Chapter 1: Family Secrets (No prizes for guessing)
"Athan...come closer…" A middle aged man laid on his bed, propping himself up with his shoulders.
"Yes, father." Athan stepped forward, restrained concern in his eyes.
"My time has come...but I still need to tell you something." He popped open a vial filled with red liquid and downed it.
To Athan's shock, his father's age seemed to regress. His wrinkles vanished, his skin turned smooth and flawless, and his physique became perfect. His sixteen pack looked sharp enough to cut glass, and his hair grew lush and dark.
He looked like one of those models on TV and he stood up easily, as if his previous state was a lie. He placed a hand on Athan's shoulder.
"My son, I'm a vampire. You're a Dhampir, a half blood, that's why you can never awaken your aura naturally." He flashed his fangs that weren't there before.
Athan's eyes widened. In this day and age, it was widespread knowledge that all humans had Aura within them. If they managed to awaken it, they could gain superpowers.
"W-why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Because our family has declined. If you let our vampiric heritage leak, we would be doomed. Our ancestors used to be the servant of the Progenitor, but now the only thing we have left is this."
He fished out a necklace from nowhere. It was a silver chain, attached to a silver bat with a red crystal embedded in its mouth.
"As a Dhampir, you have high resistance to the classic vampire weaknesses, but your powers are weak. In the red crystal is a drop of the progenitor's blood. Drink it, be strong and see the world."
As he finished his exposition, his body started to crumble away.
"That's why you don't like garlic…" Athan muttered as he watched his father fade away, his emotions in a mess.
"Stop...thinking...about...stupid things…" His father grinned sadly before vanishing forever.
His empty clothes fell to the ground and a thin hardcover book and a sealed letter fell out. Athan folded up the clothes and placed them on the bed before picking up the book, wiping the tears dripping down his face.
It's cover was blood red, with a golden title that read [Vampire Combat Arts].
He flipped through it and recognized the unarmed combat techniques his father had insisted on teaching him, along with the strange claw combat art he felt was useless. He tucked the book away in his shirt.
The sealed letter was labeled [Application to the Military Academy]. Military Academies became widespread to train youths and awaken their Aura. He was to be brought to the Military Academy tomorrow.
After the first successful warp gate test, other worlds were discovered. Humans started to build outposts and even settlements in these worlds, harvesting their resources for their own use.
As humanity got more and more greedy, they started probing for more worlds and eventually attracted the attention of the Star Spawns when they trespassed into their colonies.
The alien race declared war on humans, and despite having weaker military forces and inferior technology, humans managed to hold out with the power of Aura.
Star Spawns were much more well versed in interdimensional warfare and technology, so humanity raced to advance their technology.
Seeing humans bridging the gap by copy their tech, the Star Spawns proposed a truce that was accepted, and both sides have been rapidly building their defenses
Athan placed the necklace in his mouth and bit the red crystal, letting the somehow warm blood flow into his mouth. Despite the crystal's small size, there felt to be at least a cup of liquid inside.
After ingesting the blood, his heart started thumping, and soon his entire body could feel his heartbeat spread through it.
First his veins, then his chest, then his entire body felt cold and hot at the same time.
It was like somehow being in a sauna and a chilled room simultaneously.
After a few minutes of discomfort, the warmth faded away and Athan inspected himself in the mirror. His face and body got sharper and handsomer, like his old man's.
But his skin was also cool and somewhat pale, like his body heat had dropped. His heart rate and breathing also slowed and he noticed he did not need to blink.
His raging emotions from watching his father die also became fainter. He could feel them, but they did not affect his mind anymore.
Did father feel like this all the time? He wondered, but would never know.
He opened his mouth to check, and apparently his teeth had grown a little longer and pointer, but somehow he could extend those fangs at will.
His nails went through a similar transformation, being sharp and hard enough to easily scrape wood and steel while being retractable.
While he was marveling at his changes, a line of blood red text appeared before his eyes. A smooth and pleasant voice also sounded in his head.
[Blood Successor System v2 has activated]
[We wish you a pleasant user experience]
A full status screen appeared before him. It was like those systems in novels that he read when he was younger.
[Athan Young]
[Race: Dhampir (Human,Vampire, Progenitor Vampire)]
[Level: 1]
[Experience Points: 0/100]
[Aura: None]
[Health: 26/26]
[Fatigue: 10]
[Blood Pool: 0]
[Blood Potential: 10]
There were several other tabs in his system which he checked.
[Attributes]
[Strength: 20]
[Agility: 30]
[Fortitude: 25]
[Mentality: 25]
[Perception: 20]
[Free Attribute Points: 0]
[Learning Function disabled]
[Unlocked at Lvl 5]
[Shop function disabled]
[Unlocked at Lvl 7]
[Skill Tree]
[Requires Skill Points]
[Current Skill Points: 0]
[Quests]
[Only Daily Quests are available]
[Daily Quests]
[1. Eat at least 100g of meat]
[2. Stay in the sun for an hour]
[3. Kill a living being]
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦…𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦 Athan thought as he read the last quest.
To test a conjecture, he crushed an ant crawling in the corner of his house.
[Daily Quest 3 complete!]
[Reward: 20 Experience Points]
Apparent it worked. He went out to buy a hamburger and sat in the park, savoring the taste slowly. He noticed that the hamburger did not make him feel much fuller, but he wasn't hungry to begin with.
[Daily Quest 2 complete!]
[Reward: 10 Experience Points]
[Daily Quest 1 complete!]
[Reward: 20 Experience Points]
In the sun, he received a notification.
[Attributes reduced by 10% when in direct sunlight]
[Every uninterrupted hour of exposure, reduction increases by 10%, and when reduction is at 100%, you will be incapacitated]
[Once reduction goes beyond 100%, you will die]
He was slightly concerned that sunbathing could potentially kill him, but he remembered he had never sunbathed before, let alone for 11 hours straight.
He returned to his home to pack, to tidy his father's belongings and to say goodbye to the place he had lived in his entire life.
Athan noticed an old picture of him, his father and his mother together when he was a child.
"At least they are together now." He muttered to himself.