Complete Refusal

After ten minutes, Daniel, Mia, a red-haired guy, and two teenage girls that Ryan couldn't remember appeared. Again, he really had a hard time controlling his feelings, but he managed to stay calm even though he saw Mia with a copy of his crossbow. It wasn't that surprising that she had enough coins to buy a weapon like that after the battle of the previous day, and considering that he was the one who taught her the basics of archery, it was only obvious that she would do that.

"… With the money, my parents left me, and with some savings I had, I decided to buy a hut in a mountain two hours away from here," Ryan begun to explain the things that happened to him from there. "I needed some time alone after losing his parents… but when I reached the house yesterday morning, the dragons appeared in the sky and then that earthquake…."

Ryan told the things that he learned after that, but he decided to keep some events hidden. For example, he didn't tell them about Cole and his group, the other survivors, or even Tristan and his sister.

"So, we can get class that can make us stronger and even obtain skills by defeating the boss of the dungeons?" The tall guy asked.

"Possibly," Ryan replied.

"… That arrow made of magic, you learned when you picked your class?" The tall guy showed a slightly annoyed expression. "Which class did you choose?"

"I wonder… which class did I pick again?" Ryan tilted his head and rubbed his chin. "I can't remember."

"You…" The tall guy got up and didn't try to hide his anger.

"Calm down, Adrian," Daniel said. "We are in a situation where every single bit of information about us can be used against ourselves later. It is only logical that we can't tell every single person about our skills and classes."

"Why?" Adrian asked.

"Think about it… let's say that you choose a class that increases your health quite a bit while I choose one that increases my mana instead of health," Daniel said. "What would happen if a group of humans attacks us? If they know about my class, they focus on killing me first and then leave you alone for a while. Not revealing this kind of information will grant us a great advantage. Eventually, we will have to fight in a certain formation, and that will reveal a lot about us, but that can be done after surprising the possible enemies."

"I see…" Adrian nodded.

Ryan knew about that but only answered his questions vaguely because he wanted to annoy Adrian. In any case, John and the others didn't have any valuable information… they met around noon the previous day a convoy of cars that were heading toward the opposite direction of Shreveport, and they told him that a horde of velociraptors attacked the north side of the city, but only that.

"Well then… I told you guys what I learned, so the conversation is over," Ryan said. "You guys can use the dungeon as much as you want during the day, but at night, only I will use it."

"Hah, who said that you could decide that?" Adrian frowned.

"I already decided it," Ryan said. "Besides, you only slept soundly this night thanks to me, right? What will happen if I leave this place before you guys can obtain the necessary power to fight the goblins without taking turns? Do you think a group of nine people can kill almost one thousand goblins every day? If the goblins decided to hide again inside the dungeon, you would be able to fight against a small army of them there?"

"Ugh…" Adrian bit his lips in exasperation.

Ryan was fully aware that he was acting like an asshole, but being sociable was the least of his worries at the moment. Besides, he already did a lot of favor to them, letting them have dozens of weapons that belonged to the goblins. It was true that he had no use for them, but it didn't change the fact that they obtained useful weapons thanks to him.

"Ryan, we should work together," Daniel said.

"You are right. We should work together," Ryan nodded. "But do I want to work together with you? Not really."

Daniel was left speechless after hearing that. He never imagined Ryan would say something using a mocking tune like that. Still, he couldn't just give up after hearing a single no.

"You got strong, Ryan. But this isn't a question about strength," Daniel said. "This is a matter of survival. Strength isn't anything when you need to sleep. Even if you can use magic, you won't wake up when an enemy tries to ambush you. Even if you do, you won't be able to react on time."

"What happened today won't happen again. It only happened because I didn't sleep in four days," Ryan said. "Besides, no monster would look for a human in a destroyed place like this and under a large piece of wood."

"Didn't you see the dragons? Who knows what comes next?" Daniel insisted. "Maybe you will be fine against velociraptors, goblins, slimes in a place like this. But what if all this crazy shit changes our world, maybe some worms won't mutate and become grotesque creatures, but there is a chance that there is a dungeon out there spawning giant earthworms."

"Even if that is happening at this very moment, I won't change my mind," Ryan said. "If I could choose, I would rather be being eaten alive by the equivalent of Cthulhu in this world than teaming up with you."

"Ryan, when did you become so unreasonable?" Daniel frowned. "Don't let his crazy idea of power blind your judgment!"

"Dude… are you really that interested in how many ways different ways I can say fuck off?" Ryan shrugged. "Rather than waste time doing something pointless like this, you should play with the goblins while you can. I will leave this place the exact moment I defeat the boss."