Azure_Fog Warning: This chapter contains a bit of self harm. If you wish to avoid it, please skip after seeing a “” barrier until you see a “” barrier. TO BE CLEAR I DO NOT ENDORSE SELF HARM. If you are thinking of doing so, please get help. Talk with someone you trust. (Sidenote: It’s like two sentences… but better safe than sorry)

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a consistent release time, sorry :(

Chapter 4 — Exploration of Abilities

 

In order to avoid the Adventurers’ guild, I’ve decided to go and test out my abilities. Although, I suppose it will cause a bit of a commotion when I eventually return…

 

For now, I’ll wait for nightfall. I haven’t tried much of this world’s cuisine, so let’s go try a restaurant. Hmm… which place should I choose? All of these look basically the same as the inn. Maybe I need to go to a different part of town?

 

After wandering around for a while, I reached a gate.

 

“Halt! Who goes there?”

 

“Ah… It’s just me. I’m exploring the town.”

“Turn back! This is a restricted area!”

 

“Alright, alright. May I ask why the area is restricted?”

 

This guard doesn’t look like your run of the mill guard. His armor is too fancy.

 

“That’s classified. Now move it, or I’ll be forced to arrest you under presumption of cultist activities.”

 

A cult? That doesn’t sound good. I’m leaving. Goodbye Guard-san.

 

 

After searching nearly all of town I finally arrived in a higher class district. I think I can see the lord’s manor from here. Come to think of it, who rules this place? Where am I? I’ll have to ask someone later.

 

It’s almost dark and I just found an interesting place. Let’s hope it’s open.

 

…

 

It’s closed. Great. I’ll come back tomorrow. Wait, what’s that? Some hooded guy is running off. Screw vampire practice, let’s follow them!

 

They seem to be really intent on losing me, taking way too many turns and back alleys. In reaction to this, I fall back. Running along roofs is more fun anyways. 

 

They finally stopped running and entered a building. I heard the sound of around eight locks clicking. Looks like someone is paranoid. Well then, time for vampire practice.

 

 

I snuck out of Falu once again, and I’m back in the forest. Activate vampire transformation!

 

As a warmup, I ran around the forest 20 times, then flew in circles for around an hour. I need to get used to having wings after all.

 

I then shot some blood out of my arms. Based on the owlbear encounter, I think it would be best to work on using blood threads. I’ll try to make a net that can pick up a wolf corpse, without dicing it. It’s a good thing I got a lot of wolves from my warmup.

 

And I sliced it. This is going to be harder than I thought. Maybe I should use some hand motions to assist. That way, I can physically move my hands more lightly. Also, I’ll put less effort into maintaining the strings.

 

Trying my new method, the wolf slowly lifts off the ground. I did it!

 

Or not, as a few seconds later it fell through the net. It seems I was careless. I think I’ll just repeat this drill until I can hold it consistently, then try with some living ones.

 

After slicing up around 12 corpses, I finally think I can have the control to lift a living wolf. I’ll repeat my exercises from the warmup in order to find another wolf. A few must have crossed paths with my ridiculous warmup routine. 

 

As the time approached midnight, I found a small pack of wolves. I drew some blood and created a net. Then, I lifted the wolves up. They were very surprised.

 

One minute…

 

Two minutes…

 

Five minutes…

 

I think that’s long enough. The wolves have been hanging in the net without a scratch for 5 minutes. Well, I have no reason to let them live so time to kill them. The net collapses in on itself, shooting blood and wolf parts all over. Maybe I overdid it a bit.

 

I’ve got five hours left so onto the next order of business. I had already read over the “Enchanting for Idiots” book that I had purchased, so it is time to try it.

 

Oh wait, I forgot to bring a change of clothes… I’ll just make a dress out of blood. It feels a bit weird but it’s better than being naked.

 

Alright then, I place my four main articles of clothing and combat boots onto the ground, separate from each other. Then, I pulled out a table I bought from my item back. Did I mention I have claws? Well, I do. Using them, I slashed out a circle with a four pointed star in it. 

 

If it were a compass, the north would hold a liquid, something like blood or holy water or something like that. Then the remaining three were for physical products, like metal or monster parts.

 

I’ll start with the easy bit. I pulled out some lumps of mithril from my item bag and placed them in the east and west slots of the enchanting table. (A/N: Hm I wonder where that’s from)

 

The nice thing about having to use “monster” parts is that I am a vampire. Vampires are considered monsters. Thus, for the blood component, I added some of my blood.

Then for the final solid piece, I ripped out a large portion of my flesh. I have a natural regeneration ability so I recovered within a matter of seconds. It was still really painful. Not recommended.

 

(A/N: Already stated but I DO NOT ENDORSE SELF HARM)

Then I chanted, “Enchant!” What? Were you expecting a long chant? Chanting is dumb.

 

As soon as I spoke, the blood flew out of the container I had put it in. It rose above the cloak which I had placed in the center, then formed threads that connected it to the two chunks of mithril and the chunk of my flesh. The two chunks of mithril turned to dust and began to form a tornado around the ball of blood now in the center as the flesh burned up and turned to ash, only to join the tornado. 

 

Finally, the blood formed a spike and the tornado absorbed into it, before crashing down on the poor cloak below. It was completely unharmed of course, but it looked like it would have ripped a giant hole into the cloth.

 

That was rather dramatic. Well, how do I see how good the enchantment is?

 

*ping*

 

… ENTITY is a deus ex machina.

 

I see you found enchanting! Well then, time to explain how enchantments work! Basically, they are things that enhance items. There are 10 ranks, but normal humans can only achieve up to 6. Some court magicians can get a level 10 though. Anyways, I’ll give you a new use for the status menu! See the newly added compendium, and to go with it, an appraisal skill! Have fun~!

 

(PS: Only the things you have appraised will appear in the compendium. This includes people. Bye~)

 

Well then, I concentrate my will and think “Appraisal.” A little menu pops up.

 

Item: Basic Cloak (Enchanted)

Durability Score: B+

Enchantments: 

- Physical Resistance X (+55%)

- Magical Resistance X (+55%)

Abilities: None

Description: A basic cloak made of black silk and embroidered with gold.

 

Seems useful… but what do enchantments do? I tried envisioning myself clicking on one.

 

Enchantment: Physical Resistance

Decreases damage taken from physical attacks by approximately 5L + 5%. Reduced damage does not mean immunity. Only applies to covered area.

 

Enchantment: Magical Resistance

Decreases damage taken from magic attacks by approximately 5L + 5%. Reduced damage does not mean immunity. Only applies to covered area.

 

Interesting. Wait, I can use appraisal on myself right?

 

Person: Ei (Vampire, 0y)

Condition: Good

Status Ailments: None

Noteworthy Abilities*: Bloodsucking, Sunlight Immunity, Magical Prodigy, Glaive Master, Swords

 

*Noteworthy abilities are only noteworthy and may or may not be accurate of an individual’s abilities.

 

Not quite as I was expecting but still seems useful. I think I’ll enchant my boots next. I placed them onto the table with the mithril and blood, however, instead of part of my arm to get the last component I used my wing. Hopefully my boots will make me faster then.

 

The animation was practically the same as last time. Let’s take a look.

 

Item: ENTITY Combat Boots (Enchanted)

Durability Score: S+

Enchantments: 

- Movement Speed X (+100%)

- Dodge X (Strong Assist)

Abilities: Soulbound: Cannot be used by other individuals.

Description: A pair of leather combat boots created by ENTITY.

 

Nice. I can move twice as fast now. And it seems that the boots can help me dodge. But why would I need that? I’ll dodge it myself. God gamers don’t get hit. (A/N: I should probably stop with this joke)

 

Time to finish the rest.

 

Item: Silk Tunic (Enchanted)

Durability Score: B+

Enchantments: 

- Knockback Resistance X (-20yd)

- All Resistance X (+25%)

Abilities: None

Description: A silk tunic dyed cyan.

 

Item: Silk Leggings (Enchanted)

Durability Score: B+

Enchantments: 

- All Resistance X (+25%)

- Swimming Speed X (+100%)

Abilities: None

Description: A pair of silk leggings dyed cyan.

 

Item: Plated Skirt (Enchanted)

Durability Score: A

Enchantments: 

- All Resistance X (+25%)

- Deflection X (100%)

Abilities: None

Description: A skirt made of leather with iron plates weaved in.

 

These enchants seem pretty useful. Although, how would I get something to deflect off my skirt? I guess it doesn’t matter too much.

 

 

 

I ran around for an hour or so getting used to the speed increase. Suddenly moving twice as fast is hard to get used to. Well, at least it only happens when I try to go fast. Still, I neglected my weapon. I had better do that first.

After setting up the first three slots as normal, I decided to do something special for the flesh component. I braced myself then…

 

“Aaaaaaahhhh!!”

 

I sliced two of my claws with my other claws. Not recommended, but this should make some high quality enchantments.

 

(A/N: Already stated but I DO NOT ENDORSE SELF HARM)

The same animation played out. Or so I thought, but the spike of blood that would stab into the item didn’t. Instead, it split apart into five streams and formed a crystal that embedded itself into the blade. 

 

It’s got a nice red color and almost seems fluid still. I have a good feeling about this.

 

Item (Artifact): [Vampiric Mithril-Adamantine Glaive] (Enchanted)

Durability Score: S+

Enchantments: 

- Sharpness X (+500%)

- Mana Slicing X

- Dark Conversion X (25%, +50%)

Abilities: Soulbound: Cannot be used by other individuals. | Magic Affinity: Gains an additional enchantment. | Blood Empowerment: Once infused with blood, increases damage by up to 200%. | Lifesteal: Blood on this weapon is absorbed and used to heal the user.

Description: A silver glaive with a red crystal in it. The crystal almost seems alive. It is said to have once belonged to an Arch Vampire.

 

That is… more than anticipated. It seems I picked up a dormant relic. Well the enchants are good. A sharper blade is nice, cutting mana seems broken, and converting 25% of the damage dealt to dark damage with a 50% bonus which is bonkers. Not to mention the abilities. I think this will come in very handy. Poor shopkeeper though, selling me this for only 10 gold coins. 

 

I’ll test it out tomorrow, the innkeeper is going to be suspicious if I keep returning in the early morning.

 

Azure_Fog The names of items and stuff used to be underlined but it got removed once I pasted my chapter here from Google Docs D: Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I’m slowly adding in some more typical RPG skills but don’t expect a full on level system. They don’t exist. HP doesn’t either, as every part of your body would have its own and has lots of connections. Too much info.

Also, I (forced) an AI to make some cover art. I did some basic editing though! Do you like it? (If it gets approved at least)

Spoiler [collapse]

Also, long chapters are nice, aren’t they?

Please leave feedback, any misspellings/typos, and impressions in the comments :)