After Arthur and Mira got up, they realized they’d been asleep for roughly 5-6 hours. Despite the relatively short time, they felt fully rested. While they didn’t know it yet, humans and otherwise after the System wouldn’t need as much sleep as previously. They were both fully healed from their previous battle and were ready to continue. When they left the Secure Sector, they received a message shortly after.

  

  continue down then turn left

  Arthur wondered why they’d not received messages while in the safe room, but had gotten them once they went outside. He would’ve liked to think that whomever it was giving them these messages simply respected their privacy, but doubted it.

  Time went by in a flash. As the hours passed, the messages led them down each path, killing abominations occasionally. However, for some reason, Mira was becoming restless. She insisted they began hunting for more abominations, but was quickly juxtaposed by the messages. It’d said that most of the monsters in the area had been in the battle at the walkway, and getting further away from the dungeon boss to hunt more was out of the question. This didn’t mean that they wouldn’t encounter all the ones that were left, however. It also implied some kind of time crunch, and while Mira was dissatisfied, she complied. Arthur had the feeling that she approved of this messenger less and less by the day.

  As time went on, they’d gradually gained levels. The previous tide of experience became a trickle as they gained only one level per every few monsters rather than leveling up almost every fight. During this time, Arthur and Mira had both gained skills.

  

  [Absolvement]: Expend a stack of [Audacity] to absorb the damage of an ally within your area of influence. Physical and bodily state changes apply. Cannot absorb damage of deceased ally. Cannot absorb damage from a higher leveled ally that outstrips your current vitality. Requires physical contact. Long cooldown.

  [True Heart of Devotion] Applicable.

  Arthur was glad to gain this skill. He knew that even with the True Heart of Devotion buff, its cooldown would still be no joke. He understood that this was a last resort type of option, but was glad that he gained such an option at all. His healing from the overpowered passive was alright, but it wouldn’t save someone from the brink of death. With this, he could give Mira or anyone else a do over for just one stack of Audacity. The fact that he would take on the damage of the recipient was not part of his thoughts at all. While Arthur was happy with his skill, Mira was downright rapturous at her skill choice.

  

  [Savage Barrage]: Aggressively strike an enemy with many hits. Damage scales off of melee damage, with the last strike inflicting [Fear] on the opponent. Duration of [Fear] scales off of magical damage.

  ***[Fear]: The target is fearful of the user and is liable to freeze in terror. The likelihood of the target freezing in terror is dependent upon the users’ amount of damage dealt to the target.

  Savage Barrage was a solid addition to her repertoire of attacking skills, for many reasons. First, her getting any attacking skills was imperative in the current situation they found themselves in, trapped in a dungeon. Arthur’s ludicrous defensive capabilities were more than enough to protect them from anything that could deal serious damage. On top of that, Mira’s current healing capabilities were more than enough to heal what little damage they did suffer. Therefore, what they lacked most currently was damage dealing capabilities themselves, which this skill accounted for nicely.

  The second reason was that she finally gained a skill that could inflict the promised Fear condition, making other facets of her skill set stronger as well. Lightblade Song was a skill that refreshed fear, so using it in tandem with Savage Barrage was not only optimal, but obligatory. The condition Fear in itself was a strong addition to her abilities as well, being a good match for her build. It would last longer depending on her magical damage, and would proc more often due to her high damage capabilities. Arthur’s oppressive passive enhanced those high damage capabilities even further, making the likelihood of their enemies freezing in fear vast. This was to say nothing of her Life Bane damage over time, which she instinctively understood worked with the Fear affliction.

  The only issue is that for a long time, she’d been unable to test it. Once Arthur Enraged an enemy, it would only take the barest effort from Mira to slay it. With Arthur now having access to Challenging Moxie, he was able to Enrage almost every enemy immediately upon encountering them. Even entire groups would attack him, with his shield blocking only some as his body endured the rest. His defense was now at such a level that the enemies could barely even hurt him, with the rare deep cut or stab wound. Sentinal Aura was also a solid workhorse for both Arthur and Mira, as since he had much more than 10 stacks of Audacity, they both gained Sentinal Bond. This condition bolstered both their mana regeneration and overall mana, making resources the last of their problems during the battles.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  After a long time, with several battles and rests in between, Arthur and Mira found themselves in front of a giant door. It looked like double doors you would find on a pirate’s ship, full of cracks and holes, yet looking sturdy. The handles were drooping, as though broken. As the duo looked upon the double door in awe and confusion, the messages flashed in front of them once again.

  

  dungeon boss beyond this door. shark and octopus abomination. both sides are dangerous

  itll be with other abominations. its weakness is brain. destroy that, destroy it

  These were by far the longest messages they’d received from the benefactor. That, however, paled in importance compared to the information therein. Firstly, this was the boss’ room. Apparently, it was some kind of shark-octopus mix that was sure to be horrible. An abomination sharktopus wasn’t something he’d care to see, or even know about. Its weakness being its brain was good information, as if he could Enrage it, and Mira got on top of it, it could be a quick kill. The other abominations in the room could be a problem if they all attacked together, but otherwise, nothing else really worried Arthur. He wouldn’t be arrogant and assume that it wasn’t a threat, but knowing its weakness was a boon he planned to fully exploit.

  He and Mira continued to look at the door, inner thoughts absorbing them both. Arthur was now level 27, and the moment he’d walked into the aquarium felt like so long ago. It hadn’t been more than 36 hours since the System came, but with everything that had happened, it felt like weeks. With him looking at the boss room door, however, he felt ready as he could ever be. Ready to end this nightmare, and go find his family. As he steeled his senses one more time, he looked to Mira, who was waiting for him.

  “Are you ready?” Arthur asked, wanting to make sure she had no last second preparations to make.

  “Open it and let’s get the hell out of here.” Arthur nodded, and they pushed the door open and into the darkness.

  “Are you okay?” Ema asked her friend. They’d just gotten back from the worst battle yet, and were resting in the final safe area they had left. All the rest had been destroyed by the interlopers, with Gideon, Aurora, and Ema fighting a retreating battle for days. Their priority was to cover the other previous students, staff and otherwise’s retreat into other safe zones they’d established in their month and a half of fighting. This resulted in them often taking heavy damage, and the only reason either of them were still alive was because of Ema. In the previous battle, Aurora had lost an arm to an axe wielding cyclopes, and had only gotten it back thanks to her friend’s timely intervention.

  “I’ll… be okay. But… we need to do…” Drained from the retreating battle and the stress of the situation, she nearly collapsed. Catching her, Ema guided Aurora to a chair to sit. None of them had eaten in a long time. None of them knew how long exactly as thinking about it meant feeling the hunger, but it’d at least been days. Thankfully, the System had lessened hunger overall, and people needed to eat less if they leveled up to at least 2. That being said, lessened didn’t mean gone, and all three of them felt the pangs as they shook in exhaustion.

  “We can’t keep going like this,” Gideon said. He’d been silent for a while, regaining what meager strength he had left. “We need to stay here for a while and rest. At least until the others are ready to make the run for it, like we planned.”

  “That sounds like a good idea. They don’t know about this area yet, right?” Ema asked, giving water to the two others. They had little left, but they’d scavenged enough to at least get them through the next couple of weeks.

  Things were getting worse and worse. They’d lost many people, and most were regular students or staff who hadn’t even leveled up once. With only the three of them doing most of the fighting, they hadn’t been able to protect everyone, and it showed. Despite their best efforts, their peers were repeatedly ripped apart in front of them. Food was scarce as well, with so little being able to go around that they were lucky to get a few crackers each every few days. Things had gotten to where not even Ema could lift the three out of their stupor, and they all sat in silence after discussing what to do next. They’d reached no other conclusion than to stay where they were currently and scavenge for more food. It was a futile endeavor, but endeavor anyway they would.

  “What do we do…?” Ema’s voice was tiny, as though ready to crack. She was the type to power through anything, but the repeated deaths, lack of sustenance and fear of death had finally taken their toll. Aurora looked at her friend, who looked up at her with tears in her eyes. She looked even smaller than normal, as streams of fear, sorrow and frustration cut lines down her dirt and blood caked face. Aurora grasped her in a hug as she began crying freely, she herself on the verge of tears. Gideon looked on with a sadness etched on his face that only his dysfunctional family could bring previously. As he watched the two friends embrace each other, he made an admission to himself. An admission that he would likely die here.

  As Arthur and Mira opened the door to the boss’ room, everything was dark for a moment but for the water underneath them. They were on a glass floor that looked thick, the water beneath giving off a strange glow. There was nothing living in the water, with skeletons of various lifeforms floating about under the glass. It was almost as if they were in a glass cube at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, but for the glow of the water illuminating the surrounding watery desolation.

  Arthur squinted his eyes. At the other end of the room, he could barely make out the beginnings of the sharktopus and the surrounding abominations as it turned to face them. Its teeth gnashed, and the octopus tentacles behind its massive maw lashed the ground. Its “face” was gnarled and half rotten, as though it’d been dead a long time, and jutting out from its sides were the signature bone appendages of the abominations. They were huge in comparison to the ones on the abominations they’d faced before, their girth equal to street light poles. Its mouth had way more teeth than it should, and it roared with a stench that reached Arthur even from the other side of the room.

  

  Sharktopus Horror

  Level: 40

  Arthur didn’t care about any of that.

  On the other side of the room, Arthur saw something that made his breath catch. Something that made his non-existent heart skip a beat with despair as he saw it. Among the other abominations, he saw something he thought he might. Something he dreaded from the beginning, and something that made him feel like throwing up.

  “Puffy…”