After taking a few moments to allow myself to feel good about winning that battle, I promptly chose the option to claim my rewards.

  There was no need at all to ask myself any of those questions. Absolutely zero doubt in my mind that I’d be able to fight that wolf again in my current state, let alone a stronger one. My regular mana pool and even the extra was at a whopping zero.

  No way I was going to be able to pull that off again, not to mention all the exhaustion that had finally caught up to me.

  By all metrics, it was time to go.

  Then, just when I thought there would be no more surprises, something popped up in front of me that made me grin like I just saw a gold scar for the first time.

  Rewards Claimed

  Please Select

  Weapon/Armor – XP – Coins – Skills

  Skills! There was now an option to choose skills as a reward! I don’t know if it was because of the added difficulty or what, but I didn’t care. This is exactly why I took the risk entering the Dungeon in the first place. To get stronger!

  Alright, come on, give it to me!

  Reward Granted – Skill

  Piercing Tide (Rooted) – Coat a weapon or limb with a thin veil of water as it moves forward. The water extends sharply upon impact, aiming to pierce through the intended target.

  Man, hell yeah! This is it! This is exactly what I needed! Something that can truly help me change the tide of battle. Pun intended and everything! Man, I couldn’t be happier.

  I was then returned to the waiting area where I immediately took a look at my status.

  Status

  Name: Fred Williams

  Born World: Earth (ENWPI70059)

  Race: Human

  Age: 17

  Grade: F

  Level: 26

  XP: 3237/16355

  Mana: 0/80(0)

  Stat Points: 0

  Traits

  Trait 1: Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)

  Trait 2: Soaked Pulse Membrane (Rooted)

  Trait 3: Locked

  Class

  Current Class: Tide Initiate

  Class Grade: F

  Class Rarity: Rooted

  Skills

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  1.  Surging Step

  2.  Ripple Guard

  3.  Piercing Tide

  Attributes

  Strength: 15

  Dexterity: 10

  Vitality: 10

  Endurance: 22

  Mana: 16

  Willpower: 8

  Perception: 8

  Intelligence: 11

  Alright... everything is as it should be. My stats are the same, so I didn’t physically get any stronger, but I did have to fight 11 different battles against vastly different opponents. There was definitely some on-the-job experience gained there.

  But most of all, I gained a new skill.

  One that sounded truly deadly.

  Something that would give me the confidence of attempting Battle number 12 at least.

  Though… that wasn’t something to do now. I should probably get home now; I’m sure Rakeon had to spill the beans shortly after I left, and I wouldn’t be surprised to exit the Dungeon only to find both my parents standing out there waiting and praying I made it out alive.

  The last thing I did before leaving the Dungeon was take a look at the leaderboard.

  1.  Fred – 11 – 00:01:05:47

  2.  Derrick – 2 – 00:02:35:47

  I can’t lie, there’s a part of me that feels good about being number one, but how did Derrick take that long for the frog and the snake? Maybe he tried to do it when he was still level 1 or something? I can see how that would’ve been challenging.

  But just about an hour to finish 11 battles, huh.

  I’m pretty sure most of that was spent fighting the little midget swarm. Anyway, it’s time to go.

  “FREDDY!!”

  Upon exiting the Dungeon, I was immediately met with my mother’s worried voice as she ran up to me and squeezed me tight.

  “I’m alright, mom, I’m alright.”

  She held me for a moment longer before releasing me, looking me in the eye with a stern look, and then smacking me in the face.

  “Never… Never do that again.”

  It didn’t hurt, but that slap had nothing to do with pain and more so to do with intent. Mom was truly pissed off.

  I could tell she wanted to say far more, but there was apparently something else a bit more important than further discipline, because she sighed heavily to collect herself, then grabbed my arm.

  “Come quickly, the aliens are attacking again.”

  “Wait, what? So soon?”

  She answered me while she started running.

  “They aren’t here yet!”

  I followed after her quickly as the thought of another war with them so soon danced around in my head. I’m sure we all knew they would come back eventually, but wasn’t this too soon?

  It was only this morning that we somehow managed to push them back. If they come back with the same type of force as this morning… would we be able to push them back?

  After making it back to the house with mom and learning the full brunt of the situation, I realized I’m not the only one who had similar thoughts.

  There was a big discussion happening with the family. So much so that not many people reacted to me coming back, apart from dad offering me a nod and Rakeon a shrug.

  Tuning into the conversation, I could hear the crux of the problem.

  Some of the people we would be counting on for support with the battle were instead planning on running away.

  Rakeon had gone around again trying to warn and alert everyone of the threat, but some of the people he ran into were more inclined to just run away instead of fighting.

  So the question now was whether we should do the same. If we were going to be even more outnumbered than we expected, was it even worth it to stay here and fight when the odds would be skewed in their favor?

  Of course, Grandpa did not want to give up his home. The old man had already given up his boat, and I’m pretty sure he would rather die than lose his family home as well.

  But, at the same time, he wants to protect his family more than anything else.

  So we were at a crossroads.

  Then I decided to speak up.

  “Everyone.”

  The conversation paused as all of them turned to face me.

  “I think we should stay and fight. For one, it’s going to be hard trying to run away with so many people. Who’s to say the aliens won’t chase us? We’d be in an even worse place than we are now.

  “Secondly, the Dungeon I just came out of. We don’t have time to go into detail, but it’s basically a bunch of gladiator-style matches, and you get a reward for winning.

  “The reward I got was a skill.”

  That statement caused a few eyes to go wide, but I continued.

  “And it’s a pretty powerful skill. This Dungeon is going to be how we grow strong enough to fight back. Like, properly fight back, not just scramble for our lives, but truly push them back to where they came from.”

  The last part was said with a bit more conviction than I intended, but it seemed to help drive the point home.

  Though, there was still one big hurdle here.

  If literally no one else gathered to fight back against the red people, then we would just be standing our ground just to die anyway. So, after another discussion kicked off, it was decided that we first plan to fight, but we should also prepare to escape and run for our lives if the situation called for it.

  We didn’t have long left before the battle came to us, which means I didn’t have long to rest. But this is exactly where my second Trait can truly shine.

  After the meeting was over, I assured my mother I wasn’t running away again, and made my way outside to the river and jumped in.

  Yeah… this was necessary.

  Not only did my mana start filling up faster, but even some of my exhaustion seemed to go away with each passing second.

  I’ll be ready for them.