Chapter 95: A Woman Named Luca
It had already happened a few times.
Vesa would warn him if danger was coming, but if it\'s someone Alex trusts and there are no feelings of malice, Vesa will not tell him about it.
Olivia chuckled. She didn\'t answer; instead, she lay on the ground, too, her head side by side with Alex, gazing toward the sky.
"No need to be shy, Alex. It\'s good if you feel frustrated. That means you understand your fault."
Alex sighed. "I understand, big sis. Thanks for reminding me."
"No problem. That\'s what family is for. It\'s not like I am perfect and free of fault, Alex." Olivia then turned silent. She still hesitated, even though she had decided.
Now, facing Alex, her mind started running through many worst-case scenarios that could happen after he learned about his mother\'s decision.
Olivia turned her body, making her face directly above Alex again. She did this on purpose in case Alex moved in panic, trying to go after his mom.
"I need to tell you something, Alex."
With a deep breath, Olivia told him everything she knew about it, adding more detail, like how his mother, Luca, is a strong hunter, her skill, ability, and experience.
The information surprised Alex.
His mother always fought on the frontline since her ability was basically overpowered. It allows her to see three seconds into the future, and she has already mastered how to use the ability.
She can choose when to use it, with manageable consumption of energy, and that was in the past.
Olivia doesn\'t know how strong Luca is now; she doubts Luca stopped practicing, even after she stopped going to any dungeon.
After all, with the incident, Luca was the one who was hurt the most; she lost her husband.
"Since mom is also a hunter, why has she never told us about this?"
"Don\'t you know your mother\'s personality? She probably does it, so you don\'t get any idea how to become a hunter.
If not because of that dungeon break, your mother would never have returned to being a hunter.
You don\'t know much, but your mom always loves helping people; she doesn\'t just give out money and then leave, Alex.
If you go around the world, many people respect your mother, even calling her a saint.
She made sure to train them with skills to survive on their own.
As time passed, some of these people then volunteered and helped your mom with her work. She helped more people with what she did, Alex, compared to when she was a hunter."
"Mom did that?" Alex asked.
He had never thought much of his mom\'s charitable actions; he thought she was just doing it to fill her empty time and also to help the company with a good image.
Olivia sighed. "You really don\'t know anything about your own mom, Alex."
She then proceeded to tell Alex about his mom, a woman named Luca.
In the past, Luca didn\'t have a good childhood; she faced many hardships and was an orphan without any relatives.
Living on the street, Luca tried to find work for herself to eat, but no one dared to recruit her since she was still a minor at that time.
Most outright rejected her; those who felt pity gave her some bread. But this was not enough to fill her and her friends\' hunger.
Even though her life was hard, Luca had a positive outlook on life, making her a cheerful child.
This made her have many friends, even on the street, and as time passed, they started huddling up together, creating their own group to survive.
For them, the street was no different than a jungle.
If the forest had beasts as the predator, then on the street, it was other humans.
Even though dungeons didn\'t exist at this time, and everyone was a normal human, there still existed those who preyed on the weak. Power and abilities just made this even more prominent.
Some gangs on the street would look for these kids, forcing them to be beggars or thieves.
She had tried reporting it to the cops, asking for solutions from the government office, but as a kid living on the street, no one took her seriously.
There are very limited options for Luca at that moment.
Following the rules of the street? Luca hated the idea. She might be hungry, but begging or stealing was out of the question for Luca.
Since staying in the city would just mean confronting the gangs, and she still needed to find a way to earn money, Luca decided to do something most people would never do in her situation.
Luca brought the kids together with her, scavenging over the trash, but what she was looking for was not food; she looked for tools, knives, and anything that could be used as a weapon.
Luca didn\'t go out of her way to kill the gangs; she led them out of the city, walking toward the forest.
Luca didn\'t do this out of impulse; she had already gathered the required information for it. Even though they were kids on the street, she still found her way to get a phone and internet.
With the knowledge she had, they started living in the forest. Luca picked a place near some villages to make it easier if they wanted to trade.
At first, life in the forest was harsh. As a bunch of kids, many of them were filled with fear and didn\'t know what to do other than follow Luca\'s guidance.
Time passed by—weeks, months, years.
From kids who didn\'t know anything, they became experienced teenagers.
They made their own small village using wood, and from the meat they hunted, they often traded with nearby villages for hygiene products, clothes, and some tools.
But this didn\'t come easy.