“Papa! Mama!” I cheerfully yell as I jump at them.

“Haha! Look at this feisty one!” A man with the same color eyes and hair says. He pats my head, and I make a wide smile when he does. I turn to mom, smiling back at me as her long silvery hair drifts with the soothing air and silver eyes that stare into my used-to-be, shiny red eyes.

“So, papa,” I turned to dad, “where did you and mama go this time!?” I shout as I am getting jumpy.

“Haha! Sorry, kid. Mama and I have to… go somewhere.”

“Where are you two going?” I ask as I lose all of my excitement immediately.

“Papa and mama are going to become heroes.” He responds as he continues patting my head again. “For now, wait with grandpa in the house.”

“Aww! If I do that, grandpa is going to train me hard again!” I frown.

“Come on,” dad bent down to my size, “do you want to become as strong as me?”

“I-I do…”

“Then continue training.” He makes his usual smile. “I promise you. I’ll tell you a story that you’ll never forget.” I smile, but it isn’t as big as the last.

“Ok…” I then slowly walk back to the house, where grandpa is waiting.

“Aden!” I stop and turn around to see papa and mama waving at me. “Become strong! And once you do… you’ll be an amazing adventurer like me!” My expression brightens as he says that, then I become jumpy again.

“I will! Papa! Mama!” Instead of walking back like before, I ran to grandpa, who was waiting with a smile.

This is where and when my dream is born—a dream… of becoming one of the greatest adventurers ever. Every time I slept, I would wake up in unknown terrain and face a gigantic monster. I would swing my sword left and right and do inhuman footwork… like I was dancing. Dancing as the blood-colored moon shined above me in every single dream I had.

Five months later… I heard a knock at the house's front door. I run to it with excitement, thinking it is mama and papa.

Oh… how I was so young… If only… I was strong enough…

I quickly went to the door and opened it, “Papa! Ma-...” Instead of mama and papa… two men who wore silver armor stood in their place. I stare silently at them until I hear a thump behind me. I turn to see grandpa on his knees, tears coming down his eyes.

“Grandpa…? What's wrong?” I ask questions that begin to flood my mind. I then feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn to see one of the armored men who did it.

“Kid… your mom and dad… are gone.”

“Of… course, they’re gone. They left to become heroes.” The man who talks to me turns to the other man. The other man nodded, and the man in front of me stood up and began to walk away, unable to stay here any longer.

The spiky hair man, who remains here, kneels and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Kid… your mama and papa… are dead.”

If only I was strong enough…

My expression darkens; I stare emotionlessly at the man.

Then I wouldn’t have…

Before the man notices, there is a knife sticking through his throat.

Been the one who destroyed my own home.

“Aden! ADEN! MOVE!” I wake up, standing as I see a stone soldier whose blade is raised in front of me.

“MORPH!” I immediately morph my arms and deflect the downswing with a left swing, then I quickly regrip my hands on the handle and do a right swing, chopping off the head of the stone soldier. But it isn’t over. Afterward, behind the slain Stoneman, I see two firebolts coming straight at me.

“Morph!” I morph my legs and quickly jump to the right, getting out of the way. Once I did, I looked around and saw the mages who threw them. I charged there with incredible speed and took them out by cutting their heads off as well.

All of that, in just seven seconds.

You have morphed! 3.15 Damage!

You have decapitated your enemy! 500 Damage!

Stone Soldier (Warrior) has been slain!

You have morphed! 3.15 Damage!

You have decapitated your enemy! 400 Damage!

Stone Soldier (Mage) has been slain!

You have decapitated your enemy! 400 Damage!

Stone Soldier (Mage) has been slain!

Level up! Your Draconic Warrior class is now level 6! +10 All Attributes

I breathe in and out as I not only finally gotten a level but also have just taken out the last remaining stone men in the 5th room. I didn’t know what happened, for one moment I was trying to get all their attention, then all of a sudden… I blanked out.

I went into deep thinking, trying to find out what might have caused such a thing until I felt something smash into my head.

You have been smacked on the head! 26 damage!

A special action has been performed! +1 END

“What the actual dragons were you doing, Aden!?” I turn to see Charles, pissed.

“I-I blanked out.”

“Blanked out…” His voice slowly raises in anger, “YOU SAY!?” I went down to my knees and covered myself instinctively. But instead of a hard smack, I feel a light tap on my head. I uncover myself and look up to see Charles walking away.

“Charles?”

“What? Are you going to stand up and follow?” He gives a smile as he turns to face me. “Or are you going to sit there and act like the imbecile you are?” I sigh and then smile.

“Alright, alright.” I stand up and walk with Charles out of this room.

This room didn’t seem to have improved much of our skills or abilities. Well, this was to be expected since we’re using the same skills most of the time. During our trip here, we’ve inspected the new mastery called Critical Mastery.

Critical Mastery

Description: Attack weak spots or important parts of one's body and deal significantly more damage. Or be lucky and somehow land a critical hit.

Requirements: Do one critical hit with a melee weapon, do five critical hits with a ranged skill or spell.

Type: Mastery

Effects: Deal 100% more damage when critical hitting.

Usage: None

Cooldown: None

Gain 10% more critical damage per rank.

It is simple, really, just continue hitting the enemy until you land a critical hit. You can also try finding your enemy's weak spot, which can really change the tide of battles. All you need to know about this skill is that you can depend on it to change the situation entirely.

Charles also used another skill during the fourth room, called Snap Cast. It’s an instant skill that allows you to quickly cast any spell, including tier ten spells that can take two minutes to cast. It sounds like a wonder. But of course, it comes at a cost.

Snap Cast

Description: Instantly cast a spell of any tier and change the tide of battle!

Requirements: Be taught the skill by another mage or find a book about the skill.

Type: Skill

Effects: Instantly cast a spell from any tier.

Usage: 25% of Mana

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Reduce Mana cost by 1% per rank. Reduce cooldown by 20 seconds per rank.

However, besides the cost, it can be used in close situations and save you, like when Charles Snap Cast his Fireball to instantly win fights like that. That was dangerous, however, since it also harmed him in the process. Heck, we don’t have a tailoring skill or anything, so Charles has to live with his burnt clothing. It isn’t too much. Besides the multiple black spots on his clothing, the only thing exposed is his left shoulder. Unfortunately, the hole on his clothing is so big that it also reveals the left side of his chest, clear enough to show his left nipple. But it isn’t something to be worried about.

It's a good thing that Lilith taught him that skill before we set out here. I don’t know-how, in Wrath's name, Charles managed to convince her to teach him such a skill.

So… it’s most likely that Lilith gave Charles a deal in return for the skill. Thinking about it gives me chills, but hopefully, it wasn’t something beyond my control.

Unseen Things:

However… As Aden thinks that, Lilith is daydreaming back at the camp.

“I wonder… what I should do with Aden when he returns ~ ♡.” Lilith and Charles did make a deal. That deal lets Lilith do whatever she wants with Aden, while Charles does nothing.

What a great friend I have!

It had been another five minutes afterward, and… finally…

Charles and I look up at a massive stone door, even bigger, maybe two times bigger than even Drezzan. We look at it in awe as there is a green jewel-like stone in the middle of the door. However, we both know what this meant and what kind of giant door this belongs to… the boss.

Both me and Charles decide to sit down next to the door for the next five minutes before heading in, which I find to be a good idea since I’m still exhausted after doing the 5th room.

We both sit against the wall, next to the giant stone door with weird symbols on it. I look at them in interest as they strike me more artistically than the usual art I see.

Of course, I haven’t explored the world enough to know true art. So I won’t go further into that kind of stuff.

“Aden.” I turn to Charles, who has his usual serious face on.

“What is it?”

“You already know what boss we’re facing, right?”

I nodded my head. "Yeah, a stone golem, right?"

“Yes, a stone golem. Unlike stone soldiers, a golem is a huge stone entity that mages can only create through tier six magic. And due to these golems being literally filled with mana, tier six or lower magic doesn’t do that much damage.” I turn to Charles with a surprised look.

“That would mean….”

“Yes,” he then points at me, “you’re the only one who can deal real harm to the golem.” I draw my sword and look down at it. Charles notices it, “Not confident?”

“N-No! I am confident. It’s just that….” I sigh as I look at the sword, “can my partner here last long enough?”

“Partner? Are you still going on with that? I thought you stopped thinking like that years ago.” I keep my eyes on the sword in silence. Charles sighs at this and turns away. “Besides, a partner like that is bound to break sooner or later. That is why I stopped thinking like that. I know a level ninety blacksmith made that sword, but it has been three years, Aden. I doubt it's going to last any longer.” I didn’t respond to Charles, and we continued to sit in silence.

However, that silence is soon broken when Charles says, “Thank you, Aden. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”

“Come on, Charles.” I put my gaze away from my sword and smiled at him, “You’re the one who always saved me. If you hadn't found me back then, I wouldn’t be here.”

“You mean when I literally saw you covered in blood and that I had to change you before everyone in Lexigon found you?” I laugh nervously at this.

“Truth is, though,” I make a wider smile as I look back down to my sword, “if we both didn’t have each other, we both would’ve been dead by then.” Charles nods to this and looks up with a smile.

“Yeah… without each other, I guess we both would’ve been dead.” We both went silent again.

Congratulations! You have earned the title: Brotherhood

This title made the situation worse.

Brotherhood

Description: This title is given to two males who depend on each other no matter what.

Charisma +5

EVEN FOR ME!

After two minutes, we both stand up, ready ourselves, and begin planning.

What we’re dealing with is a massive pile of stone boulders, all packed up to form a similar shape to a human body, which means I will have to morph to do damage to it. Charles can’t really help me since his magic will maybe deal next to no damage, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t do anything. He’s going to use his magic to attract the boss’s attention somehow, allowing me to get close enough to smash off a large portion of rock or something of the sort. And even if that were to fail, I would already have parts of my body morphed, allowing me to take less damage than what Charles would take.

It sounded like a good plan, which I would most likely agree to. But of course, Charles said this plan isn’t perfect. We don’t know how strong, fast, and big this golem is. Not only that, we don’t know how much HP it had and if it could cast magic of its own. We also didn’t know if the boss room had minions to help the boss.

All of this made me lose confidence in the plan.

But no matter what, I’ll always trust Charles. He’s always the one who pushes us through, no matter the situation. So… as long as I trust Charles, I know we can do this.

A minute later, we both stood in front of the enormous door. Charles and I look at each other and nod. Then… we both put our hands on the door… and push.

The door opens with next to no effort, and light slowly blinds us as we open the door. Our eyes adjust, and slowly, we begin to see what the boss room looks like.

It is a huge square room, twice as big as the previous rooms we’ve fought in, and the walls, flooring, and ceiling are all smooth to the naked eye. The room is lit by an unknown source that couldn’t be seen and in the middle of the air, hovers a giant grid metal cube that glows blue. But that isn’t important. Below the floating cube is the stone golem itself. It's all in pieces, but even if it is, we aren't dumb enough to think if it's alive or not. It didn’t really look that big. To be honest, it might be as big as Drezzan.

From the experience of doing the Rat King’s dungeon, I knew that if I got close enough, the stone door would automatically close, and the boss would immediately engage in combat. So to our advantage, we can inspect the room and see if any minions could aid the boss.

We have to make this quick, though. If we don’t engage the boss within thirty seconds, the doors will close anyway and allow the boss to rampage. There is also a chance that the room will modify itself upon reopening, making it either harder or more confusing to understand.

Fortunately, it didn’t look like the boss would be getting any aid whatsoever from our point of view. That doesn't mean it is going to be easy, of course. All it means is that we’ve gotten lucky with the room generation.

How is the room able to do such a thing? It is all because of the floating cube above the golem, but that will be explained later.

I draw my blade, “Morph,” My legs begin to change from fleshy skin into hard-surfaced red scales, “Morph,” then my arms, “MORPH!” I yell out as parts of my chest area turn into shiny red scales, then I charge straight in, with Charles behind me, concentrating.

You have morphed! 9.325 damage!

You have morphed! 9.325 damage!

You have morphed! 9.325 damage!

But…

When I'm halfway there to the golem, it begins to move, and the doors behind us slowly close.

What awaits us…

The big pieces of rock begin to glow blue… and expand. I keep charging… until I stop.

Is something…

I stop… and watch as I see one of the stone boulders grow three times bigger than before.

Beyond us.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Aden Haraldson:

Race Currently: Dragonborn (Infant)

Age: 13 Years Old

Guild: None

Classes Currently:

Draconic Warrior (Level 6)

Vital Currently:

HP: 932.5

Rage: 100

Stamina: 897.5

Stat Currently:

Strength: 129 Intelligence: 77

Dexterity: 103 Agility: 117

Perception: 104 Endurance: 121

Willpower: 82 Faith: 0

Charisma: 828 Luck: 221

Charles Arcania

Race Currently: Human (Teen)

Age: 13

Guild: None

Classes Currently:

Mage (Level 16)

Chef (Level 10)

Vital Currently:

Health: 315

Mana: 530

Stamina: 295

Stat Currently:

Strength: 44 Intelligence: 106

Dexterity: 46 Agility: 40

Perception: 54 Endurance: 34

Willpower: 51 Faith: 0

Charisma: 94 Luck: 91