Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 363

Wei wanted to continue interrogating him to find some way to reduce or avoid the risk, but the resolution on Ren's face was immovable.

Reed observed his son, the turtle mirroring his thoughtful posture.

How much had Ren really changed in this year?

Or had he always possessed this hardness, just waiting for circumstances to manifest it?

Fern still struggled to process everything that had occurred in the last few hours. The loss of their home, the attack, the transformation into double tamers... and now her son, barely emerged from childhood, was planning to venture into the deadly outer forest.

"Are you sure you must do this?" she asked, her voice betraying her fear. "We've already lost so much today..."

Ren took his mother's hands between his own. His touch was gentle but firm, the contrast between his child-sized hands and his adult-like resolve making the moment more poignant.

"But I made sure you won much more, right? Trust me. I'm not the same frightened kid who ran away a year ago. Now it's not a desperate decision, now I have the power to protect myself."

Fern searched her son's eyes for some trace of the child she remembered, but what she found was a determination that went beyond his years.

"You've become so strong," she murmured, both pride and sadness in her voice. "So different..." Her thumb traced small circles on his hand, a maternal gesture that felt both familiar and somehow out of place now.

"I'm still me," Ren responded with a smile that finally showed something of his former innocence, the expression momentarily transforming him back into the boy they remembered. "I just... know a bit more."

Reed observed the exchange in silence, his mind processing an unsettling reality: his son no longer needed his protection. On the contrary, now Ren was the one protecting them.

The role reversal was as natural as it was painful, a necessary evolution that nonetheless carried the sting of obsolescence.

While Ren returned to the work of digging, Reed and Fern exchanged looks. _{frёewebηovel.cѳm}

Their lives had changed irrevocably, but what most disconcerted them was how easily they accepted all this. Was it an effect of the gifts? Or simply the natural consequence of seeing their son transformed into someone so strong and mature?

No, it wasn't the gifts. It was the understanding that their world had changed, and they must change with it or be left behind.

"We must be strong for him," Fern whispered to her husband. "He has done all this for us." Her eyes reflected determination to rise to this new challenge.

Reed nodded, his hand finding hers, their fingers interlacing as they had countless times through decades of shared struggle. "We can no longer protect him as before. But we can support him."

The hole was almost finished when a sound... Footsteps. Many footsteps, approaching Chen's house. The distant rhythm carried the unmistakable cadence of military discipline.

"More patrols," Yang whispered, his enhanced perception of vibrations in the earth catching what the others were just beginning to notice. "And more than before."

Wei cautiously peered through a small crack in the wall. "At least a dozen. And they seem more... methodical this time."

"The hole," Ren indicated with urgency, his voice dropping to a tense whisper. "Everyone inside. Now."

There was no time to argue. Reed and Fern were the first to descend, gently pushed by Ren, followed by Wei and Lin. Ren and Yang lowered the unconscious bodies of the patrollers, then joined the group.

The earth closed over them, leaving no outline to mark where the opening had been.

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