I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Rankings and Requirements

The transport drone landed at the academy airfield at dusk. Students disembarked in clusters — exhausted, bloodied, some carried on stretchers. The expedition had not been kind to everyone. Three empty seats on Lucian’s drone testified to that.

Two days later, the results came.

The World Government processed data from all participating academies simultaneously. Every wrist bracelet fed kill counts, combat logs, and survival metrics into a centralized database. The results were broadcast to every expedition participant via their bracelet screen.

Lucian leaned against the kitchen counter in the Havenford apartment, reading the France division rankings.

France Division Rankings:

#1: Lucian Grimaud — 1,247 total kills (1,024 normal, 203 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#2: Arthur Chevalier — 1,189 kills (980 normal, 195 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#3: Clara Duncan — 1,102 kills (870 normal, 218 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#4: Ramzi Bouchard — 987 kills (810 normal, 165 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#5: Florian Mercier — 876 kills

#6: Elise Laurent — 812 kills

#7: Victor Haines — 754 kills

#8: Sophie Marceau — 698 kills

UK ALL-STAR ACADEMY — OVERALL RANKING: 3RD PLACE

Every student listed was from UK All-Star — some native, some transfer students from affiliated academies around the world.

UK All-Star Academy Internal Rankings:

#1: Mickey Adeyemi — Nigeria — 1,832 kills (1,402 normal, 398 Neophyte, 4 Core Realm)

#2: Lucian Grimaud — France — 1,247 kills (1,024 normal, 203 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#3: Carlos Vega — Spain — 1,210 kills (945 normal, 241 Neophyte, 3 Core Realm)

#4: Arthur Chevalier — France — 1,189 kills (980 normal, 195 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#5: Ethan Clarke — UK — 1,162 kills (920 normal, 218 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#6: Clara Duncan — France — 1,102 kills (870 normal, 218 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#7: Bruno Remmos — Slovakia — 1,058 kills (830 normal, 208 Neophyte, 2 Core Realm)

#8: Amira El Fassi — Morocco — 1,024 kills (812 normal, 198 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#9: Julian Renard — Spain — 1,001 kills (790 normal, 195 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#10: Dmitri Volkov — Russia — 987 kills (770 normal, 195 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

#10: Ramzi Bouchard — France — 987 kills (810 normal, 150 Neophyte, 1 Core Realm)

France dominated the upper ranks. Four of the top ten were French division students. Mickey Adeyemi was a gap no one had expected — the Nigerian transfer student had nearly six hundred kills ahead of second place.

Then came the global rankings. Every academy. Every country. Every student who’d participated in the worldwide expedition.

GLOBAL EXPEDITION RANKINGS — ALL ACADEMIES:

#1: Wei Chen — Chinese Vanguard Institute — 2,140 kills (1,620 normal, 490 Neophyte, 5 Core Realm)

#2: Mickey Adeyemi — European All-Star Academy — 1,832 kills

#3: Sarah Mitchell — American Apex Academy — 1,756 kills (1,380 normal, 352 Neophyte, 4 Core Realm)

#4: Liang Feng — Chinese Vanguard Institute — 1,601 kills

#5: Carlos Vega — European All-Star Academy — 1,210 kills

#6: James Carter — American Apex Academy — 1,298 kills

#7: Lucian Grimaud — European All-Star Academy — 1,247 kills

#8: Arthur Chevalier — European All-Star Academy — 1,189 kills

#9: Kenji Tanaka — Japanese Imperial Academy — 1,154 kills

#10: Clara Duncan — European All-Star Academy — 1,102 kills

Wei Chen’s numbers were absurd. Two thousand kills in a week.

But seventh globally. First in France. Second in his academy.

Lucian set down his bracelet.

He went to his room as he lied down on the bed.

The system pulsed.

╔═══════════════════════╗

║ ✦ EXPEDITION QUEST RESULTS ✦ ║

╠═══════════════════════╣

║ QUEST 1: Top 3 in UK All-Star Academy ║

║ Result: 2ND PLACE — COMPLETE ║

║ Reward: 8,000 SC — DEPOSITED ║

║ A-Rank Skill Book — DEPOSITED TO SHADOW STORAGE ║ ╚═══════════════════════╝

Current System Credits: 26,850 SC

Lucian exhaled. Twenty-six thousand credits. More than he’d ever had. The Emperor Grade pill sat in shadow storage alongside everything else.

Then a new notification appeared.

Different. The border wasn’t blue. It was black. The text was silver.

╔══════════════════════════╗

║ ◈ HIDDEN QUEST ◈ ║

║ Issued by: ??? ║

║ OBJECTIVE: Accumulate 100,000 System Credits to initiate system interface migration to Model 2.0 ║

║ TIME LIMIT: 365 days ║

║ PENALTY FOR FAILURE: System Withdrawal ║

╚═════════════════════════╝

Lucian stared at it.

What the fuck?

One hundred thousand credits. He had twenty-six thousand.

What do I get if I unlock this new system model?

Silence.

Who issued this? It says "Issued by: ???" — someone gave this. Who?

Nothing.

Lucian’s jaw tightened. "There’s no way I’m doing this quest if you don’t tell me more. I’m not my system credits on an upgrade I know nothing about."

The black-bordered notification pulsed. A new line appeared.

PENALTY FOR REFUSAL: System Withdrawal

Lucian lay back on the bed staring at the ceiling.

"I’m fucked."

He lay there for ten minutes. Then he pulled the skill book from shadow storage.

The cover was plain black leather with silver embossing: HEAVEN’S SEVERANCE — A-RANK WEAPON SKILL.

He opened it.

Heaven’s Severance is a spatial manipulation skill applied through bladed weapons. By channeling mana into the blade’s edge and compressing it beyond standard limits, the user creates a spatial distortion along the cutting path. This distortion does not cut through the target — it cuts through the space between the blade and the target, making the slash impossible to parry, block, or dodge.

The skill requires extreme mana control. Inadequate compression results in wasted mana and no spatial effect. Over-compression risks self-injury as the spatial distortion rebounds toward the user.

Mastery Levels:

Novice: Shallow distortion, 10-centimeter effective range. High mana cost.

Adept: Moderate distortion, 30-centimeter range. Manageable cost.

Expert: Deep distortion, 1-meter range. Efficient cost.

Master: Full spatial severance, 3-meter range. Minimal cost. Can cut through barriers that exist in normal space.

Lucian read the diagrams carefully. The mana compression pattern was complex — not just pushing mana into the blade, but folding it inward on itself, creating layers of compressed energy that existed partially outside normal space.

It demanded everything Allistar had been teaching him. Control. Precision. Understanding mana as water.

He sat cross-legged on the bed closing his eyes as he began meditating on the first compression pattern.

The skill book rested open in his lap. Time passed in that position as his understanding of the sword and the skill evolved.