Chapter 3. A vampire

As Evan appeared stupefied at Yuri's decision to lend Gray the Black March, the Jahad Princess turned from Headon to Gray. "Hey, new boy. Your name was Gray, right?"

"Uh, yes. I have no surname," Gray replied, feeling secretly relieved.

"Alright. Gray! Wanna go up the Tower? Or go back?"

"I want to take the test," Gray replied without hesitation.

Yuri leaned in closer to his face and said, "You might die, you know? Why do you want to go up so much?"

Gray shrugged with a plain smile. "... I'm sick of living in darkness. And I also need to find someone."

"Find someone? Wow. Is that your girlfriend?" Yuri hooked her arm around Gray's neck and pulled him in by force while staring at him with a teasing smirk.

Gray awkwardly smiled and replied, "Agh… she's just a friend…"

In all honesty, the Rachel that he knew was not a bad girl.

She was smart, knowledgeable, well-read, thoughtful, diligent and also full of determination to climb the Tower and fulfill her dream. She was even a good cook and was good at house chores. She might not be a beauty, but her looks were not bad. 

Being only an ordinary maid in that place, it was clearly difficult for her to afford all the food and various living necessities she shared with him, but she still did it. She was also the one who cut his hair and got him butler's clothes before this.

With all this, Gray might have even fallen for Rachel under normal circumstances, if not for his prejudice toward her and his knowledge of this world.

Since that prejudice helped him to notice that while at first Rachel really began helping him purely out of pity and sympathy, it quickly transformed and she only pretended to be nice while clearly expecting 'something' from him, all while hiding her fear and murderous intentions.

Maybe it was his predatory instinct, but Gray could clearly feel Rachel's fear and killing intent. The main reason she was helping him was probably because she thought that he might be able to bring her into the Tower.

Observing Gray's complicated expression, Yuri leaned in closer to his face and spoke up, "There's a high possibility that you'll die… Still wanna go?"

"Yes." Gray nodded.

"Well, okay!" Yuri let go of Gray after looking at his determined expression for a moment, then stretched out her hand into the air. "Arms Inventory, Visible Mode."

At Yuri's command, an extended weapon holder magically appeared beside her, containing several different visible weapons.

Gray watched with awe as Yuri carefully drew out the thinnest and longest weapon of them all.

It was a black and thin needle-like sword with a simple squarish pommel.

Handing out the weapon to Gray, Yuri said, "Take this. This is the Black March. I'll lend it to you for a while."

"Lady Yuri! You can't do that! How can you lend something like the Black March?!" Evan shouted out as he stepped in. "You mustn't! Never! You'll be killed if the King finds out!"

Gray was silent as he held back while taking the Black March.

"Take it!" Yuri called out to Gray while ignoring Evan. "Didn't you want to go up no matter what? Then take it."

Gray pursed his lips, then received the weapon from Yuri's hands.

As Gray began to observe the Black March, Yuri explained, "The name of that weapon is Black March. It is a 'needle', a basic weapon of the Tower. A needle is used to stab and pierce. The Black March is the most special of all needles. It's one of the 13 Month Series that Ashul Edwaru created. It's like a half-living thing, so once you ignite it, it shows extreme power."

"Of course, even if you take this needle, it will be extremely difficult for you to win. The weapon's strength depends on the wielder, no matter how good it is."

"But if you still want to take this test… I will lend it to you, so try it."

As Yuri was walking off, Evan made one final attempt. "Lady! Not the Black March!!! Please!"

"Shut up, I'll do as I please," Yuri coldly replied as she continued walking away and didn't even turn to look at him.

"Thank you, Yuri noona," Gray said earnestly as he looked at Yuri's back. He then said, "... Big Sister Yuri, there's one more thing."

Yuri slowly looked back at him expressionlessly. "What is it?"

Gray was silent for a moment, then asked, "Can you please give me some of your blood?"

Yuri slightly tilted her head in confusion. "You want… My blood?"

Evan also looked at Gray strangely.

Gray smiled awkwardly. "I feel that… I become stronger when I drink blood. It's like my special ability."

"Huh?" Yuri looked at Gray with curiosity. "So you have something like that? Like a vampire?"

Gray nodded. "Yes. But I only drank my friend's blood before, and she's an ordinary person, not someone strong like you."

Yuri's eyes slightly widened and glossed over with curiosity as she stared at Gray.

Gray slightly lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry for asking something like this when you already lent me your weapon."

"No, that's fine. Let's try it!" Yuri called out as she began taking quick large steps toward Gray.

"Lady Yuri, you shouldn't! You received blood from the king, what if something happens?" Evan called out when he saw that Yuri seemed strangely intrigued and excited to give her blood to an Irregular..

Yuri looked at him with pity. "What do you think is supposed to happen? Are you afraid that I will lose my power of Jahad or something? It's just my blood. No matter how much I lose, Jahad's power is not so simple."

Evan gritted his teeth. "I know that. Maybe you won't lose your powers, but what if he gains it? Sharing Jahad's power is a huge crime! It's like a Jahad Princess having a child!"

Yuri briefly stopped, then faintly looked at him and replied, "You're too paranoid. Do you think a little baby boy could absorb the power of Jahad just by drinking some of my blood? That's ridiculous!"

Evan tightly pursed his lips. Indeed, it was a ridiculous thought that a newbie Regular could have the ability to absorb the power of Jahad from a High Ranker Jahad Princess, but he still didn't like this idea!

Since Gray was an Irregular.

"Hey, let's try it!" Yuri called out to Gray with excitement in her eyes. "Do you want to bite my neck or something? I'm not sure if you could get through my skin though…"

"Lady Yuri, there's no need to do that, you already gave him the Black March…" Evan tried one more time.

"Shut up, you're annoying." Yuri punched down at Evan's head.

"Ouch!" Evan let out a pained groan, then glared at Yuri. Damn it, even if she does how she pleases, can't she at least show him some respect in front of other people?

"Aren't you also curious about what will happen?" Yuri added as she continued looking back at Evan for a while, before turning to Gray. She said, "So how do we go about this?"

"I guess, just cut your wrist," Gray replied. "You can heal from that, right?"

Recalling the power levels from the manhwa, High Rankers were more than capable of healing minor wounds like that, but it was still something supernatural and abnormal.

He himself was quite supernatural as a vampire-like being, but it was still nothing substantial. As he guessed, perhaps it was because despite his slightly special physique, the world that he was in had no Shinsoo or Mana, so he simply couldn't pull in any additional energy from nowhere to become superhuman, apart from getting nutrition from food and blood to be above average.

"Sure. A little cut is no biggie," Yuri replied, then stretched out her hand. "Arms Inventory, Visible Mode."

After speaking, she then took out a sword-like weapon from her Arms inventory. When Gray came closer to her, she pulled up her sleeve and then decisively sliced her wrist with her sword.

Seeing the blood gush out from Yuri's arm, Gray's instincts were stimulated as his nostrils widened at the scent. Noting Yuri's determination, he didn't delay and grabbed her forearm with his hands, then he brought his lips toward the wound and immediately started greedily sucking the blood that flowed out.

At that moment, Yuri's complexion turned slightly rosy and her heartbeat sped up, because what Gray was doing was even more intimate than simply kissing her arm.

Gray's wet and hot lips remained glued to the skin on her wrist as he kept sucking on her - to Yuri, it was the most intimate contact with a man that she ever had.

At the same time, Gray reacted in an even more extreme way as his expression suddenly heated up and his entire face blushed bright-red. Gis eyes widened and his heartbeat shot up, all due to the wave of pleasure he felt after first tasting Yuri's blood.

As a delightful feeling spread through his body, unimaginable 'power' sunk into it, and Gray began to suck Yuri's blood from her wrist even harder.

Yuri noticed Gray's delighted and bright-red face, along with his greediness, and smugly chuckled at him. "Haha! You seem very happy. Is it that good?"

Since in her eyes Gray was similar to a cute puppy greedily gobbling up his favorite snack.

While Yuri was merely amused, Evan watched this scene carefully with an apathetic expression, one that quickly transformed into surprise when he noticed the changes in Gray's body.

As Gray kept sucking on Princess Yuri's blood, Evan's Guide intuition told him that the Irregular boy's strength was skyrocketing with every moment that passed.

Initially, the boy seemed to be absorbing the energy from blood and only his vitality soared up, but after a short while his bones started crackling, his muscles and veins visibly bulged out, and his body itself began transforming at a very rapid rate.

"Hey, something's happening!" Yuri called out with a surprised face as she also noticed the changes.

Meanwhile Gray was also excited, overcome by the pleasurable and delightful feeling of joy and satisfaction that came from Yuri's delicious blood and the feeling of growing stronger.

However, he soon enough felt that no new liquid was entering his mouth and he seemed to be sucking in vain. With feelings of regret, he slowly detached his lips from Yuri's arm.

After pulling back his head, his face was still bright red, hot and slightly soaked with sweat.

He first looked at Yuri's wrist and saw that it was perfectly healed by now, filling his chest with disappointment. 

It was only after a moment that Gray regained his senses and took his first large breath in a while, beginning to breathe heavily due to the 'hotness' inside his body and the fading aftertaste of the happiness he just felt.

In front of him, Yuri smirked as she watched how Gray's chest heaved up and down, and how he greedily licked his bloodied teeth and two mild upper fangs from any remaining blood, clearly seeming to like it.

"So, how was it? You seem to have become stronger. You've grown a little taller too, hehe," Yuri chuckled while staring into Gray's golden eyes and looking him up and down. She then grabbed his upper arm and unceremoniously felt out his biceps. "You even gained some muscle."

She saw that he even looked a year older, appearing to be about 15 years old right now instead of being a 13-14 old baby-boy. 

Gray softly smiled as he embarrassedly pulled away Yuri's hand. 

He then stretched out his right hand, opened and squeezed it.

It was difficult for him to feel any changes in his strength this way, but it was true that he was bursting with energy like never before. He felt incredibly light and even his vision and perception of his surroundings improved tremendously.

It was also obvious to him that he filled in his slightly oversized clothes more than before as his muscles seemed to have grown.

Looking into Yuri's red eyes, Gray honestly muttered under his breath to reply to her question, "It was great. And I'm not really sure, but I feel a lot stronger too."

Yuri smiled, then looked at Evan. "Evan. So what do you think changed? Can you feel the power of Jahad from him?"

Judging from her face, she clearly didn't expect anything like that.

In turn, Evan was silent for a moment as he regarded Gray, then said, "... Well, no. I can't feel any power or blood of Jahad in him. But the boy had clearly become stronger. It's as if he transformed… from just an F-rank Regular into a decent E-rank Regular."

Evan himself was amazed as he voiced out his observations. In a matter of moments, Gray had jumped over a huge boundary and gained strength equivalent to about a decade of progress for an ordinary talented Regular.

All this just thanks to drinking a bit of Yuri's blood.

"An E-rank Regular, really?" Yuri called out.

Evan slightly frowned. Guessing what the overexcited Princess was thinking about, he explained, "I'm talking about an ordinary decently strong E-rank Regular, not someone like you when you were an E-rank Regular!"

"Ah, okay…" Yuri muttered, her enthusiasm slightly waning off. She then asked, "Then how does he compare to a Jahad Princess newbie?"

"Well… When it comes to his physical body, he's probably around the same level," Evan replied.

In other words, Gray was as strong as Jahad Princess on the 2nd floor, or one of the top Regulars on the 20th and 21st floors.

"Haha, that's amazing!" Yuri tittered as he looked Gray up and down.

Hearing all this, Gray was also secretly excited.

Just how strong did he become all of a sudden?

It was totally worth it to take this chance and ask for Yuri's blood! It would make the Ball test and his time on the Test Floor much easier.

Meanwhile Evan remained silent.

As a Silver Dwarf, Evan had a natural ability to judge people's strength, but he had already made a mistake when observing Gray and thinking that he's an ordinary human, so he didn't want to make a rash judgment and was rather vague earlier.

In truth, Gray's body seemed to contain strength that might be even above a fresh Jahad's Princess, but there were many other factors involved in one's combat prowess apart from just how tough one's body was.

At the same time, Headon watched the situation with an unreadable expression, his eye peering out to observe the Irregular with curiosity. 'I understand now why the boy was called the 'Half-blood Prince' in the 'legends'. He has the body of his two parents, but he no longer carries just their blood. And what I sensed from him… is quite frightening.'

As Headon observed Gray closely to discover the secrets of his power, he discovered a bottomless pit. And as he peered into it, he felt as if the abyss within Gray glanced back at him and threatened to swallow him whole, making even the Floor Guardian himself feel faint fear.

Gray was a bottomless vessel - a child of hunger and delight.

It was not surprising that Arlene regarded this boy as a 'monster'.

Since he was no longer her child nor a pure human.

Headon, however, didn't discriminate and was only excited to see what the chosen Irregular might bring to the Tower.

On the other hand, Yuri did not care about any of this as she chuckled while looking at Gray with a smile: "Hehe, so you're like a vampire. That's so cool!"

Gray smiled gently at this.

Meanwhile Evan frowned. 'Don't be so happy Princess, damn it… There's nothing cool about it.'

Letting a blood-sucking Irregular vampire enter and roam the Tower was certainly anything but good!

Yuri enthusiastically stretched out her hand toward him. "Do you want some more then?"

"Princess, you shouldn't encourage him. What if the king finds out that something is wrong? We'd be dead!" Evan called out at this as he took a step forward.

"But you already said that you can't sense anything," Yuri replied without looking back.

Evan was about to argue that she had already broken the rules enough, but there was no need as an unexpected voice spoke up.

"No, it's alright," Gray suddenly said. As Yuri and Evan looked at him with somewhat surprised expressions, he regretfully explained, "Thank you a lot. But I'm not sure if I can handle any more than this."

At that moment he was bursting with wild strength and energy that threatened to gush out.

He indeed did feel a great desire toward Yuri's powerful and delicious blood, a thirst for more, but he also worried that if he absorbed any more when he was already filled to the brim with strength, then he might overdo it and something bad could happen.

After all, before this he was merely an above-average person, but all of a sudden it felt like he really became a superhuman vampire - all while he still had no idea how to control Shinsoo.

It was risky and there was no need to be in a hurry for more power. He could take things step by step and first grow more familiar with his abilities and strength.

Clearly, the world wanted him to be a kind of vampire in this world as he took Bam's place.

But even though having special strong abilities and powers was all cool, he couldn't let it control him. Otherwise he might end up as a slave to his predatory instincts or the Tower's puppet.

"Well, okay," Yuri said with a soft smile, then her expression cooled as she looked away and began to officially step away. "Good luck on the test. You might have a good chance to outrun the eel now, but be careful!"

Gray smiled. Watching Yuri's leaving back, he said again, "Thank you again, Yuri noona! I won't disappoint you."

After a moment, he turned toward the cage and then started walking toward it, determination filling his face as he gripped the handle of the Black March.

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/AN: I'm working on the concept of the fic to make it better, so no updates in the near future./

/By the way, why is this TOG fanfic much less popular than the TOG- Elder Brother fanfic I tried starting earlier? Do people find it less interesting because there is no Bam? I'm not sure. That might be the case, but after writing Season 1, I just found also having Bam being very unnecessary for the plot and even very annoying./