Free Web NovelChapter 291: Hunt for Food? (1)
Chapter 289
Shing—! Shing—! Shing—!
The sharp sound of a blade scraping rhythmically against stone echoed across the peak, causing Chloe to toss and turn restlessly on the hard ground.
Before she knew it, she clamped her hands desperately over her ears, trying her best to block out the irritating noise from disturbing her remaining slumber.
Unfortunately, this did absolutely nothing to help, as with each passing second, the friction grew louder and more piercing.
Knowing exactly who was responsible, she grumbled under her breath.
But when the noise finally became completely unbearable, she snapped and screamed aloud.
"Oh, for goodness’ sake, Trisha! At least allow someone to get a little bit of sleep. I’m fucking hungry here and I’m trying my absolute best to hibernate and preserve the little energy I have left, but you keep on sharpening your sword and it’s so frustrating!"
The harsh grating stopped immediately, and Chloe breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Whew. Thank you, gir—"
Shing—! Shing—! Shing—!
The scraping continued almost immediately, causing Chloe to snap her eyes open in pure frustration.
She bolted upright into a sitting position and glared toward the source of the noise.
There, she could see Trisha seated quietly in front of a small, jagged stone, diligently sharpening her blade without a single care in the world.
Snapping her head in another direction with a fierce pout, she spotted Ray seated cross-legged nearby.
A calm, detached expression rested on his face, as if the irritating racket didn’t affect his senses at all.
"Really, Ray? You won’t say anything to this, or does it genuinely not affect you?!"
The Tribrid gave no reply, and that was simply because he was currently deep within his own mindspace.
Due to his highly sensitive ears, he had actually been the very first to get irritated by the piercing frequency.
Rather than deal with it, he had temporarily vacated the driver’s seat and decided to sit with Elyon for the time being.
He comfortably left his physical body unattended, knowing very well that Bruce wouldn’t dare hijack it under these circumstances.
If the grating sound could irritate him this much, then it would surely infuriate the volatile werewolf inside him.
Who knew what Bruce might do out of sheer anger?
Now, inside his mindscape, the echo of the sword was a safe distance away from the boy’s ears.
Seeing as Ray wasn’t responding to her complaints, Chloe grumbled a few words inwardly and grabbed her jacket, wrapping it tightly around her waist.
She then stomped over to another spot on the ridge and sat down with her legs dangling downward over the edge while she glared off into the distance.
Rumble—!
Her stomach growled loudly, causing Trisha to finally pause her routine and glance over in her direction.
Chloe winced, tightening her hands around her midsection for a few seconds to muffle the sound.
Seeing as that wasn’t working, she loosened her jacket for a second, then retied it to such an extreme extent that she felt a sharp pinch, but she didn’t care.
Luckily, this restrictive method worked, as she felt slightly relieved and not overly consumed by the emptiness in her belly.
But for how much longer could she keep this up?
Trisha kept staring at Chloe’s back for several seconds before slowly lifting her sword and sheathing it firmly back into its scabbard.
"Sorry," she finally uttered.
Chloe lifted a brow and then slowly turned her head around with a genuinely confused look on her face. "Huh?"
Breathing an exhausted, hungry sigh of her own, Trisha turned her gaze to the side.
"Sorry for waking you up."
Chloe could see the girl digging her nails into her palms as she forced those words out.
It looked like apologizing was an incredibly difficult thing for her to do.
Smiling, the girl gave her roommate a thumbs up with a wide grin on her face.
"No problem."
Trisha lifted her head to see the thumbs up, then subtly nodded, only for Ray to regain control of his body right at that moment with a loud sneeze.
He turned to face Trisha with a shocked expression.
"What?! The Ice Queen apologized to someone for the first time in history? Man... Kai and Van need to hear th—"
As he mentioned those names, his face suddenly darkened, recalling that the state and condition of his friends were still completely unknown to him.
Gritting his teeth angrily, he finally exhaled and secretly accessed his system inventory.
Soon, he pulled out three gleaming beast cores, stood up, and walked over toward Trisha.
The girl watched him approach with a raised brow.
Crouching down directly in front of her, he placed the three cores on the ground.
"Here. These are the cores from those Advanced-rank beasts that attacked you and Chloe."
The girl looked at the energy crystals for several seconds while watching Ray rise back up to walk away.
"Wait," she called out.
Ray halted in his tracks.
Rising to her feet, she scooped up the cores and stepped toward him.
"Here." She stretched her hand out, offering one of them to the Tribrid.
"Huh?"
"You killed one of the beasts, so this belongs to you, fair and square."
Ray looked at the core for a second before smiling and retrieving it from her hand.
Turning to face Chloe, Trisha held out another one of the remaining cores.
"Here." She tossed it forward.
Hurriedly, Chloe activated her telekinetic ability, guiding the core safely to her side while sporting a dubious look on her face.
"But what for? Unlike Ray, I didn’t actually defeat any beasts."
"But you helped. Without your arrows and the assistance of your ability, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat those monsters." Trish thought for a few seconds, then added,
"Besides, we all need to grow stronger. We don’t know what kind of threat we will face next."
Chloe stared at the core floating beside her, then looked back at Trisha with a warm smile on her face.
"Th-Thank you."
Without saying anything more, Trisha casually crushed the core in her hand and absorbed the raw essence contained within.
Chloe did exactly the same a second later.
Ray looked at them, then down at the crystal in his own palm.
He thought for several seconds before his sharp ears caught the sound of both Chloe and Trisha’s stomachs rumbling silently once again.
Sighing softly, he shoved the core into his pocket, secretly sending it back into his inventory, then focused his gaze entirely on Trisha.
"Do you still have enough energy to fight?"
The girl looked at him for a few seconds in genuine confusion, then shrugged.
"Always. Why?"
Ray looked behind him, narrowing his gaze toward the dark, ominous sea. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
A few carcasses from strange, unidentifiable marine beasts had washed ashore again on the distant coastline.
Where the sea was getting those bodies from, he didn’t know.
"I want us to go hunt for food."
