The Final Boss Has Returned 101

Chapter 101

Now that my level was over 300, it wasn’t increasing as dramatically as before, but as I looked at the level that was still rising, I smiled with satisfaction.

The quest completion notification was sweet enough that I never got tired of hearing it.

“Your humble servant, Blood King Nosferatu. On behalf of all the Vampire Clans, I pledge eternal loyalty to Drakan-nim, the contractor of the Dark God, the Apostle of Darkness, inheritor of the Steel Monarch’s legacy, and King of the Iron Blood Kingdom, with the ‘Blood Oath.'”

Just then.

Nosferatu knelt before me, and a bloody glow rose from his body.

[Blood King Nosferatu, representing the Vampire Clans, wishes to pledge eternal loyalty with the Blood Oath.]

[Will you accept the Blood Oath?]

Blood Oath!

The oath, which was also written in the quest information window, was finally manifested.

I smiled as I looked at the message.

Reward time was always enjoyable.

“I accept.”

The moment I declared that I would accept the Blood Oath.

The bloody glow that rose from Nosferatu’s body gathered in the center and formed a single shape.

It was a ring.

I snatched the blood-red ring from the air and checked the item information.

[Blood Oath – Ten Thousand Nights (Man-ya)]

[Grade: Legendary] [Type: Ring]

[Durability: Infinite]

[An artifact ring crafted from Nosferatu’s blood and magic power.]

[Proof that you are the ruler of the entire Vampire Clan, including Nosferatu, and a symbol of Nosferatu’s eternal pledge of loyalty to you through the Blood Oath.]

[Imbued with powerful blood energy.]

[Usage Restriction: Drakan]

[Item Effects]

[Health +200] [Magic Power +150]

[Dark Resistance +50%]

[Blood Absorption: Absorbs 60% of damage dealt as health.]

[Wound Aggravation: 5% chance to inflict the Wound Aggravation curse with each attack.]

[Summon Blood King: Summons Blood King Nosferatu, bound by the Blood Oath.]

Despite its plain appearance, the ring’s performance was truly legendary and satisfying.

A ring that allows you to summon an Over-Ranker level power as a summon!

It was truly an amazing feature.

Of course, I already had a ring that could summon Kraken, but Kraken was a summon that could only be used in a limited environment, as it was unusable on land, so the Blood King was better in terms of versatility.

I put on the ring with satisfaction and said.

“Nosferatu.”

“You called, Lord.”

“Where in the north are you planning to build your base?”

“I’ve heard that there are quite a few old, abandoned fortresses on the border of the Land of Death. I intend to repair one of those fortresses and use the surrounding area as a base.”

“I permit it.”

“Thank you, Lord.”

Nosferatu, who had somehow changed his title to ‘Lord,’ transformed into a bat and flew away as soon as he expressed his gratitude.

It seemed he went to build the base.

After sending Nosferatu away, I sat down on the ice throne in the Hall of Glory.

The base would be completed over time, so I didn’t have to worry about the vampires.

Since Eugene would be there for the dungeon raid, I could just sit back and relax.

The date I promised to raid the dungeon with Eugene was a week from now.

Until then, my job was to gather information about Monster Land.

▄ ▄ ▄

12 days in game time, 4 days in real-time after Drakan handed over the Twilight Stone to Nosferatu.

Finally, the vampire base, ‘Blood Citadel,’ was completed.

Blood Citadel, which was once one of the nameless abandoned fortresses on the border of the Land of Death, was reborn as Blood Citadel after the Vampire Clan’s dedicated repairs. At the center of Blood Citadel, the legendary barrier, Polar Night, was deployed, with the Twilight Stone as its core.

Whoosh!

The moment the Polar Night barrier unfolded.

A giant barrier enveloped the surrounding area centered around Blood Citadel, and darkness began to creep in despite it being midday.

The Curse of the Sun!

The sunlight, which the vampires so feared and hated, was blocked by the magic barrier centered around the Twilight Stone, and finally, the moment the base they so desired, where eternal night reigned, was completed.

[A new race, ‘Vampire,’ has been unlocked.]

[Vampire]

For the past 2,000 years, Vampires have been a nomadic race, hiding in the shadows of the world and wandering aimlessly throughout Ard World.

However, the Vampires have now established a base in the Dark Sanctuary located in the north and have succeeded in restoring the Polar Night barrier, enabling them to return to a settled life.

Vampires have a unique characteristic of receiving debuffs and buffs depending on day and night. During the day, they suffer from a powerful debuff called the ‘Curse of the Sun,’ but at night, they gain tremendous buffs that offset it.

The Vampire race receives bonuses to Dark attribute skills and classes, including Black Magic and Blood Magic.

In addition to the widely known racial trait of blood absorption, they can use various powers such as mist transformation and vampire bat transformation, and the higher the rank of the vampire, the less they are affected by the Curse of the Sun.

You can now choose Vampire when creating a character.

Vampire is the first race to support race change.

Existing users can also change their race to Vampire by completing the race change quest given by Blood King Nosferatu. However, if an existing user changes their race to Vampire through the race change quest, they cannot revert to their previous race.

The starting base for the Vampire race is Blood Citadel in the Northern Iron Blood Kingdom.

[A new class, ‘Blood Mage,’ has been unlocked.]

[Blood Mage]

Vampires inherently possess tremendous abilities in handling the essence of life, blood.

The history of Vampires is a history of bloodshed, and this has been inherited and developed into a unique form of Black Magic called Blood Magic, exclusive to the Vampire Clan.

Blood Mages are magicians and warriors who are more proficient in Blood Magic, the secret art of the Vampire Clan, than anyone else. High-ranking Blood Mages possess melee combat abilities comparable to first-class warriors, while simultaneously wielding their abilities as magicians.

Unlike general magic that mainly focuses on wide-area attacks, Blood Mages specialize in one-on-one combat, and as they ascend to higher ranks, they gradually acquire wide-area magic, becoming closer to a complete form, but their growth is very slow.

Inherit the secrets of blood and spread the fear of the night.

This is a race-specific class for the Vampire race. Only characters with the ‘Vampire’ race can change to this class.

New possibilities have opened up in Ard World. Participate in the new history.

A notification window popped up in front of all users connected to Ard World.

Vampires!

And the Vampire race-specific class, Blood Mage!

New content had been unlocked once again.

“Whoa, is it real that Vampires have been unlocked?”

“Crazy! They even support race change. Should I try it? I didn’t play the new races because I didn’t want to delete my character. I’m conflicted.”

“I want to try Blood Mage, but it’s a race-specific class, so it’s a shame. What should I do?”

The users’ reaction to the newly unlocked ‘Vampire’ race was explosive.

This stemmed from the fact that among the races Drakan had unlocked so far – Merfolk, Dark Elves, Undead, and Orcs – only Dark Elves were considered attractive. While Merfolk, Undead, and Orcs had their own charms, they were still non-human races, so people tended to avoid them compared to the traditionally popular human and elf races.

Among them, the Undead population had surged due to the Necromancer class, but Drakan had opened up the Necromancer class to other races by building the Catacombs, a Necromancer training facility, in Snow Castle, leading to a decline in its popularity.

Of course, Dark Elves, with their attractive appearance and stealth-specialized racial traits, were quite popular, but their starting location in the Great Forest and the inconvenience of the surrounding infrastructure had negatively impacted their overall rating.

In this situation, the ‘Vampire’ race, unlocked as a new playable race, emerged as an attractive alternative for users.

Just like the image that comes to mind when thinking of vampires, they had an attractive appearance with pale skin, unique racial attributes such as blood absorption and mist transformation!

And even a race-specific class called Blood Mage!

Of course, there was a drawback of receiving various debuffs from sunlight, called the ‘Curse of the Sun,’ but this was only a minor inconvenience for users who wanted to play as Vampires.

Moreover, they could be active regardless of day or night in Blood Citadel due to the Polar Night barrier.

Furthermore, Vampires were the first race in Ard World to support ‘race change,’ albeit one-way.

This was truly revolutionary.

Until the race change quest appeared!

In Ard Saga Second, to play a new race, players had to delete their character and start over.

This was because Ard Saga Second adhered to a policy of one account, one character per user.

Therefore, the population of new races was often relatively small compared to existing races, but the situation changed with the introduction of the race change quest.

The Northern Iron Blood Kingdom, which already had a high influx of users due to the opening of the Necromancer class, was now bustling with existing users who flocked to change their race to Vampire.

“Is it Drakan-nim again who unlocked the new race this time?”

“Of course. He bought something called Twilight Stone from Eugene for 3 billion won, right? Eugene’s visit to the Northern Plaza before was because of that.”

“Wow, 3 billion. Crazy. Drakan is rich.”

And once again, users discovered that it was Drakan who unlocked the new race and that he had purchased a 3 billion won item from Eugene to complete the Vampire quest, spreading the information across various communities and SNS.

Soon, stories about Drakan and Eugene began to circulate both within Ard World and on the internet.

Eugene originally intended to give the quest item for free!

But Drakan refused, saying that such items should be purchased!

As such positive anecdotes spread indiscriminately, Drakan’s image began to improve again, linked with Eugene.

Public opinion was moving exactly as Drakan had intended.

Just as all the users in the world were focused on Eugene and Drakan.

A live stream started on Drakan’s official channel, and countless users joined as viewers upon seeing it.

What the users saw when they entered Drakan’s official channel was.

[It’s been a while. How is everyone doing?]

[Hello, viewers. Is this our first time meeting here? I’m Eugene.]

Drakan and Eugene!

It was a shocking scene of the two, who seemed as incompatible as water and oil, broadcasting together.