Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

"I made a lot of progress considering that I almost failed," Ethan muttered. "In any case, I'm bound to fail in the next stage with so little energy, but I guess this will work as a training."

Ethan fought in many battles, and in most of them, he won. However, he also lost sometimes, and he learned more by losing than by winning. So, there was no point in choosing only the fights he could win. With that in mind, he proceeded to the next stage.

You received a new quest!

Complete the fifth stage of the VR simulator!

Reward: 5000 coins.

Ethan couldn't help but frown a little when the next wave of enemies appeared. Finally, the goblins stopped coming. Instead of them, some lizardmen appeared, and Ethan immediately recognized that he would have a hard time against them. He faced them many times while he was in the other world. Although they weren't much stronger than goblins, they had a secret weapon… the ability to spit Acid.

"I guess I should stop here," Ethan sighed. "It will be a pain if they damage my sword before I get some skills to repair it."

He felt quite a bit annoyed by it, but Ethan left himself being hit by the Acid they shot at him. Since he didn't have the skill to resist Acid, Ethan was supposed to scream quite a bit. At the same time, a huge chunk of his flesh would be destroyed, but instead of that, he felt as if his arm was being bitten by a few dozen mosquitoes.

Congratulations! You learned the skill Acid Resistance!

Effects: Decreases the power of Acid attacks by one point per level.

Lv 01 – 00/100

Congratulations! For learning a new ability without help, you received one thousand coins.

For the rest of the day, Ethan focused on improving his scores on the simulator, not because he wanted to increase his rank, but because he wanted to reach the fifth stage in a better condition. Things could proceed faster if he increased some of his skills and speed, but that would make the battles much easier. So, he avoided that. He managed to reach the fifth stage two more times before going home. On the first run, he reached with his health at fifty percent, and on the last one, his health was full. His improvement was clear.

"I guess tomorrow I will buy something to protect my sword from the acid and fight the lizardmen for real," Ethan muttered. "I obtained plenty of coins, after all."

Ethan didn't know if he would have another night of bad dreams, so he decided to enjoy a good evening with his family. However, the moment he arrived at home, he noticed a heavy atmosphere. Michael was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed and eyes closed. Meanwhile, Evelyn a constantly looking at her cell phone.

"Did something happen?" Ethan asked, visibly worried.

Michael and Evelyn looked at each other, trying to find a proper answer to that question. Still, even after several seconds of silence, they couldn't come up with one that wouldn't make Ethan feel more worried.

"It is about Hannah," Michael said and then sighed. "We didn't hear anything from her since she left to work yesterday morning."

"…Is that unusual?" Ethan asked, after thinking for a short while. "Her job is related to opening portals to different worlds, right? Maybe she is in one in which time flows slower than Earth."

"We can't deny that hypothesis," Evelyn nodded. "However, until now, no new planet like that has been found. Even if the government found one and sent Hannah to there, she would have warned us."

Ethan wanted to think that his parents were just overthinking things. He was fully aware that in magic worlds, things tend to go quite difficult for heroes since the hopes of a world as a whole were put on their shoulders. If anyone else were in her position, Ethan would think that. Still, since Hannah was family, she was his big sis, even Ethan began to worry.

"Is there someone we can talk with to receive some news?" Ethan asked.

"No," Michael said bluntly.

"No?" Ethan frowned. "Why? Doesn't the government give a damn about the families of the people working for them?"

Michael raised his eyebrow since Ethan was already raising his voice. That was one side of his son that he never saw before. Still, he could see where Ethan was coming from because he felt like that many times.

"Every single detail about her missions is classified," Michael said. "Hannah can't even talk to us about it if something goes wrong or even if everything is solved perfectly."

After thinking for a while, that started to make sense. Ethan knew that when it was used, mana always leaves some trails behind. A skilled magician could not only feel the trail left behind and identify the spell used, but they could even reactivate the spell. Considering that the spell in question was capable of opening a temporary link between worlds, it was only obvious why the government had to be so secretive about every little thing.

That being said, knowing that didn't make things easy for Ethan. The leak of information could cause problems in another world, and thus the diplomatic work built over the past year might collapse. Even so, Ethan couldn't care less about it. Family always comes first. Still, he had just returned a few days ago, and he didn't know a single person related to Hannah's job.

"Can't we talk with Natalia about this?" Ethan asked.

"I'm not sure her work is in any way involved with the diplomacy between worlds," Michael shook his head. "If you ask me, her job is about recruiting summoned heroes and keeping an eye on them while they are on Earth. Still, if by some chance she knows anything, I highly doubt that she will tell us."

That was also the image Ethan had of her. Although she acted friendly, Ethan felt that she did everything just to make everyone in the house feel comfortable. Her job was important, and so was she. Even if someone isn't that prideful, any ordinary person would feel insulted at the words Ethan spouted that day. Still, she didn't, and that made her look very suspicious. In any case, perhaps that was for the good. Ethan didn't want to get involved with manipulative persons or those who didn't act naturally.

Ethan only had a single option left: Ian. Still, he wasn't quite sure the guy would have the intel he needed. It would also be troublesome to owe some favors to him, but that was a small problem, and Ethan would do anything to get rid of his worries. Hannah was even stronger than the most experienced sorcerers he saw in the other world. Still, power alone wasn't enough to keep a magician protected.

"Call Ian… Ian…" Ethan said while facing his wristwatch. "I don't know his surname…"

Unfortunately, there is no Ian Ian registered.

Ethan sighed after reading that. In any case, he did a quick search through the net only to confirm his suspicions. Ian Thompson… the eldest son of a man who became wildly famous as a seller of magic potions in the last six months. That was all that he found about him, there wasn't even a mention of his little sister, but there was a lot of info about their father.