Blood Queen Reborn

There it was, the deathbat, flying mockingly in the sky. Seeing it again, his heart sank. His only grace was that the beast wasn’t flying towards him, but the source of the screech.

Fex slowly climbed his way down from the building, keeping a close eye on it. The deathbat flew away from the city, into the forest, and out of sight.

He let out a sigh of relief.

’Why’d I have to say all that about how I wouldn’t die here?’ Fex internally cursed to himself.

The good news was that since he was familiar with this planet, he could likely find a teleporter back to where he originally came from. The only problem was that he didn’t know where he was on this planet, as he had never seen these ruins before.

’Right, I use those teleporters and head back home. But what would my family think?’ Fex thought, ’I didn’t exactly tell them where I was going, or the fact that I was going at all.’

As Fex walked deeper into the decrepit, broken-down streets of the old human settlement, he heard scuttering in the distance. It didn’t sound like a human.

Something fast scurried between the buildings. Fex went to the wall of the nearest structure, leaned his back against it, and listened intently to the sounds the creature made. If this was the deathbat...

A stack of ruined crates shook, and a large rodent-like beast jumped out at him. It had black fur and pink muscular arms, yet it had a rather thin torso. The beast’s claws were outstretched, but Fex jumped to the side, avoiding it with ease.

He fired string at the rat-life beast, which embedded into its foreleg, and yanked it into the air, promptly slamming it into the ground.

The beast struggled against the string, nibbling at it to break free. Wasting no time Fex threw a blood swipe at its neck, killing it.

Fex was glad to have gotten a refill on blood right before he made the grand mistake of returning here, so it really wasn’t an issue if he used a few blood skills here and there. Oftentimes, he noticed that Erin seemed to be quite the inexperienced vampire, not having even the most basic of vampire equipment.

Knowing her, she might not even know that your average vampire needed to drink blood once every two days. She was going to need the blood in his flask, but it was all they had to feed off of.

As he observed the beast he just killed, he heard faint scuttering noises behind him. Turning around, he saw more beasts of the same type in a swarm.

"Just my luck..." Fex whined bitterly to himself, taking out several strings and whipped them about.

—

[8,155/400 EXP]

[Congratulations, you are now level 4]

[7,755/800 EXP]

[Congratulations, you are now level 5]

[6,955/1,600 EXP]

[New skill unlocked]

[Blood spray]

[Congratulations, you are now level 6]

[5,355/3,200 EXP]

[Congratulations, you are now level 7]

[HP 14/45]

[2,155/6400 EXP]

[You have gained 4 extra stat points]

Erin finally made it to the abandoned city, but on her way there, she came to a horrifying realization: Where was she meant to get her blood? How long could she stay without it?

She hadn’t test the limits of what being a vampire entailed in this specific aspect. She’d never dwelled on it for more than a few seconds as Erin was pretty much surrounded by humans.

Looking around, Erin spotted a building slightly better shape than the others. In the past, Erin lived on an orange portal planet, and one of the things she remembered was that an emergency portal to Earth would often be found in their sturdiest structure. This was a good sign.

She peered inside, but only found a horde of smallish beasts that looked like grotesque rats.

[Inspect]

[Rattaclaw]

[Basic tier beast]

[HP ???]

She tried to sneak inside, hoping they wouldn’t notice, but the horde heard her movements. Within moments, she was swarmed. A few jumped at her, but she cut them down with a blood swipe with one hand, and tore off the rats biting at her skin with the other.

[-1 HP]

[-2 HP]

[HP 11/45]

She quickened her pace, controlled her breathing, killing rataclaw after rataclaw, each with a few rapid swings of her sword. The numbers seemed endless. Another rattaclaw saw an opening and bit at her ankle, before she kicked it away and stabbed its head.

[-1 HP]

[HP 10/45]

After a long, drawn-out fight, Erin was breathing heavily as she looked around for more foes, only to realize she was surrounded by a pile of corpses. She collapsed onto the floor, exhausted. Ever since she arrived, she hadn’t gotten a break once. It was only now that she could finally catch a breather.

[10 basic tier Beast Rattaclaw has been defeated]

[1000 Exp granted]

[First basic tier beast killed]

[Bonus 200 Exp granted]

[First time killing Rattaclaw]

[100 Exp granted]

[3,455/6400 EXP]

The constant system pings were starting to get to her, annoyingly distracting in the heat of battle. If there was a way to silence the text chat sounds, then surely there had to be a way to remove those dings.

She exhaled, calming herself, and walked up to the body of a beast. At the very least, she could gather their beast crystals. If by some miracle she got off of this godforsaken planet, then at least it would’ve been somewhat worth her while.

[10 basic tier beast crystals obtained]

[Would you like to store them in your inventory?]

[Yes]

Looking around the structure, the coast was clear as she couldn’t hear any scurrying. It was a three-story tall building with stairs connecting the floors. Each level itself was very open, with only rubble and debris littering the floor.

Being able to catch a break now meant that she could finally think about how she was going to survive. She sat down cross-legged against a wall. Currently, her health was at 10/45, and once it reached 5 HP, her blood bank would auto-activate, healing her wounds. Her blood bank was still full, meaning she could heal up to 50 HP.

However, she wasn’t sure how much blood the system would consume when she started starving. Would it consume as much as possible to heal her to full health, or would it consume just enough to bring her above starvation?

More importantly, what would happen if she got injured by an attack beyond 5 HP?

Erin stared at the empty surroundings, the thought lingering a little too long.

Shaking her head, she decided to heal herself.

[HP 10/45]

[Blood bank has been activated]

[HP 45/45]

[30 milliliters remaining in blood bank]

’30 milliliters... That isn’t a lot...’ Erin thought to herself, ’but I did get a lot of health ever since I fought that one beast.’

So long as she made sure to play it safe, she would save the remaining blood in the bank for when she would eventually begin to starve.

Then Erin checked the new skill she had unlocked.

[Blood spray]

[The user’s palm must be open to perform this skill. From the user’s palm, a spray of blood pellets will be released spreading out covering a wide range. The closer the attack is to its target, the more damage it will do.]

[Costs -5 HP]

It was another skill that cost health, just like the bloodswipe, except this one used more. If she were in any other situation, Erin would’ve celebrated, but losing HP was the last thing she needed.

Now that this was dealt with, there was one last thing to check. She opened her system screen and looked at the chat tab.

{Quinn} Erin, Fex came in after you.

{Quinn} Let me know if you find him; he should be able to help you out.

{Quinn} Apparently, Peter has an explanation as to why he did all of this.

{Quinn} There’s something serious going on. He’s scared of something.

{Quinn} I don’t know what’s going on over there, but...

{Quinn} Please stay safe.

’Fex is here?’ Erin thought.

She hadn’t smelled him at all since she arrived. Then again, she wasn’t exactly focused on finding him.

’Wait, he has that flask!’

Erin recalled the assembly room incident and how he had a flask of blood on him. If he still had it on hand, then she wouldn’t have to worry about starving. The only issue was that the red portals teleported everything randomly within a 10-mile radius, so who knew where that sniffer was?

Speaking of, Erin glanced at her watch, telling her the time on earth. She would’ve definitely missed the curfew by now if she was still at military base 2.

{Erin} I’m fine for now, but I haven’t seen Fex.

{Erin} You better have given that backstabbing rat a beating for what he was about to do to you.

Once Erin had sent those messages, she continued to mull over her situation. The idea of being dependent on Fex for blood wasn’t one she liked. There was a chance that the two might not meet in time.

’There has to be an alternative,’ Erin thought.

Looking at the black blood on her clothes, she sniffed it, only to recoil at the stench. Ever since she became a halfling, blood had smelled sweet and tasted better than anything she’d ever tasted before, but the scent of beast blood couldn’t even compare for a second.

But... desperate times call for desperate measures...

[Inspect]

[Rattaclaw blood]

[Beast blood is poisonous to the body if consumed. -1 HP for every millimeter of blood consumed]

Erin frowned.

Suddenly, she got a new notification.

{Quinn} You’re still alive!

{Erin} Of course I am, I’m not going to give that guy the satisfaction of almost killing you.

{Quinn} Peter didn’t want to do it, he was forced into it.

{Erin} And?

{Erin} I swear it, when I get out of here, I’m going to give him payback for what he has done.

{Quinn} Have you really not seen Fex?

{Erin} That sniffing guy? No, I haven’t seen him the entire time I’ve been here.

{Quinn} Really?

{Erin} I’m going to look around for him.

{Quinn} I want to help, but it’s curfew, so please stay alive for as long as possible.

{Erin} I don’t need a reminder; I was going to anyway.

Erin then went up the stairs of the structure, which took a while since the place was broken down and rocks blocked passage to certain areas. When she made it to the final staircase leading to the roof, she opened the door outside and looked around.

Along the adjacent street were several buildings, including one that had the school’s crest displayed on it.

That specific building was two stories tall and in better shape than the other around it. Back at military base 2’s city, there was a similar structure that stored high-end equipment, ability books, skill books, and beast weapons.

Erin gripped her sword. It was intermediate tier, but maybe... just maybe... she could get a better one there.

And the place could have a teleporter.