Chapter 49: Vampire’s Skills
[Your S-Rank Mutated Iron Shadow Hound grew stronger.]
[Next mutation or rank progress: 3%]
Terrence finally immediately felt the soothing embrace of a soft mattress. Sinking deeply into the bed, he noticed the sudden notification floating from the System.
’I still have six more B-Rank beast cores stored inside the Beast Sanctuary. Since they were allocated for the Shadow Hound, I still have six days before filling it up again.’
He shifted his weight on the bed, turning over to face the high ceiling of the estate’s guest room.
Jonas Lin had been genuinely concerned for his daughter earlier. That meant Jonas couldn’t possibly be part of this whole scheme. Why would a loving father risk his own daughter’s life for something like that?
Moreover, Winter’s contracted beast had died inside the dungeon, which meant they had to quickly find another beast that could fill the empty role. They needed a beast that would be at least in the same league as her fallen deer beast.
Truthfully, Terrence had seen that deer beast as something truly majestic. Its initial mysterious presence, along with the fact that he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of it when Winter first summoned it, made him feel that the beast was ridiculously strong.
’However, it was just terrible bad luck that it had to face a beast with mental attacks and weird threads that could switch between blunt and razor-sharp,’ Terrence mused silently.
’If I ever see something like that again... if the System ever rewards me with that kind of beast... I would gladly train it to be mountable.’
Remembering that he still had an active system mission about selling the Vampire Butler, he let out a quiet sigh.
Summoning the creature right beside the bed, his eyes fell down on its deep crimson skin and spiky, pointed ears.
The vampire tilted its head slightly, reacting with an unusual curiosity to the intense observation from its owner.
"You really look almost like a human..." Terrence murmured, sitting up. "Can you change your skin color?"
The vampire nodded smoothly. Terrence’s eyes widened in surprise as the crimson complexion started changing, shifting from blood-red to a pale white tone—now remarkably similar to what a regular human had.
A sudden surge of excitement jumped inside Terrence’s chest, as if a great idea had just struck him.
"Wow... Now you look even more like a human. Just your eyes and ears are still different."
As soon as those words left his mouth, the creature’s dark, gleaming eyes slowly narrowed, the pupils adjusting into a human-like shape. Its pointed ears softened and curved inward, matching human features perfectly.
Terrence rubbed his eyes in utter disbelief. What did he just witness?
’I have no way to know his official Skills right now since I can’t use Skill Share with him yet. But can I at least communicate with him through commands?’
"Hey, what are your actual Skills?" Terrence asked directly.
The vampire opened its palm and immediately materialized a floating streak of pure blood, dynamically creating different physical shapes with it every second—even perfectly copying the outline of a nearby piece of furniture and a sharp weapon. Then, the blood thinned into a fine thread, and the vampire flicked its wrist, launching the red line against the far wall where it stuck seamlessly.
Terrence smirked, leaning forward.
"Is there more?"
The vampire shifted its body back into its original terrifying state for a split second, then instantly morphed back to look fully human. Within the very next second, its entire body collapsed inward and transformed into a dark bat, looking much more like a real wild beast. A moment later, it turned back into its human-faced form and materialized dark red streaks of energy from both open palms.
The energy wasn’t solid; it looked like floating particles he couldn’t easily describe—like a luminescent light that glowed blood-red. It was completely different from the solid threads or the liquid blood it had shaped earlier.
"Is that all of them?"
The vampire nodded silently, then stood back up straight with its hands neatly folded at its side, looking every bit like a proper, dignified butler in its unique obsidian tuxedo attire.
A heavy, lingering feeling formed within Terrence’s chest that he couldn’t quite describe.
’There’s definitely something in this skill set that I can exploit. I am absolutely sure of it.’
As Terrence sank deeper into his thoughts, he was abruptly stopped by a sudden, soft knock at his bedroom door.
He quickly dismissed the vampire back into his sanctuary, stood up from the mattress, and strode over to the door. He gently pulled it open.
Peeking through the gap of the doorway was Winter in her night attire. She wore a soft robe that covered her whole slender frame, but her face carried a visibly broken, weary gaze.
She didn’t look cold or distant anymore, unlike how her sharp eyes normally appeared.
"Did I disturb you?" she asked in a soft, quiet voice, completely different from the serious, commanding tone he recognized inside the dungeon.
Terrence shook his head immediately.
"Why would you?" He paused, inspecting her face. "Are you already feeling alright?"
"I already drank a high-grade healing elixir," she replied weakly, looking down at her feet. "I should be okay physically."
"Oh... that’s good."
A heavy, awkward silence fell between the two of them for a few long seconds.
"Can I come in?"
Terrence pulled the door open wider, offering an awkward, hesitant smile. He didn’t know why, but the situation felt strangely awkward simply because Winter was acting so unlike the composed heiress he knew.
"Sure... It’s not like this room actually belongs to me anyway. This is your family’s house, so you can do whatever you want."
Winter didn’t reply. She simply stared at him for a quiet moment before walking past him and sitting down on the edge of the mattress.
An intense, heavy atmosphere settled over the guest room. Questions kept popping up in Terrence’s head as to why she had come to see him at this hour.
"So... do you need something specific from me?"
"I want to thank you for saving my life back there," Winter said quietly.
She fidgeted nervously where she sat, her fingers curling tightly around each other in her lap.
"And... can you help me?" She raised her head, her eyes trembling slightly as she looked up at him.
"I know I need time to mourn my partner, but... I can’t just forget that I am a tamer. I desperately need a new beast."