Chương 3: (3) B1 C3: Its almost like looking in a mirror... kind of

After I closed the main status screen, I pulled up my racial screen. The Curse of Vampirism Nobody knows how they were created, but the Vampires have existed for nearly as long as the world itself. Over the course of their long history, they've experienced the looming edge of extinction multiple times, yet have prevailed time and time again. The once great Blood King Azkazan, known for his military might and prowess, was once the last vampire in existence.

In an effort to change the pitiful status of his race, he used all of his knowledge to create the [Chalice of Immortality], which has the capability to create six new Vampire Houses. Each Vampire House, of course, needs a progenitor to get it started. You are one of those chosen progenitors.

As a Vampire, you've automatically acquired these Racial Traits: BOONS: SANGUINE ROYALTY BLOODY REGENERATION UNCANNY PERCEPTION UNDYING FLESH BANES: AVERSION TO SUNLIGHT SCARLET APPETITE SOULLESS A CORPSE'S COMPLEXION As a Vampire, you've automatically acquired these Racial Skills: DEVOURS: VAMPIRE'S BITE HEXES: CRIMSON INSTINCT Usually, the racial screen in FFO was short and easy to read.

There would be a short description of a player's race, followed by one or two of the passive abilities that would tie in with their chosen species. Vampires, it seemed, were much more complicated than the average joe. After a quick read over the racial description, where it confirmed that there would be five other vampires alongside me—which made me wonder if there were other players dealing with my current situation—I turned my attention to the Traits.

I was surprised to find so many, and the excitement running through my veins quickly encouraged me to read on. Traits were abilities that were inherent to the core aspects of one's character, though most of them originated from races and classes. There were a few that were granted by wearing certain artifacts, but such items were incredibly rare and often came with strict equipment requirements.

Like buff and debuff effects, Traits were passive abilities, in a way, as they were always enabled, and they were split between good and bad variations called Boons and Banes. Where buffs and debuffs were temporary, Traits were permanent. Passive Traits BOONS BANES SANGUINE ROYALTY Your Might, Vitality, Agility, Will, Arcane, and Clarity attributes are replaced with Malice, Undeath, Thirst, Heresy, Authority, and Profanity.

This change removes your Health Points (HP), Stamina Points (SP), Arcane Barrier (AB), and Mana Points (MP), and replaces them with Vitae Points (VP), Blood Points (BP), Blood Barrier (MB), and Curse Energy (CE), respectively. Your Attacks and Spells are changed to Devours and Hexes, respectively, though the exact functions of each remain the same.

AVERSION TO SUNLIGHT If any part of your body makes direct contact with sunlight, regardless of whatever type of material you're wearing, you will lose 25% of your Vitae Points (VP) per second for however long you remain exposed. If you are still exposed to the sunlight by the time your Vitae Points (VP) are depleted, you will die.

This Bane can be weakened by both your VP regeneration rate and your level, as every time you increase your level by 20, 1% will be removed from the rate of damage, eventually allowing you to remove this bane entirely once you reach level 500. BLOODY REGENERATION You are able to regenerate your Vitae Points (VP) by consuming your available Blood Points (BP), though regenerating lost limbs requires more Blood Points (BP) than usual. The regeneration caused by this Boon is instant.

SCARLET APPETITE Your Blood Points (BP) do not regenerate naturally. To increase your BP total, you must siphon the blood from living creatures using the [Vampire's Bite] Skill. Blood Points primarily function as the fuel for your Devour Abilities, but they also serve as your Experience Points and sustenance, so you will constantly lose one BP per hour and will become Blood-Starved if you spend too long with 0 BP. Human food is edible but tasteless, and it does not replace BP as sustenance.

UNDYING FLESH You naturally have 10% additional Fortitude. You cannot feel pain and do not need air in your lungs, but you still require sleep to function. SOULLESS The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. You naturally have 10% less Resilience. You have no reflection, and you cannot trespass into the private homes of the living unless invited. Should an invitation be rescinded while you are still within a home, you will be forced outside.

Symbols, Locations, and Metals of worship originating from Hostile sources of Divinity will all harm you in various ways UNCANNY PERCEPTION Your five senses, especially hearing, are significantly more powerful than the senses of the average living human. This effect is even more pronounced if you've fed recently. A CORPSE'S COMPLEXION As a Vampire, you are a creature that should never have existed. You do not have a beating heart, nor do you have a warm body or functioning organs.

Although you will never be able to perfectly appear as a living human, maintaining a certain number of Blood Points (BP) relative to your maximum Vitae Points (VP) allows you to better conceal your true nature. Your complexion state, as well as the reaction of those around you, improves with every 20% BP increase relative to your maximum VP. — Current Complexion: Monstrous (0%-19%). Your vampiric nature is immediately apparent to all who see you.

Your unnatural appearance is unmistakable, and all creatures will recognize you as a threat before you have the chance to speak. I first turned my attention to my boons. I wasn't surprised to find Sanguine Royalty at the top of the list, as I'd already known that a player's race in FFO had an effect on the attributes they had. A human's attributes, as an example, were different from those of an Ember Elf or a Witchling. Golems and Automatons used unique attributes, as well, though I didn't remember what they were.

My attention was pulled to my Barrier, specifically, and how it was adjusted from an Arcane Barrier into a Blood Barrier. In FFO, every entity was given two forms of protection. There was the Health Bar, the manifestation of a person's physical well-being, and the Arcane Barrier, an invisible shield that surrounded their body like a skin-tight space suit.

The Arcane Barrier was almost like a second health bar, as it allowed players with magical stats to act as a tank without putting too many points into Vitality, which they didn't really use. In order to fully kill an opponent, their Health Bar and Arcane Barrier had to be depleted entirely. As I read the effect of my next Boon, Bloody Regeneration, I couldn't help but feel surprised to learn that I was able to regenerate my Vitae Bar and Blood Barrier on command.

It was a generally accepted fact that both the Health and Magical Shield, whether they be normal or like my Vampiric replacements, were incapable of regeneration during combat. Stamina and Mana regenerated during fights, of course, but players usually had to either consume an elixir or wait until the fight was over to regenerate their Health and Shield values. Traits that allowed players to circumvent that restriction were rare, but powerful.

Undying Flesh was a Trait that had some similarities with the basic Traits that belonged to some Undead monsters, though the effects from my version were a little stronger. A 10% bonus to Fortitude was incredibly powerful for a beginner trait, as Fortitude was a flat bonus to physical damage nullification, but the added effect that I was apparently unable to feel pain was the icing on top. I lifted my hand to my hip. Then, with a tight grip, I pinched my pale skin as hard as I could.

I felt a tugging sensation where my fingers met my flesh, but the feeling was more uncomfortable than painful. I pinched harder, this time digging into my skin with my sharp nails. Again, I felt nothing. After I let my hand fall back to my hip, I brought my attention to the portion of the Boon that mentioned that I no longer needed to breathe. I took a deep breath, then froze completely as I attempted to prevent my body from receiving oxygen for as long as possible.

Usually, I'd need to breathe again after forty seconds or so, but as I continued to hold my breath, I came to the shocking realization that I couldn't feel the growing discomfort or burn in my lungs that would usually accompany a lack of air. Even after a full minute had passed, my body felt no different from how it had before. The sensation of not needing to breathe was a strange one, but it was somehow more relaxing than I expected it to be.

I chuckled, then turned back to the window in front of me even as my lungs continued to hold still. The last Boon, Uncanny Perception, was only mildly interesting. I turned to my surroundings. I was in some sort of forest, though the moons overhead didn't provide enough lighting to see further than a meter in any direction. When I closed my eyes, intent on focusing on the noises around me, I found that my hearing wasn't any better than it already was.

After looking through my Boons, I turned back up to the top of the list and instead began to read down my Banes. I was a little nervous to find that I already had four of them, as Banes were Traits that most players tried to have as few of as possible. I was hoping to find that most of them weren't super severe, but as I read my first Bane, Aversion to Sunlight, I felt an overwhelming sense of dread spread through my body.

Naturally, I was fully aware of the worst weakness Vampires had in usual media, but the forms of that weakness never stayed the same. The sun could go from a slight annoyance to a form of damage that instantly turned a vampire to ash, so when I found that it didn't pull its punches for me, I was terrified. I turned my attention away from the traits menu and toward the horizon in the distance.

I didn't know when morning would come, nor did I know where it would come from, but the knowledge that I'd lose 25% of my Vitae Bar per second didn't sound like it'd be painless. Would I combust into flames in a mere instant, or would the sun turn me into a charred corpse before I had the chance to feel what was happening in the first place? I doubted I'd be lucky enough to experience the latter, and the thought left me terrified.

I desperately wanted to close the traits menu and find a shelter as fast as possible, but I shook my head and quickly returned my attention to the floating menu in front of me. Now wasn't the time to panic, especially when I still understood so little about my new self. What if there was another lethal weakness hidden within my Banes, and in my rush to find safety I triggered it unknowingly? I couldn't help but sigh with relief as soon as I read that I'd be able to get rid of the Bane once I hit level 500.

It took me nearly three whole years to get to that level as my tank character, but even a small ember of hope was worth grasping onto. I quickly read through my second Bane, Scarlet Appetite. I was disappointed, though not surprised, to learn that it would halt my natural BP regeneration. It was a huge disadvantage—one that would convince most players to restart their characters entirely if they acquired a Bane like it.

In the past, I'd once known a mage player that had sunk 3, 000 hours and several hundred levels into an elementalist character. He was considered a pro among pros, even on the course to possibly reach the top ten, but he deleted said character as soon as he was hit with a Bane that prevented MP regeneration.

I hadn't blamed him at the time, but luckily the description for Scarlet Appetite also told me that I'd be able to gain BP from a skill called 'Vampire's Bite', so the issue of losing out on BP regeneration wasn't as severe as I'd initially thought it was. When I considered what that skill entailed, though, my excitement quickly disappeared. Of course, I knew that Vampires were considered monsters by most forms of media.

Barring the few that turned them into romance icons, Vampires were often seen as the monsters in popular horror films. They were gruesome, murderous, and violent. Even FFO wasn't an exception to this rule, as Blood King Azkazan, the only vampire in the game, was located at the bottom of a dungeon that would've fit right alongside hell itself. We were lucky he was confined to his boss room, as he'd probably end up turning the surrounding landscape into an undead wasteland otherwise. Was that my fate?

I lifted my hands once more to gaze at the bony fingers and long black nails. Even at a glance, I understood that I wasn't human anymore. I hadn't seen my reflection yet, assuming I even had one, but I wouldn't be surprised if my face was literal nightmare fuel. Was I only a moving halloween decoration, or had I become a living incarnation of evil? Honestly? I had no idea, and that thought terrified me.

I let my hands fall back to my sides as I turned my attention back to my traits menu, hoping a distraction could pull me away from the dark thoughts swirling through my mind. The final part of the Bane, the bit that mentioned that Blood Points functioned as my replacement for Stamina and my source of food, wasn't surprising, but I was shocked to learn that they would also function as my Experience Points.

I didn't know how exactly I'd level up with this new system, though the description implied that it was completely different from the quest-based system I was used to. Would I level up quicker? Slower? When I turned to the last portion, where it mentioned that I would go blood-starved if I went too long without BP, I briefly wondered if it was similar to the 'Berserk' function that I was familiar with in FFO. If that was the case, I wanted to avoid becoming Blood-Starved at all costs.

I turned my attention to the next Bane, hoping for something easier to deal with, and felt an eyebrow rise upon my brow as I read the description for Soulless. The first part of Soulless, specifically the part that mentioned that I had 10% less Resilience than normal, left me incredibly disappointed, though it solved the mystery as to why my defense values were what they were on my main status screen. Luckily, my frustration was lessened by the second part of Soulless.

Whenever I watched Vampire movies or TV shows, I always found it fascinating to see scenes of multiple vampires standing in a room surrounded by mirrors, only for those mirrors to reveal nothing within them. Did that mean I'd have absolutely no reflection, like in general, or would she have no reflection in mirrors, specifically? If I looked directly into a river, would I be able to see myself staring back at me, or would I only see the river bed beneath me? The thought was interesting.

The next part, the bit that prevented me from entering homes unless invited, left me even more frustrated with my new character. Both Soulless and Aversion to Sunlight worked in ways that would only be minor inconveniences if I were still playing a video game, but were now so much more dangerous due to the fact that I wasn't in a video game.

If I ended up in a city a few minutes before sunrise, with the only shelter in sight being the home of a private citizen, would I be unable to hide from the sun if those inside didn't invite me in? If something like that happened to me, I'd die mere inches away from safety. Mere inches! Vampires in popular media were often shown to be incapable of entering somebody's house without an invitation, though the idea of being forced back outside if somebody rescinded their invitation was confusing.

How exactly would something like that work? Would I just teleport to their front lawn? If that could happen during the day, would I be spat out into the sunlight like a pest thrown out with the trash? The last bit, the portion that mentioned that symbols, locations, and metals of worship 'harmed me in various ways' probably connected the last bit of lore into my vampire character, so I assumed it meant that I'd be affected by crucifixes, churches, and potentially… silver?

I'd have to find out what that meant later, of course, but I was confident that my initial assumption was basically right on the money. Finally, my last bane, Corpse's Complexion, left me questioning the possibility of applying makeup to my face in order to safely walk through cities. In FFO, there was a debuff that applied to criminal players that prevented them from walking into large settlements while they had a bounty.

It was circumventable by using disguises, but each disguise was a consumable item that disappeared after it was used, so it was a hassle to constantly have a stock of them. Would I have to deal with something similar? When I read that I'd be able to lessen the effects of my vampiric complexion by simply having Blood Points, my worries were lifted, but my mind returned to the thought of how I'd replenish my BP in the first place. I nearly gagged, but quickly shook the thought away as I closed the Traits menu.

Now to check on my skills.