Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Shaiven, the First Vampire
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Nix Shaiven believed he had been abandoned by the gods.
The Nix were a matriarchal society, and Shaiven's mother was the chieftain of the Golden Eye tribe.
Shaiven had never doubted that he would succeed his mother and become the new chieftain.
But misfortune struck.
Trolls known as the Severed Ears began pouring down from the distant northeast.
As the regional hegemon, the Golden Eye tribe fought back against the Severed Ears tribe in accordance with the will of the Invisible Origin God.
Despite their efforts, the result was a crushing defeat.
Not only did countless warriors perish, but even Shaiven's mother, the chieftain, met her end.
Fortunately, the Severed Ears seemed satisfied with their victory; after looting, they departed, allowing the surviving Nix to live on. But Shaiven's misfortune did not end there.
The chieftain's position that should rightfully have passed to Shaiven was denied him. His bloodline had to pay the price for the humiliating defeat against the Severed Ears.
Shaiven was driven from his homeland, and the chieftain's seat went to a new priest chosen by the Invisible Origin God.
Trembling with shame, Shaiven grew to resent his mother's humiliation and, ultimately, the Invisible Origin God himself.
'This rage... I will never forget it until the day I die.'
Shaiven's fury persisted even after the Golden Eye tribe established a nation called Golan—where a king replaced the chieftain.
Golan continued to prosper, as if mocking Shaiven.
Shaiven despaired.
'In the end, my rage will amount to nothing.'
Resolving to end his vagabond life, Shaiven slit his wrists deep in the forest on a night when clouds veiled all the stars.
As his consciousness faded, Shaiven sensed someone standing nearby.
The shadow stood silently beside him, but no matter how hard Shaiven strained to see clearly, only the shadow was visible.
Suddenly parched, Shaiven opened his mouth.
"S-sorry... do you have any water?"
The shadow pulled a waterskin from its robes and handed it to him.
The moment Shaiven pressed it to his lips, a refreshing clarity washed through his mouth, throat, and even his mind.
But once the thirst subsided, hunger gnawed at him.
"By any chance... do you have anything to eat?"
The shadow extended another pouch.
Inside was freshly baked bread wrapped in large leaves.
Steam rose gently from the fluffy loaf. As he tore into it, his stomach filled instantly.
With his thirst and hunger sated, tears welled up in Shaiven's eyes.
He said with self-mockery.
"Why the tears? Because after quenching my thirst and filling my belly, the will to die has fled. I'm just a coward without even the courage to end it all."
Then the shadow tossed something long at Shaiven's feet.
"...!"
It was a dagger.
Shaiven tried to resist, but his trembling hand reached for it.
"...No! I don't want to die!"
Only then did Shaiven realize the shadow was truly invisible, and that the water and bread it had given him were unnatural.
He hurled the waterskin from his left hand away.
Blood gushed out from it, thick and viscous.
Grabbing his right hand with his left, Shaiven examined the bread.
What had been wrapped in leaves was rotten flesh.
"Please, no!"
In the end, Shaiven gripped the dagger.
But the terror that had enveloped him vanished in an instant.
Only calm remained within him.
Shaiven could no longer comprehend why he had been gripped by fear.
And he understood who the shadow was—and why it had given him the dagger.
The shadow was the new god he would serve, and the blade was not merely to aid his suicide, but to rebirth him as the god's servant.
Smiling, Shaiven raised the dagger high.
"God of Blood and Rotten Flesh, thy will be done."
With that, he plunged it into his heart before the shadow.
Shaiven opened his eyes in the dark forest.
The blood from his wrists had already clotted, but that was no longer important.
He knew now that such a wound could no longer kill him.
The once-dark forest was now visible as clear as day without light, and vitality incomparable to before surged through his body.
At the same time, a problem arose.
He was thirsty.
He rushed to a nearby stream and drank, but it was a thirst water could not quench.
Wandering the forest, he felt his body burn at sunrise and fled into a nearby cave.
A fellow vagabond was inside the cave.
Shaiven accepted the vagabond's kind offer of a waterskin and drank, but it did nothing for his thirst.
In the end, Shaiven surrendered to his instincts.
He tore into the vagabond's throat and gorged on the blood spurting from the artery.
Only then did the thirst abate.
That blood was what his body craved.
Shaiven knew he was no longer Nix, but something else entirely.
Afterward, he followed the revelations from the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh.
His most frequent task was biting vagabonds and injecting venom from his fangs.
Those bitten shed their old race and became like Shaiven.
Mentally, they became subservient to him.
Leading this growing horde, Shaiven built his own force.
But realizing such a force would draw the eyes of nations like Golan or Myriad Caves, he commanded his subordinates.
"Our god wishes our race to spread far and wide. Scatter separately, infiltrate villages, and propagate our kind."
Through this, Shaiven learned several things.
Regrettably, the second-generation converts he personally bit and envenomed were not as strong as him, third-generations even weaker, and by the fourth, they were frailer than before infection.
There were other weaknesses too.
Not only sunlight, but silver burned their flesh. This weakness lessened with generations, but fourth-generations were so weak it hardly mattered.
Some who returned from those he had sent out brought information.
There were ancient tales of evil whispered in certain regions, resembling something called "vampires."
'Then my new god is one of those ancient evils?'
But Shaiven knew it mattered not.
Even if the power came from an ancient evil, it was fine.
As long as he achieved his will—his will would be the god's, and vice versa.
Within a year of serving the God of Blood and Rotten Flesh, Shaiven had planted loyalists not only in the Nix's Golan, but in the kobolds' Myriad Caves, trolls' Stoneface, Renar's Red Sands, and Satyros' Emberhold—five nations in all.
Seong-un said.
"Why should I help you?"
The mood among the five players grew icy.
Runda thought to himself.
'Damn it, here we go again.'
Wisdom's star-shaped avatar rotated slowly.
Wisdom said.
"...Until recently, our food supplies were unstable. Swarms of locusts ravaged fertile lands across the continent. And we already know you were behind those swarms."
Seong-un nodded.
"So Krampus and Runda attacked me. I repelled them. Isn't that the end of it?"
Jangwan opened and closed the massive maw of his lion mask as he interjected.
"Hey, you bastard! We barely even got a proper war in before it ended. You think we just let it slide?"
"Is that what you think? Then I've got something to say."
"What?"
"If it bothers you that much, come at me."
Jangwan's lion mask head shook side to side.
"Argh! Is this guy insane?!"
Wisdom extended a hand to restrain Jangwan.
"Jangwan, Nebula is deliberately acting cocky. Don't let it get to you."
"Deliberately?"
"If we get offended and refuse to ask for his help, the problem could worsen. If we're lucky, we might drive out Jeoubi's vampires ourselves. But if luck's not on our side, the vampires' power grows, and we'll end up begging for aid on our knees instead of negotiating as equals... Isn't that right, Nebula?"
Seong-un nodded.
"You get it. Why help you when I can sit back and watch you screw up and potentially collapse?"
Runda agreed it was a fair point.
'Is he just here to mess with us?'
Given Seong-un's personality, Runda thought it entirely possible.
Wisdom refuted it.
"But if we fall, it'll be trouble for you too, Nebula."
"Why do you think that?"
"We're five, Jeoubi's just one. Isn't facing a unified one harder than divided five?"
Seong-un looked at Wisdom silently.
'Wisdom. I don't remember the other nicknames, but this one's clear. We played together before. Ranking... hovered inside top 10 for months at peak.'
Seong-un didn't think a top-10 ranker was much inferior to Hegemonia or himself in actual skill.
Wisdom wasn't wrong.
In Lost World, multiple players managing several nations were easier to handle than one with a massive empire of equal scale.
'You can sow discord and division.'
But Seong-un shook his head.
"Maybe that's your opinion. I find singles easier to deal with."
No need to agree with the opponent in negotiations.
The ones in a pinch right now were Wisdom and the other four players.
Wisdom's rotating head slowed to a stop.
"So ultimately, you have no obligation to help us, Nebula."
"Right."
"You can't help?"
"Not that."
Seong-un said.
"Just that I have no good reason to help you—especially since you're future rivals. If I do, I expect ample compensation."
Runda facepalmed as if he'd expected it, while Krampus bared his teeth in a grimace, flames leaking through.
Jangwan glared through his lion mask eyes. Beside him, A.R. covered her mouth with a black fan.
Wisdom's halted head began rotating again.
"...First, what are your demands?"
Seong-un said.
"Three glass artisans, three candle makers, three brick makers. And twelve cartloads of gold."
Another heavy silence hung.
Krampus said.
"You little shit, you were hoping it'd come to this, weren't you? You're not allied with Jeoubi from the start, right?"
Seong-un understood Krampus's aggressive stance.
Glass craftsmanship was monopolized by A.R. and Jangwan, candle production by Wisdom, brick-firing by Krampus and Runda.
Gold in that quantity could inflate Heukrin's economy based on current market circulation.
'Of course, I'll just bury it all.'
Seong-un said.
"Like I said earlier, if it bothers you..."
"Enough, Nebula. We need to discuss. Mind leaving the chat? We'll call you back when we're done."
"Sure."
Seong-un could predict the outcome of their discussion.
And soon enough, he rejoined the video chat.
Wisdom said.
"We accept the terms. Tonight, we'll send revelations to our priests to dispatch the artisans. The gold is too much to prepare immediately. Even one cartload is hard to transport to Heukrin fully laden. We'll send it sequentially as we gather it—can you accept that?"
"That's fine. I'll graciously understand with my vast magnanimity."
Wisdom said.
"Then tell us. How do you plan to take down Jeoubi and the vampires? If you've thought of such specific compensation, surely you have a strategy ready?"
"Have I thought of one? No."
Seong-un said.
"I've already started."