Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 49: Victoria’s Capabilities

The next morning, Class 5 was unusually active with energy and chatter.

All the students were already inside the classroom, muttering amongst themselves in small groups and glancing repeatedly at two empty seats.

Renji sat in the back of the classroom near the window, and despite his new girlfriend Kisawa sitting beside him and occasionally trying to make conversation, he couldn’t help but think constantly about Kōya.

’What the hell actually happened back there in that warehouse...? And how’s he feeling right now?’ Renji couldn’t stop wondering, his mind replaying the brutal fight and everything that followed.

He hadn’t been able to visit Kōya even once since they’d been rescued, because the Academy had immediately made him go through several sessions of compulsory trauma counseling and psychological evaluation but he was genuinely worried about his best friend.

That fight against Tetsu had been absolutely brutal to witness, and Kōya had nearly died from his injuries. However, Kōya still didn’t come to class even as time passed.

The morning bell rang loudly throughout the building, signaling the official start of the school day.

With that sound, Kisawa gave Renji a small kiss on the cheek and left to return to her own Class 4 classroom, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

He looked over at Kōya’s empty seat once more with a heavy sigh and just then, Professor Saki stepped into the classroom with her usual bright, cheerful smile plastered across her face.

"Hey everyone~!" she waved enthusiastically as she walked up to the podium at the front. "I hope all of you slept properly last night and are ready for another exciting day of learning~!"

However, before she could continue her greeting, Misora suddenly raised her hand high in the air.

This immediately alarmed everyone in the class... Misora rarely asked questions during homeroom, and her serious expression made it clear something important was on her mind.

Saki noticed and nodded, giving her permission to speak.

"Go ahead, Misora-chan."

Misora stood up formally from her seat and looked directly at Saki with barely concealed concern.

"If I may ask, Saki-sensei... what happened to Kōya-kun? I went to visit him at the infirmary yesterday evening, and the nurse told me he had already left. Where is he?"

The other students looked at Misora in alarm and surprise. Since when had Kōya been discharged from the infirmary? Nobody had heard anything about this.

"Oh right, that’s a good question! Kōya-kun has officially taken a two-day leave of absence from ALI Academy for personal recovery reasons," Saki explained, her smile becoming slightly more sympathetic. "And the school administration has granted him this time off due to the severity of the kidnapping incident and his injuries. Now, I’m absolutely sure that traumatic experience has taught everyone here a very valuable lesson about the reality of this profession... anything can happen on a mission, even ones classified as low-risk. Let’s all hope that Kōya-kun recovers fully both physically and mentally, and comes back to school ready to learn."

She clapped her hands together.

"Now then, let’s begin today’s lesson on mana theory!"

...

Kōya stood alone atop a tall, abandoned building deep in the Outer Zone, looking out at the desolate horizon. The wind whipped through his hair, and the distant sounds of monsters echoing through empty streets filled the air.

"Can you please tell me why exactly we’re all the way out here in this dangerous wasteland instead of resting in the comfort of a luxurious bed back at the Academy?" Victoria asked from her perch on his shoulder in bat form, her small voice carrying clear annoyance.

"To train, of course," Kōya said simply, then focused his mind and opened his Skill tree interface.

The world around him seemed to darken slightly as the familiar Skill tree materialized in his vision, glowing softly with various options and information.

Victoria couldn’t see any of it... this was purely a mental interface only he could access. After the System had finally come back online yesterday following its lengthy update, he’d realized with pleasant surprise that he had gained quite a few new skills and improvements during his captivity.

The System displayed his new acquisitions:

「Common Skill: Poison Resistance (E)」

「Common Skill: Pain Tolerance (E)」

「Unique Skill: Sensory (C) → (B)」

「Unique Ability: Fighting Spirit」

「Trait: Fate」

His nightmarish days of captivity and the brutal fight that followed hadn’t been completely for nothing... he had managed to acquire several new skills and rank up an existing one through that suffering.

It turned out that being forced to endure extreme conditions like that had actually been genuinely beneficial for his growth, even if he’d never want to repeat the experience.

First of all, he now possessed the ability to resist poisons to a certain degree. However, it was currently only effective against low-ranked poisons since the skill itself was only E-rank.

He’d need to expose himself to progressively stronger poisons to rank it up further, which wasn’t exactly an appealing training method.

He had also learned an interesting fact from the System’s updated information: a skill became classified as "Unique" once it reached C-rank which made them totally stronger then their originals.

Next was his Pain Tolerance skill, which gave him the ability to resist and push through certain levels of pain that would normally incapacitate someone. This meant if he was injured in battle, he could potentially ignore the pain signals and continue fighting effectively instead of being disabled by agony.

What followed next was the fact that his Sensory skill had ranked up from C to B, which honestly wasn’t surprising at all.

He had been using Sensory almost constantly for three straight days while imprisoned, forcing himself to maintain it even in his exhausted state, and he’d gotten significantly more proficient at perceiving his surroundings through it but what was most intriguing and mysterious was this new Fighting Spirit ability.

Kōya raised his right hand experimentally, and that strange energy from before... the one he’d used to launch Tetsu across the arena began gathering there visibly.

It manifested as a pulsing glow around his hand that felt fundamentally different from mana. It was something else entirely, though he could only generate and use it in small bursts for now but in terms of raw destructive power output, it was significantly more powerful than an equivalent amount of mana.

And interestingly, it could also be directly imbued into weapons themselves to enhance their cutting or striking power.

He’d need to experiment more to understand its full capabilities and limitations and last but certainly not least, there was this new trait the System had given him called "Fate."

When he’d first read the description, he’d actually laughed bitterly.

It was essentially a trait that actively drew chaos, danger, and ridiculous situations directly to him.

「Trait: Fate」

「Fate itself has taken interest in your growth and wants to make you stronger, so it will consistently throw you into the most absurd and dangerous situations possible to accelerate your development」

Which also meant, in practical terms, that Fate was actively trying to kill him through escalating challenges. It didn’t sound nice at all when phrased that way.

Kōya let out a heavy sigh.

’At least I found out some important limitations yesterday,’ he thought. ’I can’t actually use FP to artificially rank up skills that I’ve already purchased or naturally acquired. And there’s also apparently a monthly limit on how many skills or items I can buy from the Shop.’

That revelation had come directly from HeroGod yesterday when he’d asked about optimization strategies. She had explained that the limitation was deliberately implemented to prevent reincarnators from becoming overly reliant on the System as a crutch instead of developing their own abilities naturally.

So unknowingly, during his earlier spending spree, he had almost hit the monthly purchase limit for skills and items from the Shop.

’Whatever...’ he thought with resignation. ’I don’t really need to buy anything else right now anyway. I have enough skills to work with... I just need to get better at using them.’

"Are you even listening to me?" the bat asked with clear irritation as she looked at him with those tiny crimson eyes. "There are monsters crawling around everywhere down there... I won’t be able to protect you from this many if they all attack at once."

"Who said anything about you protecting me?" Kōya raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of which... I still don’t actually know your full capabilities yet. Show them to me properly."

The bat sighed with what sounded like resignation.

She hovered off Kōya’s shoulder and floated down to the ground next to him, then began transforming back into her human form.

Her small bat body expanded and shifted, and within seconds Victoria stood before him in her full human form.

She was now wearing an elegant black dress that perfectly fit all of her curves and highlighted her pale skin beautifully.

Kōya had purchased it for her yesterday using some of his remaining crowns, since she couldn’t exactly walk around the Academy or city completely naked. It seemed that even if she wore clothes in human form, it didn’t negatively affect her bat transformation ability... the clothes simply disappeared and reappeared as needed through some kind of magic.

"Thanks to you giving me so much of your blood..." Victoria said as she stood up straight and looked at him with genuine gratitude. "I’ve actually regained a significant portion of my original power. Not all of it, but enough to be useful in combat."

"Where exactly is your crest located?" Kōya asked, genuinely curious. Crests usually manifested somewhere on the face as lines... that was the standard for this world.

There were supposedly rare cases where they appeared elsewhere on the body, but he’d never personally seen one.

Victoria reached down and raised her dress slightly, revealing her smooth pale thighs.

A blue crest in the distinctive shape of a perfect circle was visible on her upper right thigh, glowing faintly.

Kōya blinked in surprise... he had never seen anything even remotely like that before in this world. Crests were always supposed to manifest as straight lines across the face, not circular shapes on other body parts.

"I’m classified as what was called a Blue-circle back in my time," Victoria explained, noticing his confusion. "During my era, crests didn’t only exist in the form of lines but also in various geometric shapes as well... circles, triangles, hexagons, and other patterns. Line crests like yours were certainly powerful in their own right, but shaped crests were generally considered to be easily more powerful than equivalent-ranked line crests in terms of raw mana output and control."

She smiled with clear pride.

"Which means you could accurately refer to me as a genuine prodigy of mana manipulation, even among vampire nobility."

Kōya placed a hand on his chin, genuinely confused about her origins now. The manga had never mentioned anything about shaped crests or multiple species existing.

"Hold on... describe your world for me in more detail," he said. "What was it actually like when you were sealed?"

"Well, let me think..." Victoria paused, organizing her memories. "The Apocalypse had descended upon the world roughly three hundred years ago from my perspective, and I was born during the later period of that era. During that time, the world was divided into four major territories... the Human Citadel, the Elven Citadel, the Vampire Citadel, and the Beast-kin Citadel. Each species had their own fortified territory and governing structure. However, I genuinely don’t know what catastrophic event happened that caused my Father to make the desperate decision to seal me away in magical stasis, though I know with certainty that he saved my life by doing so."

Kōya’s mind was racing.

"And who was the supreme leader of this Human Citadel you mentioned?" he asked carefully.

He was genuinely surprised that other sentient species had apparently existed... there was absolutely no mention of elves, beast-kin, or vampires existing in the manga at all.

Everything had been exclusively human.

"It was some kind of supreme ruler with absolute authority called the White King," Victoria replied simply.

Upon hearing that specific name, Kōya really didn’t know what to think anymore. It had to be a coincidence, right? Two different people with the same title in different eras?

But then again, given everything else he’d learned about this world’s mysteries, he wouldn’t second-guess anything at this point.

Suddenly, text appeared in his vision.

「You have begun to suspect the true nature of this world」

「Host has received 1 FP as a reward for independent critical thinking」

’I get 1 FP just for suspecting something about the world? What the hell is that about?’ Kōya thought with confusion.

However, the System didn’t provide any further explanation or clarification.

"Anyway, enough about ancient history for now," Kōya said, refocusing on the present. "I’m genuinely curious to see your actual combat skills and what specific ways you can assist me in battle going forward."

Victoria bowed her head slightly in acknowledgment.

"I’m afraid that I lost a tremendous amount of power during my centuries of magical sealing," she admitted honestly. "I will need a great deal of high-quality mana cores and regular infusions of your blood to fully recharge my reserves to anything approaching my original strength. However, I can currently perform two specific spells reliably."

"Let’s see them demonstrated then," Kōya said.

Victoria raised her pale, beautiful hand gracefully and pointed it toward a massive Stoneback Gnawler in the distance... a hulking monster easily three meters tall with thick, rocky hide.

"My first spell is called Blood Convergence..." she said as her palm began emitting a distinctive reddish glow.

Kōya could actually see the blood vessels in her exposed arm suddenly become more prominent and visible as blood pumped through them at an accelerated rate.

"It allows me to pump blood through my entire circulatory system at a significantly advanced rate compared to normal," Victoria explained. "Vampire blood vessels have the unique property of automatically multiplying and reinforcing themselves when subjected to high pressure, so as long as I regularly receive fresh blood from you, I can maintain maximum blood volume indefinitely until I become hungry again."

"And what does this Blood Convergence spell actually do in combat?" Kōya asked. "You’re just using it to gather and circulate blood faster, right?"

"Yes, exactly. I can use the increased blood pressure and flow to make myself temporarily faster and much stronger physically by flooding my muscles with oxygenated blood," Victoria explained. "But it’s primarily used as a necessary preparation step for my actual offensive spell."

Her hand began glowing even brighter with concentrated red energy.

"Blood Burst."

The moment she uttered those words, a devastating beam of compressed blood energy shot through the air.

It created its own small shockwave as it tore through the atmosphere at incredible speed.

The beam impacted the Stoneback Gnawler’s head directly from above, entering through the top of its rocky skull and exiting cleanly through the bottom of its body.

The massive monster collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud that Kōya could feel even from this distance. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

It had died completely and instantly without even a sound.

Victoria turned back to him with a satisfied smile on her beautiful face.

"Nice, right?" she asked, clearly proud of the demonstration.

However, Kōya wasn’t looking at her at all. Instead, he was staring intently at the destruction she’d caused in the distance.

The blood had been compressed so intensely that even the incredibly thick, rock-like skin of the Stoneback Gnawler... which could normally deflect blade strikes had stood absolutely no chance against it.

The beam had punched through like the monster was made of paper. She was genuinely a living weapon.

’And she said she’s only recovered part of her power,’ Kōya thought with growing appreciation. ’With access to her other spells once she’s fully recharged... she’ll be a proper powerhouse combatant.’

Now he could genuinely believe she was vampire royalty. It also made him extremely glad that she had decided to become his Blood Partner permanently.

Now she literally couldn’t survive without him, which meant he could utilize her considerable powers as much as he needed without worrying about betrayal or abandonment.

Perfect.

"Really nice work," Kōya said genuinely.

A sword suddenly materialized in his hand from his storage ring... he had purchased a mid-quality blade yesterday for a substantial amount of crowns.

It had cost him roughly 20,000 crowns give or take, but it was far stronger and more durable than the standard Academy-issued training weapons, and this was what he would be using for actual combat going forward.

"Alright, here’s the plan," he said. "We’ll both hunt monsters independently and gather up their corpses as well as extracting their mana cores. You can consume a reasonable number of cores to recharge yourself and regain more of your power, but we should still have enough remaining cores to trade over at KCAC for crowns and supplies."

There was absolutely no way they would stay out here in the Outer Zone for two full days and return with no income to show for it. That would be a complete waste of valuable time and resources.

"I understand completely. I’ll begin my own hunting now," Victoria said while reverting smoothly back to her compact bat form.

Just as she was about to fly off into the distance, Kōya called her back.

"Wait a second."

"Huh?"

He reached out and gently patted her small bat head with his hand, despite the awkwardness of the gesture.

"Be safe out there," he said simply.

Then without waiting for a response, he leapt confidently off the tall building and dropped toward the ground far below, leaving Victoria completely dazed and frozen in the air.

She slowly reached out one of her small bat wings to touch the exact spot on her head where he had just patted her.

’How dare he treat a royal vampire princess like some kind of common pet?’ she thought with indignation.

But despite that thought, she couldn’t help the small pleased feeling spreading through her chest then she shook her head and flew off to begin hunting.

「ⓘ Princess Victoria Reine Bloodworth’s affection has increased to 10」

’I don’t really care that much about tracking affection points anymore,’ Kōya thought as he landed heavily on the ground below, his enhanced legs absorbing the impact easily. ’As long as she does her part and provides value... I’ll do mine and keep her alive with my blood.’

He looked around carefully at the broken windows and crumbling walls of the surrounding abandoned buildings.

Dozens of monkey-like monsters with long arms and red glowing eyes were hanging off window frames and fire escapes, all of them staring directly at him with clear hostile intent.

「Screecher Apes, Rust-Class」

There were excited chattering sounds as these aggressive monkeys began jumping down from their perches all around him.

There were quite a lot of them... at least thirty or forty by his count.

’System, what are the specific requirements for ranking up Speed Burst to the next tier?’ Kōya asked mentally.

He needed to focus on systematically ranking up his current skills to increase his overall combat effectiveness and prevent situations like the Tetsu fight from happening again, and he also needed skills that didn’t use mana too.

Speed Burst was an incredibly powerful mobility technique, but it was currently only D-rank. He needed it to become significantly stronger and more controllable.

As for his new Poison Resistance and Pain Tolerance skills, he already had specific training ideas in mind for those as well.

「The Requirements for ranking up Speed Burst (D) to Unique Skill: Speed Blitz (C) are:」

「Successfully perform 100 Multi-directional Speed Bursts with sharp directional changes during active combat situations. By repeatedly performing these high-difficulty maneuvers, Host will develop the muscle memory and spatial awareness necessary for the advanced speed control that comes with the upgraded version」

「Current Progress: 0 / 100」

Kōya gripped his new sword tightly as the chattering sounds grew significantly louder and more aggressive.

The monsters were now practically sprinting directly at him from all directions, their long arms propelling them forward.

He took the proper Flowing Dragon stance and moved forward a couple of calculated steps then he activated Speed Burst.

’How hard could this possibly b—’

His body blurred forward at incredible speed, and his blade cut cleanly through three Screecher Apes in an instant but before the Speed Burst technique finished its duration, he attempted to sharply swerve his trajectory to the right to line up another attack.

However, it was significantly harder than he’d expected to change direction while moving at such high velocity.

His body wasn’t responding to his mental commands quickly enough though he managed to execute the swerve somewhat successfully, his momentum was completely wrong.

He slammed directly into the side of a concrete building at full speed, his shoulder breaking through the wall and creating a small crater.

He fell to the ground hard with debris raining down on him.

Victoria, who had just finished absorbing a Stoneback mana core and was feeling the energy seep pleasantly into her reserves, watched this entire display from her vantage point high above.

"What is he doing this time...?" she muttered with a resigned sigh, shaking her small bat head.

This was going to be a long two days.