Capítulo 6: Chapter 5 - Despair was stamped on my face.
"How are you feeling?" Lukas was inside the car with his family. They were returning from the cemetery where Philip was buried. He had died in the attack two days ago.
"I'm fine." Lukas closed his fist and then looked out the car window.
Anna sitting next to him in the back seat held his hand. Lukas looked at her and saw that she was looking apprehensively at him. Smiling, he tried to calm her down. "I said I'm fine."
Even after hearing that, Anna did not let go of his hand.
Her father, who was driving, looked at Lukas through the car's rearview mirror. His mother remained silent as she kept her eyes closed.
After a few minutes, they finally arrived home. Lukas and Anna got out of the car.
Their parents didn't get down and then the car started moving again. Lukas knew where they were going.
"Shall we go inside?" Anna smiled at Lukas and then held his hand again and pulled him into the house. After they went inside, Anna took off her earrings and placed them on the dining table.
"Would you like something to eat? If you want, I'll prepare something for you."
"Food prepared by you? I don't think that's a good idea." Lukas had sat down on the couch and turned on the television. The attack from two days ago was still being reported in the local newspaper. This would last for a few more days.
Over 100 deaths in a single attack were something rare to happen these days. Times had changed, and now there were people trained to fight every attack, unlike before.
[ I would say that so many deaths occurred only because of the portal's location. How often do portals open in such crowded places? That indeed wasn't supposed to happen. ]
[ What do you think happened? ]
[ We're still investigating, but the portals are changing their "behaviour". ]
[ What do you mean? ]
[ "Behavior" I mean in where they appear. Before, they seemed to have "rules" for appearing, but now those rules seem to have been removed. They appear anywhere now. This has only started to happen recently. ]
[ I see, that sounds like something to be concerned about ]
[ Absolutely. We're improving our portal tracking system, so there's no need to worry. ] The head of the association said while smiling at the camera.
Lukas then turned off the television.
"What? Are you still watching the news about the attack? You should avoid seeing things about it. It will only continue to hurt you."
"Did you hear that? It seems that the portals are getting more frequent."
"Yes. Have you checked Twitter? Several peoples showed attacks that happened on the same day in the attack in the event, and there were several of them."
"I see. What do you think will happen?" Lukas lay down on the couch and looked up at the ceiling. Anna moved closer and then looked at his face.
"What do you mean?"
"What will happen to us? What if portals start opening everywhere, and we can't handle all the monsters? The world ends, right?"
"Urgh, why do you thinking about that? Scary. Come on, don't think about it. I'll make us something to eat, and then we can play video games in your room. What do you think?"
"Why is my room?"
"Because the PlayStation is there."
"... Okay. I'm going to take a shower now."
"Call me if you need help."
"What?" Lukas looked confused at Anna. After realising what she had said, her face turned red. Then she turned and walked toward the kitchen. "You idiot, I didn't mean it that way."
####
Monday, classes had returned. Lukas, as usual, had gone out with his father and mother and was left at the door of the school that was a few miles away from the neighbourhood in which he lived.
His school was called Southside school, and it was a school that received elementary and high school students. A few meters away was another building, a college of the same institute.
Uniforms were not compulsory, so Lukas wore a basic shirt, pants, and sneakers, nothing that drew attention. Unlike some students who wore eccentric clothes.
His school was a whole block. Furthermore, it was divided into two buildings.
After entering the main gate, you would find a concrete path to the main school building, where the high school students attended. And behind the main building was the elementary school.
Lukas entered and blended in among the students, being very discreet. After entering, he found a long corridor with several doors. Straight ahead, there were other corridors, one to the right and one to the left.
If you followed the corridor on the right and turned a few more corridors, you would reach the stairs to the second floor, which was where Lukas studied.
After he went up and walked a little further, he reached room A-3. He was in his last year of high school and was almost at the end of the year. It would not be long before he would graduate.
When he entered the room, all his classmates looked at him. The teacher had not yet arrived, so everyone talked to each other. When Lukas entered the room, the main subject of the students was him.
This was because he was the person closest to Philip.
After walking to the third row of tables, Lukas walked to the end of the row and sat down on the last chair. His classmates sitting around looked at him, but no one said anything about what had happened to Philip.
'Those idiots, they don't even disguise it.' Lukas propped his chin on his right hand and stared at the blackboard in silence.
He continued this way until the teacher arrived in the classroom. The teacher's first thing was to inform the students about Philip's death, but everyone already knew about it.
It ruined the mood. The class continued, and the atmosphere was terrible. No one was in the mood to study, even though many students were not Philip's friends.
Lukas just smiled bitterly at this situation.
Without talking to anyone during the whole class, he left for home.
####
Lukas was doing some research on what was happening with the portals at the computer. When he realised it was evening. He went down to the first floor to get some water and then to the bathroom.
After going back up to his room, he lay down. Bob also lay down on his bed, and Lukas turned off the lights.
Before going to sleep, he began to remember the day of the attack.
'Should I have come back to help?'
'Did I let Philip die?
'Why didn't I try harder?'
'Would he be alive if I had stayed there with him and we had run away together?'
So many thoughts plagued Lukas' mind before he slept.
####
"Leroy, can you feel something approaching?" Hugh asked. We were in a group of five people, and we had entered the dungeon a few hours ago.
Behind me were my other three companions, Chloe, Kym and Claude.
"I still can't feel anything. What about you, Chloe? Can you use magic to scan around here?"
We were in a strange area but very familiar to anyone who had visited this dungeon before. Or at least that's what we read about the dungeon.
Unlike the rooms that exist in any dungeon, the rooms in this dungeon, after a while, began to have their walls completely covered with grass and flowers.
"I'm sorry, Leroy," Chloe said with a sad expression.
"Don't worry. We'll move on."
"Shouldn't we go back? We've already walked too far. We might end up accidentally bumping into the boss." Hugh said in a worried tone. In response, I just shook my head. "That's impossible. The boss is much deeper in the dungeon."
"But we've walked a long way. Don't you think we're getting to the end?"
"Impossible. In case it gets dangerous, let's go back." I said confidently.
Hugh tightened the grip on his sword and then looked at the other three just behind.
Chloe crossed her arms, Kym held her spear even tighter, and Claude put away his daggers and then turned to leave. He was the only one who didn't want to continue. Because of this, I decided to run after him.
"Hey, Claude!"
"What's up?"
'Cold as usual...'
"Why are you giving up now? Don't you think we're close to finding something interesting?"
"Something interesting? But this dungeon has been explored before, and it's only a C-RANK dungeon. Do you think we'll be able to find something? I'm going home." Claude just sighed and started walking away.
My other companions looked at me, wanting me to go after him. When I tried to get closer, he got irritated, so I decided to walk away.
Claude walked back down the corridor we had used to get here and then disappeared.
"Why did you let him go?" Chloe questioned, but I just ignored her.
"All right, shall we move on?" I asked everyone, and they seemed reluctant but agreed to continue exploring. So we kept walking and reached another corridor just ahead.
The walls of the corridor were also covered with grass and flowers. It became more and more blooming, and the grass got denser and denser with each step we took. It got to a point where walking down the corridor was difficult.
"Is this place a forest? It is just like they had described." I said as we reached the next room in the dungeon.
The floor was covered with grass and flowers, just like the walls. In the middle of the room was a small forest.
The trees were so big that they reached the ceiling. There was also a lake in the middle of the trees with crystal clear water. And incredibly, there were even birds flying around the room. It was surreal.
And everything was so illuminated. There seemed to be a sun here.
Everyone in the group, including me, couldn't believe it all.
"It's just like they said. It's so beautiful," Chloe said in amazement. She had tears in the corner of her eyes.
"Yes, it is wonderful," Kym said with a smile.
Hugh was the only one who remained silent, and he was also the only one to question the safety of our group.
"All right, but now what do we do? From what we read, the dungeon is near the end when we reach this room. Shouldn't we go back now?" He was nervous, as he could sense that it was not a good idea to continue there.
"Indeed. What do you think, girls?" I looked at Chloe and Kym, and they nodded.
"Okay, let's go back now," I said with a smile, but as I turned around along with them, we noticed that the entrance to the hallway was closed. Some roots had grown in the opening.
As we looked at the roots, we all "forgot" how to breathe. Then sweat began to drip down our bodies. We were in danger!
With my body trembling, I turned and looked into the forest again.
Between the trees, something was spying on us.
'Our eyes met! My God!' Despair was plastered on my face.
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