Chapter 11: What's real and what's not?
Damon sat there for a long moment, unable to make sense of anything. No matter how much he tried to explain all this shit, he simply couldn't understand. How can something that happened inside the game affect real life? How could this soul weapon send him back in time, not to mention attach a part of her to him?
Soul weapon... soul...
Shit. Was having a soul an actual thing? Was all of this magic and vampires an actual thing? Then, all of the demons and the horrendous monsters were also real?
Damon sat in stunned silence, his fingers still curled into the dirt beneath him. Earlier, when his brain tried to come up with theories as to how he had come back in time and how all of this was possible, he had slightly suspected that it might be game related?
But to actually know that this crazy hypothetical assumption might actually be true? Wait a second... Earth Online... It couldn't literally mean Earth Online, right? Was the truth right there in front of everyone, for the whole world to see?
What was going to happen in the future? Was this world going to merge with the real world? Would everyone in the real world also be able to use magic? That would be a good thing except for the insanely powerful beasts and monsters in this world!
If this world actually began interacting with the real world in any way, then there was only a full blown apocalypse waiting for everyone!
Damon felt as if he was going crazy. He was going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, and his thoughts weren't making sense anymore. He sat silently in a stupor when suddenly a loud growl woke him up.
Damon snapped from his trance and rolled away. He only barely managed to dodge as the next instant, a dire wolf barreled straight toward him, claws tearing up the earth, fangs bared and dripping with saliva. It was huge, with shaggy dark fur matted in patches of dried blood. Its eyes glowed faintly green, and it was 100% locked onto him.
"Of course," Damon muttered, pushing himself to his feet, his legs wobbling beneath him. "Why not throw a goddamn elite at me while I'm mentally breaking down?"
The wolf charged at him, and Damon's body reacted instinctively. This was not his first rodeo. He had grinded out beasts like this for hours, days, and months. Even if his stats were low, even if he was freshly awakened and even if he did not have a damned class, the muscle memory from his past life kicked in.
His blood surged, and he could feel the blood energy stirring within him. At a single command, the blood energy flowed to his hands. The wolf lunged at him, and he slashed at it with his bare hands, hands that were now glowing red.
[Ding! You have learned Blood Swipe.]
[Ding! Average Completion]
[Ding! + 2 Skill proficiency]
Damon ignored the bunch of notifications as he proceeded to finish off the wolf. Thanks to the stat difference, it took a couple of minutes, but this was not an impossible fight and he was not a newbie to this game.
By the time the wolf collapsed on the ground, Damon was drenched, half in his own sweat, half in the monster's gore. His arms trembled, breath coming in short gasps, and his newly learned old skill fizzled at his fingertips.
He looked down at the beast's corpse, chest heaving. "First damn day," he muttered. "First day and I've already killed an elite, pissed off a holy order, blown up a cathedral, and apparently broken the world."
[Ding! You have slain a Tier 1 Elite Beast – Dire Wildfang.]
[Ding! You have gained experience points.]
[Ding! You have leveled up.]
[Ding! You have leveled up.]
[Ding! You have leveled up.]
[Ding! You have leveled up.]
[Ding! Lv 1 > Lv 5]
"Four level-ups? Not bad?" Damon was curious to check out the rest of the notifications, but suddenly, he felt a strong feeling well up within him. Bloodlust kicked in, and a dark hunger clawed at the edge of his mind.
His eyes darted to the corpse of the dire wolf. The blood. The scent. It was overwhelming. Vampiric bloodlust. One of the core weaknesses of the race, especially at higher levels. But he was only level 5, so why was it already so strong?
He wasn't even able to think clearly anymore. His body acted on its own, and the next second, he found himself latched onto the wolf's corpse. The only thought in his brain was how bad the blood of a dead beast tasted. He needed them alive.
As if sensing his thoughts, a system prompt flashed in front of him.
[Ding! Bloodline extraction failure. The beast is dead.]
Damon continued to drink every ounce of blood from the beast until he finally drained the whole thing down to the last drop. Only now, he was able to sit back and breathe and think. He wiped his face, and the back of his hand was streaked red.
This bloodlust was going to be a problem. Then he remembered the warning about the unstable bloodline and all the weird and ridiculous system messages.
There was also this new system message about bloodline extraction. What was that? Was that a new skill?
Damon let out a sigh and summoned his status screen. Instead of worrying about things beyond his control, he needed to focus on what he could do right now.
It was time to take a look at everything and carefully analyze what the hell had happened with his awakening and what he had turned into.