Chapter 182: Not Able to find Thunder

“It’s delicious,” Kai urged again. “Eat it, Kei!”

Kei stared down at the slice of meat before him. The aroma drifting off it was undeniably enticing, yet his mind kept flashing back to the image of that colossal monster swarmed by six S-rank hunters.

He fell silent for a beat before letting out a soft sigh.

The city had just survived a terrifying day of combat. People were injured, others exhausted, and the streets outside hadn’t even been cleared yet. And yet here Kai was, transforming an SS-rank Boss into dinner for everyone, grinning as lightheartedly as a child.

Ultimately, Kei picked up a piece of meat and bit into it tentatively.

The texture proved chewier than he anticipated, but the flavor was remarkably rich and savory. As he chewed slowly, Kei realized he couldn’t refute a single word Kai had spoken.

The serpent meat was genuinely exceptional. It was far denser in energy and nutritional value than ordinary meat, naturally, given that it came from an SS-rank Boss.

“See it?” Kai beamed brightly. “I told you it was good!”

Kei offered no reply, simply eating a second piece in silence. Lucas glanced at the plate of meat, then at Kai, wearing an expression that suggested he couldn’t decide whether to praise the man or lecture him about not bragging quite so openly over eating a Boss.

Out in the streets, the black Dungeon rifts remained shrouded in darkness, lying low as they awaited the return of dawn.

Their night of respite wouldn’t last long.

—

That night, after everyone had finished eating and the logistics zone grew progressively quieter, Kai still refused to cut Kei any slack.

“Let’s share a bed, Kei…”

Kei was in the midst of unrolling his sleeping mat onto the floor when his hands froze. He stared at the single cot in the temporary room assigned to him, then looked back at Kai with an exhausted expression.

“No. This space is way too cramped.”

“All the more reason to share it,” Kai stated as though it were the most self-evident truth in the world. “If we sleep separately, I won’t know if Kei suddenly runs into danger.”

“We’re inside a safe zone managed by the Zootopia Guild, how on earth could I possibly run into danger?”

Kei chuckled in disbelief.

“A Dungeon Break is actively underway. Nowhere is absolutely safe, which means we have to stay glued to each other at all times.”

Kai spoke with absolute solemnity, though his hand had already snagged the corner of the blanket Kei was holding, stubbornly blocking him from spreading it out unless he agreed to let Kai crash with him. He pinned Kei with a gaze of glowing golden eyes, his expression so resolute Kei knew that arguing further would achieve nothing.

Ultimately, Kei could only sigh and surrender.

“Just sleeping together, got it?”

“Yeah!” Kai instantly brightened up.

Kei hugged the edge of the mattress, trying his best to carve out a buffer zone in the middle. But before long, Kai had rolled right over, wrapping his arms securely around Kei’s waist and tugging him flush against his chest.

Kei knitted his brows slightly, staring helplessly at the arm locked around him.

“Can’t you stay still for even a second?”

“I am staying still.”

Kai replied nonchalantly.

“Your arm is locked around me crushing my waist.”

“Because I’m worried you’ll roll off the bed.”

Kei glanced at the gap separating him from the edge of the mattress behind his back. He still had at least half a pillow’s worth of clearance.

“That excuse holds zero credibility.”

Kai chuckled, though this time he didn’t argue back. He simply buried his face near Kei’s shoulder, his warm breath fanning softly against the skin of his neck.

Inside the small room, the chaotic noise of the shelter gradually faded.

The people outside were likely making the most of their brief rest before dawn ushered in another brutal day of combat. Kei closed his eyes, his body still strung taut from a full day’s labor in the logistics zone. The scent of hot metal, the rhythmic pound of hammers, and the jagged, blood-stained tears ripping across the hunters’ armor kept haunting the fringes of his mind.

Kai seemed to sense he was still awake, and began recounting tales from the frontline.

He described how Lucas had guided him to the sector where the hunters were struggling to hold down the colossal serpent Boss. Six S-rank hunters had taken turns blocking it from slithering past the defensive line, but every time the monster thrashed its body, their formation was hurled violently backward. Its black scales possessed a hardness that caused numerous strikes to bounce off with nothing more than shallow scratches.

“Then I flew in and delivered a single swipe with my dragon claws,” Kai recounted, his voice swelling with pride. “It was practically sliced almost entirely in two right on the spot!”

Kei opened his eyes in the pitch-black room, amusement dancing deep within his gaze.

“You make it sound as casual as casually swinging a stick.”

“Well, because it basically was.”

“That’s an SS-rank Boss we’re talking about, yet you treat it like a child’s game?”

Kei asked with lingering amusement.

“Which is precisely why it was worth my time to step in.” Kai rubbed his forehead gently against Kei’s shoulder, happily pressing onward. “Those hunters were utterly exhausted. Lucas was injured, too, forced to juggle commanding troops while scanning tactical maps. Once I took care of the serpent, everyone finally got a chance to catch their breath.”

His tone remained light and breezy, yet Kei vividly recalled the tension etched across Lucas’s face during dinner, the bandages wrapped thickly around the hunters’ arms, and the ominous black Dungeon rifts marked across Lucas’s tactical map.

Kai had contributed immensely, yet he recounted the feat as though he’d merely taken a leisurely stroll and picked up a free basket of meat along the way.

No mass release, New book is coming.

1 castle – 5 chapters bonus