Cold.

  So cold.

  Aurora lay in a narrow coffin, her eyes unclosed in death yet slowly regaining awareness. Every inch of her body burned with a searing pain, as if countless tiny creatures were burrowing under her skin, creating an unbearable, maddening itch.

  Father, dead.

  Mother, dead.

  The house, burned to cinders.

  Even me…

  In an instant, images from her final moments flooded her mind.

  The killer had sunk his teeth into her neck. She had struggled and screamed with all her might but could not break free. Her bloodcurdling cries had awakened her parents, who rushed in to see what was happening. Then, the killer's claw had slashed through her father’s windpipe and pierced her mother's chest.

  She turned her head to see the sight of a woman, lips still stained with blood—Fontaine's family servant, Livet. Aurora remembered greeting her when she was in high school, standing by the door.

  Then the killer had set a fire, transforming the entire bedroom into a raging inferno…

  It hurt. It hurt so so much.

  Inside the coffin, Aurora cried out hoarsely. Her voice was grating like a dying dove, full of the agony of unfulfilled dreams, mourning, and loathing for death.

  At last, with a tremendous effort, she pushed open the coffin lid. One hand burst through the wood and soil, feeling the long-missed cool air.

  "Hmm?" Marvin, who was sitting on the tombstone, looked over.

  This fellow woke up so soon? I thought I would have to wait until late night…

  Aurora pulled herself clumsily out of the grave. Her body was covered with dirt and fallen leaves. She looked like seventeen year old girl of Armenian descent. Her jet-black hair fell loosely over the back, while the hair at the sides was braided into small plaits.

  Her features showed a clear mix of East and West. She had the deep, sculpted features of a Westerner along with the delicate, fair skin typical of the East. In every way, she was an exquisite little beauty NPC. It was no wonder that in her past life when she had been left homeless, passing players had taken notice of her at once.

  The scabs that had formed from the burns in the fire began to flake off like shedding skin, revealing smooth, unblemished flesh underneath. Gasping softly, she pushed herself up using the edge of the coffin.

  And then she saw Marvin sitting on the tombstone.

  "Resurrected from death," Marvin clapped his hands, his tone both congratulatory and amused. "Truly worth celebrating."

  "Fontaine!" Rage erupted from deep within Aurora. In an instant, she sprang from the ground, her right hand extended like deadly claws toward Marvin. She intended to tear that murderer to shreds!

  But before she could reach him, a flash of cold light met her, and she was flung backward.

  Crash!

  At the same moment that Aurora lunged forward, Marvin had leaped off the tombstone, sword in both hands coming down in a mighty slash. It was the fighting technique known as Mountain Break from the holy Pendragon Empire. In this style, the swordsman raises his weapons high overhead and then brings them down forcefully. A single hit was enough to end a fight.

  Yet Aurora was no ordinary person. Though she wavered and staggered, she managed to rise. A horrid gash ran from her left shoulder to her right lower abdomen, exposing rib and gut beneath. The knowledge of Sanguine's Thirst I surged into her consciousness, guiding her to channel her physical strength toward the wound. In mere moments, the torn flesh began to writhe and knit itself back together until it looked whole once more.

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  "Not bad," Marvin said, clearly satisfied.

  This extraordinary ability was invaluable. With it, Aurora could not only deal damage but, if necessary, serve as a temporary shield for the team. It made her the perfect addition.

  Once again, Aurora surged forward. This time, she did not rush head-on but instead moved in a swift, short arc behind Marvin, aiming for his unguarded back. Yet another flash of cold light intercepted her, and she was once again hurled away. The sword left a ghastly wound across her head.

  "Let me give you a tip," Marvin said, turning to face her with his sword casually resting on his shoulder. "When you try to attack from behind, don't glance to the side. Fix your eyes on me as if you were coming straight for me. Concealing your tactical intent is essential."

  "It was you!" Aurora cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground as her wound slowly mended under the flow of her own flesh. Exhausted, her spiritual energy began to fade and her consciousness nearly slipped away. "Fontaine! It was you who killed my parents, wasn't it?!"

  "No," Marvin replied bluntly.

  Aurora paused, her face stiffening in shock. After the two exchanges, she realized that she was no match for Marvin. Although she did not know how the formerly careless noble had suddenly become such a formidable swordsman, she reasoned that if he could kill her so easily, there was no point in deceiving her with lies.

  "The killer was your family's servant, Livet," Aurora stated, each word deliberate.

  "Yes, but I did not act on their orders," Marvin explained calmly. "In fact, they only obey the current mistress of my family, and she is a vampire."

  Aurora trembled, as the clues in her mind finally began to connect.

  "Aren't you?" she asked hesitantly.

  "I'm not," Marvin said. "You are."

  "I am... I am..." Aurora looked down at her hands, her face draining of color. "A vampire."

  A fierce summer thunderstorm had broken, and in an instant, rain began to fall in dense sheets.

  Marvin stood in the rain with his sword at the ready, watching as the girl before him knelt in the mud, her body curled up with pain and her fingers dug deep into the earth. Her heart-wrenching wails were lost amid the pounding wind and rain, inaudible to anyone.

  The rain fell harder and showed no signs of stopping.

  Marvin sighed and walked over to hoist Aurora in his arms. She did not struggle or resist but let him carry her as if she were nothing more than a lifeless heap.

  This cemetery was set upon a small hill, with an old abandoned house at its peak where the night watchman sometimes stayed. Marvin reached the ruined house and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he pushed it open. In a dark corner, he found some half-burned wood and quickly started a fire. He laid Aurora by the fire; her eyes were empty as she lay on the ground, as if all reason and consciousness had been stripped away.

  "Being a vampire isn't all bad," Marvin said as he removed his sodden cotton cuirass and tried to warm it by the fire. "Look on the bright side, your appearance is now forever frozen at 18. That is the most charming age. Eternal 18 is something many would envy. And you don't need to eat, drink, or even breathe. A steady supply of blood will keep you forever youthful. Ha ha. While other women bleed every month, you get to draw blood each month."

  "I'm a monster," Aurora mumbled, her mouth moving listlessly.

  "So what if you are a monster?" Marvin said. "If you were still ugly after transforming then you may be mistaken for a monster, but you're still beautiful... still a lady."

  "Is there really a difference?" Aurora laughed bitterly.

  "Of course there is," Marvin replied as he stoked the fire, its flames crackling merrily. "Have you ever heard of the Magic Tide?"

  Aurora fell silent.

  "When the Magic Tide arrives, chaos will break out and heroes will emerge," Marvin said. "Right now, the extraordinary level cap has been raised to 5, and the secret of bloodline knowledge is about to be revealed. Let me give you an example. At the end of the Third Epoch, you know the last three titans of the Pendragon Republic? Oregion chose the Dragon Bloodline, Mark Lucus chose the Devil Bloodline, while Rebecca was a pureblood human who refused to select an extraordinary bloodline."

  "And so Rebecca was the first to fall. In the end, Oregion emerged victorious in the civil war and declared himself the Republic's lifelong leader. This act was seen as the milestone marking the transformation of the republic into an empire," Marvin continued. "In his later years, the Dragon Bloodline had completely corrupted his human blood. When he died, his extraordinary power dissipated, and he could no longer maintain his human form. He revealed his true form as a nearly twenty-meter-long dragon. The authorities had to deploy 40 armored knights to carry his massive carcass out of the palace."

  "Doesn't that terrify people?" Aurora asked, lifting her head and biting her lip.

  "Not at all," Marvin explained. "At that time, there was no Pendragon Church. Under a pantheon belief system, people took pride in their family's extraordinary bloodline. In fact, after Oregion died, his dragon carcass was enshrined in the Temple of Pendragon Gods, and he was proclaimed Dragon King Sinaphor October. Since then, every emperor has taken the name October to evoke the power of the dragon god to help them rule."

  Aurora hugged her knees uncertainly. Though somewhat persuaded by Marvin's words, a deep-seated fear still lingered. After all, she had grown up knowing nothing beyond Zephandrel. But Marvin's explanation filled her with hope; the vampire bloodline was not to be feared, merely one of many extraordinary bloodlines.

  "Why are you helping me?" Aurora asked quietly as she stared into the fire, its light playing over her shifting expression.

  "Because we share the same goal," Marvin answered. "You want to avenge your family, don't you?"

  "Yes," Aurora whispered, clutching the edge of her linen shroud that had been changed before the burial. Its coarse texture made her feel as if she were in a daze. "Then what do you plan to do?"

  "To kill them all," Marvin said as he tossed a log into the fire. "Of course, I mean my entire family."

  Aurora turned her head in shock.

  "Don't look at me like that," Marvin said with a wry smile. "My parents were killed by that woman. The servants and staff were all turned into vampires, and they still occupy my ancestral home. Although I am not particularly attached to that house, it remains the inheritance my parents left me. I cannot allow those outsiders to benefit from it."

  Although since he was just an outsider who took over this body, he didn't have any sense of attachment to his family either.

  If this body's parents were still alive, then he naturally wouldn't ignore them as he would be taking over the responsibilities of the NPC Marvin Fontaine, whether he was forced into this or not.

  "I understand," Aurora murmured. "We have a common enemy."

  "Indeed," Marvin said. "In the short term, your enemy is the vampires who killed your parents. In the long run, the church, the night watch, and the demon hunters are your sworn foes. Without the necessary extraordinary strength, as a member of the bloodline, you will soon be found and killed if exposed."

  "You possess the extraordinary trait of Sanguine's Thirst I. In many ways, your starting point is higher than that of most people in this city, including me. What you lack now is the ability to convert your extraordinary power into physical strength and the experience to use it. I can teach you that, but not without a price. You will need to sign a soul contract."