Through the years, many things had happened, from losing one of their friends to wild beasts, dying of illness, and confrontations with the village.


    Finally, they had become close and made a deal.


    One time, they had also had a problem with the local government since most of them were minors, and the government had wanted to take them all to an orphanage.


    No one had agreed to this; they had fought back, turning it into a confrontation with the local police.


    Luckily, the villagers had stepped forward.


    They had already had an amiable relationship at that moment, so they had agreed to take guardianship over Luca and the others.


    After this, their lives had started to stabilize.


    Time had passed, and Luca had already gathered some money to send some of them to take college courses in the city.


    She had known living in the forest all the time would have no future.


    They could have kept living like that, but what would they have done when they had gotten old?


    Or if one of them had wanted to look for someone to marry?


    Most of them who had survived had avoided romance with each other since it had happened once, and the end had not been pretty.


    They had had a big fight and separated to the point they could not have stayed with each other in the same place and had ended up leaving the camp.


    But things rarely happened as planned.


    At first, it had started with strange phenomena where snow had dropped even when it hadn''t been winter. Sёar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Then the weirdest part had been at night; it wouldn''t have turned cold but instead had become very hot, like in a desert.


    After a few more days, the phenomena had become weirder until one day, a big earthquake had hit the place.


    After that, everything had returned to normal.


    This had been the first wave of dungeons that had appeared.


    Some had been found and then locked down by the government, making sure no news had come out to the public, but most of them had been in places no one had known about.


    The same had been true of the one that had appeared near Luca''s village.


    A few more weeks after the earthquake, Luca had been having dinner with her friends and some people from the village, one of them a boy named Edward.


    This boy had liked Luca and had tried to get close to her.


    Luca had known about this but had never responded since her mind had been burdened, thinking about her friends.


    "Luca, can''t you give us a chance at least?" Edward had asked with a hopeful look in his eye as he had turned over the meat on the grill.


    Luca had sighed, "It''s not that I hate you, Edward, it''s just...


    Well, you know…"


    Edward had let out a chuckle at her response, "Since you don''t hate me, that should mean you like me.


    Don''t worry, I will wait."


    Luca''s cheeks had turned red.


    "That''s not what I mean, Edward."


    "Then what do you mean?


    If you don''t hate me, then you like me.


    The opposite of hate is like."


    Edward''s words had made Luca speechless.


    Just as she had wanted to say something again, a piercing scream of terror had filled the air, making them quickly turn their focus toward it.


    Edward hadn''t wasted time and had quickly run toward the area.


    He had remembered one of Luca''s friends had gone there before to take a pee.


    Edward had expected to see a snake or beast attacking the man, but then he had remembered every single one of them had been experienced in hunting wild beasts.


    They wouldn''t have screamed just because some dangerous animal had come.


    Edward and Luca had arrived at the place, and what they had seen had made their eyes widen in surprise; it had been something out of logic.


    A two-headed dog the size of a lion had been biting at the man''s torso, blood coming out from it.


    The man, with his dying breath, had screamed, "What are you standing there for, Luca!


    Run! Warn the others!


    This is not the only one!"


    Luca hadn''t heard what he had said; she had taken out a machete that had been saddled on her waist and had wanted to run to help her friend.


    But Edward had stopped her, "What are you doing, LUCA!


    Do you want to make his sacrifice useless?"


    "But Edward?


    I am sure we still can do something for him."


    "Luca, look again clearly.


    If it''s only one, I will help you fight it!"


    Luca had taken a deep breath, had looked to the front, and cold sweat had started appearing on her forehead.


    There had been many red eyes locked on them, all coming from similar creatures, just like the one biting at her friend.


    Before she could have even processed it, Edward had pulled Luca and had run back toward the encampment.


    But he had kept getting a bad feeling in his mind, and his bad feeling had become reality.


    When they had reached the encampment, the place had been filled with similar monsters, but they could have fought back better since they had had more weapons, including firearms.


    Even though it hadn''t been military weapons, the hunting rifle had been more than enough to make the creatures bleed.


    The problem had been the number of monsters; they had been overwhelmed by the sheer amount.


    Luca had been in shock through this; she hadn''t been able to think straight.


    Her friends, practically her family now, people she had grown up with, had been killed brutally in front of her eyes.


    Edward had been the one pulling her together.


    Olivia didn''t know the details after this; she just knew they had somehow escaped from that place and had awakened their powers in the process.


    Other than the two of them, there had only been one other survivor, Ariadne.


    Afterward, they had become hunters and had built their own guilds and business empires.


    Olivia had also told Alex one of the motivations Edward had started the Campbell group had been to support his mother, Luca.


    If other big companies had used charity to hide taxes and launder money, then Campbell had been the opposite; it had existed solely to support Luca''s wish.


    Hearing about the harshness of his parents'' lives had made Alex''s eyes shimmer with tears.


    His mom had often told him the love story of her and his father, but not this part, more on how his father had built their business empire.


    "Why is mom so obsessed with helping people, Big Sis?


    Anyone I know in her position wouldn''t be like her.


    She built her own life with her own hands; no one helped her in that situation other than Dad.


    If anything, she should have hated society, letting them as kids fend for themselves.


    Some people even tried to force her to become a beggar or thief."