The air was warm, heavy with the scent of salt and blooming hibiscus. Reya leaned against the balcony rail of the small seaside villa, his sunglasses reflecting the endless shimmer of turquoise waves below. This trip was supposed to be a break from the grind—one last taste of freedom before returning to returning to his mountains of work as a rich ceo.
He sighed, half amused at himself. "A week in paradise, and I'm already thinking about work. Figures."
When night fell, the town lights glittered along the coastline like fallen stars, and Reya decided to take a stroll through the narrow, winding streets that led toward the old cliffs.
The locals always warned tourists not to linger near the caves there after dark—something about wild animals nesting inside. But curiosity, as always, tugged at him, he really wanted to see what the caves were like at night as he had heard rumors of beautiful glow in the dark plants that only glowed when moonlight shone in the cave.
The cave air was cool and damp, echoing with the faint drip of water. His phone's flashlight beam cut across rough stone walls, catching the sudden flutter of wings.
Reya flinched, raising an arm too late as something darted from the shadows.
A sharp sting pricked his neck.
He slapped at it instinctively, stumbling back, his phone clattering to the ground.
The beam rolled and flickered, revealing the small, twitching shape of a bat on the floor.
Its eyes gleamed faintly red before it stilled.
"Great,"
Reya muttered through a hiss of pain, pressing a hand to his skin. A smear of blood clung to his fingers.
"Rabies? Just my luck."
The wound burned far more than it should have. His chest tightened, breath coming in ragged pulls.
The damp cave seemed to close in, darkness thickening as his vision blurred.
Reya staggered, collapsing to the cold stone. His last thought, oddly detached, echoed in his mind:
This vacation can't really be my last can it…
Then everything went black.
In a basement that seemed more like a dungeon, below the ruins of a once grand manor, within a cell of sorts, a long dead dead rotten body of a man with its long hair having rotted grey as well, twitched slightly.
Then suddenly it started shaking and seizing immensely.
After a few seconds it began to seemingly rejuvenate at a fast rate.
The once rotten flesh returned to being healthy and white/cream colored, the hair once grey turned a jet black, the eyes once dried out and dull regained their juices and turned a bright crimson though they still remained closed.
Everything on the body eventually healed, and when it did it resembled a handsome young man.
Suddenly the eyes of the young man shot open.
The young man looks around wondering where he is and how he got here.
"The last thing I remember is being bit by that damn bat and then collapsing in the cave shortly after."
Suddenly a surge of memories foreign to him hit Reya like a truck making his head throb in pain.
A no name orphan who was barely getting by yet somehow managed to live to the age of 18.
Suddenly he was caught by a slave trader after stealing from the wrong person.
He had been given to the crimson family in secret.
They locked him up in a dungeon with other people, other slaves of various ages.
They were obsessed with gaining immortality and did various vile experiments with dark magic and the like on the slaves.
The other slaves died one by one, their bodies being burned with fire magic after each death.
Then they finally experimented on him, claiming that they were 'so close' to achieving their goal and this should be the final test.
They injected him with some liquid that seemed to have faint dark magic in it.
Then they began cutting him and his wounds healed constantly, they thought it was a success but suddenly everything started going black and they panicked knowing they actually failed yet again.
The memories ended and the pain stopped
Reya thought of something and called out.
"Status"
Every intelligent being in this world had a status screen of sorts that displayed certain information.
———————-
[ STATUS SCREEN ]
Name: Reya Hum
Race: Progenitor Vampire (Fledgling)
Age: 18
Class: —
HP: 100
Mana: 50
Attributes:
• Strength 9 (Measures physical power and striking force.)
• Dexterity 12 (Governs speed, agility, and reflexes.)
• Constitution 10 (Affects endurance, stamina, and resistance to injury.)
• Intelligence 14 (Determines magical affinity and learning speed.)
• Willpower 11 (Increases resistance to mind control and boosts focus.)
• Charisma 13 (Influences persuasion, leadership, and presence.)
Traits:
Regeneration (basic), Night Vision, sunlight Sensitivity, innate dark magic affinity (intermediate)
Skills:
—————————————
"What vampire, like those blood sucking vampire's from stories and whatnot?"
Reya spoke in a curious yet worried tone as if expecting someone to answer him telling him it's not true.
It see seems he has been reborn, and as a vampire no less!
Not only that but progenitor means first or original, this means he must be the first and probably only vampire!
Most vampires in stories are hated by the people for their blood sucking and usually evil nature, and hunted down to be killed!
"Oh, this is bad, really terribly bad. If I had to get reborn why did it have to be as something so evil! Though I don't mind the being outcast from society part as I was always kind of a loner except when it came down to strictly business, the bad part is if people find out what I am I will surely be hunted down!"
After panicking for a bit Reya calms himself down realizing that he needs to focus on the situation at hand rather then what could happen in the foreseeable future, he will worry about it later, right now he needs to explore his surroundings and assess the situation.
"I'm still in the dungeon however everything looks… much older. Just how long was this body dead for, even the bars on the cell are rusted severely and a little force should be enough to snap them off."
Though he didn't need too as the cell was already open, maybe the crimson family didn't bother to close it after he died.
He steps out of the cell cautiously, usually there is a guard by the ladder leading up to the main floor of the manor, however for some odd reason he noticed no one is there.
In fact, the whole dungeon seems it hasn't been touched in years, usually it was maintained to some degree but the condition it was in suggested no one has been down here for a long time.
Something was amiss, but Reya wasn't sure what, did the crimsons abandon their experiments, and why hadn't his body been burned like the rest after they died.
He walks towards the ladder while thinking these things, unsure what to feel.
He reached the ladder and climbed up, opening the cellar door above and crawling out into the kitchen of the manor.
Well, that's what it was supposed to be anyway, a kitchen, however it looked nothing of the sorts due to the decrepit state of things.
There was rubble all around, a giant hole in a wall, one in the ceiling as well peering into a bedroom above, rusty old pots and other kitchen wares lying about, the only resemblance to a kitchen this place has other then what appears to be a somewhat intact magic stove.
"What the hell happened here?"
Reya wondered as he looked around.
It seems like the place was attacked.
The moonlight seeped in from the wall with the hole in it, illuminating the room greatly.
"Good thing it's night otherwise I may have burned to a crisp of something being a vampire and all."
He thought.
He decided to move on and explore the rest of the manor, but it all seemed to be in ruins just like the kitchen, no matter where he went all was decrepit.
Not only that but this seems to have happened quite a long time ago, as cobwebs are visible throughout the manor, moss growing in some places due to rain seeping in probably, and the biggest mystery of all, not a single sign of a person being here.
What happened to the crimsons, what happened to this manor.
The questions intrigued him and he kept exploring this time heading to the second floor, upon walking up the stairs he reached a set of double doors that were kicked in it seems like, as he entered the room he saw something that shocked him a bit.
The room was a office/study, and at the end of the room a desk, behind which in a chair sit a skeleton whose skull, cut off, lay on the desk and a journal was within the skeleton's hands.
The skull had remnants of red hair strewn on it, signifying it was a member of the crimson family.
Reya inched up the the skeleton, curious about the journal as it may have some answers.
With a look of disgust he pried it out of the skeletons hands and began to read it.
Flipping through he came to a shocking realization, this was the journal of the patriarch of the crimson family, meaning this skeleton here is likely him.
The journal speaks of his obsession with immortality and gives details and updates on his vile experiments, as well as a few non important snippets such as how his days were going and whatnot.
However the last couple pages really caught Reya's attention, it spoke of the king and other nobles somehow finding out of his family's evil deeds and experiments, he seemed to have slipped up somewhere concealing information.
Then the final page states that he was holed up in his study with a magic barrier on the doors, hoping that the forces of the knights don't break through and that he didn't expect to live much longer.
The journal ends there.
It seems the crimson family was wiped out for their evil practices and whatnot and ever since this manor has been abandoned slowly falling apart as years go by.
The last entry on the journal was marked June 20th of 3027, Reya wasn't sure how much time has passed since then but considering the state of things it must have been years.
With a better grip on things now Reya pushes the skeleton out of the comfy office chair and takes a seat in it himself to gather his thoughts.
'Alright, so I don't know what year it is nor do I know the state of the world, for all I know out there the empire could have declared war and taken over already or something like that. Hmmm I need to gain knowledge of the worlds current condition despite how little or how much it may affect me personally right now it's good to have some know how.'
He sighed and continued.
'I also got to learn more about my vampire self, I should experiment with my body's strength and whatnot.'
Reya had learned some very basic boxing when he was a human on earth, after all as a wealthy ceo he needed to be able to protect himself should the need arise.
He walked up to one of the sturdy walls of the reinforced office, took a boxing stance and let out a punch into the wall.
His fist met some resistance not going all the way through the wall but when he pulled back his hand he saw he had left an imprint where he hit.
"WOW, did I do that?"
He wonders aloud.
Reya stared at the imprint his fist had left in the wall, his heart thudding—not from exertion, but from the shocking realization of his own strength.
His hand trembled slightly as he held it up to the moonlight, flexing the fingers.
"This body… it's nothing like before."
A strange mixture of excitement and dread swirled in his chest.
He was stronger, faster, and—if that status screen was to be believed—something more than human.
But he was also something other, something that the world would likely fear and despise if they knew the truth.
He let out a long breath and dropped into the office chair again, its leather cracking beneath him.
The skeletal remains of the Crimson patriarch lay discarded at his feet, as if mocking him.
"This world doesn't know it yet…"
Reya muttered, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite himself, "…but its first vampire has just been born."
The words hung in the air like a promise, half thrilling, half ominous.
Outside, the wind howled through the broken manor, rattling loose shutters and whispering through the cracks in the ruined stone walls.
Somewhere far away, a wolf howled back at the moon.
Reya leaned back, crimson eyes glinting in the pale silver light.
For now, he was alone in a world he didn't understand.
But deep inside, a fire stirred—a hunger to survive, but more intensely a hunger to grow.
And that hunger… demanded to be fed.