A few days had passed since the native's baptism by death.

Kaiden stood with his arms folded, gaze fixed on the grounds below. His women flanked him in a loose semicircle, with Bastet lounging nearby on a sun-warmed slab of stone, Calypso perched on the same stone, shadowing the kitten from the sun and enjoying her consequent hissing, and Aria leaning lightly against Kaiden's shoulder. Luna and Nyx were not bickering for once; both of them were watching the scene with a content smile on their lips.

Alice, well… She was ignoring basically everything and was busy enjoying life in her halo form, also known as a conduit, where she was happily singing some cheery tune.

Below them, on the vast scenery of the dungeon, different people fought.

The formerly chaotic natives, his Dungeon-Born, were no longer flailing or dying in messy heaps.

The clumsy footwork, the badly timed swings, the sloppy habits shaped by a lifetime of surviving instead of fighting…

Were gone.

Or at the very least, fading fast.

Their opponents today were twenty ape-beasts, the same monster type that had effortlessly bulldozed them on their first day, even though they only numbered a handful, hurling them aside like sacks of wet grain, crushing skulls with casual flicks of their wrists.

But now…

It was the apes who looked cornered.

The forty-seven Dungeon-Born had formed a tight wedge formation.

Their frontliners pressed together shoulder to shoulder, overlapping their guard arcs.

The midline kept spears braced between the gaps.

The backline held their bow strings drawn, waiting for their orders.

They weren't rushing, panicking, or relying on sheer desperation and luck.

They were behaving with discipline and confidence born from the experience of painful failure and sweet success.

Dungeon-Born growth was different from that of a normal awakened's.

Normal awakened combatants grew through a universal system: farming experience points to grow their levels, which then increased their stats, and upon breaking through bottlenecks, they unlocked new spells as well.

Furthermore, their classes were categorized into tiers, but unlike levels, these tiers could not be changed, no matter the effort put in. This was also true for spells, as thus far, only Kaiden and his Valkyries had evolving spells.

Normal awakened only gained spells after breaking their aforementioned bottlenecks, and the only way to make their spells stronger was to increase their relevant attributes.

A mage's spells would scale with the Magic stat; increasing it meant releasing stronger spells.

A warrior's axe swing scaled with Strength; increasing it would make the hit stronger, stronger than what logic would dictate because the scaling came into play.

The same was true for an assassin's dagger arts that scaled with Agility, and so on.

Dungeon-Born had none of that.

Their strength came from the Dungeon Vein, a link tethered to the Dungeon Core itself. That was the foundation of their growth. Through it, they didn't level but attuned.

Their status screens looked as such:

Name: Atohi

Race: Dungeon-Born (Human-Origin)

Core Attunement Rating: 5

Path Expression: Combatant - Spearman

Path Progression: 1%

—

Core Attunement Rating (CAR):

A measure of how deep their bond ran with the Dungeon Core.

Raising this number was equivalent to leveling up; each point made their bodies tougher, their instincts sharper, and their mana more responsive.

Path Expression:

The form their attunement took.

Atohi was a Combatant - Spearman, meaning his instincts, muscle fibers, and reflexes were sculpted around combat as opposed to those of a support specialist like a farmer, and he further specialized in spear techniques.

Path Progression:

How far they'd advanced along their chosen Lifestyle Path.

It didn't make them "stronger" in the raw physical sense; that came from Attunement. However, it evolved their fighting style, refined their techniques, and unlocked new instincts or specialized quirks as they devoted themselves to their role. His simple expression of 'spearman' could evolve into numerous specialized paths, such as 'lava-wielding spearman,' for example.

As such, for them, there were no levels and tiers.

Instead, their bodies simply changed as their connection deepened.

Their instincts sharpened.

Their minds adapted.

Their coordination became unnaturally synchronized with other Dungeon-Born as if they were parts of a single organism.

But that unity hadn't existed at the start.

In the beginning, nearly all of the natives defaulted to what they knew: bows.

Their tribe had survived for generations as hunter-gatherers, relying on stalking prey, skirmishing at range, and ambushing wildlife. Using bows was instinct.

Those who chose not to rely on bows picked up spears instead, believing them to be the most straightforward melee weapon. No frills. No fancy technique.

Thrust, thrust, thrust.

Just like the motions they had to use to have a satisfied wife instead of a grumpy one, letting them get a good night's rest.

Only a tiny minority chose anything different.

Chief among them was Taigi, who had selected a saber the moment options were presented to them. She didn't know why she felt drawn to it, just that it felt right. It felt like something that would let her carve her own path, rather than simply poking forward from behind a wall of bodies.

For a time, things worked.

Or rather, they worked until reality punched them in the face.

Literally.

The moment the first set of ape-beasts rammed into their ranks on day one, the flaws in their choices exploded into view.

Archers could not fire while being barreled into, and there were too many of them, making their spearmen lack numbers to contain those physically superior monsters.

Taigi herself had been turned into a bloody pulp a few times by the raw strength of a charging ape because she lacked the experience to properly dodge, or better yet, parry such a heavy blow.

That night, after the fighting ended and everyone resurrected from respawn with aching memories and bruised pride, Kaiden found himself approached by Taigi and ten of her subordinates.

All eleven dropped into deep bows.

Deep, deep bows, the kind that screamed, 'We are sorry, we are ashamed, please don't smite us.'

Kaiden blinked. "Okay. Explain."

Taigi straightened first. "My Lord… These ten wish to change weapons. They feel they made decisions that hindered the formation and are dissatisfied on a personal level as well. And… doing so would require materials and funds. We deeply apologize."

They bowed again.

Kaiden stared for a moment.

Then shrugged.

"Alright."

Taigi choked.

"Just like that?! You're far too magnanimous!"

"Varek would never…" Multiple whispered with shocked expressions.

"You tried and realized that you made the wrong call. Now you're trying to fix it. That's what competent people do."

The guilt on their faces melted into shocked relief.

But for Taigi personally?

Kaiden's words nearly made her levitate.

And just like that, the decision had been made. 'I'll ask Talia to supply a full range of weapons and armor for them, including heavy gear, light gear, everything in between. They can try whatever they want like this.'

Kaiden grinned shamelessly, though only inwardly. He was happy to dodge footing the bill. 'If I'm gonna ally myself with a guild whose leader is a blacksmith, I might as well make use of it, no? I bet she won't mind… Too much.'

And so, beginning on the second day, the real trial-and-error began.

It was messy, chaotic, and expensive. But not for Kaiden, and that was the important part.

Weapons were tested.

Armor was worn, broken, and swapped.

People realized what they were good at and what they had absolutely no business touching again.

By the end of day three, something beautiful happened:

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