Catching Up

"You guys ok?" Connor's dad asked from the door to his bedroom, apparently he'd been smart and gone through the window instead of the long drop we'd done.

"We're fine!" we chorused up at him.

He looked at us closely for a moment, I could've sworn that something flashed in his eyes as he checked us out. Then, he let out a great sigh of relief and started giving us orders.

"Great! Sam, go into the garage and grab all the cleaning supplies, and any camping supplies you think will help. Rick, Beth you two start moving food into the basement, focus on dried food for now. If you can move the entire refrigerator down there within an hour that'd be best. Connor, go into the basement and close the heating ducts for the upper floors, shut off the gas, and shutoff the water for everywhere but the basement."

An hour later, we'd moved most of the food, a portable camping stove, several beds, and tons of blankets into the basement. While they'd been busy with that, I'd cleaned the entire room to get rid of the smell and get it ready for everything. It was surprisingly easy to wipe down the gaming chair, the gunk just came right out. I decided to just throw the clothes I'd been wearing in the trash so I took them into the garage.

While I was doing this, Beth and Rick had moved all the food downstairs. Then, in a show of superhuman (or beginner cultivator) strength Rick had picked up the refrigerator and carried it to the stairs by himself. I think he would've taken it all the way down too, but the staircase was too narrow, so Beth helped him get it down.

Meanwhile, Connor and his dad were running around the house shutting it down. Thankfully, the basement was finished later, so it had it's own shutoff valves for water, gas, electricity, etc... We were able to keep everything running in the basement running.

After making sure everything was done, Connor's dad walked up to a picture next to the pool table and pulled it to the side. Behind it, we were surprised to see a hand print scanner. Placing his hand on it, he said "Activate Panic Room."

*BANG* A steel door dropped from the ceiling in front of the stairwell of the basement, fan's kicked in and started sucking the air in the room out, while air from massive containers under the basement was piped in. After a few minutes, the fan's shut off and the room went quiet.

Rick, Beth and I were caught totally off guard, "Did you turn the entire basement into a panic room?" Rick asked, while I just stared at the metal door nonplussed.

Connor looked a little sheepish, while his dad just nodded his head. "Yeah, someone tried to kidnap Connor while we were living in New York. After that I started taking security seriously, the basement is perfect for a panic room. All the utilities are here, there's a generator if they decide to cut off power, a lot of non-perishable food in the pantry, and ton's of stuff to do."

Walking over to the game cabinet, he turned on the TV and set it on a channel I'd never seen before. Security camera's throughout the house came to life, and we watched as the wind blew more and more snow through the hole in the roof into the house.

"Damn..." We all just stood there watching for a while.

"It's just a house, it's fully insured. The important thing is everyone is alright, and we can last for at least a week down here. The walls and ceiling are all steel, I doubt enough snow could drop to take down that. Plus, I installed carbon dioxide scrubbers, and we have our own air tank so we don't have to worry about it if the snow completely buries us."

I couldn't help my amazement at the preparations, Connor was looking embarrassed and I heard him mutter, "Just wait till you see his zombie shelter..." under his breath.

That was when it hit me, in all the excitement of the roof collapsing I hadn't eaten or drank anything in nearly 30 hours. My stomach started gurgling and I took off for the food. I was so hungry that I couldn't be bothered to make anything, so grabbing a bunch of bread and meat, I just chowed down without even making them into sandwiches.

"Gross" Said Beth, looking at me in disgust as I finished an entire loaf of bread and half a pound of salami in moments.

"You try not eating for more than a day" I responded, diving into the fridge looking for anything worthwhile even as I kept eating more meat. A couple minutes later, I'd taken the edge off enough to sit down and start talking with my friends again.

"Stinky, how come you weren't cold on the roof?" Rick asked as he joined me, making a sandwich.

"Don't call me that!" I yelled at him, but answered his question anyway, "When I broke through I figured out how to control Air Energy better. I just used it to create a barrier to hold the heat in and cold out." I said, in between bites.

"How'd you break through so fast?" Beth complained, "I've been training constantly while fighting in the arena, and I'm only level 9!"

"Wait, level?" I asked confusedly, "I haven't seen levels on anyone."

"Really?" Beth asked. When I nodded she said, "MSE uses level to explain what rank someone is in cultivation. Level 0-3 are unawakened human's, 4-10 are the various stages before you break through and become a cultivator. Apparently, it's really difficult for some people to take the final step and reach the body refinement stage. Level 11 is rank 1 body refinement, while level 20 is peak body refinement stage."

"Must be because I'm in a special area. Why didn't they just rank by cultivation? Why bother using the level system in the first place?" I asked.

"Because Shade LOVES video games." Said Connor's dad, we all turned to him surprised. "I went to school with him, the guy was a total geek. Loved those stories about VRMMO's, guess he wanted to turn cultivation into one."

Beth snorted in disgust, "I love video games too, but come on this just makes things complicated."

"When you're a genius, you get to do whatever you want." Said Connor's dad somewhat angrily, as if we'd just insulted him. Then, he went on, "Enough of that, I need a beer." Then he went to go dig through the fridge while the rest of us kept talking.

"Anyway, tell me! How'd you rank up so fast!" Beth was nearly jumping up in down in excitement again.

"Well, I'm in this trial and after getting chased around all day while fighting goblins I managed to get a high-grade Air Elemental Stone, and absorbing energy from that made me break through."

"LUCKY! You get to fight goblins AND find treasure!" Beth looked incredibly jealous

"So, you figure out who blessed you?" I asked Rick

He suddenly had a huge grin, "Nope, but I did get thrown out of the Holy City!"

We all stared at him in horror, "How is that even possible?"

"Well, apparently seducing nun's is forbidden..."

"You dog!" Beth yelled while giving him a high five with a grin of her own.

"What're you going to do now?" I asked him

"Apparently, there's a monastery that trains Holy Warriors who are a bit... different than the others. I'm gonna head there." He said, grin still in place.

Turning to Connor next, he just shrugged. "I'm passed the trial to become an outer disciple of the Pure Sword Sect. No matter how great your talent is, until you break through the Elemental Gathering Stage you're an outer disciple. So, I'm just training and taking missions to hunt beasts."

I didn't even bother to ask Beth what she'd been doing, we all knew from her earlier comments about fighting in the Colosseum. "Well I guess that's everyone, any idea on when we can meet up and do some missions or something?"

Rick shook his head no, but Connor nodded, "Yea, after we break through to Elemental Gathering we can use teleportation portals to go to the capital city. Apparently there are all kinds of things we can do there. Just, that'll probably take us months to do. From what I've heard, it's really difficult to break through for most people."

"Damn, I was hoping we could go on adventures together soon. Oh well, I've got a trial to finish off now that the excitement is over." With that, I grabbed my newly clean chair, and sat down next to Beth who'd already entered MSE while we'd been talking. Apparently, she couldn't wait to go fight some goblins herself.