Chapter 314: Meeting [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Alex raised an eyebrow, surprised by her confidence in him, before smiling and gently patting her head.

By then, the injured people had recovered considerably, although most still required several more rounds of healing before they could return to their usual condition. When they noticed Alex looking toward them, several began thanking him for removing the curses.

Alex acknowledged their gratitude before smiling. "You all did a great job fighting those monsters. Defeating five Level 18 to Level 20 Mid Rank Species monsters with is an incredible achievement."

However, instead of looking pleased, everyone gradually fell silent.

Roan eventually lowered his gaze and spoke, "You defeated three Mid rank Wild Orc Mages alone without anyone getting injured, much less dying. But we had so many people fighting together, and we still couldn’t protect everyone."

He bit his lips, clearly frustrated with himself. Alex looked around and noticed that the others wore similarly gloomy expressions, apparently blaming themselves for the people who had died.

Alex clapped his hands once, drawing everyone’s attention before smiling. "Then isn’t the solution simple? You just need to become stronger than me, and you’ll be able to defeat as many monsters as I can. Of course, I’m not planning to let anyone surpass me that easily."

Everyone stared at him in surprise before Tia suddenly burst into chuckle. "You really suck at motivating people, Alex. I don’t think challenging everyone to surpass you is going to make us feel any better."

Alex gave her a stare before shaking his head helplessly. "What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t blame yourselves for everything that happened. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t save everyone, but you aren’t responsible for every life lost during a disaster like this."

He glanced toward Roan before continuing, "Instead of focusing only on the people who died, think about how many people survived because you fought those monsters. That’s important too, and you shouldn’t forget it just because things didn’t go perfectly."

The others remained silent for a moment before gradually nodding. Although their guilt hadn’t completely disappeared, their expressions became noticeably better, and Alex was satisfied that they seemed to understand what he meant.

"Anyway, I still have some work to take care of, so I’ll be leaving now," Alex said, slowly rising from his chair. After making sure that the Priests could handle the remaining injuries, he said goodbye to everyone and headed outside.

Alex then made his way toward an open area. He created a Mana Shuriken and used it to lift himself into the air, turning his attention toward the enormous portal floating above the school.

The portal had already begun releasing monsters into the surrounding area, and Alex suspected that the situation would only worsen as time passed. They needed to connect it to another portal as soon as possible, or more powerful monsters would continue appearing and causing destruction.

However, dealing with the portal wasn’t something he could accomplish immediately, so Alex decided to focus on his original reason for returning to Earth. He began flying across the city, spreading his Mana Spheres to search for the Beast he had encountered shortly after the returning to the Earth.

It was a pigeon that had followed him for several hours after he saved it from a group of monsters. Initially, Alex had assumed that the creature was simply grateful for his help, but after learning more about Beasts, he was no longer certain that his assumption had been correct.

If his guess was right, the pigeon possessed considerable intelligence and might even be a Beast Monarch from Hell Difficulty. However, that raised another question, since the monsters Alex had killed to protect it were all below Level 10.

’If it really is a Beast Monarch, why did it need my help against such weak monsters?’ Alex wondered, finding the situation increasingly suspicious.

He was also curious about why the pigeon had followed him afterward, especially since it hadn’t attempted to communicate with him despite apparently possessing enough intelligence to do so.

’If I can learn more about Beasts and Beast Monarchs, maybe I’ll finally understand why Mia is so determined to hide the fact that she’s a Beast,’ Alex thought.

He had a feeling that Mia’s secrecy involved something more complicated than simply worrying that humans would mistake her for a monster. Considering how little he knew about Beasts, communicating with another intelligent one might provide some valuable answers.

Alex continued flying over the surrounding buildings, occasionally adjusting the positions of his Mana Spheres to cover a larger area. Fortunately, he didn’t have to search for very long before he noticed two pigeons sitting together on the rooftop of a distant building.

Both pigeons were looking directly toward him, and judging from their behavior, Alex had the strange impression that they had been expecting his arrival. He immediately recognized one of them as the pigeon he had saved previously, although he had never seen the other one before.

Curious about their intentions, Alex flew toward the building and gradually slowed down as he approached them. Before he could say anything, however, the unfamiliar pigeon opened its beak and spoke.

"Greetings, human."

Alex was surprised to hear the pigeon speak. Although the Beast had opened its beak, the voice had appeared directly inside his head, without producing any sound in the surroundings.

’How did it transmit its voice into my head? I didn’t sense any movement of Origin Energy, nor did anything attempt to enter my body,’ Alex thought, examining the pigeon more carefully.

His Mana Stat had become so high that the enormous amount of mana within his body naturally formed a protective barrier against foreign energy. If he had been in the same position as his injured friends earlier, the curse left behind by the monsters probably wouldn’t have been able to enter his body in the first place.

Yet this Beast had somehow communicated with him without encountering any resistance. Alex found that particularly strange.

Although he was curious, Alex decided against immediately questioning the Beast about its ability. There were several more important things he wanted to discuss, and he didn’t want to make the conversation unnecessarily complicated before it had even begun.

"I take it you two have been expecting me?" Alex asked, looking between the two pigeons.

..

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