After pulling my cousin away from the System Shop, we returned to find the same group still standing outside.

  They were no longer in a group and weren’t having any more conversations though. In fact they were spread out around the compound as they kept watch on the situation.

  Actually Uncle Terrance was the first one we saw as he was tucked away in the forest area near the gate. Which made me think just how much I forgot about the size of the compound.

  The forest area he was in right now wasn’t small, in fact it spread throughout the entire property.

  From the front gate, the only house that was visible was the main house and it was still down a decently long driveway.

  Anyway after waiting for the whole group to gather round, I then spent a few minutes explaining the System Shop. Between my cousin and I, we were able to tell them everything that we saw being sold.

  Needless to say they were just as surprised and rightfully excited as Rakeon and I.

  The existence of the shop and fact it was so close to us was a blessing. This is now quite literally our lifeline.

  Something everyone here understood.

  “Then let’s get this over with. There’s a lot of stuff in that shop we need and we get can’t jack without money. While you boys were gone, we decided on the first dungeon team. You Freddy, since your one of our higher leveled and you’ve been in a Dungeon before.

  “Joining you will be myself, Renee, and Robert for a squad of four. Everyone else will be staying here to hold down the fort.”

  “Now I don’t mean to whine here dad, but you chose your nephew over your own son? This has gotta be some form of betrayal. The worst kind of betrayal even.”

  “Rakeon, you got the next one, just keep your Grandpa company, you know he’s getting up there in age.”

  That caused a few chuckles from the group.

  “Watch it Terrance, just cause I like you, don’t mean I won’t slap you upside the head.”

  We all laughed a bit and the banter continued for a while longer.

  It was really nice to see that we could all still laugh like this while being in the situation we were in.

  But the four person squad isn’t bad.

  I would’ve rather had Grandpa be with us in the dungeon, but we still needed people here to keep watch and fight if needed. If all the strongest people went off into the Dungeon, and the red people attacked, then who knows what we could come home to see.

  Anyway.

  A few more discussions were held, small backpacks were packed with the few provisions we had, and eventually we departed towards the Dungeon on 3rd Street.

  One of the things we talked about was the team composition.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Everyone in the group had managed to earn class, but it wasn’t like there were many options to choose from, and based on the composition of the group, people were either really against the Heartborne classes or just felt rushed or forced to pick something in the moment.

  Both Uncle Terrance and Uncle Robert chose the Warrior Class, Aunt Renee was a Hunter and finally I was a Tide Initiate which really didn’t mean much right now, but it’s what we got.

  Three front line attackers and one ranged.

  Honestly adding Rakeon would’ve definitely help to round things off, but for now he’d be more helpful guarding the house.

  It took us a while to get there as we had to move with extreme caution, and it wasn’t like we all suddenly became stealth experts so it was probably even slower than needed, with everyone hiding and tip toeing around like a baby is sleeping in the next room.

  But we made it.

  Right on 3rd Street just like Rakeon said.

  In the middle of the street there was a tunnel like cave entrance protruding from the floor and as if some mystical magic was stopping us from seeing in, all we saw was darkness even though the sun was still out and shining.

  Upon approaching it, the entrance notification flashed in front of all of us.

  Enter Dungeon: SnakeBite.SD5?

  Grade: F

  Yes/No?

  Well.

  There was no surprise as to what we should expect in this Dungeon.

  Barring some sort of odd occurrence…there was a pretty good chance that we were going to have to be fighting snakes.

  Thankfully none of us were particularly scared of snakes.

  At least not that I knew of. Aunt Renee did look a little nervous though.

  Anyway… ‘SD.5’.

  Something like that wasn’t there for the Little Maw Dungeon, and it honestly doesn’t look like it’s part of the name. It’s almost like a version number. Are there different version of this Dungeon out there?

  I really can’t wait to buy those books. There’s just so much I don’t know.

  Whatever…clearing this Dungeon will give me the money I need for that, so I need to lock in here.

  Teleporting in with the rest of the group, one look around showed that we all made it together, but it also showed us that I had no idea where the hell we were.

  Obviously we were in the Dungeon but the place we found ourself in was…weird.

  There was one straight but oval shaped path stretching out in front of us, and I could faintly see what looked to be two entrances to separate tunnels on the left and right sides of the big one that stretched out in front.

  But that wasn’t the weird part…

  “Are we in a damn skeleton?”

  Aunt Renee voiced the thought that lingered in my mind.

  The ‘walls’ around us quite literally looked like massive giant pale white-ish or yellow-ish bones. And each one of these individual bones…if that’s what they were…were absolutely massive. It was like we were now standing in the ribcage of a giant.

  The fact that the so called bones were built into the wall was my only reason of doubt. Who knows, it could actually just be a weird bone-like type of stone.

  Anyway.

  We weren’t here to sightsee, and the notification in front of me was proof of that.

  Welcome to SnakeBite.SD5

  Defeat the Floor Boss to Advance

  Note: Leaving is only possible after a Floor or the Dungeon is Cleared

  I dismissed the notification and turned to my family members who were all looking around with various degrees of caution.

  “Alright everyone. All of you should have seen the notification. We can’t leave until we defeat whatever the floor boss is. We weren’t given a time limit, so I’m going to assume we can take our time.

  “We haven’t been attacked yet, but that can change at any moment. I’d guess that we probably gotta walk to the end of the path in front of us to find the boss and there are likely going to be snakes hiding everywhere.

  “So let’s be careful. With that being said, I think we should stay in a group formation.

  “Uncle Terrance you’ll be in the front of to the left, Uncle Robert you'll be on the front to the right, and Aunt Renee you’ll be in the middle but trailing at a short distance to give you time to use your bow.

  “I’ll be standing close to Aunt Renee and helping where I’m needed. Any questions?”

  They all looked at me with very confused gazes until Uncle Robert decided to stay something.

  “What the hell are they teaching kids in school these days? Why do you know all of this?”

  “I just play a lot of video games Uncle Robert.”

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