Chapter 4

The need to get his memories back was almost all-consuming. He never expected he could want something so badly until he realized that a part of himself was missing and he hadn't even known. Someone took his memories from him, used his father to do it and he had been powerless to do anything about it. That ends now!

He would get stronger, his father had provided him with the means to do so. He would fight and gain levels, at level 5 he could discover the method unlock another bloodline. Even if he couldn't get the memories back yet, at the very least he could find a way to keep his memories from being stolen from him. All he needed to do was fight against the monsters his father sent for the urn until he was strong enough to take it back himself.

Without even noticing, he had made a monumental decision about his future and his goals.

"Wait for me, Dad. It might take a while but I'm coming for you. I promise, I'm coming for you once I'm strong enough. I'll find the last artifact and I'll set you free." He swore, as he stood and made his way back to the school.

He could test out the system tomorrow. For now he had to get back before anyone started wondering were he was. He couldn't tell anyone about this yet. He finally had the answers he was looking for, or at the very least a clue to figuring it out for himself. He was sure that his friends would try to stop him from saving his father. Without the emotions he felt emanating from his father's letter he was sure that even he wouldn't believe his story.

Until he could find a way to convince them not to stop him or lock him up, he had to keep them in the dark about what he knew. He could practice with his phoenix abilities, but everything else had to be kept secret.

He made his way back into bed with Hope and wrapped her in his arms. She wriggled closer to him as he leaned down and kissed her in the small spot where her shoulder met her neck.

"Hey you." She groggily said to him.

"Hi." He responded as he lowered his left arm to her thigh and began tracing patterns on her legs with his fingertips.

"You were gone for a while, is everything ok?" She asked, her breath coming in short, whispered gasps.

"Still coming to terms with the whole phoenix and dying bit, I guess. I thought I'd be fine but I think it's going to take a little longer to process than I expected." He replied as he let his hand come to a stop at her waist and lay there.

She rolled over on the bed so that they were facing each other, reaching around to hold him tight against herself and resting her forehead against his she spoke, "I'm here for you, whatever you need, you know that right?"

"I know." He said softly, giving her a light peck on her lips. "I think this is just one of those things that's going to take time to fix."

"You know, if compulsion worked on you we could have used it to speed up the process." She said as she began drifting back to sleep.

He gave her another kiss, this one on her forehead before returning his head to it's previous resting position and whispered, "True, but if compulsion did work on me I'd either be gone or dead and not in this bed with you. I call it a win."

She let out a pleased hum and murmured, "Mmmm, good answer." Before finally succumbing to sleep.

Shortly thereafter, he joined her in a dreamless sleep.

A few days had passed since he had gone down to the docks and they had not been wasted. Exploring his abilities and skills had proven to be remarkably simple. The skills were easy enough, they were things he practiced daily for years at this point. He did however discover that if he focused on them while inside the status page he could see a ranking system.

Composition – Music (Journeyman 2) | Writing – Lyrics (Apprentice 9) | Musician - Guitar (Journeyman 3)

A little further investigation and he discovered all the ranks available to him.

Beginner | Apprentice | Journeyman | Master | Grandmaster | Legendary | Mythical

The were ten levels at each rank ranging from 0 – 9 after which they would jump to the next ranking, according to the system message he received while exploring his skills.

Oddly enough, his Abilities didn't have ranks or progression meters of any kind. It appeared that once he unlocked an ability it was fully empowered, the limiting factor was his knowledge of how to use the ability and his creativity in doing so.

This proved much simpler than expected, as by focusing on the ability in his menu he was provided with instinctual knowledge of how to use the ability and what it was capable of.

This all had to be done piecemeal and in hidden moments when no one was watching him. Having his friends let alone the rest of the school watch him become an instant expert in manipulating flames, would be difficult to convincingly explain, and if Hope brought the truth ball out then there'd no way he'd be able to avoid telling them about his father and the system.

So, in those rare moments he found himself alone he would take the time to explore as many of the system's different facets as he could, like his Perks.

Reproduction Control – As the first of your kind it is up to you to ensure the survival of your race…. Or not. This perk leaves you with the ability to choose whether an intimate encounter results in progeny or just fun. (Perk Derived from Progenitor title)

Instinct – As a chimera of various mythological and supernatural creatures you will have a plethora of genetic memory to guide you when engaging in combat and possibly other situations. (Derived from Race – Unlock more bloodlines to increase the potential of the perk)

Adaptation – As the son of Malivore you inherited this perk, a subset of his ability to evolve, directly from your father. Continual and prolonged exposure to harmful substances will generate a tolerance and eventual immunity to the substance in question, provided they don't kill you permanently. (Derived from Race)

Identify – Active: Will provide you with information about a creature you are currently looking at provided the information exists within the bestiary of your system. Passive: Will alert you to any supernatural or a member of Triad Industries is within your line of site unless specifically requested to withhold the information. (Derived from Bestiary)

I took him a little while to figure out how to set alerts so that they only showed the first time he encountered a person but he managed it eventually. Luckily people attributed his skittishness to his recent vampire death experience, but in all honestly, they'd probably be freaked out too if every time they turned a corner the large bright blue words VAMPIRE, WEREWOLF, and WITCH were floating atop the heads of nearly everyone in the room. There were a few notable exceptions of course. Josie and Lizzie's race read as SIPHON, and Wade was denoted as being FAE.

In fact it was that very perk that had found him in a rather tenuous situation. He had managed to get past his death rather easily all things considered. Having the system occupy most of his thoughts and providing him with a distraction he could focus on was a big help. Hope, however, had not been so fortunate.

This morning she had been having a nightmare, his attempts to wake her ended with him being magically launched into a deceptively large amount of painting materials.

Something he would be trying to help her figure out and deal with were it not for the fact that he had just noticed MG walking around with a girl and preparing the school for the Miss Mystic Falls. Which wouldn't be a problem, except the word GORGON was hovering over her head.

As confusing as figuring out that entire situation, making everything more complex was seeing MG's mother talking to him with the words TRIAD INDUSTRIES above her.

Is anyone even who they say they are anymore? Himself included apparently.

He had made a mistake, he needed to tell Hope the truth. He could make her understand if he just gave her the chance.

He found his way to the library where he new she was setting up.

"Hey Hope, can I talk to you about some….. Hi there, who are you?" He shifted gears mid-sentence after finding her in conversation with a vampire he had never seen at the school before.

"Oh, Landon. This is Roman…. My ex-boyfriend, and Roman this is Landon." She said with mild concern in her eyes.

"Boyfriend, and a Phoneix. Which is just, so cool." He replied dryly feeling fire begin to flow through him feeding off his anger, unbeknownst to anyone else.

Roman's eyes darted between his and Hope's before saying, "I was just explaining to Hope that Dr. Saltzman has been overwhelmed as of late and has had me doing some recruiting for the school. With the Miss Mystic Falls being held at the school he asked me to come by and lend a hand. I better go Dr. Saltzman." Leaving him alone with Hope.

She turned to face him with a somewhat exasperated smirk on her face. "That was a little Alpha Male of you."

He retorted, "Is that the 90 year vampire ex you may have mentioned murdered your mom?"

"It is, though I don't hold him responsible for that anymore." She said, becoming serious.

Ok, his original plan to tell Hope the truth was out, at least for now. The fire inside making it difficult to think straight. Now he just needed some valid reasoning for having come to see her in the first place.

"I was coming to find you, have you seen MG? We haven't really talked since he killed me and I just wanted to let him know that we're ok."

He watched her eyes soften from the anger he had seen building there before and she replied, "That's great Landon. I think he's showing one of the contestants around the school."

"Awesome, I'm gonna go look for him." He said making his way out as quickly as he could. He would just have to figure out what was going on by himself.

He didn't figure it out. He couldn't find MG anywhere, almost like he was purposefully avoiding him.

He spent the rehearsal dance arguing with Hope about Roman until Lizzie took Hope away after every piece of glass in the room began to shake.

He wanted to go out and talk with her but, Lizzie was right about Hope needing space right now.

In other exciting news it seemed the gorgon whose name he found out was Nia, was trailing MG's mom.

Once he made his to the courtyard he saw Nia, turn MG's mom to stone and was faced with another fun new discovery.

Petrification Attempt Failed due to distance – Petrification Immunity acquired due to adaptation perk

"So it updates in real time." He said to himself, "Good to know."