Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain
Chapter 272 - Ambition

                                    Ryan and the others returned to the base the next day, just after sunset. That made Mark frown since that wasn't the speed humans should have just by running, but it looked like everyone pushed themselves too far since aside from Ryan, Daniel and the others looked pretty beat down.

"We need to talk," Ryan said.

"Yes…" Mark said and then sighed, already imagining what Ryan wanted to hear.

                                    Before starting the talk, they headed to the meeting room, and along the way, Ryan saw Zoe playing with Arthur and Mia. For some reason, Mia looked pretty tired. When Zoe saw Ryan see waved her hand and smiled. Since the kid was smart, she was acting just like usual around him.

                                    After those two entered the meeting room, they sat down and stayed silent while Mark was preparing the room's monitor. However, even before everything could be ready, he started to talk.

"About the dragon that you probably faced on the South… I must apologize for not informing you about him," Mark said and then slightly lowered his head.

"Why did you stay silent about it?" Ryan asked. "It looks like you just assumed that I defeated him."

"I didn't expect that you two would meet," Mark explained. "His movements were rather hard to predict, so I expected that you two wouldn't fight. Considering how fearsome Alissa is, I wanted to avoid making you fight with him."

"That guy was leagues bellow Alissa," Ryan said. "In a sense, defeating him had been pretty easy since he was an idiot."

"Is that so… who could have thought that my worries were unfounded," Mark said. "Well, it doesn't change the fact that I made a mistake."

"Just move to the next topic, but don't make that mistake again," Ryan said. "How are things here with Zoe."

"Nothing changed," Mark said. "Although some people frowned when she suddenly was able to walk and heal injuries suddenly, no one dared to do anything since she is a friend of yours and she is pretty close to Alissa and with the others like Daniel and Mia."

"Is that so… and about the situation of the country regarding dungeon?" Ryan asked.

"Five more dungeons appeared since the time you asked the number of dungeons," Mark said and then typed something on his computer, and then a map of the country with several red dots and blue dots appeared. "In the last month, since everyone worked hard, we managed to clear 110 dungeons. So, there 99 others that needed to be cleared."

"Ninety-nine, huh," Ryan muttered.

"Yes. However, we can say that the situation is pretty good with a few exceptions since none of those ninety-nine dungeons spawn creatures like dire wolves or Chupacabras. Speaking of which, what kind of bosses you faced while clearing that last dungeon?"

"Vampires," Ryan replied.

"… Vampires…" Mark muttered and then shook his head to recover his composure. "Anyway, we also divided the dungeons in tiers based on the classes we can obtain, and for some reason, we only found a single dungeon in our territory in which we probably can a tier-three class."

"You mentioned a few exceptions… is this one of the troublesome dungeons you mentioned?" Ryan asked.

"Indeed… we are almost one hundred percent sure that they are almost at the level of Chupacabras and dire wolves," Mark needed. "We just need to confirm it by using Appraisal is one of them."

"I guess I will go and check it," Ryan said. "So, which type of monster are we talking about?"

"Giants," Mark said. "They are very human-like. Although they are slow and not so bright, they compensate all that with their high endurance and brute strength. As for the bosses that the dungeon spawned… they were armored giants."

                                    That was weird. If that was the only dungeon in the American territory that could spawn tier-three monsters, where did Cerberus came from? Ryan couldn't help but frown while thinking about it.

"The red dots are the dungeon that hasn't been cleared. The blue dots represent the dungeons that have already been cleared," Mark said while pointing at the monitor. "Now, I will change the monitor a bit. Some of the blue points turned green, see? Those are the dungeons that we have teams camped around and eliminating monsters day and night. At the moment, we have fifty of them under our control."

"Good for you," Ryan said.

"Hahaha, don't talk as if I was planning this from the very beginning," Mark shrugged. "Anyway, managing the dungeons and exchange the personal on a weekly basis is quite difficult, but I convinced Alissa to work with us to some extent. So, I believe in one month. We will be able to monitor around 150 dungeons all the time. In three months, we want to keep all dungeons under our control and, at the same time, exterminate all the monsters that had found their way to our planet."

"That is pretty ambitious," Ryan said.

"Those are our goals," Mark said. "Now, what is your goal, Ryan? How can we help you achieve it?"

                                    Ryan thought about that the whole trip. In the end, just clearing dungeons mindlessly wasn't what he wanted. If demons, dire wolves, Chupacabras, and giants were the most troublesome creatures he could replace in his current scope of the search, and he already defeated most of them, he just had to increase his range. Instead of obtaining new low-level classes, which would take a lot of his time to level up, it would be more convenient to replace the advanced ones. The bonuses and the skills they offered were leagues above the others, after all.

"I will look for other tiers three dungeons," Ryan said. "You probably won't be able to help with that since you will use the satellite to confirm the security of our country, so I won't demand the impossible."

"You will keep searching for more power, huh," Mark said while staring at Ryan's eyes. "I guess that is just like you… Regardless, thank you for understanding my position. However, I can't help you all that much anymore. I am still willing to buy the intel that you obtain."

"I am sure," Ryan said looking to the side.