For Those I love (Part 2)

After walking away and entering the dungeon core room so as to give Ally some privacy, Skit stared to tinker with the Dungeon Core in high spirits.

Reaching into the pockets of his robe, Skit pulled out a dozen mana cores that were about the size of a golf ball before 'sacrificing' them to the dungeon core itself.

As the last core disappeared and entered the dungeon core, Skit heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him.

When he turned around to see who it was, he saw Ally dressed in the orange tracksuit with the sword hung at her side. Although she had some red marks on her cheeks, she was looking more determined that Skit had ever seen her.

Somehow, despite not being able to move his mouth or cheek bones, Skit smiled.

Although he was not at all invested in Ally or her journey, he was happy that given enough motivation, humans appeared as if they would stand up and fight.

At least some of them anyways.

Skit knew that the fact that some humans could be motivated to overcome their fear of combat, would be an invaluable characteristic in the days, months, and years to come.

He needed as many mana cores as he could get his hands on after all.

"It suits you well Ally."

"Thank you Skit. I still have my reservations about this whole arrangement but I'll do what I need to, for those I love, like Grant does.

By the way, what were you doing in here? I saw some flashes of light even from the other side of the illusionary wall."

Reaching into his pocket again, Skit pulled out a core that was far larger than the ones he had just sacrificed. "Oh I was sacrificing these to the dungeon core."

Ally just looked at him quizzically before asking, "What are those? They look like normal gemstones to me?"

Skit couldn't help but laugh at the evaluation, "These are called mana cores. They are dropped by Enlightened Tier monsters. Long description kept short; they are condensed mana."

Thinking that his description was short and straightforward enough, Skit did not expect the next question that came out of Ally's mouth.

"What is mana?"

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Skit let out a deep sigh before thinking to himself, [This woman literally knows nothing. If not for Grant, she would be dead for sure by now. It's actually unbelievable how naive some humans are about the world around them...]

Even though Skit had such thoughts, he didn't verbalize any of them and simply walked past Ally and out of the dungeon core room.

Since Skit didn't say anything in response, Ally simply followed him out of the room.

Once they were back inside Ally's living quarters, Skit sat down in one of the chairs at the table before gesturing for Ally to sit down as well.

When Ally finally took her seat, Skit began to explain, not just about mana, but about all stats in general.

Skit did his best to inform Ally on all of the nuances of The Path and it's different aspects.

As the conversation continued on and on, Ally started to understand how truly unawares she was about what the apocalyptic world was like.

She knew some of the things that Skit had talked about because of the conversations that her kids and Grant had, but she never truly paid attention because she had never had an interest in it before.

Now that she was going to take her first steps towards her Path though, she listened to the best of her abilities and tried to absorb as much of the information as she could.

After a few hours passed with Skit never relenting even once in his dissemination of information, Ally was beginning to get lost in the subtle nuances of The Path that Skit was now explaining.

When Skit began to discuss skills and their evolution in a nauseating amount of detail and Ally was on the verge of crying, a savior appeared.

Robin's voice, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps, came from the entrance to the room before the young lady came bursting into the room.

"Mom! Guess what! Richie and I did it! We finally got to choose our... huh?!

Hey! You put on the tracksuit!! YAYYY! We finally match!! Momma Carrot and Daughter Carrot!"

When Robin saw her mother sitting at the table across from Skit wearing the tracksuit, she had completely forgotten why she had even run into the room so quickly in the first place.

She simply cheered that her mom was now matching and ran up to her to give her a hug.

While hugging her mom she giggled hysterically at the fact that they were now matching.

Moments later, Richard entered into the room at a methodical and steady pace.

Before he even looked around, he had begun to scold his sister. "Robin, didn't I tell you not to run through the houses? It's not like mom was going... whaaaaaaaaaaat? Why are you wearing the tracksuit mom? Are you finally coming out to hunt with us?!"

Ignoring the surprise on her son's face and in his voice, Ally walked over to her son with Robin still hanging onto her side and gave Richard a big hug and only letting him go after a minute.

"I'm glad you two made it back safely.

Now, sit down and lets talk about a few things."

Listening to their mother the two kids obediently sat down in two of the chairs placed around the table.

Both of the kids gave a short but respectful nod to Skit to acknowledge his presence there.

Although they were not really all that acquainted with the skeleton, they still showed him respect because of how close Grant and him were.

Skit simply returned the nod and waited patiently for Ally to join them at the table.

He had considered giving them some privacy, but he was curious about the Path's that the children had chosen, so he decided to remain at the table.

Once Ally was seated, she finally began to speak again, "To answer your questions Richie, yes, I am planning on joining you two. I had a very productive conversation with Skit and I think it is in not just the best interest of the people here, but my own best interest to join the fight."

"Yay! I can't wait for you to come mom! We can show you all of the cool new things we've learned! Plus, I've gotten really good with my bow and I wanted to show you!"

Robin was practically jumping out of her chair in anticipation of her mom joining them on their hunts.

Although she had adapted to the life they now had to live and wasn't nearly as emotionally invested in the morality and reality of what she was doing, it was always comforting to know someone close to your heart was nearby if you needed a shoulder to lean on.

Richard however, was a bit skeptical at the sudden change in his mom. He glared at Skit momentarily as if questioning the skeleton if he had anything to do with his mom's sudden change of heart.

Since Richard hadn't moved any faster than a normal human would, Ally was able to see the look. She reached out and placed her hand on Richard's shoulder so that he would turn and focus on her rather than the skeleton.

"Please don't think that Skit forced me to join you or anything of the sort.

I will admit, he helped me to see things from a different perspective after we had a short conversation, but it is purely my choice to join you.

Neither Skit, nor Grant for that matter, could force me to do this if I didn't want too."

Richard didn't say anything for awhile so Robin once again chimed into the conversation to express her happiness at the decision.

Outnumbered and with no real argument since it was what he wanted as well, Richard eventually let go of his concerns.

"Now that we got that out of the way, I want to ask you two something.

It may anger you or make you upset, but I have realized after talking to Skit that time in this apocalyptic world is a luxury and no one really knows what will happen even ten minutes from now."

Richard and Robin both nodded there heads to express their agreement with the last of her statement and then simply waited for her to continue.

"I know your father died only a month or so ago, and I want you to know that I still silently grieve for him every night."

Robin, looking both blissfully unaware of the direction the conversation was headed and sad at the mention of her deceased father, simply waited silently for her mother to continue.

Richard however, knowing exactly where the conversation was heading, cut his mom off with a strange look on his face, "You love Grant, don't you?"