I’m assuming it was because this was the natural way to do things, but Grandpa finished the fusing process a lot quicker and a lot less quietly than the process of integrating his Traits.

  Throughout the process I could obviously hear him straining a little bit, but it wasn’t anything too alarming, just the sounds of a man that was heavily focused on the task before him.

  Either way it was complete now.

  There wasn’t any big flash or big boom or anything to signify the significance of what he accomplished, but even I could tell that he felt different. It was hard to kind of put my finger on what exactly about him felt different.

  He just kinda did. It was like he was more powerful somehow. Again I couldn’t really explain that feeling, but it just felt like the truth. Grandpa was more powerful, and for some reason I could feel that he was.

  “Son… Freddy…

  “I feel like a new man.

  “This body of mine… There’s nothing it can’t do. Not even in my prime did I ever feel this young and spry!

  “I wish Andrea could see me now!!!”

  Hearing my grandma’s name made me smile a bit, and just thinking about her made everything feel alright again for a moment.

  Though the fact Grandpa could talk like that only gave me confidence that he was alright.

  And not even an hour later we were back with the members of my family, where Grandpa was giving a short synopsis of his power in hushed tones.

  Not everything needed to be said out loud for others to hear.

  But me and dad got to hear the real version of it on the way here as we watched Grandpa demolish the snakes all the way down the floors so he could stretch his legs, as he described it.

  It was honestly beautiful to watch. To see him in his element, even with the missing arm, just be utterly unstoppable. There was nothing they could do to get in his way and hold him back.

  Even that last snake on floor number five, something that was truly big and strong, Grandpa practically manhandled it. And it was due to first the integration and then the creation of the gene.

  We learned that upon integrating your Traits, there would be a boost to your stats, whether it was strength, speed, intelligence, or whatever it was depending on your Traits and exactly what they did. Once integrated, your stats would get boosted.

  My Grandpa thinks that the boost he received could’ve been more if he did it the right way, but we would have no way of knowing, at least not yet, not until someone else goes through the integration.

  But the fusing, that was an entirely different ball game altogether. Not only did he keep the stats gained from when he integrated his Traits, but they practically doubled, and for the stats that weren’t touched upon integrating, even they went up slightly.

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  Now it was a full body upgrade to every part of Grandpa, and it was something I was looking forward to myself. Even then, those are just the raw stats, things that could be quantified.

  But the gene was more than everything his Traits could do. The gene not only did that, but way better, and then some.

  And it was important to remember that Grandpa didn’t have unbound Traits. I did, my cousin did, so now I’m even more looking forward to seeing what my gene will turn out to be.

  Anyway, since Grandpa wants us to take the natural route, it’s likely gonna be some time before that happens, but we’re currently planning to go back outside.

  Which meant there would be a lot more opportunities for all the vigorous exercises in the world I could possibly need.

  Since we didn’t plan to come back into the dungeon for quite some time, the goal was to go out there and take back our city. We would be making something of an announcement to the rest of the people down here that they were free to join us, but we weren’t counting on them.

  The men of the Williams family will handle it.

  This is where our faction was located and this is where we will stay.

  Now Grandpa did mention something that was particularly interesting and also a bit worrying. He now had the option of evolving to the E Grade. Once he completed integration and fusing, it simply manifested next to his level on his status.

  But it came with a warning directly from the system. Once he completes his evolution, it will contribute significantly to beginning the next phase. Of course we knew the name of the phase, but there was no description of exactly what would happen.

  Though the fact that Phase 3 is called Grade Lift is probably all the explanation we need.

  If Grandpa were to evolve, or I assume enough people on Earth, it likely meant that the enemy would be allowed to send E Grades to attack us next. I’m not sure how many of them they had, but it was probably good to assume they had thousands if not millions of them on payroll.

  So Grandpa decided to hold off on the evolution, and all we could do was hope anyone else with the option to evolve would also hold off, at least until more and more people on Earth also have that option, despite how long it would apparently take to get there.

  Anyway, there’s some killing to be done and it was about time to do it. All the men of the Williams family would be going out for this one, and since there were still children to watch and take care of, my mom and aunts all agreed to stay back and keep watch.

  Hopefully the next time we made it down here it was to tell them they were safe to come up and that we could all go back to the compound. For now, it’s finally time for business.

  …

  Meanwhile on Vika…

  POV High Elder Evako

  “Report.”

  “High Elder, the Crimson have had resounding success in a majority of the locations they’ve reached thus far.

  “Unfortunately, in an effort to be more efficient, they decided to split their numbers apart slightly. Not enough that only one or two of them were handling major pockets, but instead of thousands moving one at a time, they had divided into groups of a few hundred

  “They were still conquering large population pockets at a great rate, but as a result there were a few areas still putting up a resistance.”

  “Those arrogant fools! How dare they disregard an order from the Great Vikar!

  ‘Tell them to consolidate as quickly as possible. Their job isn’t to wipe out the population, but only to destroy as much as they can until the Grade Lift!”

  “At once, High Elder.”

  Tch. I cannot accept another failure. If that boy ignores another command I will take his head myself. I don’t give a damn who his mother is.

  Do they not understand the importance this Subjugation holds? The price we had to pay to find and subjugate a pre-int world? If we fail here… only hell awaits us. We must not. We cannot.

  A world of a few vigorous weaklings will not stand in the way of the Vikar and his ascendancy to the C Grade. Especially not when… when… they… will soon come to collect.

  …We must not fail.