Chapter 116: Vampire

Chapter 116: Vampire

At that moment, a row of information appeared before Raven's eye.

…

[Name: Billy Morgan (Lucian Graves)

Age: 145

Race: Vampire

Nationality: Zenith Empire (Zarovich's Fortress.)

Affiliation: Butler of Concubine Inna (Servant of Duke Zarovich.)

Title: The Night Servant

Class: Warlock Rank-2- Baronet (3rd Circle)

Health: Normal

Attributes:

Strength: 32

Agility: 34

Vitality: 35

Luck: 10

Spirit: 68

Bloodline Spells:

Rank 1:-

Crimson Blade, Blood Puppet, Vampiric Regeneration, Sanguine Mirage, Blood Curse, Blood Drain.

Rank-2:-

Bloody Mist, Vampiric Gaze, Blood Bond.

Additional Skills:

Intermediate Swordsmanship

Affinities:

Blood: High

Sword: Low

Shadow: Intermediate.]

…

'A Vampire?' Raven's face stiffened.

Meanwhile, the Vampire named Lucian soon shifted his gaze towards Raven and asked.

"Where is this place, young man? Who are you?"

At that moment, a mysterious power appeared out of nowhere and suddenly broke the Sanguine Mirage spell on the Vampire.

Lucian's ears became pointy the next second, and fang-like teeth appeared in his mouth. His skin also turned pale white, and even his fingernails looked sharper as knives.

"Haa! What the hell is going on?" Lucian asked with a glare and looked at his own hands.

"Forget it. I'll make you speak on your own." As soon as he spoke, he suddenly disappeared from where he was before and arrived before him in less than a second.

No, Raven saw him running high-speed thanks to his 'Mind Eye' and knew this guy's strength was way above his.

'He isn't as strong as Jacob… No, his bloodline abilities are par with magic spells, so he should be as strong as Jacob.' At that moment, Lucian arrived before Raven and directly grabbed his neck.

Then, he slowly lifted him in the air and ordered.

"Tell me what's going on, kid-"

Before he could finish his words, he sensed a danger from behind and moved a sidestep to evade a silver spear that appeared out of thin air.

No, he saw the young boy was holding the spear in his hand.

Before he could understand, the young teenage boy started to disappear.

Startled, he looked at his hand and saw 'Raven' in his hand suddenly broke into countless pieces like broken mirrors before disappearing.

"W-What?" He turned around with a dumbfounded gaze and looked around in confusion.

"What are you?"

Meanwhile, Raven backed away multiple steps and took a green-colored vial.

He didn't hesitate as he opened it and gulped it in one go.

In a blink, he felt a sudden surge of strength coursing through his body.

Instead of being shocked, he took a deep blue-colored vial, opened the vial cap, and drank the potion.

A mysterious power surged from his stomach and started enchanting his attributes.

'My strength is increasing steadily… 28 points!' Raven's eyes widened. His agility also rose from 10.9 to 27 points!

Although he was still a bit slower than the Vampire Lucian, Raven felt he could manage.

As the potion effects took in, the surroundings started to shimmer and broke into countless pieces, revealing his presence to Lucian.

Meanwhile, Lucian narrowed his eyes and calmly gripped the cane's hilt before pulling a rapier from it!

Lucian twirled the rapier with an air of elegance, its polished blade catching the faint glow of the broken illusion. His crimson eyes fixed on Raven, who stood firm despite the Vampire's oppressive aura.

"You're full of surprises," Lucian murmured, his voice dripping with curiosity. "Who are you? How did you bring me here?"

Unfortunately, Raven didn't have enough time to chat with a Vampire from an unknown place.

'Zera, what are the weaknesses of a Vampire?' He asked, taking a deep breath.

Raven then gripped his silver spear and dashed forward as Zera started answering.

[Sunlight, Silver-type weapons, Light spells, and Fire spells. Your spear can slow down his regeneration effect. And if you imbue ice elemental energy with the spear aura when attacking the Vampire, it will work, too. After all, ice can freeze cells and prevent them from regenerating.]

'Really? But why silver-type weapons?' Raven asked as he arrived much closer to the Vampire and covered the weapon in a sunshine aura first.

Meanwhile, Sera continued to answer.

[Silver is said to be a metal of the Moon and can harness the Moon's power. It's more or less a myth, though.]

'Okay.'

In truth, Raven's current strength was barely around beginner-rank Radiant Walker even after consuming the potions.

'If I had concocted Adept Rank potions, I might have increased my strength and agility to 40 to 50 points!' Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to concoct any Adept Rank potions yet.

The only advantage he had against the Vampire was his thinking process.

'A beginner Radiant Walker can think around 3 times faster than an Elite Walker. On the other hand, my 'Mind Eye' spell allows me to think five times faster than an Elite Walker. Logically, I currently have the physical strength of a Beginner Radiant Walker while my mind is that of an intermediate rank Radiant Walker.'

While thinking, Raven arrived before Lucian and attacked him.

But as he started to attack more, strange ice elemental energy covered the spear tip and made it sharper. 

"What a courageous young fellow!" Lucian casually parried his attacks with his rapier and soon frowned.

Lucian's frown deepened as he felt the slight sting of Raven's spear against his blade.

"A silver weapon imbued with ice elemental energy," Lucian muttered under his breath, his tone now indicating annoyance. "You've come prepared, haven't you?"

Raven didn't respond verbally. Instead, he pressed his advantage, unleashing a flurry of quick, precise strikes aimed at Lucian's vital points. The Vampire's agility was astounding, his movements almost a blur, but Raven's heightened perception and strategic mind allowed him to anticipate each counter.

Although Raven had little experience in real battles, his mind played a crucial role in avoiding lethal attacks and even inflicting serious wounds on the enemy.

As time passed, Lucian noticed there were multiple injuries on his body. Panting heavily, he saw the ice elemental energy covering the wounded regions and freezing the wounds.

"This annoying pest! I'm done playing around." A fury appeared on his face.

Lucian parried another thrust and suddenly pushed forward, forcing Raven to backpedal. "Impressive for someone so young. But raw strength won't save you against me."

A thin mist gathered around Lucian's feet as he spoke, spreading outward in an ominous wave.

Raven instinctively leaped back, sensing the encroaching danger of the mist. The cold, sanguine vapor clung to the ground, carrying an oppressive energy that made the air feel heavy.

"This is Bloody Mist," Lucian said, a wicked grin spreading across his pale face. "Let's see how well you fare now."

The mist expanded rapidly, shrouding the area in an eerie red haze. Raven's visibility was reduced to mere feet, and his breathing became labored as the air seemed saturated with blood.

Not only that, but Raven felt an eerie gaze from the shrouded bloody mist, causing his heart to beat faster.

A strange fear gripped his heart and mind as seconds passed, followed by hallucinations. The surroundings started to spin like the whole world was circling.

It was the effect of the Rank-2 Vampiric Gaze skill!

Raven felt it was impossible to win against such a formidable opponent and grew anxious and pale.

Suddenly, a reddish curved blade flew from his left side and almost reached his neck.

'Sh*t! I can't evade!'

Raven activated the 'Iron Resilience' spell out of instinct and used his hands and spear as shields to block the attack.

The 30-meter-long blade made of pure blood collided with his hands and the spear and even cut the fleshes and blood vessels.

White bones became visible as blood dripped down from both hands and drenched his dresses and body.

But what was more impressive was that Raven didn't feel as much pain as he had expected.

Not only that, but his mind acted calmer, and even the strange fear vanished utterly.

But he didn't show it on his face and kept acting like he was utterly terrified.

As he had expected, a humanoid silhouette suddenly emerged from the mist on the right side and formed into the appearance of a middle-aged man in his formal suit.

"Let's end this farce and get down to business-" As Lucian was about to touch Raven and turn him into his blood puppet, he suddenly noticed a strange vertical eye open on Raven's forehead.

Before he could understand the situation, a powerful ray of reddish lightning blasted from Raven's third eye and directly entered his head.

The next second, Vampire Lucian's head burst open like a watermelon, causing the headless body to stagger.

As the bloody mist started to disperse, the headless body fell on the ruined altar and started twitching.

'He is dead, right?' Raven felt fatigue all over his body, followed by sharp pain on both hands. Although new blood vessels and tissues started regenerating, he knew it would take over an hour to heal completely!

A few seconds passed, and the twitching body stopped moving, making Raven relax.

But he soon felt his head start spinning and collapsed right next to the headless Vampire.

[Store the Vampire's body.] Zera ordered in his mind.

'Okay.' Raven nodded inwardly, moved his hand to touch the headless body, and stored it in the inventory.

"What a fierce battle! I'm deeply impressed, mortal." A voice suddenly appeared from the sky as the invisible dome started to disappear slowly by breaking into light particles.

Then, a small owl flew in the sky in a circle and suddenly descended at incredible speed towards Raven.

"Give up your soul core and become a part of me."

Like a ray of light, the owl directly entered his body, invaded his mind space, and slowly entered his Sea of Consciousness.

A moment later, the strange owl was flying in a vast world full of greenery. Countless trees spawned ahead, and even a crimson sun appeared in the sky, illuminating the surroundings in bright light.

But as it looked closer, the owl noticed that it wasn't a sun but a gigantic ball of fire filled with countless rune letters orbiting in a circular motion!

"Where the f*ck is this place?" The owl knew that one's Sea of Consciousness always appeared based on imagination.

"A Will of an artifact?" An invisible power suddenly appeared around the owl and instantly restricted its movements.

The owl resisted while releasing rippling waves, slowing down everything's momentum.

In one second, the whole surroundings looked frozen in time!

Although the owl was just the Will of a powerful being, it still had the power even to kill a Pseudo-Legendary being!

It slowly looked up at the being that spoke earlier and was pretty startled.

At that moment, an elven woman in her floral blue gown appeared in the sky like a goddess and stared at it curiously.

The owl's eyes squinted as it noticed that the elven woman wasn't affected by her 'Time Stop' spell!

"What are you doing in my owner's soul?" Zera asked as she stepped in midair, appeared before the owl in a blink, and waved her hand.

A moment later, reddish chains made of fire came out of Zera's hand, enveloped the owl in a blink, and soon formed into a cage.

What deeply startled the owl was that it noticed the crimson fire chains had the power of 'Time' infused in them!

As it tried to escape from the cage, Zera summoned a small orb of purple fire, manipulating the orb to create another layer of chains, and wholly trapped the owl!

"If you touch the chains, all your memories will burn and disappear forever. Let's have a long talk once Raven wakes up. Until then, stay still like a good child." Zera casually picked up the newly formed cage of fire chains and disappeared from the strange world-like place.

…

The next day.

The morning sun rose from the east, giving a warm feeling to the surroundings.

Raven slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was still lying on the ruined altar.

"W-What happened?" He couldn't help but ask stiffly.

The last thing he remembered was the strange owl that had entered his body and disappeared. Before he could understand anything, he lost consciousness altogether.

[Oh? Did you wake up already? Good, I have a special gift for you in the Memory Library. But before discussing that, you should return to the city.] Zera said in his head.

Raven nodded as he sat up and looked at the bloodied clothes and the body.

"I need to wash up first. Or else I'll get arrested right after I enter the city," he said as he removed his clothes and took two small barrels of water from the inventory. He stored them for drinking purposes but never expected to use them to wash his body.

[That's why I always tell you to store a large barrel of water in your inventory and enough rations for a year or two. After all, no one can predict what might happen.]

"True. Now that you've mentioned it, we must start preparing for the war and the famine. Although I don't know the exact date, an all-out war will occur in 1430."

From the diaries and newspapers he had taken from the dreamworld, Raven extracted all the vital information about the three disasters and made plans for each. The first would be the war between the Viser Kingdom and the Empire, which would result in the deaths of 70 million people across the Empire.

The war alone would wipe out 5% of the Empire's population!

Unfortunately, Raven didn't have enough power to influence the course of the upcoming war. Still, his actions in the Courtroom might have caused many changes.

In that dreamworld, the Empire barely recovered after losing 70 million people, but another disaster struck within the next 10 years.

"It's a great famine."

A great famine would envelop the entirety of Ivory Island.

'After the war, the climate change will happen gradually. The rise in temperature across the continent will cause glaciers in the northern and eastern mountain ranges to melt.'

Within ten years, more than half of the rivers would dry up, while the remaining would barely flow through the land. Snow would also cease to fall across the entire continent, even in winter.

By 1440, almost 90% of the rivers would have dried up, resulting in an extreme famine.

Although the climate conditions slowly began to recover in 1441 due to continuous rainfall, 25% of the Empire's population died over time.

"To be precise, 350 million people will perish due to the great famine."

When the third disaster struck in 1552, the Empire would be on the verge of breaking apart into multiple nations under the leadership of the twelve Ancient Noble Families.

'I don't know what happened during the Black Death, but I'm sure it will be worse than those two. Strangely, I don't find any information about the appearance of Cyclops and Titans in the Southern Wild Fortress. I think the Southern Army would've solved the problem alone.' Raven quietly washed his body with two small water barrels and changed his clothes into another formal set.

Then, he stored the spear in the inventory and decided to leave the forest.

Although a few wolves and goblins appeared along the way, Raven had no difficulty clearing them away.

…