The Final Boss Has Returned — Chapter 101
Perhaps because my level had now surpassed 300, it didn't rise as dramatically as before, but nevertheless, watching a level that was still climbing, I smiled in satisfaction. Because the quest completion notification was sweet enough that one could never tire of hearing it.
"Your subject, Vampire King Nosferatu. Representing all vampirekind, unto Lord Drakan—contractor of the Demon God, Apostle of Darkness, and King of the Ironblood Kingdom who has inherited the legacy of the Steel Monarch—I swear eternal loyalty through the 'Blood Oath.'"
Right then.
Nosferatu prostrated himself before me, and simultaneously, a blood-red radiance blossomed from his body.
[Vampire King Nosferatu wishes to swear eternal loyalty on behalf of vampirekind through the Blood Oath.]
[Will you accept the Blood Oath?]
Blood Oath!
That oath, which had also been written in the quest info window, had finally manifested.
I smiled as I read the message.
Reward time was always a joy.
"I accept."
The moment I declared my acceptance of the Blood Oath.
The blood-red radiance rising from Nosferatu's body gathered in midair and formed a single shape.
It was a ring.
I snatched the ring—in the shape of a blood-red loop—from the air and checked its item information.
[Blood Oath — Manya]
[Grade: Legend] [Type: Ring]
[Durability: Infinite]
[An artifact ring forged from Nosferatu's blood and magical power.]
[Proof that you are a ruler with dominion not only over Nosferatu but over all vampirekind, and a symbol that Nosferatu has sworn loyalty to you through the eternal Blood Oath.]
[A powerful blood force resides within.]
[Usage Restriction: Drakan]
[Item Effects]
[HP +200] [MP +150]
[Dark Resistance +50%]
[Vampirism: Absorbs 60% of damage dealt as HP with each attack.]
[Wound Aggravation: Each attack has a 5% chance to inflict the Curse of Wound Aggravation.]
[Summon Vampire King: Summons Vampire King Nosferatu, bound by the Blood Oath.]
Despite its plain appearance, the ring's performance was satisfying enough to be worthy of its Legend grade.
A ring that could command an Over Ranker-tier combatant as a summon!
It was truly an astonishing function.
True, I already wore a ring that could summon the Kraken, but since the Kraken was a summon usable only in limited environments and impossible to use on land, the Vampire King was far superior in terms of versatility.
After equipping the ring with satisfaction, I spoke.
"Nosferatu."
"You called, Lord."
"Where in the North are you planning to build the stronghold?"
"I have heard there are quite a few old, abandoned fortresses along the border of the Land of Death. I intend to repair one of them and use the area as our stronghold."
"You have my permission."
"Thank you, Lord."
Nosferatu, who had already switched to addressing me as "Lord," gave his thanks and immediately transformed into a bat before flying away.
It seemed he had gone to construct the stronghold.
After sending Nosferatu off, I took a seat upon the ice throne in the Hall of Glory.
The stronghold would be finished in due time, so I didn't need to concern myself with the vampires any further.
As for clearing the dungeon, Yujin was handling it anyway, so I just had to sit back and enjoy the show.
The promised date to raid the dungeon with Yujin was a week from now.
In the meantime, my task was to gather information about Monster Land.
* * *
Twelve days of in-game time—four days in real time—had passed since Drakan handed the Twilight Stone over to Nosferatu.
At last, the vampires' stronghold, "Blood Citadel," was completed.
Blood Citadel, which had been one of the nameless abandoned fortresses on the border of the Land of Death, was reborn through the vampires' devoted repairs. At its center, the legendary barrier known as the Polar Night Barrier, with the Twilight Stone at its core, was deployed.
Swoosh!
The moment the Polar Night Barrier deployed.
A massive defensive shield enveloped the area around Blood Citadel, and simultaneously, darkness began to pour in despite it being midday.
The Curse of the Sun!
The sunlight that vampires so feared and hated was blocked by the magical barrier centered on the Twilight Stone, and finally, the moment came when the stronghold of eternal night they had so desired was completed.
[A new race, 'Vampire,' has been unlocked.]
[Vampire]
-Vampires are a nomadic race that has hidden in the shadows of the world for the past two thousand years, wandering aimlessly across the entire Arde World.
However, the vampires have now built a stronghold in the dark territory established in the North, and by successfully restoring the Polar Night Barrier, they have been able to return to being a settled race.
Vampires possess a unique characteristic of receiving debuffs and buffs depending on day and night. During the day, they receive a powerful debuff called the 'Curse of the Sun,' but at night, they gain an enormous buff enough to offset it.
The vampire race receives bonuses to dark-attribute skills and jobs, including dark magic and blood magic.
Of course, they can use various powers such as the widely known vampiric ability, Mist Form, and Vampire Bat Transformation as racial traits, and as they grow into high-ranking vampires, they become less affected by the Curse of the Sun.
-From now on, Vampire may be selected during character creation.
-Vampire is the first race to support race change.
-If existing users complete the race change quest granted by Vampire King Nosferatu, they too can change their race to Vampire. However, if an existing user changes their race to Vampire through the race change quest, returning to their previous race is impossible.
-The starting stronghold for the vampire race is Blood Citadel, Ironblood Kingdom, North.
[A new job, 'Blood Mage,' has been unlocked.]
[Blood Mage]
-Vampires possess an innate, tremendous ability to handle blood, the essence of life.
Vampire history is the history of blood, which has been inherited and developed into a unique dark magic called blood magic, exclusive to vampirekind.
Blood Mages are mages who are more proficient than anyone in this secret art of vampirekind, blood magic, and are warriors at the same time. High-ranking Blood Mages possess close-combat abilities rivaling first-class warriors, while simultaneously displaying power as mages.
Unlike ordinary magic that mainly focuses on area attacks, Blood Mages are specialized in one-on-one combat. As they climb to higher ranks, they gradually learn area-of-effect magic and approach completeness, but they have the drawback of extremely slow growth.
-Inherit the secret art of blood and spread the terror of the night far and wide.
-This is a race-exclusive job for vampires. Only characters of the 'Vampire' race may change to this job.
-A new possibility has opened in Arde World. Take part in this new history.
Notification windows popped up before every user logged into Arde World.
Vampire!
And even Blood Mage, the race-exclusive job of vampires!
Once again, new content had been unlocked.
"OMG, is the vampire unlock for real?"
"Crazy! It even supports race changes. Should I try it? I avoided new races because deleting my character feels like too much, but now I'm torn."
"I want to try Blood Mage, but it's a race-exclusive job. What a shame, what should I do?"
The users' reaction to the newly unlocked 'Vampire' race was truly explosive.
This stemmed from the fact that among the races Drakan had unlocked so far—Merfolk, Dark Elf, Undead, and Orc—Dark Elf was the only beautiful race. Merfolk, Undead, and Orc had their own charms, but since they were inhuman races, people couldn't help but feel more reluctant toward them than the traditionally popular Human or Elf races.
At least among them, Undead had seen a population explosion because one could become a Necromancer, but Drakan had built the Catacombs, a job-change facility for Necromancers, in Snow Castle and opened Necromancer job changes to races other than Undead, causing its popularity to wane.
Of course, Dark Elves, who were a beautiful race rather than inhuman and possessed racial traits specialized in stealth, had garnered considerable popularity, but their starting location in the Great Forest meant inconvenient surrounding infrastructure, dragging down their ratings.
In that situation, 'Vampire,' unlocked as a new playable race, presented an attractive alternative to the users.
Just as one would imagine when thinking of vampires—a beautiful appearance with pale skin, along with unique racial traits like vampirism and Mist Form!
On top of that, a race-exclusive job called Blood Mage!
Of course, there was the drawback of receiving various debuffs under sunlight, called the 'Curse of the Sun,' but to users who wanted to play vampires, this was merely a trivial flaw.
Moreover, in the stronghold of Blood Citadel, they could move about regardless of day or night thanks to the Polar Night Barrier.
Furthermore, although it was a one-way trip, vampire was the first race in Arde World to support 'race change.'
This was truly nothing short of revolutionary.
Before the race change quest appeared!
To try a new race in Arde Saga Second, one had to delete their character and raise a new one.
This was because Arde Saga Second stubbornly adhered to a one-account, one-character-per-user policy.
Because of this, the population of new races was surprisingly and relatively small compared to existing races, but the situation changed with the appearance of the race change quest.
The northern Ironblood Kingdom, which had already seen an influx of roaming players due to the opening of the Necromancer job change, was now crying out in joyful agony as existing users flocked to change their race to Vampire.
"I bet Drakan-nim is the one who unlocked the new race this time too, right?"
"Of course. I heard he bought something called the Twilight Stone from Yujin for 3 billion won? That's why Yujin came to the northern plaza before."
"Wow, 3 billion. That's insane. Drakan has a lot of money."
And as always, the users dug up the fact that Drakan was the one who had unlocked the new race this time too, and that he had purchased a 3-billion-won item from Yujin to clear the vampire quest, spreading the news across various communities and social media.
Before long, stories about Drakan and Yujin were circulating across Arde World and the internet alike.
Yujin had supposedly tried to give the quest item for free!
But Drakan had refused, saying such things should be bought with money!
As such heartwarming stories spread indiscriminately, Drakan's image began to improve once again through his involvement with Yujin.
Public opinion was moving exactly as Drakan had intended.
In that very moment when users all across the world were focused on Yujin and Drakan.
A livestream went live on Drakan's official channel, and countless users who saw it entered the stream as viewers.
The sight that greeted the users who entered Drakan's official channel was—
[It's been a while. Have you all been well?]
[Hello, viewers. Is this our first time meeting here? I'm Yujin.]
Drakan and Yujin!
It was a shocking scene of two people who had seemed as incompatible as oil and water broadcasting together.