Second World

Lutherʼs eyes were still glowing.

”Donʼt look! You will get mesmerized!” Peniel warned.

Jack had paid attention when Heathcliffe turned stiff by Lutherʼs stare, so he was already aware. Luckily, he had mana sense ability, he didnʼt need to directly look at the attacks to dodge them. Still, without Heathcliffeʼs interference, Jack could only dodge without fighting back. After becoming a Rare Elite, Lutherʼs strength and speed were indeed troublesome.

All of a sudden, Luther vanished. Jack looked at the empty air in front of him. Luther did not only turn invisible. If he did, Jack could still sense his mana. His mana had also disappeared as if the newborn vampire had suddenly gone from this room.

But it was only an instant before Jack felt Lutherʼs mana again, directly behind him. He wanted to move away but too late! He felt a sharp pain in his neck. Luther had sunk his fangs from behind. Jack felt his life draining and weakness overcame him. Jack heard a notification that he had been afflicted by Paralyze.

Jackʼs HP decrease while Lutherʼs HP increased. The vampire continued to suck the life out of Jack. Peniel used Fast Heal on Jack, bringing Jackʼs HP back up and removing the Paralyze effect. Jack quickly cast Ice Ring once he could move.

A ring of ice exploded out and interrupted Lutherʼs feeding. Jack immediately used Flash Step without hesitation. But the skill didnʼt bring him far enough, he felt an incoming attack and shifted his magic staff with Mana Shield active to his back. He felt the hard impact as chaos damage depleted his HP again. The impact was hard enough to send him flying.

Peniel used Group Fast Heal, bringing Jack and Heathcliffeʼs HP up again. This skill also relieved Heathcliffe of the hypnotic state. This companion hurriedly ran back to engage the vampire, but one stare from Luther caused Heathcliffe to be mesmerized again.

”Why did you stare at him again?!” Peniel scolded.

Luther was already in front of Jack. When he was about to claw using his Demon Hand, His body jerked as damage number appeared. Sinful suddenly appeared from Lutherʼs back, he had used Phase Strike to backstab the vampire.

”Peniel, Healing Field!” Jack shouted.

The skill was laid. The area affected almost covered the entire room, so Jack, Heathcliffe, and Sinful were within. Heathcliffe was again freed from the hypnotizing effect. As long as they were within Healing Fieldʼs area, they were immune to all negative effects.

Jack threw a bottle of Holy Water at Luther. Since Vampire was considered undead, Luther received Weakened effect. His HP which was still slowly regenerating after sucking Jackʼs blood had now stopped increasing.

With their adversary weakened and with no fear of getting mesmerized due to the Healing Field, the three attacked with abandon. Jack cast some magic spells before going back to using two swords and utilizing his sword art in conjunction with his two aides.

Although Luther had received a boost, his power was not originally his so he could not fully utilize it. His three opponents were also not weak. He was overwhelmed and his HP kept on dropping.

Luther tried using his vanishing move again to escape when his HP was critical, but Jack had seen this move before so he was not as flustered. He waited for Luther to appear again and immediately sent Cross Slash in that direction. The move finally devoured Lutherʼs last thread of life. Jack tried to summon runestone of luck again, but when nothing came out, he remembered that runestone had a one-hour cooldown.

Lutherʼs body fell to the floor, near where the woman he had drained was lying.

Jack waited for a while, afraid that the vampire had another enchantment in place. Sinful wanted to say something but Jack gave him a sign to wait. Luther did not rise even after some time had passed, Jack could finally relax.

He turned to Sinful. ”Thanks for the assist! You could have left,” he said.

”Do you think Iʼm the kind of man that leaves a friend behind?” Sinful asked with a grin. ”But we shouldnʼt stay here, someone will notice that broken windows sooner or later. Soldiers will come to investigate. Who is he, by the way?”

”My companion,” Jack said. Then to Heathcliffe, he said, ”Thank you. I will call you again if I need help.”

”Anytime,” Heathcliffe said with a bow.

Jack then unsummoned him.

”You even have a companion token. Color me impressed,” Sinful commented.

”So, you know about companion token?”

”Yeah, saw someone use it before. Can we leave now?”

”We still need to find that brooch.”

”I got it,” Sinful said as he showed something in his hand. It was a brooch that looked exactly like the drawing Yilus showed them.

”Great! One other thing. We need to loot as many things from this house as possible.”

”What for?” Sinful asked.

”A nobleʼs son has been killed. If they only found out the brooch is missing, who do you think is the first person they will suspect? If they get to Yilus, I do not doubt the merchant will give up our identities to save his hide. We have to loot this place to make it look like it is done by robbers.”

”Hm… you are right. I did see some valuables upstairs, there should be more.”

”Go and take as many as you can. I will take the loots in this room. After you are done, go directly to the house Yilus mentioned. I will free the slave girls and bring them there.”

”Are you sure you want to take the risk?” Sinful asked.

”After what happened, I donʼt think they will be safe if I leave them here,” Jack replied.

”Okay. Letʼs meet up at that house. Be careful, mate!”

”You too.”

After Sinful left, Jack go to where Keiran was lying. There was a large metal key there, the one he saw was used on the heavy door with the stairs going down to the basement. Jack took the key, his monocle picked up another thing near the body beside coins and mana cores. It was a book.

Jack picked it up.

Technique Book: Wind Slash (Super rare Consumable)

Grant the skill: Wind Slash

Restriction: Any Elite class branched from Warrior class

ʼWasnʼt this the technique book I failed to get during the royal auction? How lucky!ʼ Jack said in his mind.

He pocketed the book and went to Lutherʼs body next. Aside from the usual coins and mana cores, there was only a rare-grade medium armor arm piece. Considering this newborn was originally only elite grade, he guessed he couldnʼt expect the loots to be impressive. Jack stored them all in his storage bag.

The equipment on him that was still rare grade were arm-piece and belt. Despite fusing a lot of rare armors from using the Guild Headquarters stock, he not yet had enough for merging them into a super rare grade arm-piece and belt. With the addition of this rare arm armor, he needed another two more. He wondered if he could persuade Haestus to craft for him again.

After done with the bodies, Jack went searching around the rubbles. He had seen at least two orange color items before all hell broke loose. One was the potion that Luther had used to buff himself. There should be another one.

It was not difficult to search because his monocle easily marked valuable ones. He also took the ones marked in green and blue. Mostly had descriptions as junk items, even for the blue-marked ones, but these junk items could be sold at high prices in the market. He was not planning to sell them here though, maybe after he returned to Thereath. Selling them here would easily lead the investigators to him when the noble of this mansion identify the sold items.

Jack finally found the orange-marked item.

Ancient Blood Awakening Potion (Super rare consumable)

Usage on player: Add 15 days to age

Usage on NPC: Draw the hidden potential of blood lineage.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 90 days

Restriction: Vampire race

”Hey! This is the same potion that jerk vampire used,” Jack said. ”It had a different effect on players.”

”Yep. It can make outworlders faster in gaining their race skills,” Peniel said.

”Ah, so pity. This can only be used on the vampire race… Hey, Peniel. Is there also a potion that adds age to the human race?”

”There is, itʼs called Thousand Year Wine. But these age-enhancing items were not easy to find. Iʼm rather surprised to find two just lying here in the room.”

”Hehe. Lucky me for getting one,” Jack said with a grin and stored the potion.

”You can consider it lucky if you can use the potion,” Peniel reminded. Jackʼs grin vanished.

Jack then continued looting as many things as he could from the room, but nothing worth mentioning apart from that Ancient Blood Awakening Potion. He then went out of the room. He looked around and called for the woman he had sent out. She was hiding in another room. She came out after hearing Jackʼs call. She peeked inside the master bedroom and gasped when she saw the destruction and the bodies.

”Come with me,” Jack said as he went to the main hall downstairs. The servants were still in hiding. Jack was thinking Yilusʼ inside man should be at least the head servant to be able to keep the others in line after the commotion he caused.

He used the key on the heavy door, revealing the stairs behind. The basement under the stairs looked dim.. There was not much lighting.

😉