"What did you say? Huh?" Alissa glared at the tall man with vicious eyes. "Who were you threatening before? I dare you to say it out loud!"

"Hey, Alissa," Ryan said. "Don't kill any of them. If you do, things will get too complicated and my hands are already full."

"But they threatened Arthur!" Alissa said.

"No buts," Ryan said. "If you make an enemy out of them, I won't let you get closer to Arthur ever again. I can't let him get close to someone who makes enemies out of everyone this easily."

While Ryan and Alissa were talking, the tall man and his subordinates finally noticed the situation they were in. Without any other choice, they decided to do what they came to do. They equipped their guns and fired some weird darts at Alissa.

"Ah, that weird smell was coming from this," Alissa said after she created a Mana Shield to block the projectiles.

Ryan had no idea what that was, but most likely, those guys came prepared to taunt Alissa and put her to sleep with some paralyzing dart. Too bad for them, but the darts never hit her. However, they kept firing them, and after a while, the darts began to emit a thick gas. In the blink of an eye, the gas covered the entire magic barrier. Suddenly, the barrier disappeared, and when the gas dissipated, Ryan saw Alissa and the soldiers unconscious on the floor.

"She can even be more hotblooded than me," Ryan sighed. "Hey, Orgar. Is she alright?"

Ryan checked Alissa's pulse and confirmed that she was only sleeping and the same happened to the soldiers. Regardless, Orgar didn't answer Ryan, and Alissa's presence was weak, so somehow, he had been put to sleep as well. That was no normal sleeping gas… Suddenly, Ryan turned around when he heard the high pitching sound of projectiles flying. At the same time, he activated Mana Shield. He already knew what those darts could do, so the very moment they touched the ground, Ryan buried them with Earth Manipulation.

That situation continued for a while until the projectiles stopped coming, and attackers wondered why the sleeping gas wasn't appearing. At the same time, Ryan ran toward the direction where the attacks came from and almost passed by a group of suspicious individuals wearing green clothes and trying to disguise themselves with the ambient. Ryan activated Herculean Strength and Strong Arms. Alongside his Monk's skills, he punched everyone in the stomach before they could get up properly. In the blink of an eye, Ryan knocked out ten individuals that were probably partners of the soldiers.

"Geez… just what the heck is going on all of a sudden?" Ryan sighed. "So many problems keep coming one after the other..."

While Ryan was thinking about it, he put all of those agents and soldiers in a line and then proceeded to bury their limbs underground. Ryan didn't wound them, but he couldn't let them move freely since they had some statuses here and there. Besides, they got close enough to use darts without letting Ryan notice them.

"I can't let my guard down since humans have weapons strong enough to put dragons to sleep."

Regardless, now more than ever, it was clear that whoever was giving orders to those people, they wanted Alissa. Ryan was hoping for a more elaborate plan to capture her, but it was only natural that the options to capture a dragon were rather limited. Ryan tried to heal Alissa in order to make her wake up, but not even that worked. Without any other choice, Ryan was forced to wait for her to wake up. Ryan was pretty bored since the frogs were very slowly leaving the dungeon, so in the time between the battles, he decided to check the interior of the tanks.

"This is quite interesting…" Ryan smirked. "I need to use chances like these whenever possible for future reference."

Amidst all the things inside the tank, Ryan saw a weird radio that had a red light glowing. It was probably the superiors of these guys… truth to be told, Ryan wanted to investigate the matter a bit more, even though that would slow them their progress of clearing those three dungeons. Why? Because he wanted to learn who was the asshole who gave the order to nuke Dallas. Since all communications got cut off, no one had any idea what the government was up to or if the president was alive, but it looked like they were securing some dungeons here and there to build their forces, just like the survivors on Shreveport.

"I don't need to talk with them now," Ryan concluded. "Alissa can read their minds, and learn where their base is will be easy."

After waiting for one hour, Ryan felt Orgar's presence growing again, and the dragon cursed when he woke up. Apparently, he was quite ashamed of falling asleep due to the attack of such weak lifeforms.

"To think that your species would be able to use monsters' blood like this… Still, as expected, you are not a warrior race. Such a method is only used by cowards who have no pride and honor. The chances of the people of this world surviving for long is low."

"What are you?" Ryan frowned. "Knight from the Middle Ages? Anyway, can't you force Alissa to wake up? We don't have time to waste here."

Orgar didn't answer Ryan, but little by little, a certain gas began to leave Alissa's body through her nose. After a while, she woke up and rubbed her eyes as if she had really taken a nap and if nothing was wrong. She only recalled what happened when she saw the soldiers and agents sleeping nearby. A vein started to bulge on her forehead, but in the end, she didn't do anything with them. Alissa knew that Ryan wasn't the type to bluff about certain things.

"You almost ended up digging your own grave…" Ryan said. "I hope you learned your lesson."