Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

"Ok, so how do we do this? Do we go out to the center of the room and fight? Is it just me and you fighting? Or are my friends fighting too? Speaking of, this one hasn't woken up yet," I said as I gestured at Chad still hanging over my shoulders.

"He looks kind of dead," Nigel said.

"He is," I said, "but he always comes back to life. Oh, wait I think here he comes."

Chad's eyelids fluttered and opened. He gasped a breath and resumed breathing. "How long was I out for?" He asked.

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"About thirty minutes," I said.

"It seems like it keeps getting shorter and shorter every time I die. I don't know if that's a good thing or not," he said.

"I think its good," I said.

"Can you put me down now?" Chad said.

"Oh yeah. Sorry," I said as I set Chad down on his feet.

"Who's this?" Chad said, gesturing at Nigel, the skeletal pirate.

"Oh that's the dread pirate Nigel. He's been guarding his treasure for a really long time, and he wants to fight me to see if I can make him take a dirt nap," I said.

"Yep. Pretty much," Nigel said. "So shall we get on with it? I have places to be."

"You do?" I said, giving him a confused look.

"No. I just thought it would be funny to say," Nigel said as he started walking towards the center of the room.

"Oh. That is pretty funny," I laughed.

"I would prefer if the fight was just you and me," Nigel said to me. "You seem like a pretty fierce warrior and I want it to at least feel like a fair fight. For me, I mean."

"That's fair," I said. "Victoria, you and Chad are going to sit this one out. Just sit by one of the piles of gold and watch while I kick this skeleton's non existent ass."

"Hey! Don't make fun of my non existent ass. I used to have a nice ass, I think," Nigel said.

"Oh, sorry Nigel. Wasn't actually trying to insult you. Alright let's fight," I said, getting into position to draw my sword.

Nigel stood on the other end of the massive room. Nigel stared me down with hollow eye sockets. Then he drew two flintlock pistols and fired them at me. I twisted to avoid them but one got me in the side. It hurt.

He dropped those pistols to the ground since they were basically used up. Reloading them would take a minute each. He drew too more and fired. This time I was ready, I had already dove through the air toward Nigel. One bullet hit me in the back.

I rolled on the ground and got into a half kneeling position and slashed my sword horizontally at his legs. Sparks flew as swords clashed. Nigel had managed to draw his cutlasses and block my slash.

The guns thudded dully on the ground. He had drawn his cutlasses so fast that the guns hadn't even hit the ground yet. Nigel lifted his booted foot and kicked me away.

I rolled back into the center of the room. Nigel ran over to the wall where all the levers were and pulled one. One of the spiked logs fell from the ceiling and swung down at me. I barely had enough time to dodge out of the way.

Not paying attention to the floor anymore, I stepped on a pressure plate. I quickly looked down and watched as metal spikes shot out of the floor. I managed to avoid most of them, but one went right through my thigh.

I was stuck. Nigel capitalized on this by sending another spiked log my way. I pulled and pulled at my leg, trying to get it free before I got creamed by the log. Just at the last second, I pulled my leg free and fell backwards away from the swinging log.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

But I fell on another pressure plate and a spike went through my left hand. Nigel dropped another swinging log but I was faster. I ripped my hand free making it useless for holding my sword and stepped out of the way. I made sure to watch for the pressure plates this time.

Seeing me starting to adjust to the traps, Nigel pulled all the remaining levers down hoping one of the logs would hit me. Twisting, dodging, and rolling, I managed to avoid all the falling logs.

Nigel growled in frustration and pulled two more pistols and tried to aim them at me. He couldn't get a bead on me though because there were so many hanging logs in the center of the room, it was easy for me to hide behind them and slowly make my way toward him.

I jumped out of the logs and kicked at Nigel's midsection. Nigel fired as I revealed myself and one of the bullets went through my throat. I struggled to breathe as my kick landed, bounced him against the wall and sent him to the floor.

As my airway healed, I sat on Nigel and threw his remaining guns away. I also threw his swords away. He was unarmed. Then I ripped his arms off and he was really unarmed.

Then I tore his head off and said, "I win!" into his skeletal face.

I expected that to be it, but Nigel's head responded, "Yes, you won. Good job. Congratulations, you beat a skeleton. Wow. I'm so impressed. Wait. Why am I still talking? I should be dead. You dismantled me."

"Yeah, that's weird," I said. "I guess you really are immortal. In that case, I can only think of one way to end it."

"What's that?" He said.

"Stealing from you." I grabbed a nearby coin from one of the huge piles of gold and put it in my pocket. "I'll take that."

Then, Nigel went silent. He didn't say anything after that. I guessed the curse really did work the way he said it would. If someone stole from him, he'd die. I got up off the ground and dusted myself off.

<Main Objective Completed. Congratulations!>

<Calculating Rewards>

Three chests appeared on the ground. They all looked the same. I assumed they were rewards for each of us. Since it was three chests and there were three of us. I couldn't figure out which one was for me, Victoria, and Chad though.

So I knelt next to each of them to see if they said anything on them, and when I got to the chest on the right, it lit up with a golden light. That must be mine.

"I'm assuming this one is mine. You two, stand next to the other chests," I said.

Victoria and Chad stepped up to one chest each. Nothing happened so they switched spots and then the chests lit up. The chest in front of Victoria shined with a red light. The chest in front of Chad shined with a green light.

I took the dungeon key that I still had in my possession because I never went anywhere without it, and unlocked all three chests one by one. No one opened their chests yet.

"Open them on three!" I said. "One, two, three!"