Reprecussion

In a frenzied blur, the cloudy sky has now turned completely dark, night has already come.

Blake doesn't need to see the sky to know that it was already night, the sensation from the night air rejuvenated his body. The Overlord of the Night passive skill is activated, enhancing his senses as well as attuning his mind to become sharper.

Compared to earlier, his blood-sight ability has become stronger.

Anything beyond a thirty to forty meters radius was basically unseeable to him. But now, that radius has expanded two times over, allowing Blake to see even other mobs that are quite high up on the tree.

Due to his blood-sight ability, he managed to avoid most of the mobs.

Not that he was fearful of them, most of the mobs are barely level 15, but it was because he needs to reach the nearest city and rent himself an inn to log out. It was also not the only reason he wanted to reach the city.

Aside from that, he also wanted to see how the people in this world are living.

Since the game trailer boasted its graphics, he wanted to see what the fantasy cities look like. In addition, he also wanted to see if there are any modern gadgets inside of the Lunaris game or if will it be focusing on its fantasy aspects.

Reaching level 20 in one day is good enough, he has enough fighting for today.

It's true that his HP and MP have been refilled to full again thanks to absorbing the blood of the last mercenary and also recovering throughout the hours, but that doesn't mean his mental fatigue is gone.

Any more than this then he would be pretty much exhausted.

"Let's call it a day and rest for the night, we can't go any further, and the city is still quite far away" Tara spoke her mind when she saw Linthia is already gasping and doesn't look good, the three of them has been walking non-stop for hours.

It was natural for her to be this tired, the three of them has traveled enough for the day.

Upon hearing this, Blake clicks his tongue reluctantly.

But seeing that Linthia is in no condition to keep on going, he eventually nodded his head.

Despite wanting to reach the city before the day ends, it seems he can't go any further lest Linthia would probably collapse to the ground out of fatigue. "Okay, we'll do that. Let's camp here and resume in the morning"

About half an hour later, Blake is leaning on a tree beside a bonfire.

Blake takes the time to rest his mind and body after a series of fights against mobs and mercenaries and being injured, the hard surface of the tree trunk feels like a soft cushion in his tired state.

Even though he was resting, his senses were focused on the surroundings.

It's true that the two women look to be harmless and bear no ill intention, but anything goes in this game world. As he's still unfamiliar with this world, he doesn't want to be stabbed in the back by these two women.

Of course, Salana could notify him. But she was already sleeping at the side first before him.

Looking at her lying on the ground comfortably without any worry, Blake grinds his teeth in annoyance, 'What's there to be tired if she doesn't have a physical body? How could she sleep like a log before I do?' he grumbled inside his mind.

Salana has gone to the dream world instantly when the three of them sat down to rest.

Disregarding the fox woman, Blake decided to check his improvements.

[Status Window]

Name: MoonDespoiler

Title: Supernatural Enigma (EX)

Class: Gladiator

Race: Spectral Vampire (EX)

Level: 20 (21,400 / 40,000)

Hp: 7,500 / 7,500 -> 11,000 / 11,000

Mana: 920 / 920 -> 1,340 / 1,340

Strength: 77 -> 124 (+35)

Agility: 128 -> 189 (+20)

Vitality: 153 -> 223

Spirit: 111 -> 146

Intelligence: 46 -> 67

Luck: 0

Defense: 50

Attributable Stat Points: 9

Attributable Class Skill Points: 9

Racial Skill Points: 30

Active Skill(s): Thrust (D), Shadowblood Manipulation (SSS), Phantasmal Shadow Phasing (S), Proxy of Blood (SS), Adaptable Mutation Lvl.1 (SSS), Shadow Step (A), Blood Lance (A), Colossal Slam (C).

Passive Skill(s): Gladiatorial Focus (D), Overlord of the Night (S), Shadow Dormancy (A), Nocturnal Blood Sight (SS), Inner Anathema Strengthening (S), Perfect Scythe Proficiency (S), Order of the Enigma (EX), Body Control Lvl. 2 (D), Basic Sword Proficiency (C).

Gold Coins: 10,000 Silver Coins: 60 Bronze Coins: 81

Condition: Extremely Fatigued

Blake finds that his physical stats has undergone quite an increase, especially his agility and vitality stats. Also, he noticed that each of the stat increase he gained from the equipment he wore was added on the side of his actual stat except for defense which gained a section of its own.

'It's easier to see the equipment stats with this' Blake thought, nodding in approval.

At this current moment, his agility stat has reached 200 points if he added the bonus stat points from the equipment. But of course, if he could wear the Serene of Black necklace that Tara gave him, his total agility stat will surpass his Vitality stat.

If he wanted to wear the Serene of Black necklace, he needs to reach level 25 first.

Due to that, the Serene of Black is sitting in his inventory.

Not only that but from the mercenaries that he killed earlier, he gained quite some money from them. 50 silver and 30 bronze coins to be exact. Linthia and Tara didn't take anything and give it all to Blake, they were not the ones that killed them.

So it makes sense for them to let Blake take the loot.

While he was checking his status window with a slight smile, Tara steal a glance at him.

Linthia has already been sleeping on her lap peacefully while Tara gently rubs her head. Stealing a glance at Blake, one could see curiosity and wariness in her eyes. Blake is simply out of this world earlier.

Clearing her throat, she then asked, "Sir Blake, may I ask you something?"

"Sure, what do you want to know?" Blake replied.

Pondering for a moment and arranging the sentence in her mind, Tara then eventually asked, speaking up her question, "Forgive my impoliteness, but are you perhaps from some powerful guild or family?"

"I'm not a part of anything, what makes you think that?" Blake asked back.

Upon hearing this, Tara's hand stopped rubbing Linthia's head. She then decided to be open and blatant, "Well, your fight earlier, it's obvious that you're hiding your strength. None of your wounds from earlier lingers without the help of a healing potion, you could use Blood Magic, and you also have an artifact that can bypass the forest's illusion as well"

"So I thought, you must be from a powerful guild or family" she added.

Blake listens to this before he smiled wryly.

It was clear that Tara still doesn't trust him judging from her being attentive to details about him. But taking a moment to see from Tara's perspective, he realized that he would also think the same if an unknown person inside a forest helped him.

Moreover, that person turns out to be a very strong individual.

Since most of his abilities come from his EX-grade race, of course, it's not a common one.

Not wanting to tell her that he is a Spectral Vampire, he decided to cook up a lie on the spot to get him out of this situation, "Believe it or not, I didn't hide my strength nor I'm from any guild or family. I'm a lone wanderer that's passing by in this forest before I met you guys. I am capable of defending myself, that's all"

"Hmm, is that so..." Tara mutters, still rather suspicious.

As she has already opened up to converse first, Blake decided to ask to fill the empty silent night, "Say, what happened to you guys before being cornered by those mercenaries? I saw you being injured already before the fight starts"

Sighing lightly, Tara then explains as there's no need to hide it from Blake.

If Blake is really a bad guy, then he wouldn't have helped them twice like this. So it's fine to tell him. "At first, there are twelve of us. We were running away. But along the way, we got hit by a horde of creatures, more than a hundred of them. It was simply bad luck, and we got wiped out aside from me that managed to save Lady Linthia"

Listening to her attentively, Blake then caught onto something.

"Do they seem to like running from something?"

"Hmm...?"

Upon hearing this, Tara ponders for a moment, she tries to remember back to that time before her eyes slightly widen and she nodded her head, "Now that you said that, I think they were running from something.

Blake nodded his head as this confirms his suspicion.

'It must have something to do with the First Act. The horde is probably running away from the corrupted Brown Iron-skin Bear, or maybe there are other corrupted mobs inside this forest'

Gazing at Blake in confusion, she then asked, "How do you know that?"

"Didn't you see the bright light from earlier? I think that event corrupted some of the creatures inside the forest, and the normal creatures tries running away from it" Blake replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

Feeling his body becoming heavier by the second, Blake decided to end the conversation.

"I don't know if it will be helpful for you or not, but the last mercenary that I chased after earlier said that the one that issued to kidnap Linthia is a man called Grandmaster Mallory. Make do what you want with that information, you go on first-night watch"

Blake then lay on the rough ground intending to sleep.

Even though he wanted to play more, he wanted to check his real body first.

Since this is the first time he was playing a game such as this, he wanted to see how his body would've felt after playing the game for this long. "Wake me up when something happened" he added before he closes his eyes, thinking of logging out.

In an instant, he can feel his consciousness being pulled away from the gaming world.

Just then, he feels a bit dizzy at the sight of the bright blue light that enters his vision. But that sensation only lasted half a minute, and when he woke up, he was back to his real body in the real world.

Blake takes off the VR Helmet and stands up before he stretches his body.

As expected, his body is quite numb and stiff from being in a sitting position for hours, "Eughh... I've never been feeling like this for quite some time, I should workout more to balance my real life and the game life"

Looking outside of the window, he finds that the sky is about to be dark.

Deciding that he was going to take a shower first, feeling his body quite sticky from sweat, he suddenly stopped in his tracks before he felt something climbing in his throat, making its way toward his mouth.

"Huaakkh!"

In reflex, Blake covers his mouth as he vomited something.

Gazing down at his hand, his eyes widened when he finds out his hand is now crimson.

"B-Blood...?!"

Surprised by the sight of his hand covered in his own blood, he became worried, but he suddenly felt a jolt of scorching heat burst inside his body followed by an insurmountable of pain, spasming his entire body.

Thud!

Upon feeling that sensation, he fell to the floor unable to move his body at all.

About a minute after his body started shaking on the floor, he saw a flash of red light coming out of the VR Helmet before Salana appeared in the room. It seems she realized that he already logged out from the game.

Laying her eyes on Blake on the floor, she was also surprised and yelled, "Blake!"

Blake can only hear Salana's ringing voice calling out his name, he tries to respond but the blackness grows over his consciousness until eventually, it completely swallowed him up with pain and left him on the floor.