With the events of last night things had to change sooner than I was hoping. At this rate martial law was more of a matter of when more than if. I was really hoping that we would have a few more weeks to get set before things got to this point but in the end we got less than 2 weeks. So tonight needs to go well and hopefully I can gather some more people to help out. At this point I have my inner circle and I do not plan on expanding it. Between my employees and some of their parents I really don't need anymore people in the know. Obviously Zackery and Lilith would be in this group if they somehow found their way to me in the near future.

First we need to finish renovating the new buildings. It does not need to be pretty, it only needs to function. We also need more of well, everything. We also need to be getting into the dungeon. I was thinking it would take longer for people to level up but I was clearly wrong. We can easily stay ahead of them with the dungeon based on our one run but I want them to be ready to face the monster in there without me. I can't always be looking over them.

What I need most of all is time. Time, a thing I once had in overwhelming excess, but now I am sorely lacking it.

Walking down stairs I looked for the combat crew and saw them all eating breakfast. Good, I don't need to go looking for them. I walked over and sat down with them. They all told me good morning as I sat down.

“Morning, today we are going to try and finish up what we started yesterday. We will be looking at sprint speed and distance, high intensity moment and last combat.”

Angie spoke up. “I know we pushed ourselves yesterday. I'm still sore from it. Do you think doing all that today would give a good account of us?’ she brought up a good point. Ideally we would not finish for another couple of days with today being a break day but.

“Yes you're right but because of the events of last night I fear our time line might be much shorter than we hoped. Even if we can't get an accurate approximation of your abilities we will at least have a baseline to go off of and we can always adjust as we go along.”

Angie nodded and went back to eating.

“I will be out back getting things ready for you all. Come out in an hour or so and we can get started.”

I walked out the back door after grabbing a can of marking paint. I took in the sight of the crystalline chinese elm once again and smiled. If nothing else I did get a beautiful tree.

I began marking things out on the ground to make a kind of obstacle course. Not a true one but it would still get the job done. After which I passed out one hundred meters for them to sprint. When I was done I took a seat under the dungeon tree once again.

A time later the combat group came out and we got to work starting with the sprint. The order for this one was much different than the rest of the running. The slowest was Steward followed by Carl the twins Todd and the fastest was Edward. It made a certain amount of sense. It was a lot harder to train sprint speed. Almost anyone can run a good 3 mile time if they put in the work but very few can run a good hundred meter dash even with training.

Next up was the obstacle course. It was rather simple. I painted out different places they had to jump too and the like in some places they had to stop and do different exercises such as push ups or jumping jacks. At one point I had them climb the mount the dungeon tree was sitting on. This one ended very similarly to the long distance runs. The twins being the fastest with Edward in second followed Steward by Todd and last carl.

After some lunch and another break it was finally time for the combat test.

“Ok, which of you wants to go first? Also feel free to use any skills you have. Edward I will be doing two bouts with you one with a sword and one without. The same goes for you two.” I pointed to the twins.” I will be facing you two both one on one and two on one. Todd, if we had a weapon for you I would do the same for you but for now we do not do normal hand to hand for you.

My plan for these fights is to start out slow and ramp up until you fail. So, are there any volunteers?”

To my utter surprise Carl was the first to move across from me. He raised his fist in a rather sorry guard and walked towards me. He threw a straight punch without putting his body behind it at all. I blocked it and went for a simple counter and caught him in the jaw. He went down. I didn't even put much of anything behind it. And I know how to pull my punches. I walked over and looked him over. He looked fine but he was holding his jaw. Shaking my head I held out my hand and helped him up. This was going to take a long time to train him. But I have faith he will put in the work and become amazing. He has the drive and I think the will to make it happen.

The next one up was Todd and his fight went much the same as Carl’s but he at least blocked a couple punches before going down.

Steward squared off next. He was a bear of a man so I knew he could at least take a hit. That and his class helped with this. He charged I side stepped him and pushed him into the ground. He got right up and threw a right hook. You could see the power behind the blow as his whole body was behind the punch. I decided to block the hit. I raised my right arm next to my head and took the hit. The focus behind the blow was rather impressive. I did not want to break his hand so I flowed with the punch and let it push me over. I put a hand to the ground on my way down. Swinging my body around and I got back up and motioned for him to keep going.

This time he did not rush me but worked his way to me with a proper guard and went for a straight punch to my chest. Sliding to the side I dodged and threw a counter back at his chest. He in a flash pulled his arm back from the punch and crossed his arms in front of him to take the blow. My guess was a skill was involved there. My punch landed and he staggered back. I put a bit more oomph behind the punch.

With that I started to go more aggressive on him putting him on the defense. Blow after blow he block dodged or took. He was not able to throw any of his own punches out at this point. It was all he could do just to stay standing. After a bit more abuse I stepped back and called the match.

“You sure can take a hit, I will give you that much steward. It was a good showing.” I said

“Thank you Vivi. You also hit like a truck. I'm going to be black and blue in a couple of hours.” Steward laughed then winced.

“Go have Maria make you something that will speed up your healing. It's a good opportunity to test that out. You are also done for today so you can leave, that goes for you too Carl and Todd. Feel free to head back and help the rest get ready for tonight.”

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The three of them nodded and headed inside.

“Ok so who's next?” I asked

Edward stepped forward with his sword.

“Ok Edward depending on how this goes we will do your second fight on a later day. After how Stewards' fight went I don't want you guys to get too beat up having to do multiple fights seeing this is just an examination. Same goes for you two.” I turned to the twins and they nodded.

“But don’t fret once I am done making you guys’ regiments we won't be worrying about something as simple as being tired or a little hurt.'' I said with a maniacal smile. Edward and the twins shivered.

Looking at Edward I smiled and said, “began” he flashed forward and stabbed at my heart. His form was impeccable he was also much faster then steward but that is to be expected knowing the difference in their classes. I used the back of my hand to deflect his strike and stepped into his guard to strike. Edward then used his off hand to push up my strike and side step the attack. With that the fight reset but it was only for a moment before Edward walked forward for another strike. This time instead of a stab he went for a quick slice at my hip. I pivoted on my opposite foot, spinning around towards him and back handing him upside the head. He staggered back but brought up his guard.

The fight went on like this for a time. Him attacking with me in some way avoiding his attack and countering to different levels of success. Getting tired of the back and forth I was about to step it up but before I did Edward beat me to it. His movements increased in speed and he laid down a bevy of attacks. In the span of 5 seconds he attacked me 30 times. It was a rather impressive showing. This skill must be his class's equivalent of lethal execution.

I will be the first to admit when I am out of my depth or bit off more than I could chew. This was in a way one of those situations. Between me holding back and it also being midday in the sun I did let a couple attacks hit me. They didn't hurt me but it was rather embarrassing that I let any hit me. But it was once again showing me how much things have changed. I will soon no longer be able to say no human can hurt me. I will need to go into the dungeon by myself soon and power level a bit. I need to take advantage of it now. I really should not have waited this long. Maybe I will after the bar closes tonight. I do want to get a good look at the place.

Nodding to myself I went on the offensive. After his failed attack Edward looked visibly tired so I quickly put him on his butt.

“I yield!'' Edward said, laying on the ground gasping for breath.

“Good job Edward, that was a good showing. You even managed to hit me a couple times with that skill of yours. But I'm assuming that is some sort of finisher with a drawback?”

He runted in affirmation. But clearly did not have the energy to elaborate further.

“I also have a similar skill and if it is like mine I assume you lost some of your stats to use it?”

Edward did not reply for a time. He seemed to be trying to get his breathing under control so he could properly reply. After a time he sat up and explained.

“The skill increases my movement speed, reaction time and processing speed massively for 5 seconds. After that I get hit with 5 times the fatigue I would have gotten should I have done what I did in those 5 seconds normally. No state decreases but if the fight is not over after those 5 seconds it will be after, at least until I have massively more endurance.”

“Interesting, could you also use the still as a rapid retreat option or is there some kind of restriction for that?” I asked

Edward's eyes went distant, I assume reading over the skill. He shook his head. “No it does not seem like it so yes I guess I could do that. But I would have to find somewhere to hid should I be by myself to rest and recover.” he answered

“Is there any restriction on the skill outside of the stamina drain?” I asked

“Yes there is a 10 min cooldown on the skill so in most fights I could only use it once. Assuming that it is not a long fight like what the dungeon break and raids look to be.” Edward said.

I will have to have them all write down their skills so we can properly investigate them. Or maybe I can have Sarah do that for me. It seems like it would be up her class’s ally for something like that. The more levels she can earn the better.

“Ok when you feel you can move again go join Steward in getting some food. We can also see how good it is at recovering stamina.” I said

Edward nodded and laid back down on the ground for a while. I looked over to the twins and asked them, ”Any interesting skill you want to tell me about or do you want it to be a surprise like Edward.” I gestured towards his prone body.

The twins looked at each other and smiled but did not say a word. Of Course they want to see if they can also hit the 2000 year old vampire. Sigh so be it.

A few mins later Edward got up and slowly worked his way back inside. With him gone the twins walked up and stood in a ready stance. I was quite excited to see what they can really do. The fights in the dungeon were not good to say the least. But now I get to see what I would imagine is a rather unique class can do. I stood opposite them and said,” began”

They both dash towards me with Angie throwing the first punch which I easily blocked. As soon as Angie pulled he fist back she turned out of the way for Grace to throw a punch which I also blocked. Before Grace even pulled back Angie threw a roundhouse kick to my back. I dropped into a split and went to trip Angie but Grace planted her foot in the way of the sweep putting me in quite the bad position. Knowing I messed up and berating myself a bit for it, I upped my speed a little to pull myself from Grace's block, rolled to the side and popped back to my feet. Before I could go for a hit myself, mind I have not dropped my speed. I see a fist coming for my face. I push it aside only for a kick coming for my gut. I dodged back trying to reset the fight but the twins were on me in moments. It was a never ending flurry of fist kicks and knees. Stepping it up a bit I started to counter in the short time between their attacks. Which in turn slowed them down, not being able to throw blows one after another and having to respond to my attacks. Even then when I dodged and countered a punch the other would dodge or move the other out of the way and put them in position to attack. It was an intense dance between the three of us.

To be frank if the two of them were closer to my level and it was daytime along with me not using my class skills I would lose to them. It is rather insane to me how the system can close the gap of experience with skills and the power they provide. It is rather terrifying. It also only confirms what I learned in Edward's bout.

Now that the fight had gone on for some time I had a decision to make. Do I want to end it now either by overpowering them or calling it off or do I want to keep stepping up until I find their peak. I do have a good idea of their abilities but I have a feeling they still have more to show so the answer is clear. Let's step it up.

Angie to my right threw a punch at my head, stepping back I watched her fist fly past my head. Before she could pull her fist back I pivoted, grabbed her arm and pulled her over my back. I bent down and flipped her onto the ground. I made sure not to throw her too hard but she still hit the ground hard. With her out of the fight for a moment I focused on Grace. She was momentarily stunned at what happened. But she quickly focused up as I started my attack on her. I kicked out aiming for her knee. She spun and came back around with a kick of her own. I caught her kick, looked at her with a smile and she blanched. I pulled, taking her off balance and put her on the ground and with that the fight was over.

Looking at the two on the ground I was rather pleased. They would become great fighters in the future. How things turn out in the future has yet to be seen but these two at the very least I believe will go far, with or without me. Done with my musings I spoke.

“Great job you two, that was a rather impressive display. Too bad you were not able to be that effective in the dungeon but that will come with time. Along with the fact that your enemy was much different than me but we will work on that. When you two are ready, go join the others and feel free to use my shower again.”

With that I walked back into the bar to help with the set up for tonight.