Buffet

Adam opened his eyes to the sound of roars. He stood up from his place which undid the effect of the enchanted cloak he was wearing.

He slowly approached the exit of the short cave he was in and in absolute silence, looked outside.

It was dark, but he could see. He could also smell the familiar scent of blood, a lot of it.

Not too far away from his position were two huge lizards fighting. They were long and had three pairs of legs, a long tail and a huge maw full of teeth. He remembered seeing them in the adventure book, the name was Crocodon.

One looked smaller than the other one, perhaps younger. The other one looked older and was full of scars. A turf war? Could be.

The beasts were taller than a human and about seven meters long. They clawed one another and spun around whipping each other with their powerful tails. The younger Corcodon was faster, but the older one was still winning the fight.

The fight didn't last long as the older beast managed to grab the tail of the other one in its maw and it started spinning in a very impressive manner. The tail quickly got torn off and the younger beast started bleeding heavily. The bigger lizard didn't do it without paying a price, however, as the younger Crocodon managed to grab one of its legs and tore it off.

Both beasts were bleeding heavily and tired, but the younger one was more damaged and looked on the verge of death already.

Adam thought about joining in the fight at this point with a surprise attack but as soon as he was about to move, tens of roars could be heard all over the place.

From behind the rocks came a group of Crocodons that were much thinner than the two fighting, and had feathers growing on their tails.

They approached the two wounded beasts and then started eating the younger one while some of them went and started licking the victor's wounds. What happened next made Adam understand that they were females and all this fight was most probably a fight for mating rights.

He was glad he hadn't left his cave.

When the beasts finished their business, they started walking away. The old male however couldn't follow them as it was too weakened by the fight, or the after fight, or both.

It dragged itself to a nearby rock and started sleeping next to it.

Adam hesitated for a moment then he decided to give it a shot.

He climbed down the vine and slowly approached the sleeping Crocodon.

Adam did his best to walk without making any noise, and soon enough was standing behind the lizard.

He walked towards its head to end it quickly, and he was surprised at the fact that the beast was much bigger up close. It was taller than a cow while laying down on its stomach!

He was still hesitating whether to fight it or not but as soon as got to the head, Adam realized in horror that the beast wasn't sleeping at all and its yellow eyes were looking at him!

Adam jumped back just in time to dodge the chomp from the lizard that would most likely have ended him.

He grabbed his spear and prepared to attack when the beast got up on its feet. He looked at it rising taller than him and decided that it wasn't worth it.

Adam quickly ran away and when he looked behind him, the lizard was still standing where it had been and it just kept staring at him without moving.

Could it be? Adam carefully walked closer to the beast and it didn't move. It just opened its maw and looked at him.

Adam started smiling as he was close enough for the beast to attack him but it didn't do so. He wanted to make sure it was safe, so he stabbed his spear into the lizard's front leg and it fell to the ground.

Just as Adam had guessed the beast was most likely dying and that bite earlier must've been all it had left in it.

He jumped on the Lizard's back and started stabbing it to the head. Its skin was extremely tough but Adam had quite a bit of strength in his arms, so he managed to open a wound big enough after a few stabs.

He leaned down and bit into the bloodied wound of the lizard and used both of his drain skills. It took a total of five minutes of draining before the beast died, and it had already been on the verge of dying! Adam understood that he would have no chance of winning had it been able to fight.

A pleasant feeling filled Adam's body and he felt full of vigor! The blood of this beast felt very tasty, a bit different from human's blood but still tasted good.

He checked his status and he was met by a bunch of notifications.

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[Host has absorbed life essence of a much stronger opponent. Stronger effects detected]

[Life Essence and mana absorbed]

[Bloodline Energy has increased by 100]

[Level increased by 53%]

[Host basic stats have improved]

[STR+10] [END+10]

[Absorbed Mana has increased host's mana pool]

[Some skills have improved]

[Regeneration has leveled up! Lesser Life Essence has leveled up! Lesser Mana Drain has leveled up!]

[Updating Status]

[Status]

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[Name: Adam]

[Race: (Newborn) Vampire/ ????????]

[Level: 3 - 90%] [Class: None]

[HP: 200/200] [MP: 150/150] [Bloodline Energy: 420/420]

[STR: 60]

[END: 58]

[AGI: 50]

[INT: 46]

[Spells]

- [Lesser Life Essence Drain lvl 3 – 0%]

- [Lesser Mana Drain lvl 2 – 0%]

- [Lesser Shadow Stealth lvl 2 – 68%]

- [Lesser Charm lvl 1 – 14%]

- [Regeneration lvl 3 – 57%]

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Looking at his status, Adam realized something strange. He noticed that just like the previous times, he gained stats from draining the life essence of his opponents but this time he had gained almost as many as he had gained from the level up.

He wasn't that experienced with this but a level up was a pretty big deal. Didn't that make him gain too many stats? He guessed that it had to do with the strength of whatever he drained the life essence from but that was still a lot.

Adam didn't dislike the idea; he was actually quite excited about it. But what would others do if they knew of his ability to gain stats this way? And did other vampires also gain stats the same way? He didn't know yet but he would have to be careful about not revealing this in the future.

This also meant that he could get stronger fast by killing and draining creatures and people.

Leaving his train of thought aside, Adam had to move. The female Crocodons might come back and he didn't want to face a dozen angry lizard widows.

He didn't go back to the cave as it would be a waste of time. Adam decided to keep moving.

He jumped on a few rocks and quickly got on top of a big one. He was now quite strong and agile.

Standing atop the big rock, Adam looked ahead and realized that he couldn't see past the forest of mushrooms that spread from one wall of the cave to the other one.

He jumped down and started walking with his spear in his hand.

After a few minutes of walking, Adam realized that he must have been in the territory of Crocodons as they were about everywhere.

He had a few close calls but he had managed to slip past all the lizards he had seen. He could see very well because of his night vision, but perhaps these giant lizards couldn't see well in the dark?

The ground was all stone and rocks so Adam had to be more careful with his steps as to not make any noise.

He had walked quite far already when he heard a high-pitched sound coming from behind him. It was quite far in the distance and he guessed it was around where he had killed the old lizard.

It was then followed by a low grumbling sound that made the very air vibrate, he felt the vibrations in his body while being quite far from it.

The rumbling sound started a chain of other rumbling sounds that came from various directions. There were about seven of them.

One of which wasn't far from Adam, it actually had surprised him since it was on the other side of the big rock he was standing next to.

The grumbling sounds stopped and then Adam saw a huge Crocodon, about as big as the one that died fighting the old Crocodon, rush from behind that rock and start running with all his might towards where the high-pitched sound had come from.

Adam guessed that there would be another fight between the Crocodons for the position of the old lizard, but that wasn't his problem. So, he quietly walked away.

Shortly after that, Adam arrived at the beginning of the mushroom forest. There were giant mushrooms everywhere. With different colors, some were blue, some were purple and some were green.

On the ground there were small orange mushrooms that glowed and created some light. There were also other kinds of mushrooms that didn't glow.

Adam walked inside the forest and tried to avoid the glowing mushrooms. He though it would be safer in the darkness.

The mushroom forest was very calm, too calm even. That made Adam very alert as that most likely meant one of two things.

Either there was nothing living in here, which was very unlikely, or everything that lived here was hiding.

This made the atmosphere here very tense and it made Adam make more efforts in being stealthy.

It wasn't a problem for him though, as ever since he became a vampire, his instincts had taught him how to become invisible in the darkness.

His beliefs into his stealth skills were very soon confirmed as he found himself staring at a huge snake that was waiting in ambush for a prey.

Adam was next to it, and could see it very well. It was about three meters long and was completely black. It, however, hadn't even noticed Adam.

He didn't show any mercy, and stabbed its head with his spear. The notifications soon rang in his head but he didn't receive any stats increase and he didn't gain much experience, just 2%.

Adam stopped for a moment and wondered why.

He leaned down and bit his fangs into the spider and drained its blood.

He was surprised by another notification.

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[Host has absorbed life essence.]

[Bloodline Energy has increased by 15]

[Host basic stats have improved]

[AGI +2]

[Level increased by 2%]

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It was at this moment that Adam understood that he received double the experience from slain enemies if he drained their life essence!

Didn't that mean that he would get double the results with half the effort? How great!

This bit of information made Adam very pleased and almost made him forget one of the most important rules he had learned from his journey up to this point.

The smell of blood would attract predators!

He quickly moved on and when he was about fifty meters away from the snake, Adam turned around to look at the corpse of the snake but there was already another snake eating it. It was also looking straight at him which gave him the chills.

He crouched into a stealthier position and walked away.

.

.

.

Three days had gone past as Adam silently walked through the forest. He hadn't slept at all but he didn't feel any signs of physical fatigue, but his brain was missing the comfort of sleep.

Adam had killed two other beasts in the forest but just like the snake, they didn't give much experience.

It seemed that except for the Crocodons he hadn't met as many strong beasts down here as he had thought. This made Adam wonder if he wasn't as weak as he thought, perhaps it wasn't them who were weak.

He had kept acting like he used to in the past but he wasn't the same anymore.

Adam started to feel confident in himself, but he couldn't be careless though.

He had reached 90% experience when he killed the old Crocodon, and the snake gave him another 4%. The two other beasts he had killed were some kind of black rabbits, and they only gave 1% each but since he drank their blood, they gave him another 1%, which all added up to 98%.

He hadn't gained any stats from them, however. It might have been because they were too weak.

Adam was now on the verge of leveling up, so he was hoping to find another beast soon. He was sure there were many others in the forest but they were just good at hiding so he didn't feel like wasting more time searching for them.

He wanted to get out and regroup with his only friend, Belekir.

He was wondering how it was doing right now so he tried to connect to it and see what it was doing but he couldn't, maybe there was a distance limit after all.

He thought about its status and it came up.

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[Name: Belekir]

[Race: Corrupted Karnor Bird] [Owner: Adam]

[Level: 1 – 7%]

[HP: 30/30] [MP: 15/15]

[STR: 9]

[END: 6]

[AGI: 20]

[INT: 15]

[Spells]

- [Blood Drain lvl 1 – 72%]

- [Blood Link – Passive]

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Adam's eyes opened wide in surprise! How did Belekir level up this fast? And how did it get the skill Blood Drain?

It still made him happy to know that it was alive and well and that it was growing stronger. He hadn't expected a small bird like it to be able to survive out there without him, but not only did it survive, it had leveled up!

Adam felt like he had to level up as well and he couldn't slack off anymore so he started walking faster.

He was now leaving the mushroom forest and walking into an open space where some kind of organism lived. If one didn't look carefully enough, they would look like a plain full of grass that was swaying with the wind.

But Adam had great eye sight so he could see that they were actually tentacles! Thousands of them!

He was wondering if it was one single entity or if each tentacle was an entity on its own.

He grabbed a stone and threw it in the middle of the tentacles and where it landed the green color of the tentacles changed to a glowing red one.

Nothing else happened though.

Adam thrust his spear into one of the swaying tentacles and stabbed it, it also started glowing red but nothing happened either.

He decided that he wouldn't go that way. As much as he wanted to advance, it wasn't worth the risk. So, he started looking for a way to avoid the tentacles.

Following the edge between the mushrooms and the tentacles, Adam moved silently while looking for a way through.

Minutes turned into hours, and half a day had gone by with nothing new in sight.

It was then that Adam saw a river! This underground river ran across the patch of tentacles and went further ahead. The tentacles grew on each side but there was a very narrow space where the water wasn't very deep and where no tentacles grew.

This was very convenient for Adam who didn't feel like swimming in a river that might contain more dangers than the tentacles themselves.

He rolled his pants to his knees and took his boots off and started walking in the shallow water.

As Adam was walking, he saw things move in the deep parts of the river, which made him very tense. He tried to move faster but he didn't want to make too much noise.

The tentacles field spread over a huge area and Adam was halfway through it when he heard a splash in the water next to him.

He jumped out of the water just in time to see a huge Crocodon break the water surface and chomp with its toothy maw where he had just been.

It was a close call!

It was then that Adam felt something on his feet. The tentacles!

He had forgotten all about them and ended up stepping inside the field of tentacles.

They were glowing red, and they were stuck to his feet.

Adam tried to free himself but he couldn't. He looked at the Crocodon and it didn't follow him and stayed in the water.

Pulling with all his might didn't help as he was completely stuck.

The tentacles suddenly started glowing more and Adam felt pain on his skin.

Were they eating him alive? He couldn't believe it.

He grabbed his spear and started hitting them but those he cut regrew right away and more grabbed onto him.

Adam tried to rack his brain for a solution but nothing came to mind. Was he going to die in such a stupid way?

He couldn't accept it, he had someone to kill.

He tried activating his shadow cloak but it didn't change nothing as he was still bound by the tentacles.

Adam then had the thought that these tentacles were living things. Would his drain work on them?

He had to try!

He leaned down but he couldn't bite them, so he put his hands on the tentacles that were grabbing to his feet and started focusing.

He tried to imagine their life essence and mana leaving their bodies and going into his hands.

The pain from the tentacles made him unable to focus completely but even with all his might, he couldn't do it.

He grabbed his spear again and even if cutting them only made things worse he wanted to try something.

Using the spear, he stabbed a tentacle and made a hole in it. He didn't completely cut it.

The hole started closing back but Adam rushed and put his hand over the hole and tried again to drain it.

The tentacle suddenly stopped regenerating and Adam felt the essence entering his body through his palm! It worked!

The tentacle quickly dried out and died.

Adam started doing the same thing to all the tentacles under him and those around him and soon enough he was standing on a bunch of dead dried out tentacles.

He pulled one from the ground and it seemed that each tentacle was an individual creature.

They part that came out of the ground was a tentacle but what was under the ground was a ball like piece of flesh which looked very disgusting.

Adam looked at his feet that were healing thanks to his regeneration skill and then looked at the tentacles spreading all over the place in front of him and started laughing.

The reason was that after killing about twenty of those things, he had gained 0.20% experience. So, if each tentacle gave 0.01% experience, didn't that mean that he was looking at free experience all over the place?

They didn't want to let him go, but now they will wish that he would leave them alone. That is if they actually had any kind of intelligence, which Adam doubted.

With a though for Belekir's safety and a hope that they would meet again. He didn't know how long it would take, but Adam started draining the tentacles one after the other, and he would enjoy this buffet until he was satisfied.