Chương 15: (15) B1 C15: My First Skill Point

I ran into the forest as fast as I was able, all while making sure to keep myself out of Norman's sight. I kept the tent placed firmly between me and the campfire as I ran, which had been a good decision on my part, too, as Eddie's tent was soon set ablaze only just as I'd managed to get clear of it. The explosion wasn't loud, but it did carry a rush of warm air that pressed against my shoulders like an uncomfortable blanket.

I dashed to the forest, hoping to retreat into the shadows as I turned to look back at the smoldering campsite. Norman stood near the campfire, a marble-sized ball of flame hovering at the end of his wand as his eyes glared at the remnants of Eddie's tent. I was pretty sure he hadn't noticed me yet, and I had every intention to take advantage of that lapse of focus. As I retreated further into the forest, Eddie tried to struggle against my grasp.

By this point, he had lost so much health that it left him dazed and confused, which proved to only aid me as we moved deeper into the shadows. As I settled myself into safety, I looked from Norman's distant figure to Eddie's bleeding form. He was kneeling on the ground, only supported by the hand I kept clasped around his collar. The wound on his neck had bled far more than I'd expected it to, which left the entirety of his chest covered in his own blood. Did bleeding damage exist in this version of reality?

Nevermind—that was something to look into later. Eddie was truly a mess, and I wasn't sure if his natural HP regeneration was going to be good enough to pull him out of it. I didn't intend to wait to see if that was going to happen, though, so I crouched down to meet Eddie's stare. His glossy eyes met with my own as he struggled to say whatever was on his mind, but my attention was too focused on his body to listen to what he had to say. The blood in Eddie's veins had slowed down.

Each heartbeat pulsed through his body with less force than before, almost as if he'd lost all of the strength within his heart. The blood running through some parts of his body, like his hands and feet, moved so slowly that they were almost frozen. I was briefly tempted to question him—possibly to see if his current HP value correlated with the stability of his veins, but then the intoxicating smell hit my nose. I took Eddie's collar in my hands and began to pull him up to my chest.

Then, just as he cried out in fear and pain, I sunk my teeth into his neck. Eddie gasped in pain as my fangs sunk into his flesh, but his body only shuddered in response to the hostile invasion. Once my teeth found purchase, Eddie's blood began to flow into my body, somehow just as delicious as the blood I'd tasted from Dave. Despite the strange quality Crimson Instinct had provided me, it seemed there was little difference between the two men.

Eddie grasped at my shoulders, his fingers wielding so little strength that I hardly felt his effort. Then he took a final breath, his body shivering in fear as the last lungful of air escaped him. Right after, he went still, his heart silent and his veins empty. He still wore his final expression of horror on his face.

Eddie's blood tasted far more wonderful than I expected it would, but my attention was more focused on the notification hovering in the center of my vision, rather than the euphoria running through my body. +610 BP (Level 12 Human Sorcerer) I felt a smile stretch across my face as I let Eddie's corpse fall back onto the ground. Even alone, he'd netted me enough BP to match the effort of a week spent fighting rabbits, despite having less than half of what Dave had given me. Two down, one to go.

As I brought my attention away from Eddie's corpse, I turned back to the campsite to lay my eyes on my next target before I began to judge how difficult the impending fight would be. I wasn't wearing armor of any type, so I had no defenses to speak of other than my boons, but my damage was pretty high. If I relied on stealth and my high Critical Damage, I would have a decent chance to come out on top. However, there was no denying that Norman was the first of my opponents that stood a decent chance at killing me.

He was most certainly sitting at a higher level than me, possibly more so than the other two slavers I'd already finished off. Norman, from what I could see staring at his equipment, didn't seem like the tank type. Specifically, he didn't seem to be a Warden—the magical equivalent to a Vanguard—which meant he'd probably have a high damage output.

My damage may have been even higher than his, but my survivability suffered because of it, and with only 1K VP and 200 BB, I doubted I'd be able to take a single hit from him. I needed to level up before I fought him, so I slinked away, my feet slowly carrying me back into the forest. I had several thousand blood points—all of which I intended to invest into myself before I stepped into Norman's sight, so I quickly opened my attribute menu and began to consider what direction I could specialize myself in.

At the current moment, my stats highly favored an 'all-in' type of strategy, where I'd do a shit ton of damage yet have a low survivability because of it. Most of the time, it worked in my favor, as it allowed me to kill my opponents before they had the chance to do anything to me. It had some drawbacks, of course, all of which I was facing now. I put my fingers against my chin and began to ponder.

I didn't like the idea of staying as vulnerable as I was, but I also hated the idea of letting go of the playstyle I'd just begun to enjoy. With 3. 5K BP, I had more than enough BP to level up all the way to level twelve, which allowed me a total of 200 stat points to distribute across my status. I ignored all three of the magical attributes—an increase in Heresy or Profanity wouldn't help me right now, and Authority was less important than Undeath even though it essentially did the same thing.

I could increase my Malice, but doing so felt less effective than increasing Thirst, which left my two main attributes limited to, as always, Undeath and Thirst. Honestly, focusing on just Undeath and Thirst was beginning to become a pattern. At the moment, I desperately wanted more survivability, so I decided to spend the vast majority of my points on increasing Undeath. What remained, of course, was dedicated to Thirst. Specifically, I increased Undeath by 130 points, which practically doubled it from 100 to 230.

Thirst was given the remaining attribute points, which lifted it from 180 to 250. The leveling process was just as usual as the last nine had been, except for when I reached level ten. As soon as I pressed the finalize button for dedicating my stats, a new window appeared before me. Congratulations! You've acquired a skill point! As you have not yet reached the peak of your Evolutionary Stage, this Level Up will not allow you to evolve, but you will be able to increase your attributes by fifty points.

This specific level up will also give you a skill point, which you can use to acquire a new skill or upgrade an already existing skill. Would you like to level up now? [Y] [N]"Fucking finally," I whispered under my breath. Immediately, I opened my skills list, then drew my eyes to the two skills waiting for me. Although I could choose to acquire a new skill, the unlock requirements for the good skills were very rarely accomplished in the beginning of the game.

It was always a good idea to upgrade first, then acquire later so that the choices were more beneficial for me. I first turned my attention to my primary skill, Vampire's Bite. VAMPIRE'S BITE SKILL UNLOCKS EXECUTIONER'S BITE Allows you to use Vampire's Bite to instantly kill those who have less remaining HP than your Bite Capacity. Those who can be 'culled' will acquire a special glow which can be seen with Crimson Instinct.

— Unlock Requirements: - Use Vampire's Bite to kill an opponent who has less than 100 health. (Eddie the Slaver) - Have THIRST as your highest attribute. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. RAVENOUS APPETITE Allows you to halt the decay of BP dedicated to sustenance, so long as you've fed within the last 12 hours. After those 12 hours have passed, lose 3 BP per hour until you feed once again. — Unlock Requirements - Feed on multiple creatures within one day.

- Acquire the Addicted status. WASTE NOT WANT NOT | LVL 1 When drinking blood that is old enough to lose some of its value, such as STALE blood, treat it as the more fresh alternative. Specifically, treat STALE blood as FRESH, AGED blood as STALE, and STAGNANT blood as AGED. — Unlock Requirements: - Have your first taste of STALE blood. (STALE Silverlight Rabbit) - Have THIRST as your highest attribute.

"This isn't even a hard decision," I whispered to myself as I looked over my options. Usually, the first skill upgrade was a weak one. By level ten, new players hadn't done many things that would qualify for a good skill unlock, so at most they'd receive a slight increase to their skill's damage or an effect that was so easy to replicate that every player they'd meet would have the same.

So, when I saw that my first skill unlock option gave me an Execution Effect, which would allow me to completely ignore my opponent's HP so long as the condition was met, I wasn't just surprised. I was ecstatic. This was the type of shit that high level players were still trying to go for, even after they'd reached level six hundred, and I'd already managed to find myself access to one? The unlock requirement wasn't even that difficult.

Sure, the fact that I had Thirst as my highest attribute was a lucky coincidence, but the requirement of killing an opponent with Vampire's Bite was ridiculously easy. I wasn't even sure how much damage Vampire's Bite was able to do, but using it on an opponent with that much HP, or even just waiting until an opponent was that injured before using it on them, was child's play. The other two skill options, those being Waste Not Want Not and Ravenous Appetite were significantly less appealing in comparison.

Ravenous Appetite was just straight up garbage. The existing drain on my BP was hardly noticeable, as even a small animal gave me enough food for days, yet the fact that I'd lose more BP per hour if I didn't keep up with the skill was bullshit. Of course, I decided to ignore the implication of what an 'addicted' status meant. The second skill, Waste Not Want not was better, but still nowhere as tempting as Executioner's Bite. With the way it was set up, it was obvious that there were several levels to the skill.

If I continued on with it, there was a very real possibility I'd be able to treat Stagnant blood, which I now assumed referred to the worst state blood could be in, as blood pulled directly from a fresh corpse. Leveling up would be incredibly easy if I could source third party companies to acquire my XP for me. I knew I wouldn't be taking it this level, but I did make sure to keep an eye on it for future skill unlocks.

I was tempted to immediately choose Executioner's Bite, but I made sure to open the skill unlocks for Crimson Instinct and the potential new skill unlocks, first. Just in case. CRIMSON INSTINCT SKILL UNLOCKS VAMPIRE'S EYE Gain a more thorough understanding of how much health an opponent still has remaining while using Crimson Instinct. — Unlock Requirements: Use Crimson Instinct for a combined total of 10 minutes (100%) VAMPIRE'S FOCUS Decrease the cost of Crimson Instinct.

— Unlock Requirements: Use the entirety of your CE bar while using Crimson Instinct 10 times (100%) VAMPIRE'S SIGHT Increase the effective range of Crimson Instinct. — Unlock Requirements: Use Crimson Instinct to gaze at a target standing at the edge of Crimson Instinct's range for a total of 60 seconds (100%) Now that's more like it. The three options for Crimson Instinct were each weak, yet exactly as I'd expect for a low level character.

Although I was somewhat relieved to find that my available options weren't completely outside of my expectations, I wasn't foolish enough to actually choose any of them. Afterwards, I opened the listed options for my new skill unlocks, even though I expected all of them to be undesirable at best. NEW SKILL UNLOCKS SNEAK Slip into the shadows and disappear from sight. You are harder to detect while using this skill, but not completely invisible.

All creatures will still be able to see you if they look in your direction, and obstructions such as bright lights will be fully capable of breaking your stealth. — Type: Hex Cost: 250 CE/S Effect: +5% to Sneak — Unlock Requirements: Sneak around your foes at least five times (100%) CLAW SWIPE Attack your foes with your claws, rather than the weapon you hold at your side.

All damage from this attack will be calculated as if you were using a Precision Weapon equal to a fourth of your level, rather than as if you were unarmed. — Type: Devour Cost: 500 BP. — Unlock Requirements: Use your claws to land the final hit on an opponent even though you have access to a martial weapon. (Dave the Slaver) DEFEND Bunker down and focus on defending yourself from all incoming attacks. You cannot move while this skill is enabled, but you take less damage from all sources of physical damage.

— Type: Devour Cost: 100 BP/S Effect: +5% Fortitude. — Unlock Requirements: Take damage for the first time. Yeah, no. So, as I turned my attention back to Vampire's Bite, I selected the Executioner's Bite upgrade and watched as an updated skill page appeared before me.