Draconic Vampire: Curse of the Blood - Chapter 126

The summon of the vampire lady resembled a large bat that had two large horns on its head. It was twice the size of Keith and the speed at which it attacked him was not something to scoff at. For its size, the summon was incredibly fast and agile.

But the opponent of the summon was not any ordinary vampire either. Having evolved his blood core to the viscount stage and the warrior frame to the count stage, Keith’s physical power was way over the viscount stage, be it speed or strength.

Tossing the large bat to the ground, Keith struck its vital points trying to wear it down. The bat struggled and tried to use its legs to attack Keith. In front of a count level, the bat couldn’t do anything.

Still, Keith never used his full power up until now so the bat could somewhat manage. Turning its head, the bat shot out blueish liquid from its mouth. Keith dodged it without a problem but upon contact to the ground, the liquid melted the floor.

“Corrosive poison, huh? I need to shut your mouth.”

Keith grabbed the bat’s head and closed its mouth. Applying more pressure on the grip, Keith cracked the bones of the bat. Then he grabbed one of the horns and used all his force to rip it apart.

Graaaah!

“Stop!” The lady vampire attacked from behind with the other male vampire aiding her.

The two figures lunged at him simultaneously while Keith was holding the bat. They thought now that Keith was in a position where he couldn’t let go of the bat. And the attack was well coordinated as the two vampires attacked from opposite directions.

[Looks like I got my answer. Viscounts are much weaker now. I thought they would entertain me for longer, alas…]

Keith used the same technique he used multiple times while fighting the ghouls.

Boom!

A horn pierced the male vampire and he dropped to the floor. The lady vampire was hit with her summon and blasted away, hitting the other side of the wall. Keith walked up to the lady and picked her up.

Holding her elbow, he dragged her to the middle of the room and kneeled down.

“I didn’t even use my full power to not kill you. You should listen to me when you have the luxury to, otherwise, I will take much more important things from you than just coins.” Keith whispered in her ears while ŀɨċkɨnġ his lips.

A viscount level vampire had a tremendous amount of blood-qi and unlike the ghouls, the life energy that could be converted efficiently was much higher. The system knew that a ghoul’s corrupted blood-qi was much harder to distill than the blood-qi of other vampires.

It all came down to the relative structure of life energy. While the corrupted blood-qi was abundant, due to the significant change in attribute, it was harder to absorb and most of it gets absorbed by the surroundings in the process of conversion.

Ghouls were bloodthirsty and didn’t have a clear mind. Sure, the higher-level ghouls were somewhat intelligent, but the corrupted blood-qi was the reason they couldn’t control their instincts.

The corrupted blood-qi was a chaotic type of life energy that feeds off of a vampire’s primal dėsɨrės and takes it to another level. The physique changes and vampires slowly turn into ghouls.

There are many ways to trigger the corrupted blood-qi creation. If a vampire mindlessly consumed blood and killed other species, the primal instinct solidifies more, and the process of corrupted blood-qi creation starts in their body. But it is too slow and any experienced vampires could eliminate the corrupted blood-qi by abstaining from killing and consuming blood or forcing the corrupted blood-qi out.

It also takes a lot of time for the corrupted blood-qi to form. So unless the vampire deliberately commits these atrocities, the chances of a vampire turning into a ghoul this way are almost impossible.

The other way a vampire could become a ghoul is when a blood ritual goes wrong. This is also not very prevalent as the blood ritualists are usually careful enough to not cause any disaster, but once in a while, these accidents occur and the blood-qi gets chaotic all of a sudden, hence turning the vampire into a ghoul.

All of these are just a small portion of the ghoul population. The majority of the ghouls were humans who were forcefully converted without supervision. That’s why it’s forbidden to turn humans without the approval of the vampire council.

As the ghouls have the same amount of lifespan, most of the powerful ghouls are centuries or even thousand-year-old powerhouses. Humans don’t live much longer and they create more of them every year. So almost all the new ghouls that are being turned right now are humans.

Keith couldn’t get the amount of blood essence from the ghouls of the same level. A vampire’s blood was very precious especially if the vampire was a viscount. So Keith had all the reasons to find dumb vampires who would throw themselves at him just so he could extract their blood from them.

If the lady in front of him denied his offer, Keith would bid his time and when she leaves the academy, he will absorb her blood-qi to compensate for all this. He won’t kill her but if she loses enough blood-qi, she can’t sustain her viscount stage for much longer.

‘How is she going to respond?’ He thought.

“This is the money I had saved to buy artifacts, you can’t take them away from me.” She retorted as tears started forming at the corner of her eyes.

“Then collect it again. Not like you are going to die tomorrow unless you want to?” Keith glared back.

Shivering from the intense gaze finally lowered her head and took out her treasury card. As Keith was about to grab it, a hand interfered in between. The presence was stronger than Keith and he knew who it was.

“Miss. Shaw, why are you interfering with the student’s business? I didn’t hurt her… well it’s not excessive.” Keith looked at the figure opposite to him.

“You cheeky brat! Just because you are a genius and everyone treats you well doesn’t mean you can go around wreaking havoc. I don’t care what Feud you have with her, but you are damaging my properties. Secondly, she is your senior. Even if you are powerful enough to beat her, there are many who are more powerful than you. Try to restrain yourself otherwise you will find yourself in a very bad situation.” Miss. Shaw shook his head while looking at the damage.

“I can handle all of that as long as the staff doesn’t interfere. Can’t you sense my power?” Keith replied back.

Miss. Shaw could see the count-level aura coming from Keith and it was very dense, almost solidifying on the edges. Saying that she was surprised would be an understatement. Never in her life had she encountered such a vampire let alone a student who could reach the count level in their first year.

Still, she had to uphold her responsibility. She couldn’t let this kind of fight happen inside the hunter’s office.

“They are in the wrong, but that doesn’t mean you should take all their stuff. I would’ve interfered if your roles were reversed. ” She replied calmly.

“I want my compensation one way or another. You say I can’t fight them inside the hunter office, but what about outside? What about the next mission when they go to the blood forest again? If you want to interfere and save them, then you have to compensate on behalf of them. And I will take the equal amount of gold blood coins that these three have. If you agree to this, I will drop the matter, or their futures will be very dark.” Keith stood up with a snort.

Miss. Shaw shook his head and glared at the three vampires who started all this. Gard, the receptionist, already informed her that the trio started it first. She was hoping they would come to an agreement, but nobody was backing down.

“Fine! I will give you the compensation, but what about the damage? Are you telling me to let you go after you wrecked this place?” She said in an angry voice.

“Well, if they kept their mouth shut this wouldn’t have happened.” Keith shrugged.

“Not a useful explanation. I will deduct an equal amount from both sides. What’s left, you can take as your compensation. Keith! Meet me at my office, now.” Miss. Shaw disappeared after saying this. Her aura lingered for a moment before disappearing.

Hmph!

Keith didn’t look at the lady and turned around to leave the waiting room. The receptionist followed him from behind.

“Keith? I asked you to resolve the issue not to make it worse. Do you know the complications of this event and the actions you took? Miss. Shaw will kill me next time she sees my face.” He mumbled with a mad voice.

“Her office is this way right?” Keith pointed to a certain corridor.

“Yes, that’s her den. You are in a lot of trouble my friend. Good luck! ” He backed off and walked to the counter.

[Heh! She looked quite distressed when she asked me to come. I wonder what’s it all about?]

Keith slowly approached her chamber and the door opened as soon as he stood in front of it.