F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 351: In Proximity

"Elara, Peter!"

Daru called in alarm, sliding out of his sleeping bag. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Sleeping in the middle of the two, his rowdy actions instantly woke his comrades up. Elara instantly knew what was going on. She slipped out of her slipping bag with practiced motion and scrambled towards the entrance.

Peter, meanwhile, was dumbfounded for a moment, unable to keep up as quickly.

Still, the SSS-ranker did the same.

The moment his head peered out of the burrow’s mouth, the first thing he heard was the clanging of steel.

There, a few meters in front of him, his comrades were fighting a huge, slim spider with a repulsive appearance.

But there was something else.

He felt it, the chilling, suffocating sensation of impending death and annihilation.

"Is this that Hissing they’re talking about?" he muttered, then joined the fray.

With the three of them, all apex rankers of this batch of humanity, the Rotblade Burrower was defeated fairly easily.

Daru and Elara concluded that it was probably scrambling for shelter from the Hissing.

Unfortunately, this burrow was theirs. The spider could only die so they could live.

Gray blood painting the deathly brown canvas, Daru quickly harvested some of its leg meat.

Soon after the trio slid back into their burrow, the world hissed.

Dawn seemed to have already passed, and they were approaching the mid-morning hours.

So, Elara whipped out her Mess Kit, prepared food with a strange bounce in her actions, then served the meals to her comrades with a smile on her face.

Daru opted to wipe out the boar meat in his inventory this time to save space.

As for Elara, hers was a thick steak of an unknown, quite possibly premium bull species. Peter, meanwhile, froze as he stared at his plate.

"What...is this?"

"Why, the juicy hind leg of a Rotblade Burrower, of course. This guy had already tried it last night. It’s safe," the princess explained with a devilish smile, urging, "Go on, eat. This would be the only time I will be cooking for you, after all. Enjoy this princess’s abilities."

To her surprise, the Aziyan SSS-ranker’s eyes brightened.

"Holy...spider meat, is it? I’ve tried lizard, turtle, and fermented horse meat before, but I’ve always wanted to try real spider meat. The problem is, all they cook in Phnom Shan City are small fried ones. I taste more of the crunchy shell than the meat itself. Thanks for this, princess, really!"

Catching genuine gratitude in Peter’s tone, Elara shuddered.

She had heard "horror" stories about the Aziyans’ rather peculiar culture and palate.

Their eating raw fish meat had already made her pale slightly. To think that it was among the "milder" ones in the list...

Before she could even recover, Peter had already grabbed the exoskeleton of a part of the Rotblade Burrower’s leg, taking a huge bite of the exposed, piping-hot gray meat.

Harmless gray juices that seemed to be mixed with a bit of oil flowed down his chin to the disposable plate.

"H-Haah...Haha...This princess has lost her appetite. I shall rest. Wake me when the Hissing ends..."

The Aziyan SSS-ranker’s brows rose, but shrugged the next moment impassively, taking another bite.

Daru and Peter ate in silence while Elara napped in nausea.

This Hissing lasted for the longest time — around almost two hours, so the princess woke up before it ended. She was able to reheat her meat and have breakfast before the three of them left the burrow.

By the time the lid opened, they were ready to move, and move they did.

While it would be ideal if all five of them were together before they advanced, there’s a chance that the others obtained access to other Verdant Nuclei, which meant they could be waiting here for nothing.

It might be tougher, but it is paramount that they secure a Verdant Nucleus in this stage first before worrying about their comrades.

The other teams would have to be extremely lucky not to have to make the same choices.

In fact, the three of them together would probably be on par with, if not the most dangerous group out there.

Most should only be working solo or with a partner.

It would be wiser to push their numerical advantage and secure a nucleus first before attempting to wait for their comrades.

Who knows?

Maybe one of them was already ahead, though such a thing was unlikely...

So, for the next four days, all the three of them did was advance to where the hollows of the trees were taking them, killing the spawns that dared attack, specifically Rotblade Burrowers.

The giant, slim spiders are all they have encountered so far, enough to give them a single level up.

Most of the days were spent hiding in natural burrows, though.

The total time they could use to move was merely around three hours per day, and they had to be careful when doing so, too, as going too aggressively might result in a death for all three of them.

Their appropriate caution had worked wonders, especially since there had been more than just a few times when there were no burrows even after journeying for more than ten minutes.

The death lands had turned out far larger than they thought, however.

There was nothing except for seemingly dead flora, burrows, and moving silhouettes in the distance. The fact that they couldn’t find water and were about to run out of supplies was also a concern.

However, with Daru and Elara having spare Hellberries in their inventory, their situation isn’t too dire yet.

It was then, on the dusk of their fifth day, that something changed.

They arrived at a lake.

On the other side of that vast, deep lake, there was a gray figure, watching them with a cold gaze.

A Veshari.

The enemies had also reached this stage of the Yggdrasil Race.

This also confirmed what Elara noticed: that while the general direction remained the same, the burrows were slowly steering them to the right.

They could not resist the pull, as they would be left with no shelter from the Hissing.

If her hunch was correct, they would soon be advancing somewhere close to their enemies, perhaps even fight them for the shelters.

The Vesharis had likely secured a Verdant Nucleus somewhere in that madly alive level of Yggdrasil, and that Verdant Nucleus was the one closest to theirs, hence the encounter.

But soon, the contact broke off as a chilling and increasingly suffocating feeling permeated.

The Veshari disappeared into the trees while the human trio returned to their burrow.

Then, the death lands hissed once more.