After returning to her secret lair, the female vampire tied Raphiel up with a sturdy rope. The lair was underground, as it would attract too much attention otherwise, and she didn't want to be discovered by Eanna's fanatical followers. Although some nobles in the city turned a blind eye to vampires, there were those who despised them intensely.
The secret agreement between vampires and nobles had recently been nullified due to the vampire massacre, making it much harder to leave the city. The female vampire hated the heroes because they had indirectly caused this massacre.
Troll blood is usually used for healing potions, but those made with vampire blood are somewhat more effective. After the heroes were summoned, there was a demand for vampire blood to provide them with higher-quality potions.
Clerics possessed a natural advantage against vampires and harbored a deep hatred for them. The moment they found a reason to eliminate them, they didn't hesitate and even worsened things by blaming the assassination attempt on the king on vampires. Somehow, they convinced the king that all the blame lay with the vampires.
The female vampire, Alice, planned to escape the city once she learned how Raphiel could change his eye color. Night patrols had been increased to prevent vampires from escaping, so Alice wasn't in a hurry.
---
Raphiel looked at the thing before him. He saw a massive structure made up of blue spheres the size of marbles and the strings connecting them. The massive structure consisted of a blue energy.
Raphiel circled the massive structure, carefully examining it, but could understand very little. Initially, this structure resembled a colossal computer. The marbles were like circuit boards, and the strings like wires connecting these boards. Raphiel could understand the function of one circuit board at a glance, but there were countless of them.
"In my previous life, I'm sure I didn't have anything like this, so this can't be my soul. This must be the system that's the source of the status window.
I wonder if I could create something like this?
I guess I won't know unless I try. For now, I'll try to create an ability that lets me burn whatever I touch."
After a few failed attempts, Raphiel finally managed to create one marble. Oddly enough, it required very little mana to do so, but the only issue was that he'd consumed a part of the void that made up this place to make it.
Since he didn't know if what he lost was renewable, he temporarily shifted his focus. Now he was trying to understand what this thing was and how to renew it.
His efforts paid off somewhat; he realized it was a type of mental energy. Everything he did in the void used up a little of this mental energy. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out how to replenish it.
Then, he gradually began to wake up.
---
When Raphiel awoke, he noticed he was loosely tied to a pillar with a rope. The rope was loose enough to allow him to escape easily. If he wanted, he could free himself in half a minute.
Raphiel quickly freed himself from the ropes binding him and then inspected the underground hideout a bit. It was a small place with two rooms: the living room, where he had been tied up, and the bedroom, where the female vampire, Alice, slept in a coffin. Surprisingly, it was decorated in a cute way, making Raphiel feel slightly embarrassed.
Avoiding staying there too long, Raphiel returned to the living room. There was nothing stopping him from escaping, as the living room was directly connected to the exit, yet he didn't leave because he believed it would be safer to be with a vampire than with humans. This was because Raphiel himself was also a vampire.
Raphiel paced back and forth in the living room, planning for the future. He wasn't too worried about the female vampire, as they didn't speak the same language anyway. For now, due to the language barrier, he didn't need to explain anything to her.
His main goal now was to develop the void. Initially, he thought the void had great potential, but after seeing that the system's origin was related to it, he realized he had underestimated it. The void actually had limitless potential, with the only limitation being his mindset.
For example, he could create things like ability cards, which he could even give to others. He could also potentially invite others into the void in the future.
Being awake didn't mean he couldn't enter the void—he just needed to lie down and relax a bit. In the future, he might even be able to interact with the void while awake, by finding a way to enable it with mana.
For now, he didn't need to enter the void, as he felt it was easier to think about complex things in the real world. Raphiel sat on the couch and drifted into deep thought.
---
When Alice woke up, the first thing she did was check on Raphiel. What she saw made her lips twitch slightly. Raphiel had already freed himself from the rope and was sleeping on the couch as if it were his own home.
Alice tied Raphiel to the couch this time. After leaving the secret hideout, she went to the agreed-upon meeting place with the other vampires. The meeting spot was a small garden next to the least frequented gambling house in the city.
The gambling house had been closed long ago due to rumors of it being haunted. Alice joined the other vampires, who were talking among themselves. The topic of the meeting was the recent massacre and plans to escape the city.
"It's all those bastards' fault. If they hadn't blamed us, this massacre wouldn't have happened."
Alice responded, "I disagree. The real culprits are the creatures summoned from another world. If not for them, the king wouldn't have decided to hunt us down directly." The other vampires agreed with her. Another vampire suggested, "We should eliminate those monsters," but the majority immediately rejected the idea. Initially, there were around a hundred vampires in the city, but only twelve attended the meeting, meaning there were fewer than twenty vampires left in the city.
In fact, it would be possible to kill a few of them secretly, but they needed the heroes to get rid of the demon king. If the demon king took over the world, vampires would also suffer, as they weren't born as demons. Vampires were, at their core, still human, and the demon king despised humans; there was no reason for him to favor vampires.
The meeting continued for hours, and just as it was about to end, Alice asked, "Does anyone have the [Basic Language Proficiency] skill book for sale?" A male vampire named Ark replied, "I have it. I'll bring it to your place tomorrow. Count it as repayment for the blood vials I borrowed from you." Alice replied, "Alright, don't forget to bring it tomorrow." Then everyone dispersed.
When Alice returned home, she saw Raphiel still asleep on the couch. She headed to her room and drew a magic array on the floor using her blood. At the center of the array, she placed a dead bat and touched a specific spot on the magical pattern with her index finger. As Alice touched the pattern on the floor, her red eyes glowed faintly. She spoke in an unintelligible language, and as she did, the writings drawn in blood on the ground began to move toward the bat.
After about an hour, the spell was complete, and the dead bat opened its eyes, glowing with a red light. Alice took the bat, went outside, and tossed it into the air like a carrier pigeon. The bat flew eastward.
Alice was exhausted and decided to sleep. As she passed through the living room, she saw Raphiel and thought to herself that if he had wanted to escape, he would have done so yesterday, deciding to untie him. While loosening his bindings, she accidentally stepped on his leg. Raphiel was about to exit the void but decided to stay a bit longer when he felt the pressure on his leg.
The female vampire returned to her room and fell asleep. Meanwhile, Raphiel had gained new inspiration. After some trial and error, his little project was complete.
/-----------------------------------\
1. Vip Name: Raphiel
[Vip Points: 251]
Ability Cards:
• [Active (Hot_Hand, Cold_Hand, Deformation_Hand)]
• [Passive (Hot_Body)]
[Quests] [Community] [Shop] [Avatar] [Decorations] [Events]
-----------------------------------/
What Raphiel created was merely an empty shell, but this didn't mean he couldn't fill it later. For instance, the abilities he created were functional.
He had categorized the abilities as active and passive. Moreover, all abilities were based on the fire magic he had previously performed.
Creating an ability card was actually simple. Create a marble, set it to act as an activation button. Then, create a marble that prompts you to think of atomic vibrations and link it to the first marble. Afterward, create a marble that directs the spell to heat the skin's atoms and connect it to the second marble. Then, combine this structure with a card featuring an image of a sweating body. This way, you create the [Hot_Body] ability card.
The other ability cards were a bit more complex, but none were excessively difficult. For instance, for the [Hot_Hand] ability card, rather than heating the skin's atoms, he needed to heat the air around his hand, with the trick being to place a layer of cool air between the hot air layer and the skin to avoid burning himself.
Raphiel returned to the area he decided to call the dungeon region. There, he saw the rabbit that had previously killed him. The rabbit pounced on him