When Daniel asked his question, Tiana fell silent. She honestly didnât know what to do.
She didnât want to go back home. As much as possible, she wanted to stay away from her parentsâbut was that even possible?
She didnât know.
Alice sighed when she saw her friendâs silence. She really wanted to offer that Tiana could stay with them for now, but she wasnât sure if Daniel and their mom would agree.
"How about staying at our place for a while?" Daniel suddenly said, drawing both girlsâ eyes to him.
"Really?" Alice and Tiana said at the same time.
Daniel laughed and nodded. He knew his sisterâif he didnât find a way to help Tiana, sheâd definitely do something crazy.
Thatâs why it was better to keep both girls close for now. That way, he didnât have to worry about either of them.
"But wouldnât that be a problem? I mean, I donât want to be a burden," Tiana said hesitantly.
"Hey, Tiana, donât think like that! This way we can hang out all day and play games!" Alice said before Daniel could respond.
Tiana was still uncertain, but Daniel and Alice managed to convince her. When he saw how happy the two of them looked, Daniel smiled.
"Well, itâs time to go. We have to explain things to Mom too," Daniel stood up from the grass and brushed himself off. The two girls got up as well.
The three of them left the park, and Alice looked around, hoping to spot their car.
"So... whereâs the car?"
"What car? I walked here." Daniel glanced at his sister and flicked her forehead.
"You walked all this way?! And more importantly, now we have to walk all the way back?" Alice groaned just thinking about it.
Daniel just shrugged, and in the end, they had no choice but to walk all the way back. On the way, he bought them ice cream and even fried chicken.
He didnât want them sinking back into thoughts of what happened yesterday. The last thing he wanted was two depressed girls living in his house.
Before long, they got back home. Unfortunately, it was already nightâand just as expected, their mom had noticed theyâd disappeared.
What made it worse was that she was sitting on a chair by the entrance, holding a slipper in her hand.
"Where were you?" she asked coldly and seriously.
"It was all her fault! I just went to find them," Daniel instantly threw his sister under the bus without hesitation.
Liana turned her eyes to Alice.
"Donât believe him, Mom! Heâs a liar and a scammer! He told me to come outside for some fresh air and said there was no need to tell you!" Alice quickly shifted the blame to Daniel.
"Quiet!" Liana stood up and calmly walked toward themâbut then noticed a girl standing behind them, entering their house.
"Whoâs that?" she asked in surprise.
"Um, maâam Noir, itâs nice to meet you. Iâm Tiana," Tiana said with a slight bow, without hesitation.
Alice and Daniel exchanged glances and sighed. In the end, Alice explained part of the truth to their mother.
"Oh, you poor thing. Donât worry at allâyou can stay here as long as you want. From now on, this is your home," Liana said as she hugged the girl tightly after hearing what happened to her.
"..."
"Mom, seriously, youâre gonna suffocate her!" Alice tried to pull her mom off of Tiana.
There was no helping itâTiana wasnât the beautiful type, but she had that cute, innocent, and sweet vibe that could melt anyoneâs heart.
After some effort, Liana finally let go of her, but kept trying to comfort and reassure her.
"Anyway, Iâve got stuff to do and probably wonât be around for a while," Daniel took the chance to escape and went straight to his room.
"This place is seriously turning into a madhouse," he slammed his door shut and flopped onto his bed.
"Iâm pretty sure Tiana just got all the love she missed in life crammed into one moment." He didnât know whether to laugh or cry.
It hadnât even been a month since his Awakening, and so many things had already happened. He was starting to feel cursedâwhat else could explain this much bad luck?
"Whatever..." He pushed the thoughts aside and opened up the Online Community. He planned to return to the Celestial Domain tomorrow and needed to do some research.
He had originally planned to go to the Black Swamp to strengthen his physical strength, but when the Mother System told him his physical stats wouldnât increase anymore until he reached Rank B, he dropped the idea.
Right now, his only goal was leveling up. He was looking for places with lots of EXP.
The first thing he searched for was the Endless Spirit Mountain that August had recommended.
[Endless Spirit Mountain â The resting place of an ancient demon, myth or fact?]
"An ancient demon?" Daniel raised an eyebrow at the post title and immediately clicked on it to read.
According to what it said, Endless Spirit Mountain was a mountain range near the Free Zone of Erin.
For the past few years, rumors had spread that the corpse of an ancient demon lay somewhere in the mountains.
Because of these rumors, the economy and income of the Free Zone of Erin had massively increased.
Awakened from all over the Central Plains and even from across the world came to explore and investigate the mountain, hoping to find the ancient demonâs corpse.
But Daniel frowned a little. What was so valuable about the corpse of an ancient demon that people from all over the world would come looking for it?
He immediately went to the search bar and typed in "Ancient Demon."
[Access Denied â Insufficient Permissions]
Unfortunately, it seemed like he didnât have access to that kind of information. Still, he didnât give up and asked under the postâs comments: "What exactly is an Ancient Demon?"
Meanwhile, he kept reading more about the Endless Spirit Mountain. Apparently, tons of beasts and monsters lived there.
The mountain was divided into three zones: Outer, Inner, and Core.
The outer zone had monsters ranging from Rank F to B. The inner zone had B to A. And it was said that the core even had Rank S monsters.
That just made him more curiousâwhat exactly was drawing all these creatures to the same place?
Luckily, it didnât take long for someone to reply to his comment.