After a few hours in the dungeon we all got a couple of levels. Most of my skills stayed at level 1 for not having used them but I did gain 3 levels in my class.
Midnight’s Perfect Assassin has leveled up 0→3 +12 strength +18 agility
+6 constitution +18 dexterity +12 stamina +9 intelligence +9 free stats
Identify has leveled up 1→2
Presence of an Ancient has leveled up 1→2
Child of the Night has leveled up 1→3
Star Shoot has leveled 1→2
Assassin’s Creed has leveled 1→2
Now that I finally leveled my class, some of my general skills got the chance to level up. But even then I have a feeling it's going to be a lot harder to level up my skills then my class. I'm sure I could go into the dungeon and kill a lot of monsters well above my level. Especially with the fact that both my racial ability Call of the night and skill Child of the Night give me a rather sizable boost to my stats effectiveness. Even if it is on the lower effectiveness of the boost it still makes me well stronger than anything around my level. Though skill could close this gap I am confident in my ability against low intelligent beasts. If I come against something with more intelligence it may become an issue but I am not worried about that for the time being.
What does worry me though is the total train wreck that was the rest of the people that came to the dungeon with me. Maybe I'm expecting too much of them. But it was a total disaster. Things can not go on like this for long or other people, more competent people might get ahead of us let alone the fact that we will have to face down dungeon breaks and raids. We may have many advantages but I am FAR from the most powerful being that lives on this planet
and that is not even counting the new arrivals. Gareena alone could take on most if not all of the dragon clan by herself. If I had to bet on it I would bet on her. And the dragon clan is probably the strongest single group of individuals that call this world home. Well at least in combat strength.
So if a group of both smart and naturally powerful people can get their act together fast enough things could go south very fast for us. I also can’t leave to go gather my own friends together right now without risking both myself and the dungeon with all the people here. My luck some foolish power-hungry humans like the man from the other day will come in with guns before Sarah and the rest of them are stronger enough to fight them off and lose the dungeon.
Well there is one thing I have been meaning to do. Hopefully I'm not too late. Tuning to the rest of the group I spoke up.
“We are going to head back out for now. There is something that I just remembered I need to do. After I’m done we will see what everyone is doing and plan out some training for everyone and future plans.”
Everyone nodded and we headed out of the dungeon.
Once we got out of the dungeon I headed straight up to my room and grabbed my phone and quickly ran down my contact list. Stopping on Lilith I hit the call. But to my disappointment and slight worry the line was dead. I tried calling a few more times hoping it would work. Shaking my head I scrolled through my contacts again and stopped on Zackary and hit call but it was also dead. Quickly I looked through my messages to see if they have sent anything to me since this event has started.
To my great relief there were a couple texts from Lilith. They read.
Lilith: Hey are you ok nothing crazy happened to you right?
Lilith: Things have gotten crazy and I don't know how long the phone towers are going to be working. So if you ever get this know that me and Zack are going to try and find Esmeralda we are not too far from where you said her lar was. Stay safe.
I laid back on my bed. A weight I did not know was on my shoulders lifted. They were both smart kids and not by any means weak so I don't have any worries that they can't make it to Esmeralda from wherever they are. If I had to guess somewhere in eastern Europe. But once they get to Esmeralda they will be safe. There is a very very short list of beings that could fight off Esmeralda and most of those are other dragons and no dragon would ever fight her.
Even then I am a terrible parent to think I would not check up on them for a week. Putting my hand over my head I laid there for a time taking a much needed mental break from the chaos. After a while I started to look through the messages on my phone. “I can’t believe I haven't Looked at it until now. Then again this technology is still new to me. I'm too used to not talking to people for decades, even centuries at a time but still I need to be better." I said to myself.
Most of the messages were government alerts and the like so I deleted all of them. A couple were from friends I cared little for or other immortals that had my number asking if I knew anything. Which at this point I did but was not going to share.
That is when I came across a message from someone I do care about.
Ingrid: Mistress based on the goings on and what we see in your spending we freed up more money for you to spend. Even then I don't believe you will spend what you had but just in case.
Ingrid: Mistress while we are insulated from it, things are looking to turn bad in the towns near us soon. Is there any direction you would like to give us?
Ingrid: Mistress the family in light of you not passing io instruction has come to the decision to meet up with you but with roads the way they are and not wanting to be found we will take time to get to you along with having to pack up and move what we can. We do not know if we will have any more contact until we arrive but we will make our way to you. Be safe we will hopefully see you soon.
“Looks like I am a bad mistress too. But it looks like I will have some more allies than I thought.” I said to myself with a broken smile.
I stayed in my room for a while longer to continue my much needed mental break. Things were going well outside of the little disasters that was the first dungeon run. I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and I don't like it.
After lazing in bed for a half hour I walked down stairs and found Sarah and had her gather everyone in the bar for a meeting. While she was off doing that I set up the tables and chairs into a pseudo conference table. After that I grabbed a pad of paper and started to brainstorm train ideas along with things to bring up during the soon to start meeting.
After I finished filling two pages of notes, almost everyone was here. We were only missing Ana, Trevor and his mom Samantha, the twins dad Alex and Cameron's dad Alfred.
“Are the rest going to be able to join us or we going to start without them?” I asked. Sarah answered
“They will be here in a few minutes. Samantha and Trevor are getting a general list of what we have and what we still need to get along with what more things we may need for that project. As for Alfred and Alex they wanted to finish cleaning up in one of the storage buildings before they came over. They should be here soon.”
“Ok thanks Sarah, we will wait for them then.”
Five minutes later Travers and his mom walked in and not long after Alfred and Alex joined us. With everyone having taken a seat I stood from my spot at the head of the makeshift conference table and addressed them.
“First off I want to once again thank all of you for your help, especially Samantha Alfred and Alex. We can talk about this later in the meeting but if you know anyone else you think could help us in our project or even someone that might be useful later should what we fear comes to pass please make your recommendations and we can see about having them join us.
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Now onto the meat of this meeting. First I would like an update on our current projects and stockpiles.” I sat and waited for someone to volunteer.
Alfred and Samantha looked at each other and then Samantha stood and spoke. “As of right now we have filled 200 terabytes worth of information. Be it videos, books, audios, documents or blueprints. As discussed we prioritized trade information then followed public designs of both new and old technologies prioritizing practical things. We have gotten most of what we believe to be the most important things from this category and moved to academics. Though we do still add things to the former from time to time when we come across things. As of now we are close to running out of storage devices and we would appreciate another computer that can better work with file storage. I can talk to you about the specifics we would like after the meeting.”
Nodding, I spoke, “Good to hear Samantha, we can talk after the meeting and look into getting more things of what you and your group needs. Alfred, do you have an update for use as well?” Samantha sat down and Alfred stood.
“Yes ma’am, we have finished stripping the bottom floor of one of the vacant buildings you purchased across the street. We also have the floor prepped for building supplies. I wish it could have gone faster but we did our best salvaging everything we could. But now we have a proper storage place for supplies so if we could get a box truck or trailer of some kind and have a team go around and try to find building supplies that would be best. We don't know how long until there is nothing left. Seeing as a lot of the local hardware stores are already low or striped clean.
As for what we need, we do need a handful of tools but that goes with the hardware stores being stripped and with the supply train being broken the way it is i don't know if we can buy them. But we might be able to hire some people with the tools and having more hands for big projects like this would be great. Along with having connections with these tradesmen should things go in the direction we fear having them in our camp could be invaluable. And if things do not go sideways they would appreciate the work especially at the rates you are paying.
Now that we have the first storage area done we can either continue on with the next room, start scavenging materials from the fallen buildings behind us or we can work on converting some of the other rooms into living quarters or workrooms for us or the tech team.”
I was never prepared for something like this for the simple fact that I could live in near any environment as long as I could find enough blood. If anything, I was more like a dragon hoarding valuable things. So I have money coming out my ears but I don't have a lot of the things we will need to make what I want. I can also see things rising in price by the minute in some cases. Not that money is a problem, no that is showing that things are becoming scarce rapidly. Hmm
“Thank you Alfred, feel free to sit.” he did so,” Alex do you have anything to add to that.”
Alex shook his head. ”No, most of our problems right now are supplies and manpower.”
“Ok then let's finish the progress reports and we will circle back to this. Sarah, do you have an update on the system research and how the bar is doing on supplies and attendance?”
Sarah stood up straight back and spoke in a business voice. “From what I could publicly find there is nothing we don't already know being circulated online, there is a chance some government knows more but I find that unlikely, seeing how only a little over a week has passed.
As for the bar we are close to out of all our alcohol outside of your private stash. As for food we did get lucky and got a delivery today. It is a bit of a mixed bag of stuff but it's food we can serve. I also got bands booked for the next week. Attendance has been going up but the increase picked up quite a bit after you scared off the gang leader. If things stay the way they are we will have to start seating people around the dungeon. But everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. I would recommend we try and socialize with people as much as possible and build the bridges now while it's easy. It could be the difference in the future. There is also a lot of talk about the dungeon so we may need to address the crowd about that at some point.”
Well this part of the plan seems to be going swimmingly. I really could not ask for a better outcome.
“Great, we will have to see about the alcohol. If anyone here is willing to donate some from your homes I would appreciate it. I will also compensate you. Oh if anyone knows someone who can brew or distill alcohol we should try to recruit them. Alcohol is a great tool to have in times like this. People want to forget for a little while and Alcohol helps with that.
I do agree that we should try to socialize with the crowd and build more rapport with the community members. If we can become the central hub for this area that will greatly increase our future prospects. This is a little early but we should also look into making something that's more family oriented. But that can wait for now.
Now does anyone else have anything more to add?”
Edward spoke up and said “I assume you will cover what we did and found in the dungeon?”
“Yes I was going to bring it up last and seeing that no one else has anything more to say.
The dungeon as can be expected is dangerous. So we will not be going back into the dungeon until I feel our combat group is up to par. Because frankly it was a shit show. Pardon my french.”
That is when Alex spoke up.
“Pardon me but what experience do you have in fighting to be able to judge this. Not that I don't believe it was a disaster in the dungeon but what makes you qualified to judge them?”
I was taken aback for a second but I kept it off my face. Then I remembered that the parents did not know what I was. They probably just thought I was some trust fund baby or something like that.
Hmm what should I do about this? Well I do need their help but I don't want to tell any more people about me being a vampire yet. But if things keep going as we plan I will end up telling them sooner or later. Then again I really can't afford for them to go running away with their kids right now. Now is the most important time. It is the calm before the storm and we still have little to no idea what the storm will look like. Will it be a light shower or will it be a class 5 hurricane. And based on the original system message we are only in the first stage. What will come next could be so catastrophic that nothing is left of the current world order. Not even counting the ticking time bomb that lies next to us.
I came to a decision. But first a thought came to mind and I identified the parents having not done so yet.
First was Alex
Level: 12
Race: Human
Highest class: N/A Level: N/A
Odd he has not picked a class yet.
Next was Samantha
Level: 10
Race: Human
Highest class: N/A Level: N/A
Also no class. Why not? Did none of them pick one yet?
Lastly Alfred
Level: 11
Race: Human
Highest class: N/A Level: N/A
Hmm
“Before I answer that mind if I ask you all a question?”
Alex shrugged so I asked
“Why have you three not taken a class yet?”
The three of them looked at each other and Samantha spoke up.
“I don't know about the other three but I for one don't trust it. It's as simple as that.” the other 2 nodded their heads in confirmation. I sighed.
“Well that is foolish.” Samantha looked incredulous and spoke harshly.
“Young lady I have been on this earth quite a bit longer than you and taking things like this at face value tend to lead down a bad path so don't call someone twice your age foolish.”
I could not help it. I started laughing and it was not a subtle laugh but a full blown, this person is losing it laugh.
“Young lady, I will not put up with this. I don't need to be here. You may be paying well but this is just insulting.” Samantha was getting even more worked up. Trevor was trying to get his mom to calm down but was not doing too well at it. Alfred looked annoyed but Alex was doing his best to keep a neutral expression but he was starting to look annoyed too. While the rest of the people at the table were starting to look nervous.
I finally got control of myself and spoke with slight amusement still in my voice.
“Oh sorry it's just you are comically wrong. Well not entirely wrong, yes things such as this tend to lead into weird situations but not nearly as often as you would think. But no I am by no means a young lady.” well here it goes
“I am older than every person at this table put together five times over.”
Samantha’s retort was cut short and now had a mix of emotions on her face. Ranging from furious to confused.
“Seeing as none of you have messed with the system I will take it that you have yet to gain the identify skill so I can't do this the easy way. Sigh. you see” I stood up and moved behind Samantha in a flash and said lightly in her ear.
“I am a very old vampire and if you don't believe me you can ask any of my employees and they will confirm it. But I can also confirm it the fun way.” In the next moment I was back in my chair smiling with my fangs showing. I then turned to Alex
“Does that explain why I have the qualification to train the combat team up?”
He slowly nodded. “Ahh yeah.”
Seeing the three of them were a bit stunned, I called a short break for the meeting and asked Sarah and them to explain the rest of the situation to them.
I walked out back to sit under the dungeon tree. It was late afternoon and the way the sun crept through the branches and leaves was quite peaceful. That's when I heard a loud voice and I sighed in frustration.
“Hey you, you're the one Bill ran away pissing his pants aren't you. You don't look so tough now, hand over the dungeon and we can all walk away from this alive.”
I looked over and saw another group of men with weapons of all kinds with the leader aiming a pistol at me. Thinking to myself. Well I am rather parched. I should kill two birds with one stone or more like 10 birds.
I smiled and vanished.