Vampire's Chronicles: Multiverse Online

The wind had changed.

Not in the literal sense though late autumn had brought sharper mornings but in the way students walked. Tighter shoulders. Eyes scanning more than the blackboard. The conversations carried a different weight.

It had been six months since Thalos first stepped foot inside the academy. Six months of drills, rune lectures, mana-shaping, and long nights buried in notes. His name still meant little, but his footing was firmer now. Shadow Slash had more bite. Blood Step no longer tripped him up. His blood enhancement held longer and burned cleaner through his veins.

He wasn't impressive. But he was consistent.

And on that sharp, cold morning, the shift came.

Instructor Vareen stood atop the stone lecture platform in her customary midnight cloak, silver sword at her hip. Her voice was crisp and carried without magic.

"Starting today, the Mission Board is open to all first-years."

A beat passed. Then a ripple spread through the courtyard like a spellwave. Gasps, whispers, a few cheers.

Thalos only leaned forward slightly, listening.

"You've built the foundation. Now it's time to test it beyond simulation," she continued. "The board holds real-world missions, approved by the Academy and ranked according to risk. Completion earns you coin, resources… and Merits."

That word. Merits.

Even students who usually dozed off during lectures now leaned in.

"You'll be responsible for forming your own teams. Choose wisely. The Academy won't hold your hand."

Then she stepped down, and the crowd surged toward the marble wall on the east end of the courtyard where glowing quest-scrolls now floated, slowly rotating like stilled planets.

Thalos didn't rush.

He waited for the bottleneck to loosen, then slipped closer, scanning each mission like he'd study a curse array.

The system was simple.

Missions were ranked F to S, based on threat and required skill. Each scroll projected a few key details: mission type, recommended group size, location, and reward.

Some were gathering assignments root collection, scouting, beast observation. Others were combat-focused zombie culling, border patrols, bandit suppression.

Most first-years hovered around the F+ and E ranks.

So did Thalos.

[#00412]Rank: F+

Type: Herb Collection

Location: Duskmire Swamp (Outer Edge)

Group Size: 2+

Reward: 6 Merits, 20 silver, potential alchemy reagents

[#00398]Rank: E

Type: Undead Purge

Location: Hollow Gravefield

Group Size: 3+

Reward: 10 Merits, Minor Blood Crystal, temporary access to cultivation chamber (48h)

Thalos marked both down in his notebook.

He didn't just need coin.

He needed Merits and badly.

That evening, over a rare seat by the dorm's dim hearth, he ran calculations under the light of a flickering rune lamp.

Merits weren't just extra credit. They were power.

One could exchange them for a week in a fortified mana chamber, or for personal guidance from a ranked instructor. With enough of them, even access to new cultivation arts or skills opened up, granted through vetted scrolls kept in the Academy's Hall of Ascension.

He flipped to a page he'd rewritten five times.

Cultivation Arts Breakdown:

Common: No perks. Stable. Easily accessible.

Uncommon: Small perks—+2 to stats, slight increase in mana control or stamina recovery.

Rare: Two perks, might include affinities, elemental boosts, or unique passives.

Rumored Above Rare: Unknown. Likely restricted to elite students or nobles.

Each rarity had grades, from Normal to Excellent, and within that, tiers like Normal-Low, Normal-Mid, up to Excellent-High. Every step up added ~10% efficiency to the technique, how well it circulated mana, built blood force, or refined stats over time.

His current cultivation art, passed down by his father, was modest.

Common – Normal-High. No perks. But reliable.

"Nothing fancy," his father had once said. "But it won't rupture your heart if you make a mistake."

That counted for something.

Still, Thalos needed more.

A Rare art might take hundreds of merits. Even Uncommon ones with decent grades cost dozens.

"I need two hundred merits before year's end," he muttered, pencil ticking across the paper. "Twelve weeks left. That's roughly seventeen per week... assuming zero failures."

It was an ambitious plan. Maybe reckless.

But he was used to that.

In class, the shift was already happening. The lectures hadn't slowed sigil arrays, elemental fusion, terrain adaptation but the tone had changed.

"We will be watching how you apply your learning outside," Professor Dhaelon warned during Magical Beast Ecology. "Theory is ash if it can't survive a claw to the throat."

Mirae, seated beside him in Spellblade Applications, leaned closer during a break.

"Already took a mission. Graveyard patrol. You?"

"Not yet."

"Hurry. All the decent missions get snatched fast."

"I'm more worried about surviving the bad ones."

She smirked.

"Smart. But don't be too slow. Some of us already have forty merits."

Forty?

Thalos kept his expression still. He had none. Yet.

Back in his dorm, he updated his skill log again. His growth wasn't dramatic but it was real.

Shadow Slash (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 24%

Blood Step (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 18%

Crippling Mark (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 14%

Blood Enhancement (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 27%

The numbers were low.

But each percentage point was carved through sweat and bruises, not bought.

And when his skills reached 100%, he'd earn a choice, a trait tied to each. A permanent mark of mastery.

For now, though?

He had a swamp to visit.

...

The scent of wet moss and iron clung to Thalos' cloak long after they left the Duskmire Swamp.

His first mission hadn't been glamorous. No beasts, no undead, no sudden burst of revelation. Just hours trudging through ankle-deep mire, eyes scanning for herbs that matched the enchanted field guide floating beside him.

"Take care not to damage the root node," the guide had chirped in a cheerful monotone every time he slipped. "Full reward requires intact specimens."

His boots were ruined.His back ached.

But they'd collected everything on the list.

Six glowing bulbs of bloodroot. Three clumps of shadevine. A single blackcap flower, hidden beneath a log, pulsing faintly with dark energy.

Not bad for a first run.

Thalos submitted the mission scroll that evening with Mirae and a quiet third-year escort named Fenn, who'd taken the role of mission overseer. Once their samples were verified, the scroll burned away into ash, and a faint chime rang in Thalos' mind.

Mission Complete.+6 Merits. +20 Silver.

No fanfare. No crowd.

But that quiet chime felt better than any cheer.

The next day, Thalos returned to the mission board.

This time, he didn't hesitate.

He sorted the quests by reward, scanning for any E-rank missions within his capacity. His body was sore but intact. His mana pool had recovered overnight. He'd already memorized the scroll codes for several promising tasks.

But more than that, he was hungry.

For progress. For challenge. For the next layer.

The mission that caught his eye wasn't glamorous either:

[#00421]Rank: E

Type: Curse Containment

Location: Abandoned Barn, East Ward

Group Size: Solo

Reward: 9 Merits, Basic Cursebinding Charm

A solo mission.

He knew what that meant. No backup. No buffer.

Still, Thalos accepted the scroll.

The barn creaked as he stepped inside, runes along its base humming with residual magic. The air reeked of decay and something sharper, sour, metallic, clinging to his throat.

A malformed curse sigil pulsed on the far wall, drawn in what looked like dried ichor. The containment ritual required careful glyph replication and anchor setting, something he'd studied only a few times in class.

It took him nearly an hour.

The curse resisted, pulsing erratically, but with a focused feed of mana and some well-timed blood enhancement to steady his nerves, he sealed it.

The sigil dimmed. The pressure in the air lifted.

Mission Complete. +9 Merits. Charm Added to Inventory.

He left the barn winded, one sleeve burned, and a fresh scratch running down his arm.

But he walked straighter than the day before.

...

Later that week, over warm broth in the dorm cafeteria, he reviewed his log.

Two missions in. Fifteen Merits earned. Nearly thirty silver tucked into his pouch.

Not much by noble standards. Some of his classmates could earn triple that just by leveraging family connections.

But for Thalos, it was validation.

This pace wouldn't earn him rare cultivation manuals or legendary skills. But it might let him upgrade his current art. A boost in efficiency could shorten the time he needed for breakthroughs, reduce strain on his blood core, and allow longer training sessions before collapse.

He flipped to the next page in his journal where he'd listed potential upgrade paths for his cultivation art.

Right now, he was using a Common – Normal-High blood path. Stable, flexible, safe.

He'd found one available in the merit shop that piqued his interest:

Common – Good-Low

Description: Refines blood flow with greater mana efficiency. Reduces fatigue buildup during enhancement states by 12%.

Cost: 120 Merits

Nothing fancy. No elemental boosts or hidden affinities. But that 12% edge meant he could train longer without dulling his reflexes. It might mean an extra hour per day, seven hours a week.

That was priceless.

And achievable.