POV Rakeon

  All right, I’m doing good. I don’t know about my dear cousin, but all I can do is hope he’s doing all right as well. For now… what the fuck am I looking at, and why is it just staring at me? Something about this little shit gives me the creeps, and I have a feeling I’m about to find this battle more annoying than ever before.

  Well, maybe it would’ve been, but with my latest Unbound skill things are a little bit better.

  Phantom Shroud allowed me to spread shadows around the arena and that was basically a godsend for me, but that’s not even what made it Unbound. It’s the fact that within those shadows everything about me was essentially muted.

  I gave off no mana, all sounds were rendered mute, anything and everything that could dictate my presence or my location was muted, and even if you saw me within the shadows it would be hard to realize it was me as I would be blending in quite perfectly with the shadows themselves.

  The only bad part about it was that the mana expenditure for every single second I kept it active was disgustingly high. I don’t even think I could keep it going for a full minute without running out of mana.

  Thankfully, once the shadows spread around the arena it never took me too long to kill something I wanted to kill, and this weird crab looking creature wouldn’t be any different.

  Not wasting time, I activated the skill and shadows blossomed from my body all over the arena. As the shadows approached it, it did its best to run away from it, but there was nowhere else to run in the arena, and once the shadows covered everything inside, the pitter pattering of its feet slowly came to a halt as it realized there was nowhere for it to go.

  Unfortunately for it, I could still sense it. The dagger I held in my right hand, a beautiful black blade…I gripped it tightly as I cautiously approached the location where I sensed that weird looking crab thing. I wonder if Freddy would like this creature. He always did have a fondness for anything that lived in the ocean, and since it was kind of crab-like maybe that meant he would have a fondness for it too. I’ll have to ask him when I see him.

  Anyway, the crab thing never moved even as I neared it. And sure, I could’ve rushed in to kill it quickly, but it never hurt to be cautious in a time like this. Once I was within striking distance, I quickly drove my blade into its head, and I wasn’t met with much resistance. That was easier than I thought, but I wouldn’t let arrogance get to my head. My goal is to get stronger so I could go help my family.

  Freddy is doing the same thing, so I can’t dillydally too much and risk messing this up. Both of us are going to be needed for the entire family to survive.

  Though, I’m not sure how much longer I wanted to stay in here. It wasn’t like we decided on what a good stopping point would be before entering. The goal was just to get strong enough to make a difference, and with two Unbound skills in my repertoire, a brand new dagger, and hopefully a new Unbound Trait soon, I highly doubt that I needed to go on for a long time. I was stronger, far stronger, than when I entered.

  there’s no need to push it too far. Anyway, let’s use this reward on a Trait, and this will help me determine how much longer I need to stay in here.

  Anyway, let’s see it. What are you gonna give me this time? Bless me again Gauntlet, bless me again!

  Reward Granted: Trait

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  Coiled Tendons (Unbound)

  Your tendons twist and compact naturally, storing kinetic energy whenever you move. This energy releases in explosive bursts on command, boosting short-range power without noise.

  Once again, the Gauntlet has blessed me, and for that I am thankful. To the Gauntlet, I am forever grateful.

  No, all jokes aside, this is a good damn Trait. My entire build is focused on short area quickness and being accurate with my strikes. I am not as strong as someone like grandpa who put a good amount of their points into strength, so a Trait like this is definitely helpful.

  Now although I’m thankful, I won’t argue that something about the Dungeon is weird. Why is it almost every skill, Trait, weapon, or armor tailored to me? Like I have a strong suspicion that this shit wouldn’t have been presented to Freddy for example, who is some type of water freak. That guy loves the ocean and anything water related, so I have a good feeling he wouldn’t see this.

  Instead, he would’ve got something that allowed him to use water better maybe, whatever it is, skills, Traits, you name it, they were tailored to the user for the most part. It could also just be a quirk of the Dungeon and something I should be thankful for, but for it to give me gifts relating to my build would mean it needs to know my build. That’s the part that troubles me, but it wasn’t like there was anything I could do about it. Not right now.

  …

  Oh shit, this hurts goddammit, it felt like there are ropes ingrained into my body and some bastard of a person was pulling on them without care for how I felt. The feeling went on for a few more minutes and then the Trait settled in my body in full.

  Phew.

  Receiving these Traits in one go is no simple task, and I’ll have to be careful in the future to not accept something like that when any type of fighting could happen a short time from accepting.

  Anyway, let us continue but I think only for gold at this point. I think I have what I need in terms of skills and Traits. My build is solid and stronger than I was when I entered, and I’m ready to see my family again. Most of all, who knows what the hell is happening, and who knows what the hell Freddy’s doing. Someone has to be there to watch out for him. He’s liable to do crazy things from time to time.

  Not thinking about my cousin for a while, I eventually made it back up to where I was, and the next battle was against something called an Umbral Drake. It was actually dope as hell to look at, but any battle that involved fire, I always felt like I was at my weakest. I really hated being hot, and that was coming from somebody who was born and raised in Florida their entire life.

  Unfortunately, that one took some time, especially since it too flooded the entire arena with its own shadows or maybe in this case some type of black flame or something just like I did, which was kind of weird since we sort of canceled each other out.

  Another reason why the battle took some time, but I managed to do it in the end. Only, I was very exhausted and could not think to push myself to continue, so I decided to call it there, or at least that run. I needed a break.

  Once that break was over and the gauntlet was on once more, I made it to the next battle after defeating the drake a little bit quicker than before since I knew what to expect.

  Next came something that looked like a damn gorilla. Unfortunately for it, I was fast as hell, and it was not. No shadows were needed to kill this one. And thus, I had enough energy and mana to move directly into the next battle against a fairy of all things. A fairy. What the hell would a fairy be doing inside this rigorous gauntlet of a dungeon? I couldn’t understand it, and while it was fast, I was too.

  Even though Freddy had that dash skill that he was so proud of, in a regular race without the use of skills, I was much faster than him anyway. The fairy had to unfortunately die. But then came some disgusting looking ant bug flying queen looking thing.

  Yeah, it too had to die, even though it had some weird ability to disrupt the flow of mana within my body. Beyond that, it posed no real threat to me. It wasn’t fast enough, nor did it fly high enough.

  I took another break after that and chose money or rather gold coins, a couple hundred of them in fact.

  But I think my time in the dungeon is nearing its end, but I’ll go a little bit more to get some more gold. That faction shop of ours was expensive as hell, and the more gold we had the better. Maybe we’ll be able to buy the gene integration book.

  I remember Dad really wanted it, but basically the entire family apart from him voted on the fuse one instead. I’m sure he felt vindicated by that when he realized we needed to integrate first anyway, but he wasn’t one to brag. He’ll get his wish soon.

  Just a couple more floors to go I think, then I will quit and reunite with my family.