A few days have passed since I got my first Unbound Skill, and I’ve learned a couple of things about it. First of all, it is truly monstrous. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and if someone were to use it against me, I might’ve shat myself.

  The description of the Skill wasn’t joking about the “maw” part. Literally, the giant head of something that looked like some type of water dragon was created when I activated the Skill. It was made entirely of water, and it literally roared right before it crushed whatever had the unfortunate luck of being its target.

  The first time I used it, that target was the giant snake of the first floor in the Snakebite Dungeon.

  Long story short, the snake was nothing but a simple snack for the Skill. It was chomped to bits, and all that remained of it was a mangled mess of flesh. There was nothing it could do to defend against the Skill in any way, shape, or form.

  That was how domineering it was.

  But the second thing I learned was that nothing that powerful comes without cost. In this case, the cost was all my reserves of mana and then some. After using the Skill, I was immediately rendered to a state of weakness and deep exhaustion. I was heaving uncontrollably, and if I was being attacked by something else, then I highly doubt my chances of survival.

  So, while I now had a truly powerful Skill, it was something I would only use as a last-ditch attack or like an ultimate ability to end whatever battle I was in. Either I would win in domineering fashion, or I would be rendered useless and die anyway.

  That was a massive con, but the benefits of the power I could now put forth outweighed the cons, I think, and I do not regret getting rid of Water Cloak for this new Skill. Water Cloak was a great utility Skill, and it had a couple of different benefits, especially when I was in water but Ocean’s Maw took my maximum amount of power to a whole new level.

  All in all, I was happy. Though I think I’m done asking for new Skills for a long while now. While having three Unbound Skills sounds like the right thing to do, I would be severely limited in their use if I could only use one of them per fight.

  Maybe there were different mana requirements among them, and I could get one or two that I could use repeatedly, but there was no use in risking it since the benefits didn’t outweigh the risks in this case.

  The next battle will either be Weapons/Armor or even Money. We were still a long way from collecting enough Gold Coins to buy the faction thing, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take Money as a reward at this point.

  Hm. I actually like the sound of that.

  But things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows. While there was a massive surge in the participants of the Gauntlet Dungeon, things were now calming down a bit over the last couple of days.

  People had entered, but they were not coming back.

  There was no way of knowing for sure whether they were still alive and just going through battles, but no one has ever been inside for days and made it out so far. And if people were going in without learning information about where the difficulty spikes were and what to expect, then things could go left very quickly.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  And well, based on what’s happening here, they did for a number of people, from what I could gather from conversations I overheard or someone else in the family overheard.

  That didn’t stop people from entering, just the intensity at which they did.

  Then another week passed.

  Things were changing, but I don’t know if I could quite say they were changing for the better. Actually…yeah, no, they weren’t. James doing his leadership gimmick a little bit ago for the big battle was basically the start of it.

  The problem was that he wasn’t the only one who apparently felt that way.

  Today was a big day for the Williams Family. After plenty of training and extensive conversations on following instructions, and more than enough worrying arguments from their moms, my little cousins were finally about to be allowed in the Snakebite Dungeon.

  And it wasn’t just them. All the kids that moved in with Miss Vera have been training and getting the same type of warnings and instructions as my cousins. Obviously we weren’t about to bring the whole group with us, so just a few of them were here.

  Not including Rakeon, I had five other cousins in the house. Two were the daughters of Uncle Mack and his wife Kimberly. Another girl and a boy from Uncle Robert and his wife Abigail. And finally, Rakeon’s little brother, son to Aunt Renee and her husband Terrance.

  On this Dungeon run, there would only be Rakeon’s little brother, Rendon, and Uncle Robert’s son, Patrick. I thought we could take more, but the agreement was no more than two at a time. So both Rendon and Patrick would be joined by myself, Rakeon, and Uncle Robert.

  It was also unanimously agreed that no moms were allowed, as it felt like it would be detrimental to their growth.

  That was all good and dandy, until we ran into a problem we really didn’t see coming.

  Once we made it to the entrance for the Dungeon, quite a few people were gathered there, and tensions were obviously high as people were shouting. It actually looked like a few of them could start fighting any second now.

  It didn’t take us very long to hear what was going on.

  “I’m not repeating myself after this! This Dungeon is now our property! It rose up in front of my house, and by right I can claim it. If you want to enter, all you have to do is pay a small tax either now when you get in, or when you get out.

  “Just a few Coins will do, and there won’t be any problems.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. No matter how big their group was, or how strong they thought they were, there was no way he realistically believed that he could force people to pay taxes just to use the Dungeon.

  It just didn’t make sense.

  Then out of nowhere a loud thud resounded in the area, and almost everyone’s focus shifted to our direction.

  I looked to the source of the sound to see the tip of Uncle Robert’s big-ass sword lodged in the ground. He usually just walked around with it resting on his shoulders, but I think this situation was kind of pissing him off.

  Probably because he was out with his son today.

  I looked back over at the one who was talking initially, and I could see he kind of tensed a bit. Not necessarily scared, but perhaps a little nervous. It was no surprise since the members of my family were kind of known far more these days than before all of this began.

  And we weren’t known for being weak.

  The man in question mustered up his courage and then began speaking toward Uncle Robert.

  “…Don’t think this doesn’t apply to you and your family as well. Pay the tax, and you can go in the Dungeon. Simple as that.”

  I think I’ll let Uncle Robert handle this situation, but the grip on my spear was firm. If any one of them tried anything, then… well, some things are better left unsaid.

  “And if we don’t?”

  It was a simple question. So simple it was practically the most cliché response Uncle Robert could give in this situation. Yet it was as effective as it was cliché. The words not only cut into the present tension like a knife through butter, they raised the curtain on what was sure to be a fight.

  Right?

  There’s no way they came out here with such bravado that they wouldn’t be willing to fight for what they were saying.

  The situation was a little unfavorable because we had Rendon and Patrick here, and neither of them were even 14 yet, but I’m sure one Ocean’s Maw would be enough to get things in order.

  So, what will it be then? Fighting, or did Uncle Robert call their bluff?