Blood and Qi: A Vampire Xianxia LitRPG

John had lived in a Trial for a long time, but he had never participated in one. There was a lot of general information in the NCS about them, and a lot of information in the CSL about this specific one.

A part of the Aikapu described the Trial Akua trained in while with Circle Joyat, and this Trial given by the Trainer was a recreation of that with some modifications, including a small extra phase.

Up to 99 people could enter the same Trial together. Each dorm floor had 11 rooms with nine beds in each, and all students of that floor counted as a battlegroup. The Trial was supposed to promote teamwork and test all the expertise gained at the academy. The battlegroups that had retained the most members would have an easier time.

The Trial had 2,000 enemies worth one point each when killed. Each member of a battlegroup needed to earn ten points by killing ten enemies to pass. Completing the Trial in under 10 hours was a way to earn extra points.

Confident and doughty battlegroups could opt for a higher difficulty with enemies one or two tiers higher than their own Silver tier, so Gold or Platinum. Doing so gave a 1.1 or 1.2 multiplier to points earned and one or two credits respectively.

No battlegroup ever raised the tier of the Trial. The increased risk of failure wasn’t worth it.

John and Nine had already decided they were going to enter the Trial as individuals. Both wanted to gain as many points as possible. Neither wanted to steal all their battlegroup’s points and cause their classmates to fail, nor did they want to pass up an opportunity to earn credits.

“This is supposed to be a team exercise. Trials are for large groups and meant to be completed together, as a team,” said the green-haired trainee.

John and Nine just stood there silently. They knew they were in the right. No rule stated they had to compete as a team. They just had to be patient and let the trainee say her piece. Eventually, she’d have no choice but to give up and let them complete the Trial as they wanted.

“So? Will you complete the Trial with your battlegroups as this exam was intended,” asked the Alii.

John looked at Nine. The biosynth gave him a nod. John said, “Sorry, Alii. No disrespect meant, but since I’m allowed to enter on my own, I will. I’ve proven time and again I can work in a group throughout the year. I want First in Class.”

Frustrated, the trainee said, “It’s much more difficult with less people. Alone, it’ll be tailored specifically to your own weaknesses. If you die, you’ll automatically fail, but not if you’re with a battlegroup. Why risk failure so close to graduating? And why abandon your battlegroup? Each of yours is counting on you to complete the Trial with them.”

“Sorry, Alii. I mean no disrespect, but I already stated why many times. My battlegroup knows what to do. I’ve spent countless hours training with all of them during our free time. They won’t just pass, they’ll excel. I want as many points as I can get, and I want a challenge. The Silver ranked one won’t challenge me, especially if I do it with my battlegroup. Again, I’m sorry about this, Alii.”

After harassing the two students for a few more minutes, the Alii finally gave up.

John didn’t think how the Trial was scored was all that fair. He would fight enemies two tiers above his own. Nine would face enemies of his own tier. And that was only if Nine risked Platinums.

The biosynth was extremely tough, but he was limited to the essence within his dantian. If Nine had enemies tailored to be challenging for his aspects and concepts, he could want to play it safe. Killing 2,000 of anything would be essence intensive, especially considering the powerful manifestations Nine employed.

In John’s own case, he hoped he didn’t face the same wooden constructs he had during the grand battle of the entrance exam. They weren’t challenging but they took too long to kill. He wanted all the points he could get, and that meant finishing extremely fast.

From the lobby of the Trainer, the Trial grew all around John as it initialized. He thought it would look like the Trial he lived in with Amber and Hubaba, but it took place outside, a simulation of a Netherworld.

The enemies John faced were some sort of wooden constructs again. He cursed under his breath as the start timer ticked down. He buffed himself and attained his battle-mind. His bolter peripherals wouldn’t be much help against the sturdy wood of his enemies. They’d just get stuck.

John threw down his rifle and sword. They wouldn’t help and would just slow him down. There was plenty of time given to prepare. This was when battlegroups would decide strategy, what perimeters to put up, or if they’d approach their enemies offensively. He stood and waited with his shield, Defiance, in hand.

As soon as the timer ended, John blazed towards his enemies. All the constructs that could, attacked with beam and shard attacks he narrowly avoided, or stun attacks he had a hard time shrugging off. He carefully and quickly danced his way around the giant group of constructs, setting those around the edge on fire with darkflame.

Next, John targeted those in the middle of the formation with [Flawless Glyph of Plasma Barrage]. With his glyph now being flawless, he had many more meteorites, and each did far more damage. It couldn’t target multiple enemies, but thanks to his Tech 4 NCS, enemies were highlighted, and all the meteorites would go after other constructs once the selected target was dead. There were many wasted meteorites, but it was still the fastest way to kill the wooden constructs.

Unlike in the grand battle, time was important. The beam and shard attacks could be avoided, but doing so required too much jumping and flipping around, which meant John wasn’t attacking with his glyphs, and the shard attacks didn’t cause too much damage.

John slowed as he made his way around the large group of enemies. The beam attack took a while to cast, so that’s when he would do his own casting, blocking what he could of the shards with Defiance as he did so.

As soon as John got his glyph off, he’d move quickly to avoid the beams. He took a lot of damage, but he killed much quicker. As long as he didn’t die and fail, what damage he took didn’t matter as long as he could deal with the injuries and pain, and that was something he was very good at.

One [Flawless Glyph of Plasma Barrage] was cast after another. John didn’t hold back. The meteorites tore through the constructs. He refilled his dantian by draining essence as needed and reset the constructs on the outside of the formation on fire before continuing his barrage.

John was impressed with the increased difficulty. The Platinum constructs were much tougher, employed far more manifestations in a much deadlier manner, and took much more damage to kill.

The last enemy fell, and the clock stopped at 4 hours 47 minutes universal standard time. John believed that was a good time. He hoped it was. He knew he killed much faster than he had killed the Silver-tier constructs during his entrance exam.

John was damaged enough that he had a hard time thinking through it. His dantian was nearly empty. As a minute passed, and then another, he began to worry the Trainer wouldn’t reset him before the extra phase. He let out a breath of relief when it finally did, unslung his rifle, and tossed it to the ground for the second time. He’d need his sword, so that stayed on his back.

Three selectable options appeared in John’s vision – ‘mind,’ ‘body,’ and ‘spirit.’ In Akua’s Trial, this was the reward selection. This part didn’t impact points or grant actual rewards. Each option led to another choice, and each choice taught a different important lesson. This was all documented in the CSL.

There was something John had wanted to try since he learned of this part of the Trial. He selected ‘mind’ and was presented with three more choices – ‘I doubt the truth given in the Aikapu,’ ‘I doubt my own bravery,’ and ‘I doubt my own ability.’ He selected ‘I doubt my own ability.’

A cave grew out of the Nether, partially hidden in fog. John approached and entered. A short distance in the cave was a warm and shallow pool of sickly looking and scum-filled green water.

As soon as John stood in the water, a voice asked, “What do you doubt?”

“My ability,” replied John.

“Why,” asked the voice.

The question took John by surprise. He must’ve forgotten it would be asked. He stammered for a moment, having no good answer since he didn’t doubt his ability in combat, what this lesson was about. His mind reinterpreted what he was asked, and he gave an honest answer to a slightly different question.

“How will I ever be the best of men when I keep failing? I just murdered a child. A little girl. Because…because even thinking about a way to save them all seemed too difficult. I decided it was impossible, and the child’s sacrifice was necessary for the greater good that would come of it. The same faulty reasoning of the Peerless.”

John knew his performance in this Trial was being saved and stored, but his lapse in cautiousness wasn’t risky at all. When such footage was reviewed, everyone skipped to the action and watched it at many times the speed. Killing an innocent female, especially a child, weighed heavily on his conscience, and he took the opportunity to admit his sin out loud, lightening his burden a little.

It’s not that John never killed women. He killed plenty. He often enjoyed it, such as with those witches in Canada, or the press secretary in his hotel room. And then there were times when it just needed to be done, such as the two times he killed his wife.

But executing someone that had done him no harm was not something John believed honorable men should do, especially females, and especially children, and especially not when ordered to do so.

Maybe I’m just getting soft?

The voice said, “I see. The venerable Akua also doubted his own ability. As a Peerless you stand head and shoulders above subhumans. You have good reason to doubt your ability now, as you are young and inexperienced. Soon, you will be Oli and part of a kauwa. Your abilities shall be nurtured and grow exponentially under the loving guidance of your Alii.

“Now, try to stand against what you’ll become, the future you, hardened in battle, a father of many, your genes proven worthy to pass onto the next generation of superior beings, a warrior raised on high, made even stronger than our father, the glorious Akua, and doubt no more.”

A copy of John spawned in front of him. According to the info in the CSL, the copy would be better and stronger than John in every way. The copy would attack only in the way it was attacked. If he attacked it with a spell, it would unbind the spell and attack with an overwhelming version of it, and that was true no matter in what manner the copy was attacked.

John saw it as his only chance to ever fight someone capable of giving him the challenge he so craved with the sword.

As he took Ah’krat’ra in hand, John’s copy did the same, as if he were looking into a mirror, except the copy had an aged face and salt and pepper hair.

John wanted to keep the manifestation of his sword a secret from the Peerless. He knew what Ah’krat’ra could do and had known since he attuned it. Though the sword was meant for Betrayal, it was also made for John’s body, and it fit him perfectly. Even if he infused essence into Ah’krat’ra while in a Trainer, since the Trainer had no idea what the sword did, he assumed it would result in nothing.

John didn’t use any buffs or employ vital essence. I want this to be purely a test of swordsmanship.

Without form or stance, John went from relaxed straight into a flunge with a weapon not made for such a maneuver. The copy perfectly parried into a master stroke, nearly catching John, whose return managed to score a small slice on the upper arm of the copy.

Both vampire and copy reset, both sets of eyes seeing all while looking at nothing. John smiled. Another dream of his was coming true. With all the power he could muster one handed, he sliced vertically while twisting and going low, scoring another hit as the copy jumped over him while trying to tag John’s exposed neck unsuccessfully.

As John suspected, the Trainer could only ramp the abilities of the copies up to what it knew and had seen. The Trainer had never seen a swordsman nearly as skilled as he was, and the AI controlling it couldn’t overwhelm him with [Skill] when John knew more than it did. It could only increase the [Stats] of the copy, but John still had an advantage in reaction time.

John lost himself in the ecstasy of hard-pressed battle. He had no idea how long it lasted. Many, many hours, at the least. Days, possibly. But not nearly long enough. He had passed up all opportunities to end it sooner, reveling in the battle, in fighting the type of fight he had longed ages for. It was lonely at the top.

Pass and reset, feint and ploy, Ah’krat’ra clanking against Ah’krat’ra, both copy and man smiling. John’s soul alighted in euphoria.

In the end, John stood over the corpse of himself, both happy to have fought such a battle, and disappointed it was over.

He had done what no other had been capable of. After all, John’s [Mixed Style Swords] was close to Legendary Mastery, and he had shown the Trainer just a fraction of his [Skill] prior to this glorious battle. He hoped there was a way he could access this fight again. And he hoped his copy would provide more of a challenge at their next meeting.

As he got his breath back, John sat and meditated on his fight before exiting the Trial.

The lobby was empty except for the green-haired trainee. “By my venerable husband and father, Akua, what took you so long!? Ugh, it’s as if you’re trying to get me in trouble. Your time was faster than everyone else’s. What were you doing? Everyone exited hours ago! Everyone exited the Tribulation hours ago too!”

John took a knee and bowed his head. “Sorry, Alii. I selected ‘I doubt my own ability’ and I beat my copy. That’s good, right? Worthy of credits? I did the impossible.”

The Alii looked surprised. “That…you couldn’t. Let me check. Great Akua! No, you won’t get credits! You still think like a Kahaka. It’s impressive, but you failed to learn the correct lesson. Let’s go. Start the Tribulation.”

John suppressed the annoyance he felt. He checked the points tally. Nine was 354 points ahead of him, but his score included points from the Tribulation.

This event also gave extra points for faster completion times but was meant to be completed individually instead of part of a battlegroup. John initiated and selected the highest difficulty. Platinum, two tiers above his own. Unlike the Trial, only the boss would be Platinum. He’d face mostly Silvers and Golds, and less than 20 enemies in total.

An antechamber very similar to the one John had seen twice before grew around him. Words appeared in his vision. Not words from his own NCS. These words were supplied by the Trainer.

You are in a Tribulation! Congratulations! Tribulation commences in 3:41 USACS minutes.

This Tribulation will require you to [defeat all Demons]. Failure to do so in the required time limit of [11 USACS Hours] will result in [failure]. Enjoy!

After walking to the large door, John dropped his rifle and sword again, buffed up, and entered his battle-mind. Once the start countdown ended, he rolled under the door as it slid upwards. He felt into all the enemies he could, and that was all of them since the Tribulation wasn’t that large. He placed clots in their brainstems. Only the Platinum boss survived the clot, but it didn’t survive having the blood in its brain hardened, and that only took a few seconds.

The timer stopped at eight universal standard seconds. It took a minute or two for the Tribulation to realize it was over and disappear. When he was back in the lobby, both John and the Alii silently stared at the scoreboard.

Once John’s time and score showed, the Alii said, “Great Akua!”

A minimum of 26,000 points were required to graduate. John had a final point total of 54,482 points. Nine had 53, 997 points.

John nearly yelled out in joy. He went to high-five the Alii, but the girl didn’t know what high-fiving was and just smiled and raised her hand as if in greeting. “Good job, Li Four-five! Congratulations! Eight seconds. Wow!”

John thought it was good they didn’t high-five. He didn’t know if the touching rule was as strict in the Trainer where it was just copies of their bodies, but purposefully touching an Alii trainee wasn’t a good idea. He was just excited.

Outside the Trainer, John and the trainee ran to the formation area and joined the few students there. There were a couple third tier Transcendent Oli giving all the graduates a [Title].

‘Blessed by Unnamed Exalted 2’ Title attained. User was bestowed a Title by unnamed entity (focus here for entity’s NCS tracking number and other PID). When in the active Title slot, increases Swiftness by 2%.

Since John already had a Peerless [Title], he was worried they wouldn’t give him a new one. The benefit given by the last one he received was no longer useful to him since his soul damage was all healed. Increased [Swiftness] would always be useful.

The one he just received actually gave John a different choice for what [Title] to slot. Granted, [Blessed by Magnus Gar’tar] would probably stay slotted as her blessing was higher ranked, and the increased martial [Skill] gain it provided was a more useful benefit.

Faster [Skill] gain also meant faster harmony gain. John already had more than enough harmony to acquire his [Domain], but Betrayal ordered him not to get it until he was Gold. He would get the [SupraType] [Perk] at Gold first. Betrayal wasn’t in control of his body yet.

Since Betrayal had somehow blocked John’s [Titles] from view, not one person had said a word to John about it. He thought that was strange. It had to be noticeable. He almost asked Nine about it a few times but always discarded the idea. Questions he couldn’t answer would be asked.

John was the last student to be granted a [Title], then he was released and told to report to the graduation ceremony in half an hour or so.

John not only received three credits for achieving the First in Class position, but he also received an additional credit for breaking the old points record total, and four more for completing the Tribulation and Trial on Platinum difficulty.

Nine, as Second in Class, received two credits and another credit for attaining the second highest points total in history, beating the prior record by a large margin. Nine only received three additional credits since he only completed the Tribulation on Gold, not Platinum.

With the new award, John had 32 credits and change. Enough to become an Olini, a father of six. His total credits earned, counting those he had already spent, was about 47 and a third. He hoped he could earn more from the Nani Heiau while waiting for Amber to become an Alii.

Just a few more classes and academy will be over. I can’t wait for the cyberware and bioware class.