Chapter 248

ONE WEEK LATER!

A week had passed since the Aspirants’ expedition—an outing that had lasted a mere four days instead of the intended seven. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Despite the shortened duration, training had resumed in full swing, with the Aspirants sweating and pouring their absolute all into every lesson.

It wasn’t an easy transition for everyone, but for the majority—those fueled by the singular goal to grow stronger than anything else—they were progressing nicely.

More than five hundred Aspirants had marched out for that expedition, yet only about four hundred returned.

In the grand scheme of things, it seemed like a drop in the ocean, but the absence was significant enough to notice.

Most had lost friends, seatmates, comrades, roommates, or even just casual acquaintances.

But what could they do? Life moves on.

Breakfast had concluded without issue, and Sony’s class was finished as well.

Now, the students were all making their way toward the Aspect class.

The boys had split up, leaving Ray to navigate the corridor on his own.

He walked with his hands buried in his pockets, keeping his head lowered until—

"Ohoy, Ray! What’s up?"

The Tribrid looked up and spun around to see two girls approaching.

Chloe and Trisha.

Soon enough, they reached his side and quickly flanked him.

"I’m fine. What about you?" He greeted Chloe, who had been the one to call out.

Chloe smiled brilliantly as she unexpectedly clutched his arm. "I’m great!"

Ray felt instantly flustered, glancing down at the girl’s arm interlocked with his as if they were a couple.

"Uh..."

He started to protest, but before he could get a word out, Chloe pulled him forward.

"Come on. Let’s all walk together to class."

Trisha stared at the locked arms for a second or two, but she said nothing, maintaining a neutral expression as she continued her stride.

"By the way, thanks again for those credits," Chloe chirped. "I was finally able to afford a new quiver of specialized arrows and some beast cores to bolster my MF pool."

Hearing that, Trisha looked up.

She reached down and swiftly unsheathed a sword from her side that gleamed dangerously under the overhead lights.

"Yeah. Thank you for that. I managed to acquire a new Advanced-rank blade and some cores to boost my own capacity."

Recalling the painful, gaping dent in his account, Ray felt as though he were on the verge of tears. "No mention."

"No, you really did something amazing," Chloe insisted as they kept walking.

"Most people wouldn’t have done what you did. You could have hoarded those credits for yourself or, even worse, absorbed the beast core alone. Yet, you chose to selflessly distribute the wealth to us. That’s so cute of you."

"No mention."

’Really, please don’t mention it again...’ Ray pleaded internally.

Glancing at him for a brief moment, Trisha slid her sword back into its scabbard.

"It still doesn’t mean I won’t cut you down if you turn out to be a threat."

Chloe scowled at the remark.

"Hey, be nice! Stop being so moody all the time. You seem like a kid who just got her candy snatched by a bully."

A flicker of an unsaid emotion gleamed in Trisha’s eyes upon hearing the other girl’s words.

"Yeah... I guess," she muttered under her breath, turning her gaze forward.

’Weird,’ Ray mused inwardly, his heightened senses picking up the strange tone in her voice.

In no time, they reached the hall and separated.

Ray retreated to his usual dark corner, where Felix eventually came to stand beside him.

Class commenced exactly as it should, with Captain Jake demonstrating a series of complex martial arts motions, seamlessly weaving them together with his Katana.

Ray absorbed the movements like a sponge.

His eyes refused to leave the Captain, tracking each and every subtle shift in weight and blade angle.

After an hour or so of demonstration against a training bot, the Captain stepped back, leaving the Aspirants to replicate the forms themselves.

Failures and utter flops ensued across the room.

Only Ray executed the maneuvers perfectly, as if he had performed this specific set of movements in a past life.

He replicated the techniques like a student copying homework from a textbook—word for word, movement for movement.

Jake couldn’t help but be impressed by this display, even going as far as giving Ray a rare pat on the head.

He did so under the envious gazes of the other Aspirants—most notably Flinn, who was practically staring daggers in the Tribrid’s direction.

Finally, the class drew to a conclusion.

Before Ray could make his exit, the Captain signaled for him to stay behind while the others filed out.

Ten minutes later, the massive hall stood empty, save for Ray and Jake standing face to face in the center of the room.

"Yes, Captain?" Ray inquired, his curiosity piqued.

Jake stared at him for several quiet seconds before exhaling and glancing down at a peculiar ring on his finger.

"Come over. I have the favor you requested of me. I would have secured these much sooner if I hadn’t been buried under such a heavy workload. Every time I intended to deliver them, I seemed to forget."

Hearing those words, Ray rushed over immediately, standing directly in front of the officer, his heart racing as he prepared to receive his purchase.

Jake rubbed the square gem embedded in the ring, and it instantly pulsed with a pale yellow radiance.

Suddenly, a small pocket of shimmering yellow light manifested beside the Captain, much to Ray’s stunned amazement.

Jake reached his hand into the pocket and pulled something out.

Then again. And again.

He continued dropping items onto the floor until he was finally finished.

’Is that some sort of storage ring? It looks almost exactly like my own ’inventory’ skill,’ Ray noted, his eyes wide.

"Here you go. Ten Advanced-rank beast cores," Jake announced, taking a step back to reveal the ten gleaming spheres arranged in a small circle on the floor.

The previous week, after selling the King-rank core to the Captain, Ray had requested that Jake source some Advanced-rank cores for him, even paying for them upfront from his remaining balance.

And now, the delivery was finally complete.

He knelt down and began picking them up one after the other, cradling the precious items in his hands as if they were fragile eggs.

"I don’t know how close you are to your meta-force capacity limit, but consuming that many at once could have an unknown effect on your system. So, be careful," Jake warned, his voice stern but not unkind.

Ray smiled brightly and gave a respectful nod toward the Captain.

"Thank you, sir. I’m off!"

Without a moment’s hesitation, he spun on his heel and rushed out of the hall.

Mid-sprint, he deftly funneled the cores into his inventory, their weight vanishing from his arms as they moved into his system storage.