Gacha Leveling

The castle guards looked suspiciously at Matthew who was wearing the coachman's clothes and driving the carriage. Sitting by his side, Orpheu was using the bodyguard's clothes and Tina was inside the carriage using Lady Tarkov's clothes.

"Is there a problem?" Orpheu threatened the guard. "Are you really making Lady Tarkov wait?"

"No sir. It's just that your coachman doesn't seem used to driving the carriage." The guard answered.

Orpheu slapped Matthew's head with force and said:

"You incompetent fool! It's your fault we're making Lady Tarkov late!"

"I'm sorry!" Matthew fell into character fast after being hit.

"I'll discipline him later. But, for now, open the gate. Our ladyship is already late." Orpheu directed his words to the castle guard. "Unless you want to speak with the Lady yourself."

"Yes sir!" The guard said hurrying to open the castle gate with fear of facing the vampire himself.

Driving a carriage was really harder than what Matthew thought it would be. The horses didn't respond easily and sometimes even refused to pull the carriage at all. It was a complete different set of skills than a modern man would have.

Tina got out of the carriage looking at the servants with a haughty stare when Matthew finally managed to steer the vehicle to the front entrance. The servants in turn, turned their faces and avoided her yes. However, despite her efforts to play the part of Lady Tarkov, she feared one of them knew the vampire personally and would sound the alarm. For her luck, they either didn't know the lady's face or they didn't dare to question why she had a different and younger visage.

Orpheu accompanied Tina inside walking closely behind her, while Matthew struggled with the horses to take the carriage to the stables.

One man sat beside Matthew not long after his carriage was going the wrong way and masterfully guided the horses to their place.

"You're new at this, boy?" The man said.

"Yes." Matthew confirmed. "Thank you."

"Don't worry. We all have been in your place. Those sadistic lords love to put us servants in this kind of torment." The man laughed thinking that Lady Tarkov chose an unskilled coachman as a prank and a way to humiliate a servant.. "But don't say this out loud around here, boy. The best thing you can do is to not look at their eyes and avoid being seen. Once they notice you as something more than a poor stable boy, you'll wish you were dead."

"Thanks for the help… And for the tip." Matthew said.

Matthew saw himself armed only with a gun that he hid inside his clothes. To not draw attention, he gave Tina his other weapons and armor for her to store in her Inventory. Meaning that he was now behind enemy lines armed with nothing but a gun and two 15 bullet clips.

The other coachmen, who were all sitting around in the stables waiting for the time they would be called upon by their masters, greeted Matthew warmly. They offered him water and food.

"It's going to be along night, boy. Just try to make yourself comfortable and invisible." One of the coachman said.

Before Tina and Orpheu entered the dinning hall, a servant announced:

"Presenting Lady Isolde Tarkov. Ruler of Virsiria Keep and holder of shadows."

Inside the dinning hall, there was 3 well dressed men and a woman sitting down by the table with a bodyguard each standing behind them. On an elevated part of the room, sitting on a throne, Faralynn was asleep. On the head of the table and directly in front of Faralynn, Novak was seated with Mia seated on his right.

Tina froze for a second seeing Mia sitting by the table. Did she get an antagonist role? Would Mia have to fight them? Tina decided to trust Mia and tried to ignore her presence.

Tina walked forward with caution. Waiting for the room to react to her presence. It was Novak the first one to react:

"Lady Tarkov, you say?" He smiled clearly amused by Tina's ruse. "You got a lot taller than I remember."

Orpheu's hand hovered his sword's handle.

Tina got ready to take off his staff from her Inventory.

The other vampires sitting by the table looked at Novak confused. They've never seen Lady Tarkov in the flesh and were oblivious about what was going on.

Mia readied herself as well. She didn't know if Orpheu and Tina also had the Traitor role or if they were just impersonating a character to get in, but Novak's hostility towards them was clear. If things went south, she'd do her best to protect Faralynn.

Braking the tension in the room, a servant ran in screaming:

"Lord Novak! Lord Novak! The women have broke free. Lord Babivic is dead!"

"What?" Novak looked at the servant with surprise and anger. "And where are they now?"

"They're coming up." He said recoiling from his master's anger.

Novak's face turned back to Tina, then to Faralynn. His banquet was ruined. His plan was to have a formal dinner with his guests and make a whole spectacle about turning Faralynn into his new spawn and wife. With the night ruined, he had no reason to wait. He turned to the other vampires in the room and pointed to Tina.

"She's an impostor. Deal with her." He said walking towards Faralynn. "My daughter, deal with the food underground." He added looking at Mia.

Mia nodded and waited for Novak to turn his back on her. At that moment, the other vampires on the table got up and turned to Tina and Orpheu. It was when Mia concentrated a huge magic missile and hit Novak on the back of his head making him stumble forward.

A moment of surprise took the vampires and their bodyguards when Mia betrayed them. His own daughter.

Orpheu took advantage of the confusion and charged forward drawing his sword from its sheath and slashing the arm off one of the bodyguards in a single movement.

Tina took out her staff from her Inventory and cast Magic Missiles on the other vampires and their bodyguards.

Mia ran to Faralynn and tried to wake her up while Novak recovered from his shock about being betrayed by his daughter.

"My darling?" Novak asked confused. "What are you doing?"

Mia ignored Novak and kept calling Faralynn's name to wake her up. While Tina and Orpheu fought against the other vampires and their bodyguards.

"Darling?" Novak asked again getting closer to her.

When Novak's hand hovered over Mia's shoulder, a golden lightning bolt hit him throwing him away from her.

It was Erin that just entered the hall being driven there by the sounds of battle.

Helen was quick to join the fight as well rushing towards Tina and becoming a shield for her against the vampires that were trying to overwhelm her.

Novak stayed on the floor unable to react, but not from the damage Erin did to him, but by the surprise of having his daughter betray him.

With the onslaught of Orpheu, Erin, Tina and Helen, and without Novak's help, the vampires and their bodyguards were quickly disposed of. The room was now a mess. The dinning table was turned over, chairs were scattered around and broken and the walls showed signs of misfired spells that made cracks on the stone walls.

Faralynn woke up shortly after and looked around confused and surprised.

"Why?" Novak asked Mia still laying on the floor. "Why my daughter?"

Mia looked at him confused. She did not know why. It was the dungeon role that she would betray him. But looking at the vampire's face she took pity on him and tried to give him a reason within her character.

"Because I hate that you hurt people."

Orpheu then stepped forward with his sword held firm on his hand.

"Novak." He said drawing the vampire's attention to him. "Do you remember your daughter?"

"Of course I do. It's Mia." The simulacrum said and the whole dungeon seemed to glitch for a split second. "No… It was Cecilia."

Novak got up. His face as remembering something.

"She also said that." Novak said pointing to Mia. "Cecilia hated that I hurt people too. She was a good soul." The simulacrum itself glitched becoming just a mass of mana before turning back into his normal form. "What is going on here? Who are you all?"

"You are not Novak." Orpheu explained. "You are but a memory of him. Used to train soldiers to fight evil beings."

Orpheu's students looked puzzled at him. Was that why he was interested in the dungeon? He wanted to talk to Novak?

"I'm a memory?" The simulacrum didn't understand.

"Yes. But it doesn't matter." Orpheu said getting closer to him. "I need to know where is Cecilia's tomb. You're the only one who can tell me."

"Cecilia's tomb? Is she dead? But she's right there?" Novak inquired pointing to Mia. He seemed completely confused about his surroundings as if he was starting to see things that weren't there. "No. You're not Cecilia. Cecilia died that day. She also betrayed me. She… She fought me. And I killed her."

"Yes. I need to know where you buried her." Orpheu asked.

"At the garden. Under her flowers." Novak said pointing to the corridor that gave way to the outside. "But I won't let you have her." He said with anger. "I will not allow you humans to take her away from me again!"

The dungeon glitched again turning into pure mana for some few seconds before coming back. But when it returned to normal, the sky was now covered in dark clouds and lightning bolts preceded a heavy rain.

Matthew looked up to the rain wondering what was happening to the dungeon. He should hurry inside and see if the others were well.

It is then that he saw a screen similar to his status screen appear in front of him.

"Dungeon Fluctuation Detected

Re-calibrating…

Surrender system disabled.

Safe training mode disabled.

Resetting monster level to original.

New mission:

Kill Novak.

Survive."