I jumped off the stage and activated the power aura of Present of an Ancient. People made way for me as I walked through the crowd. I heard more yelling and screaming and then I heard someone say “Where is that damn dungeon handler.” Absolutely fed up with people trying to bully me out of the dungeon I put my will in my next words and tried to carry them across the whole crowd.
“SILENCE” Everyone in the crowd froze with the only exception being the people moving out of my way. I was rather surprised at the effect. ‘I wonder if I tapped into another part of my skill?’ I thought to myself. But I shock the thought off for later.
Once I finally got to the back of the crowd I found some gang bangers holding a handful of women hostage with a large group of other men behind them. Before whoever the hell there peanut brain leader could step up and make a fool of himself I layered my power and force of will auras down hard on everyone in the area. I spoke with the wrath in my voice. “I am fucking tired of all you heathens of society trying to act macho the moment you get a modicum of power. Well its time for you and all you kittens that think your tigers to find out because I'm not going to let you fuck around anymore.”
I took two fast steps and was next to the nearest idiot that had a knife to a woman's neck. I broke the arm at the elbow, grabbed his hand so hard it shattered bones, grabbed the knife and threw it at the shoulder of the next closest man threatening a woman. My gazes swept across the thugs. Most were still looking where I was, a few of them saw where I ended up and their already pale faces now had a look of total horror. I moved my way to the next unfortunate soul threatening people. I noticed one of them getting enough wits about him even under my aura to try and run. I used Star Shot twice on both legs and spoke with the same force of will I did earlier.
“NO ONE LEAVES.”
I dealt with the last two men making the biggest mistake of their lives by dislocating the shoulder of one and knocking the other one out with a hit to the back of the head. I then turned to the group of fools and spoke softly but seeing as the only sound was the slight breeze everyone nearby heard me.
“Whoever is the leader of this group of mentally disabled fools, step forward.”
When no one stepped up I said. “NOW.”
Finally a built man with a well groomed mustache beard and shaved head stepped forward on trembling legs. You could see a wet spot on his pants. He pissed himself. I internally chucked at that and spoke.
“I am going to tell you what is going to happen. First you are going to pick up the dumb asses that thought following you was a good idea. Second, you are going to leave and if I see anyone of you again I will cut out your tongues and break every bone in your hands, And don't think I won't know I have a perfect memory. Lastly you will tell every other poor excuse for a human that runs in the circles you do that if anyone who starts trouble in any area I have under my protection they will be leaving in a body bag. GOT-IT.”
The man was trembling and sweating like a sieve. And he stuttered out. “Yeyeyes ma’am, bububut how wwwwill we knknknow what is yours?”
“That’s not for me to figure out, that is for you to figure out. Now get out of my site.”
A few of them scrambled to pick up their fallen and broken friends and the rest of them ran like a monster was behind them. Well there was after all. I smiled to myself.
Turning off Presence of an Ancient I made my way back to the stage. Everyone once again made way for me, everyone was whispering to each other the whole way back. Once I was back in front of the stage I jumped up easily and turned back around to those gathered in front of me and put on a smile.
“Now that that unpleasant interruption is over, on with the Q&A please make an orderly like up in front of Sarah over there.” Sarah waved. “And tell her your question. She will be making sure that there are not too many overlapping questions so we can get the most information out to you all as we can.”
It had to be one of the most calm and peaceful mad dashes to a line I have ever seen. Once everything was settled and those that were willing to stand in line for their question to be asked were all in line we started.
The first to ask a question was a man in a dress shirt, tie and slacks. He was clean shaven but his hair was no longer neatly combed. There were also a couple of strands of gray running through his black hair.
“You offered to pay people to work for you and your bar but how are we to believe you have the capital to employ an unknown amount of people? I assume you are going to be expanding the area and setting this area up as a central hub of sorts that takes a lot of money.”
It was a great first question to have. If I don’t have the money to back up my word, all this would be pointless.
“Great question sir. If you don't mind me asking what is your profession?” nodding he answered
“I am a market economist for a major bank.”
“That's a rather impressive position sir I am surprised you would be living in a place like this. Well then I am sure you have heard of the Ioannou fund right?”
He looked slightly taken aback and nodded.
“Well as I'm sure you know it is an exclusive fund controlled by a small family and owned by another small family. And the primary holder of that fund just happened to be my late grandmother Vivian Ioannou. I’m sure you can put the rest together.
Also sir we will be needing your expertise mind talking to Samantha for me. Thank you.”
The man slowly nodded looking shocked and walked over to Samantha with a distant look in his eyes.
The next person up was a woman in her mid thirties who had a man by her side. I would assume it to be her husband. She looked a little frazzled with her frizzy blond hair.
“My kids are all beyond my ability to teach them. But all at different levels. I do not know if we have enough people to make classes for all academic levels. How are we going to go about this?”
“I’m sorry to say that right now I do not know. We will have to talk to the teachers on how to go about this. But first off we can ask each student what grade they are in then we will test each kid to see where their academic abilities lie. After this we will group people of like ability regardless of age together so they can learn. I’m sorry I don't yet have a more concrete answer for you.”
The couple smiled, nodded and moved out of the way. There were a couple rather simple questions that still needed to be answered like when we will start letting people in the dungeon. Which we had marked for Saturday giving us time to let people form up groups get used to each other and to be confirmed by me. There were also questions about what the rank order was and the highest known rank we knew of.
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Next up was a boy who could still be a minor.
“How are you so strong already?” Everyone went dead silent at that. I looked over to Sarah and gave her the stink eye. She just smiled and shrugged. I sighed and answered.
“It is a combination of privileges from being the dungeon handler, having gone into the dungeon to level up some.” Luckily I did adjust my seeable level to reflect this the other day but still well short of my real level. “ And lastly I was offered a rather potent combat class. This together makes me rather powerful for how early we are in this new era.”
To be fair, nothing I said was a lie. I just omitted one small fact. Nothing too important anyways. The boy studied me intensely for a time. After a moment he seemed satisfied and left.
It was a while before another interesting question came up. This time it was a young lady no older than the boy that came up earlier. She had beautiful red hair and baggy pick sweat shirt and she asked the question that everyone knew the answer to but refused to believe.
“Will things ever go back to normal?” She said is a slight Irish accent
My features softened as I answered the young lady. “I’m sorry. Things will never be the normal you grew up with. The world has changed and will most likely keep changing in a way that has never happened before. This is something that even if undone right now will have an ever lasting impact on the world that we may never recover from and that is if it went away right now. Worse yet we will not see a normal anytime soon I’m afraid. Until things are done changing and it all settles out don't expect the new normal to take place.”
The girl teary eyed stepped off to the side but did not walk away. I wonder if she got something interesting in her skills or class. For some reason my gut told me there was something special about her so I identified her.
Level: 14
Race: Human
Highest class: Farmer level: 2
What came up looked normal enough but it was still nagging at me. The thought distracted me to the point I missed the next question. I looked over to the man who spoke the question and said “Sorry sir can you repeat the question I spaced out a bit.”
“Oh yes, do you know the chances at monsters coming out of the dungeon?”
I paused at that question. It was a loaded one. Knowing now was not the time to talk about the raid and dungeon breaks I answered.
“For starters I was given limited ability to call on the beast of the dungeon to defend it from those that seek to do it harm. Otherwise the dungeon master will not unleash monsters out on the world.” Sigh so many half truths and omissions. I guess such is the pain of a ruler. Maybe I should have taken that leadership skill. I mean I do have a slot open.
(You have been offered the skill Queen to be (Advanced) Do you want to take up your empty general skill slot?)
I pushed the notice away not expecting to get that skill but the other one born leader. Even then I don't want to be queen. Shaking off the thought, I looked over to Alex, made eye contact with him, looked over to the red head and gestured to the bar. He looked confused but he got the hint. Looking back to the line that got a lot shorter but more people were getting in line as it got shorter. Looking up to see where the sun was I sighed and looked at the next person. He looked to be retired military even in his fatigue and everything metals showing and all. He looked to be in his late 30’s tall clean shaven black hair and built like you imagine a soldier to be.
“I have a few questions if you don't mind.” I gestured for him to go on and he continued. “First off, what will you do if the government asks for you to give over the dungeon?” Everyone paused at that. It was surprisingly a question that no one in the last hour of Q&A had asked. I looked him over again. He stood straight, had well kept clean cut hair and was clean shaven. He also looked to have sergeant major stripes on which meant he was one of the highest non officer ranks before he left.
“Well that is a loaded question there sergeant major.” He stood a little straighter at that. “To be honest I don't believe that the Government will have the ability to protect us, at least not in the near future. Assuming the Government makes it through all this it will most likely not work the same way it did before. There will most likely be city states that surround any important structure such as dungeons. And I highly doubt that those that will be in control of those areas will give up power easily. So how I see it we will most likely should the government survive, act more like the European union. At least when it comes to the projected city states where they will have more autonomy. Or I guess a better example might be like the native American reservation where they are a nation inside a nation but still under the banner of the nation they are within.
So long story short I will not be handing this dungeon over to the government. Nor will they take it from me even if they wanted to. As stated before I have limited ability to call the dungeon’s beast for help and I could do that to keep them from taking it by focus. Also with every passing day I grew stronger while the weapons they have relied on will in turn be less useful until the point only those with classes specialized around them will be useful. And doing so I believe would be a mistake on the government's part. There are some more points I could make but I think you get the point.”
The man nodded “You make some great points Miss Vivi. While I have a bit more faith in my country I can understand your concerns. I saw what you did. If that is only after less than two weeks I couldn't imagine what the world will look like in a year.
My next question is what will you do not if but when martial law is declared. To be honest I can't believe it has not been so already but I guess it's been relatively peaceful so far. But that will not last long so what is your plan for that I would also imagine you will be told to hand over the dungeon at that time as well.”
I gave the retired military man a weak smile. “That is still to be decided and I do agree it's a when not if question. There are a number of ways to go about it but I feel it is more of a take action based on how things play out rather than having a plan for it. We don't know how it will happen so it's much harder to plan for. Though we will be doing that soon. In Fact would you mind joining us after this? I would like to have someone like you to help advise us.”
The man smiled and said yes ma’am and walked over to Samantha.
The day went on with the seemingly never ending line. Lucky it started getting to the point Sarah started turning people away for repeat questions. There was one more good question before I handed it off to Sarah, Samantha and Alex.
An elderly man with a cane was standing at the front of the line. He has fully gray, well kept hair with only the lightest bit of scruff. Though he had a cane he stood tall. With a voice matching his apparent age he spoke.
“What will those of us who no longer have the means to work or if they can in limited amounts do?”
I gave him a big smile. “You and those like you will give us wisdom. Many of us have grown up in a world full of conveyance and excess. Most of us have no idea what it's like to have to clean clothes from hand, hand make clothes, not have the internet to find out how to do something. Help guide us in a world where we no longer will have the conference of modern society.”
The older gentleman bowed his head and while not fast steadily moved his way out of the line.
With not many people left and it getting late we wrapped up the Q&A.
“Sorry to those of you that did not get your question answered but it is getting late and there are still other things to be done. We will be making a pamphlet of the things we know about the dungeon later along with one of all the questions asked and answered today. I do not know when we will be able to get the ladder one out but it will happen in the near future. For those of you that did not get your questions answered we will work on a way to get your questions answered but it may take us some time.
I will now leave you all in the capable hands of Sarah, Samantha and Alex.”
I bowed and the crowd clapped. There were a couple people that cheered but it was mostly a respectful clap.
Jumping down off the stage I made my way into the bar I had a redhead to find.