Zane noticed something inside the tubes—a reddish liquid and something solid inside, looking like a human body.
"What are these?" he asked.
"The blood within the coffin needed to be repeatedly changed, so I constantly have to refill it. These tubes hold a mixture of humans and animals, their blood preserved inside their body with the help of the liquid," he explained.
This was a grotesque sight right here, but for some reason, Zane didn’t feel even the slightest bit disgusted.
’Why don’t I feel bad at the fact that she just told me that for a thousand years she had been gathering humans and monsters to give me a steady supply of blood?
Is it because I am no longer human? That would be the only reason why I don’t feel anything about it,’ Zane thought.
"I see, thank you for doing that for all this time," Zane said.
She got flustered the moment he thanked her, looking away in a shy manner. "I was only doing what I was supposed to do, Master," she replied.
"Well, if you had stopped, I would have died," he said and patted her head, stunning her.
’If you hadn’t, I would have probably been brought in here as a normal player. I don’t know if it’s a bad or good thing that I’m now a vampire, but I have to gather information.
If I don’t know what is going on, I might never be able to get back to Earth. That’s my first goal for now—gather information that will help me get back to the real world,’ Zane thought.
"So what do you wish to do now, Master? This place has only existed to keep you while you slept, but now you have woken up," Lucy said.
"Hmmm, let’s go to the surface. I need to learn about the world outside after all," he said.
"Alright, Master," she said. Suddenly pulling a black ring out of nowhere, she handed it to him.
"It will be day soon. This can protect you from the sun for twelve hours after every charge at night. You have to always be with one, Master," she said.
He took the ring from her and slid his finger into it.
[Special Item obtained: Night Ring, rank ###]
"Hmm, its rank is hidden? Why is that?" he wondered. He had noticed that his name was also blurred out, but he figured that his real name was blurred for the same reason that Lucy couldn’t tell him anything about the past.
"Wait a moment, let me do something before we leave," he said.
He opened the system to check the bloodline abilities that he had gained now.
[Blessing of the Night]
[Shadow Merge: Fuse into any shadow and move through it. No mana required]
[Blessing of the Night: All physical stats increase the closer it gets to midnight. When at midnight, all physical stats are doubled. No mana required]
’What the hell are with these broken bloodline abilities? Double stats at just the beginning of the game? This is out of this world—almost unbelievable.’
He decided to go ahead and check the starter pack that he had received.
[You have gotten an item: Drain Claw.]
There was only one item inside. He was a bit sad to see it, but when he read about it, all the sadness faded away.
[Drain Claw, Rank C item: Absorb the blood of enemies to temporarily boost all stats by fifty percent. Use time: 10 minutes. Cooldown time: 20 minutes]
’This is nice,’ he thought. He summoned the claws, and they appeared—a black gauntlet with blood-red claws.
After taking a good look at it, he returned it back into his inventory.
"Alright, Lucy, I’m done. Let’s go," he said. She nodded and led the way. They got to a large stone door. He felt the door was too thick for one person to push.
Rumble, rumble. Lucy started pushing the door with one hand as if it was nothing. When the door was open, she looked at Zane.
"Master, let’s go," she said.
Zane followed her and walked out. There was a stairway that led all the way up. There were no torches, yet he was capable of seeing everything perfectly clear. Probably another perk of being a vampire.
They walked up the stairs. It was a long walk up, taking over five minutes before they made it to the top, and there was a metal door there.
She pushed the door open and walked out. He followed behind her. The cold air of the night touched his skin—it felt refreshing.
He looked around, and all he could see was trees and trees.
"So this is the forest I have been in for a thousand years? How come no one found you?" he asked.
"Some did, but no one who found me was able to go back to tell anyone. I made sure they couldn’t," she said with a smile.
’I don’t want to imagine what she did to them. She screams psycho.’
"Since we are leaving here, what’s the best place to head toward?" he asked.
"If we go north, we will enter the demon region known as the Devil Mountains. But if we go the other way, there is a settlement known as Raven’s City there," she spoke.
’Raven’s City, Devil Mountains... that simply means we are inside the Demon Bear Forest. This is where the Demon Bear King stays,’ Zane realized.
During the earlier times of the game, when players were grinding hard, a demon beast extremely powerful woke from its slumber, and it took many guilds and alliances to take it down. Its reward was given to the person that landed the last blow.
A-rank martial art. Because of that alone, he went on to become one of the major powerhouses of the game.
’I have to stay clear of the bear for now if I don’t want to end up dead,’ Zane thought. He didn’t know exactly where the bear was, but if he was careful, he could surely avoid it.