I Became A Zompirewolf

Back at the academy...

"Where the hell is he?" Lucas yelled at the top of his lungs. 

It had been near an hour since they started the hunt to kill Ashton. But within that hour, Ashton had completely disappeared from there. He was nowhere to be found as if he had become one with the darkness. 

In the meantime, the Grunta twins were busy eliminating as many students as they could for the sake of maintaining secrecy there. But even they were having troubles on their side. It would appear, the qualifiers from the other zones were a lot better than they had expected. 

As a result, Lucas and the rest of the nobles were left on their own to hunt Ashton. Which to be honest was not possible, given the little amount of light they had to use. In the end, Lucas begrudgingly had to split their forces. 

Unlike the last round, this time there was a time limit and they had to survive till the timer ran out. Which forced Lucas to make that decision. Otherwise, he would not have taken such a suicidal step. Especially after seeing how bad his plans had flopped the last time.

'These fools wanted to kill me and they can't even work together...' Ashton shook his head while being concealed among the branches and leaves of a tree.

Ashton had not even made a single move, and yet he had shaken them and their resolve to fight. It was for that reason they couldn't see him even though he was right in front of them. Well, actually it was thanks to the darkness he was able to hide so well. 

'Let's start the show then, shall we?'

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Name: Ashton Fenrir

Species: Zombie (Active), Vampire (Active), Werewolf (Active), Human (Deceased).

Status: Zompirewolf

Class: Unassigned

Title: [Defiant]

All genes have been activated successfully. Transformation to Zompirewolf is successful.

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Ashton activated all of his dormant genes one after another. He did not want to simultaneously activate all the genes and suffer through excruciating pain. No matter how much his [Pain Tolerance] had levelled up, activating all of the genes together was still suicidal. 

Everything was going according to his plan. However, the moment he activated the vampire and undead genes, the sharp nose of the werewolves caught his scent. Or the scent of an undead and a vampire to be precise.

'Undead and vampire? The director never told us anything about such beasts inside...' Lucas thought to himself and drew his sword, 'No... it has to be something else. Unlike anything I've never witnessed before.'

Lucas was the first to recognise the smell of hostiles as he was the closest to them. With it, a realisation dawned upon him. Since he was closest to the enemy... it meant he would be the one to get attacked first!

He wasn't a fighter! he could barely lift a sword let alone fight, even if his life depended on it. Which is, literally did at the moment.

"There's something here!"

Lucas roared at the top of his lungs but the people who were with him had already scattered. Even if they could hear him, it would take them a solid minute or more to even reach him. Which was more than enough time for Ashton to do what he needed to. 

"I told you, I'll kill you first." Ashton's voice echoed through the dark as he swooped down from the tree and in front of Lucas. 

"W-Wait! What happened to you?" Lucas stuttered and subconsciously started walking away from Ashton.

Although he could recognise Ashton's voice, his appearance had changed completely. Ashton's skin had turned ashen and his hair had grown a lot. Even though the mask was covering Ashton's face, it couldn't confuse Lucas whether the one standing in front of him really was Ashton or someone else. 

However, the armour Ashton was wearing gave his identity away to Lucas. Still, at the moment, Lucas could only think about surviving and nothing else. 

"You think you can waste our time by talking?" Ashton laughed but it wasn't a normal laugh either, just the sound of his laugh sent chills down Lucas's spine. 

"Y-You don't know my f-family! They'll have your head i-if you even dared to t-touch me!" 

"I'll burn that bridge when I get to it... for now, I'll be content by killing you."

Rather than trying to fight Ashton, Lucas threw his sword away and began sprinting towards the ones who were closest to him. But a second later... he felt something popped right behind him and the next moment he fell down.

He could no longer feel his body. All he could feel was a sharp pain in the back of his neck as if a night creature had bitten into his flesh. The pain was excruciating. Lucas wanted to scream, but no words came out of his mouth as he slumped down on his knees. 

Lucas could feel the blood from his body being sucked away, at the same time chunks of his flesh were being eaten away as well. 

"N-No... way..."

Those were the last words that came out of his mouth before his eyes went blank. 

Ashton had been aiming for him since the beginning. As he knew out of all the students, Lucas was the weakest one and probably would not be able to fight back against him. Which was exactly what Ashton needed to level his undead genes up. 

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You have successfully consumed the blood of a <Level 7> Weremutt.

You have been awarded 89% exp for a successful hunt.

Current vampire Level: 8

Current vampire skill points: 9

Current Exp: 89%

Vampire Skill: [Skill Absorption] activated. Attempting to absorb the skill [Incite] from the prey.

Required gene to learn the skill: Werewolf genes.

Required genes are present within the host's body.

Proceeding with absorption.

Due to the inefficiency of [Skill Absorption], only partial absorption could happen. As a result, the active skill [Incite (lvl 5)] has been turned into an active skill [Influence (lvl 1)].

(Note: The user is recommended to upgrade [Skill Absorption] as soon as they can.)

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"So that's how it works. Interesting."

Ashton had been wondering for a while because he had never witnessed [Skill Absorption] work before. For now, it looked like whenever he would try to drink someone's blood, he would be able to absorb of one the prey's skills. 

If complete absorption isn't possible, then the partial absorption would lead to the creation of a new skill for him. In short... he was getting way too overpowered. 

The flurry of notifications did not end there. After all, Ashton had just received a new skill. 

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You have learned a new werewolf skill!

[Influence]: This skill allows the user to influence a selected target's decisions. However, whether the skill would be successful or not depends upon a variety of factors. Including but not limited to the type of relationship the two parties share, their affinity towards each other, how much intelligence they possessed and the level difference between them.

The higher the level difference, the lower the chance of successfully influencing the decision. This drawback can be removed by either upgrading the skill or by improving the relationship with the said person.

Grade:  Low (level 1)

Cooldown: 10 Minutes

Can be used: 3 times a day

Activation Radius: 70 meters (Your targets must be within this range to get marked.)

Condition to upgrade the skill:

Use the skill to successfully influence the decision of 10 beings or use 15 skill points to level up the skill. 

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The vampire genes weren't the only genes that got a boost. As planned, Ashton's werewolf and undead genes levelled up as well. He no longer had to worry about destroying the harmony between his genes. Which meant he could deactivate the rest of his genes and carry on with the exam. 

Lucas's death could be blamed on a plethora of reasons, thanks to how weak he was. A creature could have attacked him, or his death could have been a result of a family feud. After all, the nobles were known to often fight amongst them to assert dominance and also to take over each other's territories. 

However, considering the bite marks on his body, they would most probably think some kind of night creature must have attacked him. So all Ashton had to do was to give make them go in that direction and he would be cleared of any suspicion. 

Thankfully, he knew exactly what he had to do. After all, a night creature would not be satisfied with killing just one of them. Which meant... Ashton would have to kill a couple more of them. 

'Let's not take any risks... and level up the undead genes a bit more just to be sure.' Ashton thought as two idiots came walking right towards him, 'After all, it'll be a waste to not use this opportunity...'

The two nobles walking towards Ashton were clueless as to what had conspired there a few moments ago. They were only heading that way because they had heard Lucas yell that he had found someone. 

"Wait," one of the two stopped the other, "I smell blood... someone must have fought here not too long ago."

"In that case, we should call the others- is that Lucas!?"

The two sprinted in the direction of Lucas's corpse.. Unaware of what was going to happen to them shortly.