A new beginning

He felt the pain pangs returning to his head, though he was prepared and didn't faint, he got a general idea of what kind of guy he had possessed, a pretty honest and straight forward youth and soldier that used to work at the family farm, not handsome but not ugly by any means, 19 years old, hardworking, his name was Karl… his name is Karl.

He died in the first war he participated in, he died similarly to everyone else around him, by vampire.

Though there was no fatal wound on his body that he could see, he had apparently gained a god like recovery ability, no that's wrong, just when he was about to die he could feel himself get lifted up off the ground, then a pang of pain on his neck followed by slowly loosing consciousness, apparently he became food in his last moments.

None-the-less he survived and even recovered... as a dhampir, a mindless zombie-vampire mix born from vampire and dhampir victims that survived, though he retained his mind… or more accurately he got possessed.

Requiem what is my current status, he thought.

- Based on observations, your body has obtained extreme recovery abilities along with enhanced strength and agility, at the expense of requiring human blood to stay alive.

Right, so that was why the blood smelt so delicious even though it never has done so before… so what happens to the pathogens in the blood?

- Upon death the body drastically changed its core digestive system, making it entirely reliant on human blood, therefore pathogens are destroyed in the digestive process without any harm.

"Alright so what blood is the healthiest for me to eat, what should I do to survive, are there any fatal weaknesses like those vampires of legend experience?"

"COME HERE!" he heard a feminine but strict voice in a general direction, and felt compelled to go to where it came from.

- Humans of ages 10-20 have the healthiest and most nutritious blood because they're still in their developmental stage. As of now no weaknesses have been observed, one weakness has been debunked, the sun doesn't harm you like in the legends, in fact you're better off in the sun than normal humans because of your body's natural healability, for now suvival relies on blood sustenance and the lack of natural predators witnessed.

While listening to Requiem's explanation he ran over to a bunch of mindless dhampirs and one vampire.

"Seems like that's all of them…" to Karl's shock the vampire spoke English,

"uhm… excuse me, why did you call for me? Am I supposed to be your slave or something?"

"yea… WHAGHT..." the vampire began coughing, apparently having her saliva stuck in her throat from the sudden surprise.

"Who are you?!" the vampire looked towards Karl while scowling like a cornered cat, the vampire seemed to be female, and a quite beautiful specimen at that... wait that's not right.

"I'm Karl, you killed me… I don't remember when but when I woke up you were calling… could you maybe release your control, or undo your command? however it works."

"… that should be impossible..." this vampire really doesn't adapt to situations well, she didn't even listen at all...

She went into a contemplative state.

"Um excuse me, what's your name, why do I have to follow you?"

"… Alexandria Bloodstone… because you're my dhampir… wait, this could be useful…"

She went into another contemplative state.

…Requiem, is there nothing I can do to get out of this situation, I'm not even in control of my own body?

- Beginning to wrest control out of the vampire's hands… 28 seconds until completion.

He stood and waited for half a minute when suddenly the vampire in front of him spat vital blood on his face, but he was already free from the control of the vampire and with a free meal coming straight at him he instinctively opened his mouth and swallowed the flying blob of blood like a baby bird catching food from its mother's beak.

When he realized exactly what he had done he got a shock, apparently if he wrests back control a backlash will attack the vampire, not to mention his reflexes increased immensely… but that blood really did taste good…

~ Bloodline refining begun, 0,2% … 0,7% …. 2,3% vampire bloodline refined, class updated from dhampir to Vampire.

"What the ... where did that come from, did you just make me a vampire straight up?"

- No it happens automatically if you consume vampire blood, your bloodline will be purified and you will turn into a more and more pureblooded vampire until your purity reaches 100% and you become a noble vampire, this information was gathered from previous knowledge and observations made aswell as from seemingly inherent knowledge, a dhampir is a dhampir because of its lack of consciousness and the lack of pure bloodline, if the bloodline is less than 1% you would be a dhampir, but because of our rebirth we became a vampire pretty quickly it seems.

As he was talking to Requiem; the vampire, Alexandria Bloodstone, recovered and said;

"How can your soul be so strong… I'm pretty sure I only enslaved young peasants..."

Turns out having a super AI connected to your soul makes it pretty strong... or maybe it was just the time spent in … let's call it limbo.

"wait, you're not a dhampir… you actually used my blood to become a vampire…" her expression turned uglier by the second.

seems like it's kind of rude to use the bloodline of other vampires to refine your own…

"… come with me" she frowned and turned around to walk away.

"alright…" since I had nothing else to do I decided to follow her.

After walking for a while there appeared a fairytale-castle in the distance, Alexandria suddenly turned around looked at me while pointing to my side.

"Watchout! A WEREWOLF!"

Having just arrived in this place he was naturally curious as to what kind of creatures existed in this world since he only had requiem's memories but he doesn't have direct access to them, and he had yet to ask, so he flicked his head to look, followed by a pang of pain in his neck.

He had been ambushed, tricked. He immediately reacted and tried to push her away but he soon turned weak.

"GIVE ME BACK MY BLOOD!" Though still sucking on my neck, she's still able to shout like that?

- Currently saving vampire blood, most has been saved in the left leg, blood flow has been closed from the leg."

"fuck…" He fell down onto the floor with a pale face, he suddenly felt hunger pangs as his leg got its blood flow back.

"If you don't give me my blood back I'll kill you."

The girl said this with an eerily calm and frightening voice.

... Will i be able to win her in a fight?

- The chances are low, since she has more than 10% bloodline purity based off of the vital blood she spat, though a fight is hard to predict"

Then I will fight, I used to be pretty good at Muay Thai anyway.

His father had told him when he was 7 years old, to pick three hobbies, one to make money, one to keep you healthy, and one to exercise his mind. So from then on he decided to learn to develop AI programs as it is the most lucrative business, learn Muay Thai because it doubles up as self-defense, and play chess because he heard wise men are good at chess.

She didn't expect him to decide to retaliate and get into a stance.

"Haah, are you sure you are not braindead, I am obviously way stronger than you…"

She was interrupted by a kick to her shin.

"AHHHh , NOW YOU'RE ASKING FOR IT"

- Fight-style analyzed and developing, do you wish for automatic fighting?

"OF COURSE!"

"initiating fight, simulating outcomes, proceeding with recommended action."

He began swaying back and fourth like a drunkard

"What the fuck are you doing?"

- Please bear with the imperfections as I am still learning.

Haiss…

*POW!*

He could feel his knuckle bones breaking from the hits but he kept fighting despite the pain, in fact the only indicator that he was in pain was the frown on his face as he kept fighting in an evasive manner that required massive amounts of stamina.

Though the fighting seemed to shape up more and more over time, he could feel himself getting more and more tired while the opponent seemed to just brush of the hits with anger in her eyes as she was trying to grab or hit him, but everything was avoided by a hairs breadth.

- Fight analyzed, finishing touches applied, terminating opponent.

As requiem made the report, during the 57th punch to Alexandria's jaw he saw her eyes growing dull while she looked dizzy. He, Requiem, followed up with two more hits which sent her unconscious, but before she fell she threw a punch to his chest which was traded for the punches to her jaw.

His chest caved in when he got hit and he flew 15 meters into a tree where he landed and muttered;

"So that's a low chance of victory for ya… Certainly…" As he fainted once again, after a fight while essentially in a state of anemia he had exerted himself way too much, but luckily, he recovered and woke up quickly thanks to his recovery abilities, though when he woke up he found Alexandria staring at him from where she fell down.

"From what I've seen, you're indeed strong enough to contend with me, and you're… fitting"

What do you mean fitting…?

- No idea.

Requiem interrupted his train of thought as Alexandria continued;

"If you don't give me back my bloodline, you're going to have to take responsibility, and become my servant."

"What would that entail?"

"You're awfully well spoken for a mere peasant… you would have to pledge your life in my service and follow my every command."

"No thanks."

"You don't have a choice."

"Then do you want to fight?"

"… It's an honor to become my servant, I'm of the bloodstone family line, a very pureblooded vampire family, and …"

"Then why is there only around 10% pure blood in your veins?" He interrupted

She frowned and said begrudgingly "10% purity is already a lot, its taboo to drink other vampires blood, so their blood percentage is stored in a register, and the pure vampire blood is turning thinner every generation, not to mention a vampire's large lifespan, they usually don't even have 30% of the purity of their parents, the only ones allowed to drink vampire blood are already married vampires, and even then, its only from their own spouse.

There's also the ones that breed outside the pureblooded vampire families, and so thin the bloodline by dirtying the inherent blood of pureblooded vampires with inferior species. The nobles will kill you if they find you and you don't have a family name, if you join my family as a servant I can give you the bloodstone name. as long as you never mention my loss to an inferior existence."

"So I'm inferior, because I've got a thin bloodline, I've committed a crime, and since you cant kill me you want to enslave me so as to avoid trouble with the 'nobles', is that right?"

"… it's an honor to..."

"I already heard you, I don't care how much 'honor' there is in this servant position you mention, but ultimately I'll end up without a free will because of your own accident and bound to follow you am I wrong?"

"… No, you're not wrong…"

well it's not really your fault though...

"Then I'm leaving… let the nobles come" He turned around and began walking away.

"WAIT! …"

She seemed to contemplate what to do before sighing dramatically; these nobles must be pretty strong for her to be this vexed...

"They will kill us both, you because you broke a taboo, and me because of my weakness, if you became my servant I could get out of it by saying I did it to have a useful servant to do my bidding, and it wouldn't garner as harsh a punishment as death…"

She frowned as she got to this point;

"The only other option is for us to marry each other, but marrying would be akin to ripping open a bee nest with your bare hands; you would be left with another problem at your hands by simply using this option, marriages are permanent in vampire culture, so any death, outside of wars would result in your spouse being killed off so you could go to the afterlife together…"

what a wierd metaphor.. what a wierd culture.

"What a pain… can't you just not mention me or something?"

"They test your bloodline every 10 years to make sure you haven't broken their rules, at the same time you would register any new vampires, if avoided you would be a rogue vampire, which are hunted and eventually killed for sport, you can only be referred by another vampire and then take their family name. Because of the deficiency in my bloodline because of your greed, any vampire death would be thoroughly investigated.

Therefore leaving us out to dry would eventually result in the demise of both of us, but if you're that adamant about your free will, there's only marriage and then death through conquest."

"Then what happens to the bloodline gained from rogue vampires? it can't possibly be enough?"

"it has to be properly recorded that it is not a member of the families, and they would then be able to use that bloodline to strengthen their own, there are also regular wars with other vampire domains where bloodline is collected from the battlefields."

"So you're willing to marry me solely because I won't return your bloodline and you aren't strong enough to take it back yourself?"

"It is shameful for family vampires that aren't even strong enough to defend their own bloodline from weaker opponents, to the degree where they get killed and their bloodline is stored in a bloodline bank, which would spread it among the most prestigious families to strengthen their bloodlines, based off of merit, this is to strengthen the race."

"Haah… is it impossible to escape these nobles then?"

"It might be, but vampires can inherently smell bloodline, and yours smells of mine, which would make you easy to track, no matter what you do there are only two choices available for long term survival."