With the dog mounting her, both of her hands were busy doing everything they could to stop its fangs from reaching her face. And in this dire situation, the other dog had already gotten up and was rapidly approaching. Her heart rate hastened. As her thoughts were racing around, Kurushimi started to panic.

‘Shit-! Shit-! Shit-! Agh, what do I do—?!’ She clenched her teeth as her breathing became ragged. Beads of sweat dripped down her face. She was soaked in a mixture of sweat and dog saliva. In this situation where no possible escape was coming to mind, she desperately called out to the one who had gotten her in this mess, “V– Voice-san!”

But to her dismay, even after a couple more seconds passed, she did not receive a response. In this critical moment, it looked like her only hope had gone silent. Her voice quivered as she called out once again, “Voice-san? Are you there?”

Falling into despair, tears fell from her eyes. “Mhm, looks like I’m gonna die again!” A broken smile crawled across her face, almost forming into laughter. From the looks of it, this was about to be her third death. Kurushimi gave up. That was, until…

Blood from her injured arm dropped down onto her face. Her eyes widening, she had a moment of clarity. Earlier, she had opened her status briefly. She didn’t get long to look at the vast contents of it, but there was one thing she remembered. Under her [Skills] was a skill labeled [Blood magic].

[Blood magic: Allows the manipulation and weaponization of blood via magic.]

‘Th-This might work but…’ She knew it was her only option; the only thing that could save her from these dire straits. But there was one problem. She had no clue how to activate it. Magic and skills was a foreign concept to her, only before seen in video games. How you are supposed to harness such a thing was completely out of her knowledge!

The other dog was mere moments away from her. It was unclear whether she even had a second until it reached her. With no time left and the immediate need to act, Kurushimi did all she could think of. She did her very best to will it into happening. Like a kid in their bedroom believing they could pull off a kamehameha if they tried hard enough, she put her full faith into it working.

She felt a strange sensation followed by the erratic movement of blood across her arm. It vigorously writhed about before wrapping around her arm into the crude formation of a blade. Kurushimi wasn’t exactly sure what was going on or if the blood’s new shape was her conscious doing or not. But she was sure of one thing, it worked. She had been successful in casting blood magic.

With her other arm that had still yet to receive an abnormal status, she pushed the dog away with all her strength and momentarily staggered it. With the short window of time to act that had been presented to her, she swung the blade and severed the head of the dog. Now she had slain another one of them; but the last dog was still present.

It leapt at her, baring its fangs with lethal and carnivorous intent. Kurushimi, still stuck in her sitting position, could only stick out the blade of blood and hope things worked out in favor. The sound of something sharp piercing flesh echoed around the forest until only silence remained.

Opening the eyes she had instinctually closed, Kurushimi was met with the lifeless eyes of the dog. It hung on the end of her blade by the neck that had been stabbed through. The dog was but a few inches away from her face. The blade slowly disintegrated and the dog fell onto her lap.

Idly sitting there, Kurushimi still had yet to compute what just happened. The chaotic clutteriness of fighting tooth and nail for one’s survival had been replaced by the simple sound of accelerated breathing. Her surroundings had fallen completely silent. But not for long.

As realization settled in her face, her eyes widened and mouth slowly opened. Until she let out an exhilarated shout, “Wooooo Hahahaha-!” Throwing her hands up, she bursted into laughter and allowed herself to fall. Her back hit against the dirt as she looked up at the canopy above. Moonlight barely shone through the cracks in the leaves.

She was covered in the disgusting guts and grimy blood of the two dogs and one of their carcasses laid on top of her. However, she took no notice. Adrenaline pumped through her veins and excitement took hold of her.

For the first time since arriving in this world, she had overcome despair. For the first time she had proven she was capable of victory, capable of overcoming the hardships thrown at her. It was precisely at this moment, a newfound flair of determination had been ignited deep inside Kurushimi. With the realization that she can fight, that she can escape her fate of suffering and that sitting around was going to get her nowhere, Kurushimi had a reason to overcome fear and push forward.

“UUUWAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” She let one last scream out into the forest, commemorating her victory.

. . .

She took one last breath before pushing the dog off her. Standing up, the adrenaline had mostly worn off by now and she started to calm down. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she suddenly was met with a wall of text.

[Skill, ‘Blood magic’ has reached Lvl. 2!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[Stat points are available, do you wish to distribute them now?]

“I leveled up again, huh?” Kurushimi gazed at the messages, scanning through them. This time she had leveled up twice in a row, gained a new level in blood magic and acquired stat points to distribute. However, Kurushimi decided to withhold distributing them just yet, “I want to view my status first.”

[Opening status…]

Name: Kurushimi Gaman

Race: Lesser vampire

Sex: Female

Lvl: 4

HP: 15/20

SP: 2/4

MP: 7/10

STATS:

HP: 20

STR: 5

END: 12

SP: 4

AGI: 11

MP: 10

SKILLS:

[Fangs Lvl. 1]

[Blood magic Lvl. 2]

[Night walker Lvl. 1]

UNIQUE SKILLS:

[What’s yours is mine Lvl. 1]

Stat points: 4

Skill points: 300

“So that was magic I guess…” Kurushimi said with a blank expression before suddenly snapping out, “Agh, what is this?! Monster dogs hunting me down and trying to kill me! A game-like system with skills and levels! And… not only has my appearance changed but I’ve become a vampire!?”

Too many wacky and unbelievable things had happened one after another. Not to mention, the initial process of being isekai’d to another world. Kurushimi felt like it was all some elaborate joke. And of all things, she had become a vampire. Her pale skin had led to her receiving nicknames of a similar fashion in the past. What else was it other than insult to injury?

Kurushimi, in a fit of anger against the world, kicked a tree as hard as she could. The tree shook ever so slightly, a display of her everlasting rage. “This world has to be making fun of me!” Once again, she kicked the tree.

She slowed down and took some deep breaths. Getting angry wasn’t getting her anywhere. Upon clearing her head, she noticed something in her peripherals. “Hm, what is that?” She questioned. In the top-right corner of her vision, some of her basic stats were present.

HP: 15/20

SP: 3/4

MP: 7/10

[Currently under bleeding status effect. Will lose 1 HP every 30 seconds until the bleeding status effect is cleansed.]

Among her stats, something else caught her eye. Upon reading it, she immediately started panicking again. “Eh? 1 HP every 30s?? Wouldn’t that be… uhm… 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Won’t I die in 7 minutes and 30 seconds?!”

HP: 14/15

“Only 7 minutes left-!” Kurushimi exclaimed.

She had not a single clue when it came to first aid. The wound on her arm was big and severely bleeding. She was unsure if wrapping her clothes around it would really stop the bleeding. In an attempt to find a solution, she hurriedly searched her skills for anything that could assist her.

[Fangs Lvl. 1], [Night walker Lvl. 1] and the unique skill [What’s yours is mine Lvl. 1].

[Night walker: Increases stats by 20% during the night.]

The first description she checked was ‘Night walker’, which appeared to increase her stats at night. Once again, she looked up at the canopy where moonlight barely shined through. “I wonder if it’s active now…?”

“If it weren’t active, you would have never outran the dogs in the first place.”

Kurushimi gasped and jumped at the unexpected voice. The question had been thrown out, directed at no one in particular. Unexpectedly, she received an answer to said question. Voice-san, who had suddenly disappeared, had popped up again out of nowhere.

Kurushimi exclaimed, “Voice-san! Where in the hell did you go? I almost died back there!”

Voice-san: “You wouldn’t have died, only just bitten a little more.”

Kurushimi: “Only?! Being bitten really hurts, y’know! What are you, a sadist?!”

Voice-san: “...”

Voice-san: “Anyway, please read the description for [Fangs].”

‘She dodged the question…’ Kurushimi sighed and gave up on the topic. She didn’t really have time to argue as she was currently at risk of dying from blood loss. Complying with Voice-san’s request, she opened up the description for [Fangs].

[Fangs: Equips the user with sharp fangs, allowing them to suck the blood of a target. Sucking a target’s blood restores the user’s HP, SP, MP and cleanses most negative status effects.]

“So I can heal myself and cleanse status effects…?” Kurushimi parroted the description contents. After a second, she came to realize what it meant. “Does this mean I can stop the bleeding?”

“Yes, please suck the blood of the dead dog in front of you.” Voice-san replied.

“...” Kurushimi fell silent. The dog was grotesque and furless, its skin purple. Its blood had a strange color and quite frankly, smelled really bad. It was enough to say… She really didn’t want to bite it, much less did she want to suck its blood.

“You will die.” Voice-san stated.

“...!” Kurushimi flinched at her words, the mention of death eliciting a response. It was true that she would die if she didn’t bite the dog and activate the cleansing effect of fangs. If she were to die again…

Voice-san: “And you will have to fight the dogs again.”

Kurushimi would have to fight the dogs all over again.

“Fine, I will bite it!” She exclaimed, giving in.