CHAPTER 370: A DIMMED STONE

"Good morning!" Yura greeted Coco and Julian as soon as she got out of her tent.

"Good morning, Yura." Coco greeted back, shooting a strained smile on the newly awakened woman who bounced her way on their spot.

Julian nodded his head, silently acknowledging Yura’s presence, keeping his gaze at the spawn stone.

"We’re going to leave before lunch, right?" She asked, stopping beside Coco to look at the spawn stone, then blinking owlishly when she noticed a few dead monsters laying around.

"Did it spawn a monster when we were sleeping..?" The woman mumbled under her breath, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Unfortunately." Julian answered, glancing at Coco.

"She was fighting a flying pig when I woke up." He stated, gesturing towards the black haired woman who was staring blankly at the stone.

"You haven’t slept yet, Coco?" Yura questioned, a worried expression settling on her face.

"I can sleep once I get home." Coco mumbled, tilting her head to the side and leaned forward towards her unbreakable hoe, settling it between her legs and digging the blade onto the ground to stabilize it.

"I tried to make her go to sleep." Julian said, eyeing Yura. "But she was stubborn and kept insisting on accompanying me."

"The instructor and Myra couldn’t stay up so I had to stay up with you." Coco rebutted, shaking her head in disappointment as she recalled the way Julian kept refusing to let her stay. "I can’t leave you or anyone for that matter, alone in the dark.. In front of a spawn stone at that."

"We have your companion guarding us though." Julian argued back as he pointed at the sleeping feline by Coco’s foot.

"And?" Coco raised an eyebrow, not buying whatever comes out of his mouth.

Julian couldn’t help, but shut his mouth at that.

The way Coco’s eyebrows pinched together, the corner of her lips twitching, along with her squinted eyes told them that she was getting annoyed at their rebuttal.

"Right.." Julian mumbled, looking away.

To be honest, he was thankful that Coco stayed with him for the past two hours because the tough crocodile and the flying pig that spawned took him by surprise.

If it weren’t for Coco quickly jumping into action and knocking them down to the ground before they could lash out or deliver any damage to the surrounding area, he would have been dead by now.

Okay, maybe him thinking he would have died was an exaggeration, but the spawn stone didn’t shine much compared to how bright it shone in the day.

How else would he have known that it was already teleporting a monster if it wasn’t shining?

"How about we leave after we eat breakfast instead?" Julian suggested, casting a worried glance on Coco’s slouching form beside him.

"Yeah, I agree." Yura mumbled, turning in her heels and walking over to the tent. "I’ll wake Myra up."

Julian stood up from his spot and followed behind Yura, calling out to Coco over his shoulder. "I’ll go wake up the others so we can leave as soon as we’re done eating."

Coco didn’t bother protesting what they wanted to do and just nodded her head, raising a hand and waving dismissively to let them know that she understood and that she got it.

It took a couple of minutes before Coco stood up from her spot and walked closer to the spawn stone, her eyes staring straight at the magical stone.

"Lala, this stone is dimming." Coco said, making the fairy above her head agree.

"The stone dimming means that there’s another spawn stone nearby." Lala replied, getting off Coco’s head and looking around. "Want me to search the area? It would be quick."

"Sure." Coco agreed, not looking away from the stone, watching Lala fly towards the tree lines over her shoulder.

The reason why she stayed up all night was because the stone was showing signs of slowing down.

Sure, it spawned a few monsters in a span of seven hours, but that was much slower compared to how many monsters it spawned during the day.

The sky was already bright and cheerful, the sun peaking through the horizon and announcing to the whole world that a new dawn had arrived— making every living creature stir awake in their home.

Yet, despite the stone receiving morning sunlight, it still didn’t shine like yesterday.

In fact, the stone grew darker and darker, until the color of red had turned into a light shade of grey— the red hue could barely be seen, making it clear that there was something wrong with it.

Coco crouched down, her hand ghosting over to the surface of the stone with careful brush.

However, she broke out of her trance when she heard quiet footsteps behind her, followed by a mewl that came from Konoha.

"What’s wrong with the stone?" Came an inquiry from her team’s instructor.

"I don’t know." Coco said, lying through her teeth as she looked away from it, her eyes landing on Greinzer’s red eyes. "It grew weaker as the hours passed by until it turned into this color."

Greinzer stared at Coco, his eyes searching her face with any sign of deceit or anything that could give way to her thoughts, but he found none.

He let out a grunt, his hands curling into fists inside of his coat’s pocket. "I’ll let the guild master know about spawn stones.. Though, I could already tell that he already knows about it, but just chooses to not say it to us."

"Yes, sir." Coco nodded her head, looking away from him and pulling her hand away from the stone.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw the red haired fairy emerging from the tree lines, a panicked stricken expression on her face with her wings fluttering rapidly behind her.

"Coco!" Lala cried out, eyes wide in fear.

Coco immediately turned to Lala, concerned and confused, but before she could ask what was wrong— a scroll appeared in front of her eyes.