8. The cursed craving: New skills

Dexter woke up to the smell of something delicious, something extraordinarily delicious. His heart was beating fast and as he blinked, the world became red.

'That sweet scent, where's it coming from?' Dexter pinpointed the location and saw Rina sleeping not so far away from him, her neck glowed bright red.

'What the hell is happening?' Dexter slowly began to move towards where the scent was coming from.

He stopped as he looked his hands. His entire being was telling him to bite the girl in front of him but he didn't want to.

'My body, it hurts.' He gritted his teeth so hard as he forced himself to turn around.

'It's like gravity is pulling me towards her.' Dexter strained all his muscles as he crawled slowly to his bag.

'Need blood. Need blood.' His eyes began flashing a red light over and over as he struggled to stay in control of his body.

He soon reached his hand for his bag and immediately brought a bottle of red blood.

He immediately put it in his mouth as he began to gulp it down greedily.

He drank.

He finished the contents in the bottle.

He brought another one and drank, and he wasn't satisfied until he finished that one too.

Dexter panted hard as he looked around. The bottle slipped from his hand and hit the ground, making a low noise.

He looked outside to see it raining heavily and loudly and he slumped back on the floor.

'That was more than what I expected. It was as if my head was about to explode.' He thought as he began to catch his breath.

He was warned by the system that he would have to fight for his humanity and sanity but he didn't expect that it would be like this.

It was difficult.

As he gasped, his whole body ached as he fought back to gain control and now he was exhausted.

He closed his eyes as he was very tired and he felt like sleeping.

Opening his eyes again, he saw golden words floating in front of him, but he didn't sit up as he couldn't even move.

[Vampire hidden task completed: Drink 5 litres of blood to unlock basic skills.]

[New skills:

- Basic compulsion {upgradeable} (Active): Look into a creature's eyes and command them to do your bidding. Creature must not be more than two levels above you.

- Superhuman strength (passive): You now have the strength of 50 average humans. +20 strength.

- Superhuman speed - You can now run faster than a high speed train. +40 agility.

- Superhuman Stamina - Vampires can run for miles without rest or even a break. +50 Stamina

- Superhuman durability - You can now withstand damage done to the body. +50 strength +20 mind, increased resistance to pain.

- Superhuman senses (passive) - All the five senses have been enhanced. +60 mind.

- Basic Healing factor {Upgradeable}(passive): You can now heal wounds on the external body. Any wounds that are internal will take a long time to heal.

- Immortality: Whether to take it as a curse, or a blessing, is up to you. You are now invincible to any attack except fire based, the sun rays, and natural objects .e.g. wooden objects, etc.

- Scaling walls: You can now scale walls like a spider no matter how steep the surface is.

(Tap on upgradeable skills to see upgrade requirements), the rest of the skills improve as you improve.]

'Damn.' Dexter couldn't help but think.

'Wow, how can everything be even clearer than it was?' Dexter thought in amazement as he looked around, blinking rapidly.

He could hear every raindrop outside, how they clashed with the floor, making splashing sounds.

'Oh. It's only when I focus that I'll be able to hear.' He thought as he closed his eyes and visualized all the rain droplets as the sounds played in his ears like music.

Despite the fact that he has new skills now, he couldn't help but think about the cost.

'Am I going to feel the same bloodlust every night? Or is it if I starve?' He couldn't help but think.

'I think starvation is the main thing.' He yawned.

He was excited to test out his new skills but it was cold outside and it was raining heavily so he couldn't do it.

He was indeed feeling stronger as he looked at his hands while forming a fist.

[Your worldwide ranking has increased. 70,000 >> 67,890]

'Huh? I'm very sure that I was among top 60 thousand.' He furrowed his brows but then he nodded in understanding. 'Yeah. People are constantly doing things so it's normal that the rankings change frequently.'

'For some reason I don't feel sleepy at all.' Dexter stood up slowly and then he got down in a press-up pose and began to go up and down.

One...

Two...

Three...

...

Thirty...

'This is great! I'm not feeling tired at all.' He thought as he continued.

Seventy...

Hundred...

'I think I'll stop now. Damn.' He checked out his biceps with a smile.

Throughout the night Dexter did exercises, trying to find out his limits but he couldn't find out currently.

...

Morning reached and it had already stopped raining. The sun wasn't out yet, showing how early it was.

"Ahhhhh...!"

Dexter woke up to the loud sounds of screaming and he immediately sprung up as he looked around to see Rina screaming while rolling on the floor.

Dexter looked around to see Leo and Zain wearing mufflers and they were doing regular stuffs.

Leo was swinging his silver sword around while Zain was reading another book.

'Where did Zain even get those glasses?'

Dexter rushed to wake Rina as she was too loud and he felt dizzy from the screams.

Rina, feeling a cold hand on her skin opened her eyes while panting heavily. She looked back to see Dexter behind her and she smiled.

"I was loud right?"

Dexter just nodded.

"A nightmare?" He asked as he helped her sit up.

"Yes." She nodded as she wiped her sleepy eyes. "I have them every night."

Dexter waved at Zain and the muscular young man looked up and removed his mufflers.

"Good morning to you too." The dude grinned.

"What's going on with her?" Dexter asked him but Rina didn't even let Zain talk.

"It's just been happening for a few weeks now. Nothing to worry about."

'You were rolling all over the place while screaming and you tell me not to worry?' Dexter furrowed his brows.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

Before Rina could reply a voice cut in.

"You can talk about it later, zombies are likely to be here any moment because of her screams." Leo said, not even looking at Dexter as he walked out of the station.