"So, Adrian. If you had such a good place to live, why did you leave with your family?" Ace thought it would be suspicious if he asked him to take him and his family to the mysterious place immediately. So, he wanted to know Adrian's reason to leave the place.
"It was surely a good thing to live a peaceful life in that place for a few months. However, who could stand to eat fish and fruits every day? Furthermore, sometimes we had to suffer a stomach ache. We lacked dry wood to grill the fish because of the damp environment," Adrian said.
"...," Ace never thought the reason could be food.
"You can just go out for a few days to hunt some monsters and stock dry woods from the misty forest and then come back to that place, right?" Ace asked.
"I have explained how we got there, right? The passages are complicated and even if we come back to the misty forest to hunt some monsters, it's too hard to do it, after all the forest is misty. So, we chose to find a human settlement in the South, even if the others wanted to stay. However, we never imagined as we left the misty forest, we would enter the ants' territory. Thankfully, you came to save us," Adrian said gratefully.
It became apparent to Ace that Adrian didn't have a plan to come back to the place, so he needed to find a reasonable reason to convince him.
"I didn't see any human settlement around here. However, you can join us, if you don't mind. After all, it will be safer and easier to live if we work together," Ace suggested.
Adrian then smiled, "Of course, after all those words that we have waited for. We will work hard and won't disappoint you."
Derek and Nara seemed to agree with Adrian's words. As for Mia, she was too young to make a decision.
*Ding*
[Adrian, Derek, Nara, and Mia wanted to join your group (note: by joining your group, NPC will get shares of exp after defeating enemies, but they won't be able to communicate via party channel)]
[Do you agree?]
'Yes!' Ace didn't have reason to refuse. After fighting with the ants for more than 2 weeks, he learned the power of quantity. Although they were weaker than dragons by much, by combining their strength, they could make the dragons retreat.
He also found out that this game setting was more realistic than he initially thought. At first, he thought that the monsters' movements would be restricted by area. However, he found out that the ants hunted to pretty far places.
With the increase of his group members, he could hunt ants in the daytime in a secluded place, far away from their nest. It would increase the risk. However, they could level up faster.
Although he wanted to play casually, he didn't want to be left behind too far by the leading players. This morning he looked at the internet. Some players who became streamers could level up to level 15 or 16. The top players that were backed by guilds had reached level 18 and 19.
At first, he thought level up in this game was easy. As he could level up to level 10 in one day. However, he found out that the exp that he needed to level up to level 11 was several times more than what he needed to level up to level 10.
A group on the Internet talked about this topic and got an interesting conclusion. A player only needed 9,000 exp to level up from level 1 to level 10. However, the exp that was needed to level up from level 10 to level 11 was 6,000 exp. One of them made a hypothesis that every 10 levels, the exp that was needed to level up will improve significantly.
Ace planned to leave the ant's area after everyone at least at level 11. However, it seemed it must be delayed again.
As he looked at his new party's members, he thought of something, "Nara, have you already had a job?"
Adrian's wife looked surprised after being asked by Ace, but she nodded to him, "Yes. When we were still in the town, I got some archery practice. I am an archer. It's just that, I rarely participated in the battle, as I must take care of Mia. Is there anything wrong?"
"Yes, you must participate in the battle from now on. As for Mia. Do you want to help too?" Ace smiled at the little girl.
Mia hid behind her mother, but Ace could see she nodded.
"Please not Mia. She was too young. And she still hasn't had a job. It's too early for her to train," Adrian said.
"I won't ask her to battle. I want her to be a healer. It will boost our survivability," Ace explained.
"Healer!?" Adrian, Derek, and Nara shouted at the same time. Ace could see they were really surprised.
"Yes! What's wrong?" Ace asked in doubt.
"No! We just... But, are you sure you can make Mia be a healer?" Adrian asked in anticipation.
Ace felt he had underestimated healer class. He originally thought it was just an ordinary job because it had E rarity. However, it seemed it was not as simple as he thought.
"Yes. I have the means to make her become a healer. However, I have a condition," At first, he wanted to turn Mia to be a healer free of charge. However, their reaction made him greedy.
"You say it. If we can fulfill it, I promise to do it," Adrian said in a determined tone.
Ace smiled.
Ace said.
"What is your condition?" Adrian seemed to be impatient, after looking at the silent Ace.
"First, I want you to become our members for at least 10 years. Even if one day we find a settlement, you have to help us if we need to do something," Ace said.
Adrian thought for a while, he then looked at his wife and his son. After seeing that they had nodded, he looked at Ace, "Yes, I accept it. As long as you can make Mia become a healer, we will follow you forever if you want to."
Ace was astonished. He never imagined Adrian would be that determined. However, he just nodded. He knew Adrian had a consideration, but, as long as he agreed to his condition, he didn't mind.
"Second, I want to go to the place that you just told us. I have a gut feeling, it will be important to us humans in the future," Ace said some nonsense. He couldn't say that he had gotten a quest to visit it, right?
Adrian, Nara, and Derek looked at each other. There was confusion on their faces, but they still nodded.
Ace smiled, he then said, "Don't worry. We will never treat our members badly. Sofia, you can make four contracts for them."
"Contracts?" Adrian asked in doubt.
***
"Kneel!" A dragon shouted.
Gon and Mars then kneeled. They were in the clearing outside of the entrance of the Dragma Valley. Gon was still thinking about all he had seen on the way here.
At first, he was wary of why they were led to the entrance, not the palace. However, after walking for a while, he realized that some buildings in the valley were damaged.
He was surprised that there were people who dared to attack a dragons' dwelling. Based on a story he heard when he was still a dragonling, the valley only had ever attacked two times. First, by a Sea Gigan from Kraken species. The second, by a horde of giant serpents.
Then he saw some skeletons being carried with a cart by a dragonling. He then concluded that the Undead army that attacked the valley. He had heard the undead made unrest in the North and the East, but he never thought they would come to Dragma Valley.
As he arrived at the clearing, he saw a hill of bones that was gathered by many dragonlings. He also saw some winged humanoid.
'Angel?' He asked in his heart. One of his friends had said that Dragma Valley had made an alliance with floating islands. At that time he thought his friend just joked with him, but it seemed true.
He then saw that a large shadow covered him. As he looked above, he was astonished.
"Floating Islands?!" Gon couldn't help but exclaim. He never imagined he would see some floating islands on top of Dragma Valley.
He then saw an angel with four pairs of wings come on top of the hill of bones. He then recited something that Gon couldn't hear clearly, and then the hill of bones shone and became practices of light. The angel's body then shone. Gon knew that he leveled up after successfully exorcising.
Undead were troublesome creatures. Even if you defeated them, they could rise again if they didn't receive proper treatment. The remnants of the undead must be exorcised or burned to ashes so they wouldn't come back alive.
Gon and Mars were led to exit the valley through two rocky cliffs. Outside of it, they saw more hills of bones. There were still many bones that were picked up by dragonlings, that would be piled to form such hills.
"So, you have come," A dignified voice woke Gon up from his daydreaming.
An enormous dragon who sat on a pile of giant bones looked at Gon and Mars who were kneeling.
***