If it was up to me, I would’ve spent the next few weeks, maybe even months, doing nothing but training and fighting in both Dungeons, with the goal being to focus on my Strength and Skills, but it wasn’t completely up to me.

  At least not if I planned on continuing to be actively involved with happenings in this family.

  Which I did, so there was work to be done. The work in this case was something I didn’t even bother to consider when these battles against the red people began.

  Someone came to the compound this morning with a proposition.

  A group of people in the community were planning to attack the camps the red people made out in town. They wanted our assistance for said attack.

  It made sense that they would come to us and ask for something like that, since no group out there that joined us in the battles could contend with us as a whole.

  There are probably a few of them out there who are stronger than a few of us individually, but not as a family. More than enough of them have either seen us in action or heard it through the grapevine.

  If that wasn’t enough to dissuade them, then the leaderboards in The Gauntlet should help to tip the balance in that regard.

  Anyway, it wasn’t like we were trying to go control anyone in the first place, so it didn’t matter all that much. What mattered now was what we would decide to do regarding the proposal.

  So, a family meeting was currently being held. Thankfully, everyone was present for this one, since people have been in and out of both Dungeons constantly. In fact, a few others in the family have already made their way down to the second floor of the Snakebite Dungeon.

  Something I planned to replicate soon enough. Well, soon enough depending on the result of this talk.

  Grandpa had just finished explaining the proposal without really giving any input and then opened the floor for everyone else to give input.

  “Well, I for one think we should do it. If you found a wasp nest in your garage you wouldn’t wait until it bit you to get rid of it. We’ve already been bitten by these aliens and it’s time we finally bit back and got rid of them.

  “If we didn’t get the proposal today, I would’ve eventually suggested it myself. Who knows how many reinforcements they’ve gathered since their last attack.

  “I know we’ve all been using the lull in attacks to get stronger, but it’s time. We need to hit them while they’re down and get rid of them.”

  Uncle Mack gave quite the speech there, which was very much unlike him, but honestly I agree. He’s definitely right about the fact that we’ve already been bitten. No use sitting here and letting them recover when we clearly have the firepower to get rid of them.

  Well, we need to confirm that last bit, but as of right now that’s how it appeared.

  And it seems the others agreed to a point.

  I observed them as the men and women of this family slowly came to an understanding this was necessary.

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  Observing them like this, or even just looking back to the first day shit hit the fan compared to now, the difference was really glaring.

  Gone were the scared people just trying to survive and fighting like wild beasts with no way out. What replaced them wasn’t a group of battle-hardened warriors and real menaces of the battlefield or anything like that, but it was close.

  After all… we were sitting here calmly discussing raiding a camp of aliens and killing them all.

  Literally something you might’ve expected to read in a book or discuss in a D&D campaign or something similar, but this was our reality now. Murdering camps of aliens.

  The discussion progressed without input from both myself and Rakeon, while Grandpa was strangely mute for a while and we all kind of just observed.

  I know why both me and Rakeon were quiet. But Grandpa being quiet? That was strange.

  For myself and Rakeon, although we were two of the strongest people in the room, it was kind of hard to speak up at the same table that your parents were speaking at. It wasn’t that we were scared or anything like that, but we were raised to respect our elders and such.

  So if we really didn’t have anything new to add to the conversation, or someone didn’t specifically call on us, then we were both just content to sit and be silent listeners.

  Grandpa though?

  He could make this whole family move in one direction with just a few words. That was the level of respect my Grandpa commanded in this family. Not through tyranny or degrading anyone, but just by being a loving, caring, and supportive parent, father-in-law, and grandfather.

  And that was before the apocalypse hit.

  The fact that he now had more energy and Strength than he did in his prime years yet still remained the same Grandpa we all knew and loved only added to that respect factor.

  Yet he was quiet.

  The discussion went on for a while longer, then Grandpa finally decided to speak up.

  “It’s good you all finally got some spine now. I agree, we need to get rid of this pest of ours. Though I think it’s important to remember that a rat is at its strongest when it’s backed into a corner.

  “A Trait that we showcased ourselves. Do not go into this thinking that we will wipe the floor with them. Even in the previous battles that we fought against them, all we have done is made them retreat. It was never killing them to the last man.

  “If we attack them now and there is truly nowhere for them to go and their only option is to stay and fight… then expect a bloody battle.”

  The room wasn’t necessarily filled with a bunch of excitement regarding heading toward the camp and, well, killing them all. But there wasn’t a lot of fear either. It wasn’t to say that we should be acting fearful of everything, but that lack of fear can quite easily become overconfidence.

  Something I think Grandpa realized.

  From there the conversation mellowed out a bit, but the conversation itself remained the same.

  We will be joining the attack on the camps out in town.

  Rakeon, the ever-willing runner, volunteered to go inform the folks interested in our decision of what we chose, and when he came back, it was with word of a group meeting. Everyone involved would be coming together to figure out the exact plan of attack.

  It made sense.

  It would definitely be stupid to just all go attack the camps willy-nilly without having a real plan in place. Something like that would be almost guaranteed to blow up in our face. So… this meeting was definitely necessary.

  Yet… for some reason, I had a bad feeling about it all.

  I wasn’t worried about the actual attack going terribly wrong. As long as we had a plan in place, and the situation of the red people hadn’t drastically changed beyond reason, and we prepared accordingly, then I think there was a good chance we left victorious.

  What worried me was instead the people who would be involved.

  …Egos, pride, entitlement, and even delusion. These were all the types of things that caused the downfalls of many. Whether it was one individual, a small group, or an entire nation.

  You didn’t need to read any LitRPG to see things like that on display, any old history book would do instead.

  The thing is that those types of problems were before people had real actual physical power.

  A roundtable discussion to figure out how we were all going to attack the enemy? Sounds like the perfect place for someone to either openly try and assert themselves in that type of role, or for someone to do it subtly and quietly.

  Either way, the stage was set.

  There was also a chance that I was just overthinking things and both the discussion and the attack would go just fine, and we all continue to go on with our lives, but this is real life, and people never change.

  We’ll see though.

  I wouldn’t complain at all about being wrong.