Chapter 101 Elite Forces Of The Human Population

I joined up with a small group of people.

"Ah, we've managed to get another leaderboard person!"

I looked around at the other people who were gathered there. A few people were either wearing a silver armband or a gold armband. I noticed that Robbie was also in this group.

"So what's the deal here?" a relatively short and chubby boy asked. His expression screamed arrogance, although it didn't seem as apparent during his speaking.

"We're here to discuss strategies against the vampires, you're all the top-ranking humans in the world, so we're hoping to have some worthwhile discussion."

"This sounds like a waste of my time, I only came here because you're here, Maia."

Ah, the fifth rank, Maia Keller.

She was a pretty-normal-looking girl, with no outstanding features.

"Josh, stop being a pain, you don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

Sixth rank, Josh Glazebrook.

"I'm just here because I'm bored, you're here as well, William?"

Fourth rank, Robby Solly.

"Um, when are we actually going to do something?" I asked.

This was an oddly cliche introduction scene. Whatever the case, I didn't exactly come here to have a tea party, I wanted to find out more about the vampires. My Minions were still standing beside me, in case there was a fight, although, in this group, power was distributed pretty evenly.

Maia called the informant who had previously visited my settlement over. There were also a few other people who weren't in the top 10 who were also standing around, I guess they must have been high-ranking in some regard.

"Just a few moments ago, I received a report from someone," the informant announced.

"What did they say?" Maia asked.

"They claimed that there was a vampire who seemed to be leading a small group of lower vampires."

"Are you sure that they're not just an upper vampire?"

"They were wearing distinct clothing, it was completely different to the clothing of the other vampires, apparently."

"So you're saying that there's another level of vampire above upper vampire?"

"I'm only saying that that's a possibility. There is probably much more nuance to the strength of the vampires which we haven't discovered yet."

Vampires were basically a completely unknown existence to us.

"Does anyone here have any other information?" the informant asked.

"I think we should all share what we know, we might be able to find some differences in our engagements," Robbie suggested.

"That's a good idea," Maia replied.

Everyone reluctantly agreed to follow along as Robbie began telling us what he knew.

"I fought a few last night, I think they were all the 'lower' kind since they didn't chant or anything. They didn't seem to have an inventory and they were all extremely focussed on drinking my blood."

"I think that's just the nature of the vampires," said Josh.

"Has anyone got information on what happens when a vampire actually drinks a person's blood? I heard that a lot of humans have been killed by them."

"Ah, I was actually going to get to that," added Maia, "I've been told that the vampires appear to lose some of their drive once they drink a substantial amount of blood."

"They lose their drive? So is their desire to drink blood similar to hunger?" Robbie asked.

"I would assume so, that would definitely make sense."

"But apparently they don't drink animal blood," said the informant.

There was a brief moment of silence before Josh spoke up.

"By the way, what's up with the [Shadow Realisers]? What on earth do they do?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing," added Maia.

It seemed that no one here knew how it worked or how to use it. We all took our [Shadow Realisers] out of our inventories and held them. They were little devices which were around the size of a small pencil case, they appeared much more technological than everything else I'd seen in The Apocalypse.

"I'm going to try smashing it on the ground."

"Wait—"

Before Maia could stop him, Josh slammed his device straight into the dirt. It caused a dent in the ground but still, nothing happened. He picked it back off the ground and wiped it on his arm to get rid of the dirt.

All of a sudden, the device latched onto his arm. He tried to rip it off but it wouldn't budge.

"What the heck?"

Light began emanating from the device, however, a few moments later, the device shrunk, sticking into Josh's arm like a little chip.

"Agh! What's happening?"

"I think it's doing something, you might have figured it out!"

Maia grabbed Josh's arm and observed the little device.

Josh's face went red.

Ah, what was this situation...

Skipping past the awkward interaction, I decided to carefully look at what was happening. Josh held his arm in pain for a little while before sudden, the pain seemed to have disappeared.

"I... I can see words, it's like my system."

"Words?"

"I think this is how it's meant to work."

Following Josh, the rest of us also placed the [Shadow Realisers] onto our arms. The same thing happened to all of us. The device latched on, it shrunk before imprinting itself into our skin. As it finished its initiation, I also saw words appear in front of me.

[Shadow Hunter System - Initiating...]

-

<Shadow Hunter>

Name: William Hunter

Initiator: —

Date of Initiation: 09/06/2027

~

Type: B - Conjurer

Soul Mark: Inactive

Memories: Intact (Type C)

Affinities - Rank F

Abilites/Attributes: [Soul of Devouring Hope], [Destiny Return], [Darkness Hatred]

Personal Reality: —

-

What on earth was all of this? A moment later, it all vanished from my sight, and after that, a much simpler screen appeared. Was this like a second system?

-

[Shadow Reality]

This system is the only way to defeat progenitors.

Most abilities can only be used against vampires.

<Experience> 0/10

-

"I've got some sort of system," commented Josh.

"I'm pretty sure we all do," replied Robbie.

"So what now?" Maia asked.

"I think we're meant to get experience of some sort..."

"Alright everyone, let's do things until one of us manages to get experience."

We split up and began making our way toward the woods. My Minions should be concurrently collecting resources at the moment. I checked the menu again to see if I had gathered any experience just based on the fact that my Minions were at work.