“Hey,” said James. “Are you guys okay?”

“We should be asking you that.” Jack pointed to his bed. “You don’t look okay.”

James looked at himself, and realized he was wrapped head to toe in bandages.

“Ah. I see.” He looked up. “Anyways, what happened?”

“Again, we should be asking you that.” Mo looked at Jack. “We both remember seeing the bear. Anyways, that’s the last thing we remember. When we woke up again, we were all on the ground, shaken awake by the emergency rescue team. The bear had been crushed by a tree, and its corpse was on the ground. Apparently, they found you knocked out as well, wounded. That was yesterday. You’ve been asleep for the entire evening and night.”

Jack continued, “There were multiple massive trees that had fallen. They said that the impact from them must have knocked us out. Anyways, what do you remember?”

James was lucky they spoke about what they knew before they asked him. Now, he could modify his story to adhere to their expectations.

“I don’t know exactly what happened. After the first tree fell, you guys all were knocked out, while I was only discombobulated. I tried to get the bear away from you guys but got smacked around. I don’t remember the second tree falling on the bear. I think I passed out beforehand.”

James pretended to not have a very clear idea of what happened. This would allow his story to be more believable.

“That’s pretty much what we expected. But a lot of trees fell in one particular place. It’s kinda weird, isn’t it?” Jack thought about it.

“I think I was seeing things, but I thought that there were two bears. The doctors did tell me I got a concussion, though.”

Sweat started pouring down James’ forehead like a waterfall. “Ahahah, really? That’s kind of weird. I don’t remember too much.”

“Oh yeah!” Jack slapped his forehead. “You’re going to be interviewed.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You’re now known as the person who fought a bear in order to help a bunch of passed out hikers. I don’t know how, but the story blew up, and now they want to meet you.”

“Excuse me, what?”

He was famous now? What the hell?

“Well, that’ll come a bit later.

As Jack finished his sentence, the room fell into a bit of silence. James didn’t mind. Just being with Jack and Mo calmed him down a bit; they didn’t have to say anything, just their presence was enough.

At the same time, James scrutinized them without them noticing. James had been right before. Jack and Mo had mana cores now, albeit very faint ones. However, the blond girl, Ayla, hadn’t been able to detect this mana presence, which meant that it was truly miniscule. James didn’t think that this would have any significant impact on them. This made him feel relieved – he felt in his gut that he should keep the dungeon a secret. After all, none of the other dungeon explorers had spilled the beans.

“Alright then.” Mo got up. “We’re in a hospital in Oregon still. When you’ve healed up a bit more, we’ll take a plane back home. I think our visiting time is over.”

James nodded.

After Jack and Mo had left, James started processing. So many things had happened, and he couldn’t digest it all. But the things that confused him the most were the dream and the bear cub.

That dreamed seemed to be a memory of some sort, and James was able to view the memory from the perspective of that person, whose name was Ajartum. He seemed to be someone strong and important in the ranks of those angelic knights, although he didn’t know if he was an angelic knight himself. He hadn’t been able to check whether he had wings.

James remembered three names from the dream. The first was Ajartum, the person whose body he occupied. The second was Alnos, which appeared to be the name of the kingdom or some other place that the angel knights were affiliated with. The last was Drazor, who appeared to be some influential figure on the side of the demons.

That dream had shown extremely powerful beings, much more than the bear he had just fought. He wondered if the battle he saw had actually happened. He wondered…

He wondered a lot of things, actually! A shit ton! Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? James didn’t even know the answer to one of these questions. Who were the angelic knights? What were those demons? When did this occur? Where was that place that the battle happened? However, these questions all came after the big one: Was it even real?

James began to have a migraine. As soon as he figured out the mystery behind the blond girl Ayla, he was hit in the face with this dream, which was an even bigger enigma.

Then, James’ eyes flew open.

“Wait, I thought those pair of siblings were dungeon explorers. Or was it only Ayla?”

It turned out he hadn’t figured out any of the mysteries!

James gave up trying to think, and decided to do something to distract himself. He reached out to grab the TV remote on the table next to his bed. He was stopped by the pain in his side.

“Ah, I almost forgot that I was still injured.”

He moved slowly towards his goal, inching his way towards the remote. After a large effort, he finally reached his goal, and pressed the red power button on the TV.

“And next, we have a report about a bear attack in Oregon. Our correspondent, Paul Anderson, has the details.”

“Good morning, Garret. I’m here in Oregon, where, yesterday, there was a bear attack on a group of hikers. One of the hikers, a teenager named James Lu, has been hailed as a hero for fighting against the bear.

“I’m currently standing within the amphitheater of the summer camp, which was being used a as a place for spring vacation where the the hikers were from. The group of hikers was on their return trip from a waterfall about 3 and a half miles away. Approximately half a mile away from the campsites, they were attacked by a bear. According to eyewitnesses, a young teenager, James Lu, fought against the bear and was severely injured, until he managed to use the bear’s momentum to break a tree, which fell onto. Mr. Lu suffered serious injuries and is currently being hospitalized.”

“Wow, what a story. And Paul, what do we know about this hero of ours, James Lu?”

“Garret, James is a 17 year old from Arizona, who was in Oregon for his spring vacation. I am actually waiting for a chance to speak with James, once his condition has stabilized a bit. If I do get a chance to speak with him about his experiences, it will be reported shortly. Paul Anderson, reporting from Oregon.”

“Thank you very much Paul. Next up….”

“…”

James was stunned. National TV?!?!? Why was this story on national TV?!?! And besides, this report made it look like he was a hero that 1v1ed the bear.

James would’ve flipped a table, had he not been injured.