A New World, an immersive game experience

"Halt!" a female voice echoed from the fort. The remaining two E-vampires froze on the spot upon hearing the command.

Turning his head to the voice's origin, Eldrian saw a nubile girl standing on the battlements. She had raven black hair tied into a neat ponytail, reaching the small of her back. At her side, she had two daggers and her clothing was tight fitting. Matching her hair in color. If she stood in a shadow, she would be near invisible.

She stared at Eldrian with clear intent to kill, however; she stayed atop the walls. Wary of the display of power Eldrian had shown. She also noticed the peculiarity of the mana in her surroundings. She could tell it wasn't a magic sealing barrier, but it was similar in some aspects.

The problem was, she had no idea what it truly was. Similarity still meant differences existed, and in a way, this felt more threatening. As if it was more focused around individuals, rather than equally encompassing the surroundings.

'She must be the one who was closest to the gate. I guess she heard the commotion, Levana, if I recall. Tier 6, so I have to keep my guard up,' Eldrian mused, using mana sense as a precaution, knowing that the map inspection only gave him minimal details.

'Wait, vampire princess? What's with that title?' Eldrian felt like someone had suddenly played a cruel prank on him. This development felt just right for a game, but ANW wasn't—or shouldn't—follow the same conventions.

'Unawakened Vampire Mistress... She might be trouble.' Sharing this development with Sofiera, Eldrian suddenly wanted to negotiations to work. She was currently still too far for him to determine her stats, but he felt confident she would put up a great struggle.

Actually, Eldrian knew that even a normal Tier 6 would not be his match in base stats, not after he reached Tier 5 and binding Crystoi to him. However, their experience did make them a force to be reckoned with since the difference was not great enough to eclipse technique.

Eldrian doubted this girl was experienceless. And he was sure she had to be stronger than normal people, being a vampire and unawakened class. This was his first time encountering the latter, and he was sure it was troublesome.

As such, he would rather not anger her. Even if they killed her, Eldrian suspected there was someone strong behind her.

It would be like opening a can of worms. And Eldrian was not fond of worms. Who the heck was?

"I heard you shout you wanted to talk." Levana increased the bloodlust she was releasing, leaking enough to have the normal person quiver in fear or even faint. She even strengthened it with her will to add even more power to it. Yet, Eldrian was unaffected.

This caused her caution to increase yet again, so she decided to continued to conversation. However, her fury demanded an explanation. "Why then, were you killing our guards!?"

'Seems communication is possible at least... So they consider the E-vampires as their guards? I guess that makes sense. They are a step below the normal vampires, after all. And for a princess... Ah! A second princess!'

Realizing his thoughts were wandering, Eldrian refocused and answered the question while letting the bloodlust flow over him like it was nothing. "I only killed them since they charged me with clear intent to kill or injure. I would indeed prefer to talk, if it is possible."

"That would depend on the subject." Levana replied, trying to determine Eldrian's strength.

Her detection spells would not tell her anything other than his name and Tier. As for his mana, it seemed to fill his entire being. Something that should not be possible.

She was certain she had more mana, but that filled her with little confidence. That his information was outside of her reach was a truly unsettling feeling. It meant she had to approach things while in the dark.

Tier 5, she scoffed at what her detection spell told her. She thought the information was false, and going by his mana quantity, she guessed he had to be an elite in Tier 6. Someone who had a mastery of at least two classes, perhaps even all three.

No Tier 5 could so easily deal with six Existential Vampires. Like he was dealing with children—meek, malnourished children. If he was an elite in Tier 6, then it could be accepted.

"It is the release of the fort." Eldrian interrupted the vampire's musings, deciding to make the conditions as appealing as he could. "I am willing to concede and allow you to take your slaves with you."

He was placing his hoped that the slaves were treated well, else he would feel quite troubled by allowing them to continue being suppressed.

"You want the fort?" Levana looked at Eldrian in shock.  His calm tone as he laid forth his demands settled for her the fact that he must be an elite in Tier 6.

She could not think of any other explanations why he could remain calm facing her and the torrent of bloodlust she had aimed at him. The E-vampires were quivering from having tasted just a bit of it

'He is likely the captain of a force, or perhaps a scout of an army. However, if that was the case, why would he come to negotiate? And we would not have missed the moving of an army, especially since they started building that wall of theirs...  '

It was then that she realized Eldrian was an elf and her guard increased yet again.  Taurus had no elf race.

The kingdom was one with a wide diversity of races. Half of the population was centaurs, and the rest divided between humans and demi-humans near equally. Of course, there were also the dwarves who resided in the Ganalin and Volvren mountains. However, they weren't treated as part of the kingdom.

Yet, even with the wide diversity in races, there were no elves. In fact, the kingdom lacked most fae races. Except in the far southeastern corner, next to the Volvren mountains, was a massive forest nearly covering a quarter of the kingdom.

There lived some fae, though they kept to themselves most of the time. Much like the dwarves, they could not be counted as a part of the kingdom.

"Are you of these Chosen we have heard about? A race sent by the gods, incapable of true death?" Levana enquired.

"It seems you are well informed. Indeed, I am a Chosen. Ah, you might not be able to see my race." Fiddling with his settings, Eldrian made his race visible. He had hidden it recently while playing with the interface. Trying to figure out more of its abilities and attempting to understand the connection between XP, and thus lifeforce, and it. "I am a High Elf."

Seeing her detection spell suddenly stating extra information, Levana was stunned. To be able to alter what others could pry, she had never heard of such an item. An item would always hide what it was made to hide.

'Is this a power of the Chosen?' She pondered, wary that the information might be false.

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