ALL NOVEL Chapter 8: Outer Sect Disciple Entrance Exam
With 32 of my nexus points filled, I felt moderately more prepared for this competition than before. I loved how on my first day of vampire school, I already had people plotting my death. This was a very common experience in my life.
Everywhere I went, I made enemies by just trying to live my life and defend myself and my property. Normally I would assume that I was the problem since it happened so much, but I just couldn't see anything I was actually doing wrong.
I was actually very lucky to have made a friend or at least an ally in Victoria. That said, even she had wanted to do me harm originally. Well, that's what I assumed when she extracted some of my life essence. It's possible that was all she wanted.
Before my thoughts went any further down a rabbit hole, someone let me out of the jail cell and led me to a large arena in the middle of a courtyard. The arena was massive. It must have had at least a 100 meter radius, making it 200 meters wide.
There were already hundreds of combatants in the arena. The person who was guiding me threw me into the ring. I rolled onto my feet and looked around. With hundreds of other combatants, if they ganged up on me, I would be doomed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to witness this month's Outer Sect Disciple entrance exam. The competition is a free-for-all battle among the contestants. Only the top 20 finishers will become outer sect disciples. The last person standing in the ring will receive an extra special boon," an announcer on a platform said. "Now begin!"
Everyone started fighting each other at once. While I liked stealing life essence and getting stronger, I was in no hurry to fight multiple people at the same time. I stood in place and waited for someone to come up to me.
My first opponent was a short blonde girl. She threw a lightning fast kick at my head that I was only able to dodge because adrenaline kicked in and time slowed down for me. Even with time slowed down, it was difficult to dodge.
I poked my finger into her calf and started draining her life essence.
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 5 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 6 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
She pulled her leg back, ripping my finger out of her leg, and hissed at me. "What did you just do?" She said.
"I extracted your life essence. What of it?" I said.
"Oh, is that all?" She said sarcastically. She threw a flurry of punches at me, but I blocked them all with my hands. She was a lot slower than she had been before.
I caught one of her fists, threw her over my shoulder and slammed her to the ground. I then put my finger in her mouth, in between her cheek and her teeth. The system only said part of me had to be inside of the other person. It didn't say where. I drained more of her life essence.
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 8 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 9 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 10 of the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
She tried to bite my finger, but I just pulled at her cheek so she couldn't do it. I pulled my finger out of her mouth and grabbed her by the waist. I lifted her over my head and hurled her out of the ring. She landed gracelessly on her stomach and rolled on the ground.
Now that she was out of the ring, she was out of the competition. I didn't have to worry about her anymore. I set my sights on my next victim. I mean, opponent. I set my sights on my next opponent.
There was a burly man being ganged up on by several smaller vampires. The man must have been at least 2 meters tall. And buff. Knowing that no one would target me with their attention on him, I ran up and jabbed my pinky into his side and began draining.
[… Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Seasoned Vampire Journeyman Realm!]
He swatted me aside after I had drained four levels from him. I landed on my feet and ran back to the fight, but this time I targeted the runts that were fighting him. I jabbed a finger in two of the smaller vampires and drained.
[… Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Budding Vampire Expert Realm!]
I did the same to two more and two more and two more. I broke through the Specialist and Versatile Vampire Expert realms, and then to the Accomplished Vampire realm, and then to the Junior and Senior Vampire Elite realms.
Ok, now I was really starting to make progress. I didn't know what realm the strongest vampire here was, but if I kept this up, I was sure to be the strongest soon.
The smaller vampires eventually turned on me, but with a few well placed punches, kicks, and throws, I knocked them all out of the arena. Then I grabbed the burly one by the foot and hurled him out of the ring too.
By now, there were only about a hundred vampires left in the ring. With our enhanced speed and strength, the fight had gone faster than I expected. I scanned the remaining vampires until I found what I was looking for.
The strongest vampire here. He had his hands behind his back and was kicking his opponents out of the ring one by one. He was surrounded by vampires, all trying to knock him out or outright kill him. I couldn't tell.
His long, light brown hair flowed gracefully as he moved. His charming eyes and smile were magnetic. I could just stare into his eyes for hours.
[You are succumbing to a vampire charm technique. Snap out of it]
I shook my head. Oh shit! Yeah, that was dangerous. Now that I looked more closely, I realized he wasn't moving that fast, his opponents were just moving slowly, as if in a daze.
I decided the only way to keep from getting charmed here would be to close my eyes. I probably wouldn't be able to fight well with my eyes closed, so maybe I would just look at his feet instead. It seemed like the charm effect started when I looked at his face.
I sat down to wait until he had finished off his opponents and he and I were the only contestants left. I closed my eyes and began meditating to form more layers of my lifeblood crystal and protect the realms I had recently gained.
Now that I had a decent amount of practice, layers went on faster, but it still took about 5 minutes per realm. Luckily, the fight between the charming man and his hundred opponents was taking a while.