Before the Ceremony (1)

[8 Years Later]

Somewhere in a forest, a boy who resembled a 13-year-old is currently facing a pack of wolves.

The boy had long silver-white hair that complemented his bright crimson eyes. His beautiful face looked chiseled to perfection. He was 1.5 meters in height, and his current body build looked like an athlete's body. He was currently wearing black clothing underneath some leather armor.

This boy was no other than Zoltan. 8 years have passed by and he's now 10. It was the day before the awakening ceremony that every child had to take when they turn 10 years old.

Although they call it the awakening ceremony, it's more so to test the child's talent, affinities, and aptitude for weapons & professions.

This was done for many reasons such as giving resources to those deserving, choosing heirs, and so forth. The biggest reason is for experts who are looking for an apprentice could find rare talents.

This year's awakening ceremony for the vampires was different. Many noble families' children turned 10 this year, so the ceremony was going to be overseen by the Vampire Empress.

This made many excited as they hoped they could see their Empress in person, especially among the proud nobles.

Anyway, right now Zoltan was currently in the forest facing some monsters that resembled wolves. Among the wolves, a few had different color furs, some had horns, others were big or small, and so forth.

Over the years, Zoltan was in seclusion training. The only visitor he had was his mother, Aria.

He finished his academic studies, survival training, and other essential things one should know.

Zoltan decided to master a weapon, which was the scythe. To him, when he saw Aria using basic techniques with it, she looked elegant. He was inspired to use the scythe while learning the basics of the most common weapons.

He also trained some of his magic affinities, gaining new skills when he leveled them up.

It was only a few weeks ago that he convinced Aria to let him train in the forest, outside the kingdom. There were a few reasons why he wanted to do so.

The first was that he could gain experience not only in battle but killing as well. In his last life, he's never hurt or killed anything, with the exception of insects. He knows that this world isn't forgiving and the strong prey on the weak.

The second was that he wanted to level up. To gain EXP, he had to kill living things, have sex, and complete items like blacksmithing, enchanting, alchemy, painting, and so forth. He couldn't have sex because he was too young, and when it came to completing items, it was very time-consuming.

Zoltan managed to reach level 1 to level 14 in the span of 3 weeks.

Using the scythe and fast movements, he swiftly took care of the Dire Wolves, slicing their heads off clean from their bodies.

⏤

[You've killed x5 Demonic Dire Wolves]

[You've gained 5,000 EXP!]

⏤

'Phew' Zoltan sighed and put his scythe on his back. He walked over to the headless corpses and stored them in his shadow using [Dark Magic]. The skill was called [Shadow Storage].

⏤

[(Active) Shadow Storage: Can store anything in the user's shadow. If the object is living, it must be unconscious or willing]

⏤

'This is really convenient' Zoltan thought. Of course, there were items that abled him to store things, just like his [Shadow Storage] skill, but that has a limit whereas his skill does not.

This sounds like a broken skill, but if for some reason he doesn't have a shadow, he can't access his storage. There were thousands upon thousands of magic spells out there, and there was surely at least 1 of them who could counter shadow users.

Anyway, after Zoltan finished storing the corpses, he headed back to the Vampire kingdom and made his way to a trustworthy merchant store.

Zoltan didn't really need to do this because his family is a duke class and was pretty wealthy. But, Zoltan didn't want to use any of the family savings when he was able to earn it for himself.

What Zoltan learned during his training was that the world he was currently living in was a dimension that the Vampire Empress made. She did this to make a habitable place for her subjects to live.

So, being away from the actual world, they still used the world's currency as they could freely enter and exit the dimension to trade with the world's countries.

The currency was copper (c), silver(s), gold(g), and platinum(p) coins.

50 Copper coins = 1 Silver coin

100 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin

1,000 Gold coins = 1 Platinum coin.

Zoltan earned a total of 10 silver coins but spent 8 of them on leather armor and a scythe, leaving him only 2 silver coins.

All he hunted were the dire wolves, and if they were in good condition they could sell for 15 copper coins each. If they had monster cores, they could sell for a silver coin but they were rare.

Unfortunately for Zoltan, none of them had monster cores, so this trip earned him 1 silver coin and 25 copper coins. Zoltan now had 3s and 25c.

...

(A/N: Every time Zoltan counts up his total savings, I will use the initial of each type of coin so it's less wordy. C= Copper, S=Silver, G=Gold, and P=Platinum).

...

He wanted to earn as much money as possible because he spoke with his mother about not going to the academy. He's already learned a lot from Aria, so going to the academy would be a waste of time he thought.

Aria asked if he had any plans for when he turns 15 since turning 15 meant that you're legally an adult. If he attended the academy, he would've graduated at 18.

So, Zoltan told her his plan, and that was to be an Adventurer. Just like every protagonist in the light novels, he also wanted to experience the cliché plot of being an adventurer.

Starting out as an F rank, meeting the beautiful receptionist, and later completing the famous horned rabbit or obtaining herbs quest was every isekai-enthusiast dream. Well, at least for Zoltan it was.

Aria wasn't opposed to it as she had friends who were adventurers. When she heard this, she reached out to her friends as their children are a D-Class party that could help Zoltan when he starts.

He'll meet them once he turns 13. Zoltan was sure that he'll look like a 16-year-old so there'll be no issues signing up as an adventurer. Though, what Zoltan didn't know is that joining that party will be a blessing in more ways than one.

....

Zoltan had finished his selling his corpses and arrived at his home. He was greeted by the guards and entered the mansion.

Zoltan planned to take a bath first since he was currently dirty from the fighting. He went upstairs to his own room that he got when he turned 7, though he occasionally sleeps with Aria.

After the bath, he put on some comfortable clothes and went to Aria's office before dinner. As of late, she was really busy because of the preparations for the awakening ceremony.

Zoltan entered his mother's office and saw Aria sorting through paperwork and her personal maid, Myra, attending to her.

Myra is a beautiful maid that has long black hair that was tied up in a bun. She has brown eyes and an expressionless face. Myra gave off a mature woman vibe with her aloof attitude, along with her very developed body.

Zoltan walked up and smiled at Myra, for which he received a nod. He then glances at Aria and said in a soft tone "Good evening, Mother"