“Hnnnh?” Selena let out a soft moan. “It’s warm.”
Her voice was coarse and her body was sore, but her mind felt much more refreshed.
“You woke up?” Nathan’s voice echoed in her ears, reminding her of what happened before Risa knocked her out.
“!!!” Selena hurriedly rose from the ground and saw Nathan sitting next to her. The only thing that separated them was a line of rocks that seemed to be used to separate the two trenches. “I…”
Nathan pointed to Risa, expecting a sudden slap, not that he would accept it. “Just in case, I didn’t do anything to you other than move you. Your familiar witnessed everything.”
Selena turned her head to Risa, who showed no anger. Risa must have seen everything and trusted him, so there was no need to doubt his words.
“Get me a few minutes. The soup is about to finish soon,” said Risa while stirring the soup made of vegetables she found in the woods.
“That’s…” Selena wanted to say something while sorting her thoughts. She looked down and found that she was sleeping on top of a bed made of gravel. Smoke was leaking out of the pores. Now that she felt it, this was where the warmth came from.
Nathan seemed to have helped her. She bit her lips and hurriedly said, “I… I need to get going. I’m thankful for your help, but we’re still—”
“No need to say anything.” Nathan raised his hand, stopping her. “I help you not because I pity you. It’s because I need you to do something. Just repay the favor of me helping you by assisting me in something.”
“!!!” Selena couldn’t say anything after that. She had been stubborn the whole time, so Nathan simply gave a reason to convince herself. “What do I need to do?”
“Tomorrow morning, I’m planning to defeat a juvenile class alien. I need your help to stop the proto-class aliens from helping the juvenile class alien. For that, I need you to be at your peak since there might be a lot of aliens around him.”
“Juvenile class alien?” Selena was shocked. She knew Nathan was strong, but she didn’t think that he would be able to win against a juvenile class alien. Still, one thing was clear. She needed to recover.
“Yeah. If you can agree to that, we can consider this even. Besides, it is in the morning, so you won’t lose too much time either, at least better than dropping out because of exhaustion. What do you think?”
If Nathan managed to do it, he would get a lot of points. At the same time, she could also get some points from killing the proto-class aliens. She could still continue hunting for more aliens for the next four days.
Both of them didn’t know each other’s points, so she might be ahead. There was simply no reason for her to reject it. This place was warm, and she could fill up her belly.
Even if she had to camp out for the rest of the trip, she should be able to manage.
“I understand. I’ll help you.”
Risa couldn’t help but smile. As Nathan promised, he managed to convince her.
And this was where Nathan became slightly greedy. He added, “By the way, you can also use this shelter if you want.
“Of course, your familiar will have to be on the lookout during the night. This warm gravel bed… you will also help me in taking care of it since it will probably become cold in the morning.
“I will get some fish for us to eat, but in exchange, you will search for vegetables.”
The conditions weren’t that big of a deal for Risa and Selena. After all, they could get this safe and warm shelter. Even if Selena pushed herself, she would be able to recover here.
However, there was one problem.
Nathan raised his index finger. “When we hunt, we will promise not to go near each other. If you go to the west, I will go to the north. Of course, you will choose your direction first so that you don’t think I’m cheating since I know which one is already empty or not. Then again, the aliens are roaming around, so it’s not going to be empty.”
Selena was dumbfounded. She never thought Nathan would be this generous. “Why are you so generous to me?”
“Generous?” Nathan shook his head. “I’m merely cooperating with you. I know that we have a bet, but in the end, this trip is for the preparation for the summoning ritual. If we cooperate, we can get more cores, which means more Ena to sacrifice.
“For example, if I eliminate you without helping you, I might be able to win, but I will probably get a lower score, for example, 800 points. But if we work together, the gap between our points might not be that big, but our scores will be much higher.”
What Nathan was trying to say was that the bet between them was secondary. If because of this they didn’t have enough Ena to summon a good familiar, they would be screwed.
The rest would be their confidence in winning under fair circumstances.
“What do you think? I don’t think this is a bad deal for you. I, too, want a lot of Ena since the second familiar will be extremely important to me.”
Her mind subconsciously hesitated because she had never received any help from anyone for years. Nathan made it in a way that this was just a trade, not a favor, which allowed her to accept the agreement. “I understand. Let’s do it that way.”
“Since you have agreed, it’s time to sleep. Just go back to sleep after you’re done eating.” Nathan immediately waved his hand as though he knew Selena would agree. Then she faced the wall and lied down.
Selena looked at Nathan’s back. Nathan might come up with this for his own benefit, but he was thinking about getting stronger together. It wasn’t a relationship where they took down each other just for the sake of winning.
When was the last time someone cared for her?
A small smile formed on Selena’s face. It couldn’t be compared to the bright smile that she last had almost a decade ago, but it mellowed her face that was devoid of emotion.
“Nathan… Thank you…”