As Rayne navigated through the twisting cave system, he consulted his 3D map to ensure that he stayed on course. As he moved further into the tunnel, the scenery around him began to shift. The rough, natural cave walls gave way to carefully-carved stone slabs, and the ceiling arched above him in a smooth curve. It was clear that this section of the cave was man-made.
Suddenly, Rayne's progress was halted by the sight of a large, ornate chest sitting at the side of the tunnel. He felt a sense of déjà vu wash over him as he remembered a similar encounter in his past. Recalling how he had once mistaken a mimic for a chest in a game and almost died ofcourse it was virtually.
Shaking off the memory, Rayne summoned his trusty gun and carefully approached the chest. He fired a series of precise shots, blasting off the top and revealing its contents. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that it was not a mimic but a normal chest. He immediately surveyed the chest's contents and found a pouch which contained several silver coins with the symbol of two swords interlocking each other. It was one of the most common items that he had acquired, along with some kind of golden and silver-colored boat which the system apparently called a "sycee" during his looting process.
/Fwush/
As Rayne ran the sound of his footsteps echoed through out the dark tunnel.
It has been two days since he entered the tunnel, and it seemed like he had yet to reach his destination. Despite the long journey, he encountered numerous chests filled with treasure i.e more money along with some gold utensils, and the skeletons of fallen warriors who had ventured into this place by mistake or intentionally from them he was able to obtain even more coins along with some scarp weapon that he intends to sell to a blacksmith when he come across one. Among the items he acquired was a sturdy staff that he found in the hand of one of the skeleton with probably the most highest amount of armour. The staff used to be a spear but it's spearhead had broken off due to the rusting of it.
As he journeyed further into the tunnel, he came across several undead creatures, mostly wendigos. Instead of relying on his weapons, he decided to use his taekwondo skills to further hone his combat abilities. The creatures' unpredictable movements proved to be a worthy challenge, but he was able to overcome them and improve his skills in the process. He encountered only seven such creatures throughout his journey, but each encounter was a valuable learning experience.
Now, he was nearing the end of the tunnel, and beyond that, he expected to find a pyramid-like structure, if he were to trust his map.
As he neared the end of the tunnel, he noticed a red dot lighting up on his system, causing him to stop in his tracks. He surveyed the area carefully, but he was unable to spot anyone or anything. As he took a cautious step forward, the red dot reappeared. "Perhaps it reacts to the sound of my movements," he thought to himself. Suddenly, a reckless idea popped into his mind, and without hesitation, he dashed forward.
As he ran, a bat-like creature appeared right before him. He had already anticipated such a scenario, and he quickly drew his gun, shooting directly at the creature. The crimson bullet was fast and precise, but the creature was even faster, dodging the bullet with ease. However, what it didn't expect was that he would use his authority over his blood to control the bullet's trajectory, hitting the creature from behind. The bullet penetrated its skull with little resistance, as he had actually empowered the blood bullet with qi, providing much more damage.
At that time a system message appeared like the usual.
[You have slain a Level 3 Awakened Monster, Vampire]
[Your Blood grows stronger.]
At that same moment a high amount of energy flowed into his soul core further strengthening it.
'Vampire! as in vampire vampire?'
[Yes, you have killed a vampire of this universe and it gave you 50 points of soul force do you understand.]
'Oh! but I thought vampire were supposed to be gorgeous being not some demonic looking creature.'
[...]
Rayne continued to move forward and exited the tunnel. He emerged into a vast open space. At the center of the chamber loomed an imposing Mayan pyramid, its ancient stone walls etched with intricate carvings and glyphs.
But Rayne's attention was drawn away from the pyramid as he caught sight of a humanoid figure with enormous bat-like wings sprouting from its back. The creature spoke in an unfamiliar tongue, but Rayne's system instantly translated the words for him.
"Finally, you have arrived," the creature spoke, its voice echoing through the vast chamber. "Be proud, for you will serve as both my meal and my ticket out of this place."
"Now, attack my minions," the creature commanded, gesturing towards a several, vampires that is bat creatures that lurked in the shadows of the chamber. Their eyes glinted with a fierce hunger as they advanced towards Rayne, their claws scraping against the stone floor.
Rayne quickly realized that his gun was not very effective against the agile vampiric minions. He stored away his gun and immediately summoned his odachi, a long Japanese sword. The blade glinted as he channeled his qi through it and started to hack and slash at the creatures. He moved with fluidity, enhancing his agility with his qi and allowing him to keep up with the minions' speed.
As the battle continued, Rayne summoned a handful of Molotov cocktails from his inventory. He lit them and hurled them towards the minions. The fiery explosion caught them off guard, and several of them were engulfed in flames.
Rayne then saw that his attacks were suppressing the minions and he continued to press on with the barrage of his attacks. However, the humanoid figure had not given up and began to use its magical ability to shoot blood projectiles at him. Rayne seeing this immediately dodged and weaved around to avoid the deadly projectiles.
Rayne started to slash at his opponents with his qi covered blade seeing that there HP was quite low he summoned his gun on his off hand and started to shoot at there leg making one of them stumble seeing the opportunity he immediately beheaded on of the vampires he dodged one of there claw by a hair breath before using his movement technique and appearing right behind it and once again killing another vampire, suddenly he felt a piercing sensation in his stomach as he looked down he saw one of the blood projectile was now lodged in his stomach. Seeing Rayne felt fear, then sorrow and then an extreme amount of anger he immediately slashed behind him and pierced another of its kind right through the heart.
Now there was only 10 wendigos left, not wasting any time he aimed a perfect headshots while empower his blood bullet with both his qi and soul energy instantly killing them all. At the same time he felt pain near his heart, when he looked down he saw another blood projectile lodged in his chest. Rayne immediately willed his blood to push the projectile out and coagulate the wound. At that moment, the humanoid creatures with bat wings flew down and said in a casual voice. "You are one the hell of a persistent bastard, it really makes me wonder who the bitch who gave birth to you."
As if a dam breaking in his mind all his built up rage started to flow through his mind his hair now shadowed his eyes blocking them from outside view.
"Oh! did you get mad, don't tell me you don't like when someone calls your mother a bit-" the creature once again started to taunt but was not able to finish his speech as Rayne threw a powerful punch that sent the creature flying towards the pyramid.
He lunged forward towards the creature that was now rising from the debris, it immediately threw several projectiles at him but he dodged them all with agility that he had never shown before. Rayne continued on attacking it with his hand shaping them almost like a claw, as the creature now known as Vampire Zabaru tried to defend itself with his wings but Rayne claw cut through it like butter which caused the vampire to flinch and giving Rayne his time to dig his teeth into the flesh of its neck before he tore it's neck apart with his sharp teeth.
As the vampire tried to stopped it's bleeding with his own blood control and that moment he saw the eyes of the human, the sclera were completely black with a pair of ominous red orbs illuminating i as a last resort the vampire sharpened it's wing and pierced right through his chest injuring his aorta. Feeling the extreme pain Rayne finally came to his senses and his eyes reverted back to normal his previously burging muscle returned to its original shape, his fangs as well as nail reverted back to their normal form. At that moment he saw the sharp wing lodged in his chest, he immediately removed it but it caused blood to flow out like a fountain still feeling a little weak he willed his blood to stop flowing out. Smelling the blood in the air he felt enchanted by the blood of the vampire, he moved towards its before licking the blood that was coming out. Not feeling satisfied he bite into one of its arm and sucked it of all it's life fluid before he started to feel dizzy and fell asleep.
Just like that he took his first sleep in three days of his arrival.
************
A revised version of the fight is in the next chapter.