Draig was making short work of his Quests but he hadn't really been drinking as he should which was evident by the Four BP in his stats menu, the honest answer was that he was getting full and he wanted to wait and see if he could steal another unique trait.
'Almost forgot about my daily Mission' thought Draig as he opened up the menu and selected the appropriate tab.
'Daily Mission: Test your new found might in a head to head face off, mission is completed when host has achieved a tie or better. Note that mission reward will be higher if host achieves victory' read Draig before he clicked accept.
He had been so busy with collecting herbs and other ingredients that he had almost forgotten to do his daily Mission.
Luckily his Daily Mission happened to suit his needs, Draig went through the quests he had taken cycling the Completed ones to the bottom until he found his last quest was exactly what he had been hoping for.
'Dwarfs, how appropriate.' thought Draig as this was something he was pleased to find, he hadn't actually been looking at the quest descriptions when he had taken them as they were all low level and thus it didn't matter but finding another of the Crafting races in his stack made him excited.
The Dwarf's crafts were top of the line as compared to the magical weapons made by humanity which were powered by magical crystals and would have to be loaded with a new crystal after the energy was used up, this was in fact opposite of the Dwarf's who could weave magic into the metal itself giving the weapon a permanent effect.
Draig smirked as he raced to the location listed in the quest, luckily he had saved room for dessert however it was upon arrival that he found his prey had already been slaughtered causing him a bit of a predicament.
'Who else could have come here.' wondered Draig as he should have been the only person on this quest since he had checked it out first and thus had been removed from the Work Stations in the other districts.
'At least I can still claim my prize' thought Draig as he began sampling the fallen Dwarfs looking for the one with the highest level of mastery.
It was actually a surprise to him when he found it to be a normal looking Dwarf instead the eldest looking one.
'Pick a Trait: Mystic Forging: lvl Master Appraisal Enchanting: lvl Master'
Now this was a predicament for Draig as he had found that all three of these sounded acceptable to him but he only came to complete the quest and gain another inhuman ability.
'Enchanting...' thought Draig as he chose the skill he had originally came for, as before with the other trait he had stolen through the use of True Vampirism his head filled with knowledge he hadn't possessed before allowing him to replicate the wondrous effects of the Dwarf's craft.
Alas this presented him with a problem, he would prefer not having to deal with the Guilder's inflated prices if he were to purchase a weapon from them.
Looking at the scattered bodies that he hadn't sampled yet he grimaced, his stomach was indeed full now and he was certain that if he tried to feast again then he would surely vomit.
'But I need it' thought Draig as his greed to assimilate another skill filled his eyes.
He began biting into the other corpses until he found another one with the Mystic Forging skill though it was only at intermediate, however sure enough as he had thought before he began feeling sick to his stomach.
With a gut wrenching lurch he began to empty his stomach's contents painting the ground crimson which was followed by a message from the system shortly after.
'Host has been forced to expel the essence of another being BP has fallen by five points' came the message causing Draig to widen his eyes in surprise.
He hadn't expected that he would lose all the BP he had collected during his quests to be gone just like that, this would also show that his theory of being able to feast his way to god hood was null.
'Damn it, I'll have to collect that again when I get the chance and spend them immediately in case this happens again' thought Draig frowning in discontent.
It was at this moment that he suddenly felt the need to dodge and he did so just in time as a large sword had swung through the air where his neck had been.
"He dodged Diana" called a woman stepping from the surrounding foliage dressed in all black armor making for a intimidating sight.
"Hold on Jane, I'll string him up like a good little puppet" came the voice of another girl with green hair, she wore a normal set of street clothes which was also an odd sight for someone who was exploring the Beast Lands.
'Status effect detected.... Nullified, the will of a Vampire cannot be overpowered by a lower existence' came the message and it seemed the one called Diana realized that her trick wasn't going to work.
"He's immune" called Diana causing the one called Jane to turn to her.
Draig didn't let the moment chance escape him and plowed directly into the Armored girl in a thuggish way before turning his attention to the girl with green hair.
Draig didn't really have any formal training when it came to fighting and thus his wild swings showed his delinquent demeanor as he swiped wildly with hay makers while the green haired girl dodged to the best of her ability but suddenly Draig's fist seemed to speed up suddenly and catch the girl in the temple causing him to smirk when she fell unconscious.
'Sucker, I still had unused Blood Points from the last time' thought Draig as he had added it to his speed bringing the stat to fifty one which had shown just enough of a boost to catch his opponent by surprise.
"Diana!" called the girl in Dark armor as she attempted to strike Draig but he was already faster than this person and he abused this advantage by moving out of harms way before she had ever gotten close and planting a few heavy hits of his own causing some denting in the armor from the repeated strikes.
It was at this point that the Armored girl crushed an odd pendant which caused a terrible foreboding feeling to well up in Draig's soul as a rift opened in front of him.
Elsewhere Zarra and his two friends had been talking and laughing when suddenly Jared's eyes lit up with a dangerous edge.
"Jane's in trouble" called Jared causing Gregory to also go on alert as the two of them turned to Zarra.
"I will assist, just give me the talisman so I can pin point the location" stated Zarra as he held out his hand and began channeling his Mana as a Rift opened up.
It took only a second after receiving the talisman for Zarra to connect to the location and the trio rushed to the aid of the two Devil's daughters.
This was how Zarra ended up looking at a fearful Draig.
Draig on the other hand relaxed as soon as he saw Zarra there but he had never seen the other two men.
"Dirty mongrel, how dare you attack our kin" started Gregory until Zarra stepped forward.
"Hold it.... Draig what happened here" asked Zarra causing his two companions to become shocked as it seemed the mage knew this person.
"They attacked me out of nowhere" started Draig before Jared raged.
"Liar, Jane would never do that. Speak the truth boy and it will ease your suffering" roared the large Blood Knight.
"Jared ease up, now what were you saying Draig" asked Zarra as he to found the interruption to be inconvenient.
"As I was saying I was coming here to finish up the culling quests I had picked up and when I got here all of my targets were already dead. I walked around trying to investigate when suddenly this girl had tried to cut my head off" stated Draig pointing at the girl in the Dark armor.
"Then she tried to use some kind of attack but it wasn't effective so I pressed the opening from her shock to get an edge, I was going to finish them when she suddenly crushed a pendant and now here you are" explained Draig simply causing Zarra to ask a question since it was now relevant.
It was common for those with Dark classes to pick up the resonance of others with Dark energy allowing them to pinpoint monsters rather easily.
"Jared you said your daughter is a Dark Knight" asked Zarra trying to get to the bottom of this.
"Yeah and what of it" asked Jared as he glared daggers at Draig with Gregory doing something similar though he sensed a familiar energy from Draig causing him to gain a look of curiosity as well.
"Can she sense dark creatures similar to us" asked Zarra causing Jared to nod.
"I see..... Draig, I'm not gonna ask you to apologize as this is all a big misunderstanding." started Zarra causing Jared and Gregory to instantly open their mouths to admonish Zarra.
"SILENCE" Growled Zarra causing the two men to step back slightly from the level of power shown.
"As I was saying, this is all a big misunderstanding. Jared, Gregory, meet Draig. The one who possesses a Vampire System, I believe your daughter had mistook him for the real deal and indeed attacked with the intent of slaying him. I am not going to admonish her either but I ask that there be no repeats lest you prefer your daughter's locked away" stated Zarra showing that there was no friendship when it came to his duties.
The two men however were looking at Draig with a bit of intrigue as they thought he looked rather familiar and then there eyes cut to Zarra with a knowing gaze.
"A bit biased aren't you Zarra" started Jared as he stared down the mage.
"Giving special treatment to your ..." spat Gregory unable to finish as Zarra sent him a deadly glare.
"His what" asked Draig with a shocked look at the man's reaction.
"My apprentice..." answered Zarra turning a scathing look at his friends.
"Ha special treatment, I can't even shop properly. I'm out of here, see you around Mage." scoffed Draig leaving to the workstation.
---
Jared and Gregory looked at Zarra as they seemed to realize they had nearly spoken about something they shouldn't have but this actually raised a bit of their ire as well.
"So that's why you didn't speak of him" sneered Gregory
"Doesn't even know you are his father" continued Jared however they didn't make Zarra feel guilty instead he found their accusing tones to be something of a trigger.
"But I know he is my boy, I have taken care of him from the shadows each day of his life without a bit of the thanks or love that I have craved over these years. For his own well being I tried to stay away from him so he could have a normal life, I never even wanted him to be a Guilder but Eliza's affliction was carried to him in the worst of ways and now my hand has been forced not once but twice but this time by you two." growled Zarra as his power began to build.
"You mean to say the boy was going to become a Vampire regardless of the system" asked Gregory trying to clarify.
"You fools, he doesn't have a system. I had contacted Feras Tullani and had him swear to secrecy in order to pull off this Hoax." sneered Zarra as he was beginning to feel a bit better telling them of his struggles.
"What do you mean, how has he become a Guilder if he has no system" asked Jared causing Zarra to snort.
"He is a Full blooded Vampire, his so called System is a fraud. It's only a menu that displays his stats and helps control his Vampire traits by using a similar mechanism as the System, that is why I had contacted Feras and he was kind enough to assist me. Now your children are waking so let us be silent about these things" stated Zarra motioning for the two men to check on their children as he stood at the side of the rift waiting for the two to go through first.