After leaving the large but mostly bare altar room, Alicia stepped into a large corridor, long enough for its depths to be shrouded in darkness.

There being no light when you’re alone and likely underground sounds fairly normal, I don’t think they’d maintain a place like this at all time unless they were staying here. Whoever 'they' are. But the fact that there’s not even a single trace of a torch or a lantern or any other light source is a little more curious. Either anyone coming here has their own light, or they’ve got night vision like I do. This place being my starting location as a vampire probably means that it is vampire territory, so the latter I guess?

Speaking of starting location, I sure hope Yume and Ayana are doing fine. If this place is too far from them, it'll be a bit of a hassle to meet up, even with a map.

A few minutes later, Alicia reached the end of the hallway and found herself in front of a large stone door etched with a few sentences written in a strange script. It was the first time she encountered it, but she could unexpectedly read it.

 

Lost among the threads of fate, a new spark was foreseen.

Before roaming the worlds, you should first learn of who you are.

We are of Blood.

 

Upon closer inspection, she noticed what seemed to be a small crystal embedded in the lower part of the door, at shoulder height for Alicia. After contemplating for a second, she shrugged and placed her right hand on it. As soon as her hand made contact with the gem, it lit up slightly and its color changed from grey to red. She raised an eyebrow, curious at this development, waiting for a moment before removing her hand.

*ding*

[The first part of the trial of the ancestors, the Trial of Blood, has begun.]

And the door slowly opened, revealing a small room, no different from before except for the intricate patterns on the walls and the absence of dust.

“Sheems like I found what I wawj looking for ? That's a pretty ominoush name jhough. Pardon the intrusiooon.", said the little vampire as she entered the room slowly, taking note of her surroundings.

When she reached a few steps in, the large doors closed with a loud noise making her jump slightly. It was only the beginning however as the room lit up in a multitude of colors and the walls disappeared leaving her shocked, in a large chaotic space.

[A vampire's worst innate weakness is sunlight, it isn't impossible to mitigate but the means aren't always available and we are often forced to fight in dangerous conditions. Dispatch the slimes while avoiding the light.]

Soon, the small room had become a vast plain surrounded by pitch black darkness. Multiple circular parts of the area were instead brightly lit to the point where the intensity of it was visible. Alicia distanced herself from these patches of light swiftly, observing her surroundings carefully.

The sheer strength of this light makes me shiver, I definitely don't want to be exposed to that ! Wait, what are those blobs ?! ... Slimes ?

As Alicia was battling with her fear and excitement, two dozens of slimes appeared around her, a few meters away. Seeing what she was about to fight, her tension dropped a little.

Right... I'm only level one. I guess something like that was to be expected, this is more or less the tutorial. So, how will I defeat them ? It's a bit hard to punch comfortably with nails that long, there's the dress too and it wouldn't be the most effi-... Hmm that sounds good.

Paying attention to the lit part of the area not too far from her, Alicia threw herself at the closest slime. Said slime was about as surprised as an artificial slime could possibly be when the little vampire girl charged at it with a smile. Enjoying her newfound agility from the game, she ripped the slime apart, swiping at it with both hands and kicking it away, which really just splattered it across the floor leaving behind traces of orange goo.

Feels squishy, and it's a bit too weak for it to really be interesting, but I wanted to get used to my character anyway. The dress isn't hampering me as much as I thought. I feel like it was a lot harder last time my cousin forced me into a dress... Let's just forget about it.

Alicia then turned to another slime, yellow this time, who she could swear seemed to shudder at the sight. She rushed at it, and the next one, and yet another one as the slimes dispersed in a panicked fashion.

This looks a little too easy... Do I just need to avoid stepping in the light ? The light seems to move around a bit, but it's too slow to be any real threat. Then again I might be overthinking things, this is the first encounter, it can't be too hard either.

"Aww!"

Her thoughts were interrupted by a searing pain in the shoulder. She stopped attacking her current target to jump to the side instead, and looked back. What she saw though, made her a bit more enthusiastic.

I see ! So this is what this is about, when those slimes get into the lit area, they start reflecting the beams of light around. Alright, I'll forgive you for hitting me earlier. I'll still beat you up though.

Making use of her agility of over 40, she moved from one slime to another, bending and jumping over to dodge the heated rays of light. Avoiding the light didn't prove too difficult as the beams were clearly visible and moved around at a slow pace.

Taking care of the slimes in a few moves each, she soon ran out of enemies she could reach. She then waited for the slimes to get out of the moving spots of light and finished them cleanly.

Pfeww. Done. Good thing they're not particularily smart or it might have gotten somewhat annoying.

[One such mean of mitigation, the easiest and most common, is the enchanted umbrella. Fighting while keeping under cover of the item however requires some degree of adaptation.]

Giving Alicia no time to rest, not that she particularly needed it right now, a fancy white umbrella with black linings appeared in front of her, floating in mid-air.

I'm guessing this is one of those umbrellas, that's going to be useful.

Not waiting any longer, she picked it up and a small item information window opened.

[Enchanted Umbrella – Magical

An umbrella enchanted to be sturdier, cleaner and to block light in a more efficient manner. Also comes with an auto-repair enchantment. No refunds.]

"If this is at least half as useful as they make it sound, I doubt anyone would want a refund."

Nodding at the newly found item, Alicia wasted no time putting it to use and quickly opened it over her head, having a decent idea of what came next.

An idea that proved right in the next instant when the entire floor changed to plain white and was then flooded in light.

Praising her foresight, Alicia made herself as small as possible under the umbrella, which with her current size was pretty small. She groaned a little when she spotted four blue slimes, larger than the ones from before appear about ten meters ahead, she'd have to move. Being exposed to the light, the slimes soon began to reflect rays of intense blue light in every direction. Thankfully, the number of rays wasn't too high, and as such evading was manageable.

Alicia started moving towards the slime, slowly at first and then sped up once she figured out how to move without exposing herself to that damned artificial light. The slimes didn't move much, slowly rotating in place, bringing the lasers along with them.

Strange, I expected enemies to be a bit more aggressive. This is a little too easy, especially with the increased agility. Then again, last time I thought that way was a few minutes ago, and I was hit in the back so I might just have jinxed myself...

Taking her time dodging the beams, she got closer to the first slime, and carefully tried to find an opportunity to strike. The slime itself was emitting light however, making it rather difficult to hit without Alicia hurting herself in the process. After a few seconds, Alicia changed her approach, she tried using the umbrella to shadow both herself and the slime. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but she was successful this time and swiftly dispatched the slime as soon as it stopped impersonating a disco ball.

Paying close attention to the other three opponents she had yet to rid herself off, Alicia made her way to the next one in a similar manner.

*Splotch* *Splatch* *Splootch*

Now a seasoned amateur veteran of umbrella fighting, she had a content expression, her free hand on her waist as she gazed upon the remains of what used to be her four slimy enemies.

*ding*

[The Trial of Blood has been successfully completed.]

[Quest – Lost gift of the ancestors : objective completion 1/5]

"Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as they tried to make it sound. Actually, there wasn't any blood at all, 'The Trial of Disco Slimes' sounds a bit more apt although not nearly as intimidating. Maybe it wasn't vampirey enough.", said Alicia, closing her umbrella and storing it away when the area went back to dark.

"One out of five ? Are there four more trials ?"

[The second part of the trial of the ancestors, the Trial of Causality will now begin.]

[There are many peculiar beings out there, but few are able to travel through the flow of time as well as vampires do. As such, it fell unto us to restore broken or altered pasts. Observe, learn and repair the past.]

That's ... pretty cool, is it actually a vampire thing ? Why did no one ever tell me ?

A small white fissure appeared in front of her.

"Only one way to find out !", she said, pumping herself up for the upcoming challenge.

[Temporal World Tear – Tiny]

Hmmm, that's not as grand as I though it'd be. It's what, 20 centimeters high ? What do I do now ? Ah right, it said observe, learn and repair. Let's examine it in detail then.

...

Alicia spent well over a minute looking at the small fissure in the air, but unfortunately didn't achieve enlightenment.

It's not that big, but I feel like it's not something tape can simply fix...

*ding*

[Reminder – Current objective : Enter the time fracture and repair the past.]

"It ... it makes a lot more sense now, I guess I won't need to try and fill it up with concrete. Yes, after all I'm a vampire, not a construction worker ! Ahahah ... Ahem"

She lowered her head slightly and smiled wrily, fangs slightly peeking out. She carefully reached towards the fissure, unsure of what was going to happen next.

This is probably how you do it, right ?

And just as her hand touched the anomaly-

[Entering damaged timeline.]

She was assaulted by waves of cold, waves of heat, flashes of light and shivers as the world lost its substance.