Chapter 295

It was finally nighttime, and the trio found a hill to rest on in time.

Laid before them were six Advanced-rank cores and two King-rank cores from the King-rank beast they defeated.

So, in total, eight cores gleamed in front of the trio, and even Ray’s eyes couldn’t help but shine in greed on seeing them.

Too bad he couldn’t absorb them.

Although he could sell them, that was if they managed to escape this hellhole first.

Turning to look at Chloe, Trisha asked,

"How close are you to your bottleneck?"

Chloe thought for several seconds, then replied, "Maybe two cores away?"

"Hmph," Trisha pushed three Advanced-rank cores toward the girl. "Absorb them."

Chloe wasted no time in beginning to absorb the cores while Ray looked at Trisha.

"I don’t want much. I have already hit my bottleneck. So, I will cut you a deal to better smoothen our partnership."

Trisha lifted a brow but didn’t say anything, so the boy just took it that she was intrigued.

Clearing his throat, Ray shifted for a moment and then continued.

"Since we will always be hunting King-rank beasts first before Advanced-rank beasts, I want this.

Just give me a single King-rank and Advanced-rank core each from all of our expeditions, and in return for the rest, just allow me to deal the finishing blow to all our beasts.

Till we leave this world, I want to be the one dealing the last strike. So, you better not lose your mind again."

Trisha looked at him for a few doubtful seconds, then shrugged and pushed a King-rank and Advanced-rank core toward him, leaving her with two Advanced-rank and one King-rank core left.

Ray smiled, taking it that she had already accepted his proposal.

He snatched the cores and immediately sent them to his inventory secretly.

Trisha quietly grabbed her King-rank core and crushed it.

A few seconds passed in tense silence as she absorbed the essence, then glanced at her hands before squeezing them a few times.

She did the same with the remaining two cores and waited for several seconds for the energy to settle and add to her meta-force.

At that moment, a nervous chuckle was heard from her side, causing her to turn toward Chloe, who awkwardly scratched her head.

"Guess I was wrong. I’m still quite far from my bottleneck."

Trisha blinked, then sighed before rising up and leaving the circle to sit at the edge of the hill, a distant look appearing on her face.

Ray wasted no time in turning toward his system to see the rewards he gained from today’s expedition.

[Total rewards: +8000EXP; +1 level up]

His grin knew no bounds at what he was seeing at the moment.

[Level: 16]

[Exp: 6750/10,000]

He had already leveled up twice from just today’s expedition, and he was so exhilarated that he struggled hard to contain his bubbling laughter.

If he could have gotten this much from a single day’s worth of work, then if he spent a week here and continuously grinded, he could reach level twenty-something in no time.

Even through his immense excitement, he couldn’t forget one crucial fact, though.

Every day wasn’t a festive season.

Anything could ruin his plan.

Either the system just decided to be unfortunate for no reason, or their well-thought-out plan, which was meant to be the blueprint for every hunt, fails.

Anything could hinder them, so he wasn’t out of his mind to think he would keep reaping rewards every single day.

Hence, he calmed himself down, only to receive a sudden, gentle slap at the back of his head.

"Ouch."

Lifting his gaze, he saw Chloe standing in front of him with a prominent frown on her face as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

Tearing his gaze away immediately, he scowled.

"The hell was that for?"

"Have you apologized?" Chloe asked softly.

Ray lifted a brow in confusion. "Huh? Apologize? To whom? And what for?"

The girl was about to strike him a second time when he lifted his hand in a warning posture, causing her to stop.

"So you still feel like all you said to Trisha today was right, huh? Even if she is always cold and indifferent to a lot of things, do you think your words didn’t hurt her?" Shaking her head, Chloe turned around and began walking off, mumbling under her breath.

"Maybe you really are a monster."

Ray caught the words clearly thanks to his enhanced hearing, and he froze instantly at the whisper.

"...."

He watched as Chloe settled into the spot she claimed as her sleeping area, then laid back down and turned her back to the duo.

Ray blinked for several seconds, then thought back to all his words toward Trisha.

Now that he was replaying them calmly, he realized how incredibly harsh they had actually been.

"Maybe I was wrong and... selfish after all," he muttered while rubbing his temples.

Turning to look at Trisha’s back, he sighed heavily and then stood up.

Tak. Tak. Tak.

He stopped and settled down directly beside Trisha at the edge of the hill.

The both of them stared ahead into the dark valley, with Trisha harboring a quite distant look on her face, barely registering the fact that somebody had even sat down beside her.

Looking at the beasts walking around down below for a few seconds more, letting the heavy silence hang between them a bit, Ray finally sighed.

"What’s on your mind?"

Hearing the sudden voice jolted Trisha out of her deep thoughts.

"Huh? Uh.... oh... ah... just thinking here and there."

Ray turned his head slightly to look at her profile.

"Thinking about?"

Trisha paused for a few seconds before replying,

"Life. Present, future. And maybe... past too."

She whispered that last part entirely to herself, but the boy still caught it.

’What a damn strange girl. Her words are as strange as she is. Sigh....’

"Hmph."

"...."

Several seconds passed in calm silence as they turned their gaze ahead again, with neither of them saying anything more.

’Damn. How do I even begin? If my earlier approach didn’t bring forth fruit, how am I supposed to do this with someone who barely communicates? Sigh... on the bright side, it seems like she isn’t actively upset about earlier.’

Sighing one more time, he finally steeled his resolve.

"I just want to say that I... uh... I’m sorry for my harsh words to you this morning. I was just really pissed about something, and I guess I vented it all out on you and hurt your feelings. I apologize for that. I shouldn’t have said those things."

Trisha blinked for a brief second, her expression neutral. "Okay."

’Okay? Really? Just okay? What kind of girl is this?!’

Shaking his head at her lack of reaction, he turned away and was just about to stand up when she spoke again.

"I was just ten years old when it happened."

’Huh?’ Ray blinked in complete surprise at her words, which unknowingly made him sit right back down in absolute confusion.