A few minor details were hashed out and eventually a plan came together.

  Myself, my father and obviously Grandpa would all be going together to the surface before immediately entering the Dungeon once more. I would’ve said I could handle it on my own, but we don’t know what type of state Grandpa will be in after the integration and carrying him while fighting isn’t the best plan.

  Which is why dad was tagging along.

  “Alright remember the plan, exit then immediately get back in. Don’t worry about whatever else is going on outside, just exit and back in as quickly as possible.”

  Both my dad and I acknowledged Grandpa’s words before willing ourselves to leave the Dungeon. Crushing Descent was already active, and the second I felt myself appear outside, I immediately felt the strain of others being held under the skill.

  The eyes cleared to see a lot more than 50 or so lava people in the area, but I didn’t manage to get an accurate count, and we were already back in the Dungeon on floor number one.

  “We don’t leave this floor until I integrate everything that needs integrating, if for some reason it tries to force us to leave, then leave me.”

  I kinda just ignored that last line and I could see dad did the same thing. Grandpa should know that so I’m sure he said it to sound cool in his head. Anyway, he sat down in the back, to begin, while my father and I stepped forward to face the incoming snakes.

  Not long after that…the screaming began.

  This…is the first time I’ve ever heard my Grandpa yell out in so much pain. Even at his lowest he’s always been a stalwart figure in my memory. Never shaken, and firm pillar to lean on even in the worst of times.

  I’ve seen him sad, angry, and even in pain before…but to scream out like this? As the echoes of his wails dance across the snake-filled chamber I couldn’t help but choking up myself.

  Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

  “Trust the old man. If there’s one thing about him that will never change, it’s his stubbornness. We’ll make fun of him about all this yelling later. Let’s just focus on our task.”

  I obviously wasn’t there during my dad’s childhood, but I had a feeling he also hadn’t ever heard his father scream like this. It was kind of unfathomable to even imagine Grandpa laying down somewhere yelling his soul out.

  Yet here he was.

  I did my best not to let it bother me and just continued mowing the snakes as they approached. It was hasn’t exactly hard to kill them the first time I entered this Dungeon, but a simple swing of my spear was enough to end their lives at this point.

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  Dad and I really didn’t say much else after that, as there wasn’t really much to talk about, and neither of us had any issue existing in silence either.

  But of course, this wasn’t just regular silence.

  Just like earlier when we were here with my cousin and he was crying his eyes out, it wasn’t the sounds of the snakes dying that lingered in the air and instead it was the wails and cries of an old man allowing himself to feel an immeasurable pain all for the sake of protecting what’s left of his family and getting revenge for the ones he was unable to protect.

  And so the hours passed, slowly but surely. Snakes kept coming, and eventually the speed at which they were spawning grew faster, but never fast enough to give me and my dad any trouble.

  At some point though, after who knows how many hours passed, the screaming died down.

  There were still a few yelps of pain every now and then, but not quite the gut wrenching screams he was letting out before.

  I’m not really sure what he was going through, but there’s no doubt that is the most painful thing he had ever dealt with, but as my dad said, I gotta trust the old man.

  Then I finally heard it, my grandpa’s voice, but instead of screaming it was words.

  “I did it… I god damn did it…”

  “Go, I’ll keep them busy here. Go check on the old man.”

  I nodded once toward my dad before I turned back and ran over to where grandpa was. What I saw there was not a pretty sight. He looked half dead, blood covered everywhere that I could see. It looked like he got hit by a goddamn bus but somehow didn’t break a bone in his body.

  I don’t quite understand what I was looking at, but what I do know is this isn’t the type of thing people walk away from. Not what I was looking at here…

  “Grandpa…”

  “I’m alright, boy, don’t let all this shit here fool you. In fact I feel better than ever hahaha!!”

  It was hard to disagree with him when he was sitting there laughing like a madman, waving his little stub arm in the air, but…

  I couldn’t help the feeling of pain that welled up inside of me.

  “Ah, what’s with that look on your face, Freddy. I said I’m good, so just trust me on that, ok? Now give me a couple minutes to get my bearings in order. These old bones still got some life to give, but I don’t think I could do any of the fusing stuff here.

  “Let’s just make it back down to the family so I can wipe off all this grime, get some water in me, and then we’ll come right back up and do it again.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle, and in the moment of the situation, grandpa just had a way of making the people around him smile. And even though dad would never admit it, you could hear it, and I know he smiled too.

  Long story short, we did exactly as he said. We cleaned up floor number one, pushed all the way through to handle three, ran through four, and destroyed that bastard at five before making it back to the family.

  Though grandpa did use a bit of the water on the earlier floors to wash off all that blood, he couldn’t get it out of his clothes, and needless to say mom on the other end was up in arms about the sight of him.

  But he pushed all that aside, drank some more like he said he would, sat down for a bit to catch his breath, and while he did that, he read up on the fusion process again, maybe for about twenty or so minutes and then we were back outside and back into the dungeon. All in a day’s work for the men in the Williams family, I guess.

  Now I’m not sure if it was smart to go fusing his Traits after just surviving a dance with death to integrate them, there was no stopping him at this point.

  The silver lining is that at least what he was doing this time was the correct way to do things and hopefully should be pain free.

  Either way, I can’t pretend that I’m not looking forward to the result of all of this, to see just how much stronger he gets.

  Maybe there’s a chance he reaches that Demi-E Grade level once it’s all said and done.