Chapter 130: Return

Dungeons were difficult. There was no way to tell what could be hidden inside! This was the main issue. 

This element of surprise was what caused people to be taken aback and meet their doom, like with the first dungeon that she entered right after awakening from her coffin. There were three men that was overcame with temporary greed and ended up being unable to get out of their predicament if not for Aria's timely arrival.

If only they could prepare themselves for the trouble that they were going to face inside, and not have to encounter a foreign variable that was outside of their calculations, then Hunters as a whole community would definitely fare a lot better and suffer less consequences.

Aria wondered if it was possible to someday let Alena's power grow to such a point where she would be able to distinguish what was inside the dungeon without even entering it. Because the dungeons itself had a high chance of being generated by the System, it was possible that Alena's influence could stretch that far.

Aria's eyes swept through Alena, who was still laying on the ground like her, quite terrified.

They were clearly not in the mood to do another dungeon, nor did their bodies' condition accommodate for a hectic fight like this. It consumed them mentally and physically, the worst type of thing there were. For such a simple dungeon where all you needed was the ability to destroy a machine, of course the generator wouldn't be that forgiving. The key was actually a ticking bomb that would detonate right as someone cleared the threat.

Aria thought that they had just done a great deed for the surroundings. If the dungeon was left uncleared, the things inside would still operate like normal. This would lead to the water flooding in until the dungeon couldn't retain it anymore. If the gate expires, and the water was let outside, then it would be equivalent to a large tsunami in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention, another team would probably have to do a suicide mission in order to finish this dungeon because of the hard risks it possessed. Aria was truly the perfect person to clear this damned dungeon.

"Alright, I don't think we can make it for another dungeon... You're fired for today, Gin. I can't fight anymore, I'll collapse..." Aria heaved a lot of breaths. Gin snickered at Aria's condition in a mocking sense.

Albeit her status points were recovered by the System after she leveled up, she was still unable to ignore the fatigue that overcame her. This was when she had the idea to try and use one of her potions. If she just let herself go in this place, it was estimated that she wouldn't even be able to get up from her position anymore. Thus, it was the perfect chance to use the Stamina potion, which claimed to give her an instant relief for the fatigue, although it only worked for a short amount of time.

To consume the potions, you actually did not need to pull out the actual potion containers out of your storage. It was possible to do that, but you could just use it through the System like a status point and have the effect directly transferred to you without even drinking it physically. It was counted as consumables that she could directly take into her body with just a simple press of a button. It was truly a strange concept to her, who had a shit load of experience but still has never heard of such a thing.

This was the reason why she was able to come in clutch and drink the potions when she was mid battle. Because she could access it through her System without having to let it come out and throw away her defenses.

Aria pressed the confirm button when she was asked if she truly wanted to consume the potion. The potion worked without a doubt, as she found energy return to her in a flash and allowing her tired body to get up and rush into Aria's car, which had been parked near the gate.

She did not explain to the other two on why she was in a rush because she knew that the potion's effects would cease in just a bit. She sat down on the car seat and immediately closed her eyes shut, not minding about anything else. The assistant who was in the car just looked at Aria with weird eyes, but soon got out of the car to approach Alena and escort her to the car as well.

Thus, their meeting was ended. Gin returned to his own car and sped off. Aria had already dismissed him, so there was no other reason to stay as his job was only to accompany the two to dungeons and not other places. He cleaned up his magic traces and told his beloved customers to contact them another time.

Aria and Alena both went home to the secretive building that Alena introduce to her just recently. She immediately went straight for the bathroom and took a peaceful and relaxing bath, letting her fatigue slowly drift away bit by bit. She went back to her room and fell on her bed. She had dragged her body to perform those basic activities, and couldn't bring herself to do anything else for the rest of the day.

She was hungry, but the aching body parts did not allow her to move. In the end, she just asked Dianthe to give her a cup of water and drank it. She closed her eyes and slept.

The next morning, she felt a little bit better, but it was still a little awkward to move around. She gazed into the blue sky, signifying that it was already morning and propelling her to get out of the bed.

She took care of her morning routine and readied herself up. After she was done, she went downstairs with a tired expression plastered on her face.

"Good morning, Alena." Aria greeted, sitting on the table and massaging her shoulders, which had been turned quite stiff after she slept the night away.

"Good morning, big sister. How are you feeling today..?" Alena was a little hesitant, as Aria's expression did not look too good. It seemed like even for Aria, the stress that they faced yesterday was still quite the big thing. Defending against explosions that constantly sucked up her mana because she had to defend using her barriers. If that wasn't stressful, then what is?

Aria shrugged, digging in into the delicacies that Alena's servants had prepared for the two of them. "Nothing much, I guess. I can grind a few dungeons today, but it seems like we have a bad luck with B-ranked dungeons. Two of them almost caused us to die when it's typically not something that could go astray this easily. What an unfortunate thing.. Haah," Aria sighed, finishing her meal with a ravenous appetite, uncaring for how she looked on the outside.

Alena followed her actions and quickly finished her meal up as well. The meals were cleaned up, and the two went upstairs to open the news up. There were still a lot of buzz surrounding the appearing dungeons, and a lot of the media were saying that this was the end of the world, the start of the armageddon.

Obviously, that wasn't the case, but instead the beginning of a new era. An era where normal human civilization will have to be introduced to dungeon cultures, and Hunters would be as typical as a high school student. At this pace, it wouldn't be strange if the world will end up being acclimated to the situation and even have features and technology in relations to the monsters. There were many benefits that specific monsters could yield, and with the humans' hands experimenting with them eventually as time passes and a brave innovator comes forward, the day where monsters would be friends with humans would not be impossible to achieve.

A coexisting relationship. Of course, many humans would have hatred to these invasive creatures due to the destruction they cause, but it was because everything was new. Humans' ability to adapt and improvise was quite scary. There was a reason why humans stayed on top of the food pyramid chain for this long without getting thwarted even though they were supposed to be fairly weak in nature.

It was because they had the brains to actually overcome situations with thinking and adapting.

Adaptation. Aria, too, had to adapt to this world. However, soon, the world could possibly just be an alternate version of what she used to live in. Scattered with monsters and exposed to dangers, making everybody have to oblige by the laws of the jungle and have means to protect themselves if they did not want to die.

Aria mused about the matter as she heard the news lady speak about other matters as well.