The amount of blood and gore littered around the entrance of the Dungeon was enough to make even the strongest of people see what they ate breakfast this morning in a much different state.

  Yet somewhat worryingly it didn’t phase me in the slightest. Ocean’s Maw was a devastating skill, but it wasn’t something that completely got rid of the target it was directed towards.

  There would always be something left of their remains, and this time the result wasn’t against that line of thinking. They were all dead. Even the lava women didn’t survive the attack, even though her body was in far better shape than the others.

  But her neck was bent in the wrong direction.

  Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’ve taken the lives of others, but the ease and the lack of disgust that should’ve accompanied this sight was slightly worrisome to say the least. I don’t think I was at risk of having an anxiety attack or some type of self-discovery crisis, but the feeling I had right now was just…odd.

  Unfortunately, there was no time ponder about that, or even to lament over the fact that I just missed out on so much XP, as I had other business to attend to. Giving one last glance around the area, I vanished into the Dungeon.

  I knew I made a lot of noise around here, and that there would be more of them approaching, and even though I just took care of one lava person, an entire group of them would be a different story. I wasn’t so arrogant to assume I would be able to successfully handle a situation like that.

  Hopefully I can exit with my family in tow, and we’ll take care of them together. All of us…together…

  …

  Before long, I once again found myself on the fourth floor of the Dungeon, only I wasn’t the same Freddy that once stepped foot here in the past, and even with the loss of Surging Step, my base speed was higher than it was before.

  I simply moved toward the cavern where the giant stone snake thing with enough speed that the lunching stone snakes weren’t much of an issue, and even the ones that almost got me were promptly slapped away by my spear.

  Once I made it to the floor boss, one Ocean’s Maw and a little bit of a beating with my new spear was enough to take care of it. It wasn’t exactly a one shot kill type of situation but it was pretty close to that in reality.

  Phew.

  Now for a floor I have no knowledge of.

  And considering the challenge I faced in the Fourth Floor, the Fifth should be relatively close if not at a Peak F Grade equivalent. And even though I did relatively well in the Dungeon against something that was Demi-E, that was a scenario in which I was also empowered to the strongest I could get, and the opponent was a baby.

  I had no delusion about that battle at all.

  Well maybe a few but nothing serious. I knew that if I were to fight something that was Demi-E on land, like a wolf or something, things would’ve had a chance to go down a far different path.

  With how varied the floors have been this far and I expected more of the same here on the Fifth Floor. Thinking I would find myself in some sort of complex environment tailored to my opponent. With the exception of the First Floor, the previous ones have been exactly like that.

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  But that wasn’t the case.

  At least not entirely.

  I found myself in a dark circular room with no exit. There was nowhere to run, and no journey to take. No weaker minions I needed to take care of, or anything of the sort. It was just a dark circular room.

  Only I wasn’t the only occupant of the room.

  Coiled along the edges of the massive room, was a mammoth of a snake, who had one part of its body raised in the air, and was looking down on like a king observing its servants. Or maybe it would be more accurate to call it a predator observing the arrival of its latest meal.

  And unlike all the other snakes that filled this Dungeon on the higher floors, this one had a very normal appearance. In fact it quite literally resembled an anaconda, just one that was a whole bigger than I’d ever seen.

  Actually, with the fact that mana now existed on Earth, I didn’t doubt that perhaps anacondas could now likely reach this level on their own. That was both an exciting and an alarming thought all at once.

  Either way, there would be no prelude to the battle here, and perhaps if I hadn’t been fighting a bunch of terrifying monsters in the Gauntlet Dungeon, not to mention a far larger serpentine creature just before this, then maybe I would be a little uncomfortable under its gaze.

  Even then…the passive of my new skill would’ve been there to keep me calm cool and collected in the face of this danger. Just like it was subtly helping with now.

  Long story short, I would definitely take this fight seriously and not allow arrogance or laziness to cloud my judgment and the use of my skills, but I couldn’t help the fact that some of my worry went away upon seeing the creature.

  It was strong, yes, and not that long ago, it would’ve been a problem for me, but as it stands, I think that piece of shit ass crab was far more ‘dangerous’ in its own way than the snake standing before me.

  Perhaps if it had some other ability, like venom or well…something else other than physical might, then this would’ve been a real challenge, but…it just wasn’t.

  Unlike the stone snake things on the Fourth Floor, its skin simply wasn’t hard enough to truly resist the might of an Unbound skill. It was a powerful creature, and if it managed to successfully grab hold of me using the coils of its body, or even if it managed to chomp me, I wouldn’t survive at all.

  But it didn’t manage either and below the E Grade, Unbound is hard to resist.

  And this massive snake was no different.

  Before long I was accepting rewards after the battle but I didn’t pay much attention to it, as there was a message on my screen that made me smile and fanned the flames of hope in my chest even harder than before.

  You have completed the F Grade Portion of the Snakebite Dungeon

  Progress to the next Stage or Exit Dungeon?

  Note: The next portion of the Dungeon is shared

  Of course, the choice was easy as ever, and Immediately selected the option of progressing to the next stage, hoping that my family actually progressed to this point as well.

  What I appeared to was not really what I expected though. Based on what I saw in the shared space of the Gauntlet Dungeon I once again was expecting more of the same here. Structures, and perhaps another religious zealot hoping to convert everyone here.

  But what stepped into was a depressing atmosphere.

  A lot of people, almost as many as I remember being in Lagia before I entered the Gauntlet Dungeon, but the place barren. There were no structures or any strange individuals dressed in robes as far as I can see.

  Just a heavy dressing atmosphere, and makeshift tents made out of what appeared to be clothes, and whatever else they had on them, but they were few of those.

  Most people were just huddled together with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

  And the scent of blood.

  It was heavy.

  There were a lot of eyes that snapped on to me when I arrived, and I could immediately see a few individuals already looking as if they wanted to approach me, but I didn’t care about any of them as bad as it sounded.

  Not right now.

  My eyes quickly scanned the entire area desperately searching for familiar faces.

  “FREDDY!”

  Ah.

  I would know that voice anywhere.

  Quickly turning to the sound, I saw my mother running towards me, and simply because I was looking in that direction, I saw behind her as well, where a group of people stood behind her and looked towards me with warm tired eyes.

  Only…the amount of faces looking in my direction didn’t match the number of people in my family…

  No…