I calmly walked towards the crowd. I was slightly on edge due it being my first formal dungeon raid. The fact that this dungeon was C rank also didn't helped me at all.
"Who are you?"
A blond man wearing a blue armor asked me.
"Hawkeye."
I was wearing mask covering my lower face. I also wore visors to cover my eyes. So it was normal for him to ask me who I was.
"What? Tell me your name."
Since I was officially dead and trying to hide my identity, Elizabeth told me to just say Hawkeye to anyone asking for my name.
"It is okay, George. Upper ups told me about him."
A bald man over 2 meters came forward. He held a huge hammer and shield. His bald head was covered with scars yet he had a warm smile in his face.
"You must be the captain of this raid."
I shook his hand. He was strong. Using Hawkeye, I looked at his muscle and bone structure. He surely had a "physique". Physique was similar to Gifts in a sense. People could born with them or awaken it later in life. As name implied, Physique meant that the people who had it changes in their body. Most of the time it was just that they had denser muscles and bones compered to other people like Captain front of me.
"My name is Jonathan. I am a frontliner. You must be a sharpshooter, right?"
He asked as he looked at the sword in my belt. I also carried bow and arrows so it must been confusing for him. Most Sharpshooter didn't carry long swords. Usually it was short swords and daggers.
"Yes. I can also fight in frontlines if it is needed."
He laughed in a loud voice. He pointed to himself.
"Don't worry! As long as I am here, no monster will reach to backlines!"
His voice was full of confidence. He was probably in his forties which meant that he had over 20 years of combat experience. It was normal for him to confident.
"This is George! He is secondary captain of this raid! If you have any questions you can ask him. Now, I have to check for other things."
He said as he smacked the back of the first person spoke to me. George nearly lost his balance due strong hit.
"Raid will start around 30 minutes. You can find me if you have any questions."
George said in a softer voice compered to before. He turned around and walked into crowd, leaving me alone. I was fine with it. I found somewhere to sit down and thought last 3 months. Yeah, it is been 3 months since my encounter with Calamity. I accepted the fact that I couldn't protect my family with the strength I had right now. So I accepted Elizabeth's offer. Burak Sarı died. I had to kill him. I stayed at the castle Elizabeth gave me and trained with her when she visited me.
Strength: 15 Agility: 18
Endurance: 20 Mana: 13
Passive Skills:
Hawkeye(Darkness) C++
Sharpshooting C
Domination C
Blessing of Martial Arts D-
Active Skills:
Blood Reinforcenment D
I looked at my status. My stats increased. According to Elizabeth a vampire got stronger older they got. Or more blood they drank. It was kind of bittersweet seeing my stats increase. On one hand, I got stronger. On another hand, it reminded me I wasn't a human anymore. I shook my head. What happened, happened. I couldn't change it so no use wasting time thinking about it. It was better to spend my time looking at my status. I currently had 5 skills. It was more than double before. According to Elizabeth vampires could increase ranks of their skills. Even though I trained all the time, I couldn't. It probably took more than several months to increase ranks. But I didn't wasted my time. Even though they were same rank, I learned how to use my new skills. Firstly, Domination. When I asked Elizabeth she was furious.
"It took me 50 years to acquire it! How did you!!!"
I had to stop her from rolling on the ground. According to her Domination was similar to Hypnosis with some key differences. Domination created a passive air of superiority around me and if I focused I could even break other people's spirit. It also worked on monsters. I quickly learned how to control it because maid vampires shivered and bowed down everytime I asked them something. It was annoying, more than anything. Secondly, Blessing of Martial Arts, the skill I got from my "dream". It was a mysterious skill. It was similar to Sharpshooting skill. It provided a "correction" to any kind of martial skill. It didn't matter if I held a sword, spear, bow, dagger or even bare hands. I was much more sharper and accurate than before. Even Elizabeth, who probably seen Edward fighting was suprised when I swung my sword. The part of dream I remembered told me that this skill was "degraded". How strong it was when it was full power?
"Strong enough to defeat Edward."
I answered my own question. I asked Elizabeth about the man in my dream. Everytime she finished the conversation before I can finish my question. While her behavior was suspicious, I couldn't force her to answer my question. She allowed me to be rude and sarcastic. However, if she felt like I was out of the line her tone would change and I find myself on my knees bowing down to her. It wasn't a healthy relationship and I knew that. But I had to call bear uncle until I crossed the bridge. Of course the bridge I was on stretched kilometers and I couldn't see the end of it.
"Just because I can't see the end doesn't mean that I should stop."
I had to move. I pulled an arrow from my quiver. It was red. I created it using Blood Reinforcenment. With the help of Elizabeth, I learned how to activate it. With the skills I have, I will climb to Vampire Council. When I do that I will finally have enough power to protect people important to me.