Unlimited Power 02 – The Ranger's Domain

Alissa's words puzzled Ryan. She learned something new… when? He had no idea when that happened and why she kept it a secret. After thinking for a while, Ryan realized that she did that because she wanted to use it as a bargain. Regardless, Ryan wouldn't fall for her or Orgar's tricks.

"That is rich coming from you," Ryan laughed. "I am not much better, but I at least recognize that as a fault. However, do you recognize that the fact that you don't care if others live or die is one of your shortcomings? Don't waste time worrying about me. Your mental health is as much if not worse than mine."

"I am serious, Ryan," Alissa raised her voice. "Although you say that, I just confirmed that the human race is doomed. If you keep acting like you usually do, you will die. Instead of being so stubborn and prideful, you should join us for good. If you do that, we will help you grow stronger much faster than you think."

"Of course, you will," Ryan said. "It is not like you wouldn't gain anything by helping me, right? Regardless, not all the power and the money of the universe can buy my freedom. I would rather die doing whatever I want than being the slave of someone else."

"I never you said you would become a slave; you will become our ally!" Alissa shouted. "I always treated you like one."

"Spare me of that crap," Ryan said. "If that were the case, you wouldn't have hidden the fact that you read my mind for who knows how long, and you wouldn't be hiding another piece of information. A wise man once wrote in a book: "People work together when it suits them. They're loyal when it suits them." Now more than never, this is a fact. So, don't try to convince me by using your cheap sentimentalism. You never saw me as an ally, or like a friend. You saw in me someone who could be useful. If I hadn't killed the red dragon that day, you wouldn't have helped me."

To Ryan's words, Alissa didn't say anything. Much to his surprise, Orgar didn't react in any way. Usually, after saying such things to Alissa, he would get pretty mad. What Ryan didn't know was the fact that Orgar was the one who convinced Alissa to watch the fight to the very end because only someone that much powerful would be able to help them. That being said, it doesn't change the fact that Alissa recognized the fact and obeyed. Ryan's words were harsh, but they weren't exactly false facts.

As much as it was annoying, it was scary the fact that Ryan could read Alissa's mind so well even though he didn't have the skill to do so. Her plan of scaring him with a new piece of information backfired splendidly. Since she never met her real family, Alissa couldn't help but think of those two as the family she never had. Orgar was the father that spoiled her most of the time, and Ryan was the harsh older brother that cared so much about her that he never held back his words. At least that was the image Alissa had of Ryan. Someone once said that you could only be harsh and fight with those they loved, but Ryan was even harsher with those he hated…

In any case, while they were busy arguing, one of the treants finally got close enough to see them and fire Earth Spear. Alissa's mind wasn't focused, and she didn't notice the attack. On the other hand, Ryan noticed, but blocking or attacking such magic projectile didn't seem like a good idea. In the end, Ryan stopped the projectile with Earth Manipulation, but before he could completely stop the spear, the tip pierced his left hand quite deeply. Not only that, half of his mana was consumed.

"Crap… I really need to improve this."

After that discussion, those two killed the treants in silence. As expected, once Alissa shut up, her hunting speed increased considerably to the point where a massive mountain of dead trees began to form a few hundred meters ahead of them and block their vision of the dungeon. The other monsters had to walk around the pile of corpses, and thanks to that and their speed, they became even easier targets.

The battle against the treants had been pretty anticlimactic, even though it lasted for a full day and night. Although they were troublesome opponents, their compatibility with Ryan and Alissa was that bad. Still… something was off. Considering the number of monsters, the dungeon should have spawned in a full month, and the number that also should have appeared thanks to the dungeon breaks, the number of corpses was relatively small. Ryan killed around 2.500 treants while Alissa killed ten times more. So, something really smelled fishy.

Alissa and Ryan still had to face the boss inside the dungeon and the ones guarding the place, but Alissa declared that they would rest before proceeding. Surprisingly enough, she didn't ask for Ryan's opinion on the matter, even though they still had a lot of daylight left. While Ryan was separating the loot, he suddenly heard…

"We need to talk about Alissa."

"I'd rather not to talk behind anyone's back," Ryan said. "Usually, you report most of the things I think to her, right? So, why are you so secretive all of a sudden?"

"Because this is a delicate subject. As you already know, Alissa isn't an ordinary human in many ways, but most of this is due to her lack of life experience. So, things may get out of hand if she hears me talking about her like this. Regardless, I am here to warn you about several things. One of them is that Alissa really cares about you since you are the only human who she met this far who doesn't fear her for her powers. Another one is that you may really die you are not careful around her."