Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Since the tent was kind of small for four people to sleep in, Ian had to mount another one. Fortunately, despite being an idiot, he was always prepared for that kind of situation. However, Ethan didn't sleep that night. He spent the entire time watching the dungeon from a distance, wondering when the balance would break.

"In terms of magic power, Isaac was just one level behind Emily. However, he is an archer… so considering all that, he may actually be on the same level as B-rank heroes. I can feel hundreds of other presences like him, but none of them are above him. This is a big country, so I can't believe that there isn't a single summoned hero who is much more powerful than them… are they hiding?"

Since some weird events happened lately, Ethan couldn't help but think about strange things like that. Maybe he was just overthinking it, and everything was just a coincidence. Regardless, he didn't get even a single wink of sleep since that weird figure that fought Ivan didn't leave his mind. Even worse, Ethan wasn't strong enough to face such a creature, not alone, at least.

The following day, Isaac showed up when Ethan and the others were having breakfast. Just like before, he showed up like a tornado.

"All right, who wants to go and beat the crap out of the monsters with uncle Isaac?" Isaac asked.

In the end, no one said anything. First of all, Isaac's high spirits were kind of bothersome so early in the morning. Besides, the last thing that Ethan, Emily, and Ian wanted was to fight alongside someone so… hard not to spot. Since he was an archer, Isaac was probably the most notorious member of the backline.

"Don't be like that. Youngsters such as yourselves need to shine as much as possible while you can," Isaac said. "Besides, isn't your goal to prevent casualties as long as possible?"

Ethan sighed… why the sharper individuals had to be such a pain in the ass. Ethan wasn't that slow, but if compared to people like Ian and Isaac, he was a turtle, and their attitudes were also really annoying.

"Sorry, but my priority is to keep my dad safe," Emily said.

"It is okay, Emily," Carter said. "You should focus on helping others. I am as safe as I can be on the backlines, and I will feel bad if something happens just because I am so pathetic that I need to be protected by my daughter."

"But…" Emily hesitated.

"That problem is easily solved," Ian said, and then he used his wristwatch to summon something. "This will keep your dad safe from all harm for a while."

A ring suddenly appeared on Ian's hands, a green one. It didn't look much special, but Ethan could feel a pretty decent concentration of mana in it. Without a hint of hesitation, Ian passed the ring to Carter.

"If any magic projectile or physical attacks approach you, a wind barrier will appear and repel the attack," Ian explained. "Unless you are attacked by ten of those monsters or some fire ten bazookas at you, you won't die."

"Is… that so?" Carter accepted the ring after hesitating a little.

"Now, we can fight without worrying, right?" Ian asked with a smile on his face.

"Why are you so eager to fight?" Ethan frowned. "I am pretty sure that ghost-type monsters are the worst type of creatures someone like you can face."

"You so dumb, Ethan," Ian said after sighing and while shaking his head.

"… What did you say?" Ethan got annoyed due to Ian's smug smile.

"I am not stupid enough to develop my skills while leaving some holes behind," Ian said. "I can fight against this level of an opponent with ease."

After saying that, Ian summoned two other magic items. A magic staff and another ring… in the end, even though he was so smug, he was relying on magical items to cover his weakness. That being said, Ethan knew that such a tactic was probably a way to hide his skills even more.

"This is a gift from Anna," Ian said and then passed the ring to Emily. "It is your reward from the previous mission."

Ethan recalled that Emily's payment was a lot of mana potions, so he imagined that ring was like a storage device that had many mana potions inside of it. For a mage like Emily, a few magic items could be so useful. Still, she showed a complicated expression.

"Thanks… I will make good use of it," Emily said, and then she stored the ring in her pocket.

"It is settled, then," Isaac said. "Let's kick some monsters' asses!"

In the end, Ethan and the others headed toward where the backlines were located. However, Emily walked the whole time while keeping an eye on her father, who was walking toward where the support team would wait for the wounded. She was really worried for some reason and probably wouldn't be able to concentrate.

"Well, now, where should I allocate you?" Isaac asked while looking at Ethan. "You can't use long-ranged attacks like them, right?"

"I can," Ethan said.

"Really? I thought you were a typical warrior," Isaac frowned. "Big sword and no delicate skills, you know…"

"…" Ethan showed an annoyed expression.

"Can all of you use ice magic?" Isaac asked. "Defeating the ghost armors from such a large distance is hard, so the front line will focus on dealing damage while the backline will hold them with ice magic."

"No problem," Ian said.

"I can use it," Emily said.

"The only problem here is my mana pool," Ethan said. "I don't think I can fire my spells for so long. Five minutes is probably my limit."

Truth to be told, Ethan was confident that he could use Ice Arrow for ten minutes, but he didn't have to say the limits of his magic powers. He was hoping that Isaac would provide them with mana potions, and his guess wasn't off the mark.

"You can rest assured, we have a large stock of potions, and even more are being produced right now," Isaac declared.