Deep in the cave, Aldrin huddled against a rocky outcropping bracing himself for the slew of notifications that were going to pop up.

  “Holy shit,” Aldrin breathed out, looking at his gains but the reality of it all meant that he was slowly slipping further away from his humanity.

  He glanced at his empty Class slot knowing full well that if he wanted to make a decisive blow to the bandit camp tonight he would have to take one of the classes to give him another edge. His Vampiric Powers would be enough to survive but not enough to turn the tide. Glancing over them he decided he would pick two skills from it. From the brief glance over his Vampire Skills he chose to buy Level 2 of Undead Body and Level 1 of Supernatural Reflexes for a total of 6 SP.

  A wave of reluctance reared its head when Aldrin came back to his empty class slot. If he chose to accept a class presented to him he would be treading further away from his humanity, fully solidifying his new life. However, the thoughts of a cure had pushed that reluctance away and filled him with hope instead. He didn’t care what he had to do to cure himself, he just wanted to return to a semblance of normalcy.

  “Alright let’s get this over with then,” Aldrin said to himself, pulling up his options of classes.

  Each of them offered a slow burn to power, each in their own unique way without giving too much away. While initially a person would start as the basic archetype then be allowed to branch off into different specializations within that archetype Aldrin had a funny feeling that him being a Vampire Progenitor he would not have the same options as others. All he had to do was wait and see what the Tier 2 options were for the classes.

  Remembering his time as a Tier 2 Cleric of Dremetica he had first chosen Mage and then when he had reached Tier 2 he was presented with either a Priest or Cleric. He had researched in the Holy Order’s archives for the class path of both and found himself drawn to a Cleric as later on they would eventually become Paladins of Dremetica. Thus he began training in close combat with a variety of weapons to get a feel for which he would prefer when he had reached Cleric.

  Seeing as the Vampire variant of a Mage focused on controlling massive amounts of undead he completely shunned away from it as it would lead him down a path that more than likely would get him killed before he could cure himself. Legions of Undead had a tendency to draw the attention of every Kingdom of Grenora and he did not want to draw any more attention to himself than necessary.

  He had reviewed the Vampire variant of a Rogue and thought about how easy it would be to sneak in and out of places if need be. Unfortunately they seemed to be easily killed as they needed time to gather their strength to become a powerhouse the Class advertised. Hell it seemed like all of the choices presented to him were meant to be a slow build to power.

  Lastly, looking at the Fighter variant he understood it was just the up close and personal type of one. Something he was already doing recently. Frowning, he questioned himself why he was even debating between the classes. Ripping the choice off like a band aid he finally chose the class that was going to give him an edge.

  Aldrin took a deep breath as the choice settled over him, then he opened his System Menu and opened up the new skill tree of Bloodletter.

  “Huh, more passive abilities than active abilities than I expected. They really do start off as low as they can,” Aldrin said to himself, taking the first Level of each skill.

  Aldrin had opted no to view the next level for now hoping that the first of each would be enough to make it through the night. All that was left to do now was distribute at least some of the Skill Points into his stats. Hoping that there was no added information due to his race and class change he reviewed what each Stat meant.

  Relieved that nothing had changed in the information of Stats, Aldrin proceeded to allocate 40 of Skill points. First and foremost he raised his Wisdom from 20 to 40 hoping it would allow some control over his impulses to kill for blood, leaving him with 20 Skill Points to allocate. He decided to distribute 10 points into Strength raising it from 20 to 30, 5 points into Vitality raising it from 20 to 25, and lastly 5 points into Charisma raising it from 20 to 25.

  Looking at the rest of his 32 Skill Points left over, ”Ah why the hell not? Might as well flesh out my class as best as I can then since I am not going to have it long,” He begrudgingly said to himself pulling up his Class skills again for the next level skills.

  Aldrin chose to focus on Cleaving Strikes, leveling it all the way to Level 3 for 10 Skill Points and then Leveling Combat Prowess to Level 4 leaving for 18 Skill Points leaving him with 4 remaining.

  With the remaining 4 Skill Points, he took a look at his Vampire Skills, specifically his Vampiric Awareness he noted earlier to grab if he had leftover points grabbing Level 2 of it.

  Feeling satisfied at his new updates he finally looked at the condensed form of his new and improved overview of himself.

  Hopefully, he was ready for the upcoming battle with the bandit camp. With the sun still high up all he had to do now is rest until nightfall. Closing his eyes he let himself drift off to a restless sleep.

  “Do you think he is in here?” Jared's worried voice echoed into the cave, waking Aldrin. He was unsure how much time had passed but the burning sensation on his skin that he assumed was like an internal clock for a vampire had dimmed down by a lot.

  “Well he sure as shit does now Jared,” Pierre growled out in response.

  Aldrin let out a small chuckle making his way towards the two voices. The lighting from their torches gave them away once he got closer. Jared’s head was on a swivel, jumping at every creak and crack from shifting rocks. Pierre tried to hold onto a strong front but from the way Jared kept jumping at every little thing his nerves were on their wits end.

  “Hey,” Aldrin frowned, trying to hold in the laughter that threatened to bubble out after Jared turned around screaming his head off again. Pierre shot Jared with a murderous glare shutting him up immediately.

  “You are both brave to stumble around in the lair of a vampire,” Aldrin said, still playing the calm and collected vampire he presented himself to them as.

  “We didn’t mean anything by it Mr. Vampire, Sir,” Jared peeped out from behind Pierre’s shoulder.

  Pierre rolled his eyes at Jared, “We came here because we have nowhere else to go. The guys back at camp realized that we were the ones that led you to them,” Pierre explained.

  “And what gave them that idea?” Aldrin asked, intrigued by the turn of events.

  “That was on me, when you dropped from the sky and I took off running and screaming it had led the others straight to me which then. . . led to questions. . . and more questions and then the truth came out,” Jared admitted his voice trailing off at the end, looking everywhere but at Aldrin.

  “I see,” Aldrin smirked.

  “Needless to say we have come to offer our services to you in exchange for protection,” Pierre said.

  “Protection? Why?” Aldrin inquired, confused at them both.

  “Our former partners in crime no longer see us as partners in crime but as traitors,” Pierre explained.

  “And seeing as you are a big bad vampire we figured the enemy of our enemy is our friend which led me to tracking you down to this cave,” He added.

  “Don’t vampires usually have human servants to do their bidding anyways? We would be an asset!” Jared said, trying to sell themselves to Aldrin.

  Aldrin bellowed out a laugh, doubling over at the absurdity of it all. “Wait, let me get this straight,” Aldrin said in between his cackles.

  “You tracked me down to pledge yourselves to me?” Aldrin finally asked.

  “Well, yes, just about sir,” Jared said quietly.

  Aldrin stayed quiet, eyeing them both with equal measure. His gaze on them made Jared break out in cold sweats as Pierre stood stock still. “Ok,” Aldrin said, breaking the silence.

  Jared’s knees buckled at the relief that flooded over him, “Oh thank you master! We won’t fail you!” He praised.

  Aldrin chuckled even more at the turn of events. Pierre looked just as relieved but not by much since he knew that a predator wearing the face of a man still lurked in front of them.

  “Please do not call me master, it makes me uncomfortable,” Aldrin still chuckled, letting them see the brief glint of his fangs in the torchlight.

  “Wait, what’s a Bloodletter?” Jared asked, standing to attention more alert than before.

  “My class,” Aldrin answered, not giving away too much information to his enemies turned allies.

  “So are the others on their way? It would be stupid of me to just take what you say at face value,” Aldrin said.

  “They do have trackers but we assure you they did not follow us here or are we still working with them,” Pierre quickly said, raising his free hand up in defense.

  “I will believe it when I see it then,” Aldrin said, still keeping his distance.

  The burning sensation of skin had begun to dull down to a tingling feeling signaling that the sun was almost set. Rolling his shoulders, Aldrin walked towards them making them both take a step back.

  “We attack now,” Aldrin declared as he moved past Jared and Pierre.

  “What? The three of us?” Jared sputtered out making Pierre elbow him.

  “We will follow your lead sir,” Pierre covered for them both.

  “But before we go we bring you gifts,” Pierre quickly added.

  Aldrin's ears perked up at that, “What sort of gifts?”

  Pierre began to dump pieces of armor onto the cave floor. Aldrin immediately Identified them all.

  “Thank you,” Aldrin gratefully said, finally ridding himself of the dirty and bloody pincushion rags he wore.

  Equipping them all together, a System Alert chimed in his mind. Focusing on it he pulled it up,

  “Finally, round 2 will hopefully go more in my favor,” Aldrin said, gleaming at his new sword before giving Pierre and Jared the cruelest smile he could muster, causing them to recoil back.