Chapter 56: Purplish Twilight
"Sorry, Vesa just told me the results of the investigation.
This place is indeed a real world. This changes many things, Emily."
"What changes? You're just being Alex, overthinking things.
Nothing has changed; we still need to go to the category five dungeon and get out of this dungeon."
She then pointed at the sky, "See, the sun is starting to set; we should quickly move now to look for the goblin base."
Alex sighed as he looked at the purplish twilight; two suns were setting, making the colors mix, painting a purplish hue in the sky.
His sister's way of thinking was always simple. For him, this fact changed a lot of things.
Since they had an agreement with other species, who's to say those Category Five dungeons weren't happening on purpose as part of the agreement?
This meant even the Association couldn't be trusted until he verified more information. But he didn't tell Emily this since it wasn't confirmed.
His mind began to wander as he started walking, following Emily.
'This means the area we can explore should be limited, and some countermeasures should be put in place.
No wonder the dungeons have a time limit, then.'
Every dungeon had its own time limit. After the time had passed, the portal for their return would never open, even after they killed the boss.
Every hunter would instinctively know how long they had.
In Goblin Hollows, they had 14 days to find the boss and kill it.
After they got out, they would realize how much time had passed on their planet.
But every dungeon had a fixed time dilation, and most of them were in sync with their planet's time, just like the place they were in.
Passing through the thick forest, Emily asked telepathically, 'What about your system? Did it detect any life forms yet?'
'Yes, but only a few scattered around. Based on life force energy, probably wolves or some other small animals.'
Alex then put on a thoughtful look and added, 'Strange, usually, there should be many people looking for the intruder.'
Emily stopped in her steps, looking at Alex incredulously. 'Sometimes I wonder if that ability of yours is flawed.'
She then pointed at the billowing smoke in the sky. "You think they won't send out a hunting squad to look for those that can cause that?"
Alex chuckled, seeing the forest still burning down. It kept spreading without showing any sign of stopping. "Well, nothing's wrong with my abilities; I just didn't use them now."
"Don't tell me, now you can use it as you wish? I doubt your ability uses a lot of mana; at least use it to calculate the base direction."
"Oh, I don't need to do that." Alex's lips curled into a grin.
"You're already going in the right direction. Vesa already extracted a map of the area from the High Goblin, so I know the base location and our enemy."
Emily's veins popped; she stood there speechless. Seeing her expression, Alex laughed, "Why are you looking at me like that? Let's go."
If glares could kill, Emily would have already killed Alex a hundred times over.
"Hmph, you lead; you know the way."
Alex chuckled and then started to lead the way, walking past her. But after a few minutes, sweat started covering his forehead; he could still feel his sister's deadly glare at his back.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Can you stop glaring?" Alex said as he looked at Emily over his shoulder.
"You should stop joking around, Alex. Anything can happen in a dungeon. What if you enter with someone else?"
Emily felt angry because she thought Alex always treated the dungeon like a vacation while their lives were at risk. Anything could happen in a dungeon.
"I'm not that stupid, Emily. Don't worry, if it's not with you, I won't do this."
"Oh geez, should I feel important then, brother?
Just go marry someone already and annoy the hell out of her. Spare your little sister here," Emily said sarcastically.
Alex turned speechless.
'Seems I overdid it. Even after becoming a two-star hunter, she still acts like a little girl.' He chuckled in his mind.
Alex knew if his sister acted like this, it was better to just ignore her; she would then come around by herself.
So, he focused on the task.
Emily, still grumpy about Alex's actions, cursed in her mind.
'Stupid brother, why can't you just tell me about it? Is annoying me really that fun? Hmph.'
They walked through the forest until both suns disappeared below the horizon, turning the area into darkness, but this was not a problem for Alex and Emily.
After transforming into a progenitor, Alex's eyes could see in the dark. As for Emily, she wore night-vision goggles.
She could use her ability, but that would be a waste of mana.
On the way, they didn't meet any monster other than the WolfHowler; Alex caught a few of them and then killed the rest, farming their life force.
Passing through the forest with its giant trees, Alex started pondering the ecosystem on this planet.
'Weird, we only met one type of monster so far; if this were a novel, I would already think the author is too lazy to make more monsters for this dungeon run.
Even the trees are this big; there should be some giant beasts too, but the biggest monster recorded in this dungeon is an ogre, twice the size of an average human.'
This made Alex wonder if the planet housed multiple sentient species and if goblins were the lowest tier; hence, they were pushed to sacrifice their population to deal with his planet.
'Vesa, since a progenitor represents a race, doesn't this mean they lead the species? Why have I never heard of a human progenitor then?'
[It's just like an office boy will never meet the company owner; you are too far away from his level, King. I suggest you just focus on the task at hand.]