Jack's POV

  "So you are telling me that we dungeon dwellers are like indigenous people to the people of the city with the tower?" I asked him, after he gave me a little introduction about the tower and the city built around it.

  "That's putting it politely," he said. "But yeah…" he shrugged.

  I blinked at that.

  "How come none of the other travelers ever spoke of this tower and the city?" I asked him.

  "The tower is quite far from here," he said. "Your whole ecosystem is around two hundred miles at best. Once someone goes beyond that range. The people or the other races don't usually come back to these dumps—"

  "Hey, stop calling this place that," I said, crossing my arms and standing my ground. This may have been a cage for me my entire life. But this is where I was born. It was my home. That being said. Even though I wanted to leave this place behind. Being the lord of the dungeon. I was going to do everything in my power to save this place before I leave it.

  "I didn’t lie." He placated his hands. "That means the System agrees with it," he said.

  I pressed my lips shut at that.

  "You must have had dungeon dwellers from this very place who never came back," he doubled down on his claim.

  I would have defended this place against that claim. But the truth was that most of those who left. Never came back. My friends with whom I used to play in the streets. The family friends other than Tuma's which my mom and dad had. None of them had returned. Not even her. The only other person apart from my family and the Tuma's who knew that I was one of the blanks.

  She had said she would come back for me. I thought of the promise we had made the day she left. Come to think of it, I hadn't thought of her in ages. I hadn't even taken her name.

  Ellie.

  "Oh, who are you thinking about?" asked Jensen, getting into my face with wriggling eyebrows. "Look at you go all red."

  I took a step back against his sudden intrusion into my space and fell to my butt promptly. And a second latter not only Mr. Tuma and my dad. But the rest were at the door banging on it.

  "Is everything alright in there?" asked my mom.

  "Hey, hands off my brother…" came Kara's voice.

  "How much do we have to pay if we break the door?" Enquired my dad while Mr.Tuma asked the same to Mrs. Tuma at the top of his lungs.

  Jensen laughed, not at me for being embarrassed for thinking about a girl. But because the people I called family treated me like a little kid. That was one of the reasons I wanted to get strong. Because some part of me knew that with or without the system. Once I got strong. I could protect them all.

  "Everything is fine in here," said Jensen, opening the door before my dad could break it down with his bronze shield.

  *****

  A family meeting was called with mom, dad, and Karaa. They all sat on one side of that small side on which my dad and I had our dinner. And on the other side was me. Now that Jensen was in the picture, and they knew about the source of credits. I thought I would be let off the hook for the stunt I pulled. But the questions were fired at me much faster than I could have answered them.

  "What if he harms you?" asked my mom after having just yelled at me for the last ten minutes.

  I had gotten my black hair from her. Unlike Kara, who had inherited her blonde hair from dad. Speaking of him. He was seated in the middle with his arms crossed, with mom and Karaa on his either side. All of them were taller and stronger than me, and let's just say it wasn't an easy conversation.

  "Jack…" said father. "Your mother asked you something," he said, and I snapped out of my thoughts.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "What if he harms you?" she asked again.

  "The System won't let him," I said. "The pact states that he would protect me."

  "Did you get any spells that you can defend yourself with?" asked Karaa.

  "No," I said. "I'm yet to go through my interface. It's just filled with red notifications, and every tab is locked," I said. "From what I had read so far. I think those are sort of penalties for ignoring the dungeon lord's responsibilities." The screen went away with a thought. "I will meet you guys on the fifth floor as decided by Jensen..."

  "How long?" asked my dad.

  "I don't know," I said to him. Again, there was this hesitation in the both of us, and I wondered where the past versions of us had gone missing. The versions where I would just laugh and jump at every chance I could get to fake wrestle him. Somehow with time. Things changed, and I frankly had no idea where we stood. "I will meet you people on that floor soon, I promise," I said, while looking at them.

  "This dungeon is the biggest one in the local cluster," said mom, and I looked at her. "It's really big," she emphasized. "It stretches out miles in all directions. It isn't like floor two with just tunnels—"

  "I know…" I said to her. "I can access all the floors. I know all the entry and exit points." I paused. "In fact, once I get through these penalties. I will know where everyone is at any given time. It's my dungeon now," I claimed.

  But that explanation didn't ease the worry on any of their faces.

  "I will find you on the fifth floor," I smiled at them. "But I have got to do this," I said.

  "We can live here like how our great grandfathers did," said Karaa, sounding just like our mom for a heartbeat. "You don't have to risk your life so that we get to live in some other place," she said.

  "He made that call without even talking to us," said dad.

  I stole a glance at him. He was still the man of the house, and it was his call to send mom and Kara to floor five. No decision was ever made without him giving his nod first or mom for that matter. I lower my head, knowing that I had crossed a line with both of them.

  "But," said my dad. "I agree with his decision," he said, and I looked up at him with my eyes widened.

  "You aren't mad?" I asked him.

  "Oh, I'm," he said. "But the safe zones have shrunk by twenty five percent, and things are just going to get worse from here on out." He paused. "I will do my best to get us the gear and food we will need for the journey to this city with the tower that Jensen spoke of." He eyed me for a long hard moment. "It isn't safe to be in such a crowded place anymore. So we will meet at floor five's safe zone, and move down together from there—"

  "But dear…" chimed in mom, with worried, sick creases on her forehead. But one look at my father's face, and she knew that he wouldn't budge on this. This was one another thing I had noticed about these two. They just knew each other enough to know when not to convince the other party.

  Mom eyed me, like she didn't want to leave me behind with Jensen. But we had to stay back a few days so that I could level up. I was still at level zero. And given the fact that dungeon floor two was the most populated floor of the dungeon. It wasn't safe for them to be here. The council was still in session, and things would just heat up even more now that the safe zones have shrunk.

  "So it's decided then," said my father, looking at us all one by one. "We travel to the floor five safe zone, Jack and Jensen will meet us there as soon as they can."

  Mom looked uneasy with that decision. But she had been in enough front line battles to have a strong heart. She, Kara, and I nodded at that.

  There were no family hugs or tears. Dad and mom quietly packed up the few clothes and utensils we had in a bag, which my dad stored in his inventory without any hassle. Being a merchant, he had the biggest inventory of us all.

  "Are the Tumas coming?" asked Kara to them, while she stood next to me by the sliding door. There was nothing left in that ten by ten room. But those two still pretended like we had something left under the floorboards of that place.

  Kara was about to call out to them again. But I eyed her and shook my head. Asking her to let them take as much time as they might need. This was their home, before it became our home. They had a lot more memories attached to this place than we did. A part of me knew they didn't want to let this place go. But there was no coming back here ever again if everything goes as per the decision we have made.

  My mom hid her tears for the better part, while my dad grunted and grumbled, complaining about all the unnecessary junk we had in that room. That was his way of hiding his tears.

  But once they had more or less regained their composure. We all stood in that empty place. My mom holding to my dad's arm, and us facing them with the sliding door behind our back.

  It wasn't until it was time to leave that it hit me, and Kara at the same time. That this was it. That empty room was our home, and we were leaving it behind. A part of me was still numb with the healing magic coursing through me. But the same wasn't true for Kara.

  She broke down. Silently at first. But when her sobs grew loud. She caved into my father for a hug. He was the tallest of us all. He held her close with one hand, and with his other, he held my mom, who kept wiping her tears as soon as they came.

  It wasn't like I didn't want to cry. Especially when I saw my dad gulp in empty and holding on to the mask of a brave face like his life depended on it. But I was in so much physical pain that my mind had just turned off my emotions. I understood them, but I had forgotten how to express them. Or was it that I was trying to be like my dad? I don't know.

  Thinking back to that moment. Maybe I should have hugged him like how Kara did. Maybe I should have shed a tear like my mother did.

  But I was my dad's son.

  He just gave me a curt nod, and I nodded back.

  *****