++Evolution is a common occurrence, best described as the life cycle of a magical creature. For those arcane beasts that live long enough at least.

  Each stage evolved past raises the creature’s Tier and brings newfound powers…and weaknesses.++

  Chapter 14

  Evolution available. You are on the precipice of rising to a greater height and fulfilling your destiny as a vampire. The ancient ichor within your veins is awakening, and it seeks an outlet.

  “What does any of that mean?”

  I…just told you.

  “Okay, but I don’t understand. Can you rephrase that?”

  I’m really supposed to just phrase it in only this way, it’s meant to be interpreted.

  “But you’re your own person now, right…uh…Sycily?”

  Sycily?

  “Your new name, I was thinking. Like Cecily but…System. Do you like it?”

  Sycily did seem to like it, because it wasn’t more than two seconds before Reggie got a new mass of information.

  The latent mana gathered in your body as you progressed your Tier is now ready to set its nature, which is to say that its behaviour, abilities and scope for the rest of your existence can now be chosen. This will determine what sort of additional Traits or Abilities you gain. In most cases it will also be a limiting factor on your Attributes, with some being Primary—able to reach the limit of your Tier rating—and others being Secondary or Tertiary, and thus more limited. In your case, currently, it seems that all of your Attributes are considered Primary, bear in mind that this is likely to change following your first Evolution.

  Reggie knew a fair amount of what he was being told here already, which helped keep him from abject confusion.

  “So…it’s like how higher Classes, the elven ones, have Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Attributes too?”

  Precisely.

  That made sense to him, it was why a Wizard was physically weaker than a Warrior—compensating with Abilities pertaining to magic rather than raw strength. Stood to reason that some magical creatures were less physically powerful than others of the same Tier, right?

  Then it hit him that there was something a bit more significant he should’ve been focusing on.

  “Wait so what are my Attributes going to be in regards to Primary, Secondary and Tertiary??”

  The answer to that varies between vampire species, and I couldn’t yet answer for you. Sycily sounded clinical as ever, despite how much this obviously mattered for Reggie.. Additionally, that is a digression, would you like to hear your evolution options?

  “Sure.” It wasn’t like Reggie had many options, although… “Wait, Ludvich said something about my weaknesses getting worse as I grew more powerful.”

  That is true, following this evolution the sun will slowly injure you. More than a few hours of prolonged exposure will likely result in your destruction.

  That…huh, wasn’t that bad, at least? Shit Reggie had plenty of other hazards that’d kill him faster just from being a squishy human; being underwater, falling, walking through the grimwood without help. It was definitely a limit, but he’d been worried about just exploding when he walked past a window.

  “I’d like to hear my options.”

  Path number one; Blood Courtier. You are a lesser noble of the blood, and your powers of magnetism and manipulation are beyond human. Expand your domain, lay claim to territory and ascend to rule the night.

  That sounded evil as shit, but also like it would result in Reggie having a really big house. He kept it in consideration. “Okay, and the others?”

  Path number two; Feral Predator. You are a creature of the night, and the Beast within you makes you strong and vicious. Bolster your body and command the animals that share the land with you, reign as the king of predators.

  That sounded like it would make Reggie even more homeless than he already was, which he did not enjoy considering. “And?”

  Final path; Ichorous Mage. Your undead mind has been opened to the arcane in a way that even others of your kind are unable to match, and grasping the magics of Necromancy, Blood Sorcery and Abyssal Magecraft comes as naturally as feeding. Though you are no physical terror, nor able to infiltrate mortal society, your command of magic might one day cover the world in darkness.

  “These all sound evil as fuck,” Reggie found himself frowning.

  You are a vampire.

  “Can’t I be a good vampire?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I…That is more of a philosophical question than the sort I usually answer.

  “I can’t actually think of anyone who’s better to ask about this than someone who made the transition from mindless answer-giving-entity to actual person less than a day ago,” Reggie pointed out. Sycily thought about it for a moment before replying.

  I believe that you are as good as you choose to act.

  “I eat rats and throw bricks at police officers.”

  You might want to stop doing that if you don’t have to, then.

  Reggie took the point into consideration, then continued thinking about his new options for an evolution.

  He liked the sound of being strong, of course, and as much as it stung to admit, the Feral Predator sounded easily the most similar to his current lifestyle. Knowing that peelers weren’t hostile to him, Reggie already had some relative safety in the grimwoods. If he could command, or even just influence, animals, too…he might be able to just lurk out here forever.

  But that was short-term, and it wouldn’t do to only make decisions based on how easy his life would be for the next month, or even year. God. He was looking at eternal life, right? Vampires didn’t age. He might need to plan for centuries.

  There were elves everywhere, many of them were Adept Tier or above, and they controlled just about everything. And they didn’t like vampires. Reggie considered those facts and quickly decided that he’d not be living comfortably unless he could blend in and keep himself from drawing attention.

  “That third path, the Ichorous Mage, they’re not good at blending in as humans?”

  Not specialised at it, not like the Blood Courtier.

  Reggie sighed. He’d liked the idea of magic use, but his priority had to be saving his own skin. It seemed unlikely that he’d be getting a third shot at life—existence, whatever—if this one ended as disastrously as his first.

  “I don’t get to take this back after I’ve decided, right?”

  No.

  [I have a suggestion,] Dvo began, [why don’t you go for the Feral Predator? That way you’ll be free to kill and hunt as you please. Oh we’ll have so much fun Reggie! I won’t even want you to kill yourself if you do that! Promise!]

  “I’m not going to kill people,” Reggie told the voice.

  [Kill yourself,] Dvo replied. Reggie sighed and focused on his selection.

  “How do I make my pick?”

  Just tell me, verbally, and I’ll do the rest.

  “Alright, uh…I would like to evolve into a Blood Courtier.”

  A pause.

  …Good luck, Reggie. Sycily’s voice sounded odd, wavering with emotion. It struck Reggie with a disquietingly uncanny feeling after so many years spent hearing the System speak in depthless monotones. But he was soon given something to distract him.

  He felt a sudden hunger overtake him, depthless, all-consuming. Reggie dropped down to his knees, groaning and waiting for bloody tears to well in his eyes from the agony. They didn’t. It seemed his body needed all the ichor it had.

  “What…”

  Evolution is an exhausting process, you must feed to sustain it.

  Now she fucking told him. Reggie stumbled from the clearing, resisting the urge to bite down on one of his new peelers—Sycily had already told him the blood of long-dead creatures was toxic to vampires—and looking for something new he could chomp down on. Fortunately, he knew just where to find his meal.

  Norvhan was a good ten miles from Reggie, a long distance as far as his human self had been concerned. With his new, tireless body, though, it took practically no time at all for him to sprint over to it even without transforming into his bestial form. He saw the walls looming up ahead of him and didn’t even think to try and transform before making the jump this time.

  Fortunately, that didn’t prove to be too big a mistake. His Strength wasn’t benefitting from its hefty +10 bonus, but it still sat at a nice 17 and Reggie was moving at a dead run. He was just barely high enough to grab the top of the wall as his body slammed into its midsection, and hauling himself over from there was no issue at all.

  Landing was a different matter, at least when Reggie did so directly on his head. He felt a lance of pain run right down his neck as he took a faceful of dirt, worried for a moment that he’d been paralyzed but…no. He could move, it was just embarrassment he’d be stuck with. That and a bit of pain.

  Fortunately, neither of those stopped Reggie from shambling his way back to Ludvich’s home. The place looked a bit nicer, now, if anything. Maybe the old man had had it touched up in his retirement, maybe being buried alive—or dead—just rearranged Reggie’s standards somewhat.

  He’d taken only a minor detour in hurrying over there, and that was to hunt. Reggie always had a knack for rat-catching, today was no different. He’d never been able to make a living off it, people refused to pay him for anything when they could get away with it, but…well.

  It wasn’t like he’d never eaten a rat before, right?

  Reggie was three rats in—a new single-night record, even for him—before Sycily spoke up to enlighten him once again.

  You are aware that the blood of non-magical animals is highly ineffective at nourishing you.

  “Well yeah, they’re tiny,” he replied through a mouthful of rat.

  He saw what she meant soon enough, though. With his added speed Reggie was able to capture another dozen rats, between them he must’ve drunk pints of blood. He felt like he’d taken in ounces. The difference his meal made was minor, and it faded away almost before he’d finished reaching Ludvich.

  A few strikes on the heavy oak door and Reggie was let inside, then greeted with a concerned stare from the Witchfinder.

  “Are you hurt?” Ludvich demanded. Reggie bit back a few choice comments regarding how much of his life had been hurt by volume, and whose fault that was.

  “No,” he gasped, “just…evolving.”

  “Evolving,” Ludvich whispered. He was practical as always, though, and overcame the shock and fear twisting in his eyes with extraordinary swiftness. “What do you need? Blood, right? To further the evolution, you need blood?”

  “Blood,” Reggie growled. He felt himself growing hungrier, hearing the drum of Ludvich’s pulse and…no, that was it. He didn’t feel like pouncing on him and feasting until he was drained, not particularly. Strike that down as another exaggerated rumour, perhaps?

  It was a moot point either way, because Ludvich wasted no time in opening up his own wrist and holding it out for Reggie. “Go ahead lad.”

  Reggie wasn’t nice enough to need telling twice, he drank fast and felt the molten strength pouring into him. God, so much of it. Nevermind the magical creatures, this was human blood? It felt like he was taking in two or three sips for each one he did.

  Even still, he wasn’t close to full by the time the Witchfinder drew his arm back.

  “More,” Reggie grunted, “animals or…something, just need more.”

  Ludvich got a look in his eye, nodded, and left quickly. He didn’t take more than twenty minutes to return, and when he did it was with a pig over one shoulder.

  “From V…oh, you won’t know him now. A farmer anyway. Bought it for twice the usual price but—” Reggie was already pouncing on the animal, drinking it fast enough that he actually felt stronger for a moment.

  “More,” he grunted, then sprinted out of the house.

  It took most of the remaining night, and a good deal of illegal poaching, before Reggie had sated himself. He knew that there’d be trouble to come, having now drained about a dozen farm animals from the various pens dotted around Norvhan, but he couldn’t bring himself to focus on that. Not now.

  No, the power building in his core was far too intense.

  Evolution threshold reached, evolution beginning soon. To finalize, sleep in a coffin containing soil of the region in which you were sired.

  Well, that wouldn’t be hard to obtain. Reggie was already there.