Chapter 20
Dinner Dates & Mobsters
My daughter originally didn’t have a problem with me exploiting Gorgath for ninth floor monster cores, but then she met the kid. His polite and respectful attitude to everyone at Darksmith changed her feelings on the matter. He was no longer a callous monster devoid of sympathy, but an intelligent being worthy of fair treatment. So, for the first time ever, I had to choose between my daughter’s feelings, and loot.
It was a hard choice for me to make. Mainly because I didn’t see anything morally wrong with what I was doing. Yes, to humanity the cores were worth more than some kingdoms GDP, but to Gorgath’s people it was pocket change. The same was true for the spells he was learning. To humanity, basic and intermediate spells were common knowledge, the kind you could find at your local bookstore. To Gorgath’s people, it was cutting edge magic.
So, to clear the air and set Kathrine straight, I took her with me the next time I went to collect Gorgath’s tuition. Which was how we found ourselves standing against the tunnel wall, outside the entrance to the Abyss, as monsters rushed past us on the other side of the tunnel.
The local monster population had become used to Gorgath moving between the Abyss and the dungeon, and very few monsters made their homes along his path anymore. The monsters rushing past us were all wandering predators, creatures that bred quickly and died just as quickly.
Under the influence of my open heart technique, Kathrine wasn’t concerned by any of the monsters. Then a horse sized cockroach flew out of the tunnel. Without thinking, her hand shot up and she unleashed her most powerful combat spell, a howling fire lance.
The beam of fire cut through the monster’s exoskeleton, igniting it from within, while she shuddered in place. As the cockroach began to burn, the second stage of the spell initiated, and pure oxygen was pulled towards the flames tripling their size and causing them to release a deafening howl.
When Kathrine was four, my wife and I had to put up with numerous presents left on our pillows. These presents took the form of pretty spiders, cute grasshoppers, lovely ladybugs, and funny worms, but never cockroaches. Cockroaches always died around Kathrine and that hadn’t changed as an adult.
The howling cockroach fell from the air like a flaming comet crashing into the stampede below. The racing monsters didn’t stop, rushing over the flaming corpse as they tried to get away.
Kathrine’s heartrate suddenly spiked even higher. I smelled shock and confusion and I turned to look at her face. Her eyes were focused on an empty space right in front of her, as she read a notification.
I tried not to smile. “Was that the first monster you’ve killed since waking up?”
“I think so,” she replied absently.
“Did you reach level 80?”
She nodded without thinking.
Davina appeared to be right. Consuming Luke’s lifeforce was how I’d formed the bond that gave him my excess experience. Drinking Kathrine’s blood and lifeforce had either created a similar bond or a stronger bond. Either way, she received the same benefits now.
“You’re sudden growth is why Luke’s been trying to get you to go hunting with him.”
She frowned and turned to me. “What?”
“This is rather complicated to explain, but I’m the reason you leveled.”
She stepped back, looked around, and then took a seat on my master storage chest. “How are you the reason I leveled?”
“The short answer is that because of my hero class I gain experience from killing monsters, but because of my ancient vampire race I can’t absorb that experience, but because of my hero class that experience is passed on to those I’m bonded with. Now that I’ve drunk your blood and consumed your lifeforce, you’re one of the people I’m bonded with. You’re brother, my familiars, and my guards also receive experience from me.”
She folded her arms. “Why didn’t you tell me this before now?”
“Until you leveled, I wasn’t sure if I shared a bond with you and your brother and I didn’t want you to think we were trying to coerce you into forming a bond with me if you went hunting and it turned out we didn’t already share a bond.”
She paused and then unfolded her arms. “That makes sense, but I’ll be asking Luke to confirm your story.”
Kathrine understood better than Luke that I didn’t have the same emotional reactions as when I was a human. She was a lot blunter with me about her feelings and her level of trust. She knew knowing exactly where our relationship sat wouldn’t upset me but help to regulate my behaviour toward her.
She threw another howling fire lance past my head and a second flying cockroach died. “I still don’t really understand why I gained experience from you.”
“It’s hard for me to explain something I don’t fully understand myself.”
“You don’t understand why I leveled?”
“Not completely.”
“Why not?”
“There is too much guess work involved. For example, it’s well known that good and evil classes exist, and that these classes gain a lot more experience than neutral classes when they perform actions related to their alignment. This means a hero will gain more experience for killing a troll that is attacking a village than they will for killing a similar level troll that is wandering alone in the middle of nowhere. However, that same hero won’t gain any experience for murdering a high-level elderly couple to steal their money.”
“That’s because classes gain experience from actions that are related to their class. A baker isn’t going to level their class by working in a blacksmiths forge, so a hero isn’t going to gain experience from murdering nice elderly couples.”
“But a baker will gain experience from killing a monster.”
“What does that have to do with why you can give me experience?”
“Let me ask you a question instead of answering. Does a class generate experience when someone kills a monster, or does it take experience from the monster they kill?”
“Depends on the class. Some take experience that the monster collected. Some generate experience from killing the monster. Some do both.”
“And where does your class reside?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is your class a part of your body or soul?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know either. The literature is conflicted on this subject. The church has managed to resurrect people with just their soul, which has resulted with them returning with their class and levels, which suggests a class is bound to the soul. However, vampires inherit the class, skills, and levels of the person they were before they became a vampire and even when the soul is gone the class, skills, and level remain.”
She paused for several seconds and then shook her head. “You’re starting to confuse me.”
“This will start to make sense in a second. Let’s say I kill a monster. As a hero, my class draws the experience from the monster and because I’ve done a good deed it adds extra good guy experience on top mixing the two together. However, as an ancient vampire my flesh has an evil alignment which means the monster good guy blended experience can’t pass through my flesh. My class is pulling the experience to me, but my flesh won’t allow it to pass through and enter my class to level me, so it just sits there outside my body, until it’s drained by those that I share a bond with.”
“Why would it transfer to those share a bond with?”
“Because the hero class can’t differentiate between a strong bond and someone who took my hero’s oath.”
For a second it looked like she understood, but then she shook her head. “Your class treating everyone you’re bonded with like they’re your sworn brothers and sisters might explain why everyone gets some experience but not all of your unused experience.”
“Unless…”
Her eyes lit up. “Unless your class never stops trying to absorb the cloud of experience around you, even though it can’t reach it, so it keeps sending small amounts of experience to everyone else until it’s all gone.”
“That’s what we think is happening, but there are a lot of holes in our theory.”
“Like the fact that a hero having sworn brothers and sisters who grow more powerful with them is extremely rare.”
“Yes.”
Kathrine shoulders relaxed slightly as she turned away from me. She seemed to have accepted why she’d suddenly leveled. “I can’t believe I’m level 80.”
Her eyes flicked through notifications, and she started biting her lip as she weighed the pros and cons of what she saw. This was the first time she’d let her guard down around me. Even with the open heart technique projecting my intentions not to harm her, she was always on edge. Seeing her looking at her new skills rather than watching me like a hawk was nice.
And it made me realise part of why she was so afraid of me was because she felt defenceless when she was around me. The sudden influx of levels was like a security blanket. They made her feel safe for the first time since she woke. I could see that. I could smell that.
Monsters continued to rush past us, on the other side of the tunnel, terrified by my aura, but more terrified by the aura that was following them.
Kathrine finished reading her new skills. “Do you mind if we do something different for dinner tonight?”
“What were you thinking?”
“I’d like you to invite the people you share a bond with.”
“The dining room isn’t big enough to fit all my guards.”
She frowned. “How many do you have?”
“Gregory, brought three hundred with him, but I have nearly six hundred in total.”
“And you share a bond with all of them?”
“All except the clerics.”
“Gregory or one of his subordinates should be enough representation for your guards.”
The ground began to shake as the flow of monsters disappeared.
“I can manage that.”
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Gorgath came lumbering out of the tunnel with a sack in one hand and eight blank bone staffs in the other. He gave me a big toothy grin. “Professor Vincent, Gorgath’s sire has sent him many bone staffs so that he may practice his enchanting. Uncle Gorak said he will owe Gorgath a great debt, if Gorgath can produce a functional intermediate tier rune his people have not seen.”
Kathrine stood up and nudged my elbow, as if she needed to remind me why she was here.
“Gorgath, this is my daughter Kathrine, who you met the other day. She has some questions she would like to ask if that’s okay with you.”
Gorgath placed his staffs on the ground and then took a seat. He peered at Kathrine for several seconds, inhaled her scent, and then folded his arms. “Gorgath has some time before his classes to do Professor Vincent a favour.”
I felt my eyebrow raise. The kid was becoming a regular mobster with the way he acted. “What would you like in return for this favour?”
He gave me another big toothy grin. “Gorgath would like Professor Vincent’s endorsement for the head of the student council.”
Several questions flashed through my head. I chose the simplest one. “Why do you want to be the head of the student council?”
He slapped his chest. “Gorgath would like to change where the duelling club meets so he can join. Gorgath would also like to lift his restriction on him not casting spells in the dungeon. Gorgath is more experienced than he was before, but the restriction remains.”
His reply answered several of my other questions. “How exactly am I supposed to endorse you?”
“Gorgath’s friend is putting up fliers and telling people to vote for Gorgath. Professor Vincent can help.”
“You have friends?”
“Gorgath has one friend.”
Good for him.
“Sure, I’ll help your friend.”
“Professor Vincent must remember not to harm the students to make them vote for Gorgath. Gorgath is a student of Darksmith, and students cannot take actions that will harm each other. Gorgath wants only the help he has described.”
I chuckled. “I’ll do my best to restrain myself.”
Gorgath nodded and turned to Kathrine. “What questions do you have for Gorgath?”
Kathrine muttered a spell to amplify her voice. “Do you’re people use money?”
He shook his head. “My people prefer to be independent and produce what we need ourselves. We only barter when there are restrictions on our time, we are young, or we have reached the deeper floors and must work with others for survival.”
“But you have debts?”
“Yes. Gorgath owes many debts for the food and cores his sire provided him as he grew and many more for his tuition. He also owes debts to his uncle and several others.”
Kathrine frowned. “Your parents make you pay for the cost of raising you?”
“No. Gorgath wishes to repay these debts. Gorgath wishes to be independent and Gorgath feels he cannot do so until he owes nothing to others.”
“You mentioned that if you can make a functional intermediate rune your people haven’t seen that your uncle Gorak will owe you. Why will he owe you?”
He paused for a few seconds. “Gorgath has learned that the high ambient mana in the Abyss makes it extremely difficult to study the subtleties of spells and enchantments. This difficultly combined with the backlash of intermediate spells being able to kill Gorgath’s people, is why Gorgath’s people have only been able to develop new basic spells and enchantments. To gain the knowledge of an intermediate rune without hundreds of unnecessary deaths is of great value to Gorgath’s people. Uncle Gorak will owe Gorgath because Uncle Gorak will be the only one Gorgath tells.”
“How much will he owe you?”
“Uncle Gorak will pay Gorgath’s tuition for a hundred advanced spells for a new basic enchantment rune, but he will also clear Gorgath’s debt from repaying Professor Vincent if it is an intermediate tier rune.”
“One new rune is that valuable to your people?”
Gorgath nodded vigorously. “A new intermediate rune is much more valuable than what Uncle Gorak can offer, but Uncle Gorak helped Gorgath, so Gorgath will help him.”
“Does your sire think your tuition is expensive?”
Gorgath chuckled as dropped his gaze to the tunnel floor. He began drawing on the stone with his finger, like he was nervous.
In a very quiet voice he said, “You’re people find cores that my people throw away useful. My sire has been collecting what others toss from their nest to pay my tuition.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re paying your tuition with trash?”
Gorgath glanced up and made a so-so motion with his hand. “Gorgath and his sire did not realise this at the beginning, so Gorgath has only been able to pay most of his tuition with what others discard.”
The kid was fleecing me, like the way I was fleecing him. He was definitely becoming more of a mobster.
I turned to Kathrine, hoping she had enough information to let Gorgath and I continue extorting each other. “Do you have any more questions, Sweetheart?”
She ignored me. “Why do you people consider these cores trash?”
Gorgath scratched his jaw. “They contain magic that is incompatible with our cores and make us sick if we eat them. Some of them are so incompatible they can kill us.”
“Why don’t you filter those magics out?”
“This is harder to do in a high ambient magic environment like a dungeon. It is impossible to do in the Abyss.”
“How do you know that?”
“Gorgath’s friend has been teaching Gorgath to read and Gorgath has learned many things his people did not know.”
“Have your people ever tried to separate the contaminants out?”
“My people have tried many times. We have never succeeded, so we have never been able to gather data on what does and does not work.”
Kathrine smiled. “Thank you for answering my questions.”
“Gorgath is happy to help which is why a vote for Gorgath is a vote for progress.”
He gave Kathrine two thumbs up and a rather fearsome smile.
***
For the past two weeks, dinners with Kathrine usually involved her asking unflattering questions and me giving unflattering answers. Kathrine didn’t have Luke’s carefree attitude. She needed to understand everything about me from the way I acted to how I mentally justified those actions. By the end of the first week, she knew me better than Luke did.
Inviting Luke, Davina, Angelica, Gregory, and Amelia to join us for dinner that night was an entirely different experience to our usual meals, which were like police interrogations. This by comparison was almost a family dinner with friends.
Kathrine’s mouth dropped open as she looked at everyone around the dining room table. “You’re all over level 100.”
Luke kept his fork stabbed into the last steak and continued his staring contest with Amelia. “It’s less impressive than it sounds. Skill levels play a larger role after level 100.”
Davina nodded as she added more mushroom sauce to her baked potatoes. “And they play less of a role after level 200.”
Kathrine snapped her head to Davina. “Some of you are over level 200?”
“No, but Angelic and I have attributes that are similar to someone level 200 with a tier one class. If you’re looking for advice on skills and attributes, you won’t find anyone better than his Dark Eminence.”
“Davina says that,” Angelica said, with a grin, “but she hasn’t listened to any of his advice recently.”
Davina poked her tongue at Angelica. “I’m working my way through my necromancy skills because they’re easier for me to master.”
“Which is purely for your ego,” I said.
Davina didn’t have a response to that so folded her arms and sulked. “I wanted to be a necromancer.”
Luke groaned. “Can we please not have this argument again?”
Gregory wiped his mouth and pushed his plate aside. “I don’t see what the problem is. The standard attribute alignment for magic users is three points into agility and mana regeneration, and one into everything else.”
“And that’s exactly why you’re not qualified to give class advice,” I replied.
Kathrine frowned. “Why’s that bad advice?”
I pushed my empty plate away. “It’s bad advice because everyone’s different. Someone who is extremely talented at magic like Davina doesn’t need extra agility for complex spell casting. Angelica and Luke’s armour makes the recovery attribute pointless after a certain point because anything that is powerful enough to breach their armour will instantly kill them. My infinite recovery makes endurance pointless, and constitution a poor investment. The standard attribute distributions are designed for people who don’t have access to someone who knows what they’re talking about.”
“What would you suggest for me then?”
“The Kingmaker distribution. Strength 183, dexterity 227, agility 237, endurance 196, constitution 214, recovery 237, and mana regeneration 147. It’s what the majority of people need to master any skill and is a good place for you to start.”
Kathrine frowned. “But I’m not a fighter.”
“You’re point?”
“I don’t need that much strength, endurance, constitution, or recovery.”
“Do you get tired when you train?”
“Everyone gets tired when they train.”
“You won’t if you invest your attributes this way. You’ll be able to train in peak condition all day which will greatly improve how quickly you improve.”
“But then I’ll be left with useless attributes when I’m competent.”
“That’s a falsehood that keeps getting repeated by the ignorant. You won’t be left with useless attributes. You’ll be left with a better quality of life and the capacity to master any skill which is far more valuable than you think it is.”
“Oh.”
“Murdell likes to preach magical superiority, even in the south. They forget that attributes make everything easier. If you use my suggestion as your starting point, you’ll be able to discover where you have trouble and invest the rest of your attributes where you need them. Having a wide foundation is more important for a hero because we gain skills based on what we do. Only after we’ve made sure we’re capable of doing everything, should we begin to specialise.”
“My instructors would disagree,” Luke said.
Amelia hadn’t given up on the staring contest, but she’d half climbed onto the table and was trying to pull Luke’s fork out of the steak they were fighting over.
“No, they wouldn’t,” she said. “Your dad is giving advice based on your sister’s current circumstances.”
Luke continued to hold his fork in place. “What circumstance?”
“Your sister gained more than fifty levels at once, which is over a thousand attribute, and most of her existing attributes were used to increase her mana regeneration and agility to get into Darksmith. She’s about to have a threefold increase in power even if she only distributes her attributes like a sorcerer would. She could be ten times stronger if she invested into physical attributes which would make her a danger to herself and others because she wouldn’t know how to control her strength. You’re dad’s trying to prevent that from happening.”
Luke removed his fork.
Amelia picked up her prize with her hand and returned to her seat. Princess Carolyn was making Amelia take etiquette lessons and her poor manners here tonight was her way of rebelling. Amelia deliberately wiped her hand on the tablecloth, after adding the steak to the plate of fried chicken she’d won from Gregory.
Kathrine threw a napkin at her. “Don’t wipe your hands on the tablecloth, Amelia.”
Amelia stuck out her tongue. “Your dad said I could.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“I did.”
Kathrine frowned remembering how strict I’d been with them when she was Amelia’s age. “Why are you letting her get away with being rude?”
I turned to Luke. “I don’t have any grandchildren to spoil.”
He threw a bread roll at me.
I caught the roll, broke it in half, and reached for the butter. “Carolyn is trying to turn Amelia into a refined young lady, so Amelia doesn’t have a lot of personal freedom at the moment. She only agreed to come to dinner if I let her do whatever she wanted.”
Amelia took a bite of chicken leg while staring at Luke and daring him to take the untouched steak she’d fought him for. “I had to walk around with a book on my head all day. It was stupid.”
Angelica sat with a puzzled look on her face. “What was the book for?”
“It’s supposed to correct my posture.”
I watched as Angelica remembered whatever horrible experience that she’d gone through to correct her posture. Her scent changed as her mood dropped.
I turned back to Kathrine. “My advice is to invest the minimum attributes for the Kingmaker distribution for now and get used to the changes. It shouldn’t take you more than a month to get a good idea of where you need to invest the rest of your attributes.”
Gregory wiped a piece of bread along the inside of the gravy boat and then ate it. “Are we taking her into the Abyss with us next week? You killed a lot of monsters down there last time, so her level should be a lot higher than 80.”
Luke turned to me. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about a trip to the Abyss?”
Amelia giggled. “I know why.”
I turned to her. “Don’t you dare, Amelia.”
Her mischievous giggling grew louder.
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t he invite me?”
“You don’t need to know,” I said, trying not to panic.
Kathrine turned to me. “What are you trying to hide?”
“It’s nothing important or dangerous. Can we please leave it at that?”
She frowned. “You’ve answered every question I’ve asked you. What’s so bad about this one to make you not want to share?”
Amelia giggled. “He hates it.”
Gregory wiped his mouth with his napkin. “I don’t remember seeing anything in the Abyss the boss would hate.”
“The way he sparkled was a little weird,” Angelica muttered.
Luke’s turned his head slowly, until he was looking at Anglica. “What did you say?”
“I said, the way he sparkled was a little weird.”
“Dad sparkles?”
Davina nodded. “His Dark Eminence’s body expels mana crystals before they can cause him harm which results in them exiting his skin as a fine crystal powder.”
“And this fine crystal powder makes him sparkle?”
The last time I saw such a big smile of Luke’s face he was seven and it was Christmas morning.
Davina nodded. “It’s quite noticeable.”
Luke began howling with laughter. It was loud, obnoxious, and unrestrained.
Kathrine giggled.
I put my elbows on the table, placed my face in my hands, and groaned.
“You sparkle!”
I groaned again. “I’m never going to live this down?”
Luke laughed harder. “Never! You’re walking Cliché.”
“Why is this funny?” Davina asked.
I sighed and looked over. “It’s only funny if you’re from our world.”
“Is this another anime protagonist quality?”
Luke held his sides as he continued to laugh. “It’s so much worse.”
“Can I come to the Abyss too?” Amelia asked.
“If your parents say you can.”
Gregory gave me a very pointed look.
I ignored him. I had bigger problems. I needed to distract my children from what they had just learned.
I turned to my daughter. “You shouldn’t understand this reference enough to find it funny, Kathrine. You weren’t allowed to watch those movies or read the books, before we came here.”
Kathrine’s giggling died off at my tone of voice. “Luke let me watch the movies when he babysat me.”
I turned to Luke. He continued to laugh, as I tried to talk to him, ruining my attempt to change the subject.
“I can’t breathe,” he said through laughter.
I turned back to Kathrine. “That was naughty of him for letting you do that and naughty of you for not telling me. You can make it up to me and your mother by taking my advice now.”
Kathrine rolled her eyes. “Why’s it so important I do what you say?”
“Because it will make you stronger. And the stronger you are the less I have to worry about you.”
“What if I get strong enough to kill you?”
“Nothing would make me happier.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
“Thank you. Also, please upgrade your willpower, sorcerer sovereign, and prodigy skills.”
“I wanted to see if you were influencing my mind, so I upgraded all three of those the minute I leveled.”
I frowned. “Is that why you’ve been more relaxed around me since you leveled?”
“It’s part of the reason?”
“And the other part?”
“I’m now strong enough to get away from you if I don’t want to know you anymore.”
If only that were true.