Chapter 16: Chapter 15: A Rogue gets a surprising gift.

Looking for a discreet way out of the ballroom, Nicole spotted a group of young women chatting as they moved out of the ballroom towards a powder room. Quickly she blended in with them, the guards didn't give her another look as she passed. When they reached the powder room, Nicole slipped down the hallway and was prepared to start searching the mansion, when another blue screen popped up.

 

Closing the window, Nicole began to search the east wing of the Mansion. Whenever a servant or guard passed her, she stopped what she was doing. They would pass her, as if they didn't even see. 

Seeing the skill work, Nicole felt better about sneaking about. Most of the doors down the hall were locked, but she quickly picked them. Some of the rooms looked as if no one had stepped in for decades and others were more lived in.

Finding the study for the head of the estate, she took a closer look inside. On the far wall was a painting overhanging a garrish looking fireplace. What caught her eye was that it was a painting of a woman standing next to a young boy. 

The woman looked like Elizabeth Writhing. The style of the painting looked a few hundred years old. Moving on she checked the rest of the room and not finding anything, she quickly checked the desk.

Dumping anything that looked important into her inventory, she was feeling around in one of the drawers when she felt something strange. Pushing it, Nicole was startled when the nearby bookshelf swung open revealing a hidden door. Silently opening it, she stepped through into a small room.

In the center of the room was a pedestal on which stood a statuette. It was a woman with a bulging belly obviously pregnant, and carried a child who was suckling on one of her breasts. It seemed to be carved out of Aquamarine, which was startling in how beautiful it looked.

Surrounding the pedestal was a circular diagram carved into the floor, painted red with still wet blood and glowing a sickly color of corruption. Several dead malformed babies were placed at spots within this diagram. A man was chanting madly, he was nude and was slicing his skin and letting the blood trickle down into the diagram. He ignored Nicole as she walked closer to him.

Really disturbed by this, Nicole carefully pulled out a knife. She examined the man, and found he was just a normal man which infuriated her. Only monsters should be capable of things like this.

Reaching out she grabbed the man's head and pulled it back and ran her blade across his throat. He let out a wet gurgle and reached up trying to grab his neck but he collapsed and started to twitch, dying with his face on the floor.

Finding the man's clothes nearby, she wiped her blade on them. Putting it away she stepped up to the pedestal and lifted up the Statuette. It was heavy, so she quickly put it into her inventory. When she did so, the circle dimmed and went dark. A strange feeling went through her and a screen popped up.

Nicole closed the window with a frown. She was definitely not ready to be a parent, she would have to take care in the future. Taking a look at the man, she found he had passed away, giving the body a last kick she left. Leaving the room she closed the bookcase to make sure nothing seemed off to any passerbyers and went back into the hallway.

Guessing the other Statuette on this floor would be in the opposite wing, she decided to make her way to the second floor. Continuing down the hallway she finally found a set of servants stairs that led up. 

Taking them carefully she found herself in a disused hallway. Unlike the hallway downstairs, the Mana lights here were off color, looking like they hadn't been replaced in decades. They flicked, producing an orange color that made the hallway look ill.

Checking the rooms along the hallway, it looked as if most of them were storage of old furniture covered in sheets, and dust. Opening another that looked the same, Nicole was about to move on, when she noticed the dust on some of the furniture in the back looked disturbed. Taking a look, she found some of the furniture had been recently moved. Searching the back wall, she found a hidden door.

Looking for a switch, Nicole found it under a sconce nearby. The wall swung open and the sickly red glow of the room behind the door spilled out and the smell of burning things reached her nose. Stepping inside she saw where the smell of burning had come from. Several brazzers surrounded a pedestal, in them were piles of books being burned.

A similar carving was on the floor, and in front of the diagram, on his knees was another cultist. His eyes were gouged out and he was cursing at the statuette. Pulling out her blade she slit his throat without much trouble.

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Pushing him aside she made her way to the statuette. Taking a look at the statuette she saw it was made out of Lapis Lazuli, and depicted a man reading while sitting on a pile of books. Picking up the statuette she placed it into her inventory, and the strange feeling returned.

Scratching her head at the strange blessing, Nicole turned around and left closing the door behind her. Back in the hall she started heading towards the main part of the mansion. As she got closer, it looked more kept up compared to the previous area.

In the central part of the Mansion, she discovered a door that led to a balcony overlooking the Ballroom. It was covered with a black fabric, that allowed her to look out, but from the ground floor, could not be seen through. An odd way to spy down upon your guests, Nicole thought.

Taking a look at the party, she thought it looked like it was getting out of hand. Several people looked obviously drunk, and looked like they were about to fight. One of the noble women she had chatted with earlier was now dancing topless on a table with cheers coming from a crowd nearby.

Looking away she discovered a strange symbol carved into the wall of the side of the Balcony. Taking a closer look she realized it was part of a door lock. Using her skills she picked it and the door popped open. Stepping through she was assaulted by the smell of blood.

The room was large at least twenty feet across with a pool set in the middle. The pool was filled with blood and in the middle of the pool was a pedestal on which a statuette sat. At the far side of the room, hanging above a channel was a fleshy mass that every few seconds would squirt out blood into the channel carrying it to the pool.

Dancing without a care in the pool were three people, the pool came up to their mid shin and they were splashing the blood about. Each of them wore a cape made out of wolfskin with its head trailing in the blood. Taking a look at the three with examination Nicole found the two men were regular cultists, however it was the women who made her concerned.

Nicole was sure she couldn't take on a Vampire with just a knife. While they wouldn't notice Nicole as long as she wasn't really doing anything, If she tried to take that statuette, they would surely attack her. She needed some way to be able to damage the vampire, so she took a look at the system store. She only had four skill points so she couldn't afford much.

As Nicole wasn't a magic class all of the magic spells cost far more than she could afford, and she was running out of places to look when she finally checked under Utility skills. Most she had no use for, but the name of one caught her eye.

According to what she knew of Vampires, they should be vulnerable to sunlight, the question was, would this be really sunlight? At the very least she could use it to temporarily blind the Vampire allowing her to flee. Purchasing it, she made sure to close the door so no sounds of battle could make it out to the ballroom.

Nicole closed her eyes and felt the charging of the skill, she put in an extra 50 MP into the Spark, and when it released even with her eye's closed her world turned white from how bright it was. The Vampire started to scream in agony and Nicole heard a bunch of splashing. Using her hand to block the light as best she could she took a look.

The Vampire was rolling about on fire in the pool of blood trying to put herself out. Finally the fire overcame her health and she burst into a cloud of dust. The two humans were screaming and holding their eyes. The spark finally ended and left the room looking dark. Taking a moment to adjust Nicole pulled out her knife and pulled one of the cultists and jabbed her blade into his heart. Shoving him back into the pool she turned to the other cultist.

The cultist had regained some of his sight. Seeing Nicole he roared and charged her, Nicole dodged his wild swings, and cut his arms and body. Cursing he turned and tried to run to the door. Catching his cape she pulled him down to the floor and thrust the blade down into the cultists neck over and over again, until his head was almost cut off.

She headed to the fleshy organ, and unhooked it from where it was hanging. Nicole gingerly picked it up and quickly tossed it into her inventory not wanting to handle it anymore. Near the channel she found a wheel that was labeled drain opening. Turning it, she heard gurgling and watched as the blood started to drain. When it was mostly gone she crossed the pool to the pedestal.

The Statuette was made out of Moonstone and depicted a Wolf in midst of a howl. Picking it up she carefully put it into her inventory and soon felt that feeling come again and another screen popped up.

As she turned she noticed underneath the pool was a Mural that had the same carvings as the other rooms. On one side of the mural stood a woman with an army of what looked like the undead, and the other side was a woman who led an army of a wide collection of races. Yet the women looked identical to one another, feeling like she found something important she turned and left the room.

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