**Chapter 172: Bloodline Purification**
January 4, 2015
Author: Floating Tower
Newborn vampires are impulsive.
They cannot fully control their powers, especially after just turning from living beings to the undead, facing the choice of preying on humans to survive. Many newborn vampires enter a state of frenzy during this period, and are then forced to be confined in coffins for a long time, a process known as “Lurking.” Typically, other elder vampires are present to supervise them. These elder vampires will spend some time, which can range from several years to over a decade, until the newborns gradually stabilize their emotions and then allow them to roam freely.
This is a difficult ordeal.
Vampires may seem powerful, but their growth period is too slow; it takes them hundreds of years to reach the Fourth Tier. The newborn in front of Soren is only at the Third Tier. It appears strong because vampires have a high biological level, granting them innate property bonuses that significantly enhance their agility and strength compared to ordinary people, along with spell-like abilities. The one before Soren is a defector, someone who just turned into a vampire and then fled, therefore lacking the experience needed for survival as a vampire.
If such a defector is caught, they are either imprisoned and punished for a period or executed on the spot!
Defectors are uncultured individuals who easily expose the whereabouts of vampires, and their uncontrollable bloodlust can attract powerful enemies, posing a grave threat to vampires.
The woman before him has revealed fangs, having lost the beauty she once had. She gazes at Soren and says, “Help me? How can you help me? A mere human?”
Soren inexplicably smirks and slowly replies, “It seems you overestimate the abilities of vampires!”
“I will stand here motionless, and as long as you can force me back a single step within three attacks, then you will have won. How about that?”
Such a reckless attitude.
However, Soren must now increase the psychological pressure on his target; for this newborn who possesses sheer brute force but little skill, what he just said is not an exaggeration.
The current Soren is no longer the Soren of the past; he even has the ability to counter legendary-grade opponents.
“Alright!”
The newborn vampire shows a fierce expression. Without hesitation, she launches an attack, leaping onto the wall, then directly crawling on it before pouncing towards Soren like a hunting eagle. Her sharp claws aim directly for Soren’s throat, seemingly intending to take him down in one blow. However, Soren remains expressionless; he even closes his eyes, merely slightly spreading his palm. As she lunges at him, he leans back at a perfect angle, narrowly avoiding her claws while a cold light appears in his hand, followed by a thud. The newborn vampire collapses behind him.
Soren’s hands remain empty.
The newborn vampire looks at her abdomen in disbelief, where a half-foot-long wound appears, with frost forming around it. She was almost disemboweled. If Soren had not held back, this strike could have split her torso open. Even a vampire’s resilience would only allow her to survive losing half her body. While this injury would not take her life, it is enough to fill her with awe. She slightly bends forward, pressing her fingers on the wound.
Soren’s expression is quite arrogant as he says lightly, “Do you want to try again?”
The newborn vampire shakes her head and replies, “No need. Your Excellency. I believe in your strength now, but I don’t understand why you want to help me. What do you need me for?”
Soren feels his acting skills have greatly improved, perhaps due to interacting more with women. Previously, he primarily interacted with men, and his performance skills hadn’t improved much. Now, his acting ability has at least increased by over ten points. It turns out dealing with women requires acting; this fundamental skill is often unexpectedly useful.
He gently moves his wrist and says slowly, “I just happened to encounter you. I need something useful. Conveniently, your pursuer possesses it, so I plan to help you eliminate him. As for what I need your help with, we can discuss that after your troubles are resolved.”
“What’s your name?”
The newborn vampire hesitates for a moment and softly replies, “Arianna.”
A somewhat awkward name.
Soren repeats it, then says, “Good. Arianna. Tell me your story. I need to evaluate the strength of the elder who is trying to capture you. After all, the one who turned you into a vampire is not easy to deal with.”
Arianna seems to hesitate a bit, but then a hint of hatred reveals itself on her face. She says slowly, “The one who turned me into a vampire is my sister, my cousin from the family. My hometown is in a town in Solar’s region, from a fallen noble family. My mother passed away early, and my father has been trying to restore our family’s glory, but he disappeared after going on an adventure. My cousin married a traveling noble twelve years ago and left with him. This year she returned to our hometown, and we were all very happy, but we didn’t expect her to come back like this.”
“She killed others and then turned me into a vampire, making me her servant.”
“I escaped and fled here to Shipwreck Bay.”
What a melodramatic story.
Though the woman before him did not explain in detail, Soren deduces the process: the cousin who turned into a vampire went on a killing spree, seemingly killing other family members but leaving her beautiful enough to be transformed into a new vampiric servant. Vampires are standard members of the appearance association; those who aren’t handsome or beautiful are rarely transformed, especially female vampires, most of whom are above average in looks.
“Very well.”
Soren nods slightly and says, “It seems it would be your cousin attempting to capture you, although it’s more likely her master.”
“But don’t worry, I will help you eliminate them. After that, you will be free.”
He stands up and walks around, then adds, “You should rest; that injury shouldn’t be a problem, right? After all, vampires have strong regeneration abilities. I suggest you learn how to hunt properly; such poor hunting methods easily attract trouble.”
Vampires are a strong biological template.
Their innate protection ability is +6, and their base life total is 12, equivalent to that of a barbarian.
As vampires’ power grows, they gain various spell-like abilities, resistances, and encounters with negative energy, and in higher forms, they receive attribute bonuses of +6 to strength, +4 to agility, +2 to intelligence, +6 to constitution, +2 to perception, and +4 to charisma, nearly matching the additional abilities of dragon-bl**d sorcerers. They have a +10 racial bonus in deception, hiding, listening, sneaking, searching, and scouting, among other basic skills.
Vampires have a base biological level of 8, making them inherently close to Third Tier beings.
These dark creatures do not have many weaknesses; much of what is mentioned in folklore is simply false. They have shadows, are not afraid of mirrors, and garlic merely gives off an unpleasant scent to them. The only thing they fear is sunlight, which drastically decreases their power and can even k*ll weaker vampires. Their fatal weaknesses are the heart and head. High-level vampires can transform into bats and gas, making them difficult creatures to k*ll.
Other than that, they are quite similar to undead creatures; Soren has dealt with many of them before!
A crucial part of a vampire is their spine, which is a special spellcasting material and a key tool in the purification of evil bloodlines.
The bloodline purification ritual is a transformation of supernatural beings, requiring many special spell components.
These can enhance the effects of the bloodline purification ritual without altering one’s racial lineage. There are many core materials towards evil outcomes, which can come from roughly a dozen kinds, such as vampires, werewolves, liches, demons, devils, giants, and dragons, etc. The simplest bloodline purification ritual is a blessing directly granted by deities, but Soren is too naïve to think any deity would willingly grant him a blessing. The next most convenient source is dragon bl**d, but it must come from purebred dragons, with the minimum standard being a white dragon.
In stories, many professionists who bathe in dragon bl**d become even stronger; this is essentially a bloodline purification ritual.
They still remain human.
However, these individuals have unconsciously completed the bloodline purification ritual, gaining enhancements from dragon bl**d in terms of vitality. This ritual resembles a situation where they could have developed to a certain vitality, but due to deficiencies in their upbringing—such as inadequate nutrition during childhood or insufficient training—or for other reason-related defects, they failed to reach their peak vitality. This ritual allows them to achieve an effect that brings them close to their current peak vitality, possibly even improving the attributes that were not well-developed in their early years for other reasons (though the chances are extremely low!).
Soren’s goal is just that; he intends to unleash the potential of his vitality through the ritual. He is currently unsure of being able to slay a dragon and has no time to search for one, so using a vampire as a substitute is quite good. Moreover, using a high-level vampire as a material to purify the bloodline will grant him an additional “Strength” specialty, and after completing the bloodline purification ritual, his vitality can at least increase by two or three professional levels.
In other words, his vitality will be equivalent to that of a warrior of the same level without a purified bloodline!
A night quickly passes.
The next day, Soren leaves the inn, preparing items to deal with the vampire. Holy water is the most effective item, followed by other items that counter dark creatures. From Arianna, Soren learns a great deal of intelligence and determines that the one who transformed her belongs to a small vampire family that uses their innate control abilities after transformation to enslave servants. On this point, Arianna’s willpower is impressive; she actually resisted the mental control of the elder vampire.
Now, he just needs to wait for her elder to appear and lure them to a suitable place to eliminate him.
………………
(PS: Additional update today. Everyone go and cast your votes for the annual awards.) (To Be Continued ~^~)
