Vampire Reborn

Slowly, Alucard forced his tightly sealed eyelids open and stared up with hazy, disoriented vision like the entire world was turning all around him. Instinctively, he lifted his hands to clear his eyes, yet, when he tried to do it, it was like his body was not responding to him, almost like he was paralyzed. So, he had to use more energy to do it than he first expected.

When his eyes cleared, he found himself gazing at a rather familiar-looking rocky ceiling. He did nothing but look up, feeling strange calmness, the light and sound of crackling flames entered his ears from the right as he pondered.

'Where am I? What was I even doing?' He thought to himself as he rested his numb, almost unmoving body.

That was when the answer hit him in the face… Literally.

"MY LORD! I'm so glad you're oookkkkaaayyyyy!" Seemingly out of nowhere, the familiar figure of a golden, purple-haired crying fairy entered his vision and began vigorously hugging his cheeks. "I didn't know what to do… You wouldn't wake up… I couldn't check your pulse and I didn't know if you were alive or dead. Well, of course you're dead because you're a vampire and all but I mean dead dead. Anyways, I'm just so glad you're okay! If you died I wouldn't know how to feel! It was my fault the bear even came so abruptly and—"

Luck continued to ramble on and on and on, and at one point, Alucard stopped properly listening since he began repeating himself over and over again and he knew exactly what he was going to say. Nevertheless, in the midst of his speech, he remembered exactly what had happened to him and why he was in the state he was in now.

He could not help but smile at Luck's reaction. It was not exactly over the top considering he almost died, but he felt it to be slightly odd. Although their methods were far different, other than his father, he never had anyone in his life be this concerned or supportive of him to the point of celebrating and crying over him.

"It was all my fault! I would have ran away but I chipped my wing on a tree branch like an idiot! I don't know how I can ever be for—"

"Shhhhhh…" Alucard lifted his finger and placed it covering Luck's entire tiny mouth.

"Don't worry about it Luck, and thanks for looking after me after I fell unconscious. I don't hold this against you. You were a great help! And, besides, I bet the bear was going to come back home anyway sooner or later so it's no big deal. You saved my life before and what I did was no different. Now, think of it like we're even. I am a man who always repays his debts," Alucard casually grinned as he forced his stiff body to stand up and lean against the wall.

Hearing Alucard's words, Luck immediately backed off and his body twinkled brightly with a smile.

"He, he… Well, If you say so! Then, let's call it even! You're okay, and that's all that matters. It was only natural I did all of this, I'm certain you would have done the same for me too!"

"Mhm," He nodded back, repaying Luck's smile with a subtle one of his own.

Leaning against the wall, Alucard used this time to inspect his surroundings. And, it did not take him long to figure out where he was. It was a rather tiny and cramped cave with a meagre, makeshift fireplace at its center, the small hole of the exit shining in bright sunlight from the outside, the first hints of the sun's rays he had seen since entering this new world.

When he looked down, he noticed his previously ashen and bloody armour was all clean, although slightly broken from the fight, which was most likely Luck's doing.

He was not in the main cave he resided in, but in the small hole he used to hide from the bear's charging attack. Luck must have dragged his unconscious body from outside into here, which made more sense than dragging his heavy corpse all the way back to the original cave.

"Luck, mind if I ask you where the bear is?"

"It's still outside, exactly where you left it,"

"And, how long was I out for?"

"It's only been a few hours, the sun only rose a small while ago,"

"I see…" He nodded once more, slowly standing on his two feet and stretching his extremely stiff body back to shape. "I guess I'll check it out,"

Casually, Alucard strode to the opening of the cave before promptly stopping in front of a ray of sunlight shining in towards the entrance.

He was a vampire, and the sun was his mortal enemy… Any man would have been scared or hesitant, but Alucard seemed rather intrigued, confident and determined. He had faith in his game knowledge, everything so far seemed to be nearly identical and he saw no reason for this to be any different.

It was only a matter of time that he needed to test this out and now seemed as good a time as ever.

As an experiment, he poked a single finger into the light. And, to no surprise, it did not disintegrate into dust like in many vampire stories.

His confidence and slight smile grew even larger as he stuck his entire arm out, and, immediately, he felt as if its weight increased tenfold or even more. He struggled to even remain standing as one side of his body was much heavier than the other. He did not notice it with a single finger, but an arm more than well made it obvious.

He did not expect it to be this bad— it was to the point that his entire body tipped and he came tumbling down into the sunlight of the outside world away from the safe space of the dark cave.

In the game, the sun only served as a debuff, but here, it was so much worse.

*Pant…* *Pant…* *Pant…* *Pant…* "What the hell… This is so much shittier than the game…" He mumbled to himself as it felt like life and energy were immediately sucked out of his body, flattening him like a pancake under the harsh rays of the bright sun.

He assumed he would just walk out there, feeling weaker and slower. But, in his current state, it was like he was not even able to function.

"My lord! Are you okay!?" Luck flew in front of him good as new, completely unaffected by the sun and its rays which made Alucard feel slightly envious.

This was not a problem from before considering time could be easily skipped and the world functioned nearly the same both at night and in the morning. But, in this new world, the same could not be said.

This was the first ever time he realized the true negatives and pain of being a vampire, and how fortunate humans and other races were in this aspect.

This completely locked him out of half of the day, making him virtually useless, unless he was indoors. He was unable to fully appreciate the beauty of the brilliant blue sky, bright sun, and the bustling cities functioning in the morning as intended without feeling the wrath and annoyance of the sun, making him powerless even against the common bandit.

Instinctively, Alucard searched for ways to alleviate the strain on his body, and that led him to open his stat sheet, remembering that he had levelled up twice and had 10 stat points to assign.

He could have assigned the stats into resistance, which served to help against any and all of his weaknesses, including the sun, but he chose not to; he did not want to ruin his stat distribution for something this petty after all.

In Rebirth, if a vampire had the correct gear and assigned enough stats into resistance, they would have been damn well able to conquer the sun. The only problem was that the build was less than optimal for virtually anything; it was more of something that players used for the challenge or to mess around for fun.

So, naturally, he assigned them to physical attack and agility. Yet, it seemed to not have served too much help.

"Shit…" Alucard inwardly cursed once more as he felt like he only had one more option remaining.

Using all the energy left in his body, Alucard stripped completely naked. Luck had seen him naked more than once now so he did not at all feel shy or embarrassed doing so, not that he would have cared in his situation.

Although this meant that more of his skin was making contact with the sun, stripping seemed to have more than done its job. He finally had enough energy to stand and inspect the bright, blurry world around him, including the bear's corpse that was not too far away, laying under the shadow of a tree.

"Luck, go out and scout for me… I don't want any beast to show up and kill me while I'm like this… If you see anything, immediately report back to me…"

"Yes sir! Got it!" He flew out with no hesitation, and quickly faded away into the bright light, leaving Alucard all alone.

After what felt like forever, he managed to limp towards the bear in the distance. Now under the tree's subtle shade, he was able to finally relax. He still felt the effect of the sun heavily affecting him, but it was nowhere near as bad as before. This was a new mechanic that was dearly lacking in Rebirth, and one that the devs promised to implement later on.

The bear's corpse was still rather fresh and full of blood, and its juices were calling his name. With no hesitation, he dug into its neck and completely sucked it dry, feeling like it tasted much worse than he expected, but still filling both him and his blood gauge up. He was honestly unsure if the bear's blood had always been this bad, or if blood began to taste worse if it was not immediately consumed.

The taste of blood was never in Rebirth, so this was something that required more testing for him to confirm.

When he finished his meal, Alucard noticed his sword was still planted on the bear's skull, so he immediately ripped it out. That was when he began to slice the massive bear up into medium slices. He was far from an expert at cutting and skinning meat yet that did not stop him from trying. Thus, it resulted in a fairly sloppy job.

Once the meat was cut, he immediately began throwing them into the cave, which was going to be his food for the rest of the day, and possibly his future money maker and profit if the skin could be sold.

Once all the meat was thrown, he prepared himself for the burning inferno of hell once more. Yet, he seemed to have a plan. Like he threw the meat, he planned to throw himself as well.

"I can do this!!" He pumped himself up.

Using all the energy in his body, he bent his knee and pushed off the ground, jumping with all of his might.

*Plop*

It was far more underwhelming than he expected— he barely managed to get a quarter of the way back to the cave before he fell flat like a pancake. He struggled to get back to his cave once more, and even ignored his armour, hoping Luck would get it for him later on when he returned. To any outsider, what he was doing would have seemed ridiculous, there was nothing more calming and peaceful than the path he was using, especially with the sounds of morning birds. But, in his eyes, it was more like a hellish inferno.

Entering the cave once more, he laid flat on his back, heavily panting like he had just ran ten marathons without rest. The relief was immense, and it once again gave him time to think… about himself.

He was too weak and inexperienced in this world. There were still so many things he wanted to do and learn. But, first, he needed strength; he was far too weak. He knew nearly nothing about the power standard of this world and he had no plans to go into the city unprepared and find out the hard way.

He needed to return to his old cave, grind more levels, unlock some more classes and spells, and do some more exploring and info gathering. But, all of that could wait for now. His body was aching and there was nothing he could do in the morning.

"A nap sounds really nice right about now…"

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Sorry for the late chapter. I was celebrating Eid with my family. I hope you guys had a happy day if you celebrated! Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed the chapter! <3