Chapter 8: The disasters of the past

    Lucian was quiet in the carriage, Aster did not talk to him either except for her occasional smiles at passer-bys who were celebrating her brother’s win.

“You can say whatever you have in mind, don’t hold it in. Aster said, I am going to embark on a journey soon so you can ask what you want now.”

Lucian finally said, “I thought it was strange the way you talked about the dungeon they died, so it happened before I was born? Or how else does Zaria have this mutation?”

Aster did not reply for some time. After a few seconds, she turned to her brother and said, “strength… you need knowledge and strength if you want to have a chance at revenge. According to the information we currently have, the creature that occupied the dungeon was called Dell. The is the same name as the plane.”

Lucian was speechless for a while before speaking, “Dell! How did they come up with the name?”

Aster said without a change in expression, “both you and Zaria were the only kids born after the exploration. They managed to live longer than the others after giving birth to you but I think the mutation fused with you instead, giving them a chance to escape death.”

…

   Weimar Valencia, leader of the glory shelter combined exploration group and a rank 6 star path warrior stared at Zaria who returned his stare with furrowed brows, they were told they would be assigned to their respective teams in this place but the leader kept staring at her after he assigned the rest.

You are Zaria? The man asked. He already read her report and knew she was born from parents who survived the Dell ruin disaster.

Lucian rejecting joining them came as a surprise to him because he thought that a young boy who had such an adventurous spirit would like to join the leading powers in order to climb up in rank.

But in the report, there was an inconsistency. Aster was already born before the disaster, Lucian was born after the disaster but they were dead. Zaria’s father died but her mother was still alive.

His mind became alert after seeing the fights in the district competition, he immediately sent a message to eastern dell shelter that collaborated with them when they explored the ruin.

He was transferred to this team after the disaster since the old leader died, and according to his knowledge, he did not possess the level to view confidential information of such level.

He thought still staring at Zaria, “ Zaria’s mother surviving might be an hidden danger and I need to report it.”

He said to Zaria who seemed to be getting impatient, “you will be assigned to the first training camp team, you are only a rank 9 you won’t have much impact on the exploration team. So focus on learning as much as possible.

The complementary education you had in the lower district taught you the dell language, dungeons and combat. The central district also have the same teaching style, those without potential are not allowed to know more because it has no use to them.

I hope you will take the training seriously and not disappoint me.”

Zaria nodded at his words surprised at the fact that the central district sometimes had people with low talent. “They have everything from background to their environment, it is surprising some are still untalented.

She bowed slightly at Weimar before taking leaving.

Weimar waited until evening for the answer to his to report. Within this time period, he made sure to report to the high level bosses so he could get their approval.

Not receiving a reply meant he had their tacit consent. He needed to know more about the survivors and their families before he could come up with what needed to be done.

“As expected… he mused, they won’t let me into too much details despite allowing me to read them.

I only need to see some connection anyway no need to sweat over the small stuff.”

He read the heading on the top of the page, “The Forgotten Exploration.”

“Forgotten exploration! How can it be called the forgotten exploration when the report is right here with me? Abilities of those at rank 5 nearing rank 4 gives me chills.

He continued reading the report after a few minutes of silence.

“Everyone who came back from the ruin could not give a report on what happened in the ruin, the attempt to hear or write what happened in the ruin was futile because it was erased before they could make out what was said.

Even the ruin could no longer be found. All those that survived died inexplicably after the exploration except for three who had children after the expiration and two more who obtained a special item.”

The report ended there. He could only helplessly sigh at how it ended without giving more information.

…

   “The Legend of the snake called Dell?” how come this book is well preserved after so many years, there is something fishy about this.”

The arrogant warrior with the lucky star skill opened the book and started reading out loud but that was after the star warrior had concealed the sound they were making,

“Date and time has been muddled since the fall of the sun, we are remnants of those that survived the abyssal invasion.

Our stupidity led to the fall of the top strongest warriors we had and this fall was led by Dell who fell to the abyss from the beginning but managed to deceive everyone.

This python from evolved from an unknown zoo, travelling a long distance to meet up with us. Dell took on human form after meeting with us, at the time the path system was not established.

He fused with both sun and star source but the conflicting source energy made him unstable it managed to help him resist the invasion of the abyss, but he eventually fell.

“Sun and star source! What is that?” Gunvor asked, interrupting Lucky who received this name because of the skill he received for this exploration.

“It must have happened at the beginning of the disaster according to this book, do you expect us to know the answer which you don’t know yourself? Lucky who was irritated at been stopped snapped.

Before the others could respond, they all felt the building shaking. They immediately looked around themselves in horror because the books in the library all seemed to have come alive, even the legend of the snake called Dell extricated itself from Lucky turning against them with a strong suction force.

Before any countermeasures could be taken, they found themselves pulled into this book.

….

    Lucian, Reina and George walked across the lower district streets enjoying the congratulations from the people, sometimes giving sweets made from partial mutated honey bees to children who asked for it.

Dell district housing arrangements were arranged by the central district, they made sure to ensure only stalls that could be easily destroyed were allowed by the roadside.

Houses that had families in them will find it difficult in moving in case of a need for rapid deployment of forces.

The houses built across the entire plane were built with a solid foundation with some having larger basement because of the presence of rank five air threats.

High rise buildings were only allowed to a certain range and had to be used for strategic purposes.

According to rumours that spread over the years, a rank 4 earth artifact was used in the shelter to prevent mutated and corrupted underground creatures from entering the shelter.

Certain places within the eastern and northern glory shelter lower districts have natural caves.

According to the official narrative they were natural but everyone knew high level earth path warrior or even the right mystical artifact could set up something like this easily.

This caves were used by both the lower, middle and central education system as actual combat training centres since none of the major powers could dare to guarantee safety of the students due to the unpredictable changes in the wilderness.

Everyone from 12 years old had a chance to awaken so there are tons of people who advanced easily to rank 8 with rank 6 been the threshold.

Only those from central district tried awakening at twelve, after all they could try again another year but those in the other districts only needed to wait till they were sixteen with 99% chance of awakening.

Reina silently took the entire district in before saying, “it is good you rejected the offer to join the central district.”

Lucian smiled slightly without giving it much thought… “our outcomes are the same anyway, there is no way to advance to rank 4. It is better to find a way to visit the legendary scorching desert than sitting ducks here in the name of protection.”

George turned to his sister and best friend, “we are going on a long journey after this, I hope we are happy when we meet again.”