The True Ancestor Feels Wronged

"My liege, my liege…."

Katarina looked up at me.

Her red eyes were glistening with moisture. An expression of utter rapture.

Hmm. Is it that good?

Sure, even I figured getting petted by a silver-haired, red-eyed vampire beauty would feel nice, but Katarina's reaction was a bit over the top.

Maybe because she was a familiar created through Familiar Summon, her loyalty to me—her creator—seemed far beyond what I'd imagined.

Man, the cost-performance is insane.

It took at least ten Blood Essences to grant a single blessing, yet here she was, melting from a single pat on the head.

Pat, pat.

I finally managed to pull my hand away after petting her for a good long while.

"That will do, Katarina. Thou hast done well."

"…Yes, my liege."

Katarina replied, gazing wistfully at my hand.

Meanwhile, Siyeon had quietly stepped back to wait.

Classic Siyeon reaction.

With the situation more or less wrapped up, I flopped onto the bed.

"Haaah."

With the AC cranked up and the cozy blankets enveloping me, all the tension melted away.

What a day it had been.

An A-rank gate popped up in the neighborhood, Katarina went out and rescued the Ice Emperor, she drank vampire blood, the Blood Blessing interface unlocked, and I even powered up Siyeon.

It felt like events kept popping off non-stop, leaving me wiped out.

To be fair, all I'd really done was hole up in my room cheering her on, clicking away at the Tome of the Departed, and slapping on blessings….

But mental stamina's a thing, right?

Time to chill and check the gallery.

I grabbed my smartphone from the nightstand and logged into the Hunter Gallery.

Starting with the hot posts, I began my usual binge-scroll.

Today's big bait was, predictably, the Seollim-dong gate incident.

Thankfully, no posts pinpointing me or Katarina.

Just endless speculation about the Ice Emperor's status and gate judgment errors.

As I scrolled leisurely, one highly upvoted post caught my eye.

…

They're totally memeing me, right?

Worship and mockery at the same time? These guys.

I knew it was WWE-style trolling, but it still kinda grated.

Because.

I actually helped the Ice Emperor, you know? What do you plebs know!

She was literally on the brink of death.

If not for me, Seollim-dong might've been wiped off the map by now.

But I can't even brag about it anywhere. And on the forums, I'm just meme fodder.

Annoyed for no reason, I slammed a downvote on it.

Enough of this bait. Moving on.

As I scrolled further, a sudden thought crossed my mind.

…Come to think of it.

It was about time to plan the next climb.

With floor 3 cleared, floor 4 was next.

Floor 4 is the graveyard backdrop, right?

But the real issue was what came after.

I got curious about floor 5 info.

Nightmare floors 1-4 had decent guides at least.

The consensus: difficulty leaps from floor 3. Need legit S-rank hunter skills to pass.

But from floor 5 on? Barely any info on the gallery.

I dug deep, but it was all worthless noise. No real intel.

Hmm. Guess it's hopeless.

Made sense, really.

Hunter Gallery users were mostly average hunters or normies like pre-awakening me.

High-ranks? Maybe a few B's, rare A's.

S-ranks and above who've cleared Nightmare 4+? Handful worldwide, and they ain't posting guides here.

Info like that stays with those in the know. High Nightmare floors don't circulate in this ecosystem.

Other sites or YouTube? Same story.

Whatever, can't be helped.

I shelved the pointless obsession and pulled up the system window.

Might as well sort my stats while I'm at it.

Nine points from this level-up.

Blood Power it is, obviously?

Each point in Blood Power gives one Blood Essence.

Plus that new info: drinking monster blood gives EXP. Higher grade = more EXP.

So my route forward…

1. Level up to raise Blood Power.

2. Rack up Blood Essences.

3. Grant blessings to power up familiars.

4. Familiars hunt strong foes; I sip blood safely from my room and level.

5. Repeat infinitely.

→ World #1 Ranker!

Something like that.

Should I switch to jungler? Route design too perfect.

I nodded in satisfaction.

Clearly, my intelligence spiked post-awakening.

Alright, dump all nine into Blood Power.

Nice.

Shooting up nicely.

Feeling good.

Then a stray thought hit.

But wait, does this mean every level-up from now on is Blood Power only?

Yeah, to stock Essences and skill up the familiars, it's the play.

So my main body stays with these trash stats forever?

No way… right?

Surely I'll raise 'em eventually…?

Sudden reality crash. Time for games.

I fired up Rio Hon to soothe the blues.

Lobby loaded, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes flicked to friends list naturally. But.

…Huh?

I tilted my head.

No login ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠today.

Match history showed zero activity.

Didn't she say she was back from a month-long business trip and had free time now?

Yesterday during duo, she said we'd duo today too.

Eh, hunter life—probably some urgent gig.

I shrugged it off.

No biggie if she's offline one day.

No duo partner? Solo queue it is.

Yeah. SoloQ time.

Yesterday's game lost cuz top fed. Was gonna carry hard for payback. Bummer.

FYI, post-that-game, I'd mastered Blood Mage.

National-power-level True Ancestor Blood Mage deploys!

Copy score right now!

Fired up solo queue cockily—

"Th-this is truly a jungle gap…!!"

And ghosted into a three-game losing streak.