Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain
Chapter 189 - Decision

                      When Alissa left the dungeon, her followers sighed in relief. She seemed exhausted and quite angry, but she was alive, and that was more than enough for them. As for Ryan, no one cared about his return, and he couldn't care less about the fact that no one was waiting for him either. Still, before leaving the dungeon, he filled his backpack with stamina and mana potions again.

"I can't let these coins go to waste again. If I had died back there, those wouldn't have served any purpose. From now on, I will use all of them to train my skills as fast as possible."

                      Ryan didn't know if he had done since the very beginning, things could have been different against Lilith, but still, at the moment, that was the only thing he could do to lessen the frustration he was feeling. He will have to think much harder to completely erase that feeling of his body or fight and train like there was no tomorrow and then obtain the power to kick those demons' asses. That will definitely make him feel better.

"Have you learned your lesson?" Alissa asked.

"No," Ryan replied as if it was a matter of fact.

"… I guess the demon was right. You have a death wish," Alissa sighed and then shrugged. "I give up. You can go and die trying to satisfy your pride. I think that will be better for Arthur and me."

                      By that, Alissa probably meant that she wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting in her way if one day she decides to look after him alone. Or maybe that was just Ryan's mindset making things bad things due to the situation. Alissa improved in some aspects, so she grew a little. Maybe she won't become that unreasonable again.

"So, you heard that, huh?" Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. "You can't trust the words of a demon that easily."

"Indeed, but aren't you pretty shaken by it?" Alissa asked. "Why would lies bother you so much? Anyway, this isn't a topic that interests me any longer. Thanks for your help all this time and for treating me like a normal human being. Try not to die full of regrets."

                      Alissa was all over the place, so Ryan couldn't tell if she was thankful for giving those warnings or if she was sarcastic. Regardless, her words had some truth in them, Ryan refuted what the demon said, but deep down… he somewhat always knew that he was walking in a fair line that could cause his death any moment.

                      After leaving with her soldiers to give them other classes, Ryan was left alone with his thoughts. In the end, he still had to solve the situation with the second group and how to 'seal' the dungeons, but right at that moment, he wanted to do something else, and that was to train alone and increase his powers.

"I wonder if I am not just repeating the same mistakes… I focused only on myself in those two months, but in the end…"

                      It wasn't very pleasant to second-guess himself, but Ryan couldn't help it given the circumstances. Still, Ryan decided to finish what he had started at the very least regarding the second group of survivors. As for sealing the dungeons, it wasn't his job to make every single city peaceful again, so he decided to stop thinking about it since after thinking for several days, he didn't replace a proper answer. 

                      Helena and the survivors still were guarding the Giant Ants' dungeon. Although they had some scars here and there, their numbers didn't decrease, probably because they had more than enough coins to buy health potions.

"My job here is over," Ryan approached then and declared. "Alissa and the others probably won't bother you anymore, so you can stay here if you want. However, unless you want to repeat the same disaster, you guys will have to divide yourself to clear those three dungeons, and with your current strength, I don't think that is possible. In any case, I can take you guys to a relatively safe place. You will be able to sleep in a bad and not worry about being attacked while you sleep. The only real problem is that the commander of the place is a Colonel of the army."

"The army… you say," Helena frowned. "Can we trust them? We have been waiting for them for so long…"

"I don't think you should, but as you already know, the officers in our country aren't receiving orders from anyone else, so you can't exactly blame them for something like that," Ryan explained. "Besides, if you feel unsatisfied, you can always leave later. Just like me, you don't have an obligation to become anyone's soldier."

                      Since Ryan felt that talking with Helena was easy, she became the voice of the group more or less. After giving their opinions to her, they reached an agreement. Although they wouldn't work with Ryan, at least they knew he wouldn't recommend them to go to an unreasonable place. Also, considering that they learned from their previous mistakes, the survivors decided that they would keep their independence level while working with others. All that in order to be able to take their own decisions when the time comes.

"We will go with you," Helena declared.

"All right, then pack your things and prepare yourselves," Ryan said. "The trip will be long, and you guys will have to make good use of Dash and stamina potions. That will serve as good training. Also… if you guys cause problems while you stay in that base or if you leave it, I will have to deal with you, and depending on your actions, you may not like what I will do."

                      The survivors gulped when they heard that. They recalled the moment Ryan made the eyes of the succubus explode, and they still couldn't understand how he did it. Although he was planning to do that with humans, Ryan reached a point where he couldn't hesitate anymore. Whatever happens, he will try to avoid reliving that frustration, and maybe he will have to pay a high price to achieve that.