novellhall Chapter 11: Extraordinary Trait: Vampire
Chapter 11: Extraordinary Trait: Vampire
Evan watched as the water washed away the sweat and dust from his arms, his eyes burning with a fierce light.
"There are only four left... No, I need to find a way to get more."
"Potion Girl, how can I live without you!"
He knew very well that, given his current social status, the only way he could establish contact with the extraordinary world was through Pulis.
There is no doubt that the man had ulterior motives towards her.
Using students as test subjects for drug trials—this kind of person is definitely not a good person.
But this is his only chance.
Just like a person about to drown in the ocean, they won't care whether there are nails on the driftwood that floats by.
First, grab them and survive; we'll deal with the rest later.
After rinsing off the sweat, I took a big, satisfying dump.
For the past two months since the start of the drug trial, Evan's stools have been either very small, resembling sheep droppings, or completely unformed.
Now it's a normal, complete, and pleasant banana-shaped stool.
"It feels so good to be able to poop freely!"
Evan dried himself off and returned to his room.
He picked up the phenobarbital bottle from the table and poured out two pale yellow pills.
He poured out two small, grayish-white pills from the bottle of mercury pills, put all four pills into his mouth, and then rinsed them down with a mouthful of water.
Then he climbed onto the bunk bed, pulled over the old blanket covered in lint, slammed his head on the pillow, and sank into darkness within three seconds.
He was sleeping soundly.
So engrossed was he that he didn't notice anything approaching outside the window.
About twenty minutes after Evan fell asleep, a shadow appeared outside the closed window.
It didn't push open the window or pick the lock.
It went straight through the glass.
Like ink seeping onto rice paper, the shadow silently seeped in through the crack in the window, coalescing into a human shape in the room.
In the darkness, a pair of dark red eyes lit up.
Those eyes had no pupils, or rather, the entire iris was the pupil.
It has a deep, solidified dark red color, like two rubies soaked in formaldehyde.
He was tall and slender, with an innate elegance in his movements.
He was like a gentleman accustomed to going in and out of opera boxes, except that at this moment he was standing in a dilapidated apartment covered with old newspapers.
Those dark red eyes quickly scanned the room, from the newspapers on the wall to the extinguished kerosene lamp on the table, from the wet clothes hanging on the back of the chair to the thin figure curled up on the bed.
His brow furrowed slightly when his gaze fell on the mess of medicine bottles under the bed.
That expression carried a hint of dissatisfaction.
It's like a lab technician discovering that their subject is taking unplanned medication.
He did not hesitate.
He took a glass syringe from inside his trench coat, and the needle flashed a cold light in the darkness.
He bent down and gently pulled back Ivan's blanket, revealing a section of his thin arm.
The needle pierced the vein in the elbow with precision and gentleness; Evan didn't even flinch in his sleep.
Dark red blood slowly rose up from the syringe, filling the tube.
He pulled out the needle, pressed his thumb against the puncture site, and held it there for two seconds.
Then he put the syringe away and straightened up.
The next moment, his body seemed to lose its substance, liquefying from the soles of his feet into a pool of flowing shadow that silently seeped out through the cracks in the window frame.
Silence returned to the room.
The only sounds were Evan's even breathing and the subtle scraping of the soil by the rats digging at the base of the wall.
A few minutes later, another dark figure appeared.
This time, the people who came didn't sneak in through the window cracks; they climbed in from outside.
She didn't have that eerie ability to penetrate; she was more like an ordinary person who had received rigorous training.
Her hands gripped the edge of the window frame with precision, the way her fingers exerted force revealing a special skill.
The old, creaky window, which usually groaned at the slightest touch, opened without making a sound.
The hinges looked as if they had been coated with an invisible grease.
She flipped and leaped into the room, landing almost simultaneously with both feet, the sound of her boots hitting the wooden floor as soft as a falling leaf.
Two swords were slung diagonally behind her, their hilts protruding from her shoulders and wrapped in black cloth, revealing only two blurry outlines in the darkness.
Under the moonlight, her silver-white hair stood out quite prominently.
After she stood still, her nostrils twitched slightly.
"The stench of vampires."
Her voice was extremely low, as soft as a mosquito's buzz, almost blending into her breathing.
"It seems the rumors are true."
Her gaze swept across the room in the darkness, then landed on the pile of medicine bottles under the bed.
She crouched down, picked up a bottle, and brought it to her nose to sniff.
In the darkness, a pair of golden vertical pupils suddenly widened.
It doesn't look like a human eye.
The iris is pure gold, and the pupil is a vertical slit, like a cat or a snake, able to focus clearly even in a room without any light source.
"Two diluted potions?"
She picked up another bottle, uncorked it, and sniffed it, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
"A new type of potion, not listed in the potion manual. It must be something new invented by the vampires here."
She gently placed the bottle back in its place and turned her gaze to Evan, who was fast asleep on the bed.
She leaned down, almost touching Evan's face, and lingered near his nose for a few seconds.
Those golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly, as if they were deciphering some kind of information in the air that ordinary people could not perceive.
Then her expression changed.
"Master, two...five? Five medicinal ingredients? And two more potions?"
She straightened up, looked down at Evan's thin face, which looked exceptionally young in his sleep, and spoke with genuine confusion.
"How did you even survive?"
Her gaze slid along the edge of the blanket to Evan's exposed arm.
Those golden vertical pupils shone like two miniature lanterns in the darkness, allowing her to see even more clearly than during the day.
The dark red syphilis rashes on my arm are slowly fading, and the edges have changed from copper red to light pink.
The needle marks left from selling blood are shrinking, and the surrounding bruises are fading at a visible rate, changing from dark purple to yellowish-green, and then to normal skin color.
"No wonder the vampires used you to test their drugs."
She straightened up, crossed her arms over her chest, and a complex light flickered in her golden vertical pupils.
"This body is simply a natural-born medicine pot."
"If this continues, this guy will most likely become a blood slave to those vampires."
She paced silently around the room, her boots making no sound on the wooden floor.
"Such a promising talent cannot be wasted. Such exceptional drug resistance makes him a born demon hunter."
Her lips moved slightly, and her murmured words were even softer than a whisper.
"I need to think of a good idea."
"The extraordinary and mysterious are still too bizarre for people at the bottom of society; telling them directly would be too blunt."
"And I can't let him think I'm a beautiful con artist, otherwise he'll easily fall into the arms of a vampire, which would be even more troublesome."
She stopped, her golden vertical pupils narrowed slightly, and a thoughtful smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"He needs to experience a crisis and witness the terror of vampires firsthand."
"Then I made my grand entrance and rescued the damsel in distress."
After she finished speaking, she glanced at Evan one last time, then turned and walked towards the window, her movements as light and silent as when she came.
When she closed the window frame, the hinges remained completely silent.
The night swallowed her up.
The room fell silent once more.
Only Evan's steady breathing, the rustling of mice digging at the base of the wall, and the lonely barking of a stray dog on a distant street could be heard.
At three in the morning, Evan opened his eyes.
Just like yesterday, there was no lingering in bed, no struggling in a daze. My consciousness was like a light that had been switched on with a snap, instantly switching from darkness to wakefulness.
Four times the focus, online on time.
But today is different from yesterday; his body is experiencing a completely new sensation.
Comfortable.
I felt more comfortable than ever before.
The languid relaxation after a hot bath, and a full, satisfying comfort that emanates from deep within the bones.
Every muscle is warm, supple, and brimming with power.
My joints no longer ache, my chest no longer feels stuffy, and even my breathing has become deep and long, with each breath reaching the very bottom of my lungs.
He sat up in bed.
"You chicken~!"
As usual, the spring emitted a strange, mournful scream.
Ivan looked down at the panel.
You reversed the side effects of the potion chain.
[You have gained a minor extraordinary trait: Basic Vampiric Species]
The text on the panel lingered on my retina for a full three seconds, each word looking as if it had been branded on with a hot iron.
Ivan's breath hitched.
"Extraordinary characteristics?"
His voice trembled with barely suppressed emotion.
It wasn't fear, but something more primal, like someone who had been groping in the dark for too long suddenly touching a doorknob with their fingertips.
He quickly pulled the panel up.
really.
The three previously blank fields are: Occupation, Rank, and Traits.
The "Features" column is no longer grayed out with the word "None".
【Characteristic: Base lifesteal 2% (Click to expand details)】
He clicked on the details, and lines of explanatory text unfolded on his retina.
[Basic Vampire Species: Lowest-level vampire species, possessing physical strength and self-healing abilities far exceeding those of ordinary humans.]
[Each 1% progress increases self-healing ability by 1% and blood quality by 1%.]
[Upon reaching 30% progress, the basic trait effects will be activated: significantly increased physical strength and self-healing ability.]
[Upon reaching 70% progress: Full physical strength is achieved.]
[Upon reaching 100% progress: Gain full self-healing ability.]