Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Once they returned to the hotel, the group split up, and Hannah scolded Ethan since his arms were all messed up. If a fight were to start now, he would be at a terrible disadvantage… moreover, his sword received considerable damage.

Fatal Sword (Common) (+0)

Attack: 80 – 120

Durability: 25/150

Effects: When causing more than twenty percent of damage to the total of the target's health, you can make them lose fifty points of health for five seconds.

Requirements: 150 STR

Ethan could repair it a bit with some tools, but instead of that, he bought a hammer from his store that cost ten thousand coins. The hammer had one thousand points of durability, and its effect was to transfer its durability toward other objects when it hit them.

"Man, what you can't do with your magic shop?" Ian asked while he watched Ethan repairing his sword.

"With what I can't get now, making you shut up is one of the few things that I can't," Ethan replied.

"You are getting all tsundere-like, just like Emily… Also, you are getting pretty chummy with Dante, don't forget who your real best friend is," Ian snorted.

"I guess I can understand a bit now why she feels that you are gross…" Ethan said and then sighed.

It was better to stop there and ignore Ian since he would only cause more headaches for Ethan. In any case, after repairing his sword, Ethan did the same with his equipment and then worked throughout the rest of the day and night in fixing his arms… thanks to Heal, he didn't notice before. Still, the attack messed up his arms so much that even after a while, they were receiving damage. He had to use Heal a bunch of times to completely negate that effect. Even Ethan didn't remember receiving an attack that had delayed effects, and he wondered if that was something that Dante could use for free will… it seemed like an interesting technique but a useless one. What is the point of causing damage over time physically? It was better to cause it all at once.

When the next morning came, Ethan noticed that Ian woke up and left the room pretty early… he was probably planning or doing something annoying again. Regardless, Ethan contacted his sister and then asked about the situation back home. It looked like their parents were a bit worried, but not that much since they could talk with her now and then.

"The negotiations are bound to end today, so don't do anything stupid… like messing your body again," Hannah said and then sighed. "I believe that we will make our move today, so you need to stay in tip-top shape."

"All right… any signs of the unknown returnees?" Ethan asked.

"Nothing yet… and it doesn't seem like they left the planet already," Hannah said and then frowned. "You know, this was supposed to be confidential information, but you managed to make me reveal that easily… I thought that your talking skills sucked."

"I show the right skills at the right moment," Ethan shrugged. "Anyway, please keep me updated."

Once he finished his morning routine, Ethan left the room to get some breakfast, and he found Emily and Ian waiting for him in the same cafe from yesterday. He could see from miles away that Emily was about to attack Ian if he had to listen to him for a single more minute alone.

"I feel like you need some sugar to relax," Ethan said. "I just talked with my sister, and today, we will be ready to move at a moment's notice."

"That is for the best… I am sorry that because of me, you have to endure all of this," Emily said and then sighed.

"You never said that to me," Ian protested.

"That is because you are making me pissed every single moment, and that is probably you venting your own stress on me for this," Emily said while looking away.

"Talking seriously for a moment, though, we should leave if the higher-ups don't decide to attack the dungeon," Ian said. "Any move aside from that will be a massive waste of time. At that point in time, it will be better to evacuate all the soldiers and forget this place."

"The chances of them planning to waste more time are low… even more so when they are only losing resources on this battle," Emily shrugged. "Our country will probably want to claim some of the resources on the other side, but both sides obviously know that we have to attack… even though enemies might be waiting for us on the other side."

From his point of view, Ethan felt that it would be better to attack. However, doing that with a small elite force might be what was what the enemies were waiting for… they might also be prepared if a large army entered the other side. There was also the possibility that something even worse might happen back on Earth if they went… the higher-ups probably were aware of that. Things were a lot more complicated now than while Ethan was fighting in the other world… what the enemy could do was a lot less troublesome, and most things that he could solve could be solved with enough brute strength.

"I guess they are going to split our forces… we will go, but Dante and Aline will be forced to stay behind," Ethan declared. "Even among those who joined the army, they are probably the strongest heroes, right?"

"I guess so… it would be too risky to send them unless the higher-ups decide to call another elite team with them," Emily shrugged. "I highly doubt that they would use that many resources to help another country. They would end up exposing our country, after all."

Around ten in the morning, the group received a call from Hannah, and after a long sigh, she told them that they were part of the team that would invade the dungeon and that Dante and Aline would stay behind.