《I Became A Zompirewolf》 Chapter 1 - Bite (1) Location: Earth Year: 3100 Designation: Lost Cause That''s how the situation of the world hade to be. A virus was all it took to stop the world from going in the direction it was supposed to. Humans were once the proud upants of the, but now they had been turned into ves. The catastrophe struck a century ago, yet to the humans, it felt like yesterday. It was a normal day, nothing unusual was happening. People were going about their daily work... when ''it'' happened. A virus of unknown origin was released simultaneously in three different parts of the world in countries formally known as the USA, Russia and Indonesia. No one was aware of what this virus was, but those who came into contact with the virus changed, and the virus changed a lot of people. Almost 70% to be precise. However, the change wasn''t the same all over the world. The patients in America turned into a bunch of undead, but they weren''t anything like the mindless ones which the pop culture was filled with. These undead did not crave brains and weren''t weak at all. Far from it, they were agile, intelligent and had super strength. It didn''t take much time for them to spread like wildfire and forced the rulers of the country to flee and you know things have gotten bad when one of the superpowers had to abandon the nation However, as a departing gift to the undead, the POTUS activated the nuclear football to nuke his own country. If they couldn''t have their country then no one could. But even that did not seem to affect the undead much, if at all. In fact, radiation from the nukes only further stimted their evolution. Not to mention how many innocent people end up dying because of that. But Americans weren''t the only ones dealing with such a problem. In Russia, thanks to the virus, the Vampires had awakened to take control from the mortals because they were ''bored'' from being in slumber for so long. Something simr happened in Indonesia and Werewolves came into being. Soon the world that was run by humans had turned into a world full of monsters leaving no other choice for mankind to leave the as soon as they could. But not everyone was able to board the spaceships and as a result, more the 85% of the remaining human poption was left on the for them to suffer. It had been a century since that event and now the humans were slowly multiplying again. But this happened under strict surveince and to serve a certain purpose... as livestock. The new rulers of the world had an appetite for only one thing, human flesh and blood. Although the undead didn''t require to eat in order to live, the powerful families amongst the undead considered having human flesh for sustenance as a luxury and often organised ''hunts'' to obtain the meat. The cold ones weren''t much different from them either. They too liked to hunt just as much as the undead from the west. But they had to do it for sustenance rather than fun. Unlike the Undead, they needed to consume human blood regrly or else they would get weaker and weaker from hunger. The Lycans were an exception to this human-eating rule. Although some of them enjoyed human flesh, most of them only sustained themselves on the flesh from other mutated animals. This type of Lycans who did not consume the flesh of the humans were known as vegetarians in theirmunity. "We should be thankful we were born in an area belonging to the Lycans." An old man said in his frail voice, "Or else, our fate could have been far worse than it is now." A crowd of youngsters had gathered around the old man to listen to his tale while they waited for the others to cook food. After all, they did not have much to do there anyway. The Lycans were kind enough to give them shelter, food, and utilities so they were better off than the nearby zones that were governed by undeads and cold ones respectively. "If this area belongs to the Lycans, then why do we have other factions here?" One of the kids excitedly asked. "You have a sharp head, young one." The old man smiled wanly, "About 50 years ago, the three great lords of each faction met to discuss a treaty to avoid fighting amongst themselves. ording to that, each of the regions would have to establish two embassies for the other two factions to live in. That way, they would be able to live in peace while also being under each other''s watchful eye." In a distance, Ashton Fenrir, was watching the rest of themughing and smiling. They had already heard this tale so many times and yet they keep listening to the same stories again and again as if they couldn''t see the walls that surrounded them, or the guards who stood on top of the thick walls keeping an eye on them. With them being ready to kill anyone shall they misbehave in their presence. Standing 5'' 6" tall, this brown-skinned man had a dismissive feel about him. A particrly notable feature on his face was his faint freckles and his elbow-length white hair. He also had a fresh,rge bruise on his left foot which he is proud of. Of course, he would be proud of the bruise that he got from defying the orders of those beasts. In his long arms was an earthen bowl that had been empty for a while as a punishment for his actions. Ashton was used to being hungry because he would rather be punished than obey themand of the monsters who took his parents away four years ago. His short torso and bony hips were proof that he hadn''t been feeding for quite some time. The others wanting to please the Lycans always ostracized him. All of them wanted to be on the good side of their ''master'' or else, their master would have given them away as present to the cold ones or even worse, the undead. "Keep sucking their paws you fools." Ashton spat out in anger before smashing the earthen bowl on the ground, breaking it into pieces, "A couple of hours more and I''ll leave this ce to join the resistance.. That''s when you will realise it was me you all should have sided with." Chapter 2 - Bite (2) The resistance... that was the only thing that kept Ashton going nowadays. Just the thought of somehow taking revenge for what the Lycans did to his parents calmed his raging nerves. About a month ago, he had identally overheard the guards talking about the resistance and how they are bing more and more troublesome now. Before then, he waspletely oblivious about the existence of such an organisation which was to be expected since they lived in the enclosure, they rarely if ever received any news from the outside world. Ever since that day, Ashton had made it a point to try and get more information about the resistance from the ever so careless guards. After snooping for a month, he was able to get a rough location of where their base was located. He wanted to snoop more and gather as much information as he could, but unfortunately, he was out of time. ''If only it wasn''t for this mark...'' Ashton thought while scratching the tattoo of the werewolves on his right shoulder before looking out of the window as the moon shined with all its glory. He had already been ''marked'' by the ones who owned him. In the enclosure, it was nothing less than an honour to have the mark. The mark symbolised that the one had been chosen to live as a werewolf for the rest of his life, that is after spending 16 years as a human being. Ashton was marked the day his parents were taken away by the Lycans to send as an offering to the undead and the cold ones respectively. Ashton still remembered the tears of his mother and the screams of his father as they were being taken away. He remembered how no one helped them. He remembered the feeling of despair he had back then. In that despair, heshed out for the first time. The then 12-year-old Ashton picked up a baton that one of the soldiers had left behind while dragging his parents out, and rushed over to them. To this day, he still didn''t know how he was able to do it, but he remembered jumping higher than he ever had, his fingers tightly wrapped around the baton. And then... his memory was hazy. He remember hearing a voice but he wasn''t so sure what he heard. The next thing he remembered, was that the guard had his skull split open while he had a bloodied baton grasped around his hand. All of this happened right in front of the ''Mistress''. The Alpha werewolf who was their owner. He still remembered her smile as she looked at him. Her ruby eyes were shining as if she had found some kind of treasure. It was the same day she ''marked'' him. Back then Ashton didn''t know what was happening to him. But remembered a hot rod of iron searing his flesh. It had been almost four years since then, and it was his 16th birthday in five days. Meaning in five days he would be taken away from the enclosure to be turned into a weremutt and serve the mistress which was supposedly a great ''honour'' for his kind. ''Honour, my a.ss. I won''t be anyone''s ve.'' Ashton thought as he waited for everyone to sleep. Once they were asleep only then he could enact his n to escape. Thankfully, he did not need to wait for long because it was a full moon that night. On the night of the full moon, the usual guards were reced by the ''voluntary guards'' as the werewolves could not tolerate being out in full moon. It made them lose themselves to their primal nature which wasn''t good for anyone, thus they preferred to stay indoors. As for the voluntary guards, they were nothing but humans who abandoned their kind to serve the strong, even though they were treated like absolute sh.it by the Lycans. They were possibly the only ones whom Ashton detested even more than the Lycans. ''Time to move.'' Ashton slowly crawled off his bed and took a sack that he had already prepared. There wasn''t much inside the sack, a couple of bottles of water and a few protein bars which he got using his status as a marked one from the guards a couple of weeks ago. He also had a rope with a small hook attached to it that was his ''weapon'' as well as a utility tool to help him climb the walls. With all that equipment, he was ready to leave. But his luck ran out as soon as he stepped out of his quarters. Because he ran into the captain of the Voluntary guards, Gustavo Volga. Standing 6'' 0" tall, this dark-skinned man had an authoritative feel about him. He was covered in ck gears from head to toe which helped him camouge with the darkness around. One of the most notable features of his face was therge brown scar on his nose that covered the entire lower half of his square face. His ears wererge and pointy, much like that of the Lycans. He had medium-length, wavy, brown hair which was left un-styled, while he wore his beard in a goatee. He also had a tattoo on his palm, signifying that he was a proud ve of the Lycans. Behind him were a dozen other men that consisted of his patrolling team. Ashton knew this man very well because he was once the closest friend of his father and also the one to betray him. Ashton felt nothing but disgust towards this man and the way he acted all friendly with him despite knowing that Ashton hated him with all his being. "Prettyte for a night stroll, Ashton." Gustavo smiled at him, "Where are you going with all that baggage either way? For your sake, I hope you are not nning something as stupid as your father?" "Why? Are you nning to out me and get another promotion, backstabber?" Ashton snapped at him. "Woah... easy there, little fe. As for your question, I absolutely will, if I feel the need to." Gustave replied while brandishing the badge on his left shoulder, "You have been honoured with a mark and for your sake, I hope you will honour it as well." "Yeah, yeah, now leave me alone. I have to train. I only have five days to build myself up as much as I can before they take me away." Ashton spat on his feet before heading towards the gym that was used by the Voluntary guards as well as him. It was one of the other perks of being marked. Ashton got to use their resources whenever he wanted. Not like he used them often. "Another fool, just like his father...." Gustavo shook his head and moved on with his patrolling team. Chapter 3 - Bite (3) "This is not good... not good at all!" Ashton gritted his teeth trying to fight through the pain he was in. Ashton wanted to scream but he couldn''t afford to. After using the gym building as a cover, he was sessfully able to get out of the enclosure after climbing the walls. However, the happiness he felt was short-lived as he got stuck afterwards. He had a great n in his mind but there was one thing he hadn''t ounted forpletely: Traps. The enclosure was surrounded by more than a hundred traps to keep the monsters away from the precious human food. Yup, there were monsters in the world apart from werewolves, vampires and zombies. As just like they evolved from humans who came in contact with the virus, some animals were exposed to the virus as well. These animals mutated into numerous kinds of monsters. Some were so dangerous even the werewolves were a bit hesitant to mess with. And the favourite meal of these monsters? Human flesh of course. It had been more than a century since humans were on the top of the food chain, and now they rejoiced their ce at the bottom with not even the nts being below them. Even the food they ate in the enclosure was specially made for them right from the scratch. Ashton thought he knew about all of the locations where the traps had been hidden. Apparently, he was wrong and was stuck in one of those traps. Luckily he was far away from the enclosure for anyone to see him, but that also worked against him. Since he couldn''t be seen, it was unlikely the guards would be able to see the night creatures either. Which meant, if he was to get attacked, there wasn''t anything anyone could have done to save him. Even his makeshift weapon would not be enough to help him out of the mess he was in right now. Not to mention, he was bleeding hard. The sharp teeth of the bear trap had dug themselves deep within his foot. But the pain he was suffering wasn''t the only cause of his worry. Ashton was worried more because of the blood he was leaking. As far as he had heard, the night creatures had a highly sensitive sense of smell and human blood was something they all craved for. Thus, he was like a sitting target for the night creatures. At this point, he was even contemting cutting his leg off, however, he did not have any weapons to do that. Heck, even if he did had the tools, what good would cutting his leg off, do to him? He would get free from the trap, but what next? In fact, sacrificing his limbs would do him more harm than good as chopping his leg down would make him bleed even more. Hence attracting more night creatures and fending them off with one leg did not seem to be a good idea either. In a way, he was better off with the trap chomping on his leg, at least while sitting he would be able to defend himself better rather than while hopping on one leg. While all these scenarios were ying inside his head, he heard a noiseing from behind. He tried to look back but his leg did not allow him to turn back enough to see what was going on. However, the moon was shining above him and with the help of the moonlight, Ashton was able to see the shadow of the figure approaching him. Judging by the shadow, it was most likely to be one of the guards. A feeling of relief sshed over his face. As much as he wanted to escape from that ce, dying was much worse than living as a captive. The guards would save him and take him back. It went without saying that he would be punished for trying to escape. However, since he had been personally marked by the mistress, he would probably not receive any harsh punishment. "Can you please get this trap off my feet- Oh no! Stay away!" Ashton''s eyes widened in horror as the figure got closer to him. The smell of rotting flesh entered his nostrils. There was no mistaking it, his blood had attracted an undead to him. But what was the undead doing here? It was Lycan territory. Undead and vampires were not allowed to step foot there. However, there was no denying that there was an undead standing behind him. Ashton struggled to get the hooked rope out of his bag at least have something to defend himself with. But before he could do anything, the undead grabbed his head and mmed it hard on the ground. Blood spewed out of Ashton''s mouth as soon as his head was mmed against the rocky terrain. Following the attack, a constant ringing sound flooded his ears while his vision got blurry. Even in his state of confusion, Ashton could feel a gust of wind brush across his exposed head as blood drizzled out of his head as well. Ashton saw the creature effortlessly rip the bear trap off of his feet with its bare hand before lifting him. Through his blurry vision, he got the first look at his assant. The undead appeared to be a teenager just like him and had green eyes. The hairs on his head were falling off from ces, just like the clothes on his pale greenish skin. He was shorter and thinner than Ashton, yet he had strength that Ashton didn''t. Before Ashton could see anything else, the undead bit him hard on the shoulder and tore off arge piece of flesh from there. Ashton wanted to scream in pain but his body didn''t even have enough energy left to scream. His mind slowly turned foggy as his vision got darker and darker. ''So this the end...'' Ashton thought as the memories from this life started shing before him. The undead was about to sink his teeth into his flesh again, but before that could happen, something pulled him out of the undead''s grasp and he was thrown away like a discarded toy.. He wanted to see who saved him but couldn''t as his visionpletely turned ck and he lost consciousness. Chapter 4 - Im A What? (1) Ashton woke up with a start. He could hear the howling sound of the winds as thick raindrops knocked on the window. He was a sweating mess, all of his clothes were drenched as if he had been outside in the rain and not sleeping in his bed. He looked around only to realise he was back in his bed. "How am I in my room?" Ashton mumbled, "Was it a nightmare?" As soon as he recalled what happened, and his heart started pumping crazily. He could feel the blood rushing through his veins. Strangely, he wasn''t in pain anymore. This made him think that maybe he really had a nightmare. But then again, he vividly remembered how he escaped from the enclosure only to run into an undead who bit him. The pain he felt back then, there was no way in hell it was just a nightmare. There was only one way to prove whether it was a nightmare or not. Ashton threw the nket off of himself to check himself for wounds. But there were none. Not a single scratch was on his body. His legs were fine, there were no signs of any harm done by the trap to him. He then touched his shoulder where the undead had bitten him, and sure enough, there was nothing there either. "I... was it really a nightmare?" Ashton mumbled and jumped out of his bed and looked underneath it, the supplies he had been saving for weeks, were gone, "There is no way in hell I hallucinated about gathering those things." The absence of the sack full of items seemed to make him believe that what happened was indeed true and not a nightmare. He could feel something was off but he couldn''t point out what. Everything contradicted itself. His missing supplies pointed at him leaving the enclosure as he had nned and remembered, but theck of wounds on his body said otherwise. Ashton couldn''t think of anything that could possibly exin what had happened there. All of a sudden, he remembered someone saved him from the clutches of the undead. Maybe it was that person who brought him back there. But even if that was true, it wouldn''t exin the disappearance of his wounds. He went back to his bed. His Head had begun hurting because of all the thinking he had been doing. But in his panicked state, he hadn''t noticed something blinking in front of his eyes. No, it wasn''t like he hadn''t noticed it, he thought his eyes were ying tricks on him because he got up too quickly. But now that he was back in bed and the thing keep blinking in front of his eyes, he could no longer ignore it. "What is it?" Ashton tried to touch whatever the yellow blinking thing was, but his hand phased right through it, "So annoying! Just get out of my sight already!" [Calibration in progress...] All of a sudden, his head started pounding like crazy. He was fine just now but not anymore. He tightly wrapped his arms around the head trying to stop the pain. The pain soon spread from his head to his entire body. It left as if his body was being torn apart and put back together simultaneously. The endless cycle of pain continued. He could feel his bones break and then be joined together again. This kept going on until the yellow shining thing turned red and then turned ck. As soon as it turned ck, the pain he was going through stopped. He wasn''t sweating anymore. Nor were his bones out of ce. Even his heart wasn''t pounding anymore. While taking irregr breaths, Ashton ced the palm of his hand on his chest, to calm himself. But as soon as he did that he realised something. It wasn''t that his heart had stopped pounding... it had stopped beating altogether. He immediately jumped to check his pulse and he felt nothing there either. He started panicking again and as he did, some ck letters appeared in front of him. He had never seen those symbols before in his life but somehow he knew exactly what those symbols meant. [Transformation sessful!] [You have been turned into ] [Sending a petition to the administrator to resolve the issue...] [Petition rejected... initiating protocol.] [The system can resolve the issue itself...] [Issue resolved!] [You have inherited the genes from a and a ] [You have been turned into a Zompire Hybrid.] [Due to theplexity of your new DNA, it would take 7 days for your powers to manifest. Till then, you are free to live as a ] "What the hell is going on here!?" Ashton didn''t know what was going on as his heart started beating again and the ck icon hovering before his face turned yellow again. The day kept getting weirder and weirder with every passing second.. However, before Ashton could question anything else, a wave of drowsiness consumed him and he fell asleep. Chapter 5 - Im A What? (2) Ashton woke up along with the sun. He instinctively looked outside the window. The sky was still ck but the clouds were slowly moving farther and farther away. The heavenly downpour had stopped fifteen minutes ago but Ashton could still see people walking around with umbres over their heads. Something seemed to be going around in the courtyard. Ashton tried to get a good look outside but as soon as he saw whatever little bit of sunlight there was, his head was started pounding furiously. However, the pain wasn''t as unbearable as before and soon it disappeared altogether. The sudden headache seemed to have reminded him ofst night. However, when he tried recalling what happenedst night, he felt a sharp pain in his head. This time the pain was too much for him to handle. It felt as if someone or something was trying to forcefully rip his head into two. As soon as he stopped focusing on recalling what had happenedst night, the pain stopped. It was as if his mind was trying to block him from rememberingst night. However, despite whatever was stopping him, Ashton remembered one thing. Something like he had only a week or so to live as a human being and then we would turn into something else. He got up and took a look underneath his bed and sure enough, the sack was there with all the items he had collected. Meaning he hadn''t left the enclosure... but he still felt like he had. ''Maybe it was a nightmare after all...''He thought and sat back down on the bed. He was still in the middle of sorting himself out when he heard someone pounding on his cell door. Yes, he lived in a cell alone while the others had to share arge barn to sleep in. Not only that, they had to share a lot ofmonmodities like washroom, showers, utensils etc. But he didn''t. His room had everything a man needed to live. Washroom and shower with a constant supply of clean water. He even had a heater installed there. Again, it was all thanks to him being ''marked'' by the mistress. None of these things was there when he was marked initially but was constructedter on because the mistress didn''t want her pretty little mutt to live in any kind of difort. Especially after taking his parents away. That being said, his hatred for the Lycans ran deeper than his need to befortable. He had spent 12 years in the barn living like animals and he wasn''t going to change that for thest four years of his life. Ashton''s thoughts were once again interrupted by the loud banging on his door. Judging by the way the bast.ards were knocking on his door, he knew the Lycans were there to force him to eat or to give him some punishment. He went ahead and opened up the door, he waspletely prepared to take a punch for making them wait as usual. However, something entirely unexpected happened there. Although he was right that the Lycans were knocking on his door, once he opened up he didn''t receive a punch as he had expected. Instead, he felt someone patting his head. Ashton opened his eyes and immediately jumped back from the shock when he saw who was standing in front of him. It was the Mistress and her bodyguards. Seeing them there was such a shock because even though the mistress owned them, she rarely ever visited the enclosure. ''What are they doing here? There still should be 4 days till I turn 16...'' Ashton thoughts were written all over his face which the mistress read in an instant. Her ruby eyes gleamed with excitement when she saw Ashton''s grown-up body. Her blonde hairs fluttered behind her while the group of bodyguards rushed into his room and started packing his things up. Ashton tried to turn around and see what was going on, but for some reason, his eyes were focused on the Mistress. She had not stopped smiling ever since she saw Ashton. He looked up at her triangr face and realised she looked younger than he remembered. Her brown skin was no longer dull like he remembered but instead, it was glowing even under the cloudy sky. Next Ashton''s attention fell on her small nose and puffy lips. He tried to stop there but it was like his eyes weren''t in his control anymore and the next second he found himself checking her out. Her arms were much more muscr than his, coupled with her thick torso, well-stacked breast that her ck corset was trying its best to hold back along with her well-defined waist and long legs. "You are quite lively for someone who has been sleeping for about four days." The Mistress'' voice seemed to have snapped him out of his trance, "Not to mention your body looks muscr unlike what I was told. I wasn''t aware that puberty could do such things to humans... interesting." Ashton had not noticed it yet, but now that the Mistress had pointed it out, his physique had definitely changed for the better. He saw his reflection in the broken mirror and was shocked to see how he looked. He had grown a couple of inches and he was no longer skinny but more or less looked like one of the Lycan guards. His body had turned itself into something entirely different from who he was. He was really confused as to what was happening and then it struck him. "I was asleep for 4 days?" he softly mumbled. However, before anyone could reply, the bodyguards wrapped a piece of cloth around his head and dragged him outside.. It was time for Ashton to join them. Chapter 6 - Ceremony (1) Ashton still had the cover wrapped around his head. However, if it was true that for days had been passed, then he knew where he was being taken to. It was time for his induction ceremony. As he was being dragged through the courtyard, he could hear the cheers from the other humans. They were celebrating as if he had won a battle or something. ''Pathetic as.sholes!'' Ashton crushed the humans under his breath. This wasn''t something anyone should be celebrating! He was being taken hostage for god''s sake. He had wanted to join the resistance, not the Lycans! He still didn''t know what happened to his n or whether he was fed some kind of sleeping tablet to make sure he wouldn''t leave the ce even if he wanted to. But it was for that same reason he had not been eating anything that he was offered for thest few days. Then howe did he get all tangled up in the mess? He tried using his newly transformed physique to free himself but against full-fledged werewolves, his strength was just like that of a toddler. No matter how much he struggled there was nothing he could do now. It was toote. His fate was already sealed. Just like that, he was thrown in a car where two Lycans hold him down as they rode on. He could still faintly hear the cheers of the others. However, soon everything turned into silence and the only things he could hear were the sound of the car heading towards an unknown location. ''Damn it, damn it, damn it!!!'' Ashton kept cursing under his breath. He was angry with himself. After everything he had done in thest couple of months, all his ns went straight to drain. He just wanted one thing... to avenge his parents and now he wouldn''t be able to do crap about it. Once he was converted into a werewolf, there was nothing he would be able to do against the Lycans. Loyalty was programmed in their blood as the human gene was reced by those of the Lycans. No matter what kind of disagreement they had, the Lycans would have to stay true to their pack. However, for those who still try to defy the pack and go against them existed the death penalty or worse... exile. Some would have thought being exiled was better than dying when in reality being exiled was far worse than a quick death. The world was not a good ce to roam around without proper preparation. The Undead, the cold ones and the Lycans were bad, but there were far worse things out there that no one even knew about because whoever set out to discover about hidden monsters, never returned back. Earth wasn''t earth anymore but chaos. The only semnce of order there was on the was the various kingdoms/regions that had been made by the new lords of the world. Right now, Ashton and the Lycans were headed towards one such ce... the capital city of the Kingdom of Lycania, known as Deja. Deja was also the city where the ''mistress'' had indomitable influence. One could say she was the uncrowned queen of that city, it was a title that wasn''t far from reality. She was, after all, one of the many illicit children of the king. She was considered to be the most gifted individual among all of the King''s children but since she was born out of wedlock, the purists within the Lycan society did not allow the King to treat her as his daughter. It was the same reason she was dead set on making the royal family''s life as miserable as possible. All of a sudden, the car stopped. They had arrived at their location, the Mistress'' mansion. It might have seemed like a mere couple of minutes since their journey started, however, it was all thanks to their technological advancements that they were able to make a cross country trip within minutes. The man sitting on his right side, grabbed Ashton by his nape and pulled him out of the car. His head was still covered so he couldn''t see a thing, but he could feel the eyes on him. Hundreds of them were looking at him. Some with hunger in their eyes, while some were looking at him with peculiar interest. [You have obtained a new skill: Low-grade Perception.] __ >> Perception: A prime ability found in bloodsuckers. It is the ability to see, hear, or be aware of something through the senses. You can now sense the intention of low-levelled beings through this skill. Grade: Low Condition to upgrade the skill: Achieve maximum friendliness/hostility with any intelligent being or use 5 skill points to level this skill up. Current Vampiric skill points: 0 __ ''Low-grade perception? Wait, what even is this-'' All of a sudden, Ashton was mmed down on the floor like a sack of potatoes. The following moment, the cover on his face was lifted, however, his hands were still chained. Ashton forced his eyes shut before slowly opening them to check his surroundings. Several slim banners surrounding each of the ten onyx columns had lit up the lower levels of the throne hall and while coating everything in an orange glimmer. Numerous angelic paintings could be seen on the oblique ceiling dance in the flickering light of the torches while carved images and gargoyles looked down upon the limestone floor of the magnificent hall. A teal carpet ran from the throne to the doors and was matched by small circr ones on either side of the hall while rounded banners with gilded tassels drape from the walls. Between each banner stands a tall candle, many of which had been lit and in turn illuminate the statuettes of Lycan heroes and leaders standing above them. Several people were sitting on either side of the carpet. All of their faces were covered in weird masks that Ashton thought resembled their ''true'' faces. Behind each person were high, tinted ss windows are contoured by curtains coloured the same teal as the carpet. A dignified throne of gold sat at the far end of the room, right where he was forced to kneel down. The area around the throne was adjoined by four in, butfortable seats for those closest to the mistress as she upied the throne. A werewolf was carved right above the throne. "Now that everyone is here, let the ceremony begin!" Chapter 7 - Ceremony (2) "What ceremon- hmm umm!" Ashton finally found his voice back but as soon as he opened his mouth, one of the werewolves forced a piece of cloth in his mouth, before forcing him to look towards the Mistress. "Humans are not allowed to talk in this hall, sweetie..." She said in her awfully seductive voice, "Also, that cloth will help you tolerate the pain caused during the conversion..." The following moment she stood up and threw away her coat. Surprisingly, she wasn''t wearing anything underneath it and was now stark naked in front of Ashton and everyone else. However, everyone else quickly averted their eyes away from her. But our boy didn''t. It was Ashton''s first time seeing a woman naked and his eyes fixated upon the beauty of the Mistress'' body. But the sight onlysted for the fraction of a second before she began turning to her true self. Soon her body was covered in thick fur as the bones within her body began contorting. She grew at least by two feet in height while her torso became abnormally huge and so did her legs. Ashton could see the bones within her body moving and shifting ces. Several of them even ruptured through her skin and yet there wasn''t a tinge of pain on her face. Her fingers grew abnormallyrge and so did her fingernails. Her crimson eyes turned yellowish as her pupils dted and became one with the rest of the eye. Her ears were already pointed, but they even grew even more. However, the most horrifying thing Ashton saw was the emergence of her charcoal-coloured snout. Her beautiful face was ripped in half as her jaws began elongating. Her jaws really looked terrifying but even worse was her abnormallyrge teeth. Just one of them was bigger than Ashton''s entire skull. With that, Ashton had witnessed one of the rarest moments any human ever had. He had seen a werewolf transforming. It felt as if hours had passed since the Mistress began transforming into her true self, but the transformation only took a couple of seconds. Although the transformation was nothing but gruesome, the end result was really beautiful. For some reason, the Mistress'' white fur and muscr body looked... appealing to Ashton. "Beautiful, aren''t I?" Even though she had transformed into a werewolf, her voice was still the same. She slowly approached him who was still helplessly kneeling in front of him. Everyone''s gazes were still averted from the mistress as if looking at her was a crime. What Ashton didn''t know was that the Mistress was leaking a visual pheromone that causes a chemical reaction with the body of the living upon seeing her. It could be said that, just by looking at her, the others could be ves to her will. That was the reason no one was looking at her, while she was exposing herself to his eyes. It was a rare skill, only the Alpha female werewolves possessed and was generally used to attract the males towards them. In this case, the male was Ashton and she was... seducing him in a way. But there was a downside to this skill. It worked on humans only after they crossed a certain age, that age being 16. This was the reason why 16-year-olds were chosen to be converted into werewolves. It was also the age when the hormones usually go crazy in their bodies, making it easier for the female werewolves to proceed with the ceremony. The werewolves holding Ashton down suddenly let go of him and backed up. Being too close to the mistress when she was leaking pheromones, could also activate their primal instincts. Thus it was safer to keep distance from her. Although Ashton was now free to run if he wanted to, he didn''t. Or in other words, he was too mesmerised to move on his own. All of a sudden, the mistress wrapped her ws around his face while gently caressing it. "This will hurt a... lot!" The next moment, she opened her gigantic jaws and bit him in the neck. The pain snapped Ashton out of the trance, however, it was toote to do anything now. He could thrash his limbs all he wanted but the mistress had her ws tightly wrapped around him. He screamed and screamed but no one came to save him as his blood spurted out everywhere as his vision slowly started to fade. He once again felt a familiar presence around him... he saw a blinking light in front of him as everything turned ck. Seeing the light brought back the memories that he had been trying to remember ever since waking up from his slumber. He once again saw simr texts that he had before. [Transformation sessful!] [You have been turned into ] [Sending a petition to the administrator to resolve the issue...] [Petition rejected... initiating protocol.] [The system can resolve the issue itself...] [Issue resolved!] [You have inherited the genes from a , a and a ] [You have been turned into a Zompirewolf Hybrid.] [Due to theplexity of your new DNA, it would take 4 more days for your powers to manifest.. Till then, you are free to live as a .] Chapter 8 - Training (1) "His blood tasted a bit weird..." Mistress mumbled as she slowly reverted back to her human self, "It''s probably because he had the ''blessing'', but still, it''s an observation worth noticing." One of her servants immediately rushed over to her and handed her, her coat. The Mistress wiped Ashton''s excessive blood off her face before wearing the coat. When she was done covering herself, everyone else finally turned towards her. "He''s bleeding a bit too much. Get a healer to seal the wound and lock him up in his room. I should take a week for his powers to manifest and then, we''ll begin his training." The mistress ordered one of her servants before squatting next to an unconscious Ashton and caressing his bloodied face, "I have high hopes from you, my precious pawn. You will be my new sword to tear the king''s family in half." She looked at Ashton with a passion in her eyes that made the others jealous of him. Even though they know how important he was to the mistress. Witnessing the look on the mistress''s face as the boy was being taken away was a bit... gut-wrenching for the others but at the same time, it meant and harming the boy in any way would make the mistress lose her cool. Their mistress had turned a lot of novices over the years. Countless pawns had been formed and destroyed over the decades, but none of them had been able to make the mistress be so... protective of them. Maybe the kid was truly exceptional. Maybe the kid truly had received the ''blessing'' and if it was the truth, then it would mean that the kid was the first and only human to receive something that only the three major races monsters could get. By the three major monster races it meant... Werewolves, Vampires, and Zombies. "Mistress are you sure-" "Do you still doubt me, Donovan?" Mistress red at the man who raised his hand to ask her a question, being respectful and knowing one''s rightful ce were the only rules in her court. Thus even if someone had a suggestion or question for her, they had to seek permission before speaking. Donovan was the only exception to this rule as he was the Mistress''s first mate as well as the first one she had ever converted into a Lycan. Standing 6'' 1" tall, this caramel-skinned man had a powerful feel about him. Unlike everyone else in the court, he did not fear the mistress and was her trusted sword. He had shoulder-length brown hair which had been carefully styled in a ponytail to match his beaded beard. He had a muscr body thatplimented hisrge torso. He had two swords strapped on his fairly toned waist. "... I do. How can a human possibly have the genes needed to activate the ''blessing''? It''spletely unheard of." Donovan spoke his mind on the matter, "We-" "It''s the reason that it''s unheard of that would make it possible for me to give my father a scar to remember me by." The Mistress waved Donovan''s concerns aside, "You were there that day weren''t you? The day that frail-looking 12-year-old killed one of your elite guards with just a baton, that too with a single strike? You saw the crimson glow in his eyes, didn''t you?" "I-I did..." "You know what the means don''t you?" "Yes, mistress..." "Then stop wasting time and set up an appropriate training facility for the boy. You and I, both will give him the necessary training that he needs in order to attend the academy. Anyone else has any questions?" The mistress said in a definitive tone, "Then, I''ll be off to rest. Donovan, join me after you are done with the preparations." "As you wish, Mistress." Everyone bowed before her as she left the throne room. Only when she left the throne room did the others decide to speak their mind. Although they were doing what the mistress asked of them, they still didn''tpletely agree with her decision. Turning others into werewolves was not an issue. It wasn''t umon for the Lycans to make use of the humans to strengthen their ranks. That was if they didn''t eat them first. But how could their mistress turn someone as unpredictable as the boy without doing proper research was beyond their reasoning. "Sir Donovan, we must eliminate the boy before it''s toote." One of the 12 ministers spoke her mind, but she was still hiding behind her mask, "The boy would definitely be a sword worthy of the Mistress''s name, but his unpredictable nature might spell trouble for uster. Especially because he loathes us for taking away his traitorous parents." Numerous others nodded their heads in agreement. However, the moment she was finished speaking Donovan drew one of his swords and grazed her neck. Everyone was shocked by his hostile reaction and stepped back in fear. "I will not persuade her to do otherwise. If she wants to train the kid herself, she must have seen something our eyes couldn''t...." Donovan dered before sheathing his sword, "However if the boy fails her, I''ll be the first one to dig my canines in his flesh. You can rest assured about that" Chapter 9 - Training (2) As Ashton slowly opened his eyes, he was greeted by a light blinking in front of him, followed by some random mumbo jumbo. He had been asleep for all this time and thus it took a while for his eyes to focus themselves enough for him to make sense of what was written in front of him. [Gene Integration sessful! You have been transformed into a , the first of its kind.] Instead of thinking about what was in front of him, Ashton was more interested in knowing where he was at the moment. It appeared to be avish bedroom and was twice as big as the barn the humans were forced to live in. Ashton slowly got up and stretched his muscles. However, as he was doing that, he realised his physique had changed yet again. He wasn''t as buffed as he had been before but for some reason, he felt way stronger than he had before. At the same time, his body felt lighter and he could see even the tiniest details around him. Be it a speck of dust or the tiniest droplet on the window. ''There''s a mirror there...'' He got off his bed and slowly made his way towards the ornamented mirror to see how he really looked like, ''Is that really me?'' He couldn''t believe what he was seeing. His face was still the same but everything else about him had been changed. His hair had turned white just like his skin, while his eyes had changed and now had a crimson glow in them. But most importantly, he was now sporting ears that looked simr to that of the Lycans but at the same time... he also had abnormally huge canines just like that of the Cold ones. That was enough to surprise him, but there was something else... his skin, it was dull just like that of the undead. ''What the hell is wrong with me?'' [Gene Integration sessful! You have been transformed into a , the first of its kind.] Once again the same text shed in front of his eyes, but this time he didn''t ignore it. He read through it and as he did he was shocked to no extent. He had be a hybrid between a Zombie, a Vampire and a Werewolf, that''s why he was sporting all of those traits that were unique to a certain type of monster only. All of a sudden, a ck light shed in front of him and it felt like... a sealed chest of memories opened inside his head. For four days, Ashton enjoyed his slumber. He couldn''t remember the things he had been dreaming about but thanks to being knocked out for four days, his fuzzy memory was clearer now. He finally remembered what had happened to him... he remembered he was bitten by all the three major monster races. First by a zombie, then a vampire andstly a werewolf and now he had been turned into a monster the world had never seen before. "Why... why... why!!?" Ashton roared in rage before mming his fist into the mirror, shattering it into thousands of pieces, "Is this for real...?" The ck light glowed once again but this time Ashton was asked a question that confused him even more than he already was. [Would you like to view a tutorial to acquaint you with the system?] ''System? what system? Please tell me this is a dream...'' [Trait confirmed! The user is a moron. Proceeding with the exnation either way.] ''... What?'' With every passing moment, Ashton ended up being confused even more than he had been a second ago. All of a sudden, everything went dark around him. The only thing in front of him was an awkward-looking screen. __ Name: Ashton Fenrir Species: Zombie (Active), Vampire (Active), Werewolf (Active), Human (Deceased). Status: Undead ss: Unassigned Age: 16 years Gender: Male Grade: F-tier (Evolution is possible) Affiliation: Unaffiliated. Level: ? Vampire Level: 0 ? Werewolf Level: 0 ? Zombie Level: 0 Stats: HP: 1000/1000 Damage: 14 Armour: 12 Stealth: 5 Stamina: 15 Agility: 14 Intelligence: 2 Nature: ? Bratty Abilities/skills/spells: ? Vampire Skills: >> Low-Grade perception >> Transformation (Vampire) ? Werewolf Skills: >> Transformation (Werewolf) ? Zombie Skills: >> Transformation (Zombie) Current Vampiric skill points: 0 Current Werewolf skill points: 0 Current Undead skill points: 0 __ [an administrator had been assigned to carry on with the exnation.] [This is your status te. Here you can view all of your stats as well as the list of the abilities that you have learned. You can learn new skills as you discover more about the world or through a variety of other experiences. You can upgrade these skills by fulfilling certain conditions or by spending specific points.] ''... You know what, at this point, I don''t even care what''s happening with me. It''s too much for me to handle all this stress!'' [Spoken like a true moron. Either way, I am bound to exin everything to you as I''m paid to do this... and a couple of private reasons.] ''...'' [As I was saying, You can earn species points by performing certain tasks as listed below.] __ ? Vampiric skill points: One point can be earned by consuming 5 ml of blood. With the increasing rarity of the blood, you can earn more points. You can drink monster blood as well. ? Undead skill points: One point can be earned by consuming 50 grams of flesh. With the increasing rarity of the flesh, you can earn more points. You can eat monster flesh as well. ? Werewolf skill points: You can earn points by killing and defeating other monsters. One of the toughest types of points to earn. With the increasing rarity of the monster defeated, you can earn more points. __ Ashton sighed heavily because he couldn''t understand a thing he was being told. Well, he could understand it, but he was unable to make any sense out of it. ording to the information disyed in front of him, he was... dead as a human. Which was enough of a shock to kill him once again, but for some reason, he didn''t feel a thing. As if he was expecting himself to be dead all along. He was standing there as if nothing was wrong with his body. Even though he was dead as a human, he was still alive as a blend of different monsters. [I don''t know why you''re sulking] The weird text appeared in front of him again. [You know you have the potential to be one of the strongest beings on the, right?] "Wait what?" [You really are a moron huh? You are the only being who has been sessful in bonding with three different types of monster genes. You, no... no one has any idea how strong you can be.] "So you''re telling me... I can take revenge for my dead parents?" [Take revenge, rule the, make an intergctic harem... You can do whatever you want to. That is if you can attain the strength to do so. You want to gain strength right?] "I do." [Then do as you are told and you''re set.] "But who the hell are you? And why are you helping me?" [The name''s Lucifer, your Administrator/helper. As far as helping you is concerned, it is my job and... just like you, I also want to get revenge of my own.] "I see..." Ashton thought losing humanity would be a huge blow to him, but if he could avenge his parents then he had no problem bing a pawn for anyone else. Chapter 10 - Training (3) There were a lot of things Ashton wanted to talk about and confirm. Like who was Lucifer? What was the system? What was happening to his body and what did he mean by him being an admin? All this along with a crapton of other things. However, a knock on the door interrupted the chat between Ashton and Lucifer. "Someone''s here." Ashton looked around him and saw the mess he had created. But most importantly he saw what he looked like through those broken shards. He knew he couldn''t let anyone see him like he was right now or else his secret would be out and he might as well be thrown out or even get experimented on or some sh.it. "What do I do? What do I do?" [Just deactivate the traits you don''t want.] "What do you mean?" [See the ck light in front of you? Imagine it is a switch and try to click it.] Ashton did as he was told and once again the familiar tab containing his information popped up. [Can you see (Active) written against all of your species? Just click on them and they will deactivate. Be careful-] Before Lucifer could exin what would happen to him, Ashton quickly deactivated the Zombie and Vampire traits simultaneously. As he did that, he fell on his knees from the gut-wrenching pain. [Because it would hurt like hell...] Slowly Ashton''s skin turned back to its normal shade and his canines disappeared and were reced by normal teeth that he had before. Even his hair turned back to as it had been for all his life. But as it all was happening, Ashton felt like his insides were being churned and pulled at the same time. The only thing that remained was his pointy ears and crimson eyes that signified he had be one of the Lycans. Or more specifically, he had be one of the Mistress'' dogs. [Look kid, I know you are hurting and all, but I don''t have much time here. So I''ll continue to tell you what I can before they cut me off. Or better yet, I''ll leave a memo. See youter.] And just like that, Lucifer''s voice disappeared before Ashton could ask him any questions. However, as that happened, a wall of text appeared in front of him. __ Points to remember: ? Never ever Deactivate all three of your active traits. If you do so, your fourth species trait will activate which is: Deceased human. Meaning, you''ll die but this time it''ll be for real. ? Also be careful while activating and deactivating traits because of the pain due to transformation. If you activate or deactivate more than one trait simultaneously the pain you will feel would be 10 times worse than what it would be while switching one of the traits. ? Mind that the levels of a certain species never exceed more than 5 levels than the others. That is, try to maintain equal levels for Zombie, Vampire and Werewolf genes. For example, if you''re a level 10 werewolf, then the other traits must be level 5 at the very least. ? In case you are unable to maintain that level gap, then it would destroy the harmony between the genes and they''ll start overpowering one another. Once again it would be painful and you might even die as a result. Or worse, your powers will get exposed to higher-ups here and they''ll kill me along with you. ? You can gain levels by transforming and fighting. For example, if you fight while in being Werewolf form, you''ll level up as a werewolf. It''s the same for every other species as well. ? The others can see your status te when you use it, but I''ve tinkered around with it so that they''ll only be able to the stats you want them to see. ? Also if anyone asks the colour of your blessing, always say it''s yellow. Not red, blue or ck. Always yellow. ? Lastly, you won''t be able to talk with me or anyone else from the association from now on. Thus you are on your own. I''ll pop up every now and then to check up on you. But for now, this is it. __ Ashton was still feeling dizzy from the pain when the door was thrown open and a dozen or so werewolves came rushing in. "So it''s true. This fcker was awake but did not think he needed to open the door." Donovan mumbled after sparing Ashton one look, "Mistress has an eye for talented individuals. A transformation that should have taken a week waspleted in four days... impressive. Very impressive. Let''s begin your training then, shall we?" Ashton tried getting back up to his feet, but before he could, Donovan kicked him right across the face. Ashton''s head was still a mess and hence, he couldn''t bnce himself... as a result, he fell on the pile of ss shards as they got buried under his skin as the floor was marked with his blood. "Argh!!!" Ashton let out a painful groan as the ss shards got buried in his back. "Impressive but weak... you''ll have to train a lot if you want to get into the academy," Donovan said before pushing Ashton even further into the pile of ss shard with the help of his feet, "Oh sorry, I thought there was a piece of sh.it on the floor, so I had to check whether what I saw was correct or not. But looks like it was just you." "ARGH!!!" Ashton yelled again, but the louder he got, the more pressure Donovan applied on him and the deeper the shards got buried within his body. Ashton was in pain, but the pain he was feeling suddenly decreased by a bit. He was still hurting pretty bad and he almost wanted to cry, but it wasn''t as bad as it had been before. Suddenly, he received another ''notification''. [You have obtained a new skill: Pain Tolerance (Lvl 1).] __ >> Pain Tolerance (Lvl 1): Amon ability found in werewolves. This skill lessens the pain one experiences by 2%. Each level improves the tolerance by 2%. This passive skill can be levelled up automatically by feeling more pain. Grade: Low Condition to upgrade the skill: Get acquainted with pain. __ ''Yeah... I''ll do that.... Argh!!!'' Chapter 11 - Training (4) Ashton didn''t know why Donovan was so hateful towards him. But after what happened in the room, Donovan had definitely made it to the list of bast.ards Ashton wanted to kill as soon as he got the chance to do so. But for now, he had to control his emotions. He would get his revengeter, right now he needed to focus on strengthening himself as Lucifer had told him to. Thankfully, Donovan has been kind enough to take care of his ''training''. After the ss shard had been pulled out from his body, they were on their way outside. "We will walk to the training room." Donovan mumbled as soon as Ashton was all healed up, "It is located outside the main building so we will need to walk for a bit. While we are at it, these people will tell you about the castle as well as the Kingdom. You better remember what they tell you or you will have another disciplinary session after finishing your training for the day." "Don''t call it disciplinary session when it''s actually ''let me satisfy my fetish'' session," Ashton smirked but as he did he was smacked hard across the face. "You half-blood mutt, you dare talk back to sir Donovan?" It was one of the guards who pped him, "I shall teach you some-" "Stop it, Drake." Donovan stopped the man before he could smack Ashton again, "The brat will soon learn his ce in our society. He''s a newborn, wolf blood might be driving him crazy. Just do what I told you to. He will learn his lesson during his training." "As you wish, sir." Ashton had been living inside the Mistress'' mansion for a little over four days now, but it was the first time he was actually seeing the castle. Even though he did not want to admit it, the ce she lived in was beautiful. Drake had been gracious enough to let Ashton know about the castle. Apparently, the castle was surrounded by 10 ivory towers, constructed in a semi-circle. These towers were the primary source of defence for the castle and were manned 24x7. Furthermore, these towers were connected to each other with firm walls that were of the same colour as x and had been made of the strongest material they could find in the recent era... monster bones. These walls served various purposes. The first was obviously for defence, the second was to connect the towers with each other for quick transportation of soldiers and goods and the final use was to serve as barracks for the troops to live in. Thousands of rooms had been constructed inside the walls to serve as barracks for the quick deployment of troops in case of an emergency. As for the main castle where the Mistress lived, it was the single biggest structure Ashton had ever seen in his life. But for some reason, Drake only gave him a rough view of how the castle looked from the inside as they finally made their way outside. The sun was brighter than it had ever been, or maybe it was the effect of Ashton''s eyes suddenly bing more sensitive to everything around him. Ashton thought the sun wouldn''t affect him as he had deactivated the Vampire traits within his body but he was wrong. Just because he deactivated the traits, didn''t mean the genes within his body had disappeared altogether. Deactivating the traits would only help him in concealing his identity and efficiently levelling up the other traits. However, deactivating the Vampire traits helped him somewhat tolerate the pain of being sun-kissed, which was nothing less than poison for Vampires. __ You are under the presence of the Sun. The Vampire genes lying dormant within your body are reacting to it. While under the sun/UV rays, your stats will be nerfed. Stats: HP: 1000 ---> 850 Damage: 14 ---> 9 Armour: 12 ---> 8 Stealth: 5 ---> 4 Stamina: 15 ---> 10 Agility: 14 ---> 9 Intelligence: 2 ---> 2 __ Ashton was in pain, but he had to tolerate it. If he were to show the pain he was in, it wouldn''t take Donovan long to join the dots and figure out his identity. Lucifer had already told him, no matter what, he had to protect his identity or both of them would get killed by the higher-ups, whoever they might be. That five-minute walk to the training facility had caused his excruciating pain, but it was thanks to that... his pain tolerance levelled up to level 2. ''It takes about a minute for the pain to subside even after I am no longer under the sun...'' Ashton took some deep breaths as soon as they were inside the facility, ''However... I need to do something about it. The pain tolerance might help me get rid of the pain, but what about my nerfed stats?'' Ashton was lost in his thoughts. He had assumed just turning off the traits would help conceal his identity, but it was going to be harder than he initially thought. On top of that, he now had to think of a way to save himself for the stat debuff. Lycans were a hunting race, and most of the hunts were organised during the day. And since he was now a member of their dogmunity, he would eventually have to hunt during the day as well but having his stats nerfed could actually put him in danger. "Here, take these." Donovan returned with a sword and a shield in his hands and handed them to Ashton, interrupting his train of thoughts, "We need to figure out which weapons would suit you the best, and for that, you''ll have to use them all in the simtion room." "... got it." Ashton took the longsword and the wooden shield and entered the room Donovan pointed at. "Sir Donovan, do you want the kid to die or something?" Drake asked him, "A wooden shield wouldn''t even be able to take a single hit from those creatures and as for the sword, it''s not the preferred weapon to fight against ''those''. On top of that, it might be a simtion room, but the pain one would feel inside the tower is real." "Why are you getting all worried about the brat?" Donovan smiled as the camera turned on, "You''re the one who told me to punish him. So I''m just punishing him for opening his mouth before. Now shut up and enjoy while that bast..ard withers in pain and confusion." Chapter 12 - Level Up! (1) A few moments ago... As Ashton walked into the simtion room, it slowly turned into a dark forest. It was so realistic that if Ashton hadn''t seen the simtion room with his eyes, he would not have believed that this ce wasn''t a forest all along. However, the forest had been unnervingly motionless. Not a single leaf was moving, leaving the forest to be in dead silence. That put Ashton on the edge. His ears perked up and thanks to his enhanced hearing while he was in Werewolf form, he could hear something was rapidly approaching him. He steadied himself to counter-attack whoever it was, but since it was his first time fighting, he had no idea how was he even supposed to wield the sword or the shield. As the mysterious creature got closer to him, the stench of rotting flesh and blood filled his nostril. The smell was already bad enough and his enhanced sense of smell made it even worse. Ashton could feel the creature get closer to him, however, by the time the creature appeared in his sight, he had been so disorganised that he couldn''t even lift his sword in time. The next moment, he got thrown away with extreme swiftness and ended up hitting the stump of a tree. The pain would have been much worse if his resistance hadn''t kicked in. It was thanks to that, that Ashton was about to dodge the creature''s next attack and swiftly rolled out of its way as the creature once again disappeared in the darkness. That was also when Ashton finally got the first look at his opponent. The creature appeared to be human, only his flesh was rotting from various ces as rotten blood oozed out of various blisters that were spread all across the creature''s body. It walked on all fours like dogs did a little over a century ago and didn''t have a single hair across his body. Numerous bones were protruding through its back which can be used for both defence and offence. Living in imprisonment for all his life had made it so that he had no knowledge about the creature he was up against. Thankfully, the ck light in front of him or the blessing as it was called by everyone else, showed him some information about the beast he was facing. Just by looking at the beast, a screen popped open in front of his eyes. On the screen, there was a picture of a simr-looking beast while important information about the creature was mentioned underneath the picture. __ Name: Ghoul Species: Zombie Status: Mindless Undead ss: Scavenger Age: NIL Gender: NIL Grade: F-tier Affiliation: Unassigned Level: 1 Stats: HP: 800/800 Damage: 10 Armour: 5 Stealth: 7 Stamina: 10 Agility: 19 Intelligence: 1 Nature: ? Chaotic: 5% chance of inflicting 2% additional damage after using a skill. Abilities/skills/spells: ? Terror Bite ? Grievous w ? Pine Attack Remark: A disgusting-looking son of a bit.ch which can turn out to be a pain for newbies, if not handled swiftly. Just by looking at its face, one could say it did not have a peaceful end, but then again someone with horrendous body odour like this idiot didn''t deserve a peaceful end in the first ce. The least dangerous yet the mostmon kind of undead that can be found munching on the corpse of almost any creature in the wastnds or forests. As for its weakness, using fire-based spells or enchanted gear are the quickest way to take it down. If you don''t possess either of those, powerful blunt attacks from hammers or simr weapons can take care of it as well. However, shing and piercing weapons like swords and spears do not work against them as they pass right through their rotting flesh and would only do minimal damage to the ghoul. __ *** Back to the present... The sweat on Ashton''s arm made it very difficult for him to form a proper grip around the sword. The situation was so bad that every time he used the sword to attack the simted beast, the sword rolled away from his hand and no damage was done to the beast. Ashton knew the sword was useless against the ghoul but it was the only weapon he had to fight back the creature. Also, in hindsight, it wasn''t the fault of his sweaty hands that the sword kept rolling away. It was the fault of the sword itself as it had no grip. The hilt of the sword was iplete, but judging from how old the sword looked, it was entirely possible that it was a sword that was broken and shouldn''t have been any longer used to take the beasts on, in the first ce. As for his shield, well, it was a dud as well. Ashton thought he could use the shield to deal blunt damage to the ghoul. However, before he could put his theory into action, just one hit from the ghoul blew the shield into small pieces. "Damn it!" Ashton eximed as he tried to jump back and dodge the ghoul''s attack. But he was toote. His reflexes didn''t trigger on time and as a result, the ghoul bit into his calf. Ashton felt like the ss shard once again had pierced his flesh, only this time the ghoul''s bite force made the worse for him. The Pain Tolerance helped but it was clear this kind of pain was much above the pay grade of the low levelled tolerance he had. __ You have received 30 HP damage from the ability [Terror Bite]. You have been poisoned from the ability [Terror Bite]. You''ll lose 2 HP/sec for the next 5 seconds. __ As if the pain wasn''t enough, he got poisoned as well. But Ashton didn''t sit there while the ghoul chewed on his left leg. He started kicking the ghoul''s head with all the might he could muster, using his other leg. After three or four frantic adrenaline-filled kicks from him, the ghoul let his leg go and rushed back into the darkness of the forest yelping like a dog. It would seem like his kicks dealt more damage to the ghoul than the sword did. However, with a leg like that, he was in no position to continue fighting anymore. Still, he had received ''orders'' from Donovan to kill the beast and only then would he be allowed toe out of the simtion room. However, it wasn''t all doom and gloom there. After all, thanks to the Ghoul''s bite, he received two more passive abilities: [Poison resistance (lvl 1)] and [Haemorrhage resistance (lvl 1)]. The former reduced the effect of poison by 2% while thetter ability reduced the blood loss due to a wound by 1%. ''Fck... if only there was a self-healing ability as well.... damn it!'' Chapter 13 - Level Up! (2) __ You have received 20% Exp from being attacked by Ghoul. You''ll level up once your Exp reaches 100%. You''ll grow stronger as you level up. Current Exp: 20% __ "What the heck is this?" Ashton blurted out after patching his open wound with the help of leaves, "I can get stronger by being hit?" Ashton had forgotten that Lucifer wasn''t with him to answer his queries. Thus he had to find his own answers from whatever information he was presented with. And ording to the information shing in front of his eyes... it was clear he could earn Exp by being attacked by monsters. ''If that''s the case why didn''t I get any Exp when Donovan mmed me on top of those ss shards? That was helluva pain.'' He thought to himself, ''Is there some criterion which needed to be filled for me to gain Exp? Or is it something else?'' It was indeed weird. He did not gain anything except the pain tolerance skill when Donovan attacked him. A few theories popped up in his head that could have exined why it was so. One of the theories he came up with was that Donovan didn''t ''directly'' harm him. After all, unlike the ghoul who sunk its teeth in his flesh, Donovan didn''t physically cause him any harm. The pain Ashton felt was due to the ss shards burying themselves inside his flesh and not by Donovan stepping on him. Another theory Ashton had was pretty simple. It could be possible that Donovan wasn''t a monster in the system''s vision like the ghoul was. So maybe that''s why his attack didn''t reward him with Exp. Although, personally he believed this theory to be false, as werewolves were just as much of a monster as the ghoul was. That brought Ashton to his third theory. The intention behind the creature''s attack. It was a bit far-fetched but this theory could exin why he didn''t receive exp when Donovan attacked him, better than anything he coulde up with. It was possible that while Donovan wanted to hurt him, but not kill him thus Ashton didn''t get any Exp. This was true because the Mistress would have never allowed him to be killed after personally converting him into a werewolf. The ghoul, on the other hand, was definitely out to kill him and hence his attack gave him Exp. Still, there was a high probability that the actual reason behind it was somethingpletely different from what he was thinking. ''I can always figure it outter. But for now, I have to think of a way to get rid of the Ghoul.'' Ashton slowly got up and carefully looked around himself to see if there was something usable there or not. There were only two ways to kill a ghoul as the system informed him. Either by using fire or by using bludgeoning them to death. Thus the sword he had waspletely useless as neither it was an enchanted weapon, nor could it do any severe damage to the ghoul. This forced Ashton to look for alternatives, like a broken branch or something that he could use as a club to fight against the ghoul. However, it didn''t look like the Ghoul was going to give him any chance toe up with a strategy. The ghoul was prowling around Ashton like a sly wolf preying on its dinner. The taste of Ashton''s blood was still fresh in its mouth and it wanted more. The ghoul jumped at him while Ashton''s back was turned at him. But this time, Ashton was prepared. Even though the Ghoul had a higher level than him, Ashton was stronger than the ghoul in terms of everything except Agility. Still, Ashton had formed a n to use the creature''s agility against it to kill it. He was already aware that the ghoul was prowling around him as his ears could pick up the slightest of noises. That''s why he used the time he had to slowly move and stand in front of a tree. As soon as the Ghoul tried to jump him, Ashton dodged the attack at lightning speed. ''If I can''t use blunt weapons to kill you, then I''ll force you to kill yourself.'' Ashton smiled as the ghoul hit its head right into the tree stump. His n was simple. The ghoul was more agile than him, but not as intelligent. If he stood in front of trees and huge boulders, then he could easily defeat the ghoul. It was in the ghoul''s nature to attack an injured prey from behind. By attacking them from behind, not only will the ghoul be able to attack their nape and kill humans immediately it would also be difficult for the prey to defend its back. Ashton was only exploiting that simple fact. Ashton got the idea to do this from one of the tales he had heard. The old folks from the enclosure often talked about the tales their parents told them, and one of the tales Ashton had heard as a youngster was about a sport that existed long before the Virus spread across the world. It was called Bullfighting. Ashton had never seen what a bull looked like as they went extinct after the virus spread, just like a lot of other creatures. But from what he could imagine from the stories, they were these big herbivorous creatures that had the strength to take on any number of humans. Thus these creatures were used in some kind of strange sports where they would charge at humans while both of them were locked inside an arena. The game was simple, the bull would attack the humans and the humans would dodge the attack. What Ashton was doing was exactly that. Only in his case, the bull had been reced by a ghoul instead. [You have obtained a new skill: Battle Tactics (Lvl 1).] __ >> Battle Tactics (Lvl 1): A Rare ability generally found in humanoid creatures. This skill allows the user to enter a state of extreme focus. The attacks of enemies look slower allowing the user to easily dodge the attacks. New perks will unlock when the skill level increases. Grade: Low Condition to upgrade the skill: Defeat 3 creatures having a higher level than yours. __ "Keep giving me more skills.... The more the merrier, right?" Chapter 14 - Level Up! (3) "Fck just die already!" Ashton cursed out loud. The ghoul''s head had been split open from bashing his head again and again into trees and boulders. It was the tenth time Ashton lured the ghoul and dodged the attack at thest moment, however, the ghoul turned out to be the more resilient creature he had ever seen. No matter how many times the ghoul ended up injuring himself, it kept on attacking Ashton. Although apart from the ghoul''s resilience, it wasn''t all that bad because every time Ashton dodged the ghoul''s attack he gained some exp. The amount of exp he gained depended on how closely he was able to dodge the attack. Whenever he dodged the ghoul''s attack he gained anywhere between 2-3% Exp. Thanks to that, his exp had increased from 20% to 42%. Apart from the Exp he had gained there, Ashton had only wasted his time. He needed to get rid of this ghoul but he couldn''t do anything about it. At one time he tried to punch the ghoul, but the ghoul had ended up almost biting his arm off. "My leg has started to act up again..." Ashton mumbled as the blood once again started oozing out of the wound. The haemorrhage resistance was trying to do its job, but there was only so much the ability could do. Jumping around while being injured wasn''t a fun thing to do. Dodging the attacks had reopened his semi-sealed wound. But dodging was the only thing he could do if he wanted to defeat the ghoul. On the other hand, the ghoul''s condition wasn''t all that good either. It had finally started to wobble around. However, despite being in that sorry state, the ghoul still lunged at Ashton who barely managed to dodge the attack. Just like before the ghoul once again bashed his head on a tree stump, but this time the collision was harder than it had been before. __ You have received 2% Exp from dodging an attack. Current Exp: 44% __ With a loud cracking noise, Ashton noticed that the entire left part of the ghoul''s skull had fallen apart. He could see the rotten ckish-red brain of the creature as a part of the skull keep dangling on the side. The brain was an important part, even if one was Undead. ''This is my chance!'' The sword might not have worked before, but now since the brain of the ghoul was exposed, Ashton could finally put an end to the fight. His eyes were shining as he finally got a glimpse of hope of defeating the creature. The only problem was that he needed his sword to end the battle, and the sword was near the creature''s feet. ''Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all...'' Ashton remembered the saying his father often used to tell him, and readied himself for the battle. [You have activated the skill: Battle tactics.] As he activated the skill, he could feel everything around him slowing down. From the rustling of the leaves to the crunching of the dried sticks on the ground, everything was super slow. Ashton rushed over towards the ghoul, the pain tolerance helped him focus on the task at hand rather than worrying about the pain in his legs. The ghoulshed out, its ws shot towards Ashton. But before the ws could get to him, Ashton dived and dodged the attack. He grabbed the sword while rolling on the ground and shed away the ghoul''s arm in half before using the tree stump as a ramp to jump over the ghoul and ramming the sword into the exposed part of the ghoul''s head. Ashton wasn''t done yet. He then twisted the sword while it was still buried in the ghoul''s head and ended up ripping his head off the rest of the torso. The ghoul let out a final scream before copsing on the floor. Dead, for real this time. __ You have received 60% Exp by killing a Ghoul. Current Werewolf Level: 1 You have levelled up! Exp limit has been reset. All wounds have been healed. Current Werewolf skill points: 1 Current Exp: 0% __ It all happened in mere moments, but to Ashton, it seemed like a minute had passed. He had achieved the kill and now... his hands were shaking uncontrobly. No matter what everyone else said about him killing a werewolf when he was 12, to him, the ghoul was his first kill. He was tired but... there was this rush within his body. A feeling he couldn''t describe, but he wanted to feel it more... he wanted to relive it again and again and the only way to do so was to kill some more. However, before he could do anything, the simtion ended abruptly. Everything vanished from the room. The only things remaining were his broken gears, him, and... the corpse of the ghoul. ''Wait a minute... wasn''t the ghoul supposed to be a part of the simtion? It should have disappeared with the forest, right?'' As he was looking at the ghoul''s corpse in disbelief, the door leading to the simtion room was thrown open and the mistress rushed inside. She was closely followed by Donovan and a dozen bodyguards all of them had weapons in their hands and started searching the room for something while the Mistress squatted down to inspect the corpse of the ghoul. The look grave look on her face made Ashton think he had done something wrong. "I want to know, how the hell a living ghoul found its way inside the training tower!!!" The mistress yelled in rage before turning towards Donovan, "Donovan... did you not even bother to check inside the room to see it was safe for him to train or not?" "Sorry, mistress. I-" p! Without a moment''s hesitation, the mistress pped Donovan right across the face. The mark of her fingers was printed on his cheek as everyone stood there dumbfounded. It was the first time the Mistress had raised her hand on Donovan. "I don''t want any excuses. Find the culprit who did this and you," She pointed towards Ashton, "follow me.. We need to have a chat." Chapter 15 - The Colour Of Your Blessing The mistress left everyone behind and almost dragged Ashton to her chamber. In contrast to the rest of the mansion, the mistress''s room was surprisingly simple. It wasn''t even as big as the room he was living in and didn''t have much furniture either. Just a bed and a couple of closets. The wooden floor was the only thing in the entire room that matched the rest of the mansion, otherwise, Ashton would have thought he wasn''t in the mistress''s room but a room of one of her servants. ''Does she wants me to feel bad about her?'' Ashton rolled his eyes, ''If she is then she is going about it the wrong way. I might pity her when I''m about to kill her... nope, not even then. I would be too busy enjoying it than pity her.'' "Sit anywhere you like. I''ll be with you in a minute." After saying so, she disappeared into a room that Ashton guessed was a washroom. He had heard from the guards about how women always take too long in the washroom to do whatever they did in there and he wasn''t going to sit still for that along. Also, he was in the mistress''s room alone. He might not ever get a chance like this to snoop around. However, even before he could put his thoughts into action, the Mistress was already out of the room with a strange-looking box in her hand which she handed to him. "Here, take this. It''s a first aid kit. It has herbs, lotion and other useful things to heal you." She said as she sat down next to him, "I assume you have got to know about what Blessing is?" Ashton nodded half-heartedly while staying on his toes. He could neverprehend what this crazy woman could be thinking thus he was trying to keep a safe distance from her. "Then you can store the kit in your inventory rather than keeping it in your room. That way, you can use it whenever you need to." "Thanks... I guess." Ashton mumbled and thought about the inventory space to open up and kept the first aid kit inside. As soon as he was done, the mistress spoke once again. This time it was a request to see his status te. Well, it was more like amand than a request and Ashton didn''t want to cause any suspicion so he did as he was asked. It wasn''t like anyone else could see his full details. They can only see the details Ashton wanted them to see. Lucifer had already told him that much. __ Name: Ashton Fenrir Species: Werewolf ss: Unassigned Age: 16 years Gender: Male Grade: F-tier (Evolution is possible) Affiliation: Werewolves Level: 1 Stats: HP: 1000/1000 Damage: 14 Armour: 12 Stealth: 5 Stamina: 15 Agility: 14 Intelligence: 2 Nature: ? Bratty __ Even Ashton was a bit surprised when he saw his new status te. It looked a bit different than before but it was probably because he didn''t have all of his genes activated. Whatever the reason might be, it looked like the Mistress was pleased with what she saw and instructed him to close the window. ''The kid has no special abilities and yet he was able to defeat a ghoul on the day his powers manifested?'' The mistress got lost in her thoughts, ''Did he get lucky or was it a result of his inherent skills? Not to mention, his powers manifested in just four days when it should have taken anywhere between seven to ten days. Guess, I''ll have to ask him about it.'' "So, how did you manage to defeat the ghoul?" "With the sword Donovan gave me." Ashton disinterestedly replied. "Drop the attitude and be more specific." The Mistress was controlling her urge to kick the crap out of him. If only he wasn''t that important to her n, she might have already done so. But she had to control herself or the kid might even refuse to answer her. "The ghoul attacked me, I dodged, its skull broke, I stabbed him in the head with the sword." Ashton answered her as if he was trying to exin something to a toddler, "That''s how I killed it." "Have you ever fought before? Or heard someone telling you about a ghoul''s weakness?" She asked yet another question. "I might have heard the guards talk about it some time. Blunt weapons are often used to kill them. To be precise, they are used to crush its head." ''Hm... the guards at the enclosure to talk a lot about these things. Seems like the boy is telling the truth.'' The mistress once again got lost in her thoughts, ''He doesn''t have the inspect skill so it''s unlikely that he didn''t know about the ghouls already.'' Ashton had answered all of her questions, but there was one important question that she still needed to ask him. A question that would rid her of all her questions. "What''s the colour of your blessing?" The moment Ashton heard the question, Lucifer''s words resurfaced in his mind, ''If anyone asks the colour of your blessing, always say it''s yellow. Not red, blue or ck. Always yellow.'' "Yellow." "Hm... that''ll be all for today. You can leave now.." Mistress announced and kicked him out of her room before mming the doors shut. Chapter 16 - Dearest Pawn Donovan felt humiliated. Not because the mistress pped him, but because she didn''t even hear his side. What stung, even more, was the fact that she had never ever done that before. He knew Ashton was the most important key for her n to seed, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t teach the brat a lesson. That was his n. Donovan wanted Ashton to feel misery and despair when he sent him away to the simtion room. Ashton would still have to fight against the ghoul, he would have felt the pain. Everything would have been real, except the ghoul. The simted ghoul should have put Ashton would in trouble and then Donovan would have magically reappeared and saved his ''life''. That would have made the mutt aware of the difference in their powers. This would have also ensured that Ashton would remain a bit docile towards him as he was his saviour if nothing else. But all of his ns failed when the only thing that shouldn''t have been real, turned out to be real. Not only that, by the time they realised something was off, the door refused to open as if someone was intentionally keeping them out. That''s when the Mistress arrived to check in on their progress, however, she immediately realised that the ghoul inside wasn''t a simted ghoul but a real one. Her rage was like nothing they had ever seen before. She, along with her elite guards immediately tore the door open, but by the time they did, it was already over. Once the immediate threat was over, the Mistress, rightfully so,shed out on the man she trusted the most. There was a reason why she gave Donovan the responsibility to train Ashton. She was aware that there were multiple if not just one spy in her court, who didn''t want her ns to seed. It was probable that one of them could have sabotaged the simtion room. Even though they weren''t able to seed in their ns, they managed to do something else, causing a trust issue between the Mistress and Donovan. Since it was Donovan who went inside the simtion room, before sending Ashton in, it turned him into the prime suspect of string to kill Ashton. "Once I find those bastards, I''ll rip their entrails out with my bare ws." Donovan cursed before mming the bottle of ancient liquor with his hand, "They made the Mistress lose her trust in me... I''ll never forgive those pesky little spies for doing that to me." *** On the other hand, The Mistress was busy thinking about what could have happened inside the simtion room. She wasn''t thinking about the ghoul and how was it able to get inside, but how was Ashton able to defeat it. She believed him when he said that he had prior knowledge of how to kill a ghoul, but having the knowledge and executing it were two entirely different things. A schr could have all the knowledge in the world and yet they wouldn''t be able to defeat someone they knew the weakness of unless they possess the skills to do so. It was the same with Ashton. He was a newbie. There was no way he got have gotten used to his new powers so easily, and yet he managed to defeat the ghoul with just a few scratches. That too with weapons that were the most unsuitable for aplishing the task. It could have been possible for two reasons. One the brat got lucky or two, he was hiding something. The chances for thetter was very little, as the kid did not seem to be someone with enough brain cells to hide a secret. Even if he did, her all-seeing eye should have been enough to unveil the secret. After all, she already used it once to see whether the then 12-year-old Ashton had a blessing or not. And she even used it this time when she couldn''t see any skill on his status te. The all-seeing eye didn''t show her anything special. Just that he had a couple of passive skills to help him out. Even then that didn''t exin how was he able to defeat the ghoul so she decided he must have been lucky. There couldn''t be another reason for it. "He is unique... However, I need to protect him till he set off for the academy." The Mistress mumbled to herself before stripping down and entering the bathtub, "It seems my father already has gotten a wind of my ns... otherwise his spies wouldn''t have taken such a drastic measure. But it''s a shame that he turned out to be a Yellow one." She continued, "I was hoping he would at least be a Red one, considering that he already had a blessing before being turned. Still, being Yellow is not the worst for him that too when he can evolveter on... I''ll look forward to it, but for now, let''s just give him the knowledge and strength my dearest pawn needs." Chapter 17 - Night Adventure (1) As if fighting with creatures wasn''t enough for him, the mistress decided to tutor Ashton about monsters and the werewolves as well. It was even worse that, he already knew about those things about the monsters thanks to the system he had. But he couldn''t tell that to the Mistress. Yet, that didn''t stop him from trying to do so by hinting at it when he asked her about an ability to know about things just by looking at them. She immediately scoffed and said in her decades of experience, she had never seen or heard about such an ability. She further added, if there was someone with an ability like that, they would probably be hunted down and imprisoned by the royal family. Anyone with a skill like that would be able too precious to be felt alone. That was enough for Ashton to keep his mouth shut and silently take in whatever the mistress was teaching him. At first, he wasn''t paying all that attention to her, but he soon realised there were things that the system couldn''t teach him. Like about the society, the kingdom and various etiquettes that everyone followed by the werewolves in theirmunity. Thanks to the Mistress''s training, he was able to know a lot of things about the kingdom they were living in. The kingdom of Lycania was said to be one of the five brightest ''stars'' of the eastern continent. By brightest stars, it meant that Lycania was one of the most well-off kingdoms on the continent. They were rich in minerals and resources as well as in technology. Despite all that, the kingdom was fairly small inparison to the other four stars. One of the main reasons for it was the location of their kingdom. Lycania was surrounded by swamps located in the north which also happened to be the only ce their kingdom could possibly expand because Lycania was surrounded by sea on the other sides. The expansion of the country wouldn''t have been so difficult if it wasn''t for the fact that the swamps were heavily infested with night creatures. With their current military strength, they can not afford tounch a full-frontal strike on the monsters. The main reasons being their numbers and that they were much dangerous than any of them could expect. They initially tried to capture the swamps bit by bit, but that n backfired because the night creatures kept attacking them relentlessly. In the end, the King had to order his men back and no one had ever dared to touch the swamps again. The answer to their problem was simple, they needed morebat efficient people. But to make their poption grow, they needed morend. Thus they were in a deadlock, unable to do anything. The King even put his pride aside and asked the other stars to help them out, but they didn''t. The reason for doing so was never really clear, but a wise man could figure out the reason by themselves. The other stars fear what Lycania would be able to do if the only restriction that was stopping them from turning into overlords of the werewolves was lifted. In other words, they were already strong as they were and no one wanted them to get even stronger. So they didn''t help them. That was the gist of it. The mistress kept babbling about a lot of other things but Ashton''s head was already saturated and he couldn''t remember much after that. The mistress might have realised that and thus told him to go and rest for the day, as they were going to start early tomorrow morning. "Man... this sure is taxing." Ashton yawned as he made his way back to his room, "Fight for 6 hours a day, learn stuff for about 10 more hours and sleep when you can... at least it''s not as bad as I thought. The harder I train, the sooner I''ll be able to take my revenge and set myself free from here. I wish I could train more and focus on these theoretical things less..." Strangely enough, The Mistress had also taken his physical training on herself as well. In fact, it had been a couple of days since that incident in the simtion room happened, and he hadn''t seen Donovan ever since. Something must have happened between him and the Mistress, but it wasn''t like Ashton gave a shit about either of them. But it was thanks to that incident that now the room was strictly being monitored no matter whether Ashton was using it or not. Thus, no simr incidents happened either. All in all, things were going good for him... except... for the level of his werewolf form. Thanks to the strict training he was subjected to, his levels had risen quite a bit. He was currently at level 2 but he had already earned 47% of the exp he required to level up again. However, the rest of his gic forms were still stuck at level zero, and it was not a good thing. As Lucifer had already told him, the level gap between the gic should never exceed 5. With the rate he was being trained, it wasn''t going to be too long for him to cross the level five mark and if he did cross the mark... then he didn''t even know what would happen. All he knew was that Lucifer will be killed and he might as well. He couldn''t let that happen. Not before he had taken his revenge at the very least. He also knew it was going to take a lot of time for him to do that because when he tried to check The Mistress''s level just like the ghoul''s, he couldn''t see a thing apart from a single sentence. [Your level is too low to view this individual''s stats.] "I need to get strong, but first I need to bnce my genes out..." Ashton looked out of the window, into the night, "Maybe I can do something about it.... tonight." Chapter 18 - Night Adventure (2) Werewolf genes were the easiest for Ashton to level up. All he had to do was to fight. He didn''t need to sneak out in order to level up. He could just be himself and be able to level up. No one would have batted an eye on him for that. However, the same wasn''t true in the case of levelling up the rest of his genes. As far as he remembered he would have to consume the flesh and blood of monsters or any other being, to level up the Zombie and the Vampire genes in his body. He had already tried eating cooked meat, but that didn''t seem to have any effect on him. It was the same with blood. He knew it because thanks to the attention the Mistress was showering him with, he could have made anything made, anything that he liked. So of course, he wanted a blood broth made to test whether his vampire genes will get affected or not. And since he ate in his room, there was no risk of anyone finding out about his true form. It was an appetite killing experiment and unfortunately, none of it worked the way he wanted. It appeared he would need to consume the things right from the source for his genes to activate. Obviously, it was just another one of his theories. However, it was time for him to put the theory to a test. However, he had to be careful about it. The werewolves had a sharp sense of smell. If he turned into a Zompire outside his room, they might be able to trace him down. Ashton didn''t want that to happen. The only reason he could freely turn into a vampire or a Zombie inside his room was that no one visited him at odd hours. Unless it was the Mistress''s order. Thus he decided it was safer if he made his way out of the mansion as a werewolf and once he was out of their reach he would turn into a Zompire and hunt. This was an ideal n for another reason. Ashton was more or less confident in his ability as a werewolf, thus it would be easier for him to make his way out using his werewolf abilities rather than using other forms in which he wasn''t confident. "I still need to wait for a bit longer, till everyone is asleep." Ashton mumbled to himself whileying on his bed, "I can fool the guards around the walls easily, but the guards inside the mansion are a different case altogether." He had checked the levels of the guards guarding the walls and the ones guarding the interior of the mansion. The wall guards had their levels between 5-10. It was a range Ashton could sneak past them. However, the guards on the inside had their levels range between 20-25. Ashton knew going against them would be a foolish decision. Moreover, even he could see their levels, he couldn''t see their stats or abilities as their level was much higher than his. Thus he decided it would be best to sneak out when the guards weren''t as active. "That would be near sunrise though..." That was the problem. The guards would only change shifts around 20-30 minutes before sunrise. It was the most ideal time for him to escape, but there was a slight problem with it... he was weak in sunlight as well. His pain tolerance was high enough to tolerate the pain caused by the sun when his vampire genes were inactive. But he wasn''t sure how long he wouldst if the sun hit him and he was still a vampire. It probably won''t be enough to kill him... maybe. But he wasn''t all that excited about the idea of identally exposing himself to sunlight. Also, the sunlight would weaken his stats a bit as well. Thus, no matter what, he had to get back into the mansion on or before sunrise. The time constraint was really driving him mad. Sneaking out of the mansion itself would take around 15 minutes, sneaking back in will also take around the same time. Then how could he find someone and hunt them down, level up and get back to the mansion in no time? Something like that was impossible in all senses. The only solution to this problem that came in Ashton''s head was to risk leaving the mansion before the guards changed. It would be risky, but that way, he would be able to eliminate the time constraint he had. ''It''s decided then,'' Ashton thought to himself and jumped out of the bed, ''I''ll leave the mansion within the hour. The Mistress should be already asleep so she wouldn''t order anyone toe to check on me now. But... I don''t have any weapons on me.. How will I attack someone even If I find them? Guess, I''ll have to make do with my hands.'' Chapter 19 - Night Adventure (3) ''Did I worry myself for no reason? Where the heck are the guards?'' Ashton thought to himself while he slowly made his way out of the mansion. The mansion was ominously silent. For the days he had spent there, this wasn''t anything like he had imagined. Even though it had been a couple of minutes since he stepped out of his room, there was no sign of anyone. No guards, no maids, nothing. Ashton prowled the silent, dark halls like a true werewolf. His enhanced sight helped him look clearly even in the dark. He had seen the moon shining brightly from his room, but all of the drapes had been drawn in the halls so there was no light. ''It isn''t full moon today... there shouldn''t be a reason for them to be hiding away like this. Or is it something that I am not aware of?'' Ashton didn''t know much about the werewolves. He thought full moon was their only natural weakness, but it didn''t seem to be the case. If it was then there definitely would have been at least a few of them prowling about the mansion. ''Hm... it''s fine for me either way. If they are staying hidden then it would be much easier for me to go out and hunt.'' Ashton slowly managed to make his way out of the mansion with ease. Although he could not turn into a full-fledged werewolf just yet, he had learnt to convert his fingers into sharp ws and started climbing onto the wall that separated the rest of the city from the mansion. All of it seemed too easy, which even made Ashton think twice about his n. But he still needed to level up his other genes and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. He kept going on. He finally got his first glimpse of the city from the top of the walls. He did not want to admit it, but the ce indeed looked beautiful. The city of Maddencreek was built in the centre of a luscious, yet deadly forest. Mistress had already told him not to ever venture into the forest without proper security and equipment as the forest was the home to numerous mutated beasts. The city itself was surrounded by high walls that Ashton could see just as easily as the rest of the city. In some distance, there was a mountain that was once a volcano but nowy dormant. However, the city was still reaping the rewards of the volcano''sst explosion. The trade resources the volcano brought were of great importance to them and were used for a variety of purposes. But they were also influential when it came to architectural designs as the vast majority of buildings have been built not just to withstand a volcano, but with elements and shapes of a volcano. The skyline was littered with unique skyscrapers and they seem to be continuously evolving as new additions are added even then. Thanks to the Mistress''s leadership, the city was still evolving into a city of the future. ''Enough gazing, let''s get going before someone gets suspicious.'' *** The entire point of Ashton escaping the mansion was for him to hunt something down. Instead, he felt as if he was being yed. Just like the mansion, not a single soul could be seen anywhere. It was as if he was walking through a ghost town. "Where is everyone?" Ashton mumbled to himself, and as he did, he heard something behind him. The next moment a weird smell filled his nostril and he instinctively jumped sideways. The following moment, an arrow was buried where he was standing. He turned around and saw a couple of people standing behind him... just with a look, Ashton realised they were werewolves... but Vampires. There was no mistaking it as their dead skin glowed in the moonlit sky. Both of them were wearing ck clothing whichpletely covered their torso and legs. Ashton was able to guess they were vampires because of their sleeveless hoodies. In their hands, they each had a crossbow, while a sword was strapped across their back. All in all, it looked like they were out for a hunt... and Ashton was their prey. "Oh, looks like these mutts left someone behind for us to hunt after all." A feminine voice echoed in Ashton''s ears as one of them removed her hoodie, "And here I thought Natalia wasn''t going to let us kill any of her precious citizens." "Hm... looks like she is not as stubborn as we thought," The vampire next to the woman lifted his hoodie up as well, "And here I was thinking we would have toin to the King about his daughter''s... unweing behaviour." "Why are you standing there like a fool?" The raven-haired female vampire barked at Ashton, "Start running. Hunting is no fun if the prey gives up so easily...." Chapter 20 - Hunter Hunted (1) Two vampires against one adolescent werewolf. It was no surprise that the vamps liked the odds. They were there to hunt ording to the treaty with the king of Lycania. They would help them with taking care of the night creatures, and in return, the king will have to allow them to hunt some werewolves once every six months. Of course, the king wasn''t foolish enough to let the vampires hunt freely in his domain. Thus he imposed a restriction stating that the Vampires will be able to hunt only in groups of two, and they will only kill the werewolves who would be prowling about in the dead of the night. On top of that, they will have to stick to a certain province or city for a certain hunt. Since these rules almost made it impossible for the Vampires to hunt, the king was ''kind'' enough to impose another rule. If the vampires were not able to find any prey, the kingdom of Lycania would give them half a dozen humans aspensation. Werewolves had a lot of humans in possession, thus they could afford to lose a few of them. After all, they could always force those pests to mate again and again and produce more offspring. This time it was the turn of the people of Maddencreek. That was the reason why none of them was outside. Because they already knew about the hunt. However, the Mistress had not bothered enough to tell Ashton the same, as in her eyes, Ashton never left his room in the first ce. But now he was outside. Running from the Vampires as they shot arrow after arrows at him. "Just me and my rotten luck!" Ashton cursed under his breath, "I wanted to be the one to hunt someone, not to be hunted down." For additional speed, Ashton had transformed his foot to resemble those of werewolves as well. But that was the extent of his transformation skill. He hadn''t mastered the skillpletely, it wasn''t because that he didn''t want to, but due to his inability to do so. He might have had the genes needed to transform into a werewolf, but it requires time and practice to do it correctly. One little mess up could lead to his insides turning into mashed potatoes. That was the reason why the Mistress had been teaching him to slowly transform one part of his body into that of the werewolves. "You sure can run fast... but can you dodge this?" The female vampire shot an arrow at him once again, but thanks to his perception skill, he managed to dodge the arrow once again. His blessing finally helped him a bit by deciding to give him some crucial information. __ Type: Bloodsucker Species: Vampire Status: Wild Mercenaries ss: Hunter Age: 60 Gender: Female Grade: E-tier Affiliation: Vampires (Good rtionship), Werewolves (Familiar) Level: 10 Stats: HP: 2300/2300 Damage: 45 Armour: 55 Stealth: 39 Stamina: 55 Agility: 15 Intelligence: 29 Nature: ? Warmonger: Damage dealt using weapons increases by 5% after every sessful hit. Abilities/skills/spells: ? Flight ? Blood feast ? Perception (Mid-tier) ? Summon: Underling ? Preying hour Remark: The mostmon forms of vampires in the world. These are not full-fledged vampires but underestimating them because of that reason has led to the demise of a lot of unfortunate souls. They are often referred to as ''Grunts'' amongst the vampire ranks. These creatures often travel in groups of two, either with their siblings, their mate or in some cases... both. Talk about weird. Vampires are highly secretive, which leads to them often mating within their own families to keep their ''blood'' pure. As for its weakness, using light-based spells or enchanted gear are the quickest way to take them down. If you don''t possess either of those, then you are most likely fcked. Even werewolf ws aren''t much effective against them. However, it doesn''t mean they are invincible. Vampires can hurt and even kill others of their kind no matter how hard their skin is. Only a vampire can defeat other vampires if they don''t possess mana or enchanted gears. __ ''What did I do to deserve to be chased around by level 10 vampires?'' Ashton cursed himself and rushed into a seemingly empty building, ''I need to turn my vampire genes on, but I can''t do that while I''m busy running away from them.'' The flying bloodsuckers came to a halt as soon as Ashton entered the building. They were not allowed to get inside a building to hunt someone. However, the King''s orders were not all that conclusive... "He never told us what to do if a prey hid inside a building, did he, Mera?" The male bloodsucker asked his counterpart with a savage smile on his face. "You are right, Jacob... he didn''t." The female replied with an equally satisfying smile on her face. With that in their minds, they entered the building. But as they did, they realised that the scent of the werewolf had disappeared without a trace. It was as if their prey had disappearedpletely. "Watch out!" Jacob pushed Mera aside from an unknown threat. The next moment, there was a w mark in the ce where Mera was standing. "Who the fck...." Mera mumbled as an oundish white-haired kid walked in front of them. Chapter 21 - Hunter Hunted (2) ''Where the hell did this kid drop here from?'' Mera mumbled as soon as she overcame her shocked state, ''More importantly, why couldn''t I sense his attacking?'' Jacob helped her back to her feet, but not once did his eyes wandered away from the kid. Just by giving him the first look, he realised that the kid was no ordinary being. But more importantly... his dead red eyes were implicating things they shouldn''t have. ''What is such a young vampire doing here? Wait a minute... his skin... it doesn''t make any sense.'' Jacob thought to himself, ''Why does his skin look so pale? Even full-fledged vampires don''t have such pale skin... but the undead does. And those feet, they definitely belong to a werewolf.'' The more he looked at the kid, the more surprised he got. He knew his observations were correct but this couldn''t have been possible. How can someone have traits of all three dominant species of the world? Such a thing waspletely unheard of. "The fck are you spacing out for you motherfcker!" Mera yelled at Jacob which brought him back to his senses, "I know what you are thinking, but now is not the time for that... just imagine what kind of powers and skills this kid might give us once we consume his blood-" "We need to report this anomaly instead." Jacob cut her off, "Something like the boy should not exist in the first ce-" "You will do no such thing!" Mera snapped at him, "This could be our chance to defeat the Countess and take the leadership away from her. Just think about it... we will no longer be mere Bloodsuckers anymore. Don''t you want that? Or do you think it is better for us to just stay here and be bloodsuckers for the rest of our time?" Jacob got silent after that. It was true that he wanted to evolve into something more powerful than the Bloodsucker, but then there was the truth that they will probably never be able to evolve. Evolution was a gift not bestowed on everybody. Probably only 5% of the world''s poption was evolvable. That most of them wouldn''t know that until an ''Oracle'' was kind enough to look into their stats and inform them of it. But even seeing the oracle had its price. A price so high that low-ranking vampires like him can''t even imagine possessing. That was also the reason why creatures often just went with the flow and keep hunting. If they were able to evolve through that, then it was their luck, if not... well, then they could only get power through obtaining new and powerful skills. That being said, werewolf blood was known to be a stimnt that could make the vampires aware of the fact that whether they could evolve or not. This was the reason, why the two of them desperately wanted to taste some werewolf blood. They were happy when they found a lone werewolf kid roaming around the streets but now, that kid was nowhere to be seen and instead of him they had some new kid who was standing in front of them with his face covered with what looked like his shirt. ''I don''t know what this thing is,'' Jacob thought as he assumed battle stance, ''But our n would work as long as he has some werewolf genes in that blood of his. However, if he is an undead like I suspect then that wouldplicate the matter.'' Just like a werewolf''s blood was a precious potion for them, the blood was the Undead was poison. The vampires could only feed on the blood of the living, like humans, beasts, and werewolves. However, they could not feed on the blood of the undead because their rotten blood could make their powers degrade and in some cases, it could even kill them. That was the reason why the vampires always avoid the undead. In fact, it felt like nature''s n to perfectly bnce everything. The Vampires were usually strong against the werewolves. It was said that a werewolf had to have twice the number of levels as a vampire to even think about fighting them on equal footing. While the werewolves could easily take care of the undead who were less than twice their level. But for an undead to kill a vampire... they only had to be about half of their level. Of course, this was only a rough estimation and there had been cases in the past that have proven these estimations wrong. But just to be on the safer side, they usually followed this estimation. However, when Jacob tried to know the level of the weird kid in front of him, he couldn''t see a thing. As a result, he was hesitant to fight him, even though he was a kid and there were two of them. Nevertheless, Mera''s stubbornness was giving him no choice. They were blooded and bonded together, which meant if one of them dies, the other one dies too. Since Mera was going to fight the kid, the only sensible thing to do was to aid her. ''Let''s fight then....'' Chapter 22 - Hunter Hunted (3) It was the first time Ashton had activated all of the genes in his body. Well, technically, it was the second time, but this was the first time he had intentionally activated them. Simultaneously activating the Vampire and the undead genes was a lot more painful than he thought. Even the Pain Tolerance couldn''t do much against it. But Ashton powered through it. As he knew, if he had any chance of making it alive out of there, he needed everything he had in his arsenal. He looked the Mera in her eyes, and the only thing he could see was hostility. An urge to kill him was all she had. Completely void of any other emotion. Ashton was a bit... scared at that point. Especially since he had intended to take her out first. He might have been sessful if it wasn''t for the other guy''s interference. However, Mera''s hostility proved to be a blessing in disguise. He had forgotten about it, but it didn''t look like his system did. As the following moment, there was a notification in front of him. __ You have fulfilled the condition for a skill to level up. A skill has levelled up! You have unlocked an additional perk. >> Perception: A prime ability found in bloodsuckers. It is the ability to see, hear, or be aware of something through the senses. You can now sense the intention of mid-levelled beings through this skill. Additional Perk: [Reflex]: The longer you fight a target, the easier it is for you to get used to their moves. Grade: Mid Condition to upgrade the skill: Kill a target you have gained maximum hostility with or use 5 skill points to level this skill up. Current Vampiric skill points: 0 __ He must have blinked countless times to see if what he was reading was real. The moment he realised it was, he couldn''t help but smile. He didn''t know whether it was coincidental or not, but the [Reflex] perk was something that felt as if it was the second part of his [Battle Tactics] skill. The [Battle Tactics] skill could slow down the enemies attacks, making it easier for him to dodge the attacks, while [Reflex] would also do something simr but by making Ashton get used to the attacks of the enemies rather than making them slow. Either way, now that he knew his enemies were out for his blood, he had no choice but to retaliate in kind as well. Even though he had no idea how capable his opponents were. Still, as long as he kept dodging their attacks, an opening will eventually open for him to act on. [Battle Tactics Activated.] [Reflex is in effect.] Mera lunged at him first, while Jacob stayed in his spot. They were going for a two-front attack. While Mera tried to indulge him in closebat, Jacob would probably use the crossbow to get him. It was a perfect n and the proof of their years of experience as hunters. They were professionals, at least whenpared to Ashton. They knew what they were doing. Ashton, on the other hand, had no idea about what these people were capable of. All he knew was the names of the skills they had without a hint of what those skills actually did. That was also the reason why he did not want to get touched by them. Who knew what kind of crap they might pull? "Stop running away you coward!" Mera yelled in frustration as Ashton dodged yet another one of her attacks. "Two adults are fighting a child, yet I''m the coward?" Ashton replied in a muffled voice while keeping off of Jacob''s target range, "I didn''t know vampires were hypocrites as well." "You..." Merashed out again. Her ws kept getting closer and closer to him with each swing. Even though he was using both [Battle Tactics] and [Reflex], it was proving to be quite a taxing task to dodge her. Deep down, Ashton knew it was only a matter of time before she will eventually get him. He wanted to wait for an opening before attacking the woman. But whether he saw an opening to attack her, Jacob was there to prevent him from doing so. Waiting for an opening to show up, was no longer feasible to him. As the longer he waited, the slimmer his chances of survival got. This was to be expected, because the [Reflex] perk he was depending on, wasn''t exclusive to him. [Perception] was a skill found in all of the vampires, thus it was no surprise that Mera had it too. Which meant, she also had the [Reflex] perk. So, while Ashton was trying to get used to her movement, Mera was getting used to his movements as well. That was the reason why with each attack, she was getting closer to him bit by bit. ''If I can''t find an opening, then I shall make one for myself!'' Ashton thought to himself and rushed towards Jacob.. If he could take him out, even temporarily, then he just might be able to get of Mera. Chapter 23 - Hunter Hunted (4) ''Cat is in the bag now.'' Mera thought to herself as she saw Ashton running towards Jacob. The amateurs always fell for this trick. They always assumed that the one who stayed behind to attack them from a distance would be weaker than the one who was engaging them in closebat. Mera could not even recall how many humans, vampires, werewolves, undead and even the night creatures had fallen for this trick of theirs. And it looked like this kid was going to be one of them. Ashton,pletely unaware of their ns, kept charging towards Jacob like a mad titan. However, as soon as he reached within Jacob''s attack range, he pulled an unexpected manoeuvre. Ashton dropped to his knees, his momentum made him slide on the floor and dived past him while digging his vampirish ws in Jacob''s thigh. ''Argh!!!'' Jacob''s thighs felt like they were made of steel. But it was thanks to Ashton''s ws it was easier to damage Jacob than bending steel. On top of that, the difference between Ashton''s and Jacob''s height worked in favour of the former. Ashton was like a quick little fox in front of the goliath-sized vampire. Frozen ck blood erupted out of Jacob''s wound like a fountain, socking the man''s clothing within seconds. Jacob''s leg gave out and he fell backwards. Mera''s eyes were wide open in shock. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought that a kid like that would be able to even graze a vampire''s skin. Let alone make them ''bleed''. "Jacob!" "Stay back. His ass is mine now." Jacob growled in anger, "I was thinking about going easy on you. But ytime''s over now kid." Soon the blood stopped flowing out of the man''s wounds and he got back to his feet. He threw his crossbow aside and took out the short swords attached to his back. Using ranged weapons wasn''t his strong suit. His real weapons were his swords that have taken countless lives over the decades since he was transformed into a Bloodsucker. The shiny blue swords were unlike anything Ashton had seen before. Both the swords had a long, narrow, smooth de with a grip made up of some ck leather which probably belonged to some night creature. The des visibly only had one sharp edge, which made it perfect for slicing and dicing their target without any difficulty. However, the crossguard was the thing that caught Ashton''s attention. One would think that since a vampire was using a weapon, it would have markings of a vampire on it. But strangely enough, the cross-guard has an borate silver wolf head on each side. Ashton was no expert in weapons but even he realised a vampire would not usually walk around with a weapon that had a symbol of werewolves on it. Judging by the detailing on the de and the crossguard, Ashton felt like that sword must have belonged to a noble werewolf first. Maybe this vampire duo hunted them down and took what was theirs. Either way, the situation just got a bit grim for Ashton. Fighting two of them was already too much for him and now that Jacob was going to use his swords, he waspletely fcked. ''Damn it... what do I do?'' Aston thought as a single drop of sweat traced the edge of his face, ''Should I try to run? No. It won''t do me any good. They will eventually catch me off guard and that''ll be it.'' [The system has deemed the user to be in a life-threatening situation and can provide assistance to the user. Would you ept it?] [Note: Exp and Rewards given will get affected in the event you ept the assistance.] A system notification shed in front of Ashton''s eyes. It had never happened before but then again, he had never been in this kind of danger before either. ''Yes!'' As much as Ashton would like to take care of these vampires by himself, he knew he was too weak to do that. For now, it was better to listen to what the system had to offer as his ultimate goal was to survive and destroy the ones who did him wrong. It was too soon for him to die after finally getting a means to take his revenge. [Rmended action: Turn off your werewolf genes and use your undead genes for offence while your Vampire genes for defence.] ''What? I don''t have any experience in fighting using either of those things!'' Ashton was now hesitating to follow through with the system''s ns, ''Moreover, if I deactivate the werewolf genes then I won''t be able to use the skills associated with the wolves!?'' [Note: The User doesn''t need to defeat them on your own. The User only needs to survive for 22 minutes.] ''What would happen after that? No, more importantly, how the fck am I supposed to survive for so long? Can''t you see the person standing in front of me?'' [After 21 minutes. The User is suggested to turn the vampire genes off.] ''Answer me first!?'' [That concludes the system''s suggestion.] ''Oi, oi, oi!!! Damn it!'' Ashton cursed under his breath, ''Looks like I have no other choice but to follow through.'' Chapter 24 - Hunter Hunted (5) Seeing no other way but to put his faith in the system''s non-existent hands, Ashton turned off the werewolf genes as he was told to. This was the first time since his awakening that he had turned the genes off, thus he felt a bit ufortable. After all, how the heck was he supposed to fight two level 10 Bloodsuckers with the help of two level zero genes? No matter how he thought about it, the system''s n was wed. At least that''s how it seemed to his pea brain. ''Desperate times indeed call for desperate measures... but this is too much.'' Ashton did not know what the system was trying to aplish by putting him in more danger. With the werewolf feet gone, his speed was reduced drastically. There was no way he would be able to dodge their attacks if they went all-out now. In the meantime, the Bloodsuckers could also see the physical changes in their opponents'' anatomy. Vampires were known to be great at shifting shapes, but they could never change their form into a different species. They only had three states they could transform into, Humanoid form, True form and their bestial form which was often arge bat. ''I need to put an end to whatever this miserable creature is... If I don''t then I have a feeling it will get too strong for anyone to control.'' Jacobmunicated with Mera using their bond link. ''Don''t even think about it, Jacob! We havee so close and I''m not going to give up this opportunity for your false sense of loyalty towards the countess!'' ''It is not about the countess anymore! Can''t you see for yourself? If we let this kid live, he might as well end up killing everything in his path. It''s better to nip him while he is a bud than to let him grow into a monstrous fly trap!'' Thanks to their arguing, it gave Ashton enough time to witness the wonder the system was trying to pull off. ''The hell is this...'' Ashton''s mouth fell open when he read the blinking information in front of him. [Genes in use: Undead & Vampire.] [Unique Gene Combination acquired! Thebination has been registered in the system. You can not ess this form quicker and painlessly.] [Type: Undead Rhapsody: Automatically activates when genes of only undead creatures are present inside a host''s body. Provides bonus boosts to the host and increases their performance during battle.] [Drawback: This state should not be maintained for long durations of time. If done so, the body of the host might suffer through burnout. If the state is forcefully maintained after a certain period of time, then the body might end up receiving permanent damage as well.] All of a sudden, Ashton could feel weird coldness wrap his body up. He had gotten used to living with the warm body of a werewolf thus the sudden coldness in his skin took him by surprise. However, the coldness did not make him ufortable in any way, in fact, he felt rxed like he had never before. His eyes also turned into the deepest shade of crimson that was possible. [Your stats have been boosted as an effect achieving a new genebination never seen before.] [You are rmended to assume this form for 2 minutes only. Any more than that and your body will start suffering through burnout.] By this time Jacob and Mera were done arguing amongst each other. Thye would have gained more power if they could feed on a living target, but at this point, it was clear to them that won''t be happening. The best bet was to kill the kid and consume his blood instantly. Because, unlike werewolves and humans, the undead creatures like Vampires did not rot from outside. They start rotting from the inside which meant their blood vessels were the first things to rot before anything else and this process was instantaneous. The moment a killing blow was delivered to a vampire, the body starts destroying itself. It was an evolutionary trait and it was thanks to this trait that none of the other species was able to know much about them. This trait was called ''The Coffin'' amongst their kind. However, it had its downside as well. Countless vampires had lost their lives when they could have been saved using a pro[er care and attention. However, the thing that truly made the coffin a double-edged sword was that its trigger was not dependent on physical injuries only. For example, while fighting their archnemesis, the Zombies, they had to be extremely careful. If zombies'' fluids somehow entered the body of the low-grade vampires, theirst defence mechanism would get triggered and they would die in a matter of seconds. The fluids could be anything, the saliva from a bite or blood from a scratch. However, generally, vampires having a grade lower than C, and levels below 25 were susceptible to this false activation of the ''Coffin''. Vampires having higher grades than stated above, did not have the Coffin activate uponing in contact with the bodily fluids of zombies. But even they might suffer through hellish pain which sometimes made death a better choice. ''I will kill the kid and let Mera consume the blood if she wants. I have no interest in doing that.'' Jacob thought to himself and charged straight towards Ashton, ready to sh his head off his shoulders, ''Die now!'' Jacob swung his swords with all his might, however, the des did not touch Ashton even though Jacob hadpleted his swing. He looked in front of him but the kid wasn''t there. The following moment he heard a scream he did not think he would hear ever again.. It was his own scream as a hole was punched through his stomach. Chapter 25 - What Blood Tastes Like (1) Ashton was surprised he actuallynded a hit on the Bloodsucker. But the happiness was short-lived. He had put his all into that punch and it seemed like the new genebination helped him a lot. All that considered, Ashtonmitted the biggest mistake. He was going in to punch through Jacob''s chest and rip his heart out, which was supposedly the only way apart from decapitation and fire to kill a vampire. "If you are outnumbered and outmatched always go for a vampire''s heart first." Ashton recalled the Mistress telling him, "That should kill the Vampire if the attack would be strong enough to burst its heart open. If not well, then you would have revealed your only card and now they will be more careful around you. Making your chances been less than they already were." She continued, "In other words... you''ll be doomed. Also, this trick would not work on high ranking vampires because they have the ability to alter their bodies ording to the need and most of them always ce their hearts in weird ces within their bodies. I once fought one who had kept his heart in his ass... talk about being weird." ''Looks like I''m doomed now...'' Ashton thought to himself as he realised where he had hit the punch. The stomach was definitely not the part he was aiming for. But in his haste, hepletely messed it up. Jacob was still in horrible pain though Ashton wasn''t sure why. After all, the vampires were known to be a species that feel very less... pain. One could even rip their hands off and they wouldugh it off, at least that''s what the mistress told him. But Jacob had been behaving oddly. It was the same case when Ashton scratched his thigh. Back then Ashton had gotten lucky, but now he knew there was no such thing as luck. His attacks were clearly doing something to Jacob that he didn''t even know. However, not wanting to put himself in unnecessary danger, Ashton took his fist covered in ck blood out of Jacob''s stomach and jumped back to safety. In the meantime, Jacob fell down to his knees. His short swords lying on the floor, while he had wrapped his hands around his open stomach. Mera rushed over to him, trying tofort and heal him, but it was all in vain. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Mera cursed under her breath as she kept trying to help Jacob, but couldn''t. Soon Jacob''s ck blood starteding out of facial openings, his eyes, his mouth, his nose., everywhere. By this time, both the bloodsuckers were aware of what was happening... much to their dismay, the ''Coffin'' had been triggered. Making it impossible for Jacob to get healed no matter what Mera tried. "... why are you... unaffected...?" Jacob mumbled, "We are bonded... then why..." Mera was stunned into silence. She was so distressed about Jacob, that shepletely forgot about what would happen if one of them dies... the other would have suffered the same fate, But Jacob was dying and Mera, well, she was unaffected by it. At least physically. "I... I''m sorry, Jacob..." Mera was wracked up with shame. So much so, that she couldn''t even look at the man who had dedicated his life fighting alongside her. The one man who had loved her more than anyone else... was the one she had cheated on from the beginning. She had never bonded with him. She was only using the poor man for her own selfish desires. She wanted a pet who would dly sacrifice himself in the face of danger and when he was dead she would look for another prey to fool. After all, she had been doing this for ages. However, she did not realise when or how, but she actually started caring about Jacob as time passed. He was slowly bing the one she had been looking for, for ages. She had even nned on really making him his mate after this hunt, but things took a turn for the worse and now... it was all over. Vampires couldn''t cry... well, they could cry but no tears ever came out of their eyes. If they could, then Mera''s face would have been drenched in tears. "What a way... to go out... don''t you think?" Surprisingly Jacob did not show any signs of anger or rage after being betrayed in such a horrifying way, "Next time... bond with someone... before fooling them into thinking... that you have..." "No, you''re the only mate I ever wanted-" However, Jacob was no longer listening to her, instead, he told her something she needed to hear more. "That kid... is not an ordinary being..." He mumbled with hisst breaths, "His fists have the blood of the undead within them... when he punched me... my skin broke his, allowing the blood to enter... my body which triggered... the coffin..." While the two of them were busy sorting their mess out in Jacob''sst moments, Ashton decided to capitalise on the moment. He slowly crept up to them and took Jacob''s short swords for himself. Before any of them could realise what Ashton was doing, thetter rushed behind Mera and stabbed her in the heart with the short swords. This time he had killed them for sure... because the system told him so.. Finally, the hunt hade to an end and it was time to reap the rewards. Chapter 26 - What Blood Tastes Like (2) __ You have killed two Bloodsuckers. Please proceed to drink their blood to gain Vampire Exp and skill points. Please proceed to feast on their flesh to gain Undead Exp and skill points. Since werewolf genes were not active during the defeat of the creatures, no exp will be awarded to level up your Werewolf Exp. You have in creatures much stronger than you. You have gained a new title! [Defiant]: When fighting creatures who are more than 5 levels higher than your highest levelled genes, you will gain 10% bonus strength and defence. Killing the above-said creatures would also give you additional exp. __ "I thought killing them would give me something, but I would have never thought it would give me a title... whatever that thing is," Ashton mumbled to himself while looking at the swords in his hands, "I guess I won''t need to be worried about finding a weapon anymore." __ Item: Short Swords of Soaring Winds Type: Weapon Damage: 150-183 HP per strike Stats bonus: >> Strength: +40 while equipped for use. >> Deals 1.5x damage against Night Creatures. >> Deals 2x damage against Werewolves. Rarity: Rare Description: These short swords were crafted from the remains of a grade B creature. Its enormous azure teeth were used to make the de of the swords while its hide was used to craft a suitable grip for the hilt. As for the hilt and the crossguard, both of those were made using the strongest bones found inside the creature. A pair of swords that once belonged to the early Lycan nobility. The swords have been since assumed to be lost. Only to be found by you, however, the swords have forgotten their true purpose of ying Vampires and the Night creatures. Instead, it has tasted the blood of so many werewolves that its true potential can only be unlocked while fighting against werewolves. Effect(s): ? Attacking enemies using this weapon exposes them to Haemmorage, making them lose 2% of their HP for the next 5 seconds. This ability has a cooldown period of 10 seconds (Ineffective on Elite beasts). ? Grants the user the passive skill: . (Kill 10 A grade beasts to unlock this skill.) ? Grants the user the active skill: . (Kill 100 A grade beasts to unlock this skill.) __ "Huh... at least I can do additional damage to the werewolves and night creatures." Saying so, he wiped Mera''s blood off the short swords and ced them in his inventory. As much as he was excited about using the weapon as his go-to weapon, only a fool would do something like that. Sooner orter, everyone will find out that someone had killed the bloodsuckers which would probably prompt an investigation. If in that case, he went around brandishing the azure short swords, he would be taken into custody and probably executed before he could even activate his genes. Thus he decided it was better for now to keep the swords hidden inside his inventory and only use them while hunting creatures to level up his Undead and Vampire genes. With that being taken care of, Ashton finally decided to im his real rewards. Initially, he thought that just the idea of drinking blood and consuming raw flesh would make him puke, But now that he was about to do that, for some reason it looked surprisingly appetizing to him. ''Maybe it''s because of the active genes...'' Ashton reassured himself as he bent down on one knee and bit Mera''s neck. As soon as the rotten blood entered his mouth, Ashton could not stop biting more into her flesh. Nothing he had ever had tasted half as good as the blood he was drinking now. The blood felt as sweet as honey and a bit spicy at the same time. As Ashton kept extracting the blood out of Mera, her body became frail and shrivelled up like a raisin. By the time he was done, a notification appeared in front of his eyes. __ You have sessfully consumed the blood of a Bloodsucker. You gained 4 levels due to therge difference between your levels. Current vampire Level: 4 You have levelled up! Exp limit has been reset. All wounds have been healed. Current vampire skill points: 4 Current Exp: 0% You have been awarded a new Vampire skill! You can ess your information tab to know more about [skill absorption]. __ Ashton did not pay any attention to the text shing in front of him. He was toost in ecstasy to do so. However, he eventually snapped out of it and realised he still had a task to do. So, he dug into Jacob''s flesh and the same cycle repeated once again. He gained a couple of levels for the undead genes but did not gain another skill. After he was done, he quickly wiped the blood off of him and made his way out of there. He did not want to linger around there in case someone saw anything. Once he was far enough, he reactivated his werewolf genes while deactivating the rest. So that no one could trace him back. ''Let''s go back to the mansion before the sun rises.'' Chapter 27 - Anomaly (1) Ashton quickly made his way back to the mansion. Thankfully, his journey back inside was fairly uneventful. Everyone was still asleep or hiding, and the sun was still down. This helped Ashton to et back to his room without any worries. As for his smell, he had already taken care of that as well. The mistress was sure to teach him about everything rted to werewolves and one of the most important things she taught him was to erase his presence. For all intent and purposes, the werewolves were like wolves. Thus they had a weird stench around them. There were two ways to get rid of their smell, either blend themselves with the surroundings or make the surroundings blend in with you. This necessarily meant to either blend your smell into your surroundings or mark everything to smell like oneself. Since doing thetter would not have helped him in any way, Ashton decided to do it the other way. He rubbed the scent of everything on him, thus even the sharpest of noses would not have been able to trace the killings back to him. At least he hoped so and started waiting for the hell break loose when the sun came up. *** With sunlight came chaos in the city of Maddencreek. The citizens had followed the scent of the dead and found the dead bloodsuckers in the abandoned barn. All of them were aware of who these two bloodsuckers were. They were two of their national guests who had been helping his majesty the king with taking care of the night creatures in the wastnds. They also knew that the two of them were huntingst night in their city. However, with them being dead, most of them were happy as they had spentst night in worry of what would happen. The mistress, on the other hand, could not help but get worried. The national guests were killed in her city, and it wasn''t exactly a secret that she hated her sperm donor more than anyone else on the. If someone wanted they could easily turn this incident into a way for the mistress to show her rebellion against the empire. Even though she was strong, she was nowhere near strong enough to take on the empire by herself. If she did, she would have already overthrown her so-called father and be the monarch of the kingdom. Everyone in the city was rounded up and their whereabouts of thest night was being asked. But it wasn''t like she had a way to rebuke them. ''If only the surveince were allowed to keep on we would have already caught on to the culprit!'' The mistress cursed her father in a way she never had, ''That prickly bastard king might have plotted this all from the beginning. After all, it gave that bastard a chance to get rid of me.'' They had surveince all over the city, but under the Bloodsucker''s and his majesty''s order, all of it was switched off. The bloodsuckers did not want anyone to know what they did or how they did it. Which was a clean tactic to be honest. But now that the Mistress thought about it, it could have also been the king''s or one of his advisor''s ns to mark her as a traitor and get rid of her. She failed to realise this and now she might have to pay for the foolishness. Little did she know that the stars were still shining above her. The corpses of the bloodsuckers had been sent for autopsy and the results that came back were... fascinating, to say the least. "Vampire and Undead?" Mistress asked Donovan who presented the report to her, "Since when did those species start getting along enough to hunt together?" "That''s what confusing me as well." Donovan shrugged his shoulders, "But the report clearly states that one of them died from either her life being sucked out or because of the gaping wound in his chest and as for the male, he died after blood of some undead entered his body." "If the bloodsucker died by the blood of the undead, then it has to be fresh blood..." Mistress handed the report back to Donovan, "It doesn''t matter if a vampire and an undead are working together. With this autopsy report, at least the king or his men would not be able to me this incident upon us." Donovan silently nodded along, he had had the same thoughts when he read the report first. If the king and his council had really nned to get rid of his mistress then they would no longer be able to do that. But there was another thing... "The king might be anything, but not a fool." Donovan mumbled curtly, "If they were truly trying to frame you, then they would not have had a Vampire and an Undead take care of the bloodsuckers." The Mistress immediately understood what Donovan was trying to say and he was correct. The king probably did not know about this. Which made thingsplicated as well. Because in that case, the Vampire and the Undead responsible for killing the bloodsuckers could as well be a threat to them. Thus they needed to swiftly take care of the issue right away. "First the ghoul in the training tower, then this... I have a feeling these two incidents might be linked together." Donovan continued with what he wanted to say, "I will organise a team and hunt down everyone who is responsible for this." "Do as you please." The Mistress mumbled and walked towards the exit of the room, "Just take care of this. I already have enough things on my te that I need to take care of.. I do not need any more issues." Chapter 28 - Anomaly (2) ''Hm... looks like they already found them.'' Ashton thought on his way to the training tower, ''Welp, it''s not like I tried to hide the bodies either. In hindsight, I should have dragged their bodies outside so when the sun rose they would be incinerated.'' Ashton shook his head the next moment. There was no guarantee that the sun would incinerate them. Not all kinds of vampires were susceptible to sunlight and all of them reacted to sunlight in their own way. There was a rumour that the high ranking ones suffered next to no symptoms of being in natural sunlight. Thus, it was better that he did not interfere with the dead bloodsuckers unnecessarily. Who knew what would have happened? "You seem awfully quiet today." The mistress asked him, "You don''t have the flu or something, do you?" "I''m fine." Ashton replied in his usual stern, uncaring tone which prompted a kick from one of her bodyguards. However, Ashton quickly dodged the attack and kicked the other leg of the guard in question, making him fall over instead. "Keep your legs to yourself." Ashton gave that man a warning and kept walking behind the mistress. The mistress looked at him, and Ashton thought he saw a smile on her face, but the next moment she turned around after telling off her guard. This was the first time she had scolded one of her guards from someone like Ashton. At least, in front of him. As much as Ashton loved to see that, he knew it was all an act and nothing more. She was trying to act like a good person to win him over and he knew that very well. How did he know that for sure? Because of his perception skill. Ever since his other genes had levelled up, he was feeling different from the inside. As if his skills were bursting to evolve and make him stronger. But something was keeping him down from doing so. He didn''t know what and the blessing he had, did not have any answers for him. As things were, his only hope was to somehow have Lucifer contact him and have him answer his questions. But it wasn''t something Ashton could have done on his own. Lucifer had already told him, he was the only one who could contact Ashton, not the other way around. Thus, with nothing else in his mind, Ashton decided to devote himself to training. That way, he would be able to get strong and hopefully, breakthrough whatever was trying to stop him from getting much stronger. "You have grown stronger." The Mistress praised him as they entered the familiar tower, "Let me view your stats for a moment." Ashton did not utter a word and simply opened his profile for her to see his stats. The mistress was an expert in disguising her thoughts and emotions. However, with Ashton''s evolved perception skill, he was at least able to get a whiff of what was going on inside her head. ''Surprised and shocked huh... Well, even I would have been surprised if I were in her shoes.'' It wasn''t every day that a mere level 4 werewolf could dodge and strike back a level 11 werewolf. That too with such ease. "Hm... your agility and strength are looking good. But your defence should be equally good. Especially considering what happenedst night." The mistress mumbled as Ashton closed his information tab. "Last night? Did something happen?" Ashton asked in the best innocent voice he could. "Hmm... a couple of national guests were killedst night in an abandoned warehouse. You wouldn''t happen to know anything about it, would you?" "How can I? You didn''t have any mercy on me inst night''s training session, I fell asleep as soon as I hit my bed." "Hm... enough chatting. Let''s not waste anymore of our time." ''Looks like she doesn''t trust my words after all.'' The mistress did not say anything else, but her vibe made Ashton think that he should be more careful around her. She wasn''t level 25+ for nothing, and that coupled with he intuition, made her a dangerous opponent. After all, how many people in their right minds would try to make an enemy of the king. The way Ashton saw it, the mistress could possibly be more dangerous than the king of the empire himself. Although he had never met him, the fact that the mistress could openly rebuke seemed to prove that either the king didn''t care about what she did or that there was very little he could do about her. In either case, it should how politically powerful she was. Then there was the fact that she could charm anyone with her sweet words. That was her most dangerous weapon. She could turn blood brothers against one another and get rid of both of them without getting her hands dirty. Her powers both as a werewolf and as a person left Ashton wondering why did she even need him in the first ce? Chapter 29 - A Final Duel (1) From struggling against one ghoul to ying five in a blink of an eye, Ashton had grown a lot. It had been a month since the bloodsuckers were found dead and a lot of things had happened since then. The king sent some of his most capable men to find the culprit behind this attack, but they were toote. It took them a week to get there because of the differences between the ideologies of Vampires and Werewolves. The Vampires wanted to investigate this incident on their own, but for some reason, the king was adamant about not allowing that to happen. Maybe he was worried that they might get killed as well. But in the end, he allowed a few vampires to apany the werewolves to investigate the scene. However, since a week had already passed, by the time they reached there, no evidence was left behind. Just a week''s time was enough for nature to cover Ashton''s tracks. The investigators had to leave empty-handed. However, a hunt was organised to find and kill the culprits of the attacks. But they never found anyone. After another week of constant vignce, the team left. As soon as they left, the attacks started once again. However,st week they stopped as abruptly as they had started. All the werewolves knew was that sometimes it was the undead that attacked the werewolves and sometimes it was the suspected vampire. Except that nothing was known about them. Even the surveince systems weren''t good enough to catch them as it seemed they knew every single blind spot of the cameras and patrollingpany and effortlessly took advantage of it. The mistress thought someone from her council was aiding these bastards and interrogated them all. She had suspicions on a few of them and ordered for them to be kept on house arrest. Surprisingly, the attacks stopped the very same day. Thus she knew there was a traitor amongst them. When in reality, Ashton stopped attacking the werewolves because the date of his departure to the academy was drawing close. If the attacks stopped abruptly after his departure, everyone would know it was him all along and that scenario would not have been pretty. As for his levels, well, he was doing pretty good. His werewolf genes were on level 9, vampire ones were on level 7 and finally, the undead ones were on level 5. He had also gotten more proficient in using two different skills from different genes at the same time. Making his existing skills evolve into something new. As for Lucifer, Ashton had never heard from him ever since the day he awoke as a Zompirewolf. He had wanted to ask Lucifer a lot of questions regarding his potential as a new species and his powers. However, it seemed he had to do it all on his own. The system helped him very now and then, but only in life-threatening situations or when he was about to do something incredibly stupid. As for the rtionship between the Mistress and him, well, nothing had changed much, if anything at all. Ashton still hated her more than anything and his goal remained the same. He wanted to kill her in the most gruesome way possible. But Mistress did not seem to share the views she had for him anymore. Ashton was precious to her, but not as a pawn. She had seen him grow at a speed she had never witnessed before and thus had formed a soft corner in her heart for him. As for Donovan, the closer Ashton and the mistress got to each other, the more frustrated he became. To him, it seemed as if Ashton was trying to rece him as the Mistress''s prime mate. In this mindset, he kept giving Ashtonbat training that was much worse than anyone on Ashton''s level could have handled. However, the Zompirewolf aced all of those tests which in turn made the Mistress acknowledge him even more. The two of them were soon spending more and more time together in the Mistress''s chambers and Donovan thought they were doing what the Mistress and he did whenever they were alone in her chamber. But it was far from the truth. The mistress was only teaching him about some important stuff that Ashton should have known before entering the academy. However, it wasn''t like the mistress had not tried to pull moves on the boy. In fact, she tried it almost every single night for thest month. But Ashton did not entertain her in the slightest. For starters, it wasn''t his age to get busy with such things and secondly he knew what would have happened if he ended up doing the deed with the mistress. Just like Vampires, the werewolves too had mates. While in vampires, most of them could only have one mate for the entirety of their lives, it wasn''t true for the werewolves. The werewolves could have as many mates as they pleased. There was another way in which the vampire mates and werewolf mates differed from each other. While in vampires, if one of the mates died, the other would die as well, it wasn''t the same for the werewolves. Instead, in the case of the werewolves, the mates would not be able to hide their emotions from one another. Thus exposing them to one another''s feelings and secrets. This bond was the reason why Donovan seemed agitated to leave the Mistress alone with Ashton as he could feel what the mistress felt for him. Either way, Ashton''s teachings finished when he was a couple of days away from leaving Maddencreek and heading for the ''knowledge capital'' of the kingdom where the academy was located in. The mistress wanted him to rest properly, but it was not going to happen anytime soon. As Donovan stopped him right out of the mistress room. Everyone around them could feel the tension between the two of them. Ashton hated Donovan for the way he had treated him and for the fact that he was a close ally of the mistress. While Donovan hated Ashton because of his jealousy issues. "I am here to challenge you-" Donovan began speaking but was cut short by Ashton. "Not interested," Ashton replied and kept walking away. This infuriated Donovan to no end and heshed out at Ashton. As he was about to plunge his rapier deep within Ashton''s back, but he ducked down and firmly nted his foot on Donovan''s chin, knocking him back. The most bad-ass thing, however, was that Ashton did all that with his hands deep within his pockets and without a weapon. Ashton slowly turned around to face the werewolf who he wanted to kill just as much as the mistress. But now was not the time to do that. He needed to gain more strength. That was the entire reason why he agreed to attend the academy in the first ce. "You dare touch me with your feet!?" Donovan yelled out in rage as a drop of blood trickled down from the side of his mouth. "I apologise. I thought you liked staying under someone''s feet at all times.." Ashton replied with a smile on his face before getting into his battle stance. Chapter 30 - A Final Duel (2) However, before either of them could do anything, the doors leading to Mistress''s chambers were flung open and from within came an insinuating scream. "Enough!" The mistress was standing in between Ashton and Donovan and she did not appear to be pleased by the situation she was witnessing in front of her. Donovan had his rapier drawn against Ashton who had transformed his hands into werewolf ws. Had she beente even for a moment, the two of them could have pulled each other''s throats out. She used hermand over the werewolves to make both of them kneel before her. It was one of the most important abilities for a werewolf to control their underlings. Only those who possessed the strength of being the alpha could use this skill and in turn, they could use it to keep those below them, in check. But even with this ability, the alpha can''t force someone to do something that waspletely against their will. It was partially the reason the mistress didn''t use the ability to force Ashton to sleep with her. As she gave out themand, Donovan had no choice but to obey his mistress''s wishes. She wanted them to stand down, thus he had to do that. At that moment, fighting Ashton wasn''t worth offending her. As for Ashton, well, he didn''t need to abide it as he wasn''t a simple werewolf the mistress could control. He had the genes of a vampire and a zombie to resist the urge to give in to hermands. However, the system did send him a notification to inform him about what the mistress wanted him to do. ''It wouldn''t be wise to ignore hermand right now...'' Ashton thought to himself and begrudgingly got to his knees. He had to maintain a low profile. He was getting closer to his goals and thus did not want to mess it all up now. Either way, once he was out of Maddencreek he wasn''t going to meet with most of them. Not all of them at least. However, even though the two of them were on their knees, they were still engaged in a battle. Donovan''s eyes were filled with rage as he wiped away the blood trickling out of his mouth. The kick Ashton delivered to his chin wasn''t strong enough to make him bleed. But since he was in the middle of talking when Ashton kicked him, his tongue was in between his jaws. Thus when Ashton kicked him, Donovan ended up biting his own tongue. As a result, the blood rushed out of his mouth. But to everyone else, it appeared as if Ashton''s kick was strong enough to make the second strongest werewolf in Maddencreek bleed. In the meantime, the Mistress walked over to Donovan to check on him. As she did that, Ashton saw a smug look on Donovan''s face as if he had won a prize or something. Ashton just shook his head in disappointment. ''He is supposed to be the strongest male here, but look at him behave like a lost puppy as soon as mistress touched him. *sigh* Just looking at them makes me want to vomit.'' However, Donovan wasn''t the only one to receive the mistress''s attention. As soon as she was done checking up on him, she walked towards Ashton and squatted down to his level. She was about to take his face in her palms when Ashton turned his face sidewards. He was least interested in what the mistress wanted to do with him. He wasn''t hurt, so there was nothing the mistress needed to check up on. But it seemed like Ashton''s actions had angered the mistress because the next moment, much to Donovan''s surprise, the mistress pped Ashton hard across the face. It wasn''t the first time the mistress had punished him. But it wasn''t as worse as the things Ashton had been forced to suffer through. Donovan was dying to see the expression on Ashton''s face after that. However, he was not expecting to see him... smiling. It wasn''t a normal smile either, but one that only psychopaths could have. The expression onlysted for a second on Ashton''s face and the next moment his face turned expressionless. No one other than Donovan had seen Ashton make the face. Ashton kept his face down in the position it was left after getting pped as the Mistress got up. In his mind, there was a counter going on... A counter that kept track of everything these bastards had done to him. He needed to remember it all, otherwise how the hell would he be able to punish them ordingly? For each time any werewolf hurt him, the counter went up by one, every single kick, punch and whip... everything was ounted for and would be generously given back to them when the time was right. "If the two of you want to duel it out. You have to do it properly." The mistress criticised both of them, ''We are not a bunch of hooligans who would do things in the heat of the moment. If you want a duel, you got it. Tomorrow morning, 8''o clock. Both of you will have a duel. Till then keep your differences to yourselves. Is that understood?'' Both Ashton and Donovan nodded their heads and the mistress headed back inside her room leaving them alone. Chapter 31 - A Final Duel (3) As the sun rose the next day a lot of people gathered around the courtyard to see Ashton get his ass handed to him in a duel with Donovan. Most if not the entire city had gathered there as if it wasn''t a duel but a festival. Ashton was still in his room preparing a strategy to ovee the challenge in front of him. But no matter what he thought, he could not think of one way where he woulde out victorious. Last night for different because for starters it was ''night'' and not day. Thus he was able to use his strength to its fullest. Whereas now, he was supposed to fight Donovan under the bright sky. This would definitely put him in an even more disadvantageous situation as his stats would get reduced thanks to the sun. Then there was the fact that Donovan was arguably the second strongest werewolf in the city after the mistress herself. He had been groomed to be a knight like no other. Ashton had once even seen him spar against a dozen elite bodyguards on his own and Donovan still came out on top. With these things in mind, the situation was looking grim for him. However, the thing troubling him the most was that, well, he wasn''t even aware of the reason why Donovan wanted to fight with him in the first ce? As far as he could remember, Ashton didn''t think he had offended someone of Donovan''s calibre recently. Evenst night he only acted in self-defence by kicking him. Back then Ashton had thought Donovan was trying to test his awareness like he had done many times before. But he was wrong, Donovan literally wanted to stab him, and that fact baffled Ashton to no limit. In his eyes, Donovan was acting in his ce. After all, if anyone should be attacking the other, it should have been Ashton as a way to take revenge for all the hurt and pain he had been subjected to over a couple of months. ''That dude had way too big of an ego. Maybe be I did something to not physically hurt him but hurt his ego instead?'' Ashton thought to himself when he heard a knock on the door. He opened the door and was surprised to see the mistress standing there. In her hands were weapons and light armour that he was supposed to wear for the duel. She herself was wearing quite extravagant ck clothes that tightly hugged her curves. For the first time, Ashton knew why the heck did the wolves always acted in heat around her. Before he got too lost thinking about her, he shook her head and snapped out of her charm. As the system informed him that he was under her spell. ''Even now... this bitch is trying to seduce me. Why the hell does she have to do this every single day?'' If it wouldn''t have been for the undead genes in his body, Ashton would have given up the urge to hold back against the mistress''s charm and began acting like a dog in the heat. Just like everyone else. Little did he know, the more he resisted it, the more she wanted to force him. Which was indirectly the reason for Donovan to despise him and hence was the reason for their duel. Donovan was least interested in humiliating a kid in front of the entire city. However, at that moment, Ashton was not a kid in his eyes but apetitor who could potentially steal his mate. For someone as possessive as him, it didn''t matter what Ashton said, Donovan would not believe him either way. Thus, by this duel, Donovan was hoping to establish himself as the primary and only mate deserving the Mistress''s affection. After all, he was better than Ashton in every way and if he had to do something like a duel to make the mistress love him again then so be it. Ashton was oblivious to all these things as he had spent his entire life leaving in an enclosure where they did not have the freedom to even process their emotions properly, without being exposed to the disgusting eyes of the guards. "Thanks." Ashton took the gears and turned around to get changed. He wanted to close the door as well, but the mistress had already made herselffortable on his bed. So, there was no point in closing the doors anymore as the servants would only use spread unnecessary rumours about the two of them. He could feel the mistress''s eyes on him but he didn''t care. It wasn''t the first time that he was changing clothes in front of someone. The guards back at the enclosure always liked to ''watch'' them anyways. "Hm... you scars look nice. Gives you a bit of a rowdy look." The mistress said while googling at him. "All thanks to you." Ashton gave her a reply and finished dressing up. "I''ll pretend I didn''t hear that." Saying so the mistress got up and left the chamber leaving Ashton confused as to why she came there in the first ce. "These people are weird...." Chapter 32 - A Final Duel (4) ''This is weird...'' Ashton was not used to being the centre of attraction to so many people. One could say he always had the attention of everyone around him. At first as a human whom the mistress had chosen and now for duelling against Donovan. However, things were different while he was living in the enclosure. The ones who stared at him were the ones who lived him with and thus their gazes didn''t feel weird at all. No, their stares did feel weird but not openly hostile like the ones of the werewolves there. However, the look in the eyes of the werewolves was something different. At first, it felt like he was being treated like a toy by them but soon enough it was clear that it wasn''t the case. They weren''t looking at him like he was some kind of toy, but they were waiting for Donovan to make a toy out of him. He walked up to the stage where a referee was standing in the middle. Surprisingly, the referee was someone whom Ashton would have never expected to pick up on something as lowly as that. The mistress was there on the stage. Her being there was a bit weird, but the more Ashton thought about it more he realised why she was there. After all, she was the one responsible for all this in the first ce. ''So that''s why these fools are howling like a bunch of horndogs...'' Ashton shook his head, clearly disgusted by their behaviour. He looked at the mistress but did not bow before her, which sent those dogs into another frenzy. "How dare he disrespect the Mistress like that!" "He needs to be thought some lessons." "Haha, don''t worry, sir Donovan will surely put that bastard to his ce for disrespecting the mistress." These were just a few of the things Ashton could make out from the howling of the crowd who were seated everywhere they could find a ce. It was supposed to be a one on one duel, but to Ashton, it felt like he was fighting against the entire city. It was at that moment Donovan entered the courtyard through the opposite entrance. Unlike who was carrying two short swords that were given to him by the Mistress, Donovan had decided to go with a sword and a whip. It was a weirdbination of weapons, to say the least, but one that was most effective against Ashton. At least, Donovan thought so as it was the same whip that had been used to punish Ashton for the slightest of his mistakes. Thus a weapon like that was bound to leave some mental scars behind. Donovan''s motive for bringing a whip wasn''t that he was actively going to use it. But to y with Ashton''s mind. As soon as Donovan walked onto the stage. The crowd went berserk. There was no question on who was the crowd favourite. The funny thing was, Donovan didn''t bow down to the mistress either and yet the crowd kept cheering on for him. ''Fcking double standards...'' Ashton thought before facing his opponent of the day, ''Thanks for belonging that whip. Seeing it gave me other reason to try my best to beat your ass with itter Donovan.'' "Looks like it''s going to be your grave kiddo," Donovan said with a smug look on his face. "At least I don''t need to fight with a kid to make a show of my masculinity." Ashton knew he was going to lose the physical battle already, thus he was not going to back out of the verbal fight without humiliating Donovan. "Say what you want brat today you will regret ever crossing me." "Is it necessary to fight against a kid?" "It''s a bit toote to back down now, mutt." Donovan had a weird grin that stretched from one side of his face to the other. "... I was the one living inside an enclosure and yet I''m the one aware of sarcasm?" "..." Ashton sighed and readied himself for the battle in front of him. He wasn''t foolish enough to think he was actually going to win against Donovan, especially without using his other genes. But Ashton was not going to be defeated easily either. "Ahem. Let me make the rules clear." The mistress started exining the rules before the two of them got busy with their verbal battle again, "This isn''t a death battle. You are not allowed to strike each other with the intent to kill. The first one who gives up or gets knocked out or is pushed out of the arena loses. Is that clear?" Both of them nodded. "Then fight!" Chapter 33 - A Final Duel (5) Donovan rushed in on Ashton. He had no intention of making things easy for the kid, nor was he going to go listen to his crap anymore. Ashton, on the other hand, remained in his position. He could see Donovan rushing towards him with his rapier in his hand, and yet he just stood there. A momentter Ashton threw his hands in the air and proudly proimed, "I give up." All of a sudden the cheering from the crowds stopped. Neither Donovan nor the Mistress could process what had just happened there. All of them knew Ashton would be defeated but none of them had expected it to happen in such a manner. As soon as Donovan was able to collect his thoughts, he became even more enraged. The entire point of this duel was to beat the crap out of the kid and now that he had willingly surrendered, there was no way he could do that. Even though he had won, it didn''t seem like a victory to him. If anything, it felt even more humiliating because Ashton managed to outsmart all of them. "The hell you think you are doing!?" Donovan couldn''t keep himself in check any longer, "Do you think this is some kind of joke?" "What did I do wrong?" Ashton mumbled and started walking towards the edge of the stage, "I abided by the rules the mistress informed us about. One could lose by giving up, getting knocked out or being thrown off the stage. Now if you don''t mind I have some packing to do." By this time the crowd started whispering amongst itself. Technically, what they wanted had happened and the kid had not done anything wrong either, he just did as the rules stated. Donovan had won, as they had predicted. But even then, they felt as they had been cheated on. Most, if not all of them, had been waiting for Donovan to teach the brat a lesson. However, before he could even touch the kid once, the match was already over? How the hell did that work? Donovan quietly walked up to Ashton, but it was not like he could have touched the kid anymore. The duel and the training were the only two loopholes when Donovan could touch the kid with the intent of harming him. However, now that Ashton was set to leave for the academy tomorrow, there was no need for him to train. Which meant that Donovan would not be able to teach him a lesson either. Ashton sensed the werewolf walking up to him and turned around to face him in the eye. Ashton had given up on the duel not because he was afraid of losing or getting hurt. He did so because he did not see a point in fighting with someone while he was at disadvantage. On top of that, this duel was nothing but a drag in his opinion. He could not give two fcks about Donovan''s need to prove his masculinity in front of the entire city. Thus he stared right into Donovan''s eyes without any fears. It was a look that Donovan loathed with a passion. Ashton was someone who was much lower than him in ranks, and someone like him should have that look in their eyes. In other words, Donovan was the predator and Ashton was supposed to be the prey, but Ashton did not share the same thoughts as him. "I didn''t know a staring match also counted as a duel." Ashton chuckled and turned around for the final time to leave. "You will wait right there!" This time it was the mistress who had an outburst, "You can give up if you wish, but the final decision remains with the referee and I reject your proposal to give up." Everyone was stunned for the second time in a matter of minutes. Every single one of them had seen duels before and this was the first time they had heard of such a thing. Still, none of them tried to correct her for two reasons. First, she was the mistress. She could do whatever she pleases to. Andstly, they too wanted to watch the duel. Thus they kept silent on the matter. A few of them did try to protest against the absurdity of the ''new'' rule. But their voices were drowned in the sea of cheers and howls. As for Ashton who was duelling for the first time in his life, he didn''t know that the rule was a bogus one made by the mistress right on the spot. He assumed what the Mistress said was true and let out a heavy sigh before turning towards her, "So the duel is still going on?" "Yes-" The mistress nodded. Ashton did not bother waiting for anything else the mistress had to say and grabbed Donovan''s hand. A momentter, everything happened as fast as lightning. Ashton stepped in, turned around and rolled the man over on his shoulders by squatting down while pulling Donovan''s hand and mming him down... out of the arena. It was a move the mistress had taught him while teaching him about martial arts. However, even she could not believe that not only he had mastered the move already, but also that he was able to execute it so easily. Ashton had won that too by outsmarting all of them once again! Chapter 34 - Contingent (1) Silence. Absolute silence shrouded the arena. No one could believe what had just transpired there. Donovan, the second strongest werewolf in the city was defeated in such a peculiar and embarrassing way. But it had happened. Ashton had done the unthinkable, that too without breaking any rule. As much as the crowd was opposed to him winning, in their hearts, they had acknowledged the outsider. Just a bit, but it was more than enough for them to take an interest in him. That was what most of them were feeling at that moment. Some of them, however, were debating about whether the duel was actually over or not. Some argued that the duel was not over as Ashton had attacked his opponent when he was not prepared. As for the rest of them, they did not see anything wrong with it. In a real battle, the enemy was not going to ask Donovan to prepare himself before striking him down. He was a veteran, thus he should have been prepared for anything and it was his own fault for underestimating the kid. That was all there was to it. Neither the mistress nor Donovan could believe what Ashton had done either. But both of them were feeling like that for different reasons. Mistress couldn''t believe it as she was ted. After all, her disciple had managed to learn a move she had been teaching him for days. Donovan, on the other hand, could not believe that he was defeated so easily. The humiliation was too much for him to handle. But for some reason, he did notsh out. He simply got back to his feet, shook the dirt off of himself and walked out of the arena. This was not like him at all. It would be a lie to say that everyone in the arena did not bet that he was going to attack the kid. They were sure of it, however, much to their surprise, he... did not. "Are we done now?" Ashton asked the mistress once again just to make sure there was not any other hidden rule that he wasn''t aware of. "Ahem. That''ll be all. You have won and you''re free to leave." Ashton did not waste any second and left the arena as well. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. it was the day he would leave Maddencreek and hopefully not return there until it was time for his revenge. Till then, he only had one goal in his mind to get strong enough to get rid of the mistress and destroy everything she had built over the years. She took everything away from him, thus he was nning on doing the same. Even if he had to sell his soul to the devil. ''I should stop thinking about it too much and only bite what I can chew.'' Ashton thought to himself and tried to calm the pounding heart in his chest, ''Taking baby steps is better than running with crunches. Revenge wille in time, first I need to get stronger. Much stronger than I am now.'' *** The day passed without much trouble. No one disturbed Ashton on hisst night in Maddencreek. The guards were shooting him nasty looks every now and then. But after the news of his victory over Donovan spread, even the guards did not dare to do anything to him. However, just as a precaution, Ashton did not eat anything that he was offered. He couldn''t trust Donovan or his close aides to not try to harm him by poisoning his food. Instead, he consumed the food bars he had stored in his inventory just to be safe. Apart from that, nothing of significance happened. The next morning, Ashton had his stuff packed up and ready to move. There were many things he needed to keep outside as his inventory carried most of his important belongings. After what seemed like hours had passed, someone finally knocked on his door. He opened it up and was greeted by a very fashionably dressed mistress and her bodyguards standing there. Just like the day he was taken away from the enclosure. "Everything prepared?" She asked him. Ashton nodded and grabbed his bag and then headed out with the rest of them. All of them got into several cars and headed to the city which was inly referred to as ''Contingent''. Ashton had heard a lot about the city from the mistress. And the way she talked about it seemed like it was thest ce the Mistress really enjoyed herself. It was probably also the reason why she was apanying him. As even though she was quite an influential personality, there were rules that even she could not break. One of the prominent ones was about those who fcked up the rules. The mistress never told Ashton why she was banned from entering the city, but he had a vague idea about it being somewhat rted to attacking her half-sister, the pure-blooded descendant of the king. "Let''s go. We do not have time to leisure around.." The Mistress roared and the drivers raced their cars. Chapter 35 - Contingent (2) ''Wow.'' That was the first word that came into Ashton''s mind as soon as the city of Contingent came into view. Maddencreek was nothing inparison to this city which was to be expected as Contingent was a city that was not only funded by the royalty of Lycania but from other werewolf kingdoms as well. The kingdom''s capital was the only city that was bigger than Contingent. But even then, some said the security of Contingent was much better than that of the capital. Ashton did not know how much truth the im had to it. But it must have been true if even the mistress could not enter this city as she pleased when she could freely roam around the capital whether she was invited there or not. Also, the city had multiple gates one could use to enter. However, all of these gates were heavily guarded by guards who seemed to be on Donovan''s level or maybe a couple of levels below. Either way, they weren''t people with whom anyone in their right minds would want to mess. Contingent was a city that defied the odds of architecture and engineering. It was built on top of a mountain range. while the other mountains were covered in snow, the mountain Contingent was made on, was weirdly warm with not the slightest bit of white snow covering it. In fact, the areas around the mountain were covered with lush green fields. To say that this was weird would have been the understatement of a century. Even though they were yet to enter the city, Ashton could see the skyline is riddled with borate skyscrapers and each was more impressive than the next. However, the academy was not the only ce of importance there. Since the other kingdoms had funded in its creation, Contingent acted as a trade centre as well. Which would ount for all the carts and trucksden with valuable resources Ashton was seeing around them. ording to the mistress, the trade in the city was at an all-time high and thus, it has attracted a lot of attention from other kingdoms as well. As a result, Vampire had also established an embassy within the city. Also, the academy also hosted courses for the vampires as well. As weird it was, Contingent was a safe ce for them all. at least that was how the others were led to believe. However, only the vegetarian vampires who survived on animal blood were allowed to attend this ce and their admission test and process varied a lot from what Ashton was going to taketer that day. Due to this oddbination of various cultures, it has left its mark not just on education, but also upon the city''s identity. What historically was a city of no variation has grown into arge melting pot and it''s this that unites a little over one million people to this day. But more importantly... it was the food and delicacies this ce had to offer that made even the stoic mistress drool with excitement. After seeing her reaction, Ashton was seriously thinking whether the mistress only apanied him because she wanted to try the food once again. "It''s crowded quite a bit today..." The mistress mumbled, "Then again today is the admission test so it''s expected to be that way." "Hm..." Ashton just nodded along. He still didn''t know what the admission test was going to be. He had asked the mistress about it priorly, but she did not know anything either. "The test changes every year. One year it''s about academics and the next it''s about duels. Not even the professors and trainers know about it. Only the director of the academy knows what she is going to do for the test." That''s was what the mistress told him. Even the teachers and other faculty members got to know about it mere minutes before the actual test began. It was done so that none of the teachers leaked the news to give any student an unfair advantage over the others. Ashton thought this to be a wise move. If the teachers knew about it then there was a high probability that the noble families would try to pry the information out of them. Which would have ced the honest teachers in a hard position, while the others would try to sell the information at a price. "You never told me what your test was?" Ashton asked the mistress as he got bored from sitting in the car for hours. "We were made into makeshift teams and had to hunt monsters. Each monster had a certain amount of points and to qualify you needed to obtain an unknown amount of points. However, all of us will get individual points for ying monsters. On top of that, we were allowed to attack the other participants and steal points from them. So you can imagine the chaos that ensued afterwards." "And how many points did you need to qualify?" "None. As I said, the director had always been unpredictable. After the test finished we were informed that none of the top ten participants qualified. But the rest of us did." The mistress had a smile on her face, as she continued, "It wasn''t a test to check our strength, but our teamwork and all of the top ten participants had betrayed their teams and stolen their points from them. Thus they were disqualified. So you would need to be extremely careful of what you do within the duration of the test." Ashton nodded and was lost in his thoughts, ''Looks like this isn''t going to be as easy I thought it would.'' Chapter 36 - Entrance Exam (1) It took a couple of hours for them to enter Contingent. However, another trouble knocked on their car door as soon as they passed through the gates. Their cars were taken aside and all of them were asked to step out. Ashton did not know what was going on, but the mistress did. So far all of the soldiers or guards as they referred to themselves Ashton had met were either cadets or junior officers like lieutenants. They were stronger than him as he had confirmed the same with the system. It was no wonder the Mistress was doing as she was told to. If he was in her ce, he wouldn''t have wanted to anger them either. Soon, they were brought into a building that looked like a police station. Inside, Ashton saw a man standing with one of his feet on top of a man''s head. The naked man had a metal cor around his neck and was bleeding profusely from wounds that were all over his body, while the officers around him wereughing and torturing him. Behind them was a cell. From within the cell, muffled moans of a female could be heard. It didn''t take long for Ashton to realise what these bastards were doing inside the cell. It was a human ve, no, there was an entire family of ves... a plethora of emotions washed over Ashton as he saw the humans being mistreated. He tried to calm his nerves down, but he was failing, quite miserably. The mistress must have sensed it as well, as she immediately pushed Ashton behind herself. She was aware of Ashton''s raw emotions as a former human and thus acted before he ended up doing something he would have regrettedter. The push brought Ashton back to his senses, but he could not get such a terrible sight out of his head. The only thing he could think of doing was to register the werewolf who was mistreating the humans. Ashton swore he would deal with him when the time was right. But for now, he had to control his emotions as he was weaker than them. Standing 5'' 9" tall, and solidly built with olive skin, the werewolf had an ominous feel about him. Something that Ashton did not like at all. He also had beady brown eyes and his short, straight, brown hair which was in contrast with his jet ck moustache and beard. The man was wearing a uniform just like the rest of the soldiers were, but it was a bit... more ornament than the rest of them. He also had a handful of badges spread across the left side of his chest. "You bastards thought you could escape from Contingent? How big of a moron did you have to be toe up with something like that?" The man with the moustache barked and his subordinates joined in on the fun and began kicking the ve one after the other. "Well, it''s thanks to that we got ourselves a little treat." Someone else from the crowd said while pointing towards the cell, "These humans might be ves, but damn, their females know how to make someone feel good." At that moment Ashton realised that as much as he hated the mistress for what she did to him, she was far less of a monster than these bastards were. The elders living in the enclosure were right, they were indeed treated much better than the rest of humanity. It didn''t mean that Ashton''s hate for the mistress had reduced. Far from it, no matter what she said or did, he would never forgive her. But in a weird way, Ashton felt a bit of respect had formed in his dead heart for the mistress. ''It''s not a matter of respect...'' Ashton thought to himself, ''It''s more likeparing two evils and acknowledging the lesser evil between them.'' By this time the moustache man realised there was someone standing near the doorway and told them to stop their chatter. At this moment, the cadet entered the chamber and informed him about the issue. "Ahem, Ms Mera Bismark. I suspect you had been banned from entering the city without permission from-" The man started speaking but was immediately cut off by the mistress. "Here you go, Captain." She mumbled and handed the officer a golden envelope. The man opened the envelope and quickly went through its content. As he did that, Ashton could see the man''s expression change quicker than lightning. He was using an arrogant tone a moment ago but now it had disappeared altogether. He quickly ordered his subordinates to clear the room. Within a matter of seconds, the power dynamic of the room had shifted and it appeared as if the mistress was the in-charge of the facility and not the captain. "Disha, take Ashton to the academy. The captain and I have some important things to talk about. We''ll join youter." Disha was a blonde werewolf who was her closest aide after Donovan. She was also one of the only females the mistress had allowed to help train Ashton. Unlike the other werewolves, Ashton felt morefortable with her as well... probably because just like him Disha was not born as a werewolf either. In fact, she was from the first batch of humans to have been kept in the enclosure. This fact also helped her get close to Ashton. After all, she was once a human just like him. With the orders being given to them, Disha and Ashton, both headed towards the academy. Which was the main attraction of the city. However, Ashton did not leave before throwing a soul-chilling look at the captain of the station. The captain had made it to his list of people to kill.... Chapter 37 - Entrance Exam (2) "And here I was thinking the gate was crowded..." Ashton mumbled as the Academy came into his view. But there wasn''t much he could see apart from the tall buildings that watched over the town. The rest of the mansion was covered with people of different ages and physiques. Thousands upon thousands of adults were there with ''kids''. Some of them were the parents while the others were attendants of the nobles who were there to take the entrance exam. Ashton, on the other hand, had only Disha who was apanying him. However, he wasn''t the only one like that. There were hundreds of others who hade alone. Most of them were not wearing any extravagant clothes. Thus, it was easier for everyone to differentiate between those from noble lineage and those without one. "Most of the nobles would have entered the city at least a couple of days ago to get a headstart," Disha said as the two of them made their way towards the crowd. "Headstart? For what? I thought the mistress said no one knew about what the director had nned for the test until she announced it as the ceremony began?" "Director might be unbiased, but the professors and trainer are not. By getting a headstart, I meant that the nobles would try to get a favourable expression for their children. Thus when their children qualify to attend the academy, the professors will ''keep an eye on them''." Ashton shrugged his shoulders in an uncaring way. He had expected stuff like this to happen. But he didn''t know it would begin even before they entered the academy. ''I would have expected nothing less from these idiots either way. Well, I will think about it after I qualify to attend the academy. Who knows maybe if I do well, I will get some preferential treatment as well?'' At that moment, several speakers sted of simultaneously and the giant screen in front of them lit up. The screen was divided into eight sections, with each section having around 200 names written in them. "Haha, it is my pleasure to see so many young ones trying out to enter our humble institute this year." A strong feminine voice boomed through the speakers, "We can talkter to our heart''s content, but for now let''s get to what all of you have gathered here for." Suddenly the names on the screen disappeared and instead were reced by a map of some sort. The map was divided into nine sections. Each one was coloured differently and marked with numbers from 1 to 8. In the middle of it all was a region that stood out from the rest. While the other regions were marked with vibrant colours and numbers, the central area was ckened and did not have any numbers on it. As soon as the map shed in front of the examinees, the crowd started whispering amongst themselves. The attendants went berserk and were talking into theirmunicating devices. It would appear as if they were trying to get information about the exam to gain some sort of advantage over the others. Only the nobles were doing this. The rest of them stood there baffled just like him. What good would doing that will do to them now? The entrance exam would begin in mere moments. "Typical nobles..." Disha shook her head. "What''s going on?" "They are trying to form teams and contracting mercenaries to help their ''young lords'' win." "Wait what? I can understand forming teams but mercenaries? How will they do that?" "Did you think every kid here wants to enter the academy?" Disha scoffed, "Frankly only nobles care about such a thing. Most of the others are here to make some quick money." It then dawned upon Ashton that the people he thought to bemoners were actually mercenaries. Not all of them but most. As soon as they got a satisfactory wage, the mercenaries started heading towards the person who hired them. Soon the crowd that had been scattered till then, was reduced torge groups. Some of themoners were now carrying bags and other stuff while some were busy testing their weapons. since the groups had been formed, Ashton''s hope of surviving against these people was dwindling fast. On top of that, unlike them, he did note prepared. Hell, he did not even have a weapon on him that he could use there. ''I can not use the twin des here. Someone might recognise them and then it''ll be the end of me. However...'' Ashton might have kept a weapon with him. But he had a lot of other utilities inside his inventory including several medkits. But even then, he could not possibly win a head-on battle with a dozen or so werewolves. "Huhu looks like you all came prepared this tie around." The feminine voice once again echoed through the speakers, "It would truly be a shame if someone were to ban the use of anything that is not provided by the academy during the test. That''s right. I, as the director of this institution, prohibit the examinees from using anything that was not provided to them by us." ''Whoa... she in unpredictable..'' Ashton thought with a smile on his face. Chapter 38 - Entrance Exam (3) In the following moments, they were told about all the rules the examinees needed to know. The map they just saw was a collection of several maps. Each of the areas marked with numbers was the ce where a set of examinees would ''spawn''. The numbers of these locations were there to show which group would spawn in which location. For example, the examinees whose name was on the first list would spawn in the zone marked as 1, and so on. But that wasn''t all. As the director had already confirmed, the examinees would not be allowed to carry any outside material with them. It didn''t matter whether they were using their inventories or carrying them in backpacks. This was done in order to maintain some fairness during the exam. Various items and consumables had been ced throughout the maps. The examinees would have to either locate these resources themselves, defeat the ones who had them, or steal from the fallen ones. It was a battle for survival. This round would continue till there are only 10 examinees remaining from each zone. The 80 examinees would be the ones to get the opportunity to enter the prestigious academy. While the rest of them would be thrown out of there without any dy. In this way, out of around 1600 examinees, only 80 would be selected. But the examination wouldn''t be over just then. There was another twist, the twist of the ck zone, which was in the middle of all the zones. The 80 ''students'' would have to face off with each other in the same manner of battle royale onest time. But this time, none of them would be kicked out of the academy. Thisst round of the exam would be held solely in a way to rank them into different grades, ranging from S, A, B, C, and D, based on their abilities. ''This isn''t going to be easy, is it?'' Ashton thought to himself as volunteers from the academy walked out and handed them some essories which included a weird watch, a belt, and a chest te. Before any of them could know what was going on, a new set of rules and instructions shed in front of them, exining the uses of the essories. "The watch you have been given has been imbued with storage expansion magic." The director spoke, "Each watch will give you 10 storage slots which can be used to store the items you will obtain during the examination." However, a momentter she was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream from one of the examinees. He was grabbing onto his hand in which he had equipped the watch, as the rest of his body twisted and turned in pain. The show went on for about a minute before the screams finally died down and the director started speaking again. "Quite excited to test the equipment out huh?" She sniggered, while her voice was filled with sarcasm, "Thank you for being the guinea pig for the sake of others. You see, that young man had just gone through what all of you could. That is if you decided to try to ce outside equipment into those watches." Those who were about to try and do that immediately threw their things away. None of them wanted to get themselves electrocuted by the watch. "As for the belt, it will restrict you from using your own inventory during the exam. Andst but not the least, that chest te is your lifeline. The moment the green blinking light on it, turn red, you will get disqualified. The chest te is programmed to take a certain amount of damage before breaking down so you need to e careful." With that, all of the rules and regtions were exined to them. The voice died down and so did the screen in front of them before being reced by the map once again. "Good luck, Ashton." Disha mumbled as she stepped back, "I hope you will not disappoint the mistress. Especially after everything she has invested in you." "Yeah yeah." Ashton waved his hands around, "I know what to do. Thanks for your concern." Soon a message shed on their watches showing them the groups they belonged to and how to get to that location. Everyone rushed towards their respective gates as they wanted to get as many pieces of equipment as they could. Gaining proper equipment would more or less solidify their survival. However, there were quite a few people like Ashton who decided to take things slow. However, these were the examinees who had confidence in their raw strength and abilities. Ashton was one of them. ''Why waste time trying to find equipment when you can easily loot it from others..'' He thought while calmly walking towards gate number 5. Chapter 39 - Zone 5 (1) Stepping through the door almost felt as if he had walked into a different world altogether. Ashton was in apletely different ce. He had experienced it before in training tower, but this ce was on a whole another level. While the room the Mistress had only converted projected the atmosphere of an outside world, Ashton could clearly say that it was all fake. However, what he was feeling now did not appear to be fake at all. He could even feel the warmth of the sun over him. He was in awe of the size and majesty of the trees. Their knotted branches rose ever upwards, as far as his head could lift, and yet there was no end to the length of the trees. The more he looked at them, the more it felt as of he was in front of a wooden castle. The orchestra of various animalistic sounds could be heard clearly. A pair of crows were screeching high up in the canopy of the trees. Seeing them made Ashton realise the reality of the situation. Crows much like every other species of the world had either mutated or died from the virus. Thus the only way one could see these creatures was through projections like the ones he was witnessing. However, his perception skill was telling a different tale altogether. These crows did not fit with their surroundings... It might sound weird but Ashton could feel something was different about them. Ashton picked up a sharp wood piece off the ground and without a second thought hurled it towards the bunch of crows. Most of them were sessful in flying away, But an unlucky one got hit by the stick which was thrown towards it like a javelin. Ashton jumped at the bird only to realise that his doubts were right on point. They were not birds, but robots with cameras in ce of eyes. ''I was wondering how were they nning on keeping an eye on us. Having robots like these to do surveince is a genius n.'' With that out of the way, he gave ast look around himself to see if he could gather some hidden equipment or something. The forest which he entered looked oak-brown and primitive. Ashton could see the footprints of the examinees who entered before him on the grass. It didn''t look like they were much interested in fighting with one another. ''Maybe they came up with an agreement to find weapons first and fightter.'' Ashton thought while analysing his surroundings, ''However, they do not have one thing that I do.'' In such a wide ce, Ashton''s perception skin was nothing less than a lifesaver. On top of that, since it was a vampire skill, the other participants would not have such a skill, and this gave Ashton an ''unfair'' advantage over the others. *** ''This kid is interesting...'' The director thought while sipping her tea. For someone who was apparently one of the first werewolves toe into being, the director was fairly beautiful. If she did not hold the position of director of the academy, one would have never been able to guess that she was almost a century olddy. Standing 5'' 7" tall, this fair-skinned woman had an attentive feel about her. Her eyes hold the wisdom of almost a century in them and it was difficult for even the minutest details escape from her vision. But the most notable part of her was not her eyes, but the burn scar that extended from her left earlobe to the chin. Not many knew how she got the scar, but they know one enough to not talk about it. As she might seem like a friendly and warm person from the outside, but those close to her knew better than to be fooled by her external demeanour. There were various screens in front of her, thirty-two, to be precise. The director was not alone in the chamber. Most of the teachers in charge of the first year''s were there with her. They wanted to check whether there were any extraordinary examinees among the crowd or not. The Director, on the other hand, was constantly looking at the new examinees and some of them had already caught her eye, including Ashton. He was the first one to discover the anomaly of the crows there and immediately acted on it. Even though he did not have any weapons on him. This seemed to have some effect on her. ''His decision was foolish. The crows could have turned out to be hostile and then the kid would have been in trouble.'' The director shook his head, ''He headed into the unknown without any hesitation. As much as I admire bravery, I hate fools more. However... he might be the first to locate ''that'' weapon.'' The examinees had not been made aware of this, but at the entrance of each gate, there was a specific piece of equipment hidden away. However, none of them had been discovered till now. All of them had been in such a rush to separate themselves from the crowd that they did not even check their surrounding properly.. But the way Ashton was looking around, he might be the first one to find the weapon. Chapter 40 - Zone 5 (2) ''There is something behind this bush.'' Ashton thought and headed deeper into the bushes. The forest he was in, was filled with bushes all over. But this particr bush was different. It was faint and almost unrecognisable, but there were clear signs that the bush had been interfered with. By interference, Ashton meant that the bush looked more as if someone had shed it and then tried to cover it up, but did a poor job. ''... Could this be a trap?'' As he was making his way deeper and deeper into the bush, Ashton realise that it might as well be a trap. Since he knew that the examinees could use the ''natural'' resources of the zone, there was a high chance that one of them had used the branches and vines to make a trap for the others. ''It is better to check things out rather than jumping headfirst into the unknown.'' Ashton quickly backtracked his footsteps to where he had shot down the crow, ''Well, this is one way to confirm my suspicions.'' He threw the broken crow into the bush with all his might and listened. A momentter there was a loud clunking noise. Ashton carefully followed the noise and there it was. A hidden chest right in the middle of the bushes. The chest looked quite old but was well decorated with ornaments. It almost felt as if the chest was begging him to open it. ''I... really was overthinking things.'' Ashton shook his head and opened the chest. However, as soon as he opened the chest, someone shot an arrow at him. However, thanks to his enhanced perception skill, Ashton easily dodged the arrow. But he could feel something was off. The next moment, there was a blinking notification in front of him. __ You have been affected by . Your werewolf stats have been reduced by 30%. __ "The hell?" Ashton blurted out as he read what the notification had to say, "When did I get- wait a minute!" It only took him a moment to realise what was going on. Unlike what he believed, he wasn''t the first one to discover the chest there. There were three others who had been lurking around there. Those bastards waited for someone like him to show up and open the chest... ''Because there was a curse ced on the chest... damn it! Why didn''t my perception skill work on them or the chest?'' [It would seem one of them has learned concealing magic or carrying a tome with them. Which helped them fool you.] The system''s reply only made Ashton madder. Couldn''t Lucifer have the system inform him about all this before? But then again, it was his own fault to be blindly dependent on the skills and not his senses. As for the question of tomes was concerned, until and unless they found it in the zone, there was no way they could use an outside material here. Thus Ashton was pretty sure at least one of them had concealing abilities. ''They found the chest and knew it was cursed. So they used the concealing magic to hide themselves along with the curse on the chest. After that, they waited for someone else to open the chest so they could take the items and kill the one who opened it. Clever bastards...'' "Huhu, looks like we caught one of those nameless dogs." The red-headed kid carrying a bow and arrows smirked. Following his lead, the other two emerged from the nks and cornered Ashton. "It''s a good thing that he isn''t one of the nobles we know. Which means-" "We can eliminate him without fearing about retaliation from his guardians." The other two kids were twins and had ck hair and were carrying swords. But more importantly, all three of them had the same insignia carved on their clothes. ''So they are from the same family... no wonder they are working together.'' Ashton thought before getting into the position to battle it out, ''Thankfully, the curse only applies to my werewolf genes and not the others.'' He looked up the stats of all three of them, and they were all around level 7. Which meant they were a couple of levels below him. However, thanks to the curse, Ashton had more or less the same stats as them. Still, he could use his other genes to overpower them, but before that, he needed to check something. Ashton then looked up to see whether there was any surveince in that area or not. It was obvious that there was. After all, the director and the faculty members wanted to know who was the one to find and im the treasure. ''Things are not going to be easy for me. Are they now?'' There was no chance in hell he was going to risk using his other genes when the others were watching him. Even if the ones in front of him did not notice him using his skills like that, the director and the faculty members would. However, he wasn''t out of any ideas just yet. He jumped over the chest and quickly grabbed whatever was inside it. He had taken the curse, so it only made sense that he took the weapon inside as well. But he had not even remotely expected to get what he did... ''This... I can work with this!'' Chapter 41 - Whipped (1) "Damn it! That no-name bastard took the weapon!" Rami, one of the twins yelled in rage, "I told you one of us should have taken the curse and the weapon." "Shut up Rami," The redhead barked at him, "We can still get the weapon from him. All we need to do is to kill him. So stop barking like a dog." "Nathan is correct," The second half of the twins said before yawning casually, "after all, that''s what our n was from the beginning. Our father even paid a huge sum of money to put us all in the same group, making this easier for us." "Damn it, Rick! It was supposed to be a secret!" The red-head known as Nathan cursed once again. And soon all three of them were busy cursing each other,pletely ignoring the fact that their enemy was standing right there in front of them. ''I was afraid of taking on this bunch of airheads?'' Ashton smirked before taking a good look at the weapon in his hands. __ Item: Bone Whip Type: Weapon Damage: 100-133 HP per strike Stats bonus: >> Strength: +10 while equipped for use. >> Deals 1.2x damage against Night Creatures. >> Deals 2x damage against Werewolves. Rarity: Umon Description: A bloodied whip made out of the bones of numerous night creatures who fell prey to its attack. A somewhat rare find and an effective weapon to fight against werewolves and night creatures. When in the hands of an expert wielder can cause havoc. One of the most preferred weapons to keep enemies at a range and attack them as well. The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects. Effect(s): ? Attacking enemies using this weapon exposes them to Haemmorage, making them lose 2% of their HP for the next 5 seconds. This ability has a cooldown period of 10 seconds (Ineffective on Elite beasts). ? Grants the user a passive effect: . Whenever the user parries an enemy attack, the attacker has a 100% chance of getting stunned for 1 second. This effect has a cooldown period of 10 seconds. One target can only be affected by this skill 3 times in an hour. ? Grants the user the active skill: . Temporarily increases the user''s evasion rate for 5 seconds. Thus making it tougher for the enemies to attack the user down. __ "This is quite a treasure..." Ashton mumbled slowly. The damage of the whip was lesser than that of the twin des as well as the stat boosts were not as high as the des either. However, the whip more or less made up for it thanks to its passive and active effects. Stun and Cloaked were abilities that heavilyplimented each other. With Stun, Ashton could [Stun] attacking enemies and in case he failed to parry the attack, he could always use [Cloaked] to evade the strike either way. With these two skills coupled with his [Reflex] perk, he was essentially untouchable. Especially if the other examinees were on the same level as the three in front of him. ''Let''s test them out, shall I?'' Without wasting a second more of his time Ashton leapt in the air and swung his whip to the nearest twin. All of them were so busy bitching about each other that by the time they noticed something was amiss, it was already toote. The white bony whip wrapped itself around Rami''s head and the next moment he was mmed headfirst on the ground. The stat boost provided by the whip might not have been much, but it was enough for Ashton to overpower them individually. After all, even with the curse on him, he was just as strong as the three of them. "What the hell-" The two remaining brothers blurted out simultaneously. But couldn''t do anything else apart from that. Ashton''s sudden move had startled them. Their minds could not produce a suitable counter for him in time. This is what happens most of the time when someone suddenly attacks a group alone. It was in their nature to expect a pack to be stronger than a lone wolf. Such thinking wasn''t wrong per se, but it was not valid all the time. Also, whenever one has attacked a group, the group would be shocked without fail, not by the strength of their attacker, but by their audacity to do something like that. Ashton knew it very well as the mistress had taught about the basics of fighting even after being outnumbered. She did so, thinking Ashton might get attacked by the team of Vampire and undead that had been haunting Maddencreek. However, this phase onlysted a second or two at max. This time could be either used to attack more enemies or retreat, depending on the situation. But Ashton being Ashton, running away from them wasn''t something he would even entertain thinking about. Thus, he decided to knock down at least two of them for good before the element of surprise wore off. Getting rid of two of them would make it easier for him to focus on the third. It was the best thing for him to do now. Theoretically, at least. He threw the whip in the direction of the other twin. The whip, however, was not meant to target the twin, instead, Ashton was targeting the tree behind Rion. As soon as the whip wrapped itself around a sturdy branch of the tree, Ashton used the momentum to swing towards Rion with all his might. A momentter, two feet were firmly nted on Rion''s chest throwing him away and shattering his chest piece. At the same time, an announcement was made throughout the zone. "Rion Marcello has been eliminated!" It was the first elimination in the zone. However, Ashton was worried rather than being happy. This was the first announcement like that which meant... ''Shit!'' he immediately turned around only to see that Rami was still in the game along with the redhead, ''Fck.... me and my hastiness gets me screwed every time!'' Chapter 42 - Whipped (2) "Let''s make sure this bastard pays for what he did to Rion." Nathan cursed under his breath before reloading his bow and firing another arrow towards Ashton. Ashton ducked to dodge the arrow, but thanks to the curse, his movements were a bit sloppy. Even with his heightened sense, the arrow ended up grazing his shoulder. But that wasn''t all. Rami wasn''t sitting idle all this time either. The moment Nathan had hurled an arrow at Ashton, Rami had rushed to attack him as well. After all, someone would not be able to dodge two attacks one after another, would they? Well, Ashton could have... if not for that pricky curse on him. Ashton was hurt a bit by the arrow. However, the next moment a sword stabbed him in the exact same ce as the arrow. And this time the pain was real. "Oi Nathan! Aim well!" Rami roared at his brother, turning his face away from Arnold, "Our sync ability would only- what the hell?" "I was wondering... why you hit me in the same ce with such high uracy..." Ashton mumbled through his gritted teeth, "So it was your sync skill, huh... not bad, not bad at all." Synchronised skills were not easy toe by. At least that''s what the Mistress had told him. Only a few people could learn to use these skills and even fewer could manage to execute them perfectly. There was no particr criterion that could be fulfilled to obtain these skills. Some even said people are born with such skills and spend their life trying to master them. It went without saying that these skills were stronger than individual skills, but only when they had been perfected. If not, well, then using these moves would only cause more harm than good. And by the looks of it, these brothers might not have perfected their sync skill yet. But that didn''t mean Ashton could ignore them either. The look on Ashton''s face had turned from someone who was in pain, to that of a serial killer before hunting his prey down. A dark and grim look that would even make the toughest of them sweat. The next moment, Ashton grabbed onto the sword as Rami repeatedly tried to rip the sword away from the former''s grasp. However, no matter how many times he tried, Rami''s efforts proved to be useless. "Idiot! Let go of the sword and retreat!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. Rami nodded and tried to leave, but it was toote. Ashton pulled the sword out of his shoulder and threw it like a javelin towards Rami. Ashton hade here to enter the academy. But right now, he only wanted to see one thing... blood. Before Rami or Nathan could even react, the sword had already found its mark... The sword went right through Rami''s left thigh. "Argh!" Rami let out a blood-curdling scream as he fell on the ground, blood gushed out of his wound as if it had been waiting to escape through his body for a long, long time. "You bastard!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. The following moment another announcement was made. Rami had willingly given up and was no longer a part of the examination. As soon as the announcement was made, the watch and the belt fell off of his body, allowing Rami to ess his inventory. He quickly took out a potion and emptied it with huge gulps. The vial must have contained some sort of potion, as a few secondster, Rami''s woundspletely disappeared. As Nathan saw Rami ess his inventory, an evil n entered his mind. A n if it worked would have destroyed anyone in thepetition and if it didn''t work... well then fck. "Rami, empty out your inventory right where you are. I want potions, weapons, essories... everything!" Nathan ordered his brother who immediately understood what Nathan wanted to do. Rami dropped everything he could before walking out of the zone. There was a rule that eliminated examinees could not attack the ones who had not been eliminated. But there were no rules stopping them from ''identally'' dropping items in the zone as they left. "You wanna y dirty? Fine by me." Ashton mumbled to himself. *** "Madam director! The Marcellos are ying around with the rules!" One of the teachers in the academy pointed out, "There is a rule that no eliminated participant can influence the oue of the match in any way, shape or form. But Rami is clearly viting this rule!" "I know about it very well, madam Rosefly." The director humbly replied, "These are indeed the grounds for disqualification. But... I want to see what, what''s his name again?" "Ashton, ma''am." "Ah yes, I want to see what Ashton would do when forced to fight against overwhelming odds. Aren''t you excited as well?" There was a weird shine in the Director''s eyes. One none of the teachers had seen in a long time. It was clear that the Director had taken a liking for Ashton... thus teachers could not help but feel sorry for him. This examination was not going to be easy for him, now that he was on the director''s radar. However, Ashton was not the only one who had caught her eyes. The director had picked one student from each zone to test their strength and mettle. If these people were able to make it to the next round and effectively to the academy, they were sure to be shown some preferential treatment. Or maybe not. After all, everything depended on the director''s mood. She had absolute power to do anything she wanted to anyone she wanted in her academy. Her tant disregard for the twisting rules was just a small example of it. She was not afraid of screwing over any noble family. Why would she? After all, she had support from all of the Five stars kingdoms and also the countess of vampires. One could say, she was the strongest being in Contingent. "Show me what you are capable of, my sweet, sweet dolls!" Chapter 43 - Overwhelming The Odds Ashton was a bit taken aback by the fact Nathan was so tantly breaking the rules and yet he was getting off without any punishment. But then again, he was from a noble family so Ashton wasn''t all that surprised either. ''Looks like the director can be bought too. The more I live within them, the more and more I start to hate them.'' As for Nathan, he was busy sinking himself into the treasure trove. Weapons, potions, tomes. Everything Ashton knew about was there right in front of his eyes. Ashton wasn''t that big of a fool to wait around for Nathan to sort through the items. And now that Rion and Rami were out of thepetition, they could not attack him. Thus, without wasting another moment, Ashton leapt at him. However, the next second, Nathan threw a tome at him. All of a sudden he was shrouded in ck smoke,promising his vision. Nathan must have wanted to take advantage of this situation and shot a continuous barrage of arrows into the smoke. There was no way the bastard was getting out of there without being eliminated or heavily injured. Or so Nathan thought. As the smoke began dissipating, Nathan''s eyes were left wide open with horror. he had expected to see a broken, bloodied and defeated Ashton in front of him, but there was no one there. Not a single soul. As for all the arrows he had shot, they were stubbed into the tree behind the smoke. "What the hell?" Nathan blurted out, but that was all he could do. As a result of not holding back, Nathan was out of arrows and only had a small de on him. But more importantly, his target was nowhere to be seen. Which wasn''t a good thing to say the least. Frantic, Nathan began looking all around him. But the result was the same. His opponent had disappeared. "That coward did a runner... no worries. I will catch him eventually and put an end to him." Nathan shook his head and walked up to the tree to retrieve the arrows. Unsuspecting of what was waiting there for him. Ashton wasn''t someone who would run away from a fight. Hell, he fought two bloodsuckers all alone and managed to overwhelm them, who were known as werewolf hunters. Overwhelming the odds was some kind of a joke to him at this point. A joke just like he was about to make one of the arrogant bastard right below him. As Nathan pulled out thest arrow from the tree, he felt something rustling above. There was no time for him to load the arrows, so he quickly pulled out his dagger. But he was too slow. He didn''t know what happened, but a momentter, he found his head firmly nted on the forest floor by someone. "You! How did you-" Back when Nathan threw the smoke bomb at Ashton, thetter truly lost his sight but not his calm. Rather than panicking and messing up, Ashton quickly switched to using his [Perception] ability. He knew Nathan would try to finish him off why the smokescreen was still active and thus used the smoke to his advantage. With the help of the whip, Ashton was able to climb onto the nearest tree mere moments after the smoke bomb exploded. There he waited for Nathan to show up as he knew he would have to retrieve his arrows if he wanted to continue hunting other yers. Nathan thought he was ying Ashton, but it was the other way around this entire time. "Shush! If you keep talking, I just might have to rip your tongue off." Ashton hissed into Nathan''s ear before forcefully taking the dagger out of his hands. Ashton used the dagger to hit and break the chest piece, forcing Nathan to get eliminated. "Nathan Marcello has been eliminated!" The announcer announced, "Ashton Bismark is on a killing spree! Additional points would be provided to the one who takes him out! The Location of the leading examinee will be provided to other contestants at an interval of 15 minutes." Everyone in Zone 5 was stunned. Someone had just managed to score back to back eliminations just like that. That too all by himself!? "The hell? Why do you have to announce it like that?" Ashton cursed in an annoyed tone. He was hoping to listen to the first part of the announcement, but thetter part waspletely unexpected. After all, not everyone in the zone would know about him... and essentially, the announcement had painted a target on his back. His vision was stillpromised and he was able to win against Nathan just because he knew how he would behave in a certain situation. Also, [Perception] wasn''t all that effective either as he had already been fooled once by the Marcello brothers while depending on the ability alone. No matter how Ashton tried to see it, it felt like someone was desperately trying to screw him over. At this point, he heard a cackleing out of Nathan''s mouth. It was obvious that fcker was happy. Ashton would have been happy if he was in his ce too. "Looks like you are as good as dead, you filthymon bastard." Nathan snarled, "But don''t worry. Your troubles won''t end just by getting eliminated from thepetition. The Marcello family will make your life miserable outside the academy as well-" As Nathan kept bbering on and on, Ashton couldn''t keep his cool anymore and kicked him with all of his strength. Which was enough to dislocate Nathan''s lower jaw, rendering him incapable of speech. "You talk too much." Ashton shrugged his shoulders and began walking away. He couldn''t stay there for long as everyone would probably start hunting him soon. The situation was so painful that Nathan wanted to scream. But he couldn''t even do that. His jaw was stuck at an odd angle. In his pain and rage, Nathan tried to attack Ashton even though he knew he wasn''t supposed to... But by this time, the curse finally lifted off of him and Ashton was back to his full strength. He could sense Nathan chasing after him, so he did what any sensible person would do. He stepped out of the way, letting the mad man bang his head on the tree and effectively letting Nathan knock himself out. "All bark and no bite? Interesting.. Now I need to get rid of this blindness before someone finds me." Chapter 44 - The Hunt (1) The examination for survival had suddenly turned into apetition to see who could hunt this Ashton person first. Some were after the additional points they could receive by eliminating him. While the rest of them were worried about what would happen if they encountered him. It was safe to say that none of them wanted to get eliminated and letting Ashton do as he pleased, was something they could not risk. For all they knew, Ashton might already be preying on them and could eliminate them at any given moment. But that wasn''t the only reason for their hostility. Ashton had just eliminated a group of nobles, which left the rest of the nobles enraged. They have heard about the Bismark name and knew it very well that it belonged to the half-sister of the current prince. It went without saying that the Mistress did not have a good reputation among the spoiled noble brats. She was detested by everyone in the noble families, except a few who were close to her. Since Ashton shared the samest name as her, the young masters were quick to decipher identity and came to an agreement amongst themselves... "We will eliminate him first. Let''s put everything else on hold." One of the nobles announced to the fifty or so noble who had gathered there, "Although it''s a shame not all of the purebloods shares the same view as us. I can understand their perspective. Qualifying the examination is important as well." This young man was named Lucas Wring, the sole heir of the Wring family who had friendly rtion with the Marcellos. Whose family members Ashton had just eliminated. His waist-length white hair was proof that he had not lost a battle in a long time as ording to their family tradition, the Wring never cut their hair off until and unless someone defeated them in battle. At least that was what the others believed. The Wrings were truly a despicable family. They never lost a battle before not because of their strength or valour, but simply because they never fought with anyone. Instead, they use to manipte others into doing their dirty work for them. To them, nothing mattered as long as they were able to achieve what they wanted and Lucas was no different from his ancestors. Having been gifted in the art of speech, Lucas was someone who could turn a viin into a hero and vice versa just by inciting the crowd around him. That was the reason why other nobles on the same level of strength as them, rarely if ever went against them. No one could mess with them unless they had the overwhelming strength to destroy their entire family. But anyone who had the strength to do so never bothered with the kinds of them. After all, why would someone waste a missile to kill an ant? Either way, Lucas was sessfully able to incite the crowd to hunt Ashton. However, he himself had no intention of participating in the hunt. He was a master of maniption but when it came to fighting, he was much weaker than any of them. Thus by making others waste their time looking for Ashton, he had cleared himself a path to earn the points that those fifty nobles would have earned on their own. In other words, while these nobles would be busy hunting Ashton, Lucas would be looking for alternate ways to gain points and qualify for the exam. On top of that, since his family was close to the Marcellos, no one would ever question him for doing this. In the eyes of the others, he was a true friend who simply wanted to avenge his fallenrades. The nobles who did not answer his call for help knew very well that Lucas had an alternate motive. So, rather than wasting their time on nonsensical things they decided to focus on thepetition itself. ''Fools... all of them are a bunch of fools and nothing more.'' Lucas could barely conceal his grin behind his mask of innocence, ''However, I am thankful for their foolishness. If it hadn''t been for their gullibility, I was surely not going to pass this survival exam. Hehe.'' "Alright then, listen up!" Lucas roared at the top of his lungs, "Let''s divide ourselves into groups of five. That way we will have enough strength to confront him and cover the maximum area as well. Are there any questions?" All of them shook their heads in unison. "Alright then, let''s hunt him down!" *** Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Ashton had blended himself in with the surrounding. His blindness was slowly wearing off. Since the item did not belong to the examination, its effects were slow to disappear, unlike the curse he got affected by after opening the chest. ''At least I got some of my vision back.'' Ashton thought, ''It will still be a problem if I encounter another trio like before.'' In his state, he was worried if he would be able to fight two examinees simultaneously, let alone three. However, his problems didn''t end there. He couldn''t stay in one spot for long as once 15 minutes passed, the rest of the examinees would get informed of his location. Thus not only he was forced to fight in a state of partial blindness, but he had to run and hide as well. It almost felt as if someone was plotting against him. First, Nathan was suspiciously allowed to use forbidden items and then the announcement after eliminating him practically screwed him over. Moreover, none of these things was mentioned in the ''rulebook'' that was fed into their watches. To say that Ashton was pissed would have been an understatement. At first, he thought the director would be fair with her treatment of everyone. But hell, he was wrong. ''Oh, she''s fair alright. But only to those fcking nobles!'' Ashton cursed the director, ''If things keep going on like this, I might have to use the other genes as well.... but for now let''s keep it as ast resort.'' Chapter 45 - The Hunt (2) "Oh... looks like he is not pleased with this development." The director smiled, "Too bad, his problems are only going to get bigger from here on out." "Is it time?" A brte, brown-skinned woman politely asked. The director nodded. The rest of the teachers had no idea what these two were talking about. But then again, the director hadn''t been one to reveal all of her cards to anyone. Even to her most trustedrades. "Professor Meena, I assume you have only prepared trained night creatures?" The director mumbled as the artificial sun started going down, marking the second phase of the test. "Yes, madam director. They have been trained to ''hunt'' and not to kill. The examinees might get injured, but none of them would die." Meena diligently replied. The director hadn''t informed the academy''s best beast tamer why her beasts would be needed for the exam. But Meena trusted the director more than anyone in her life. So she did what she was asked to without a moment''s hesitation. Simrly to Meena, the director had given some of the other professors different tasks as well. But it was done in a way that they would have never been able to guess why she needed all of their help. On top of that, none of the professors was aware of the involvement of other professors in the exam. With that being said, the Director was nning to use all of their resources to make sure only the toughest and most resilient werewolves among the examinees would be able to attend the academy. ''I can already see some rising stars among these younguns.'' She thought while looking at the eight examinees she had taken a liking to, ''It would be a shame if some of them were not able to pass the exam.'' "It''s done, madam director." Meena informed her shortly, "The beasts would soon enter the zones." "Excellent!" The director pped in excitement, "Let''s see who will break first... make the announcement now! Huhu!" *** "Attention all examinees! The Survival exam will now enter its second phase. For the next 24 hours, you will be shrouded in darkness with only little light avable to you." The announcer announced the new set of rules, "As you must be aware of, with darknesses night creatures. Thus, some of such creatures will be released in your respective zones as well." "You have two choices. Either hide and wait till the exam ispleted or put your life in danger and defeat as many night creatures as possible. However, as an incentive, you will be given points ording to the number and type of monster you defeat. Good luck and may the best survive!" "Things got a bit interesting..." Ashton couldn''t help but smile. Darkness was his friend more than anything else. His was suffering through a stat debuff thanks to the sun shining over their heads. But now that it was going to be dark for the rest of the duration, he could finally start attacking rather than what he had been doing so far. It also made sense why all of the weapons they had received through the chests and by looting others had bonus damage against the night creature apart from werewolves. ''On top of that... I no longer need to depend on [perception]. The darkness of the night will help me out.'' Without wasting another moment, Ashton opened his info tab to check his stats. __ Name: Ashton Fenrir Species: Zombie (Inactive), Vampire (Inactive), Werewolf (Active), Human (Deceased). Status: Zompirewolf ss: Unassigned Title: [Defiant] Age: 16 years Gender: Male Grade: F-tier (Evolution is possible) Affiliation: Werewolves. Level: ? Werewolf Level: 9 ? Vampire Level: 7 ? Zombie Level: 5 Stats: HP: 1900/1900 Damage: 32 Armour: 22 Stealth: 18 Stamina: 34 Agility: 21 Intelligence: 8 Nature: ? Bratty Abilities/skills/spells: ? Vampire Skills: >> Mid-Grade perception >> Skill Absorption >> Transformation (Vampire) ? Werewolf Skills: >> Enhanced Agility >> Transformation (Werewolf) ? Zombie Skills: >> Transformation (Zombie) Current Vampiric skill points: 7 Current Werewolf skill points: 3 Current Undead skill points: 4 __ Ashton''s training had paid him off well. But he was still stuck being an F-grade being. Although he still had a lot of room for growth, he needed to figure out a way to evolve before he reached the bottleneck. This was the primary reason why he wanted to attend the academy. He believed someone there might be able to help him with this. After all, the entire purpose of the academy was to nurture young talents and make them grow to the best version of themselves. If... they were valuable able to do so. In order to prove his worth to them, Ashton needed to qualify for the academy with flying colours. And thanks to the second phase of the exam, he would be able to do just that. *** Meanwhile, on the other side of the zone, the night creatures had started to appear already. One of the groups that Lucas had incited was the first one to encounter the beasts and things did not end well for them. They wanted to be the first ones to hunt the night creatures... but they became the ones who got hunted down. But they weren''t the only ones. Mere minutes after the announcement was made, over two dozen examinees had been eliminated reducing the number of survivors to half of what it was when the exam started. The night creatures tamed by Meena were trained to knock their opponents down and leave them be. These wolf-like creatures were one of the easiest night creatures to tame, but not the easiest to defeat, especially thanks to their pack mentality. They were the ultimate prowlers and were named just that. Prowlers. They were creatures who had adapted themselves to the art of hunting using the darkness around them. Although their levels weren''t as high as that of the examinees, those of them who had no experience fighting them would not be able to defeat them head-on. The entire purpose of using prowlers in the test was to make the examinees understand that while the levels and attributes were used to measure one''s strength and capabilities, it wasn''t absolute and even an insect could make werewolves cry tears of blood. Chapter 46 - The Hunt (3) Releasing the prowlers also served another purpose. Since it was a test of survival, the first idea that would enter anyone''s mind would be to hide. This would allow them to stay safe and pass the exam without fighting or anything that would harm their chances of passing the exam. The other Examinees might not have been that skilled to locate and hunt down all these examinees who were interested in ying hide and seek. The prowlers, on the other hand, were creatures who had evolved to hunt others. After being properly trained, they were able to hunt down those whose armours were still active. You see, the chest te which was provided to the examinees was designed to leak a special scent recognisable only to the prowlers. Thus as long as the chest te was active, this scent would keep leaking out of that and hence help the prowlers to locate the examinees without an issue. As a result, those who thought they were safe by hiding in bushes or trees or even abandoned structures scattered around various zones, were no longer safe. "This batch of examinees..." The director shook her head in disappointment, "Why are these idiots so weak!? Pathetic!" The director, much like the professors was not in a good mood. Although hunting down Prowlers waspletely optional, she had thought the rewards for doing so would attract at least some of them to try and fight the night creatures. But all of them were busy running away from them as if they could outrun Prowlers with their miserable levels! In her eyes, it wasn''t that the prowlers were stronger than the examinees. But simply that the examinees were a bunch of weaklings. Especially the examinees of zone 5. Most of them started to run as soon as they saw or got a whiff of the prowler''s revolting scent. Even though the prowlers they were using were the weakest of the weakest night creatures. As the exam proceeded, the professors along with the Director were losing hope for those in Zone 5... however, before theypletely gave up on the zone, an automatic announcement was made. "12 Grade-F Prowlers have been eliminated! Additional points will be rewarded to Anna Swan." "Show me the footage of what happened!" Director''s eyes that were about to lose the excitement she had earlier, were once again shining brighter than the artificial sun. As the Crowcams scanned the area they saw a girl standing in the middle of a burned down forest clearing. The field below her feet had been charred beyond recognition and so had the corpses of prowlers scattered around her. As the cameras got a closer view of her, the director along with most of the professors immediately recognised her. Well, not her but her lineage. Standing at 5''7", this brte girl had a pious feeling in her ming crimson eyes as if she had a desire hidden deep within them. Her shoulder-length hair was tied in a high ponytail. As for her physique... it was clear she rock the heart of more than just the boys around her. There was a small tattoo on her angr face, right below her chin which was more like a family insignia than a random mark. Apart from that, there wasn''t much difference between her and the others. That is if one were to count her ming fists out of consideration for her being unique. "The Swans... always having a st." The director let out a crooked smile, "Things just got a bit more interesting. On another thought, Professor Meena, are you alright?" "There is no need to worry, Madam Director." Meena said in her usual emotionless voice, "Those prowlers were only Grade-F. It wouldn''t matter to me in the slightest if they are killed." "That''s good to hear because I don''t think the others are going to stop now either." The Director''s words confused the professors. They knew that Swans had strong control over their magic and thus it was no surprise when Anna killed a dozen of them in one go. But they were not expecting others to achieve such a feat. There might be some strong examinees in Zone 5. But all of them doubted there would be someone else who would be able to take down a dozen or so prowlers by themselves. However, their doubts were shattered a momentter when yet another announcement was made... "14 Grade-F Prowlers have been eliminated! Additional points will be rewarded to Ashton Bismark." "Looks like our sleeping underdog is back in the game." The Director got so excited that she started rubbing her hands together like a gambling addict who was on a roll. Thanks to the two of them, the other examinees realised that it wasn''t impossible for them to defeat the prowlers and they finally went on offence rather than running away from danger. *** "My name is Ashton Fenrir, not fcking Bismark!" Ashton cursed under his breath as he withdrew his blood-drenched whip. However, as he did that another notification popped up in front of him. __ You have received 60% Exp by killing a Prowler. Current Werewolf Level: 10 You have levelled up! Exp limit has been reset. All wounds have been healed. Current Werewolf skill points: 10 Current Exp: 0% __ However, that wasn''t all. The mistress had already informed Ashton about how the Blessings worked. Once a being hit level 10 on the evolution tree. They were given a choice. A choice that would inevitably shape the future of that individual and right now, Ashton had to make one such choice. __ Please choose one of the following [Skill Page] as a reward for reaching level 10. Remember, the choice you make is irreversible and choosing a certain path will unlock the skill tree for that path which can be expanded by using Skill points. Each skill can evolve into unique abilities and attributes hence make your choice carefully. ? [Crimson ws]: When using werewolf ws, deals 1.2x more damage to enemies already injured by the user. ? [elerated Healing]: Boosts up your healing. Can be used to heal minor injuries on will. ? [Wolf''s Mark]: This skill allows the user to ''mark'' someone. The marked target cannot hide from the user when within a kilometre''s radius. Up to 5 creatures can be marked using this skill. Deals additional damage to the marked enemies while also boosting damage and agility by 10% when around a marked creature. __ "This is.... awesome!" Chapter 47 - Playtimes Over (1) It took a while to analyse the pros and cons of the skills he was offered. But in the end, Ashton decided to go with the skill which wouldplement his fighting style the best. As he did that, a piece of paper, or a ''skill page'' as it was referred to, got deposited in his inventory. Ashton took out the frail-looking paper and tore it in half. Just like that, he had learned a new skill. It felt a bit weird that it was so easy, but Ashton wasn''tining. In fact, he liked this system quite a bit. It was much easier for him to learn and upgrade skills this way, rather than torturing himself to upgrade the efficiency of the passive skills as he had been doing till then. ''Let''s take a look at the skill again, shall we?'' __ >> Wolf''s Mark: This skill allows the user to ''mark'' someone. The marked target cannot hide from the user when they are within a kilometre''s radius of each other. Up to 5 creatures can be marked using this skill at once. Deals additional damage to the marked enemies while also boosting damage and agility by 10% when around a marked creature. Grade: Mid Cooldown: 10 Minutes Active Duration: 3 Minutes Activation Radius: 70 meters (Your targets must be within this range to get marked.) Condition to upgrade the skill: Kill at least 10 beings while the skill is active or use 15 skill points to level this skill up. Current Werewolf skill points: 10 __ ''The skill is already at Mid grade? That''s a first. I always thought you had to learn a skill from Low-tier and slowly climb up to the highest tier.'' Ashton smiled as he went through the contents of the skill, ''This will go along well during the hunt in the night.'' The number of targets that could be affected by the skill was just perfect as well. The others were trying to hunt him in packs of five and he could mark five of them at once. Thus, in other words, once he used this skill to mark a pack of werewolves, there was nothing they could have done to save themselves. It was about time for the hunted to be the hunter. Ashton was in no mood to hide anymore and set out to find prey while hunting down the prowlers who relentlessly got into his way again and again. However, he wasn''t the only one who was busy strategising his next move. Lucas was busying up with one as well, after all, his initial n got screwed over thanks to the introduction of prowlers into the exam. "Shit Shit shit!" "Lucas keep it down! The prowlers will find us!" One of Lucas'' teammates cursed him out. The four of them had a bit ofbat experience, but not much. That was the reason Lucas had made them follow him. As for the four of them, they knew Lucas had something nned to qualify for the next round. Thus they went along with him without asking him any questions. But now that the things had turned this way, they were reluctant to tolerate his crap anymore. If it wasn''t for the retaliation from his that they would have suffered, the four of them would have abandoned Lucas long back. "It wasn''t supposed to be like this..." Lucas said while biting his nails, ''I was going to take away all the hidden chests and secretly use these fools to earn points for me. But thanks to that damned director all of my ns have turned into ruins!'' Lucas looked around him and realised in that abandoned structure he was all alone. He had four others apanying him, but he knew they were no longer his ''friends''. In fact, if they could they would have already thrown him out to fend for himself. ''I have to n my moves carefully or else these bastards would throw me in front of the prowlers as a distraction... Think! Think! Think!'' "Hey look! There''s someone outside!" One of theckeys whispered to the rest, "It looks like he got caught by a pack of Prowlers." "Looks like he has quite a few items on him as well." Yet another one of them chimed in. Just that single sentence was enough to grab the attention of the others. Items... that was one thing they were in desperate need of. The whole reason that they had been avoiding Prowlers like gue was because they did not have enough proper weapons to confront the night creatures. But now they had a chance... as long as they could eliminate the one examinee in front of him, all of his treasures would be theirs to im. "Let''s go and take that bastard down. We can take care of the prowlers after that." This time it was the leader of the threeckeys who spoke with confidence. However, before they could take a single step, Lucas stopped them. To him, it was clear that these four idiots did not have an ounce of a brain between themselves. "You should leave using the brain to someone like me." Lucas reprimanded the four of them, "Why the hell do you, idiots, want to rush out right now? There are about a dozen prowlers out there and he is all by himself. Can you see where I am going with this?" The four of them stared at each other with perplexed eyes. Not a single word that Lucas had spoken had entered their head. The look on their faces was evidence of it. Lucas sighed and continued, "Let him fight the prowlers. Either the prowlers will eliminate him, leaving his items behind. Or the man would get tired after defeating the night creatures. That''s when we will make our move." "So either we will have to fight the remaining beasts or the injured examinees. It''ll be a win for us either way.." The leader mumbled to himself, "I knew you would make good use of that head of yours! Haha! Let''s go ording to your n." Chapter 48 - Playtimes Over (2) ''Weird... I swear I could sense some people here other than these prowlers.'' Ashton thought to himself while fighting off the prowlers. Ever since his [Perception] evolved into High-grade thanks to how heavily he had been depending on it, Ashton was able to sense the presence of others around him. He was using this to locate and hunt down other groups. So far he had managed to hunt down a couple of five people teams. It was thanks to that, he had obtained quite a few useful things, like a cloak called ''Nemean Hide''. This armour along with the whip was the best set of items he had obtained yet. __ Item: Nemean Hide Type: Armour Defence: 100-133 HP per strike Stats bonus: >> Armour: +10% while equipped for use (increases with user''s level). >> Reduces 2x damage taken from Night Creatures. >> Reduces 0.5x damage against Weapon attacks. Rarity: Umon Description: An armour said to be made of the leather of one of the only known Grade-A night creatures found in the dungeon of Might. While alive, this lion slew more than 300 werewolves who were unfortunate enough to encounter it while dungeon diving. The second prince of Ashvana, the strongest Empire of the eastern world and the leader of the kingdoms belonging to 5 Stars slew this gigantic lion after a battle thatsted for weeks. The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects. Effect(s): ? Protects the wielder from negative effects such as Poison, Haemorrhage, Stun, and Paralysis. ? Increases all of the user''s existing resistances by one grade (when equipped). ? Grants the user the active skill: . Temporarily increases the user''s armour by an additional 20% for 5 seconds. Up to 15 targets around the user can get affected by this skill. Affected individuals are unable to use any abilities (If they have a low level than that of the user) or the effectiveness of their abilities reduces by 60% (if they are at a higher level than that of the user) for the duration of the skill. This skill can be activated 3 times a day. Cooldown: 2 Hours Activation Radius: 5 metres __ Although the armour did not have as many effects as the Bone whip, the couple of effects it had were more than enough to allow Ashton to move freely across the zone without any worries. it was because of these options, eliminating the examinee who had it equipped was tough. Even though the examinee didn''t possess any exceptional talent at all. That was all because of the armours active skill. Ashton had to quite literally beat the crap out of the one using the armour to eliminate him. It was just to show what the armour could have done in the right hands... which it was. The Prowlers were no match for Ashton anymore as a result, even if he got hurt, he did not receive much if any damage at all. While the Prowlers were getting frustrated. However, as fun it was to fight the Prowlers, they weren''t the reason why he was there. Ashton wanted to hunt down the other examinees and not waste his time on worthless beings. ''Wait... did I just get lured in a trap?'' Ashton thought as he snapped the neck of yet another Prowler, ''Damn... what a worthless trap. I think it would have worked against me if it wasn''t for the armour.'' The realisation that he might be in a trap alerted Ashton. All of a sudden, Ashton was on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. It only took him a couple of seconds to find an abandoned building... with lighting out of one of its broken windows. ''Either they are hiding there, or it''s another trap...'' Ashton smiled in a sinister manner, ''Why don''t I lure them out instead?'' With a n formed in his head, Ashton jumped into action. He intentionally dropped his guard around the Prowlers to make it seem like he was being overwhelmed. But not enough to eliminate him, just enough to let him get injured. An injured Examinee, with additional rewards on his head and loaded with items that can decide the course of the exam? That would be the perfect bet for them. A bait that even a fool wouldn''t leave behind. If Ashton wanted, he could have easily gotten rid of the prowlers like he had done before. But he didn''t want to scare those hiding idiots away. So he waited... while slowly getting rid of the Prowlers and as he had predicted, those fools came rushing out of their hiding ce as soon as there was only one Prowler left behind. ''Come one,e all...'' Ashton let out another smile, while patiently waiting for them to get close enough. *** A few moments earlier... "He''s down! Charge out now!" Lucas yelled at hisckeys who immediately took out their weapons. Their greed for points had blinded them to obvious things... but not Lucas. That''s why he stayed behind while the barbarians ran ahead of him to ''im'' their prize. He couldn''t pinpoint it, but something was off about the man who had been fighting the prowlers. Initially, the man had jumped in between the Prowlers with confidence that would have rivalled even the strongest warriors on their continent. It felt as if the man knew exactly what he was doing, but then all of sudden the prowlers started overwhelming him? It made no sense, at least to him. Unless... that person was aware of their presence and wanted to lure them out instead. ''Those fools can do the dirty work themselves. If nothing goes wrong, I''ll show up and take the best items using my family name.'' Lucas thought, ''And if things went south... I can always dump those fools and make a run for it while there''s time.'' Survival was the most important thing. It didn''t matter how many dirty tricks one might need to use.. As long as survival was ensured, nothing was right or wrong. Chapter 49 - Playtimes Over (3) ''Only four of them? I swear I sensed at least 5 different people...'' Ashton thought when he saw four brute-like people rushing towards him. There was something off, but well, eliminating four of them simultaneously should give him enough points to maintain his lead. As long as he qualified for the second round of the exam, he wasn''t going toin about anything. "Rip him apart!" Ashton heard one of them roar at the top of his lungs. They were enthusiastic, but their courage was misced. ''They have a pack mentality as usual. Their items look shabby as well. Maybe that''s why they came rushing out of their hideout wanting to im the items I have on me for themselves. Let''s teach them a lesson.'' "Wait! Something''s wrong-" One of theckeys realised that the way thest prowler was attacking the examinee wasn''t normal. But before they could realise what was happening the corpse of the prowler was hurled in his direction, knocking the wind out of theckey''s lungs. "He baited us out! The prowlers were dead already! Fall back-" __ Armour Skill: [Aggravate] had been activated. Number of targets affected: 4 The affected targets are found to have a lower level than the user and can not use any abilities for the next 5 seconds. __ "What in the world!? I can''t use my dash skill!" "I can''t either!" "Fck! I knew it was a bad idea." Panic and chaos ensued among the four of them. However, little did they know it was just the beginning of Ashton''s attack. __ You have activated [Wolf''s Mark]. Number of targets affected: 4 You will be able to see a crimson wolf mark hanging over the head of the affected targets. When you''re close enough to a target, your damage and agility will be increased by 10%. This effect can be stacked up to a maximum of 50%. Current Boost: 40% __ Ashton wasn''t the only one who could sense the increase in his powers. The fourckeys were also aware of the fact as they recognised the wolf mark hanging over their heads. All of them knew what the mark signified, but none of them had ever seen the skill in action. Luckily for them, Ashton was kind enough to give them a first-hand demonstration of exactly what someone with that skill was capable of doing. "Get a hold over yourselves! We can''t run away nor hide while we are marked." The leader of theckeys tried to gain some control over his panic-stricken gang, "The only way for us to get out of this mess is to get rid of that man. He might be strong but he can''t take down all four of us simultaneously!" ''Are these idiots blind?'' Ashton could not believe their misced and naive way of thinking, ''I just killed a dozen Prowlers in front of them and they think they can get me? What kind of drugs are they running on?'' At first, it seemed as if they were just going to try and run away. But as soon as their leader mentioned his intentions, all of them did aplete 180 and drew their weapons out. They were not going to go down without a proper fight. The next moment, all of them had Ashton surrounded. ''Trying to blindside me with your attacks so I wouldn''t know where you''re attacking me from?'' Ashton smiled, ''That would have worked against others, but my perception skill gives me an unfair edge over you.'' All of them simultaneous drew a bunch of throwing knives and hurled them towards Ashton, who thanks to his enhanced agility, blocked all of them. Why did he block the attack instead of dodging? He wanted to trigger the whip''s ability and get rid of them as soon as he could. [You have been stunned.] This message appeared in front of the ones who attacked Ashton... but only three of them had the notification pop up in front of them. A secondter, Ashton heard someone''s footsteps and turned around to realise that the one leading them was running away. That bastard had tricked his own party along with Ashton. He did not have any intention to stay there and fight. He just wanted others to think that he was and use them to get as far away from Ashton as possible. ''You can run, you can hide. But you can''t escape. Not so easily.'' Ashton was in no hurry to chase after one of them when he had three of them in front of him. Also, how far did the kid think he could run away? Ashton would catch up to him in no time. But first, without wasting any more of his precious time, he destroyed the chest pieces of the three of them, before chasing after the fourth of them. He couldn''t see the person, but he could still see the wolf mark looming over his head. ''The more I see it work, the more I realise I made the right choice during skill selection.'' Using the whip as a grappling hook, Ashton swung his way over to where the man was... inside the abandoned building. There when was greeted by a weing sight. "I knew there would be five of you here." Ashton smiled as he saw two people hiding inside the building, ''So, shall I get rid of both of you?'' Seeing Ashton their petrified Lucas. Due to the darkness, the Lackeys had not been able to recognise the man whom they were going up against. But in the room filled with light, it only took the two of them a nce to recognise the one who had been leading in the contest. "Fcker! Couldn''t you find us anyone easier to hunt?" Lucas pped theckey hard across the face, "Why did you anger someone as great as a Bismark?" Lucas then immediately turned to face Ashton whose face had been stered over their watches thanks to the killing spree he was in. ''Look, it''s an ass-kisser... why am I not surprised?'' Ashton shook his head as Lucas started throwing false words of greatness in his way. But there was one thing even Ashton could not deny. Lucas had a way with words. If Ashton didn''t know what Lucas was trying to do, he would have epted his false praises without thinking about it. However, Ashton Lucas was trying to talk his way out and decided to get rid of him first. Yet, before he could even do anything about it, an announcement was made. The exam was over due the most of the candidates being eliminated... ''I thought there were still around 60-70 of us remaining?'' Ashton was surprised but soon his surprise turned into shock when he saw the leaderboard. __ Zone 5 leaderboard: First ce: Nicole Grunta [90 points] Second ce: Nick Grunta [84 points] Third ce: Ashton Bismark [83 points] Fourth ce: Anna Swan [67 points] Fifth ce: Kristin Hodgson [54 points] Sixth ce: nah Cross [52 points] Seventh ce: Isabell Moon [45 points] Eighth ce: Selin Cain [33 points] Ninth ce: Micheal Bonowich [14 points] Tenth ce: Lucas Wring [13 points] Please leave the arena and collect your suitable rewards. Thank you for your participation in the Annual Academy Entrance Examination and congrattions for making it into the academy! __ Ashton had achieved his primary goal but still, he was having a hard time believing that within a matter of seconds, not one but two examinees got past him in the rankings. Just who were these Gruntas? Chapter 50 - Reward Time (1) Back outside, they were greeted by sunlight shining right over their heads. And with the light came Ashton''s stat nerf. All of his stats were reduced by 20% in presence of sunlight. It wasn''t as bad as before but the fact that the nerfing depended on percentage and not a fixed amount was a bit problematic. But Ashton had other things upying his mind. Although Ashton was pretty bummed out that he did not get the first position. The more he thought about it the more he realised it was for the better. Him getting the first ce would have gotten him some unwanted attention and that was thest thing he wanted. Especially if he did not have anything to hide his identity as a Zompirewolf, like a mask or something. On top of that, he was already getting a bit of attention thanks to him sharing the Mistress''sst name. Gathering even more attention would not have done him any good. Especially when the matter involved the noble families. The lowkey he stayed the better hidden his secret would be. But it seemed like things would not go the way he wanted them to. As Lucas was on his tail. ''I didn''t even kill the bastard and yet he is following me... this is not good.'' Ashton had decided to treat the exam as an exam and not take things the hard way. But it appeared the others did not harbour the same emotions as him. He could feel the hostility of the qualified examinees towards each other. This was to be given because most of these families had some sort of history with one another and now that all of them were members of the academy, it was time to assert dominance. "Please wait here for a few moments. You can step out and collect your rewards when your names are called." One of the attendants uttered before rushing away leave the ten of them in an open courtyard. As soon as they were left alone, people started chattering amongst themselves. But there was one thingmon among their talks... Ashton Bismark. All of them wanted to know who he was and what was his rtionship with Mera Bismark, who was also known as the Mistress. All of them except 4 or 5 of them were busy specting about the origins of this unknown werewolf who was leading in the exam before Nicole and Nick Grunta left him behind. But specting was all they could do, after all, the mistress herself was shrouded in mystery. At this time something weird happened. Suddenly two people from the crowd made their way towards Ashton. As they did that, the others got awkwardly silent. Ashton doubted whether they were even breathing or not. He looked at their faces and realised who they were. Since they were twins d in bloodied ck clothing, Ashton guessed they were the Gruntas. Nick was the first one to Approach Ashton out of the twins, with extended gloved arm. Their oddly white skin was reflecting the sun as if they were made of a mirror. Both of them had ck hair, matching their clothes and essories and an equally expressionless face. Nick had his hair unstyled while Nicole had her shoulder-length tied in a ponytail. But the thing which got Ashton''s attention the most was Nick''s muscr build. He had innocence on his face just like most of them, but his 5''9" body did not match the look on his face at all. Nicole was around 5''5", and her physique was much like an assassin. Just with a look, Ashton could tell that she was most agile among the twins. Apart from the difference in their heights and physique, the two looked the same, which was obvious as they were identical twins. "You must be Ashton Bismark. It was a pleasure to fight against you." Nick said with an almost authoritative tone. Ashton shook his hand because why not? The man didn''t seem hostile and well, since Nick ''defeated'' him for the number one spot in such a short time frame. Thus by shaking his hand, Ashtn wanted to show him mutual respect like Nick was... or so he thought. The moment Ashton was about touch Nick''s arm, Nicole grabbed Ashton and ripped his sleeve apart. Ashton was taken aback by this action and tried to get back, but this time he was stopped by Nick who had firmly grasped his hand. Not letting him get away. "Just like I thought... another filthy mutt." Suddenly Nick''s expression changed from uncaring to disgusted. The same happened with the rest of them. All of their eyes were filled with disgust, except for a couple of them. And Ashton knew exactly why. Mutt was the ng term for those who were born as humans but eventually were forced to turn into a werewolf. Thus, it was given that in a ce filled with nobles, Ashton''s presence was going to be frowned upon. However, being rted to the mistress did not help his reputation either. The ve mark on Ashton''s hand was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life... Just like all of the other ves. "The fck are you doing?" Ashton finally snatched his hand away and transformed them into werewolf ws. He wanted to acknowledge the Gruntas, but had he known it would turn out to be like this, he would have kept his distance from them. However, turning his ws upon the Gruntas propelled the others to go into action as well. Within seconds, all of the nobles were standing beside the Gruntas, while Ashton stood in front of them alone. ''So much for keeping it under the radar... I couldn''t have picked a nicer time to gain unnecessary attention. Damn it!'' "One against nine. You think you can ovee these odds?" Lucas grinned like the bastard he was while the otherughed along. "You talk a lot for someone who was about to wet his pants just by seeing me. But then I guess talking is the only thing you can do." Ashton fired back. "You filthy mutt!" Lucas cursed under his breath. What Ashton said stung him even more as he knew every single word that came out of his mouth was true. The only reason he qualified was his luck and not hispetence. He knew getting physical with them wasn''t a good choice. But it should be fine as long as it is a verbal bout. However, there was someone else who wanted to offer a piece of her mind. "Who said it was 1 vs 9? I never joined your side.." Anna Swan, the ming wizard proimed as she joined Ashton''s side, "Because of idiots like you, all of the nobles get hate from others. Do you not know how tense our rtionship with the vampires is? And yet you foolishly waste your time asserting dominance on unnecessary things?" Chapter 51 - Reward Time (2) The tensions were running high. However, most of them except those who finished in the top five were too exhausted to do anything. The Gruntas might have tried to instigate a fight, but even they were not going to waste their precious time on such a squabble. But Anna siding with a mutt came as a surprise to all of them. She was of noble descent, in fact, her family was one of the first ones to mobilise and fight against the humans. They why the hell was she siding with someone who was once a human himself? "Anna, do you think you''re making a wise choice?" Nicole Asked her, while her voice was as polite as it could possibly have been, her eyes were filled with disgust. "We are werewolves. Not vampires who believe in blood supremacy." Anna shrugged her shoulders before replying, "We are supposed to encourage the strong ones to reach beyond their limits. I for one will like to have capable soldiers by my side than useless nobles who can do nothing but talk." Herst line was obviously a jab at Lucas. After all, it was no secret that talking was all he was good at and nothing else. Hell, he couldn''t even properly wield a sword even if his life depended on it. "Anna, you''re crossing the line-" Before Nick couldplete what he was saying, he was interrupted by a sudden sound of pping. "Well said, Ms Swan. But then again I would have expected nothing less from the heiress of the holy kingdom of the south." "It''s a pleasure to be praised by Madam Director herself." Anna who was about to burst into mes quickly regained herposure and respectfully greeted herposure. "Oh my, and here I was thinking I would have to introduce myself. Thanks for the assist on that part Ms Swan." Madam Director gave her a curt nod before facing the nobles, "Looks like you need to be taught a lesson if you think nobility is superior to others in anything apart from the privileged upbringing most of you have." "I am a so-called Mutt." The director continued, "Do you still think Mutts are weaker than those with pure and noble blood?" No one had any answer to her question. In other words, t could be said that none of them was foolish enough to talk back with someone of her status and strength. The city of Contingent was the only ce where Nobility could be looked down upon. Albeit, no one openly admitted it. It was also one of the reasons why the merchants set up shops there instead of the nearby kingdoms. That way they don''t need to deal with the hassle of dealing with the nobility and paying unnecessary taxes. They could do their business without worrying about offending a noble or anything. However, just getting them to go silent wasn''t enough. Also, she had taken a liking to both Ashton and Anna. Therefore, she wanted to give them their rewards for entertaining her during the first round. "On the grounds of provoking violence on academy campus and propagating hateful speech, I hereby strip Nicole and Nick Grunta from their ces on the leaderboards." The director proimed and snapped her fingers. The following moment there was a change in the leaderboards and the first and second ces had been interchanged with the third and fourth ce. Effectively making the Gruntas go from upying the first and second ce to third and fourth ce respectively. Just like that, Ashton and Anna got the first and the second ce respectively. The rest of the board remained unchanged. However, it did not look like the Gruntas were going to stand for such tant favouritism. "This is not fair!" Nicole yelled at the top of her lungs as the Director essentially stripped their rewards away from them, "You cannot do this-" "I think I know very well what I can and can''t do Ms Nicole. Also, your and your brother''s qualification score is currently being investigated for foul y. You should be grateful that I am still keeping you on the list and not throwing you out this instant." The director immediately shot her down, "So if you don''t want that to happen, I''ll suggest you keep it down or I''ll be forced to revoke your admission altogether." But Nicole wasn''t going to stop. She hadpletely lost her calm demeanour and was about to make another absurd remark. However, before she could do that, Nick stepped in and cut her off. "I would like to apologise on behalf of my sister, Madam Director. You won''t hear anyints about us from now on." "I wouldn''t count on it, but I guess I can give you a second chance. Do not disappoint me. " The director nodded before turning to face Ashton, "Now gentleman, would you apany me to the rewards room?" Although Ashton was happy that he will get the best of the rewards, the look on the faces of the others had him worried. His ns to stay lowkey had been obliterated to shreds. On top of that, he wasn''t so sure that the Gruntas or the other nobles were going to stay true to their words. "Here we are." The Director mumbled entering a fairly empty room with just a chest in the centre of it, "Your rewards, well... you can keep the items obtained during the exam for yourself along with the belongings of this chest as well. I''ll leave you to it then." "Thank you. If you hadn''t intervened, things might have gotten a bit... out of hand." Ashton gave her a genuinely respectful nod. "Don''t mention it. Goodbye, Ashton Fenrir." Ashton smiled and turned around to unlock the chest. But then he turned back as fast as lightning. "How do you... know my name?" To Ashton''s surprise, there was no one standing there. The director had disappeared already leaving him perplexed. For all Ashton knew, his real name was never revealed to anyone there. Then how the hell did the Director know his realst name? ''I have a feeling I should stay away from her... she''s too enigmatic.'' Ashton shook his head, "But first let''s take a look at the rewards." He opened the chest and was blinded by a sudden golden glowing out of the chest. It took a couple of seconds for the glow to subside but when it did... it left Ashton in shock. Just a few hours ago he had obtained his first skill after hitting level 10 on his werewolf genes. The skill he obtained back then was a basic skill as the skill page looked like a normal piece of paper. But this time... he had obtained a ''Golden Skill Page''. These were extremely rare. So much so that even the mistress had a hard time obtaining a couple of these for herself and Donovan. Yet he had obtained one with minimal efforts. It was no wonder that Nicole was pissed after being stripped away from iming the first ce rewards.. Ashton was so excited he tore the page in half without even going through its contents. Chapter 52 - One Skill? More Like Three ''Shit! Shit! Shit! This I don''t know much about golden skill pages, but I''m pretty sure this ain''t normal... damn it!'' While tearing the skill page, Ashton thought he was gonna get an absurdly overpowered skill, and he wasn''t wrong. But the thing was... he didn''t get one skill... but three! One for each type of genes he possessed. Golden skill pages were the only skill pages that did not show a specific skill that could be redeemed after using the page. Instead, the skill page awarded a skill, based on the user''s capabilities and genes. As Ashton had not one but three sets of genes present in him, he ended up getting three skills instead of one. You would think he was going to be happy about it, and he was... for a moment. Until he realised they were supposed to undergo a scan to see which ability the winners had obtained. Apparently, the students from prior batches had tried to lie about it. Therefore, the words of the examinees could not be trusted. Each one of the skills was overpowered, to say the least, but Ashton was worried the scanner might be able to show his skills even if he deactivated the genes associated with the said skills. If that happened and the officials realised that he is a tribrid being... attending the academy would be thest of his worries. ''I have deactivated the genes and that''s all I can do for now.'' Ashton sighed heavily, ''Worrying about it would only make me look more suspicious.'' "Ashton Bismark, please step into the scanner." "Yes!" Ashton nodded and stood inside the gigantic pod in front of him. A momentter the ss pod closed and got filled with a colourless gas. Ashton felt the air around him get heavy and it almost made him drowsy. Apart from that, there was theser which was continuously scanning from all angles while he stood naked. Thankfully, there was no one inside the room apart from the Director and the operator of the machine. Both of them had their eyes glued to the screen in front of them as if they were trying not to make any awkward eye contact. "Wait... there seems to be something wrong with the machine." The operator mumbled before pointing at something, "The stats appear to be malfunctioning." "Can there be a fault in the machine?" The Director replied, even though she said that she herself appear to not believe that there could be any fault in the machine. For a second, Ashton''s heart jumped to his throat. It felt as if his secret was going toe out much sooner than he had anticipated. Honestly, at the moment he was wondering whether or not he should try to make a break for it and get out of there. But he knew, doing so would be like putting the final nail into his coffin. In other words, Ashton did not have any choice but to stay there and hope for the best. ''I would be hoping for miracles if I didn''t know how shitty my luck was.'' However, it appeared this time the luck was actually on his side as, after a second of fluctuating, his stats suddenly normalised. There was nothing more Ashton needed to worry about. "Level 10 already huh? It''s quite impressive, Mr Bismark." The operator smiled and looked up... at somece she shouldn''t have and immediately averted her gaze, "Let''s... assume this thing never happened..." "Haha, Miche, we''re all adults here and I''m pretty sure Ashton would mind ady looking at him. Will you Mr Bismark?" The director smiled as Ashton''s face turned darker than crimson. "That''s... um..." "Don''t worry kiddo. She''s just messing with you. No need to stay naked anymore. You are free to get dressed." Ashton took the operator''s word for it and jumped out of the pod before getting dressed as quick a lightning. He then headed towards the director to get his student card and uniform. It was a ck and silver outfit simr to the ones that he had seen numerous other volunteer students he had seen before the exam started. "This card will serve as both your identity and as a cash card." The director exined it to him, "However, the weekly allowance you will get will depend on the rank you receive in the second round of the exams. But as you have imed the first ce, some money had been already deposited into the card for you." As the Director said that, the card blinked once and a number popped up in front of Ashton. "10000 Blue units!" Ashton was wide-eyed. Obviously, the mistress had taught him about the global currency they used and 10000 blue units were something Ashton never thought he would have. just to get a gist of it, White units were the smallest denominator of currency they had. Daily basic necessities could e bought with about a hundred white units per week. But these were only the basic necessities like food, water and a ce to live. Nothing extravagant. 100 white units were equal to 1 red unit which was considered to be the currency of the lower middle ss. An average working household would be able to bring about 20 red units per week into their homes. It wasn''t too much, but it was enough for them to lead a quiet life. After red units, came blue units. 1 blue unit was equal to 100 red units and was probably the highest denominator of currency that higher-ss workers could afford. Then came the silver unit one of which was equal to 1000 blue units, then gold which was equivalent to 100 silver and then, atst, the ck unit... a currency that even the ruler of Lycania did not possess. That was the reason why having 10000 units in hand, left Ashton bbergasted. This was the final surprise the Director had prepared for him and to say that it was a weed surprise would have been an understatement. "Before you leave, I have a piece of advice for you. You have received quite a unique skill, Ashton. Make sure to only use it under special circumstances." The director said with a serious tone, "Using it recklessly might cause you more harm than good. Is that understood?" Ashton nodded and left the room. But he was a bit perplexed. What was so good about his [Aggravate] skill? It was overpowered a bit as it rendered the effect of healing potions and other healing abilities useless on the wounds he made... but in his opinion, it wasn''t something as serious as the director was making it out to be. ''I wonder what she would have said if she knew about my other skills...'' Ashton thought as a notification popped in front of him, listing the abilities he had obtained from the skill page. __ > Unique Werewolf skill: (can be evolved along with the user''s grade) [Aggravate]: Wounds made while in Werewolf form won''t heal unless the user allows them to. Causes severe haemorrhage can lead to death if not controlled effectively. > Unique Vampire Skill: (can be evolved along with the user''s grade) [Blood Poison]: Effectively turns the User''s blood into poison which can be used to inflict continuous damage upon enemies. > Unique Undead Skill: (can be evolved along with the user''s grade) [Corpse parade]: This skill allows the user to temporarily make a lower level undead do their bidding. Can also be used to make skeleton soldiers to temporarily aid the user in battle. __ ''If anything... the skills I earned for vampire and undead genes are much more dangerous.'' *** Author''s note: Detailed exnations of the skills would be provided in the uing chapters. Chapter 53 - True Strength "You sure took your sweet time to get out of there." Disha was waiting for Ashton for more than a couple of hours, "For a second I thought you died or something. So which ce did you get?" Ashton was thest person to get scanned, and hence it took him some time to get out of the academy. Honestly, he was hoping he wouldn''t see any of the mistress''s disciples even though he knew it was nothing more than wishful thinking. He was an asset to the mistress, why the hell would she leave him alone after all she had done ''for him''? "First ce," Ashton mumbled as if it was nothing special and kept walking. It took a couple of seconds for Disha to realise what Ashton had just said. But even then, she had to confirm it for herself. "First? Are you for real?" "Yeah, why? Is there something wrong?" "tell me everything that happened." As they made their way towards where the mistress was staying, Ashton narrated everything he could remember to Disha. Who ended up being more and more surprised the more Ashton talked. By the time their tale was over, both of them had arrived at the rented cottage the mistress had booked. It wasn''t anythingvish, but it was much morefortable than many other lodgings avable there. To Ashton''s surprise, the human ve couple whom the officers had been bullying, were being treated inside. While half a dozen officers were standing in the middle of the roompletely naked, on their knees and appeared as if they had been dragged back to earth from the edge of hell. Their blood was everywhere around the lodge. Ashton didn''t know what to make out of it. On one hand, he was happy that the humans were safe. But on the other hand, he was wondering what the hell was the mistress nning to do with the officers. But the moment, he saw the mistress... he realised there was something wrong with the Mistress. She appeared to be stronger. Much stronger than Ashton could have even imagined. Obviously, it was just a hunch because the system still ssified her as ''Extremely dangerous''. The aura around her sent shivers down Ashton''s spine. He was literally shaking there just by being around her. The bodyguards around the mistress weren''t ferrying well either. They too were struggling to keep themselves together. But unlike Ashton, they were doing a pretty good job at controlling their fear. "Calm down and breathe slowly... you have been holding it in for more than five minutes." Suddenly Disha hissing voice brought him back to his senses and he started breathing again. But at that moment, his perception of the mistress had shatteredpletely. The levels he had presumed her to be on... no longer seemed valid. ''She had been hiding her real strength all this time?'' Ashton thought as a bead of sweat trickled down his face, ''Is this even her real strength. or is she still holding back?'' The officers of Contingent were much stronger than any of the bodyguards. Even if all of thembined their strength, they would have only been able to take care of one or maybe two of them at most. But there they were, six guards in a state so miserable that even Ashton got the creeps. It was clear that the mistress had done this to them herself. With that, came another realisation... a realisation about why the hell did no one bother her even though she was openly hostile towards the king of Lycania. It was because they knew confronting her head-on would be a foolish move. to eliminate her, they would have to take heavy losses as well, which would then make it a perfect opportunity for the neighbouring kingdoms to try and invade them. The King and the mistress were at a stalemate. That''s why she needed a weapon to ovee the deadlock ensure her victory. A momentter, mistress realised that Ashton was there and almost immediately the hostile aura around her dissipated. The look of rage was still evident on her face, but for some reason, Ashton felt a bit morefortable now without the constant pressure of the Mistress''s strength looming over his head like a guillotine. ''I wanted to kill her? I can''t even harm a single strand of her hair as I am now.'' Ashton could feel his dead heart beating inside his chest as if he had just finished a marathon. "Ah, you''re here." The mistress calmly walked over to them while her bodyguards dragged the officers and the ves away, "It took a bit longer than I expected it would. So, how did he do?" "Pretty good. I think the Director has taken an interest in him. That was the reason he was thest to walk out of the campus." Disha replied with a worrisome smile on her face, "Don''t know whether it''s a good thing or not. But she apparently handed the first position over to him." The Mistress nodded her head before extending her hand towards Ashton, "Open your information tab. I want to see something." Ashton knew better than to argue with her so he did as he was told. Unlikest time, Mistress was looking at the tab intently as if she knew there was something more hidden underneath what Ashton was showing her. Still, she had no way to uncover the secret of Ashton being a tribrid being. "Wait a minute... since when did you have the [Aggravate] skill?" Mistress''s eyes seemed to have caught on to something. "I received it from the golden skill page I was awarded..." Ashton mumbled a reply. Neither the Mistress nor Disha spoke a word for what seemed like minutes. They just stared at each other intently before the Mistress broke into maniacalughter. Disha too was smiling but she had herself under control. "it would appear you are really one lucky rascal Ashton!" The mistress managed to say between her fits ofughter and patted him on the head, "You ended up obtaining one of the five rarest skills a werewolf can have. That too at such a young age!" Ashton was left even more perplexed after hearing the Mistress''s words. What was such a big deal about this skill after all? But before he could ask her about it, the Mistress decided it was time to have dinner and call it a day.. Leaving Ashton with his word thoughts. Chapter 54 - Slaves Or Spies? There wasn''t much for Ashton to do after they had dinner. And as usual, Ashton ate his food away from everyone else. He didn''t show it in public, but although, as days passed he was bing more and more like werewolves and lowing understanding them more and more, he still detested them. Especially after what those twins and other nobles tried to pull. Ashton couldn''t believe that he even thought that the Gruntas would be any different than the other noble brats. After all, all of them were peas in a pod. However, their absurd way of thinking had filled Ashton''s head with a n and a resolve to make the second round a memorable one for them. ''ording to the schedule given to us, the second phase will begin in about a week.'' Ashton thought to himself while he yed around with the system, ''That should be enough time for me toe up with something.'' Since Ashton''s n of staying lowkey had already been thrown out of the window, he no longer saw a reason to hold back against the others. If they wanted to make him the centre of attention, then so be it. He wasn''t going to do just that but carefully. He couldn''t just openly dere war against the nobles. The shit didn''t work like that. He had to be sneaky and with the things he obtained today, it should be a bit easier. ''Let''s see what I have...'' Ashton thought as he opened his inventory, ''Using the twin de is out of the question. Which leaves me with the Bony whip as my only weapon. Nemean Hide is a top tier armour so I don''t need to worry about protecting my chest.'' However, those were the only two pieces of equipment he had. He needed proper gears to protect the rest of his body as well as a weapon that could be used in short range. The whip was an excellent weapon. Unlike anything, Ashton had wielded before. But using it freely and in short-rangebat was a bit troublesome. That was the reason why Ashton kept using the whip to increase his manoeuvrability while dealing damage to his targets with his limbs. ''Thankfully, I have money that I can use to solve that problem easily. The only problem is... I don''t know where to spend it.'' It was his first time ever having some money, so he didn''t exactly know how to bargain and stuff like that. The way he was now, his biggest worry was that he would end up getting ripped off if he were to go to the market by himself. He already knew a lot of vendors would try to wrong him, especially after seeing the king of money he had. So he decided it was better if someone were to apany him while he did what he had to ''As much as I''d hate to ask the mistress for help. I don''t think I have any other choice. Hmm... maybe I should try asking Disha. Then, either way, she would have to take permission from the mistress before doing anything.'' One way or the other the mistress was going to know what he was nning to do. So he decided it was better for him to be the one to give her the news... ''I''ll think about it tomorrow. For now, I''ll just sleep- ohe on!'' Knock... knock... After fighting for the better part of the day, it was obvious that Ashton was tired. But it seemed someone didn''t want him to have any sort of rest. Ashton opened the door and there stood the mistress along with the human ve couple. The ves appeared to be in a much better condition now that their wounds have been treated and their bellies well fed. The only thing which remained to be seen was why the heck were they there? "Did you need something, mistress?" Ashton wanted to be as cold with her as he was before, but after seeing what the mistress was capable of doing, he chose not to. Who knew when her head would flip over and she would start beating the living hell out of him just because she felt like that. The mistress turned towards the ves and they immediately went down on their knees. "We are at your service, Lord Ashton." "Eh? The hell are they spouting now? Me, a lord?" "Of course, you''re a lord. Just like the others in the academy." The mistress said before walking inside his room and making herselffortable on the bed, "You did not expect me to send a member of my family to the academy without an escort, did you?" "But this... isn''t this a bit excessive? I mean why would I even need servants there in the first-" "You seem to be mistaken. I wasn''t asking whether or not you want to take them with you. I was merely stating that you will be apanied by them. Is that understood?" The mistress said with a certain finality in her voice. Ashton bit his tongue. He knew exactly why the Mistress was doing that. She needed someone to keep an eye on him and even if these ves were supposed to be his ''escorts'', they were more like informants keeping an eye on him in her stead. Also, since the ves were saved by the mistress, it was a given that they would have an undying loyalty towards her. As a result, if they end up apanying him, he would certainly have more than enough trouble to level up his other genes without raising suspicion. In other words... he was fcked for good. It was a rule for the escorts to apany their Lords and Ladies everywhere. Even in the academy. The sses and the dorms were included in this. "Now that you have been acquainted, we shall take our leave," Mistress mumbled as the humans got back to their feet and left after her. Leaving Ashton alone in his room. ''I have to think of a way to get them off my back... at least during the night.'' Nighttime was essentially the only time when he could hunt and level up as a vampire and an undead. This being able to roam freely was an absolute necessity for him. Ashton wracked his brains for some time, thinking of ways to get rid of them... Then an idea hit him. He quickly opened the rules and regtions of the academy and there it was... written in golden letters. A way for him to get rid of the ves from tracing his every step. "Looks like I will have to hold back during the second round of the exam.... guess I don''t have any other choice." Chapter 55 - Market Feud (1) The next day, Ashton acted as if nothing was wrong and headed out along with Disha. Obviously, they had to take permission from the mistress before doing so. The mistress also wanted the ves to apany them. But Ashton refused by saying since they were going to apany him throughout the duration of his education and training in the academy, it was only fair that he was allowed to live the rest of the week without feeling like anyone was tracking him. The mistress thought about it for a couple of minutes and then allowed the two of them to go without the ves. She initially wanted to make the ves get acquainted with Ashton''s habits as soon as they could... But then again, she thought maybe she was being too irrational and after all, Disha was apanying him already. On top of that, she had not even rewarded or acknowledged Ashton after getting the first position in the exam. So this could be a way for her to do so. "Finally out of there... phew." Ashton stretched a bit while walking on the streets, "What about you Disha? Don''t you feel a bit overworked? I mean being around the mistress is quite draining isn''t it? Also Don''t you miss being a human?" "I would rather be overworked than be treated like shit." Disha sighed, "As far as the question of missing my humanity... I don''t think there''s anything stopping me from continuing to behave like one. I mean I still pretty much look the same and all. If anything I can enjoy being a human more while staying as a werewolf, than being a human, if you know what I mean." She continued, "Like imagine being a vampire or an undead. Being forced to transform into one of those would have really sucked. At least right now I can enjoy my heartbeat and the feeling of the sun kissing my skin. I can never even think about living as a Vampire or an Undead." Ashton nodded to her reply and kept walking. Well... there was nothing wrong with what Disha was saying. Even as ''mutts'' their life was much better than living in the enclosures till thest of their days. Also, objectively, there was nothing wrong with being a werewolf... if it wasn''t for what they had done to his parents. At that moment, Ashton realised he didn''t have problems with the werewolves, just with the Mistress for doing what she did. Still, he hated all of them ''pureblooded'' bastards. Soon he began remembering everything the werewolves had done for and against him and well... the things they had done to vex him overweighed the things they had done to help him. While lost in his thoughts, he heard a suddenmotion erupt in front of one of the countless stores. They had already arrived at Merchant Avenue. The marketce of Contingent where one could find anything and everything as long as they had enough money for it. From exotic ves to weapons and potions, everything anyone would need was readily avable there. And right now, there was a crowd gathered in front of one of such shops. It also happened to be the shop Ashton wanted to visit first. Divine Armoury... that was the name of the shop. However, contrary to the name, the shop looked everything but divine. It was clear that the ce had not been maintained for some time as the paints wereing off of the walls and mould growing on everything. However, Ashton knew not to judge a book by its cover. After all, this shop was arguably the best shop to buy weapons and other gear from. The crowd gathered in front of the shop was only proof of what kind of great goods did the shop had to offer. "Let''s check it out," Disha said and the two of them headed into the shop. *** ''This... is crap!'' That was Ashton''s first thought as soon as he looked at some of the ''great'' weapons the merchant had to offer. None of the weapons there were even of umon quality, let alone rare quality like Ashton was looking for. As if selling shitty things was not enough for the merchant, they were being sold at absurd prices. Like none of the weapons even had a permanent blessing on them and yet they were priced at 1000 blue units or more. Ashton had even started to wonder whether this ce was a joke or an actual armoury. Hell, even the rusty weapons he had trained with were much better than these shiny ones. It was still a wonder why all these idiots were buying these weapons that wouldn''t evenst more than a month. ''Well... I do know the answer for that.'' Ashton shook his head and put the sword he had been looking at, back in its ce. As the mistress had already told him... none of them possessed the innate detection skill as he did. For them, the only way to get to know about the true stat of the gear was to buy it and then pay another merchant to verify the usefulness of the said gear. In other words, it could be said that the merchants were one unit hellbent on making as much money from the others as they could. That was the reason most of these people took the merchant''s word for the skills and stats associated with a certain gear. But this trick only worked onmoners and lower-ranked soldiers and officers. As the rest of them had more than enough money to get their weapons made from scratch and by reputed weaponsmiths. But since Ashton could know about the history of anything he set his eyes on, fooling him using these tricks was impossible. However, he knew better than to anger the merchants so he decided it was wise to stay silent and leave the ce. "Found anything you wanna buy?" Disha asked him as Ashton shrugged his shoulders and walked out. "Nah... there''s nothing worth the price they are asking for," Ashton replied and was about to take a step out of the shop when someone grabbed onto him. "You boy... are you trying to say my goods are overpriced?" A thunderous voice boomed behind him as the merchant and the owner of the shop jumped right in front of Ashton, "Or do you mean my goods are shit? Huh?" ''... oh boy, here we go again..'' Ashton sighed as uninvited trouble crossed his path yet again. Chapter 56 - Market Feud (2) Merchant association was like a tight-knit family of scammers. Most, if not all of them had their dirty secrets. Thus no one dared to go against the others in fear that their business venture would be ruined if their secrets got out. That was also the reason why most of them ''helped'' each other out in times of need. Right now, there was one such time of need. A silly good-for-nothing brat had dared to defame a merchant''s products! How could they let it pass without getting properpensation first? Obviously, all these reasons were bullshit, but it didn''t matter to the merchants as long as they earned some extra money. Thus, Ashton became the target for the owner of the shop to extort some money. "You boy, you dare say my stuff is trash?" A heavy-looking mountain of a man grabbed the back of Ashton''s cor and pulled him back inside the shop, "It''s one thing to criticise them but to say the things made by the sweat and blood of our artisans and weaponsmiths is trash is utterly uneptable." It was the first time Ashton got a good look at the owner''s face and he looked exactly like a piece of shit would have. The shop owner''s hair looked as if the man had been taking an oil shower. Even his skin was awfully slimy and overall let out a disgusting scent. If someone were to say that the man looked more like a ball with sticks inserted into it to make up limbs, they wouldn''t have been wrong. Other than that, there were no notable features of the man... "Oi! I''m talking to you, you turd!" "What do you want? I just said what I thought was correct. Why should I pay 1500 blue units for a bunch of stone arrows?" Ashton was getting irritated, partially due to the man''s repulsive smell and partially due to how he was behaving. "You shit! You think you are some great merchant who can just tell what''s something worth just by seeing them?" Everyone present in the shop startedughing. In their eyes, Ashton was someone who had no idea about how the weapon effects and stat enhancement worked. In other words, he was simply a kid who didn''t know what he was talking about. It was rare for fights to break out in the area of Merchants. Not because they were strong or anything, but because of their ''unity'' of convenience. It was safe to say, if someone messed with one merchant, they messed with the entire merchant association. It was also the reason why even though some of the buyers got cheated now and then, they kept it to themselves because they knew fighting would only get them into more trouble. Hell, they could even ban that person from entering the marketce of Contingent altogether. Well, they technically won''t be able to do that. But they would stop selling the troublesome person any goods. Even food and water. For obvious reasons, Ashton did not know about it and was only avoiding trouble to not cause even more problems. However, unlike Ashton, it didn''t seem like the shopkeeper was going to let go of the matter so easily. "Oh, you thought they were shit... I see." Suddenly the demeanour of the shopkeeper changed as he walked up to the nearest cab and took out a ck sword. The sword had a thin one-edged de that was curved a bit and appeared to be extremely sharp. It also had a long grip which suggested it was a sword meant to be wielded using two hands. The eyes of everyone around them started shining the moment the owner walked back. All of them were behaving as if they had gotten to see some sort of forbidden treasure. The shopkeeper proudly brandished the sword as if it was the single greatest thing ever made. His performance was so good, Ashton almost wanted to believe him as well. At that moment, he realised why this shop was so famous. It wasn''t because of the quality of things provided there, but how they were presented to the buyers. The shopkeeper was honestly born to do this. But just by one look, Ashton could see what was behind the curtain of all the ''drama'' the man was doing. It was a decent sword. Better than the rest of the things present in the shop. But it was still amon weapon with a low-grade defence boosting enhancement. That was all it took for others to start fawning over the weapon as if it was some godly relic that would save the world from Night creatures. "This is what the humans used to call a Katana!" The shopkeeper roared in a dramatic voice, "And now I will demonstrate what it can do, at the expense of this child." Without anyone could even process what the shopkeeper had just said, he swung to katana to rip Ashton''s overcoat apart. Everything happened in a sh. The shopkeeper''s swing connected with something, but it wasn''t Ashton''s coat. But to the armour behind him. The steel-ted armour that was being advertised as having the rare ''unbreakable'' charm on it, was shed in half with a single strike. The merchant had thought he would teach a lesson to Ashton and then make him pay... but now, everything was ruined. Never in his darkest dreams would he have thought that Ashton would be able to dodge his attack. That''s why he went all-out and now he was fcked. Everyone who was present in the shop had their eyes fixated upon the broken ''unbreakable'' armour. "I-It''s not like what it s-seems! I a-assure you!" The shopkeeper let go of the sword and began stuttering as he realised what kind of mess he was in, "The armour did not break because it was a counterfeit or something... i-it broke because the sword was just too darn powerful. Y-Yeah that''s what happened." However, it was a bit toote for the shopkeeper to make amend and try covering his mess. Everyone had seen what happened with their own eyes. There was no freaking way the shopkeeper was ever going to make ae back after this mess. As much as Ashton wanted to know what happened afterwards, he knew if he stayed longer things would get messy. So he made a break for it along with Disha. As soon as they were out of the market, they startedughing uncontrobly. Knowing that the shopkeeper was fcked. But what they didn''t know, was that they should not have messed with the merchant. Those people were neither forgetful nor forgiving.. Sooner orter, what Ashton did would get him in trouble. Chapter 57 - Rose And Lucifer When the two of them arrived back at the cottage, Ashton and Disha were stillughing. That was until Disha informed him that Ashton was practically screwed now. "It might not have been your fault, but I think it''s better if you don''t visit the merchants anymore," Disha said with utmost seriousness, "The merchants are very vindictive, and either way I don''t think anyone would be willing to sell anything to you after what happened." "Wait what!? None of them? But why?" Ashton thought it would be fair if the shop they visited refused to sell stuff to him. But the thought that the entire market will boycott him was quite excessive and absurd. "You ruined a man''s business. Do you really think anyone else would try to host you and risk suffering to the same fate?" Disha shrugged her shoulders, "It is what it is, boya." As much as Ashton was pissed, it was fine. Those idiots didn''t have anything worth to be purchased by him either way. So them not selling anything to him should be fine. But there was still the issue of not having proper gears. "Is there any other way for me to buy some gears?" "There is. But I will not rmend you to do that. Not yet anyway." Disha shook her head and continued walking towards the cottage, "For now you should focus on the Academy. I''m sure when the time is right, you will get to know about it." "Why so secretive about it? I wouldn''t have to sell my organs or anything, right?" Ashton joked but Disha didn''t smile. "Hm... you could say that losing your limbs and life aremon if you decide to go down that line." Disha said before looking at the azure sky, "The life you have lived till now has been quite a sheltered one, Ashton. There are things that will make you question everything that had been going on for thest century. Things that no one has any control over." Ashton was a bit... fazed by Disha''s riddles. To him, it felt like either Disha was trying to dissuade him from doing something rash, or that she genuinely wanted to tell him something but for some reason couldn''t. "Either way, we should head back inside. Maybe the mistress would be able to help you out with gears." *** "No." That was the answer the Mistress gave to Ashton. Disha was hopeful the mistress would help him, after all, the stronger Ashton became the faster she could have achieved her dream and her revenge. But it appeared that the mistress did not share the same sentiments. Especially given her stoic expression. She was in a somewhat happy mood when they had left in the morning, so something must have happened while they were outside. Something quite troublesome... "I understand," Ashton replied with utmost sincerity before walking away. Ashton realised the same thing as well and decided to get away from there before he could get caught in the mess. He didn''t know what happened, nor did he care about it. ''As long as she isn''t dead, anything''s fine with me.'' However, there was something inside him that didn''t want someone else to cause too much trouble for her. This emotion wasn''t there because Ashton had suddenly developed some feelings for her far from it. He thought so as he could not get the satisfaction from Mistress''s bad mood, knowing that it wasn''t something he did. He wanted to be the only one who could make her life miserable. So much so, that she would be begging him to kill her. That was his n... to take away everything she had and torture her till she lost her fcking mind. But he knew it was nothing more than a fantasy of his... for now. ''Firstly... I need to get stronger. Strong enough to take the Mistress down by myself. But damn it! I need some gears.'' Ashton never knew how it would feel to have some money and not be able to spend it constructively. Well, now he did. He was practically ''loaded'' and yet there was nothing he could spend it on. He walked into his room thinking about the next steps of his n. That''s when he saw someone else present inside his room. Ashton''s eyes could not see who it was, but his perception skill was tingling like crazy. Seeing no other way, Ashton decided to heighten his sensory organs even more by partially transforming into a werewolf. [Your senses have grown a bit. Good to know you haven''t been wasting your skills why I was away.] Lucifer''s voice echoed inside Ashton''s head. And well, Ashton did not know whether he should be happy or worried that he was there. ''Lucifer, where are you?'' [What do you mean where are you? Do you think if I were toe down to earth you will be able to sense me? I thought your intelligence had increased but you''re still a moron.] ''...'' This bastard was always calling him a moron. No matter what the context of their talk was, it always ended up with Lucifer calling him a moron. [Hm... I see you have obtained quite some skills. Maybe you are not that big of a moron after all.] ''Why are you here? If all you wanted was to call me a moron, then thanks. The message was received loud and clear.'' [Sigh... sometimes I forget you are just a kid. Rose would you mind doing the honours?] As Lucifer uttered those words, a woman appeared right in front of Ashton. She was ufortably close to him. Not to mention her ck shabby clothing left a little for a teenager''s imagination. "Come on Lucifer, cut the kid some ck." Thedy''s voice was just as seductive as her appearance. Rose, as she was called, was a vampire and was using her charm to cloud Ashton''s mind. However, it only took Ashton a moment to snap out of the trance of her charms. "This kid is good..." Suddenly Rose''s voice turned serious, "To be able to break out of my charm at such a young age when people can''t stop obsessing about intimacy. Impressive." [I know how to pick ''em.] "The heck is going on here?" Ashton asked Lucifer and all he could hear was his chuckles. [I heard you wanted some gears. So I thought I would call in some favours. So, are you ready to go?] "Go where?" "To the ck market, of course.." Rose replied and quickly dragged him away. Chapter 58 - Black Market (1) Ashton freed his hands. He didn''t even trust Luciferpletely, how the heck did he think he would trust someone else? A vampire on top of that. If anyone saw him walking around with a vampire, things might get troublesome. Ashton was someone who should not have known anyone besides the Mistress and the people she was associated with. If he got caught with a vampire, how will he exin that he knew a vampire? Someone would definitely find something odd and his secret would no longer be a ''secret''. "I don''t know you and I don''t think apanying you in broad daylight would be a good choice-" Ashton was in the middle of speaking when he felt Rose''s finger on his lips. "Boya, you talk too much, which is a turn off for most of thedies like me." She winked at him before lifting her finger, "But I get your concern. A werewolf walking around with a vampire would not be a wise thing to do. Thankfully, I can take care of it." Rose closed her eyes for a second and the next moment, her pale vampire-like skin turned into one resembling that of the werewolves. Her skin was thriving again and herplexion got livelier... on top of that, even without her charm, she was looking... th? Her previously crimson eyes had turned into a lovely shade of blue. Her face slowly turned red as blood once again started to flow within her body. Her look more or less changed in its entirety. But there was something much more shocking than Rose''s change in appearance. Her looks weren''t the only thing that had changed, but her gics as well. She had just transformed into a werewolf! To say that Ashton was shocked would have been the understatement of the century. So far he had been thinking he was the only one who possessed multiple genes. But apparently, he wasn''t. ''That isn''t possible. The system itself told me that I was the first one of my kind.'' Ashton recalled the notification he had seen the moment he was awakened, ''There has to be something else that I am missing.'' "Shocking, isn''t it?" Rose smiled when she saw the look on Ashton''s face, "Don''t overthink it too much. I''ll exin everything to you on the way. Now let''s go." [Enjoy kids. I''ll meet you guyster. Gotta run.] *** "So you''re saying... Vampire and Werewolves can mate with each other?" Ashton whispered the moment Rose finished exining why she had both the power of a vampire and a werewolf. Unlike Ashton, rose did not receive her powers as he did. She did not get bitten by a vampire and a werewolf before their powers could manifest. Instead, she was conceived by a Vampiress and a werewolf. The thought of a Werewolf getting intimate with a vampire was a bit... far-fetched. After all, Ashton was told that Werewolves and Vampires hated each other from the moment they were born. As if, it was gic programming. On top of that, unlike werewolves, the vampire did not have an active reproductive system because well... they were dead for all intents and purposes. Therefore, the thought of them conceiving a child was weird. Unless what the Mistress had been teaching him was false. That''s why Ashton had a hard time believing what Rose was telling him. However, her story got dark real quick. Her werewolf father was apparently an agent of the crown. Not of Lycania but of one of the other smaller kingdoms. Ashton could already foresee what was about to happen. Rose''s father betrayed her mother andunched a siege. However, even his father had underestimated the vampires and got obliterated. But as Rose was the daughter of that man, she was thrown away to live on her own. No one, not even her ''mother'' tried to dissuade others. Instead, she was the one who willingly abandoned her child just because she had the genes of a werewolf within herself. "Lucifer found me then and helped me survive. Without him, I would have died a long time ago." Rose smiled wanly, "As for your question... yes. They can mate together. However, the chances of conceiving a child out of that are extremely low. But even then, it''s much better than that of being bitten by three different creatures..." "I still don''t remember much, if anything at all about what happened that night." Ashton shrugged his shoulders, "Whenever I force myself to remember anything, my head feels like it would split open in half and before long, I lose consciousness." "Interesting... The first-ever being of his kinda and yet he doesn''t know the secrets of his origin... interesting indeed." "Are there any more people like you, Rose? I mean, Vampirewolves?" "Oh, so you already took a peek at my stats." Rose''s demeanour changed back to her cheery self, "You know it''s rude to peek t ady without her consent?" "Do you know it''s a crime to kidnap someone? Pick your poison and words carefully." Ashton retorted. Well, technically, it was kidnapping. No one knew where Ashton had disappeared to as he had not told anyone that he was leaving. All he said was he was going to be in his room. Also, given the tense atmosphere around the cottage, Ashton doubted someone would even notice that he wasn''t there. As for Rose''s stats... they were extraordinary. Nothing too brilliant, but still she was more or less strong enough to take a couple of city guards by herself. She had a higher level than he did, so he couldn''t see the abilities and skills Rose possessed. But he could see the rest of it including her stats. __ Name: Rose Species: Vampire (Inactive), Werewolf (Active). Status: Vampirewolf ss: Battle Mage, Assassin Title: [Rebellious], [Conjurer], [Mystic yer] Age: 29 years Gender: female Grade: D-tier (Evolution is possible) Affiliation: Werewolves. Level: > Werewolf Level: 28 > Vampire Level: 30 Stats: HP: 10000/10000 Damage: 57 Armour: 45 Stealth: 87 Stamina: 67 Agility: 69 Intelligence: 58 Nature: ? Vignt __ "Hm... yes. There are others like me. But I don''t think they know the identity of other Vampirewolves. Oh well, looks like we''ll have to continue our conversation some other time.. We have arrived." Chapter 59 - Black Market (2) "For a ''secret'' ck market, isn''t this ce... too obvious?" Ashton mumbled as soon as they got past the gates. "I never said it was a secret ce. Everyone knows that this market exists. But only a few know what goes inside." Rose replied with a smile. The ce was crowded unlike any ce, Ashton had seen previously. At the same time, it wasn''t lively either which was a bit strange. No one was even looking at each other. It almost felt as if they were a bunch of undead walking around. Not to mention, they had just stepped in and the eerieness of the ce was already exceeding charts. But the first thing that Ashton noticed was the presence of what seemed like hundreds of armed personnel. They were strong, maybe even stronger than the city guards. Which was nothing to be surprised about, considering that the ck market was not affiliated with the merchant association. So unlike them, the owners of the ck market could not depend upon the security provided by the city guards. As a result, they had to hire mercenaries to protect their territory and keep it fairly quarrel free. "Don''t look at them so intently if you don''t want them to kick your ass. You don''t want to get banned from here as well, do you?" Rose mumbled and ushered him in. Ashton shook his head and followed behind Rose. The ck market was the only ce in Contingent he could buy and sell things now. It would be bad if he ended up doing something like what happened in the merchant''s shop. On top of that, Ashton had a feeling that these mercenaries would not be as forgiving as the merchants. Ashton had a feeling that they were the reason why everyone in the market was behaving with utmost discipline. After all, causing trouble there would be likemitting suicide. ''You got that right.'' Ashton heard Rose''s voice but surprisingly her mouth wasn''t moving. ''Telepathy?'' ''Something like that. Also, it is better if wemunicate like this. Much secure and undetectable form ofmunication.'' ''Is it a Vampire ability?'' ''Nope. It''s an innate ability.'' Rose corrected him, ''The ones having one type of gene do not have such ability, as these abilities only pop up when two different genes intermingle with each other. All hybrids have an ability exclusive of their own. However, since you''re tribrid... you should have, not one but three of these abilities.'' ''Three? I don''t think so.'' Ashton shrugged his shoulders. As far as he knew, he only had one ''innate'' ability and that was his detection skill. But the thought of having more than one such ability sure felt nice. ''Haha, innate abilities take time to manifest. It''s like you have a weapon that you don''t even know you have. But they''ll reveal themselves at the most opportune time.'' Rose chuckled, ''You can also say that these abilities are plot armours.'' ''The heck is a plot armour? Is it stronger than Nemean hide armour?'' ''...You''ll get to know soon enough.'' Although they were surrounded by countless shops selling excellent weapons, Rose kept pushing forward. Every now and then, Ashton saw something that caught his eye, but Rose ushered him ahead. ''You know we are here to buy some stuff right?'' Ashton retorted when he finally got pissed. ''We are here to get you some gear, yeah. But I never said anything about buying them.'' ''Eh? Don''t tell me we''re going to steal!? Didn''t you see those guards? I don''t know about you, but I don''t want to cross them.'' ''What? Why would we steal? Didn''t Lucifer tell you anything at all?'' ''I''m afraid he didn''t.'' ''You know what, just go and check the price tag on those things. In the meantime, I need to have a chat with someone.'' Ashton left to do as he was told to, but before that, he turned around to see Rose was lost in her thoughts. But Ashton knew she was trying to get in touch with a certain mutual acquaintance. "She can call Lucifer whenever she likes... interesting. Well, let''s see the priceeeeee!?" Ashton got shocked to see the price of the gears. The gears were genuine, and so were their prices. Almost all of them were either umon or rare with permanent effects. But the prices of them... were a bit out of budget for him. Even the least expensive gear there had a price of 10999 blue units. ''The heck is wrong with these prices!? Are they made up of some mythical material or something?'' ''Now you see why we''re not here to buy anything.'' Rose said as she walked up to him, ''Since the weapons are authentic, the prices are authentic as well.'' Ashton had been previously wondering why the others did note to buy things from the ck market, rather than buying shitty stuff from the merchants. The answer was clear. While the merchants sold shitty stuff, those gears were actually affordable. Unlike the things that were sold in the ck market. The weapons, materials, and potions everything in the ck market was authentic and they didn''t fool their customers. But these things were not affordable for most people. ''I can''t buy anything here... and I was thinking I''m set for the rest of my life with the money I have.'' Ashton scratched the back of his head and stepped back, ''So, what are we going to do now?'' ''We? We are not going to do anything. You are.'' Suddenly an ominous smile crept on Rose''s face as she said those words, ''It''s time for you to show your skills, boya.'' Ashton was visibly confused. He had no idea what the hell Rose was talking about. What skills was he supposed to show? Skill to be confused all the time? ''I''m talking about yourbat skills of course...'' Rose shook her head, ''Selling and buying things is not the only thing the ck Market is famous for. Its main attraction is not the things the shops have to offer, but the underground fights.'' ''Wait what? I''m supposed to fight?'' ''Why, you don''t know how to fight?'' Ashton shook his head. That was not the point. The term underground fights itself meant that the thing was dangerous and probably illegal. He wanted to enter the academy and he didn''t think anyone would be pleased to know what he had been up to. He might even get thrown out of the academy as well! And that wasn''t a risk he was willing to take. "Rx. I got you covered." Rose put her hand into a subspace and pulled about a mask out of it, "Here, wear this. It''ll hide your face and then you can use your other genes to fight. That way, your identity will remain safe. Now let''s go before it''s toote to get you registered." "So I''m going to make money off of fighting?" "Not money, nope." Rose mumbled, "Here people fight for gears. Although there are mary rewards, I''ll be taking those as convenience fees." "Why will you take the money when I''ll be the one to fight?" "You think I''ll be helping you for free, boya? Nothing''s free in this world. the sooner you get used to it, the better it will be for you. Now let''s go." ''And here I was thinking she is helping me in Lucifer''s ce.... greedy bitch.'' Chapter 60 - Brawl (1) True to her word, Rose started acting as if she was Ashton''s manager. There was no hope for Ashton to get any money out of her. Even though the money would ''rightfully'' be his. However, there was one thing that Ashton liked about Rose. Even though she showed as if she didn''t care about him, she was helping him quite a bit. But then again, it could have also been because he was a golden goose for her. Thus better she took care of him, the more rewards she couldter milk out of him. Apart from all that... there was one thing Ashton was excited about. The use of the weapons. Since he could not use any weapons or armours he had gotten as a reward from the academy, it left him with one option. He would have to use the twin swords he took after defeating those bloodsuckers all those weeks ago. It would be the first time since he would be using them. On top of that, since his identity would be hidden thanks to that mask of his, he saw no problems while using those. ''As for this mask... it''s not ordinary either.'' Ashton thought while touching the mask that looked like the front portion of a human skull, ''I wonder whether Rose knows about the hidden effects of the mask. If I had to guess, I would say... she doesn''t. Or else she wouldn''t have given it away so easily.'' __ Item: Mask Of Vampirism Type: Armour/ Assassin Gear/ Enhancement Gear > Defence: 37-45 HP per strike > Stealth: +12 points Stats bonus: >> Armour: +10% while equipped for use (increases with user''s level). >> Reduces 2x damage taken from Night Creatures. >> Reduces 1.2x damage taken from werewolves and undead. >> Increases all stats by 10% >> When equipped, enhance the levels of a vampire by 3 levels. Rarity: Rare Description: A mask that''s said to have belonged to Queen Drac herself. It is unknown as to whose skull this mask has been carved out of, but the skull is definitely a human''s. To think any human ever had powers like these wasmendable. So much so that even the queen herself praised the man for his valour and efforts he made to put an end to the vampires. Sadly, due to the shady and messy history of vampires, the identity of such a valiant man had been long lost. But one day, when the Queen wakes up again... that moment might once again reveal the identity of the human. Till then, the mask will serve its purpose and make its wielder invincible. The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects. Effect(s): > Protects the wielder from negative effects of psychic attacks such as Blindness, Confusion, Dizziness, and Paralysis. > Increases the user''s mental defence by one grade (when equipped). > Grants the user the active skill: [One With The Shadow]. Allows the user to switch ces with a shadow. However, the shadow needs to be attached to a sentient being. Immediately after switching ces, the user will also receive a boost in movement speed by 20% which decays over a duration of 2 minutes. This skill can be activated 5 times a day. Cooldown: 2 Hours Activation Radius: 20 metres __ ''Yup. She doesn''t know a thing about this mask. Good for me though.'' Ashton smiled absentmindedly, ''I came here to get one gear and might end up getting two instead.'' "The heck are you smiling for?" Rose was finally finished getting Ashton in a fight and cing her bets, "Don''t be a fool to think you can win this easily." "Believe me. Underestimating my opponents is not my fighting style." Ashton had a serious look on his face, "But will it be alright? I mean I''m a vampire in the middle of a city that''s filled with werewolves." "That''s what you are worried about?" Rose ended upughing so loudly everyone around them turned towards them, "Don''t worry. This ck market is a ce that cared more about their shit than who enters or leaves their premises." She continued, "In other words, it does not matter who you are as long as you buy something or entertain them in a way. So make sure your fight is an entertaining one." Ashton nodded and they made their way towards the arena. The arena was jam-packed with people of all colours, gender, and race. Unlike the environment on the outside, there was nothing quiet about this ce. Not a single person was holding their voices back and were continuously shouting at the two fighters inside the ring. All of these people had ced bets on these fighters and none of them wanted to lose their ''hard-earned'' money. Right now, the fight between two werewolves was going on. One of them was so buffed up that Ashton thought if someone were to stab the man, he''ll explode like a balloon. While the other man had a considerably smaller frame but a highly agile body which was enough to ensure none of the bulky man''s punches connected to him. But the small man''s punches were more or less useless against the big guy. Thus forcing the two of them into a stalemate. That was also the reason why the crowd was getting all riled up. They were there to get their money, not to witness their unnecessarily long fight. Ashton fight was going to take ce after a couple of fights. Which was good, considering that will give him enough time to get himself acquainted with how they fought with one another and analyse their movement. All in all, everything was going fine. "Pretty wild isn''t it?" Rose had to literally shout while sitting next to Ashton and yet he could barely hear her. But when that didn''t work, they once again startedmunicating using telepathy. "Wild doesn''t evene close to describing this ce. How the hell did we not hear any of this while we were outside?" "These are no ordinary walls, boya. They have been made by the crystals found in night creatures and have noise cancetion properties. Sone one could make an explosion happen here, and the building would give out before any kind of sound would escape this ce." "I can''t wonder why they would do something like this," Ashton said with a sarcastic look on his face. There were two reasons why they would do that. Both of which Ashton was well aware of. Firstly, the noise would make sure that anybody who doesn''t already know about the underground fight circuit, will nevere to know about it on their own. Unless someone invited them over, as Rose invited him. The second and final reason was to make sure that the business going above them was not inconvenienced in any form. It appeared that the mysterious owners of the ce knew how to keep business and pleasure separate. While Ashton was thinking all that, the excruciatingly long fight finally came to an end with the short guy taking the win. it would seem that no matter how bulky someone bes... their balls are always susceptible to ''unintentional'' low blows. Once the big guy was on his knees it was only a matter of time before the shorter guy ended the match. "Are such moves allowed?" "Anything is allowed once you''re inside the ring. As long as you do not kill somebody." Rose replied with a wink, "Even sexual advances are not forbidden so might need to be aware of it." "I''m fighting a woman?" "Not just any woman, but an alpha amongst the brawlers. She had never been defeated in a match before. All thanks to her charm. But since you could resist me, who knows you might be the first one to defeat her and if you''re able to do that, you can take any... rare grade weapon from the shops. So be sure to give it your best." "So that''s why you tested me back then. You wanted to see whether I was up for the challenge or not." Ashton had a moment of realisation before shaking his head, "All that aside, do you know anything else about the woman?" "Nope. That''s the point. No one knows who she is or where she came from. It''s all shrouded in mystery. Even the information brokers don''t have any on her. It''s as if she''s a ghost." "A ghost you say.... interesting." Chapter 61 - Brawl (2) The fights afterwards merelysted a few minutes. These were quick-paced matches that weren''t unnecessarily dragged out. On the other hand, it also made him realise that these people had much more experience in fighting than he did. Even though their levels were not as high as his. But the more fights he saw, the morefortable he became with the idea of fighting inside the cage. It was also a relief that Rose was coaching him about everything. Although, it felt more like she was worried about her money than him. "Lunas and Alphas, Counts and Countesses... we have finally arrived at the moment you all have been waiting for." The neatly dressed vampire proudly announced, "The fight of the night between the undefeated crimson beauty Be and the ultimate underdog... wait, is this name correct?" The announcer suddenly got quiet and inquired about the name before resuming the announcement. "Ahem, a fight between the undefeated crimson beauty Be and the ultimate underdog Mr Virgin!" The crowd burst outughing the moment the announcer was done announcing. Hell, even the announcer himself wasughing like a mad man. Who the fck would name themselves something as absurd as that? Ashton angrily looked towards Rose, who to no one''s surprise wasughing as well. "You just had to do that, didn''t you?" "Hey, don''t give me that look. I didn''t lie, did I?" Rose said in between taking deep breaths, "The form said you should name yourself something close to reality. So I did. You''re the ultimate underdog and a virgin. If you aren''t then I''ll get right on the stage and tell everyone that I''m your bitch." "Fck you!" Ashton shook his head and walked onto the stage. He had never felt so humiliated in his entire life. But the moment he entered the stage, he realised why Rose did what she did. She didn''t do it to make fun of him... well, she did. But there was another side of the story as well. With a name like that, everyone would believe him to be an amateur. The fact that this was his first appearance on the stage ever, would also reinforce the belief. All of these facts might lead the undefeated Be to underestimate him and thus making it easier for Ashton to win the fight. All of those were the reason for how the absurd name would help Ashton. But there was another reason why Rose named him something as absurd as that. Unlike Ashton, Rose was there to win money and the money she would get was depended on the odds of betting. Now considering Be''s track record and a newbie with a name as absurd as Mr virgin, not a lot of people would ce their bets on Ashton. Which meant, if Ashton won... she could only imagine the kind of money she would end up making. But in case he lost... welp, then she would have to pin the bill on Lucifer. It was not like that bastard would pay her either way. ''He has to win. If he doesn''t then guess his blue units wille in handy.'' Rose sighed and sunk back into her seat. In the meantime, Ashton was busy taking a good look at his opponent. Standing at 5''7", the pearl-white-skinned woman had an enigmatic feel about her. She had an overall angr face with a sharp jawline. She also had crimson hair that went along with her eyes. Apart from that, not much was visible as her face was covered with a ck masquerade mask. Weirdly enough, Ashton had a feeling that he had seen those eyes before. But he couldn''t pinpoint where, but he could swear on his life he had seen them before. "Fighters, ready?" The referee''s announcement snapped Ashton out of his dream world. Whether he knew it or not, it didn''t matter. Right now they were each other''s opponents and nothing more. ''I''m just here to take the gear. Nothing more.'' Ashton nodded and so did Be. "Fight!" The referee disappeared soon after giving them the go, enclosing the two of them inside the ss cage. The cage for this fight was different from the rest because of Be''s unique ability. Anyone who came in contact with her [Sweet Scent] ability lost all sense of reason and wants only one thing... to bang someone. That''s why this cage was built especially for her fights to ensure that ability did not affect anyone other than her opponent. After all, they had had one such incident before... and it did not end up well. Soon the cage was filled with an odourless, pink gas. Ashton simultaneously drew his twin des out and charged at Be. However, after a couple of steps, he started staggering. ''The hell is going on...'' Soon his mind started going fuzzy and his vision was affected as well. Be''s ability was already taking effect on him and he was yet toy a finger on her. "Oh... you''re the first one tost this long without falling to his knees and humping the ground." Be mumbled as she seductively walked up to him, "Maybe I should give you some special treatment after all." Ashton''s face was flushed and his body temperature started to rise. Which as a vampire was not a good thing at all. It was a sign that he was about to lose control over his desires. However, right when he was about to give in. Be did something which she shouldn''t have. She kicked Ashton across the face. The sharp side of her heels managed to dig into his cheeks and drew blood. The blood then fell on the des of Ashton''s swords. But that was only the beginning. It took some time, but the mask started to show its effects. Within moments, Ashton was able to get rid of the effects of Be''s [Sweet Scent]. __ You have gained [Blidness Tolernace] Level 1. The duration and effects of will be reduced by 10%. __ Well, Ashton was not quite yet able to get rid of all the effects, but he could get rid of the effects associated with mental attacks. His vision got back to normal and so did his bnce. The only thing was... he was quite excited under his belt. "How... how can you get back to your feet!?" Be shrieked along with everyone else in the audience when they saw Ashton get back to his feet, "The strength of my skill is absolute!" "Is it now?" Ashton gave her a weird smile before soaking his des in his blood once again, "Let me show you some of my absolute skills." [You have activated the skill ] Chapter 62 - Brawl (3) __ >> [Blood Poison]: The basic ability for Blood mages, a rare ss that has only ever been acquired by a few. Upon activation converts the user''s blood into a potent poison that can be used to harm others. The user themselves are immune to this poison. Once the blood poison enters someone''s body, it starts inflicting continuous damage of 1% HP for 5 seconds. This ability can be stacked innumerable times. But at risk of the opponent obtaining a bit of tolerance if this skill is used too much on them. However, the opponent will not get total immunity to the poison under any circumstance. Grade: Low (F grade) Damage: 1% of total HP Condition to upgrade: The skill automatically upgrades with the grade of the user. __ The skill itself wasn''t anything game-changing. As the blood had to somehow enter the opponent''s body. That was the trickiest part of using the skill. As the description mentioned, this skill belonged to the mages, who weren''t proficient in fighting using weapons. Thus it was hard for them to use the skill to its maximum potential. However, in the right hands, the skill could be deadly. That was the reason why it was considered to be one of the rarest skills any vampire could obtain. Thankfully, Ashton knew what he was doing. By smearing his blood on the des, he had just made the des much deadlier than before. Now the problem of getting his blood inside the body of his enemy was solved and all he needed to do was to put the ability to a test. ''I originally wanted to test this out along with [Aggravate], but looks like I''ll have to leave that n for some other day.'' Ashton couldn''t help but let out a smile when he saw Be fidgeting around. She had no idea why the hell her skill was not working on him. It had always worked before on the others, but not on him. She kept thinking about it while keeping her distance. But it seemed Ashton did not have as much patience as her. He wanted the fight to be over as quickly as possible so he could get back to the cottage before the mistress got suspicious. He charged towards Be, with a de on each side of him. It appeared without her charms, she was nothing to be afraid of. Ashton decided that going for her limbs would be the best course of action as he did not want to give her any previous wound. especially with a power he had never used before on anyone. However, before he could put his n into action, Be took him by surprise and shot a stream of fire out of her palm. The change was so sudden, Ashton was barely able to dodge the attack in time. If it hadn''t been for his overly developed perception skill, he would have turned into fried chicken right then and there. ''This fcking bitch!'' Ashton breathed heavily, ''I was being considerate to not hurt her too badly and she decided to fry me? That''s it. No mercy.'' Being considerate about one''s opponent was a foolish thing to even think about. But as Ashton wasn''t thinking of this as a battle, he was going easy on her. But no more. ''Don''t even think about it.'' Rose''s voice echoed in his head a mere moment before Ashton was about to activate his undead genes, ''Are you retarded or what? There are so many eyes on you. You think this is the right time to use something none of them has ever seen before?'' Ashton was a bit frustrated at this point. But he could see sense behind what Rose was saying. It would be stupid of him to do something like that. Not to mention, if someone recognised that he was using undead and vampire abilities simultaneously, they might even connect the dots between him and the death of the bloodsuckers back in Maddencreek. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down before replying to Rose, ''Thanks for your help.'' At the moment, he was a vampire and he had to fight like one. Which meant, he would have to use his brain for a change. ''She can use fire as well... I don''t have any skills to counter that. I can''t use Nemean Hide either. It would throw away my identity. This leaves me with one choice... gotta use agility to my advantage.'' "Kill him and get it over with!" All of a sudden the crowd started yelling. It was to be expected since none of them had thought the fight would go on for this long. And the longer the fight dragged on, the higher was the chances that the odds would get messed up. None of them wanted that to happen. Suddenly, Be''s fists erupted into mes. It looked like she wasn''t going to hold back anymore. But there was an ace hiding in Ashton''s sleeve. A move that will end their match in one shot. Without wasting another moment, Be shot her mes at Ashton, who for some reason, stayed rooted to his spot. "Direct hit! It''s all over folks! Don''t forget to-" The announcer was so sure in Be''s ability he was already dering her as the winner, however a momentter he saw something he couldn''t believe, "How... when, when did Mr Virgin appear behind Be?" Before anyone could answer or process what had just happened, Ashton appeared right behind Be and kicked her right in the head, sending her flying away to the opposite side of the cage. The impact was so strong, she lost her consciousness. Just like that, her undefeated streak came to an end. Much to everyone''s dismay and surprise. Everyone who had ced their bets on Be was crying on the inside, while a couple of others were jumping around. Even Rose was included in this group. The 3000 Blue units she had bet on Ashton''s victory had been turned into about 45 thousand Blue Units! That was the kind of odds that Ashton was up against. But as usual, he overcame his troubles in style. However, inside his head, something else was going on... ''Why would a noble like Anna Swanpete in underground fights?'' He thought as he viewed the information of ''Be'', ''I guess, we all have our secrets and circumstances.. I shouldn''t probe about it unnecessarily.'' Chapter 63 - Busted "I wanted defence equipment but they had none in ''stock'' or were already sold out." Ashton sighed as they walked out of the ck market, "Why is my luck so shit?" "Hey, at least you got another rare essory. Cheer up!" Unlike Ashton Rose was in a good mood. Why wouldn''t she be? After all, she got all the money she wanted. Heck, she even got more than she had hoped initially. Whereas, he wanted to get some defence equipment and couldn''t find an umon quality thing. He thought maybe he could save this opportunity and get somethingter. But he was told he had to get something right then and there or his winnings will get revoked. In the end, he was forced to get an essory instead. __ Item: Grim Reaper''s Ne Type: essory/ Ne > Defence: Boost undead stats by 20% Stats bonus: >> Armour: +10% in presence of an Undead (increases with user''s level or the number of undead creatures around). >> Boosts the effect of curses cast by the user by 50%. Rarity: Rare Description: A ne said to have been retrieved from the Archlich, the second floor boss of the ''Dungeon of death''. It is said to have some hidden bonuses and abilities that none of its previous owners had been able to discover. This Ne can only be equipped by a Vampire or an Undead. The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects. Effect(s): > Protects the wielder from curses by absorbing them and turning them into mana. > The ne senses the presence of familiar skill. The user has been granted a Sync Skill: [Dance of the dead]. When [Corpse Parade] ability is activated, the user will be awarded some stat boosts depending on the type of Undead resurrected. > Grants the user the active skill: [Locked] . > Grants the user the active skill: [Locked] . __ ''At least I learnt something new today.'' Ashton thought as the image of ''Be'' crossed his mind. Back when Ashton saw ''Be'', even though he couldn''t see her face, he had a feeling he had seen her before. That suspicion was easily confirmed when he used Detection to peek into the girl''s stat. He had hoped that he would get to know something he could use to take ''Be'' down. However, he had never thought to discover that Be was Anna swan. The same girl who stood by him when the Gruntas and other nobles started berating him after the exam. From that moment on, she had piqued his interest a bit. Ashton could see a nobleing there to bet on fights and buy stuff, but he could have imagined someone of noble birth fighting in a ce like that. Either way, since it had nothing to do with him, he didn''t care about it. Also, it wasn''t like he could just go up to her and ask her about it. Anna clearly wanted to keep it a secret and thus went to the length of colouring her hair and everything. So Ashton decided it was better to stay silent about it. For now. A few minutester, Ashton had his hands on the goods he wanted and Rose had hers on the money. But she wasn''t as heartless as Ashton thought she would be. After all, she gave him another 10k blue units from her winnings. Ashton was calling it her winnings because he didn''t ce any bets on himself. What money Rose used to bet on him was hers and hers alone. The only thing Ashton was entitled to, was the ne he got and nothing else. The money Rose was about to share belonged to her alone. "Thanks for this," Ashton mumbled while Rose transferred the money to him, "I wholeheartedly believed you were going to take off with the money." "Yeah, well, I might be a bitch. But even I know what''s right and what''s not." Rose smiled, but this time her smile felt like it was genuine, "Either way, I need to keep my fighter happy, don''t I?" "This was a one-time thing." Ashton immediately retorted, "Don''t think I''m going to fight here regrly." "What? I thought you liked the experience! On top of getting name and fame, you also get high-quality gear and good money. What else do you want?" "Yeah yeah, it''s all good. But there''s just this one thing that bothers me... it''s ILLEGAL! If anyone from the academy got a whiff of the situation, I''ll be kicked out of there on the damn spot. That''s something no amount of money can make me do." "The mask ain''t good enough to hide your face?" "To be honest, it isn''t. At first, I thought it would be a great idea. But when that Be girl kicked me in the face, the darn thing almost fell off." Rose got silent all of a sudden, or in other words, she was thinking something. It was true that the mask could hide his face, but if it ever fell off, things would get troublesome. Both for him and... for her. "I''ll figure something out. Till then you don''t need to fight there." Rose confidently replied. Ashton was surprised she actually listened to him for once and did not offer him more money to continue. Well, even if she had offered him more money, he would have declined. No amount of money was more important than his revenge, and to get that revenge, he needed to be a good boy in front of the mistress. He needed to learn as much as he could and try to earn the mistress''s trust before stabbing her in the back with the sharpest dagger. "d we coulde to an agreement. And on that note, we should part ways here. I don''t think the werewolves would like to meet you just yet even if you have your werewolf genes active." "Oh, I get it. You don''t wanna introduce your girlfriend to your mommy. Typical yboy stuff. Huh!" Rose threw a bit of drama and stormed off. Anyone who would have seen it happening would have thought Ashton to be a real jerk for sending his ''girlfriend'' away like that. In fact, he could already feel their judging eyes on him. ''That bitch...'' Ashton ignored everyone and walked back into his room through the window. However, as he did he realised he wasn''t the only one there. "Where have you been?" The mistress''s scary voice echoed behind him. ''Oh.... shit.'' Chapter 64 - Blood Moon "I think I asked you something." The mistress continued. Ashton slowly turned around to see her sitting there while Disha stood behind her like a guard. sitting next to the mistress, there was a fairlyrge box. Ashton momentarily wondered what could be inside the box. But right now, that wasn''t important. He needed to think of a way to get out of the situation he was in. If not, well, then he was screwed pretty bad. ''Why the heck is she even concerned about me?'' Ashton thought. He had been hoping his absence would not get noticed because of how her mood had been before. But it appeared that she had already gotten over whatever the problem she was facing back then. As a result, now her focus was entirely on him and his absence. "I... went out for a walk."Ashton hastily replied with whatever came to his mind first. "You went for a walk... through the window?" The mistress shook her head, "What kind of fool do you take me for? Did you forget, I know everything about you? It is unlike you to do something like ''going on a walk'' out of the blue. That too, without asking for my permission or telling anyone else." "It''s something I''ve picked up recently." "You''re walking on thin ice now, Ashton. I''ll suggest you stop lying and give me the truth. Where have you been to? And how long? Think and answer carefully." The following moment she got up and threateningly took a step towards him. Her eyes looked as if she was trying to make a hole in his head. Ashton thought he had learned to control himself around her, but right now, just being around her was making him sweat. It wasn''t happening because he had gotten weak. But as the mistress was not holding back against him anymore. It was only when she revealed her hidden strength, did Ashton started to worry about himself. He knew very well what she was trying to do... assert dominance. That was the mistress''s way of making someone ''talk''. She didn''t utter anything else, but Ashton knew... he had toe up with a believable lie. Even if it was absurd. "I was out with a girl." "You... were out with a girl?" Out of all the things, Disha and the Mistress had thought Ashton would say, this was by far the most unexpected one. Ashton, out with a girl? Impossible. But considering the way he was acting, it did seem like that was the case. After all, it would have been the boys first date. Maybe that was the reason he didn''t want anyone to know where he had been, because, well, maybe he did not know how to tell them. "Who is she?" The mistress asked him, judging by her muffled voice, it was clear that she was trying really hard to not let her emotions get the better part of her conscience. She had been trying time after time to make the boy fall for her and this mystery girl, whoever she was, just met and she swept him off his feet? In her eyes, Ashton was her precious pawn and he only belonged to her and her alone. No one else, male or female could take him away... at least until her n waspleted. On top of all that, Ashton getting a girl on the first day there was still not believable. Or more like, the mistress wasn''t ready to believe it, even though she had no reason not to. "She''s someone I saved during the exam. She said she wanted to take me out as a way to thank me for doing so." Ashton was lying through the skin between his teeth now, "I wanted to tell the mistress about it and ask for permission." He continued, "But when I saw how tense you were, I thought it would be better to leave without asking for permission as to not trouble you even more. I''d rather take the punishment than upset you in any way, mistress. I apologise for getting you all riled up." Ashton could see his golden tongue was doing his job. The mistress''s expression changed drastically and it appeared she had calmed down because she went back to sit on the bed. In the meantime, Ashton was still bowing before her. "It''s fine. You don''t need to apologise. But make sure you don''t leave without taking my permission." The mistress dismissively waved her hand, "Oh, and Disha informed me you were looking for some gears. So I have prepared something for you." She threw the heavy-looking wooden box at him, "I hope you''ll find it to your liking." "Thank you." Ashton had a surprised look on his face, but deep down, he wasughing like a maniac. Today was indeed his lucky day. How could it not be his lucky day when he got all these gears and money for... well, free? "One more thing." The mistress interrupted him before he could open the package, "Don''t go out tonight. It''s not a safe night for werewolves." "Full moon?" "Much worse." Disha shook her head, "Tonight is the night of Blood moon. A rare asion that happens once every six months. It empowers vampires but severely causes problems to our kind." it was the first time Ashton had heard about this blood moon thingy. A night that empowers the vampires why weaken the werewolves? It was interesting and he wanted to know more... you know for research purposes. "When werewolvese in contact with the red light of the moon on the night of blood moon," The mistress took over the exnation, "The werewolves lose their reasoning and rationality and give in to their primal bloodlust and let''s be honest. There''s only one way to subdue someone like that." "Tiring them out," Ashton mumbled. "Exactly. And how are we supposed to tire someone out without going outside and fighting them? The answer? We can''t without risking the rest of the werewolves. So... close your windows and do not go outside in any case." After saying so, the Mistress got up and left along with Disha. Only to return a momentter to give him another piece of advice. "Also, about this girl of yours. I don''t mind her dating you. You can do what you want, but if you ever stray away from the path I chose for you... she will have to go." The mistress threatened, "So, focus on your task, rather than on girls." ''Says the one who never gave up trying to seduce me.'' Chapter 65 - Its Time (1) Ashton wasn''t sure whether the mistress was pissed off or something, but she took it upon herself to make the rest of Ashton''s days hellish. From the moment he woke up, till the moment his feet gave out, all he did was train, train and train. But that wasn''t all. As they did not have a simtor to use in his training, the mistress volunteered herself to be his opponent. She could have let Disha or one of the other bodyguards fight him. But nope. She wanted to do it by herself as she did not want him to get ''injured''. ''I seriously want to know what her definition of getting injured is!'' Ashton cursed under his breath. Every day, a new part of his body was broken and although he did not feel much pain, the regr pain of breaking his bones was taking a bit of toll on him. At first, since his pain tolerance was going up, he was fine with it. But when it started happening every day, things took a turn for the worse. It almost felt as if the mistress was enjoying doing so... like it was her way of punishing him. It was at that moment Ashton started to fight back seriously. He had had enough. But no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible tond a single hit on the mistress. A thing which surprised no one. The mistress was one of the strongest werewolves in the Lycanian kingdom. How could a kid defeat her, when even the King''s strongest warriors couldn''t? Right now, the mistress had wrapped herself around him. No matter how hard Ashton tried, he could not get out of her grasp. The mistress was all smiles as Ashton started squirming around. Her sadistic smile sent shivers down the spines of everyone who was witnessing the fight. Thankfully, it was theirst day there. So this was going to be thest time any of them would have to witness such a thing. The mistress finally let Ashton go as he was on the verge of copsing, But not before she stepped on and snapped a few of his fingers. Blood gushed out of the broken fingers which had spread like petals of a flower. The mistress nodded towards Disha who immediately rushed towards Ashton and expertly healed his wounds. But despite being a top-ss healer, she could only heal his physical wounds. Not the mental wounds left in his head. ''Not yet... not yet... not yet...'' Ashton kept repeating in his head over and over again. All this... training made him hate the mistress even more. But rather than acting on his hatred, he decided to hold on to it. Soon he will have his revenge on her... soon. Till then, he would take all the anger, humiliation and pain he had suffered through her hands and store them in his heart. When the time was right, he would make the bitch pay for everything she had ever done. "You good?" Disha tenderly inquired. Ashton nodded and got back to his feet. Disha was probably the only one under the mistressmand who somewhat cared about his well-being. But then again it could also be one of the mistress''s ploys to cultivate a friendship between them so she could use Disha when the right time came. This thought didn''t even cross his mind. Rose was the one to suggest that. In thest 6 days, Ashton had been going out to hunt regrly with her. Since Rose was a hybrid, she was well aware of the struggles of levelling up different genes simultaneously and wanted to help him. But the help came at a cost. Ashton would have to promise to participate at least once or twice a month in the underground fights. Not right then, but when she had figured out a way for him to conceal his identity. Till then, he was under her debt. "I think that''s enough for now." The mistress signalled Disha to step back. Ashton was still injured. Disha could see that clearly, but when the mistress told her to step back, she did so without any question. At that moment, Ashton realised one thing... All of them were mere puppets to the mistress. As long as they served their purpose, they were kept around, and if they couldn''t then... well, they were discarded faster than the mistress was discarded by her father. Ashton did not want to be of any use to her. But he also knew if he wanted to take his revenge he would have to get closer to her first. One way to do that would be to prove to her that he was worthy of her trust bypleting the tasks she had been ''cultivating'' him for. ''Till then... keep it all to yourself.'' "Ashton, I hope you don''t hate me more for what I have put you through these few days." Suddenly the sadistic look she had was reced by concern, "But I had to make you understand that you are still filth. You might be able to beat a bunch of kids but if you want to be truly useful to me, you will have to get much stronger." It took every ounce of self-control Ashton could find within his broken body to notugh at her face. He was a kid, how the fck could she believe he would be able to defeat someone not only older than him but much stronger as well? "The academy might look like it would take care of its students. But frankly, none of them, the professors, staff and even the director give two fcks about all of the students." The mistress sat down next to him, "They only care about those who are strong and turn a blind eye towards everything they do. So you have to be one of them." She continued, "I''m not asking you to be an S ranked student. But at least get to A or B if you want to live your academic life a bit... peacefully. Otherwise... your life there would be made hell. Like mine was." "Wait what?" Ashton blurted out, "Howe you''re so strong now?" Just the thought of someone as strong as the mistress herself, being weak was absurd. "Sounds unbelievable, right?" The mistress smiled wanly, "That''s the power of evolution. It can turn the weakest into the strongest and the other way around. Within a span of a couple of weeks, my ranking jumped from C to S in the academy. But I had gotten lucky thanks to an early evolution. It might not be so in your case so... focus on getting stronger now. Is that clear?" "Yes... mistress.." Ashton mumbled. Chapter 66 - Its Time (2) "Ashton, you good?" Disha asked him as they once again walked into the academy. "Yeah. I''m good." Ashton replied absentmindedly. Ashton could not sleep the entire night because of what the mistress told him. He was nning to hold himself back during thepetition to get rid of the ''ves'' the mistress had so graciously given him. But now it seemed like a bad idea. ''If I were to rank low, I would have been allotted one of the shared quarters. Thus the possibility of having the ves around me all the time would be nullified as that isn''t allowed.'' Ashton sighed, ''as a result, it would have helped me tremendously to go out in the dark and level up as an undead and a vampire.'' ''But on the other hand... doing something like that would print a target on my back. The bastard nobles would relentlessly harass me and I would not be able to fight back in the daylight. If I did, the professors would surely cause more issues for me. Fck! No favouritism, my ass.'' No matter what path Ashton chose he will lose something. But in the end, he would have to choose one of the two. Either stay free from conflict during the day or tolerate all the crap nobles will put him through and hunt during the night. Tolerating those bastards was not a problem. He had been doing so ever since he was born. But with the power he had now, he would find it difficult to not fight back. That was the thing he was more concerned about. As long as he didn''t fight back, all he would have to do was to get used to the nobles crapping on him all the time. But the moment he fought back while staying in the weak rank... he would have to worry about the professors as well. Ashton hadn''t been aware of it, but ording to the Mistress and Disha who both attended the academy, the professors always favoured the higher ranking student. They could beat the shit out of a low ranked student and get away with it. But if a low ranker did the same to a high ranker, their life would be made hell. The corrupt professors would make sure of it. The mistress had experienced it first hand when she decided to stand up to the bullying of her half-sister, who also happened to be the King''s legitimate daughter. n the end, her half-sister, Keshika, was beaten up so badly by the mistress that she had to be taken to the Capital for treatment. After that, The mistress was forced to do horrible things for the professors, at least ording to her. Things had gotten so bad, at one point she even tried to herself. But that all changed once she evolved from being an F-grade being to an E-grade. But her genes weren''t the only thing that evolved. Her rank in the school did as well. Only then was she even acknowledged by her peers and professors. But she decided to make them pay... subtly. However, her happiness was soon destroyed when she was called in for a hearing to address her attack on Keshika. As a punishment for assaulting King''s daughter, she got banned from ever entering the city of Contingent without the king''s permission. The only plus side was that she was allowed to continue her education and it was thanks to the allies she made during that time, she turned out to be as strong as she was now. Some even argued she was strong enough to overrule the king''smands anytime she pleased. Ashton tried to know a bit more about her past. Hoping he could find something or someone from her past life that could help him with his revenge. But his attempts were quickly shot down by both the mistress and Disha. "Some things are better left buried in the past." That''s what they told him. So, with no other choice, Ashton decided to focus on what he had to. ''I can think of some ways to get rid of two humans easily... but I won''t be able to do the same with the nobles or the professors.'' Ashton finally decided what he had to do, ''If worsees to worst, I will just have to kill both of them. Even though that''s not something I want to do, I can''t let anyone stand between me and my revenge.'' Ashton had lived as a human for 99% of his life, so it was obvious he didn''t want any of them to suffer. But since it was clear that the ves were loyal to the mistress, Ashton had no choice but to look at them as potential obstacles in his path. But then, on the other hand, his life in the academy was already going to be hellish because he was a ''mutt''. So matter what his rank was, he would be looked down upon. The only question was, how much did he want to be looked down on? ''Nah... having a higher rank would deter those bastardly nobles from doing anything. Well, it looks like I''m aiming for the top then.'' "Look who it is!" Ashton heard a familiar annoying voice and sighed heavily. He already had too much on his te and did not want to deal with someone like ''him'' right now. But his luck was already bad enough. it was Lucas with his gang of royal knights. Well, he wasn''t the only noble with knights and attendants. All of them had a few men and women around them. As far as he could see, Ashton was the only one there with a single attendant. "Step aside, Lucas," Ashton said in a cold tone, "that is if you don''t want to piss your pants again." "How dare you talk to our master like that, you filthy mutt-" One of the blue-haired knights standing behind him unsheathed his sword and was about to take a swing at him when someone parried the blow and kicked the knight away. "I never knew the knights from the Wring family had a fuse shorter than their dicks." An empowering voice echoed throughout the academy za, "Now get back before I chop them off entirely." Everyone in the za had their eyes on them. It wasn''t every day they get to see the knight whose skills even the master swordsmen of the academy acknowledged. "Donovan..." The blue-haired knight gritted his teeth but otherwise didn''t do a thing. Even with all of the knights there, it would be difficult to deal with him. After all, even the king of Lycania had praised the Bismarkian knight for his talent and valour a week ago. It was all over the news. "I could have taken care of him by myself." Ashton looked at the one whom he probably hated even more than the mistress, "What are you even doing here?" "Fulfilling my orders." Donovan replied and sheathed his sword, "The mistress wanted me to keep an eye on you till you got your rank. So here I am. Come on, let''s get going before any more idiots trouble us." "Alright..." Ashton mumbled and kept walking to get himself registered.. But with Donovan there, he couldn''t help but wonder what the heck was he and the mistress nning to do now. Chapter 67 - Problems Everywhere (1) Donovan''s sudden appearance wasn''t the only problem Ashton had to think about. Unlike the rest of his genes that depended on him feeding on flesh and blood to level up, the werewolf genes levelled up by literally being in a battle. He didn''t need to kill someone to gain experience as a werewolf. He got experience by getting hit, dodging attacks and dealing damage. As a result, he was already on the verge of levelling up again. Thanks to the reckless beatings the mistress gave to him. But that wasn''t the problem. The problem came in the form of maintaining harmony between his genes. Lucifer had been quite clear in his instructions. All of the genes had to be within the 5 level range of each other. If not, then the harmony between the genes would get destroyed and as a result, one gene might overpower the others. In case of such an event, not only his secret will be out for everyone to see, he might even lose control of himself altogether. And right now... Ashton was stuck at a dead end. He only needed 2% exp to get to level 11 as a werewolf. However, his undead genes were still stuck at level 5... Which meant, if he levelled up before consuming the flesh of a fresh, preferably alive, target... he might lose everything he had worked for. ''I need to find a way out of this mess.'' Ashton thought. The registration was alreadypleted. Now he only needed to wait while the exam started. Thanks to that, he had enough time toe up with a n. Also, the fact that he had to level up as an undead before, meant that he had to be sneaky about it. He could not afford to be discovered and get attacked before having someone''s flesh. If that happened... his werewolf genes might get triggered and level up. There was a way to ensure that didn''t happen though. He could simply deactivate the werewolf genes, that way he would not need to worry about levelling up as a werewolf. Easy right? Wrong! The watches they had been provided with had an inbuilt heart rate monitor. It was a precaution so that the medical personnel could monitor the examinees and save them if need be. But this precaution was the thing stopping Ashton from doing something reckless. Having a heart rate monitor on him meant, the moment he deactivated the werewolf genes, the medical personnel would be informed that his heart was no longer beating. As the vampire and undead genes did not require him to have a beating heart. Then the shit show will start. It was for the same reason he could not throw away the watch and do what he needed to before reactivating the genes. Not to mention that activating or deactivating the genes would alter his appearance as well. Which was yet another great way to give his secret away for fun. But if he activated the undead genes while the werewolf genes were active, his heartbeat might get a bit slow but not enough to make the medics give any attention to him. So, Ashton decided to go for it and do whatever he needed to... even if it meant he would have to kill a noble. It wouldn''t matter as long as he could make it seem like an ident. "Don''t worry about the nobles. They won''t dare to do something odd knowing that Sir Donovan is here." Disha reassured him. As Ashton''s face was down, she assumed it was because of what happened earlier. In her eyes, even though he was strong, he was still a kid. So she thought that he was nervous because of thinking about what could happen inside the arena. Ashton gave her a smile before turning to his thoughts again, ''Who the hell is scared of those scrawny ass bastards. I''m scared about what I might end up doing to them if I levelled up.'' "She is right. Being around me is like being around the mistress herself." Donovan confidently chimed in. ''Why because you''re both pieces of shit?'' Ashton had an urge to say it out loud but chose otherwise. Ashton did not know why the hell was he being so bossy. He was strong, no doubt, but Donovan might as well be overestimating himself. Or maybe in their absence, something happened to him. The chance of thetter scenario happening was no less than Ashton bing an S ranked student of the academy. ''Maybe I should ask him about it?'' But before Ashton could act on his thoughts, the director walked in front of the ground and immediately everyone''s attention was on her. "It''s such a pleasure to see so many enthusiasts once again. This year all of you have achieved something that more than 1500 people couldn''t. That is to be a part of the famed Werewolf academy of battle arts and magic." The Director weed them all with open arms and the crowd started pping and cheering. She gestured everyone to calm down and continued. "But before you officially be a part of the academy, there''s one final test you need to go through. The ranking test. Just like the previous round, this round too will be a battle royale survival round... with some changes." A momentter the director started exining the changes in the rules. "You will not find any weapons or gears scattered around the map. Instead, you will have to use the weapons and gears you found in the previous round. Also... we won''t be surveying anything, unlike thest round. Here at the academy, we know each individual have some talents that they won''t like to be broadcasted outside." "Thus in order to find the true strength of the students, the battle zone had been cked out. Which means anything can go inside. However, you can still be tracked using your watches so don''t do anything that would make me expel your sorry buttocks. That''s all. Have fun kids!" The director disappeared as quickly as she had appeared and as she did, a weird smile appeared on the faces of the noble kids. Thanks to the Director''s ckout rule, they would be able to do as they pleased without worrying about the consequences. Their goal was to force all of those mutts and half-blood to thest ces. However, none of them had a smile as big as Lucas. He had made up his mind to make that filthy mutt pay for what he said earlier. "This is bad... will you be okay?" Disha asked Ashton. "Oh, I will be," Ashton said his farewells and went inside the arena with a smile. However, as soon as he was gone, the looks long Disha''s and Donovan''s faces changed. "You think he knows?" Donovan inquired. "Haha, nope. That fool doesn''t have a fcking clue. Neither does the mistress." Disha threw a fit ofughter. "That''s good then. Today, Ashton Fenrir dies... you people, make sure of it or else-" "You don''t need to warn us, Sir Donovan. We hate him just as much as you do." The Gruntas who had been standing behind them, mumbled together, "Also, the ''Conundrum'' has already made us aware of their expectations. All of the nobles under our authority will make sure he dies inside." Donovan''s sudden appearance and his actions of defending Ashton were no coincidence. Nor was he there under the mistress''smand. He was there to make sure... Ashton died and after that, he could take over Maddencreek and make the mistress his bitch. Which, with the help of the nobles and the ''Conundrum'' had gotten a bit easier. Chapter 68 - Problems Everywhere (2) Conundrum... an organisation no one with sane minds would even think about going against. And usually, no one did so either. They were the ones to choose their targets and eliminate them. To them, it didn''t matter who they had to put an end to. It could be a regional ruler or a peasant, so literally, anyone as long as they were deemed as a danger to the throne. Once the target had been marked, they would be taken care of... silently. Most people thought their existence was just a myth, a hoax, a rumour. No one had ever seen them, so why should they believe in them? But the important thing was... just because they did not believe in them, didn''t mean they didn''t exist. Well, anyway, it was in their interest that they weren''t known among the general populous. But who were these people? How much authority did they possess? Well, no one had the answer to any of that. The organisation was so secret, even the members of the Conundrum did not know the identity of each other. Only the one rising above them all was aware of every member of the conundrum. This person simply went with the name, "The Head", while its members were known as ''fingers''. Their sole purpose was to eliminate anyone or anything that could threaten the safety of their kingdom. They had been doing this ever since the kingdom was built on the corpses of innumerable humans and werewolves alike. Also known as the shadow ruler, ''The Head'' was responsible for inducting new members into their cult and showing them the ropes. This time... they had decided to induct the closest person to the one they had deemed as a threat... The Bismarckian mistress. Unlike what the king said to fool himself and the ministers around him, the Head had no doubts that their king had a weakness or his daughter. That was the only possible reason, the king did not punish her severely or end her altogether despite getting numerous chances to do so. As a result, the political and battle strength of the mistress had grown so much she could easily rival any noble in the empire... even the king himself. All of it was because the weak king allowed her to roam free and do as she pleased. The King could have fooled everyone else, but not someone like the Head. Since the king was not prepared o handle the mess, The Head decided it was time for the Conundrum to step in and handle everything by themselves. As a result, a week ago, they invited Donovan, the mistress''s closest aide to try and make him defect to their side. The head knew how loyal he was to the mistress and thus was surprised when Donovan agreed to their proposal of getting ''rid'' of the mistress. But on his terms. "I will deal with her. I won''t kill her, but I''ll make sure she doesn''t cause any problem to the kingdom anymore." Those were his exact words. However, his readiness to join forces with them left a bad taste in their mouths. Even if the mistress and Donovan had a fallout, what Donovan was doing made little to no sense to them. But considering that the Mistress would never even think that Donovan would betray her, it was the right choice to let Donovan by their side... for now. After giving promising the strength and support from their side, Donovan left to enact the first phase of his n. The n to finally get rid of the bastard who had been responsible for all of it... a n to kill, Ashton. At first, Donovan thought it would be difficult to get him killed during the examination, which also happened to be the best time to do so. Every couple of years, someone always died during those weird tests. But everyone seemed to overlook that fact because most of the time, only halfbreed and mutts were the ones to die. People about whom no one gave a shit about anyways. Killing Ashton inside would have been difficult because... well, Donovan had no connection switch the other noble families or their wards. However, the Conundrum easily solved that issue, and to his surprise, Donovan realised Ashton was already on the hit list of several noble families. Especially the Gruntas and the Wrings. As a result, Donovan did not have to put any effort into uniting the families toplete one task. To get rid of Ashton. But his n would not have been sessful if the Mistress stayed in Contingent. He had to get her out of there first and foremost. That''s where Disha became a member of his n. Despite how much Disha was loyal to the Mistress, she was and always had been loyal to Donovan more. Why? Because she had feelings for him. Feelings that Donovan never acknowledged before. It was for that reason why at first Disha was hostile to Ashton but then as per the mistress''s order and considering their upbringing, she decided to get close to Ashton. But even then, the moments she had spent with Ashton were nothing more than her pretending to be happy around him... As her hatred for what Ashton had done to Donovan were still on her mind. Since Donovan was aware of the feelings Disha had for him, he decided to use them to his advantage. He promised to ept her as her ''Luna'', the primary mate if she did something for him. Disha jumped at the opportunity. She had been waiting for that moment all her life and readily agreed to do anything as long as she could have Donovan ept her. So by using Disha, Donovan let the Mistress know that he was leaving her as someone who got defeated by a kid, he did not feel like he was someone worthy enough to stay by her side. That was the reason why the mistress had been upset the day Ashton asked her for some gear. It was all, Donovan''s ploy to throw the mistress off bnce and remove her focus from Ashton. Leaving him alone with Disha. The n worked as the mistress left Contingent and back to Maddencreek, much earlier than she had nned to talk to Donovan and knock some sense into him. However, Donovan wasn''t in Maddencreek at all. He had been in Contingent for a couple of days now. nning and plotting for every single scenario to end Ashton during the exam. Once that was don''t, in a couple of days, he would overthrow the mistress with the help of the Conundrum and make her realise the weight of her choices. That way, everyone will get their win. The nobles would get rid of Ashton, Donovan would get rid of the mistress, and the Conundrum will have their threat eliminated. But first, they needed to get rid of Ashton. "Don''t screw it up. There''s more at stake here than your childish squabbles." Donovan reminded the Grunta twins before they disappeared into the arena. "They will do our job. You should just focus on doing yours." Their knight, Sir Alexander Jaeger, retorted, "Don''t think just because the conundrum trusts you, we will as well." It was Disha''s first time seeing the famed knight and to be honest, his built even put Donovan to shame. She even wondered how the hell did someone of his physique be a knight? He would have been better off as a tank or brawler. Not only he was a literal 6''9" giant, but the swords strapped onto his back were also just as huge. His shoulder-length brown wavy hair matched with his copper-alloy armour. If someone saw them, they would think that both Donovan and Alexander were born to oppose each other. "As suspicious as ever, Alexander." Donovan smirked, "Didn''t I tell you before... to shut your trap? I am the in-charge of this operation. So if I were in your shoes, I''ll be really careful about that I said." Rather than replying to him, Alexander just smirked and left along with the rest of the knights. Even though it pissed Donovan, he decided to remain silent. There was a saying among the knights, ''The knight who used his mouth to talk, was the weakest of them all.'' It essentially meant, as a knight, they should use their des to do that talking for them. Only the weak used words, the ones who were truly strong only believed in proving themselves using the might of their de. What Alexander did there, was the prime example of that saying. Donovan knew that because they had trained under the same de master who only ever taught the two of them. One could even say that they were like two flowers of the same nt who cultivated their strength from the same source. That was until Alex betrayed him and their master. ''Smile all you want Alex,'' Donovan cursed under his breath, ''I''ll get rid of you soon.... very soon.'' Chapter 69 - Im Weak. Just Kidding! (1) ''I knew these bastards would pull something like this...'' Ashton smiled as he entered the arena, ''I wonder whether the Director decided on the ''ckout'' protocol so I could do what I want without worrying about others outside.'' Ashton wasn''t surprised, to say the least. He had more or less expected these fools to do something like this. The moment he got inside, he was immediately cornered by the around 15 nobles. Obviously, most of them were the same people who had tried to fight him a week ago. "Looks like you ran out of luck, mutt." As usual, Lucas was the first one to bark, "You''re going to die today. But before that, we''ll make you beg for your life!" "Like you were begging for yours, when I found you in the previous round?" Ashton smirked as Lucas''s face turned bright red with rage, "Either way, you retards think you can kill me? Really?" "Don''t worry about what we can and can''t do." Nick said in his emotionless voice before cracking his knuckles, "But what youshould know is that, I''ll be collecting my first ce rewards from you too." "You mean these?" Suddenly Ashton was covered in ck armour from the head to the toe along with the bone whip in his hand. But there was something else... he should not have had all that armour! The director said they would have to use the gears they had obtained in thest round. Then how the heck was the bastard mutt using an armour that was clearly not a part of the prize pool? ''Phew... it was a risky move but it worked!'' While everyone was busy strategising about what to do next, Ashton had his undivided attention on what the director was saying. Although she said that they''ll be using the gears and stuff they obtained in thest round, she never explicitly said they won''t be able to use the things they brought with them. That''s why Ashton remained silent while all those idiotic nobles were taking everything out of their inventory. He was taking a risk... and if it failed, he might as well get paralysed from the shock of trying to ess his inventory. But his bold move paid off. Not only was he stronger than the rest in terms of levels, but also in terms of equipment. ''As much as I hate to admit it... the mistress''s armour is quite good.'' Ashton thought to himself. The box that the mistress gave him on the night he got back after fighting with ''Be'', carried a full-body armour. An armour that went along with Nemean hide, that Ashton already had in his possession. __ Item: Widower''s Wrath Type: Armour > Defence: 150-183 HP per strike Stats bonus: >> Armour: +15% while equipped for use (increases with user''s level). >> Reduces 2x damage taken from Night Creatures. >> Enhances armour by 20% when fighting against Werewolves and Vampires >> Reduces 0.6x damage against Weapon attacks. Rarity: Rare Description: