Soon enough, they had crossed into the country and were no longer following the roads. It was normal to have dungeons appear at random, but this sounded like a dungeon that the gangs had had a 'lock' onto.
Humanity had eventually learned how to record the energy signatures from a dungeon to open them back up. It was a tough, very expensive process and was only really done for dungeons with either valuable resources, or a lot of land where people could live in.
These dungeons where people lived were called 'Extraterrestrial Territories'. Even though they were off world, they were usually owned by either a large private company or a military.
They arrived at a patch of grass that looked seemingly just like every other patch of grass. However, the man started waving at the ground, which made Rhys look back at him.
'What is he doing?' He wondered.
The ground, though, started to slide away, revealing an open hole which was an entire facility with different layers. It was a large cylindrical base, and they went down the circular steps that took them down to the highest floor.
Being directed by this man, they reached the ground floor that revealed a large dungeon portal that was guarded by two men wearing battle equipment. one had a red beast crystal in their breastplate, while the other had a purple beast crystal inside.
They were both glowing and had the same colour as their auras, then the man directed him toward the portal. The burly men let him pass, and he could see a large cave pathway just ahead.
Entering the dungeon, he was surrounded by brown rocks that had red glowing crystals wedged in them. Even with these dim crystals, he felt like he could see quite clearly and this was a sudden perk that he had felt becoming a vampire.
Soon, he could smell the blood of beasts that was also mixed in with the beautiful smell of human blood. It drew him forward and he had arrived at a cavern that opened up to various paths that he could take.
While he was at this junction of sorts, he was given a new notification from his system.
[Sudden Quest!]
[XP Farm]
[Gain as much XP as you can facing these beasts!]
[Rewards: Rewards vary per enemy]
The rather mysterious rewards of this quest only motivated Rhys more, and a group of four black rats charged at him. They looked to be as large as dogs and had obsidian armour across their bodies.
"GRRARGH!"
"SCREE!!"
They gave out demonic like squeaks and growls, but Rhys looked ready. The first leaped up to him, but he landed a straight punch to its body that cracked through its dark purple armour.
It shattered and caused wounds to enter the rat's body, but he then grabbed it by the neck to slam it into the floor.
With his heightened strength, he was taking himself aback with how easily he had defeated that beast.
If that was his human self, he would've taken much, much longer to get rid of it.
[Armoured rat defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
With the following beast that came after him, he threw a full power kick into its stomach to launch it into the air. He was surprised by his newfound power, and it almost hit the rock above them that was about 3 and a half meters up.
"Oh damn." Rhys whispered, seeing this.
[Armoured rat defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
The next rat leaped up to his face, revealed its large incisors to try and bite into him. However, he stepped back, evading any sort of attack that was coming his way, and punched the remaining two to take them down.
[Armoured rat defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
[Armoured rat defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
Looking down at the dim cave path that was to his left, he could hear the high-pitched squeaks that reminded him of the cleavers that had killed his two best friends.
He looked on in fear and almost couldn't believe what he was hearing.
'It can't be a cleaver in here, can it?' He asked, turning around to prepare himself.
He had a full bar of HP and MP and felt more ready than ever to fight whatever was heading his way. However, he let out an exhale of relief once he noticed miniature cleavers climbing up the walls and charging in his direction.
One leaped off the ceiling and dove down to attack him but he decided to utilise his Blooded Blow skill.
POW!
His punch shattered the bones in its body and killed it on impact, then some more beasts came charging down toward him. Another cleaver was now on the ground and opened up its small mouth that housed numerous claws.
Seeing just how fast they were, he activated his Fledgling Blitz and could now see them more clearly. He punched the cleaver that was closest to him with a speedy punch, before swinging a kick in that killed another that was heading his way.
They were even smaller than the rats that he fought just previously, so they were fast but lacked durability.
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
His 14 speed allowed him to track these warriors easily, and they were absolutely not going to take him down. He had barely sustained any injuries, finishing the final little beast off.
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
[Baby Mini Cleaver defeated]
[+8 Emporium Shards]
[+25XP]
Finishing off the final beast, he then saw a much larger mini cleaver reveal itself from beside him. It wasn't like these baby mini cleavers and was almost a cross between a cleaver and a baby mini cleaver. This was an adult mini cleaver.
It stood at around a metre, so just reached all the way up Rhys' legs. However, it paced forward and leaped up to try and slash him on his chest. All it cut through was his dark red aura of mana, and he then stepped to the side with his Fledgling Blitz skill. He had used it for the second time already, using 6MP in total just to keep this skill going.
It seemed cheap at first, but simply wasn't due to the little time that it provided increased speed to him. If not for this skill, even those baby mini cleavers would have given him a lot more problems. Just as he stepped away, though, the beast tracked him down again and slashed at his abdomen, before punching him in his chest.
The final attack launched him back several metres and he could feel the force behind it was quite impactful. Unlike the attack from the real cleaver, though, he felt quite okay after receiving it. It just felt like an attack that was something like Emmerich's intense impact, and he parried the next punch that came for his face.
He threw two quick punches and after throwing these, his skill deactivated. This was not a problem, though, as he utilised the last of his mana to land a final punch to its face using his Blooded Blow.
The punch was too much for the baby cleaver to handle and he crushed the beast's skull. Its body flopped to the ground, and he had finally taken it down.
The fight was quick but Rhys made sure that happened so he wouldn't have to abuse his fledgling blitz skill. However, he had wasted his MP and now had not even a single point left to use. His HP was fine, but it would take a long time before he would even receive a single mana point back.
[Mini Cleaver Defeated]
[+20 Emporium Shards]
[+65XP]
[Level Up!]
[+3HP]
[+4MP]
[MP Replenished!]
[+1 Stat Upgrade]
[+2 Inventory Slots]
'Now, that's more like it!' He thought.
The MP replenishing was a new notification and almost seemed too good to be true for Rhys. it confused him since he had never received anything like that before.
Still in his thoughts, he decided to try and get answers from his trusty assistant.
[The user's Lv. 1 Blood Mage title now provides extra MP upon level-ups and replenishes MP stores.]
'Neat.' He thought in reaction.
[Level: 4]
[User: Rhys Arkwrighte]
[Titles: Fledgling, Lv.1 Blood Mage]
[Strength (STR): 5]
[Speed (SPD): 7]
[Durability (DUR): 4]
[Endurance (END): 5]
[Species: Vampire]
[HP: 16/17]
[XP: 15/400]
[MP: 21/21]
[Stat Upgrades: 1]
[Skills] [expand]