Chapter 528: One Thing at a Time
Chapter 526
It took quite a while for the trio to make their way back to the base.
Ray had left the Vanguards to excavate the beast cores, as he had no right to them... yet.
He would have to wait for Captain Raze to give him his own share.
So, for now, they had to return to the base.
The moment Ray’s feet touched the hallway after ascending the staircase, with Trish and Kai beside him, he froze.
Standing outside each of their room doors with their arms folded across their chests were the others...
With the sole exception of Van, of course.
He must have been locked in his room, working his brain off.
Caster, Felix, and Chloe stood in front of their doors with frowns etched across their faces.
They all shook their heads in sync, as if they were collectively disappointed in him.
Ray cocked a brow at them before frowning.
"Oi! What’s with the look?"
Chloe raised her own brows, then sighed as she began uncrossing her arms.
She sauntered toward the boy with calm, measured steps, yet there was an unmistakable annoyance beneath each one.
Trish and Kai quickly stepped away from Ray as Chloe stopped directly in front of him with a scrunched-up expression.
Then, she flicked her fingers against the Tribrid’s temples with all her might, intentionally adding her telekinetic ability to the attack with the aim of maximizing the damage and possibly sending him skidding away.
However, Ray remained rooted to the spot like an immovable tree firmly planted in the soil.
He felt the slight sting and even went as far as rubbing his temples, his expression carrying a hint of irritation.
"What’s that for?"
"What’s that for?" Chloe echoed his question, tilting her head.
"The hell did you do, walking into a Gate all alone? What if something had happened to you? What would we have done?"
"Seriously, bro, I love you too much for you to keep being reckless. We can’t afford to lose you," Felix chimed in with a small shake of his head.
Ray rubbed his temples once before muttering under his breath.
"That sounded weird."
"What was that?" Chloe inquired as she leaned forward, her face almost touching Ray’s.
Feeling her breath against his face, Ray’s heartbeat spiked as he instinctively took a step backward.
At the same time, a flash of irritation gleamed in Trisha’s eyes as she stared at the tiny distance between Ray and Chloe.
But the moment she caught herself, she quickly turned her face away.
’Wh-What was that just now? I definitely don’t care.’
"—It’s nothing," Ray replied to Chloe’s previous question while watching her step back.
With a heavy exhale, he scanned the others in the hallway before rubbing the back of his head nervously.
"I-I’m sorry for doing what I did. It’s just, the Captain had ordered it, and not wanting to put any other person through what I could face, I decided to step up."
"For the record, whenever you plan on doing something so stupid, we should be the first to know. You have no right to decide what we should and shouldn’t do," Caster said, pointing his index finger forward.
"...Because of you, the Captain forbade us from helping. For now, we respected his order because we’re still new. I don’t think we’ll respect his wishes next time, so do well to keep out of trouble."
Ray’s eyelids fluttered a few times as he stared at Caster.
’He has really integrated himself with us so smoothly, huh? I guess it’s understandable after what we had been through in the Red Gate world.’
"Fine, fine, fine. I hear you all." Ray heaved a sigh while nodding at them.
With a yawn followed by a stretch of his body, he looked toward his room door.
"So, can I leave now? I’m sore from the battle."
Everybody scoffed and threw their heads to the side, refusing to give him an answer.
"I’ll take that as a ’yes,’ then." Ray beamed before darting toward his room, leaving his friends in the hallway.
As they watched his back vanish into the room, the others exchanged brief glances with one another.
"If he came out alive, I’m guessing he cleared the Gate, huh?" Caster asked, his expression bleak.
Kai breathed out exhaustedly.
"Man, I don’t know about Ray anymore. I refuse to be surprised by whatever he does from now on. It wasn’t even a few months ago when we struggled hard against an Emperor-rank beast together, and now he has defeated one alone? What sort of monster is he, really?"
Felix rubbed the side of his chin thoughtfully, his expression filled with disbelief.
"And am I imagining things, or do we feel weaker compared to him? I feel like we’ve all stagnated for some reason. Shouldn’t we be rising in power too?"
"I’ve realised something in my short time with you all. The more you try to compare yourselves to Ray, the lesser you’ll see yourselves. I mean, look at the combat power we were able to draw out of our suits." Caster replied before leaning against his door.
"...But I get you still. We feel weak, especially if we don’t want him to keep saving us like princesses in distress."
Trisha listened to their words for a few moments before her gaze drifted down to her hands. She blinked slowly, her thoughts turning inward.
’Being the last Ice Legacy descendant, it will be hard to increase my strength. I’ll need a few skill books to increase my grade. But where am I supposed to get those?
Come to think of it... am I really the last Ice user? Or are there more that I don’t know about?
Maybe if I can meet some of them, I could increase my power.’
Kai shrugged while looking towards Ray’s room door.
"For now, let’s focus all our attention on the Wall Expedition coming in a few days. Afterwards, we can figure out how to grow stronger. For now, I need to train." He uttered the last part before turning right around and walking away.
The others nodded along with what he said and decided to put their minds on the expedition first.
One thing at a time.