4 Chapter 004: Blood Parasite
Arthur searched the cave, he was in no hurry as he had no responsibilities in this world as he was not the protagonist. After a while, he found a corpse, but it wasn't that of a monster.
Apparently it was a human corpse, and if it wasn't, it looked a lot like one. The corpse had some distinctive features that made Arthur suspicious. He had piercing eyes, claw-like nails and sharp fangs, from the state of his body he probably had a fight before he ended up here. His hair was black and his clothes were torn as well as his skin, but the biggest bruise was on his chest, where a huge gash could be seen.
Analyzing his appearance, Arthur came to a conclusion; he was a vampire. Her long fingernails and the fangs in her mouth were so flashy, it was impossible not to notice. Even though this was quite a find, something was making Arthur uncomfortable, vampires only appeared in the original story when Rimuru was already very powerful, so how did one end up in the cave where it all started?
Wasting no more time, as he didn't want to be interrupted by any monster, Arthur used his ability [Penetrate] and entered the large cut that was in the vampire's body, immediately after he entered the body, numerous blue windows appeared in his mind.
[YOU OWNED 'Corpse of Vampire: Rodrick Donovan']
[FIRST POSSESSION! +50% EXPERIENCE]
[YOU GOT A NEW ABILITY: [Vampire Bite (Active Lv8)].
[YOU GOT A NEW ABILITY: [Vampiric Help] (Active Lv5)].
[YOU GOT A NEW ABILITY: [Physical Enhancement (Passive Lv5)].
[YOU GOT A NEW ABILITY: [Mana Control (Passive Lv2)].
[YOU GOT A NEW ABILITY: [Universal Language (Passive)
[PLEASE CHECK THE STATUS WINDOW FOR MORE DETAILS]
[YOUR STATISTICS INCREASED. CHECK THE STATUS WINDOW FOR MORE DETAILS]
[YOUR RACE WAS CHANGED AUTOMATICALLY: BLOOD PARASITE]
[BLOOD PARASITE: An updated version of the 'Parasite' race. It is acquired when using a Vampire as a host: when possessing other Vampires, the user will gain 60% of their stats along with all their abilities]
[THE BLOOD PARASITE WILL LOSE 50% OF ITS STATS DURING THE DAY]
[BLOOD PARASITE STATISTICS WILL INCREASE BY 10% AT NIGHT]
[WHEN THE HOST OF THE BLOOD PARASITE DIE, THE PARASITE WILL BE Ejected AND PERMANENTLY LOSE 30% OF ITS STATS AND TEMPORARY DEBUFF [Near Death].
[Near Death] Debuff: When incapacitated, the Parasite will not be able to possess any corpse for 24 hours.]
[THE BLOOD PARASITE CAN ONLY HAVE RELATIVELY INTACT BODIES]
[THE BLOOD PARASITE CANNOT OWN CORPSES MADE OR USING SILVER]
[CAUTION! SILVER IS FATAL TO BLOOD PARASITES]
...
Arthur stood there, reading each of the blue windows that appeared in front of him, careful not to miss any information. After finishing, he tried to open his eyes, her vision was a little blurry at first, but after a few seconds it adjusted and he could clearly see everything around her. Although when he used [Echolocation] he could 'see', it didn't compare to the wonderful feeling of having your own eyes to see.
After a few minutes of getting his mind used to the body he was now, Arthur felt alive, the feeling of having legs and hands again was divine, but not only that, Arthur felt powerful, as if he feared nothing inside this cave. The monsters that were once terrifying and giant in his mind now didn't scare him anymore. Apparently when he has a body his personality changes and his arrogance increases, overestimating his strength must be a characteristic of vampires and that was probably why this vampire ended up here.
"I need to be careful with this..."
The blue windows were still in front of her, so Arthur continued to read.
[MANA CONTROL (Passive Lv2): The ability to sense and control Mana inside and outside the user's body.]
[VAMPIRE BITE (Active Lv8): Bite a living target and suck their blood for strengthening or sustaining.]
[PHYSICAL ENHANCEMENT (Passive Lv5): A Vampire's body is stronger than a human's. All physical stats will be increased each time the skill level goes up.
This skill levels up once after sucking the blood of ten living creatures.]
[VAMPIRICAN HELP (Active Lv5): The Vampire can sacrifice some of his Blood to turn Humans, Demons, Elves, Beastmen, Dwarves, ... into half-vampires. If the Vampire successfully turns a target into a half-vampire, their stats will increase by 7%.]
[UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE (Passive): The former bearer of the Host's current body had a great knowledge of languages, learning languages of all kinds while alive.]
Although he felt powerful and comfortable to have a normal body again, the horrible smell of his injuries was bothering him, that was the bad part of having a nose again.
By this time, Rimuru must have already met with the humans and with the Goblins, Arthur needed to go after him soon.
...
While all this was happening, in a country not far from there, two men were talking.
"I didn't call you here for nothing, I want to talk about Veldora Dragon's sudden disappearance. We think the demons will get more active now, I want to know what kind of countermeasure the guild has prepared for this."
The man who said that was called Belyard, he was one of Burmond's ministers. His appearance was that of a tall, thin blond man who looked like he worked hard, with a thrifty beard and silky eyes.
"We don't have anything special."
"Thinking about countermeasures is the job of the nation, we are not volunteers."
The answer given below was made by a black haired man who was sitting in front of Belyard, he had a scar on his left eye and his name was Fuze.
Having received an answer like that made Belyard even more worried, after taking a deep breath, he sat back in the armchair.
"You are very pale Belyard, white hairs are showing on your head." said Fuze, jokingly.
"Stop joking around, Fuze. This incident isn't just about monsters getting more active." replied Belyard.
"The Eastern Empire?" asked Fuze.
"That's right, the power that suppressed them is gone, and now there's nothing to stop their invasion."
"The outskirts of the Jura forest will be conquered quickly."
"I understand… I'll at least look into this, for the sake of our old friendship." - Fuze
"Sorry for this unexpected request." - Belyard
"It's okay, I'm also worried about Veldora's disappearance." - Fuze
...
