Chapter 280

The darkness of the night had nothing on him, as he was able to observe his surroundings as clear as day.

Seeing the hills, though they were numerous, he was able to see some Earth Shakers weaving in between them, and it seemed like they were... hunting?

Or something of the sort.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see beyond the body of water. Whether there was anything beyond it, he couldn’t see.

"Valley... full of hills... hm. I will name you; Hill Valley." Ray chuckled to himself as he absorbed the scenery, then sat back down at the edge of the hill he was on.

Hearing the distant rush of water, the rustle of wind against his skin, he looked calm while smiling softly.

Aside from the loud chatter and screech from the tons of Earth Shakers down there, the whole place would have been quiet.

"If only I had tea with me. Would have been sipping and enjoying the view."

«Aren’t you forgetting something?» Bruce asked.

Ray lifted a brow. "Huh? What might I be..."

He paused as he thought about it for a few seconds, then snapped his fingers.

"Right."

Opening his system inventory, he surfed through the stuff stored in them.

Two pairs of new shoes, half a dozen sets of new uniforms, his pair of gauntlets, and a steak of meat he had saved for urgent times like now.

And then finally, two gleaming beast cores.

Pulling them out of the system, Ray stared at the cores with a small smile on his face.

"Hm. Now, should I absorb them or wait till I get back to sell them? I sure need money."

He stroked his chin in deep thought as he stared at the alluringly shiny cores for several seconds, trying to consider his options.

Thinking for a second, he wondered how long he had spent on the hill and how much longer till it was morning.

That was if there was even going to be a morning though.

Opening his system tab, he decided to look at his mf pool.

[MF: 50/130]

"Hm. So an hour and forty minutes has passed since I reached this hill huh."

«How can you guess?» Elyon was curious.

"...."

"The system had told me that my MF regenerates with a single point every two minutes."

«Oh.»

"Anyway... I need more strength."

Dropping one of the cores to the side, he gripped the first with all his might.

Crack—! Crack—! Crack—! Shatter—!

[Your spark grows stronger....]

The essence from the core flowed towards him as he absorbed them totally.

[+50 MF]

[MF: 100/180]

’Hm. I wonder if I can even reach my cap for this bar.’

He grinned and then grabbed the second core. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Without thinking twice, he crushed it in his immense strength.

[Your spark grows stronger....]

[+20 MF]

’Huh?’ Ray was bewildered at the reduction in points.

Why had the first core given him fifty points but the second gave him a measly twenty?

[MF: 120/200]

"System, will you explain?"

[Simple dumbass, you have hit your cap for your mf pool. It can’t increase pass two hundred points till you evolve.]

"Curses! So I fucking jinxed myself?!" Ray screamed angrily as he bashed his hand on the ground beside him, causing a thin crack to appear across the surface.

’I fucking knew it that this system was simply bitter. If I had known, I would have just left the core till when I got back so I can just sell it for a substantial amount of credits.’

Thinking for a few seconds, he looked down at the hundreds of beasts prowling the earth.

«No, No, No. Don’t do it.» Elyon uttered with a firm tone.

"I mean... I can see hundreds of thousands credits just walking around down there. I could actually be the richest Aspirant there is. Think about it. Even the legacy kids of the big four family might not be up to me in status."

«So you want to battle King-rank beasts for that?»

"No, silly. I was just thinking. It’s not possible that there will just be King-rank beasts in this world, right? I mean, what will the stronger beasts feed on then?"

«I don’t understand.»

"..."

Sigh—!

"The human world and beast world share similarities. The strong prey on the weak, always. Which means there have got to be weaker beasts in this land. If I can hunt them, I could probably farm more XP and push myself closer to my evolution."

«And if you are wrong?»

Ray didn’t rush to reply as he frowned and scanned the hills for several seconds before shaking his head.

"On second thought, I will hold off on that. For now, the most important task is to find my friends and regroup with them as fast as possible to find a way out of here. Farming XP and growing stronger will just be a by-product of my search."

«Get out of here? Is there even an exit here?» Bruce questioned with a frown on his face.

«I mean, you got dropped down from a tear in the sky, and right now, I’m sure I’m not blind because there’s nothing in the sky. So how do we get out of here?»

"...."

"That is all the more reason for me to find my friends. Van will surely find a way out of here for us. I just hope he is safe and not alone right now."

He prayed silently, his eyes twinkling with worry while observing the beasts down below.

"System, is there a way you can adapt to the timing of this world? I mean, push our timezone from Alcatraz aside and help adjust to this world’s own."

[Recalibrating....]

A few seconds passed in tense silence.

[Recalibration complete.]

[Seems like time moves differently here compared to Alcatraz.

Instead of the usual 12-hour day and 12-hour night, this world’s cycle consists of an 18-hour day and a 6-hour night.]

"So how much longer till it’s daytime?"

[Two hours left.]

"Great."

Ray smiled widely as a devilish thought formed in his mind.

He rose from the edge he was at, walked to the center of the platform, and then laid down on a small patch of grass.

Removing his jacket, he placed it over his face and then crossed his arms around his chest with a satisfied smile.

"So, set an alarm for two hours and wake me up."

[Wait... I’m an advanced system designed to help my host get used to his Tribrid powers effectively. The hell do you....]

"Are you designed to go against your host?"

[No.]

"Great. Set an alarm for me. Thank you."

[Really? I just got reduced to an alarm clock?!]