Chapter 476: D735 |
The large vampire leader was in the middle of trying to convince the weaker vampires to attack whatever was hiding in the darkness. The problem was that vampires weren’t exactly altruistic, and sacrificing themselves for one of their own wasn’t something they would even consider.
Just as the muscular vampire was in the middle of threatening to kill them if they didn’t move, four massive spikes shot out of the darkness. Each one was over ten meters long and, at their widest point, nearly two meters thick.
The wall didn’t slow them down in the slightest—they tore straight through it, along with the buildings behind. The first spike to stop had been unlucky and struck the ground too early, while two others got stuck halfway inside the fortress. Only one pierced through the entire settlement, bursting out the far side of the wall, where confused vampires immediately raised another alarm in panic, not even realizing where the attack had come from.
Thalion grinned as he felt the minds of the weaker vampires begin to falter just from being in his presence. His mental manipulation extended far beyond his aura, making it even more dangerous. Even the slightest hint of doubt was amplified—enough to send vampires on the far side of the fortress into a panic, sounding alarms before even thinking twice.
There was another side effect Thalion wasn’t even considering.
Some of the vampires had already started to flee, unwilling to face whatever was about to destroy their base.
Meanwhile, Thalion was having the time of his life, watching the walls crumble before his power. Maybe he should have expected that a form called Eclipsari, Consecrated Scion of the Void could bring down a full E-grade vampire outpost.
He used dark tendrils, like he had with the crippled Eclipsari before, to catapult himself forward—almost surfing over the ground—before launching himself upward with another jump.
It was then that Thalion realized just how far he had come.
Now, he was the hunter.
Leaping over twelve meters into the air and covering more than thirty meters in a single bound came almost naturally. Watching the vampires below desperately trying to escape the collapsing wall was just a bonus.
Some of them sprouted twisted bat-like wings and took to the air—completely unaware of what was above them.
Thalion lashed out with three tendrils, each tipped with a sharp spike. They pierced straight through their hearts, dragging the vampires along as he moved, while the festering darkness dripping from the tendrils devoured their bodies.
He landed in a plaza between three houses as the impaled vampires screamed their lungs out before dying.
He had expected the others to attack—but instead, nothing happened.
It always took a moment for his aura to fully consume the surrounding light. While moving, he was only a barely visible shadow—but now, after standing still for a few seconds, true darkness settled around him. The area where he had previously stood and charged his attacks was slowly brightening again, though it would take a few minutes.
Then Thalion realized something else.
This wasn’t just an outpost built by vampires from a tutorial.
It was an incursion.
Which meant there was an incursion pillar.
And he could consume it.
But first, the vampires had to die.
His first target was a male vampire sitting on the ground, trembling like a child, unable to move. A tendril through the head ended his life instantly.
At first, Thalion resumed launching spikes of darkness—but it quickly became boring, especially since the vampires could barely react under the growing pressure of fear.
So he changed tactics.
He launched himself onto the outer wall and cut them down like wheat before flinging himself back into the base, where a few of the stronger vampires were trying to regroup.
One of them—a blood shaman of some kind, manipulated the blood of others. Against Thalion, that made him completely useless.
The other two were more interesting.
One was a nimble assassin-type with long, narrow claws. The other was a bulky fighter wielding a massive hammer.
The assassin struck first—but his claws shattered against Thalion’s obsidian-like skin, instantly putting him at a disadvantage.
Thalion, of course, demonstrated how claws were actually used—ripping straight through the vampire in a single brutal strike.
Ratgul would have been proud.
The hammer-wielding vampire burned with power, overloading some kind of boosting skill that seemed to consume his own blood in the process.
Initially, Thalion had planned to test his durability by letting the attack land.
But now… he hesitated.
The air around the hammer roared, and he wasn’t about to just take it lightly.
In the end, he decided he couldn’t allow fear to settle in his own heart. Fear could only be conquered by walking straight through it.
With that mindset, Thalion steeled himself as an incredibly powerful swing came crashing into his chest.
He was blasted backward like a cannonball.
His outer skin—more like marble forged from darkness—shattered and broke apart. Something inside him cracked as well, and the impact against the wall behind him wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Pain surged through his mind, but he wasn’t out yet.
In fact, he could still think relatively clearly, and his injuries were already healing rapidly.
Rolling to the side to evade the next hammer strike hurt like hell, but by the time he got back to his feet, most of his internal damage had already recovered, and his outer shell was almost fully restored.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
All in all, Thalion came to the conclusion that testing it like that had been pretty stupid.
On the positive side, he now knew exactly what he could and couldn’t handle. If push came to shove, he could truly rely on his defenses while overwhelming his enemies with brute force.
Once fully healed, the vampire didn’t last more than six exchanges.
Next, Thalion devoured the incursion pillar—which, this time, was much faster than before. Not surprising, considering how much stronger his darkness had become.
But this time, something else happened.
He received an additional notification at first—and then a very interesting one.
Congratulations, you have stopped an incursion
Through your notable feats, both now and in the past, you have passed the threshold.
Job Offer D735
If you accept this, you will be teleported to integrated space
You will be placed in the dungeon Luminous Vault as the final bos
Entry requirement: Level 100 to Level 150
Maximum party size: 5
Survive for thirty-two hours while eliminating every party that enters your chamber
Upon completion, you will be rewarded with a system purse containing one Silver Crown
The more crowns you possess, the better future jobs and rewards will become
You may only store crowns and currency within the purse
Experience gain while acting as the final boss of Luminous Vault will be double
You will receive one hour of rest after defeating each party
After completion, you will be returned to your current position in the new universe
You have ten days to accept
Thalion stood there for a while, considering the offer.
Since the treasure hunt, he already knew that there were jobs available for those who performed well—but those had mostly been about assisting others during trials.
Becoming a dungeon boss for a set period of time, essentially working directly for the system, was something completely new.
Not that it was unwelcome.
An additional way to gain experience—and possibly valuable rewards.
Who knew what kind of rewards might come later?
A purse that couldn’t be stolen from him, since it existed within his status screen, was already damn good in his opinion.
A party of five between level one hundred and one hundred fifty also sounded doable. Still, he wouldn’t accept it right away.
First, he shifted into his human form and let vines shoot out from his body, consuming all the blood in the small village—which was quite a lot, considering how many vampires had died.
Killing them had brought him to level ninety, which was already a significant power increase after his evolution.
Still, if he wanted to accept that system offer, it would probably be wise to reach as high a level as possible. He had no idea how strong the opponents would be.
So far, the incursions hadn’t been particularly dangerous—but he also remembered very clearly how the First Daughter had mentioned that they were struggling heavily with one. That was the reason they hadn’t sent more elites into the trial.
If he ended up in a part of the universe like that, things could become very difficult—even with him having reached E-grade.
On the positive side, he was leveling quickly.
The later levels would slow down significantly, but for now, gaining one level per day seemed achievable if he kept this pace.
There were also a few vampires still on the run.
Tracking them down as an Eclipsari while sprinting through the forest sounded like a lot of fun.
Thalion decided to chase the ones heading toward Eric’s domain.
He wanted to check in with his friends anyway—so maybe he could do that before leaving for his dungeon duties.
<--Ruppert and his small group had been on the move ever since he spotted the wyvern. The others hadn’t believed him at first—but when they saw the corpse of the griffin and the remains of the massive eagle, they quickly changed their minds.
They had been traveling for five days now.
Travelers they had met earlier had said that stronger human groups lived in that direction, which was why they were hoping for the best.
So far, they had crossed monster-infested lands, with some of the larger beasts reaching level one hundred sixty. It was a good thing they had invested in strong movement skills back in the tutorial, allowing them to escape. Fighting enemies at that level was always a huge risk—and usually a bad idea.
The group’s mood had dropped quite a bit.
Ruppert hated insects in general—and there had already been several giant spiders trying to kill them.
Jojo, a small woman who was a mix between assassin and mage, shared that hatred. She especially despised spiders—their black eyes and countless hairs completely creeped her out.
Yi, the only Chinese member of the group, was an archer.
He liked eating insects.
Which did absolutely nothing to improve group morale.
It had already led to multiple arguments that he kept carrying around a three-meter-long spider leg, casually chewing on it every night.
Yi argued that you couldn’t allow fear to take hold of you—and that facing it head-on, starting with the leg, was important.
That argument didn’t really help.
Ruppert and Jojo insisted it wasn’t fear—they just found it disgusting.
In these lands, they couldn’t talk much anyway, and hearing the occasional loud crunch whenever Yi bit into that leg didn’t exactly improve things.
That night, they were resting under an illusion cast by Jojo when the vampires attacked.
Luckily, they had set multiple traps that alerted them when something approached, allowing them to detect the vampires before the ambush was complete.
The vampires, however, had no trouble seeing through the illusion and had already crept dangerously close.
The group immediately activated their movement skills to escape—but as they felt powerful auras erupt around them, they changed tactics and leaped into the trees to get a better overview.
The vampires didn’t rush in recklessly, their ambush already compromised.
There were at least twenty of them—an unusually large number for a hunting group.
Ruppert exchanged uneasy glances with his teammates as one of the vampires stepped forward.
“Please, there’s no need to be so wary of us. If you behave and surrender, we won’t kill you. We just need a little snack before moving on,” the vampire sneered—clearly not sounding like someone who would keep his word.
That was all the group needed.
Jojo unleashed a shockwave toward them, and all of them activated their movement skills, trying to break through the vampires’ defensive line.
Each of them pushed their abilities to the limit.
One vampire appeared directly in front of Ruppert—but he simply tackled it like a rugby player. Both crashed into a tree and tumbled down from the branch.
The vampire hissed as its claws tore into Ruppert while they fell.
Ruppert hit the ground face-first, while the vampire twisted midair like a cat, landing smoothly on its feet as if it were nothing.
“No!” Yi shouted from above, firing an arrow that forced the vampire to pause.
The vampire hissed and waved a hand, forming a wall of blood that blocked the shot.
“So annoying. Now, where were we?” it growled, opening its mouth to reveal sharp teeth.
The fact that its jaw stretched far wider than it should have—and that Ruppert could barely move after accidentally locking eyes with it—didn’t help at all.
Then—
A loud thud.
And the vampire was gone.
It looked as if it had been hit by a speeding car.
Ruppert turned his head and saw something tearing apart what remained of the vampire’s body. From the destroyed torso, a fountain of blood burst upward.
Yi was still standing on the branch above, staring down with wide eyes.
Ruppert had no idea what the vampires were thinking—but their auras suddenly flared with far more power, and he could hear fighting erupting all around them in the darkness.
Normally, his night vision was decent—not perfect, but good enough to survive.
Now it was like being back on Earth when the lights went out. He could barely see his own hand in front of his face.
Only when Jojo cast a small flame nearby did anything become visible again.
Jojo and Yi grabbed him by the arms, trying to carry him away—only to run straight into another vampire emerging from the darkness.
This one had only one arm and looked injured.
Yi didn’t hesitate.
He fired an arrow.
The vampire dodged the first—but the second struck its leg, forcing it to one knee.
Then the darkness deepened again.
A tall figure stepped out from behind the vampire.
Dark mist rose from its maw and body. It looked built for combat—muscular, yet agile, without sacrificing speed or flexibility.
To Ruppert and Jojo, it looked like a human twisted into something insect-like.
Since it had completely concealed its aura, the vampire only noticed it when its claws pierced through its back—bursting out of its chest—and lifted it off the ground before tearing it apart.
The creature tossed the remains aside and looked straight at them with four dark, uncaring eyes.
For Ruppert, it felt like an eternity passed.
Then it spoke.
“You might want to treat your wounds. From my perspective, that doesn’t look too good.”
Its voice was unnatural—deep and shadowed.
But Ruppert and the others were too shocked to respond.
A moment later, the creature disappeared back into the darkness.