In the morning, the young man slowly opened his eyes. He could feel his body still aching and throbbing from pain, but it was much better than yesterday. He remembered seeing a light source and found a group there, but he collapsed before seeing their face.
He quickly got up.
"Whoa, there. You finally wake up." a pleasant deep voice sounded from his side.
He turned and saw a handsome blonde man looking at him with vibrant emerald eyes. He became alert, "You are?"
"I think that's what we want to know more. You stumbled to our camp last night, clearly after having the adventure of your life. No storage device, no knife, no gun, practically empty-handed. And alone to add. If not for your combat suit, we would think you're a native."
We?
The young man then noticed the other 2 people around them. One of them has black hair with red eyes covered by a pair of glasses. His face was flat but didn't feel particularly cold. The other one has brown hair with caramel eyes. There were no special features about him, but overall he was still nice to look at.
The young man stood up, "Thank you for letting me rest here. I'm He Ruiqi."
"Good thing your vitality is good. Your wounds also heal faster than average or else we would have to use our medical supply." Bai Shui said.
"You're awake now, so we'll be going."
Seeing they were about to leave, He Ruiqi quickly stopped them, "Wait!"
The three of them paused. Thirteen turned around, "If you want to join us, I don't particularly mind, but we won't go as far as to find 9 different other types for you. The 3 of us planned to collect 27 different beasts, so we have our own schedule."
He Ruiqi was surprised he knew his request, but thinking about it, it was just normal for someone in his situation to join a new group.
"It's okay. I won't be joining your team officially, so I'm fine with collecting the same variety as yours. I also promise to help you guys in fights as repayment for resting here. I just need to pass this exam."
"You sure you can fight properly? You don't even have your basic equipment."
"Yes, at the very least I won't be a hindrance."
Thirteen waited for any response from Lixue and this time he opened his mouth, "Tell us your circumstances that led you to this and whether or not your group will disturb us later. We don't want to get dragged into disputes."
"How did you…?" He Ruiqi was stunned.
"Anyone would know your equipment was taken away. You think beasts can loot equipment from humans?" Thirteen shrugged.
On his side, Bai Shui cleverly stayed quiet as someone who was not part of the 'anyone' Thirteen mentioned.
He Ruiqi thought for a while and felt it was fair enough. He explained as he clenched his fists suppressing his resentment, "To put it simply, someone doesn't want me to pass this exam. That person set me up with this group of people to be my teammates and pit me."
Both Lixue and Thirteen thought of the same thing.
That teammate of his must be that red guy and the other 3.
Who would've thought, 2 people with problems with that guy would meet like this? If their group clashed, a fight would be inevitable.
Not to mention, Lixue found that the identity of this new guy was very special, and he was basically a trouble magnet. Thankfully, after talking to Thirteen last night, his emotion was already calm when finding out the Devil's words to be true. Or else he would've already killed this guy last night.
"If you think I'm still burdensome, I can tell you a gathering location of the beasts I found when I was running away last night. I saw there's at least more than 5 types of beasts there with some sky beasts."
"You should've told us that from the start. We'll definitely accept you tagging along." Thirteen raised an eyebrow.
"Even if I tell you, it's impossible for just the 3 of you, 4 including me if you agree, to collect all the beasts there. Not to mention with those… strange creatures roaming around."
Lixue thought for a moment, "Is there any water beasts there?"
"There's a water stream there where the beasts drink from most of the time. There should be one or two," He Ruiqi pointed a mountain afar, "I think it's around there somewhere."
"A water stream?" Thirteen pondered, "You think that's where the upstream of the river is?"
"Possibly. But there's no water beast when we camped the first night." Bai Shui said.
"The source can be an entirely different environment than the middle stream. Who knows?"
"What we currently lack the most is water beasts. The west is where most of the water beasts are and the sky beasts on the south. If we gamble to go where the headwater is and don't find enough water beasts, we'll have to continue moving at night to the west, or else there's a chance we'll fail to collect 27 types as per our target. But whether there're water beasts or not, we're guaranteed to get enough land beasts and maybe some sky beasts." Lixue explained.
He made sure they digested his words before continuing, "If we choose to continue per plan, we'll just rush as per schedule. But according to the map, the beasts' nests don't have enough variants for us to collect 27 types. We'll have to rely on luck whether we'll encounter one or not just like our last 2 days. There's also possibility of encountering other groups which can result to a fight to steal or be stolen."
Lixue summarized it all before letting Thirteen decide. He didn't care either way because it was their own goal to collect at least 27 types. It was actually fine for them to collect all same 9 type of beasts, but to make Thirteen more famous later in the academy they decided to do as such. Of course, this was Lixue and Thirteen's own agenda. Bai Shui only thought that they wanted to get as much score as possible.
Other than that he didn't particularly care, he was also too lazy to think anymore. Be grateful that he was still patient enough to summarize things for that stupid add-on over there. If it wasn't for the sake of building his character, he wouldn't run his mouth so much just to explain obvious things to an idiot.
Thirteen could almost feel Lixue's annoyance and impatience beside him. When they were cooperating together, they almost didn't need to communicate except for necessary things because they generally have the same mindset. Their intelligence level was also on par with each other in addition to their skills complementing each other.
And most of all, although they never brought it up, they both 'sneakily' and silently studied each other. Their tacit understanding was already pretty high although there hasn't been a year since they met.
He managed to hold his mouth quirking up, but he still laughed inwardly. Lixue sensed he was laughing at him and threatened him with his eyes.
Although he didn't know whether Lixue would hear it or not, he still teased him, 'In the future, don't forget to warm up your mouth and tongue in the morning or else you'll have mouth cramp from talking too much.'
Lixue knew Thirteen dared to tease him because he couldn't do anything in front of the 2 people and the drone. He silently wrote this grudge in his mental note.
Bai Shui and He Ruiqi thought Thirteen was thinking about whether to take the gamble or not. So they waited silently without interrupting.
"Let's go there. I'll assume you guys are prepared for a no-rest day today if you're not objecting now," Thirteen offered his hand to He Ruiqi, "Let's get along."
He Ruiqi accepted it, "Of course."
They didn't waste any more time than they already have. He Ruiqi led them to the location he passed by while running away. Though he vaguely remembered the way because of yesterday's circumstances, with Thirteen and Lixue there, the journey was more or less smooth.
They encountered some Irregulars, but it was only as dangerous as the flower head Irregulars yesterday. Or maybe less dangerous seeing that Bai Shui could stand his ground. He Ruiqi's fighting skill was also not bad. Thirteen lent him his gun and Lixue gave him the Armored Alligator's spikes he picked up 2 days earlier.
Arriving there nearing noon, it really was the river's headwater as big as a lake. The water surface glistened from the sunlight, and it was cool enough to freshen one up in the hot afternoon.
But the main problem was, there was no beast as far as their vision could reach.