A shady Vampire

“W-What’s going on?” Gray’s voice came out as an echo, his vision clouded by an inky black veil. A choir of whispers flooded his ears before quickly going silent, for the first time in a while his mind was truly quiet and he no longer felt the burden of the specters that were constantly eating away at him. But that was short-lived, the specters came rushing back, pushing his thoughts back to a corner of his mind.

When his vision finally cleared up, Layla’s body was gone and the faint taste of blood remained in his mouth. Feeling confused he quickly dressed before creating a blood katana in his right hand.

{What’s going on here? What did that girl do to me?} wondered Gray as he walked towards the door. His instincts were on high alert, feeling somewhat stupid for letting himself get into such a situation.

{Did she cast a spell? But I don’t feel anything off with my body.} As Gray thought this he clenched his fists.

{Ahh, my status window.}

Gray opened up his 『New Vautis Visual System』 menu before selecting the [Player stats] tab.

[Gray Verlice]

[Level 5: 0/500]

[Mana points: 140/140]

[Safe Blood meter: 100%]

[????? ???/???]

~Stats~

[Agility: 10 {15}]

[Strength: 12 {18}]

[Stamina: 8 {12]

[Attack force: 3 {4.5}]

[Karma: 0]

-8 unspent stat points-

~Abilities~

[He who pleasures death lvl.1 {2/3}: 0/100]

[Blood weapons lvl.1: 0/5]

[Hisashi Miyamoto Summon lvl.3: 0/10]

[

[

~Race~

[

[Demon Thrall: Rank Servus]

{What?} The question marks seemed to be glitches in the system as they were constantly changing values even as he looked at them. Of course, Gray could discern that one of the unnamed abilities must’ve been the mist he let out during his fight with the 『Cimmerian Shade』 but he couldn’t recall any other skill that would show up as a glitch.

{Demon, do you know anything?} After carefully thinking about it for a moment, he turned to the only person who he thought would know something, but no one answered. Actually, it was as if Gray couldn’t feel the demon’s presence in his mind anymore, all that was there were the specters writhing about.

{The vermin is gone.} Gray quickly turned around, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the room to check where the voice was coming from, but he quickly realized that the voice sounded familiar.

“Layla?” asked Gray, however he didn’t let his guard down, if anything he was almost certain that he had been pulled into some scheme.

{Not Layla,} it replied, using Layla’s voice once again.

“Magic? How are you doing this?” Gray kept turning around the room, as if checking to see from which corner the voice was coming from.

{The door.} With that single phrase Gray turned to look at the door. The word ‘DANGER’ was written across it in what looked to be black messy-ink. Gray took a few steps away from the door before blinking his eyes as if in disbelief.

After standing there silently for several more seconds the door barged open, and a white-haired figure wearing a white mask and a white cloak appeared. Behind her were several dark elves wearing purple cloaks, Gray recognized them as the group that had been eyeing him when he first entered the tavern.

“I knew it, we were too late,” said the white-haired figure before disappearing.

“Where did you hide her body?” asked the figure from behind Gray, already searching the room.

{F-Fast.} Cold sweat ran down Gray’s back, without a doubt those were the only words he could use to describe what had just happened. He didn’t even register that the figure was behind him before it said anything.

“Answer me,” ordered the figure before stopping its search. The dark elves walked into the room and closed the door behind them. They seemed larger than the usual, standing at least 2 meters tall, all of them towering over him. They reminded him of the amazonian woman he had seen in the online game he would usually play.

Gray tightened the grip on his sword before relaxing.

{There’s no way I’ll win here,} he decided. All he knew was that the white figure was faster than he could ever hope to reach even in his 『Bloodlust Mode』, and for all he knew it might still be the weakest among them.

“I don’t understand your question,” replied Gray, trying to find out what exactly was going on.

“I saw you walk in with an el- never mind, where are your travel documents? Does the vampire council know you are here?” asked the figure before removing their mask. Behind it was a beautiful pale face, but besides her beauty what really captured Gray’s attention were her crimson red eyes.

“Vampire?”

“Yes, speak quickly.” The woman put her porcelain white mask on the table before walking towards Gray. She was perhaps 1.6 meters tall, fairly shorter than him, but he couldn’t help but feel that she had the same towering presence as the elves surrounding him.

“Just like I thought, a stray vampire. And it seems you’ve been pulling this trick for a while now since you absolutely reek of blood,” said the woman before sniffing Gray’s suit, her eyes shone a brilliant red before she bore her fangs.

“And that blade, a blood weapon? How did you get that? Blood manipulation? A noble? Too many things don’t add up, and why are you wearing an Orc ranger suit?”

The questions came like rapid-fire, Gray couldn’t even hope to answer them since they came with almost no context.

{Stray vampire? Noble?}

“There seems to be a misunderstanding here,” replied Gray, taking a few steps away from the hungry-looking vampire.

The vampire seemed to pick this up and hid her fangs before turning to one of the elves.

“We’re taking him to headquarters, if the capital finds out that there is a vampire slaughtering elven citizens we could be looking at a few minor scuffles between Elden and Tikal,” with those words the vampire swung her arm, aiming to strike Gray in the neck.

Gray tried blocking but the attack was just too fast, an electrifying pain traveled from his neck all the way down to his feet. Although he was still standing, it was just barely.

“He’s still standing?” asked the vampire as if truly curious before turning around to face the window behind her. A split second later a bullet came whizzing through it, heading right for her head, however, as if it were moving in slow motion, she caught it.

She disappeared from the room, before reappearing with an unconscious Tesse in her right arm, while the black cub was in her left.

“Friends of yours?” with those words the vampire appeared in front of Gray and hit him in the neck again.

{Sleep, these enemies are too powerful for us now,} said the voice in Gray’s head as his vision went dark.

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[System Information]

Drow Elves

Once a minority of the elven tribes, they are now thought to be extinct. Due to their natural shapeshifting abilities as well as their attunement to the dark aspects of nature, they were seen as demons by the rest of the elven community and as valuable lab subjects to the rest of Merrum.

The last remaining remnants of the dying tribe reside deep within the [Great Forest] using their relationship with nature to protect themselves from the outside world. A few rumors have been circulating around Elden that the 12 knights are indeed from this race, however, such rumors are quickly snuffed and those who voice them disappear along with them.

For more information read 『Index of the lost Tribes』

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