A Job

Within the settlement where the rays of sunlight never emerged, the locals went about their daily activities as they normally would. All across the open streets were buildings which served either as residences or shops for business transactions.

The vampire settlement, which was basically a large kingdom, was divided into four regions - North, South, East, and West. The northern and southern regions served as the locations where vampires of higher social status lived. Those who are of noble lineage typically lived in these regions. Meanwhile, those who are of the middle class live within the eastern region. And lastly, those who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy live in the western region.

It was in this western region that Kennedy Stormwing lived with his adopted son. Eleven years had passed since Kael Darkhaven's coronation as the new emperor, and so far, things had been going quite smoothly.

He had done everything he could possibly do as king to guide the people the right way, and after years of service, the citizens had grown to admire and respect him.

While all of this was going on, a now eighteen-year-old Ezeikel Storming was in search of a job. It was vampire custom that once a young man reaches the age of eighteen, he must start work and earn wages, else he will face punishment by the responsible authorities. Moreover, he also had to work to assist his father with things such as providing food and paying the bills.

Ezeikel was out on the streets going from building to building in search of someone who may be in need of his services. He didn't really have much talents to begin with, though he did have a nact for fixing things. Plus, since he was within the western region, he couldn't really afford a job that would pay well. The same could be said for everyone else in the west.

"Hey, Ezekiel, you still haven't found a job yet?" A young man named Kyle asked as he approached Ezeikel. He looked about the same age as him, having short curly hair and wearing pale black clothes and sandals.

"Nope. Honestly, getting a job is hard around here. If only we were living in the East or maybe even the South, we wouldn't be struggling so much," Ezeikel replied.

"Well, it can't be helped. You know money is scarce, and everyone is already working hard to make a living. It's only those who somehow manage to earn enough that can live better lives. That's the vampire way. The king won't just swoop in and save everyone," Kyle replied.

"Yeah, I know. It's just so frustrating. Let's just keep on searching, maybe we'll find some luck eventually," Ezeikel eventually said, and the two went about searching for jobs once more.

'To be honest, if only I had a high level of blood magic, I would have been able to get a job as a guard or maybe I could have joined the vampire corps, but since I can barely use it, I just have to settle for menial labor,' Ezeikel thought to himself as he walked on the cobblestoned streets. 'It's the same for Kyle. He can barely use blood magic, but despite that he's still better than me. Neither of us have a chance of living a good life if our abilities are so weak.'

Vampires were beings capable of weilding powers collectively known as blood magic. They utilize the malum within their blood cells to perform various abilities using a dark red aura produced from their malum. Using their blood magic, they become formidable creatures capable of performing various techniques.

Every vampire within the settlement falls into one out of four categories of blood magic classification. They range from grade three to grade zero. Grade three is considered the weakest grade, where individuals barely have enough malum in their cells to perform blood magic. Grade two are those who can perform blood abilities normally, but only the basic blood magic. Grade one is where things start getting serious, since they are capable of performing a vast array of abilities, making them some of the strongest within the settlement. And then, there's grade zero. These individuals are the most feared within the settlement, each possessing power strong enough to kill thousands on a whim.

Ezeikel and Kyle fall into grade three, being amongst the weakest set of vampires in the settlement.

'I just wish things could change. I need a miracle to happen,' Ezeikel thought, feeling defeated with his current situation.

He kept on walking around the streets he was familiar with while growing up. He remembered when he was still a little kid, how he and some other kids would run around causing mischief all around the neighborhood. Whether it was tricking adults and stealing money from them, or bothering gullible passerbys until they gave them some money to leave them alone. At times, they would even steal some paint from the local paint shops and splash them all around people's houses and having the time of their lives.

Though they would always get in trouble afterwards, Ezeikel couldn't help but laugh because of how fun and easy life was when he was younger, but now that he'd grown up, he had to focus more on his responsibilities.

'I wonder how Vincent and the others are doing. It's been a while since we've talked,' in the middle of his thoughts, he didn't realize when he bumped into someone in front of him.

"Hey, watch it!" The man yelled.

"Sorry, sir. I wasn't seeing where I was going."

"Well, next time pay more attention," the man snorted and turned back.

'These geezers and their attitude problems. What's everyone even looking at, anyway?' Ezekiel made his way through the crowd, pushing and swerving past everyone to find out what had caught their attention. It took him a while, but he finally made it to the innermost part of the crowd, and he saw what appeared to be a shrivelled corpse of an adult female vampire.

"What happened to her? Why does she look so dried up?" One of the locals asked, afraid to step any closer. No one dared take a single step further, since they had no idea what happened to her in the first place. They were all scared of the unknown.

"Her family. Do they know what happened? I can't find them anywhere," another local asked. "This can't be natural. People don't just dry up, even if it's due to old age. Something strange is going on."

The others had to agree with him. However, although the cause of her death was unknown, they all knew that even if they took the matter to the local vampire corps station, they wouldn't take any actions since only a single death had taken place. A series of criminal incidents had to take place first before they would step in.

'How could this have happened?' Ezeikel thought, his hands shaking. He jolted at the sensation of someone touching his shoulder, only for him to turn and see that it was Kyle.

"Dude! You scared me! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"My bad. Didn't know I'd get you good though," Kyle mussed. "Anyways, doesn't this look strange?"

"Yeah, it does. I've never heard of vampires' bodies shrivelling up like this."

"From what people are saying, she wasn't an old lady either. In fact, she was around our age," Kyle responded. "Let's just hope this isn't something that'll happen to us anytime soon. I mean, I feel for her, but nothing can be done about her condition at this point."

Ezekiel didn't reply. He kept looking at the dead body, unable to look away. Hours passed, and the crowd of people eventually dispersed, returning back to their daily lives. Not too long after, a group of specially trained personnel arrived at the scene to take the dead body away to be buried.

'I can't stop thinking about what I just saw,' Ezekiel decided that he would call it a day and head back home. He had experienced far too much disappointment and shock to continue his search for work.

The fact that there was a dead body in the middle of the street wasn't something that the people could just overlook. It could mean many things, one of those being the possibility that the town many of them had lived in for years was no longer safe.

'I guess I'll just have to agree with Kyle and hope that none of us experience something like that in the future.'