"NO!!"
Azura shouted at the top of his lungs, he dreamed of stumbling into a brawl of horrifying and illogical monsters before getting dragged into the middle of it. He got severely injured to the point of excruciating pain.
Even one of his limbs got torn brutally.
But fortunately, that was all only a very bad nightmare.
"Hmm...? Am I still dre- ptoeey!"
Interrupted in the middle of his sentence, he felt unpleasant earthiness inside his mouth.
Despite his attempts, he couldn't get rid of this sensation.
He tried looking around, but all that met his gaze was an impenetrable darkness. It led him to question whether his eyes were open or not. However, he was certain that they were open—at least he could feel that they were open.
Soon, he came to a realization of the situation he was in.
A- Am I buried?
Just the fact that he couldn't move his body at all, and suffocation, he was definitely buried.
Panic settles in, and Azura quickly tries to crawl up, wiggling his body.
Dying from meeting monsters is bad enough, but dying from being buried alive is way worse.
"Aaarrgghhh!!"
Meanwhile, on the surface, silence enveloped the entire place.
Before long, at the heart of the glade, a minute crack began to manifest as if something was trying to dig itself out of the earth. Gradually, a hand extended, like an Undead reaching out its way into the world.
Azura managed to crawl out of the ground before pulling himself out.
His breaths were heavy from the panic and digging.
Even then, the brush of fresh air made it all worth it—he smiled and rested after managing to pull half of his body out of the ground. Azura remained there for a minute and had there was an observer, they would be shocked to see someone crawling out of the ground.
After catching his breath, he opened his eyes before he instantly gasped in surprise.
"I- It's not a dream...?" He uttered in absolute shock.
Despite, for some reason, he got buried alive—he didn't think much of it.
But now with the view before him, he realized that what happened to him was not a dream.
Scattered across the open glade were numerous corpses.
From one sweep of his eyes, he counted at least a dozen of these lifeless bodies, and one of them was outright inhuman in appearance. An acrid scent of iron, thick with the undeniable stench of death, assailed Azura's nostrils, nearly making him vomit.
Pulling himself out of the ground, he stood and took one look at the gory scenery again.
"Where did these monsters come from...?" He thought aloud.
Just then, Azura widened his eyes when he realized something and quickly checked his arm.
He was surprised that his right arm was there, it was not severed.
Azura was weirded out once again since if what happened to him was not a dream, then his arm should've been severed. But it was still attached to his torso, and even the wounds that he suffered were completely gone.
If not for these corpses, he would've thought he had fallen asleep.
Relieved that his arm was back, lest he couldn't work anymore, he turned to look skywards.
It's still night, and the moon looks normal again. I guess it hasn't been that long.
Positioned at the center of the expansive clearing, Azura felt a slight twinge of fear, but with a deep breath, he made his way to one of the corpses. Choosing the corpse to his right, he scrutinized it closely and discerned that it belonged to a man, no older than thirty.
Everything about him was normal except for his very pale skin and long fangs.
"God, he mustn't be a human. No one can have fangs like that, they are at least two inches"
Looking at the elongated fangs, Azura felt a chill running down his spine.
As he was observing if there were other weird parts about the man's anatomy, Azura had his attention diverted to the side, to another corpse. Raising an eyebrow, he squinted his eyes at the sight of this particular one, "Hmm, isn't that...?"
Heading towards the corpse, Azura widened his eyes, realizing that it was the little girl.
The little monster that tore his arm off.
Seems like another monster got her by the neck as her throat was ripped open gruesomely.
"I can tell that the man was a Vampire, as absurd as it may sound, but this girl... what is she?" Azura mused in bewilderment. Her eyes were bright red, her teeth razor-sharp, and upon a closer inspection, her fingernails were also black and sharp.
Azura had limited knowledge in this field, so he didn't know what the little girl was.
He only knew the popular ones.
But as he was observing the little girl's corpse, he grimaced, clearly remembering that it was her who made him lose a lot of blood and even mocked him in the process, "Hahah~ Who is the moron now?"
Despite already mocking her corpse back, it didn't feel satisfying enough for Azura.
In a fit of anger, he kicked the little girl's corpse a couple of times.
"Moron!!" He shouted, letting out his frustrations.
Only after satiating his anger towards the little girl that he stop.
Just when he was about to make his way, his eyes landed on a bag belonging to the little girl.
He took the bag and checked the inside, finding that there was only a book inside.
"A book? What is she doing bringing along a book with her?" Azura mused, finding it weird.
Examining the book's cover, he discovered the title 'Resonance of Darkness' written on it, a very eerie name for a book. Beaten by his curiosity, he opened the book and delved into its contents, only to find it defied his initial expectations.
"It's not a dark ritual, but a technique instead...?"
Aside from an explanation of some general knowledge and the purpose of the book, some of the pages were a drawing of a posture—a step-by-step guide to using a technique. A couple of times, the book also mentioned the term mana.
"Mana as in mana for doing magic? Like in made-up stories?"
Azura was completely at a loss here, he doesn't understand one bit.
While he was skimming through the pages in a squatting position, his hand brushed against the little girl's corpse. He then stumbled back in surprise when a series of letters started to form before him suddenly.
They were glowing black, and in a format that was very similar to a game.
[Grade B Ghoul gene is detected!]
[Adaptation will cost 25,000 dark mana points and 10% sanity or 99% sanity]
[Do you want to adapt the associated gene?]
"Huh...? What in the world is this?" Azura was flabbergasted, not knowing what to think.
Everything about this night was already unbelievable—encounters with actual monsters, and even being buried alive. Now, as if those series of unfortunate events weren't enough, Azura faced yet another bizarre occurrence.
Floating in front of him was a silvery screen, the letters were written in black.
It was magical, and Azura suspected that he must've hit his head during the earlier incident.
But as if responding to him, the screen changed.
[Extraction of two skills from the gene is possible]
[One extraction will cost 1,000 dark mana points and 5% sanity or 80% sanity]
[Do you want to view the available skills for extraction?]
"Adaptation? Extraction? No, no, no! I don't understand any of this so fuck no" Azura replied.
Not knowing what he was getting himself into, the safe option was to decline.
Just as he refused everything, the screen changed again, but he didn't have time to read as he suddenly heard voices coming from the woods. The sky was still dark, and it didn't seem like a lot of time had passed either, so nobody should be in the woods.
"I'm so sleepy, why do they need to call us this late at night?"
"Stop complaining, the payroll is a lot, so it's not like this wouldn't be worth it"
"I guess... But still, it's two in the morning!"
Upon hearing the voices getting closer, Azura's body immediately froze.
Fearing that these voices belonged to monsters, he clenched his teeth and made a run for it.
He decided that he had enough pain today.
Despite there were still a lot of questions inside his mind that were left unanswered, he was definitely lucky that he was able to survive the night. Since lady luck was on his side, Azura wouldn't waste this chance.
Like a ghost, he pivoted and ran to his back before disappearing into the woods.
On the other side, three figures emerged.
Cloaked in matching black jackets and black fedoras on their heads, the three guys entered the glade. Scanning their eyes around, the man leading the group spotted a silhouette at the far end of the glade, heading into the woods.
It made him squint his eyes for a second, making sure he was seeing it right.
But since it was dark, it was quite hard to see.
"Master, did you see someone? Is there a need for a sweep?"
"It's still dark, and a brutal fight happened here. I doubt anyone is in the area"
Remaining silent despite the question, the leader eventually broke his eye contact with the other end of the glade and gestured with his hand, "No, I think it's only an animal. Go, make sure you clean this place. I don't want to see even a trace of the fight after you're done,"
"Yes, master!" Both of them replied in a union before getting to work.
From what it seemed, these people seemed to be cleaning the bodies of the deceased.
As his goons were taking care of the corpses, the leader crossed his arms and looked at the destruction caused on the glade, 'The Silver Eclipse was said to give a blessing, however, I saw the newest report, and none of the families get it. I guess, this is for the best,'
'After all, we don't know for sure. The Silver Eclipse might as well bestow a curse...'