A Bar a Vampire and the Apocalypse

The next couple of days was a mad rush. Obviously we're not the only ones with the same idea and many stores and shops were striped bare. Surprisingly the tech stores were still in decent stock which I found funny.

Trevor’s mom came over to help us with our task. She was a blond haired lady that looked to be in her early forties but was most likely older than that given Trevor's age. She did ask for payment. I couldn't blame her. We really don't know what's going to happen so if the US still stands at the end of this and the dollar is still the currency of the land she will need to have it.

Lucky for us I had paid for a really good internet which made the downloading much faster. What can I say, I like my shooter games and I don't like lag. Trevor and his mom worked on the project. They first focus on important trades like electricians and carpentry. Then moved over to the designs of important inventions like Refrigeration hvac and any other thing like that you could think of. Next was as much information on subjects such as calculus, biology, chemistry and physics as they could find. After they thought they had a good base of things they would move over to world history and great works of both literature and art. They might not be the originals but should the worst happen at least we would have the ability to still see them.

The idea of the project was if the worse were to have them then we would have as much information to work with as we could. I know a lot of the things we will not be able to replicate ourselves but maybe we can keep what we already have working with this information. Also if it came down to it I would like to still be able to educate the young, so by having this information we could still give them a somewhat high quality education should the current order of things completely break down.

Edward had made some really good points about needing to look a bit more long term. We had a good chance at surviving this with me here. Unless an army comes or a significantly more powerful immortal there was nothing that could kill me. Even the army is in question depending on how powerful the dungeon handler skills end up being.

I was able to buy the buildings next to mine, the ones the dungeon took out and the three on the other side of the street. I paid 5 times market value for them but I was just glad I was able to get a hold of the owners of the properties. Some of them did not even live in the western United States. For the other properties around us I could not get ahold of the owners so for now we will not be messing with them.

This gave us lots of room to work with. I was also able to get the blueprints for the buildings so we could know what walls were load bearing and what were not. Most of the buildings are going to be turned into makeshift storage so opening of the foot print of the buildings would make that much easier. The others were going to turn into a kind of barracks to hold the family and friends.

But that's where we run into our first major problem. Most of the hardware stores around us were already on the low side when it came to building materials. The twins' dad, who was an electrician, an average heighted man with black hair and clean shaven came to help us along with Cameron's dad, who was a carpenter that could do basic plumbing, he was a tall man with a well kept beard with brown hair.

Sadly there were not many useful things left. We were able to get some stuff but it was not what we were hoping for. After that I hired the twin’s and Cameron's dad for a sizable amount to work on the storage room project. They were more than willing to accept.

Ana and Steward had a little better luck with grocery stores but not by much. The country was in a full blown panic at this point. They were all gearing up for what could come next or in other words waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The rest of my employees' parents either did not have skills we needed right now, did not live nearby or turned down the offer. They were of the hunker down and let things play out mind set. Which to be fair could work out well for them but i don't think it will. As for their siblings most were staying with their parents off at a college out of town or living out of the area as well. Sadly some of them based on what some of them said had skills that could be useful to us but alas you can not win them all.

While all this was happening the bar had been open the whole time. But sadly we were running a bit low on alcohol and were down to our last couple of less popular menu items but even then the bar was packed everyday. Then again not having enough alcohol might have been a good thing because some of the patrons were getting a little to drunk the first couple of nights. There may have been some skills involved but I'm not sure. Luckily I did not have to intervene. In the end I think people just wanted to come and hang out. It was a distraction and a good time so it worked out.

We managed to get a band to come in on Saturday and Sunday which helped the mood. You could tell skills were helping because they were killing it on stage. This was not the first time these bands had played in the bar but you could hear the difference in quality. It really was impressive. What was also impressive was how fast they were leveling up. One of the players on Sunday was level 14. He started the day at 11. His class leveled up 2 times in that period

It was now Monday and the jazz band from Friday was back on stage giving us a good jig to dance to. It was a good time. I was a little sad I couldn't join the fun but it still brought a smile to my face.

I was washing some dishes when I heard a scream and the whole place went silent. I guess it was finally time to play. I silently made my way out of the kitchen. And looked towards the door. There was a group of 20 or so men pushing their way in. I recognized them as one of the local gangs. Which one I did not know nor cared. I had kicked the asses of enough people in my bar that everyone knew not to start shit here. But it looked like someone needed to be taught that lesson again.

I heard the rough voice of a chain smoker and focused in on the one speaking.

“Ello ladies and gents I am here to appropriate this here piece of land. Now if you could get off my new land I would much appreciate it. Well unless you are the so called dungeon handler in that case I would like to have a nice llloooonnngg talk with you.” Nobody moved at his declaration.

The man that spoke was a tall tanned man who did not look out of shape but like one of those competitive weightlifters. He looked kinda fat but it was all muscle. He had a shotgun in one hand leaned on his shoulder. I could not get the greatest detail of his face but he had a full beard. The men behind him all looked fit. When nobody moved he spoke again.

“What?!?! Did you not hear me the first time? Scat!” It was then I made my dramatic entrance.

My voice boomed over the room as I walked away from the kitchen door.

“Who the hell is making a ruckus in my bar?” I stared down the man and identified him.

Level:16

Race: Human

Highest class: Brute Leader level: 3

He was not very high level but what scared me a little was how fast my level advantage was slipping away. I was level 63 and as far as I know the average level of a human at the start was around 10 and this guy was after 6 days level 16. This was without the help of a dungeon. I really need to talk to Gareena. But I had to wait for tomorrow to do that.

“Ello there missy but this ain’t your bar anymore.” He paused for a moment and smiled. “But I do need to have a conversation with you Ms. Dungeon handler.”

There was a sharp inhale throw out the room. Liking how this was going I moved along.

“Ain’t my bar ha now that is funny. Now you have three options: first you can get the hell out of MY bar. Second, you can get your asses beat and walk out of here or crawl. I don't know which yet. Or you can leave this plain of existence and be taken out in a trash bag. Pick now you’re killing the good mood we got going on here.” You could hear a pin drop after I stopped talking. For all they knew I was a level 15 with no class against 20 brutes with most of them being level 12 with class and their leader being level 16. Numbers don't lie, at least they normally don’t.

“YOU BITCH!” he screamed and he leveled his shotgun at me.

“YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO…” he stopped in the middle of his declaration as the aura of power washed over him from Presence of an Ancient. Sweat began to pour down his face and his gun arm began to tremble. Slowly walking towards him I put myself right in front of the barrel of his gun and speaking softly said.

“Your first option is still open but not for much longer.” dropping an octave I continued “Chose now”

Seeing his trigger finger twitch, I activated the suppression aura of Presidents of an Ancient but only on the 20 men. I could feel the increase of the drain on my stamina but it was something I could keep up for quite a time. The instant the aura hit them every single one of them dropped to their knees. Slowly closing the gap between me and the leader I bent down and spoke just enough for my voice to be heard by those near.

“There was a great saying from an even greater man. ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’ so are you going to leave or do I need to use my stick?”

The man looked at me with a mix of terror and burning rage. But his terror won out. He let his gun drop from his hand with a light clatter and spoke with a tremble in his voice. “We will be leaving.”

“Good.” I said with a peppy voice and released both my auras. The men were all sweating profusely and trembling as they got up. As they filed their way out I said.

“Don't let the door hit you on the way out.” I smiled as the last of them left. I turned back to the rest of the people in the bar and said. “Now that that is over let's go back to having a good time, turn that music back on and lets enjoy the little bit of normalcy that is left in this new crazy world.” Shaking themselves the band started to play again as I moved over to the dance floor to get things moving again. It took the people a little but things soon went back to how it was before the thugs came in the door.

Some of the regulars came to talk to me and ask me where I had been. Deflecting I said I was busy with paperwork. Which was not entirely wrong. They were all happy to see me and thanked me for what I did with the gang members. Others tried to take a pass at me but I turned all of them down. At this point with some of them it was a joke. They knew I would turn them down but they still got a smile and I got to get some playful jabs in.

I must say that the night was a success. This put me in people's minds as a powerful player who is not going to take others shit. I was kinda hoping the gang members would threaten the people in the bar that way I could in a roundabout way defend them. But we can't win them all.

The bar was closing up and I had at least half the bar ask me about the dungeon and I told them all the truth. I don't know much and was not allowing anyone in yet. But that was soon to change. Tomorrow was Tuesday and was one week after the start of all this. It had been a week since I became the dungeon handler and that meant my skill to call for the dungeon master would be usable and I could finally get some answers about not only the dungeon but the system too.

With this in mind I gathered Sarah and all of my employees after we were done cleaning up for the night and asked them to give me questions I should ask. We sat down and had a round table.

“Trevor, do you mind grabbing something to write down the questions we come up with.” I asked.

“Okay give me a moment.” Trevor got up and moved to the office. Once he got back we got to work.

“Everyone feel free to suggest something. But remember that there will be a time limit on how long I can talk to the dungeon master.” With that I opened the floor. Maria was the first to raise her hand and I nodded to her.

“So I believe something that would be better to know sooner than later is how to level skills and classes properly. We can assume that doing things related to classes levels them up but is there a better way to do it? Does fighting monsters as a bartender still grant experience or is it pointless” She made a good point. Knowing the basics of leveling will be one of the most important pieces of information we could get.

“Very true Maria that could save us a lot of time finding that out now rather than through trial and error.”

Sarah was the next to speak. “I think knowing if there will be any other major changes to the planet would be nice. That way we can plan around it.” Todd spoke up and counter her.

“I feel that is a question that should be near the bottom of the list. No offense Sarah I do agree with you but unless there is another missive change within the next week which I personally don't think will happen. Then it would be better off asking more pressing questions and saving that one for next week.” Sarah shrugged. He had a point but it was a little unwelcome.

“That is a good point Todd but we can discuss what questions we prioritize after we get a bit more of a list going.”

“Oh sorry Vivi.”

“It's fine but right now we are brainstorming. No need to shoot down ideas even if they are really bad. We can save that for later at the very least.” With that out of the way we moved right along. Ana was the next one up.

“I don't think this will be a priority but how earned abilities work would be nice to know.” Ana had a slight accent I could never place but it did nothing but make her more alluring.

Knowing more about earned abilities would be nice. That would in essence grant us free skills that don't take skill slots. I nodded to her liking her question. Steward then raised his hand and he had a good question to ask.

“I don’t know if the dungeon master would know but knowing where the next closest dungeon was would be nice. I know not all of the changes to the planet were dungeons. From what I read and heard, the tree in New York’s central park is not a dungeon but the home of a group of fairies. So knowing which ones around us are dungeons and therefore knowing where people will gather would be nice.” Steward made an excellent point. Knowing where other factions were going to be would be key. If things worked out and there was another dungeon nearby we might be able to have control over 2 of them which would be amazing. It was also odd that fairies were already taking residents around this tree unless it was originally in the fay realm and the system phased it from one realm to another. More troubling things to think on.

Everyone seemed to agree that he had a good question with everyone nodding along to what he said. Following him up was Carl.

“Knowing how each stat specifically worked should be high value information. Knowing what each stat does could decide what class you take depending on how the classes give out its stats.”

I am so glad I asked them for question ideas. I would have never thought of that. To be honest I did not look very closely at my stats. If I parsed through my memory I'm sure I could find them but what's the point in doing that when I could just pull them up? Anyways knowing that would be incredibly helpful.

Trevor then gave a great follow up question to that one.

“I know our base stats are based on us as we were when the system was granted to us. So my question is can we increase that or is it forever stuck there. In other words, can we still increase stats outside of the system?”

Hmm I wonder how that works with me. I know that unlike humans I don't have an upper limit in how much natural strength I can accumulate. But humans there is an upper limit. How that all interacts could be very weird. Angie, the next to speak, brought up a good one.

“Are we all going to ignore the dragon in the room? The world boss, what does that entail? It is a goal to take down, is it a defender of the plant what does it mean. This could be very important to know.”

“I don't think the goal is to take down the world boss. I know that dragon. I believe he is a good kid.” Everyone looked at me with their eyebrows raised.

“I know a number of dragons and I just happen to watch him grow up. What can I say?” Everyone just shook their heads and we moved on. Grace then spoke up next.

“I know it is obvious but just so we don't forget to ask about it. How does the dungeon as a whole work? Is it all the same strength or does it increase in strength as it goes down? Are there floors or is it just one giant open area that increases in strength the further you travel from the entrance? Are there boss type creatures? Are there Raid boss type creatures? Is there a theme to the dungeon more than just being a forest? How does the dungeon repopulate or does it not? Are there any rules to the dungeon? Are there puzzles? Are there safe areas? These should be some of the questions we ask.” She hit the nail on the head with that. These should be the top priority questions to ask.

“You are 100% right Grace. The dungeon is the most important thing right now. We need to start leveling up and knowing about the dungeon will help most with that. It scares me a little seeing how fast people are leveling up.

The leader of that group was already level 16. I don't know what he started at but the average human is widely considered to be around 10. So being a 16 on day 6 is a little scary. That's not even looking at Trevor and his bartending class or the band's levels. It took me over 2000 years to get what the system considers level 63. I'm sure I have better skills than all but older or more powerful immortals but if him being level 16 already is anything to go off of the level difference between me and most people will not last too long.”

Edward gave his input after I finished.

“I agree it is concerning how fast people seem to be assuming power. But there is nothing we can do about it other than do it better and faster than them. Now I have a couple of questions I think would be good to know. What is the level up curve? Is it a linear increase in experienced need to level up or an exponential increase? Also how do the tiers of classes affect them outside of skills? Lastly, are there class ups and if so when.

Oh and I just thought of one more. How do we get access to the 2 other locked classes?”

Did I say I was glad we did this already or no? A Lot of these questions I would have never thought to ask.

We kept going around for a while thinking of questions. We ended up with a decent list. There was a bit of overlap in the questions so we trimmed down those and threw out ones we all agreed were not worth asking. After that we made a priority list with input from everyone. It was after 4 in the morning before we all finally headed to bed. Over the last couple few days everyone moved into the nearby buildings so they did not have to make the drive back to their own homes. Sarah decided that she liked my bed so she stayed with me and I stayed out of the cough. Luckily for me I have a damn nice couch.