The two residents fell asleep in each other's arms, spooning. Aelion was the one holding Seraphina in his arms, both of them in Adam's attire, enjoying a long night of sleep after their battle and mutual pleasure. The vampire was the first to wake up in the embrace of the handsome man who was still sleeping.
Tightening her arms around his waist, she turned to face him. Watching him for a moment, she patted his cheek to wake him up. It was time to wake up, but she wasn't sure about that because of where he was. Aelion, grumpy at first, woke up yawning to release his sluggishness while stretching. Now that both were fully conscious, it was time to talk.
"I think we should talk about what happened earlier," began Aelion, half asleep.
"And what is there to say? I wanted it, and you did too, so everything's fine—unless you regret it…" asked Seraphina curiously.
"That's not what I meant. I don't regret it either... I just don't want things to get weird between us. I feel like it happened too fast," he continued, scratching his head.
"Ah, don't worry too much about that. It was mutual and consensual. Nothing weird will happen. Anyway, what did you expect when a man and a woman are alone in such a big manor? Things like that happen," replied the vampire, about to get up from the bed.
"It's not because we're in this situation that things have to happen this way. All I'm saying is that I'm not used to having intimate relationships on a whim or without being in a committed relationship..."
Learning this from him made her reconsider the situation. Seraphina was a vampire who had always been treated as the villain and never as a human, nor had she ever truly experienced the joys of being one. So, having had this kind of spontaneous sensual interaction for the first time, she considered the idea of doing it again without necessarily a serious commitment.
Her past and her way of being had never led her to consider any kind of romantic or serious relationship with anyone, as she saw such moments as temporary, because in the end, her goal did not align with that. Likewise, in this case, she just wanted to have fun, enjoy herself, and once she got out of here, cherish those moments that would probably never happen again. Without lying to herself, Aelion really attracted her. That was one of the reasons she had let herself go. However, that feeling wasn't strong enough for her to decide to change her mind. That's why she realized that maybe she had skipped many steps in building the special relationship she wanted to weave, thinking she could play only on the man's primitive desires to get what she wanted.
However, Aelion was a different man, with a new point of view she hadn't yet encountered.
"I'm going to take a shower, and you should do the same—by joining me if you wish. We'll meet later in the kitchen," she replied while standing up, picking up her clothes from the floor, bending over with her bare ass exposed toward him.
He glanced at her, visibly troubled. Before leaving, she kissed him once more on the lips and went to her bath.
Did she understand what I was saying earlier?
Of course, Aelion wasn't going to join her. He had always made it a point of honor to control and regulate his desires. What he despised the most were men who couldn't control themselves and gave in freely—he saw them as beasts. Moreover, he was aware of being a handsome man who could attract desire. If he had pushed a little in his original world, he could have had any girl he wanted, had fun, and slept around. However, he had instilled a certain discipline in himself: he wasn't really against having sexual or mutual pleasure relationships with women, but what he especially disliked was doing so with strangers or with people whose relationship with him he couldn't define. On top of that, he didn't show his intimacy or sleep with just anyone.
Seraphina, however, was a stranger who had just barely entered the acquaintance stage. He knew nothing about her except that she was a villain who had been cursed. She hadn't revealed anything about her past either, apart from heroes and gods. That, and the kind of relationship she was trying to establish with him, was precisely what he despised. Unfortunately for him, she had discovered a new pleasure she wouldn't let fade away so easily.
Now that he was alone, he had other things to do and check.
"Status."
[Aelion Draveth]
RACE: Altered Human
RANK: F
LEVEL: 6
TITLES: –
AFFINITIES:
[Element]: Dark Blood, Primordial Darkness
SKILLS:
[Villainess Taming] (SSS)
[Universality] (Ex)
[Bond] D (evolving)
[Blood Perception] (Lv. 1)
[Targeted Flow] (Lv. 1)
[Dark Blood Blade] (Lv. 2)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength: 11
Agility: 12
Intelligence: 13
Vitality: 12
Charisma: 15
Luck: ???
INVENTORY:
[Manor of Ira] (deployed), [Construction Ticket ×4], [Scythe of siphoner ]
STATUS: [Resurrected]
Thanks to the interface, Aelion was able to see the new changes that had occurred during the battle. His race, previously invisible, had appeared. To his great surprise, it was marked as "Altered Human." Digesting everything that had happened and the system messages allowed him to understand why. Seraphina's blood had tried to transform him, but the darkness had taken the upper hand and devoured the mutation factor. The system had been forced to convert it into attribute points. To top it all off, the darkness had ended up devouring the blood, but this time it had evolved into Black Blood. Curious, he focused on this element. Soon, another dedicated interface appeared.
---
[Element detected: Dark Blood]
Type: Organic Element — Primordial
Origin: The Primordial Darkness devoured your blood and reforged it according to its essence.
This power embodies the convergence of Nothingness and Life, shaped by your will.
You are recognized as the one and only master of Dark Blood.
Description:
Dark Blood is a living substance born from the fusion of blood and Primordial Darkness.
It is a conscious fluid without a will of its own, entirely bound to your soul and obeying your absolute control.
Able to absorb, assimilate, and reshape any form of life, it acts as a direct extension of your being.
Where ordinary blood nourishes, dark Blood consumes and reinvents.
Passive effects:
○Body partially reconstructed by living matter.
○Partial immunity to dark corruption.
○Passive blood perception: enhanced sense of nearby life signatures.
Active effects:
●[Vital Assimilation]: absorbs the blood or life energy of a target to temporarily enhance attributes (range and quantity depend on level).
●[Lineage Devourer]: extracts and integrates the "signature" of a lineage from absorbed blood or tissue; grants temporary (or progressive, if stabilized) access to racial/innate traits of the target.
●[Lineage Fragment Crystallization]: transforms portions of an absorbed lineage into "crystallized fragments" — stable objects/echoes stored in the Genealogical Reserve, reusable for: targeted buffs, creation of weapons tied to that lineage, or further study.
●[Organic Shaping]: transforms dark Blood into weapons, armor, or appendages.
●[Controlled Regeneration]: targeted reconstruction of damaged tissue by consuming stored life energy.
●[Dark Veil]: absorbs light and suppresses perception (base radius 5 m, adjustable).
---
"Wait a second, am I not way too overpowered? This feels way too unbalanced!!"
Excited and trembling, his eyes scanned through the effects, from passives to actives. He had far too many advantages, and the most terrifying ones were [Lineage Devourer] and [Lineage Fragment Crystallization]. With those, all he needed was to obtain the blood of a creature or another race to gain their traits. Aelion was already imagining what kind of powers and skills he could get from her. And maybe, thanks to that, he could obtain part of Seraphina's lineage, which had been converted into attributes instead of transforming him—and with Crystallization, keep them.
All of this seemed too good to be true. How was it that he was already accumulating so much power? Was it related to the fact that the goddess wanted to prepare him before he joined Accnesea, hence the level 15 limit? Was this world really that dangerous? And was the goddess truly behind the event with the relic—or was it the result of his unknown luck?