Mega Leveling!

A massive troll lumbered out of the opening in the wall and walked towards me.

"I feel like you're trolling me at this point," I said.

"That's a terrible joke," she said, not under her breath.

"Sue me," I said and laughed.

As the troll swung its club down at me, I leapt out of the way. The club got stuck in the soft ground that it had impacted. I rolled back onto my feet and changed directions. I ran back towards the troll, up its club and arm, and hopped into piggyback ride position on its back.

My legs dangled over its shoulders on either side of its head. I leaned back some and started pounding the back of its head. Dull thuds turned into crunching bones as I broke its skull. That turned into loud squelches as I punched into its brain.

I pulled my arm out, expecting that to be the end of it. The troll fell forward, face first, into the ground and didn't move. The life essence extraction notification didn't pop up though, so I suspected something weird was going on.

I wasn't wrong. I watched as the troll's brain regenerated and its skull knitted back together. The troll stood back up, good as new. I was so annoyed that instead of dodging its club swing this time, I caught it. I had to use both hands, but I caught it.

I yanked the club out of its hands and flipped it around so I was holding it at the base. "This is my club now."

"No, its not! Club mine! My club!" It stomped its feet in anger.

I reared back and brought the club down on the troll's head. When I pulled the club back, its head was gone. Well, it wasn't gone. It was stuffed down into its chest. I watched as its head reinflated out of its body, and then I said, "Fuck that!"

I grabbed its leg and bit it and bit it and bit it. I chewed and ripped and tore until I had gotten down to the bone. Then I punched the bone as hard as I could, breaking it. I kept punching it until it broke in two, severing its leg from its body. The troll fell over from the lack of a leg.

Then I got to work on the leg before it could regenerate. I was operating under the assumption that the troll couldn't just heal body parts but fully regenerate them if removed. I bit and tore at the ankle until the foot came off.

Then I started to execute my plan. The troll was laying on the ground still, unable to get up with only one leg. I pressed the severed foot against the leg stub that was starting to heal as hard as I could. I was forcing the leg to heal by reattaching the foot, but to a partial leg stub instead of its full leg.

I then did the same to its other leg. It grabbed me with one of its hands, now that it could see me with its healed head, but I dug my hands into the flesh of the leg and refused to let go. I punched the second leg off as I kicked myself free of the troll's hand holding me.

I ran 20 feet away and repeated the process of removing the foot and then I ran back and pressed the foot into the stub until that healed as well. I dodged out of the way as it tried to grab me.

I ran away until I was 30 feet away and watched as it tried to get back on its feet. It did, but it didn't have full legs anymore. Just tiny stubs with feet at the ends. It could barely walk. It would never catch up to me if I just walked away from it.

I had a better plan though. I picked up the club and said to the troll, "My club now! If you want it, you better get it!" Then I threw the club back through the opening in the wall into what looked like a long rectangular cage. Like a storage unit but with bars on the sides.

"My club! Mine!" The troll said.

I walked over to the front of the habitat and watched as it waddled back into the cage to get its club.

"Close it up, Victoria. If I can't kill it, at least I can say I beat it," I said.

"That you did," She said. "I kind of feel bad for the troll." She closed the opening in the wall.

"I don't. It tried to kill me," I said.

There was something about my opponents immediately trying to kill me that made me not feel that guilty about killing them. Or horribly disfiguring them in the case of the troll. I expected to feel a lot of emotions around killing, but this just felt like it was necessary for survival.

Killing in the sect or during competitions might be an entirely different story, but I wouldn't know how I'd feel until I experienced it. I was starting to get excited for Vampire Academy. That sounded fun. It sounded like high school all over again, except everyone was over 18 and could legally bone each other.

[Life essence extracted through… means we will not discuss in detail. You have broken through to level 3 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]

[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Fledgling Vampire Realm!]

"I didn't get that much stronger from that fight. Can we just grind it out with wolves or bears? Something simple," I said.

"Ok," Victoria said. She pressed a lot of buttons this time, and 10 sections of wall opened up. Half of them released wolves and half of them released giant bears.

I tore, kicked, punched, and bit my way through what I estimated were 100 wolves and 20 giant bears. The notifications were going off like crazy. I only paid attention to every time I broke into a new realm.

[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 1 of the Nascent Vampire Realm!]

[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 7 of the Emerging Vampire Realm!]

[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 4 of the Lesser Vampire Minion Realm!]

[Life essence extracted. You have broken through to level 5 of the Greater Vampire Minion Realm!]

After I had gone through those enemies, I had Victoria release 100 giant bears. I started breaking through realms so fast that I ignored the full notifications and only read the realm names.

I advanced through the Novice and Seasoned Vampire Underling realms, Aspiring Vampire realm, Junior and Senior Vampire Initiate realms, Neophyte and Experienced Vampire Apprentice realms, Minor and Major Adept realms, Proficient realm, and Novice Journeyman realm, settling at the Experienced Journeyman realm.

I got so strong that I was doing ridiculous things to the giant bears at this point. Some of them I punched in the nose so hard that it accordioned their entire bodies. Every time I landed a body blow, I punched or kicked a hole through them.

Towards the end, I was just punching their heads off. Punching their heads completely off their body. One millisecond they had a head, and the next millisecond, no head. Head gone.

I don't mean the heads flew off their bodies and landed somewhere. I mean, the heads vaporized. They just turned into more body stuff covering me that I didn't want to think about too hard.

Once the bears were all gone, I said, "Ok, I think we can stop now. I hit Vampire Adept a while ago. Now I'm a Vampire Journeyman."

"You hit the Vampire Journeyman Realm already? I guess I shouldn't be surprised. No vampire has ever absorbed the entire life force of 100 wolves and 120 giant bears in one go before. Most vampire feeding methods are inefficient. Yours is incredible!" Victoria said.

As I walked into the habitat airlock, Victoria opened the outer door and handed me several towels. "Wipe and dry yourself off. We don't want you to get blood or brains on the floor."

"Fair," I said and sighed. As I toweled myself off, I asked, "What power level are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't mind. I am a Vampire Princess," she said, doing a curtsy.

"You're royalty?" I said.

"Yes and no. Status is determined by a vampire's strength and power. The stronger you get, the higher you rank among vampires. That's why they include positions of royalty in their ranking system. So I'm not a princess through noble birth. I earned my rank and authority as a princess through hard work," she said, sounding proud of herself.

"And sucking necks," I said.

"Yes, and sucking necks," she said, nodding her head. "Now let us hit the showers."

"Us? As in both of us at the same time?" I said.

"Duh. You didn't think that just because you became my progeny, that I'd let you off the hook, did you?" She said and smiled a devious smile.

"I guess not," I said as I quickly followed her to the showers.