Chapter 60: Vampire
As Maria felled another monster, her EXP shot up and she had once more leveled up.
[Level Up! Lv.38 → Lv.39! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Your pet [Lilah] has leveled up! Lv. 48 → Lv. 49]
Still, in its second form, Maria's demonic scythe was pulsating darkly as if it was screaming that it still wasn't satisfied. It trembled in her hands and when Maria finally took notice of the oddity, she merely waved her scythe around wondering what was up.
The trembling only intensified as the Calamity was only swung around. Maria took a look at the blade and saw that it was pulsating oddly so she knocked on it. This only caused the weapon to tremble even more fiercely which only caused Maria's frown to deepen, she took a swung at it with her fist, and the weapon immediately ceased its odd movements.
"Hmph, weird," Maria shrugged and shouldered her scythe as she once again started looking for more monsters.
Being so immersed in fighting, Maria took a look at her surroundings and noticed that she was no longer in her previous location.
"When did I enter a dark forest?"
The trees all around her were of dirty gray colored and some were even black as if they were scorched by flames. The atmosphere was also a little ominous, but Maria had already gotten used to the ominous and gloomy atmosphere of the Dark God's Temple so this was nothing.
Specters and Ghosts began popping up and they were around level 55-65. Seeing these high-level monsters only brought a smile to Maria's face and she immediately moved ahead to engage them.
As she moved deeper and deeper into the forest, the lighting and the atmosphere only grew darker and darker, until eventually the sun was obscured from view and it was like night had descended. She had night vision so the absence of any light sources didn't bother Maria too much.
"Master, should we keep going?" Lilah asked.
"Hm? Yeah, let's keep going, the monsters here are just the right level and I feel pretty comfortable fighting here~"
Maria didn't notice this, but her Taint value was increasing in value much higher than normal and her new pair of wings that were once white had turned gray. It wouldn't be long until they completely turned black like her other pair.
During her time inside this dark forest, the Calamity kept on trembling and Maria felt like the thing would fly out of her hands if this continued. She was only able to stop it from acting up after smashing it with her fist and on a few trees.
"Jeez, this thing is becoming so troublesome!"
While Maria was busy dealing with her weapon which was somehow acting odd, she tripped over something and fell hard onto the ground face first.
"OW!"
Maria sat up with tears in her eyes, her face hurt.
"What the hell just tripped me?!"
She immediately turned around and her breath caught into her throat. The thing that had tripped her was an unconscious person.
The person was currently leaning on a dark tree with his eyes clothes seemingly unmoving. Maria couldn't tell whether the person was dead or alive, the person had silky black hair that reached to their waist and they had a very beautiful face and if Maria wasn't mistaken, it had a little bit of masculinity in it, so this person was probably a male...probably.
The 'man' was honestly too beautiful and Maria couldn't help but be entranced when she looked at the beautiful person. He seemed to be asleep since he looked like he was breathing, but his face and skin was awfully pale like it was devoid of all blood.
Maria was a little curious so she poked the man's face with her finger and felt that his body temperature was awfully cold. Seeing no reaction coming from the beautiful man, Maria continued to poke at him curiously with her finger.
"M-Master, are you sure that's appropriate? He's sleeping and I don't think we should bother him."
"Hihihi~ no worries Lilah~"
Maria continued poking him and even tried to call out to the man.
"Hey~ hey~"
After a bit, she found a subtle reaction coming from the sleeping man. Maria continued poking and calling out to him and suddenly, the man's eyes snapped open.
"..."
"...Morning?"
"..."
The man continued to silently stare back at Maria and this caused her blush. Her finger was still touching the man's cheek and being under his silent gaze, Maria lost the chance to retract her finger as she just froze there, crouched down on the ground beside the man.
"You..."
"Ah, yesh?!"
"..."
Maria's response to the man's beautiful and elegant voice came out a little wrong since she bit her tongue. She was about to back away in embarrassment, but suddenly, the pale young man pulled her into his embrace.
"EHHHH??!!"
Maria let out a startled voice, but she was a little puzzled at this man's abrupt actions. He suddenly hugged some stranger he suddenly met and Maria could feel his hands wandering around her body.
She wasn't used to being touched so intimately by a man so she froze up in response. The pale young man suddenly bit her ear and this caused her to flinch before she heard him whisper something into his ear.
"Thank you for the meal."
"Huh?"
Maria suddenly felt a prickling pain on her neck. When she turned her head to the side, she saw that the young man had bit down onto her neck and it looked like he was drinking something.
"Ah, wait... you're drinking my blood! Ahahaha~"
"Master...I don't think this is a laughing matter," Lilah said in exasperation when she saw that all her master did was to continue laughing even though she was suddenly being attacked.
"Ahahah—YOU'RE A VAMPIRE!!!"
The man ignored Maria's scream and continued to suck out her blood. It was then that Maria finally noticed that her HP bar was slowly trickling down. There wasn't any status effect, but when she tried to push the man away, she found that he had firmly wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace so she found it hard to pry her way out.
Maria kept her eyes on her HP bar and waited for the young man to finish.
"Hey~ are you done yet?" Maria asked when she grew bored just sitting there in the young man's embrace for about 10 minutes. She had been worried at first that this man was going to suck until her HP bar ran dry, but she quickly noticed that even as her HP was falling, she wasn't put into a combat status so her natural recovery supplemented her HP loss.
At this rate, her HP wouldn't even fall from full so since it was like this, Maria decided to wait, but it was honestly taking way too long so she grew bored and annoyed.
The young man was shocked to hear her voice and he couldn't help but stop. Seeing that he was finished, Maria rubbed her neck in annoyance. It wasn't pleasant having one's blood sucked away by a vampire. She's read a lot of romance s of humans and vampires. There were even some that described a vampire's bloodsucking to be a wondrous and enjoyable thing to a woman, at least, that was until she died from having all her blood sucked out, but when it happened to Maria, she felt nothing but the lingering discomfort from having her neck bitten.
Lilah had also pointed out that the place where the young man had bitten was red. This unknown man had just given her a hickey and Maria couldn't help but blush furiously at this.
"Y-You... aren't affected?"
When she heard the man's words, Maria glared at him and said, "Hey! Don't you owe me an apology and a thank you?!"
"Eh?"
"Also, how long are you going to hold me like this? It's really cold!"
"O-Oh?"
The vampire released his hold on Maria and could only stare back at the girl in amazement. Instead of freaking out and attacking him, as a normal creature would, the young girl had instead let him suck her blood for a while before she grew annoyed.
"Well? Where's my thank you?"
"U-Uhm...Thank you?"
"Thank you?" Maria replied with a raised brow.
The man saw her unsatisfied expression and gave Maria a once over before finishing, "Thank you, Little Miss?"
"Hmph, at least you know how to show some gratitude! Now, where's my apology?!"
The apology for sexually harassing her since even while the young man was sucking her blood, his hands were constantly wandering around her body, feeling her up. It was embarrassing at first, but after a while, all Maria felt was the odd sensation of having a stone-cold brick move up and down her body.
"Feeling me up...that's sexual harassment y' know? And it was unpleasant! Like some cold brick was moving up and down my body! If you were going to harass me, do a better job at it! At least make me go 'kyaa' or something! Even the harassed has feelings!"
"..." The young man's face immediately went dark, he somehow felt that his pride as a man had suddenly been attacked and taken a large hit.
"Tsk, nevermind. So tell me, why were you collapsed out here?"
Maria had long since noticed that the vampire in front of her wasn't a player but an NPC. There was no player indicator above the man's head and even his name was obscured under question marks.
"I...what was I—" The man looked to be a little at a loss before it seemed that something had suddenly clicked in his brain.
"That's right! That goddamned bastard! Where is that prick! He sealed me here! He stole everything from me!"
"Hm?"
Seeing the man roar out in hysteria, Maria scratched her head in confusion.
"Jeez, not only is he weird, he's insane!"
The vampire suddenly locked his gaze onto Maria, but she noticed that his eyes were a little different. He was staring at her dangerously with a red glow in his eyes. Seeing the hostility in his gaze, Maria immediately grew incensed.
She had just allowed him to suck up to her blood for a meal and he didn't even thank her until after she demanded him to do so. There was also the account of his sexual harassment so she should be the one that was hostile, not the other way around!
Since the man was an NPC, Maria was hoping that she'd be able to get a quest from him or something, but all she got in return was his hostility.
Maria marched up towards the vampire, flew up, and swung her fist down on his head, smashing him face-first into the ground.
"GAH!"
"So...this is how you're going to repay me? Hahaha, it looks like I'm gonna have to teach you some manners!" Maria said menacingly as she reached out with her hand. Her Calamity flew into her hand and she immediately moved to slice down at the vampire.
"W-wait!"
"Hm?"
"L-Little Miss, please forgive me!"
"Huh?"
"I was not in my right mind just now, so please forgive my offense and lower the Death God's Calamity!"
"Too late, this is also payback for you sexually harassing me~"
With those words, Maria swung her scythe down onto the vampire's beautiful face.