A Bar a Vampire and the Apocalypse

Waking up the next day I got straight to work. I first sat down and looked at what kids movies I wanted to show for our family night. I wanted to avoid things with mythical creatures and the like, and limit the violence. I ended up with Charlotte's Web and Ratatouille. Luckily I did have a projector and screen so I did not need to go searching for one which was nice. Who knew if I could even find one. With that taken care of I went out and got some things to help with our soon to be training session. When I got back, I gathered up all of our combat class people including the ones who did not go with us in the dungeon out back in the once parking lot and looked all of them over again.

Level: 14

Race: human

Highest class: Duelist Level: 1

Level: 11

Race: human

Highest class: Brawler Level: 1

Level: 11

Race: Human

Highest class: Pyro Level: 2

Level: 13

Race: Human

Highest class: Gemini martial artist Level: 1

Level: 13

Race: Human

Highest class: Gemini martial artist Level: 1

Level: 8

Race: Human

Highest class: Riflemen Level: 0

It looks like everyone but Todd leveled but that's to be expected his class makes it really hard for him to level up. We will have to fix that sooner or later. But for the time being we will just have to get his basic combat skills up. It does look like Carl has been working hard on his class. He leveled up two times without any combat, which is rather impressive.

For the rest of the group we left the dungeon shortly after each one had gotten one level in their class so they are to be expected. But the twins' level went up by 3, their class does give them 20 stats per level so its to be expected. I have a feeling they are going to grow rather powerful fast. Also based on what Gareena told me about leveling Edward, Stewart and the twins should gain experience from the training we are about to work on. Well I guess this will work out better than I initially thought.

Done with my inspection of them I got things rolling, “Ok everyone the next few days will mostly be me seeing what you can do. How your stats translate into your ability to do things. Such as how fast you can run, how long you can run, how much you can lift, how long you can lift something, how active you can be while carrying weight, and how long you can do high stress complex motions, think of obstacle courses or playing a sport like basketball or soccer.

After I have an idea of this I will assess your combat ability.” Everyone nodded and I got going along.

“Ok to start with we are going on a run. I will be setting the pace once you can't go any further at that pace and I want you to push yourself as hard as you can while doing this, you will stop and recover until we come back for you. Now everyone gather up, we are going to do some stretches. I don't want any of you to get hurt.”

We did a variety of static and dynamic stretches. After 15 mins of stretching we started down the street at a somewhat brutal pace. If I had to guess it was a 5 minute mile pace. Todd dropped off first which was expected he did have the lowest level. Next was Carl once again, not a surprise. But what was a surprise was that Edward dropped off next, I thought he would be with me the longest. I guess his stats did not line up well. A little after we hit the mile mark, Stewart dropped off and that left just me and the twins. This was both a surprise and not. They do have the best combat class of the group and get the most stats per level of everyone but me.

Even then it was obvious they were struggling to keep going. Not even 20 steps later they stopped. I must say I was rather impressed with them. That was not something many humans could do. I stopped and walked over to them. They both had their hands on their knees with ragged breaths.

“Stand up, hands over your heads, it's better for recovery.” Groaning slightly, they followed my instructions.

Smiling, I said ”I'm rather impressed by you two. Even if you gain power from the system it alone could not account for what you two just did.” The twins did not say anything for a bit. After they coughed their breath a bit Grace spoke up.

“We go running usually five times a week.” That would explain it. I nodded and said

“Good on you two, when you are ready we will walk our way back and pick up the rest of the group.” They both nodded and gathered themselves for a min and started slowly walking back the way we came. After we picked everyone up we did some more stretches and went on a short light jog. Next we went over to the weight set I got for us to use. We did a variety of different weight exercises and looked to see the max weight they could do in a set of ten. This time it was Stewart and Edward that could do the most in all the exercises followed by the twins and the rest in the same order. After we finished up with that we broke for lunch.

During our lunch Carl asked an unexpected question. "Umm Vivi you said you do have to drink blood but I also see you eating normal food. How does all that work… if you don't mind me asking."

I chucked a little bit and answered. "For me blood is the same as needing vitamin C or protein, I can go some time without it but if I don't consume it regularly bad things start to happen."

Edward then eyed me and said, "You told us that you try to drink blood at least once a week. So have you done so since you told us."

I give Edward a blank stare. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?" He wilted slightly under my gaze but still spoke up.

"If I am going to work with you, a being of both legend and horror, I want to own it and not live in ignorance, I don't want to turn a blind eye to the possible evil I have made a contract with." By the end he found his resolve and was staring me down like a man with a purpose only can.

I looked over the rest of the table looking each person in the eyes before I spoke. "Do the rest of you want to know as well?" Before they could respond I looked back at Edward and said with a serious expression. "And how much do you want to know?"

The room was dead silent for a time. Edward smirked and said, "Every bloody detail." I chuckled and the tension around us broke a bit. Angie then spoke up, "I think I will pass on the bloody details." Grace nodded and the rest of the group broke into laughter.

After the laughter died down I took a moment thinking about how I wanted to address the question. Coming to a decision I spoke. "Well to start with I have only drunk blood one time since I told you I am a vampire, and that was yesterday. Normally I would have done so at least twice, but as you all know it's been a little hectic. As for this specific feeding I will opt not to disclose the details to the group in respect to the people who don't want to hear it but if you would like to know you can ask me later.

A normal feeding for me consists of tracking a lone person, biting their neck and drinking. My saliva has a paralyzing agent that activates when it enters a person's bloodstream, this can also cause minor memory loss of the event if I want it to. How that works I'm not entirely sure it is just one of those things that is, so I never really questioned it. The same applies with the fact that the bit marks will rapidly heal, most of the time being gone within an hour.

Now I am going to be frank, I have done evil things, I have committed all of the Christian deadly sins, but I am not an evil person. But it is not fair to say I am the norm when it comes to vampires. Of the truly good vampires I can only think of five that are most likely still alive. Of those two are my children. And no they are not my born children but turned children. Vampires are like that. As for morally neutral ones, that's the largest group. How many there are I do not know. But there is no shortage of evil vampires, some of which have been well known serial killers before either another vampire killed them or a representative of another race would kill them if we did not act fast enough."

Todd was the first to speak after the revelation. “What would you consider yourself?”

“Like other things we change as we age, at one point in my life you might have called me one of the evil ones depending on who you were, but I would say I was never the worst of my kind, but for most of my life I have fit nicely in the neutral camp. There have been time where I would consider myself one of the few truly good members of my race but it was normally short lived. At this point right now based on the actions I am doing now you could add me to that short list and make it 6 but I would still personally put me in the neutral camp.”

Everyone seemed to take what I said in stride and finished up lunch. After we finished cleaning up I continued.

“So we are going to take an hour break for you all to digest your food. Go do as you please but I would ask it is nothing strenuous. I will be waiting under the dungeon tree.'' I then walked outside and enjoyed the view of the crystalline leaves in the midday sun.

It's nice to sit down and enjoy the beauty around you sometimes. Double so when it is something as unique as this. I wonder what other changes are to come from this system. Will we seem more intelligent races like Gareena or will it be more on the wild life side. There is no way to predict what is to come and that is so exciting. It's been such a long time since I have seen something truly interesting happen. There is not much I have not seen at my age.

After a bit I began to doze off, I woke up when Carl walked up to me. I pulled out my phone and saw only forty minutes had passed. Looking over as he climbed his way up the mound I asked, ”What brings you here early?”

He was a bit startled when I spoke and slipped a bit but caught himself. He made his way next to me and sat down. He rubbed his neck and began to speak, “Umm I was wondering if you had any advice or insight into magic? I want to improve but it is really difficult to bring forward power, even with the skill.”

I looked back to the leaves and pondered how to answer his question for a bit. Carl started to fidget in the silence. Haven gotten my thoughts together I answered.

“To start with, even though vampires have innate magical-like things about them, we as a race have a uniquely low aptitude for magic. That goes for both born and turned. Humans are much the same but if we were to put it on a scale of one to ten, your average vampire is a one or two while the average human is a 2 or 3. But at the same time humans have a much greater chance of being a 10. Those stories of witches and wizards are not all false, they were the eight, nine, and tens of your race. There is also the fact that even if a 10 were to be turned there is an almost guaranteed chance that person would lose almost all of their magic ability, and if they did not they might be hunted down. No one wants a crazed immortal witch or wizard with all of eternity to gather power.

Sorry I went off topic there. But long story short I have never tried to learn magic in any meaningful way. Though I was given many chances to do so. But Even though I have been told I am an outlier when it comes to magical potential I am still at best a 4 and to truly do anything with magic you have to be at least a 6.

I went off topic again, (sigh). To answer your question I might be able to help you a little but any more than bare bones basics I will be of no use. I do know some people that can help, but that is not really an option right now, you can guess why. But if I ever get the chance to convince them to come over here I will ask one of them to help you.”

With a smile Carl thanked me, ”Thank you any help would be great, also that fact that magic really exists before the system is indescribable. Also to have someone you recommend help me would be amazing. I can't wait for that chance. But I have to ask the way you talk. It sounds like humans are only ants to all of you greater beings. Why are we even the ones ruling over the earth?”

“That is not a question I want to answer right now. But know that humans rule over the earth is not entirely because we let you.” I decided to leave it at that and Carl got the hint and we sat under the tree together until the rest of the group arrived.

I stood up and said, “Ok we are going to go running again.” They all groaned. “Hey this one will be for distance this time some you won’t be going too fast. This will also be the last thing we do today. Seeing as we will most likely be opening not too long after we are done”

We all started going at a nice 9 minute mile pace. Those who could, talked casually avoiding topics related to the current new world order. First to drop off was once again Todd this was after about 2 miles. I had him jog back at his own pace and we kept going. The rest feel off in the same order as the first run. Carl at 3 miles, Edward dropped off after 5 and not long after at about 5 and a half Steward dropped off. Once again I was surprised by the twins. They not only kept going after ten miles but were talking with me the whole time. Mostly about shows they had watched and other mind numbing conversations, but still it was rather impressive. It takes humans a rather large amount of training to beagle to run ten miles let alone talk most of the way through it.

When we hit the ten mile mark I decided we ran far enough and we turned back. I was going to slow down a bit on the way back but to my utter surprise the twins kept going the same pace back. There was much less talking but they did not slow down until the 15 mile mark. By the time we got back they were walking but still to have ran that long was something rather impressive. Even with the stats they have. I wonder if they have a skill. I will have to talk to them in private later. I might want to do something special with them.

The rest of the group had already gone off to set up the bar so I let the twins borrow my shower so they could bathe and get ready for work. Things were coming together. I hope we don't run out of time.