I was currently just chilling with my cousin…not really sure how to start the conversation.

  “So… how are you holding up?”

  My cousin didn’t even bother looking at me as he answered.

  “Same shit, different day, Freddy. Same shit… different day.”

  Fair enough. I’m not sure why I asked him that specifically, but I needed a way to start the conversation… but I should probably move on to different things just to be safe.

  “How did you get past the Leviathan? And what did you think about the acolyte man?”

  He looked up at me, then the usual color of depression that stood in his eyes faded away for a moment as confusion set itself in.

  “Leviathan? Acolyte? What the hell are you talking about, Freddy?”

  Huh… does the Demi E opponent change every time or something? Wait, maybe he didn’t even go that far.

  “Did you not do battle number Fifty?”

  “Hell no. I made it all the way to Forty Nine, and the second I saw the warning, I got the hell out of there. I didn’t see a reason to try to push past that considering what I’d already received from the dungeon. Don’t tell me you actually went there and you fought something called a Leviathan?”

  I smiled awkwardly, then proceeded to explain everything that happened between me and the Leviathan, and then meeting the acolyte immediately after.

  My cousin looked at me like he was looking at a crazy person, but not because he thought I was lying. Just the reality of it all caught him off guard.

  A few seconds passed in silence as he digested all the information.

  Well, Freddy, I honestly think you’re the only one in this whole family who could actually clear that stage. Even Grandpa, with all his new tricks and abilities, I think would struggle. None of us would be empowered in water.

  “In fact, I think the opposite would be true. We wouldn’t necessarily receive a bunch of debuffs, but it would definitely be harder to make use of all our abilities with no clear footholds and no way to hold our breaths for a significant period of time.

  “Honestly, I think it’s going to be a long time before I actually try to clear that battle, which means you’re going to have to deal with that religious zealot all on your own.

  Especially since that man is clearly not from Earth, which means he should probably have plenty of information. Information we so desperately need, because none of this alien stuff makes any sense to me anymore.

  “Like how the hell Grandpa got so strong that he’s basically playing with them when they ran through our family like a knife through butter not that long ago.”

  Yeah, I wondered the same thing. I get that fusing traits and integrating them was a big deal since it allows you to reach the next grade, but wouldn’t those aliens attacking us know that already?

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Even if I were to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were from some backwater planet in the middle of nowhere, the fact that they knew to subjugate us, and they were attacking us, and clearly had levels, and knew how to fight and all of that meant they existed under that environment far longer than us.

  “They should know how to use traits, and they should know how to integrate them too.

  “So why were we able to match them? It didn’t make sense. Of course, I’m not dumb enough to forget that they basically killed millions of people, maybe hundreds of millions of people, all around the planet already, but… yeah, I don’t know. You’re right. I’ll go talk to that religious man. Hopefully get some information without having to sell my life away to some random god.”

  “Are you sure you should be talking like that, Freddy? You’ve read enough of Grandpa’s books. What if that god was listening, watching you right now, staring down from the heavens above and not liking your clear disrespect towards him?”

  “Why are you assuming it’s a him? How about that? If she were real, maybe she took offense to that comment too.”

  “Hm. Got me there.

  “But no, really, what do you plan on doing, Freddy? I know Grandpa and the others are busy coming up with their own plans about how to handle things from now on. But what about you?

  “Are you going to go back down there for real and meet with that religious man? Yeah, we can get information, but who knows what else might happen down there. Until somebody else can clear battle number Fifty, you’ll be all on your own.”

  I thought about it for a moment. I mean, it’s a fair point to bring up. Although I was able to leave freely last time, who said that it would be the same the next time I went?

  Well… best not to get into a hole of what ifs. Lord knows I could fill up a whole page with what if scenarios.

  I looked at my cousin.

  “We already decided to take risks. This one seems calculated enough, so I plan on taking it. As soon as Grandpa and the others finalize whatever it is they want to do, I’ll go back in there. The potential pot of information there is too good to pass up, I think.”

  “Well, when you put it that way, I can’t argue against it too much. Just be careful, Freddy. I don’t want to lose anyone else. Not sure I’d last too much longer if I did.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that last line. In fact, it kind of shook me in a sense. The potential implications of what he meant by saying that…

  “Don’t talk like that, Rakeon.”

  It seemed like he was going to protest, but I placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

  “Don’t man. Just don’t.”

  “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have said that. My fault Freddy.”

  His voice quivered a bit as he apologized and we looked at each other for a moment before he pushed my hand away and cleared his throat.

  “Alright that’s enough of the weird shit, and I’ll have you know, while you go galivanting with zealots, I’ll be grinding my ass off in the Dungeon trying to get my Traits integrated. Some of us still have to work Freddy.”

  We laughed for a bit at that, and while I’m sure it took plenty of time for not just him, but this entire family to truly reach a relatively state of normal again, it was good that we could still laugh and joke like this.

  Even when the world got too hard to bare, the Williams Family would stick together. Always.

  …

  Grandpa and the others eventually reached some sort of understanding about how to proceed.

  I could’ve participated in those discussions, but it was honestly getting all a bit draining, either way a decision was made.

  It was simple.

  Lagia will turtle up.

  Gather strength, keep watch, and protect our own.

  There were talks about going to other cities and trying to eliminate all the enemies there as well, but that got shot down fairly quickly as it was deemed too much risk.

  But what if there was a number of us that reached the same state as Grandpa? Even just 30 people reaching that level of strength would clearly be a truly strong force considering how effective Grandpa was.

  So that’s what we’ll do, turtle in, get as strong as we can while we can, and defend if attacked.

  Of course that’s a practice we’ve adapted in the past, but this time it wouldn’t just be the Williams family doing it.

  Practically all that remained of Lagia was going to be doing this.

  Together.