"Me?" she asked perplexed.

"Of course. Who else?"

"I did say anyone, but I didn't expect you to want someone like her," Gabriel said.

"What do you mean by that?" We both asked him.

He responded, "nothing. It's just that there are many angels to choose from. She's great from a military standpoint, but she can sometimes be hard to deal with."

"You did say I could choose anyone here."

"I did, and I'll allow it. Aurora, you are now a member of Captain Roberto's platoon. I mean, it's barely more than a squad, but, with his title, it has to be a platoon."

"Fine," she said, immediately going to the book and writing her name with a special pen.

I felt the connection enter my soul.

"You didn't have to go that far," I said.

"Oh," she responded. "I guess I went too far." She then started laughing, as if signing her life away was no big deal.

Gabriel looked more distraught. "I was only going to make it a temporary assignment, no more than a century or two at most, but now, you'll have to be with him forever! And why are you laughing? I don't think I've ever seen you smile, let alone laugh. And it's over something so serious?"

Trying to stop her laughter, Aurora said, "It's fine. I don't mind it. I just forgot I didn't have to sign the book. Both older sisters did."

"Older sisters?" Gabriel asked.

"Kylee and Krystal," Aurora responded.

"Huh?" Gabriel was even more confused.

"Since I signed my name here, like them, I'm now your daughter, right?"

"Sure!" I said.

Bella, listening in, also was excited about having another daughter. She relayed it to my other daughters, who were just as happy.

"Okay, then. I'll get you some souls."

Gabriel quickly left, muttering something about Aurora's laughter. We waited patiently for his return, with a large bag of smaller bags.

"Each has a few thousand soul pearls inside. I hope you can make some good servants. Keep this a secret from the rest of the army, though. This kind of thing is usually seen as taboo, but since you caught the eye of a Seraphim, I, too, can look the other way."

"Thank you," I said, immediately putting all of the pears into Persephone. There were about three-hundred-thousand, overall.

"I'll be going, then."

"Yes. Don't worry about any more military orders," he reminded me as I opened a tunnel to the dungeon.

Once back, I had Aurora take off her pin. I always had mine off, except for that one time.

She reluctantly agreed, and I used my rune techniques to seal them. I took Aurora back to Persephone and, finally, explained the truth that I owned this world. I revealed most of my other secrets, including the fact I'm a midnight vampire, which caused her to momentarily frown before realizing no other angels knew of it. She only had one question.

"If you're in charge of the world, who's Annie?"

I hadn't even explained Annie to the rest of my family yet. I quickly made up an excuse for them all.

"I don't know her race. Maybe she's a god. Maybe she's a devil. She was heavily wounded in Ice Hydrangea, so she gave up her soul for a chance to be healed. She is kept hidden here. All the things she supposedly did were actually done by me. I just used her as camouflage. Her name's really Annie, though."

That seemed to quell their questions, but, soon they all tackle-hugged me.

Finally, after many years, even though only a few weeks actually passed everywhere else, I could get back to dungeon exploring. I was excited, but my excitement was short-lived.

Charon contacted me through the rope, telling me I had a visitor. With my family in my spiritual world, I journeyed back to that world, to the conference room.

Sitting there were Charon and Victoria. Mia, the nightmare vampire, also joined us.

"Why's everyone here?" I asked.

Victoria was the first to respond. "I'm here to hear about your journey, especially since you are from my dungeon."

Mia was next to answer. "Even I cannot get past a barrier like Charon described. I want to know how you did it. Of course, there will be a reward for information."

"I don't know how I did it," I began. "I just walked through. Nothing stopped me, and I didn't see any sort of barrier."

"That's odd," Mia said.

"You must have some secret even you don't know about," Victoria said.

"Possible," Mia responded, still pondering. "What did you get from it. Of course, your reward, to use the magic training field, has already approved. I believe you know the way. Charon told me how much you enjoy reading. Let's see how much you actually learned."

Suddenly, she arose from her chair and pointed at the wall, where a blackboard materialized before shattering and revealing something like a television screen, except in blood.

"This will be fun," Mia said.

"Don't worry, Roberto. Mia does these kinds of things often."

"Victoria, don't let him cheat."

"Fine, fine. I'll let you play your game," she relented.

This game of multiple-choice questions lasted an entire day!

"I'm surprised. You know the answers to questions even above a midnight vampire's clearance. That last one, even I was unsure of which to choose."

"I've read a lot."

"You must have found some excellent library, then. Your knowledgebase surpasses even dusk vampires. Take this token," she tossed me a small, wooden circle with a gemstone made of blood in the center. "This will grant you access to all rooms in this castle. Think of it as your reward."

"Thank you," I responded.

"Don't mention it."

"Mia, shouldn't you have given it to him earlier? He is a midnight," Victoria asked.

"Come on, Victoria, let me have some fun with him! Fine, I'll give him something else. What do you want?"

"If you really want to know, I'd like a blood tyrant essence seed."

"Your knowledge really is astounding. Unfortunately, we obviously don't have any."

"I figured as much. I don't know what I can choose from, though."

"How about this? You tell me what you gained from that space, and I'll prepare a reward for both."

"I guess that works."

After the conversation with Mia, Victoria, and Charon both looked towards me. I took out a bottle of the special water that I previously gave the angels.

"I found a few drops of this special water," I said, showing it off while acting like I didn't know what I was doing.

"Is that what I think it is? Roberto, the dungeon could use that!" Victoria exclaimed.

"The dungeon? So can this world!" Mia fought back.

"What's it do? I know it's more than just normal water since it was given to me, but I almost died! It's not like I could get anything more. I thought, maybe, it heals injuries."

"It's much better than that," Charon said.

"Can you tell me why?"

"It repairs cracks in the structure of a world," he explained.

"Then, why's the dungeon want it?"

Victoria answered, "This dungeon's similar to a planet. We need it to keep security tight. Don't worry, there's a benefit for you, as well. You'll always be revived within the dungeon, and I'll upgrade your whole family to authority level six. Maybe, my boss will even give you seven or eight. With that kind of power, you can control spawn rates and item drop percentages up to floor 125. You have complete control over the normal floors and can interact with and change situations explorers are encountering. You'll get your own little space. We'll even move your mansion there. You'll also get a salary. Most likely, it will be a monthly allotment of 1,000 EXP shards. You'll gain an occupation, but it will be something small. You can all order around anyone with level five or below authority, and you'll officially be an integral part in the maintenance of the dungeon. If you're lucky, you may meet the controller. You know, not a lot of beings have met the controller. Isaac and the fairy queen have, but Katelin and Olga haven't, for example."

"No fair," Mia said. "Giving him rewards… of course, he'll choose you. I guess I'll have to use a large bargaining chip myself. Roberto, I'll give you one-hundred million souls and recommend you to our dusk vampire council. I'll even give you supreme midnight and dusk vampire skills and spells. No, make that midnight, dusk, and nightmare. Finally, I'll give you 500mL of blood."

"Why a pint of blood?" I asked.

"It's not just any blood. It's a blood tyrant's blood essence. With it, you can even steal memories from others. Some say the blood tyrants were almost devils. Who knows how much that would benefit you."

"How many drops do you both require?" I asked, excited for the reward opportunities.

"Six drops is enough for me," Victoria stated.

"I need eight, but I'll settle for five," Mia gave her bid.

"Why can't I choose both?" I asked.

"You have that much?" they both asked, their mouths agape.

"I have eighteen drops," I told them.

"Then I guess we can both win," Mia said.

"Yes, true," Victoria agreed.

They took out bloody hands and shook with them.

Immediately, I returned to the dungeon with Victoria. I brought my family out, and Victoria officially conferred level six authority to us. As soon as it happened, we all received level seven! I guess the controller listened to Victoria. I'm now at the same level as Craig!

Our dungeon occupations also appeared with our status pages. As for Bella, it no longer showed annulled. For each of us, it was restoration. My three daughters had honored guest appended on.

We learned some more information about what that entailed. We had to go to specific floors and put the drops of water in a particular spot. If we got more of this water, we had to repeat the process. Since we could teleport to any part of any floor below 130, it was completed within a day.

During this time, I also checked on Keith; however, he wasn't currently in the dungeon. It looked like I couldn't play with him yet.

After we completed our assigned task, Victoria had a level five authority Floral Weaving Mantis, which looked similar to a praying mantis, show us to our own space. He's apparently in charge of these spaces, but, with my authority higher than his, he couldn't even enter. As such, he gave me the mansion wrapped up like a present.

I entered the space, and customization options appeared. I chose to make it a forest, for I was now used to living in one. I added a cottage and a firepit. As for my mansion, I brought it to Persephone. I had both her and Annie triple-check that there was no connection between the mansion and dungeon, especially one that may give away my secrets. As I was so concerned, Persephone built an exact replica using some small, individual materials from the mansion. At this point, I remembered I could see statuses. Unfortunately, Annie's was unavailable. I could, however, see Persephone's, though it looked different.

Name: Persephone

World rank: six-star

Barrier rank: Low, Level 2

Mana circulation: low-leveled circuit, innate abilities low

Owner: Roberto

World source statuses: I/F/W/E/D/G/A/H: operational, low-level

Innate laws: pass

It was interesting to see the details, and I noticed I could also upgrade the mana circuit with the number of souls I got from Mia. It then changed to

…

Mana circulation: mid-leveled circuit, innate spells possible, Lv 3

…

Next, I put the remaining mansion parts into the dungeon space and drank the blood. The blood was highly viscous, and it contained erythrocytes, schistocytes, plasma, thrombocytes, and other non-human components.

Once done, I saw all of my stats increase. Strength was the most, with an increase of 110 points. Following that were endurance and speed, each with a gain of seventy. Wisdom increased by fifty and dexterity by twenty. DE increased by two-thousand. Even luck increased by one.

I could feel my blood was more powerful, and so were all vampiric spells and skills. With Pristine's help, it was calculated that they were 2.5 more powerful. Also, this was closer to the power they should convey.

Now that I had increased my power, I was prepared to learn the new skills and spells. I didn't receive many books, and I put the ones for dusk vampires away for now. I now had reserves in both races for when I evolve racially into an archangel and dusk vampire.

There were only two nightmare vampire skills. The first, nightmare drain, seemed complicated to use. It first put targets in a certain area to sleep before causing them to dream a particular dream and finally sucking them of all of their energy. The second, nightmare entrance, was even more vicious. I could enter into anyone's dreams within the entire world and take their energy, killing them.

As for the supreme midnight vampire spells, there were a couple.

Midnight fog

Level: 1

Rank: S

DE use: 1200/10-meter x 10-meter square area

Description: poisonous fog is released, confusing the directional sense and artifacts for finding the right direction of enemies before silently stealing their energy

midnight time loop

level: 1

Rank: SS

DE use: 5000/hour, 100,000 permanently

Description: loops time for a specific target, endlessly replaying the same second until the spell's effect ends

time barrier

Level: 1/1

Rank: SSS

DE use: 10000/use or 5000/square kilometer

Description: creates a time barrier around caster or target, so that no amount of time-related changes will occur. Can also speed up or slow down time. Use 2: separates time between the inside and outside of a barrier, allowing two separate flows.

The final one was more powerful, apparently. I could learn it but not use it. It also never showed up in my normal status, and only my > could discern it.

Spacetime severance

Level 999/999

Rank: breaker

DE use: 199,999/10^15 meters (minimum size)

Description: create a dividing line severing the fabric of spacetime

Note: Comprehension of time laws too low, cannot be used. Comprehension of space laws too low, cannot be used.

It seemed like vampires must comprehend more of the laws of time each evolution since the skills I was able to learn, thanks to my class, dealt, somewhat, with time.

Also, if Keith ever fell asleep close to me, I'd just enter his dream and steal it. I wanted to test dream entrance out, so I asked Bella to sleep. I wouldn't drain her energy, just enter the dream and look around.

Krystal and Kylee also slept, while Aurora stood guard (even though it wasn't needed as er were in Persephone).

It took some time to enter the dream, which must have been the time it took for her to begin doing so. I could feel the power coming towards me as soon as I entered, but I stopped it before it could leave, so Bella would be safe.

Pristine illuminated the space around me and saw I had Dream Power in my status. It was at 10,000, but each minute, it decreased by one. It could only be used here, and, once I left, it would disappear. As I silently watched Bella frolicking amongst flowers, I wanted to see if I could directly enter another dream. Organically, I was unable to do so. I used my death energy and dream power to interweave a rope. These ropes eventually created a bridge. I pictured this bridge connecting the two dreams together, but my space law comprehension was too low, and I didn't know any dream laws. I was close to giving up, but Annie appeared next to me, giving me an artifact from my collection.

This artifact looked like a small drill, and, from the short explanation I received, I learned that it literally drilled through space. By combining it with the elementary space rune, it seemed I was able to bypass the knowledge requirement.

After I used it, Annie told me she modified it and integrated it into my body. I could feel it enter my finger before drilling out again. My bridge completed using 8,000 dream power and 4,000 DE total. I walked across the bridge, Bella never noticing me. I entered Krystal's dream, which was much dreary.

In her dream, it was rainy out. Her, Kylee, and other angels were lined up in a straight line, at attention, not moving. Another angel was instructing them in the correct movement procedures, while they followed without talking back. Suddenly, the sky opened up, and a rainbow appeared. The instructor had them stop and watch the rainbow for a few minutes before continuing. I was interested in the dream, so I watched a little more. After a few hours of them just practicing basic military maneuvers, I returned to reality. It was like opening a door, as I crossed a black expanse beforehand. I did not immediately return, though. I found my consciousness first return to my body before I could finally wake up.

When I left the dream, I realized I had a new skill, nightmare hop, which was the result of my effort. It was also slightly corrected, costing 6,000 dream power and 2,000 DE. I next recovered my DE, before attempting to find out from Annie more about space laws and what she did. She wouldn't answer any questions, even when I asked her how she entered the dream.

After dealing with Annie, I woke the rest of my family up. I then told them about my experience. I knew more about their dreams than they did. Bella seemed embarrassed, and Krystal and Kylee compared their dreams. Kylee's, she said, was more about military bow-shooting practice.

"It's not like I would like someone watching my dream," Aurora said after I asked her if she wanted me to use the skill on her. I dismissed the others before talking with her.

A few minutes later, I finally got her to relent and tell me her true feelings: she felt left out. I entered her dream for an hour, and it was unexpected.

In her dream, she was eating pancakes with a big grin on her face, talking to other angels and laughing.

When I told her what I saw, she looked embarrassed, but she didn't say anything. Although she tried to hide it, she was happy that I told her I'd make her pancakes from Earth once we returned. I'd make it for all of them!

With that promise, we immediately went shopping on Earth. I had some business to take care of first. With some help from the books I'd read and Pristine's knowledgebase, I sold some gold bars, and, using all of that money, hired some professionals. I had them secretly buy all of the land surrounding my house for at least three kilometers. They assured me it would be done in two weeks. As they were explicitly picked by me, I trusted that they would be true to their words.

Next, I went to a local restaurant. This restaurant had been known to harbor some shady characters in the past, and I was not disappointed. I gave the waiter a few hundred dollars before he brought me to the back room. As it was the evening, there was a group of about twenty men eating in expensive pinstriped suits.

"Hello, I need some of your connections," I announced upon entering.

"Yo, Joey, go tie him up," one of the men said, slowly inhaling with his cigar.

One of the men standing with long guns moved towards me. I > his attack while tripping him. This caused the other two to fire at me. My mana shield blocked them, so it was no issue.

"Now, let's discuss things," I said. "Who's in charge here?"

They could barely speak, but one of the men finally did so.

"You can call me Mario, the consigliere. This here's Guido the underboss, and over there, you have the Don."

"Nice to meet you," I said courteously.

"Obviously, you're immune to guns. Why don't you sell us the technology?" the one previously mentioned to be the "don" said.

"And you are?" I inquired.

"You can call me Dr. Wits Pedophile," he said with a grin.

"Then, Mr. Wits, I have a proposition for you, unrelated to this technology."

At this point, I took a gold bar out.

"I've already used some means to sell a few of these since I needed cash fast. I still have sixty here with me," I said, taking out a few more.

"Continue," the boss said.

I had gotten gold and other precious metals from the vampires—they had no use for them.

"You launder fifty and get ten."

"Deal. It's nice doing business with you," the doctor seemed to have changed his attitude.

"perfect. Don't worry, we'll hit Antonio for shooting at you, valued business partner."

"No need," I replied, quickly beheading him with Blackmail.

After that, I left banking details and newly-acquired contact details on the table and left.