Chapter 12: Level 2
As Mike muttered the words the burly man that was still laughing quickly turned into a dried corpse, halfway though he seemed to realize what was happening and let out a scream, as a result the dried corpse had a rather scary death mask, Mike however was not in any condition to admire his handiwork as he attempted to let out a scream while his shattered collarbone was forcefully restored but as he had no air in his lungs he was unable, Mike's shoulder was quickly restored as a pale scar was left behind on his shoulder where the blade had cut through him, his other minor injuries also stopped bleeding, but only just.
After an unknown amount of time passed Mike gradually got off the ground, he was deathly pale and his shoulder arched so much he seriously considered cutting it off to be spared from the pain
"Fuck…"
As Mike cursed her walked over towards the other burly man and stabbed his knife into the corpse before he muttered
"[Drink]"
As the other corpse also got drained of blood Mike felt a little better and the pain in his shoulder lessened somewhat making his movements speed up
'Someone is bound to have heard that scream… no time to loot other than the swords…'
Mike quickly grabbed the two swords and their scabbards before he tore a piece of igniter paper and dropped it on the dried corpses and picked up his backpack as the two dried up corpses was set alight before he quickly made it towards Morkove… A few minutes later after Mike left the area a group of adventures showed up, one of them quickly kicked some sand onto the corpses while the others looked on as one of them commented
"Save your strength, there's nothing to save there"
"Shut up, I need the money!"
The one adventure kept kicking on dirt and sand to try and save the burning equipment and when the fire was finely out he dug out the still hot bodies before he suddenly stopped moving and suddenly yelled to the other adventures that were jeering him on
"Hey isn't these corpses kind of strange?"
The other adventures looked closer at the corpses before they fell silent, after some time one of them spoke
"Let's report to the guild, we have a vampire on the loose"
Mike returned to the Inn, he had no need to go to the guild and turn in his goblin ears today and instead brought them with him to his room and laid them on the desk, no not like that they were still contained in the pouch that kept most of the smell at bay, Mike laid down on the bed for a bit with closed eyes before he suddenly sat up and looked over the poncho that was beyond repair this time
'Well you served me well…'
Mike tossed the poncho aside and laid down again, this time he fell into a light dreamless sleep that lasted until his stomach woke him up in the early morning as it screamed out for substance and so Mike, slave to his stomach gradually woke up and got dressed before he went downstairs and quickly found out it was too early for breakfast, thus he went back upstairs to his room and grabbed the pouch with the goblin ears as he had decided to go to the guild and turn in his bounty, after wearing his holed poncho(as he had no other alternative) Mike left the Inn and walked towards the guild, on the way there he snacked on some street food from some of the few still open stalls before he reached the guild which never closed and just as he was about to walk inside he saw Julie walk out of the guild
'What's that bitch doing here?'
Not liking the look of the [Paladin] Mike took a step back and let her pass, Julie didn't even look at him she just walked onwards with her escort of temple knights, Mike gave a snort and walked into the guild and after standing in line for a little while he exchanged his 38 goblin ears for a total of 1900
'And with that done let's go shopping for a bit…'
Mike went shopping and bought a few sets of clothes and wore a new shirt, then he went to a blacksmith and brought a sheath for the knife before he made his way back to the Inn and dropped off the clothes he had brought
'Well then… time to head to the temple and level up…'
Mike was still a little nervous about visiting the temple but didn't let it show as he made his way there but when he reached the temple he saw that people were queued up in three lines as there seemed to be some sort of inspection going on, Mike paused before he decided to go on a line up in the left most queue, after waiting for a bit it was his turn to be inspected
"Alright open you mouth please"
"...sure"
Mike could see that Julie sat further in and kept an eye on the inspections so he decided to be civil about the whole thing and did as he was asked, after all he was not able to smack her around… Yet
"Let's see here… Nope you are free to go"
Mike gave a nod and asked
"What are you guys looking for?"
The man that had inspected him gave a slight smile and spoke
"Vampires"
"...Okay, good luck I guess"
"Thanks kid, now move on"
"Sure"
Mike walked into the temple and up to the reception, or at least that was the plan as when he was about to walk past Julie she called out to him
"Stop"
Mike stopped walking and answered her without looking at her
"...What do you want?"
Julie sat in a comfortably in a recliner chair that was placed in the middle of the reception hall wearing her armor and with her sword standing next to her leaning against the chair
"Why are you here again so soon?"
Mike gave a sigh and spoke
"Because I was close to leveling up last time and now I am sure that I can level up, why else would I be at the temple?"
"I see… What is your name?"
"Normally one would give their own name before asking that"
Julie grabbed her sword and with lightning fast movements swung the still sheathed sword against Mike, making the cross guard on her sword hit right in the pit of his stomach which knocked out all the air in his lungs and made Mike knell over before Juile stood up and walked over in front of him and unsheathed her sword before she used the blade to rise his chin up
"I asked, what's your name?"
Mike gritted his teeth which made Julie give a sigh before kicked his chin knocking him over backwards, now flat on his back Mike saw the blade of the sword pointed against his right eye, millimeters away from his eyeball
"If you make me repeat myself once more you will lose an eye"
"...Mike"
Julie gave a smile that was oddly happy before she sheathed her sword and spoke
"Nice to meet you Mike, I am Julie"
Mike gave a snort and got on his feet and turned around before Julie once again spoke
"Stop"
"...what is it now?"
"I haven't given you permission to leave yet"
Mike gave a sigh and spoke
"I am not leaving the temple yet either, I'm just going to go level up"
"...Fine, but be back in less than 10 minutes"
Mike walked off towards the reception while he was fuming, he wanted very much to drain all of Julie's blood with his [Drink] skill but now was not the time to do so, soon he arrived at a prayer room and locked the door after him before he took a deep breath and put his hand on the crystal ball, the instance he touched the crystal ball it once again lit up with a vermilion glow for a few seconds before it displayed his stats
Name: Mike
Age: 26
Level: 1
Skills: [Knife control] [Drink] [Blood body enhancement]
Experience: 10.000/ 10.000
Level up Y/N
Mike gave a rare smile and moved his finger onto the Y and clicked it, as Mike's finger landed on the Y his body shock, it felt like all the experience he had accumulated drained from his body into the crystal ball before a warm flow returned from the crystal ball into his body, the flow of warmth spread all over his body as he felt himself getting stronger by the moment until suddenly it stopped and returned to the crystal ball.
'Yep sure is addicting, now let's see if I got any new skills'
Name: Mike
Age: 26
Level: 2
Skills: [Knife control] [Drink] [Blood body enhancement] [Blood for blood]
Experience: 0/ 100.000
Mike then clicked on the new skill [Blood for blood] to see the explanation
[Blood for blood]
Type: passive
Description: all wounds and general damage taken will boost all attributes by a [Large] amount until they are healed with [Drink] or through other means
"...Neat"