Looking at his son was swung repeatedly by the ant like a rag, making Adrian's heart almost stop. However, suddenly the ant's body was thrown aside, it made Derek also be thrown.
Adrian was dumbfounded. He then checked the ant to find out that it was already dead. As a warrior, he knew very well how risky it was to assume the enemy had already been dead without checking it first. After he was sure it was dead, he picked his son and retreated without words.
"Are you okay?" Adrian asked Derek whose face became pale after evacuated to a place not too far from the battle.
"I-I am o-okay…," Derek said haltingly. It seemed he was still startled after getting such brutal attacks.
Adrian sighed a relief. His face then became solemn, "I'm not done with you! What you did was really stupid. You stay here!"
Adrian then came back to the battle. As he was about to attack an ant, he saw another one was thrown. One more ant was death, once again the shadow who killed it. He then swung his sword to the ant in front of him.
***
Derek, although still trembling, started to come to himself. While waiting for his HP to recover, he watched his father and the shadow facing two ants.
His father was a living model for him. Since he was still a child, he always looked up to his father. He remembered that the townsmen always praised him as a brave warrior. He often listened his mother telling him and his sister his father's good deeds. It made him believe that his father was the bravest warrior.
"Sigh…. I am no good. I always bring trouble to Father," Derek sighed.
Derek looked at his father who fought with the ant. He could deal with the ant pretty well. His combination of shield and swordplay could restraint the ant. Sometimes he would retreat if the ant wanted to do some crazy attack. Derek believed that his father could beat the ant, albeit needed some time.
He then looked at the man who had helped them. His speed was so fast, so Derek couldn't catch some of his movements and with the darkness of the night, sometimes he just seemed to disappear.
However, somehow Derek felt he was just doing something pointless. It would be enough If he just kept his distance far enough from the ant. By making so many unneeded movements, he would be tired faster. Moreover, his opponents were just slower-moving ants.
However, suddenly he felt guilty for thinking like that. As his father's saying, everybody had his own fighting style. Such an expert that could contain many tough monsters alone must have his own consideration. His instinct told him, even if he, his father, and his mother were working together to face him, they would definitely be defeated, although his mother, as an archer, possibly could deal some damages to him.
However, he then shook his head, "No! He at least at tier 2. He could easily predict mother's arrow."
He felt that his journey to be a strong warrior like his father was still a long way.
A minute later, the shadow killed an ant. And with his help, his father finally slew the last ants.
"Finally, it is over," Derek said.
***
"Thank you for saving us. We owe you our lives," Adrian said gratefully to Ace who was cleaning the battlefield.
After storing the third ant's carcass and its core, he turned his attention to Adrian and his family. With a smile, he said, "It's something that every human being should do right? We are so feeble in this brutal world. We must help each other to survive."
Adrian and the rest of his family couldn't say anything for a while. They then nodded. Adrian then said, "Well said, Mr. Ace Nightglow. I absolutely agree with you. Are you a noble? It was rare to find someone with a family name."
Ace could only smile, "Follow me! It's not a safe place to have a conversation. By the way, the two carcasses and cores are for you. You deserve them."
"Thank you, Mr. Ace," Adrian couldn't hide his joy.
"Call me Ace, please! I am not a noble. I am just a guardian," Ace added.
***
After taking Adrian's wife and daughter, Ace led them to go to the hill. Although he had many questions for them, he was sober enough to know that they were still at a dangerous place.
Along the way, he had told his family that he brought some visitors via the party channel. Sampson and Cloud asked who they were. Ace said that he also didn't know, he just told them that they were humans.
With his extraordinary senses, he succeeded in avoiding some patrolling ants along the way. After walking for more than 30 minutes, he finally brought them to the hill safely.
As they arrived at the entrance of the cave, Sampson, Cloud, Sofia, Geo, and Jumpy had already been waiting.
For a note, Jumpy had grown more than 1.5 meters tall. There were some grey stony layers on some of his hide. The change happened because he ate the ants' remnants regularly. It increased his physical defense some points.
He also ate the remnants of shining spheres, as it would give some elemental essences to his body. The shining sphere had only an 8 hours lifespan. After death, it would leave its body, which was like a deflated balloon. Sofia asked him to eat it regularly.
Sofia honestly said that she didn't know what species he would turn into after it leveled up to level 10, as the book only mentioned 4 elite spider species that were based on the elements. They were based on water, wind, earth, and fire element. However, Sofia said that it was highly possible the evolution would succeed.
He was at level 9 at the moment, same with Sampson, Cloud, and Geo. As for Sofia, she was surprisingly at label 11, one level lower than Ace. It was because she didn't get experience only by hunting. In fact, her activity writing scrolls every day gave her some experience other than killing monsters. It made her the third highest damage dealer after Ace and Sampson. It made everyone envy.
***
"Ace has already told us your circumstances. We really want to know about your experience if you don't mind," Cloud as the oldest person in the family welcomed Adrian's family.
"You are too polite ma'am. We are just refugees, don't deserve such honor. It's we, who should thank Ace for saving us. If not for his help, we may have ended in their stomachs.
Let me introduce my family. She is my wife, Nara. He is my son, Derek, and the little one is my daughter, Mia," Adrian said in a polite manner.
"Oh, I am Ace's mother-in-law by the way. That woman, Sofia is my daughter. The child, Geo is her son, and then the burly man is Ace's brother," Cloud stopped for a second, "Let's enter our dwelling, although it is just a coarse cave, it gives us protection these days. The ants don't dare to climb this hill for some reason," Cloud said with a smile.
"Thank you," Adrian responded.
***
After eating some slices of bread and fruits that Ace's family served, Adrian sighed, "Thank you. It's the most fulfilling meal I have eaten these months. So, what do you want us to tell? We will answer it, as long as we can."
Ace then asked, "Where did you come from? And how did you come here? I have already checked the area around here and I couldn't find any trace of human activities."
Adrian frowned after hearing Ace's statement as if he caught something wrong with Ace's statement. However, he didn't ask. He instead said, "It's a long story. It will take some time if you don't mind."
Looking at Adrian's reaction, Ace wondered if he said something wrong, but he was more curious about a man in front of him's story. He then asked, "It's okay. You can ask us afterward. But, please tell your story first! I'm really curious about it."
"Okay. We are refugees from the North. We are townsmen of Blue Moon Town, a small town on the Northern border of the Caraga kingdom. We had lived there for generations peacefully.
However, 7 years ago, the world changed. We wouldn't realize the changes if we didn't see some text floating in front of us. I remember it said that I was level 3 at that time. We also realized that a kind of space that could store things was created inside of our bodies.
I remember that all people were shocked by the event that day," Adrian said in reminiscent.
"Yeah, Derek was still 8 years that day, and Mia still few months old, right? I remember he was really excited that day," The quiet Nara said with a chuckle.
"Hahaha, yeah. He and Natalie were really… Um... Sorry, Derek!" Adrian became gloomy.
Derek smiled bitterly, he then clenched his hand, "It's okay father. One day I will save her! Or if it's too late I will kill her with my own hands."
Ace and his family felt strange with the change of emotion that was too drastic. However, because it was not their place to ask something personal, they were just silent.
"Sorry! It is about another thing. I will continue our story," Adrian said.
"Two years after that, although many strange things happened, like the appearance of many strange but strong creatures, the changes of animals and plants around the town, and the weather that suddenly become weird, we still could live our peaceful life.
However, everything changes when the kingdom began conscription in the third year," Adrian's tone deepened.
***