Vampire Reborn

Ren did feel slightly annoyed to be snapped back to reality so quickly. Yet, he didn't let that bother him for long as he knew he had to move on and explore the rest of the world unknown that he was certain looked even better, especially the cities with all the new NPC AI— It was a general rule of thumb that the beginning areas in any video game were usually the most bland and boring.

Ren deeply sighed before shaking his head, walking on the leafy and muddy ground of the forest towards Luck and the set of leather armour he was flying over, the rather disgusting smell getting closer and closer the more he neared him.

"Luck, mind if I ask what this smell is?"

"Hmm?" He looked at his master with a hint of confusion and spoke.

"Well, like I said. I looted it from many dead bodies around the forest, you're probably smelling the smell of blood,"

The second Luck responded to him, it was almost like something clicked in his brain.

'Of course!'

Vampires were creatures that adored blood, but the older the blood became, the more disgusting it smelled and tasted.

However, that part had only been mentioned in the game's lore and did not have any game-changing impacts other than the benefits of old blood being less effective for vampires.

But now, with these realistic enhancements, that part of the lore had become real…

"Ahh! I see, makes sense…"

He nodded towards Luck, picking up the pieces of black, slightly tattered and bloody armour that lacked a helmet and seemingly gave absolutely no stats, finding it hard to put it on as he held his breath from the stench of death around him.

"Much better!"

He spoke, as he began stretching in his armour, the smell only seeming to get stronger.

'Inspect party member,'

'Huh?'

Ren raised an eyebrow at the sight ahead of his inspect skill not working on his party member, which made him assume that it was probably locked until another level.

He wanted to check if Luck knew a specific spell that could end his misery, but now it seemed like he simply had to ask.

"Luck, could you use purification on this armour? The smell is killing me,"

"Hmm? Really? I picked the most bloody armour on purpose because I thought you vampires liked it!"

"That's only fresh blood, old blood is disgusting,"

"I apologize lord Alucard! It shall be purified immediately."

Without a second of hesitation, Luck flew all around him, flapping his wings that sprayed down small sparkles of light that went around and cleaned his armour along with the disgusting smell surrounding him.

"Hmmmm-Ahhhhh… Much better!"

The addicting smell of wildlife and fresh air once again entered his nostrils unhindered by that disgusting stench.

"Luck— what's the status of the forest? Will I be able to find any beasts there?"

"From what I've seen, the forest is extremely empty due to the attack on the nearby village— you might be able to find a few basic beasts but that will be quite rare! It's good for us since we don't really know the strength of the beasts in the area. So, I think it would be best for us to get out of the forest and get to a city where we could learn more about where we are now,"

"But this is only the starting area, the beasts here should only be level 1, no way the devs would add strong beasts from the start. Oh! Or is this some sort of stealth mission? That would also make sense,"

Ren began mumbling to himself, his voice slightly louder than he expected.

"Level 1? Devs? Stealth mission?" Luck questioned with a look filled with great confusion, which made Ren chuckle as it seemed like such terms were not familiar to the AI, which made sense to him considering that it might have ruined the already beyond amazing emersion embedded in the new update.

"Never mind, let's go! Do you know the way out of the forest?"

"Yes!" Luck nodded.

"I believe I spotted a path slightly up ahead! It should not be too far! I'll try to navigate us away from any of the dead bodies of the old fleeing humans since those are the areas that probably have the most beasts that would be trying to feed on thier corpse— Let's go!"

Luck promptly flew into the forest, the light around his body becoming dimmer, most likely to not attract any attention his way, Ren following directly behind him feeling far more sluggish and fatigued than usual wearing the rather heavy leather armour, yet still feeling good from the cold wind breeze slamming on his face, the fresh air entering his nostrils, and the bright moon shining down on him through the thick leaves of the high trees.

'Ah! Ah! This damn armour! I was never this slow even as a level 1! And did they patch the infinite sprint glitch!? Fuck!' Ren inwardly cursed, as he struggled to keep up with Luck despite his rather meticulous movements around the forest that he had honed through many years of practice, avoiding sticks and large clumps of leaves that would make the most sound.

'*Pant* *Pant* even in the full moon, I'm still this bad… I bet I'd be dead by now from over-exhaustion if I were a human… Damn… Vampires are so OP….' He inwardly smiled with a slightly mad chuckle, still struggling to keep up, looking to his left at the edge of a deep cliff that led to a wide, expansive plain

Although in PvP this advantage of course did not exist, in PVE (Player vs Environment) Rebirth allowed the user to skip days by doing some specific tasks such as sleeping in certain beds. And that was what made Vampires so unbelievably overpowered. This pretty much rendered their only major weakness, the sun, almost completely futile as players would immediately be able to skip to night time all the time, and not just that, but skip to a night with the full moon where they would be even stronger.

Most quests and side quests did not get affected by the passing of days and there were only a few scripted scenes and quests that required the user to be in broad daylight. It was something that was never patched in the game, making vampires the best race that only a few others could even compare to.

"Hmmm?"

As he was running, he managed to pick up on something in the plains beyond the cliff, shrouded in darkness and ash, the vegetation around it completely dead, burnt to the ground, the various buildings he managed to pick up on with his rather good vampiric vision utterly broken down, and some still on fire, small figures walking around, some in what seemed like shackles as he watched groups of them, some all at once and some, one by one fall dead on the ground.

Part of him knew that what he was seeing was most likely a scripted cutscene to show the destroyed village that Luck talked about— and that it would be nice if he were to just navigate his way down the cliff to see if he could go there and if there was any easter egg he could receive. After all, he was simply in a game and has nothing to lose; if he died he would simply respawn at another checkpoint or save state. Right now was merely a test run where he could do and test whatever he wanted with absolutely no consequences before he started a proper playthrough later on with all of his new knowledge— a time where he could really let loose and have fun.

However, on the other hand, another part of him felt scared looking at that village… True fear… Like only death and pain lied in there. A feeling that he never imagined he would feel in a video game. Maybe the new senses of realism were starting to get in his head? The game usually did a good job of separating the walls of game and reality, but the more he played the more those walls became thinner.

*Argh!*

He shook his head from those thoughts, completely disregarding them, in the end deciding to go with his gut and not check the possibility of the easter egg and leave it for another time.

"Hey Luck! Do you still think that there are bad guys from that village roaming in this forest?" Ren whispered, panting, almost out of breath.

"No my lord, I'm fairly sure they rounded up all of their targets already. We should be more than safe. The main road is up ahead, it shouldn't be too long!" He whispered back, leading to Ren nodding back to his words.

As Ren continued sprinting in the forest, he couldn't help but think that this first mission was too easy, and that there had to be more, before, suddenly, his suspicions were proven true as he heard a loud howl coming from the direction ahead of them, in a small clearing making them both stop mere meters away from the beast ahead.

"Shoot! Why now wolf! The road is right there! Maybe we should try and run! We have no idea how strong that thing is!" Luck cursed his bad luck, looking back at his smiling master that was slowly stretching his rather tired body, knowing full well he can't flee.

There stood a massive black and blue wolf, its sharp fangs out, a yellow glow in its eyes and foam running down from its mouth like it was ready to pounce.

"A new Beast! This must be the tutorial mini-boss! Let's see how fighting works now!"

"T-Tutorial? mini bo—"

"Luck! Go distract him! Make sure he doesn't come close to me! I have a plan!"

"Yes sir!"

With no hesitation, Luck obeyed orders and raced towards the wolf, grabbing its attention by flashing a bright light in its eyes before flying around it, a known taunt move that Ren knew Luck possessed even at level 1.

With a wide smile on his face, Ren brought his hands together and focused his mind, trying to cast a magic spell.

'W-what!?'

Suddenly, he felt an unknown, almost unbelievable energy flow all around his body, empowering and rejuvenating him unlike ever before— like he had the power of the entire world right before his fingertips; he felt almost unstoppable.

With an even wider smile on his face, he noticed heat being formed between his fingers that eventually turned into a yellow, then orange, then finally a bright crimson flame, lifting his hands and aiming straight at both Luck and the wolf ahead, his fireball slowly becoming bigger before it was finally time.

"Full Moon: Crimson Nova!"

The massive ball of crimson fire blasted straight at them with moderate speed, leaving a trail of fire in its path and lighting up the entire forest before the two entities ahead of him were completely engulfed in crimson flames.

His smile grew even further listening to the wolf's agonizing cry in the burning hellish tornado flames before it all subsided, leaving nothing behind of the wolf that once was. There was not even a charred remain, only the odd, all too realistic, disgusting smell of burning flesh that he was not sure if he would ever get used to, yet was forced to deal with for the duration of his time playing so it was no big deal.

[ +25 XP! ]

[ Level Up! ]

"Hey Luck! The Road is up ahead! Let's go!"

…

…

"Ummmm… Luck?"

"Luck? …. Luck …. LUCK?!"

"What the fuck!? They enabled friendly fire!?"

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I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! Don't forget to vote to support the story in the contest and for a chance at an anime adaptation!

Extra chapters if we get to the top 10 of the new/monthly rankings!