Raphiel closely examined the silver coin in his hand, noticing a depiction of a winged angel looking toward the sun. On the reverse side was a cross symbol. Seeing this symbol stirred an intense urge in him to destroy the coin, yet he restrained himself.
To Raphiel, the silver coin began symbolizing a dream—a gateway to infinite energy. This coin seemed to generate heat without any apparent cause, and it did so with almost no energy drain on his part, if any at all. Either way, he placed great hopes in this silver coin.
After playing with the coin for a bit, he tucked it into his pocket, then casually summoned his status panel. Yet, this time, something unusual happened.
/-----------------------------------
1.Vip Name: Raphiel
Power Systems: • [Energy Circulation (Mana)] • [Blood Circulation (Vampire Lineage, Withered Mana)] • [Blessings (System)]
[Quests] -----------------------------------/
This change in the system display caused him to curse aloud, though he soon calmed down, realizing he hadn't lost any features the system previously provided.
Now, to access the former status panel, he had to hold down on the word "System," and pressing on any item in this new panel provided more details—though, disappointingly, some things, like Withered Mana, lacked detailed explanations.
[Withered Mana]: A unique type of mana.
[Mana]: A type of energy used for magic. The rate of regeneration is determined by spiritual power. Mana can be stored in various ways and exists naturally in small quantities in a human body. The most popular way to increase mana capacity is by creating a [Mana Circle].
[Mana Circle]: You lack sufficient Mana control for this. Do not attempt this until your Mana control has sufficiently developed to avoid injuring yourself.
The new system seemed to possess a certain level of intelligence, giving small warnings for Raphiel's benefit rather than engaging in direct conversation. Without such a warning, he felt sure he might have accidentally killed himself.
Raphiel began to grasp the core principle of the system. The key addition was the [Quests] section, where he could set a task with a penalty for failure, and the system would assign a fitting reward. If he succeeded, he'd earn the reward; if he failed, he'd suffer the penalty he set.
If he desired a specific reward, the system would attempt to create the closest matching one, as long as it was proportional to the task's difficulty.
However, any penalty he set could only affect him personally. It couldn't involve another entity, so a penalty like "A nuclear bomb will fall on me if I fail" was impossible, as it would impact the entire world.
After some trials, he completed a series of breathing tasks and earned four grains of sand. Both the challenge and reward felt perfectly fair. Even Raphiel thought the reward was overly generous; if he were the system, he would never have approved such an easy task.
Raphiel then decided to create a more daring task.
[Quest: Hold the silver coin in your hand for 24 hours. [Penalty: You will lose your first [Rebirth] right. [Requested Reward: A pair of blue contact lenses]
[Requested reward approved. Are you sure you want to start the quest?]
[Requested Reward: [Eye Color Manipulation] ability]
[The requested reward has been approved under the condition that it only works on you. Are you sure you want to start the quest?]
Raphiel grasped the silver coin and started the quest. Time passed quickly, and night soon fell, but this time, he remained in the alley to avoid losing the silver coin to other vampires.
Raphiel practiced magic throughout the night. Shortly before sunrise, he heard screams from the slum area, most of which were women's voices. He didn't need to be a genius to realize something terrible had happened to the vampires.
Raphiel had no intention of rescuing them, knowing he'd certainly die if he went there. Gripped by fear, he clutched the silver coin tightly, hid in a dumpster, and closed his eyes.
Surprisingly, he fell asleep and enjoyed a restful sleep until the sunlight woke him. Raphiel, eyes still closed, mumbled, "Five more minutes," then suddenly opened his eyes, realizing he wasn't burning in the sunlight.
The sunlight felt as intense as a desert sun but wasn't lethal. The best part was that he still held the silver coin in his hand, his grip never loosening.
Though he felt somewhat sunstruck, Raphiel was still thrilled.
He slowly opened his cramping hand, tucked the silver coin into his pocket, and noticed his eye color gradually shift from red to brown.
Raphiel climbed out of the dumpster, disgusted by the smell. He would never have gone in there without the threat of death. His only concern now was the bite mark on his neck.
While he couldn't speak yet, he figured he could one day blame his pale complexion on a disease. But there was no reasonable way to explain the bite mark. Then a risky idea came to Raphiel's mind.
He created an appropriate quest.
[Quest: Carve a cross pattern on your neck within 24 hours to conceal the bite marks. [Penalty: The scar will never fade for 100 years.
[A suitable reward has been generated. No one will notice a scar on your neck, and the cross pattern will look flawless. Do you confirm the quest?]
Raphiel approved the quest and began crafting the design carefully, as there was a high chance he could accidentally kill himself. He noticed that the wounds he created with his nails healed quickly, so he gripped the silver coin in his other hand while carving the cross on his neck.
The silver coin was too far from his neck to counteract the vampire healing, and holding it near his neck didn't work either. Thus, he placed the silver coin on his tongue since his mouth was closer to his neck. The silver suppressed his healing, and he carved the cross pattern—but accidentally swallowed the silver coin afterward.
Raphiel felt severe nausea and stomach pain. He tried to vomit, but the coin seemed stuck in his stomach. He figured it was too heavy to expel and attempted to hang upside down, using a nearby dumpster for support.
All his attempts failed, leaving him no choice but to wait for the coin to leave his body naturally.
Unaware that the coin had actually attached itself to his stomach lining, Raphiel would need to cut open his stomach to remove it. Such an action would cause him to die from blood loss since the silver suppressed his healing abilities, and he was only a half-vampire.
With little else he could do, he resigned himself to wait out the pain.
Within a few hours, the pain subsided, feeling more like a mosquito bite. Raphiel checked his status panel and saw that all his Withered Mana was depleted.
Raphiel was starving, though he didn't crave blood. As unusual as it was for a vampire, he wanted regular food. He believed this urge was because of the silver coin.
He found the five bronze coins he had from earlier. Thinking it might be enough for a loaf of bread, he headed out to buy some. With a bit of effort, he found a vendor selling bread, milk, and eggs.
---
Bob was conducting his trade honestly as always. He was a fair merchant, selling various types of bread, cheese, and village eggs. He noticed a beggar watching his stall, making no effort to hide his interest.
Bob was sure the beggar would steal something, but since he hadn't done anything yet, Bob didn't scold him. He continued with his work until, after about 30 minutes, the beggar approached his stall quietly.
The beggar reached into his pocket, took out a large bronze coin, handed it to Bob, and pointed at the cheapest loaf of bread. The merchant asked, "If you weren't going to steal anything, why did you wait here?" but Raphiel didn't understand him and only pointed to his ears. The merchant, sympathetic, replied, "I see," believing the beggar was abandoned for being mute.
The loaf Raphiel wanted cost two regular bronze coins, and he had given a large bronze coin. Bob handed him the loaf and eight regular bronze coins in change.
Currency in this world was divided into four types: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Each type had three subtypes: small, regular, and large coins, with each subtype worth ten times the previous.
For example:
10 Small Bronze Coins = 1 Bronze Coin 10 Bronze Coins = 1 Large Bronze Coin 10 Large Bronze Coins = 1 Small Silver Coin
A silver coin equaled 1,000 bronze coins of the same size. This calculation applied similarly for gold-silver and platinum-gold conversions.
After receiving his bread and change, Raphiel left slowly. Here, coins had magnetic fields, so his metal coins made no sound in his pockets.