As the marble entered my mouth, I suddenly felt a rush of energy course through my body.
Back when I played the game, it was described that eating one of these ability cores was like eating ice cream.
That, of course, turned out to be a lie.
I couldn't taste a thing.
But I knew that the core wasn't a complete dud, since the burst of energy that entered my body started rapidly healing it.
My ripped-out flesh was replaced by new flesh.
Even my tiredness vanished.
That, in turn, however, made it so I could finally feel all the pain I had just gone through.
And that was not very pleasant.
"Ugh... AAAAAAH!"
I screamed for a solid five minutes until I finally relaxed. With my head on the ground and the energy no longer flooding my heart, I knew that it was over.
And as if to confirm my thoughts, a pop-up appeared right in front of me.
[Ding!]
[You have consumed: Lesser Vampire's Ability Core]
[You have gained: Special Ability - Blood-Sight Lv.1]
"..."
"Blood what now?"
Just from the name, I could guess it was some kind of ability meant for the eyes.
But I had never seen it before.
I couldn't inspect the ability's description either, so I could only guess what it did.
That is, until I get back home and buy a book on vampires. That kind of information was always there.
Still, now that my mind had cleared up and I spotted the mangled corpse of the vampire in front of me, I suddenly felt like my breakfast was rising up my throat.
And then out of it.
I felt like a total mess, and all of that because of a weak mob.
The main character faced powerhouses that could wipe out continents with a single sword slash.
All that while being calm and collected.
On the other hand, I was nowhere near that level-headedness.
But I still had time. I had experience and knowledge of the future that no one else had.
I could survive, and I could grow much stronger than the main character.
I could even reach the ending.
Though I knew that the moment I entered the academy and the heroines appeared, every assignment would be like a death mission.
As hot as those women were, all of them were crazy. At least after you get to know them.
Shaking my head, I put those thoughts aside and finally stood up.
I glanced over the dead vampire one last time, and as much as I wanted to just leave it here, I knew I couldn't.
One more thing about vampires was that their blood was like a healing potion. Even a lesser vampire was valuable. People would just lock them up and drain them every couple of days, using their blood to heal armies.
I quickly went into my dimensional ring, and after scouring through the food crates, I found a few bottles of water. I emptied five bottles and then went back out with those bottles in hand.
Gulping, I used Telekinesis to make the vampire float and then drained its blood.
Nearly half an hour later, I had five healing potions, which I put inside my dimensional ring carefully.
When I stepped out, I avoided the vampire and decided to once again follow the screeching.
After all, I wanted to leave this forest as soon as possible.
Along the way, I realized that maybe I should have accepted the escort that Evelyn offered.
Nothing I could do about it now though except move forward, find another carriage, and continue my journey.
Before that, I decided to glance over at my status screen.
•—Amon Everness—•
Level 8 → 12 [Low-Grade 1]
▷Stats
[Strength 3]
[Stamina 4 → 5]
[Speed 6]
[Perception 11 → 21]
[Vitality 15 → 25]
▷Inherent Gift
★Telekinesis [Beginner] (Lv.5 → Lv.10)
▷Special Abilities
★Blood-Sight (Lv.1)
▷General Abilities
☆Sprint (Lv.6 → Lv.8)
☆Pain Tolerance (Lv.9 → Lv.14)
☆First Aid (Lv.12)
•——•
"Hmm?"
I was sure I had only put the free points into Vitality, so how did Perception also go up?
But when I saw the special ability right below my gift, I realized it might be the one responsible for the sudden increase.
It wasn't totally uncommon for a special ability to give a boost to stats.
Since that just happened to me, that meant I could use my Telekinesis for that much longer.
'I also have to figure out how this Blood Sight works.'
As I moved through the forest, I eventually stumbled upon a crawler.
However, unlike before when it was just a creepy blob, there was something different about it.
Its entire body was glowing red, and upon a closer look, I realized that the things that were glowing were its veins where the blood traveled.
My eyes widened at the revelation. It seemed like the Blood Sight was literally self-explanatory. I could see people's blood as though I had x-ray vision.
Wiping the smug look off my face, I crushed the crawler.
For the next couple of hours, I simply followed the screeching, and finally, I reached my destination.
In front of me was a large altar. In its center, a glowing blue orb.
All I had to do was place my hand on the orb, and it would teleport me out of the forest.
However, right as I was about to take a step forward, I halted, immediately hiding behind a tree.
I stood there for a few moments, making sure I didn't imagine it.
Behind the altar, there were three humanoid figures.
I could tell that much from their blood, but their builds... They were either low-level demons or three lesser vampires.
Peeking my head out of cover, I narrowed my eyes at the glowing red trio, then went back behind cover, letting out a sigh.
Yep.
They were lesser vampires.
I had just nearly died to one of them, but now I had to deal with three.
But as dangerous as it looked, I actually kind of felt relieved.
The limit of my Telekinesis had increased significantly, and I was sure if I fought the lesser vampire from before, I would beat its ass before it could even get near me.
However, that wasn't the only reason I was relieved.
'When a vampire's heart is crushed, they go berserk.'
I subtly peeked over the tree.
'And if all three have their hearts crushed...'
"..."
Hehe.