The process of evaluating wine had three stages: nose, palate, and finish. One used their nose to smell the aroma, their palate to taste the flavor and texture, and then finished by evaluating the lingering aftertaste. The vampires in the party hall simultaneously fell into ecstasy just from the nose stage.
“Mmm...”
“Haaa...”
“How can a wine be so...”
They blankly stared at the blood pouring into a golden wine glass, and only regained their composure once the final drop disappeared into the glass.
“Ah!”
“Ahem.”
Wang Chen approached Demens, holding the golden glass, and knelt as he brought the glass toward him, saying, “Congratulations on becoming a World Ranker.”
“Ahaha! Ahahahaha! This is the greatest gift!” Demens laughed as he accepted the glass and said, “Since you have kept your promise, I will also keep mine. What would you like as a reward?”
Finally! Wang Chen shouted inwardly as he clenched his fists, recalling the contents of the note Seong-Hwi had given him in Manaus.
One of the quickest ways to heighten one’s caliber is to become a vampire’s subordinate, or a Canis.
The higher the status of the vampire aristocrat you become a Canis of, the more your caliber will heighten. However, the Cani have a fatal weakness. Those who have overcome that weakness are known as Daywalkers.
There are two ways a Canis can become a Daywalker. One, to be bestowed the blood of the vampire who drank your blood, and two, to drink their blood by force.
Of course, the latter is much quicker.
“I wish... to become your Canis,” Wang Chen said.
“My Canis?” Demens said.
“The insolence!” shouted Viscount Motusch, standing on the sidelines as he glared ferociously at Wang Chen.
Not only had the human hid his true identity from him, but he was even trying to take all the credit for their joint effort.
He thought, He plans to take all the credit after I made this happen? I should have expected as much from the vulgar human!
“How dare you ask Lord Demens to bite your disgusting neck?!” Motusch shouted.
“He said I would be rewarded handsomely, so I simply told him what I have always wished for,” said Wang Chen, staring fixedly at Demens, the only person in the room who had the right to choose, without even glancing at Motusch.
“Gahahaha! I must admit, you are quite tenacious! The madness I can see in your eyes befits our bloodline!” Demens nodded in satisfaction.
He would have found the human insolent if he had said he wanted to become his Daywalker. Even Demens needed considerable time to think about who he turned into his Daywalkers since it meant sharing his powers with them. However, making the human into his Canis came with no such risks. The human had asked for a wish befitting his position.
“Very well. I will turn you into my Canis. I am Demens Rabies, a pure descendant of Lord Mulleus. Live in glory as my subordinate!”
Demens’s neck grew abnormally longer, and he sank his fangs deep into Wang Chen’s neck.
[Injecting the gene of the race Vampire.]
Wang Chen grunted as he gritted his teeth, and his eyes widened from the excruciating pain. He did not know, but his human genes were clashing with the vampire genes inside him. The dominant tended to devour the recessive. The vampire gene was dominant, and the human gene was recessive.
The double-helix structure of DNA changed. The hydrogen bonds connecting the nucleotides thymine and adenine, and guanine and cytosine, were undone. Wang Chen groaned as his eyes lost their light, and he was on the verge of death.
Just then, the vampire genes that resembled blood vessels spread like spiderwebs and clung to the four nucleotides. It was nothing like the fairies’ Harmony Force that embraced all, allowing them to become one. It was closer to a dominant gene keeping a recessive gene intact by force. The newly formed DNA still had a double-helix structure, but it also contained the vampire genes that clung to the nucleotides like sticky worms.
[You have become the Canis of Demens Rabies.]
[Applying Debuff: Blood Obedience.]
[Applying Debuff: Porphyria.]
Wang Chen fell into Blood Obedience, forcing him to follow Demens’s commands and live purely for his sake. He would also be taken over by vampiric tendencies for the rest of his life, forcing him to drink blood and suffer immense pain under sunlight due to the effect of Porphyria.
[Drastically heightening all stat calibers.]
“Ah!” Wang Chen shouted, receiving a reward sweet enough to make him forget about such penalties.
His caliber had heightened immensely in just a moment, equivalent to what he would have gotten by accomplishing countless feats. The door to superior caliber, which he had been pounding on for years, swung open. Such an exponential rise had only been possible because the one who had drunk his blood was one of the Seven Purebloods.
Demens returned to his original form as he spat out Wang Chen’s blood and thought, There’s no need to sully my taste buds when I’m about to drink the finest wine. Ahhh! I can’t hold back any longer!
He gulped as he stared at the red liquid sloshing in the golden glass.
He raised the glass high and shouted, “Raise your glasses!”
The aristocrats all raised their wine glasses containing the dragon blood.
Demens would have normally recited the opening remarks he had prepared to let his kin know of the direction their bloodline would be taking from here on out, but he simply shouted, “To the madness of Rabies!”
He gulped down the sweet blood inside the golden glass. The sound of gulping from every vampire echoed throughout the party hall. Seeing that, Seong-Hwi smiled even more ecstatically than a boy receiving chocolate from the girl he liked on Valentine’s Day.
***
There are numerous tools of sin, but it is a lie to believe all were applied equally.[1]
Homer
***
It did not take the vampires long to realize something was wrong.
[You are exposed to the Dragonblood Poison.]
[Coiling mana patterns.]
[Commencing mana discharge.]
“Gurghhh!”
“Argh!”
“What... the... BLEGHHH!”
The vampires in the party hall were simultaneously poisoned by the Dragonblood Poison, a potent poison that Lina had created with the dragon blood that Seong-Hwi had provided her through the Union and Black Market. Gerard, Tae-Jin, Hector, and the others who had been disguised as Blood Cross clansmen charged at the poisoned vampires.
“Now!”
“Kill them all!”
“Haaaaah!”
Hector rushed forward with both arms in a guard stance. He moved from side to side as if slithering with impressive footwork, and orange lights flashed explosively from his fists.
[Activating Skill: Straight Punch.]
...
[Straight Punch (Skill)
Rank: S(5)
Description: A straight punch instilled with the user’s full power.]
Simple is best—that was Hector’s motto. He had no other skills. While others divided their skill trees to include movement, defense, offensive, and recovery skills, Hector focused purely on this one skill. He had committed the unprecedented, insane act of promoting Straight Punch, which one could obtain from an F-rank skill cube, all the way to S-rank, but the act earned him a feat that only he had accomplished in the Mirror World.
[Activating Trait: Fatal Blow.]
...
[Fatal Blow (Trait)
Rank: B(99)
Description: The inexplicable power of a man who put his everything into his fists. The more the Straight Punch skill is used, the more powerful the skill becomes at the cost of health.
Duration: 9 minutes
Cooldown: 48 hours]
“ROUND ONE!” Hector shouted, the sound of a bell ringing in his mind that started the match.
He was a sparring partner who always took a beating. He had never been able to even call himself a boxer. He had good technique, but he didn’t have the build to become an athlete. Although he despaired at the news, he decided to become a sparring partner instead because he couldn’t bring himself to leave the ring.
Hector was beaten again and again. He never admitted that it was because of the goddamn money. Ninety-nine percent of it was for the sake of his daughter, while the remaining one percent was for his dream.
“I may have money now, but I no longer have you to buy whatever you want!” Hector screamed as he twisted his feet, torso, and arms like a work of art to generate torque.
The one-two straight was a fundamental boxing combination. A flash of orange light filled the party hall and generated a bloody storm.
“AHHHHH!” Hector shouted as he moved to his next target with his fine footwork.
The man who was forced to remain as a sparring partner had always dreamed of participating in an Olympic boxing match of three rounds, three minutes each. He would be the greatest boxer in the world for the next nine minutes.
***
Unlike Hector’s silent footwork, thunderous stomps filled the other side of the hall. Tae-Jin leaped into the air as his long black hair fluttered.
“Let’s go, Silver!” he shouted.
A grey shadow leaped directly above him. It was a western lowland gorilla with giant forearms, grey fur, a rock-hard chest, an unbefittingly round belly, and a silverback. He was Tae-Jin’s transformation D Weapon, Silver the gorilla.
[Activating Unique Skill: Beastification.]
[Silver.]
Tae-Jin and Silver combined. His entire body was covered in Silver’s thick skin, and his forearms became large enough to make up a third of his entire body.
“GRAAAAAHHH!” Tae-Jin roared as he pounded his chest like drums and fell toward the vampire aristocrats like a meteorite. The vampire he fell on had become a bloody pancake. He screamed, “DIE!!!”
He swung his giant forearms, making a waterpark of blood around him. The swaying sickly vampires poisoned by the Dragonblood Poison were no match for him.
***
“URHHH! WHERE ARE YOU?! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOOOOOUUUUU?! COME OUT, CHOI TAE-HYUN!” shouted Hee-Gyeong as she looked around with bloodshot eyes.
Unlike her teammates, she had not charged at the vampire aristocrats. Rather, she had headed toward the Blood Cross clansmen, who were confused by the sudden shift of events.
“W-what the hell?”
“Are they crazy?”
“Weren’t they special mercenaries that Boss Peter had hired?!”
[Activating Unique Skill: Cat's Cradle - Candles.]
The multicolored yarn fired from Hee-Gyeong’s hands, becoming harder than steel and piercing the Blood Cross clansmen.
“KYAAAAAHHH!” Hee-Gyeong screeched like a lunatic—no, she was a lunatic.
The goblin clan, Trophy, had attacked Edu on their last day of education, and Nam Do-Hyun had died in that attack right before her eyes. All Hee-Gyeong could do when she saw the man with a spear approaching Do-Hyun from behind was scream.
“NO! DO-HYUN!”
The long spear had mercilessly penetrated the boy’s small chest. Hee-Gyeong still remembered the wicked voice that had been sent clearly to her ears even within the loud battlefield.
“Hehe! I killed the boy, sir goblin! My name is Choi Tae-Hyun! Please remember it and consider giving me a good position in Clan Trophy!”
“CHOI TAE-HYUN! CHOI TAE-HYUN! CHOI TAE-HYUN! CHOI TAE-HYUN—!”
Even with his chest punctured, Do-Hyun had pulled on his yo-yo string with all his might to save Ye-Ji. All Hee-Gyeong could do was to embrace the dying boy as she screamed in tears. She could still feel the blood on her hand, which she had used to support his little head, and body. She could still vividly remember the light vanishing from the little boy’s eyes.
She couldn’t endure the agony without going insane. Hence, she had made a vow in front of Do-Hyun’s grave.
“I... I won’t ever forgive those fucking goblins! And the humans who helped those goblins! I’ll tear them apart!”
Revenge was Hee-Gyeong’s sole motivator. She did not have much of a presence during the mandatory quest, but now, no one in Clan One Tree was a match for her. The Choi Hee-Gyeong who owned a yarn store on Earth was long gone—all that remained was a lunatic looking for her mortal enemy.
“Fucking run, dammit! Boss Peter deceived us!”
“Yeah! He was a different person from the start!”
“We’re dead if we stay here!”
Hee-Gyeong’s head swerved toward the direction where she had heard the voice she would never forget, even in her dreams. An irresistible sense of pleasure shook her entire body.
“I FOUND YOU!”
***
While the aristocrats of the Rabies bloodline were experiencing mana discharge after drinking the Dragonblood Poison, one vampire among them was experiencing something far more confusing.
[The Holy Blood of Degradation lowers your caliber.]
“What... is this?” Demens wondered.
He immediately took action after realizing he had fallen into a trap. He extracted the blood he had ingested with a skill.
[Activating Race Skill: Blood Control.]
“Urgh!”
However, the Holy Blood of Degradation was not simply physical blood that invaded one’s body. It was the curse of Longinus that permeated throughout the target’s caliber. The Blood of Madness, the star that had been shining brightly above Blood Castle, dimmed.
[Temporarily diminishing the magnitude of Blood of Madness.]
[8.5 → 9]
“YOU BASTARD! GET RID OF THIS NOW!” Demens shouted as he glared at Wang Chen.
His Canis, who had grown fangs and red eyes, cackled as he replied, “Kekekek! I don’t know what you’re talking about, Master. That is the work of the Devil.”
“The Devil?”
Just then, a man with black hair and eyes walked along the red carpet. He smiled mockingly and said, “Didn’t you learn from your mom that you shouldn’t eat things that strangers give you?”
Demens growled like a wounded beast and shouted, “Are you behind this? Who are you?! How did you lower my caliber?!”
Seong-Hwi stopped as he rested the Spear of Longinus on his shoulder. The time had finally come to join the true competition.
“I am Cheon Seong-Hwi, number one in the human ranking. And from today... the ninety-eighth World Ranker.”
1. Another translated quote that I couldn’t find the original of... Man, it’s been difficult looking for these lately. ☜
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