Opening my eyes, I'm greeted by the same dark room I fell asleep in.

(Navi, you there?)

(Always! Just like the song by The Police, I will forever be here. Watching you sleep and eat and bathe Lia! Constantly watching and waiting for you now and forever. Ehehehe!)

Creepy fucking mind worm.

(Anyway, ignoring that, do you know what time it is or if it's still light outside?)

(It's just after nine o'clock so, the sun is still up for a bit longer.)

Thinking back to her explanation yesterday, with ten o'clock being sunrise and sunset, I have almost an hour to kill before I can head out. 

(Do you want me to put a clock on your HUD?)

(You can do that? What else can you put there?)

(I sure can! You can, too, but I'll give you a hand. Pretty much any information you can see from the [system] I can place and move and resize to whatever you want!)

That's convenient. Maybe this thing isn't too bad to have around.

(Great. Put a clock in the top right of my vision and my HP, MP, and EXP in the top left.)

(Gotcha! Praise me!)

(...No.)

Thinking about what to do next, I have a couple options. I need to get stronger to live and I need a source of blood. Then the memory of the Gods talking about the dungeons came to mind. 

(Navi, what do you know about dungeons?)

(A lot! Each dungeon has a core at the bottom of it and varying numbers of floors to get to it. When not controlled, a dungeon's basic setup will create different monsters and scenarios out of the mana it channels. 

(These monsters feel real and give EXP, but being made of mana, they dissolve and are reabsorbed by the dungeon core after being killed. The dungeon has a basic loot table for each monster that will create a physical item in its place along with the core of that monster.)

(Then, being not real, can I still drink blood from these dungeon monsters or will it just, like, disappear from me?)

(Yup! Vampires absorb the essence and mana from their prey, and so, as long as it has blood, you can still have a meal.)

Well that's good then. 

(What about the monster cores? What do I do with them?)

(Those you eat! Absorb, more precisely. When you place them on your tongue it breaks down and dissolves allowing you to gain some of the magical talents of that monster. 

(Since monsters outside of dungeons also have cores, you could have taken them from those two goblins yesterday if you wanted.)

(Didn't Order say the core was by the heart?)

(Yes! All you had to do was cut into those insects and rip out the core by their hearts and put it in your mouth.)

(From goblins like that, how many cores would I need to level up one of my magic skills to level 2?)

(Hmm, probably at least a hundred or two. It would increase every level as well. Goblins are pretty worthless after all.)

Yeah. I will skip butchering a bunch of goblins outside of the dungeon. Especially since the dungeon sounds like it has an auto-loot when the monster dissolves. Maybe if it was a stronger monster, but goblins seem like more work than it's worth. 

(What about the dungeons around here?) I ask Navi. (There should be two, right?)

(Right! There is a shallow five floor dungeon behind this castle, and there is a massive one a bit of a ways away. I'm not sure on its exact position, though.)

That still gives me an idea of where to start for today. Since I still had some time to kill, I shifted my thoughts to the new abilities I never had before. Namely my new magic.

Holding out my hand palm up, I imagined a small fire burning above my palm. Keeping that imaginary image in my head, I focused on trying to will it into being.

It took a few seconds, but I felt something move inside my body and flow towards my hand. After another couple of seconds, a small flame just like I imagined appeared above my palm. 

Startled for a moment, I lost concentration and the flame disappeared. Like any fantasy lover, a huge smile lit up my face.

So fucking cool!

Looking at my MP, it went down 20 points for just that small flame. Definitely not fuel efficient at my current level. But acceptable for a first try I think.

After that, I tried out my other elements. Making a small ball of water, rock, and swirling globe of air. 

Wanting to keep playing and exploring my new toy, I tried something without thinking. I imagined a small ball of light and willed it into being.

Immediately after, I was blinded and my hand felt like I slapped it onto a hot stove. 

"Ahh!" Shouting out and cradling my burnt hand, I could only kick myself.

Fucking idiot! You're a vampire now. Light magic is no-no 101! And wasn't that a bit extreme for a tiny fucking flash of a lightball? What the actual fuck!

After a minute, my vision started to come back. Looking at my HP in the corner of my vision, just that small ball of light took me down 5 points. 

(Navi, any way I can regain HP?)

(As a vampire, you have a naturally high regeneration rate. A burn like that should heal up in a dozen minutes or so. You can even regenerate lost limbs with enough time and mana!

(I'd recommend staying away from using light magic in the future though, Lia. That is, unless you're an M and like that sort of thing. No judgement here! Your kinks are your own.)

(No shit. I definitely won't make this mistake again.)

Sitting there and calming down again, sure enough the pain eventually went away. Looking at my HP, it was once again full. But looking at my MP, it dropped even after I was done casting the ball of death.

Looks like for me, MP is used to heal myself.

My stomach made a noise as I sat there. I guess it would be about time for breakfast. Dinner? Fucking semantics. It's time to eat.

Looking at my clock, the sun should be set; I move the rubble from my room and head back out into the overgrown courtyard. I'll try the other magic types later.

After wandering aimlessly through the brush for a bit, I'm thankful that my robe is thick enough to not snag. 

Then I felt something. It's more like a sixth sense or just a feeling like something is ahead on my right, I take out my dagger and walk as quietly as I can in the rough direction. 

Soon enough, I come across another one of the green bastards. This one was on his knees digging at the ground to try to get to something. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, I slowly crept behind it. Keeping my breathing as steady as possible. 

Reaching the goblin, I strike out with my left hand, covering its mouth, and slicing my dagger across its throat with my right. 

After it fell limp, I wiped and bit down on its neck. After taking a few swallows, there was a popup that appeared in the corner of my vision.

Level up

After drinking more, I let the dead goblin drop down and open my status. 

Sure enough, my level rose to 2. I also gained 10 more HP and MP compared to before. My mostly depleted MP also refilled some from my snack.

After thinking about what to do with my stat points, I decided to place them into AGI. By thinking about it, I saw the number increase to 19.

As fun as magic is—besides the accursed light magic—having the ability to sneak and move quickly would be more beneficial to me right now.

After wiping my dagger off on the goblin and placing it back on my belt, I moved on. Before trying the dungeon, I want to at least have my MP back to full.

Walking along again, I get a shiver down my spine. Quickly turning towards the feeling, I see a large, muscular creature to my side. 

About seven feet tall, tanned skin with a tinge of green, and a wide, flat nose with teeth poking out of its mouth. I had a rough idea what it might be.

Staring wide eyed for a second at it, the popup appears. 

Ork - Level 15

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

"Raaagh!" It raises a tree branch club almost as thick as my torso and swings it towards me.

Diving to the side, I'm barely able to avoid it as it crashes into the ground where I just was.

"Fucking shit cunt!" 

Getting up as fast as I can, I bolt back towards the castle. 

As the ork races after me, none of the brush slows it down. It's faster than me, but by weaving between the trees, I take some advantage of my smaller size to at least avoid a club to the head.

Reaching the main entry of the castle, I hesitate for a second. 

Where can I go? I just ran back here out of instinct. None of the rooms have anything useful, and it can reach me in all of them. 

As it stomps towards me, a rock comes loose from some of the rubble and falls down. 

The tower stairs!

Without wasting any more time, I bolt towards the large staircase as fast as I can. Bounding up multiple steps at a time, I reach the landing just as the club swipes out and hits my arm.

Flung to the ground to the side, I can't move my arm well. Getting up and barely dodging another club strike, I rush down the hall towards the spiral stairs leading to the tower with my broken arm held against my body.

Adrenaline pumping, I rush as fast as I can up the stairs, hoping to keep any little bit of distance I can. With a quick prayer to the crazy Goddess of Chaos that this half baked idea will work, I make it most of the way up the stairs.

Right behind me I hear a loud 'crack' and a grunt from the ork just as a meaty hand reaches out for me.

Brushing against the hem of my robe, the ork starts to fall through the now crumbled stairs. Bouncing off a couple layers of stairs while roaring before coming to a stop at the bottom in the center of the room. 

Catching my breath and looking down, I see the pissed off ork staring back at me. Both legs look to have compound fractures along with an arm dislocated at the shoulder. Scrapes all over its body, it has no goal but to kill me.

How fucking tough is this bastard?!

Knowing that this might be my only chance, I unsheathe my blade and carefully make my way back down the stairs. Hugging the wall where the ork crashed through. 

Coming up to the ork laying on the ground, I avoid a swipe of its good arm and plunge my dagger through its eye and jump back from it.

After a final roar of resistance, it stills and lays there. Dead. 

Immediately, I fall on my butt and take a moment to calm down. 

That was fucking insane!

After a minute of just sitting there staring at the lifeless ork, pain registers in my arm again.

Right. Broken arm. 

Pushing myself back up with my remaining arm and making my way over to the ork, I bend down and sink my teeth into its neck. Taking a long drink of blood, it tastes much better than the warm stale Coke goblins. 

Taking a few minutes just to enjoy the taste, I feel the pain in my arm fade away. Feeling satisfied with my meal, I sit back and turn my attention to the popups I ignored. 

Level up

Level up

Level up

Level up

Skill learned - Daggers 1

Skill learned - Increased Reflexes 1

Opening my stats, I confirm I am now level 6 after that fight. With 8 new stat points, I decide to increase AGI to 22, DEX to 11, INT to 17, and WIS to 17.

My HP and MP also increased again to 170 and 200. Both were now full a little while after my ork meal.

Getting back to my feet, I think about what to do with the body of the ork now laying in the stairwell. 

(Navi, non-dungeon monsters don't conveniently dissolve, right?)

(Nope! They just attract scavengers like goblins or wolves.)

Figures. The bastard is too big to easily move out of here. Dragging it would just leave a huge blood trail, doing little to decrease scavengers poking around. 

I still want to go to the dungeon. I don't want to waste who knows how much MP to burn it. Based on what I needed for the small flame before, I doubt I would have enough anyway.

Resigning myself to barricade my room more thoroughly in the morning, I decide to try the last thing I can with the ork. 

Taking my dagger, I stab it into its chest and dig around until I reach its heart. Pulling up my sleeves and reaching in, I feel around until I come across a small pebble sized object. 

Taking it out, I ask my mental tooltip. (Is this the core?)

(Sure is! Just pop it in your mouth and you will gain a bit of proficiency.)

Looking at the small rock in my blood covered hand, I pop it in my mouth. Even though it was just solid, it dissolves like a piece of cotton candy. 

I look like I work at a slaughterhouse. Didn't Order say something about cleaning with magic? Thinking back on our conversation, I close my eyes and take a breath. I imagine all the blood on my robe disappearing. The blood on my arms, not being there. The dirt on me, all falling away. 

Feeling the movement of my mana throughout my body, I feel a tug much larger than the small flame or ball of water I made before.

Opening my eyes, I see I'm as clean as if I just took a bath. My clothes look just like they did yesterday when I put them on as well.

My MP went down by 120 as well. Quite a lot, but at least it gives me an idea for what I need to use for this in the future.

Leaving my home once again, I turn and go around the side of the castle instead of to the courtyard. As I'm walking along, I try to be quiet and more aware than before, now that I ran into something much stronger than a goblin so close to home.

Along the way, I see another goblin walking along the wall. Stopping to observe it, I watch as it looks under rubble, moves stones aside, and peers under larger ones.

(These things really are like pests.)

(Right? Must be a nest somewhere around,) Navi said. (We should go clear it out! Let's go! Death to the Dorgeshuun!)

(Easy now, Navi. Maybe when I get stronger. I really don't think taking on a bunch of these at once with just a dagger would be a good idea until we have a plan.)

(True. But later, let's murdalize 'em!)

(I've been thinking, Navi. How can you use so many references and terms from Earth? And you seem to know a lot about me. All info from Order?)

(Simple! I have all your memories! Muahaha! Even the embarrassing ones like that time in high school when you had diarrhea at track practice and-)

(Okay, okay, okay! Enough of that!)

Refraining from bashing my head into a rock to forget that memory once more, I start creeping up towards the goblin.

(Just please never bring up things like that again, Navi.)

(You got it, Boss! But you did name me 'Navi' so, I'll keep being me! Unless you want me to yell 'listen' every so often?)

(Nope! Fuck that.)

Reaching the goblin, I perform the same mouth grab and throat slash as I did before. Before drinking more blood, I received another notification.

Skill learned - Stealth 1

Skill learned - Assassination 1

That should be helpful. Asking Navi, stealth will help me sneak along quietly and lessen my 'presence' to others. Assassination will make it easier to locate vitals when unseen by a target while having a slight boost to stealth.

Both should be nice additions. Especially with my black robe, I'm really starting to feel like the sneaky rogue type. 

I did always enjoy playing a rogue in RPGs. I mean, who wants to be up front and take hits for others? Or just sit in the back spamming heals or fireballs while being squishy enough to die with one mistake? I enjoyed playing solo and only relying on myself in those games. For me, nothing was better for being alone than a rogue. Being able to use magic in this life is just a huge bonus to that. However, I have a feeling this world won't let me be just an assassin.

Finishing my meal, I continue along the huge castle, making my way to the backside. Along the way I spot a beehive a few feet above me and thank myself for being nocturnal. Fuck getting stung by a bunch of angry bees. 

After a bit, I ask my personal Wikipedia something else. (Any idea why this world seems so much like games and stories from Earth?)

(Yuppers! As all the souls are shuffled around to different worlds and realms, even with them being wiped clean, there are still impressions on them. 

(These impressions can stack up over different lifetimes on the souls, and when sleeping or in the back of your mind, can subtly appear as ideas when strong enough! Too many impressions without a strong enough soul and you can even start to be swayed by old ones.

(That's why there are a whole bunch of parallels between genres like fantasy games or sci-fi flicks and worlds in all of the realms! Pretty neat, right?)

(Then our games and stories are just inspired by these erased memories of creatures and other things from previous lives?)

(Sure are, Lia!)

(Are there worlds with things like Demon Lords and Heroes?)

(Definitely! Quite a few, actually. With so many worlds and realms, the Gods tend to reuse the concepts they find interesting pretty often. 

(There are also ones with starships and giant robots! Or Cthulhu hentai monsters, burning hellscape, zombie apocalypse, you name it!)

Well shit. I guess compared to some of those worlds out there I lucked out quite a bit. Sure, there are monsters here that would kill me in one hit. But at least it beats sitting in an office cubicle. 

After more walking, I finally came to the back of the Castle.

(What am I looking for, Navi?)

(During the last stand for the vampires, they didn't want any of the races to have access to the dungeons. They closed them as a final fruitless 'fuck you' to the races. They hid them by boarding them up and covering them with rubble. Straight up burying some completely.

(I only know specifically about this one. It should've been boarded and covered with rubble. So, look around for a large pile of rocks, and that should be it!)

Wandering around some more, I finally come upon what looks like a large pile of rubble. Climbing towards the top of it, I notice a gap and some of the rocks falling inside.

Making my way up to the hole, it's a gap just large enough for me to slip inside. Scampering down the rocks on the inside of the hole, it looks like most of the massive beams that were used to block the entrance had rotted away. Allowing the rubble to shift and fall inside. 

Now inside, I'm in a room, with a steep stone staircase leading almost straight down underground. 

With a deep breath and grin, I make my way to the stairs towards my first dungeon.