"Magic? How does that work?" Tai asked her.

"Well, you use mana for magic and there are 4 basic elements. Fire, water, wind, and earth. If you combine 2 of any of the 4 elements, you make a Tier-2 element, so like lava which is made by fire, and earth. I'm not at the combining level yet, but my focus is fire right now. What about you? Do you not use any magic?"

Tai shook his head. "No, maybe I might in the future, but right now, I'm fully invested into ki. You probably have it too, right?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't for me." As Anna talked to Tai, she saw the shop in the distance and told her brother to speed up. "Come on, mom is over there."

Tai nodded as he followed behind her and into the shop.

"Mom! Come here, I have a guest for you!" Anna yelled out.

"Who is it?!" her mom asked as she was currently in the staff room since the shop wasn't that busy today.

"Come here, and you'll see!" Anna replied, smiling as she waited for her mom.

Leaving the staff room, her mom opened the door and looked at Anna, and saw that there was a man beside him. Being the mother of the man, she instantly knew who he was. "Tai!"

She ran to her son and hugged him. "I thought something bad happened to you," she said, wiping a bit of tears in her eyes.

Tai hugged her back, smiling as he did so and laughing a bit. "It's good to see you again."

After a few seconds of hugging her son, she released him from her embrace and pulled out a chair. "Sit down. We have some catching up to do."

For the next few hours, Tai told his family what had happened in the past few days, but left out some stuff like losing his leg as that would worry his mom more.

"Oh, yeah. Anna, you use fire magic, right?" Tai asked her.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Here, I have a present for you," he said as he opened his backpack and pulled out the drake egg. "This here is from a fire-breathing drake that I killed. If you raise it right, you should be able to bind it in a contract and it'll be your companion."

As he handed the egg over to her, her eyes were sparkling at the thought of a pet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

She grabbed the egg and hugged it, cutely smiling as she did so which made Tai laugh.

"You two... Just make sure you two stay safe," their mom said. Being a mother, she obviously didn't want to see her children doing anything dangerous, but if that was what they wanted to do, then she wouldn't stop them.

"Don't worry. We will. Did you know that Tai is 3rd on the leaderboard in the guild?" Anna said, comforting her mother which worked and made her proud of her son.

Looking outside, Tai saw that the sun was going down. "Well, it's getting late. I'm gonna get going."

"Do you have a place to stay?" his mom asked.

"No, but I have enough AC to rent an apartment, so it's fine."

"Alright, if you need anything, I'm always here," his mom said, hugging him and kissing him on the cheek goodbye.

Tai hugged her back and waved goodbye as he left the shop and went back to the guild as the layout of the city was the same as other cities meaning that as long as no one has bought the building, there should be an apartment beside the guild still.

As he was walking, he felt the ground shake, making an earthquake. The people around him were surprised and confused, wondering why there was an earthquake and a pretty strong one too.

Thankfully, the city suffered no damage from the earthquake and the buildings and skyscrapers stood strong, not even bothered by the earthquake.

After the earthquake ended, Tai received a notification and looking around, it seemed that he wasn't the only one to receive a notification as the people around him on the streets were staring in front of them at something that he couldn't see.

Mega Planet - 5934 has successfully been integrated into the Aether Universe. Your planet has 6-month protection by the system from other beings going into your planet.

Dungeons have appeared in high-concentration Aether areas on your planet. Monsters are born from the high concentration of Aether in the dungeons and will keep on doing so with no stop. It is advised to keep these dungeons in check as if the number of monsters grows past the dungeon's limits, they can invade the surface world.

Items and rare metal are also born in the dungeons and because of the high-concentration of Aether they have special properties.

Dungeons have a minimum of 100 levels, and conquering a dungeon will give the person a great reward.

Tai's eyebrows rose as he read the notification. "Guess we're going dungeon hunting, huh."

He now has a new goal, to get strong enough in 6-months to stay safe in the Aether Universe, and conquer a dungeon.

If he had to guess, he figured that they would be stronger than the trial that he did, but he'll have to see ti find out.

Arriving at the apartment building, Tai checked in and paid for the familiar, small, apartment room that he was used to. When he entered his room, he took a quick shower before sitting down cross-legged on his bed.

To get stronger, he must increase his level, and to increase his level, he needed to level up his skills, so that was what he was planning to do.