Chapter 20 Jin’s Growth (2)

The Everwinter Estate. Many people speculate what the insides of this elusive Vampire House would look like. Would it be barren with life? Would there only be snow and ice? The truth lay somewhere in the middle. Being this close to the Arctic, it was difficult for life, particularly animal life, to survive in these harsh conditions.

However, that didn’t mean that the Everwinter Estate was utterly void of animal life. A Snowshoe hare was one such example. Happily hopping about the massive land, the innocent rabbit scavenged for twigs and leaves. In such a humongous land, as long as it didn’t catch the eye of any predators, the hare would thrive, even in the deepest months of Winter.

Alas, its peace wasn’t to last.

BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!

Three shockwaves pulsated through the wintry floor, startling the rabbit from its daily feeding. It ran some distance away and paused, only to be greeted with yet another bombard of shockwaves.

BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!

This time, it didn’t look back. Too afraid to stay in its former feeding ground, the adorable white rabbit bolted to safety, swearing never to return to this wretched earthquake-bound land. So was there truly an earthquake?

Deep in the trenches that was the Everwinter dungeon, tremors and sonic booms dominated the training grounds of Irina’s mansion. In it, three figures were heaving as they stared one another down. Two of them stood next to each other, one of them towering over the other. They both wore servant uniforms, each tailored to their own needs.

The colossal man held onto a giant axe, which seemed too massive for any regular lumberjack or butcher. Meanwhile, the smaller female wore red gloves with elastic strings swinging by its tips.

They looked in prime condition and seemed ready to burst forth at a moment’s notice. And although their clothes were mostly pristine, there was the odd wear and tear.

Their opponent, however, didn’t have the same luxury.

“Again!”

Jin shouted at the two Blood Servants as he stood and got off his knees. Unlike the two Vampires that faced him, Jin’s clothes were in tatters. His body was riddled with cuts and bruises, even though they slowly faded due to his recovery factor.

“You’re really tenacious, kiddo.” The bulky Vampire chortled and brandished his weapon.

“Are you sure? We’ve been going at it for six hours now. It wouldn’t hurt to take a break.” The female Blood Servant asked worriedly.

“No,” Jin shook his head in resistance. “I know my limits. I can still fight.”

“Hah… Youngsters these days.”

Knowing how stubborn Jin could be, the female Vampire shook her head and moved to her combat stance. The strings beyond her fingers moved independently like serpents eyeing their prey and coiled around in the air.

It was always the first to strike who took the initiative in a duel. So, that’s what Jin did. The young man added all of his energy into his lower body which propelled him forward like a missile. Jin moved at a speed that was comparable to a sports car that was accelerating and had even left some of his foot imprints behind.

Jin’s target was the young woman who stood safely behind her main tank. Throughout history, the method of winning a battle was to take out their heavy guns. And that was what Jin sought to do. Alas, the massive Vampire with an axe had better ideas.

Moving at a much faster pace, the bulky man blocked the woman from Jin’s line of sight. However, Jin was not deterred. Rather than panicking, the young man leapt from his position and performed a somersault in mid-air. And using that momentum, he performed an axe kick and aimed right for his opponent’s cranium.

Not expecting that retaliation, the massive Vampire hopped backwards, allowing Jin’s heel to fall straight from the sky and depress deeply onto the ground. Cracks emerged from the epicentre of the attack causing the grounds to tremble for a moment.

While Jin had one foot in the ground, his opponent took this chance to land a decisive blow on the ambitious young one. The axe, which was easily half of Jin’s size, flew rapidly in his direction, ready to cleave Jin in two. But Jin didn’t tremble in fear. Not in the slightest. Rather, he used his dug feet as a pivot and swung his body under the sharpened axe as if he were in the matrix.

Once Jin was free from danger, a clear opportunity to strike arose. With his opponent revealing his flank after the swing, Jin had a clean shot at his exposed side. Pulling out his feet from the ground, Jin turned his fingers into claws and aimed straight at the massive Vampire’s neck. It was his best opportunity to achieve victory thus far, and therefore, Jin exploded at his maximum speed.

The claw moved at a blinding pace, so fast in fact, that his opponent barely had time to register the attack. Which gave Jin the perfect opportunity to land a decisive blow. However, just as his claw was a few centimetres away from tasting flesh and blood, a red, burning string cuffed his wrist, exposing him to a searing hot pain.

“Tch,” Jin clicked his tongue and retracted his hands. That gave the tank of a Vampire some time to recuperate. As they both got some distance from each other, Jin shot the owner of the string an annoyed look. “Damn that Blood Art…”

Blood Servants had always been treated as lower-class citizens by True Vampires. And that was with good reason. Most Blood Servants couldn’t disobey their master’s orders, and the vast majority of them were used as meat shields or blood banks. However, that didn’t mean that all Blood Servants were any weaker than True Vampires.

In fact, there were numerous cases where a Blood Servant was able to beat a True Vampire just by their unique attributes alone. Blood Servants were physically strong, amazingly durable and most importantly, had far more experience on the battlefield as compared to True Vampires who stood at the back while shooting their magic.

However, the Blood Servants did have something else up their sleeves.

Vampiric Blood Arts.

Historians are mixed on when and how Blood Arts were first developed, but somewhere along the lines, Vampires had developed their own unique ability as opposed to magic. While both True Vampires and Blood Servants could use Blood Arts, it was more commonly mastered within the Blood Servants.

Blood Arts came in many shapes and forms. Some of them use the power of blood to create weapons that could never truly be broken as they could just replenish them with their blood. Some created bloody mists to confuse their opponents and aid them in battle. Some could even use Blood Arts to create phenomena that were comparable to magic!

And the woman that Jin was facing… Her Blood Art turned her red fluids into evergrowing sentient strings that burned everything it touched.

It was a painful ability, one that had caused Jin many problems throughout his training sessions. However, that didn’t mean that Jin was powerless towards it.

Jin rushed right at the woman with everything that he had. Expecting that response, the seasoned Vampire twirled her fingers, and the blood strings followed like a whip. Jin dodged the first few that preyed on his flesh, but that was just the beginning. As the young Vampire closed the distance, the number of strings seemingly multiplied, and they formed into an interconnected web, making it near-impossible for Jin to escape.

As defeat loomed, Jin’s eyes turned blood red, and in his mind, it felt like time had slowed down. He was able to see every minute movement of the strings as they approached him. Every slight muscle twitch of the female Vampire he battled. And every intricate flow of magic.

It felt like he had entered his own world where everything was under his control. And within that world, a distinct memory emerged.

“Enhance.”

Using the basics that he’d learnt all his life, Jin’s mind weaved a spell. The four basic steps of using magic were recalling a spell from memory, taking magic power out from one’s core, turning that magical power and converting it into the spell, and changing reality with a catalyst.

That base fact didn’t change, even though Jin had changed into a Vampire. No, now that he’s a True Vampire, Jin didn’t need to worry about the catalyst as his magically enhanced body itself acted as one. And thus, within two seconds of casting, Jin had altered his reality.

BOOM!!!

Jin’s body glowed red as his body turned into a flying tank. With his body as hard as graphite, the young Vampire bulldozed through the web of blood strings and made it right before his opponent.

While the female Vampire’s Blood Arts were amazing, her physical prowess was less spectacular. If Jin could land a solid blow, especially in his enhanced state, he was confident that he could decommission her for at least half a minute.

But alas, before his punch could connect to her face, another fist was going to find him.

WHOOSH!!!

Jin’s body was flung dozens of metres away and rolled pathetically on the dusty ground. That simple act broke through Jin’s magically enhanced body and easily ruptured a few tendons. At the same time, many of his bones were broken. If Jin was still a human, that one punch would have forced him to be hospitalised for weeks.

Fortunately, the moment Jin got on his feet, the Vampire’s infamous regeneration began.

“Damn it… And I almost had you.”

“Haha! Did you think that we’ll make it easy for you to beat us? You’re still too young, kiddo!”

“Still, did you really have to hit him that hard? What if the Young Miss finds out?”

“Bwah, how can we train if he’s afraid of a cut or two? Aren’t I right, Jin?!”

“Yeah…”

Jin complained under his breath, but he didn’t dare to voice it out. After all, it was his decision to up the training intensity. If he complained now, the young man would be seen as nothing more than a wimp and a quitter.

“Let’s go again!”

After healing all of his wounds, Jin stood up to his two trainers and heroically asked for one more round. Alas, before they could begin their one-sided beating, a voice bellowed out from the entrance of the training grounds.

“No, we’re stopping for today.”

“Hmmm?”

Jin looked over his shoulder and saw Variel and Irina walking over. The seasoned butler had a neutral look on his face, all while holding onto a book in his hand. On the other hand, Irina didn’t have such a cordial look. As she saw the state that Jin was in, her nostrils flared up, and her pupils began to bleed red.

Needless to say, Irina was furious that the two Blood Servants dared to hurt her beloved brother. If it were up to her, she would have skinned those two mongrels alive and served them up to her brother as tribute. But unfortunately, that wasn’t what Jin desired.

“Irina… Variel… You’ve come.”

“Brother! Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Jin took the towel from Irina’s hand and gently wiped the blood and sweat off his face. “I’m actually feeling quite good. I’d managed to find a way to hit both of them today. It’s not much, but in a few more days, I should be able to land a few hits on them.”

“Haha, you have some spunk, kiddo!”

The bigger Vampire tapped on Jin’s shoulder in jest, only to draw the ire of the angry white-haired Vampire.

“A-Ah, I mean… Y-yeah! Keep up the good work!”

“Thanks…”

Jin wanted to chastise Irina for scaring his trainers, but ultimately he knew that she was just concerned for him. Besides, he had other issues on his plate.

“Variel, why did you stop my training? We still have some time before nightfall, right?”

“No, it’s not that…”

The old Vampire shook his head and flashed a gentle smile. Afterwards, he raised the book in his hand and simply said the one sentence that Jin had wished to hear for the longest time.

“It’s time to awaken your Vampire Aspect, Jin.”

???

“My Vampire Aspect? Is it already time?”

My jaw dropped as I stared squarely at the handsome butler whose words seemed to hold no falsehoods. If my memory serves me right, Variel said that it would take at least a month or two before my body fully grew to its true size. It had barely been two weeks since I’d begun my training and the man said it was already time?

“Yes,” Variel answered concisely. “We’ve been monitoring your growth, and you’ve stagnated since a week ago. Plus, your soul has become much more stable. In fact, it feels a little too stable for someone with another person’s soul residing in you. So, rather than wait, we decided to push up the ritual.”

“I see…”

As Variel mentioned, I finished my physical growth about a week ago. From a scrawny boy who barely measured at 1.7 metres, I was now a fully grown man, standing at 1.99 metres. I had bulging muscles, though not to the extent of my tank of a father, and a fully chiselled face that one would only see in movie stars.

My legs were longer, my abdomen showed eight distinct packs, and I felt much more robust. If truth be told, it felt like I had transformed into a totally different person.

However, I was still undeniably me. And it became crystal clear as I trained diligently under the tutelage of Variel, my parents and my two training partners. I improved at a rapid rate, not because I had any special constitution or anything, but because I knew very well how to integrate the knowledge I’d obtained as a human to my new Vampire existence.

“How will it be done?”

“Quite simple, actually. We often do it with children, so there’s no risk of any pain or injury.”

Variel opened the book he had been protecting and dropped a bead of blood onto the pages. A torrent of blood and ink gushed out from the open pages and began to paint the floor in a unique symbol almost instantly.

With its work done, the suave butler slammed the book shut and tossed it to the side.

“Step into this circle and channel your magic power through it. From there, the ritual circle will guide you, and you’ll intuitively know what to do.”

“Is it that simple?”

I looked at Irina, hoping to gain some additional insights on what might occur. Fortunately, Irina gave me a warm smile and said:

“Nothing will happen, Brother. It’s a ritual that has been conducted countless times. You’ll be safe.”

“Alright then…”

All of my doubts had evaporated right then and there. Since Irina had guaranteed its safety, there was no need to hesitate any longer. Taking a deep breath in, I rested my shoulders and confidently walked into the painted circle on the floor.

And took one step toward my destiny.