Chapter 338: Call of Blood

Luke and Charlie stepped into the familiar cave that had become their refuge. He preferred it this way, away from the bustle of the others. It gave Charlie space to move freely without anyone questioning why she never took off her armor.

“Looks like the day’s finally here, Charlie. You’re getting your Epic Skill,” he said, sitting down on the couch.

She brightened up and sat beside Luke on the same couch he’d taken from a house in the Wild Zone. For some reason, every time he sat there, she liked to sit right next to him, staying close.

They opened the notification together. Even Luke felt a flicker of anticipation. On Charlie’s interface, the new skill window appeared, but this time, instead of five options like usual, there were only two.

[Echo of Doom (Epic)]: When activated, the Knight becomes shrouded in an aura of pure Doom. This aura continuously inflicts necrotic damage on any enemy that comes into contact with him. While the skill remains active, an enemy marked with [Mark of Doom] takes minor necrotic damage from the mark itself whenever they draw near the Knight. When that enemy’s health drops to 5% or lower, the Knight can trigger Doom Explosion, unleashing a devastating burst of necrotic energy.

[Blood Familiar I (Epic)]: The Blood Familiar is a loyal creature bound to a Blood Death Knight, forged from the Knight’s own blood through the sacrifice of the [Spectral Soldier]. It shares not only a vital bond with its master but also fragments of the Knight’s own power.
(Note: This skill is compatible with [Spectral Soldier]. By sacrificing [Spectral Soldier], the Blood Death Knight can forge a powerful familiar from their own blood, creating a permanent bond through which both master and familiar grow stronger together.)

When they finished reading, silence fell. Two skills. Two very different paths.

Luke thought carefully. The first was straightforward, a combat powerhouse. Pure offense. If Charlie marked an enemy with Mark of Doom, that enemy would take damage just by being near her. And when his health dropped below 5%, she could finish him instantly.

That 5% might sound small, but in a real fight, it could mean the difference between victory and death. What Luke didn’t know was whether the skill needed to be active from the start of battle for the final burst to trigger, or if it would work even when the enemy was already near death. The system loved to leave out those details.

The second skill, though, that one was intriguing and vague as hell.

A Blood Familiar? he thought. Does that mean she would actually create a living creature? How the hell does a spell do that?

His gaze flicked back to Echo of Doom. If this were his interface, that was the one he would pick.

Morvat, the orc, had been useful in his own way, a distraction more than a fighter. Luke once even had him clean the cave, and the orc obeyed without question. But in battle, he was limited. If he had chosen differently, maybe something like a raptor mount, it could have been more practical. Still, having a humanoid ally had its advantages. Intelligent, talkative, and most importantly, unexpected. A perfect hidden card against human enemies. Morvat had been less of a soldier and more of a secret weapon.

He turned toward Charlie. “So, which one do you want?”

Charlie lifted her hand and pointed at the screen. Her finger landed on Blood Familiar. He was surprised twice over: first because she actually wanted to choose a skill at all, and second because it was that one.

“So you’re really set on that one, huh?” he said.

She nodded firmly, gave him a quick thumbs-up, then pointed at the skill again for emphasis.

“But… why that one?”

She shrugged, showing she didn’t really know why. It seemed to be something she just felt instinctively.

“Alright, but the name literally says ‘Blood Familiar.’”

He stared at the screen again. If it used the enemy’s blood, fine. That would at least make sense.

“Charlie, it mentions blood, but whose blood are we talking about here?” he asked, careful not to sound too pointed about her lack of it.

Maybe it was metaphorical. Like “blood” as in effort, sacrifice, or some symbolic bond. “Forged from one’s own blood” could just mean forged through one’s own willpower… right?

In strategic terms, Charlie would be with Luke in the main group that was set to face the three final bosses of the tutorial. He would be in charge of killing one with his ultimate arrow, and then there were the other two, the Midnight Lord and the Witch. The main group’s epic skills would be used against them. But Charlie was an exception. She wasn’t counted as one of the epic skill holders, since in theory everyone believed she was just a familiar. Still, letting the chance to gain such a powerful ability slip by would have been almost insane in a place like that.

Charlie is going to get another epic skill from the Pugilist class, so is letting her invest in this one a good idea?

Still, the first option, Echo of Doom, while strong, wasn’t exactly game-changing. It was more of a duelist’s skill. Good for one-on-one fights, not a mass slaughter. Something fitting for a knight, really.

“Go ahead, Charlie. It’s your call,” Luke said finally.

She reached forward and pressed her finger to the glowing window.

[Princess Charlie has acquired the Class Skill: Blood Familiar I]

***

Charlie’s new skill came with a catch. Every time she tried to activate it, a notification appeared.

[Requirements to create the Blood Familiar have not yet been met.]

Charlie had been disappointed by the message, but he didn’t blame her for the choice. Luke didn’t blame her. Everyone made the wrong call with a skill choice at some point, he certainly had.

Maybe it’s tied to the evolution of the Spectral Soldier, he thought.

At another time, he might have felt disappointed that the skill couldn’t be used right away. But now, it barely mattered. Now he no longer had to deal with everything on his own; he had a group of people who would help him in the final mission. Besides, the other option hadn’t been that great anyway. Mark of Doom and Doom Explosion already covered most of what Echo of Doom offered. The only real perk was the instant kill at 5% HP. Not a game changer.

A guttural snarl echoed nearby. Luke lay sprawled across a pile of rubble in the middle of the street, watching the fight unfold. Charlie was down below, moving with brutal precision, fighting barehanded. Her punches cracked the air, her stamina-fueled skills hitting like sledgehammers.

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[Princess Charlie has slain a…]
[Princess Charlie has slain a…]
[Princess Charlie has slain a…]

The notifications just kept coming. After reaching the mandatory class evolution at level 50 as a Death Knight, Charlie had turned into a machine of raw power with so many attribute points.

Then came the sound of boots, fast and synchronized, echoing down the street.

“Hey!” someone shouted. “Is that a Midnight Warden?”

Luke heard the confusion before he saw it. He sat up and stretched, glancing toward the commotion. Night had already fallen. Charlie stood in the street, staring silently at a group of soldiers who were clearly on edge. They had never seen her before, of course they hadn’t.

Luke dropped from his perch and landed beside them without a sound.

“Evening,” he said.

The soldiers flinched hard. None of them had heard him approach, courtesy of his stealth skill and assassin gear.

“She’s with me.”

One of them lowered his spear slightly. “You two shouldn’t be out here alone. It’s dangerous.”

Luke followed his gaze. The street was littered with corpses. “Not really.”

The group exchanged uncertain looks.

“Well… you must be strong,” one of them said carefully.

“Or insane,” another muttered.

Luke smiled faintly. “A bit of both.”

That earned a few nervous laughs.

“Those monsters have been prowling around since yesterday,” one of the soldiers went on. “Heard that guy Luke came through and cleared out an entire block by himself.”

“No way,” another said, eyes widening. “You mean the Luke? The one who killed Kruger and Bartholomew?”

“Yeah, I heard about him too,” said a third. “They say just looking at him is enough to make you piss yourself.”

“Oh, that guy,” Luke replied casually. “I’ve heard the stories.”

“They say he killed fifty people in one night. Not a single sound.”

“Lies,” Luke said flatly.

“Yeah, I figured. Bit of an exaggeration.”

“It was seventy.”