Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

The judge's bench was in the center of the circular seating arrangement and on it sat the judge. He had long back curly hair and an expressionless face. He wore normal judges robes except they were a dark red. The rest of the people wore robes as well but they weren't as prestigious looking.

"ALL RISE!! The court of General Sessions Third Judicial Court is now in session. The honorable Judge McCallister is presiding." The person sitting next to the judge said.

I stood up. I knew what was going to happen and yet I was still nervous. I saw a single familiar face, Lead Elder Alfred Bader. Normally that would give me hope, but his facial expression said otherwise. It was dark and callous. Like a person looking at a bug in their home.

"Please be seated." The same person said. They handed the judge a stack of papers. "Your honor, this is case #7-666666. Dylan Sanguis v. The Vampire Sect."

"Thank you," the judge said. He looked down at me. "You stand accused of twelve counts of involuntary manslaughter. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty!" I said.

"The members of the High Council of the Vampire Association will present their case and then you will get a chance to present yours." Judge McCallister said.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Various members of the High Council, presented their case against me. Their reasoning was that without my intervention, the bats would have never attacked the sect.

Therefore I was responsible for the students and teachers deaths. During their whole presentation, Bader said nothing. He had promised me he would back me up on this decision, yet he remained silent.

When it came time for me to present my case, I said, "Elder Bader told me that a monster extermination job would be good. He said he would back me up on the decision if I was questioned about it."

The Judge looked at Alfred Bader. "Elder, is that true?"

"I don't remember saying any such thing, or even discussing this matter in the first place," he said.

The Judge looked at me and said, "He refutes your claim."

"I heard that," I said. "I also talked about it with Elder Ravenkin and he too said he would back up my decision. Just ask him. I know he'll tell the truth!"

"Elder Ravenkin is not a part of this council and cannot be called as a witness in this proceeding," the Judge said.

I dropped the idea of getting backed up by figures of authority and laid out my case. I had planned to bring the idea of lighting the territories, so people wouldn't keep going missing or get lost. I had gone to a dwarven foreman, just to see if someone was willing to do it in the first place.

The foreman said that the first step of performing construction in a sect's territories was monster inspection and extermination. I was worried that it wouldn't be ok for me to go ahead with the extermination without getting association approval first.

I was told by people who will not be named that it was ok. So I went ahead with the plan. I thought I would be making the territories a safer place by doing this and prevent many more deaths.

I had never considered that the monsters would be that close to the sect grounds. I argued that they were so close that it was only a matter of time until they attacked the sect. I said that despite the lives that were lost, which was tragic and unfortunate, I prevented many future deaths by exterminating that pack of carbats.

"The defense has been heard. I will now deliver the sentencing," The judge said. "You will be sentenced to lifetime of imprisonment without the ability to feed. Your skin will grow pale, your fingers and toes will turn black, your eyes will grow red and your hair will fall out. You will waste away until you are nothing but an unliving corpse in constant agony."

The judge was about to swing his gavel when Bader spoke up. "I think we should offer a little mercy. Despite how many victims there are, it's still only involuntary manslaughter. I think we should give him a quick death and spare him an eternity of pain and suffering." Bader looked me in the eyes and winked.

"I'm going to ignore that I was interrupted because you are the Lead Elder of the Sect and that carries a certain amount of authority and deserves respect. I like that idea. It still rids us of his presence without taking up a jail cell for eternity. I agree that we should save eternal suffering for more severe crimes," the judge said.

"Dylan Sanguis, you are sentenced to death by beheading," the Judge said and banged his gavel.

I was put into a jail cell and fitted with silver handcuffs. They blocked Vi and made it extremely difficult to cultivate. I would be publicly beheaded in the Sect courtyard in a month. I couldn't stop thinking about Bader's wink. What did it mean? He must have had some trick up his sleeve or thought I had a trick up my sleeve.

Wait, that was it! The Undead Soul Formation. The undead soul kept a constant connection with the body and mind, so that if the body or mind were damaged, the soul retained a backup to heal and repair the damaged or lost tissue.

Bader had told me a story about how one time, he'd been blown to bits and the only thing left of him intact was his right foot. Using his undead soul, he repaired his body perfectly and was good as new in a few hours.

That was impressive regeneration and while I knew troll regeneration was good, I didn't know how good it was at retaining the memories of the original head if it was removed. By the intelligence level of the first troll I fought, I would guess that the answer was not good.

I had to find a way so that the troll regeneration didn't interfere with my vampiric regeneration.

[You can convert your ability Complete Regeneration into life essence]

'Nice! Let's do that.'

[Complete Regeneration converted into life essence. 2,000 life essence gained]

Great! Now I just had to figure out how to cultivate with these handcuffs on. On top of that, I needed to make sure that my vampiric regeneration didn't heal me immediately.

I had to appear dead for a while before I would be free to move again. I also didn't like the idea of growing back my head. I'd rather just keep the original one.

[I can guide you through the steps to achieve all of those goals, but it will take quite some time and you won't be able to get stronger. Just more technically skilled]

[As an aside, in case you weren't aware, you gained all the life essence of the carbats, which you still need to integrate into your crimson core]

'I'm fine with things taking time, and I'm plenty strong already. How much life essence did I get from the carbats?'

[2,500,000 life essence]

'What?'