C5: Vampire

After he had introduced himself to the barmaid, she told him about the current mission available.

"There is only one mission available for someone who's in a lower level. I don't know if you could handle it or not… because it is not a job for a [Level 1] person."

"Just tell me, I have a feeling down in my guts, telling me that I'll be able to handle it."

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure."

The barmaid sighed and decided to tell him about the mission. However, they weren't the only ones sitting at the counter.

"So, to the north of the forest, there's this small house. There's an old farmer living there, a pretty rich guy. Lately, his sheep had been disappearing during the night. He suspects that the disappearances were the work of wolves or even a thief. I don't know if you will be able to handle it, but that's the only quest I can allow you to go on, for now."

Wolves. Jamie used to grind soul power from wolves and get enough soul points to level up his skills in Rings, but he didn't know how this world's system worked.

"Wolves, that'd be fine for now. And… I got a nice sword too," Jamie said, a bit proudly.

"Well then, give me your number. I'll send you the location of the place." She leaned closer to the counter, with a slight smirk on her face.

Jamie tried reaching into his pocket, but there was absolutely nothing in there, except some dust and something hard which felt like a rock. "I… lost my phone too I guess," Jamie sighed after trying to pull his pockets inside out.

"Oh, no… well…"

"If you're looking for a partner, I'm available for the night, why don't you let me join you so I can find some money to pay for another couple of beers." A manly voice came from his side. It was the person who was sitting to Jamie's left.

He pulled down his hood and revealed his face. Long years, red eyes.

What was this?

<Vampire - Lvl 20>

Jamie gazed at the man's face curiously and said, "Vampire?"

The vampire raised his eyebrow. "Racist?"

Jamie let out a chuckle upon hearing this. "No, no… it just felt like… never mind!"

The vampire drank the last bit of beer left on the wooden mug. "Well then, share me the location of our mission, will you Miss?" The vampire asked Holly, generously.

She narrowed her eyes, suspiciously.

"You're a vampire, and what stupid idiot will go with someone like you in the middle of the night? And especially a guy who's only  level one and has lost all his memories!"

"God, woman. Don't trust my word, do you? Well then… Here's a solution." The vampire pulled out a knife from his belt and cut the palm of his hand. Then, he colored his fingers with blood and drew a circle on the table.

"[Pact of Goodwill]," he said. Then, he turned to Jamie and asked;

 "Will you accept, brother? I need another beer."

The vampire smiled. Jamie couldn't lose his chance in seeing a real-life Vampire in battle and he couldn't miss his chance to do a quest. "I accept," he answered.

They both shook hands and the red circle gleamed with light.

<Pact of Goodwill has been activated! You cannot hurt the other for the next 24 hours!>

<New spell discovered: Pact of Goodwill!>

'So… I can also use spells, huh?'

 "Hmmm… sounds cool," Jamie said, standing up. The barmaid, however, still had a suspicious gaze directed right at the Vampire's face. "I haven't seen you around here either," she said, with an angry tone. "Who are you?"

"Eric Glacier of North Hilldrill."

"Hilldrill? That's quite far from here. What brings you to Downwood?"

"Just traveling these parts. Always wanted to. And… of course, my house was set on fire back at Hildrill because of a false accusation of a murder of a child, which I never committed."

This made Holly even more uncomfortable with this guy, but that tone of his didn't just seem 'untrue.'

"Okay then… welcome to Downwood."

////

After that conversation, the two warriors, Jamie and Eric set out to find this villager's house right in the middle of the night. It was around 9 pm when they exited the inn. Jamie felt quite uncomfortable when he walked along the road in that old ragged clothes, while Eric wore something that looked like it was 'Limited Edition.'

A cloak of white, with a nice piece of artwork on the back. It was the four red eyes of a spider and the brand name was 'Cobwebs.'

'Fuck I need that,' Jamie cursed inside his head. Even in Rings, he wasn't this interested in cosmetics. 'The world-building in this "Kaden" is pretty good.'

After exiting the road, they came to the woods.

From there onwards, it didn't take more than 5 minutes for them to arrive at the farmer's house. Surprisingly, they didn't encounter anything that stood in their way.

"We're here." Eric walked to the man's lawn and Jamie let him take the lead for now. He wasn't an unfaithful guy who made a game hack and sucked him dry at least.

The old man was waiting for their arrival at the steps of the house. He was a classic farmer, holding out a lantern that had a very bright firefly flying around inside the glass that imprisoned it.

"Are you the two Holly told me about?" The old guy cried out.

"Yes! Yes, we are," Eric said, walking towards the man. Jamie followed.

The old man had a smoking pipe in his mouth, which reminded Jamie of a farmer he had known in his past life.

"So, old man… who're these monsters who keep hunting your sheep at night?" Eric asked, looking around the place.

"I personally think this is the work of a pack of wolves. But, not just any kind of wolf, kid. Shadow wolves are sneaky and more dangerous than a pack of sharks. Now, I don't know if you guys can take down these wolves, but… I told that Holly girl to warn the guys and send some people who could deal with this."

Jamie was quite shocked when he heard this. 'If it was this hard, why the heck did that barmaid send me here then? And I asked her to come alone at first!'

"Well, old man. My guy Jamie here can help me with that. And if you care about us so much, why not grab a shovel and join us?"

"That's a hard pass kid. I've seen what those things could do, and even my old man wouldn't go after them if he was alive. And trust me, kid, he was Downwood's hunk!"

Eric scoffed upon hearing this. "Well old man, this town's got a new hunk now!"

Eric raised his hand into the air as if to grab hold of something and said, "Rise Alucard."

A sword took form within his grasp from a cloud of glowing white dust. Okay… even Jamie was surprised to see this. He had never seen a soul sword before in real life of course, only in games. But experiencing that from his own eyes was just amazing.

A soul sword is a weapon forged dedicated to the soul of someone that had died before. So, these soul swords are extremely powerful and simply… amazing.

"Pull out your sword, Jamie. It's your quest, so, seventy percent for you and thirty for me. Fair deal, eh?"