Jake was in a hurry to get back to the Count’s chamber, as he had a bad feeling in his gut. And no, it wasn’t from just being the center of attention and feeling like that time when he was a kid and was in a school play, with all the parents staring at him. Instead, this kind of bad feeling was the kind he got when someone was about to steal his shit.Okay, it was only was like that in retrospect. Because when Jake made it through the trap room and into the chamber, the silver coffin and altar were gone. He had only been gone for a few minutes to hunt down the Count down, and someone had taken that opportunity to rob him of his rightful loot?Yeah, that didn’t fly with him.His senses spread in the room as Jake focused on both Sense of the Malefic Viper and Hunter’s Tracking. There was no fucking way he was going to let the damn thief get away with it. Jake smelled the air and felt the mana, and soon picked up on something.There were three traces of beings in the chamber. The most po

This wasn’t Jake’s first time engaging with a magic puzzle, but it was his first time encountering this type. Before returning to Earth, the practice cauldron Villy had given him during his alchemy training session deployed similar methods to this gate’s magic puzzle. However, the cauldron had been focused on alchemy, while this gate was more of a regular and more general mana puzzle.Except… you couldn’t really call it a regular puzzle. It was like those weird puzzle games with ropes and rings you could buy as a gift to a friend to piss them off because you knew they sucked at those kinds of things—which was totally not something Jake had ever done.This brain puzzle did differentiate itself from even that by one huge thing: you couldn’t test things. One could also compare it to having to do a puzzle, and while you could see all the puzzle pieces, you weren’t allowed to misplace a single piece on the board. Doing that would result in being infected with a curse… In other words, every

Jake wasn’t the only one staring at what lay beyond the gate. Reika seemed somewhat surprised too, and the many others who had attempted the puzzle also seemed highly interested in figuring out the big prize for solving it.Yet, he doubted many of them noticed the uniqueness of the room. Jake felt an odd aura in the room, different from anything he had encountered prior, yet also slightly familiar. He sensed curses within. Not just one, but many. Yet even these curses felt different. They somehow felt less insidious, like they didn’t carry any hatred towards him. Usually, curses seemed to just want to destroy anyone and everything, lashing out at whoever came into contact with it… but not these ones.He walked inside with Reika, none of the observers daring to follow."It’s an armory of some kind… but these items…" Reika frowned and inspected a common-rarity sword that looked to be made of silver.Jake also threw it a look, and the conclusion was obvious. "These are anti-vampire weapo

The Viscount tried to close his mouth, but was unable to as it encountered material far too tough for his razor-sharp teeth to get through. To make matters worse for the vampire, he was repeatedly stabbed in the chest with an envenomed anti-vampire weapon while he struggled against the merciless human finishing him off.Jake only lifted his foot, which he had stomped inside the vampire’s mouth, when he got the notification, also quickly checking that the vampire hadn’t even managed to make a single mark on the boots. To be honest, he felt genuinely bad about this kill. Nevertheless, he had gone in and stuck with his desire to test out the anti-vampire weapon… and he had done so.The hills were actually grave hills filled entirely with ghouls. The doors to keep them closed weren’t able to keep out the mist entirely, making the halls filled with it. He had stormed through and easily located the tomb of the Viscount. There, he’d found one of the great metal gates with a magic circle to s

Jake walked through the hall as the black mist parted around him. He found that even with the Root in his inventory, the mist still parted for him. The Root was an interesting item that he was certain had some specific, intended use already.Also, the wood the Root was made of was a bit recognizable. He had a strong suspicion that whatever tree this Root came from was the tree that had been used to make the Pure Ones’ anti-vampire weapons and, of course, the Stake. However, the Root was clearly far superior to the Stake. In fact, Jake had a strong suspicion that if he stabbed a Count with it, it would be a near-instant kill.The mere fact that it was even useful outside of being a stabby tool was awesome, and he saw several possibilities to explore areas filled with black mist. But for now, he planned on just keeping it hidden away in his inventory… At least, that was the plan.Just as he reached the atrium again, he felt something from his Hunter Insignia. The Root wanted out, and Ja