Chapter 31: A Memorable Impression
The entire guild hall immediately filled with silence and unexplainable coldness that consumed all, nothing but the sounds of the bustling streets of the outside road along with the whispering wind entering the room.
The spectacle displayed in front of them was something none of them except a very select smirking few expected. The aggressor turned into a terrifying prey that tried to get away at all costs like it witnessed a ghost… Nay, even a ghost would have not elicited such an insane reaction.
It was not an uncommon sight for a newbie to be stronger than expected and put people in their place, but something about this took their breath away.
Time felt like it froze still for several minutes, but then it once again started as the masked man finally began to move.
All eyes on him, the masked man sighed and removed his hands from the charred face of his still breathing adversary as he slowly stood up and casually spoke, breaking the unnerving silence like nothing but a minor inconvenience occurred.
"Hey! Lady! Are you still there! How much is it for a room?"
"O-oh! I-I'm here!" Jenny, the hiding secretary spoke in a slightly shaky voice, still chuckling despite the sudden silence in the room. "It's 5 copper a night! 2 more for food and drink if you wish!" She spoke rather unprofessionally, still hiding under her desk.
"Very well…" He nodded and a slight movement was seen from under Alucard's cloak. "Here's 28 coins, consider it down payment for the next 4 days." He threw down his money on the desk and waited for a response.
He heard a deep breath coming from behind the desk ahead and the secretary he once saw let herself be seen once more. She looked notably different from how she looked initially, far less organized and put together as she nervously struggled to count the coins and find the key.
"Here is your key! Room 21 on the floor above! I hope you enjoy your stay!" She smiled, quickly fixing her hair and steadying herself with a smile. "O-oh! I almost forgot! Here is your copper plate! Keep it visible on you at all times so people know you're with the guild!" She placed it on the table with a jittery smile and the man immediately took it without batting an eye.
"Thank you very much," He did not waste a single second as he stepped over the charred body of his earlier adversary and marched up the stairs.
The exchange did not last even 10 seconds yet to the onlookers, it felt more like 50… And, as soon as the man was out of view, it was like time resumed once again.
'That was so much more stressful than I initially thought…' Jenny thought to herself as she clenched her heavily beating heart and wiped the thick droplets of sweat off her forehead.
But, as soon as she opened them once more, her gaze immediately fell upon the unconscious, steaming body on the floor, coughing and struggling to breathe.
"W-wha… What the hell happened here…" She could not help but mumble as she looked up at the drunken crowd that immediately began laughing like usual, all incited by one single man.
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The masked man hurriedly walked up the stairs as quickly as he could, passing by other fellow adventurers before he found his room located towards the end of the wooden hallway that had a window at its rear peering over the illuminated and busy roads of the city.
With his key in hand, he took a deep breath and opened the door, immediately locking it behind him as he entered.
He was humbly greeted by a simple yet equally disgusting room. The wooden, splinter-infested floor was covered in remnants of unfamiliar food and unknown liquids, while the stained walls were the home of mold that grew especially in their corners.
The room was rather small yet could not be considered claustrophobic— It was adequate enough for a wooden desk in the corner alongside a single bed near the open window that overlooked another part of the city.
It did not seem like the most comfortable place, yet it certainly beat out sleeping on the cold, hard, unforgiving cave floors.
Turning around to once again reassure the door was locked behind him, the masked man casually strolled towards the open window and immediately closed the blinds before sitting on his hard bed with a deep sigh of relief, looking all around him before he removed his mask revealing his piercing, blood-red eyes, sharp, viper-like fangs and his skin that was as pale as the palest snow.
Of course, it was non-other than Alucard.
After taking care of the adventurer group in the forest, he searched and eventually came across their camp. It did not house much, but the few items it did were more than useful, though, sadly, he was not able to carry everything with him without looking extremely suspicious.
The only things he decided on taking in the end were some of the money, a new set of equipment, including a white mask that he later turned black with his own flames, one more than good enough to fully mask his clear vampire features. And, finally, several odd-looking potions that he had never seen in his entire life.
Nevertheless, even out of those, Alucard was very selective with what he took and simply trashed the entire camp to the best of his abilities in order to make it seem like the work of a beast. And, it was common sense that a beast would not steal all the valuables before going on a rampage.
Not only that, but to also ensure everything lined up, he went back to the battle scene to make it as convincing as possible that it was from the work of a beast, more specifically, the first guardian.
Luckily for him, most of his work was already completed for him due to his previous outrage induced by his loss of blood…
As such, all he had to do was remove any evidence of bloodsucking.
Now, their residence in the forest was far too dangerous considering the possibility of higher-level investigation teams from the adventurer's guild.
Thus, immediately after doing that, Luck and Alucard made their journey towards by far the biggest border, the city of Oslo, the very same place where the adventurer team they killed resided and the very same that Henlo told them about.
And, now that they were here, it was finally time to expand their horizon, properly explore the new world and find the best way to make money for what Alucard had planned… It all started with the adventurer's guild… But, now that he was here, things did not go exactly as planned as Alucard was left scratching his head taking in how badly things went down a few seconds earlier.
"ARRRGGGHHH!! Those people make my blood boil! How dare they make fun of such an honourable name! It's truly despicable!" A purple, tiny flying figure zoomed out of his cloak and flew around the air in frustration.
"Don't worry about that now Luck… I think we might have a bigger problem on our hand for us to worry about that…"
Alucard mellowly chuckled shaking his head.
On the outside, he seemed calm and relaxed in front of that crowd but on the inside, he could not help but be slightly panicked as he wanted to get things over with as soon as possible.
He had absolutely no intentions to elicit such a reaction from the audience. He did not intend to bring too much attention to himself, he simply defended himself after some random idiot tried to unmask him. But, that led to him screaming like a lunatic, which indicted slight panic from Alucard who thought he figured out who he was, so he resorted to burning him unconscious to shut him up. However, it had the effect of also shutting up the crowd and drawing all attention on him.
Nothing made sense to him until now that he finally had time to ponder. After his fifth level into his vampire class, he unlocked a passive skill called, "Undead Presence," which, in the game, served to give a slight fear debuff to all weaker living beings once in combat.
Little did he know at the time, but that same effect took hold of a great majority of the crowd along with the man he attacked. Now, in his new reality, since there was no determining factor of what and didn't count as "In combat," he discovered that the skill now could be activated by sheer killing intent and can take hold of multiple people.
This made him realize that he desperately needed to work on better managing his emotions.
On one hand, this served to tell him that he might be stronger than a fair amount of people present at the time… But, on the other hand, it might lead to his downfall after causing such a scene upon his first arrival… Only time could tell and Alucard's hands were left to the whims of fate...