We won, but we still had our asses massively handed to us by that crazy giant rat. And even though we've defeated her, we were not completely out of danger yet as whatever was left of the rat force in the tower dungeon, was making their way towards us with a vengeance.
I was in no position to fight, but that didn't mean the other's weren't, besides we had a giant lion on our side, killing what's left of the rodents wouldn't take much time. Lowen, Magellan and Nisi pounced on the approaching army, dealing with them in such a way that I didn't think the red of us would have needed to interfere, which was good, because I was so tired and weak that even an ant would find it very easy to defeat me.
[MISSION: IN ONE WEEK, UNSEAL EVERY VAMPIRE IN THE TOWER AND FACILITATE THE CREATION OF YOUR COVEN/REWARD: 20 ESSENCE POINTS, NEW SOUL RUNE] [STATUS: COMPLETED: you have been awarded 20 essence points, and the soul rune [PUSH] congratulations]
[MISSION: DEFEAT AND KILL THE 'MAMA RATZILLA' AND PLUNDER THE DUNGEON CORE ON HER HEAD: REWARDS: NEW SOUL RUNE, 1000 ESSENCE POINTS, NEW SOUL SKILL] [STATUS: COMPLETED: you have been awarded the soul rune [PULL], 1000 essence points, and the soul skill(ocular) Soul Sight: Level 1: Basic] Congratulations]
Have you ever had your soul branded, I don't know what they felt like, I'm sure it would have been painful, or I think I should say that it is painful. As soon as those system messages popped up in my vision and I read through them, my whole body caught on fire as those newly acquired runes were made to become a very part of my soul.
The soul skill was the same, though its own plan was more inclined into melting my brain and head rather frying my soul. It hurt, it hurt a lot, I couldn't stop my body from convulsing in pain, and Teluna had to struggle to hold me down, for the next fifteen minutes that pain was all I knew, and all I could feel. My vision had gone dark, and every other one of my senses were completely offline.
I think I understood what was happening to me; rhetorically speaking. I think I was like a smartphone or computer who's had to many apps installed and running at the same time, so it would probably lag and heat up for a while, before there's a forced shut down and the entire system reboots, and there it is, the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Thank God for it's timely arrival, being awake is already hard enough as it is for me.
...….
...…
When I woke up, it was to the snarling face of the giant rat. I couldn't help the sudden bout of fear and shock that gripped my heart as it felt like a stone had been dropped in my stomach. It took me a while to realize that she was still very dead, and that we were only sharing a vehicle. I was lying down in one of the giant carts we brought along, though with how filled to the brim it was, especially due to the fact that the giant rat took up two of the four carts, and it was still bot enough as most of its body was trailing behind us.
"Where are we?" I asked, and I was immediately swarmed as everyone gathered around me, talking at the same time.
It was unsettling I tell you that, but I was able to calm them down enough that I could make sense of what they were saying. Apparently I've been out for almost three days, and thankfully the journey back was now three times as long because they had to pull the gigantic corpse of a rat made of metal.
Vampires had superhuman strength, and that strength comes mostly from age and ranks. Magellan was the oldest here, and he was a Shadower, but it seems he was not yet old enough to have enough strength to pull the rat behind him. And Teluna was only ten, so even though he was a Shadower and quite strong, his strength could not even be compared to half of what Magellan can display.
So we've taken our time with our return back to the tower, that and the fact that I was unconscious made them unwilling to hurry back to the tower when they realized I had completely healed and was in a coma. None of hem wanted to be the one who would tell Asha and Xaseah what happened to me. Apparently both women were a lot more scarier than I imagined.
"How far away are we from the tower?" I asked
"About three hours, give or take an hour." Gus answered.
"There's no way we can get into the tower unseen, everyone's going to know that you're awake now." Teluna said to me.
He was right though, after my confrontation with Asare when I had to rescue Xaseah a few months ago, I had fallen into a three month long coma, it was really convenient for me at the time as being without consciousness meant that Asare could not come after me or the people around me for revenge. And after I woke up, the status of being a comatose patient had afforded me a lot of freedom and space to grow and slowly accumulate strength.
Because of that, should there be any conflict, we were now capable of defending ourselves, of course we can't go around attacking anybody or something, but if someone should look for trouble by coming after us, then we can safely say we can defend ourselves to the point of not having a single scratch on out body. I jumped down from the cart and took a deep breath. Then I turned to everyone else and said to them.
"There's no need to do things too under the radar anymore. We can't draw attention to ourselves, at least not without sufficient power, but at least we can't hide our heads again. However, we must keep the fact that we're all unsealed a secret for as long as possible."
"That's easier said than done, we're stronger and faster now, and I doubt with the power at our finger tips anyone of us would want to be pushed around. I don't see how the guards would leave us alone if we don't show that we're capable of hurting them. Letting them know we're unsealed would paint a target on our back no doubt, but it would also make them think twice before trying anything stupid. Without out unsealed abilities, we have no way to protect ourselves." Kodak said to me
He was right, but I already had plans in place for that. The answer to this dilemma was literally staring them right in the face, but it seems they're not seeing it clearly, yet.
"Kodak we're keeping the fact that we're unsealed a secret, at least to the guards. If the vampires find out, it would put us in a place of importance and give us a chance to increase our forces. But even that has to be done under the radar, and to successfully carry out a figure or factor of deterrence has to established so that the guards and any other entity that would cause us any problems would think twice before making a move on us. So the only other option, is to expose a little of our strength, but not our personal strengths." I said.
"Excuse me fearless leader, I don't mean to be rude, but that makes absolutely no sense!" Teluna whipped in a sarcastic tone.
This damn kid, if he really did not want to be rude, then he could at least not have used such a tone, or even better yet shut his damn mouth! If this was the personality he's going to be showing now, rather than the broody personality he once had when we first met, then death was looking really appealing to me right now. The kid cause me a headache every time he opened his mouth.
"Well you diminutive bastard, if you'd have let me finish!, eh I would have gave a proper explanation!" I shot back at him. But of course he always has a comeback.
"I'm ten and nine months old, not diminutive. So which means, I'm just a kid, not short." He said to me. Nisi who was walking ahead of us (surprisingly, seeing as she's only two feet tall, but she's walking faster than everyone here) turned to Teluna and said.
"Seriously?" Teluna shrugged his shoulders and replied to her
"Well it's true, I'm not diminutive. But by all means my lord, please continue."
This boy is annoying, very, very annoying. He's still treating me this way when he knew I save his life at the expense of mine. So ungrateful, but he was right I had to explain the next part of my master plan.
"Basically what we're doing would be to create and illusion. In a manner of speaking it's just simple misdirection. Let them chase and focus on something else rather than the fact that it's quite possible that we're unsealed. Let something else take their attention." I explained to them.
"While that's a good plan my lord, do we have something of equal value and importance as our seals that would draw the attention of the guards?" Magellan asked me.
"But we do have something like that Magellan, two in fact." I said, dragging the moment our for suspense.
"You know trying to be mysterious like that is only making you look stupid. Get on with it.....Ow!!"
Karma is a bitch, I thought to myself as I proceeded to walk over the fallen Teluna, making sure to grind my heels into his head and back as I walked over him. This can't be considered child abuse right? Right?. This boy just kept on tormenting me, and there was no way I would not take every opportunity to get my revenge, no matter how petty it made me look. Besides I'm the leader, who's going to judge me.
"You really should watch where you're going Teluna, especially when you saying really rude things to your leader. Now as I was saying, those two things that could help with misdirecting any unwanted attention is the tower itself, and the dungeon hundreds of feet below it."
Everyone was silent for a while as they digested what I had just said. Striking while the iron was still hot, I continued.
"We can still keep the Dungeon a secret, but the capabilities of the tower can be exposed, and not just that, since the tower is already at level 8 we can actively attack anyone with malicious intent when they come close to the tower it also has a shield, and is quite capable of building itself from the ground up. It's literally a fortress. We can use that to grab their attention, and then I can secretly cultivate the Dungeon, raising the monsters within into an army that would do all the fighting. This way we can keep the secret of our seals being broken for as long as possible, until such a time as when we're strong enough to truly be able to overcome our enemies. We'll let them think our true strength comes from the tower and the dungeon who's existence we have to make an utmost secret on the level of our seals. And when they least expect it, we'll strike when they least expect it."
It was a sound plan, a very good idea that gave us a chance to fight against our enemies, but also still gave us the chance to keep the mass unsealing in the tower a complete secret. Now I think it's about time I saw what's change in my status screen.
• NAME: KAEL COR
• AGE: 19
• RACE: VAMPIRE
• RANK: REVENANT: LEVEL: 1/10
• CLASS:WEAVER/SWORDSMAN +/DUNGEON OWNER+
• REALM: WEAVER(9th CIRCLE)/MIND(3rd CIRCLE)/SWORDSMAN(1st CIRCLE) /DUNGEON OWNER(1ST LEVEL)
• ESSENCE POINTS: 1435
• STRENGTH: TIER 2.70
• AGILITY: TIER 3.13
• PHYSIQUE: TIER 4
• MIND: TIER 4.47
• SOUL: TIER 5.99
• ETHER: TIER 1.99
• SKILLS: PASSIVE
• [ETHER MANIPULATION: LEVEL 1] BASIC
• [SOUL ENERGY MANIPULATION: LEVEL 10] ADVANCED
• [MENTAL ENERGY MANIPULATION: LEVEL 8] BASIC
• [MARTIAL ARTS: LEVEL 7] ADVANCED
• [SWORD MASTERY: LEVEL 10] BASIC
• [SHIELD ARTS: LEVEL 8] BASIC
• [ILUSSION RESISTANCE: LEVEL 3] BASIC
• [GRAVITY WALKER: LEVEL 4] BASIC
• [BEAST TONGUE: LEVEL N/A] MASTERED
• [SUMMON MONSTER: LEVEL 1] BASIC
• SKILLS: ACTIVE
• [WEAVE: LEVEL 2] ADVANCED
• [NINE GATES OF THE ETHER'S SWORD: LEVEL 1] BASIC (FORGOTTEN)
• [MINING: LEVEL 3] BASIC
• [READ: LEVEL 6] BASIC
• [SOUL CONVERSION: LEVEL 10] BASIC
• [SOUL INFUSION: LEVEL 5] BASIC
• [SOUL WALKER: LEVEL 9] BASIC
• [SOUL SIGHT: LEVEL 1] BASIC
• [HYPER SENSE: LEVEL 9] BASIC
• [DUNGEON BUILDER: LEVEL 1] BASIC
• SOUL RUNES:[BREAK/SHIELD/PUSH/PULL]
• MISSIONS: 2