Bennett opened his eyes to the very disappointed expression of Maya. Bennett, however, immediately saw through this facade of disappointment and rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t act like I obviously did something wrong. You literally just never considered the fact that that Skill wasn’t designed for the durability of a Human body,” he mumbled, trying to ignore the stabbing pain all over his body.

  Maya’s face contorted, shifting to annoyance, then to concern as she quickly gave up on trying to be annoyed at him.

  “You may have a point. However, there’s something I’m curious about; did you not get any new Arrays from last night?”

  Bennett thought for a moment. “Nope. I thought you just did that to annoy me.”

  She smacked his head. “Do you really think I’d- actually, I probably would, so don’t answer that.” She then reached under him and flipped him over with one hand, scanning his back, which was suddenly bare, with her other.

  He frowned. “I thought I controlled this place more than you do?”

  Bennett couldn’t see her face, just could feel like she nodded due to the slight movement in her legs. “Yes, when you’re not dead.”

  He shrugged and sat there for a moment, not processing what she’d just said.

  “Wait, I’m DEAD?!” he then exclaimed, sitting up, still ignoring the pain of the feeling of his skin being ripped off. “But-”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m already restarting your heart. Your body just couldn’t take the pain and kinda just died on itself. Meaning half your organs are just flatlined. Your little Luna should be able to fix that, but I can deal with your not so happy heart. The only reason you’re able to speak to me is because your brain is still functioning.”

  He assessed her strangely calm state, slowly realizing something. “You’re absolutely terrified, aren’t you?”

  She snorted and pulled him back down to study him. “Of course not.”

  “You’ve never been this still and even for the little time I’ve known you, it just doesn’t seem in your character to freeze up like a statue. You don’t want me to die.”

  Maya stopped moving entirely, obviously thinking. “Of course I don’t want you to die, you damn idiot. Who knows how long it’ll be before there’s someone else like you, who can hold me, and convince me not to kill everyone around you just so I can eat. It could be millenia, or even longer. I don’t want…” she paused, her hand in his hair. She then looked down at him, staring at him with one red and one green eye, terror hidden just behind the facade of calm. “I don't want to be alone again. Never. Now wake up already, I’m sure that small girl’s heart can’t take much more of your shenanigans.”

  He tried to stay in the space for a little longer, if just to reassure her, but she forced him out before he could even move.

  ~~~

  His eyes shot open and he nearly smashed his forehead against Luna’s, who yelped before leaning back quickly. Bennett, now realizing, while in his comatose state, hadn’t been able to feel Luna’s emotions, felt relief and terror running through her, as well as concern and joy. She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, nearly choking him while letting out a distorted whimper.

  Bennett could feel Luna’s body shaking as he hugged her back, trying to comfort her. He looked up to see the very concerned expression of Reah, who seemed to have jumped up after seeing him collapse.

  When he tried to speak, it simply came out as a garbled mess, his vocal cords clearly damaged. Luna seemed to realize something was majorly wrong and he could feel the cool feeling of her healing rushing throughout his entire body, repairing everything. He could even feel his spine straightening, internal bleeding stopping, muscles, bones, and filaments repairing themselves. After nearly a minute of this, he tried to speak again, but felt blood rushing up his throat, along with a bunch of things he couldn’t describe. He quickly pulled her off of him and turned around to throw up blood and what looked like globs of flesh, mixed in with shattered bone.

  After a few moments of spitting out garbage, he managed to mutter, “Water.”

  Immediately, an orb of water floated in front of his face and he gladly drank from it, swished the water in his mouth, then spit it out over the edge of the platform he was on.

  “Thanks, Luna-”

  Before he could finish, she grabbed him again, quite clearly not caring to let him go yet. He then looked up at Reah. “What…” he coughed before continuing. “What happened?”

  She shook her head. “You’ve essentially been dead for twenty minutes.”

  Twenty minutes? No wonder Luna’s so… Luna’s grip tightened and he hugged her a bit tighter, unable to really process what emotions were going through her.

  Reah shook her head. “What the hell just happened? How did you just come back?”

  Bennett frowned. “Maya said she was going to restart my heart-”

  The Battlemage leaned forward, her frown deepening. “You can speak to it? Since when, and why didn’t you tell me?”

  Bennett gave her a confused look. “Well forgive me for not wanting to interact with the abusive ‘teacher’. Not really high on my priorities list, which says a lot, as there’s not much there.”

  “Well, make it your-”

  Bennett, annoyed, snapped, “Absolutely not. If you can’t learn that the world doesn’t revolve around you and your attitude, then why would I want to do anything around you, let alone be reminded of your very unproductive attitude, which is clearly because you’re not getting what you want.”

  “You-” she stopped, clenching her fists while giving him a furious expression before, unexpectedly, deflating. “Whatever. Just stop talking to me already and be happy you’re alive, Yasmine.”

  “Sure, Justyce.”

  Bennett looked back at Luna, who was… dead asleep, looking very much pale. He was mildly concerned for her, but as she shifted around with a weak whimper, he felt a bit more content with her, but still concerned.

  He shook his head before standing up, settling Luna on his back. “So, what exactly am I here for, other than killing myself?”

  Reah rolled her eyes, giving him a bored expression. “To teach you, apparently. I don’t exactly know what I’m supposed to teach you, but I’m meant to prepare you for the Dungeon, according to the Combat Professor. I, however, have no clue how to begin doing that.”

  Bennett looked at her for a long few moments and she stared back clearly regretting her words.

  “Well, I’m taking Luna to the infirmary, since you clearly need time to think. So, good luck with that.”

  ***

  Luna woke up to the face of her Water Focus Professor staring her down, unblinking.

  Could you move? This is the last thing I expected to wake up to.

  He suddenly remembered that blinking was a thing before leaning back, still unsure of how normal manners worked. However, Ulayla-

  Heh?

  “You’re awake!” Ulayla exclaimed as if she’d been panicked for the last… however long. “Benny brought you here-”

  “First of all, don’t call me that ever again, please,” Bennett’s voice came from behind her flipping wings. “Second of all, stop smacking me with your wings.”

  He pulled down her wings to look at Luna, now looking much less dead and more relieved. His sister stood next to him, looking very worried. Bennett didn’t look as worried, but she could feel the worry bubbling in the front of his mind, which strangely comforted her. She then looked at the Professor, who seemed to want to melt into the wall.

  Bennett then asked, “What was wrong with her exactly? She just… collapsed, I guess you could call it.”

  The Professor let out a bubbly sigh. “She’s suffering a loss of Water Energy. She doesn’t have enough to support her body and the fact she hasn’t completely collapsed is a mystery in itself.”

  How is that even remotely possible? I’m literally the God of Water. Did that intruder into my world really mess me up that horribly-?

  She assessed her previous thought after a pause and frowned. That… wasn’t how I think. That’s more of Cthulhu’s way of thinking. Why did that suddenly surface? And how could I possibly… wait.

  Cthulhu calls me “Child” all the time, and I originally thought that it was just about her being spiteful. But… what if it's more than that? What if… I’m really just a fragment of her consciousness that developed its own will… and therefore I can’t generate my own Water Mana… which seems like bullshit, in my opinion. But if that is the case… what am I supposed to do-

  Ulayla’s wing smacked Bennett in the face again and he was nearly slammed into the wall, dazed.

  “You should’ve had Bennett say something! I have plenty of things you can eat; my mom gave me tons of stuff… literally.” She looked blankly at a wall. “There’s no way I can eat it all…”

  Bennett, obviously very tired at this point, grumbled, “If you smack me one more time with your wings, I’m going to get Maya to force them closed for the next hour, and believe me, she’s very much willing.

  Ulayla looked at him in horror and folded her wings quickly as the blob known as Maya seemed to poke out of his shoulder before reaching over to his nose, which was bleeding and wiping it up. It then formed into a needle and poked Ulayla threateningly before being beaten back by Bennett slapping it.

  “That was immensely rude. I’m not even going to repeat what she said; you’re better off not knowing,” he said before pushing Maya back into him. He then looked at Luna with a slightly melancholy look. “I didn’t think you’d need a specific type of food to stay… together, I guess?”

  Her professor gave him a lopsided nod. “Yes, for some reason, unlike the last time I saw her, her core is strangely much less efficient at creating Water energy, which is surprising to me, as she was probably the most efficient in the entire class, even better than mine, which is certainly saying something.”

  Luna frowned at him for a few moments before realizing something important.

  What did you do?! Luna snapped at Cthulhu, finally deciding to lessen the noose on her.

  (Oh, you’ve finally decided to speak to me, child-)

  I almost died because of you. Why are you sabotaging me all of a sudden? Luna hissed, not wanting to deal with any of the snob from her alter ego.

  (First of all, you’re my alter ego, and second of all, I simply stopped a very important function of our core right before you decided to trap me in your mind, which I honestly didn’t expect to happen,) Cthulhu explained, sounding proud of herself.

  You- Why?!

  Cthulhu seemed to think. (Do you really think you’re in control, “Luna”?)

  Luna suddenly lost control of her body once again, and terror enveloped her, though, unlike last time, she could still see and hear.

  Ulayla frowned at Luna’s sudden change of stance. “Luna? Are you okay-?”

  Bennett grabbed Ulayla and moved her aside, Maya suddenly appearing out of nowhere, along with multiple globs of floating blood, all formed in the shape of spikes and pointing at her.

  Cthulhu had the audacity to look confused until she saw Bennett’s dark expression.

  “Who are you?” he hissed, red lightning cracking over his skin.

  Yelena gave him a horrified look. “Bennett, what are you doing?! That’s Luna-”

  “No. It is not. Whoever that is tried to kill US,” he snapped, his voice suddenly distorting, as if becoming two voices in one. He then frowned. “What do we mean ‘us’?”

  He seemed confused for a second before recovering, clearly untrusting… as he should be. Cthulhu stared at him coldly as his sister seemed to understand something was wrong with Luna.

  Hm. That child is still fighting me. Mildly annoying. Her willpower is immense, far above what I could’ve ever expected. Concerning, to say the least. True, she’s a part of me, but at some point, I’ll get rid of her and take full control.

  Move, boy, She snapped, causing his nose to start bleeding.

  “No. What do you want with Luna?” He snapped back, the scythe seeming move slightly in his grip as he tightened his grip.

  Do I really need to kill you right now? Move.

  He tensed, momentarily afraid of her before he seemed to push it away, glaring at her. Cthulhu restrained a sigh before standing up and staring at him for a moment. Half a second later, she had him strung up by multiple tentacles, though she had nearly lost two in the process and was nursing the wounds crackling with electricity, which was very much an annoying task, to say the least. Before she could do much more than touch her wound, a sudden surge of strength from the boy ripped him from her grip and, before she could react, she was sent flying backwards into a wall, where she was barely able to collect herself before a hand was quite literally in her face and the slight flashing in front of it warned her of an upcoming attack, but she was barely able to do anything except put a thin veil of water that did absolutely nothing to stop the explosion of Hellfire from blasting her through the wall and out under the night sky.

  Cthulhu flew nearly a hundred feet, her clothes half burnt off before she was able to catch herself right before hitting the ground. However, she had not even a second to realize the child’s “best friend” was somehow behind her, crackling with red electricity, but she couldn’t react in time, which was starting to get frustrating.

  Stop interfering, CHILD! She snapped at the suppressed consciousness within her, but it only seemed to strengthen the annoying bug in her mind, which decided to interfere further, cutting off her control over her Healing Arrays. All of them, even the ones that it hadn’t even used yet.

  YOU-

  “Get out of Luna!” the boy known as Bennett yelled, appearing in front of her.

  I can’t believe a mortal is pushing me this far. Fine, if you truly want me to kill you…

  For the first time in this world, Cthulhu used an attack Array. Ten blades of water, one the ends of each of her tentacles and on her arms, formed and she launched herself at the boy, artfully slashing at him faster than he should’ve been able to perceive… but he dodged all of them, every time, for barely a moment, being surrounded in a mist of blood and bending around her attacks in ways she couldn’t understand a human to be able to do. In it, she could barely perceive a feminine form easily dodging her attacks, mocking her. Her. Cthulhu, the Ancient God of all forms of water, excluding blood, which didn’t make much sense, as that meant there was another with that authority, close to her age.

  Unbeknownst to her, the girl who’d blown her through the wall had somehow appeared behind her, a sword nearly taking her head off. Cthulhu mentally berated herself for not noticing earlier, and instead tried to focus on both of them at the same time, but… something felt off. She had nowhere near the mental power she should have to be able to focus on the both of them, resulting in her nearly losing track of the exponentially faster boy.

  From what I’ve seen, he’s not usually this fast… so he must be using some sort of array… maybe the child knows.

  The moment the thought came upon Cthuhlu’s mind, the smaller, yet powerful mind of “Luna” pushed back, momentarily diverting her attention. This was a fatal flaw, as she felt a heavy kick launch her across the field, nearly dropping into the Dungeon-

  Hmph. Fine. If you’re going to push me this far, to the point that if I make one wrong move, I lose this, you’re losing with me.

  Cthulhu stood up, kicking away the annoying Abyss trying to crawl up her legs before giving the boy a flat expression.

  Annoying Bugs, Cthulhu said, condescending. I’m weakened now, but worry not, I’ll kill you eventually. But, for now… goodbye.

  “What are you on about?” the boy mumbled. “Who are you? Why are you-”

  Before he could continue on, Cthulhu had moved as fast as she could just as the girl appeared next to him. Taking this opportunity, she grabbed them both with two tentacles.

  Good Riddance, Cthulhu said, yanking the two of them towards the Dungeon’s maw, bringing herself with them.

  ***

  Bennett felt cold. Beyond cold as they fell into the Dungeon, feeling everything descend into darkness. Bennett could faintly feel something nearby, worry and confusion…

  Luna? She’s back to normal? We really need to figure out this trying to kill me thing- wait, there’s more important things to worry about right about now. Bennett tried to figure out where Luna was, feeling around the quickly moving air. After a few seconds, he felt a strand of hair touch his hand.

  There she is.

  Bennett reached for Luna in the darkness, grabbing her. She froze, panic exploding within her. When he mentally reassured her, she seemed to slightly relax and grab him back, and he then tried to find his sister… which was relatively simple, as he hair was still burning as bright as the sun, illuminating her panicked expression. He managed to dive towards her and grabbed her hand. She blinked in confusion before nodding. She opened her mouth, but the wind tore her voice away, so he only heard faint whispers. Before he could figure out any other way to communicate he got a sudden notification.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  ___

  New Unique Skill!

  NEW! Blood Shift - Level [Maya : Weapon Level]

  Unique Skill : Blood Shift (Passive/Buff)

  When entering battle and are currently using Maya in any way, you gain 100% Blood Dodge. When Maya detects an attack, you will shift into Blood Shadow : Maya and dodge the attack, spending 20% Blood Dodge. For every 1% of Blood Dodge, you will gain (Skill Level * 0.1)% Universal Damage Bonus, For Every 1% of Blood Dodge missing, you gain (Skill Level * 0.2)% Movement Speed. When dodging multiple attacks within 1 second, only every other attack decreases Blood Dodge. When attacking Opponent, increases Blood Dodge by 5%. The Maximum Blood Dodge is 200 + (Skill Level * 20)%. You can Expend HP to replenish Blood Dodge for a 1:2 ratio. When Dodging, replenish 1% HP for every 2 Skill Levels.

  *Note : This Skill is not officially recognized by the System, so be wary of malfunctions during its use.

  ___

  (Ah. Looks like the Array finally activated. Took long enough.)

  Well thanks…? I’m kinda a bit indisposed. My sister can fly, so I’m not so worried about her. But Luna and I… Well, when we hit the ground, we go splat, though I don’t doubt that Luna will somehow live.

  (Huh? Wait… what happened while I was asleep?! WHY ARE YOU IN THE-)

  Bennett ignored her, trying to focus.

  Maya, do you have any-

  Before he could continue on, he felt a massive jolt, as if gravity suddenly switched directions. The area around them suddenly changed and he barely got a chance to figure it out as they slowed down, nearly a hundred feet in the air, before falling again. This time the gravity switch was less jarring, and they didn’t fly as high. After one more time, they fell around twenty feet, back first against the ground.

  Bennett felt the air forced out of his lungs as Luna’s weight, albeit not that much, fully landed on top of him. He coughed mid-wheeze as Luna rolled off of him, in a daze as he gathered from her confused and scared state.

  After a few moments of recovery, he looked upwards in exhaustion, ignoring the searing pain all over his body, caused from using Blood Break once again, though it wasn’t as bad, since he wasn’t pushing himself too hard-

  “What in the Nine Circles of Hell are you doing here?” The familiar horned head snapped at him, looking very annoyed, which was an unfamiliar emotion he’d seen on her face.

  Bennett let out a garbled groan, his throat filled with blood. He then sat up, turned away, and spit out the blood before retorting, albeit in a very wet voice, “Fighting a very angry… thing. I think the better question is why you’re he-” Bennett coughed out more blood before grabbing his Dimensional Bag and pulling out a potion.

  Bennett poured some into his mouth, swished it around, then spit it out, his throat healed slightly. He then drank the rest of it and coughed out a bit more blood as his vocal cords repaired themselves. He then shook his head rapidly. “Why does this damn Skill have to destroy everything?”

  Juli looked him over before looking at Yelena and Luna, her frown deepening. “Oh, come on! We can’t leave now! Why would you all jump in here?!”

  “We didn’t jump in-!”

  “Sure doesn’t look like that. Unless you were unceremoniously thrown in here like sacks of potatoes, I can’t see… why are you giving me that look?” she suddenly snapped at Bennett as he gave her an expressionless look as he heard the “unceremoniously thrown in here like sacks of potatoes”. She stood there for a few seconds, processing her own sentence before looking like she wanted to punch a wall.

  Juli didn’t continue talking for nearly a minute and the entire room was silent. Bennett then frowned.

  “Huh. I didn’t get a notification for entering the Dungeon. Strange-”

  “It’s because we’re in the Abyss, idiot. I thought it’d be obvious. This System has trouble with understanding the Abyss, which explains why it doesn’t really like me…” Juli interjected, crossing her arms.

  “The… Abyss?” Yelena asked. “What does that mean?”

  Took the words out of my mouth, Bennett thought, looking at a mildly disoriented Luna, who’d grabbed his arm to stabilize herself. He thought for a moment, then lifted her onto his lap, where she scrambled in confusion before realizing where she was and relaxing. He noticed her skin visibly steaming, which didn’t seem to cause her much pain, but seriously disoriented her.

  “It’s…” Juli seemed at a loss on how to explain the Abyss. She then, seemingly out of habit, muttered. “System, could you explain it to them?”

  Of course, nothing happened except the twins giving her a strange look, which seemed to annoy her to no end.

  “Why do you two always have the exact same expression? It’s just uncanny at this point,” she hissed. She then took a break, seemingly collecting herself. “Okay fine. The Abyss… Think of it as a really big cave, with no roof. It’s the border between the Overworlds and the Void. It’s just a series of three planes, the High Abyss, the Abyss, and the Deep Abyss. All of them are dangerous to even exist in, but the Deep Abyss just flat out kills anything that doesn’t have Divinity or is an Abyssal or Voidling.”

  “...That’s harsh,” Yelena muttered, and Bennett agreed.

  “Well that’s how the world works. No point in complaining,” Juli grumbled.

  Bennett had a sudden thought, and blurted, “By the way, why were you here? You clearly had plenty of time to notice us, which tells me you’ve been sitting here for a while…”

  Bennett let the question trail on as she looked away for a moment, clearly debating on whether she would tell them anything. After a few seconds, she huffed. “None of your business. I have my own agenda, and you have to deal with it.”

  “That’s… somewhat concerning,” Bennett grumbled, looking down at Luna, who’d fully received and was curled up on his lap, guilt completely filling her to the brim.

  In response, he tightened his grip around her and let her relax a slight bit more. She held onto his wrists and let out a nearly inaudible sigh.

  ***

  Yelena watched as Bennett held Luna, some sort of unspoken conversation being exchanged between the two of them. Luna seemed to be a bit hesitant to go anywhere near him, but the mere presence of Bennett apparently soothed her, which kept her from running off. Yelena then stood up, shaking her hair out.

  “Well, what do we do now?” Yelena asked, stretching. “We can’t get out of here, can we? So we have to clear the Dungeon, somehow.”

  Bennett seemed to realize something and let out a grunt as he lifted himself and Luna off the ground, who took her usual place, using his arm like a seat. Yelena was unsure of how Bennett was able to constantly hold her without getting tired as the girl may have been small, but she wasn’t that small. Still, she was the size of a short 10 year old, and probably weighed almost as much as Yelena, and Bennett had trouble lifting Yelena in any way other than a princess carry.

  Intriguing, Yelena thought. I’ll ask him about it later-

  “Absolutely not. You two are too under-leveled for this. The Average Level here is Level 25, and some even reached Level 35. I can barely handle them, and I’m level 32, along with being a Voi- an Abyssal,” Juli shut them down.

  Yelena frowned, and she knew Bennett’s expression mirrored hers.

  “Well, you acting like it’s a lost cause doesn’t help the problem of us being underleveled. Also, weren’t you getting those other Beasts to go back in-”

  “Firstly, I’m not acting like it’s a lost cause. Secondly, I could only do that because they were Natural Beasts. These ones are hardwired to kill.”

  Bennett looked at his sister, and she could tell they had the same thought. I have no clue what the word “hardwired” means.

  “Uh, huh… I still don’t see why we can’t fight them. If anything, it’d be good for us-” Yelena started.

  “You really have no concept of how dangerous these things are, do you? These will not hesitate to eat you just to get marginally stronger. They don’t hesitate to kill-”

  “Would you stop spouting nonsense? You’re basically describing a whole host of species. Damn, there’s Gods know how many people who do that as well,” Bennett countered, not letting her finish. “If there’s some personal reason why you don’t want us to do this, it’s better to say it outright instead of complaining about it.”

  He seriously does sound like mom when he scolds people, huh? Straight to the point.

  Juli looked like she wanted to throw him into a wall, but restrained herself. “You know what, fine. Go ahead and get yourselves killed, I couldn’t care less. Have fun.”

  Yelena blew some hair out of her face before approaching her brother and poking his shoulder. He turned towards her and the two of them stared at one another for a few seconds. Afterwards, he sighed and took a step back, letting his sister pass him.

  Yelena stood in front of Juli, who was already hellbent on ignoring her.

  “Juli… I understand you’re trying to protect us, in your… weird way, but you should realize that we won’t get out of here unless we clear the Dungeon, and you’re being unnecessarily stubborn. We have, like, 11 days to clear the Dungeon, and that should be plenty of time for us to get to Mage Tier, right? Maybe, like Ben was probably trying to say, you should put trust in us. We’re not all like you, y’know, all old and wise.”

  “I’m not old,” Juli complained, glaring at Yelena, who gave her a smug look.

  “I would say you sure as hell act like it.”

  After a few moments of Juli watching her, and Yelena getting slightly more nervous by the second, Juli turned around, obviously glaring at a wall.

  “Fine. It would be beneficial for you to fight these things. But, they’re all a tier above you two… well, maybe except for the closer ones. Those are Level 18… eh. You should be able to handle them perfectly fine.”

  Why… why did I just get a bad feeling? Yelena thought, looking at Bennett, who’s expression mirrored hers.

  ***

  Bennett could barely stay on top of the large, bear-like creature that bucked under him as he held on for dear life with his daggers, ready to resort to Blood Claw to try and kill it. Bennett hadn’t realized how much stronger something 8 levels above him was, and was regretting his decision to let Luna sit this fight out, his arm already bloody from him being slashed by the giant thing’s claws.

  (Why are you insistent on being stubborn, not using me?) Maya complained. (You’d have a much easier time-)

  Because I don’t want to always rely- Bennett’s train of thought was interrupted by the bear nearly bucking him off its back. He responded by removing a dagger and stabbing it in the neck. -On you.

  Bennett was barely able to perceive the deep flames at the edge of his vision, signalling his sister was still fighting as well.

  (That’s a horrible reason, just so you know. I’m literally going to be with you for your entire life, which will be either very long, or very short. Might as well make use of me.)

  I don’t know how to feel about that phrasing, knowing you. Anyways, let me do this really quick, then you can yap all you want.

  Maya let out a mock gasp in his head. (The disrespect! How could you?)

  Please?

  (Hmph. Fiiiiinnnne.)

  Jeez, she’s acting like she’s younger than my sister… Bennett thought to himself. Wait, I should be focusing on this thing.

  Bennett managed to use a Blood Spike to stab the bear through the neck, which let out a roar that shook his entire body. He clenched his jaw and lifted his second dagger before plunging it into the bear’s skull. It roared again before shivering and falling to the ground, weak. Then, it stopped moving.

  ___

  You have killed [Unknown Abyssal Beast : Dungeon Variant] - Level 18.

  Applied EXP boosts:

  8 Levels Above : +80%

  Dungeon Bonus : +25%

  Abyssal Defeat : +50%

  +1 Level (23%)

  + 5 Vitality, 5 Endurance, 3 Strength, 3, Dexterity, 6 Unaligned Stats

  Loot Beast?

  ___

  Bennett immediately put two points into both Mind and Intelligence, and the rest into Dexterity. He chose to loot, putting all the materials and half the vials of blood into his bag before offering the rest of the blood to Maya, who seemed to assess it for a few moments.

  (Beautiful offering. 8/10 for effort. 5/10 for amount. You should give me the rest.)

  I’m keeping it for an emergency. Don’t be that stingy.

  She huffed before snapping up the blood. He looked as her Level progress quickly rose to 75%... 80%... 85%... 90%... 98%.

  They were both silent for a moment, and he could assume they both saw the progress bar. He then lifted one more vial from his bag and, in silence, she snapped it up.

  ___

  Maya has reached Weapon Level 4!

  Maya has unlocked The New Weapon Skill : Lifeblood!

  Weapon Skill : Lifeblood - Level 4

  You can now use blood in Blood Bank to heal yourself for (Weapon Level * 0.5)% HP per 6% Blood. This is considered a Healing-Over-Time effect, lasting 4 seconds. For every (11 - Weapon Level)% HP healed in this way, you gain 4% Blood Damage and 2% Bleed Damage. You additionally gain another 10% Bleed Chance. If you are to go below 1% HP, you will immediately use 50% of Maya’s mass to resurrect yourself to 100% HP, and, for 10 minutes afterwards, you’ll have an 100% fixed Bleed, Coagulate, and Bleed Trigger Chance, as well as (Weapon Level * 100)% Blood Damage Bonus. During this state, you will automatically use Blood Break, with no repercussions. Maya regenerates 4% Mass per week provided she has enough blood. This resurrection has a cooldown of 3 months.

  Progress to next Level - 2%

  To progress Level, feed Maya vast quantities of blood, or rarer types of blood.

  ___

  “Holy shit,” Bennett couldn’t help muttering.

  (I can do that now? That’s… reassuring,) Maya thought, and he could feel her moving around inside him as some sort of change took place.

  “That’s- wait, there’s another notification.”

  ___

  18 hours removed from the timer.

  19 hours until Race Change commences.

  ___

  “Did it really take two hours to find these things? It’s only been like one!”

  (Oh. It’s a time dilation type dungeon. 2:1 hours. Interesting…)

  You knew that?

  (No. Where did that come from? Its like I knew, but didn’t…)

  Before the two of them could think more on this, Bennett heard an explosion and knew that his sister finished her fight. He looked over to see her dropping two flaming whips as her hair burned with Hellfire, something he was a bit wary of getting near, but didn’t really compare to Luna’s nervousness of just hearing about it, before giving him a grin as she looted the beast. She stretched, a bit beat up from the dog that she’d fought, but otherwise, she was relatively unharmed, unlike him.

  Yelena frowned at him. “How are you covered in blood? Aren’t you, like, way faster than them?” She put her hand on his arm and he flinched slightly, not realizing how bad his wounds actually were. However, he simply shrugged and used some blood from Blood Bank to quickly heal himself to nearly full HP. As his sister watched his wounds close, she suddenly got a curious sparkle in her eyes.

  “You have healing Skills now? Why haven’t you told me about it?”

  “We just-” Bennett stopped speaking mid-sentence and looked at his arm in minor annoyance. “Fine. Maya and I just got it. She just Leveled up. It’s actually very-”

  “Explain. Everything.”

  After reading out the Skill, Yelena nodded slightly. “Hm. That means you don’t have to rely on Luna so much, but I don’t think she’d be so happy about that.”

  I’d think she’d be a bit more content with the fact that I’m able to heal myself, so I don’t have to rely on her too much. Still, I’d feel a bit more comfortable-

  (Have you ever thought that maybe she wants to heal you?) Maya interjected, sounding nonchalant.

  …Possibly.

  (You’re a bit self-centered, aren’t you? You thought she was healing you because she had to?)

  No… more like she felt she had to. If anything, I’d be fine if she’d never started healing me in the first place.

  (You’d probably be dead.)

  Probably. But still, I don’t like the idea of relying on her as much as I already do… she should live the way she wants to.

  Maya sighed, but didn’t continue. Bennett then noticed Yelena waving her hand in front of his face and shook his head rapidly.

  “Oh, what?” Bennett responded, getting an annoyed punch in the shoulder.

  His sister shook her head. “Seems like having another voice in your head doesn’t help you to not randomly zone out,” she grumbled. “As I was attempting to tell you-” Bennett flinched at her annoyed tone. “-should we go back to the others or look for more things to fight?”

  Bennett thought for a moment before inadvertently giving his sister a fist bump as the two of them obviously had the same thought.

  ***

  Half an hour later, Bennett and Yelena finally reappeared from around the corner as Luna simply sat down on the ground, motionless.

  I have no Mana left to spend. I’m literally a useless bundle of Elemental power right now because of that stupid Goddess. I should be able to filter the Abyss into unaligned Mana and back into Water Mana, but my core is running at the bare minimum and I can’t do that. This is so annoying.

  Luna pulled herself down within her soul, barely perceiving the very laid back presence of Cthulhu, who was keeping her Core from functioning properly. The presence ignored her, even though it knew she was there.

  Let go of my Core, Cthulhu, Luna demanded. Are you trying to kill me?

  The presence let out the equivalent of a snort, giving Luna her answer.

  Why? What is the point of being so annoying?

  Luna knew that Bennett was trying to get her attention, but she wanted to focus on more important things, like trying to live so she could help out.

  (Annoying is quite incorrect. If you were truly me, you’d easily be able to resist my control and wrest back “your” Core.)

  Well, reality check, I’m not you and I’d rather not die. Luna snapped back, getting more and more annoyed by the moment. So, if you could, let go. Now.

  (Hah! Make me, child.)

  Luna knew full well that she couldn’t do anything to her alter ego, which frustrated her to no end. She spent a few moments just sitting there in frustration.

  What do you want? What point are you trying to make here?

  (Simple. Let me have the reins.)

  Ab-so-lute-ly NOT. Every time, you’ve tried to kill Ben, and I refuse to let you do that again.

  Cthulhu then let out a sigh. (Well, it’s not like you can stop me. I’m just being generous. I didn’t expect the boy to be that strong, but I won’t underestimate him again.

  Luna suddenly had a thought, but she wasn't sure it would work…

  Fine. If that’s the case, then I have a proposal, Cthulhu.

  (Oh? You’re starting to sound less like a weak girl and more like… me. Us. Spit it out then.)

  If, in six Dungeon hours, I can resist your control, you give me full reign to my core again. If not…

  (You’ll be destroyed and I can take back what’s rightfully ours.)

  Fine. Do you seal this deal?

  Cthulhu was quiet for a few moments before letting out a cold laugh. (I see no downside to this. I do.)

  Luna didn’t flinch as she felt the temporary Array burn itself into her back, defiant.

  …Could I at least have some sort of Mana Generation?

  She got no response.

  She then opened her eyes to see a pair of eyes looking into hers, obviously very concerned. She let out a yelp of surprise and nearly fell over as Bennett hovered over her. He then sighed in relief, leaning back. Behind him, she saw Yelena’s relieved expression before she was able to calm down after the scare that was Bennett and his one red eye.

  “You’ve been sitting like this for 30 minutes… or an hour, according to the Dungeon’s Time Dilation,” Bennett explained, leaning back as she looked at him in confusion. “Yelena was about to slap you awake, but I stopped her… twice.”

  “To be fair, it works on you,” Yelena reasoned.

  “Well, pain is a good incentive to wake up,” her brother responded flatly. “Anyhow, are you okay? Any sudden urges to kill me?”

  Bennett seemed to immediately realize that was a bad joke as it came out of his mouth, as it instantaneously filled Luna with immense guilt for being unable to keep Cthulhu in check. Of course, he didn’t know the exact specifics of her dilemma, but she would have rather kept it to herself anyways, as she knew he’d probably do everything he could to help her…

  She then frowned at him, sensing he’d gotten slightly stronger, though, to her at least, it was barely noticeable. She tilted her head at him and he shrugged.

  “We Leveled up, including Maya. I can actually hold my own without simply destroying my body now… well, more specifically, I can heal myself now,” he said proudly.

  She nodded, a bit impressed-

  Wait. Did he say he can heal himself now?

  She stared at him, trying not to feel betrayed, and failing. She knew he felt her betrayal, but obviously didn’t know why she felt that way, and, to be fair, neither did she. However, her subconscious clearly knew why and, in the back of her head, she felt despair starting to take over.

  If he can heal himself… keep himself alive… wouldn’t that mean he doesn’t need me anymore? The voice in the back of her head mumbled. And if he doesn’t need me anymore… What's the point of all of this-?

  (Wow. You’ve finally figured out he’s not going to “need” you around him forever? Congratulations, you’ve learned what life is.)

  Like you’d know. You don’t care about anyone, and I don’t know how we’ve lived for all this time without it having repercussions. I… Whatever. Leave me alone. I can’t wait until you go back to sleep.

  After Cthulhu snorted and retreated, Luna looked at the floor. What am I supposed to do now?

  Bennett coughed, looking over at the area they’d come from not too long ago before yawning. “Damn. Just realized I haven’t slept yet. Eh, it doesn't matter. We should continue on, right?”

  Juli gave him a flat stare, looking between him and his sister. “No. You two should sleep… so should you Luna, since you definitely need to conserve energy unless you want to… wait. Actually…”

  A portal opened up next to Juli and she pulled out what looked like some sort of Core…

  Water Core?

  Luna stared at the Core as Juli held it, a hunger that she hadn’t felt in many, many years nearly overcoming her, but she, somehow, managed to hold herself back, her entire body nearly turning to fluid as she reached for it.

  “Uh… okay. I’m not gonna ask,” she muttered, tossing the Core to Luna.

  Luna grabbed it and immediately began to pull Water Mana from the core, instantly draining it.

  I’m going to need like four more of these, She thought, stretching her hand out again.