We didn't head back to the inn after the Titanblade emporium, as I'd expected, and having money on me to spend I decided to just enjoy it. I bought a giant bacon wrapped turkey leg from a street cart vendor, a small plush doll from Cass's favorite cartoon that would dance if you said its name and had a self repair function, and a hat with ears from some weird animal called a kangaroo, that I was positive didn't exist on Callus, but made Callie light up when I put it on.

None of this put too big a dent in my funds, obviously, but it was nice to just walk around and have fun. Doing dumb shit just to enjoy myself with friends. Benny had conned me into paying for food for him and Celine as well, which meant I had to pay for Callie, of course, but they got some strange cloudlike candy made of spun sugar (Callie let me have a bite, which for her was pretty much a declaration of undying love) and we just walked around enjoying the variety of people.

There were stores for everything I could imagine. I'd expected plenty of weapons and armor shops, but there were magical foci, ingredients, inventions, crafting of both the artistic and practical kind. Plus dozens of street performers and interesting musical acts. "Why is this place so...lively?" I asked Zeke as we walked.

He just shrugged, biting into his own turkey leg. "Oh, that. It's mostly an excuse to blow off steam. Dungeons can get pretty nuts, especially ones that are closed up for a long time. The locals can be a big surprise, and it's pretty hostile in there. This is a big excuse to party before getting serious. Plus there are the smart ones winding through the crowd, listening for information. I think your girl is doing that as we speak."

Glancing over at Callie I saw her eyes were kind of blank, like she was distracted. I took her arm to make sure she was ok and grinned at him. "Guess so. It's still pretty neat though. Is the dungeon really going to be that bad? I figured it would be like the scavenger hunt."

He waggled his free hand, stopping for a second to suck turkey grease off his fingers, then resuming the motion. "It is and isn't. One thing to remember, no matter what, is that you aren't there to win. The hunt was a competition, but this won't be. It might INVOLVE competition, and don't shy away from that, but at the end of the day the Glade is huge. There's more than enough resources for your limited timeframe. Don't get sucked into petty power game bullshit. Work the mission. Ascendants will turn anything into a pissing contest if you let them."

That actually sounded pretty on brand for them. It was a surprise to me to though, to hear Zeke advise me not to pay attention. He seemed to pick up on that, because he just smiled. "Let me guess, you're wondering why I didn't tell you to crush your enemies like bugs and cackle over their corpses?"

At my slight nod, he just shook his head. "Do you know what the most important trait an Ascendant can have is? For progressing and getting stronger? Flexibility. Recursion is the change killer. It'll turn you into a static parody of yourself if you let it. Sticking with your legend is one thing, but you need to find the break points, the parts of you that people don't talk about where your story gives you flexibility. Losing your ability to adapt is nearly always a death sentence."

"Why tell me this now?" I asked. "Why not ages ago?" I mean, he'd kind of hinted at it, and Callie had circled the point, but information this important should just be directly stated.

He just shrugged. "Because you didn't need to know. Callus may have seemed big, but it was a tiny corner of the sky. The recursion from that level of renown wasn't likely to be enough to warp your personality much. Now we're getting out into the wider world. You'll be getting more attention, enough to actually get some points despite your constant improvement with your wishes. It seemed important you know what's what."

"So you're saying that I shouldn't fight everyone." I said slowly. "Because people will expect me to? But not directly, so it's like a loophole?"

That got me a wide grin and a nod. "Exactly. And things like that will boost your renown too when others hear about it. Having a reputation for being unpredictable not only makes more people pay attention, it also grants you more freedom within your recursion."

I nodded thoughtfully, not feeling the need to respond. We walked for a while longer, but stopped as I got a text. I read over it and blinked in surprise. "Hey guys." I said, causing everyone to stop. "Nat and her guards left a bit after us. I guess they've been walking around and were hoping to meet up. Anyone down for dinner?"

Callie, of course, snapped her head up at the word. "Food?" Benny and I both started snickering and she just glared. "Shut up you idiots, I'm just hungry." Her eyes narrowed at me, her tone becoming sickly sweet as she asked. "Or are you implying I eat too much?"

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Rolling my eyes, I just snorted. "I FEED you most of what you eat. If I thought you needed a change in diet I'd cook you something different. You can't intimidate me with your cliche girlfriend terrorist tactics, woman."

She looked pretty skeptical of that, which was probably fair, but I moved on. "Anyway, there's a high end restaurant around here that serves F-ranked steak." I grinned at her. "I believe I promised someone that I would try to find a way for her to try dragon again after she traded the memory. I bet a place like this would have it."

My girlfriend literally squealed with joy and hurled herself into my arms, and I was sure I'd have gotten a pretty enthusiastic kiss if I didn't have my mask on. She squeezed me so hard I felt like my spine would break, then just before that happened, let me go, grabbed my hand, and started hauling me off in a random direction. She was so excited she didn't notice she had no clue where she was going until a minute later, and then asked where the place was.

I followed the location ping my cousin had sent me (I didn't know if my scan ring could do that, but if it couldn't I was sure as hell going to get one that could) and we arrived at the steakhouse within a few minutes. Apparently Mel, Jessie, and Abel had gotten the same text, because they showed up just after we did, and my mentor gave Callie an excited high five while Mel and I rolled our eyes at our gluttonous significant others.

The good mood lasted until we got inside and were seated at the table Belloc's Steakhouse, and then it was derailed by all of us staring at Valk, who looked...not great. "What the hell happened to YOU?" Said Abel in apaled fascination. "You look like you fell out of a sickness tree and hit every branch on the way down. I can kind of see your BONES under all that sallow skin."

He wheezed out a laugh. "It's temporary, I'm assured. I made the incredibly mistake of picking a fight with a fucking Vampire. Drained off literally twenty points of my damned Vitality. Perit pulled it off me." He nodded gratefully to the tall blonde woman, who gave a placid nod of her own.

Zeke's head had snapped up when he heard that, however. "You...you met a Vampire here?" We all turned to stare in shock at the tone of caution in my uncle's voice. Zeke didn't worry about people. Definitely not F-rankers. But after hearing about the Vampire he seemed...unsettled. Not afraid, I wasn't even sure Zeke could feel that emotion anymore, but he sounded unhappy all the same.

"Yes." Said Valk firmly. "Trust me. You don't mistake that for anything else. I felt like she was...TEARING out a piece of me. Like she ripped out part of my soul. It's fading, and I'm healing as we speak, but the sensation." He shuddered violently. "It was the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced. The helplessness, the weakness. I'd rather die than feel that again."

Zeke nodded. "I got bit once. It's not something that fades with time. If there's a Vampire here, you need to be careful. Do you remember what I told you about vampires?"

Callie nodded. "Yeah, you said they're stupidly rare. All from the same family. I was surprised because vampire stories are common enough. Seemed like there would be tons of them."

"There used to be." He said emphatically. "Morgan Lark fucking ATE them. This was centuries ago, back when he was still young. He started hunting down all the Vampires his own rank he could find. He drained them all dry. Some people think that's how his ability became what it is, that he drained some sort of vampiric power from them one by one. Regardless, no one takes Vampire racial traits anymore, and if you get one, you fucking CHANGE it."

"Are you scared of this guy?" I said in surprise. "Because he can't be that much stronger than you are. And even if he is, he's not going to fuck with the family just for fun right?"

Zeke's eyes pinned me on the spot. "Morgan Lark is the strongest S-ranker in the universe. He is widely considered to be the being closest to godhood. He's so powerful he's literally fought the Unity in direct combat and survived. This was AFTER the Unity attained his divinity. The Vampire is a monster of the most terrifying kind, and anyone who ISN'T afraid of him is either stupid or VERY insane."

He let out a long breath, calming himself down. "That said, he's also a hands off parent. He isn't likely to pick a fight with us over a little dustup with one of his spawn. He doesn't have that many of them relatively speaking, but he's old as dirt, so relatively speaking doesn't mean much. He's in the triple digits. I'm guessing this one is a baby. Don't kill it if you can help it, maybe make friends, but it shouldn't be a problem either way."

I tried to imagine what The Vampire would be like, someone who would scare Zeke. Scare my dad. Scare the terrifying S-rank GRANDFATHER I hadn't even met yet, and the image was not a nice one. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Jessie plant a hand on Valk and start pumping life energy into him. It seemed to help at least, and I was glad to see the man filling back out from the living skeleton he'd been turned into.

Looking around the steakhouse, I took in the intimate, design. Dark wood walls, candle light, rich plush tablecloths. I nodded at my cousin's taste and made a mental note to bring Callie back here for a date. Speaking of my girlfriend, the waiter had finally made it out, and she was thrilled to see that dragon steaks WERE on the menu, albeit dragon variants that were probably easier to find.

She ordered, and I smiled at her cheerfully as I removed my mask. I was at dinner with my team, my family, I hardly needed it right now. Zeke was here personally and besides, it wasn't like anyone could recognize me by my face out here. She leaned up for that kiss from earlier, and didn't pull away until Benny started loudly clearing his throat to be annoying, and we were both grinning like loons as she did. Well, Vampires weren't that scary anyway. I felt better now.