6 First Blood

{Third Person POV}

A mysterious world of fantasy, home to magic, wonders, mythical beings, and many other unimaginable things. Known for its many majestic landscapes for many inhabitants to thrive in. One such landscape, a forest known for its mysterious enchanting beauty and for being a vast forest with endless trees stretching over a thousand kilometers wide and a wide range of forest inhabitants. A well-known forest in its kingdom.

Somewhere in the middle of the said giant forest, stood the most heavenly ethereal-looking being whose beauty is so incomparable that it makes the forest around this being that was known for its enchanting scenery look like the inside of a thicket of woods you can find looking from your backyard or at some park.

This small radiant beauty of bewitchment was currently standing in a forest pond and was currently in the state of nature, meaning completely exposed and uncovered. Some of the most unmistakable features of her unimaginable beauty are her breathtaking sparkling long pinkish-purple lavender hair covering most of her exposed back and skin that looked forbidden to be viewed upon by any mortal. If anyone were to stumble upon the scene, they would be convinced that they had just stumbled upon a completely different world not of their own.

With a face that would make even a goddess fuming with jealousy and insecurity. A beauty that doesn't belong in any mortal world and even transcends the heavens and through the cosmos where her beauty would possibly have a chance of belonging if not outshining even the brightest of stars.

She was currently staring at her reflection produced by the pond she was in. With a face that is perfect in every angle, not even the heavens could tell what this sublime fairy-like being was thinking at this moment.

'I swear I am not a narcissist! But even I can't help but fall for my own beauty every time I look. Goddamnit! Is this how narcissists feel?' She thought as she's taking one last glance at her reflection.

'It's just- it's still so unreal that I now look like this, a beautiful loli...' She thought while continuing to give an inconceivable look at her reflection.

But moments later, she finally looked up from her reflection with a determined face.

'Well, it's nothing I can't live with. After everything I have seen, this is nothing. I adapted to much worse shit before. Just because I look like a little girl now doesn't mean I will start crying like one because of it. I have better things to do. You work with what you got. That's how it was on the field. There were men that lost all their limbs, organs, their lives, I have even seen someone that was shot in the nuts before. They lost their little brother the hard and painful way while I got the easy way out waking up in another world with something still useful and a second chance at life.' She thought convincingly to herself with a resolute look, clenching her little fists.

'I should be grateful I was still reincarnated with a humanoid body that works and not something weird or straight-up afterlife. In fact, I shouldn't complain at all about having such a powerful and beautiful body now, especially a body that I designed after spending 3 hours. Doing so would just be an insult to my character art. A second chance at life to start anew? I'll shut up and take it. A change of gender? That's all? You can cry about it all day. I'm gonna go and see if I can still drink in this body. If I can't, I like to see who can stop me.' She internally declared with determination.

'But one thing's for sure, I'll definitely miss my little buddy. But, I had worse departures before.'

And from there on, she has accepted her new identity as Viola Hellstar… in an eccentric way.

Why is she so accepting of all of this? Mainly because she had stopped giving a shit years ago. She is more of a 'just do it' kind of person especially when her best friend James is always so pushy on many occasions. It was thanks to him that it helped her develop the habit of quickly getting over her troubles.

In this life, she will not be one to waste time moping about shit in the past. She had enough of that already. It's time to look forward, keep her eyes on the road and walk. And besides...

'Well, I mean, reincarnating as my game character who could do things I've always dreamed of… Isn't that what I always wanted?' She thought.

If she thinks about it. It's pretty much a dream come true along with getting Isekai'd. All she has to do now is simply make it work for her.

'So with that thought in mind, my next plan is to find some kind of civilization. That or some clothes. Well, civilization usually comes with clothes so...' She continues to ponder her circumstances.

'I'm not entirely sure if this world I'm in is the world of Epoch Fantasy Online. So far, I don't recognize any of my surroundings. Finding any kind of civilization would help give me clues about where I am.'

As she was pondering, her super vampiric senses picked up on something which alerted her to attention.

'This scent... smells like blood... from a living being.' She continued to sniff the air with her cute perky nose.

She was able to tell the direction of this supposedly living being she had just picked up on as she turned in that direction.

'Let's put that earlier plan on hold for now. I do need blood in a way and it's smelling pretty sweet. None of that iron-like smell it usually gives off.'

Viola was used to the smell of blood in the past so even now when the scent is a little different in an appetizing kind of way, as a vampire, she was able to tell right away from the familiar scent from afar.

She continued to sniff at the aroma for a better understanding of this new vampiric ability while getting out of the pond.

'It's amazing how much stronger a vampire's sense of smell is. The metallic rusty smell that comes with the scent of blood isn't that strong anymore but is now smelling pretty pleasant. I guess it's expected that the olfactory system is different for a vampire.' She thought.

And with that, Viola had decided her next course of action, which is to make a mad dash towards the direction of the scent.

With her bare feet on the dirt floor moving into a position ready to make a dash, her eyes and the slit-shaped eye pupils sharpened like an apex predator and focused on this new potential prey. Her body tensed up in extreme focus, causing the surroundings to become absolutely silent.

After a couple of seconds which felt like minutes, the silence was completely broken by a loud dirt explosion where Viola was, followed by a purple blur moving at an unthinkable speed away from the dirt explosion that it caused from its sudden speed.

"Whahaaa~!" Viola exclaimed in excitement and joy.

'This body is amazing! This isn't even my top speed yet I'm moving faster than any car back on Earth. I'll never get tired of running like this. It feels great. It feels free. Well, not as free as when I was jumping but still free nonetheless!' She cheered gleefully.

She had only run for about 10 seconds and it already looked like she had covered a mile from the pond she was just at earlier. Even with her running barefooted, every step she took left gouged out holes on the ground.

When she was running around earlier during her rampage, she would run straight into countless trees, completely destroying them or anything that was in her way without a hint of her speed dropping. Those three hours weren't just pointless destruction for her ecstatic pleasures. It was spent getting herself used to her new body with its insane stats and senses. Now that she's a bit more accustomed to her body, she's able to dodge any trees or obstacles in her way as she was now more used to her speed thanks to the godly reflexes and enhanced acuity of her new body albeit, she still needed to run a little slower than before, at least not in her top speed just to be a little careful.

Just very shortly afterward, the scent was already drawing much closer. She slowed down her speed to a pace that she would be able to move around without noise.

Moments later, the blood scent leads her to a view of a rabbit. But not just any rabbit, a rabbit that you would not find on Earth.

'Oh? A horned rabbit?' She thought.

The horned rabbit was slightly bigger than an average-sized rabbit on Earth. It has fluffy brown fur and a sharp 8-inch horn in the middle of its forehead. It was currently chewing on some tall grass with incisors longer than what rabbits normally had.

'It's actually a rabbit with a horn. A typical fantasy monster. I really am in a fantasy world!' She internally exclaimed.

'Fuck yes!' Viola fluttered a bit at the sight of a fantasy monster that one would only see in fantasy anime and manga. The excitement of being Isekai'd far surpassed any previous feelings of the fear of the unknown she had earlier.

She then snapped out from her thoughts and decided to go for the kill before it noticed her. As dangerous as that horn would usually look, to Viola, she senses no threat of any kind from the rabbit as if the sharp horn was something even less threatening than a tiny splinter. It's like her sharp instinct of a vampire could tell whether there's any sort of danger to her or not.

'Nothing personal, little guy. Wrong place, wrong time. Somethin' we both have in common.'

Instantly, she flickered to where the horned rabbit was and grabbed the rabbit by its neck before it could even process what just happened. By the time it realized that its life was in danger as it was suffocating and began to hopelessly struggle, Viola snapped its fragile neck with one hand, quickly ending its life. The horned rabbit went limp as it stopped struggling.

'Phew. Taking a life of a living being is nothing new to me. It's the new process doing so.'

It's her body that is still quite new to her. Its hunting method is completely different from humans.

'One thing I have noticed with this new body is how incredibly sharp its senses are. It's taking a bit to get used to, but my hearing, eyesight, and sense of smell are far sharper than my old body.'

When she focused, she could hear practically almost everything for hundreds of miles down to the last rustling of the leaves and crawling insects which were a massive contrast to her old human ears which had Tinnitus.

Her eyesight is like telescopic vision and could spot the smallest details from a great distance and she could smell the strong scent of the rich dirt and mud along with the nice minty smell of the forest and the scent of blood from living creatures from great distances better than any animal. It's how she was able to easily locate the horn rabbit.

Viola then looked at the dead horned rabbit in her hand that she was still holding by the neck. Despite it being a fresh corpse, it smelled delicious. Probably due to her being a vampire as she felt no sense of revulsion from looking at a dead animal with the intentions of feeding on it as is.

'Now how will I eat this thing? Like a human? Skin it, bleed it, cook it by a fire and chow down? No. Eat it like a vampire. I'm not passing up the chance to experience something as new as this. Besides, I need the blood. Now how do I use these things?' She was still in a good mood to care or be having any sort of trepidation.

Viola runs her tongue on her fangs that were much longer, harder, and sharper than any human teeth in preparation for using them for the first time. Something she's trying to get used to having fangs for the first time.

'Guess I'll just do it!'

With resolve, Viola bit into the rabbit and immediately her instinct of a vampire kicked in as she drained every last drop of blood through her sharp little fangs.

'Hm, not bad! It's pretty sweet. Unlike with a human tongue, there's no metallic aftertaste in the blood; actually kinda addicting. I can see why some vampires get aroused from blood. Earth's depiction of vampires is pretty accurate in some ways.' Viola thought as she's savoring the sweetness of the rabbit's life essence.

'I have hunted rabbits before so I was curious how a horned rabbit from a fantasy world would taste like on an open fire. I was also curious to know if vampires of this world can actually eat human food or not. It could also be different for me alone since this body is supposedly different from the rest. But as curious as I am about it, it's unnecessary right now.'

Viola dropped the dead rabbit on the ground and gave a contented sigh.

'That marks my first kill in this world. Speaking of kill, let's see how much Blood Essence I got from that.'

She decided to pull up her status screen to check the amount of Blood Essence she had obtained from the horned rabbit.

'Status'

She figured out that she can now pull up her status screen directly with a thought.

[Blood Essence: 2]

'Only 2 points?'

She was surprised by such a small amount. But then again, it is just a single small little rabbit. That's when she realized that this will probably take a lot longer than she thought.

'There's got to be a faster way to obtain blood. A faster yet morally right way. I'm not down with killing innocent people just for my own benefit. Besides, I'm in no rush. Apparently, this body doesn't necessarily need constant blood to survive so I don't need to go around and slaughter in a blood rage like a typical vampire. Or at least that's what I think a typical vampire would do.' She contemplated.

While deep in thought yet again, she then caught a scent that grabbed her attention. This scent stinks, but it also carries the scent of blood as well so she decided to check it out.