The wave of Chosen had spread over the Realm of Bloodlines, over two billion humans thrust into the realm, but not everyone was a human Chosen. Bloodlines were not simply a power that was granted; many bloodlines decided the race of that person.
In the game, many started off as humans, and later their bloodlines decided their final race, but it wasn’t so in this case.
As soon as they got their bloodlines, their genetics were warped and distorted, causing physical and mental changes.
Some could get the bloodline of the Chaos Dragon, which would make them into a dragon. They still had their human forms, but their blood was totally of the dragons, and the more they awakened the ability of the dragon, the more their new reality tilted toward that race.
It was a method the game used because it didn’t want to let all players be humans in a realm filled with a platter of races.
And it didn’t stop at the other intelligent races even the demons had their Chosen, or players, as one would have it.
The Realm of Bloodlines wasn’t biased toward any race. But being in one race didn’t make a Chosen lose his original human look; the game seemed to understand that not everyone would want a different look just like that, so they allowed them to have their human form, with their true form being a transformation state of their bloodline, something they could use whenever.
Zane, on the other hand, didn’t get that sort of opportunity because he wasn’t a player, so he had no human form, only his vampire form now. He didn’t hate it, though. Actually, he loved his bloodline now.
"Who the hell are you?" a voice roared from the inside of the carriage.
The carriage creaked, heavy footsteps sounded, and after a few seconds of walking, a few too long—the person finally made his way out with great struggle.
This man was big, and not in a good way. He was far too oversized, obese, and wearing a very tight noble attire.
His white hair was curled nicely, and his small goatee under his double chin was neat. As he made it to the ground, he pointed at Zane with his short and chubby hands.
"Who are you and why did you help us? Are you bandits? Or are you trying to make me pay you?" the man spat.
Lucy clenched her fist when she heard the way this short, fat, gross man talked to her master, but she heard Zane’s voice clear in her head telling her to stand down.
"I didn’t do it for any of those reasons. I simply saw some people in need of help and so I assisted," Zane said casually.
"Hmph, you can lie to others but you can’t lie to me. No one of your skill level just walks down paths saving people.
Maybe you were sent to kill me. My enemies must have known I would be using a merchant carriage to travel, and they sent you," the man said viciously.
Zane frowned. "If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead already," he spoke, and his eyes glowed red, sending shivers down the spine of the man.
The leader of the group, seeing that things were about to get messy, quickly rushed to stand in between. He let out a nervous chuckle and spoke.
"I’m really sorry about him. He is paranoid after barely surviving an assassination attempt back in Raven City, so we left," the man said.
’Hmm, they left Raven City, and the fact that they haven’t recognized me means they left without seeing the wanted images at the guild, which would mean they were with this man the whole time,’ Zane thought.
"I understand, but you should learn to keep your boss in check, or an assassination would be the least of your worries," Zane said coldly.
The leader could tell this was a threat, a blatant one at that, but what could he possibly do in this state? So he nodded. "I understand," the adventurer said. He turned and looked at his boss.
"He just helped us survive an attack from a whole goblin tribe. I feel you should be a little more grateful. Even if not for yourself, for us, we’ve stuck by you through a lot now. Even the pay you gave us doesn’t cover half of what we’ve done for you," the leader said to their boss straight up.
The man frowned when he heard that, but he couldn’t argue at all. What they said was true. He wasn’t paying them nearly enough for the troubles they had gone through.
He gritted his teeth in anger and then spoke, "Fine. Thank you, whatever," the man said angrily.
Zane didn’t like his tone, but he didn’t want to be pushy, so he nodded in response. The man waddled his way back to the carriage and struggled to climb back in.
"Thank you for not getting angry at our boss. My name is Roger, this is Grim," he pointed to the second man, "that’s Lily," he pointed to the younger lady, and then to the last one, "and our vile seductress, Ava. You should stay clear of her. Looking at your looks, I have to say you are her type. She’ll try to drain you dry," Roger said.
"Oh come on, Roger. What sort of introduction was that? I’m not that bad," Ava said and strutted her way forward. Standing right before Zane, she looked at him with her snake-like eyes. "But I do have to admit, you are extremely good-looking. My type, for sure," she said with a smile, stretching out her finger to touch Zane’s chest. But before she could even do so, she felt a gaze so sharp it made her heart ache.
She looked up and saw Lucy looking at her, and from her eyes alone she could tell what Lucy was saying: ’If you touch him, you’ll lose your hand.’
Ava subconsciously took a step back, tears trickling down her forehead. Zane glanced at Lucy, and she immediately cut it out.