Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 16: First Misson

For the next three days, Rudy followed the same routine, and the only person he interacted with was Alice... even though it lasted only a minute.

His control over his body had become much better than before, and now he could wield the sword without failing to land a powerful strike on the dummies; however, he still had to try it in real combat.

[Arena duration ended.]

[You may return after 12 hours to use it again.]

Rudy dried himself with a towel, put on his clothes, walked out of the arena, and climbed onto the hoverboard.

As he went past others, they looked at him with gazes much softer than before because, from the day he had come, he hadn’t caused any problems and was diligently trying to get stronger.

As if to reward him, his haloband glowed green.

’Finally.’

Rudy stepped down the hoverboard, walked out of the combat ward, and clicked onto the round screen of the haloband.

[You have been assigned a mission.]

———

Mission #1574I

Description: [Assist your designated Circle in the containment and neutralization of a Rank 1 Terror Gate.]

Circle: [Vlad Belmont, Ray Hilton, Trina Salinas, John Stinson.]

Enforcer: [Angelo Terns.]

Duration: [1hr 45m 12s]

Reward: [60 credits.]

*Personal Reward: [Gain the status of Cadet, Access to Mecha Pilot Training Ward.]

———

"Credits?" Rudy mumbled in confusion, and another holographic display appeared above the screen.

———

Name: [Vlad Belmont]

Status: [None] (CIC)¹

Rank: [Deviant]

Gender: [Male]

Access Level: [1]

Credits: [12]

———

The world beneath his feet shifted, his eyes went wide in disbelief, and he mumbled, "Those meals... they weren’t free?"

Suddenly, both of the screens disappeared, and the map opened on its own.

[Reach your destination within the next 15 minutes.]

Rudy’s gaze flew towards the red dot on the map. "Hanger huh..."

He still couldn’t shake the realization that the meals he’d believed were free had, in truth, been paid for with his own credits.

He gritted his teeth and muttered, "Damned cheapskates!"

He shook his head and quickly returned to his room, then took a bath, put on another uniform, and left for the hangar.

Five minutes later, he reached the hangar and walked over to the hover jet that was standing at the red dot on the map.

As Rudy neared it, Angelo came into view.

Angelo studied Rudy from top to bottom, frowned, and asked, "You... Where’s your weapon?"

Rudy stopped in his tracks and answered with a sombre expression, "N-No one told me about it..."

Hearing him, Angelo shook his head. White sparks flickered near his left hand as he took out a dark, long sword from his spatial ring and handed it to Rudy. "Use this for now."

Rudy nodded, took the sword from him, and stored it in his spatial ring.

"Go in, one of your circle mates is still not here," Angelo commanded as he pointed his thumb at the hover jet standing behind him.

Rudy nodded once again and climbed the hover jet.

’They are keeping an eye on me...’ he remarked inwardly and walked into the main cabin.

As he entered, his gaze fell on two figures sitting beside one another. Both of them wore the syndicate’s uniform.

One of them was a lean girl, short pink hair framing sharp pink eyes above a steel mask that covered the lower half of her face.

’Trina Salinas.’

The other was a tall, lean male with dark skin, sharp white hair, and faint yellow eyes. A scar cut beneath one eye, and multiple piercings lined his ears.

’Is that Ray or John?’

"Are you Vlad Belmont?" The man asked while rubbing his chin.

Rudy looked at him. "I am. Who are you?"

The man leaned back in his seat and answered while grinning, "I am Ray Hilton."

Rudy nodded and sat in the seat in front of Trina.

Ray chuckled. "You are a mountain, you know... our Trina is too soft for someone like you."

Trina didn’t respond to his words, and Rudy smiled wryly.

Right then, Angelo walked into the main cabin, and behind him followed a man with a balanced build, messy black hair, and brown eyes.

"I am truly sorry this time, Enforcer Angelo!" John cried.

Angelo scoffed. "It’s not your first time, Cadet John Stinson... Unfortunately, I will have to punish you for your lack of discipline."

"But enforcer Angeloooo!" John pleaded with puppy eyes.

Angelo didn’t even look at him and said flatly, "Take your seat."

"Hah..." John sighed and fell into the seat beside Rudy.

"This is bad, I don’t want to clean toilets again... I still remember their deathly smell! Ugh!" John grumbled with a disgusted expression.

He shook his head, raised his head and hand towards Rudy, and said with a smile, "Hello friend, I am John Stinson, who are you?"

Rudy smiled back, shook his hand, and said, "I am Vlad Belmont."

"Vlad, huh..." John chuckled and said, "Well, aren’t you tall? You are even taller than that bastard!" He added the last words while pointing at Ray Hilton.

The hover jet hummed and flew towards the exit tunnel.

A few moments later, they left the headquarters, and Angelo’s voice echoed within the main cabin.

"As all of you already know, it’s a rank one terror gate which means every dreadborn except the gate guardian would be Latent, but they can be at most demons... as for the location, it is in the yellow zone near S.C. 08-A."

"S.C. 08-A?! Why are we going there instead of letting the Mecha Corps deal with it? What else are they useful for?!" John asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"Multiple rank 1 and 2 terror gates have opened near 08-A, which is why they have requested backup from the headquarters."

"Oh..." John fell in his seat and mumbled while folding his arms across his chest, "You should’ve said that first."

"Cadet John, you would be serving another hour of punishment for shouting at an enforcer."

"W-What?!" John stammered, his face pale in horror.

—

¹CIC - Cadet In Consideration