Elias watched with a still gaze as Auren Velmar stepped toward the altar.
The golden boy's expression was calm, almost lazy. He didn't tremble. Didn't glance at the crowd. His movements were smooth, practised—as if he already knew what was coming.
Just like before.
Auren picked up the ceremonial dagger and sliced his palm without hesitation. The blood dripped onto the Orb of Origin.
A soft hiss echoed through the hall.
Then silence.
He stood there, chest still, face unreadable. Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth curled upward—not in joy, but in smug satisfaction.
A faculty member near the altar peered at a glowing rune to the side of the orb. Then turned to the crowd.
"S-Rank," she announced clearly.
Gasps erupted.
Even students who had remained silent until now began whispering furiously, and the noise swelled across the chamber like rising waves.
An S-Rank.
So early in the ceremony.
Elias remembered the same reaction five years ago. He also remembered what that rank had hidden beneath the surface. Auren's path had looked golden from afar, but the bloodshed he left behind had been anything but glorious.
"Silence!" a faculty member boomed from the dais. "Compose yourselves!"
The murmurs slowly died down. Auren walked back to his seat with the same smirk on his lips, every eye following him.
More names were called.
Some faces Elias recognised. Students he'd once trained or fought beside. Some he had to bury himself. Others were strangers, blurred by the haze of years.
A couple more C-Ranks emerged. Even one more B-Rank. One student cried quietly upon receiving an E, their shoulders trembling as they returned to their seat.
Then—
"Elias Veilhart." One of the faculty members called out.
His heart gave a single thump.
It was time.
Elias stood without hesitation.
He could feel dozens of eyes on him, but he paid them no mind.
Step by step, he walked down the aisle. The hall felt heavier with every pace. As if the altar itself could sense something different about him.
He reached the dais, approached the table, and looked down at the dagger.
Same silver edge. Same weight in the handle. He could still remember the sting of using that very same dagger.
He gripped it tightly and dragged the blade across his palm in one clean stroke. Blood welled up immediately, sharp and hot. He let it drip onto the orb without a second thought.
And—
[ Awakening... ]
[ ... ]
[ ... ]
[ ... ]
Elias's eyes narrowed as the pause stretched a beat too long.
"Was it this long the last time…?"
Just as doubt began to take root, a new text appeared before him.
[ ... ]
[ ... ]
[ Class: Bloodweaver ]
[ Rank: ??? ]
[ New Path Unlocked. ]
[ Awakening Complete! ]
Elias stiffened.
"...What?"
The words rang in his mind like thunder.
"Bloodweaver? What the hell is that?"
He'd never seen a class like this. No one had.
But before he could make any sense of it all, a voice rang through the hall—snapping him away from his thoughts.
"F-Rank," the faculty member declared.
Disappointment rippled through the crowd.
He heard it in the murmurs, saw it in the glances. The looks of pity filled the hall.
The first and only F-Rank of the ceremony.
Elias didn't react. His face stayed still. If anything, the voices sounded distant, muffled under the weight of what had just happened.
He turned and walked back to his seat.
He could still feel the sting in his hand as he sat—but it was nothing compared to the tension twisting inside his chest.
Bloodweaver.
First, he was given a second chance at life, and now—a Class he had never heard of.
He glanced down at his palm, now wrapped in the thin cloth a faculty member had handed him. The bleeding had mostly stopped… yet something stirred beneath his skin, faint and unsettling.
Last time, his Healer class, despite being just F-Rank, had already begun to activate its passive healing ability. The wound had closed within seconds.
But this time was different.
His wound remained, and so did the sting—sharp and undeniable.
He lingered for a moment, trying to guess how different this Class could be, but he quickly pushed the thought aside. Guessing what was different made no sense.
There was only one way to find out.
Elias leaned back in his chair, taking a moment of pause to clear his head.
Then, in a low whisper, he called for the Status Window to open.
"Status,"
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, faint motes of light stirred before his eyes, spreading outward like cracks in glass. Lines of pale text wove themselves into place, one after another, until a translucent panel hovered in the air above his lap.
[ STATUS ]
[ Name: ] Elias Veilhart
[ Class: ] Bloodweaver (???-Rank)
[ Race: ] Vampire
[ Level: ] 1
[ Abilities: ]
[ Traits: ]
— Lifesteal (5%)
— Bloodlust
[ Attributes: ]
— Strength: 7
— Intelligence: 8
— Agility: 6
— Vitality: 10
[ Attribute Points: ] 0
[ Node Points: ] 1
His eyes widened.
This... this wasn't the Healer class he remembered.
Not even close.
"Bloodweaver…?" The word felt strange on his tongue. He'd studied countless class records, combed through dusty literature, and yet… nothing. He had never seen it before.
Before he could dig deeper into that mystery, something else caught his attention.
[ Race: Vampire ]
His breath hitched.
"What...? V–Vampire?!"
He had been born human.
He had lived and died as one.
There was no precedent for a race changing at Awakening—not in any record, not in any tale.
Not only that, but there had only ever been four known races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and the invaders everyone had called Demonspawn during the war.
Vampires weren't real. They were the monsters of fireside stories, the shadows parents used to keep children from wandering too far. Fangs in the dark. Blood stolen in silence. Not people.
And yet… There it was. Written clearly before him.
Confused, Elias forced a slow breath, trying to calm his racing heart, and turned his attention to the Traits section.
He focused on the first one—Lifesteal.
A smaller panel unfolded.
[ Lifesteal (5%) ]
You heal for 5% of all damage you inflict.
His brow rose slightly. "Well… at least I can still heal."
It was reassuring... sort of.
Healing had become second nature to him. He'd spent years honing a fighting style built around trading blows, mending wounds, and outlasting his enemies. But he wasn't just a healer anymore—he could hurt and heal at the same time.
This would fit perfectly with his fighting style.
Satisfied with the first trait, he shifted his gaze to the second—Bloodlust.
He focused, and the description snapped open.
[ Bloodlust ]
Objective: You must consume blood to satisfy your eternal hunger
Deadline: 6 Days, 58 Minutes, 4 Seconds
Reward: 1x Node Point
Penalty: Death
Elias froze.
"Huh?" The word barely escaped his throat.
The red timer ticked down in the corner of the window, each passing second loud in his ears.
Consume blood… or die.
His hand found his chest instinctively, as if checking for some hidden curse buried beneath his skin. This wasn't power freely given—this was a chain, a noose that demanded blood in return.
And yet… his eyes drifted back to the reward.
One Node Point.
His pulse quickened. Node Points were the foundation of every awakened's growth. They unlocked the branching power nodes unique to each Class—choices that shaped the rest of your life.
Usually, you get one node point every 10 levels.
Many people wait months, even years, for their next point.
But this Trait offered one now.
All he had to do was feed.
He shut the window with a flicker of a thought, but his heartbeat refused to calm. The pragmatic part of him couldn't ignore it. In this world, strength decides who lives and who dies. Healers were always bound to the backline—always dependent on others to survive.
Never again.
He opened the Class Path menu.
The air shimmered as a web of glowing lines unfolded before him, studded with hundreds of dormant nodes. Only two nodes pulsed with light.
All Attributes +7 Increase all Lifesteal by 20%
Elias' breath caught.
Normally, the "All Attributes" node for an F-Rank Class offered a meager +1 to each stat. It had been his first pick last time—a safe, reliable step forward. But +7? That was something only the highest ranks could dream of.
His fingers twitched. The decision already forming—
"You know the ceremony is finished, right?"
The voice brushed the back of his neck like a cold draft.
Elias flinched, twisting sharply in his seat, and locked eyes with a familiar face.