Ryan felt his body growing cold when he understood what had happened. In that direction, even though it was very far away, there was a big city… he had been there a few days prior. Thanks to it, Ryan didn't want to believe in what just had happened, but it was evident… Dallas had been nuked.
Although he didn't have a single memory aside from his parent's funeral from that city, it still was important to him because of that, but… Dallas was no more, and his parent's tombstones had been destroyed alongside everything. Everyone, even Ryan's mouth, stayed wide open for several minutes. They only stopped when a powerful blast of wind passed by them and almost made them fly.
"This much power from such a distance…" John said, bit his lips in frustration. "A hydrogen bomb…"
"Are you serious, father?" Daniel asked, his face was pale as a ghost.
"Yes… It is the only explanation," John replied. "Our city got attacked by a few dragons, but it looked like so many dragons appeared in Dallas that someone decided to destroy the entire city to get rid of them."
"But the people there…" Daniel said.
"I know… I can't believe in this either," Smith clenched in his fist while thinking about the number of people that had been sacrificed to kill the monsters.
All normal means of communication stopped working, so only powerful, and influential people could have decided to use a weapon like that on American soil. Washington probably had been attacked by even more dragons, so he couldn't believe that the president had issued such an order. Still, he couldn't discard that chance, just like he couldn't discard that someone could have hacked the nation's whole defense system and used one of those weapons. Either way, knowing who push the button wouldn't make things different. None of the people there would be able to find or question who took the decision.
Congratulations! The skill Rage has leveled up.
Rage Lv 2 ➞ Lv 4
Effect: Sacrifices temporarily four percent of your mana, intelligence, control, mentality, and willpower to increase your health, stamina, strength, endurance, and speed temporarily by the same amount.
You obtained 02 status points.
Ryan was also aware of it, but still knowing that wasn't enough to make him control his anger. Without wasting time, Ryan headed toward the dungeon. Everyone frowned when they understood what he was about to do, but then again, they didn't try to stop him.
"Ryan, what shall we do with the items we obtained?" Daniel asked. "Are you sure you don't want anything else? We all know that you deserve at least half of the spoils."
"You can eat the weapons if you want," Ryan replied without turning around. "Or you can give them to people more capable of stopping when you try to do something stupid again. Your tracking skills suck, so you should work together with more people for them to cover your back. I manage to follow your group for half an hour without even trying to erase my presence."
For a while, John, Daniel, Mia, and everyone else watched Ryan entering the dungeon without a hint of hesitation. First, he stopped at the entrance to buy something, but then quickly disappeared into the darkness. As if she had been holding her breath the entire time, Mia took a deep breath and lowered her head before letting some tears flow.
"He really does look like his father," John said. "Paul was intense like that before he got married. I don't know what you two did to him but, you should… wait, don't tell me…"
John opened his eyes widely when he connected all the dots, he couldn't question Mia since he didn't know her all that much and she just fought to rescue him, but he glared at his son without thinking twice. Without much of choice, Daniel avoided his father's gaze… he was a full-fledged man, but he didn't have a single explanation he could give him.
"You idiot… how could you do something like that?" John asked while he was trying to control his anger. "If the world weren't in this case situation, I would have punched you right here and right now, and you would be forced to eat porridge for the rest of your life."
John wasn't all talk, so Daniel could easily imagine that happening. However, they weren't in a situation that they could afford to wound each other. Monsters had appeared all over the world, and they barely escaped the dragon's rampage. Weirdly enough, they escaped because they had heard of Ryan's parents' death and were looking for him since he didn't answer their calls.
"Let's return…" John said, and then sighed. "We have to finish our camp before night comes."
"What about Ryan?" Daniel asked.
"Does he look like someone who needs to be helped?" John asked.
"But…" Daniel insisted.
"Use your head once a while…" John said. "He wants to be left alone for a while since many things happened so fast. In any case, he looks exhausted, and I don't intend to leave the son of a friend alone with the world in this state."
"Does that mean…" Daniel said, surprised.
"Yes… apparently Ryan was looking for this place when he found you," John explained. "I don't know when he learned to use magic, but it looks like we can learn one or two things from him. So, I think we should bring our things to this place."
"I guess we really do need information," Daniel said. "Also, an archer like Ryan would be a fine addition to our team."
"Good luck convincing him of joining this group," John frowned. "Maybe in the past, he was a kid who would forgive you, but not anymore. He lost everything he cared about, and now he found something to fill the emptiness inside him."
"And that is…" Daniel said.
"Power… I can see in his eyes someone who is trying to find the power to live in this new world," John said. "Anyway, thanks for rescuing me… you stupid son of mine."