“Ack—” Rain choked.

  He coughed violently, spitting the blood he had just consumed all over the goblin’s corpse.

  “What the hell is wrong with that taste?”

  It was foul. Completely foul.

  During all of his blood-lusted cravings, he had at least assumed it would taste good. Maybe sweet. Maybe rich. Something similar to a drink he was familiar with.

  He had imagined something sugary… almost refreshing.

  Instead, it was disgusting.

  The blood was warm—too warm.

  It reminded him that no drink was ever good warm. He couldn’t think of a single one better warm than cold.

  Cold soda. Cold water. Anything chilled tasted better.

  But this?

  This was straight from a body.

  And yet…

  Even knowing how terrible it tasted, he wanted more.

  Why… why is that?

  “Hm…?” Rain muttered.

  Only then did he realize something.

  The stabbing pain in his chest had been gone for several seconds.

  Slowly, he looked down.

  His eyes widened.

  The sword wound… was healing.

  The flesh was knitting together before his eyes. The pain had dulled to a faint throb.

  It wasn’t fully closed. Not even close.

  But it was healing.

  ‘Was this from the blood?’

  Rain swallowed.

  ‘I’m only doing this for an experiment… yeah… that’s it. Just an experiment.’

  The excuse sounded hollow even in his own head.

  Without hesitating further, he sank his teeth back into the goblin’s neck, drinking deeply—faster this time, greedier.

  The more he drank, the less revolting it tasted.

  Strange.

  Normally, with any drink, he would take a few sips and pause. Even something he liked would eventually become too much.

  But this…

  What was the point of stopping?

  The blood didn’t become boring.

  It didn’t lose flavor.

  It didn’t need a break.

  It simply demanded more.

  When he finally pulled away, the goblin’s neck was nearly drained dry.

  Rain looked down at his torso again.

  His eyes lit up.

  The wound was closing rapidly now. The torn flesh fused together in real time, sealing itself as if rewinding the damage.

  Thirty seconds later, the sword wound was almost completely gone.

  The pain had nearly vanished.

  But…

  Rain still felt weak.

  The strength hadn’t returned to his limbs. His exhaustion lingered.

  It seemed the blood had prioritized the wound.

  Healing the damage first.

  Everything else could wait.

  Suddenly.. all of the sounds around him erupted. The sounds he was blocking out from his tiredness, wounds, and bloodlust suddenly showed.

  Rain twisted his head toward the noise.

  Across the clearing, the remaining goblins were being overwhelmed. Blades flashed. Spells flared. The creatures were outnumbered now.

  Two people lay motionless on the ground—either dead or unconscious. It was hard to tell.

  Only a few goblins remained.

  There were still plenty of fighters standing.

  Rain could’ve gotten up.

  He could’ve helped.

  But it was pointless.

  They were already winning. The floor was practically cleared.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He shifted his gaze to the timer.

  2 minutes left.

  A breath escaped him.

  Then he glanced at his status screen—

  And froze.

  ?

  [Congratulations… you are now an Awakened Vampire.]

  [You have consumed the blood of a goblin.]

  [Your blood grows stronger.]

  ?

  “…What?”

  Rain stared at the words.

  His face twisted with confusion.

  This didn’t make sense.

  Awakened?

  Vampire?

  Nonetheless, more lines began appearing across the screen, larger this time, brighter than before, overlapping one another as if the system itself were struggling to keep up with whatever was happening inside of him.

  [Congratulations. You have leveled up.]

  Level: 2

  Rain could barely think straight as he stared at the words hovering before him, his mind refusing to process what he was seeing because none of it made sense, not after the countless goblins he had already killed, not after everything he had already endured.

  Why now?

  Why did he level up now of all times?

  His thoughts were cut short as a sudden, violent pain erupted inside his mouth, so sharp and overwhelming that his entire body stiffened in response.

  It was a horrible, grinding pain, as if something deep within his jaw was shifting and forcing itself into a new shape.

  Rain dropped to one knee and clutched at the dirt beneath him, his fingers digging into the soil as he forced himself not to scream and draw attention from the others who were still fighting nearby.

  Every single tooth in his mouth felt as if it were moving.

  Not just moving.

  Extending.

  Sliding.

  Repositioning.

  His gums throbbed violently, his skull pulsed, and for several long seconds that felt endless, he could do nothing but endure it while the battlefield noise blurred into distant static.

  Then, just as suddenly as it began, the pain stopped.

  Rain slowly moved his tongue around the inside of his mouth, and almost instantly he felt them—two sharp points that hadn’t been there before, pressing unnaturally against the soft underside of his tongue and sending a strange sensation through him.

  His breathing slowed as he carefully opened his mouth and brought a hand up to touch them, his finger brushing along the edges of the teeth and confirming what he had already begun to suspect.

  They were longer.

  Sharper.

  Even without a mirror, he didn’t need one to understand what had changed, because he could feel the way they no longer sat naturally among the others, the way they grazed faintly against his lower lip when he closed his jaw.

  They were his canines.

  Rain sucked in a shaky breath, his heart hammering against his ribs as new words appeared across the status screen.

  [You now possess the characteristics of a vampire.]

  [Displaying new vampiric abilities.]

  The interface shifted before his eyes, abandoning his stats and reorganizing itself into a different section entirely.

  [Vampiric Skills]

  Eyes of a Vampire

  Ears of a Vampire

  Scent of a Vampire

  Rain swallowed slowly, still trying to steady his breathing, and as he focused on the words Eyes of a Vampire, something inside of him responded.

  There was no pain this time, only a sudden and disorienting clarity as the world around him sharpened in an instant, the goblins and people in the distance snapping into perfect focus as though someone had wiped away a layer of blur he hadn’t even realized was there.

  The shadows thinned, the details intensified, and when he narrowed his focus on a single fighter across the battlefield, his vision tightened and zoomed effortlessly, pulling the distant figure closer until he could see the strain in the man’s expression and the precise movements of his blade.

  Rain’s heartbeat quickened, a mix of shock and excitement flooding through him as he struggled to accept that this was real.

  When he turned his attention to Ears of a Vampire, the effect was immediate and overwhelming.

  The clash of steel that had once felt distant now roared in his head with startling clarity, and he could hear the ragged breathing of the fighters, the crunch of boots against dirt, the subtle scrape of metal against bone, even the faint sound of someone swallowing between strikes.

  It felt as if the entire battlefield had closed in around him, shrinking the distance between himself and everything else.

  Then he focused on Scent of a Vampire.

  The moment it activated, the world assaulted him.

  The metallic tang of blood, thick and suffocating, filled his senses alongside the stench of sweat, dirt, fear, and torn flesh, each scent layered so intensely that it made his head spin.

  It was too much.

  Far too much.

  He shut it off almost immediately, exhaling sharply as the overwhelming flood receded.

  Rain forced himself to calm down, trying to steady his racing heart while the status screen continued to hover before him as if nothing extraordinary had just happened.

  Slowly, he navigated back to his stats.

  And there it was.

  One stat point available.

  Rain tried to force his mind away from the overwhelming flood of vampire-related thoughts, deliberately narrowing his focus onto the single stat point hovering before him as if concentrating hard enough would drown out everything else that had just changed inside his body.

  After killing so many goblins, after enduring the pain and confusion and near death, he had finally leveled up, and the quiet satisfaction of that realization settled into him in a way that felt grounding.

  Still, a thought lingered stubbornly at the back of his mind as he stared at the screen.

  Had he simply been leveling slower than everyone else?

  Or was it because he was a vampire?

  The idea didn’t seem far-fetched.

  Perhaps the Tower, or whatever intelligence governed it, imposed hidden penalties on those who strayed from what was considered normal, and maybe becoming a vampire placed him outside the standard rules.

  But then again, hadn’t the Tower itself been the one to transform him?

  If that were true, punishing him for something it caused would make no sense.

  Rain exhaled slowly, realizing he was spiraling in circles, and decided it was pointless to chase logic in a place like this as he shifted his attention back to the stat point and what to do with it.

  Earlier, Light had confidently invested every point into strength, chasing raw power without hesitation, but Rain knew that approach did not suit him as cleanly.

  Ashlore had said it clearly—his body was better suited for the sword.

  A swordsman still required strength, of course, but strength alone was not what defined mastery.

  Speed mattered.

  Speed allowed positioning, reaction, control.

  Speed kept you alive when power failed.

  With a faint spark of excitement flickering across his face, Rain selected agility and confirmed the allocation without further hesitation.

  Agility: 7

  He waited.

  Seconds passed.

  He stood there, almost expecting his body to surge with energy or for his muscles to tense with newfound quickness, the way Light had described feeling stronger the moment he increased his strength.

  But nothing happened.

  No rush.

  No shift in balance.

  No noticeable difference in the way his limbs felt.

  Confusion crept across his expression as he flexed his fingers slightly, testing for even the smallest change.

  Then again, he reasoned, perhaps it made sense.

  Strength was tangible.

  You could feel it immediately in the weight of your arms, in the tightness of your muscles.

  Speed, however, was subtler.

  Speed was not something you felt while standing still.

  It was something you discovered only when you moved.

  As the fighting around Rain came to a close, the timer continued to count down.

  10…

  9…

  8…

  Everyone seemed anxious.

  Rain’s heart began to beat rapidly.

  7…

  6…

  5…

  No one spoke.

  Even the people who had been shouting orders moments ago now stood completely still, their eyes fixed ahead as if waiting for something terrible to happen.

  4…

  3…

  Rain swallowed slowly.

  2…

  1…

  Finally…

  0.

  For a brief second, nothing happened.

  Then a single notification appeared on everyone’s status screens.

  [CONGRATULATIONS. You have passed the First Floor of the Tower.]

  A wave of relief spread through the group almost instantly. Some people dropped to their knees. Others laughed nervously.

  Rain didn’t.

  [Teleporting to the Waiting Room.]

  Before anyone could react, a bright white light swallowed the battlefield whole.

  Rain felt no movement.

  No falling sensation.

  No pulling force.

  Just a sudden shift—

  And the forest was gone.

  The smell of blood disappeared.

  The bodies vanished.

  The dirt beneath his feet was replaced with white flooring.

  Rain blinked.

  They were somewhere else.

  The waiting room.