Novel Full Chapter 179 - Absolute Loyalty
Since Ryan didn't have all the time in the world and the two groups of survivors won't mix well, he didn't hold back in training the second group's elemental resistances. Time was of the essence, after all. Still, when night came, the survivors had become resistant enough to endure the attacks of Ryan's slimes. So, he left some of them behind in order to make them help the survivors for quite a while.
Although a good part of Washington had been recovered from the monsters' hands, Ryan didn't slack off on the guard duty. His tracking skills needed some work, but he compensated in what he lacked with his concentration and with a good viewpoint of the area. Basically, Ryan created a forty meters town watchtower with his Earth Manipulation and stood at the top of it watching the area. From that place, he could see the succubus' dungeon and their movement, as well as he could watch both camps.
"We need to talk."
"What now…" Ryan sighed.
The guard duty was quite boring, but Ryan liked these peaceful moments. Those were the only moments where he couldn't feel annoyed by thinking about anything after all. The worst that could happen was a wave of melancholy that would make him feel a bit depressed, but it looked like he wouldn't have that right now. In any case, Orgar sure was talking a lot with him, and it was weird since he only did so when Alissa was sleeping. Besides, a secret in the middle of the night made Ryan think that he was up to no good for some reason.
"Alissa began to change… while I do think that is a positive change for her considering her previous world view, I am not sure you are going to like this change."
"I couldn't care less about it," Ryan said. "As long as she doesn't cause problems for others, it doesn't really matter how she will change."
"You may be right, but still, I feel like I should warn you about other things. I thought that Alissa would eventually talk with you about it, but it looks like she got tired of the way you treated her."
"How come despite that, you feel like giving me other warnings?" Ryan asked. "Aren't you on her side?"
"I am. However, while dragons act most of the time based purely on their instincts, that doesn't mean they can't act based out of curiosity."
"In other words…" Ryan frowned.
"I want to see how well you and other humans will perform with your world facing its current problems. After reading the mind of the demons and those dragons, we discovered that your planet is suffering changes that other species didn't experiment."
"Are you sure you should talk to me about it?" Ryan asked. "What will happen if Alissa decides to read my mind?"
"She won't. She completely lost her interest in you. That being said, she is smart enough to figure out some things just by seeing some of your actions, so I can't give you many details. Regardless, I don't know for how long I, the dragon Orgar, will continue to exist as a single being. Still, I want to see how ordinary humans such as yourselves will deal with those situations through Alissa's eyes."
That kind of talk was really talking. Ryan liked things to be as clear and concise as possible, but Orgar couldn't tell much since he knew that Ryan wasn't dumb enough just to stay out of Alissa's radar.
"I don't want to risk angering Alissa. Unlike you, I cherish our relationship. So, I can only tell you that Alissa recognized that she couldn't survive in this new world on her own. That is why she is getting allies and training them."
That made sense. Still, to think that she would reach that kind of realization without making Ryan notice that she was conflicted about something… in any case, since Orgar didn't try to stop her, it looked like he also recognized that with his powers alone, they wouldn't survive.
"Just what the hell they learned thanks to those dragons?"
Ryan was curious, but as expected, he couldn't read minds, and he wouldn't ask directly to Alissa what she learned. The only thing Ryan could do was to keep increasing his powers… but would that be enough? He didn't know if one day he would become as powerful as Alissa, and she already accepted that her powers weren't enough for the possibly bleak future.
Ryan spent the night trying to imagine how things could get worse, but he couldn't imagine anything worse than dragons and demons. Regardless, he was determined not to change his ways, so if his power alone wasn't enough to grant Ryan the chance to survive in that new world, then he could only die. Someone once said that there is strength in numbers, Alissa recognized that strength and wanted that for her, but Ryan didn't want that kind of strength.
Congratulations! The skill Summon Slime has leveled up.
Summon Slime Lv 11 ➞ Lv 12
Effect: It grants you the power to summon a slime.
Cost: 250 mana
You obtained 01 status point.
"I guess this kind of strength in numbers is fine…"
Ryan didn't have to worry about betrayal from monsters summoned by him. They had no reason to do so, after all. So, he decided to bet on that. With their resistance against water and earth being pretty strong, Ryan summoned two slimes and made them attack the treant that was guarding the red bats' dungeon with Water Blades and Earth Arrows. After a while, the slimes leveled up again.
"As expected, it is better to make them fight against more powerful creatures."
Ryan had no idea about what would happen in the future, but unlike Alissa, he wouldn't build an army of humans to increase his own strength. He would become a one-man army. That would be hard and probably was impractical and insane. However, those were just small details for Ryan.