”Why are you crying now? Everything is alright.”
”We have nowhere to go. We have no money, and we can’t even fight..” the boy cried.
”Just curious, but how did you manage to ascend to the first realm?” Zach asked calmly.
”We completed quests that gave us EXP and coins. And then we trained our physique by clearing the first five floors of the dungeon over and over again for weeks,” the boy replied in a calm voice.
Even though his voice was calm, Zach could feel the pain and the suffering the boy, and the girl must have experienced.
”How many times did you clear the first five floors of the dungeon?”
”More than ten thousand times…”
”Building physique is the toughest thing in this game. And it’s very challenging, especially for a kid like you.”
Zach patted the boy’s head and said, “You should be proud of yourself. You were able to survive so far alone with no one’s help. That’s admirable, you know?”
”And the first five floors of the dungeon are subjectively hard. I myself have struggled on the fifth floor, and you are just a kid,” Zach then continued.
”Really?” the boy asked with teary eyes.
”Yeah, you are awesome.”
”But aren’t you super strong? I saw you fighting in the garden the other day. Even though your opponents were higher level than you and had overpowered skills, you easily defeated them!” the boy said with respect in his eyes for Zach.
”Yeah…”
”Can I become like you one day?” he asked curiously.
Zach stroked the boy’s hair and said, “Of course, you can.”
”Can you tell me what to do to become strong like you?!”
”You just have to—” Zach stopped his words after seeing his reflection in the boy’s eyes.
The conversation reminded him of his argument with Munbeta and Cindy in the dungeon expedition, where he said he wasn’t someone lucky or strong from the start. He claimed to have worked hard and also said that anyone could become like him if they worked hard enough.
But now, Zach was doubting his words; he was having second thoughts.
Sure, he was trained to death by his father when he was a kid, and that played an important role in his life. However, that wasn’t the only thing.
There were chances that he would have never met Aria if he hadn’t gone beyond the fifth floor. If he hadn’t met Aria, he wouldn’t have gotten her blessing, which would have resulted in his slow growth.
There would have been another player who reached floor ten and entered Aria’s domain, and maybe that player would have gotten her blessings.
With the series of events, one after another, Zach became what he was today, or so he used to think. But he knew that no one would be able to become like him, even if they tried.
’What if I lie to the kid and give him false hope? What if he ends up doing something stupid that could endanger his life? I don’t want to see more people dying on me. Even if I didn’t know them personally or had any connection with them, no one deserves to die without reason. But is a reason enough to die? Is it more important than a person’s life?’
”Please tell me! What do I have to do to become like you?!” the boy asked again with his utmost sincerity.
Zach smiled wryly at the boy and said, “First, you take care of yourself and your friends. Second, you think of the consequences before making any action. And third, it’s okay to lose sometimes, and it’s also okay to run away sometimes. Always remember, what matters the most is staying alive. Losing or running away might make you smaller, and you might even lose respect from some people, but at least you would be alive to earn their respect again.”
”Wow~” The boy’s eyes glittered with respect for Zach. He smiled at him and said, “Thank you, master Zach!”
”Don’t call me master…”
The boy knew Zach’s name because he had already heard it many times, and he could also see the name in Zach’s nametag.
”What’s your name?” Zach asked the boy.
The boy had a nickname set to ‘Hero of Light’, so Zach could only see that, not his name.
”My name is Noah! Noah Astafolio!”
”Astafolo…?” Zach muttered and thought, ‘Is it coincidence?’
”What’s your father’s name?”
”Reed Astafolo.”
”What’s your mother’s name?”
”Hannah…”
Zach pondered for a while and asked, “Do you have any siblings?”
”No,” Noah shook his head.
”Can you show me your profile?” Zach asked in a calm voice.
”Sure!”
The boy opened his menu and showed his stats to Zach.
[Level 10]
Zach read Noah’s stats and thought, ‘Nothing extraordinary. Just what you would expect from a level10 player.’
”How are my stats?! Are they good?!”
”…” Zach raised his brows after looking at Noah’s coins and asked, “You said you received coins after completing the quests, right?”
”Yes.”
”Why do you not have any coins? Did you use them on your gear or something?”
”Well…” Noah averted his gaze and refused to talk.
”What is it?”
”After… Elina and I ascended, we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get strong, so we decided to join a party, but everyone turned us down. Then, a party of 7 members approached us and asked us to join their party.”
’I can already guess where this is going.’ Zach facepalmed himself after already predicting the story and rubbed his face in frustration.
”We were desperate to join a party, so we agreed, but they said there was a charge to join their party, and they asked us to give all the money we had. We didn’t have much choice since no one was taking us to their party, so we gave them all our money, and they took us to the dungeon raid.”
After a brief pause, Noah continued, “But then they said they forgot something and will be back in a few minutes. We waited for them, but they never returned.”
***
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