Mike, Ryu, and Yuna stared mesmerizingly at the swirling cloud of golden dust.

  “Eyes away from the Bead, boys. Wouldn’t want you guys to get caught under some spell.” Ray announced, covering the marble with a handkerchief.

  Entering behind him was Father Jacob.

  “Had a fun outing, Father?” Mike asked his guardian, his eyes sparkling with expectation.

  “I am sure it was nothing as exciting as what you guys did in the Dungeon.” Jacob replied with a light smile, knowing full well that Mike wanted to boast about his trip to Dungeon.

  “Father Jacob, you will not believe what we saw in that Dungeon. There were these huge moths…like this big…and they looked so amazing…At one point, I was getting chased by these bulls, and I was like一Dudes, do I look like a bde of grass to you…And Ryder and Rohan, those guys absolutely killed it一at one point they were sleeping, and then they were fighting in their dream一They were sleep-fighting…”

  Ray was not so sure that was what sleep-fighting meant, but he moved on.

  "Don't forget to breathe, Mike." He advised as he turned to the others.

  “Ryder, if you’ve already had your dinner, could you please come to my room? I need to talk to you. Jacob, you too!” Ray called out to the old priest, who looked ready to cross over to the afterlife after listening to Mike’s prattling.

  “Sure, I will be right there.” Jacob gave him a brief smile of gratitude, small enough that Mike didn't catch on to it. “I am sorry, Mike. Ray needs me right now. How about I listen to you ter?”

  He softly tried to calm the hyperactive boy.

  “Sure! I will tell you the rest at night.”

  “I was actually thinking, maybe next week…” Jacob tried to dey the imminent death of ears, but Mike was no longer listening to him.

  He and his Spirits were back to staring at the Skill Bead.

  “The rest of you, either go to bed or read one of the books on Mana Applications that I gave you yesterday. You guys waste a lot of mana whenever you attack.” Giving a final instruction, Ryder and Jacob followed Ray to the room he was temporarily using as his office-ssh-bedroom.

  The room was pretty simple, with just an L-shaped modur desk you can find in any corporate office. A single bed was pushed against the wall at the opposite end of the room, with four pillows haphazardly sprawled across the sheets. Jacob gnced at the bed before looking at Ray with a suspicious side-eye. "What? I love pillows!" Ray replied defensively in a hurry.

  "I mean, that wasn't what I was focused on, but good for you." Jacob said, smiling like an understanding grandfather. "Still, it would be a good example for the kids if you made your bed in the morning."

  Ray quickly raised his hand to stop the priest. "I am a perfectly happy bachelor. Please don’t ruin that for me."

  “Alright!” Jacob replied.

  Ryder and Jacob took their seats on the visitor's side of the desk, while Ray sat on the receiver’s end.

  “Ryder, while I was visiting the Den, I came across some...concerning news. Jacob, would you mind sharing what you heard?”

  Jacob turned to Ryder with concerned eyes. “It seems your grandfather is furious at the stunt you have pulled. He has already assigned agents to look for you. I am pretty sure we will have an official on Wolfsbane by tomorrow looking for you.”

  Ryder stood up in exasperation. “W-What? Tomorrow? That’s so soon! And how do we even know if the information you got is accurate? Mercenaries will say anything for money.”

  “You might not know this, but Lucius is a close acquaintance of your grandfather.” Jacob reassured him. “And I don’t think he lied to him. You will find there are very few things whose importance will surpass that of a pair of underwear.”

  “Cough, cough!一Gambling addict!一Cough!” Ray muttered under his breath.

  “I am just a man with too much time for my hobbies.” Jacob defended himself with a hurt expression on his face.

  Ray ignored that and turned back to Ryder. “Anyway, Ryder, I only summoned you so that you don’t get armed if you suddenly see any familiar agents looking for you on the isnd. Don’t worry, I have a pn.”

  Hearing this, Ryder settled in his seat, reassured.

  If Professor Ray一who was able to break the Curse that humanity was ailing after for so long一said he had a pn, then HE HAD A PLAN.

  “So, what’s the pn?” Ryder asked for curiosity, taking a sip of water from his gss.

  “To meet your grandfather, and ask him for permission.”

  Ryder did a spit take straight on Professor Ray’s face.

  “I…take it you are not satisfied with my pn!?” Ray slowly asked, wiping the water off his stone-cold face with a handy handkerchief.

  “OF COURSE NOT! What made you even think my grandfather would give me permission to train on Wolfsbane? He would rather lock me in the house with a bunch of tutors than ever let me leave Capital City.” Ryder was furious at their pn.

  “Ryder, be that as it may, you are still a child.” Ray tried to reason with him. “I am not going to separate a minor from his guardian without their permission. Not if I am training you and sending you on dangerous raids inside Dungeons.”

  “Also, your grandpa is THE RUFUS BRIAR! The strongest human in the world! If anything happens to you, we won’t even know what happened to us.” Jacob aided from the sidelines.

  “You don’t know my grandfather like I do. He’s too overprotective of me. He’s never going to agree to this. Why do you think I ran away in the first pce, instead of just asking you to take me? It's because I knew he would never agree to it!”

  “Come on now, Ryder. You are a Berserker, for god’s sake. Be your name!” Ray advised him.

  “What?” Ryder looked at him in disbelief. "Are you asking me to stand up to my Grandpa?"

  Ray nodded naively. "More or less."

  Ryder looked as if Ray had thrown him in a pool of sharks. "ARE YOU NUTS?"

  “Rex! I am not telling you to fight him. Just throw a tantrum.” Ray answered simply. “You are the only grandson of Rufus Briar, cursed for almost your whole life to never be able to use magic again. You are like that tragic crown prince in stories, whom people spoiled because they pity his life so much. So just trust me, and throw a tantrum in front of Rufus. He will do anything for you.”

  Ray was proud of the advice he had gathered from his years of reading web novels and watching dramas on Netflix.

  Ryder, on the other hand, still seemed to be on the fence about this pn.

  Ray sighed at his reluctance. "Just do it! Or else, off you go with the agent that comes to pick you up tomorrow. I won't be able to help you."

  Ryder wanted to fight him on this, but he knew his Grandpa would destroy anyone who came between him and his grandson. "Fine! Are you sure it will work?"

  "A hundred percent!" Ray reassured him.

  There was no doubt in Ray's mind that his pn would work. Rufus was a major character in the novel, being the only family member of a main character. So as a reader of said novel, he knew all about Rufus' love for his grandchildren.

  That pushover of a grandpa would give in to any demand his grandchildren would make, even if they asked him for the sun.

  As for his hesitating, because they were on an isnd full of mercenaries, Ray didn't find that a difficult obstacle to overcome.

  Rufus trusted Ray, to a certain extent, with Ryder's safety because they were neighbors, and most importantly, he was the one who broke Ryder's Curse.

  Plus, Rufus' old acquaintance Lucius was the master of this isnd. For his grandson's happiness and safety, Ray was pretty sure the two SS Ranks could reach an agreement.

  With the discussion over, Ray instructed Ryder to join his peers.

  Bidding the Professor adieu, he left the room, leaving only Ray and Jacob behind.

  Now it was time for Ray to discuss things with this priest, who he couldn't exactly pce his finger on. “I am still not sure what you do exactly, but I know you are good at hacking. Frighteningly good! I can definitely see you working as a high-commanding officer for some intelligence departments.”

  Jacob fshed his usual, innocent smile at Ray, the one he gives people who think they know his past, but, in fact, every guess just takes them further away from the truth.

  “Humans were not organized enough in my time to be able to create entire intelligence departments. We were too busy surviving. But for now, let’s say I am something simir to that.”

  “Can you hack into the League’s network and tell me which of Rufus' people will be arriving tomorrow and all their information?”

  Ray knew he was asking for too much. The Hero League’s network was one of the most strictly guarded networks on the pnet, comparable to Google and Apple in his previous world. He could count on one hand how many people would be able to hack into that server一all of them non-human. To be specific, dwarves.

  That’s why he knew that the answer coming out of Jacob's mouth should be anything but a yes.

  However, there was this feeling he had always felt from this still-alive-supposed-to-be-dead priest.

  A godly one.

  At first, he thought, maybe it was because this man had avoided his fate-provided death.

  But that wasn’t it.

  And Jacob bbbered so many times about ‘His Luck This’ and ‘God’s Forgiveness That’, even someone with Appraisal like Ray had to say that this man had a past.

  One that he knew nothing about.

  One that never surfaced in the novel his te friend wrote.

  Jacob answered with a smile. “Sure, I’ll help you with that.”

  Misa had been busy these past three days.

  She had to hand over all her csses to the other Professors. And then there was the matter of finding Ryder一the boy was mischievous and worse, he was good at it.

  He had used the rare magical Artifacts his grandfather had given him for his protection and used them to leave the city unnoticed.

  But Misa was a S Ranked Hero一meticulously trained in the field. Locating a little brat, who hasn’t even enrolled in an Academy yet, was nothing difficult for her.

  She looked at the scrap of paper her friend at a popur information guild had given her this morning.

  The mercenaries got the silver coins.

  Silver was obviously referring to Ryder.

  Mercenaries? If it was with any specific mercenary group, the name or at least their characteristics would have been mentioned. But mercenaries一not just mercenary, so it was pointing to a very rge group of mercenaries.

  Currently, there are mostly only solo mercenaries on the Human Continent. Those in groups are already affiliated with different Guilds.

  So, then the answer is the rgest group of mercenaries outside the Human Continent.

  ‘How the hell did you end up on Wolfsbane, Ryder?’

  With portals, long-distance travel took no time at all, so it wasn’t impossible for him to end up off the continent so quickly.

  But why would Ryder go there of all pces he could have?

  Misa had been friends with the Briar Family for a long time and had known the children since they were toddlers.

  That's why she thought that Ryder would definitely join an Academy, once he Awakened his mana like he had always wanted.

  ‘Wait, Wolfsbane!’ Misa suddenly realized something.

  She quickly pulled up a document on her watch she had received a few days ago.

  It was the observation report on Ray she had received a few days ago.

  He had gone to Wolfsbane with his sister, along with that priest and boy he had brought as his guests from Venezia Isnd.

  ‘Of course! Those three were close friends. Ryder followed them there.’

  But, Ray…Why didn’t you send him back?

  “Ring! Ring! Ring!”

  Suddenly, her smart watch started to ring.

  It was Rufus video-calling her.

  “Misa, why haven’t you brought Ryder back yet?” His expression was a mixture of fury and desperation.

  Misa stood at ease seeing her commander, an unfortunate habit from her days as a Professional Hero of the League. “Uh, Sir Rufus…about that, actually Ryder used the Artifacts you gave him. It was difficult to trace his trail, but we finally found it out. I am heading there right now.”

  “Please find him quickly!” Rufus requested her. And then his tone shifted. “And once I find out who put this vile idea of running away in my poor baby's head, I’ll rip his head off.”

  ‘Wow! Disney vilin much?' Misa thought, staring at the pnts going haywire behind him on the screen.

  The only person more desperate than Rufus to find his grandson was probably Rufus' assistant.

  He called her every single hour, asking for updates while crying on the phone. It seems like Rufus' sadness over losing his grandson had turned the office into a complete rainforest.

  The Hero League had to remove all the pnts from their Headquarters because the flowers were wailing because of Rufus' sadness, ruining the atmosphere at work.

  "Please bring my grandson back safely.” Rufus pleaded once again.

  “Don’t worry, sir. He'll be in your arms by tonight.” She promised, before cutting off the call.

  Seeing his face disappear, Misa remembered the anger he had dispyed moments ago.

  ‘If I don’t bring Ryder back soon, Rufus and his employees are gonna skin Ray alive.’ Misa sighed, her shoulders heavy with the responsibility of an ex-colleague's life.

  Now that she had handed over all her work, it was time to head to the Portal Station.

  As she left the office, an unexpected visitor was pacing outside, anxiously worrying about something.

  Rachel stopped in her tracks. “Um, Miss Misa. I had a request from you.”

  “What is it, Rachel? I don’t have much time, I need to go find your brother.” Misa asked her impatiently.

  “About that, could you take me with you to Ryder?” Rachel finally spoke up.

  Misa stared at her as if Rachel had asked her for the moon, which frankly might have been an easier request.

  “Have you lost your mind? Your grandfather is freaking out over losing one grandchild, and now you want me to take away his other one? Do you know what Rufus will do if he finds out about this? Forget him, the League would conduct a witch hunt for me and burn me in the town square once crying leaves start growing from their ears.”

  "Huh?" Rachel looked at her unsure if they were speaking in some sort of code.

  Misa quickly coughed, remembering she had a reputation to maintain. "Forget that. And my answer is no! You are not coming with me."

  “Please! Ryder ran away. That means he’s determined not to come back home. You won’t be able to convince him to return, no matter what you say. But I can! He’ll listen to me. And I will be back before Grandpa notices.”

  “And what about your tournament practice?”

  “I can just take a sick leave..” Rachel looked at her with pleading eyes.

  Misa sighed in defeat. “As your teacher, I shouldn't be encouraging this, but, fine! Get some essentials from your room, and meet me in front of the Academy Gate in fifteen minutes.” Misa commanded her.

  “Already got everything with me.” Rachel pointed at her dimensional ring.

  Nero was furious. His stupid, useless human contractor, who had cursed a human long ago, had failed.

  Somebody broke the Curse, and the heart that Nero had given to his contractor for the Curse was destroyed.

  Now he has been demoted from a B Rank to a C Rank.

  “Do you understand what you have done?” He yelled through the rge mirror at his contractor.

  Jason cowered in fear. It was because of his personal vengeance that he had cursed the young Briar child, hoping he would suffer in never-ending agony until his early death.

  But now, due to some damn miracle, the boy broke the Curse, and it ricocheted back at them.

  His body had been crying in pain for weeks. He had to hide on some barren isnd because he was afraid that Heroes would recognize him from his unstable mana and demonic energy that was leaking all over the pce.

  The demon Nero, passed his hand through the mirror and grabbed Jason’s colr.

  “Find that boy you cursed and kill him. NOW! How dare he drop my Rank!” The Demon commanded. “And if you fail this time, I will eat your soul and take someone else as my contractor. You should know, there is no ck of supply of humans wanting to make a demonic contract.”

  “Y-Y-Yes!” Jason quickly nodded his head, accepting the request.

  It was his only chance at redemption.

  “Uhhh. If only the Second Catastrophe could come sooner. I would go to Earth personally and kill that brat with my own hands.” Nero withdrew his hand and the mirror soon turned to normal.

  “Don’t worry. That boy has been Cursed by me for a decade. I can find him anywhere on this pnet.” Jason boasted as he focused on Ryder’s life signature.

  “Ahh...Wolfsbane. A fitting pce to kill him. Though, I am sad I wouldn’t be able to see Rufus’ face as I kill his grandson in front of him.”

  A set of bat wings slowly emerged from behind Jason’s back.

  “Ryder Briar, you better be ready to die.”