Damien stumbled up the wooden staircase while clutching his head. A metal door stood in his path, but a simple thought and flick of his eyes manipulated the door's lock, popping it open.
Finding the headache developing into a terrible migraine, he resorted to pushing the door with his outstretched arm and forcing his way inside. Compared to the smell of mould from the staircase, the room he entered was surprisingly fresh and clean.
A grand oak desk dominated the far side of the room with a leather chair fit for a King behind it. Fine art pieces covered the various walls of the room. Damien paid the lavish decorations no heed as he levitated straight towards the desk. Not even bothering to walk around it, he used his phantom form on his legs as he passed right over the enormous oak desk.
Unceremoniously, Damien collapsed into the leather chair and closed his eyes. A few other people followed behind him. Fay looked around curiously at the out of place room before seating herself on a sofa in the corner. Leon O'Neill was shaking like a leaf as he nervously observed Damien. He didn't dare sit down on the only other chair in the room and decided to stand as close to the door as possible.
Damien leaned back in the chair and massaged his temples with his index fingers. "Take a seat, Mayor Leon," Damien commanded while blindly gesturing with his hand to the only remaining seat.
Leon O'Neill was a large man with well-defined muscles that suggest a rough life on the fields. His large hands, covered in calluses suggesting his intensive training with the sword, gripped the chair's armrests causing the wood to groan in protest.
Damien barely managed to open a single eye and snapped open his pocket watch:
[Damien Nightshade]
[Noble Vampire]
Schools Of Magic:
[Psychic Magic (B+)]
Psychokinesis [B+ -> A]
Levitation [C -> B]
Clairvoyance [D -> C]
Automatic Writing [F]
Telepathy [C]
Pyrokinesis [E]
[Spatial Magic (D+ -> C)]
Phantom Form [D -> C]
Spatial Movement [F] (New) - Control and move an area of space
Spatial Inventory [F] (New) - Compress the size of objects and store them in a small tear in space.
[Blood Magic (D)]
Blood Contract [F]
[Darkness Magic (F)] (New, gained from Blood Contract)
=Null Spells=
Mana Control [C+ -> B]
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
[Germaphobe] Unable to learn melee skills / 100% Increased control over ranged spells.
Deflection (B) (New) - Automatically defends against threats deemed unclean.
[Control Freak] Increased affinity to control skills by 10%
Soul Bind [D] (New) - You desire complete control over a person's very soul, giving you outright control over their life and death. However, the caster requires access to their sea of consciousness.
[Lazy] Increased mana regeneration while resting by 20% / Increased exp to learn new spells by 10%
Sleep casting [E] (New) - Allows the caster to use spells while asleep.
[Concentration] Increased affinity with mental spells by 5%
Perception Field [C] (New) - Concentrating on the surroundings heightens your senses allowing you to see through anything.
[Noble Aura] Intimidation increased.
Suppressive Voice [E] (New) - Imbue your voice with mana, striking fear into lesser beings.
Notice: The body is currently undergoing significant changes.
Damien just stared at the pocket watch, trying to comprehend everything. His body felt even weaker than when he had been hospital bound back on Earth. His head was pounding like a drum, and his heart was going into overdrive.
"Hahahaha" Damien laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. The sun casts a shadow onto his face from the window behind him, making him look like a true villain.
With great effort, he wiped the sweat accumulating on his forehead with his sleeve. He could feel the new mana circuit for darkness magic crawling its way through his body, linking his heart and brain alongside three other pathways.
During the Spatial Magic pathway creation process, he had been knocked out cold from fatigue and slept through the pain, but right now, he was awake to endure it.
Glancing at the pocket watch, a single line on its mirror's surface stood out like a sore thumb to him.
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
Traits were manageable to a certain extent, but they define a person. For example, a person's trait could be a 'short temper' back on Earth. They could control their anger with counselling or breathing exercises, but they are temporary fixes. If a person is pushed to their absolute limit, their pseudo control will falter and regress back to old habits.
Damien had arrived in this world, in a foreign body. Although the traits were rather forceful initially, Damien wasn't too concerned as the traits matched his own.
Although his family stopped caring about him, he came from an incredibly wealthy family. The general demeanour of his family members rubbed off on him and caused him to act rather arrogant for a bedridden child. This background is likely how he quickly adapted to becoming a prince.
The rest of the traits were a result of his environment. Due to his weak immune system, he was terrified of germs, so the [Germaphobe] trait made sense.
Being trapped in a single room in the hospital meant a single change was noticeable. If the bedside table or the television moved slightly, Damien would notice in a heartbeat. He would call the family's maid and command her to move the tv a single centimetre to the left before being satisfied. Honestly, he just enjoyed commanding people around. It allowed him to forget about his insecurities. So that's the [Control Freak] trait figured out.
Finally, the [Lazy] and [Concentration] traits resulted from sleeping fourteen hours and then gaming on the VR headset for twenty-four hours straight.
When Damien transferred into this world, the body felt both foreign and a perfect fit for him. Damien had wondered over the past week if he would have turned out this way back on Earth if he wasn't bedridden, ignoring the vampirism and magic, of course.
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
This line suggested to Damien that he had finally mentally evolved to the point that the body recognised his soul as the true owner.
"These skills all make sense..." The more Damien read about the new skills, the more sense they made. Finally, placing his legs in a crossed pattern on the desk, Damien closed his eyes and leaned back into the leather chair, ignoring Leon's uncomfortable shifting and Fay's curious gaze.
Damien decided he needed rest and time to think deeply about his new skills.
Deflection (B) (New) - Automatically defends against threats deemed unclean.
"Since this skill starts at the B grade suggests I have subconsciously been avoiding unclean projectiles like blood for a while now. Looking back, I developed a bubble of Psychokinesis to prevent the zombies rotting flesh from hitting me. I guess this is just that unique application of Psychokinesis being designated as its own spell."
Soul Bind [D] (New) - You desire complete control over a person's very spirit, giving you outright control over their life and death.
"This is a forbidden null spell discovered in a tomb located in the central continent during the storyline. Either the player could take it for himself or let it fall into the hands of a fairy, who uses the spell to enslave his race and later becomes an end game boss. Since the runic language is English, I had no issues using a null element spell by chanting its name. Interestingly, it appears the world's system has designated it as a [Control Freak] spell. I could learn other null spells in the future, but none come to mind. I would rather Fay learn lifestyle spells like clean instead of me. Waste of my time."
Sleep casting [E] (New) - Allows the caster to use spells while asleep.
"Due to my anxiety, I maintained my clairvoyance spell during the journey to Tarlington Fortress. I'm not certain how useful this skill will be during combat, except for preventing attempted assassinations. Considering my dear brother will be sending assassins after me, raising this to A rank will be imperative to my survival."
Perception Field[C] (New) - Concentrating on the surroundings heightens your senses allowing you to see through anything.
"I'm confident this is the primary source of my headache; whenever I open my eyes, it's like my brain is receiving two conflicting information streams at once. My eyes tell me there is a wall, but my perception field tells me what's behind the wall. It is bizarre and disorientating. Honestly, once my perception field upgrades, I may never need to open my eyes again to see the world around me."
Suppressive Voice [E] (New) - Imbue your voice with mana, striking fear into lesser beings.
"This must have been the spell that subconsciously activated earlier. I put mana into my throat to project my voice as I didn't want to shout, but it seemed to have an exciting effect. I was baffled when everyone started prostrating themselves towards me. Literature always spoke of vampires having the power to control others through speech, and it appears it's true, or at least for me."
Damien felt his body recovering at an astonishing rate due to his vampiric regeneration capabilities. So decided to check out the skills one last time.
Due to the intense battle of Tarlington Fortress, his Psychic skills had levelled up substantially.
Psychokinesis [B+ -> A]
Levitation [C -> B]
Clairvoyance [D -> C]
His first ever A grade level spell had appeared.
"But unfortunately, my Psychic school of magic is still cemented at the B+ grade pending the absorption of a Psychic affinity stone or contract with an elemental."
"Increasing my Psychokinesis level should increase the mass and range of objects I can move. So, for another example, if I level my Psychic Magic to A grade, it would increase the number of things I can control. The limits of this spell will require further testing later."
"At the moment, my upper limit is around a hundred enchanted items or hundreds of non-enchanted ones. Although the limit on enchanted items may have increased as my mana control has upgraded: Mana Control [C+ -> B], giving me a larger mana pool and overall efficiency when using spells and handling enchanted items."
Damien's head was hurting from both the headache and his excessive thinking, so he took a quick note of these new Spatial spells after his Spatial Magic levelled up to C grade.
Spatial Movement [F] (New) - Control and move an area of space
Spatial Inventory [F] (New) - Compress the size of objects and store them in a small tear in space.
"Both are extremely useful when upgraded, but they are relatively useless for now, as they are both [F] rank. "
Deciding he would go mad if Leon kept shifting around nervously in his chair, he swung his legs off the desk and abruptly stood up. He instantly regretted his decision and leaned on the desk. His muscles had recovered surprisingly quickly from the mana circuit renovations, but his Perception Field skill was still messing with his orientation.
Looking around the room with effort, Damien saw a beautiful mage staff made of black wood with a red gem secured on its top leaning against the wall. Its style reminded him of the victorian era. Walking over with wobbly steps, Damien clasped the red gemstone and used the mage staff as a cane to lean on.
Although the mage staff's creator never intended it to be handled in such a way, due to Damiens tall frame, the magic staff was the perfect height for him to rest his hand comfortably on its head.
The wood didn't snap or even creak as it supported his weight, a testament to the excellent choice of wood used in its creation.
Damien walked gracefully towards the room's only window, cane clinking on the wooden floor as he went. His silver robes hanging lightly on his shoulders, signifying his master mage status, swayed as he moved.
The town hall, constructed from stone, looked out of place compared to the shabby wooden houses many others called home. Yet, it stood tall and proud in the centre of Blackthorn.
Damien tapped his cane and pressure locked Leon in his chair, halting his annoying fidgeting.
"Leon O'Neill, or should I call you by your real name?" Damien spun around on his heel, no longer scrutinising Blackthorn through the window. Then, using the cane as support, he eyed Leon with a dangerous gaze.
"Mayor Dwight..."
Leon's eyes became terrified as he attempted to fight the pressure.
"...Dwight Lewis, bastard son of Baron Lewis from Kassinki. Wanted man in both Kassinki and Oshal for slave trading." Damien said in a flat voice.
Slowly pacing across the room back and forth, Damien continued, "Both you and I know that Vampires never stray far from their nest. So how come the humans have escaped so far south, fleeing the 'vampires' under your leadership? Hmm?"
Damien then gestured towards all the expensive items in the room, "How could a simple village mayor possess such lavish items? Don't bother answering, not that you can anyway."
"Those people outside stood beside you, pointing fingers at me for the terror my race has caused them over the years. Yet little did those peasants know, they were standing beside the wolf all along."
Damien then grinned as he looked right into Leon- Dwight's eyes. Then, as his eyes showed despair, Damien continued, "Obviously, I don't care about any of that. I hate both vampires and humans. But, so long as the people trust you, I shall use you, little pawn."
Reaching out his hand towards the struggling Leon, Damien muttered.
"ᛋᛟᚢᛚ ᛒᛁᚾᛞ (Soul Bind)" golden chains shot out of Damien's hands and drove straight into Leon's skull, causing the man to scream in anguish.
"To Blackthorn's future!" Damien exclaimed while laughing manically.
XKARNATION
Next Chapter: Tuesday 8th March
Advanced Chapters: Patreon
Yes, I know this chapter is a glorified info dump but I wanted to catch up the reader on Damien's current state of power since there is going to be a focus on other aspects of the story for a while. Hope it wasn't tooooo painful to read x)
Damien stumbled up the wooden staircase while clutching his head. A metal door stood in his path, but a simple thought and flick of his eyes manipulated the door's lock, popping it open.
Finding the headache developing into a terrible migraine, he resorted to pushing the door with his outstretched arm and forcing his way inside. Compared to the smell of mould from the staircase, the room he entered was surprisingly fresh and clean.
A grand oak desk dominated the far side of the room with a leather chair fit for a King behind it. Fine art pieces covered the various walls of the room. Damien paid the lavish decorations no heed as he levitated straight towards the desk. Not even bothering to walk around it, he used his phantom form on his legs as he passed right over the enormous oak desk.
Unceremoniously, Damien collapsed into the leather chair and closed his eyes. A few other people followed behind him. Fay looked around curiously at the out of place room before seating herself on a sofa in the corner. Leon O'Neill was shaking like a leaf as he nervously observed Damien. He didn't dare sit down on the only other chair in the room and decided to stand as close to the door as possible.
Damien leaned back in the chair and massaged his temples with his index fingers. "Take a seat, Mayor Leon," Damien commanded while blindly gesturing with his hand to the only remaining seat.
Leon O'Neill was a large man with well-defined muscles that suggest a rough life on the fields. His large hands, covered in calluses suggesting his intensive training with the sword, gripped the chair's armrests causing the wood to groan in protest.
Damien barely managed to open a single eye and snapped open his pocket watch:
[Damien Nightshade]
[Noble Vampire]
Schools Of Magic:
[Psychic Magic (B+)]
Psychokinesis [B+ -> A]
Levitation [C -> B]
Clairvoyance [D -> C]
Automatic Writing [F]
Telepathy [C]
Pyrokinesis [E]
[Spatial Magic (D+ -> C)]
Phantom Form [D -> C]
Spatial Movement [F] (New) - Control and move an area of space
Spatial Inventory [F] (New) - Compress the size of objects and store them in a small tear in space.
[Blood Magic (D)]
Blood Contract [F]
[Darkness Magic (F)] (New, gained from Blood Contract)
=Null Spells=
Mana Control [C+ -> B]
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
[Germaphobe] Unable to learn melee skills / 100% Increased control over ranged spells.
Deflection (B) (New) - Automatically defends against threats deemed unclean.
[Control Freak] Increased affinity to control skills by 10%
Soul Bind [D] (New) - You desire complete control over a person's very soul, giving you outright control over their life and death. However, the caster requires access to their sea of consciousness.
[Lazy] Increased mana regeneration while resting by 20% / Increased exp to learn new spells by 10%
Sleep casting [E] (New) - Allows the caster to use spells while asleep.
[Concentration] Increased affinity with mental spells by 5%
Perception Field [C] (New) - Concentrating on the surroundings heightens your senses allowing you to see through anything.
[Noble Aura] Intimidation increased.
Suppressive Voice [E] (New) - Imbue your voice with mana, striking fear into lesser beings.
Notice: The body is currently undergoing significant changes.
Damien just stared at the pocket watch, trying to comprehend everything. His body felt even weaker than when he had been hospital bound back on Earth. His head was pounding like a drum, and his heart was going into overdrive.
"Hahahaha" Damien laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. The sun casts a shadow onto his face from the window behind him, making him look like a true villain.
With great effort, he wiped the sweat accumulating on his forehead with his sleeve. He could feel the new mana circuit for darkness magic crawling its way through his body, linking his heart and brain alongside three other pathways.
During the Spatial Magic pathway creation process, he had been knocked out cold from fatigue and slept through the pain, but right now, he was awake to endure it.
Glancing at the pocket watch, a single line on its mirror's surface stood out like a sore thumb to him.
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
Traits were manageable to a certain extent, but they define a person. For example, a person's trait could be a 'short temper' back on Earth. They could control their anger with counselling or breathing exercises, but they are temporary fixes. If a person is pushed to their absolute limit, their pseudo control will falter and regress back to old habits.
Damien had arrived in this world, in a foreign body. Although the traits were rather forceful initially, Damien wasn't too concerned as the traits matched his own.
Although his family stopped caring about him, he came from an incredibly wealthy family. The general demeanour of his family members rubbed off on him and caused him to act rather arrogant for a bedridden child. This background is likely how he quickly adapted to becoming a prince.
The rest of the traits were a result of his environment. Due to his weak immune system, he was terrified of germs, so the [Germaphobe] trait made sense.
Being trapped in a single room in the hospital meant a single change was noticeable. If the bedside table or the television moved slightly, Damien would notice in a heartbeat. He would call the family's maid and command her to move the tv a single centimetre to the left before being satisfied. Honestly, he just enjoyed commanding people around. It allowed him to forget about his insecurities. So that's the [Control Freak] trait figured out.
Finally, the [Lazy] and [Concentration] traits resulted from sleeping fourteen hours and then gaming on the VR headset for twenty-four hours straight.
When Damien transferred into this world, the body felt both foreign and a perfect fit for him. Damien had wondered over the past week if he would have turned out this way back on Earth if he wasn't bedridden, ignoring the vampirism and magic, of course.
*Control over body's traits resulted in the following skills*
This line suggested to Damien that he had finally mentally evolved to the point that the body recognised his soul as the true owner.
"These skills all make sense..." The more Damien read about the new skills, the more sense they made. Finally, placing his legs in a crossed pattern on the desk, Damien closed his eyes and leaned back into the leather chair, ignoring Leon's uncomfortable shifting and Fay's curious gaze.
Damien decided he needed rest and time to think deeply about his new skills.
Deflection (B) (New) - Automatically defends against threats deemed unclean.
"Since this skill starts at the B grade suggests I have subconsciously been avoiding unclean projectiles like blood for a while now. Looking back, I developed a bubble of Psychokinesis to prevent the zombies rotting flesh from hitting me. I guess this is just that unique application of Psychokinesis being designated as its own spell."
Soul Bind [D] (New) - You desire complete control over a person's very spirit, giving you outright control over their life and death.
"This is a forbidden null spell discovered in a tomb located in the central continent during the storyline. Either the player could take it for himself or let it fall into the hands of a fairy, who uses the spell to enslave his race and later becomes an end game boss. Since the runic language is English, I had no issues using a null element spell by chanting its name. Interestingly, it appears the world's system has designated it as a [Control Freak] spell. I could learn other null spells in the future, but none come to mind. I would rather Fay learn lifestyle spells like clean instead of me. Waste of my time."
Sleep casting [E] (New) - Allows the caster to use spells while asleep.
"Due to my anxiety, I maintained my clairvoyance spell during the journey to Tarlington Fortress. I'm not certain how useful this skill will be during combat, except for preventing attempted assassinations. Considering my dear brother will be sending assassins after me, raising this to A rank will be imperative to my survival."
Perception Field[C] (New) - Concentrating on the surroundings heightens your senses allowing you to see through anything.
"I'm confident this is the primary source of my headache; whenever I open my eyes, it's like my brain is receiving two conflicting information streams at once. My eyes tell me there is a wall, but my perception field tells me what's behind the wall. It is bizarre and disorientating. Honestly, once my perception field upgrades, I may never need to open my eyes again to see the world around me."
Suppressive Voice [E] (New) - Imbue your voice with mana, striking fear into lesser beings.
"This must have been the spell that subconsciously activated earlier. I put mana into my throat to project my voice as I didn't want to shout, but it seemed to have an exciting effect. I was baffled when everyone started prostrating themselves towards me. Literature always spoke of vampires having the power to control others through speech, and it appears it's true, or at least for me."
Damien felt his body recovering at an astonishing rate due to his vampiric regeneration capabilities. So decided to check out the skills one last time.
Due to the intense battle of Tarlington Fortress, his Psychic skills had levelled up substantially.
Psychokinesis [B+ -> A]
Levitation [C -> B]
Clairvoyance [D -> C]
His first ever A grade level spell had appeared.
"But unfortunately, my Psychic school of magic is still cemented at the B+ grade pending the absorption of a Psychic affinity stone or contract with an elemental."
"Increasing my Psychokinesis level should increase the mass and range of objects I can move. So, for another example, if I level my Psychic Magic to A grade, it would increase the number of things I can control. The limits of this spell will require further testing later."
"At the moment, my upper limit is around a hundred enchanted items or hundreds of non-enchanted ones. Although the limit on enchanted items may have increased as my mana control has upgraded: Mana Control [C+ -> B], giving me a larger mana pool and overall efficiency when using spells and handling enchanted items."
Damien's head was hurting from both the headache and his excessive thinking, so he took a quick note of these new Spatial spells after his Spatial Magic levelled up to C grade.
Spatial Movement [F] (New) - Control and move an area of space
Spatial Inventory [F] (New) - Compress the size of objects and store them in a small tear in space.
"Both are extremely useful when upgraded, but they are relatively useless for now, as they are both [F] rank. "
Deciding he would go mad if Leon kept shifting around nervously in his chair, he swung his legs off the desk and abruptly stood up. He instantly regretted his decision and leaned on the desk. His muscles had recovered surprisingly quickly from the mana circuit renovations, but his Perception Field skill was still messing with his orientation.
Looking around the room with effort, Damien saw a beautiful mage staff made of black wood with a red gem secured on its top leaning against the wall. Its style reminded him of the victorian era. Walking over with wobbly steps, Damien clasped the red gemstone and used the mage staff as a cane to lean on.
Although the mage staff's creator never intended it to be handled in such a way, due to Damiens tall frame, the magic staff was the perfect height for him to rest his hand comfortably on its head.
The wood didn't snap or even creak as it supported his weight, a testament to the excellent choice of wood used in its creation.
Damien walked gracefully towards the room's only window, cane clinking on the wooden floor as he went. His silver robes hanging lightly on his shoulders, signifying his master mage status, swayed as he moved.
The town hall, constructed from stone, looked out of place compared to the shabby wooden houses many others called home. Yet, it stood tall and proud in the centre of Blackthorn.
Damien tapped his cane and pressure locked Leon in his chair, halting his annoying fidgeting.
"Leon O'Neill, or should I call you by your real name?" Damien spun around on his heel, no longer scrutinising Blackthorn through the window. Then, using the cane as support, he eyed Leon with a dangerous gaze.
"Mayor Dwight..."
Leon's eyes became terrified as he attempted to fight the pressure.
"...Dwight Lewis, bastard son of Baron Lewis from Kassinki. Wanted man in both Kassinki and Oshal for slave trading." Damien said in a flat voice.
Slowly pacing across the room back and forth, Damien continued, "Both you and I know that Vampires never stray far from their nest. So how come the humans have escaped so far south, fleeing the 'vampires' under your leadership? Hmm?"
Damien then gestured towards all the expensive items in the room, "How could a simple village mayor possess such lavish items? Don't bother answering, not that you can anyway."
"Those people outside stood beside you, pointing fingers at me for the terror my race has caused them over the years. Yet little did those peasants know, they were standing beside the wolf all along."
Damien then grinned as he looked right into Leon- Dwight's eyes. Then, as his eyes showed despair, Damien continued, "Obviously, I don't care about any of that. I hate both vampires and humans. But, so long as the people trust you, I shall use you, little pawn."
Reaching out his hand towards the struggling Leon, Damien muttered.
"ᛋᛟᚢᛚ ᛒᛁᚾᛞ (Soul Bind)" golden chains shot out of Damien's hands and drove straight into Leon's skull, causing the man to scream in anguish.
"To Blackthorn's future!" Damien exclaimed while laughing manically.
XKARNATION
Next Chapter: Tuesday 8th March
Advanced Chapters: Patreon
Yes, I know this chapter is a glorified info dump but I wanted to catch up the reader on Damien's current state of power since there is going to be a focus on other aspects of the story for a while. Hope it wasn't tooooo painful to read x)
