Turns out the Saber wasn’t anything too special. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it probably was a problem for many people who reached this far, but it didn’t have any grand abilities, just speed, power, and what I assume to be a very ferocious bite that I personally probably wouldn’t be able to recover from in a short time.

  At my current level of strength, dealing with some speed and power is the least of my worries. Problems usually arose when whatever I was fighting had some random ability, like being able to light their entire body on fire or shooting quills at me from many points on their body.

  So with that being said, dealing with the sabretooth tiger thing wasn’t as difficult compared to some of my previous opponents. Once again, all it took was a little patience and some careful, well timed strikes, and the beast was dead.

  Not to say it wasn’t hard or that it was a walk in the park, but I’ve had plenty of experience under my belt now. After all this time, fighting these beasts one on one, even if I didn’t intend to, has forced me to become patient and learn precision when I attack through nothing but real fighting experience.

  You cannot ignore the benefits of that, and with battles like these, I’m seeing it pay off.

  The end of this battle brings me to another decision, though I’ve kind of already made up my mind. I think it’s time for another skill.

  That’s the goal in being an in the Dungeon, getting stronger. Yes, my new spear will help me with that greatly, but I don’t think that’ll help me defeat the lava man. All it will do is make sure I’m competitive in my upcoming battles. Now it’s time to actually move toward being able to defeat the lava man, and I’ll do that by getting a new skill, hopefully one that’s Unbound and fits my current repertoire of skills.

  Reward Granted: Skill

  Ebb and Flow (Unbound)

  The user’s mana and stamina mirror the natural rhythm of tides, ever rising, ever falling. With the ebb, you rest and restore. With the flow, you surge and conquer. A passive skill best realized in battle.

  Oh, shit. Oh, my shit. If this is what I think it is, then aren’t all my problems fixed? No, this has got to be plot armor. If this was a book, I would, without a shadow of a doubt, consider this plot armor. This is 100 percent the type of thing Grandpa would give to his main characters. Because if this works like I think it works, then my problem of having too many Unbound skills would fix itself I think, right?

  It says it right there, ebb and flow. During the ebb, my body will rest and likely recover stamina and mana. Then, when the flow comes back, it will surge to peak levels, and I’ll be able to attack and fight at my peak. Oh, wait a second. That could also be bad.

  Maybe it’s not plot armor after all, because if that means I’m recovering and resting and that happens in the middle of a battle, I’ll have to immediately go on the defensive. So my internal state can already on the defensive, even without my say so, since this is a passive skill, not an active one, which means no matter what I do, I will enter that ebb state.

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  But at the same time, a battle naturally has peaks and lows anyway. There are plenty of times in tough fights where you have to go on the defensive, focus on blocking or dodging, and then there are times where you strike.

  Isn’t that basically what I’ve been doing these past couple of fights? Remaining patient and striking when the time is right, following the ebb and flow of battle.

  All right, this will work. Now, here comes the problem. What do I get rid of? Ocean’s Maw isn’t going anywhere, but both Piercing Tide and Surging Step are excellent skills that have more than served me well. Dammit, why can I only have three skills?

  Goddammit, in all those other books, those main characters could have a million skills, damn near an entire page in the book dedicated to listing all their skills. Where is that? Instead, here I am, having to deliberate over just three skill slots. Where is the justice?

  Dammit, I can’t sit here forever, but I suppose I already know the answer. Piercing Tide, you’ve been good to me, but I think it’s time for you to go, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

  If Ebb and Flow works like I think it does, then I hope Ocean’s Maw will be a lot more usable going forward. Even if I can’t spam it like I spammed Piercing Tide, then I’m hoping I’ll be able to use it two or three times in a fight without becoming a walking husk from a lack of mana.

  Sigh. I’ll miss Piercing Tide though. Well, I can’t focus too much on the past. I now have two Unbound skills, Ocean’s Maw and Ebb and Flow, which means I seriously need to consider whether or not I should shoot for a third one.

  Surging Step is an amazing skill, and I don’t believe there’s any need for me to push to get rid of it. It does everything I need it to do, improves my speed on land and drastically improves my speed in water, and it will only become more effective the higher my mana capacity goes.

  Perhaps I’ll shift focus to my Traits, which is an even trickier situation. With all three of my Traits, I don’t want to go as far as to say they’re perfect, but they work extremely well with my body and skill set.

  Changing one of them will require serious thought, but that’s all right. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Future Freddy will handle everything.

  So, with that being said, I once again spent the downtime in the lobby recovering as best as possible and focusing on my mana meditation. Before long, the time ran out, and it was once again time to reenter the arena. Only this time, I was met with another message about an increase in difficulty.

  Oh, shit.

  I was already fighting what I considered to be beasts at peak F Grade, so what the hell does it mean that the difficulty is being increased? I know for a fact that I do not have the ability to kill something in the E Grade. Well, I could be wrong and overexaggerating, but I really don’t think that’s within my abilities. So how can the difficulty increase again?

  Because there’s no leaving or quitting a battle until it’s over, whether that means you’re dead or alive after securing victory, I have no choice but to find out exactly what it means about the difficulty being increased.

  Sigh

  Battle 41 - Gravemaw Lupentis

  Now, what the hell is that?

  Before me stood something that looked like a cross between a praying mantis and, well, I don’t know, something out of a horror story. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it definitely gave off praying mantis vibes, except for the fact that it was huge, covered in stone gray fur, and the ridges of its skeleton were exposed along its sides.

  I didn’t even need to fight it to understand about the increase in difficulty. I could see it plain as day.