Parallel Memory

"Hah...Hah..."

There were 7 Orcs chasing after a group of children who, judging from their appearance, are aged between 8-10.

The oldest one in that group seems to be between the ages of 13 and 14. Looked a bit younger than me.

She was trying to protect the other smaller kids. They were really in danger.

[ "Ice Shard" ]

-BANG!

Precisely hitting the Ice Shard on the Orc's head, I killed all the Orcs in one shot.

-THUD! -THUD!

In the face of my attacks, monsters of rank-D who did not use defensive skills are nothing but dead meat.

"Are you okay?"

I asked because I saw that they were quite terrified of what had happened. And I also need to know that they were okay physically and also mentally.

"A-Ah, we're okay. Thank you for saving us."

The oldest girl bowed her head to me. I observed them for a bit and found no injuries on their bodies. They must be just scared.

The kids seem to be a bit afraid of me. It might be just my imagination but I think so.

And the fact that I killed the Orc in front of them might have frightened the kids.

Even though I did it in order to save them, they might not be used to seeing such gory stuff. They were after all just young kids.

Looking at them, they seem to have separated from other people.

"I am heading to the evacuation center. If you don't mind, I can take you all there."

"Really!!"

The girl became energetic after knowing that she didn't need to go through that experience again. She believed that with a guy who could easily kill those monsters, they would not need to worry about being in danger.

"Come with me. I will take you there safely. Just don't stray away from me."

They nodded at me.

"Good! Let's go!"

I moved at a slower pace since there were children following me.

Looking at them again, I could see that they are still scared. They must have thought they would die in the hands of Orcs.

I don't know which adult is so careless as to abandon their children and run away. If I ever meet them, I would need to give them some lessons about the responsibility of parents.

We encounter another group of Orcs and one group of Goblins. However, they could not even withstand one of my moves.

After a while, we reached a place that seemed to be where people were evacuating. There was also a team of Explorers guarding that place.

"You should join that group. I need to go somewhere else."

It seems relatively safe to leave them there. There were many Explorers including Rank-C Explorers, who could protect the people as long as Rank-B did not show up.

"Thank You!"

They bowed and thanked me and quickly blended in with the crowd. I waved goodbye and left to check the situation in the other parts of the town.

Currently, the monster has not reached this part of the town. The Explorers team must be holding them off right now.

For now, the evacuation center is relatively safe. I went to the place where I was previously.

Since that area is closer to the dungeon which is facing Dungeon Outburst.

As I ran, I noticed that I had not encountered one monster since I left the evacuation area. Did they all die somewhere?

!!!!

While I was getting closer to the Fountain of Tyche, I was dumbfounded for a moment. The beautiful place was completely encased in ice. Inside the Ice were a variety of monsters from Goblin to even the Rank-C monster Hellhound.

Ice could extend 1 km away from where it was frozen. The sheer amount needed to achieve this is currently impossible for me.

This must be the reason why I didn't see even one monster on my way. They were all trapped here.

"It should be Professor Mia."

I could be wrong but there was no other Ice Mage who is as powerful as her. Only she should be able to do such a thing.

"What are you doing here?"

There was suddenly a voice behind. It startled me for a moment.

Turning my head around, I asked.

"Is the monster at the entrance taken care of?"

I asked Professor Mia. She is here can mean that the monster at the dungeon had been taken care of. Though I don't know how a Dungeon Outburst of such scale could be taken care of so easily.

"Not yet!"

"So, Why are you here?"

I asked confusingly. If the monster from Dungeon Outburst is not killed, how can Professor Mia have time to come here.

"I came here to take care of the monsters that have escaped from the entrance. Heroes have arrived, so my presence was not really needed there."

Heroes were all Rank-S and above. With them there, the situation at the dungeon should have stabilized to a certain extent.

Though with the number of monsters present in a Rank-B dungeon, even with the presence of Rank-S heroes, it would take some time before all the monsters are killed.

"Besides, I was worried about you. I can't let my student die because of me."

Professor Mia said. Even with Heroes arriving, having Professor Mia was a huge help to them.

But Professor Mia was quite worried about Zero who should be waiting for her in Agora Town. The situation at the entrance was looking good, so she came to Agora Town to check on Zero.

Most of the monsters that escaped from that area were Rank-C and below. The main reason why they could escape from there was because the high-ranking Explorers needed to deal with Rank-B - and above monsters.

Compare to a thousand Rank-D monster escaping, the destruction that a Rank-B could bring was many times dangerous. And Rank-D monster could be taken care of by other low-ranking Explorers. However, the same can't be said about Rank-B monsters.

Therefore, a large number of low-ranking monsters successfully escaped from that area and reached Agora Town.

By the time, she reached Agora Town. Thousand of monsters have already started destroying the city. Though she sensed that the area where she was had no presence of humans.

To reduce the damage and take off all those monsters, she decided to freeze the whole area. With that everything within the radius of 1 km had been turned into Ice.

"OH!"

What a honor to get the concern of the Ice Enchantress. It didn't feel bad that someone is worried about my safety. Though the next time something like this happens, I hope that I become so strong that no one would be worried about me.

So what shall I do?

Since it seem that every monster that escaped had been killed by Professor Mia, I didn't know what I should do. I could go with her to the entrance of the dungeon or go to the evacuation center. Anyway, he decided to ask Professor Mia.

"Follow me, we will go to the entrance of Catacomb of the Forbidden Marsh. It is a rare opportunity for you to watch a battle between high-ranking monsters and Heroes."

The area was relatively safe with the presence of 3 S-Rank and 15 A-Rank Explorers. And she was going to protect Zero closely.

If something dangerous happens, she was ready to protect Zero at all costs. Though she knew that she need not worry about this since the strongest monster present in that dungeon is Rank-B + Boss monster.

"... Okay then"

I understood what Professor Mia's intentions are. I have never ever witnessed Rank-S fighting. It could be an opportunity to learn about the power that heroes possess.

-WHOOSH!

We quickly dashed towards the dungeon area. Along the way, we encounter some low-rank monster that must have escaped from the entrance.

We immediately took care of any monster that we could see on our way. Even a large number of Rank-C monsters were immediately taken care of by Professor Mia in one attack.

!!!

While we were still on our way to Catacomb of the Forbidden Marsh, suddenly I felt a huge amount of mana being released somewhere near.

It was unlikely any mana aura that I felt. Even more dense than what I usually feels from Professor Mia or even when Glenn, Guildmaster of NightShade broke through.

Even Professor Mia seem to be alerted by the sudden appearance of such mana.

"WE NEED TO QUICKLY LEAVE THIS AREA!!"

Professor Mia who would usually stay calm, shouted with worried expression. She seems to know something about that unusual mana presence.

-WHOOSH! -WHOOSH!

I ran at full speed while Professor Mia ran behind me.

"What is that unusual mana aura? I don't think that man aura is from a person."

The magnitude of mana that I felt was so large that it had surpassed that of Rank-S. I don't know how much mana capacity a Rank-SS has but the mana that I felt, was 100x more than what I felt from Professor Mia.

I don't think even Rank-SS has 100x more than Professor Mia. Not only is Professor Mia mage, which mean she has more mana than others of same rank. And there were no mage who is in Rank-SS, at least according to what I know.

"No, that is mana is not from a person. It should be fr…"

While Professor Mia tried to explain what that man, was, suddenly a strong suction force appeared and stopped her explanation.

-WOOOOO!

The force was so strong that even with me using my full power, I was getting sucked into it.

"AAAAAHHH…"