My Joker System: From Low Mana Trash to the Mightiest Wizard!
Chapter 77: Muddled Yet Again

Chapter 77: Muddled Yet Again

"Liora, how are you feeling?" Hal asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I’m fine... just a little exhausted. I’ve depleted most of my mana, so I think I need to rest for a while."

"That’s fine. We’ll continue advancing tomorrow."

After confirming his comrade’s safety, Hal breathed a sigh of relief, but then suddenly panicked as he remembered something important.

’Loki!’

He spun around, his heart pounding faster when he didn’t see his little pup.

The battle had been so intense that he had forgotten to check on his beloved companion.

Soon enough, he heard munching sounds coming from behind the bushes where the Firevenom Viper had attacked from, making Hal’s heart sink.

He didn’t lose his mind, though.

He quickly summoned his level 4 permanent-durability Spirit Wolf to check things out.

As it pounced through the bushes, Hal braced himself for the worst, and what he saw made his eyes widen—but not in horror or despair.

There little Loki was, happily munching on the viper’s eggs.

The pup was already happily eating the last of them inside a root hollow hidden in the thick bushes.

It seemed to be the Firevenom Viper’s nest.

Seeing Hal’s expression ease up, Liora finally managed to calm down, though she didn’t dare stay where she was, and struggled over to where Hal was.

The earlier ambush was still fresh on her mind.

"Hahaha, you little rascal." Hal laughed, rubbing Loki’s head as the pup munched on both the shell and the yolk. "You dare eat when your master is out there fighting for his life?!"

He then turned his attention to the unexpectedly spacious and well-hidden root hollow.

They could use this place as their camp spot for the night...

And so, they did.

Liora’s mana pool was almost completely drained, and she needed at least four hours of recovery before she could fight again.

Nightfall would have arrived by then, which was why the two decided to set up their base early to increase comfort and reduce the risk of being discovered by other monsters.

The first thing they did was throw the viper’s carcass away.

It was during this time that Hal learned from Liora that the beast they had just fought and defeated was C-ranked.

The revelation made him break into a cold sweat, recalling the moments he had dared to block the snake’s attacks head-on using [Mana Barrier].

He silently vowed to research more about magical creatures in the future, or maybe even attend a few classes about them.

Hal initially wanted to harvest some viper meat for little Loki.

However, Liora quickly stopped him, explaining that the viper’s meat was toxic. Only its fangs and venom sac could be harvested and sold for money.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the proper equipment to do so.

In the end, they could only throw the carcass as far from their location as possible and clean the blood from the ground, drastically reducing the chances of their hiding spot being discovered by high-ranking monsters.

As the two worked, Loki slept comfortably inside the root hollow.

An hour and a half later, the duo finished setting up their small campsite, wiping the sweat from their foreheads with satisfied smiles.

But when it was time to enter, their shoulders touched, making the atmosphere slightly awkward.

"Y-You go first," Hal offered.

The white-haired maiden nodded, her heart feeling ticklish and her face slightly red.

The root hollow was spacious, but not spacious enough for them to lie a few meters apart.

’Isn’t this worse than us sleeping in the same hotel room?!’

This was the thought running through Liora’s mind.

Fortunately, Hal was a quick thinker.

He swiftly pulled out the bags containing their rations.

"H-Here. You’re hungry and tired, right? Go eat then sleep. I’ll keep watch."

The tan-skinned maiden didn’t know what to do, so she simply nodded and began eating.

The atmosphere gradually eased as minutes passed, and soon enough, they no longer felt awkward in each other’s presence.

At least not as much as earlier.

Eventually, Liora managed to take a one-hour nap, waking just before night fell and the entire forest lit up in blue.

Hal was sitting a few meters away from her, leaning against the walls of the hollow.

"Slept good?"

"Decent..."

"How’s your mana?"

"I’ve recovered quite a bit..."

After asking Liora about her condition, Hal nodded and crawled out of the hollow, leaving a simple instruction:

"Wait here with Loki. There’s something I need to check."

Earlier, while his comrade was asleep, Hal had set up pebble markers outside the bushes.

It was time to check which way they were pointing now that the runes had activated with the arrival of the cold night.

To his surprise, the pebbles were... gone.

He quickly pulled out the Manatech Expedition Pro Mark 7 and checked the marker detection screen.

It was now pointing in the opposite direction from what he expected.

’What the hell is going on?!’

He scratched his head and was about to return to the hollow to think things through, but to his panic, the moment he parted the bushes, the root hollow was gone.

Hal quickly summoned the Spirit Sparrow in a panic and used its vision.

Shortly after, his heart calmed as he spotted the root hollow’s entrance facing to the left.

It seemed that in his confusion, he had failed to notice he’d walked to the side of the massive oak.

But on second thought...

’No... I only exited the bush...’

Hal was certain.

He quickly switched his vision back to the tiny summon and observed the surroundings.

However, the land didn’t seem to be rotating.

’Or did I miss it?’ he pondered.

Soon, Hal spotted something on the other side of the oak—the pebble markers he had prepared earlier.

His brain kicked into gear again, trying to understand the mystery of this cursed zone.

’Aihh... my head hurts...’

Hal walked over to where the pebbles were, checking the direction they were pointing.

It matched the direction indicated by the expedition device.

With a deep sigh, Hal returned to the hollow.

The markers remained a reliable navigation tool...

But would they stay that way until they made it out of the zone?

Hal wasn’t certain.

What he was sure of, though, was that he needed to understand how the zone was messing with his sense of direction.