Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 137:Mission Jungler (2)

"Raymond, can you cast that same spell for me as well?"

Without a word, Raymond aimed his staff at her. Casting the same cooling spell he had casted on himself and Ellen.

Lucy practically melted, feeling the cold seep into her body.

"Thanks."

Raymond had received the same request from the others several times already, and he didn’t blame them. With how hot it was in the Evergloom Jungle, mundane individuals might have suffered a heatstroke and collapsed within an hour.

Even with the jungle canopy shielding them overhead from most of the blazing sun. It was still sweltering.

"Stop."

At least Noelle’s instructor, Rudeus was actually with them this time.

Compared to the two other missions Raymond went on previously. Instructor Juliet was completely absent in Dravenport and was most likely not even remotely close to them throughout the entirety of the mission. While instructor Sienna remained in her hotel room for the duration of their mission on Mirovia City working.

So having an instructor actually be with them throughout the mission was certainly unusual for Raymond.

Luckily, Rudeus was a relatively mellow person. Often chatting with them as they trekked through the jungle. His arsenal of weapons that he carried with him producing a constant clinking sound.

Reaching a relatively open clearing in the jungle, he examined the area for a while. Finding it free of any animal marks and potential danger.

"This is good, we’ll set up camp here. Since it’s getting late, we’ll start tomorrow."

Raymond wanted to immediately collapse onto the floor and fall asleep right there. If not for the fact that the jungle floor was anything except for clean and comfortable.

If not for the constant cooling spells and bug repellent spells he casted, it would have been about five times as worse as well. The smell of the jungle also didn’t do anything to make it any better for them.

It was also thanks to him that everyone else had it easy, since they didn’t need to carry their tents or any other camping supplies. Raymond could just store it all in his dimensional storage!

Except they weren’t infinite and ran out of space quite quick after the seventh tent. So Zachary had to copy his dimensional storage level 2 for the rest of them.

What a bogus cheat skill, Raymond also wanted a skill that let him copy others!

How come his system didn’t have a shop!

At least this time he wasn’t copying something else.

Handing over all of their items to each other, Raymond sat on a dead log watching as Ellen set up their tent.

"Aren’t you gonna help?"

"Carry your own stuff next time and we’ll see."

"You didn’t even carry it? You just used magic."

"But I still carried it?"

Ellen shot another glance at him, before ultimately deciding it wasn’t worth the trouble.

The moment she finished however, Raymond was the first to crawl inside and lie down. Spreading his arms as wide as he could.

Which wasn’t very wide actually, he couldn’t fully stick his legs out or spread his arms out completely.

"Should have brought a bigger tent."

She rolled her eyes, "This is already the biggest that the academy had."

"Then we should have bought our own!"

"It’s a waste of points, no thanks."

He sighed, casting another spell to clean himself and cool him down.

"I’m gonna sleep now. Wake me up for dinner later."

Before Ellen could even reply, he closed his eyes. Wrapping his arms around a pillow he had stored.

And it was perfectly acceptable, as the mage. Being tired after trekking all day long was completely normal so none of them could express any dissatisfaction for him not helping them.

Truly a win-win.

Ellen let out a sigh, seeing him so comfortably laying down. She felt her own exhaustion also flare up.

She had better stamina sure, but she also wanted to rest too!

Seeing that everyone else was busy still setting up the campsite, she quietly crawled into the tent as well. Lying down and closing her eyes.

With how cramped it was inside the tent, both of their bodies were pushing up against each other.

"..?"

He lazily opened an eye, making eye contact with Ellen who was barely an inch away from his face.

"I’m also tired."

"...okay."

He closed his eyes, desperately trying to ignore her warm breath which was tickling his face. Her presence being so close to him made his heart start beating way too fast for no reason at all. Her faint scent filling his nose.

Eventually however, he managed to calm himself-

Like hell that was possible!!!

And why was Ellen the one falling asleep first?!

It felt like only a few minutes had passed, but Raymond could see through the tent that the sky had darkened fully. The cold night air seeping into their bodies, making him shiver.

Or maybe it was Ellen who was making him shiver? He didn’t even know any more.

Eventually, after a lot of internal unrest. He did finally manage to actually calm himself down and fall asleep.

In doing so however, his arms loosened their hold on the pillow. Finding a new target and clinging to that instead.

The night was long and cold, so they had to stick to each other for warmth.

That was definitely the only reason why!

***

"Thomas. Can you go wake up Raymond and Ellen?"

"No problem."

After a final flip of the eggs, Thomas used his spatula to scoop them up onto several plates. Before taking off his apron.

Opening up the tent flap, Thomas found both Raymond and Ellen asleep.

"Oh my."

Laying on their sides, the two of them faced each other. Arms loosely draped over one another, legs tangled slightly. He could see that with every exhale from Ellen, it blew a small tuft of hair from Raymond’s forehead.

Laying like that, the two were completely relaxed—just the quiet warmth and steady stillness of two holding on to one another.

He let out a small cough, waking Ellen up first. Who immediately shot up wide awake, which in turn—woke Raymond up.

"Breakfast is ready."

Without waiting for them to reply, he walked away. Leaving both of them staring at each other as they processed the position they were just in.

"..."

"..."

It was a very awkward way to start the morning, to say the least.

Splashing some water on his face, Raymond stared at his own reflection. His own heart pumping unusually fast. Emotions running turbulent as his mind went through his memories without meaning to.

’Dammit. Why does she have to look so much like them?’

Ellen’s appearance was different from Sophia and her. But they were still similar enough that he occasionally saw flashbacks of them whenever he looked at her. Although this was only a more recent event, something that began occurring ever since the dream he had had while he was in a coma.

Their golden blonde hair, unusually bright or sparkly eyes. The main difference was that each of them had vastly different personalities.

He quietly ran a finger across his lips—cursing his own perfect memory.

Sighing, he dried his body using a spell. Before finding the rest of the group sitting around a makeshift table and bench.

Sitting down, a plate immediately appeared in front of him. With Thomas handing out breakfast to each of them.

Staring at his own plate though, he couldn’t help but notice it had more then the others.

"Thomas. Why did you give me so much?"

"Instructor Rudeus told me to give you extra since you were too skinny."

What?

Raymond was roughly the same build as Zachary and Thomas. How come they didn’t get the same treatment?

Sure he was a little scrawny, but his physique as a perfect human made up for it.

Audrina tilted her head, seeing her own plate also had extra.

’Am I skinny?’

He continued, "I agree with instructor Rudeus actually. You need to eat more if you want to be healthier, I’ve seen your diet."

"First of all. You aren’t my mom, secondly. Why are you keeping track of what I eat?"

Audrina tilted her head even further.

’Keeping track of others...not normal?’

Ellen stared off into the jungle, barely even noticing the current conversation going on with everything on her mind.

In particular however,she was constantly mulling over the fact that she too had her arms wrapped around him.

’Like some kind of child...’

The fork in her hands trembled slightly, her grip unknowingly crushing it slightly.

She felt a heat crawl up her face. Just picturing the image of the two of them sleeping like that...

At least it was Thomas who had seen them and woken them up. He probably didn’t even know how embarrassing of a scene he had just witnessed.

If it was Noelle who had seen her however. She might have had to just start throwing punches at her.

No other option, she couldn’t be allowed to walk free after seeing them like that.