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2024-10-29 19:42:56Jimmy opened his eyes, feeling like he was the most useless being in the world. He saw two familiar faces of Edwin and Chris smiling at him. His sour mood turned into a happy one as soon as he saw their smile, forgetting why he was feeling sour in the first place.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Jimmy,” his brother said.
“I’m glad you are okay, Jimmy,” Chris said right behind his brother.
Jimmy just grinned at them. Edwin's smile suddenly faded. Jimmy knew what that meant, Edwin was going to say something to him that would make him feel very uncomfortable.
“Jimmy, I know you don’t like being confronted, but I really, really need you to answer this one question truthfully.”
Jimmy gulped, gritting his teeth. He clasped his hand together to prevent them from shaking. Even though he was not confident, he wanted to feign confidence in front of Edwin and Chris.
“Who is Eli?” Edwin asked. “I have heard you mention that name many times before. I have always ignored it. But I no longer can.”
Jimmy froze. He did not know how to answer that question. Jimmy himself wasn’t sure who Eli was and why she kept haunting his dreams. The name, Eli, sent a warm feeling coursing through his body. It made him want to weep and cry as if he had lost someone precious. The name sounded like a home, a sister he knew he did not have. His only sibling was his twin brother. Jimmy replied something to his brother. He wasn’t entirely sure what he replied was what he felt about the name.
“I see,” Edwin said and did not press the matter any further.
Jimmy stifled a sigh of relief. He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure if Edwin pressed him any further. Being confronted by anyone was worse than the ringing in his head that gave him a perpetual headache. He had become so accustomed to it he had occasionally forgotten its presence.
After some breath, his brother confronted him again. This time, however, he did not have the same serious look on his face.
“I have a few more things to discuss with you, Jimmy.” Edwin took a pouch from Chris, who sat beside him and Edwin, her eyes eager.
‘What’s happening?’ Jimmy thought, excitement beginning to fill his blood.
“This is going to make you extremely happy.” Edwin poured the contents of the pouch in front of Jimmy. Six glowing red stones rolled out of the pouch.
“Is that... Is that blood core?”
“Yes,” Chris said. “All of them are for you.”
“If the system is right, it should heal your soul and turn you into a full vampire,” Edwin said.
“I don’t know what to say.” Tears rolled down Jimmy’s eyes. This was the first time he had cried because he was happy, not because of the pain, not because he was frightened of his father or other nasty emotions.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Chris said. “Just use them.”
Edwin looked at Chris and Edwin, and both of them nodded to him. Jimmy jumped on them, giving them a rib-cracking hug. “I don’t have to live with the pain anymore. Thank you. Thank you…” He could not stop crying.
“It’s alright, Jimmy. You are going to be alright.” Chris brushed his hair in a motherly way.
Edwin gave him a farm yet gentle pat on his shoulder. “You are going to be just fine, Jimmy.”
After who knows how long, Jimmy finally mustered up the courage to pick up his first blood core. As soon as he held it in his hand, a familiar notification sounded in his mind.
[Information: Blood Core detected. Do you want to cultivate it? Yes/No.]
‘Yes,’ Jimmy thought.
A few strings erupted from the core and seeped into the various parts of his body. He could feel foreign energy entering his body, his veins, his own blood core. The blood core took ten minutes to disappear. For some reason, the entire process seemed very similar to him. Jimmy did not know why. He had never seen anyone cultivating a core before.
Once he finished cultivating his first blood core, he had to stop for about an hour. The sudden influx of power in his body gave him a splitting headache. When he completely cultivated three blood cores, multiple notifications sounded in his head.
[Quest 1 Completed: Cultivate 3 ordinary level blood cores to heal the damage to your soul.]
There was a flash of light, and a warm feeling coursed through his body. A few minutes later, Jimmy felt like a weight of a mountain had been lifted from his body. It was a wonderful feeling. However, he realised that ringing in his ears and the headache had still not stopped.
[Information: Damage to your soul has been healed.]
[Information: You have gained 5 stamina points.]
[Information: Quest 2 has been unlocked.]
[Information: You can now collect the rewards from quest 3. Do you want to collect it? Yes/ no.]
Jimmy nearly jumped out of his skin with glee. He chose yes for the last notification. Obviously.
[Information: You have gained 3 health points.]
After the notifications stopped, Jimmy continued cultivating the remaining three blood cores. Another round of notifications chimed in his mind.
[Information: Quest 2 complete. Initiating the full vampire transformation.]
Suddenly, Jimmy felt a pain that was worse than father’s beatings. It was as if some force was squeezing his bones to extract his marrow. He contorted and convulsed in pain. Jimmy could hear worried voices, but he could not make them out.
The pain stopped.
“Jimmy, are you alright? What happened?” Both Chris and Edwin said at the same time.
“I’m fine,” Jimmy said. “It was just the transformation process.”
Jimmy looked at another notification on the screen.
[Information: Drink an ounce of human blood to complete your transformation to become a full vampire.]
Jimmy told Edwin what he needed, and his brother happily complied. After drinking the blood, nothing strange happened aside from another system notification sounding in his head. If you ask him, it was already strange enough.
[Information: Congratulations, you are now a full vampire.]
[Information: You have gained 3 strength points.]
[Information: You have unlocked a new feature, Core Smithing.]
Satisfied and extremely happy, Jimmy opened his profile and stats.
[Name: Jimmy Wright]
[Race: Vampire]
[Spirit: None]
[Spirit Ability: None]
[Greater Realm: Foundation]
[Lesser Realm: Ordinary (Not Advanced)]
[Realm Stage: None]
[Advancement Progress: 0/53 (Cultivate 53 Blood Cores to Advance.)]
[Core: Blood (Red)]
[Core Level: 5 (Max.)]
[HP: 10]
[Strength: 12]
[Agility: 15]
[Stamina: 10]
[Healing Factor: 1HP/Hour (Self)—1HP (Per minute)/1ml Blood]
[Drogen: Not Available (Requirements Not Met)]
CCIRDear readers, thank you for reading my story. Please leave a review and comment to motivate me. If you find any mistakes or typos, please notify me through comments. It will help me improve the chapters and my writing skills. Thank You!
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Icy Water (Chris-Linden)
Linden stopped laughing, gave her a lopsided glance, and struck. Chris brought her sword before it to intercept the attack. At the last second, Linden twisted his sword, and it landed on her wrist. She almost lost her grip on her sword. Still, she powered through the pain and kept her hold of it. Chris was just glad she hadn’t yelped in pain and had just winced. That would be beyond embarrassing. They exchanged dozens of blows, and with each blow, her anger spiked up a notch. Linden had thwacked her left and right—blows that would bruise. Yet, for the life of her, she couldn’t land a single hit. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t. Why should she be bruised and in pain, while the other man was grinning like a fool? She knew he wasn’t using vital technique or any form of Drogen. That would have left behind a residue that she would have undoubtedly seen, being a collector as she was. So, what was it he was doing? There had to be something. He can’t really see the future, can he? No, that w
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- The Drogen's Law
Canvas and the Sword (Chris)
[PRESENT TIME] Chris Scoured through the sect library searching for information on collectors. She had hoped to find some record to understand her powers. Useless, there was nothing she didn’t already know. All that knowledge in here and they were all deadwood to her. Unless she broke into the restricted section of the library, there was nothing new she could learn. That meant she would have to learn everything by experiment. The thought of experimenting with her powers sent a shiver down her spine. Playing with something she didn’t understand didn’t sound healthy to her. All her classes went well, better than well actually. She was one of the best in her class—aside from a few mishaps like that one time when she had turned into a giant; it was one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to her. What surprised her most as she navigated through her powers was the fact that her abilities were incredibly similar to that of a Dweller and, at the same time, quite differen
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Chapter : Her Past (Part 2)
Chris stood next to her brother as she watched him paint on a massive canvas. The strange amalgamation of colours slowly began to gain cohesion and shape. Slowly, the paintings began to gain more shapes and details. She saw villagers washing clothes in the rivers. Children playing near them. Why couldn’t her life be so peaceful as well? Why couldn’t she be as happy as that? Children playing in the river. This was the first time her brother’s paintings had made her feel more pain than soothing her.However, she did not blame her brother for her mood. She knew something like this could happen. She had been lucky that it hadn’t happened before. And her brother had never drawn a painting with people before.When her brother finished his art. She asked him a question. “What will you call this painting, brother? I always like it when you name your paintings. It is the most enjoyable part of all this.”“I will call this one A Vain Dream.”“Why do you want to name something so beautiful? Somet
- The Drogen's Law
Her Past
Five Years Ago. It had been about five years since her mother died. Killed was more accurate. A band of people made from Dwellers and Vampires had killed her mother. And even after five years, Chris still wept herself to sleep. She had abandoned her in her time of need. They punished the murderers of her mother for their actions. They were flogged and tortured publicly before being killed. And yet Chris still could not feel at peace for the death of her mother—like everyone told her to do. Even though they had already received their punishment. Even though they were already dead, she still hated them for taking her mother away from her. How could they do such a thing? How could they have no regard for human life? That question always haunted her. Their death wasn’t enough. Someone else deserved punishment—it was her.A part of Chris wanted to forget about her mother. So that she did not have to hurt, so that she did not have to cry so much, so that her father would not have changed
