"I hope you don’t do anything stupid. We’ll both be in trouble if you do."
"...Huh?"
"What’s your na again?"
"...Dave."
"Don’t do anything stupid, Dave."
"Wh—"
Adam patted Dave’s back twice. The poor man could only glance back at him, only to see he wasn’t even looking at him anymore, and just watching Selene interact with the Leak Manager.
Dave squinted, waiting for Adam to at least say sothing else.
"Let’s go!"
But Selene was done registering them for the dungeon, and Adam hadn’t offered him even a single glance. Dave looked at the others to see if they noticed anything, but none of them were reacting at all.
Was it possible that... he just imagined that entire interaction?
But of course, he didn’t. Not at all.
Adam chose to stay at the back of the party, not making any noise at all as they headed to the gate. He did, however, stop at one of the stalls selling large bags—and without the others noticing, he bought one of the large backpacks before returning to their side.
"Here’s our ticket." Selene presented their ticket to the person guarding the gate, who started counting them before signaling to one of his colleagues to open the large tal doors. The guard didn’t even speak at all, just ripping the ticket and giving it back to Selene.
Adam watched this entire interaction, sighing as he still couldn’t believe how much had changed. He’d always been clearing High-risk Leaks the past decade, so it always surprised him just how organized privately owned Leaks were now.
He rembered the ti he t Sylvie in the museum back in Dallas—the entrance to the museum was like this.
"Okay..." Selena turned around, addressing the group as the gates opened behind her. "...I think we’re all acquainted now. And we’ve already done the assessnt. Aside from Nica, this is officially the first ti our party is going to work together. And... uh..."
Selena cleared her throat, her nervousness spilling out of her lips.
"Thankfully, my uncle is here. So, we’re all allowed to make mistakes." Selene nodded, turning her focus to Adam. "He will—Oh. Where did that bag co from, Uncle?"
"I thought since I’m here, I might as well make myself useful." Adam shrugged, adjusting the straps of the bag. "I’ll be serving as your porter. Don’t mind ."
"That’s—thank you." A smile crept on Selene’s face. She once again cleared her throat, shaking her head as she turned her focus back to the rest of the party. "But even though my uncle is here, it doesn’t an we should be lax. Let’s not embarrass ourselves in front of him... Let’s go!"
Selene raised her hand, and while she stepped through the gate, her party mbers glanced at each other, and then at Adam.
"Do you... think he’s really a famous Hero?" Dave asked Nica, who only shrugged in response before looking at the man, who said Adam looked familiar.
"Do you know who he is, Stifler?"
"No. But he looks familiar," the man said. "I swear I’ve seen him sowhere before, I just don’t know where."
"What was his na again?" Nica asked. "Nathan...?"
"He’s... probably just no one if none of us know him." Dave sighed, "You know how it is with family mbers. Even I’d like to boast my uncle’s a famous artist... he was, but now he just works as a cleaner in a high school."
"Sshh." Nica grabbed Dave by the hand, slightly pulling him close to shush him. "Don’t let him hear you."
"I’m... not saying anything bad." Dave scratched his chin. "I’m... sorry if it ca out that way."
The party once again glanced back at Adam, but he wasn’t paying attention to any of them at all. Just minding his own business as they walked deeper into the forest.
They were... still a little distance away from the Leak. But that was the entire point of these new dungeons.
"This... place is creepy. But I guess it needs to be so the monsters would actually start spreading out and occupy the Leak’s affected area," Stifler whispered, rubbing his arms as he looked at the weird-looking trees that looked like they were oozing black goo. "How much do you think the Nightraptor guild spent on this?"
"You should be asking how much they’ve already got from this place." Nica scoffed. "I heard they capitalized on the idea earlier than the other guilds and marketed this dungeon as a beginner dungeon to attract everyone."
The Nightraptor guild...
And while the newbie Heroes were whispering in amazent, Adam’s eyes slightly turned wide as he heard their conversation. It had been a very long ti since he’d heard about the Nightraptor guild—he’d also been sort of completely focused on clearing the Leaks for the past three decades... but to think that little guild was already at this level.
If things were different, Adam would be one of the people who owned this Leak, since they invited him back then. But... then again, there was another guild that invited him, and they had a monopoly on all the Leaks in France.
Co to think of it... it’s been a while since I’ve last seen them. Should I—
"Unc!"
Adam snapped out of his thoughts, feeling a soft nudge on his chest. He was a little confused as to what was happening at first, but then saw the shadow of a monster fly past him, with Dave on the other side, his hand outstretched as he pushed Adam to save him.
"Enemy! Positions!"
Selene roared, and the party imdiately moved into formation. Dave was in front, crossing his arms as they shifted into stone. Selene ran to his back, drawing out her sword—a hum, buzzing from it as it vibrated at an intense frequency from Selene’s ability.
Stifler opened his palm, and the silhouette of a book materialized on top of it before a ball of fire erupted and floated above his head.
Nica moved in front of him, pulling out a thorned whip from her legs, which twirled and surrounded both her and Stifler.
As for the quiet man, he leaped into one of the trees, pulling back his arm like he was holding a bow... and it would seem he was, as a dark arrow materialized in the air in front of him.
Adam... well, Adam continued to leap back, letting the montum of Dave’s push to take him farther away—focusing his eyes on the monster to launch a surprise attack on him instead.
It was the common monster of this dungeon; it was a large board. Or at least, it looked like a boar at first glance... before you see its two extra sets of legs, its hide covered in scales instead of fur, and its tusks, which looked like they had a life of their own from the way they were moving and waving in the air like snakes.
And most importantly, it was the size of a van.
The monster shrieked, causing the ground to quake—and although most of the party winced at the sound and their bodies clenched, none of them seed fazed by the monster.
"Stifler!"
Stifler launched a sphere of fire at the monster, hitting it right in the face and montarily blinding it. And while it was shaking its head, an arrow flew through its eyes, completely taking one of them away.
And as it roared in pain, Nica swung her thorned whip, letting it latch onto the scaled boar’s neck before Dave grabbed the whip with his bare hands to pin the boar in place.
And with it completely trapped, Selene moved in for the kill, swinging her sword right through the neck.
And with the blade vibrating, the monster boar’s neck was sliced without any resistance, its large head rolling toward Adam.
They didn’t even get to see what its moving tusks were capable of doing.
This was the new generation of Heroes—ever since the existence of the Survival Mode Leaks, the IBAA, and the guilds had started prioritizing training Heroes as a team; so of them even borrowing tactics from military and the secret services all over the world.
And so, even though Selene and the others were practically new Heroes, none of them were pushovers. This was also the reason why the entire Ga had changed—the participants are almost all trained.
"Uncle!" Selene rushed toward him, sheathing her weapon. "Are you okay?! Why didn’t you dodge?"
"Oh..." Adam blinked. "I didn’t see it coming."
"You... didn’t see it coming?" Selene also blinked, confused. "But... you’re you? You should’ve been able to dodge that."
"I didn’t sense it." Adam shrugged. And in truth... he was telling the truth. He didn’t even sense the danger coming, because there was no danger at all. The large boar rushing at him wasn’t enough to trigger any reflex.
"Hey. Cut your uncle so slack." Dave sighed, approaching the two. "Are you alright, Unc?"
"I’m fine." Adam smiled at the tall man. "Thank you for saving ."
"Psh. Don’t ntion it." Dave waved him off. "Anyway, should we start looting this monster for mats?"
"You young people relax." Adam also waved him off. "I’ll do it."
Maybe Adam was wrong, and this Dave guy wasn’t as bad as he thought.
***
"Dave?! What are you doing?!"
Okay. Adam was right, as Dave now had his arm wrapped around his neck, violently carrying him in the air.
"Selene. If you like your uncle..." Dave gritted his teeth, pressing his sharp, stone-like finger at Adam’s temple.
"You will send ten million dollars into my account! We all know you’re loaded!"
Adam glanced up at him, and the only thing he could really do was sigh. As for Selene...
...she was just confused.
Was Dave... trying to kidnap one of the only five X-tier Heroes on the planet?
"Uh... you should really let him go?"
"Ten million dollars!"
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