Chapter 136: Chapter 136:A Loop [2]
Feeling the sweat accumulate and drip down my body alongside my desire for water increasing, I finally decided to discard my corrupted sweatshirt.
In times like this... I wish that not everything I made with corruption was black.
I mean, who wants to wear a gigantic black hoodie in 100-degree weather???
As my sweatshirt disappeared, revealing the countless corrupted bandages on my arms from my fight in the outer-space-like area, my cat also free-fell in the air.
Manifesting a backpack with my corruption, I caught the cat mid-air before putting him in the bag, not zipping him up.
Peeking his head out of the top of the backpack, the pitch-black threw his paw at my back, seemingly attempting to scold me for waking him back.
Well... I guess I didn't have it as bad as my crow or cat.
They must be burning up; after all, they're entirely pitch-black.
Ruby, who had been tugging on the sleeve of my sweatshirt, turned around in confusion as the cloth in her hands had disappeared.
Before she could even speak, I manifested a black cap and placed it over my hair, completely blocking the sun from hitting the rest of my face.
...Wasn't I getting a bit comfortable using corruption?
Nah, these were all essential things to get me through the day!
Clad in white pants and a white, both with the Elven realm logo, I inwardly thanked Liana for giving me some clothes.
Staring at my black hat and sunglasses, which were actually quite elegant as their color was completely black without any blemishes, Ruby asked.
"Aren't you getting a bit too comfortable? I mean, you look like you're going on vacation at the beach."
Shaking my head, I replied.
"These are essentials, though. Seems like someone's getting a bit jealous; correct me if I'm wrong!"
Turning back around to hide her face, Ruby replied.
"You are, in fact, wrong; I actually have more important things to worry about, like comfort."
"I told you they're essential! "
Hearing Ruby scoff, I looked at her attire, which included some pants that resembled jeans and a long-sleeve shirt adorned with the Elven realm logo.
As Ruby sped up towards the carriage, I tried to catch up, but every time I got remotely close to her, she just sped up even more.
Was she really annoyed?
Well, to be fair, I was basically showing off my comfort to her... but I was planning to give her a hat if she just asked!
Activating the usage period of the dash, I created yet another pitch-black hat using the dash and appearing right behind her.
Before she could speed back up, I placed the black hat on her and side-stepped to her right side.
Stopping for a moment, Ruby smirked before taking a hair tie out of her pocket.
After tying her elegant black hair into a ponytail, Ruby brushed her bangs back into the hat and adjusted the hat so that her ponytail flowed out of the little hole in the back.
Seeing Ruby continue to walk, I asked.
"Happy, now?"
Walking back towards the carriage, Ruby shrugged her shoulders and replied.
"If you had two hats in the first place, why didn't you just give me one?"
"...that's not, wait, you just saw me create it w-"
Speeding in front of me again, Ruby turned around to face me and winked, her ponytail fluttering as the breeze came in.
Following her, I glanced around my surroundings, seeing the rest of the main cast fast asleep under the shade of the trees.
She was calling me unfocused, yet her group was fast asleep this entire time!?
Well, they did stay up the entire night to confirm the loop, but still, I had to hike up a damn mountain yesterday, and I was awake!
Walking past the sleeping cast, I met up with Ruby, who was beside the carriage with the egg in her hand.
Seeing me approach, Ruby shook her head.
"We don't have all day, you know."
"You do understand; I'm the one cooking for you, right?"
"Good job, you're doing the bare minimum. Want a trophy?"
Chuckling at her sarcasm, I took the egg out of her hand and manifested a frying pan with my corruption.
...What could possibly go wrong when cooking food with corruption!?
Staring at the pan that appeared in my hand, Ruby clapped her hands before watching me carefully crack the egg open, allowing the yolk to fall onto the pan.
The sun was so hot that you quite literally fry an egg, which was both a good and bad thing.
Placing the frying pan on the part of the flipped carriage, exposing the egg fully to the sun, I leaned against the carriage and tried to make sense of our situation.
A Loop has a start and end condition.
I had already figured out the start condition was when a new day started, as the forest would reset at that time.
However, discovering an end condition in this massive forest would be a problem, to say the least.
It could be anything from stepping on a certain rock or pulling a specific branch...or in other words, it was completely up to luck.
We could escape in the next minute by accidentally triggering the conditions, or in the worst case, never escape and be stuck in this loop forever...
As the egg finished cooking, I grabbed a leaf, cleaned off the surface, and put the egg on the leaf before handing it to Ruby.
Ruby's words were right...searching a group would be much faster as we would be able to assign certain locations to people and work together.
However, to work efficiently with the main cast, I would need to expose the full range of powers.
Three days.
That's how much time I was giving myself before I gave up and joined the main cast.