On the third day, Norton spent the entire daytime practicing swordsmanship, but due to poor control of his strength, he accidentally slashed his own calf with the blade.
He discovered that no blood flowed from his wound at all—the injury appeared pale and washed-out like rinsed meat, with the tendons and vessels seemingly fading away.
After being slashed, he didn't even feel pain, and within three to five seconds, his flesh spontaneously knitted back together, completely restoring itself to its original state.
Norton fell into deep contemplation.
His skin could sense the external environment—both temperature and touch. He was absolutely certain he could feel pain too, since sunlight on his skin produced a subtle, needle-like stinging sensation that left a numb feeling.
This reminded Norton of the vampire lore from his previous life. For instance, only holy water, silver, sunlight, crosses, and fire could truly harm or even kill vampires, while all other physical attacks were ineffective against them (meaning they couldn't actually break through defenses or truly kill vampires).
Although these two worlds were different, and Norton had never applied the rules about vampires from his past life to himself, he now felt he might as well give it a try.
So, for the entire day, Norton slashed himself with the great sword, chopped off his own fingers, burned his fingers with fire, carved a cross out of wood to press against his face...
He tried every method he could think of, except for stabbing a wooden stake through his heart or using silver to cut himself—he tested everything else.
In the end, he arrived at a result that thrilled him immensely.His body seemed truly impervious to all physical damage, even fire burns; severed fingers could regenerate. Throughout the entire process, he felt no pain whatsoever.
He even tried twisting his own spine, yet his upper and lower body didn't lose control as a result.
This suggested he might no longer be a vertebrate, or perhaps he no longer needed that system of neurons and electrical signals to control his body.
His body seemed to operate entirely on its own terms.
Only when he placed the cross on his forehead did he feel a slight sense of suppression, as if something was weighing down on his head.
He couldn't tell whether it was just the weight of the wood or if the cross actually had an effect.
But regardless, these discoveries filled him with immense joy.
This meant he wasn't as fragile as werewolves, who could be taken down by a single iron hook piercing their bodies.
He, Norton, was much sturdier and more resilient, giving him greater confidence when facing Church Knights.
However, it was still best to avoid direct confrontation with the Church. The fact that the Church had existed for so long, forcing various monsters to hide in the wilderness, clearly indicated they had their own methods.
Such as so-called holy water, the Bible, or consecrated crosses, for example.
He might not be able to withstand such magical attacks.
So, it was better for him to remain cautious.
Norton decided to venture out tomorrow, at the very least to scout and gather information about the surrounding Church activities.
He needed to understand the world's situation, to see how vast the Papal States' territory was, and whether there were other countries without the Church's presence where he could survive.
Having been confined for twenty years, Norton had no access to such information before; now he was completely in the dark and desperately needed to fill in the gaps.
The fourth day.
Norton finally stepped outside.
After wandering around for half an hour, he grew afraid of getting lost again and decided not to go out today. Instead, he would start by sketching a rough map of the surroundings to ensure he could find his way back if he ventured farther.
Mapping took too long, so on the fifth and sixth days, he continued lingering around, confirming the surrounding scenery, attempting to return from longer distances, and using gathered stones to build a rough terrain model inside the cave.
This continued until the seventh day.
Norton finally completed the terrain model of the surroundings. Standing satisfied in the pitch-black cave, he admired the pile of stones he had built, which resembled a rocky grave mound.
This was his terrain model—though it looked crude and only made sense to him, it at least added a touch of his own presence to the cave.
But once traces of his activity became apparent, he realized there were many other aspects he had overlooked.
For instance, he, Norton, the future vampire progenitor and one of the transmigrators, lived in a place that was far too shabby!
This seriously undermined his dignity.
As a bona fide vampire, Norton felt he should at least have a coffin, right?
Another important point was that he hadn't consumed blood for several days, yet he didn't feel the slightest hunger, which was quite abnormal.
Could it be that vampires could survive without feeding?
Wouldn't that be too broken? A perpetual being?
Norton thought he could test his hunger threshold while using this time to make a coffin for sleeping.
As a vampire, how could he not have his own coffin?
As for revenge against the Church? Or scouting the Church's movements?
Maybe he should wait a bit longer—after all, he wasn't in a hurry.
The eighth day.
Norton took up the great sword and went out to chop wood.
It was worth noting that even forests near the city still harbored monsters.
While chopping wood, he heard a cry he had never heard before.
When he looked up, he saw a terrifying giant bird flying overhead!
Damn it, it was hard to even call it a bird because it had a human face. Its overall size resembled the griffins described in his previous life, but its limbs were more like those of a super-sized eagle.
It was probably the human-faced bird he had read about in Church books.
The creature was clutching a dead cow in its claws, flying toward the depths of the forest.
Norton was too terrified to even breathe, but for some reason, the terrifying human-faced bird still locked onto him.
It immediately dropped the cow from its claws and dove straight toward Norton.
Fortunately, Norton was chopping wood near the pond, so he jumped into the water just in time. Otherwise, he would have been snatched by that terrifying human-faced bird and turned into a tart.
The tenth day.
The presence of that human-faced bird made Norton too afraid to go outside. He hid silently in the dark cave, not daring to make a sound.
For now, the cave was the only safe place for him.
However, it seemed as though God was specifically targeting him. Just two days after Norton began silently hiding in the cave, he heard a strange sound coming through the rocks.
It sounded like the tapping of a woodpecker locating insects inside a tree hollow, except now the sound was targeting not a tree hollow but a cave.
It seemed some terrifying creature outside the cave was using vibration frequencies to determine whether any living beings were inside.
"This is too terrifying! This is no place for humans! If I had known, I would have stayed in the city!" Norton's face turned green with fear.
He anxiously slipped into the water to avoid the frequencies caused by the vibrations, preventing the tapping creature outside from detecting his presence.
Fortunately, the tapping lasted only a few hours.
The thirty-eighth day.
After hiding in the cave for a full month, Norton finally attempted to go outside again.
There was no other choice—he couldn't sleep even if he tried. It was said that vampires could sleep for thousands of years to hibernate, but Norton found he didn't possess any dormant hibernation ability.
After one sleep, he couldn't feel sleepy for a week. This endless waiting in the pitch-black cave, unable to sleep, was even more terrifying than being imprisoned in the Church.
It was so boring it could drive a person insane! At least in the Church, there were daily tasks to do. In this dark cave, aside from fiddling with the stones he had gathered for his terrain model, he had nothing else to do.
That Norton could endure this long was largely due to the mental fortitude he had developed during his twenty years of imprisonment.
But now, he truly couldn't take it anymore.
Norton carefully put on his steel armor and picked up the great sword. Using the weight of the armor to sink himself in the water, he observed the outside environment through the pond, ensuring he wouldn't be caught off guard if there was an ambush.
It was worth noting that he still didn't feel hungry. Moreover, compared to a month ago, he could sense some slight growth in his body.
It was very faint, but it wasn't an illusion.
Could it be that vampires didn't need to consume blood and could gradually grow simply through the passage of time?
Norton remembered that in some works from his previous life, vampires had such settings—they would naturally grow stronger over time, which was why some older vampires would hibernate for centuries.
But he couldn't hibernate!
Still, this somewhat eased Norton's urgency about needing to grow by consuming blood.
If he could grow without drinking blood, then perhaps blood consumption was just an addiction for vampires, like how wizards had their vices?
Norton couldn't be sure; he could only experiment to determine the cause of his growth.
After confirming that the giant bird was nowhere near the pond, Norton finally emerged from the water again.
A faint rotten smell in the air caught his attention, and it seemed very close, giving him a bad premonition.
There, hanging from a distant tree branch, was the half-rotted corpse of the terrifying giant bird that had tried to hunt him a month ago!
Holy shit!
Norton was utterly stunned. He now felt that the forest wasn't a good place for him—it might be better to survive in the city instead!
At least in his twenty years in the Church, he had never encountered such terrifying things.
Seeing the monstrous bird's corpse reminded him of that terrifying tapping sound.
Recalling the location of the tapping, Norton cautiously climbed a low earthen slope.
Then, right where it aligned with the top of the cave, he saw the ground riddled with slender, deep holes.
These holes were clearly deliberately drilled, and judging by their shape, they were likely made by a creature with a three-meter-long, woodpecker-like beak.
Norton lost all interest in making a coffin. Disheartened, he returned to his cave.
He had thought becoming a vampire made him invincible, but it turned out he was still at the very bottom of the pyramid.
How did the Church manage to keep the cities so well-maintained? Could it be that God truly protected humans?
But regardless, for the first time, Norton felt that living in the city might be better.
Even though he still couldn't be exposed to sunlight and had to constantly be wary of the Church, at least he knew who his opponents were and how to avoid them. Unlike in this forest, where danger could appear at any moment without warning.
The fortieth day.
After hiding in the cave for two more days, Norton finally went out again.
He felt he needed to seal the cave entrance to prevent anything outside from attacking him.
Besides, he should make a coffin—after all, as a vampire, he needed some sense of ritual.
The forty-first day.
It rained. Norton dragged the wood into the cave and started hollowing out a coffin inside.
The forty-second day.
The rain still hadn't stopped, and the water level in the connected pond seemed to have risen slightly.
Afraid that the rainwater might flood his cave, Norton went outside and dug a trench by the pond so that once the water reached a certain level, it would drain out, preventing the internal pond from rising further.
...
The forty-seventh day.
After days of effort, Norton finally finished making his coffin and gathered enough stones to block the cave entrance.
But he still felt no hunger in his stomach.
This felt very strange, so he decided to continue making other furniture to test how long he could endure without feeding.
The forty-eighth day.
Norton used the great sword to chop some branches and made two chairs out of branches and vines.
This was the first time in twenty years since transmigrating that Norton had chairs of his own.
So he sat on them, successfully taking flight into memories of the past, easing his tense mood.
The fiftieth day.
Norton still wasn't hungry, and his flights of fancy continued.
He was puzzled about where all this energy came from. Logically, blood had the lowest nutritional content.
For example, vampire bats needed to feed continuously throughout the night to sustain themselves, yet he couldn't possibly have consumed just one clay pot of blood and sustained himself for an entire month!
Could it be that vampires were truly perpetual beings, as he had imagined?
The cave now had furniture that looked quite decent.
There were handmade chairs, a wooden coffin, a slightly crooked wooden table, and a wooden frame for storing things.
There was also a wooden board to block the front cave entrance, a stone calendar for tracking time, and a hand-polished stone wine cup.
Plus, a cloak-like garment woven from leaves and vines.
In Norton's view, this thing was incredibly cool. It could serve as a mattress when sleeping in the coffin and be worn as a cloak when going outside. He thought it was unbelievably stylish.
Norton felt very pleased with his efforts over this period and had grown somewhat enamored with this wilderness survival life.
The fifty-first day.
An uninvited guest arrived outside the cave.
It was a small bat, likely a vampire bat.
He had no idea how this little guy had found this place. Was it because vampires and vampire bats were a perfect match?
Norton wanted to drive away the little creature—bat droppings were too smelly, and if their numbers increased, he couldn't imagine the stench in his cave.
"..."
Blood-sharing was a mutualistic behavior among vampire bats. Because blood had extremely low nutritional value, if a vampire bat didn't feed within forty-eight hours, it would become too weak to hunt and would starve to death. So vampire bats would share blood with hungry members of their species, and this behavior occurred more frequently among relatives and "friends."
So, why was this vampire bat asking him for blood?
Could it be that on a physiological level, he, Norton, was recognized as one of their own? Or even a close relative?
Norton's initial intention to drive away the creature wavered.
What if it turned into a little loli with demon wings... What if he, Norton, awakened the ability to control bats?