Reincarnated as a Vampire Who Acquires Skills Through Blood-Chapter 51 - Deeper Into the Labyrinth

’I almost died there.’

I thought as I remembered my last exchange against the golden knight. That final thrust was a hair’s breadth away from finishing me off for good.

’Well, I am not sure if I would really die because in my world, vampires are basically immortal— though I don’t want to gamble to see if that is the case for me as well.’

Anyway—

"My face stings."

I mumbled that as I held the left side of my face with a shaky hand. There was a massive cut on my cheek and the edge of my ear was chipped away. It felt like my neck and shoulder were in pretty bad condition as well, the skin shredded and raw.

I’m honestly surprised that I hadn’t lost consciousness yet, considering how much blood I had just lost on that floor.

"..."

I looked down at the headless body of the golden knight lying at my feet. Its blood was incredibly dark, almost black, and it was quickly making a thick pool on the stone cold floor.

I remembered when I first fought a [Dark Serpent] in the cave where I first arrived into this world. I had bled and sustained a pretty big wound then as well, but it had healed almost immediately after I drank some blood.

And so— FWIP!

I kneeled down and grabbed the heavy corpse of the golden knight by its shoulders. And without any hesitation— CHOMP.

I bit down on what was remaining of its neck and started drinking every drop of its blood.

SHHRK—

The blood was much sweeter and tastier than any blood I had consumed before. It had a rich, powerful flavor that seemed to hum with energy. As I drank the golden knight’s body dry, I felt a wave of heat rushing through my veins.

I felt my body getting better by the second.

My stamina was being refilled as if I had just slept for a full day. I could actually feel the deep wounds on my body closing up and disappearing.

And soon enough... my blood stopped dripping out of my skin. No more wounds remained on my body; even the skin on my cheek felt smooth again.

"Fuuuhh~"

I let out a satisfied sigh as I stopped drinking. The body was completely spent of blood now, looking like a dry husk inside that armor.

"Thanks for the meal."

I was fully recovered now. I just felt a bit exhausted and there was a lingering stinging sensation from where the injuries used to be, but the actual damage was gone.

But ignoring that at the moment—

"I wonder what skill I got."

I whispered that under my breath, curious.

***** 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

From the Golden Knight, I acquired the passive skill clled [Knight’s Discipline].

What it does is actually very useful. It helps me keep my calm during a fight by reducing the feeling of panic in my head. It also helps me stabilize my breathing during intense combat and greatly improves my stamina control so I don’t tire out as fast.

Not only that, my [Unified Swordsmanship] evolved into [Sovereign Swordsmanship] as well.

I had learned a bit of the golden knight’s actual techniques through his blood. This style focuses on controlling the tempo of the battle and constantly pressuring the enemy.

Before this, my swordsmanship was based on pure instinct and raw speed. This new skill will help me have a variety of moves and allow me to fight much better against skilled opponents. I almost lost my life fighting that golden guy, but at least it gave me a lot of things and made me stronger in the end.

’I guess I can call it fair.’

I thought to myself.

Anyway, I have no time to waste right now. There’s someone I need to check on.

I immediately got out of the room, back to the hallway. And there—

-Arf! Arf! Arf!

Onyx was already awake as if he had been waiting for me to return. His tail was wagging like crazy as he ran toward me. I sat down on the ground and took him onto my lap. He started licking my face while I petted his head.

"We will move a bit later— I will just let my stamina recover a bit more first."

I said as I looked down at Onyx.

-Arf! Arf!

He responded happily. I don’t really know what it means, but he seemed glad I was okay.

... ... ...

*****

After a few minutes of rest, I went back inside the room one more time. My own pauldrons were already destroyed from the fight, so I decided to take the ones from the Golden Knight.

Although they were old and a bit battered, they felt much sturdier than the ones I was using earlier.

Once I took everything I could from the Golden Knight, I went to the stairs leading down to the deeper floors without wasting another second. It was at the end of the room, like the knight was protecting it and keeping me from going even further.

Anyway, moving on—

On the 6th floor, the place became even darker and had a ruin-like appearance. The traps were less frequent here, but the number of pathways that led to dead-ends increased significantly.

The monsters I encountered were different this time as well.

I first encountered a group of lizards that seemed to have stone hides instead of normal scales. They were very hard to cut with a sword, so I didn’t bother with finesse.

B A M—!!!

I just crushed them all using raw physical force and my kicks.

They were evasive and hard to catch because of their speed, but they were easy to kill once I grabbed them— at least for someone with my strength.

From drinking their blood, I didn’t get any new skills, but I felt my [Black Scales] getting stronger and more durable.

It was one of my favorite skills, to be honest. So I’m actually glad and fine with this.

’I don’t know where to find any more [Dark Serpents], so this works for me.’

After the lizards, I encountered some weird bats as well. Their wings were as big as one of my arms, and they were extremely aggressive. I killed each one of them because they kept trying to dive-bomb and attack me.

I didn’t get anything brand new from drinking their bloods either.

But my innate skill; [Blood Is Power], felt like it was improving!

This surprised me, I didn’t know that this thing could even get better.

The improvements were simple; it seems like recovering and healing will be even easier for me now as long as I have a source of blood to consume.

Oh, and not only that, my [Echolocation] improved a bit as well from the bats’ blood.

After all this—

I continued walking after that. I don’t know for how long exactly, but it felt like hours had passed. I stopped from time to time to let Onyx sleep and to eat some of the beef jerky I had stored for him. I also used the quiet moments to train my new swordsmanship and get used to it.

After resting, I kept searching for the way down, and whenever I found the stairs; I went down without any hesitation.

Aside from the weird bats and stone lizards, no new types of monsters appeared in front of me for a while. I just continued hunting every single one of them and consuming their blood to keep my energy up.

I could feel myself getting stronger and stronger the more time I spent inside this labyrinth... and this feeling was addicting.

’It was a good decision running in here to hide and improve my strength for the time being.’

I thought as I continued on my way.

And so, after countless hours of walking, killing monsters, training, and navigating through this massive maze-like dungeon—

I finally got myself all the way down to the 8th floor.

*** *** ***

"Fuuuuh... I’ll stop here for a while."

The monsters I encountered on the way here at the 8th floor were crazily abnormal. They always moved in large hordes and attacked me on sight without any fear. The traps were completely gone now, but the space I had to search just to find the stairs leading down got annoyingly bigger.

Oh, and starting on the 7th floor, some of the torches on the walls are lit now. That doesn’t really concern me since I can see in the dark, but it’s good for Onyx. If it wasn’t for those torches, everything here would be just pitch black for him.

’Hmm... If I have to estimate, it has been about two days now since I first entered this dungeon.’

I thought to myself as I was sitting on the ground beside the sleeping Onyx.

Then, after looking left and right at the silent stone walls—

"In a day... I will try to finish this dungeon and get out of this place in a single day."

I declared that to myself.