Ruger blinked, held his breath, and stood quietly in place, carefully sensing every blade of grass and tree around him.
There really seemed to be no change.
The two exchanged a glance, communicating silently. Neither seemed to have noticed anything unusual.
That let them both breathe a sigh of relief.
Although Ruger had expected this, he could hardly help feeling nervous. In fact, when discussing it, they had already reasoned that even if the old woman did not care about errand runners like them, she would still make every part of the process as good as possible for the sake of her own plan.
"Keep going?"
Ruger looked at Layden.
They had already dropped one here, and the cone in his palm instantly stopped feeling hot. The old woman had given them no opportunity to slack off.
Layden nodded, though he seemed to be pondering something.
Ruger strode onward.
Whenever he saw something interesting, he stopped to collect it. Many things in the Nightmare World could not be judged by ordinary standards.
A forest of withered trees, a little pink flower that had appeared for no apparent reason, a mushroom with oval spots, or even a smooth, rounded stone that looked rather pretty-ordinary yet unusual, they all caught Ruger's eye.
Ruger and Layden took turns dropping their little cones at particular locations, one each.
Their initial nervousness gradually gave way to automatic motions.
Throughout this time, Lady Mewtris, the wizard, never appeared, so the two continued the task at their own pace.
Ruger also claimed a large share of the prey in Zhizhi's name and sent it into the Abyss Bedroom space, giving Aisijin and Big Silly Hum something fresh to eat. After such a long period of testing, both he and Zhizhi had adapted to eating nightmare creatures, so