It’s not every day you encounter some powerful blood. Some of it allows you quite a limited amount of time to chase after challenging encounters with ease. While other types allow you to gain knowledge forever that far outlasts the taste of it.

After a while, I'd get used to the screaming and fleeing from the smell, let alone the sight of me. After all, humans have feared vampires for quite some time. It turns out there are some out there so shady they still accept my kind of business.

While out on one of my nighttime roams, I stumbled upon a merchant camp. These individuals were far too powerful for me to do anything to them. Unlike the usually let's go hunt that vampire down mentality that I'd expect from humans that would have no issues slaying me. They welcomed me into their camp instead.

To say these were some shady folks is an understatement. While the stock of items they had was questionable at their morals in wanting to do business with a vampire. I’ll admit they had some things, like recipes for crafting that I might not be able to acquire myself. Just for the price of some copper coins that are otherwise useless to me. They are willing to sell to me.

As one might expect, all sales are final. It was also rather clear that any goods they were selling were liberated from their former owners. Some of those owners I could still smell as the blood had yet to try. At the very least, their goods were fresh.

While those merchants would allow me to gain some power from their wares, once I could afford to buy them. I needed a much quicker and shorter-term solution to gain some power. A situation ended up revealing itself one evening as I was walking through the woods. I spotted Alpha The White Wilf.

I knew something was different about that wolf with the gaze it gave back onto me. It had some kind of power, and by consuming its blood, I would gain in. We did a bit of a dance back and forth in the clearing, and it was sleeping. On one side was my sword, and on the other its teeth.

Clearly, I would not be here today to tell such a tale if I had lost. After my lips touched its blood, I gained the ability to turn into a wolf myself. This would allow me to run quicker through the woods and even howl at the moon if I wanted.

My encampment slowly grew even more over time. I soon had a furnace, crafting bench, and even some places to store all the loot I was pillaging from the local area. With the ability to make copper items, I'd start to craft some needed upgrades.

By now, I was hoping to have built something to do my crafting indoors. Dealing with the sun during the day was still a huge issue. Things were slowly coming along. I somewhat preferred putting resources into better gear than making a small hut to live out of. As if that showed more signs of progression than anything else. Later on, I'd realize this slowed down my progression, not speed things up.

While I'd still find things lurking in my local woods that I still had to run from. I was starting to become the thing that killed in the cloak of darkness, with very few predators remaining. It was clear at some point I'd have to start adventuring further to find new materials to further my goals of taking over the world.

Occasionally, I'd run into some locals who still thought they could give me the upper hand. Of all places, a graveyard attempted to defeat me with swarms of skeletons and other types of undead. This only fueled my rage and would cause me to strike back tenfold in kind for their attempts to stand in my way.

At one point, I found almost the purest of blood you could get. It was a rogue who had 99% quality blood. It almost felt like a shame to kill that rogue and drink his blood. If only I had unlocked an ability to have kept that rogue around forever and used him as a tap like a bar. While much later, such things would become possible. I was still lacking in the research and technology department to pull off such things. At the very least, I got to enjoy some rather powerful blood for a short time.

With that powerful blood, I did end up putting it to some good use. I took down Rufus the Foreman. Along with Keely, The Frost Archer. While drinking their blood did not turn me into some kind of new creature. I gained knowledge such as how to make a crossbow and tan leather, among other things.

I am somewhat sad that fighting such powerful foes had quite a detrimental effect on how much blood I had remaining before I'd have to feed again. With how quickly I got to experience so much more powerful blood than I should have gotten. I was back yet again to drinking just about any quality of blood I could find. The things a vampire is willing to do for survival.

At least it was not a waste. I'd soon be crafting some new gear from those experiences. Along with seeing some rather odd stuff I'd never need. As in these lands, I did not have other vampires as thirsty as myself to deal with. The ones that were already in these lands had been around for decades and were as powerful as they could ever become.

With what remains of the powerful blood I had acquired. I went on a bit of an adventure west to a different region. I was hoping to find some better resources and perhaps more challenging encounters as well.

For the most part, it was more of the same. I did end up finding a copper mine and some other locations as well. Such a place will be quite useful for knowing about in the future. I ended up going inside and mining a bit. I was, however, on quite borrowed time. So while I wanted as much copper as I could haul back, I had to ignore my desires to lust over further copper and move on.

Final Thoughts

Like all good things, it was time to accept I was almost out of blood again. I’d seen be drinking some quite a low quality of just 18% blood. I’ll admit I did not take a little too long succumbing to my thirst once again. A couple of moments later, I'd find a less questionable supply of some blood. I was then jumping around with my fangs out like I was crawling up the quality of blood later. I ended up settling in at around 51% quality of blood. That I felt would be more than enough for just your basic farming runs, of which I had many more to do before daylight once again.

Information

Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about V Rising (Tracking link that takes you to the game's Steam page. I receive no commissions on sales. It’s simply a request to be used by the game publisher).

Disclosure: A review copy of the game was received for free.