Vampire Infection

"Mage Society?" I asked confused, I hadn't expected the Mages to actually have an organised society of their own. Even more unexpected was that their 'Society' was based within the city that treated them as evil criminals it could only be described as the true meaning of hiding in plain sight.

At my question the man nodded, "It's understandable that you don't know of us, many of our people prefer to build their towers far away from the rest of the world. To be honest I'm surprised you know how to speak in Elven, most rogue mages only begin to learn after being inducted into a branch of the society like our Fang City branch."

"Interesting…" I replied, keeping my head down the entire time to stop him from noticing my forehead, the scar where the third eye would be was the easiest way to tell someone was a mage from what I'd gathered. If he noticed that I didn't have a scar or a third eye to begin with there wasn't a way for me to explain it was there?

He didn't seem to mind my efforts to keep my face hidden and continued to walk down the passageway, surprisingly the passage was lit by what looked like light bulbs if it wasn't for them being suspended in mid-air that is.

After a few more minutes of walking in silence we reached a dead end but instead of stopping he walked forward and tapped the wall ahead with his finger. "Here we are!" He said proudly as the wall simply faded into the air as if it hadn't existed in the first place.

'That was?' I was shocked, when he'd tapped the wall his finger had been glowing a light blue similar to what happened when I'd turned that wolf into a shadow. 'Is what I'm using actually magic?' I couldn't help but let the thought cross my mind as I saw it, it looked familiar but I would probably have the chance to confirm it soon.

Unknowingly I'd already stepped forward through the wall whilst I was thinking to be greeted by an overwhelming brightness, 'What the hell?' I thought thinking I was about to die, it matched the sun in intensity and it shone everywhere, even my face under the hood of the cloak was exposed causing me to tremble in fear slightly.

After a few seconds the temporary blindness faded away and my eyes accustomed to the light, what I saw was incredible… but familiar. The entire place resembled a modern day city, with skyscr.a.p.ers and buildings everywhere, if it wasn't for the floating islands and beasts you could've easily mistaken it for any major city on Earth.

"Incredible isn't it? We took the designs for the buildings from the Ancients to make ourselves more in their image after all isn't that the true reason for blinding our third eye and embarking on the path of the Mage?" He said in awe.

"To be… like the Ancients?" I said to myself slowly, I couldn't help but think there was something I was missing, something glaringly obvious that I had missed…

"Anyway, time for introductions!" The man said suddenly, interrupting my train of thought and forcing me to push those thoughts to the back of my mind for now, "They call me Velim." He said proudly as if I was meant to know what the name meant.

I just nodded slightly in response, "Neil." My answer seemed to annoy him as if he was expecting to get more out of me than that but after a few seconds of probing he realised I wasn't going to say any more and shrugged his shoulders at a loss.

"So Neil, what are you?" Velims' voice turned cold as he turned to me, apart from him I could feel the presence of four other people surrounding me waiting to make a move. It was a better situation than what I'd been in above ground but it wasn't much better when I didn't know the exact power that these mages held.

"A Mage." I replied simply in a calm voice to throw him off slightly. It didn't work. "Take your hood down." He ordered, showing his true side for the first time since our meeting less than half an hour before.

"No." This time my response did seem to affect him, but instead of stopping his questioning it just made him enraged as he glared daggers at me as if I was the first person to dare challenge his authority which I suspect I most probably am.

"Dammit! Just die!" He screamed, 'Mentally unstable.' I said to myself, "Leader no!" I heard several shouts from the people that had surrounded me but it was too late. I could see the blue light in his palm fly outwards towards me.

I reacted in an instant, summoning the Shadow Wolf I'd kept as part of myself until now and used it to block whatever it was that he'd shot at me. "Shadow Necromancy?" I heard a few of them mutter before looking at me in disbelief, even Velim shared this look as he started to force himself to calm down.

"So you are a mage…" His attitude changed drastically but there was still a hint of disdain in his voice as he looked at me, "But…" His eyes turned cold once more, "A trash mage like you dares to disobey my orders?"

I wasn't sure what he meant by 'trash' because my ability was anything but in my eyes, but I was completely done with dealing with this guy and I was getting hungry…

Not waiting for him to continue I rushed at him, calling the shadows shrouding the Shadow Wolf back into my body causing the corpse of a wolf to collapse onto the ground but the appearance of the corpse didn't seem to shock any of those surrounding me instead, it was my speed that shocked them as in an instant I was already in front of Velim ready to grab his throat.

"Fool." Was all I heard him mutter before my hand was blocked by something, it was a light blue barrier blocking my hand from moving any further, "Time to die!" He said in rage looking at me but before he could act I took another gamble, my hand rushed towards his neck a second time, "Fool if it didn't work once it won't wo-" He was cut off by my hand shattering whatever the barrier was protecting him and holding him by the throat.

"How can the Mana of a trash mage like you shatter my barrier?! Impossible!" He screamed like a banshee as he stared daggers at me, I'd never seen so much hatred in someone's eyes before.

"If I'm such trash, let's do a little experiment shall we?" I said playfully, there was something I'd wanted to try since the moment I'd discovered this power of mine. "Put him down!" I heard the orders from behind me and ignored them, a black light glowing as it moved from my palm to my fingers and finally onto Velim's skin.

It was slower than when used on the deer or the corpse of the wolf but it was slowly engulfing him, the shadow quickly swallowed Velim but what was surprising was the update I received when I'd finished.

<<21/50 Killed>>

<<Level: 1.5>>

<<Level: 1.6>>

Two level-ups at once, that was a pleasant surprise, only a bit more and I'd become the next rank of a Vampire, what that was I wasn't sure but the increase in power that comes with it was certain.

The other pleasant surprise was the increase in kills, I wasn't that surprised that mages were considered to be monsters but I didn't expect them to count towards the completion of the first trial, that was unexpected but it did make my life much easier.

…

"So your plan was to use him to deal with them?" The voice asked, looking down at Neil who was slaughtering the mages surrounding him. "No… it's interesting, something else has completely taken control of the combat trial." A female voice replied.

"So what do you plan to do?" The male voice asked, shaking his head lightly at the corpses that were building up below. "Since I can still set the objectives for the second trial… why not make this interesting." She replied calmly.

"You! Amazing! Hahahah." The male erupted in laughter as he looked into the air in front of him as if reading something, "This really will be interesting but you know, it's still impossible for him to complete the second trial even if we've changed the objective."

"I think he'll create a miracle… they're becoming an eyesore already, don't you think?" She said lightly, turning her attention back to the battle on the ground.

…

<<34/50 Killed>>

They just kept coming, they were as easy to slaughter as chickens, I hadn't expected them to be easier to kill than Velim even if he had fallen so fast, thinking of Velim I looked at the shadowy figure that had created a barrier guarding my back, a useful ability.

"Dammit! Why isn't he tired already?! No one should have enough mana to keep their Body Enhancement magic up for so long!" One shouted confused and shocked, I chuckled lightly they still thought that my physical abilities were magic it was funny to watch them panic but I didn't go any easier on them because of it.

<<35/50 Killed>>

"It can't be Body Enhancement, Body Modification?" Someone asked in shock, "No one's that crazy!" Was the reply he got but those surrounding me just mumbled as they looked at me, not daring to charge at me anymore.

That wouldn't do, taking the initiative I sprinted at the one closest to me – his face paled but he tried to put him a thin barrier to stop me, it was nowhere near as strong as Velims barrier because my physical strength easily shattered the barrier letting me crush his throat.

<<36/50 Killed>>

'Maybe I'll end up destroying this entire branch?' I thought, laughing lightly, it would be a great place to base myself for now but I doubted I would come out on top if I actually went to war with their so called 'Magic Society.'

After another hour of back and forth I'd killed thirteen more putting me a single kill away from the 50th I needed to complete the first trial.

<<49/50 Killed>>

"Useless trash, at least you managed to hold him until I got here. Where's Velim?" I heard a voice from the crowd, a frail old man holding a staff was making his way through the crowd. One of the original few surrounding me pointed silently at the shadow guarding my rear.

The old mans' eyes moved to where 'Velim' was standing and his face flushed red with anger as he looked at me, if I had to make a guess he looked familiar enough to Velim to be his father. Without wasting a second I dashed towards him… "Bang!" Like a bullet I felt myself fly backwards and hit a wall, it felt like three of my ribs had shattered and my entire hand was useless.

At least every bone in my body was damaged in some way from that light attack, "So a boss monster has appeared…" I muttered to myself depressed, I was hoping to complete the first trial.

Slowly I lifted myself up out of the rubble that'd formed from the impact, "Oh you're still alive?" He said surprised, but I could still hear the anger in his voice as he glared at me. "Don't worry; I won't make the same mistake twice!"