Chương 6: (6) B1 C6: Approaching Dawn

It took an hour or two, but I eventually found a suitable location for shelter at the bottom of a cliff. Hidden between the walls of a crevice was a cave about half the size of my childhood bedroom. The opening faced a different direction than the body of the cave itself, as the cave quickly curved into an L shape soon after the entrance. With the layout organized as it was, I figured I'd be safe from the impending sunlight once morning came. The cave was small, but well hidden and comfortable.

Not to mention, it was dry and didn't appear to have been occupied by anything for quite awhile, so I assumed there was little chance of an intrusion anytime soon. After I began to make my home there, I gathered a few pounds of dirt, some twigs, and as many leaves as I could before laying them all out on the cave's stone floor. My makeshift bed was dry and softer than the stone floor, but my back still cried for the memory of my mattress.

I decorated it just in time, too, as the first sign of the approaching dawn appeared on the horizon soon after I made myself comfortable. I didn't dare stand near the mouth of the cave when morning came, but I couldn't help but feel curious as the first rays of sunlight streamed into the forest around me. I sat far from the entrance of the cave, at a place between the hall that dropped further into the earth and the hole that led into the forest. As I waited for sunrise, I found that my body refused to sit still.

My nerves were on fire, my skin slick with sweat as my fingers tapped nervously against my thigh. As I waited, I checked the description for Aversion to Sunlight multiple times, just to be sure that I wasn't being suicidal. The skill description specified that I would only take damage from direct sunlight, which implied that indirect sunlight wouldn't harm me. I figured that so long as the sunlight bounced off of other surfaces before hitting me, it would count as indirect.

When sunrise finally approached, it did so with fury. One moment, I was waiting patiently for the light to come. Then, in the next, a wall of pure gold slammed into the ground just outside of the cave. There was no explosive sound, nor was there any sort of startling movement, but the impact felt cataclysmic nonetheless. I backed away, my eyes wide with fear as my voice shouted in alarm.

As I watched the massive wall of light appear like a physical manifestation of fear itself, my instincts screamed at me to retreat. Despair flooded my system like a broken dam, and I felt my shoulders shiver in dread as my eyes gazed at the horror before me. The sunlight was like no other entity I'd ever seen. It was volatile, malicious, and evil. I knew, despite not having touched it, that my very existence would've been eviscerated if I approached.

Even if I were to dip my finger into the wall of light, even for just a single moment, I knew the experience would leave half of my body charred and grey. It wasn't just sunlight. It was death. I took a deep breath as I tried to grasp some semblance of control over the emotions running rampant throughout my mind. It's just sunlight. Incredibly dangerous, unforgiving, and terrifying sunlight, but sunlight all the same. I don't have to be afraid of it.

It won't charge into the cave, nor will it rip open the ceiling above me to get at me. I am safe. I exhaled once more as I felt the terror running through my veins gradually fade away. I inhaled, closed my eyes, and exhaled. I was fine. Days in FFO lasted, lore wise, about twenty hours. Half of that was spent during the day, so I knew I only had to wait for about ten hours before sunset came.

I turned away from the sunlight, mainly to get it out of my sight and therefore out of my mind, before I pushed myself deeper into the cave. Once I was sure that no trace of the sun would reach me, I laid down, stared up at the ceiling, and closed my eyes. In ten hours, I would have to work on getting stronger. — I kept myself low to the ground, hoping my prey couldn't detect me. It wasn't like I was an apex predator, but I was at least capable of hiding from a rabbit if I really wanted to.

Luckily, there was no way in hell the rabbit could hide from me, as Crimson Instinct found it through even a heavy sheet of foliage. As I crept along the forest floor, careful to avoid patches of leaves or thin twigs, I kept my eye on my quarry. The animal hadn't noticed me yet, instead choosing to keep its attention on the patch of leaves that had been its meal over the last few minutes.

The rabbit was small, barely the size of a baseball, and was covered in a shimmering pelt that reflected the light of two moons like polished diamonds. This was the first nocturnal animal I'd seen over the last three nights, even after hours upon hours of wandering through the forest. I was glad that it was being so careless, as I was getting closer and closer to it with every step forward. I didn't know how much time the rabbit needed to be able to detect me, so I moved quickly.

The rabbit looked up, a leaf hanging from the sides of its mouth, as the entirety of my weight slammed upon it from above. As its focus was directed to taking a larger bite of the leaf it was nibbling on, it didn't manage to react to me as my hands wrapped around its silver fur. From there, the fight was a violent struggle for survival. I couldn't do enough physical damage to my prey without having to let go of it, so I had no choice but to try and choke it out.

Meanwhile, the rabbit would kick and scramble as much as it could in an effort to escape my grasp, which meant I had to dedicate a portion of my focus to the simple task of keeping the damn thing still. I felt the rabbit's sharp nails scrape against the side of my hand as it struggled against my grasp. The attack didn't harm me, as each time the rabbit's claws hit my hand, I felt a thin shield of blood appear over my skin to block the attack.

My Blood Barrier, aptly named, did a good job of protecting me from damage. The rabbit struggled harder, so I lifted it an inch or two before slamming it back on the ground, which caused it to choke and gasp. The fight only lasted about ten seconds, but it was perhaps the hardest ten seconds of my new life. But in the end, I was the victor. The rabbit went still and its breathing slowed to a halt. As soon as I felt the rabbit's pulse become quiet, I straightened my posture and took a deep breath to calm my nerves.

Now it was time for the hard part. I couldn't get stronger without BP, but I was only able to gain BP by drinking the blood of living creatures. I'd been ignoring my hunger for the past three nights. Yet now, it was threatening to devour me. The ache spreading across my body dulled my senses and clouded my thoughts. Every moment I fought my own mind was torture. So, although I dreaded what I was about to do, I picked up my prey. The rabbit was unmoving, but the body was still warm to the touch.

Then, as I slowly lifted it to my face, my nose caught the scent of the rabbit's blood hidden within its flesh. The enticing spice hiding behind the thin veil of fur tasted like the bitter sweetness of dark chocolate, and though I couldn't smell anything like the slave woman's wound from a few days prior, the smell was potent enough to coat the surroundings in a sweet aroma that easily flipped my stomach to its side. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As I opened my mouth, I felt the fangs near the front of my jaw grow warm in anticipation. A set of muscles near my teeth twitched and the fangs themselves popped out from the edges of my jaw, each one ripping apart my gums like knives cutting through steak. I felt a little bit of trepidation—a hint of disgust at what I was about to do—but the enticing smell radiating from the animal's pelt erased any hesitation I felt. I knew, then, that I desperately wanted this.

The realization both horrified and excited me, and once the rabbit was lifted to my fangs, I took one more moment to fully consider what I was even doing. Then, I bit into the rabbit's flesh. As my jaw ripped into the animal's fur, a fountain of warmth seeped into my mouth like an open hose. What I couldn't drink fell to the ground, almost like an open barrel, but I couldn't have cared less. All of my attention was focused on the taste flooding through me.

Contrary to my expectations, the blood didn't taste bad at all. It was actually… good? It was light and fulfilling, despite having come from a small animal like this, and with every sip, my body felt more relaxed and energetic. It was as if I'd received a very nice massage after a hard day. I tore into the rabbit, my fangs carving into the beast as they made short work of its fur. As the beast's hide was pulled from its body, revealing the warm red blood underneath, I felt a smile grow on my face.

My upper fangs touched the edges of my lower lips, yet the sensation only proved to excite me further. I drank fully, ignoring the passage of time and the crimson mess flowing down my chin. I closed my eyes and focused on the taste spreading through my throat. Then, minutes later, I dropped the remains of the rabbit onto the ground below me, my mood significantly better than before.

"That was fucking delicious," I gasped, my voice speaking alongside bouts of giggles. The experience had been amazing, which left me almost in shock when I remembered the hesitation I'd felt only moments prior. Even as I gazed at the bloodless corpse below me, I felt no guilt over my own actions. As I wiped my arm against my chin to clean the blood from my mouth, I turned to my notifications.

+60 BP (Mundane Silverlight Rabbit) Unlike Monsters, common Beasts did not have magic, and therefore did not have any magical attributes.. Each of them were classified with the simple title of 'Mundane' and were usually unable to climb higher than level one. For how easily I was able to kill the rabbit before me, the small creature had yielded quite a lot of BP.

If I remember correctly, my Bite Capacity determined the upper limit of how much BP I gained each time I used the Vampire's Bite skill, though the actual amount was determined by how much HP the creature had. After I looked at the BP total, I turned to look at the rabbit. The rabbit was small, but its muscles were lean and its legs were powerful. A rogue-type monster, potentially? Those had low health, and if I had to guess, its HP must've directly translated into the BP that I pulled from it.

If that was the case, it might've been a good idea to try and find the slavers I had seen a few days ago. I wasn't sure how strong they were, but they were all but guaranteed to have more HP than this rabbit. Once I siphoned the Blood I needed from them, I— I shook the thought away. Devouring rabbits was one thing, but people? That was another. I wasn't sure if I was ready to become a murderer, even if I was technically a blood-sucking vampire.

For now, I would have to stick with hunting normal animals to level up my attributes. When I did finally level up, I was thinking that maybe it would be good to increase my Malice for more damage, or possibly Thirst to increase my Bite Capacity. Honestly, either choice would be a good one, but so long as I made that choice without burying my morality, I would be happy. Regardless, I wouldn't get stronger by staying around and doing nothing.

Daylight wasn't for another few hours, which left me more than enough time to go searching for more prey. … Thirty minutes later, just before the sunrise began to threaten its way over the horizon, I managed to find rabbit number two laying beneath a thick bush while heading back to the cave. Unlike the previous rabbit, however, this one didn't even have the opportunity to try and give me a fight, as it was already a bloody corpse when I first caught sight of it.

Its white pelt, which must've once been pristine and flawless, was marred with several lacerations on the left side of its body. Its body had gone cold and its muscles had become as stiff as wood. I approached the corpse, then crouched low and slowly placed my hand against its cheek. Well, waste not want not. I lifted the rabbit toward my fangs and bit deeply. The rabbit's blood, no longer warm, seeped into my throat as the notification popped up in my vision.

+40 BP (Mundane Silverlight Rabbit | STALE BLOOD) Unlike my previous prey, the blood I tasted from this one felt a little weak. It was both flat and underwhelming, as if it'd been left out to rot for a day or so. I dropped the rabbit back to the earth, the frown on my face growing faster than I liked as I licked my lips in sour disappointment. When I looked at the notification appearing before me, I understood why.

As far as I could tell, this rabbit was just as strong as the one I'd slain earlier, yet it had probably been dead for hours before I found it, and thus had given me less BP. That all but confirmed the knowledge that HP was directly translating into BP, though it raised the question of how exactly it was seen as 'Stale'. Was it the age of the rabbit, or the amount of blood it'd lost since it died? I assumed the former, but I didn't want to immediately cross out the latter.

"So, HP decides the expected BP value, but the body itself is what decides how much BP I actually receive?" I muttered as I gazed at the screen. I had a feeling that was the correct explanation, so I closed the screen and turned to the horizon. I didn't want to end the hunt, but I had no choice but to wait until the next night. Daylight was almost here.