57 Leaving Home

The dungeon itself is quite interesting, halls of smooth stone filled with reliefs on the walls, the light of the lanterns causing shadows of their bodies to cover them in menacing ways. The monsters themselves are ironic considering the temple like area. They look almost like the classical idea of demons, and after the first one, the group finds out they can breathe fire.

The girls pull large containers of water out of their inventory after that, before using their control to have a blob of water following them which they use to make a shield of water whenever it decides to breathe fire at them.

Their thin walls of water somehow manage to block the flames, though Sen's and Kang's walls of air still end in them getting singed, so they're both a bit annoyed. Julie simply redirects the flames, or just puts them out with her flame control, having even less trouble than the rest of the group.

The boss itself, is as expected, just a bigger version of the monsters, but with the boss, blocking its flame attack proves to be pretty much useless, and so the group ends up jumping around the room to avoid the cones of flame.

The boss fight ends with much less suspense than the previous two however, and the group is soon finished with it. They leave the dungeon and say farewell to the alliance they'd gotten to attack King before heading back to Falan.

The following weeks pass in a manner that, while filled with much of the same thing, is in no way boring with the constant fighting. The bosses of the dungeons turn out to have multiple variations after a few runs, the giant mist snakes having a boss that is larger and tougher, but without the water cutter attacks, and the wind bears having a variation that constantly has a sort of tornado around it, making it immensely hard to even approach it.

Luckily, the three dungeons each mainly raise a different stat, and with the restriction on using the same type of core to raise a stat no longer applying at B rank, they eventually get their stats up to A.

When Sen and Lynna inform their father, he looks more worried than anything else, even though he had been the one to push them to get there. Sen questions on what he should do, but his father says to simply wait. It's a couple weeks later when he gets a message on his phone claiming to be from some government agency he can't find the existence of on the internet.

He thinks it's a prank message at first, but his sister has received an identical one, and his father also confirms it's real. The message is simple, pack up a few days clothing and all essentials he'll need, then wait for pickup the next week.

Before doing anything else, he sends messages to the rest of the group to see if they'd also received the same message. Xue is the first one to reply, and confirms she has, while the rest of the group, excluding Kang, confirm that they've also received the message.

The day before they're supposed to be picked up, Sen spends it with the group, as he isn't sure what exactly is to happen.

"Xue, can you share what's going on now?"

Xue shakes her head, looking at Sen apologetically. "They'll inform you once we get there though."

Sen lets out a breath. A fight he can handle, but not knowing what's going on like this doesn't sit right with him. Eventually, he asks something he's been wondering for a while.

"Xue, why'd you change so much from Last World Online?"

Xue's face instantly goes back to the cold expression she'd worn around the group at the beginning, before morphing into a more melancholy expression.

"I…"

"If it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to share," Lynna butts in, glaring at Sen for his insensitivity. Looking around, he sees the rest of the group is also giving him uncomfortable looks.

"I'll just say it's for the same reason I quit and switched to Gladiator," Xue practically whispers. At this point, Sen is definitely regretting asking, and the group is left in mostly silence until they all head back to their respective homes

Lynna berates him on the ride home about how insensitive he was being, and Sen simply shrinks into his chair. Getting lectured by his family is far, far scarier to him than fighting even the most vicious enemies.

They get back in time for dinner with the family, and when they go to leave the table, both of their parents give them a hug, and "Stay safe" before they go to their rooms for the night. The next morning, Sen and Lynna are both packed and prepared for the pickup that's supposed to happen, and are waiting around in the entranceway for the people to arrive, both of them nursing a coffee.

It isn't long until they see a car pulling up the driveway through the glass panes on the side of the door, and they both follow the blurry people through the frosted glass panes as they arrive at the front of the house and ring the doorbell. They both take a deep breath, and Sen opens the door. Greeting them is a man and a woman, both wearing immaculate suits, and when woman turns to the man before he speaks, Sen notes an earpiece in her ear.

"Lynna Li and Sen Li?"

The two of them nod, Lynna a bit overwhelmed, Sen relying on his experience from his past life to remain calm. The two people hold out a small screen to the two of them with a marker in the middle of it.

"Thumbprints."

Sen and Lynna both press their thumbs down on the screens, and after hearing a beep, the two suited people nod.

"Have you already prepared what was asked of you?"

The siblings nod again, Sen noticing that he's adopted the posture that had been beaten into his bones for working around nobility from his past life.

"Grab your things and come with us."

The woman who still hasn't spoken at this point is the first to turn around and head to the car.