Nightmare System

"Good morning," Zachariah said, startling Hell.

"Good morning to you, too, creepy mate," he said and asked: "Did the others wake up yet?"

"Yes. They had been waiting for you to wake up for around 6 hours now. They would wake you up, but sir Aurus said you needed to sleep as much as you could, as you might not have the chance to do so later."

"What a considerate and pessimistic fellow he is, right, Zack?"

"Right," Zachariah answered with a formal and respectable tone. He, too, had heard of Hell's feats. Virgil and his team were like Gods to the rest of these vampires. To be able to take them all on, that was going to be a legend unforgotten by these vampires. Also knowing he was still a friend of Virgil, their beloved leader, most of these vampires wouldn't hesitate to lay down their lives also for Hell, if there ever was a need to do so.

"Well, they waited this long, get me some breakfast," Hell said and took his time eating as well. Waiting for another half an hour wouldn't hurt. He enjoyed his breakfast with countless delicacies and had learned that vampires also ate and enjoyed the food, apparent from the delicious cooking. Their water was replaced by blood, that was the only difference to them. Hell, after enjoying his food for a while, saw Theperes outside his room looking at himself and walked up to her.

"You could come in," Hell said. "Were you just waiting for me here?"

"Are you inviting me to your chambers, my lord?" Theperes said with a reddened face.

Embarrassed because of her blushing, "Let's just go downstairs!" Hell said, almost sick of her teasing.

"Of course." She complied.

"Thank you," Hell said and promptly lead the way. Theperes accepted Hell's thanks with a smile and followed. After a full minute of awkward walking without much talking, they went up some stairs and Hell began seeing his friends.

"Finally!" Leon yelled as his eyes fell onto the stunning but familiar woman behind him. "Were you keeping him busy, Theperes?" Leon laughed loudly.

"Hey, piss off, alright? Let's go and kill some stuff, yeah?" Hell said.

"It feels like you were killing it already, but all right," Virgil said unexpectedly.

"Come on guys," said Leila. "It's not his fault he couldn't resist her charms."

If the reddest tomato and Theperes could be put side by side, you couldn't tell the difference at the moment. Theperes was not used to being teased, felt odd for a vampire like her especially. "People, we didn't-"

Vaun suddenly interjected. "Boss, are you gonna get married, too? I am behind you, she's beautiful!" No one was expecting Vaun to say anything as such, causing everyone to laugh uproariously.

"All right," Hell said. "What's the plan?"

Virgil stopped his hearty laugh soon after and took out a map of a base similar to this one. Showing the layout.

"This is his chambers. Keep that in mind." He pointed at a rather large room. "He is always accompanied by beauties of different sorts that he mind-controls, as far as we know. So if you are seen by any of them, he would probably know of your existence immediately."

"Well, I am fast but I can't just become a shadow like you bastards," Hell said. "Do you just want me to mow-down hundreds of vampires there?"

"No," Virgil said. "You'll help me expand my territory there."

"You mean you'll take over his territory, too? Can you 'just' do that?" Leila asked.

"No. We'll have to kill him, and then I'll come to save the rest of the vampires. You have to be fought off by me at that point." Virgil said.

Nero stepped forward and walked towards the map, surprising Hell and his party altogether. None of them expected anything other than fighting from this guy they were looking at. His brown hair was covering his left eye but he didn't seem to be bothered by it. Hell would bet that he was just too lazy to fix it.

"This is the training grounds." He pointed at a large room. "That's where his personal guards usually are and would respond to any threat at a moment's notice. As you can see, it's not far from Dmiria's chambers." Nero said. "I didn't go any further as they could notice me."

"You got into their base?" Leon was surprised.

"I did," Nero said and looked to be dozing off.

"Hey, you sure you didn't dream all that?" Vaun said all of a sudden, attracting the attention on himself. He was even more courageous as of late. Hell somewhat felt like he was a mafia boss and Vaun his loud minion preaching Hell's greatness.

"Nero may look a bit, unreliable, yes," Virgil uttered the words embarrassedly. "But he's the best reconnaissance specialist you can find in this continent. Trust him."

Hell was disappointed in this alleged "plan" they were talking about as it only seemed to be dependent on his own strength.

"So I'll first go there, kill all those personal guards, hope that I'm not seen by anyone so the rest of his army isn't alerted, and then I go also kill their leader? Great plan, guys, how did you help again?"

"Listen," Virgil said. "Sons of Shadow will go and take out their guards, but mental attacks aren't things anyone can easily defend against. We will provide you with safe access into his room, the only thing you'll have to do is kill him. One versus one. Well, along with whomever he is sleeping with there."

"Well, that's better."

"No shit, of course that's better," Leon said. "We'll also stand outside and provide cover if something unexpected occurs, then."

"When are we going?" Hell asked.

"We are already closeby now," Virgil said. Aurus, while they were busy explaining and understanding the layout, had already started chanting a spell which teleported them all into the jungle as his chanting came to an end moments after Hell's question.

"Cool," Leila said after falling on her bum with the spell's abrupt effect.

"Well, how long should I wait for you guys?" Hell asked.

"One minute. The commotion will attract the Vampire Lord Dmiria, you have to go in before he interferes, I'll be watching from afar." Virgil said. "Don't go berserk on us again or everything will fall apart."

"I won't need the sword against a mage. And even if I did-"

"Don't be overconfident now," Anton said with a disapproving tone, he looked better now, it seemed his clothes were the only things permanently affected in that fight, albeit almost being chopped up in half. Vampires' regeneration was a thing to fear.

"Well, even if I needed it, that's not gonna happen again. I won't leave any doors open for that bastard. It was truly just a fluke he could do that!" Hell finished his sentence.

"You are overconfident," Anton said with a sigh.

"Sons of Shadow, I am trusting you to execute this mission with your utmost," Virgil nodded his head.

"Yes!" They all said at the same time and went inside.

They were among some trees and dense foliage. Hell picked a berry growing on a nearby bush and ate it. It had an incredibly sour taste, it felt like the berry almost vaporized his tongue. After counting to 60, Hell also went in and headed for Dmiria's bedroom.

Hell checked the map he was given again before making a turn, and he was right to do so since it seemed he was about to make a wrong turn. He cursed his sense of direction and headed for the right way this time, reaching the doors of the said place soon after using his Quickening.

There were sounds of grunting and m.o.a.ns coming from inside. Hell figured he would at least wait until the dude was done since it sounded like they had just started. He was even ready to wait for a few minutes even. He wouldn't be caught as long as he waited for him outside, he was thinking.

After 10 seconds, however, he heard the voices dim and he opened the door. There were tens of women and men lying everywhere. Hell thought this was probably how saints pictured hell, piled up bodies filled with l.u.s.t grabbing onto one another in various areas. It was similar to a painting he once saw.

"Dmiria, your end is here!" Hell yelled as he asked himself one question: "Why did I even say that?" He was embarrassed already, thinking it was really cliche.

"Who is it?!" Dmiria yelled. It was an old man looking to be in his sixties. "You old dog!" Hell yelled back. "I'm here to take your head."

Dmiria snorted and "Kill," he uttered as he pointed to Hell. Everyone in the room that were intoxicated by l.u.s.t suddenly turned their heads to Hell all at the same time and plunged forward. Various fluids were dropping from many of them, Hell was disgusted.

These were rather slow vampires, but even a second was enough for Dmiria to cast a strong spell. He was proud of his Quick Cast ability. This one second all of them could earn would usually be enough for him to destroy any enemy of his.

"You are strong, you'll make a fine addition to my army," Dmiria said when he saw this man in front of him destroying the hearts of many other vampires before himself without any reservations whilst not showing any signs of exhaustion.

Suddenly Hell's eyes were clouded by a purple smoke, which he got rid of by simply dispersing it while shaking his head. If Dmiria watched older cartoons, he'd be not only horrified but also immensely confused.

"Is that your strongest spell?" Hell asked. He barely felt anything.

"How?!" Dmiria was horrified. He was sure he was invincible among other Vampire Lords with his attacks that destroyed and controlled one's mind. As long as he could land his spell, it would be over for the other party. He couldn't accept this outcome.

"No!" He yelled. "I'll destroy your mind if I can't control it!"

"Do it then," Hell said and started calmly walking toward him as he cut down the vampires lunging at him left and right, there was no point in killing him fast, that was not the point after all. He had also gotten some regeneration and claw abilities from the vampires he killed, but he didn't spend time checking on it at this point. From the speed his scratches healed, it couldn't be compared to his own skill.

"Hell, yes, I see into your mind, your memories I see will soon be destroyed by-" Dmiria suddenly stopped talking. His eyes opened wide; his mouth was left agape as the colour drained from his old face.

"Hey, bud, you alright?" Hell said.

Dmiria began foaming at the mouth and collapsed and his heart stopped after mere moments. Hell recognized the feeling.

"Ah, shit, you actually looked into my mind?" Hell asked, frowning. "Hey, are you dead?"

He ripped his heart out as well but there was no response. No notifications from the system.

"F.u.c.k you, system, I killed him, technically!" Hell yelled. "Give me the levels and the skills you bastard!" There was no response from the system.

"I wanted a fight at least, what is this?" Hell murmured, whining. "I am bored!" Hell really enjoyed fighting. After Dmiria died, the few vampires that were yet to attack Hell broken out of their stupor and ran away.

As soon as they left the room, their pitiful screams rang out. Hell stopped and listened to the sneaky footsteps coming his way. However, he miscalculated them, resulting in himself being stabbed. It was very stupid of him to not just turn.

"I'll give you a fight." The man behind Hell spoke, his dagger lodged in Hell's c.h.e.s.t. "This was the challenge I had to face?" The man roared and added: "Player killer, your challenger was weak."

Hell pierced the man's throat with the Imp Needle as he turned with amazing speed using Quickening. "I learned about it quite recently as well, turns out, you shouldn't really lower your guard, mate."

The man fell on the floor squirming, Hell finished him off by crushing his skull with a stomp. There were no notifications from the system again. "Oh come on!" Hell yelled. "You are just f.u.c.k.i.n.g with me at this point!" The dagger he was stabbed with disappeared, but he was feeling weird after being stabbed with it. There was surely something about that dagger.

"Are you trying to talk to the system?" A man said from the entrance. The corpse was still there by his feet, but Hell was looking at a person identical to the man he just killed, who was coming up to him with slow steps. Hell knew his mind couldn't be attacked, but what if the spell was cast onto the environment? It could have been one such thing he was dealing with.

"How many times are you planning on dying?" Hell asked. "I can do this all day."

"What a coincidence!" Another man looking exactly alike to the corpse said again, there were two of them now.

"I have to find and kill you to end this, right?" Hell asked. "What are you, an illusion spell user? Pathetic."

"You think this is an illusion?" The men laughed one after another. Some were yelling obscenities to him while others were getting ready to fight. There were 20 of them now.

"We are Neil." They said, horribly synchronized.

"Nope," Hell said. "You are dead." As he took out the Sword of Blood and stabbed himself with it.

"Nice toy. We also have one." All Neils took out the same black dagger with wings at the bottom.

"That's not fair, you got 20 of them?" Hell said sarcastically, ready to use Quickening or Warping at a moment's notice.

It was probably not the case. The corpse at his feet began melting and it soon disappeared along with its clothes, as well as the dagger.

"We don't really have to fight, do we? Let's be friends." Hell said.

"Yes, let's just be friends," Neils said in unison as they approached him one step at a time. Hell walked up to them with a smile as well. They were almost face to face right before they lunged at one another.

Hell was slightly faster without Quickening, but he used the skill right after. Dodging attacks from 20 copies from all directions, he changed his strategy. He coupled Quickening with Warping, and just traded attacks with them. He just made it so that he wasn't hit in the heart. Not being able to heal, Neils would collapse soon after with each traded attack.

Neil was calm at first, not knowing his opponent could heal faster than vampires. After sacrificing 5 of his copies, they all tried to open up some distance between themselves and Hell who pursued them relentlessly, not giving them a chance to do so. Neil was getting frustrated and slightly scared. He was barely able to see his opponent. If it wasn't for his extraordinary perception, this would be an impossible fight.

"You three, stop him!" one of the Neils yelled and the three closeby did so immediately. Ready to be cut down and killed by Hell for the sake of keeping him there. Hell also complied and started chopping them in pieces that attacked him as if he was dancing, with rather graceful movements.

When he saw multiple balls of fire coming his way, instead of finishing off the poor copies, he used Quickening once more and held them in place, hoping to use them as shields. The fireballs didn't seem too much trouble by themselves, but 12 of them looked scary, to say the least, capable of incinerating a man. Hell used all his strength to hold the three in place as the fireballs hit them.

"You absolute bastard!" Hell yelled, looking at Neils, his arms hurt.

It was horrifying to hear screams of others for some people, and Neil was one such person as he was seeing himself, screaming while burning to ashes. Hell was better off with only his arms and legs burnt, but he began using Knight-demon's Vitality right away trying to heal the burn.

It proved to be harder to heal as his arms were charred, he used his Quickening to dodge any other fireballs sent his way as he continued healing his arms.

As soon as it was done, which took around a minute, Hell summoned the Imp Needle again and threw it with all his strength to one of them from a close enough distance that he couldn't dodge it. It luckily impaled two of them in the c.h.e.s.ts before he retrieved it. He needed to systematically kill these guys, so he stuck to this plan, returning to trading blows whenever they got closer as well.

There were only 3 of them in time when Neil finally found out that Hell didn't have immense vitality, but he could completely heal himself instead. He had seen the healing from regular vampires or more vitality focused characters, but this was something else completely.

"That's cheating!" He yelled in fear as he realized this was not a battle of attrition as he thought earlier, taking a step back. "I no longer want to fight you!" Neil originally thought that as long as he managed to tire him out with his copies, it would be a piece of cake killing him.

"You don't? That's a shame though, isn't it?"

"Please, we are just pawns in the game of brutal Gods, you are doing their bidding!" Neil yelled as another one of them fell down, cut in half. Two of them were left now.

"Let's see if you'll die if I finish you both," Hell said as he threw the weapon at the other one, killing him.

"You are just a pawn, they'll get rid of you, too!" Neil said in fright.

"Mate, everything else but me and my friends is irrelevant to me. But I'll avenge you, too, don't you worry." Hell said and slashed down vertically in force, after summoning the weapon into his hand. The lifeless corpse fell onto the ground with two quick thuds. Hell picked up the dagger from the original and kept it with him.

*A player has been defeated*

*+500 mana has been acquired*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*Upon reaching level 42, the player can start advancing in his class*

*Choose advanced class*

*Passive skill: Advanced Agility has been acquired*

*Skill: Copies has been acquired*

*Skill: Fire Channelling has been acquired*

*Passive Skill: Puppet Mastery has been acquired*

"Sweet. Hope you'll keep sending me these guys, Player Killer." Hell said, looking at the sword.

"Good job, my minion," Player Killer actually answered, somewhat surprising Hell. "There will only be the chosen one standing in the end."

Hell sighed and put the weapon back "Damn," he then said. "so he had 5000 mana?" Hell figured he could only plunder 10% of his target's mana, which was not a lot most of the time.

"Identify." Hell then said after a moment of contemplation. "Let's see what you gave me, you bastard."

Skills:

---------

*Advanced Agility: Passive skill, +100 dexterity*

*Copies: -200 mana for each copy up to 20 copies, each will have 60% of the user's stats and 10% of the mana*

*Puppet Mastery: Any vessel under the user's control will have its stats boosted by 60%*

*Fire Channelling: Fire magic courses through the item the user holds and fires from the tip. 150 mana for each usage*

"What is this?" Hell asked. "Vaun can benefit from the puppet master? Nice."

Player: Minion of the Cursed Hunter

Age: 30

Occupation: Minion

Level: 34

HP : 1040/1040

Mana : 0

Stats

----------

Strength : 25 (35)

Defence : 200 (230)

Dexterity : 11

Mana : 0

Vitality : 104

Stamina : 25

"He benefited from this as much as I have!" Hell then murmured to himself and then yelled: "Lucky bastard you are, Vaun!"

*Dexterity: 296*

*Unused stats:10*

Also checking his own stats, he spoke again: "Well, maybe not as much as me, but he sure got a nice boost there."

*Dexterity: 300*

*Strength: 71*

"Now, let's choose the new class and get this over with." Hell said to himself and mentally commanded: "Choose class."

*Player is choosing an advanced class*

*Cursed Hunter has no advanced type, the player can choose any advanced class*

"What the hell does that mean, System? So if I choose to be a wizard, are you gonna just make me one? What are my options? Say somet-"

Hell was cut short when he heard the Nightmare System again:

*Advanced Class: Archwizard has been chosen*

*Player can access his class with the command "Skill Page"*

There was a silence that lasted minutes as Hell stood there, unmoving. He facepalmed himself in force and continued standing there.

"Hey, Hell, what the hell are you-" Nero was suddenly saying as he saw the corpses around. "Why the hell are you just standing there if you're done!" He added when he saw the corpse of Dmiria.

"It's, uh, it's nothing. Let's go." Hell said, unenthusiastically. He should have learned. He should have learned by now that the system would mess with him at any chance it got.

"Alright, get out and start killing other vampires, we took care of the elite guards."

"Alright," Hell said and disappeared using Quickening after taking Dmiria's body with him. Nero couldn't tell what happened. He was faster again, and this time, it felt like Hell had just disappeared. His speed was incomparable to the time he used that sword. This man had gotten stronger again.

"We made the right choice." He slowly murmured and then broke into a run with all his speed to tell Lord Virgil it was time. It wouldn't matter they took over this place or not if Hell killed tons of vampires.

Hell was slightly depressed at first, and then raged with all his heart and announced that "Dmitri or whatever he was", was dead along with all his whores and bodyguards. Hearing this, vampires slowly gathered all-around full of curiosity, they were shocked as they saw their leader's lifeless corpse, foams in his mouth, a hole where his heart was.

They were stupefied and unsure of their fate, at this point. One of them said to keep the murderer circled while he fetched the bodyguards. A Vampire Lord was the greatest defence line of a base.

Hell waited for them to realize everyone was dead and then he would engage in a murderous rampage as soon as they attacked him, how dare the system treats him this way? He didn't even mentally ask this time and was just thinking aloud. What was he to do as a wizard? He loved to fight at close quarters.

"Will no one fight me?!" Hell yelled with all his might. "I killed your leader and destroyed the elite guards you revered, do you not want revenge?!" Hell wanted to fight to get some of his anger out.

Moments after the vampire who wanted to fetch the guards arrived, uttering the following words: "They have all been massacred without much resistance."

Hell got ready to fight now, he would at least get a good fight in before leaving. He was incredibly amped up and excited.

"All hail the new leader!" The same vampire yelled.

Hell wanted to fight without holding back until Virgil arrived at least, but he couldn't believe his ears. "Huh?" He said, stupefied by the vampires' reaction. Not even the Vampire Lord who excelled in mind control magic could deal him such a blow.