Chapter 255: Parents
Alex raised an eyebrow when he heard his level. "Level 13? That’s quite high. Why are you guarding this place instead of going out to hunt monsters and help the others?"
The shock on Leik’s face quickly disappeared, and he smiled while shaking his head. "Your safety is more important right now. You could hunt more monsters at Level 10 than I can hunt with ten of me. In fact, all of the strongest Ascendants in the area, except for the ones who are too far away, are taking turns guarding your room."
Alex nodded as he understood the situation. He already knew that his safety was important, so what he was really wondering about was why so such a powerful Ascendant was staying behind instead of going out on rescue missions.
After thinking about Leik’s level for a moment, Alex understood the reason. Currently, the most dangerous place in the entire region was the high school where their base had been established, and there was no way of knowing when more monsters might emerge from the portal.
Because of that, most of the strongest Ascendants had to remain at the base and guard the portal. Since they were already there, they could also take turns guarding Alex without taking too much time away from their other responsibilities.
Alex looked toward the corridor for a moment as his thoughts shifted back to the portal. ’From what I’ve theorized, the portals form at places where space is weak, allowing the space between Earth and the Land of Origin to fracture and connect faster.’
’It’s like holding a glass cup and putting it on a table. If your grip is weak, the glass cup will fall and reach the table faster, but it will also have a greater chance of breaking. In our case, the portals are like glass cups that connect to another location too quickly, and because of that rapid connection, space fractures and creates a strange tunnel between two completely different places that allows movement between them.’
Since the portals formed in areas where space was relatively weak, the monsters should be appearing around the high school more frequently through temporary portals. That meant staying near the high school was dangerous, but it also gave the Ascendants there more opportunities to fight monsters and grow stronger.
’Staying near portals means more monsters. Higher risk, higher reward,’ Alex thought.
Alex talked with Leik for a little longer and confirmed that temporary portals were indeed appearing more frequently around the high school. It explained why so many powerful Ascendants were satisfied with staying at the base instead of leaving for other areas.
Once he had finished asking about the portals, Alex turned his attention to something more important. He needed to know what had happened to his friends and family while he had been gone, especially since he had no idea whether the search parties had found anything.
"Ava was in the room with you until recently, but she suddenly rushed out. I haven’t heard from her since then," Leik said, then seemed to remember something. "Oh, right, she chose Rogue Class."
"Rogue?" Alex asked with a frown. He knew why the Rogue Class was powerful, and the principal was a good example of that, since his skill had allowed him to save Alex from a situation that even Priests might not have been able to handle. However, obtaining useful skills was difficult, which made developing the class much harder.
"Yes, especially now that the [Merchants] have appeared. We can buy weapons and items from them, and they have equipment specifically suited for Rogue Classes, which has helped deal with one of the biggest weaknesses of the class," Leik explained while adjusting his spear.
Alex nodded, though he wanted to ask what exactly these [Merchants] were. However, there was something more important on his mind, so he decided to ask about it later.
"Where did Ava go?"
"She went to room 8A. I asked someone else after she left, and they said she was meeting someone there," Leik answered.
Alex immediately started moving toward room 8A. If Ava had suddenly rushed out of the room and left him behind, there was a good chance she had received news about their parents, or perhaps a search party had finally managed to rescue them.
Alex kept himself calm as he walked, but he could not completely stop himself from feeling nervous. At the same time, there was a small sense of happiness because if Ava had received news about their parents, then there was a chance they had finally been found.
His steps gradually slowed when he reached the door. Thanks to Blood Vitalization boosting his senses, Alex could hear what was happening inside the room, and the sound that reached his ears immediately made him stop.
Ava was crying, and Alex’s expression slowly became serious as he listened. His Advanced Battle Instinct worked mercilessly, making him think of possible reasons for why Ava could be crying, but every possibility it presented made his feet remain frozen outside the door.
Yet, Alex moved. Despite how much his feet refused to move, the Advanced Battle Instinct Spell would not allow him to remain frozen and become overwhelmed by his emotions. The spell allowed him to fluidly move his body forward even while his mind struggled to process what was happening.
As he entered the room, he saw a bed surrounded by his friends. Most of them were there, and Ava was sitting beside the bed while crying and sobbing without making any attempt to hide her tears. Perhaps influenced by Ava’s crying, Sophia was also crying, although she was trying her best to remain quiet.
On the bed was Alex’s father. The man was awake and did not seem to have any obvious injuries, though his eyes were filled with exhaustion, making it clear that whatever he had experienced had taken a heavy toll on him.
A faint sense of relief filled Alex’s heart when he saw him. The monsters must have left his father deeply scarred emotionally, but at least he was alive and appeared to be physically healthy, which meant that given enough time, he could slowly recover from what he had experienced.
Alex took another look at his father before his eyes began moving around the room. He searched the faces of everyone present, hoping that he had simply missed someone, but the person he was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
His mother.
..
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