The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 89: Exploring the System

Nosferatu had led Luciel and Alex in front of the nest, with Luciel carrying unconscious Scarlet in his hands.

It was his mess, so it was only right he would carry her.

The situation was a little bit awkward between the two friends as they waited for Nosferatu to bring Melisa with Kai.

Alex sighed and went to sit down, leaning against the tree. They were waiting for so long that he could barely stand.

He looked up at Luciel who seemed to be just fine, staring into his crimson eyes.

"You know," He started, wanting to strike up some conversation with him, they were still friends for God’s sake! He might as well go and find out something about him.

"How did it feel back then? To lose control and... You know." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Luciel stayed quiet for a moment, debating if he should tell the truth or not. It was something that was hard to understand if you didn’t live through it, but this was Alex...

"Honestly..." Luciel pressed his lips together, trying to figure out how he should say it, "You promise not to look at me differently after I tell you the truth?"

"Yeah, of course not," Alex already had a chance to see a vampire lose control over themselves; Kai right after he got bitten, but that was a vampire side of him.

Seeing Luciel act like that felt terrifying because it was so out of character for him. It was hard to imagine him acting like the rest of his species, especially because he used to be human.

"All right, then... I’m usually aware of everything that’s going on and can control my actions. It’s more like my humanity gets turned off and primal instincts take over. Rarely do I completely blackout"

Luciel tried to explain, feeling slightly embarrassed at himself for allowing something like this to happen.

"Hm... I see... So you are basically no better than a beast," Alex concluded, taking a note to never allow a vampire, including Luciel, to starve if he doesn’t want to have their fangs inside his neck.

"Kinda," Luciel smiled nervously. He wasn’t a fan of this comparison, even if it was true.

"But expect that, the rest is actually beneficial. Drinking blood feels way better than eating food as a human. The only problem is... Well... Getting it."

Alex observed Luciel licking his fangs at the mention of blood. Before, he would look at his friend in pity, but there was no need for that after seeing how well he adjusted to his new life.

"But you have Helen, she is willing to give you some, right?"

"Yeah... But I can’t drink her blood every week," Luciel sounded like he was complaining at this fact. If he could, he would drink only her blood.

Alex observed how Luciel fantasized about Helen, he was kinda feeling envious of Luciel.

"You know, I’m kinda jealous of you," He admitted, making Luciel raise his eyebrow.

"Why?"

"I mean, you have pretty much everything. Perfect looks, superhuman abilities, a wife that loves you and now you are going to become a father as well,"

Luciel looked at him with half-closed eyes, he had no right to be jealous.

"Maybe if you looked at a woman instead of your reflection in the mirror, you would have already started a family." Luciel glared at him, pointing out a cold, harsh truth.

"And if you want what I have and are ready to live your whole life as a beast, then please, feel free to ask Nosferatu. I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t mind adding one more vampire to his collection."

Hearing Luciel’s words made Alex shut up, glancing away from him as he clenched his fist.

He didn’t agree with the mirror part, it was just that the women didn’t know how to appreciate his beauty.

But when Luciel proposed to become a vampire, he chickened out. He wanted all of that and while Luciel started to portray it as something good just because he was growing used to it, he forgot just what he had to go through.

"That’s what I thought," Luciel huffed after Alex hadn’t said anything in return and the silence took over.

Now when that was done, Luciel decided to check the rest of his system since he never got the chance to do so earlier.

He found it easy to open the screen, it was connected to his consciousness and it was doing whatever he imagined.

He observed the screen in front and imagined himself clicking on [Level: 2 Bloodline Awakening].

<Level: 2 Bloodline Awakening>

<Requierments for level up:>

<Qi: 1000/1000>

<Strenght: 50>

<Agility: 50>

<Stamina: 50>

<Qi Absorption: 500>

<Sanity: 35>

’So I guess that the level represents the sub-stage of Blood Cultivation,’ Luciel concluded, finding this information very useful. So this was the power of the collective.

It summarized available knowledge and presented it to Luciel in a way he could understand and something was telling him that it could do much more than this.

’And what the hell is sanity?’ The moment Luciel asked himself a question, another screen popped up in front of him.

<Sanity - an ability of a user to influence others, use and resist mental attacks>

’Sanity seems like it’s going to be useful,’ Luciel had no idea how right he was, but the other stats were also formidable.

<Strenght - the amount of user’s raw physical force and endurance>

<Agility - user’s speed, reflexes, mobility>

<Stamina - user’s ability to perform physical activity during a longer period, including regeneration>

<Qi Absorption - the maximum amount of Qi a user can absorb with one feeding and environment>

’Hm... All right, then let’s see my actual stats,’ Everything was easy to understand, allowing Luciel to quickly memorize what each stat does.

The screen in front of him closed and revealed the main interface which scrolled down to Luciel’s actual stats.

<Hp: 1000/1000>

<Strenght: 36>

<Agility: 42>

<Stamina: 53>

<Qi Absorption: 600>

<Sanity: 20>

[Qi Converter]

Looking at the stats, Luciel noticed one detail. There was one stat that was abnormally high and that was his hp.

It also wasn’t a requirement for the level-up. Vampires were hard to kill, so it kinda made sense that their hp would be high, but what was the drawback?

Without further ado, Luciel went to check out what the button below his stats meant and he got met with another secondary screen.

<Convert Qi into stat points>

<Strength: +1 (cost: 10 Qi)>

<Agility: +1 (cost: 10 Qi)>

<Stamina: +1 (cost: 10 Qi)>

<Qi Absorption: +100 (cost: 500 Qi)

<Sanity: +5 (cost: 250 Qi)>

Luciel smirked at the screen in front of him sarcastically, to level up, he needs to spend 970 Qi points to raise his stats and 1000 more Qi to fill up his bar, so he basically needed almost two thousand points to reach the next level.

’This is going to be such a pain...’ He groaned internally, he barely started, yet he was already getting overwhelmed by the chore.

Looking at this, he finally figured out why was there such a big power diversity among vampires. They had great potential, but reaching the peak was something only the oldest vampires could do if they manage to survive until then.

Luciel made a mental note to look into this and to speed up the process. Unlike other vampires, time was something that he didn’t have.

Hearing the footsteps behind him getting closer, Luciel closed the system without getting a chance to look at his abilities, and turned around, seeing Nosferatu carrying Kai, who was still in eternal slumber.

Melisa was walking right beside the two.

"Well then, are you guys ready?" Nosferatu asked, getting ready to escort the group, but Luciel fell deaf to his words, his eyes falling on Kai.

He was glad that he could see him again, but not like this... If nothing, he wanted to have at least one final drink with him...