Luke walked with Charlie through the city’s marketplace. The stroll ended up being longer than he expected, but he didn’t mind. Charlie was experiencing everything with bright eyed wonder, and he wanted her to enjoy it. They chose to walk instead of taking a carriage or one of the canal boats, sticking to their own district. He’d learned that each of the eight districts was governed by a different noble family. So even without a king, the city still had its own small scale royalty. Not the great families of the World Government, just lesser houses with local influence.

  “Master Luke… can I really buy one?” Charlie asked softly.

  She pointed to a stall selling skewers of roasted cheese and meat.

  “Of course, Charlie. Don’t worry. What’s mine is yours,” he told her.

  She lit up with a smile. Luke handed her two bronze coins, large ones, the kind worth about ten dollars each, from what he’d managed to figure out.

  Charlie dashed toward the stall.

  “And what about me, Master Luke? Does your lovely friend Artemis deserve a little attention too?” Artemis asked, mimicking Charlie’s tone in the most dramatic way possible.

  “You know I’m not the one telling her to call me that. She came up with it on her own,” he muttered.

  “Oh, sure, Master Luke. Poor you. A gorgeous girl is calling you her master. Tragic. Absolutely tragic,” Artemis said with exaggerated pity.

  He ignored the sarcastic pendant and glanced toward the bell tower. It had rung five minutes ago, and his instincts expected people to bolt indoors the way they had in the tutorial whenever a Midnight Warden appeared. But here… nothing. It was just a normal clock. A bell marking the hour.

  The day went by so fast I didn’t even notice.

  They were making their way toward the teleportation building. Now that Charlie’s situation had calmed down, Luke felt the anxiety creeping in. He was finally going home.

  Charlie came running back, her dress fluttering in the breeze. A few men turned their heads as she passed. She really did draw attention with her beauty.

  “I brought one for you too, Master Luke,” she said, offering him a skewer.

  “Thanks, Charlie.”

  Luke leaned against a small stone bridge, the canal flowing beneath them with boats drifting through the water. The whole place felt like someone had taken Venice, fused it with Germany and France, and then dipped everything in medieval aesthetics. He remembered studying Notre Dame in school, and some of the buildings here had a similar feel.

  Charlie ate quietly beside him, watching the water below while letting her free hand sway in the wind. He didn’t stare, but he could tell she was enjoying the sensation of the breeze on her skin.

  “Want some, chatterbox?” Luke asked Artemis.

  “Took you long enough to remember me,” she complained.

  “S-sorry,” Charlie said quickly. “Master Luke, I still have one bronze coin left.” She reached into her pocket and handed it to him.

  Luke tucked everything back into his pocket dimension. The wonders of magic meant he didn’t need a wallet, though it also made him realize how awful a coin based economy must be. Everyone dragging around little bags of metal.

  “Probably because paper bills are too fragile,” he muttered, thinking it through. In a world where someone could literally set their own hand on fire, coins were the safer bet.

  “It’s really different, Master Luke. From the tutorial and the fortresses. People here look… happier,” Charlie said, eyes shining as she watched the flow of pedestrians.

  “Especially with those giant walls protecting them from whatever’s roaming outside.” He’d heard that the city kept ballistae and specialized weaponry ready for anything that tried to fly over the defenses.

  “You enjoying the walk, Charlie?”

  “Very much,” she replied, bright and eager. “But I’m excited to see your world, too. I mean… we’re in your world, but that other place you talked about.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “After seeing this, I’m not sure you’ll like modern society,” Luke said. “Still, I want you to meet my family.”

  She froze midway through biting her skewer, then slowly lowered it. “Yes… I really want to meet your family.”

  While Charlie and Artemis slipped into another one of their bizarre but somehow cheerful conversations, Luke refocused on his “How to Take Care of My Lovely Vampire Servant” manual, Samael’s affectionate masterpiece.

  He was reaching the end when he stumbled onto yet another charming segment, something along the lines of: “You cannot become a vampire because you are a demon…” followed by “I hope your little mortal ant brain did not entertain the idea that being a vampire is somehow superior to accepting my master’s blood. That would be an insult…” and then, naturally, “If you considered it, I will kill you myself.” More ranting followed, then a lecture about how his demonic lineage protected him from vampirism anyway, and how turning vampire would erase his bloodline skill forever.

  After that, the letter drifted back to its vampiric crash course. At some point Samael even tossed in, “By the way, you just chose Herbalist as a profession. I could’ve taught you to forge the One Ring if you’d picked Artificer or Blacksmith.”

  Luke exhaled with deep, tragic disappointment.

  I really could’ve had the One Ring…

  He lifted his hand, studying his witch ring.

  “Technically, I do have a Ring of Power,” he said under his breath.

  And Sauron had used a ring as a magical focus instead of a staff. Honestly, Luke got it.

  Sorry, Gandalf, but screw staffs. Rings are way more practical, and way cooler.

  A faint orb of mana flickered to life above his palm. Luke flicked his hand and the sphere shot toward a pool of water like a tiny comet, fizzing the surface before vanishing beneath.

  Charlie clapped softly for him. She and Artemis drifted back into a conversation about food, specifically, all the “modern delicacies” Artemis intended to devour as soon as they arrived in the real world.

  Luke checked Charlie’s interface again.

  [Blood Core: 0/100]

  She was smiling, but the Hunger had to be hurting. He wasn’t going to let her endure that longer than necessary. He would feed her. With his own blood, if he had to. She’d refused earlier, but that was why he brought her out here, to settle her nerves, ease the fear, and make her feel safe.

  He turned back to the letter.

  Samael had included an entire section dedicated to the weaknesses of vampires, warnings Luke absolutely could not ignore if he hoped to keep Charlie alive.

  “Vampires have weaknesses, just like every other species. Humans, for example, have plenty. They’re so fragile that if they stop breathing for a couple of minutes, they die. If they fall into water and can’t breathe, they die. If they hit their head on the ground hard enough, they die. If their neck gets cut, they die. Humans are breakable.

  “By now, you’ve probably figured out that if Charlie’s head gets removed, she can put it back as long as she still has HP and enough Blood Energy. But there are other precautions you need to take in a fight. Vampire weaknesses are extremely well known. They’re catalogued as monsters in bestiaries, and anyone can buy a cheap book and learn exactly how to kill one.”

  Luke had already read this part. He had read the entire letter twice. But now he was dissecting each sentence, hunting for anything he might’ve missed.

  “The primary weakness of a vampire is the vampire themself, thanks to the Hunger Curse. When a vampire infiltrates a city, they must constantly manage their own hunger. Humans do not like vampires. And it’s not that petty prejudice from your old world. It’s something much simpler. Ask yourself if a chicken likes a fox. Of course not. The fox is the chicken’s natural predator. Vampires are the natural predators of humans. So vampires and humans are mortal enemies across the entire multiverse.

  “But Charlie won’t have to deal with that part of it. You can feed her blood. That brings us to the other major weakness… sunlight.”

  At least Luke already knew Charlie wouldn’t die instantly under the sun. That alone was a relief.

  “The sun is not a magical laser that turns vampires into ash. And no, Charlie won’t sparkle like Edward Cullen. Think of sunlight as Superman’s kryptonite. During the day, under direct sunlight, Charlie will be extremely weak. As weak as an ordinary human. Her regeneration will fail, and drinking blood won’t help if she’s exposed to sunlight. Which is why the best way to kill a vampire is during the day. So keep that in mind: in future battles, Charlie will be drastically weaker under daylight.”

  The first time Luke read that, he assumed he could just give her a full set of armor to block out the sun. And she did have armor capable of covering every inch of her skin. But… of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

  “Wearing full armor won’t bypass sunlight. It simply reduces the discomfort, like easing a migraine. Umbrella shade also helps with the discomfort. Vampires love umbrellas because they’re practical and no one questions why someone carries one.”

  It felt like Samael was reading Luke’s mind from the past, countering every loophole and workaround Luke thought of before he even finished thinking it.

  “That bastard was probably writing this like some cosmic chess match. Always three moves ahead.”

  The list of vampire weaknesses continued, but one warning was emphasized more than anything else. Samael had marked it as extremely important.

  “Remember this, Luke. Never reveal that Charlie is a vampire. Do not tell anyone who isn’t bound to you by absolute trust. Vampires have two natural mortal enemies. The first is other vampires from rival families and bloodlines. And the second, and far more dangerous, enemy is…”

  https://discord.gg/znGSjCxhkR