[Human Vampire:]
[Vampire Physique: Night Vision, Thermal Vision, Blood Vision, Weak Bloodmancy, Influence, Beneficial Aging, New Attribute: Charm, New Energy Type: Blood, Attributes+2, Perception +1000%.
Side Effects : Sun Vulnerability, Insatiable Bloodlust towards his native species and its variants (human), Blood Diet (prolonged abstinence weakens the Vampire and intensifies his bloodlust, running the risk of turning him into a Bloodsucker, a beast devoid of intelligence preying even upon his own species). Warning: Blood consumption is highly addictive and causes a rapid habituation of your organism.]
No wonder the mutation was so fierce this time. In one Assimilation Spell he had drained enough of the Bloodspark's energy to get the Bloodline of a basic Vampire.
His transition into a Vampire had given him six new abilities in one fell swoop! Five in fact with the Night Vision redundancy. Right now, Ikaris was afraid of many things but certainly not of being blind in the dark. Three of his four Bloodlines granted him this ability in a different way.
The Crawlings had extreme sensitivity to light, so much so that they could pick up the light of a torch or a campfire from dozens of kilometers away if they had a clear view. Their only weakness was their perception of red, which was on par with that of a normal human.
The Nephilims of Faulch were creatures of darkness and could see in pitch black as well as in daylight without being affected by brightness contrasts. Their sight itself was nothing special.
A Dire Black Werewolf did not have outstanding night vision, but it was still superior to that of humans.
Now, the Night Vision of his Bloodline Vampire was in a whole different category, since it was also combined with Thermal and Blood Vision. Unlike the Nephilim of Faulch, his Night Vision had a more standard mechanism, based on increased but non-specific light sensitivity. Like the Crawlings, they were prone to glare in sudden changes in light and tended to prefer dark places.
Thermal and Blood Visions were not entirely dependent on his eyes as he could even use them with his eyes closed. Their effects were as one would expect from their name.
Looking at his own body, his body appeared shaded with different hues corresponding to his internal organ temperatures. It couldn't be described as color, but it worked like infrared vision devices.
Apart from these shades, he also had a supernatural awareness of his own venous network, especially the veins and arteries running beneath his skin. It was as if he had a map of a three-dimensional road network before his eyes and it was almost impossible to ignore.
Staring at the wall separating him from Malia and Ellie's room, Ikaris found that with these two visions he had no trouble making out the figures of the two sleeping women. Fortunately, both visions could be turned off with a single thought or he would have been horribly distracted during his face to face conversation with the two women earlier.
Weak Bloodmancy was as one would imagine the ability to manipulate Blood Energy and his own blood. At the moment he could only control his own and its usefulness was limited.
Influence was the vampiric ability that Malia had used to hypnotize him to sleep. Not surprisingly, it depended passively on the Charm attribute he had just unlocked, his Soul Strength, his Bloodline rank and his Blood Energy Rank. Proactively, he could consume his Blood Energy to enhance the effectiveness of this ability.
Beneficial Aging was by far the most fascinating ability of the Vampires and the one that was at the origin of their invincible reputation. In addition to making them immune to the ravages of time, Vampires became stronger not only by raising their Blood Energy Rank, but simply by getting older.
Many very powerful old Vampires with an ordinary Bloodline were mistaken for true descendants of Vampire Progenitors for this reason. Traditionally, to show proper respect, they were given the honorary titles that befitted their power, such as Vampire King or Vampire Emperor, but these titles were not recognized by the true nobility.
When Ikaris broached the subject with Magnus, the old Archmagus sneered contemptuously,
"The title of Vampire Emperor is not only a reflection of a Vampire's strength but also a reflection of their bloodline's purity. A Vampire descended from or turned by a Vampire of low bloodline will be able to climb the ranks, but will continually face Bloodline Supression when they encounter a Vampire of nobler origins than themselves.
"At equivalent Blood Energy Rank, a Vampire Emperor with an ordinary bloodline will always be weaker than a Vampire Emperor with a Progenitor's bloodline. This is not just a matter of attributes but of abilities. Each line of Vampire Progenitors has its own unique abilities.
"Lastly, a Vampire who has been turned by another cannot attack the one who turned him, because when a Vampire dies, all those he has turned in his long life die with him. Unless you are much more powerful than that Vampire, it is impossible to survive this backlash. Fortunately, this doesn't apply to ordinary descendants or else it would become possible to decimate entire clans by directly killing their ancestor.
" Still... I have some funny anecdotes to share on the subject... A kingdom created by a rebel Vampire who had given the Embrace to the entire population became a ghost nation in a single day after he was killed by a Hunter from the Confederation."
" Is there no chance for an ordinary Vampire to surpass his ancestors or those who turned him?" Ikaris cut him off abruptly. When Magnus was on a roll he could talk for hours if no one bothered to stop him.
"Ahem... Of course there is." The old Vampire coughed awkwardly. "Sparks, Treasures, Relics, high quality blood ect... There's no shortage of means, but that's like asking me if the poor can become rich. It's possible, but only a tiny minority of them will succeed, and it will take them considerable effort, decades, even centuries to get what a spoiled brat born with a golden spoon in his mouth got from birth."
It made sense, Ikaris had to admit. If magic could fix all inequalities, the deleterious effects of these Cursed Races would have been fixed long ago.
After this interlude, the teenager turned his attention back to his new gains.
The attribute gain of +2 was lower than he expected, but if you think about it, for an average sedentary adult it was like tripling their strength and speed. Still, it didn't seem like much, and he got his answer when he checked his stats.
[ATTRIBUTES:]
[Bloodline(s): Human Crawling-Thrall(defective), Nephilim of Faulch, Dire Black Werewolf, Vampire]
[Age: 15 years old]
[Height: 1.88m.]
[Weight: 82kg]
[Magic Power: 0.007 points]
[Magic Defense: 0.007(*0.48)points]
[Stamina: 18.65>20.65(+48%) points]
[Strength: 6.5>8.5 (+48%) points]
[Agility: 4.7>6.7(+48%) points]
[Constitution: 6.6>8.6 (+48%) points]
[Vitality: 31.3>33.3(+48%) points]
[(New!)Charm: 4.6 points]
[Soul Strength: 101.1>101.6 points(+1% from Elsisn Temple's blessing]
[Dark Element Affinity/Resistance: 10%]
[Death Element Affinity/Resistance: 10%]
At the time, Ikaris did not find his Blood Energy stat in his attributes, but seeing that Blood was considered an Energy Type, he modified his System interface and an additional category appeared between his Attributes and his Primary Sparks:
[ENERGY TYPES:]
[Rank 1 Blood Energy(Vampire): 8/10 (if the Blood Energy gauge drops below 50% the rank bonus is lost. It becomes a malus below 10%. If the value falls to zero, the body stops working).
Rank Bonus: STR+2, AGI+2, CON+2, VIT+3, CHA+2, Soul Strength+1]
[Rank 0 Death Mana :1/ ?]
[Rank 0 Dark Mana: 1/?]
Not only did he have a gauge for his Blood Energy, but also for his Death and Dark Mana. The gauges of the latter were almost depleted, probably after using several necromancy and black magic spells against Malia when he had lost his mind.
Seeing his confusion over the Blood Energy Rank, Magnus resumed his role as mentor and explained,
"Among Vampires, the bloodline purity is crucial and reflects not only your power at a given Blood Energy Rank, but also your potential. As you can see your Blood Energy Rank is just at Rank 1, which is the level of an ordinary Vampire. Such a Vampire will have a hard time exceeding Rank 3 even if he consumes astronomical amounts of blood at the risk of becoming a Bloodsucker. These are Vampires who have been transformed by a weak Vampire Noble. If an ordinary Vampire gives the Embrace to another human, the result is usually a Ghoul or a Thrall and more occasionally a Vampire of the lowest standard.
"The second category are Vampire Nobles with a purer bloodline. Their parents or ancestors, immediate or distant, often have Progenitor blood or they have reached a certain Blood Energy Rank before procreating or turning someone into a Vampire. Their potential ranges from Blood Energy Rank 4 to 9, which corresponds to the titles Vampire Knight, Vampire Baron, Vampire Viscount, Vampire Count, Vampire Marquis and Vampire Duke.
"The third category are the Vampire Royals from Rank 10 to 12, with the titles of Vampire Prince, Vampire King and Vampire Emperor. This is the level my bloodline reached before I perished. Usually only direct descendants of Vampire Progenitors can reach this level. If I hadn't received my father's Bloodspark, who was only a Vampire Emperor himself, my limit would have been Vampire Prince or Vampire King with the bloodline dilution.
"Finally, the last category, as you might expect, are the Vampire Progenitors, who are sometimes simply called Ancestors or Originals when we're unable to retrace their lineage. We don't know if there are distinctions between them, but what we do know for sure is that to get this title your Blood Energy Rank must exceed Rank 13."
