With no further hesitation, I placed my hand on the metal plate. It warmed beneath my palm more than my palm warmed it. A progress bar began to fill along the bottom of the screen.

  I waited. They waited. The bar filled up. The device beeped.

  The two agents sighed in apparent relief, and repeated what the screen reported. “E-rank. As recorded.”

  They turned to me with sterner expressions. “Care to explain how an E-Rank closed a D-Rank dungeon by himself?”

  What? They thought I’d closed the dungeon? How would that work, even if I hadn't been, you know, dead.

  “I can’t. Like I said, I died.”

  One of them frowned, but the other smiled. “You seem remarkably alive for a dead man. You don’t have an unregistered healing ability perhaps?”

  I felt the heat rise in my face. It was bad enough to actually have no abilities, but to be accused of hiding one was ridiculous.

  “No, of course not. I have no abilities.”

  “Well something happened in that Dungeon, something to close the Gate. Something that revolved around you, Mr Hunter.”

  The pair stared at me, waiting until things turned uncomfortable, before they nodded to each other, and stood. “Thank you Mr Hunter, that will be all.”

  No it fucking wasn’t.

  But I couldn’t really interrogate the Surveillance Division about what the fuck was going on and why I wasn’t dead.

  They obviously couldn’t help me. I’d have to figure this out on my own.

  As the two men left, I could see the first and last person I wanted to see arguing with a third man blocking her way into my room. My sister Lucy. As the agents left down the corridor, she pushed past them with a thunderous look on her face.

  My sister, Lucy.

  “What the hell were you thinking, Sean?!”

  Fists clenched, eyes blazing, jaw set. Oh yeah, she was pissed. She hated when I went into dungeons, but this was different. This was terror disguised as fury.

  “Sean, you could have died this time.” Her voice shook as much as her hands, even though she had crossed her arms in front of her.

  I wasn’t going to tell her that I actually had.

  “Lucy…”

  She held up one hand. “Don’t, Sean. Just don’t. They…they said you were dead. Lost in a dungeon—” her shaking voice finally broke. “—just like Dad.”

  Guilt washed over me. I hadn’t just died in there, I’d put her through the same trauma that had brought our family to this situation in the first place.

  “Lucy, I’m okay.” I stretched out my arms to her. “Come here.”

  She practically dove into my arms and we hugged each other tight for several moments before Lucy pulled away and glared at me.

  “You have to stop. Get a real job, something that doesn’t put you in danger.” Lucy crossed her arms with a finality that suggested she thought she had the final word.

  “Really, Lucy? Like what?” She was eighteen—legally an adult, capable, smart—but she was also still in high school. She didn’t understand how life works. She didn’t know how tight money was, how few options I actually had. “I have nothing available to me but being a Hunter. We can’t afford for me to do anything else.”

  “I’m eighteen. I can get a job now too. You don’t have to do it all yourself, you know.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  We’d been having this conversation regularly since her sixteenth birthday, and it kept getting more frequent and more heated. I didn’t feel like hashing it out again now.

  “Let’s not have this one again Lucy. I just want to go home and have a nice long shower, probably a beer or two. We can talk tomorrow.”

  She glared at me. “No. You keep avoiding the conversation. And now I thought I would never be able to have it with you again.” Her voice broke at the end, and her eyes wetted.

  “Lucy…I’m sorry.” It felt like I was saying that a lot recently.

  “Don’t apologize! Just do something more safe. Like I said, you’re not the only one that can work now.”

  I was firm on this. Lucy was going to college, and making something of herself. I was going to make sure of it. I let that firmness into my tone. “No, Lucy. We’ve been over this. You’re going to college next year. You’re already enrolled. You’re going to get that degree and then you’re going to get a proper job.”

  “You’re impossible.” She threw up her hands. “Mom is rolling in her grave. I’m glad she’s not here to see you Hunting like Dad.”

  That hurt. I looked flatly at her until she fidgeted.

  “I’m sorry, Sean.” Lucy looked downcast. “That was mean. But you have to admit this isn’t what she wanted. Even Dad would agree. He only took on jobs he knew he could handle.”

  Even that stung. Growing up I always saw my father as a strong Hero with a capital H—a defender of humanity. He’d been a C-Rank; nothing special in the Hunter Hierarchy, but enough to keep us comfortable and make my image of what it means to be a Hunter rose-tinted. I measured myself against him—and always came up short.

  Only taking on jobs I knew I could handle would mean quitting hunting.

  “Lucy, that was different. Things have changed now. I need to do this. I need to look after you, with mom and dad gone.”

  She rested a hand on my arm. “That’s my point, Sean. You don’t have to anymore. We’re in this together. Let me pull my weight.”

  “... I’ll think about it.”

  She smiled ruefully at me. “I know you say that when you’re not actually going to think about it. But please, do so. I don’t want to go through this for real next time.”

  I realized she wasn’t going to let this go. I would actually have to listen to what she had to say if I didn’t want to keep having this same conversation.

  Patting her hand, I sighed in resignation. “All right, I’ll actually think about it. Now, you’d better head off—you still have school tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll discharge me tomorrow morning.”

  It took a bit more back and forth between us before I finally convinced her that I was fine by myself, and she didn’t need to stick around for my sake. Before she left, she handed me my phone and charger. “I hate how you leave these behind. It sits there reminding me that I don’t know what’s going on until you get back–or don’t.”

  “Yeah, I know. But I’d rather not lose it or have it broken, and it doesn’t work inside a dungeon anyways. No cell towers.”

  After she’d closed the door, I checked the phone in question.

  Four missed calls and a string of messages. All from Juna.

  Shit. She’d said some things in the dungeon she might have regretted. Things she might have said only because she never expected to see me again. She was a B-Rank after all. I figured I should call her back so she could set the record straight.

  She answered on the second ring. “Sean, is that you?” Her voice was thick with fear and uncertainty.

  “Yeah, it’s me.” I really didn’t know where to start, but she gave me no pause to do so.

  “Oh, thank goodness. I was so worried about you. First I thought you were dead, then I heard they found your body but you were alive, then you didn’t answer your phone so I thought…” She trailed off. “Well. You know.”

  I didn’t really, but I got the general idea in the rush of her words. She’d been worried about me. Maybe she wasn’t calling to correct a misunderstanding.

  “Juna, slow down. I’m okay. More than okay actually…” I glanced down at my miraculously present arm. How was I going to explain that to her? She’d seen it sliced off, had desperately tried to heal it.

  “I’m in hospital. Nothing wrong with me. I’m hoping they’ll discharge me tomorrow.”

  Her voice spiked “How can there be nothing wrong with you?! Your arm is gone! I’m coming to check on you. What Ward are you on?”

  That gave me immediate pause. I really needed to get a handle on everything that had happened—and was still happening—to me before things got even more complicated.

  “Sorry Juna, but I’d rather just rest tonight. I’ve got a lot to think about.”

  “Oh. Of course. Of course you do. Sorry.”

  The disappointment in her voice bled through even on the phone. I winced. I’d shut her down too hard.

  “How about I call you back tomorrow? You free for coffee in the morning?”

  “Oh!” That was a much brighter tone. “Yes! I’m free!”

  “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Sean! I—” she hesitated, and her last words to me in the dungeon came rushing back. I still wasn’t sure if she’d meant them or if it was her fear doing the talking. She caught herself and continued. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  We hung up. Well, that wasn’t as awkward as I’d expected.

  One last thing to deal with: The Quest notification had reappeared halfway through my call with Juna, pulsing insistently in my peripheral vision. I’d ignored it then. I couldn’t anymore.