Chapter 122 | Time With Jasmine!

Four men, four seconds, four bodies with minimal struggle.

In the blink of an eye, the pit went quiet.

Dark blood pooled at the bottom of the trap.

Jasmine pulled herself out, wiped her blade on the bait jacket, and sheathed it. Lucy climbed out beside her, expression neutral. Michael hauled himself up, hands stained. John was already scanning the treeline.

The silence held for a long moment. Then Jasmine exhaled, she looked at the pit, at the bodies, and felt some sort of satisfaction.

"If you're hunting something, you should be prepared to be hunted too." Michael muttered.

Lucy said nothing, simply cleaned her daggers and nodded.

John straightened and grimaced slightly in pain.

"Alright. Clean up and leave. Now. Before anything else finds us."

Andrew quietly used extraction on the five corpses and his eyes lit up instantly.

'Creation should be able to merge these together.'

He couldn't wait to try it.

They filled the pit, buried the bodies and scattered debris. They collected the squad's weapons and storage ring. Then they moved out, heading for the dimensional gate as fast as they possibly could.

---

Fifteen minutes to the gate. They passed through the fog, the oppressive atmosphere of the Frontier Continent giving way to the cooler, cleaner air of the staging camp.

A soldier with a square jaw and bored eyes looked up from his clipboard. "Head to the administration center. Register all loot. Twenty percent to the government."

"Understood," John said.

The squad all walked towards the administration center.

The administration center was a massive building with metal and reinforced glass.

John went inside alone to handle the registration. The rest waited outside.

Jasmine stood beside Andrew.

She'd been doing that since they left the forest, positioning herself at his side constantly.

She was giving him that smile again, and glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

Andrew remembered that she mention something like giving him a gifts after they are dime with the expedition.

At the time, he'd thought it a joke but now, he wasn't so sure.

Twenty minutes crawled by. Andrew leaned against the wall as the squad waited for him.

Just when they were beginning to get impatient, John emerged as he finished the paperwork.

"Let's go."

They headed to their transport vehicle as John drove.

Andrew sat by the window, watching the rolling hills outside Maryland City, his reflection tired and young.

John glanced at him in the rearview mirror, his expression tight with guilt. "Andrew, I'm sorry. We failed to protect you the way we should have. There was a traitor among us. The expedition wasn't what it should have been. It didn't meet your expectations."

Andrew smiled, genuinely. "It was more than I'd hoped for. I would bet that non of my classmates had as much fun as I did."

The squad chuckled. It was only Andrew that could call it fun. Other students would have definitely died a thousand times over.

The tension eased somewhat and the drive continued in comfortable silence.

The expedition had been scheduled for three days; they were returning a day and a half earlier.

Keeping Andrew in the field after what had happened would have been irresponsible, so they cut it short and pointed the vehicle toward the academy.

But about 5 kilometer away from the academy, Jasmine suddenly spoke. "I want to take Andrew around the city. He doesn't know much about Maryland City."

The others were slightly stunned by Jasmine request.

Andrew blinked. "I mean… yeah, I don't know much. But I'm not sure—"

Jasmine's tone left no room for argument. "Let me take you to the good places. I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

John, Lucy, and Michael collectively found other things to look at. John pulled to a stop in front of the store, and Jasmine opened the door, took Andrew by the arm, and practically pulled him out into the evening air.

Andrew went, too tired to argue, and because something in Jasmine's eyes told him resistance would be futile.

She hooked her arm through his, warm and close, carrying the faint scent of lavender beneath the lingering smell of forest.

She guided him down the street wigh a smile on her face as she walked down the street with him.

"This is one of my favorite places," she said, stopping in front of a massive, towering hotel.

Andrew's stomach dropped. "Your favorite place is a hotel?"

Jasmine laughed as she sounded like a 100 siren singing. She shook her head and pushed his shoulder playfully. "No, dummy."

She pointed to the building beside it, a restaurant with large windows and the rich aroma of roasting meat spilling out.

"That is the restaurant."

Andrew exhaled in relief. For a moment, just a moment, he'd thought… well. That would have been complicated.

They entered the restaurant and it was a arm and bustling, filled with the clatter of dishes and the smell of cooking meat.

Mounted heads of dimensional beasts stared down from the walls. As they settled on their seat, Jasmine called the waiter and ordered without consulting the menu, rattling off dishes like a regular.

When the food arrived, Andrew understood.

Roasted double-headed lamb. A dimensional beast, notoriously difficult to hunt, prized for its meat. The skin was crisp and golden, the meat so tender it fell apart.

Andrew didn't even wait as he started to consume the entire lamb. Legs, ribs, shoulders, necks, cheeks, the two heads stripped to the skull. He ate until the bones were clean and his stomach ached.

Jasmine watched him the entire time, chin propped on her hand, a small smile on her lips. She'd barely eaten herself.

"Yes," she said, satisfaction thick in her voice. "This is why I brought you here. I knew you'd like it."

Andrew leaned back, full and warm. The meat of dimensional beasts carried energy, nutrients that fed his body in ways ordinary food couldn't.

"It was good."

"Just good?"

"Very good."

She laughed again and flagged down the waiter for more.

By the time they finished, night had settled.