[Last trial finished!]
'Huh?'
[Being called "Nero" has become a player!]
'Argh.... Too loud.... Can't I die in peace?
Wait a minute... I'm still alive?'
[Player received several new skills due to his new race!]
'New race? Wait... I heard about that before...
There are said to be some players which lost their humanity after clearing Gates and turned into new races which hold tremendous power.
One of them is the guild leader of the Avalon Guild who become a Dragon with the power to swap between his human appearance and his dragon form.
But the Empire rarely makes such exceptions and usually hunts those Players down due to their dangerous potential and destructive behavior.
Whatever... I just have to get something which allows me to become such an exception.'
I opened my eyes and then saw a screen in front of my eyes.
[Skills]
[Vampirism. Rank: A]
'Fuck.
Out of all races I got the most anti-human race. Shit! This means I have to hide this until the empire can't get rid of me or dispose me... But Vampire out of all...
Whatever, what are the other skills.'
I scrolled a little down and then looked at the other skills.
[1st Progenitor, Rank: EX]
[Rapid-Regeneration, Rank A]
[Deathless Thirst, Rank: ?]
[Superior race, Rank: B+]
[Blood-Manipulation, Rank: A+]
As I looked at them one particular skill has caught my attention.
'First Progenitor... Does that mean I'm the first vampire to that has been born?'
I then clicked on the skill to see if a description would appear which luckily happened.
[1st Progenitor, EX]
[The First Progenitor is the apex of the vampire world. He is the ancient progenitor from whom all other vampires descend, possessing unparalleled power, eternal life, and a deep connection to the primordial forces that birthed his kind. He is the embodiment of vampiric legacy, and possesses respect, wisdom, and authority within the vampire society. It is said that his presence alone shakes the underworld with each step they take.]
'I see... To be honest that doesn't sound bad. I don't have anything against being a vampire, I just don't like the idea of the Empire killing me because of it.
But this looks really good, its even an EX-skill, the strongest rank a skill can possess.'
I then looked at the other skills but each of them was exactly what their name suggested. [Superior race] was a passive skill which in short was the reason for my massive stat increase in each stat since I'm a vampire. [Rapid Regeneration] was a skill which allowed me to regenerate my body in any way in exchange for mana. And [blood Manipulation] allowed me to manipulate blood as I wish, hardening it, controlling, creating it in exchange for mana and modify it.
But the last skill was different from the rest, featuring a "?" As rank. But it's probably the most important and strongest skill I possess as 1st progenitor. That was [Deathless Thirst] Which once I clicked it showed me its description.
[Deathless Thirst, Rank: ?]
[This skill embodies the progenitor's insatiable and unending thirst for life force, turning it into his greatest weapon. It grants him absolute immortality maintained by consuming the life force of others and adding it to his, allowing him to remaining immortal and eternal regardless of the cause of his death. The skill still possesses multiple subskills connected to it which still must be unlocked by raising ones lv.]
'But how does it make me immortal? Does it add their lives to mine like in a videogame or what? I have to find that out as fast as possible.'
I then looked at the screen and noticed I forgotten one.
[Vampirism, Rank A]
[Vampirism is a dual-edged skill that draws power from the Abyss. Users of that skill gain the abilities: Echolocation, Umbral-shifting, Vampiric-charm, regeneration and shadow-veil. The users however also receive many drawbacks such as: an unbearable thirst for blood, an huge debuff when exposed to Sunlight followed constant damage after some time, and a massive weakness against silver and Holy magic which can also temporally cancel a vampire's regeneration.]
'I already expected some negative effects of being a vampire, so this is nothing new. But I should really avoid fighting against people with silver weapons or Holy magic.'
I scrolled up to look at my stats to see which stat increased.
[Stats]
[Strength:25]
[Vitality:19]
[Agility:29]
[Magic:17]
[Perception:26]
[Willpower:16]
"Not bad, not bad...", I then closed the screen and looked around me for the first time since my death.
The first thing I noticed was the sword, that still penetrated my body. I immediately took it out and threw it away while my wound healed instantly. It still was extremely painful, but since I'm immortal I didn't have to worry. I then looked at the stone statues which lost their black glowing veins and shining scarlet eyes.
"So, it is thanks to you guys that I became a vampire huh? Putting all your hopes on me huh?! Well, I will forgive you this once since it turned out well, but there won't be a next time~."
I then passed each and any knight as I approached the Gate. On my way I came across another statue but this one held a mirror up, which displayed a really handsome and good-looking man.
But if what the mirror showed was true, then the pale young man with his Scarlet red eyes that started right into my soul is me, which proved itself as right, as each action I made was copied by the mirror me.
As I kept looking, I also noticed that my black hair grew a lot, now reaching my back, and that my body has become overall more muscular. But the most visible change was the two large vampire teeth that came out of my mouth, beginning above my two canine teeth, and my scarlet vampire eyes, which looked like snake eyes except for their pitch-black Scalera and color.
But overall, I looked really handsome, especially in this tight-fitting short sleeve shirt and the sports tan baggy training pants I wore. At a closer look, even my skin became much cleaner than before and rid of all flaws making it almost shine like the moon itself.
"Enough with that. If I keep looking at myself, I may fall in love.", I said without realizing what I just said.
'Strange... Has I always been so arrogant? Well... It doesn't feel bad to be honest.'
I turned around and walked away arriving in front of the Gate, pushing it open. In that moment I noticed just how much my strength has risen.
"Earlier we needed ten people to barely open this Gate with a Player among us who was specialized in strength. But now I can open this Gate without any problems. How terrifying..."
I then took a step forward to walk as suddenly a pulse of energy emanated from me. In that moment I could detect anything around me, far better than my eyes could've ever done themselves.
"I see... This must be the skill [Echolocation]. How facinating."
I continued to experiment with the skill to figure out its limits and capabilities.
It was apparently pretty easy to figure out how this skill worked. [Echolocation] worked like real bat's sonar to detect my surroundings by emitting sound waves from my body that bounce off objects and return as echo full of information, which allowed me to detect anything around me and freed me of my short eyesight.
At first it was weird and really painful but after some time I got used to it to the point where it felt much better than just seeing with my eyes.
At this point I couldn't stop myself and tested the rest of my [Vampirism] abilities.
The first skill to test was [Shadow-Veil] which too was pretty fascinating. It allowed me to turn into a black mist-like substance in which I seemed to be immune to physical attacks and able to move through objects. But its activation needed time and concentration.
The second skill was [Umbral Shifting] and hell was that scary. It allowed me to store things inside my shadow or enter mine or other shadows to hide myself. The shadow world itself was completely dark with only a giant hole above me which allowed light to come inside. It seemed to be more like a skill to store things like an inventar in a game which I still really appreciated.
And the third skill was [Regeneration] which in my case was [Rapid regeneration]. To test that skill, to its full extend one would need to be really pain resistant which I lucky am to some point.
Out of all this was the most painful experiment but bearable since I knew that I would regenerate and that I could stop at any time I wanted. At first, I broke my arm by twisting it, which instantly regenerated by spinning back to its original form. I then started the more near dead experiments which consisted of ripping my organs out, stabbing myself and breaking my neck. Each time, time seemed to turn backwards as my blood and organs slowly moved back into my body or my wounds close themselves again.
But there was an exception, which also stood inside the skills description. Things which would immediately kill myself such as destroying my heart or destroying my brain couldn't be regenerated.
But for that I still had [Deathless Thirst] which could bring me back to life once I die.
"Phew. I have now really killed some time. Time to go--", I suddenly sensed multiple beings inside my echo-radar which then arrived in front the Gate. It were three men who smiled as they looked at the Gate.
"Hah! These dumb bitches really told us anything!"
"Yeah! We can take the throne for ourselves and get rich! Don't you think so too boss?"
"Shut you damn mmouth you dumb bastards. Have you really forgotten what they told us? There are still monsters inside and maybe other Players which want to steal the treasure too."
"But we don't have to worry! You're the strongest Elite tier member and even defeated some champion tier, Players. With you on our side, we can just kill any Player and say it was a monster.", The three laughed loudly as they walked towards the door.
'Champion tier...
The Empire created multiple different tiers to classify Players based on their strength and abilities.
If I remember correctly those were Novice, Adventurer, Elite, Champion, Demigod and four more which will not be revealed until next month. Which means...
This guy is strong.'
A smile suddenly grew on my face as I could literally feel my bloodlust shooting into new heights.
I then slowly raised my hand and activated [Blood manipulation] shooting a crescent shaped blood blade towards them as they were about to open the Gate.
'I just have to kill them first if they want to kill any Player anyways.'
Their boss immediately dodged my attack and created some space between us while the other two lost both of their legs.
Their screams echoed through the entire Dungeon until I silenced them with another blade.
When I looked at their corpses, I felt nothing. And exactly that started to scare me.
I was sure I would feel at least something this time. But instead, I once again felt indifference, but this time it was on a whole different level than normally.
In this moment I understood that losing your humanity meant losing all your emotions towards and connected to the human race.
I still felt something for people close to me. I just held no feelings for the human race as a whole. It's a feeling you just notice when you already lost it, but I somehow was happy about it. As someone, who always didn't feel like he was human, was losing my humanity a blessing which freed me of my own created cage.
Once I realized that, a relieved sight existed my body as I looked up.
"As someone who isn't human anymore, I can finally see humanity from a completely different perspective and decide for myself what I want to do.", In this moment I felt more freedom than I ever felt before.
"So, I can count you as dungeon monster huh.", The former boss said as he raised his fist, showing me his knuckle dusters, which had multiple sharp little balls on them.
"Sigh. My first human encounter as vampire and it's a bad one. Well let's overlook it and count it as hunting time."
The man then started approaching me at insane speed and leaned in for a straight punch.
"That is kinda slow you know?", I said as I caught his punch with two fingers.
"Don't rejoice too soon!", The balls of his knuckle duster suddenly started spinning. destroying my fingers in an instant, "Hah! Does it hurt? I hope it does!"
I jumped back and then looked at my hand, "Nice weapon. But...", I showed him my hand as it already completely regenerated.
"What the?! How?"
"None of your concern.", I responded smiling as I appeared in front of his face, holding his now broken arm up.
He screamed in pain as he fell to his knees, holding his lifeless arm with his other as I let go of him.
"Elite rank? You??? Your much too weak for that.", I slowly lowered myself and then grabbed him by his hair as I looked him in the eyes, "You know lying is bad, right~"
"No! Wait! I admit I lied! I was only a little over the novice rank but still not enough for the adventurer rank. I just wanted to show off. Please have mercy!"
"Ah... How boring. I was so thrilled to fight against a strong opponent. But now I only feel one thing."
"What is it? I can help you with that!"
"I'm pretty sure you can~"
"Yeah... I--", The man started screaming even louder than before as I pulled his head to the side and bit him in the neck.
His body paralyzed the moment my fangs entered his body, while it slowly started to dry up until only bones and skin remained.
"Thank you for your help~ I now feel much--" I suddenly heard an crack and turned around, seeing another person looking at me.