After two days’ worth of travel by foot the newborn vampire finally arrived in Magnolia Town. She decided to stay for a while, her sore body needed rest and her body was still readjusting, constantly changing and adapting to its new life style. So was Seira’s soul and although the delicate girl had done nothing wrong yet, she knew that the day would come where she had to make a decision. Magnolia Town had always been among her favourite places in the country of Fiore, and the city and its friendly, calming vibe and forthcoming people were as charming as ever. She arrived during the night when barely any of the townspeople were still awake and Seira had chosen to check into the same inn she always checked into whenever she was here—it had become her favourite place to live in over the years, she was familiar with the owner and the people who worked there and, generally speaking, it was a place she very much enjoyed. The young woman was still struggling with the aftereffects of transforming into a vampire and she caught herself thinking whether or not a transformation like that, from the human race to another, inhuman one, always took so long. Some days were worse than others, some were better but she had certainly, at some point, experienced moments where she wasn’t able to step into the sunlight without feeling completely uncomfortable and although the sun itself did not bother her anymore, Seira still prefered to leave the house after the hot midday sun had past and cloudy weather was now her favourite. The woman had yet to experience what exactly her newfound weaknesses were, and which traits she could consider strengths but generally speaking, she felt more powerful. As long as she fed herself human blood she was perfectly capable of moving around without restrictions, she felt relieved and full of energy. But after starving herself for a few days that energy seemed to go away and during her travels she had not gotten to any blood yet, which caused her a lot of exhaustion once she arrived in Magnolia. Human food was still enjoyable, but it didn’t quite fill her up the way blood did and she knew that she needed it to survive or else her body would start fading away. Strangely enough, the young woman could accept this fate of hers. It wasn’t as if she had killed anyone yet. In fact, Seira had made it a habit to not drink directly from the vein yet. Instead, the clever girl stole a few blood bags here and there whenever she came close to one of the local hospitals. She did it at night and she was quiet and very careful and had not been caught yet. She also made sure to never steal more than 3 or 4 blood bags at once so it wouldn’t become so obvious. Generally speaking, Seira had a pretty good grip of what she was doing so far.

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Even though Seira was on her own and no one had exactly taught her how to survive, she was doing pretty well and that satisfied her. Bianca, the woman who had turned her into this, did an excellent job at making her suffer and Seira was wondering whether or not this slow transformation had been intentional, because she didn’t strike her as a bad person. Seira was, generally speaking, an open minded person and being a vampire may changed her entire life, but she wasn’t going to give up on herself so quickly. She had a plan and that plan included surviving and keeping her own identity a secret. Considering that she had never even heard of vampires until she became one herself, she didn’t even want to think about what else was out there and what other creatures existed in this world. Perhaps most of them were being kept a secret seeing how their existence could cause the general public to panic. Seira figured that the Rune Knights, or the Magic Council (most likely the Magic Council and some higher up ranks in the Rune Knights) knew about the existence then, which was why she didn’t stay in Era for longer than two days. It was too dangerous and she didn’t want to get involved with anything that related to that matter. Seira had a feeling that, with her weakness of sunlight, or daylight in general, light magics of all types could possibly have a very destructive impact on her and she decided to avoid light wizards at all costs as well. Granted, if she kept acting innocent no one would find out and she could live in peace. For now, Seira planned on doing that as well as working to earn a good amount of money, in case she ever needed to settle down somewhere or go into hiding. Seira waited until it was afternoon before she finally left her hotel room and when she did the people she knew down in the inn’s lounge were surprised to finally meet her. “You slept in today?” John, one of the cooks said with a smile and the girl politely nodded her head. “I did, and I also studied through some of the books I currently have with me. Honestly, I just wanted to get some reading done and relax for a while. I’ve been busy traveling a lot across Fiore during the last few weeks and it has cost me a lot of strength. I need some rest after all of this, understandable, right?” She laughed it off when they agreed with her, knowing that she had nothing to worry about when it came to those people. Seira sat down at one of the tables and ordered something to eat when she noticed that one of the maids came over to her with the local newspaper in her hands. “Look, I don’t know but I thought this might interest you. You should give it a look, perhaps there is someone looking for somebody to do work as well.”

[1010/3000]

Seira thanked the girl and looked through the newspaper. Apparently, not too long ago a strange, unknown cavern had been discovered in the woods outside Magnolia and people were all curious about whether or not there was something special inside said cavern. Of course some caverns could harbour very precious items, stones and even jewels or other things that could be quite resourceful and while this wasn’t exactly something Seira herself cared for, she understood how this had become such a big deal. Seemingly everyone was talking about it and she just had a feeling that there was going to be simple work for her if she only made her way to the cavern. The weather was gloomy now and once she had finished her meal she stepped outside and decided to take a look at said cavern. With the sun hiding behind some clouds it was rather good weather for her to be outside and as the girl made her way through the forest, she had to look around for a good thirty minutes to even find the place she was looking for. It was well hidden beneath large trees and bushes and no one would usually assume anything of relevance to be hidden here so when Seira quietly made her way to the scene and the entrance she began hearing loud voices of people that instantly made her stop in her pace. She snuck up behind some trees to get a better look at the commotion that was going on and she was quite surprised, to say the least. The entrance to the cave was at the foot of a large mountain and a group of people had gathered in front of it, wildly discussing why they weren’t allowed to enter and what could possibly be inside. Much to her dismay Seira also spotted a handful of Rune Knights protecting the cave from unwanted intruders, which pretty much ruined her hopes of getting a look at what was inside. Since she had night vision now, seeing in the dark pretty much wasn’t a problem anymore so all she really needed to do was to get inside. Once that was done it would be difficult for anyone to find her without her carrying a source of light around or making a lot of noise—which she already knew she wouldn’t make. Seira was no longer hiding from the group of people, no reason for her to act suspicious after all, but at the same time she wasn’t exactly joining them either. She just stood there to overhear them and eventually she was noticed by a familiar face. Seira was then approached by a man whom she knew as Barras Berend, a very capable smith from Magnolia who was well known throughout the town for his kind personality and his excellent work. He sold all sorts of weapons and owned the Black Anvil, a place she had visited and worked at many times before. He approached her with a smile and waved at her.

[1513/3000]

“I see you have heard about the newest discovery as well. Seira, let’s talk over there, okay? There is something I want to ask you,” Seira had worked for Barras before and from what she could remember, he had always paid her a decent amount of money. He was fair and good hearted and that made him an excellent client. When he hushed her to the side she immediately followed, making sure that no one was overhearing what they were talking about. “People have yet to actually go inside the cave to explore it, but the Rune Knights are acting up, as always. The discovery came with quite a few rumors and many suspect that there is something very valuable in there, which is why the Magic Council doesn’t want anyone to go in there and find it. But technically speaking this land doesn’t belong to anyone, even less the mountain and thus people should be allowed to enter and at least have a look.” Seira nodded while listening to him explain. “Let me guess, there is potentially something inside of that cave that you want and you will pay me to get it for you.” She crossed her arms and he almost laughed. “Yes, actually. You are right. I’m looking for a very rare metal that is supposed to be found in that cave. Using that metal I can forge powerful weapons, much more powerful than anything I’ve done in the past. It’s a luxurious material and if there is something inside of that cave then I need it! Listen, I’m willing to pay you a lot of money if to venture inside the cave for me and find out whether or not that stuff is actually in there. Are you in?” The vampire nodded. “Of course I am. What does it look like?” Barras then proceeded to explain to Seira the appearance of the metal he was looking for. “It’s quite beautiful and noticeable, actually. It’s a solid, blue rock that has a very bright and beautiful glow to it, some sort of an ethereal glow. You can’t miss it once you’ve seen it once!” Seira, of course, agreed on helping him since he was willing to pay the right amount of money. Her ability to see in the dark made everything much easier and she waited for a few minutes until everyone seemed distracted and no eyes were on her before she slipped past everyone, people and Rune Knights, into the cave and disappeared into the darkness. The cave was larger than one would suspect simply by looking at it from the outside and Seira learned that there were several pathways, all of them leading god knows where and while some of them had been blocked off by fallen rocks and boulders, some were easy to pass through. Some of the rocks were loose and Seira knew that with her newfound vampire strength she would easily be able to move those rocks away. And then Seira did exactly that.

[2015/3000]

She started lifting up boulders and rocks until she had enough space to get through and made sure to be quiet while she did all that. She didn’t want anyone from the outside to hear her after all. Once Seira had cleared a path she had chosen for herself, she continued to walk through the darkness and so far there wasn’t much she could work with yet. None of the rocks she found seemed extraordinary in any way. After a while Seira saw a bright light in the distance and shortly after walked into what seemed like a larger room inside the cave. The room was illuminated by a single pillar of light in its middle that led into nothingness, sheer blackness, which made no sense whatsoever and she knew that the source had to be magical. The hole of blackness didn’t seem to lead anywhere and Seira wasn’t keen on exploring it after walking around it a few times. She then noticed that on the other end of the room the pathways split into three options. Seira, who had been in the cave for a good forty minutes already, decided that it was now time to explore those three pathways and if she didn’t find anything in either of them she would return to Barras with empty hands, take her money and call it a day. The first pathway, on the very left side of the room was the one she chose to explore first. It was dark and nothing suspicious seemed to be in there. Seira spotted a few rocks that looked quite beautiful, but upon further investigation none of them looked even close to what Barras was hoping to find and she figured that these were simply beautiful stones that people would turn into medium expensive jewelry and that was it. Furthermore, this pathway after about ten minutes of walking led her to a dead end and since there were no rocks for her to move aside, Seira simply turned around and walked all the way back. She was now going to explore the second option in the middle and it was a very similar experience to the first one. There were beautiful rocks inside, salt crystals and other shiny things but from what Seira could tell, none of these things were precious in any way and so she just continued to walk. Seira, after over twenty minutes ran into another dead end and while this pathway was pretty much the same as the one before, it was only significantly longer which led her to believe that the cave was, perhaps, even bigger than this. Seira decided to return to the room that was illuminated by a pillar of light and then she would check out the third and last option. If she didn’t find anything of particular worth in there she would simply leave and return to Barras, hoping that the people in front of the cave had left already as well. She seemed to be alone in the cave though, thankfully.

[2521/3000]

Once she was back she looked at the third path. Part of Seira didn’t really care whether or not Barras was going to get his precious rocks, especially since she knew that she was getting her reward either way, whether the outcome was positive or negative. She began to wonder why he didn’t just look into the cave himself, considering that people could easily screw him over once they found something that was worth money by saying that they didn’t find anything, took his money and went on their merry way to sell their goods—but Seira wasn’t interested it that. Trade, especially illegal trading was far too complicated and time consuming and she didn’t really have the nerve to argue with people about prices either. So she simply did it the normal way and earned her money like any good person would, by taking on jobs. The last road was far shorter than the two others, but that was mainly because it was blocked off by larger rocks yet again, which Seira decided to move aside. While that task wasn’t very difficult, she still had to be careful so it wouldn’t all crumble down on her. Once that was done Seira decided to continue her investigation and walked deeper down the third and final path. It was still significantly shorter than the other two and when she came to an end she was actually surprised to find the substance that Barras had been looking for. A beautiful blue rock glowing with an etherian light. It was a precious looking stone but the amount in which it existed was extremely limited. Seira took a very small piece with her and then turned on her heel to leave the cave which, luckily, wasn’t a problem to her due to her good night vision. The Rune Knights still hadn’t left when Seira snuck out of the cave and she made sure to quietly sneak past them so they wouldn’t notice her. Barras had already returned to Magnolia Town and Seira followed him and visited him at his store. “I’m back, and look what I found!” She announced her return once inside the Black Anvil and gave Barras the blue rock. He was absolutely smitten with the material and extremely happy to see that her search had been successful. He went as far as thanking her several times for making her way into the cave to find what he was looking for and paid her immediately. Seira then took a piece of paper and started writing down an exact map for him in case he wanted to go look for the material himself. She made sure to mention the black hole and that he should avoid it as well as the left and middle path, since the right one was the one where she had found the rocks. Barras thanked her profoundly and she gave him a few more tips, mentioning that he should definitely bring several flashlights. Seira then left the Black Anvil and returned to her inn.

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