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Through the last battle, many things had happened that Brunhild never had the chance to witness. She had been fighting desperately for her life alongside Sigrid against the monstrous Alistair, and the intensity of that struggle left her with no room to notice anything else.
When she finally returned, she learned that her family had won the fight. Yet it quickly became clear that her father had survived only at a heavy cost, one she decided to set aside for later. Everyone was so thoroughly exhausted that they collapsed the moment they confirmed she had returned safely.
Now she had to face the aftermath of everything that had occurred.
"Dad, is there something wrong with you?" Brunhild asked, clear concern shining in her eyes as she walked toward him. "You look a little paler than usual. Not completely different, but your eyes are red now…"
Her father laughed and patted her shoulders. As he laughed, Brunhild noticed the sharp fangs that had grown in his mouth. "Hahaha, there's nothing to worry about. Your old man's alright!"
"You're not alright! Stop pretending!" she said, her voice rising with anger. "Something happened, right? You exude a bit of the power of vampires now, but it's bizarre. You aren't a Blood Thrall, and you aren't a Dhampir either…"
"I… uhh…" her father scratched his head, looking genuinely uncertain. "To be honest with you, I really have no idea what happened to me, Brunhild."
"Eh?!" Brunhild was left completely speechless. "You don't know?!"
Her father raised his palms in a calming gesture. "C-Calm down, okay? Don't make a ruckus. Your mother and your siblings are still sleeping, aren't they? Let's go talk outside."
"Okay…"
Brunhild followed her father outside. The two of them spoke quietly about everything that had taken place, each recalling their own battles. Brunhild told her father how she and Sigrid had finally defeated Alistair after a long and brutal fight. She described how the monster had been nearly impossible to kill, dying and reviving over and over again no matter how many times they struck it down.
"Wow, okay, that's insane," her father laughed, patting her shoulders again. "I wish I could have been there to support you. I feel ashamed as a parent for not being able to protect my young daughter. At the same time, I feel proud that my young daughter is so strong. Sigrid too! She's amazing. We will tell her parents what happened, and they will be proud as well. It's a strange feeling, though."
"You shouldn't feel ashamed of anything, Dad. You were there protecting Mom. That's more than I could ever have asked of you," Brunhild said, her voice softer now. "Thanks, really."
"Hahah, well, I did what I could," he replied. "As I fought, I received some pretty nasty wounds, but it looks like they healed on their own somehow. It's strange. I was pierced by an icicle right through my stomach. I truly thought I was going to die right there."
"Dad…" Brunhild muttered, worry deepening in her expression. "Tell me, what happened after that?"
Her father crossed his arms and fell silent for a moment, carefully recalling the events. "Well, I remember that I went completely berserk. The pain, the desperation, and all the emotions boiling inside my heart drove me forward. I just charged through all of them, you know? Even as I was attacked from every angle, I refused to give up and kept pushing. And even when I felt like my heart had stopped beating, I forced it to beat again and moved once more."
"???" Brunhild stared at him in shock. Her father had always been strong, but this level of willpower was something else. "Dad, you're amazing. Maybe you gained some kind of class related to that… A-Anyway, what else happened?"
"Hmm… In my anger I started using everything as a weapon. When my weapon shattered, I used my bare hands. I grabbed knives, spears, anything I could reach. I even used my own teeth to tear their necks and heads apart. And in my savage fury I kind of… ate a few of them. I remembered you saying something about the cores, so I tore them out and ate them. I was trying to destroy them so they wouldn't regenerate, but in my anger I swallowed a lot," he explained. "Aside from that, I probably ate some of their meat and flesh as well."
"W-What…?" Brunhild's eyes twitched as the full meaning of his words sank in. "I see… Wow. I think some kind of special mutation happened. Your bloodline, your body, and likely your magic abilities, maybe even your tattoo, all adapted rapidly and evolved with you as you ate them. How do you feel right now? Does this hurt at all?"
Brunhild conjured a small amount of sunlight at her fingertips and shone the light carefully across her father's skin. His skin was still tanned, though a little lighter in tone than before.
And…
"No, it doesn't," he said calmly. "I'm fine."
His skin remained completely unharmed. The usual weakness against sunlight that afflicted vampires had no effect on him at all.
This discovery left Brunhild even more speechless than before.
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, searching her memories for anything similar she had seen in Barbarian Conquest. After a moment she recalled something close, though the circumstances still suggested her father had achieved an extremely rare and unique evolution.
"Demon Eater."
"…Come again?"
Her father raised an eyebrow as Brunhild continued. She remembered a special class that existed in the game. It could not be obtained unless someone was completely classless and managed to eat at least a hundred pieces of demon meat without dying from the poisonous effects. That usually required large amounts of potions or powerful regeneration skills.
"Demon Eater. It's a class… You get it if you eat a large amount of monster flesh without already having a class. Dad, I think you were classless before this! And even as a classless fighter you were already so strong. Hahah," she laughed lightly. "I guess that's the result of all your hard effort over the years."
Her father narrowed his eyes for a moment, staring at his palms as faint crimson energy rose from them. "W-What does that mean for me?"
"You ate the vampires' flesh, right? You kept eating until you felt like puking but forced yourself to continue…" Brunhild said. "On top of that, you already had a super strong physique from being part of the clan and training relentlessly all these years. You also had good regeneration thanks to the awakened bloodline and the tattoo I evolved for you. It all connects. You managed to meet the conditions for a powerful class, Dad. That's how you survived…"
"W-What class? Demon Eater?" he asked, still trying to process everything.
"No. Your abilities are clearly more vampiric than that," Brunhild replied, her mind racing with possibilities. "This is something completely new! Let's call it Vampire Eater. You grow stronger by eating vampires and similar creatures, Dad."
"WHAT?!"
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