It was true what they said. Confidence was ignorance. If one was feeling cocky, they did not know what they were in for.

  It’d been a long, long time since Calvin received his Title and felt like he was at the top of the world, surely only a few tries away from conquering everything.

  The reality was very different from his expectations.

  Which… well, obviously.

  He kept fighting the monster and Blood Instinct kept improving, but progress in the Specialization did not contribute to his overall level. Apparently, only Titles—and actually killing monsters—contributed to his level.

  And so, Calvin kept fighting the S-Class monster. Almost futilely, not much changing from before.

  At the end of the day, a B-grade Title was still only a B-grade Title. No matter how insane it may be to an F-Ranker like him, it only allowed him to dodge the S-Rank monster occasionally, perhaps two out of ten times. The other eight times, the monster got him. All ten times out of ten, he could barely see it moving.

  Even those two times, he could not dodge fully—he could almost avoid the attacks, but he was still struck, blood gushing out of his chest or arms or legs or whatever the monster had managed to either cut off or damage.

  Blood Instinct felt like he was reading the future, like he was more a fortune teller than a fighter. If he could barely see it, fortune telling was what he needed to dodge it, so that made sense. Even if he managed to dodge it once, the most he managed to do was fight for two turns instead of one.

  The monster inevitably got to him in the second turn and made him into a mangled piece of flesh.

  And then, they kept fighting.

  Inevitably, he got bored with only dodging. So, he tried a new strategy. Instead of dodging, he tried to scratch at the monster when it dived at him. Sure, it would get its claws into his chest. Almost kill him. But couldn't he at least graze a single hair of its body? At least yank out some of its luscious fur?

  Well, apparently he couldn't. No matter how desperately he scratched at it, he did absolutely no damage. However much he grasped for its fur, he couldn’t tear out even one strand.

  But still, this was like with the Blood Instinct Specialization, wasn't it? Not something that’d happen in one try. He could spice the scratching up with training the Blood Instinct every now and then, but fundamentally, there was only one thing he had to do if he needed to make any new approach actually work, if he wanted to make himself stronger—

  And that was to keep doing it.

  So he kept doing it.

  And doing it.

  And doing it.

  Time continued to pass. Hundreds of tries. Thousands of tries.

  But he continued fighting. He had become almost beastly, primal, with a single focus, with a single task, with a single goal to achieve. So he kept fighting. And he kept fighting. And he kept fighting some more.

  Then, one fine try, he tried another approach, with a simple logic. His nails were all short and weak and with how tough its skin was, he would definitely not be able to do any damage with them anytime soon—he couldn’t even exert all that much force with them, after all.

  But what if. What if he bit at it? His teeth were stronger, and he could inflict a lot more force behind his bite.

  It felt genius. Obvious, but still genius. So instead of scratching at it or trying to use his limbs, he bit at it. Of course, the wolf’s skin was tough enough that his teeth must have barely even itched it, and he ended up shattering his teeth when it moved, etching its claws deeper into his body.

  However.

  Damaging its flesh had never been his goal.

  On the very first try with his mouth, mingling with the blood flooding his mouth was a patch of fur from the wolf.

  He had actually managed to damage the wolf!

  Sure, not actually damage, more just give it a haircut in one specific spot, but details, details. He’d managed to technically damage it, and at this point, he needed any approval he could get to maintain his sanity. So yes, he’d made progress, he managed to damage it!

  Once more, after what felt like an eternity, a system notification appeared in front of him.

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  System Notification:

  You have unlocked a new title, ‘Primal, Beastly, Insane [Epic, B Grade]’.

  You have unlocked a new specialization, ‘I am One of You, Lvl 1’.

  You have reached Level 15.

  The description of the title appeared before he could even focus on it.

  Primal, Beastly, Insane [Epic, B Grade]:

  Description:

  50% increased attack damage if you use your claws or your teeth.

  In that pain addled delirium, he couldn’t even feel joy for the title he’d gained or reaching Level 15.

  His focus shifted from the monster to himself and back to the monster, before fading ever so slightly and moving through his surroundings as he felt slightly untethered to reality.

  He could feel himself healing, but he’d gotten so used to the pain that the sensation of healing, of being brought out of that natural state of pain, was more inconvenient than the pain itself.

  Many thoughts drifted through his mind, as he looked at the cave, the monster, Hannah, but they all faded when he looked at his master, one particular stray thought being the only one that stayed.

  S Rank is going to be a piece of cake, at this rate. A few more titles, a few more repetitions. I can do this!

  Okay… He might have been slightly delirious last time, when he’d thought a few more repetitions of this was going to be easy.

  Hell, look. He didn’t know baking, so technically, he had been right. Making a piece of cake wouldn’t be easy for him! It would be a time consuming, annoying process, and that was exactly what this was proving to be!

  The wolf leapt at him. He leapt at it. He bit it. He scratched at it. It scratched at him. He tried to dodge it. He barely dodged it. It got him the next turn.

  Like a never ending dance they were blessed to perform—both the monster and him.

  It was getting kinda boring and really annoying, at this point.

  “Hmm,” his master’s hum and the wolf’s pause made Calvin blink. A break from the routine? He’d been getting occasional breaks—even against his will—of course, but this was… new.

  “What happened, master?” He asked, looking at the demigod.

  “What if I were to give you a weapon?” Dominic asked, and his golden eyes felt like they were warm pools of candy.

  Warm… pools of candy? That was an odd thought. It seemed he was really missing candy. Perhaps he should ask his master to conjure some?

  After entertaining that one tangent, Calvin snapped back to focus and asked, “Would that weaken my foundation, master?”

  “Perhaps. It can be made up for later if needed. There is no shame in accepting a crutch temporarily, sometimes,” his master continued, gaze gentle. “Even I have done so, multiple times.”

  Calvin shook his head. No, he did not want to be imperfect, not when he had the chance, the opportunity, to be perfect.

  So, with a smile, Calvin replied, “No, master. I can do this.”

  What was so wrong with imperfections? Calvin couldn’t help but wonder, now. Imperfections were beautiful in their own way, yes?

  He’d gained five more titles, four more B-grade titles, and even an A-grade Title.

  Relentless Attacker [Rare, B Grade]

  Description:

  +100% damage when attacking for over a minute without stopping

  Daredungeon [Rare, B Grade]

  Description:

  -10% incoming damage when in a dungeon

  Dungeon Survivor [Epic, B Grade]

  Description:

  +30% recovery rate in dungeons

  Divine Acceptance [Rare, B Grade]

  Description:

  +100% effectiveness of divine healing

  Ten Thousand Cuts [Epic, A Grade]

  Description:

  +1% cascade damage when striking the same opponent

  Yet even with the Unique Achievement of gaining an A-Grade Title when he was merely an E-Rank Dungeon Diver, he still only reached level 37.

  Level 10 to 20 were considered E Rank Dungeon Divers, which put him as a D-Rank Dungeon Diver. Only when he crossed level 40 would he become a C-Rank Dungeon Diver, and then he would need thirty more levels before he could be considered a B-Rank Dungeon Diver.

  The path only grew harder the farther he went. All his effort, all this struggling, and he was still so, so far away.

  Well, despite his annoyance, it made sense. Titles were sought after for all the perks and benefits they gave, and the experience granted toward leveling was more of a bonus than something that people depended on.

  It would be like melting a gold coin to gain a profit from it in the form of pure gold—it would be a tedious, slow, and honestly a loss inducing process, acting against the natural flow of the system.

  Of course, with all the new Titles he had, and becoming a D-Rank Dungeon Diver, he did manage to see the movements of the Relfow, even if very, very vaguely.

  He did manage to dodge it more, now. Instead of the original eight out of ten times, he was able to dodge five out of ten times now. All of these times he was still scratched minorly and every single time he lost at the second turn, but it was progress. Big progress!

  But still.

  Having a weapon would make things… much easier, wouldn’t it? Much, much easier. So did he really have to try and be perfect? To do all this?

  However, if he really, truly pondered about it, unless his master gave him a cheat like weapon, or some top quality gear, nothing much would change. It wasn’t too unlikely that his master planned to give him exactly that, too, so all he had to do was relent on his pride, just slightly, just ever so slightly.

  But he didn’t want to. He couldn’t, not when his pride was… even if in a twisted, battered form, all he’d had for the longest of times.

  He looked at the monster in front of him. Surely there must be some way to defeat it. To subdue it. One that did not need him to take any more of his master’s assistance.

  It was, in a way, very twisted, now that he thought about it.

  Oh, well. Back to it!