Unlimited Power 02 - The Ranger's Domain
Chapter 299 - Trust

"WHAT THE HELL!" Ryan shouted in anger. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"

            Lucia and the others flinched and trembled when they saw the calm Ryan angry. Although he had a good reason to be angry, they thought he was going too far… Regardless, the second dungeon they decided to use as a temporary base was spawning pterodactyls. However, once again, the classes that Ryan could obtain were classes that he already had. To something like that to happen to times in a row was unnerving, to say the least. In any case, Lucia and her friends obtained the Elementalist class and proceeded to level up.

"... it can't be helped. What is done is done," Ryan said after a long sigh that calmed his nerves. "It is a pity, but it can't be helped."

"It looks like you don't have a heart of stone even though you act like that all the time," Lucia said. "Still, only someone very self-centered would only show anger when something happens to them."

"You don't know me enough to say that," Ryan said. "Maybe you don't know, but many people died in the last months. Death became a common occurrence. If I had left the death if strangers bother me all that much, I would have died a long time due to worry and fear."

"So, things aren't good outside this country either," Lucia said and then sighed. "What the hell are we fighting for here? Why are we struggling so much when the enemies seem endless?"

"Because we don't want to die seems like a good enough reason for me," Ryan said. "Even if the fight seems endless, as long as we win, we will buy the right to live in this new world."

"So, all this hard work just to survive?" Lucia asked. "Until when can someone endure that while their allies die one after the other?"

"Until your spirit crumbles away," Ryan replied. "If you are not satisfied with that, there is always the easy way out: give up and become monster's food."

"I take back what I said. You really have a stone heart," Lucia said. "Still, that makes me wonder why you decided to help us."

"I already told you, it was out of curiosity," Ryan explained. "I have a story with the demons, so I want to cause them problems as much as possible before I send their stink asses to the beyond."

                        That way of thinking might cause some problems to Ryan down the road, but in the end, just ignoring the demons would be insanity. With their spawning speed and with the dungeon breaks, and also considering that there two other dungeons spawning those fuckers. It was evident that demons outnumbered humans. Moreover, their strength was higher than most survivors.

"Anyway, you should keep practicing your magic skills while you can," Ryan said. "I am going to hunt for a while to cool my head."

"You sure have a strange way to cool your head," Lucia laughed.

                        Ryan ignored that comment and left the dungeon. Although it was dangerous to hunt at night since the demons had increased their perimeter, as long as Ryan is careful, he was certain that he wouldn't replace some bosses lurking around. In the end, Ryan had to use three seconds of concentrated Power Shot to kill every single demon he found, but at least he managed to avoid their sight by flying high in the sky.

                        Around noon of the next day, Ryan noticed that the number of encounters had increased exponentially. However, he and the others didn't replace a single boss. That was weird… although he knew that they were more rational than most demons, for the sake of expanding their territory, all the bosses Ryan faced that belonged to the demons' army would accept some risks. 

"How long until we reach your capital?" Ryan asked.

"Fifty kilometers, I guess," Lucia said. "Is there something bothering you?"

"Yeah… I want to get rid of some of their bosses before getting closer to the capital, but it looks like that won't be possible. So, we will move around the capital while slaying more demons. However, we will need a shelter to stay at night. Is there a dungeon close to the capital we can use?"

"Unfortunately, no," Lucia replied.

                        Ryan sighed. The number of dungeons in Peru was small. It seemed… his luck wasn't good. It couldn't be helped, but Ryan and the others will have to sacrifice some hours of daylight to go to the battlefield and return to the dungeon in which they previously used.

                        Even though the Demon Hunter class was leveling up really fast and his powers to slay demons were getting stronger, Ryan had no intention of looking down on those beasts. All the areas in which Ryan found them had been dominated by them for a reason, after all.

"You don't have to worry about our safety," Lucia said. "We can keep fighting even if the situation becomes really troublesome. In the end, as long as our country is free from those demons, we won't mind making some sacrifices."

"I am more worried about myself, really," Ryan said. "I don't want to repeat my mistakes, so that is why I am careful here. Anyway, you don't have to follow my commands, if you want to keep fighting demons without regarding your safety, then you can go on, but then we will not work together anymore. As I said, I don't want to work with hot-blooded suicidal idiots."

"… You really like to say that kind of thing, huh," Lucia said after a deep breath. "No wonder you work alone."

"Not really," Ryan shrugged and then said confidently. "Furball is watching my back."

                            Lucia couldn't understand how come Ryan could say that with a straight face. It was probably due to the fact that she fought alongside her friends for three months where every single die, they could have lost their minds at the hands of monsters. Hence, she would never be able to trust a monster to watch her back.