"Welcome back, master," Gisela said, showing a complicated expression. "I"m sorry, but it looks like this will take a while..."Gisela spent the last hours trying to freeze the water of a bucket, but there was no sign of ice. However, Leon noticed that the water got colder.
"You are on the right path, keep practicing," Leon said. "There is no need to feel embarra.s.sed; I only learned that after training my magic for months."
Leon patted Gisela"s head, and then she nodded. While he was training on the island, Leon noticed that it was easy to freeze water if he just inserts his mana in a small portion of water. Freezing the water of a bucket would be even easier since he didn"t have to control it. After giving a few more pointers, Leon left the house and headed to the entrance of the dungeon where Tom was. Since he was focused on watching the surroundings, he quickly noticed Leon"s approach.
"Is something wrong, Leon?" Tom asked. "You spent the night awake and killed a lot of skeletons this morning; you should rest while you can."
"I just came to ask a few questions," Leon said.
"What is it?" tom asked.
"You guys already found the crystal of the dungeon, right?" Leon showed a puzzled expression. "By what I saw today, ordinary skeletons don"t stand a chance against you guys. So, why didn"t you clear the dungeon yet?"
"You are right," Tom nodded. "It is obvious, but it is due to the boss. That thing... it is very dangerous. Have you heard of ghosts" dungeon? j.a.pan has one, but we don"t have one here. The boss of this dungeon is similar to the boss of that dungeon; we call it Grim Reaper 2.0. However, it can summon skeletons almost infinitely. Not only that, but it also can suck our souls quite fast... we lost one member on the first time we fought against the boss."
"It sounds very scary..." Leon said.
"As if that wasn"t enough, we can only damage with spells and attacks that are strengthened by mana," Tom explained. "We don"t have enough mana, and we also tried to fight while using potions, but we didn"t last long."
"Why didn"t you ask the directors to send a few archers or mages?" Leon asked.
"We tried that before, but it is useless," Tom answered. "Unless we have a mage or archer deal a lot of damage, we can"t stop the Grim Reaper from summoning more skeletons. The beast apparently has infinite mana, and even if we destroy all skeletons with a single strike, eventually we will run out of gas. That is why the directors sent you here; I believe that think you have the potential to stop the grim reaper. Your attacks are powerful, but not enough."
"Well, I guess I need to train until then," Leon said and then started to walk away.
"That would help me a lot if you become powerful enough to stop that thing." Tom smiled. "Although I"m thankful for your enthusiasm, you should rest properly. This isn"t a sprint; it is a marathon."
"May I ask you why I would end up helping you? You are the captain of the team, but you don"t have to stay here every single day, right?" Leon asked.
"Well, with the payment of this job and the coins we may obtain from the boss," Tom said. "I think I will be able to take a few weeks off. You are right, I can take a few days off, but it would complicate things. I"m married, my wife and I opened an orphanage in New York, and to keep it running, we need coins."
"I see... you are a lucky guy," Leon said.
"No, I just married her recently," Tom explained. "You can laugh if you want, but she was originally my maid. Although it may not sound so convincing considering that she had to obey all my orders, we married because we had many things in common, we were orphans and lived on the streets for a long time. So, we had this dream to build a place where others like us wouldn"t be mistreated or be shunned by society."
"I would never laugh at you... to be honest, I"m quite impressed," Leon said while showing his amazement.
"Ah, don"t say that." Tom laughed. "It makes my back feel itchy."
Leon was indeed impressed, until that moment, he only thought of doing things that would benefit himself. Sure, he was working for Makoto to avoid a war, but he was worried about how a possible war would affect his sister"s lifestyle rather than the number of casualties.
After solving that situation between the two nations, Leon would spend his life in Las Vegas near his sister and niece to protect them from the danger and maybe protect Hector too since he didn"t want to see them crying.
"I guess at some point I stopped caring about many things... Although I worked hard to escape from that place by myself, I waited to be rescued for the whole time. Since no one helped me, deep down, I don"t feel the need to help those who I don"t love or care about. I became a selfish person..."
It couldn"t be helped; deep down, Leon was aware that he couldn"t rely on anyone but family with the world in that state. Still, was that enough? Would he protect his family and see everyone else, dying? Did he want to live in that kind of world? Leon didn"t have the answers to those questions, but he didn"t want to see Amanda and Maya living in a world of death and destruction. It was time for Leon to stop being so narrow-minded…