Unlimited Power 02 – The Ranger's Domain

Back in the secret military base near Indianapolis, Mark and his allies were having one of those meetings. A while ago, they only happened once a week. Still, now they were happening pretty much every day since everyone who was living in the base started to work in the nearest dungeons. Now that they didn't have to walk or run for days for them to have a chance to arrive at their new home.

"Report," Mark said.

"Things proceeded favorably today as well," Hugo said. "According to our estimations, Daniel will obtain a domain stone in two days."

"What about Mia?" Mark asked.

"She didn't change her mind yet," Hugo replied.

"… Good grief, that girl needs to get a grip," Mark said after a long sigh. "Can't she move on already?"

"I believe she already moved on," Katelin said. "The real problem is the fact that she doesn't want to become Ryan's enemy."

Currently, the only people who were close to Mark but weren't in the room were Daniel, who was fighting and clearing dungeons to become one of the top one hundred strongest humans to obtain a domain stone, Mia who was taking a break and looking after Arthur, and Tristan and Natalia, who went to check why they didn't find a single slime using their satellite.

Just as Ryan had expected, they changed their modus operandi. Instead of doing what they couldn't, everyone in the base made up their minds to pursue the power that they needed to protect their new home. Going too far away was a waste of time, so they decreased their area of action.

Regardless, due to her innate talent, Mia becomes the first member in the base to obtain a domain stone. While Alissa had one and didn't use it yet, everyone knew that such an item had some incompatible characteristics with Alissa. Thus asking her to use it would be a waste of time.

"What is the point of worrying about that now?" Mark asked.

"I believe she is fine not working together with him, but becoming an enemy is another matter altogether," Katelin said. "She deeply believes after hearing Alissa's explanation that all those who obtain a domain on Earth will become enemies at some point. She doesn't want to become the main responsible for Ryan's fall if a battle between our forces were to happen."

"Even after all that?!" Mark raised his voice.

"I am just saying what I think she is thinking," Katelin shrugged. "There is no point in getting angry at me."

"What do you think Ryan's current goal is?" Cole asked. "According to the images that we received; his domain covers a good part of old Dallas. In less than a month, he will probably have the entire region under his control. Alongside many other dungeons that will only increase the speed of his domain expansion."

"Who cares about that?" Anna asked.

"You should care about it, Anna," Carter said. "Until now, we more or less knew what Ryan wanted, but lately, it is impossible to determine. He is living only with his own summoned monsters and barely interacts with anyone else. Someone with such a damaged psych, might do many unexpected things."

"I know that she doesn't trust anyone aside from his summoned monsters that are forced to obey him, but he crossed the line," Cole said. "He might be thinking that he is doing this for the sake of our country or of the world, but his actions have been far too irresponsible. He almost caused the doom of thousands of survivors here just to prove his point."

"What has he been doing lately?" Holland asked. "Can we even do anything without a domain if he goes mad again?"

"According to what we learned, only certain people allowed by the dungeon master can enter a domain," Hugo explained. "There are two ways to enter without being an ally, through a dungeon or by destroying the barrier. According to what we observed, he has been clearing dungeons and trying to obtain more domains. So, we might become his next target the very moment someone uses a domain stone in here."

"We will prepare accordingly not to lose our next trump card," Mark said. "For the time being, that is the only thing we can to prevent another chaotic situation. You are all dismissed."

After a while, Mark saw himself alone in the meeting room. He accessed his computer in order to check the situation of all survivors that had returned that day from their duties in clearing the nearest dungeons. Mark couldn't approve of Ryan's methods, but he couldn't deny their effectiveness. After surviving the dungeon breaks that he had caused, all the survivors inside the base that could fight experienced a huge boost in strength and morale. It was no surprise that something like that would happen at such a crazy event.

As if that wasn't enough, not a single life had been lost since Ryan's stupid show. That was how Mark called the day where he caused the dungeon breaks. Moreover, even those who were sent to the most difficult dungeons only returned with a few scratches on their bodies.

Mark sighed when he analyzed those archives for a few more minutes. He couldn't but blame himself for the misdeeds of the younger generation. If he had done something else from waiting for other branches of the government to come and help them, Mark and his men could have obtained a power that would grant them the chance not to rely too much on Ryan and Alissa. Since that didn't happen, those two have been doing whatever they wanted, and no one could stop them. Until now, Alissa didn't cause any trouble, but who knows that another incident like that will happen, and this time the perpetrator might be Alissa herself.

"Power corrupts, huh…" Mark muttered under his breath.

Mark didn't want to believe that was the case, he wanted to believe that only bad people would do bad things with power, but lately, he felt less and less compelled to think that way…