Chương 18: Lord of the Bats

The moment he woke up, Noir quickly got ready and prepared for the day. He started with some stretching and warming up. Looking around he found Eleanor was still sleeping soundly and so he decided to then venture into the forest in search of food. After some time, he successfully gathered five juicy fruits. These peculiar fruits were unlike anything he had encountered on Earth.

The fruits looked like eggplants but had a lemon-like shape with a long stem. Their deep, glossy purple skin indicated ripeness. Noir was taken aback by the burst of flavor when he took a mouthful. They had a pleasant, welcoming perfume that tickled the senses with a combination of fruity and flowery scents. With every bite, a stream of cool, watery liquid burst forth, giving it the texture and flavor of a crisp, sweet apple combined with a watermelon. Tiny, edible seeds gave a delicate crunch to the flesh, which was a pale, translucent pink.

And although he does not really need to eat anymore he still enjoyed it, and he find it strangely calming. What's more he doesn't really want to completely abandon his humanity. With that thought he took another bite to the fruit and finally head back to the camp.

And when he got back he found Eleanor was also awake. He smiled inwardly but kept a straight face.

"You're awake... Here." He then handed her 2 of the remaining fruit leaving him with a 1 whole fruit while also in the process of eating the other one earlier.

Eleanor accepted the fruit with a grateful smile "Thank you, my lord" and eat slowly. At this point Noir have gotten used to being called with honorifics and pretty much accepted it. Not long after that the both of them finished a their short breakfast and started their day.

This time they ventured deeper into the forest, and soon the surroundings were dense with vegetation, the overgrowth so thick it felt more like a jungle.

Towering trees stretched their branches high above, their leaves forming a lush canopy that filtered the sunlight into a greenish glow. Vines and creepers twisted around tree trunks, while the forest floor was carpeted with ferns and shrubs, making the terrain difficult to navigate. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and the sounds of distant wildlife. And Noir found himself back at the spot where he had been chased by the pack of wolves

But today it different.. HE was different from back then, the different between HIM and Zarius was their mentality.. And Noiren now posses a useful skill that the previous him doesn't.. its the [Nocturnal Oath]. And it might not be quite noticeable but the surrounding was packed with hundreds of creature. Noir basically have eyes everywhere, quite literally.

He was sharing the sense of the bats he commanded. allowing him to see what they see and hear what they hear. And currently they are safe from any attacks at the moment. And so, they ventured deeper into the jungle with careful and slow steps. While walking Noir fell into a deep thought.

'Now, that I think of it, I don't think I ever thought of an end goal.... ' his mind swirled with many thoughts as he tries to think of what he want's in here.

'Sure, I do plan on climbing the dungeon and completing it.. But what happens after? and what will I do?' he thought as he clenched his fist.

'What if I return home after climbing it? What if I go back to where I was after completing the tower?... back to being a sickly human, a pathetically.... lonely human...' his "eyes"(sense) then turned to Eleanor who was walking behind him..

It suddenly dawned on him that this should be his first time in having a genuine interaction with a girl.. what's more, this is his first time being able to enjoy the outside world.

'Yeah... How did I quickly accepted that?... My whole life I've not experience what it's like being in a jungle.. or the outside at all.. I should be enjoying this shit!.' slowly, a smile crept up to his serious face..

'Yes... that's it.. I wanna enjoy this life.. get stronger..and climb the dungeon and compl-.....' he suddenly paused in his thoughts. 'b-but I don't wanna go back....' assaulted by multiple emotions he tried to reason with it only to come out with more conerns.

So in the end he just shook his head and pushed it off his mind. 'well cross the road when we get there' he thought as he continues walking with Eleanor.

3 hours have passed, they have walked quite far already. Eleanor have started wondering about something aswel when they have reached 2 hours of traveling without meeting a single enemies. But she kept quiet about and instead assumed the answer herself.

With her thinking along the lines of 'Yeah, those puny hounds are probably getting scared away by his presence!!' and became more and more amaze by his "might".

'As expected of a Dragon!' she thought excitedly

On the other hand, Noiren himself have been focused since the very start.

'Fuck another pack is coming in the north.. lets change cour- shit! There's another one!' He cursed his luck as he made a sharp turn while walking.. Eleanor didn't question this and followed behind him closely... Completely oblivious about her "lords" cowardice.

You might ask, why is Noir running away from them.. didn't he just massacred a bunch of them last night?.. well yes, You're right. But you see, the sun have came up and the effect of the blessing have worn of. Turning him back to his normal strength.

Though you might asked again.. how is he sensing them? The simple answer was that he have eyes everywhere.

Using his newly aquired skill [Nocturnal Oath] he controlled hundreds of bats to spread around him in a radius of 50 meters.. whihc is the range of which he could share senses with his pawn.

Using it, he pretty much have something like a portable CCTV cam that moves with him and monitors his surrounding.

Whats more, he's pretty sure this is not the only this could be used. And he have already experimented around it by killing one iron hound using nothing but bats.

He pretty much ignored the rest of the pack and focused on that single wolf. He controlled each bats and made them fly around the wolf in a erratic manner going in for a bite and flying away in a random sequence. Sometimes he even made multiple bats attack at the same time.

It toom quite awhile to finished making him visibly irrated from his slow progress and instead changed his approach. And what he did was quite a sight.

'That's actually quite an OP utility skill' he thought as he recalled what he did earlier with satisfaction.

It all started when he got quite a bit frustrated and made the bats fly right at it. What he didn't expect was the wolf getting pushed a few steps from that. And a bright idea came to his mind.

With a renewed vigour he made all the available bats in that vicinity swarm the wolf and slowly but surely, he started lifting it in the sky.

Of course the wolf didn't just sit still for him to do it, It fought back, it fought back fiercely. It even managed to caught a few of his bats. And for the first time he found out what will happen if one of his bats died.

His head felt like it gor smashed by a sledge hammer each time his bats died. It cause him to actually stop walking making Eleanor wonder.

After that, he got more careful and avoided the places the wolf could reach with its snout and went on with his plan. This time he didn't made his bats cling on the wolf one by one.

But instead he made all of them gather in a small ball high in the sky. And he made them gather in speed by flying in circles faster and faster. And with simple command he made them move.

With a swift motion the bats flies downward towards the wolf almost hitting the floor with their body, almost. And all this time the wolf have actually ran quite a distance already, however the bats have quickly caught up tih it. And with them flying so close together it looked like a black solid blacket was following the wolf and quickly reached it.

With a fearful whine the wolf suddenly felt air being knocked out of its body as the bats went even lower, right beneath it and with a sharp turn slammed themselves up to the wolf stomach.

But it didn't end there, all the bats quickly swarmed in like the rest forming a black blanket making a scooping motion and pretty much carried the wolf up in the air quickly gaining height.. and once they were high enough the bats.. pretty much scattered and let the wolf fly, but it couldn't and instead it plummeted onto its death with and audible crunch.

Though you all might be thinking now, 'why not fight them doggo then?' well its simple.. after that entire ordeal Noir felt the same level of exhaustion as to when he fought and hunted thw entire night.. it completely drained him.

Though it's not that noticable since all his physical body did was walk. So in the end he decided that it wouldn't be wise to fight a pack of those things.

As for the othwr inhabitants of this forest? Well he actually spotted a few troll waiting for someone to fall for their traps, some group of goblins wondering around. But he decided that fighting those wouldn't be that much of a benefits.

'Specially the Trolls.. those flamable peace of turds' he click his tongue in disgust.

Why? It was because Trolls actually killed him 5 times back when he was still playing the game. Those trolls are inhumanly strong, though they're a bit clumsy and slow. But those weakness are completely covered up by their stupidly absurd skill.. regeneration.

'Those Bastards could stay alive even without a head intact and could still kill you! Heck! given enough time a single head could regrow back its full body in just a day! '

He shivered as he remember that time in the game where he was experimenting on a Troll severed head only for his character to get killed while it was sleeping soundly in his bedroom.

The only reason they haven't taken over the world because of their incredibly low fertility rate.

'hmph serves them right.. i hope those fuck goes instinct' he thought as he took another turn to avoid unnecessary conflict.

He sighed tiredly at this. 'Good gods I need some rest'

But he didn't complain openly, he cant really figure it out but its almost like his own vessel is screaming at him to behave and look as presentable as he could.

'Now that I think about it.. this body of mine.. it's not completely mine isn't it?' he thought as he took note of the things he sometimes felt.

One of it was the unbridled suspicion about everything as if he's a paranoid or something. Even the most simple thing makes his body scream at him to check whatever the fuck was it and how safe it is.

Though he mostly ignore it when its obviously nothing. But other than that was the pride he always feels. He wasn't really a prideful person before but everytime he does something that this body considers shameful make him physically cringe.

Though for some reason it accepts the

"pretend dead" technique as good. 'maybe because its effective?' he thought. And eventually another days have passed as they made their way deeper in the forest as they neard to the portal for the next floor

==================|

Name: Noiren Van Helsing

| Lvl= 2. | Exp( 60/75) | BP ( 5 / 50)

[Race: Vampire]

[Stats]===|

Str : 14

Spd :13

Agi : 11

Per : 12

Con : 8

Dex : 14

Cha : 14

=============|

[Skill]

| > [Regeneration]

>[Immortality]

>[Echo]

>[Vampiric Claw]

>[Hang]

>[Eternal Oath]

[Blessings]

| > [Blessing of Estas]

=================|

(N/A: If i somehow got anything wrong with the status please tell me!! Thia author of yours is a bit of a goldfish sometimes, i easily forgets! Im in your care)