Since Ryan was pretty bored and he wasn't using his stamina, he decided to use Tackle and level up the skill. It would be more efficient if he uses it against a monster, but he wasn't crazy enough to do that with the weak body that he had. Maybe with some armor, without would be less dangerous. Regardless, Tackle was pretty impressive even without a target. Ryan could use the skill and move at the same speed he does while running for ten meters. When the skill leveled up, the range increased by two meters.

"Maybe in some moment, moving like this will be more efficient than running… maybe not."

The cost of some skills increased the more they leveled up, so maybe the same thing would be applied to Tackle. In any case, Ryan was looking forward to the day he would be able to move two hundred meters without letting his legs touching the ground. Regardless, suddenly, Ryan noticed that Alissa was no longer walking at his side. Maybe she frowned at the fact that Ryan looked really weird using Tackle on the empty space, but then when he turned around, he saw her looking at the West. He didn't feel like asking what was going on, but Ryan was forced to after five minutes of waiting for her.

"What is going on?" Ryan asked. "Why are you looking in that direction?"

"It is nothing…" Alissa said. "I just noticed that the dragons are suddenly returning to the continent. That is weird, but…"

"It looks like there are more than a few dungeons spawning megalodons in this world. Their numbers suddenly increase, so the dragons can't hunt them properly any longer."

That was indeed a big problem. If the dragons can't hunt and eat the megalodons, they will for food in the continent. It would be nice if they could kill other monsters that are spawning thanks to the dungeon breaks, but Ryan didn't want to believe that things would proceed so favorably.

Regardless, it would be great if Ryan gets the chance to kill a few of them. That being said, he had no idea if he would be lucky enough to find another dragon that would underestimate him and that could be beatable. All that he wanted was another weapon like the Flame Sword.

"Speaking of which, I didn't use this as much as I wanted… I can use it as a throwable weapon, but to do that and not risk losing it, I will need to level up Earth Manipulation."

So many things to do, so little time and mana… suddenly, Ryan had a crazy idea to solve those problems. What if he causes a dungeon break in the slimes' dungeon? He would be able to kill all of them using the minimal amount of mana and then recover much more by using Active Spiritual Recovery. That idea was fantastic, but he had to work with Alissa, so he couldn't do that at the moment. However, eventually…

"Are you worried about your friends?" Alissa asked. "You seem more lost in thought than me. We can check things there if you want."

"… There is no need," Ryan sighed to calm down since being rude and sarcastic all the time is too tiresome. "Let's do what we have to do."

Despite saying that, a single image popped inside Ryan's head: Mia holding Arthur in her arms. Ryan almost cursed himself for not imagining Arthur in his arms or, at the very least, the kid alone. In any case, he was worried. He didn't want to, but he was worried about him because he could relate to his situation. The real problem was the fact that Arthur couldn't protect himself, and for all intentions and purposes, Ryan didn't want to rely too much on Mia.

In any case, Ryan couldn't just ask Alissa to head there, and he didn't want to see those guys again either. So, he was in a bind. For the good or for the worse, Ryan was a harsh person who couldn't forgive others' mistakes. However, he wasn't a hypocrite, so he couldn't forgive his mistakes as well. If something were to happen with Arthur, and he could have avoided it…

"Why am I trying to take the responsibility of his fate for myself? I can't even guarantee that I will be alive next week with the world in this state…"

After thinking for a while, Ryan had another crazy idea… if dragons were a problem most humans couldn't deal with, then he should tame a dragon to be Arthur's guardian. It was the only thing he could think of to solve the things bothering his mind. Still… was that even possible? Ryan didn't want to share the things he was thinking with others, so he had no intention of talking with Orgar and Alissa about that.

"Maybe I am too greedy. Orgar mentioned a skill that he could make other creatures turn into his slaves, so most likely, that is the only skill that works on intelligent foes. Considering that, I have to lower the bar a little bit…"

Unfortunately, Ryan didn't know many monsters who could work well as a newborn baby's guardian. In fact, he knew a pretty low number of species of monsters. In any case, before Ryan could solve the problem, they arrived at the harpy's dungeon.

"I wonder if an item can solve this… no, in the end, the only way out of this situation is if I kill all the monsters in the world. However, that is beyond unlikely. After all, I can't even defeat a single dragon without relying on potions… a large number of potions."

Regardless, Ryan still has some time before any dragon reaches Shreveport. So, he didn't have to hurry since Alissa was faster than any of the ordinary dragons. Unfortunately, Ryan couldn't see any way out of that predicament. He will have to throw away his pride in order to confirm that Arthur will be all right.