Guilt

After hearing what happened, even Lucas himself could not help but be shaken.

After living in this world for the past 17 years, he had already come to terms that deaths were more common here compared to the previous world he lived in.

However, hearing that someone had died from the beasts was a different matter. Especially since in this life, the one who died was of the same class year as him. He even had some interaction with that guy before, as that guy was also an achiever in Class D.

From what he heard, that guy heroically sacrificed himself to save the other students. He willingly took the risk of being pursued by the beast so that his teammates could escape to safety.

Apparently, that guy was a Bronze-grade awakener.

Although his grade was only Bronze, it was still a huge loss for the academy.

In this world, every capable summoner was important. This was also why the academy had always encouraged everyone to work together and not look down upon others.

The seniors would also help the lower-grade students. Lucas had experienced this himself personally.

Every fighting force against the beasts was a valuable asset.

To avoid further damage, the academy decided to postpone the 'dungeon trip' for the time being.

According to the official announcement, the nest of the Ember Ant needs to be calmed down before the second-year students are allowed to go back in and hunt beasts for experience points.

Upon hearing that the cause of death was the rampage of the Ember Ants, Lucas was suddenly overcome with guilt.

From what he heard from the seniors earlier, the cause of the Ember Ants going rampant was probably because they were disturbed by something or someone.

When he was retreating earlier, he had pondered and guessed that it was due to his actions of hunting the Ember Soldier Ants that the next became restless.

In that case, it could be said that he had just caused the death of one of his acquaintances.

As someone who came from a world of peace and entertainment, Lucas struggled internally and did not know how to feel.

Fortunately, he was able to lessen the guilt he was feeling a few moments later.

Although he still felt guilty, it was less compared to before, as he knew that this was inevitable considering the world that they lived in.

He also needs to get strong. In order to do that, it was inevitable that something like this would happen.

Perhaps, in the future, he might have to kill someone in order to get stronger?

In this world, the ultimate enemies were the beasts and the dungeons; hence, the thought of killing someone had only crossed his mind now.

Lucas slapped his head and quickly calmed his overthinking as he focused his mind on the present.

There was no use thinking that far ahead. In this world, the ultimate enemies were the beasts and the dungeons.

If he focused himself on feeling guilty, he would face death sooner or later in the same way.

If he could choose between doing nothing and dying early because it made him weak, or if he could act normally and cause the indirect death of someone to become stronger, Lucas thought that he would surely choose the second option.

Lucas realized that no matter what world, the term, 'survival of the fittest' had always existed and always had some truth in it.

As someone from a peaceful world, it was fortunate that Lucas was able to come to terms with his guilt quickly. Or else, it would have been detrimental for his mental health and would cause him setbacks in the long run.

After Teacher Julian brought them out of the dungeon, the school nurse was already waiting to cast some calming skills to soothe their mind.

In terms of mental attitude, Lucas was obviously cut above the rest of his classmates. It took them a lot of time to recover to normal. The school nurse seemed to feel fatigue after the last second-year student recovered from her skill.

From the attitude of the nurse and the teachers, it seemed that they had actually expected something like this to happen during this dungeon trip. 

Perhaps this was not the first time that this happened, and hence, they were able to calmly assess and address the situation.

Although the teacher and the academy had emphasized over and over again that beasts were dangerous and anyone could die at any moment, it looks like it was only at this moment that the second-year student finally realized the horror of beasts firsthand.

Those of their age had not experienced the terror and chaos that the first summoner experienced. It could be said that they were quite lucky that they were born inside a city, a stronghold, where powerful summoners would arrive in an instant once a beast crisis arrived.

The constant reminders of the teachers and their parents had finally sunk in their minds right now, including Lucas.

The second-year students felt fortunate that they were now outside of the terrible dungeon.

The unfortunate thing was that the second-year students now had to pay some fee before they could enter the dungeon again.

It was in the rule that the new awakeness could only enter the school-regulated dungeon once for free. 

It was unfortunate that they were not able to capitalize on this free opportunity, but every second-year student, except for two people, was not happy with the arrangement.

One was Hector, who wanted to reach Iron Star 1 as early as possible and create history, while the other was Lucas, who was broke and did not want to pay the admission fee.

Fortunately, he could complete missions for the academy and earn contribution points, which he could then exchange as payment for the admission fee.

After they were dismissed and were allowed to go home, Lucas went to the library to study.

From the situation earlier, he noticed that he made a lot of blunders and mistakes. 

He thought that he was completely at fault about the death of that guy, but instead of focusing on the guilt, he thought that it was better to do better and avoid such mishaps in the future.

As it was not recorded in the information he read before, Lucas proactively thought that he could hunt the Ember Soldier Ants, not thinking about what kind of reactions the nest would have to such a situation.

The school-regulated dungeon had existed for over a decade now. There was a lot of research done on the beasts inside, including their behaviors and such.

All of this was available in the academy library that any students could access at any time through their computers or phones.

Unfortunately, Lucas doesn't have a phone much less a computer, so he could only go to the library and use the free computer there to access the information.

He wanted to check and study the beasts inside the dungeon once again and review if he had missed some crucial information, just like the reaction of the entire nest if the Ember Soldier Ants were getting killed.

Sitting in front of the library computer, Lucas frowned as he looked at the information about Ember Ants once more.

"It's really not here!"

_____

A/N: Do not misunderstand this as him being weak minded. Unless you're an extremely horrible person, anyone would feel some sort of guilt if they think that they are the cause of someone's death. Also, Lucas needed the reality check firsthand, that this world is no longer the peaceful world he once lived in before.