Experimentation

Gerard opened his eyes. His vision blurred and remained so no matter how many times he blinked. Liquid ran into his mouth. Blood.

*Ah. It wasn't a dream, and I'm not dead.*

"Incredible. Just incredible!"

An unfamiliar voice pierced Gerard's sensitive ears.

Pain shocked his body awake, and his vision cleared.

Rope pinned his arms, legs and neck to a table. He lay naked, with his clothes, armour, and robe nowhere to be seen.

*Arms? Plural?*

He stiffly turned his neck to look at his shoulder where the bald bandit leader, Dredge, severed his arm. His flesh knitted itself back together while he watched.

A man in a clean white robe clapped his hands and smiled. Dredge stood behind the robed man and watched with curiosity.

[You have gained the 'Vampyric Regeneration' skill.]

"You definitely did the right thing, bringing its arm back with you!" The robed man positively beamed at Dredge.

*Sprite? What's happening?*

[After you lost consciousness due to blood loss, your body became desiccated. The men you fought brought you to a building in a large city, and a man woke you up by feeding you some blood after restricting you. Your near-death experience granted you a new skill.]

Gerard groaned. The pain slowly subsided in his stomach, chest, and his shoulder.

"This should only be a lesser vampyre, yet it has a regeneration ability. Fascinating."

"So, how much?" The bald man clasped his hands together greedily.

"Considering this is a rare specimen, and after we fed it, it is no longer injured. I think twenty gold pieces should be more than enough."

"But you gave us that amount for a variant ghoul last week..."

"Fine. Thirty pieces, my last offer. Remember that nobody else in Solares would buy this from you."

The robed man pulled out a large pouch and placed gold coins on the table next to Gerard's feet in three stacks of ten.

"Thank you. We'll be back if we find anything else that's interesting."

Dredge slid the coins into a coin purse and left the room while letting the weight jingle in his grip.

The room's walls were lined with bookshelves and cabinets except for one space where a multi-tiered desk sat, littered with open scrolls. The walls, roof, and floor were made of cobbled stone.

*I'm underground?*

The robed man spat on the ground.

"Bandits. Disgusting. If they weren't useful, I'd never even lay my eyes on them. Now, let's get to work on you."

*Compel!*

[Your MP reserves are empty. You used it to regenerate your body.]

*Shit.*

"Wait!" Gerard pulled against the ropes.

"Ah, they said you spoke. A sentient lesser vampyre that can heal. After I'm done with my experiments, I'll sell you at the grand auction and make ten times the amount I just bought you for."

*I'm worth a lot of money? Is that how I'm useful to this man?*

"I have money. Lots of it. I can pay you over a hundred gold coins and a darker coin."

"Darker? Platinum?"

"Yes, platinum! My mind is a little fuzzy, so I couldn't think of its name!"

"I'm listening." The man walked around the table, examining Gerard's healed wounds.

"Once you set me free, I'll tell you exactly where to find it."

"You think me a fool? Why would a Lesser Vampyre even have platinum? Once I've auctioned you off to the highest bidder, I'll check the village they plucked you from, flash some silver, and see if you're telling the truth."

"You can't..."

"What? I can't do what? You're a vampyre. You don't have any rights. Even if you did, as a senior researcher of the magical research institute, I'm allowed to do whatever I want to monsters. Sentient or not, you're a monster."

Gerard gulped.

The researcher opened the cabinet, revealing the forbidden artifact he had acquired. The jar seemed to pulse with an ethereal light as if holding a fragment of the sun's power within it. 

"This is an interesting item I got my hands on last year—bottled sunlight. The jar is enchanted and capable of absorbing sunlight. It can release it as well, like so."

Gerard's eyes widened with dread and curiosity as the mage slid open a small valve atop the jar, exposing a narrow hole. With a flick of his wrist, the researcher unleashed the contained sunlight, a searing beam that pierced through the darkness and struck Gerard's defenceless body. Agony erupted within him as the scorching light tore through his flesh, his screams of pain echoing off the chamber's cold stone walls. He heard the skin bubble, and the scent of cooked meat enveloped him.

The researcher closed the valve. Gerard lay on the table for what seemed like an eternity. The twisted researcher, driven by his insatiable thirst for knowledge, continued his macabre experiments. Gerard's body bore the scars of countless dissections and mutilations, preserved in jars filled with preserving liquids. The vampire endured the loss of his tongue, eyes, and fingernails, each cruelly extracted in the name of twisted scientific exploration.

The mage employed other forms of torture as well. He used his fire magic to conjure flames that danced across Gerard's ravaged body, leaving charred remnants of his flesh. Electricity crackled through the air as he tested the effects of his electrifying magic on the vampire's tortured form, inducing unimaginable pain.

And when the mage feared Gerard would succumb to death or required fresh materials, he would sate the vampire's thirst with the life-giving elixir of fresh blood, filling his mouth with the crimson fluid, prolonging his torment.

Throughout the years, Gerard's screams of agony transformed into muted groans, his resistance broken and replaced by a hollow resignation. In a moment of weakness, Gerard asked something of her.

*Would you be able to actually talk to me like a human being? You were modelled after that philosopher, right?*

[I can. I have data on my personality and can use that for conversing with you.]

*Please...*

From that point on, whenever Gerard felt like his mind would break, the voice of Sprite held his sanity in place.

His once fiery spirit flickered like a dying ember. Time transformed the deranged mage, too, his dark hair now streaked with threads of grey, visible proof of the countless years that passed within those walls.

One day, after feeding him some fresh blood, the researcher asked a strange question.

"I'm Addis. I can't believe I've never asked, but do you have a name?"

He felt his tongue reform in his mouth and answered while the rest of his body healed.

"Gerard. Why are you doing this?"

"I suppose I can tell you."

"My fellow researchers would tell you that you can only find results in your research after a lifetime of study. I would say that this is only the case for those with the lifespan of a human being. The undead can live forever! Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls, Vampyres, Liches, and more! With each subject I get my hands on, I feel I'm getting closer to my goal. As a sentient undead fully in control of themselves, I could research to my heart's content and learn everything there is to learn. I could become a living god of knowledge!"

*He's a nut case.*

"So, how does the research fare?"

"Oh, I've interested you, have I? Well..."

Addis droned on about the results of his research over the last decade.

*Sprite, MP?*

[3/30. If you're looking to use compulsion, your target is a spell caster and compelling them will require all of your mana.]

*How can I get more?*

[As a lesser vampyre, you cannot absorb mana from your surroundings. Instead, your skill, Leech, as I told you previously, lets you absorb mana from the blood of living creatures.]

"Addis?"

The researcher stopped rambling.

"Yes?"

"Have you witnessed a vampyre go into a blood frenzy yet?"

"A blood frenzy?"

"When a vampyre consumes blood after being deprived of it, they can go into a blood frenzy and increase their abilities in exchange for their rationality."

"Ooh! Let's try that. Hold on."

Addis left the room and came back with iron chains. He fastened them around Gerard's limbs and removed the rope.

"We can't be too careful, can we?"

"I suppose not." Gerard faked a disappointed look.

*He might have thought I would use my increased strength to break free. An unexpected misdirection.*

Addis rummaged through a cabinet and found a jar of half-congealed blood.

[That blood has almost no mana in it. Fresh blood will be required for what you desire.]

*You're really handy, Sprite.*

"Addis. That blood won't activate my blood frenzy. I'll need fresh blood. The fresher it is, the more value it holds. You want a successful experiment, yes?"

"Ah, indeed..." Addis shook the jar. The liquid sloshed. "This blood is a little old. I'll be back."

What felt like an eternity passed before Addis returned with a flagon of blood. Human blood.

"How-"

"Did I get it? I offered a beggar on the street a silver coin for a flagon of blood. He didn't even think twice before accepting. Money can buy you almost anything in this world."

"I see."

*Similar to my world, but there are fewer rules and laws here; they can use money in unique ways. I'll need to remember that if I make it out of here alive.*

"So, how do we do this? Do you simply drink it?"

"Yes."

Addis grabbed an iron instrument from his desk. He inserted the device into Gerard's mouth and cranked a knob. Slowly, the device forced Gerard's mouth open.

"Down the hatch!" Addis poured the blood.

With the first gulp, his body felt lighter, stronger, and sharper.

[Blood Frenzy has activated.]