Chapter 191

He was being played by Helena.

Of that, he was certain.

That sweet smile she wore as she looked at him.

The very sound of her voice as she greeted him.

Everything was identical to that final moment when she had toyed with him before.

The moment he faced Helena, Lajeare felt as if he had fallen into a pit of despair.

An impulse to declare his defeat right then and there welled up within him.

However, Lajeare was no fool.

The power he felt from Helena was faint, almost negligible.

True, her power was overwhelmingly stronger than that of the other vassals, but it was still nothing compared to her power in the past.

‘She’s different from the Helena of the past.’

He quickly grasped that fact.

In the past, the moment she appeared, an aura powerful enough to crush everything should have descended upon them.

The fact that it hadn't was proof.

This was an opportunity.

Right now!

As hope returned to Lajeare, Sebastian also came to a swift realization—that she was indeed different from the Helena he knew from the past.

“Sebastian!!!”

“Yes!!! Your command, my lord!!!”

“She is our sworn enemy! Cut that vile woman down!!!”

“Yes!!!”

As Lajeare gave the order, Sebastian answered with a thunderous roar.

Watching the two of them, Helena simply smiled.

Then, in a captivating voice, she murmured softly.

“Honestly, how could I have known it would turn out like this? Not even the gods can predict such things, you see.”

At her gentle voice, Sebastian’s wariness spiked..

Realizing an abyss was blooming at his feet, he swung his sword.

However, he couldn't deal with all the hands that shot out from the abyss.

Caught by the hands of the abyss, Sebastian tried to struggle free.

But in that instant, the ceiling flashed.

Countless spears of light materialized and rained down upon him.

Shk-shk-shk-shk!

“Gah!”

Sebastian was a vassal created with all of Lajeare’s power, yet he was rendered hopelessly weak before the spears of light.

Watching this, Helena murmured to herself.

“As I thought. You’re weak to heavenly power, aren’t you?”

[TL/N: Celestial→Heavenly (matches her class name better imo)]

Cloaked in heavenly energy, Helena prepared to unleash even more heavenly skills.

Seeing this, Lajeare cried out.

“H-How can an Overlord wield heavenly power…!?!?”

“Hm?”

At Lajeare’s words, Helena tilted her head as if she found his question odd.

“But I’m not an Overlord anymore.”

“…Huh?”

At Helena's words, Lajeare let out a dumbfounded sound.

The current Overlord was Seonghyun.

And Helena was already dead.

She had returned to this world, yes, but she had lost all of her former authority and power.

And yet, she had appeared with the dignity of a Monarch still intact.

With trembling, disbelieving eyes, Lajeare stared at the heavenly light that had appeared on the ceiling.

It was heavenly light, a fatal weakness for vampires born of blood and darkness.

As that light, brighter than the sun, poured down, Sebastian, who stood in its path, turned to dust and vanished without even a sound.

Facing his final defeat, Lajeare looked at Helena with an air of disbelief.

“So I was just playing in the palm of your hand until the very end.”

“Hmm, I’m telling you, that’s really not it.”

Helena replied, sounding slightly wronged.

As he began to fade away, Lajeare looked at her and spoke.

“Just what is it that you are trying to create…”

“Create? How rude. Our Seonghyun is already a complete being.”

Helena said with a faint smile.

Hearing her words, Lajeare nodded his head.

At the same time, he said,

“An Over… lord. A monarch who can rule over all other monarchs.”

With those last words, Lajeare, just like Sebastian, turned to ash and disappeared.

In his place, only a crimson orb of blood remained floating.

He vanished, leaving nothing else behind.

Lajeare, who had disappeared so futilely in the end.

Seonghyun was watching it all, thinking it was finally over, when—

The glowing, crimson orb of blood flew toward him.

Whoosh!

The crimson orb of blood flew swiftly.

He thought it might be an attack, but seeing that Helena made no move to block it, Seonghyun remained still.

The crimson orb of blood flew into him.

It was absorbed.

Then.

Countless messages flooded Seonghyun’s vision.

[You have completed your 3rd Class Advancement.]

[The blood of the 『Former Overlord, Helena』, left within the 『Blood Monarch, Lajeare』, is now fully transmitted to you.]

[The power of the past Overlord is being passed down.]

[You have inherited the power of the past.]

[The authority of the 『Overlord』 is activated.]

[The power of the 『Blood Monarch, Lajeare』, mixed within the blood of the 『Former Overlord, Helena』, is subjugated.]

[Rewards will now be granted.]

[As a reward for your 3rd Class Advancement, you have acquired the class-exclusive Almighty-rank skill, 『Vampirism』, which had been postponed.]

[As a reward for your 3rd Class Advancement, you have acquired the class-exclusive Almighty-rank skill, 『Blood Monarch』.]

[As a reward for your 3rd Class Advancement, you have acquired the class-exclusive Almighty-rank item, 『Tome of Blood』.]

‘Hah.’

Seonghyun let out a soft gasp of astonishment.

Two Almighty-rank skills, and even an Almighty-rank item.

They said the 3rd Class Advancement was a major turning point.

And they were right.

Seonghyun had obtained it all, but… he was puzzled.

The skills were a little different from what he was used to.

They were related to blood, but…

‘Vampirism?’

His race wasn't Vampire.

Puzzled, Seonghyun immediately checked the skill.

First, Vampirism.

『Vampirism』

→《Almighty》

→[Lv 1][Growth-Type]

[Passive Effect][Composite]

[Cooldown: 1 minute]

All life and all death are contained within blood.

The monarch who partakes of it shall take all that is contained within.

→Overlord Exclusive Skill.

→Allows you to drain blood from a target.

→Upon draining blood, you can temporarily borrow the target's physical form or stats.

→Upon draining blood, you can restore Health and Mana in proportion to the amount drained.

→Upon draining blood, you can temporarily inflict the ‘Confusion’ status on the target.

‘Oh?’

Was this the skill Helena had mentioned?

He could temporarily borrow a target's physical form or stats.

In other words…

‘I suppose this means I can temporarily become a beastman?’

It wouldn't be easy to transform completely into someone like Fiora, but he felt he could achieve a similar effect.

Of course, even besides the transformation effect, the skill was outstanding.

It restored Health and Mana, and could even inflict Confusion on a target.

It truly was a skill befitting the Almighty rank.

A very interesting skill.

Combining a status ailment with Health and Mana restoration…

And above all else.

‘The cooldown is short.’

It was a truly ridiculous skill.

To have this much utility and such a short cooldown.

This is what an Almighty-rank skill should be like.

With that thought, Seonghyun moved on to the next skill, Blood Monarch.

Come to think of it, he had another skill with ‘Monarch’ in its name before this one.

‘It was Monarch of Abyssal Fear, wasn't it?’

[TL/N: Sovereign of Abyssal Fear→Monarch of Abyssal Fear]

A skill that inflicted Fear and restored a proportional amount of Health and Mana.

It was also an Almighty-rank skill.

He wondered what this Blood Monarch skill would be like.

Filled with anticipation, Seonghyun checked the skill.

『Blood Monarch』

→《Almighty》

→[Lv 1][Growth-Type]

[Passive Effect]

The monarch of all things shall make any monarch their own.

Even monarchs shall bow their heads.

→Overlord Exclusive Skill.

→Become the ruler of all blood-kin.

→Absorb blood-kin to enhance your power.

→You can bestow power upon absorbed blood-kin.

*Number of currently absorbed blood-kin: 0

“Huh?”

The effects of Blood Monarch were simpler than he expected.

Even simpler than Monarch of Abyssal Fear.

Reading through it…

‘I can absorb vampires and gain their power?’

It was a better skill than he could have imagined.

Was this what a skill befitting a true monarch was supposed to be like?

In other words, Seonghyun had now acquired the Blood Monarch skill.

Looking at it, Seonghyun scratched his cheek.

‘Is this for real?’

An effect this broken?

As Seonghyun was thinking that, Helena spoke.

“Congratulations. You’ve already obtained more than three monarch powers.”

“Ah.”

If he included Monarch of Abyssal Fear, that did make three.

As Seonghyun nodded, Helena continued.

“From what I can see, Monarch of Abyssal Fear is still sealed, so you’ll get another chance with it later.”

“Oho.”

“Blood Monarch is pretty good in its own right, so try to make good use of it.”

At Helena's words, he looked at the skill again, wondering if this was what she considered "pretty good."

This was amazing.

This was just "pretty good"?

“Of course. Just Monarch of Abyssal Fear alone is far better than something like Blood Monarch.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. You can look forward to it.”

Seonghyun was a little dumbfounded by her words.

To think that Monarch of Abyssal Fear was even better.

But since it was still locked, he decided to move on.

Besides that, something else was bothering him.

The part about becoming the ruler of vampires.

Come to think of it, he had heard that there were players who were vampires.

It wasn't a race you could choose from the start, but more of a… hidden race?

He had a faint memory of hearing about it.

‘Then what happens to those players?’

Could he absorb them, too?

The thought came to him unbidden.

Seonghyun didn't think too deeply about it.

‘I’ll know when I meet them.’

And finally.

The Almighty-rank item, the Tome of Blood.

『Tome of Blood』

→《Almighty》

→An ancient tome of blood, passed down through the Blood Monarchs since time immemorial.

→It has been passed down for generations, but it is said that no Blood Monarch has ever known its origins.

→Can only be used by the owner of the Blood Monarch skill.

→Upon acquisition, you can learn one blood-type skill of your choice.

→After acquisition, you can learn an additional blood-type skill of your choice every 10 levels.

→Simply possessing it increases the power of blood-type skills by +20%.

*Effect applies while in inventory.

*Normally, only Unique-rank skills can be acquired.

*A Legendary-rank skill can be acquired at every 100-level milestone.

It was an item similar to the Tome of the Overlord.

However.

‘Blood-type skills?’

It increased the power of the blood-type skills Seonghyun already had.

And it would allow him to further enhance his blood-type skill build in the future.

Without needing to use the Tome of the Overlord.

‘Hah.’

Seonghyun was amazed by its considerable effects.

A few skills crucial for his blood build came to mind, and Seonghyun smiled.

This is going to be fun, isn't it?

[This is a World-wide Announcement.]

[Announcement]

「We are announcing a large-scale event taking place in 『All Labyrinth Regions』.

The event will begin tomorrow at 18:00 based on the East Asia server time (Seoul, Korea).

The event name is 『The Awakened Blood-kin』.

『The Awakened Blood-kin』 will appear in the labyrinths.

They are exceptional vampires who may settle in the labyrinths, or perhaps even escape them to find new homes.

Unlike the monsters that spawn in the labyrinths, 『The Awakened Blood-kin』 can leave them.

The levels of 『The Awakened Blood-kin』 that escape the labyrinths will fluctuate rapidly, and they will grow even stronger.

Stop 『The Awakened Blood-kin』 from spreading in all directions!

Inside the labyrinths, 『The Awakened Blood-kin』 will follow the labyrinth's level.

Contribution points will be awarded for subjugating 『The Awakened Blood-kin』 based on their strength.

Defeat as many of the 『Awakened Blood-kin』 as possible and claim your contribution rewards.*

The user who achieves 1st place in contribution points will be given three Legendary-grade rewards.

We look forward to your participation.

Thank you.

-From E-World-」

Seeing that, Seonghyun smiled.

Just as he had obtained a skill related to blood-kin.

They were holding an event directly related to it?

‘I wonder if I’m allowed to participate?’

He worried about it for a moment, but…

If that were the case, wouldn't he have received a separate message?

With that thought, Seonghyun smiled.

‘Then shall I start preparing for tomorrow's event?’