SWNOVELXO Chapter 8: Charm
He could see the blood flowing through their veins, their beating hearts. He could see it all, and his mouth was already watering. It wasn't a craving he couldn't resist, but since he could, he wanted to.
He took out the dagger and walked to the man. He was a little hesitant, but he grabbed the hand and slashed it a little. The man let out a small groan but nothing more.
Whatever Lucy had done to them, it was really working. He stared at the blood on the knife, the red glowing liquid, its beautiful scent wafting into his nose.
He raised the knife above his mouth and allowed a drop to fall into it.
[You have gained two free stat points]
When he saw the message that followed, he froze. Did he really just get stat points from drinking someone's blood?
His disbelief was quickly wiped away as he licked the blood off the blade in an impatient manner, but no message came after. A look of confusion formed on his face.
Was it not the blood that had given him the stat points? Curious, he used the knife to get the blood of the female mage and tasted it.
[You have gained two free stat points]
Seeing the message, he knew it was the blood, so he tried it for the guy again, but nothing happened. Then he tried the girl again and nothing happened.
Seeing that, he drew the conclusion in his mind. "I can only get stat points from someone's blood I have never tasted before."
He was a little sad that he couldn't get infinite strength from the blood, but he was also happy that he had another way other than leveling up to increase his stats—it was a win for him.
Since that was the case, he did the same for the other two and tasted their blood.
[You have gained two free stat points]
[You have gained two free stat points]
The smile on his face when he saw the messages was golden. Lucy stood beside him watching. She didn't say anything. Zane looked at her. "Do you want their blood?" he asked.
"No, master. Blood at this level is basically a waste for me. I can hold back my hunger, and it also doesn't do anything to me other than being just a mere stark-tasting snack," she replied.
'Hmm, I guess I was right. Her level must be insanely high,' he thought. He looked back at the adventurers and then looked at her. "So what are we going to do with them?" he asked.
"We can kill them or leave them, master. My charm will fade away when we are far enough," she replied.
"Oh, so it was charm. I guess I should have expected something like that from a vampire," Zane muttered. He looked at the adventurers. They hadn't done anything to him, so there was no need to kill them for a few stat points. After all, they had each given him two stat points—that was enough of a payment from them.
"We will leave them then. Let's go," Zane said and started walking. She followed behind.
"Goodbye, travelers. Hope to see you again." The adventurers turned and waved at them, their faces filled with glee as if they had been visited by a god.
'This charm is really scary. It easily turns someone into a puppet like that. I wonder if I'll be able to use it,' Zane thought. He looked at Lucy.
"How do I use my charm?" he asked.
She turned to look at him. "It is simple, master. All you have to do is will it, and it will follow your command," she said. Her eyes glowed red as she spoke, and for a moment, Zane felt drawn to her. She stopped it a few seconds later, and he returned back to normal.
'Hmm, so that's how it works,' he thought. Her example had shown him two things—the first being how charm worked and the second being how easy it would be for her to control him.
It made his heart race and a fear creep in, but he calmed himself. She was his servant after all, right?
He decided to try the charm, and with only a thought, his eyes glowed.
[Charm has been activated.]
He stayed that way as they walked, wanting to see how long he could do it for, and after five minutes, his eyes began aching and so did his head, so he stopped.
'Five minutes then.'
He was extremely happy with it though. Being able to control people with just a look—it was a skill that would take all your coins in the game to purchase, and it still wouldn't be all that powerful, yet he had it now as an inbuilt part of him.
Maybe being a vampire wasn't bad, and being part of the game wasn't bad as well.
[.....]
The four adventurers finally snapped out of the charm, and they were immediately confused. All they could remember was the beautiful lady, and then everything after that was a complete blank.
Did the lady do something to them? Their minds began racing. When they saw the cuts on their arms, fear filled them.
Who did it to them? Their fear rose. In a panic, the man pointed at a small cave in the distance. "There, let's go there and heal up. If those people are still out here, we don't want to be out when they come back. They might have left us alive once, but there's no knowing what will happen next."
Everyone agreed with him, still shaken by their state. They carelessly walked into the cave. They took out a torch and lit it on fire—their worst mistake—because as they did, the torch shined its light on a massive creature in the cave sleeping.
It was a bear so massive that it seemed abnormal—at least five times the size of a normal bear.
And as the torch illuminated the place, it caused the bear's eyes to open.