SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God novel Chapter 129

Chapter 129: Check your eyes?

The wind carried a bite of snow, sharp and unrelenting, rattling the edges of Damon’s coat as he sat down on a random rock. He calmly watched Mendoza distribute recovery potions to everyone. The man even gave one to him, Kate, and Mark, of course, not hiding the big scowl on his face.

Damon did not need it and immediately put it away in his spatial ring. Mendoza grimaced. "This is not for you to hide it in your shitty ring and sell it for gold coins later on. Don’t behave so cheaply. Use it to recover now."

Damon chuckled. "I did use it. Maybe you need to check your eyes?"

"Are you calling me a liar?" Mendoza’s temper flared up.

Damon did not seem to care. He simply shrugged.

The guy stared at him for a moment and turned to walk away in a huff. "You are not worth it. Soon, everyone will see that."

After the guy left, Mark sat beside Damon and slowly asked him. "I get what you are doing but are you sure about it?"

Damon nodded. "As long as I keep playing the role of an arrogant, entitled bastard who lucked into some sort of powerful class, things might probably be easier for a while. Better to take the easier route, no?"

Mark only smiled in response. Very few people knew this about Damon, but as opposed to his arrogant mouth, his friend had always been a calm and calculating person deep down. If these people underestimated him based on his behaviour, then they had another thing coming for them.

Mark and Kate did the same and put away their recovery potions. None of them had gone all out, and none of them needed any potions or recovery.

A few minutes later, the group set out again. They encountered a few beasts here and there, but nothing like the first time when they were completely surrounded.

To everyone’s annoyance, Damon beat them all to it and took down the beasts every single time. He even dug his fangs into the beasts and drank their blood to the last drop with an exaggerated moan. "Vampires need their food." He laughed about it as he pocketed all the drops.

Many people had unsightly expressions on their faces seeing such childish behavior. Sylvara’s face twitched, but she did not say anything. On the other side, Aurora alone seemed to be blushing more and more, which no one noticed, considering that they were all bundled up at the moment.

Ignoring Damon’s antics, Sylvara once again distributed more resources to the group, including a few pieces of ice resistance items and more health and mana potions.

The cold had now become a whole lot worse, and just trudging through the snow was taking a lot of effort. The snow creaked underfoot like brittle bones, each step testing their patience and resilience.

Damon, with his unbothered smile, kept an easy pace at the back, half-humming some tune he’d picked up somewhere. His breath fogged the air like smoke from a dying campfire.

Mark watched him for a moment, then shook his head, unable to decide if Damon was actually enjoying himself or simply messing with everyone.

Ahead, Sylvara’s brows were knit in concentration, her sharp eyes scanning the terrain for threats. She took her role as leader seriously, even if she was secretly exasperated by Damon’s behavior.

"We’re approaching the second checkpoint. There should be a natural cave formation ahead. We’ll rest there before proceeding to the summit."

She gestured at the icy wind that whipped around them, slicing through their coats. "Everyone, stay close. The cold is the real enemy here."

Mira’s fiery aura flickered even strongly as she muttered a curse under her breath. "I can’t believe he’s making a mockery of this," she hissed, her eyes darting towards Damon. "Does he really need to do that? Drinking blood like that in front of everyone? It’s disgusting."

Aurora, meanwhile, had retreated into herself, her staff held like a lifeline as she walked beside Sylvara. Occasionally, her eyes flickered toward Damon with a mixture of confusion and something else.

Damon pretended not to notice any of it. He even gave Mendoza a casual wave, which the man answered with a scowl that could’ve frozen lava. Damon chuckled softly to himself. Another wolf pack would have been better, but these stray beasts were also quite good.

The area had a high percentage of elites and rare elites, and these always gave him a good bump in stats or affinity, or resistance. He was also now collecting all the basic ice element skills, which broadened his skill repertoire quite a bit.

Overall, he was very satisfied with the haul.

Damon suddenly stopped walking as his heightened senses picked up something peculiar. "Stop. It’s dangerous to go beyond this." He immediately shouted.

Sylvara gasped, wide-eyed, unable to believe what she was seeing. "Ice orcs? They’re not supposed to spawn here," she muttered.

"Guess the landscape changed after all, huh?" Damon replied lightly, his tone casual as though he were discussing the weather.

Sylvara’s face was pale but determined. "Mendoza, get back!" she ordered, even as the injured man stumbled towards the rear, clutching his bleeding shoulder.

Arrows rained down on them, each one of them extremely difficult to evade in the cold environment. To make matters worse, the background snowstorm became worse.

The wind screamed like a banshee through the clearing, whipping the snow into a blinding whiteout. Visibility dropped to mere meters.

It was not just Mendoza. Many members of the group were starting to get hit like flies left and right. If it were not for their gear, perhaps they might have even been one-shotted.

Seeing this, Aurora jumped into action. Her staff glowed with a golden halo as she raised a barrier around the group, a thin but bright dome that flickered under the relentless onslaught of arrows and magic.

"Stay inside the barrier!" she shouted, her voice unwavering despite the chaos.

Thanks to her, the group somewhat got the situation under control and began their counterattack. Meanwhile, Damon was already busy at work. He and his shadow clone had no problem evading the arrows as they silently appeared on the other side of the battlefield.

Damon surveyed the opposition first. Fifty-seven ice orcs in total. Most of them seemed to be around level 50, some even level 60. This was bad. This would be a true test for the group.

For him, it was a perfect time to test out his skills and extract some new bloodlines. "Come on. Give me something good." Damon greedily licked his lips as he dashed forward without holding back.

He moved like a wraith among the snow, slipping through arrow fire, shadow-stepping past icicle-coated axes, and carving through frost-hardened hides with savage precision.

His dagger sank into the neck of one ice orc, and the huge creature stumbled to react. Before it could twist its torso to land a hit on Damon, a few more slashes landed on its thick body. Finally, Damon plunged his dagger into its chest with a satisfying squelch and quietly absorbed the orc’s blood essence. One down, many more to go.