3. Don’t sneak up on me again, or I will snap your neck

Damien lay naked in the warm water allowing it to clean his every nook and cranny, he really couldn’t believe this was now his body. His previous body was sickly and thin, almost like a twig. Nothing compared to this body that looked to be crafted by the Gods themselves.

Damien pondered if he was dissatisfied with his situation. He spent the last 5 years in this world using a VR headset and he would often go to bed dreaming of exploring these lands for real instead of through an avatar. He doesn’t really miss his family that much and he certainly doesn't miss the hospital.

He definitely would have an easier time if he was reincarnated into any other character, Damien's backstory is way too dangerous after all.

Damien let out a tired sigh while he played with the pocket watch in his gloved hand. He never takes the gloves off, even in the bath.

‘Right let's go over the few positives…’

‘I am in a game world with magic and other wonders that never existed back on Earth and if I survive these few years then I will get to experience it all, vampires are immortal after all…’

‘Also Damiens talent for Psychic magic is the highest in the game, the people in the game have no idea about [Traits] as they are hardcoded into their DNA by the developers to create their personalities. In the game, traits are designed to force characters to pursue certain paths in life. For example, Damien was destined to be a pitiful villain.

Damien has traits that all help him wield Psychic magic but he never knew, everyone just assumed he was a hopeless waste of space since he couldn’t increase his blood magic affinity.’

Snapping open the pocket watch Damien glanced at his status page once again.

[Damien Nightshade]

[Noble Vampire]

Skills:

Psychokinesis [D]

Pyrokinesis [E]

Blood Magic [F]

Mana Control [F]

Traits:

[Germaphobe] (Unable to learn melee skills / 100% Increased control over ranged spells)

[Control Freak](Increased affinity to control skills by 10%)

[Lazy](Increased mana regeneration while resting by 20% / Increased exp to learn new spells by 10%)

[Concentration](Increased affinity with mental spells by 5%)

[Noble Aura](Intimidation increased)

It's because his [Lazy] trait made learning new spells take a long time and his Mana Control being rank [F] caused everyone to assume Damien was a useless mage.

Another point of interest for Damien is the fact that the traits actually affect him more than he expected. In the game you played the character through a controller and the programming in the game wasn’t that advanced. There was no way to simulate germaphobia through a VR headset.

But now Damien could feel as if dirt and germs are constantly crawling across his skin and trying to slip into his pores. It was a truly disturbing experience.

He also noticed his other trait [Lazy] causing him problems. Right now he feels fine since he's relaxing in a bath but the idea of getting out of the bath seems to go against his very soul.

Looking back at his status he notices the all too familiar Pyrokinesis [E], making sure his palm was just above the water's surface, Damien willed his mana to create a small flame.

After a bit of concentration, a small orange flame appeared and extreme pain instantly shot down Damien's arm and almost made him scream. Damien quickly plunged his hand into the warm water and cancelled out the spell.

In between laboured breaths, Damien muttered, “Out of all the offensive spells you choose to learn fire? As a vampire? Are u stupid?”

In the game, Damien was unable to use his Pyrokinesis except as a last resort since he was harmed by his own magic. But it was different experiencing the pain in real life, rather than just losing a few HP points when this was a simple game.

“So Pyrokinesis is off the table, that only leaves Psychokinesis and Blood Magic…” Damien said through gnashed teeth while rubbing his burnt hand.

Unlike small cuts that healed instantly, damage inflicted by fire took far longer for a vampire to heal, sealing a wound is simple but completely regrowing the burnt flesh requires a lot more vitality to be wasted.

‘Blood Magic is far stronger than any other school of magic, the only problem is its fuel source is my own vitality rather than mana, I can literally die from blood loss incurred through my own spell usage.’

After using blood magic to heal his right hand he was feeling hungry for blood again. Damien also noticed that his white glove had a hole that exposed his freshly healed palm.

Seeing that his glove was ruined he took both of his gloves off with Psychokinesis and floated them across onto the table in the room.

“Wait, can Psychokinesis be used in combat? Can I throw a rock at someone and kill them?”

In the game, Psychokinesis was listed as a ‘lifestyle’ spell and therefore couldn't be used to inflict damage. It was mainly used by players to move items around and for picking up loot in dungeons.

Maybe the game designers thought Psychokinesis would be too overpowered as an attack spell? It is rather versatile as a null element spell.

“Master”

Certain schools of magic were perfect counters to others, if you studied the school of Pyrokinesis then you would lose to a student of similar strength from the school of Hydrokinesis.

“But Psychokinesis should be equally good against all schools…” Damien said while stroking his chin.

“Master I have your clothes”

The school of Psychic is often laughed at as Psychic spells are very mana intensive and not flashy at all. Psychic spells require immense concentration and that is the school's biggest downside.

“Master, are you ignoring me again? Helloooooo”

Try to maintain a calm mind while a giant ogre is running at you, it's just not reasonable for most people. Perhaps my [Concentration] trait will help in this aspect? This requires some investigation.

“M A S T E R” Fay shouts each word directly into Damien's right ear.

Damien is broken from his weird trance and in a single motion spins round and grabs Fay by the neck.

“What do you want?” Damien almost growled at the frightened girl.

“Your… clothes” she desperately said while gasping for hair and pointing in a direction with her arm. Damien looked to the side and saw an exquisite wine-colored suit and black shoes laid carefully on a chair to the side of the room.

Damien released his vice-like grip, leaving a red handprint on her neck. “Don’t sneak up on me again, or I will snap your neck.”

Damien then realised he had touched her with his ungloved hand and almost gagged on the spot.

“Run me a new bath, you got my hand dirty again,” he said with blatant disgust as he stepped out of the bath and waited for the warm water to be changed.

"But I didn't sneak up on you... I called out many times..." she muttered under her breath. I just scowled at her with repulsion.

Fay just nodded with fear and proceeded with Damien's orders. “Sigh… these darn traits are going to be the death of me…” Fay gave Damien a puzzled look but quickly got back to work.