"How, on the nose," I said. I sat down on a bench and waited. She came out after a few minutes. She quickly got dressed, blow dried her hair, and she was ready to go.


    We went back to the elevator, and Victoria pressed B12. When the door opened, we walked out into an artificial courtyard. There were two stories of housing on either side of the courtyard. The courtyard extended as far as I could see, which was pretty far.


    We walked to the right, passed the first line of housing to the next one over. It was then that I realized there were lines of housing and courtyards lined up next to each other on the left and right side of the elevator as far as my eyes could see, which again, is pretty far.


    The courtyards and the rows of housing had moving walkways so people could get to where they were going faster. There were also people on bikes, scooters, and even golf carts. We didn''t have to use any of those methods because we were just one row over.


    Victoria opened the door to a two-bedroom apartment. "So this is you and I''ll be right next door if you need anything."


    She handed me a clipboard with some paper on it. "Here''s a form you have to fill out. Just list what you want of your belongings from your ce, and someone will go and get it tonight before you head off to Vampire Academy tomorrow."


    She opened the door and said, "Good night. I''ll see you in the morning." And she left.


    I sat down on the bed and looked at the form. It gave a long list of possible things to take with you with a box next to it to check mark. Every possible option gave a small section for description. There were also lines on the bottom to add things that weren''t on the list.


    "My guitar. Don''t need it. My drums. Don''t need those. My bass. Don''t need that either.


    Myputer. Probably don''t need that. Either they''ll haveputers there or I won''t need one. Pictures of my family. Too depressing. My clothes.


    I could use clothes, but they''ll provide me with a uniform there," I said.


    "Nope. I don''t think I''ll be needing any of my old stuff where I''ll be going. As long as I have my trusty set of lockpicks, I''ll be fine." I patted my pants and then my jacket. Sh*t. I didn''t have them. I must have left them at home when I went to perform at the club.


    F*ck. I needed those.


    I wrote under the additional lines, "I need my special bag. Its in the second drawer on the left in the kitchen. Under the batteries. Please get it and bring it to me. And don''t look inside. Thank you."


    I walked outside my room to see if there was somewhere to leave the clipboard and the form. There was an ingoing and outgoing mail container attached to the wall. I put the clipboard and the form in that.


    ''Before I go to an academy filled with blood sucking vampires, is there a way to prevent my life essence from being stolen?'' I thought to the system.


    [Yes]


    ''How?''


    [You have to construct a lifeblood crystal from your umted life essence. This requires meditation and concentration to aplish. Would you like a guided meditation to begin?]


    ''Yes, I would.''n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    [Initiating start-up protocol for lifeblood crystal formtion]


    [Imagine a dense red orb the size of a pea made up of some of the life essence you''ve umted. Imagine it within yourself]


    Ok. I imagined an orb. A dense red orb the size of a pea. I imagined taking some of the life essence umted inside my body to form this orb. Suddenly, I could see it in my mind.


    I saw the red life essence particles being pulled into a center point where they slowly formed the orb, one particle at a time. It took a good thirty minutes, but I formed it.


    [Prime Lifeblood Crystal Formed]


    [Now beginyering the realms you have achieved so far over the orb. Each realm must bepleted before moving onto the next]


    ''Layer every realm? I''ve broken through twenty realms already! I have toyer every single one? How long is this going to take?''


    [Approximately 15 minutes per realm]


    ''That''s five hours! How am I supposed to get eight hours of sleep tonight?''


    [Do you desire to be prepared for enemies to try to steal your life essence or not?]


    ''I do. Might as well get started now.''


    [Good job]


    ''That just sounds patronizinging from you.''


    The system didn''t respond. I imagined the Barely More Than Human Realm crystallizing around the lifeblood crystal orb as an additionalyer. Then I moved on to the Beyond Human Realm.


    It took me about five hours to do, but I did it. I formed all theyers of my lifeblood crystal. I even formed smalleryers for each of my 4 levels in the Experienced Vampire Journeyman Realm.


    As I formed theyers, a pulse started toe from the orb. I sensed that the orb was generating excess life energy to fill my body with, but it could just as easily retract that excess life energy when someone tried to steal it.


    My theory is that the excess life energy was a very diluted form of life essence that I could potentially use to strengthen my body or perform attacks, but I didn''t know how to use it yet.


    I didn''t have the mental energy to experiment with it once I was done forming theyers. It waste. I didn''t know howte, but it waste. I needed rest. So I got in bed and went to sleep.