My Tribrid System: More than a Monster

Chapter 167

The days went on as usual without a single hitch.

The Corps was currently buzzing with intense energy regarding the expedition coming up in a week.

All across the campus, squads were being formed and the rosters submitted to their respective homeroom instructors.

Kai had already submitted their team names to Sony, though, unfortunately, a definitive leader hadn’t been decided on yet.

But they figured that could be sorted out later or so.

Just like that, the day ended with the teens heading back to their rooms.

Not all of them, however; Van was still hunkered down in his workshop for some reason.

That was how he had always been for days now—delving into and drowning himself in tech, only returning to the dorm when it was almost curfew time.

Even then, he didn’t truly sleep; he just continued working on one thing or another.

In the process, the once unnoticeable dark circles around his eyes had grown significantly more prominent than before.

Today was just like any other day, with him in his workshop surrounded by tons of gadgets that Ray still didn’t know the usage for.

He sat at his desk working endlessly on a project, his mechanical spiders moving around the workspace bringing whatever tools he needed directly to him.

Over the last several days, Van had actually managed to create over two dozen of these strange mechanical spiders that helped him carry out menial tasks.

His workload was a little easier now, as he didn’t need to be constantly moving around whenever he required something from among the piles of junk scattered in the room.

The spiders were able to retrieve what he needed as long as the objects didn’t exceed their weight capacity.

’Ugh... I wish I had more than two limbs right now. It would help a lot,’ he groaned inwardly, but he merely rubbed his eyes and continued his labor.

His concentration peaked as he focused on the task at hand.

’The expedition is in just a few days. I need to get this done as fast as possible. That’s the only way that I will be able to stand on my own without Ray rushing to always save me,’ he mused.

His eyes kept flashing a faint blue every now and then while he worked.

’... I have to turn this seemingly useless ability into something better.’

The sound of dozens of tiny mechanical legs scurried around the room, clicking against the floor while fetching Van whatever he requested.

In front of him sat a strange contraption that looked like a sleek bracelet of some kind.

A blueprint lay a few inches away from him, guiding his steady hands as he worked.

A yawn escaped his lips before he rubbed his tired eyes with the back of his hand.

He worked for hours until his watch made a loud beeping sound, which abruptly broke his concentration.

Without even glancing at the device, he knew exactly what it was.

His alarm!

It was now thirty minutes to curfew, and he needed to be in his room before the designated time.

Wasting no time, he stored his unfinished contraption to the side and commanded his spiders to stay in their corner while he walked out of the room with heavy, leaden eyelids.

Minutes passed, and it was only three minutes to curfew when Van finally arrived at his dorm room.

Without hesitation, he collapsed onto his bed.

Kai and Ray were still wide awake, though they were doing different things.

Kai was on his phone with earpieces in his ears, scrolling through the screen while chuckling every now and then.

Ray, on the other hand, looked to be sleeping with his eyes wide open.

He had one leg crossed over the other as he rested his head on his hands, his gaze fixed firmly on the ceiling overhead.

In reality, he was conversing with Elyon, trying to keep the celestial entity company within his thoughts. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Meanwhile, Bruce was in a far corner of the mind space, keeping mostly to himself.

His legs were curled tightly toward his body, his face buried deep into his thighs as if trying to disappear.

He hadn’t spoken for several days now—no snarky comments aimed at Ray or mocking jabs at Elyon.

All he did was keep himself curled up, rocking back and forth while occasionally mumbling incoherent words to himself.

Ray gave him a sidelong glance, his mental ears barely picking up the inaudible murmuring coming from the werewolf’s direction.

"Seriously though, what’s wrong with him?!"

Elyon shrugged, letting out a tired, heavy sigh.

"I have no idea. He keeps repeating the same behavior once in a while, and I’m just as confused about the reason why."

Turning to glare at the werewolf, Ray scowled.

"Hey, mutt! What’s up with you? Why are you suddenly so gloomy?"

"Buzz off, kid," Bruce growled silently, though he didn’t stop the rhythmic rocking back and forth.

’Strange. This is unlike him at all. He is usually barking and shouting at me if I even poke him slightly.’

There were a few seconds of heavy silence before Bruce abruptly stopped moving.

He opened his mouth, his voice sounding hollow.

"Hey, Elyon. It’s been five months since we were awakened here in this kid’s mind, eh?"

The celestial blinked in confusion, slowly giving a nod and knowing that the werewolf could sense his agreement through their connection.

"... Five months, huh? And we still can’t recall who we truly are aside from our race.

Five months, and we don’t know how we found ourselves trapped in the mind space of a human boy.

Five months of being stuck in this place like it’s some form of punishment."

As the werewolf spoke, his tone began rising by the second.

Veins started bulging across his forearms as his frustration bubbled toward the surface.

Ray was immediately on guard, worried about where the werewolf was going with these words.

Slowly lifting his head from his lap, the werewolf glared intensely at the celestial.

"... Don’t you think we deserve to have our own identities? I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to spend the rest of my existence in this place. As much as I want to see the kid dead, I still don’t want to be stuck with him for life! Shouldn’t we do something about this situation?"

Ray instinctively glanced at Elyon, wondering what his response was going to be.

The celestial thought for a few seconds, his eyes glinting with a strange light before turning to face Bruce fully.

"Okay? And what do you suppose we do about it?"

Bruce smirked.

A wicked, jagged grin curved his lips as a dark glint glimmered in his eyes.

He slowly turned his head toward Ray, his gaze predatory.

’Okay, I don’t like where this is going one bit.’

"Why don’t we just kill the kid right here, right now?"