Chapter Seven: Aerial Battle
Alexia wakes up eagerly the next morning. Her eyes burst open at the first glimmer of sunlight. However, this means that there is still some time left before her nurses come in, get her breakfast, and record the data on her monitor. Alexia decides to dive straight into Legend Conquerors Online, not even taking any time to wake herself up.
Eris spawns in the same location as she did last time. The combination of the red light of the moon, her unhealthy-looking pale skin, her bright red eyes, and her viscous canines make her look like a sinister being.
"Hm… I got so caught up in beating all those monsters yesterday that I completely forgot that there was a town north of this forest. Status!"
A panel appears in front of the vampire that reads, "Name: Eris Vermilion. Race: Vampire. Age: 10. Level: 25. Class: Magic Swordsman. Titles: Progenitor, Insect Killer, Slaughterer, Apprentice Mage, Apprentice Swordsman. Skill Points: 320. HP: 440. MP: 440. SP: 440. Strength: 200. Defense: 190. Magic Attack: 200. Magic Defense: 190. Speed: 210. Passive Skills: Sharp Claws (level 3), Regeneration (level 3), Blood Gathering (level 3), Blood Drinking (level 3), Blood Manipulation (level 3), Hypnotic Eyes (level 2), Vampirism (level 2), Flight (level 2). Skills: Darkness Magic (level 3), Fire Magic (level 3), Lightning Magic (level 3), Swordsmanship (level 3)."
"I still haven't used my skill points to get any new skills or spells. I wonder why my spells haven't leveled up. Is there some other way for them to increase their power? Oh well. I think I should move to another area. The monsters around here aren't providing me with a lot of experience points any more. I'm also not getting any more boosts to the levels of my skills. Once I get to the town, I'll figure out what to do from there. I also have to figure out what to do with all the monster parts and materials that I've gathered."
At that point, Eris begins to head north, towards the safe zone town. All the while, she continues to slaughter monster after monster, raising her level once. She also takes the time to test out her Flight skill. She floats through the sky, gently and effortlessly. However, she also encounters a few aerial monsters and a fight ensues.
There are five creatures in total. The beasts resembled gigantic vultures with six foot tall bodies and fourteen foot wingspans. They're covered in black feathers, with the exception of their necks and head which are bald and dark pink in color. The monsters also have dark beaks and talons along with fierce red eyes.
"Kaaaaaaawwww" the beasts roar.
The vampire smiles, "This will be my first mid-air battle. Let's do this!"
Eris accelerates towards the vulture-like monsters with her blade drawn and attacks. She slashes at the first creature, but it manages to dodge her attack. Another one of the creatures attacks, catching the vampire off guard. It sinks its claws directly into Eris's stomach, sending her flying backwards. She quickly recuperates from the hit and launches a fireball at another creature, and just as the first, it manages to evade.
"Man these things are fast."
Three of the monsters gather, and flap their wings at the same time, creating a blade made out of green light that's launched right at Eris. The vampire girl dodges by flying upwards, but the rest of the monsters launch the same attack, keeping her on the run.
"This is ridiculous. I knew that I should've bought that magic shield spell. I need to find a way to beat these things. AH!"
Eris is hit in the back with one of the wind blade attacks from the monsters and sent flying towards the ground. Luckily, she once again recovers and continues to fly before hitting the earth. The vampire looks and notices that a large portion of the green bar in her field of vision is missing.
"Crap! Almost half of my HP is gone! These creatures must be high level. But their MP isn't limitless, just like mine. Eventually, they'll have to stop using those stupid wind blade spells. If I could just get close enough to them, then they shouldn't be able to dodge my spells."
Eris puts her plan into motion, accelerating towards the pack of monsters while dodging their magic attacks. The vampire places both her hands on her sword, as if she's getting ready for a slash attack. The monster gets ready to dodge, but seems surprised when the vampire raises its hand and launches a ball of dark energy straight at it. The ball explodes on contact and the bird monster bursts into red sparks.
"Nice!" the vampire says, showing off her fangs with a smile.
On another monster, it's feathers seems to sharpen and then launch themselves at Eris. She quickly evaded the attack, knowing that if she gets hit again, then her HP would be brought down to below ten percent.
For the rest of the battle, Eris works on taking out the rest of them, not by going in for a single strike, but by going for their wings when they dodge, and then finishing them off when they hit the ground. A few moments later, Eris stands on the field of battle, victorious.
The announcer echoes through her head, "Notice: you have risen to level 28. HP, MP, and SP have increased by 20 and all other stats have increased by 10. You have acquired 35 skill points. You have acquired devil bird's claws x25, devil bird's beak x5, and devil bird's wings x10."
"Awesome. My level rose by two. I guess those things were pretty strong. But if this is a low-level spawning area, what were they even doing here? There's no way a level 1 would be able to take those things out. Maybe it's just a random spawn. Or maybe the strength of the monsters is changing to match my own? That would be cool if that were the case. That means that I'll get stronger even faster."
Eris proceeds north, and even manages to kill a few more devil birds. However, she doesn't increase her level any further by doing so. Finally she manages to reach the town and is intrigued by what she finds. The architectural style and materials used for the town are comparable to that of the middle ages. The streets are made entirely of dirt and the houses and other buildings are made mostly of wood with stone chimneys and glass windows.
Eris tries to stop one of the people roaming through the streets, "Um, excuse me." the person merely walks past her without giving her a second thought, "Oh I get it. It must be a non-player character or an NPC for short. Afterall, there shouldn't be any players other than me in here right now. I just need to find a place to relax, heal, and recover my MP and SP."
She finds a back alley in one of the town streets and sits down on the ground. She looks through her inventory, as well as the skills, spells, and weapon techniques and makes a few discoveries.
"I see now. I buy skills, weapon techniques, and spells with skill points and I increase the levels of the spells and weapon techniques by using gold coins. I don't get why that is though. Maybe they're using it as a way of preventing inflation in the game."
She then notices something else. There's a button at the bottom of her status page that says, "Evolution." Eris presses the button and a new panel pops up that says, "Conditions for Evolution have now been met. Requirements; reach level 100."
"Evolution? Does that mean I can turn into something else and become even stronger? I'll have to ask my brother about that when I see him today."
Suddenly, another voice rings in her head, "Alexia!"
The vampire recognizes the voice, "Miss Erica? How are you speaking to me?"
"Your brother gave me one of those devices that let you communicate with someone in the game. Now can you please come back to reality?"
"Do I have to? I mean, I could just answer all of your questions from here and the only other thing you have to do is take a blood sample. And since my body is basically asleep right now, that'll be pretty easy for you to do," Eris explains with a smug expression.
"You have some good points. However, I'd much rather talk to you face to face rather than listen to your voice over a speaker in my ear."
"Ugh. Fine. Logout total!" exclaims Eris, exiting the game world and coming back to reality.