Robert Vlaho

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 158 - Insanity

Serene lake. Picturesque forest. Cozy hut, with the smell of roasting meat wafting out through the slightly open door. 

Freddy turned around, failing to find the portal he had just stepped through. 

His heart was beating out of his chest. Sweat pooled all across his body. A deep, surging sickness gnawed at his guts, chewing him up from the inside. He forced himself to calm down, but he couldn’t do it. 

The same thoughts spun in his mind on repeat: 

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 157 - Beware the Reflection

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
My head hurts. I'm exhausted

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 156 - Corpse of Justice

A few miles away from Valhalla, in the middle of the desolate woods, a loud puff of air echoed between the trees as a buck-naked man with black, web-shaped burns all across his body appeared out of nowhere. 

Mark collapsed to the ground, groaning and shouting as he felt his essence progress erode and his soul twist itself into a temporary seal. He desperately gritted his teeth, but the pain was too much. He released a muffled shout, turning red in the face. 

After a few ...

A very important update

Here is a mirror of the update post so you don't have to visit Royal Road:

Before I get started, quick disclaimer: the story isn't ending or being dropped or anything like that. Don't worry. Everything is fine. For now. And that's kind of where this update comes in. I'll explain.

In just a little bit over a month from now, 1% Lifesteal is going to stub since it's finally going up on Amazon. That means that the content of book one will be taken down and will only be legally access...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 155 - Bluff

Freddy sprinted through the hallway, asking anyone he came across whether they spotted Lucas. 

His peers had no idea where he was. 

His trainers had no clue where he’d gone. 

And perhaps most frighteningly of all… 

He wasn’t the only person missing. 

“Lucas?” the woman asked. “I… I don’t know. I’m looking for my husband. Just a few hours ago, he…”

“Shit!” Freddy shouted, pulling his phone out again to call ...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 154 - Love and Hatred

“Who the hell are you!? Get out of my damn office!” Thor shouted as he threw a stapler at Freddy, hitting him square in the chest. 

Freddy gave him an unamused look.

Thor cracked a cheeky smile. “Hey there Freddy. Love the cut. And the style. And the uh… well, you’re a whole new character now, aren’t you? Damn, you really took this PR shit seriously, huh?”

Freddy chuckled, shaking his head. “Not… really, actually.” He walked forward, taking a seat be...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 153 - Peace

Everyone liked money. Even those who pretended like they didn’t still enjoyed things money could buy.

When Freddy bought a round of drinks for everyone at that bar, he hadn’t expected much to come of it. It was such a small gesture that it could barely even be called a favor. 

And yet, even he could tell that the people there saw him in an ever so slightly better light.

This was enough to inspire him. That night, he decided to take some time to dedicate him...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 152 - Reputation

Not everyone was capable of coping with the terrors of human cruelty. Even when Valhalla’s raids went perfectly, there was always a large number of people who needed a drink. Or two. Or enough to knock them out. 

While Travis had something of a reputation as a ferocious fighter, he was the delicate sort. His heart tore apart whenever he saw horrible things being done to innocents. He had habituated to such sights a long ago, but they always got to him, if only just a bit.

T...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 151 - Treachery

Charlie King watched from his perch on a nearby building as Freddy Cliff proceeded to completely obliterate the defenses of their raid target in a single move. 

He watched the shockwave travel through the first floor, witnessing the windows shatter one after another. 

Slowly, the bow he had pulled taut, ready to shoot anyone trying to escape, loosened in his grip. “Jesus Christ…”

“Charlie!” one of the goons beside him shouted. “One of ‘em is runnin’...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 150 - Billionaire

Freddy held on to what was left of his arm, sighing and extracting the spark of undeath from his storage ring. 

Surrounded by a sea of monster corpses, he had no shortage of fresh meat to feed the ball of flesh.

Be it Ten Thousand Wet Hells or the newly upgraded Tsunami Strike, both were highly self-destructive. Tsunami Strike in particular was a nightmare to use. Even with a single star, his fist would be turned to mush. 

The only way to use it was to ensure that ...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 149 - Skull. Slave. Vanisher.

[Author's Note]
Yeah, about that confidence. Lmao. Suffice it to say this was the single worst illness I've ever had in my life. Not only wasn't it close to ending last Saturday, it had been only starting.

41° C (105° F) fever, hacking coughs, nose bleeds, stomach ache, headache, constant dehydration, you name it. One hell of a rodeo. Wife had it even worse, had to drive her to the hospital.

I'm lucky I'm still bloody alive. But hey, I'm back, baby! I finally feel like not...

Sorry for the missed uploads. I have been super sick this week

As per the title, I had spent my jolly holly Christmas time bed-locked and fighting a pretty extreme fever. My wife had it even worse.

Thought I could crank some words out today at least, but no, the brain fog has been so thick I can barely think, let alone focus on work. At any rate, I'm rather confident that it's finished. I haven't had a fever all day, and I feel a bit better overall. I'm confident I'll be able to get a chapter out for y'all tomorrow!

Hope y'all had some won...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 148 - Haunted

Freddy woke up. 

There was no alarm shackled around his head. Yet, a single look at the clock confirmed he had woken up on time. 

Whether it was just conditioning, or his body had finally settled on the exact amount of sleep it needed, every single day, he would wake up after roughly four and a half hours of sleep, with a five-minute margin of error. 

The sheets on his body felt smooth against his bare skin. He slowly pulled them off.

His living space at...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 147 - Pushing the Boundaries

Freddy swung the door open, walked into Thor’s office, and sat on the chair right in front of Big Man himself. 

“Hey there, Fred,” Thor greeted him with a raised eyebrow. “You need something?”

“I cleared them,” he said. 

“You cleared what?”

“The realms you tasked me with clearing, of course.”

Thor froze, staring at Freddy’s face for a long moment. He then slowly, exaggeratedly turned his head to look at the calendar hanging on th...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 146 - Crimson Dragon Scales

Bloodshed sat on the ground, surrounded by the five vials. 

Freddy waited a bit further away from it, quietly watching the process. 

After a few minutes of focusing, Bloodshed finally raised its head. It lifted its bony arms, and with a burst of its will, the vials cracked apart, and the blood floated out from within. 

The viscous, shimmering liquid washed over Bloodshed’s bones, absorbing into them. Freddy momentarily witnessed runes of all sorts forming on...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 145 - Cheater

Five vials of blood waited on the stony ground below Freddy’s feet. 

Bloodshed stood, clearly agitated, as it moved its bony claws over the vials.

Freddy gulped, nervously waiting for the verdict. 

“Master,” Bloodshed finally spoke after minutes of looking over the blood. “This is an invaluable resource.”

“What is that even?” he asked. 

Obviously, it was blood. But what kind of blood? Thinking on it further, these clearly weren’t or...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 144 - Power Tablet

Freddy walked into Thor’s office, and as soon as the two men made eye contact, they both sighed. 

“Welcome back,” Thor said, raising his eyebrows with a strained smile. “How is your friend?”

“She’s”—he gestured in a so-so motion—”muttering sometimes. Not quite there to… being there, but I can see subtle improvement.”

“Don’t lose hope,” Thor said. “There’s always a chance she’ll recover.”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway… what...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 143 - Capitalism

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
Yellow there, fellas!

Sorry for the skipped chapter upload, I am currently moving and it's a fucking pain in my goddamn ass. I thought I'd have more time to crank some chapters out, but I don't have a desk for my PC in my new apartment and the internet guys haven't yet come to install the fucking modem and I'm pissed. I had to take my PC back to my old apartment where everything is still in total disarray to write this chapter, and even then I couldn't write a partic...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 142 - The Power of Money

Back when Freddy was sixteen, while still working in the warehouse, he mostly kept to himself. Stack boxes, sort items, take inventory. Stack boxes, sort items, take inventory. 

Stack boxes.

Sort items.

Take inventory. 

Day in. Day out. Over and over again. 

But in hindsight, if he had to choose between working as a cashier or manning the warehouse, he’d pick the latter nine out of ten times. Why nine out of ten? 

Because there was one...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 141 - What Would You Sell Yourself For?

Noah held his hand on Sophia’s head, slowly observing whatever was happening within. 

Freddy stood to the side, anxiously watching the examination. 

Throughout the whole thing, Sophia merely sat in her wheelchair, her one arm twisted in a strange fashion and her expression slack. 

Finally, after half an hour of work, Noah finally gasped and released his grip. A drop of sweat flowed down the side of the man’s face, and he wiped it off with his sleeve.

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 140 - Treatment

[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
Hello there, boys and gals!

You might have noticed that I ended up skipping an upload last week, so I'd like to apologize for that! The recent chapters have been quite chunky and rather difficult to write, which has made it a bit tough to keep up. That being said, I assure you that my pace hasn't changed much, if at all. The chapters are just a lot longer than usual.

That being said, this is another big one, and we're officially entering the final stretch towa...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 139 - Catching Up

Freddy gently knocked on the door. A voice reached from within the room. “Please, enter.”

He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. He walked into the room and closed the door behind him, arriving at his first-ever therapy session with a mental health professional. 

The office was a clean, tidy place. Seated on a wooden chair right beside a couch was an orderly, older gentleman. The man’s face was surprisingly rugged given his early- to mid-two-star gathering, and...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 138 - The Executioner

While Thor maintained the stance that Freddy was to keep an open mind and listen, the man never dictated what he should do. In fact, in many cases, all Thor did was point an issue out and force him to come up with a solution on his own.

There was a reason to teach like this; Freddy wasn’t a child—he was already a peak two-star; for better or worse, people only got that far by doing something right.

And besides, an absolutely optimal build simply didn’t exist. There ...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 137 - Omnipotence

Thor wasn’t a soft man, and he certainly wasn’t a gentle trainer. While the man’s assistance was priceless, his methods were brutal, and he had no qualms about using force to reshape Freddy’s foundation. 

Freddy was no stranger to pain. He could handle a beating or tough training. Yet, many of Thor's suggestions and most of the man’s guidance struck where it hurt the most—Freddy’s ego. 

He had truly believed that his build wasn’t that bad. Even though Tho...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 136 - Total Mess

In the private section of Valhalla’s headquarters, a shirtless Freddy stood in the middle of a testing chamber. From impact alloy targets to dummies to other training equipment, this was the most richly equipped training room he’d ever seen. 

Thor finally entered the room after leaving to fetch something and approached him. “How are you feeling today?”

“I’m in peak condition,” Freddy said. “As always.”

“Man, I sure am jealous,” Thor said jokingly. ...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 135 - The Idol

Freddy watched Thor’s reaction. Just judging by the man’s facial expressions, it was obvious in just what order the pieces were setting.

The man’s eyes first widened when he realized that, because Freddy’s talent works on plants, he had access to practically infinite supreme-quality healing. Then his eyes shot wide open as he realized the implications this had for training and tempering. 

Next, he frowned as he finally concluded that this made Freddy a walking organ p...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 134 - Secrets

Freddy sat in Thor’s office, maintaining a neutral expression. He had just finished retelling the events inside the dungeon. Of course, this was a very… redacted version of the real story. 

Freddy and Lucas went into the dungeon. There, they were attacked by a group of assassins. Freddy kicked their ass and left the dungeon. He used his trenchcoat’s tracking feature as “proof” of when he left the dungeon. 

Naturally, Thor had already heard of the bizarre change...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 133 - Warrior King

Hellen screamed as she jumped to her feet, nearly running out of the room. Some sort of strange, ethereal light had appeared above her unconscious son, and a moment later, a small pouch dropped on his lap. She instinctually lunged for the bag and grabbed it. Something clinked inside it, almost sounding like a handful of coins. 

Still panicked, she ran up to the window, opened it, and threw the pouch outside with all her strength. 

“What happened!?” Freddy’s voice r...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 132 - Ego

Freddy watched the crimson red pool on Lucas’s throat. The sight of it made the world slow to a crawl. “No!” he shouted as he launched himself forward, pushing past several soldiers trying to stab him. 

He picked Lucas up before he could fall to the ground and held him, checking the wound.

The cut was long and deep. It was bleeding incredibly fast. Freddy scrambled to slow the bleeding with his blood essence manipulation and used a double-star Hydraulic Flex to jump on ...

[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 131 - Cornered

Atop the tower, Freddy swung a large ballista bolt around, pushing off a number of men who were trying to climb up, cracking skulls and shattering bones in the process. 

The ballista bolt was pretty much just a large spear of pure metal. But Freddy was using it more like a big metal stick to whack the men whenever they popped up.

From the very moment he had stepped into the dungeon, he hadn’t really spent any essence. He was fully topped up at exactly 199%. As it was, he wa...