her two opponents down. Slowly, the force of the spawn's bite lessened until Gerard felt its neck pop. Gerard fell to his knees and gripped his wound. Blood oozed through the gaps between his fingers.
*Ah, this isn't good.*
The vampire spawn he punched away launched itself forward.
*I hope this works. Shadow Step!*
Gerard opened his eyes to find his fist embedded in the vampire spawn's chest. He pulled his hand free and dropped the withered heart on the ground.
[You have gained 39,600 experience. You have reached Villager level 6. 39,642 experience until your Villager class reaches level 7. You have reached Grave Keeper level 6. 48,417 experience until your Grave Keeper class reaches level 7.]
[You have gained the skill: Dead Speech - You may now communicate and reason with the dead.]
"That's a little too much to process right now. It's time for the boss." Gerard stumbled, and his vision grew blurry.
The vampire punctured a main vein, but Gerard could still speak and breathe fine. He felt something catch his fall and drag him close enough to make out the elder vampire. He glanced over his shoulder to see Sprite straining to hold him up.
*I just need a moment. Limiter relea-*
Uncontrolled laughter resounded throughout the glass building. The elder vampire smiled. His eyes revealed a tiredness beyond anything Gerard had seen in his life.
"Before the two of you kill me, I would like to offer you my life. And, with my life, a gift." The elder vampire raised his arms.
Blood shot out quicker than Gerard and Sprite could respond and covered their bodies. As Gerard tried to break free of the situation, he felt strange. The wounds all over his body closed up one after the other, and his exhaustion cleared up.
Gerard watched as flashes of the vampire's life flashed before his eyes. He observed a young lord take the castle from a corrupt noble by force and turn the lower town around the castle into a happy and thriving place. In his thirties, the lords of the land were called to fight the demon lord and his army of demons and monsters. During the battle, Horomiir was bitten by a vampire and returned to his castle before he completely turned. A flash of unspeakable atrocities seared into Gerard's mind before he opened his eyes.
[Gained a skill: Increased Regeneration - Gifted by Horomiir, the elder vampire. Wounds heal five times faster. Scars and permanent damage will recover from injuries that are not fatal.]
"Thank you, Horomiir."
"Oh, so you know my true name and not the shortened version the other humans gave me. You're interesting. If this were a hundred years ago, I would have enjoyed fighting you." The vampire coughed sickly.
"And not now?"
"Alas, even vampires have a lifespan, and after several thousands of years, mine is about to end. Don't waste that limited life of yours, human."
"I won't." Gerard nodded
He brought his shovel to Horomiir's neck and beheaded him.
[You have gained 98,675 experience. 6,751 experience until your Villager class reaches level 7. You have reached Grave Keeper level 6. 15,526 experience until your Grave Keeper class reaches level 7.]
"I'm completely healed!"
"Me too. Did we both get that skill?"
"I think so?" Sprite checked her body for anything out of the ordinary.
"I guess, even if I were a dhampir, I would have eventually died of old age."
"That does seem to be the case."
"Let's clean up the rest of the castle. I'll bury him." Gerard grabbed Horomiir's head and body and headed towards the exit.
"Bury? Why? Wouldn't we get more money if we bring him back with us?"
"Whatever heinous things Horomiir did in the past, he's given us a gift worth more than the money we would receive. Remember those Crimson Mists?"
"Of course, my memory is just as good as yours."
"Okay, okay, I mean that they're created from dead vampires. Doesn't it seem like a miserable existence? If I bury him, with my Grave Keeper skill, he won't become anything else."
"This humanity of yours is definitely strange. In the past, you wouldn't have even considered doing something like that."
"That's true. Your humanity is also starting to show; in due time, you'll make decisions that are weighted by your emotions, just like when you protected me from the owlbear."
"That sounds like a drag."
"Sometimes it is, but that's what being human is. You get all of the good and all of the bad."
"As long as you keep introducing me to the good things, I'm happy to go through the bad."
"I'll do my best."
They reached the exit, and several animated stone statues stood in their way. Gerard let go of their deceased master and charged head-first into the fray, smashing the wolves, gargoyles, and ravens one after another.
"Compared to the vampires, these pieces of rock were nothing." Gerard stuck his shovel into a wolf statue's head.
"Levelling up might have helped." Sprite shrugged.
"Maybe, but no experience?"
"They were animated through magic and weren't actually alive, unlike the living armour which gained sentience and a connection to the world's mana."
"I see..."
Sprite stood up from the steps and tossed the vampire's body to Gerard, then the head.
"No respect for the dead?"
"The dead are dead."
"I suppose so. Let's get this finished."
---
Gerard flattened the soil atop a freshly filled-in grave and sighed.
"Turns out digging one of these is pretty rough."
"It's a big hole. Why did you dig so deep?"
"I've heard various reasons for this, from not wanting vampires to climb their way out, to preventing disease, to stopping farmers from accidentally ploughing up corpses. Whatever the case, it's tradition now."
"Humans are strange."
"You're a human now, remember?"
"That's also strange."
"It has already been a few months, so do try to get used to it."
"Do babies get used to being born after only a few months?"
"I don't know. I'm not a baby, and neither are you."
"You've got a point there."
Gerard grabbed his shovel and strode out of the castle grounds. Once they reached the gate, they slung their rucksacks over their shoulders. As the castle grew more distant, Gerard appreciated the scale of the castle and surrounding village while unobscured by the magical fog. Sprite looked at the castle curiously.
"What is it?"
"There is so much to this world that I don't yet understand, that's all."
Gerard turned from the castle and set out for Solares.
