16 Dragon
Zane, setting Scarlet down on the floor, pulled out one of his daggers and made another cut—this time, on the wrist, so there was more space for blood to flow. Scarlet obediently opened its mouth to let the blood flow into its body, and gulped as the wound finally closed.
Then, he waited. Scarlet, on the floor, blinked a few times as its body absorbed the nutrients of Zane's powerful vampire blood, and suddenly, its body grew. Years' worth of growth, all happening in that one instant. It was now the size of a small dog, and could safely rest on Zane's shoulder. Not only that, Zane could see that Scarlet's level had also gone up, from 10 to 12.
He smiled.
"So… this really works, huh?"
He prepared for yet another feeding, but seeing his motions, Scarlet quickly shook its head, as if saying no. Zane paused in his movements, then sighed.
"Of course… how could I forget… just because they're Dragons, they don't have infinite appetite…"
Looks like it would be a while until its next meal. When Scarlet was hungry again, it would come to Zane on its own—he was sure of that. For now, though, it was time to focus on himself—he still hadn't gotten a chance to review his new status since his Second Awakening.
[Status]
[Zane Silverdale]
Race - Vampire | Sex - Male | Age - 25
Titles | [???, Bearer of the Immortal Blood Body, Ascendant]
Level 13 | [Progenitor] | EXP: 570/1,300
Specialization: Omnipotence
Physique: Immortal Blood Body
[STR: 50] [DEF: 43] [AGI: 50] [INT: 50] [DEX: 40]
Skills: [Devour II] [Regeneration V] [Soul Detect I] [Blood Mark I] [Fire Mastery I] [Cartography V] [Invisibility I] [Teleportation II]
Available SP: 33
As expected, there were numerous changes to note here, and it wasn't just limited to his stats, which had all received a +20 bonus from the Second Awakening.
The first thing Zane noticed was that one of his titles had changed—from Bearer of the Vampire Devouring Body to Bearer of the Immortal Blood Body instead. Now that he thought about it, the transformation made sense. The Vampire Devouring Body was meant to 'Devour' a Vampire, so now that Zane had 'Devoured' a vampire's blood, the title changed and his true second potential awakened.
He had 33 SP to spend thanks to the level-up and the completion of those two quests he had earlier, but he ignored that for now and instead checked on his new abilities first—[Blood Mark] and [Soul Detect]. By tapping on them, a detailed information panel was brought up.
[Soul Detect]
[Type: Passive]
[Tier: Innate]
[The passive innate ability of the Immortal Blood Body. Allows the user to feel where lost souls who recently died are by tracing their blood essence.]
———
[Blood Mark]
[Type: Active]
[Tier: Sovereign]
[The mark of a Sovereign. Place on a target to turn them into your loyal servant. They cannot disobey your orders unless they wish to suffer tormenting pain, and if you die, so will they. The target's consciousness must first consent, and the number of Marked servants you can have at a time depends on the skill's tier as well as your INT stat. Marked targets will have a '(+)' symbol beside their name when inspecting.]
[Current servant capacity: 5 (INT Requirement: 50)]
'Tier: Sovereign? But the skill tiers are just like Hunter levels—A to S, with the only exception being physique-related skills which are classified as 'Innate'. What is 'Sovereign' supposed to mean?'
Yet another question that Zane wouldn't find an answer to. He sighed internally. [Soul Detect] may just be a passive that Zane could use in very niche situations, but this [Blood Mark] skill certainly was useful. Even though the target had to first give consent, Zane could use this ability to gain servants who could not betray him, no matter what.
'Wait a minute… Scarlet's name had that symbol beside it, no?'
To double-check, Zane inspected the Dragon perched on top of his shoulder again using the System. Sure enough, there it was, beside its name—the '(+)' symbol, meaning that Scarlet had already been Marked by him.
'Strange… I don't recall using any skills on it… could it be, after ingesting my blood, the process was automatically done?'
That was the only explanation—there were two ways to Mark someone. One was to manually use the skill, while the other was to get them to drink Zane's blood.
To make sure of the first method, he'd need to test the ability out once he got out of here, but for now, he focused on distributing his stat points, focusing mainly on Strength, Agility, and Intellect. Defense was a secondary priority, while Dexterity was really of not much use for Zane at the moment.
Right after he finished allocating his stat points, the [Available SP] section near the bottom of his System transformed with a dark, shadowy animation, and unveiled a new line of text.
[New Quest Available]
Curious, Zane tapped on it to see what it was—he was in need of Bloodrunes anyway—and was unsurprised to find what he saw.
[You have met all the requirements to activate the Main Quest: Sovereign's Rebirth — Chapter I]
[Objective: Obtain 5 servants with the <Blood Mark> skill.]
[Reward: ???]
[Current Progress: 1/5]
"Hm… obtaining more Servants, huh? Perfect. But what are these question marks supposed to mean…"
Before he did any more fighting, however, a equipment upgrade was necessary. And to do that, Zane opened up his special System Shop, using Bloodrunes as a currency.
His priority was a weapon. While [Twin Shade] was fine ability-wise, its base ATK of only 25 was… quite disappointing, to say the least. Very soon, the weapon would become lacking in the strength department, and fail to do any damage to enemies as Zane became stronger and faced more powerful opponents.
As if reading his mind, the front page of the Shop he opened up was filled with all kinds of weapons, with dual daggers being top priority. Last time he opened this, that had not been the case—apparently, it could discern what Zane needed most at any given time, and put forward the most appropriate offers to fit those needs. Not only that, it didn't just throw out the most powerful ones—it gauged the amount of Bloodrunes Zane currently had on hand as well as his current strength level, and filtered results after taking all of those factors into consideration.
Thanks to all this intricately-designed system, Zane was able to find a weapon that looked appealing to him almost instantly. The handles were a simple black, but the blades were a bloody crimson and had traces of black energy crawling up the end near the hilt. They looked ominous and the curve of the blades made them seem almost demonic, but Zane liked their appearance.
[Bloodfury]
[Rarity: B-Rank]
[Type: Daggers]
[Description: A blade that can be empowered by blood. Every kill with this weapon grants one stack of <Frenzied>, increasing the weapon's damage by 10 temporarily. At max stacks (5), enter <Berserker's Rage> for 60 seconds, granting increased STR, AGI, and DEF. <Berserker> mode can also be activated by charging up the wielder's own blood.]
[ATK: +75 (125 during Berserker's Rage)]
'Bloodfury, huh… not bad, not bad at all.'
Essentially, this was a multi-kill machine—perfect for Zane's future plans in this Dungeon. Now that he out-leveled almost anything to be found here, it was time for a slaughter. He would farm up every last monster in this place, clear out every last room—scrape together every last bit of EXP possible for himself.
After making the purchase for 100 Bloodrunes, Zane stood up from the floor. Before leaving, however, he turned around to the incubator where Scarlet's egg had been, and was surprised to find that it had now condensed down into a small, tiny shape of some sort. It looked like a 2x2 Rubik's cube, except the only color was stone-grey and the lines in between the different tiles glowed purple with energy.
'Hm… this thing…'
Not only did it allow Zane to go through a Second Awakening, it also granted him a brand new companion. There was something very mysterious about the object, and for further research purposes, Zane decided to bring it along with him for now. After all, in this small, cube-like state, it was quite mobile.
After pocketing it, Zane gently tapped on his draconic companion's head, and smiled.
"Alright, Scarlet. It's hunting time."
