Chapter 289: Pride

After a moment, Kevin finally asked, "Didn’t you just say that you lost your vision, were attacked by marine monsters larger than buildings, entered a Mid Rank dungeon, and then encountered a High Rank monster after leaving it? How were there no casualty after all of that?"

"We killed the monsters before they could kill us," Alex answered.

The others were stunned by his answer, but Alex didn’t have anything else to add. They hadn’t come up with some incredible strategy, used a powerful weapon, or relied on a complicated trick to survive. They had simply fought the monsters directly and managed to overcome them.

Kevin opened and closed his mouth several times before eventually letting out a long sigh. "It seems like the Ascendants in Hell Difficulty really are all monsters like you."

The others nodded in agreement, and Ben soon looked toward Alex with a confused expression. "What did you mean when you mentioned the third moon?"

"The third moon that absorbs all light. Wait, it didn’t appear in the other difficulties?" Alex asked, realizing why Ben asked that question.

Everyone shook their heads, causing Alex’s brows to crease as he thought about it. Until now, he had assumed that the Land of Origin was one enormous land, especially since its name seemed to suggest that it was a single place. However, that assumption didn’t make much sense if only Hell Difficulty had a third moon.

’Are we on different planets? Maybe the Land of Origin is a dimension filled with multiple planets?’

The thought made Alex reconsider everything he had learned so far. If Hell Difficulty was located on one planet while the other difficulties were located on another, the huge differences between their environments would make much more sense. There was also the distance between the difficulties to consider, since they should have encountered signs of one another if they were located relatively close together.

Clearly, they were either on different planets or separated by an enormous distance.

But that created another problem.

Why had every difficulty experienced the night at almost exactly the same time? A planet had to rotate for day and night to occur, which meant different locations should experience sunrise and sunset at different times, even if the differences weren’t particularly large.

’Are we all located at the same latitude?’

That could explain why the lengths of their days and nights were similar, but it still didn’t explain why their day-night cycle matched Hell Difficulty so closely despite the existence of an additional moon. Alex remained silent for several seconds as he continued thinking about the strange situation.

Eventually, he realized that he might be trying to apply the laws of Earth to a place where those laws might not work in exactly the same way. The Land of Origin was an entirely different dimension, and there was no guarantee that its natural laws followed the same rules as those of Earth.

It was also possible that supernatural forces had altered what would normally be natural phenomena. Mana, Aura, Faith and Origin Energy already violated many of the assumptions Alex had grown up with, so there was no reason to assume that astronomy and planetary cycles worked exactly as they did on Earth.

Alex explained his thoughts to everyone, then looked toward Ben. "When you return to Easy Difficulty, try asking the locals about the structure of the Land of Origin. I want to know whether the different difficulties are located on the same planet, different planets, or somewhere completely different."

Ben nodded. "I’ll see what I can find out. It might be difficult to get a clear answer, but I’ll ask around and see what information I can find."

Alex nodded before standing up. "I’ll take a breather before going back."

The others nodded, and Alex left the room. He moved through the building for a while before eventually reaching the area where his father should have been staying.

Alex stopped outside the door and quietly used his Mana Sphere Spell to check inside. His sister was asleep on the bed while his father sat beside her, gently caressing her head as he stared through the window at the moon outside.

Alex knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, it opened. His father looked surprised when he saw Alex standing there.

"You’re back already? How did the trip go?"

"It went alright," Alex answered.

He glanced into the room, and noticed there were faint tear marks on her face. He also saw his father’s tired expression. His father looked older than Alex remembered, and the exhaustion in his eyes made Alex realize that the everything had affected him more than he had understood.

"Dad, do you want to take a walk?"

His father looked at him for a moment before nodding. The two of them began walking through the building without saying anything, and neither seemed to know how to start the conversation.

His father had always been good at finding something to talk about, even during difficult situations, but after receiving the news about Alex’s mother, it seemed like he had run out of words. Alex wasn’t much better, since he had never been particularly good at dealing with situations like this.

For a moment, he felt the familiar urge to avoid the problem entirely. However, he had already promised himself that he wouldn’t run away this time, because he needed to be there for his family.

So, Alex began talking.

He told his father about everything that had happened since he first woke up in the Land of Origin. He talked about the moments when he thought he might die, the monsters he had fought, the times when he had worried about his family, and the moments when he had become stronger.

He also talked about the people he had helped and the people who had helped him. It wasn’t a particularly organized story, and he occasionally went back to something he had mentioned earlier, but his father simply listened and allowed him to speak.

Eventually, they reached the end of the corridor.

A large window stood there, giving them a clear view of the moon outside. Alex looked through it and saw many Ascendants still moving around outside, taking turns guarding the area while others hunted the monsters that continued appearing nearby.

There were also several campfires scattered around the base. Some people were sitting beside them, eating, laughing and drinking while talking with one another, and although there weren’t nearly as many people as there had been before the apocalypse began, those who had survived were still looking toward the future instead of dwelling entirely on everything they had lost.

Alex finished telling his father about what had happened. For a while, neither of them spoke, and his father simply continued looking through the window.

Eventually, his father turned toward him, and his expression was complicated. There was sadness in his eyes, but there was also something else that Alex hadn’t expected to see.

Pride.

His father reached out and placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder. "You’ve done well, Alex. I’m proud of you."

Alex lowered his eyes slightly, unsure of what to say. His father smiled faintly before continuing.

"And if your mother were here, I know she would be proud of you too."

..

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