Becoming the Dark Lord

Luke was too stunned to speak. His body didn’t move, his voice didn’t work, and whatever thoughts tried to form in his head simply froze. It felt like his brain had crashed mid loading, leaving him there with his mouth half open, useless.

On the bed in front of him sat a woman. A breathtaking one. Her skin was pale, impossibly pale, yet soft and warm looking, like porcelain with life beneath it. Her hair spilled down her shoulders in long golden strands, silky and bright as molten gold.

And she was completely naked.

Her expression carried the softness of someone who had just woken up. She even let out a small yawn before focusing on him again. She seemed shy, hesitant, but then she crawled across the mattress with slow, unsure movements until she reached the edge. Her face tilted as she studied him, wearing the exact look of someone trying to solve a puzzle.

“Master Luke?” she asked, her voice pulling him violently back to reality.

“Ch… Charlie?” The word barely made it out, strangled by pure disbelief.

Was this really Charlie? His skeletal companion, the iron boned guardian who had followed him since the beginning?

“Yes. It’s me. Your Charlie…” she replied softly.

“Holy shit, Luke,” Artemis said, just as shocked. “What the hell just happened?”

Luke snapped to the system interface and opened Charlie’s profile, desperate for an explanation. It hit him immediately. The portrait icon, the little square that had always shown a skull, was gone. Replaced by the face of the woman sitting on his bed. And Charlie’s profile itself… had changed.

Name: Charlotte Vespertilio

Level: 50

Race: Vampire

Rank: E

Class: [Blood Death Knight (Lvl 60)]

2nd Class: [Black Ash Fighter (Lvl 60]

Title: [Servant of the Dark Lord]

Bloodline: [Bloodline of Vespertilio]

Health Points (HP): 5080/5080

Mana Points (MP): 4350/4350

Stamina: 4950/(4950)

Stats:

Strength: 911 (981)

Lethality: 401

Agility: 357

Dexterity: 187

Endurance: 455 (495)

Vitality: 508

Toughness: 485

Perception: 300

Intelligence: 435

Wisdom: 435

Intelligence: 196

Willpower: 402

Free Points: 0

Class Skills: [Basic Weapon Handling (Common)], [Heavy Strike (Common)], [Basic Spectral Charge (Rare)], [Crescent Slash (Uncommon)], [Whirlwind Strike (Uncommon)], [Spectral Chain (Rare)], [Spectral Barrier (Rare)], [Doomblade (Rare)], [Mark of Doom (Rare)], [Force Infusion (Rare)], [Doom Explosion (Rare)], [Spectral Soldier (Ultra-Rare)], [Blood Familiar I (Epic)]

Second Class Skills: [Advanced Hand-to-Hand (Uncommon)], [Steel Fist (Rare)], [Stunning Punch (Uncommon)], [Battle Roar (Uncommon)], [Concentrated Kick (Uncommon)], [Power Punch (Uncommon)], [Pugilist’s Leap (Uncommon)], [Muscle Reading (Uncommon)], [Movement Echo (Uncommon)], [Flame (Common)], [Flame Fist (Rare)], [Flame Aura (Rare)], [Basic Levitation (Ultra-Rare], [Berserker Ashen Flames I (Ultra-Rare)], [Twin Meteor Fists (Epic)]

Race Skills: [Demonic Servant Perception (Uncommon)], [Basic Bone Regeneration (Rare)], [Bone Endurance (Rare)], [Iron Bones (Ultra-Rare)]

Luke stared at the status window, stunned. One word caught him completely off guard: Vampire.

He read through her system notification history. Charlie had started the process to advance to Rank E, and by the end of it she had become undead, but something had happened. Her Vespertilio skill had activated once the requirements were met. Because she still had organs like a heart, brain, lungs, blood, and the full structure of a living body, the bloodline triggered and completely altered her biology. It resurrected her… and transformed her into a vampire.

“A vampire… she actually turned into a vampire,” he murmured, still trying to process it. Artemis was babbling nonsense in his mind out of sheer astonishment, but Luke’s attention was already on Charlie.

She stood there, frozen in place. Eyes. Nose. Mouth. Skin. Hair. Everything. She really had a body now. Not steel bones. Not a skeletal frame. Flesh. Warmth. Life.

He sat on the edge of the bed beside her. She watched him, and he noticed her nose twitching, inhaling his scent like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Charlie… is it really you? The same Charlie who’s been with me this whole time? Since the dungeon?” He needed to hear it.

She nodded, beaming.

“It’s me, Master Luke!” she announced, then launched herself at him with enough force to knock a grown man off his feet. She wrapped her arms around him in a crushing hug, glowing with pure, unfiltered joy.

There was no doubt left. That was Charlie.

“Master Luke, I’m alive!” she cheered, squeezing him so tightly he felt his ribs protest. She kept rubbing her cheek against his chest like a cat claiming territory, tears streaming down her face, not from sadness, but from overwhelming happiness. Her smile was one of the most beautiful he’d ever seen.

Her hands suddenly began roaming everywhere.

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“I can feel, Master Luke!” she exclaimed. Her fingers slid down his legs, then up to his face, grabbing his cheeks and squishing them with childlike fascination.

Then Charlie leaned in. She pressed the tip of her nose to his, then rested her forehead against his.

“Real touch, Master Luke!”

“Charlie…” he tried, but she cut him off again.

“And smell!” she added brightly. She buried her face into his neck, inhaling deeply as if trying to memorize his scent, then dragged her nose across his chest while hugging him even tighter, making delighted little noises.

He tried to sit up, holding her by the shoulders, but she was vibrating with so much joy she practically lifted him off the bed with her enthusiasm.

“Master Luke, my wish came true!” she shouted, then hugged him again, with enough passion to topple him backward.

“Charlie!” he tried, muffled. “My face is getting crushed against your…”

“BOOBS!” Artemis hollered. “Big boobs! Beautiful boobs! Perfect boobs!”

Charlie didn’t care. She kept hugging him, rubbing her face against him like she was trying to make up for every lost moment of touch since the day they met. The force of her embrace sent them both tumbling, and Luke realized he was now trapped not only by her arms but also by her legs. She had him locked in a complete, inescapable wrap.

“Master Luke, I’m so happy! I feel like I’m going to explode!” she cried, clinging to him with desperate joy.

“Oh gods! Perfect boobs!” Artemis wailed. “Huge, glorious, magnificent!”

Luke had no idea what to do. He was trapped in Charlie’s absurdly enthusiastic hug while she rubbed herself against him like an overexcited cat. He figured this had to feel completely new to her, having touch, having real skin, being able to feel something and be felt back.

“Charlie, you’re naked,” he said.

“I don’t mind, Master Luke,” she answered, delighted.

But he… very much minded. The way she was moving, sliding against him, wrapping her leg around him, all that friction definitely wasn’t something he could control, Rank E or not.

He shot upright, hands on her shoulders, trying desperately to keep this explosion of affection contained. The problem was… she was too damn cute. Too happy. Too soft. Every time she pressed her cheek against his chest, every time she cuddled closer, he lost the skill to push her away.

So he gave her what she wanted. He hugged her back and stroked her hair.

“Please keep going, Master Luke. Don’t stop,” she murmured, glowing with joy.

“O okay…” he muttered weakly. “Just… please don’t move around too much in my lap.”

It was the only strategy he had to prevent things from escalating further, especially while he was still trying to process the fact that Charlie now had a flesh and blood body. She looked up at him, found his eyes, and smiled.

He swallowed hard. For some reason, that smile radiated pure, weaponized cuteness.

“Master Luke, I want to stay like this with you forever,” she said as she wrapped herself around him again.

He felt invisible arrows shooting straight through his soul. Any remaining willpower to stop her dissolved on the spot.

“Charlie,” Artemis said. “Holy crap. I can’t believe this. You have a body now, and a voice, and who knows what else. Wow.”

“I’m so happy,” Charlie said, nuzzling his chest. “I can hug and smell Master Luke for real now.”

Luke blinked, gently patting her head. Out of all the things she could’ve wanted to do with her new body, hugging and smelling him being top priority was… not what he expected.

Eventually, after what felt like ages of Charlie clinging to him like a firefighter sliding down a pole, he managed to peel her off. He pulled a sheet over her, though it took effort; every time he leaned close, she pounced again, wrapping around him like he was some kind of hug magnet.

After a small wrestling match made entirely of affection, he finally earned a moment of peace. She was curled against his side now, not on top of him doing highly questionable wiggle motions, which he counted as a personal victory. He kept one hand gently stroking her hair while she held onto his arm.

“I’m sorry, Charlie,” he said once he fully understood her story.

She had begun evolving the moment he’d left the room to talk to the others. When he returned, he’d pulled her into his soul without giving her a chance to explain anything. Inside his soul, now that he’d reached Rank E, she had far more awareness. The first thing she wanted after gaining a body was to check if she really had one. She removed all her equipment trying to see herself, but couldn’t. She also didn’t know how to speak yet, physically, so she couldn’t communicate with him the way Angie could.

So when Luke summoned her out of his soul… she materialized completely naked and landed right on top of him.

He fixed the sheet over her again when it slid down her shoulders.

“Wow, Charlie. You’ve got, like… a seriously huge pair of boobs,” Artemis chimed in. “You and the angel have different models, you know? The angel’s got these perfectly round, medium sized, mathematically flawless ones, like sculpted perfection. But you, girl, you came into the game with the full package. You’ve got melons and—”

Luke crushed the pendant between his fingers before Artemis could get any further down that disastrous road.

“Charlie, are you alright? Does anything still hurt?” he asked.

“I’m fine, Master Luke. The pain from the evolution is gone,” she said, still clinging to him like she’d never let go.

“You don’t have to call me Master Luke. Just Luke is fine.”

She lifted her head, meeting his eyes with surprising seriousness. “But to me, you’ve always been Master Luke.”

Then her face flushed, a deep, vivid red that spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. She looked away, stammering. “I also… always called you m-my… m-my husband.”

“Husband?”

Before he could process that, the system flooded his vision.

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

[Charlotte Vespertilio is awakening a Vampire Race Skill…]

The notifications kept coming, relentless, stacked, overwhelming. The number of skills she was awakening… was absurd.