Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Although Anna really gave Ethan some sour potions, and he was taking a liking to them, suddenly, when his mana was empty, Anna just tossed a bottle toward him. Although that caught Ethan by surprise since Anna didn't seem like a bad kid, what happened next surprised him even more. The bottle disappeared, and the liquid that was hit against his body recovered his whole mana. All that happened without his clothes even getting dirty. When Ethan looked at Anna, he saw her studying a weird yellow plant.

"That surprised me," Ethan said. "You just looked like an alchemist from FFT."

"Are you an idiot?" Anna asked without looking at him since she was scanning the plant. "I am an alchemist… I have no idea what an FFT is, though."

"Well, don't worry about it," Ethan said. "That game was made even before you were born."

"I'm pretty sure that game was made many years before we were born," Ian frowned. "Regardless, you were right. The skill she used is just like that game. Still, why are you surprised? You have an inventory, dude. I wish I had one. I bet it is awesome to store all kinds of things in a place no one could touch."

"… Gross," Emily showed a disgusted face.

"Maybe you are the one who has a dirty mind, Emily," Ian said. "I was thinking about storing all kinds of photographs of miss Lyla in such a place."

"If you are planning to take them without her authorization, that still is gross," Emily facepalmed.

Ethan felt like sighing. Here they were in the middle of a mission where they could solve a problem which has been troubling Earth for several months, and those two were talking about useless things. As if that wasn't enough, even Anna joined them.

"You still didn't give up on her?" Anna asked. "How can you love her so much just because she helped you a single time?"

"Anna, shhhh!" Ian said. "You can't say these kinds of things out loud. Even your big brother can feel embarrassed at times."

"I will say what I want, and no one will stop me," Anna said.

"Is that so?" Ian said. "If that is the case, I can also do the same. Hey, guys. Did you know that Anna wet her bed until she was… ouch!"

Emily couldn't help but laugh a little when she saw Anna kicking Ian's legs. As for Ethan, he just facepalmed. That kind of information was one of the least things he needed right at that moment.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself," Ethan said.

"Well…" Emily said with a refreshed expression on her face. "I don't have any siblings, so I like to watch people like Ian and Anna."

"Is that so…" Ethan frowned. "I guess everyone here is a weirdo to a certain extent."

Even Ethan didn't have the nerve to negate that he was a weird. Putting aside the problem of his curse and his weird methods of training, he also had a weird sense of humor that most people couldn't quite grasp. Also, considering his age, few things could really faze him. However, that was a trait that he developed while he was fighting for Eheia.

Regardless, even though their numbers were surprisingly high, Ethan and his group managed to cover quite a lot of ground in just a few hours. That being said, they didn't find any really troublesome opponents.

"I guess this is it. If the really troublesome opponents are building their forces, we will have to travel for more than a few days to find their base. I didn't want to use Synthesize in small fries since it won't level up all that much, but I guess it can't be helped."

"I guess we can return now," Ian said. "Today, our job was just to secure the area around our base, after all. Besides, we collected a lot of data, and Anna will need some time to see what she can do with those new plants."

Although Ethan wanted to fight alone for a while, he decided to return with them. After all, he could always leave the camp at night for some nocturnal training. The path back had been pretty calm. Still, while they were heading back, Ian made sure to split the monsters open with the ring of telekinesis and took out the magic stones inside their bodies. The stones were no bigger than the tip of a finger, but no one imagined they would be larger, considering that the monsters killed were all small fries.

Due to the fact that Ian was taking his job seriously for once and kept his mouth shut, Ethan dropped his guard. Suddenly, while Ethan was observing Anna gathering even more plants, he felt some killing intent. Ethan wouldn't be able to draw his sword on time, so he just moved his right hand to block the attack… However, only a small stone was thrown very slowly toward his forehead. Ethan grabbed the stone, and in the next second, it disappeared.

You obtained 10.000 points of experience.

"Heh, so you really have another trick up your sleeve," Ian said with a smile on his face.

"You…" Ethan glared at him.

"Sorry, sorry… I just needed to check it," Ian raised both hands toward the sky and showed a nervous smile since this time Ethan was angry for real. "I won't do it again. You see, I had to avoid accidents since I am not the only one at risk here."

"Hey, Ethan, what was that?" Emily asked with a surprised expression on her face. "Did you just absorb that much mana in just a single moment?"

"I will explain later," Ethan said and then drew his sword. "First, I need to teach this dumbass a lesson. I am a pretty patient guy, but this idiot crossed the line too many times."

"Calm down, Ethan," Ian said and then took a few steps backward. "We are friends. You shouldn't attack a friend."

"Following that logic, you shouldn't emit your killing intent toward your friends either," Ethan said. "If you really considered me a friend, you wouldn't use such dirty methods to learn certain things about me. A real friend would ask directly."

"If I asked, would you answer my questions?" Ian asked.

"This is this, and that is that," Ethan replied. "Besides, if you want to know more about someone, you should talk more about yourself first. Leaving that aside, I will make sure to break just a few of your bones."

Ian didn't have anything to say after that. No number of excuses would make Ethan calm down. Unfortunately, an explosion happened a few kilometers south of their current position, and Ethan was forced to stop his plans.

"It came from where our base it is supposed to be…" Emily said while looking at a curtain of smoke rising through the skies.

"… Let's go," Ethan said. "Don't you think that this is over, Ian."