Status

  Name: Fred Williams

  Born World: Earth (ENWPI70059)

  Race: Human

  Age: 17

  Grade: F

  Level: 42

  XP: 4390/30129

  Mana: 130/130(30)

  Stat Points: 0

  Traits

  Trait 1: Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)

  Trait 2: Soaked Pulse Membrane (Rooted)

  Trait 3: Hydro Adapted Muscles (Rooted)

  Class

  Current Class: Tide Initiate

  Class Grade: F

  Class Rarity: Rooted

  Skills

  1.  Surging Step

  2.  Water Cloak

  3.  Piercing Tide

  Attributes

  Strength: 29

  Dexterity: 15

  Vitality: 15

  Endurance: 22

  Mana: 26

  Willpower: 12

  Perception: 12

  Intelligence: 11

  I’ve been into the Dungeon three additional times over the past month. Since Grandpa had pushed the envelope and reached Battle 21, the family knew what to expect there, and that was where the first of my last three Dungeon runs ended.

  Battle 21 was against something called a Crag Mauler.

  It was nothing but a giant gorilla-type creature that was covered in a thick protective hide, and its massive fists were covered in something else altogether that resembled stone somewhat.

  It was the first time I’d fought something that genuinely put small craters in the floor of the arena.

  The battle wasn’t a quick one, and by the end of it all, I was exhausted after having used up all my mana. Maintaining the Water Cloak, running away and toward the big gorilla with Surging Steps, and using Piercing Tide to deliver blow after blow until it was down.

  Due to the state of my mana, I ended the battle right there and claimed my reward.

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  My third Trait.

  Hydro-Adapted Muscles.

  They were truly something special.

  Hydro-Adapted Muscles

  Muscles are saturated with water mana, increasing elasticity and strength.

  The description was short, but it was just as sweet. Every person on Earth was quite literally made up of a large percentage of water. This was normal and another point in favor of why water was king, but after my second Trait, that percentage likely jumped another margin.

  There was quite literally a spongey mana membrane made of water coursing through my body.

  Then came this, Hydro-Adapted Muscles.

  My muscles were now truly infused with the power of water.

  Not only did I get stronger, but the way in which I moved grew in fluidity. It didn’t suddenly become water, but I was definitely far more like water than I was before.

  Just one Trait was all it took to raise my strength by a significant amount. Even though my level of attributes stayed the same, the power that I gained was significant enough to cause problems to any one of those black armor-wearing aliens.

  My second trip back into the Dungeon was a bit of a failure, honestly.

  This time I went back in before Grandpa had a chance to raise his lead against me, so the battles I fought were the first anyone else in the family had experienced them.

  I managed to push to Battle 25.

  The opponent this time was a crocodile-like beast called a Vine Blackmaw.

  Apart from the gaping and powerful, black-colored jaws of the creature, the deadliest feature it possessed were the vines that grew out of its spine.

  The second the battle began, it rushed after me with ferocious speed and immediately lashed out at me with powerful vines.

  It was not an easy battle, and there was even a point in time when I didn’t manage to properly dodge one of its vines, and it grabbed me by the foot and pulled me up off my feet. Though it made a mistake by not separating me from my spear when it did so.

  Truly a foolish mistake.

  The beast brought me up over its body and brought me down toward its wide-open maw, and one Piercing Tide was all I needed to get rid of it by that point.

  That wasn’t what made it a failure though.

  Due to how close that battle felt, I decided to end my run right there and accept the reward given. I chose a skill.

  One that I ended up rejecting.

  The skill itself wasn’t a bad one, it had something to do with echolocation in the water. But only in the water. While a skill like that would definitely have its benefits, I couldn’t spare one of my only three slots for something that wouldn’t directly help me in battle.

  At least not at the time. Perhaps now I could’ve given it more thought, but it’s gone now.

  So I risked my life fighting in the Dungeon only to leave with nothing. Which meant I forever lost the reward for Battle 25.

  My third and most recent Dungeon run was both a long and a short one.

  It was long because I had to fight my way back to the last battle I had, and while the first 20 or so battles were simple enough to handle, everything starting from Battle 21 was no easy fight.

  Even though I knew what to expect, the battles still posed quite a bit of a challenge.

  Battle 26 was no different.

  The reason why that last run was also quick was because I stopped immediately after Battle 26, meaning I only managed to complete one extra battle before being forced to retire.

  Ashen Direwolf.

  It was quite literally a gigantic pitch-black wolf whose paws were covered in deep crimson flames.

  The thing even breathed those same flames from time to time.

  Honestly, I still don’t know how I survived that battle. I ran out of mana long before the battle ended, and by the time I managed to somehow claw, scrape, and practically will myself to victory, both of my arms were useless, my spear destroyed, and countless other wounds littered my body.

  If Rakeon wasn’t waiting for me outside, then I don’t know if I would’ve survived.

  Thankfully, the pricier medical supplies ensured I wasn’t out of commission for long, and I was able to put the reward I chose from surviving against the wolf to use.

  After thinking about it deeply, I really didn’t want to waste another reward by choosing a skill I potentially wouldn’t use, and considering a 4th option didn’t show up under my list of Traits, it was safe to assume that they would also be locked to only three.

  Which left coins, XP, and a weapon or armor.

  I didn’t need coins, was getting plenty of XP, and considering the amount of damage I just took, choosing the weapon/armor option was by far the easiest choice to make there.

  My reward was called the Lightvein Plate.

  It was a light brown chest plate that was made up of a bunch of different hexagonal pieces made out of a material that I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around.

  The chest plate was hard, like properly hard, yet it was also extremely light, maybe not even a pound in weight.

  Honestly, part of me was hoping to get a really nice spear, maybe even a trident. The Dungeon was obviously tailoring its rewards to whoever earned them, so I thought the same would happen here in a way, but I couldn’t complain about the chest plate.

  It would definitely serve me well, I think.

  Now, since that fight against the wolf, we all kind of agreed that nobody would be attempting to fight it unless they were truly ready. That was how strong it was.

  And I knew full well that even with this armor, there was no telling what the result of the next battle between us would be.

  So instead, I focused on training.

  After all, we finally got our hands on the Basic Weapon Handling and Foundation of Martial Movement books.

  There was even the Introduction to Mana book as well.

  My main focus has been trying to digest every word in these books and applying them to my fighting.

  A training arc, if you will.