Chapter 272: This is so unfair!

"B-B-B-BOSS, TAKE IT! TAKE IT!"

His hands shook uncontrollably as he reached forward, but instead of taking the pouch, Lucian took a step backwards, his hand... still empty, remaining in the same position.

"You still didn’t listen to my order." A wide smile slowly appeared on his face.

"This is punishable."

His eyes gleamed with sadistic satisfaction, and seeing that, everyone’s faces turned pale.

This man... was he actually enjoying watching them suffer?!

What had they even done to him?!

"P-Please, B-Boss... T-take it!!!"

"..."

Seraphina’s lips trembled faintly as she saw the glee spreading across her son’s face, as if he were looking at a toy and playing with it.

She couldn’t help sighing before muttering quietly.

"Dear... they’re going to faint."

Lucian blinked, and seeing them actually looking on the verge of collapse, he stopped his shenanigans and grabbed the pouch, immediately keeping the cores they had collected.

After a few minutes, while the men took deep, trembling breaths and slowly tried to recover from the horrifying pain and even more horrifying reality of that slave contract...

Lucian, unaffected, calmly looked around the forest—or rather, a green abandoned structure-like thing that was swallowed by nature.

Seraphina and Kanna, a distance from him—and Kanna, who had returned from her mission—waited to tell Lucian about completing the job, but seeing him concentrate on something, she silently waited.

However, neither of the women knew what he was trying to do.

"Mom... what would a burnt dungeon look like?"

"...?"

Before Seraphina could even understand what he meant—

Lucian raised both his hands, and immediately, flames began gathering across his palms.

At first, they were small, barely the size of a baseball, but then—

[The Restriction Skill has been deactivated.]

Fwoosh...!

"!!!"

The men froze, their eyes widening in disbelief.

"W-What?!!"

"F-F-F-F-uu-u—ck!!!!"

Their bodies immediately began trembling as they looked at the man standing before the ancient staircase.

The small flames in his hands rapidly expanded, erupting wider and becoming larger and larger before slowly turning, flowing outward like a massive river.

Instead of turning it into a compressed fireball like before, Lucian continued making the flames spread wider and wider, taking it as far as he could, maintaining precise control over them so as to keep them away from the two women standing behind him.

Which, unfortunately—but fortunately for the six men—also meant they didn’t get burned alive.

The moment the flames touched the grass, it immediately ignited, turning the green vegetation black before rapidly becoming ashes.

Smoke rose into the air.

The slightly bright environment turned extremely bright as everyone’s eyes lay upon the... fire, which moved like an enormous lake, consuming whatever they could see and however far their gazes could reach.

"Heh—haha... this feels so liberating!"

Lucian’s expression turned even more excited, his eyes gleaming with a hint of craziness as he used more and more of his Fire Affinity.

The heat in the atmosphere continued rising, almost turning suffocating as the men stared in horror, not even able to open their mouths to speak or curse.

’Fire... burn the forest...! Burn it entirely! The entire dungeon will look so much better after being completely filled with fi—’

[Sigh...]

A soft sigh escaped inside his mind, immediately snapping him back to his senses.

Lucian blinked.

’Did I lose control again?’

[You did.]

Lucian looked around him, taking in the sight of everything burning before his eyes, and thought he had lost himself because of the Scarlett Bloodline...

"This still looks beautiful." He couldn’t help but compliment himself for even thinking about doing this.

[It does.]

’Doesn’t it?’

Still, he had to remove it right now—

"Hm... do I even have to remove it?"

A small smile slowly appeared on Lucian’s face, and lowering his hands, he turned around.

"Let’s go back."

He said casually, ignoring the men’s horrified reactions, as he walked towards the two women and, taking Seraphina’s frozen hand, exited along with them... with Kanna following quietly.

Seeing the flames suddenly moving towards them, the men snapped out of it and, cursing the man in their minds, ran towards the portals as well.

Leaving behind the burning dungeon, which continued to burn until it could reach the plants’ fuel it could pass through... and until... the dungeon eventually disappeared.

Seraphina glanced at her son for a moment, wanting to ask why he had even done that, though seeing the faint happiness on his face, she somehow decided to leave it alone for now.

Her gaze eventually dropped towards her hand.

"..."

The faint warmth from the flames she had felt earlier was already disappearing, replaced by the faint coldness she was slowly growing accustomed to.

Kanna, meanwhile, didn’t say anything about what he had done just now.

Instead, she decided to speak about the work he had asked her to do.

"Master Lucian, I’ve done as you’ve sai—"

"Let’s talk about that later, Kanna." Lucian interrupted.

"I want to listen to each and everything in detail, so it’ll take some time."

He was very much interested in knowing how that bastard of a father had reacted to Kanna’s entrance, to his words, to his letter... everything!

He wanted to know everything! Even the smallest details!

Even Seraphina was slightly intrigued and decided to stay with her son when Kanna eventually told him everything.

For now, however...

They returned to the Association Building.

Not long afterwards, Lucian, the masked Selene, and the group of men finally returned, announcing the completion of the dungeon.

And the moment he said those words—

Lily blinked, her lips parting slightly.

Meanwhile...

Everyone nearby felt the shock of their lives, and before anyone could even spout anything, Lucian placed the E-Rank core on the desk for proof, along with over a hundred F-Rank ones.

"H-How...?"

"What kind of skills does he have?"

"This is so unfair! Why did those men get to be in his group?!"

"Should we try next time...?"

"Are you crazy? Have you seen the Lone Wol—"

"It’s called Anonymous now." One of them corrected.

"Whatever it is! Have you seen that large man’s arm?! How do you think that happened? And why did they suddenly start obeying him?"

"T-then did he—"

One person’s eyes widened, realisation slowly settling across his face.

This meant Lucian had—

"That means that Lucian is the actual leader of the group! And he’s the one completing the previous dungeons they had gotten."

"..."

That explanation didn’t really make sense, as only registered members were allowed to enter dungeons.

And by now, almost everyone coming to the Association regularly knew that Lucian was a newcomer who had recently registered himself... that too just yesterday.

But then...

How did he do all these feats in such a short time?!