I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Night time.

Location: Great Sand Sea, Western Desert of Egypt.

The desert stretched endlessly under a canopy of stars, the dunes glowing silver beneath the moonlight. Lucian and Mickey moved through the darkness, their figures barely visible against the pale sand.

Mickey raised his hand, wind mana swirling around his palm. Fwooooosh. A gentle current lifted them both into the air, carrying them silently over the dunes like ghosts. Mickey’s control over wind manipulation — copied from a dead beast tamer — was crude but effective. They floated toward a cluster of lights flickering in the distance.

A hidden Khalfani Cartel base.

Lucian’s crimson eyes narrowed as the compound came into view. It was massive — multiple buildings arranged in a rough semicircle, gambling dens with neon lights, storage facilities with reinforced doors, and at the far end, long, low structures with barred windows. Blood farms. The stench of suffering clung to the air even from this distance.

A system notification flashed before Lucian’s eyes.

[System Quest: Locate the Apep family base.]

[Reward: 30,000 SC, Blood Sense range +100m]

[System Quest: Destroy the Apep family.]

[Reward: 50,000 SC, Bloodline Seal -2%, Blood Art Spell: Blood Domain]

Lucian dismissed the notifications. Two guards patrolled the eastern perimeter — both Neophyte Realm, judging by the faint mana signatures. They held standard mana-powered firearms, their eyes scanning the desert nervously.

One guard’s eyes widened. He spotted them floating above. "Hey! Up th—"

Lucian disappeared. Flick. A blur of silver and crimson. The guard’s sentence died in his throat — literally. Slash. Slash. Two heads left two bodies. They crumpled to the sand silently. Thud. Thud.

Lucian reappeared, flicking blood from his fingertips. "Just a few Neophyte Realm rats."

Mickey landed them both behind a storage building. Tap. Tap. Their feet touched the sand. Lucian extended his Blood Sense, the world lighting up in his mind like a thermal map. Signatures pulsed everywhere. Over 400. More than a 100 were clustered in the blood farm buildings — humans, enchained, their heartbeats weak and irregular. The rest were scattered across the compound — gambling, drinking, counting credits, laughing.

"I count over four hundred," Lucian murmured. "A hundred plus are captives in the blood farms. The rest are cartel members."

Mickey’s jaw tightened. "Blood farms?"

"Human cattle," Lucian said flatly. "For the Apeps."

Mickey’s new crimson eyes darkened as he understood. Afterall, Lucian gave the gist of what he knew of the vampires. "What’s the plan?"

"Fly us up," Lucian said. "Above the compound."

Mickey nodded. Wind mana gathered around them again. Fwooooosh. They rose into the night sky, hovering fifty meters above the compound. Below, the cartel members continued their business — oblivious.

Lucian clapped his hands together. Clap.

Light mana surged. The air above the compound ignited with brilliance. Multiple giant light blades materialized in the air — each one five meters long, blazing with concentrated radiance. They hung in formation like swords of judgment. Simultaneously, glowing light cubes formed around the blood farm buildings, sealing them off — shielding the enslaved humans from what was about to happen.

The people below looked up.

The blinding light reflected in dozens of pairs of eyes.

"WHAT IS THAT—"

"An attack! We’re under—"

An Early Grand Core Realm master in the central building sensed the danger. His mana flared as he lunged toward the door, screaming a warning. "EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE—"

Too late.

Lucian swung his hand downward.

The giant light blades fell.

BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!

Explosions ripped through the compound. Buildings imploded. Crash. Shatter. Crack. Gambling dens collapsed into rubble. Storage facilities blew apart, sending debris flying. Fire erupted from ruptured mana lines. Dozens died instantly — vaporized, crushed, shredded by light shrapnel.

The compound erupted into chaos.

Survivors scrambled over rubble, screaming. Some fought back, firing mana blasts upward. Zap. Zap. Mickey descended, wind swirling around his arms. Fwooooosh. He swept through a group of Mid Core realm fighters, wind blades extending from his palms. Slash. Slash. Slash. Three bodies fell in pieces.

Lucian walked calmly through the carnage. A survivor lunged at him with a machete. Lucian flicked his wrist. A light blade materialized and split the man from shoulder to hip. Squelch. Another charged from behind. Lucian didn’t turn. A blood spike erupted from the ground, impaling the attacker through the chest. Shhhhk. The body hung, twitching, then slid off.

More Core Realm fighters rushed Lucian from three directions. Lucian raised his hand. Mental energy gathered between his palm and his target. Mind Spikes launched simultaneously.

Zzzng. Zzzng. Zzzng.

All three fighters froze mid-step. Their eyes rolled back. Blood poured from their noses and ears. They collapsed — minds destroyed, bodies intact but empty.

More attackers came. Lucian condensed the blood around him — from the dead, from the wounded, from the sand itself — and shaped it into dozens of razor-sharp spikes. Fwish. Fwish. Fwish. The blood spikes launched outward in every direction, piercing through the incoming fighters with brutal efficiency. Bodies dropped like puppets with cut strings.

Meanwhile, Mickey was carving his own path through the survivors. He had copied a flame ability from a dead fighter, and now he combined it with his wind manipulation. Fire spiraled around wind blades, creating roaring tornadoes of flame that swept through clusters of cartel soldiers. Fwooooosh. Crackle. Crack. Screams followed.

SZZZZZK!

A powerful lightning strike descended from above, hurtling toward Lucian and Mickey with blinding speed. Lucian’s eyes snapped upward. He raised both hands. A barrier of solid light materialized above them. FWOOM. The lightning crashed into the barrier. Crack. Crack. The barrier fractured under the pressure but held.

Three figures descended from the sky, landing in a triangle formation around Lucian and Mickey. The sand exploded beneath their feet. BOOM. Two Early Grand Core Realm cultivators flanked the sides. In the center stood a tall, muscular man with a shaved head and a scar running from his temple to his jaw. His entire body crackled with golden lightning.

Primordial Sight activated.

Name: Commander Farouk Khalfani

Race: Human

Cultivation: Mid Grand Core Realm

Ability: A-Rank Lightning Manipulation

The surrounding cartel members — those still alive — fled in terror, scrambling over rubble and each other. This had become a fight between Grand Core masters, and anyone with half a brain knew that staying meant death.

Lucian immediately established a telepathic link with Mickey. Bzzzt. "Handle the two Early Grand Core masters."

Mickey’s eyes widened through the link. "I just broke through. I’m still—"

"With your vampire physiology, you should have no problem," Lucian cut in coldly. "If you can’t even handle two Early Grand Core masters simultaneously, then you don’t have the right to the powers I bestowed you."

Mickey’s jaw tightened. His crimson eyes hardened. Wind and fire mana swirled around him.

"Fine," Mickey said, his voice carrying a predatory edge.

He launched toward the two Early Grand Core masters. Fwooooosh. Wind accelerated his body to blinding speeds. The first master — a burly man with earth manipulation — raised a stone wall. Mickey’s flaming wind blade carved through it like paper. Slash. Shatter. The master staggered back, eyes wide.

The second master — a woman with water manipulation — fired a barrage of pressurized water spears. Pew. Pew. Pew. Mickey twisted mid-air, wind currents deflecting the spears. He copied her ability on contact — his Perfect Copy activating instantly — and fired her own water spears back at her with twice the force. Pew. Pew. Pew. She raised a water shield. Splash. It shattered under the enhanced barrage. One spear pierced her shoulder. Shhhhk. She screamed.

Mickey pressed forward, combining three abilities simultaneously — wind for speed, fire for offense, water for versatility. His new body was now able to handle the strain of using three abilities simultaneously.

Lucian turned to face Farouk Khalfani.

The man’s lightning-coated fists crackled. His scar twisted as he sneered. "You’ve made a big mistake coming here, boy. This is Khalfani territory."

Lucian drew the black greatsword from his shadow storage — the undead skeleton’s weapon from the C-Rank dungeon. The blade was enormous, heavier than it looked, radiating a faint death energy that mixed with Lucian’s own crimson aura.

"You talk too much," Lucian said.

Farouk’s eyes narrowed. Lightning erupted from his body. CRACK! BZZZZT! A barrage of lightning strikes rained down from above — ten, twenty, thirty bolts, each one capable of reducing a Core Realm cultivator to ash.

Lucian planted his feet. Sword Intent flared along the greatsword’s edge — a dark, shimmering light. He infused it with the Eclipse Sword Art.

"First Form — Falling Stars."

SWISH. SWISH. SWISH.

Multiple slashes of condensed sword intent launched from the blade, each one trailing a ribbon of dark light. They sliced through the lightning barrage, bisecting the bolts like they were made of paper. Crack. Crack. Shatter. The sword intent continued toward Farouk, cutting through the air.

Farouk’s eyes widened. He moved — lightning speed, his body becoming a blur of golden light. Fzzzt. He dodged the first slash, ducked under the second, twisted past the third.

But Lucian was already beside him.

Light Acceleration. Flick.

The greatsword descended toward Farouk’s head. The edge gleamed with dark light — Heaven’s Severance flickering along the blade, distorting the space around it.

Farouk barely twisted away. The blade missed his skull by a centimeter, shearing through the air where his head had been. SWISH. The shockwave alone sent cracks spiderwebbing across the ground beneath them.

BOOM.

Farouk scrambled backward, creating ten meters of distance in a heartbeat. His breathing was heavier as sweat beaded on his forehead. His eyes — previously arrogant and dismissive — were now sharp with genuine fear.

He stared at Lucian. The silver-haired boy stood calmly, the massive black greatsword resting on his shoulder, crimson eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.

Farouk’s frown deepened. "Who are you? What do you want?"