Lucas nodded his head upon hearing the question.
"Oh? Why are you alone? Where is your squad?" Darian asked.
Lucas shook his head and answered, "I don't have any squad."
"Hmm? You're that confident in your strength and thought that you don't need any squad?" The other girl chuckled.
She has curly hair and was a little short compared to their captain. Although she was not as pretty as the captain, Lucas thought that she had so allure too. At the least, she was prettier than Anjie.
She suddenly laughed as she stated, "I just recalled that so dumb ass also had the sa confidence as you back during our second year. Well, do you know what happened next? Haha, he ca back and begged to join our squad with tears in his eyes."
"Hey, hey, shut your mouth, Ella. What do you an, beg? At most, I just stated the word 'please' three tis back then," Darian refuted with another aggrieved tone.
Although they were bickering, Lucas could not sense any tension between them and concluded that they were pretty close.
The girl nad Ella continued to laugh, as if she did not care about Darian's reaction.
And before Lucas could honestly answer why he was alone and had no squad, the long-haired gentle guy smiled at him and said, "Don't mind them; they're always like this."
"By the way, what should we call you, friend? My na's Lucian. He's Darian, that one is Kael, that curly girl is Ella, and this is our captain, Selene."
Lucian introduced the whole squad, pointing to them one by one.
Lucas nodded his head and answered, "I'm Lucas." He said simply.
"Right, in case you didn't know, all second-year students are ordered to go back to the Safe Area as soon as possible."
"Apparently, an Ember Ant Colony has gone rampant, and they are now sending Ember Ants out of their nest to hunt any creatures nearby their nest. The Ember Molten Ant Darian just killed was one of such creatures that are sent out by the Queen Ant," he stated patiently.
"As for the reason why they are doing it, it is still under investigation. But according to past experiences, they only go rampant when they are disturbed."
"As your seniors, we would normally bring you to the Safe Area if we don't have anything to do. Unfortunately, an Ember Ant nest going rampant is a rare situation. The academy doesn't really let us hunt these ants, but the situation has changed, and we are now allowed to proactively hunt them."
"This is an opportunity that we could not miss, as we can earn a lot of experience by hunting a lot of them even if we are beyond their level already. We apologize in advance that we will not be able to accompany you back."
"You can take the route where we ca from. We had already hunted so Ember Ants along the way, so you should be able to arrive at the Safe Area safely if you follow the path we have taken." Lucian was very patient as he explained the things to Lucas.
His tone was always gentle and calm. He also handed Lucas a new map where so areas were specially marked, saying that it was the route they had taken.
Hearing his words, Lucas nodded his head and bowed slightly toward them. "Don't worry about it, Senior Lucian. Killing the Ember Molten Ant was already a big help to ."
"Thank you for the help, seniors. I'll be on my way now," Lucas said as he slowly retreated from their sight.
Before he could go far, he heard Darian's energetic shout, "Hey, don't forget to tell your teacher that we helped you. We will earn so points that way!"
Lucas nodded his head and finally disappeared from their view.
"I haven't seen a second-year student as composed and courageous as him during that kind of situation," Kael, the one who has not spoken since earlier, finally spoke.
"What do you an composed? I thought he was scared sh*tless the mont the Ember Molten Ant appeared in his view. " Darian asked curiously.
"By composed and courageous, Kael ant an entirely different thing. There might have been so panic in his eyes when he saw the Ember Molten Ant, but he quickly recovered and was already prepared to fight the ant when your mantis appeared and killed it," Lucian explained further with the sa calm tone.
Kael nodded his head, as if to confirm his conjecture.
"I heard that today is the first dungeon dive of the second-year students. We have t and rescued a lot of second-year students earlier, but none of them showed courage and bravery to try and fight any Ember Ant they faced. At most, they would imdiately run without thinking of fighting back," he continued.
"Hmmm? No wonder he dared to go solo then. We just don't know if he is just simply courageous or actually strong too, though," Ella said with a hint of regret in her voice. As she said so, she took a glance at Darian, who acted as if he did not notice her stare.
A figure then flashed past her and the others.
"Let's go before the other squad takes all the rampaging ants!"
…
With the route being cleared by the seniors, Lucas finally arrived at the Safe Area safely.
He heaved a sigh of relief as he observed the situation in the Safe Area.
He noticed that it was more lively here compared to before.
He also saw that most of the second-year students from his section and other sections were already here.
At one corner, he also saw Hector and his group. They were now facing teacher Julian, who was saying sothing to them.
He noticed that Hector seed to be in a bad mood. Anjie and the other group mbers had pale faces, as if they had experienced sothing horrible.
Lucas walked toward them as he wanted to report to Teacher Julian about the seniors helping him.
"Reaching Iron Star 1 in a single day will certainly beco history in the Starlight Academy. However, the dungeon has just beco extrely dangerous for new awakeners right now, so we will postpone this event until further notice."
"Once the situation calms down, everyone will be allowed to enter the dungeon as many tis as they want as long as you paid the admission fee or do certain missions for the acade-."
Teacher Julian paused with his explanation as he noticed Lucas approaching them. A hint of surprise flashed across his face. With the current situation, he did not expect that Lucas was still alive and kicking.
He observed for a bit and noticed that the once handso Lucas now looked haggard and dirty.
Seeing that, he assud that Lucas did not go too far and had tried fighting so beasts nearby but was unable to defeat them; hence, he decided to return.
"It's good that you're still alive. Well, since you're already here, let's go and gather the others; I have an announcent to make."
Even before Lucas could say a thing, Teacher Julian had already started to walk away. Following behind him were Hector and the others.
'So that's how it is now, huh,' Lucas thought to himself, seeing the change in Teacher Julian's attitude toward him.
Teacher Julian had always paid attention to him before. No matter what he says, Teacher Julian has always listened and allowed him to finish speaking before he would reply.
Fortunately enough, Lucas did not have to hear the snide remarks of Hector and his group this ti around, as they just silently followed behind Teacher Julian.
For them to be so quiet, it seems that they had really experienced sothing terrible.
Lucas waited for them to move a few steps ahead before he followed behind them.
After a while, Teacher Julian finally gathered everyone.
With a quick glance, Lucas noticed that all of his classmates were present. All of their moods were gloomy and afraid. No one was an exception.
He wondered what exactly happened to them.
No matter what, Lucas knew that he didn't want to get involved in it.
Teacher Julian announced what he had just said to Hector and the others earlier. He just added so words of consolation before he dismissed everyone, telling them to wait as they will go out of the dungeon for the ti being.
After Teacher Julian finished his speech, Lucas also finally knew the reason for everyone's gloom.
One of the second-year students had actually died!
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