In a dimly lit dungeon, a musty smell mixed with the scent of alcohol created a bizarre aroma.
It was like having a candlelit dinner next to a cesspool, an oddly romantic.
Suddenly, a flash of white light streaked by, and Mike appeared.
Before he could get a good look around, a shrill voice pierced his ears, “All you newbies, perk up. Line up; it’s almost time for the Embrace!”
A young man in tattered clothes, putting on airs and with a menacing red gleam in his eyes, barked at Mike.
The Embrace? Mike looked around and noticed that besides himself, there were nine other participants in the dungeon—four men and five women.
“Hey buddy, which faction are you thinking of choosing?” someone approached Mike as soon as he arrived, kindly offering, “We’ve got a batch of ten here; we’ve already discussed going with four werewolves and five vampires.”
After entering the tenth floor of the Tower of Truth, everyone automatically wore a mask covering the upper half of their face. This made it difficult to directly recognize each other and also set the stage for the upcoming masquerade ball.
“I guess I’ll go with the werewolves,” Mike replied nonchalantly. He hadn’t really decided yet.
Choosing vampires meant accepting the Embrace and then joining the masquerade ball.
Refusing the Embrace would result in being thrown into the depths of the dungeon, where one could acquire werewolf lineage. Neither option seemed particularly appealing.
Suddenly, information appeared before Mike:
[Current Werewolf Faction Exploration Rate: 0%]
[Current Human Faction Exploration Rate: 0%]
[Current Vampire Faction Exploration Rate: 0%]
Wait a minute! Something strange was mixed in there!
“Human faction?!” Mike noticed that this level wasn’t just two factions; it was three! Why wasn’t this mentioned in the guide?
Could it be that in the past three hundred years, no one had discovered it? Impossible, absolutely impossible.
Like the newbie instance Mike had once experienced, which belonged to a hidden level with an absurdly tricky activation mechanism. Each person only had one chance to tackle the newbie instance, which meant that over the past three century, no one could have discovered the hidden level.
The tenth floor had been studied for a long time by humans; it was impossible to miss a third faction! The Eye of Truth’s hints also confirmed Mike’s suspicion.
[Historical Scores: Human faction SSS-grade conquer 1 person, SS-grade conquer 1 person. Werewolf faction SSS-grade conquer 1 person…]
“Wait, someone conquered as the human faction at SSS-grade and didn’t publicize the strategy?” The whole affair was getting more complicated.
Mike reorganized his thoughts:
“Only two people have ever achieved SSS-grade conquer on the tenth floor, and both were Supreme Beings.”
“The data I’ve researched recently shows that Supreme Being [Apollo] rose to prominence suddenly, already at Battle Lord level when he first appeared on the front lines. Apart from the newbie instance, he hardly ever achieves SSS-grade; he’s always just a bit short…”
Considering the message board he saw on the third floor, Mike even suspected that Apollo was doing it on purpose! He would deliberately give up just before reaching an SSS-grade rating, settling for less.
Apollo had his reasons for doing so. Excluding one of the three Supreme Beings, that left [Ares] and [Morpheus].
“Well, there’s nothing to say, relying on Morpheus to find a hidden lineup is out of the question!” That guy would definitely choose werewolves!
Mike quickly locked onto the correct answer, “Ares achieved an SSS-grade score with the human faction. Apollo got an SS-grade with the human faction. Morpheus scored SSS with the werewolf faction.”
If that was the case, it mostly made sense…
The only two who had discovered the human faction, Ares was notoriously aloof, probably too cool to bother sharing.
Apollo… his only comment would likely be: “boring.”
Scratching his head, Mike felt a bit frustrated as he reviewed his deductions. “So, should I aim for an SSS-grade with the vampire faction?”
Just as Mike was pondering, a series of curses and the crisp sound of a whip cracking through the air came from outside the dungeon. “Hurry up, don’t dawdle, you little twerps, move it!”
Creeeak—
The dungeon door swung open, and the pale-faced young man appeared again, urging everyone forward. “Move it, move it! The Count has graced you lot with his precious blood for the Embrace. Such a valuable opportunity, and you’re still here dawdling! You should be thrown in as blood feed, not receiving the Embrace!”
Hearing this, the group of ten slowly started moving forward. “The Embrace completed with blood?”
Mike recalled a fun fact from the documents, “On the tenth floor, the original method of the Embrace was biting the neck. But after [Ares] visited, the method became much more civilized. Just a drop of blood on the palm was enough to complete the Embrace.”
Mike was curious about how Ares had convinced these vampires to be more civilized.
Refusing the Embrace means choosing to be a werewolf.
Mike wasn’t keen on becoming a vampire just yet; he planned to explore deeper into the dungeon. “But it’d be a shame to waste the Count’s precious blood, especially since it’s free!”
The essence of the blood would turn Mike into a vampire as soon as it touched his skin. Getting his hands on the Count’s blood was going to be a real challenge.
A bold idea popped into Mike’s mind.
“Cerberus Phantom!”
A dog appeared at Mike’s feet, very quietly.
Mike whispered a negotiation, “I hit you once, and if you don’t die, I’ll treat you to a barbecue later. That’s fair, right?”
“You not saying anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”
Cerberus Phantom: …
After making a deal with Cerberus, Mike took off his other equipment and donned the [Behemoth’s Claw], gently striking Cerberus.
Bang—
Cerberus’s health dropped significantly.
The only good news was that it wasn’t dead.
Mike looked at Cerberus.
[Status: Miser]
“This will work!”
Under the [Miser] status, no new items or currency can be acquired.
With Cerberus Phantom in the [Miser] state, Mike just needed to wrap the Nightmare’s Breeze around his palm, forming a natural firewall.
When the Count’s essence blood fell, it couldn’t change the lineage of Mike or Cerberus. Mike could then take the opportunity to collect the essence blood.
This way, he could smoothly collect the Count’s essence blood!
As the team continued to move forward, the surrounding environment gradually improved.
The air no longer had that decayed smell, but instead carried a hint of sweetness.
Everyone stopped walking, reaching the endpoint, standing in front of a huge, luxurious coffin.
When Mike clearly saw Count’s face, the question that had been troubling him was resolved.
How did Ares persuade these vampires to be more civilized?
Could it be possible that the scar on the vampire Count’s face, the coffin broken in two under his feet, and so on… were the answer?