The following set of notifications were all about the changes to my talents and skills. Of which some were so incredible, it left me trembling with excitement.
[Due to your Bloodline change, some of your talents and skills have been modified and their effects have changed.]
[Talent- Blood of the Troll (Epic) > Vampiric Blood (Unique)]
[Vampiric Blood (Unique) (Passive): Vampires are renowned for their high regeneration and invulnerability to most toxins and poisons. Vampires can also boost their healing by ingesting fresh blood; the richer the blood, the stronger the regeneration. This talent gives you a natural regeneration of 5% of your Max Health Points per second. In and out of combat. Your endurance is increased by +5.]
[Talent Acquired! - Vampiric Instincts (Unique) (Passive): Vampires are natural predators, and, with that, they are born with several instincts to help in their hunts. You have a natural sense of danger, which coincides with increased senses, such as smell, hearing and touch. Vampires are not ones to be ambushed; they are the ambushers.]
[Talent Acquired! - Light Martial Prowess (Unique) (Passive): Moon Elves are born with weak constitutions but are natural finesse-based warriors. Your mastery of one-handed weapons will be a lot faster than that of other weapons, attaining insights into their uses far quicker. However, you will find your mastery of heavy, two-handed and ranged weapons to be twice as hard.]
[Skills – Spring Step (Uncommon) LVL 1 > Shade Step (Uncommon) LVL 1]
[Shade Step (Uncommon) (Active) Level 1: At the cost of 25 Mana Points, you can leap to any shadow within ten feet, regardless of any physical obstacles. While moving towards a shadow, after activating Shade Step, you are invulnerable to all physical attacks.]
[Skill Acquired! - Blood Manipulation Level 1 (Unique) (Active): Vampires are beings of blood; their essence and power revolve around the vital energy of others. You can control your own or any spilled blood within five feet, giving crystallization of the vital liquid. Manipulation has no derived limits and relies on the user's will and expertise, as well as mana reserve.]
"Holy moly." Letting out a breath, I reread the changes to my skills again and again. Even though I was desperate to try out these new powers, like an antsy kid on Christmas morning, I first brought up my full profile screen along with my attribute panel to see the differences, which would also hopefully answer the reason for my bodily changes.
Name:
Grubbitish Reinbach
Level:
9
Experience to Next Level:
0/9000
Race:
Silverstar Vampire
Life Tier:
1
Class:
None
Profession:
Leatherworker – LVL 1
Health:
270/270
Stamina:
200/200
Mana:
125/125
Armor Value:
0/0
[ATTRIBUTES:]
Strength
10
Endurance
15
Agility
12
Spirit
10
Charisma
10
Constitution
10
"Well, shit on me. Clearly, Vampires and moon elves have much better starter stats than Humans." Looking over the attribute panel, I was surprised to see it so balanced. Along with the description for the moon elves and vampires, I imagined that my stats would have leaned a lot more towards the agility side. 'Maybe it's more about leaning on your advantages on your own? Like a barbarian, a muscle - bound warrior, who, due to their natural gifts, would most likely increase their strength and body over agility or spirit after their level-ups.' Thinking it over, I came to the surprising conclusion that the balance actually implied a lot more freedom of choice, than I would guess a system overlord-ruled world would have.
"Regardless, it's only a good thing. My current self could slap my old self to death with one hand." With a flex of my right arm, I once again marveled at the new lean muscle mass in sight. 'Dieting begone! I'll never have to worry about drinking disgusting shakes again. Just kill some monsters, level up and watch as I turn into an Adonis.' Chuckling internally at myself, I stood up and gazed over the church before walking into the middle, which besides the dried-up corpse was fairly clear. Thinking it over, I first attempted to use Shade Step, because who wouldn't want to teleport around like some magical badass? Focusing on the shadow cast by one of the statues to my right, I gauged it to be just under ten feet away. Like when I acquired the Spring Step, an almost instinctual feel for the skill was buried inside my head. As if flipping a mental switch, I felt a weird suction force take over my body before my vision became obscured as if I was looking through water, and before I knew it I was standing right at the foot of the knightly statue.
The weird teleportation made my stomach flip, as if I had just gone through a roller coaster drop; luckily, it passed in only a second. I couldn't help the grin splitting my face, as I marvelled over the applications of this new skill. "Screw Spring step, it's shade all the way, baby." Considering the shadow caused by the large stature was quite big, I wanted to confirm how small a shadow I could Shade Step too, to see its limitations. Looking over the room, I saw that one of the broken pews was making a shadow on the stone floor of only about a foot long. Choosing that as my target, I focused on the shadow and then activated the skill again. In a streaming line of smoke, I arrived in the small shadow cast by the pew. Feeling no difficulties. "This is brilliant." Focusing one more time, I arrived back in the middle of the church again.
"Shade step is brilliant, but I imagine that without a lot of training, using it mid-fight could lead to death quicker than I can say, holy shit. It'll be great for surprise attacks, repositioning or, the best use, escaping. The high mana cost compared to my mana reserve will also be a pain, at least for the moment." After going over the possible uses and limitations, I went back to the middle of the church and reread the Blood Manipulation skill. Once again, looking over my surroundings and not seeing a drop of blood in sight, I clicked my tongue before bringing up one of my new claw fingernails. Using the top of my left forearm, I sliced a much larger gash than I had originally planned. To my surprise, my single pointed nail cut into my flesh like a hot knife through butter.
"Shit." Right before my eyes, however, a miracle happened. After only a few seconds of heavy bleeding, the long slice in my forearm knitted itself back together as if it were reversing time. Leaving me with clean, pale and unblemished skin in a heartbeat. My original regeneration was incredible, but the vampiric upgrade was something else entirely. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I focused on the dark red blood coating my arm and dripping onto the stone floor.
Trying to activate my new blood-controlling skill turned out to be a lot harder than I first thought. With the ease of Shade Step leading me to think I would find this new skill just as easy to perform. After a minute of doing nothing but staring at the red life essence and watching as nothing happened. I paused and thought over the description of the skill. 'My will? No limitations. How does it work?' Pondering over the issue, I tried to come at it from another angle. Instead of straightaway manipulating the blood, I closed my eyes and tried to get a sense of it.
This act of sensing blood felt as if it came as naturally as breathing, and once focused, I could accurately gauge the quantity and location of the blood even with my eyes closed. I was also surprised to notice that when focusing on sensing blood, I could tell that within at least twenty feet of where I was standing there were only a few signs of blood. This blood, however, had a sense of flow toward them, unlike the stillness felt by the blood on my arm. The small quantity of flowing blood also told me instinctively that the blood was of small creatures like rats scurrying around. "Remarkable." Retracting my senses from their wide blanket search, I pinpointed the blood upon my arm in detail, feeling its every molecule.
As seconds passed, I felt as if I was leaving an imprint on the blood and as if I had reached some threshold, the blood felt as if it was an extension of myself. With a mental command, the blood still upon my forearm floated above. Remarkably, it stayed as one solid piece. Commanding it mentally required a decent level of concentration. Raising one of my hands, I attempted to draw a figure eight in the air. It was tremendously difficult, like performing an action while trying to read a book. Leaving the multi tasking for another time, I focused on the small foot long thin stream of blood and brought its floating form to eye level.
It was actually quite easy to move the blood around. Even when it was out of my direct sight, I could still pinpoint its exact position if focused. However, after sending its floating form past four feet, it's form began to get shaky, with several drops of blood losing connection with me and dripping to the floor. Bringing the blood stream back, I tested its speed and shot it at the floor as fast as I could. Surprisingly, the blood stream moved faster than my eye could track, if not for holding a connection, I might have thought the blood teleported. It hit the floor with a splat, scattering the blood and breaking my connection with it.
Regathering my senses, I swept them over the majority of the remaining blood, bringing it back under my control and back up to my eye level. Looking at the liquid, I frowned in thought. "Unless it's an actual river's worth, I'll find it quite hard to actually cause any damage with this skill. There must be something more. What if I changed its shape?" Talking to myself, I thought over different shapes that could help to inflict damage. I started simple and went with a cone shape. The squirming foot-long stream of blood, vibrated and squirmed in the air as if in resistance. "Feeling rebellious, are you?" Growling out, and feeling a mental strain take effect, I doubled down and, conjuring the shape of a cone in my mind's eye, I willfully pressed it at the stream while muttering, "Cone, cone, cone, you bastard."
Finally, after a small throb in my temple came about, the bloodstream bubbled and turned into a small cone shape. I directed the point at a nearby wooden pew. However, before launching the blood cone, its still-liquid form caused me to pause. 'This won't do. It needs to harden somehow. Harden..." Thinking over the notification description about the skill again, I remembered the word crystallization, my eyes brightened as a thought came to mind. "I can't freeze it myself, but I'm pretty sure removing oxygen from blood can cause it to crystallize?" Putting all my focus back on the floating blood cone, and diving further into the connection I had with it. I followed its molecules, knowing instinctively exactly what was contained within the blood, and then with a force of will I forced out all the oxygen.
Like it had been suddenly dipped in dry ice, the blood cone hardened, its connection with me still strong, but it now had a certain weight to it. It felt like I was doing a mental weight lift. A small throbbing began in the back of my head, the longer I held the floating blood cone, which now looked like it was cut from a massive ruby but in regards to the amount of mind-numbing pain I had been through in the last couple of days, I barely felt it. Now ready, I send the blood shooting towards the pew. With my naked eye, I didn't see any movement at all. One moment the blood cone was floating near my face; the next, the wooden pew a couple of feet in front of me had a hole in it and was spewing broken pieces of wood.
Looking at the devastation and the small hole the cone had left in the stone floor after smashing through the pew, I began to tremble with excitement as a warm flush rose up. "Goddamn awesome. Haha." Shouting with glee, I wasted no time and cut myself again. This time even deeper than the last, bringing about a larger amount of blood. For the next fifteen minutes, as if I were possessed, I continuously made different shapes and objects with my blood. Working out its limits. I only stopped once I started to feel woozy and faintness had crept up on me, leaving my legs feeling a little weak. Bringing up my stamina, I saw that I had only a quarter left; however, it was swiftly replenishing, alleviating the woozy feeling quickly.
I had found several limits to the Blood Manipulation. One of the major ones being, the more detailed the shape, the more mental strain it created. When I tried to create a face out of blood, the strain my mind was under felt as if someone was stabbing me in the brain, causing my connection with the blood to break. I also found it hard to move around while focusing on the blood; however, this was more due to a lack of expertise than an actual limit. I found that creating small knives rather than blocky cones easier to control. I was also able to move them around better while doing other actions, like running and jumping around. I also tried to Shade Step, while controlling a knife of crystalized blood; however, the moment I arrived in the shadow I intended to, my connection with the blood was lost. All in all, it was a god damn impressive skill, and considering it had a level, it spoke to the fact that I could also raise its power, or control effects.
"Now that's over." After recovering some of my stamina, I gazed around at the multiple bodies in the room, along with the piles of items, and a greedy smile rose to my lips. "Oh, sweet loot. Daddy's coming!"