CHAPTER 426: NOTHING TO DO

After hearing Lane’s words, the rest of the team quickly entered the cave one by one, and started setting up the camp. The place seemed perfect for the night, and it even bore traces of human activity - a few empty containers and plastic wrappers tossed somewhere to the side - which confirmed that those were the caves that the Guild had mentioned in their report.

At the same time, there were no signs of the lizard monsters. This was a little weird, considering how great of a shelter those caves seemed to be... But then again, they didn’t know much about the lizard monsters’ habits. Perhaps they simply didn’t fancy underground spaces.

Either way, the caves felt safe, and that was all that mattered. The team members started busing themselves, some setting the Smokeless Campfire and taking out their rations, others checking the ground to see which spots were the best to spread their sleeping mats in...

While some of the others were doing nothing. Or at least nothing productive.

Like, for example, Lane. He was sitting on a rock, his chin rested on his hand, and sucking on a lollipop (strawberry yogurt flavor), as he observed the rest of the team without much interest.

It wasn’t even that he was resting because he was injured or too tired. He was clearly just bored and unbothered to help. The way he looked at the team’s efforts and rolled the lollipop around in his mouth, it seemed almost ostentatious...

And naturally, it attracted unwanted attention.

"Do you have nothing better to do?" Clara finally snapped, slamming the cooking utensils down as she sent an annoyed glare Lane’s way.

Lane, however, only shrugged his shoulders in response. "Nope, not really!"

"Hah?" Obviously, his reaction irritated Clara even more. "Are you sure about it?"

"Well, yeah?" Lane shrugged his shoulders again. "What do you want me to do?"

"You could for example..." Clara started, but then she paused.

...There wasn’t really anything left to do. The meal was already being taken care of, and they didn’t need another person for it. The entrance to the cave was being watched over by Damien, and considering how small it was, there was no space for Lane to join, even if he wanted to. The Espers on their team could use some guiding, but since Lane was an Esper himself, he couldn’t help with that either (at least as far as Clara was aware). The same thing with the healing - Clara didn’t know whether Lane was any good with treating people, but that didn’t seem like his thing, so he probably wouldn’t be able to be of much help there (or so Clara believed). The only thing he could really do was to prepare a place for himself to sleep...

But that was his own problem, so it made no sense for Clara to lecture him about it. Not to mention, setting a sleeping mat was something that could be done in just a few minutes. Especially for Lane, who had high-quality equipment, and didn’t have to worry about the dryness or the evenness of the ground he was sleeping on as much as the other members of the team...

Still, Clara refused to admit defeat. She might not have minded Lane stealing kills from her, but losing a verbal scuffle? Not a chance!

"You should go wash yourself up," she eventually said, looking Lane up and down in disgust. "You stink of monster blood!"

That was true. Lane was drenched in blood from head to toe. Even his pink hair had been dyed in a deep shade of red. His face and hands were a bit cleaner, since he had wiped them with wet tissues, but even that wasn’t done properly.

Of course, it wasn’t just Lane. Everyone else also looked as if they had just bathed in blood. It was unavoidable after fighting monsters in close quarters for so long. Even those whose abilities and fighting styles didn’t spill that much blood, for example those who used fire, or Damien with his ice sword, couldn’t avoid it. After all, even if they didn’t spill the monsters’ blood, their teammates fighting right next to them did...

Clara quickly realized the problem with her argument, though, and before Lane could point that out, she added, "We can’t all go wash up at the same time, so, since you’re not doing anything, you should go now so that you won’t block the way for the others later. We also want to clean ourselves soon, you know?"

"Hmm... I guess you have a point..." Lane muttered, albeit unwillingly. "I’m not the only one just sitting around, though?"

"Then take others with you! There should be enough space in the pool for three or four people."

"Right..." Lane sighed, sweeping his eyes through the cave...

Until his gaze fell on the man sitting nearby, also resting without doing anything productive.

It was, of course, Ethan. Who, despite not having any injuries - his equipment protected him well - was just lazing around, simply because he was tired. As if the rest of the team wasn’t tired as well!

He had overheard Lane and Clara’s conversation, and the moment Lane’s eyes met his, he almost jumped onto his feet. He had a bad feeling about it, so he wanted to quickly find himself something to do...

But it was too late, because Clara noticed him as well.

"Take Ethan with you," she said to Lane. "And..." she quickly scanned the group, "Maybe Adrian and Jasper."

"But... But! I need to give others guiding!" Ethan tried to defend himself, subconsciously glancing in the direction of the cave’s exit, where Damien were...

It was a mistake, though, because Lane’s eyes instantly narrowed. "It’s hardly the right time to give others the guiding, isn’t it? Everyone’s too busy for that."

"Lane’s right," Clara agreed. "We’re all still stable enough. Guiding can wait until later."

The reason behind their rare agreement was, naturally, Damien. They didn’t want to allow Ethan to end up bathing with him!

Ethan pressed his lips tightly. Although he still wanted to argue, he knew it was pointless. Since Clara and Lane were on the same side on this, it would be nearly impossible for him to oppose it...

Especially since he had no valid arguments. Thus, he had no choice but to follow Lane down one of the narrow tunnels, heading towards the underground pool...