F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 337: Routine

"Hey, wake up."

Daru gently nudged Elara. It was midnight now, and he needed to sleep, too.

"Mhm..." the princess mumbled, still in dreamland.

"Hey, it’s your turn to watch."

To his surprise, a quick, strong arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him down.

"Five more minutes, daddy..."

Daru suddenly found himself almost face-to-face with Elara.

He quickly put his right hand in between, using the other to keep his balance, though not before her scent caressed his senses.

Then, he pushed the princess’s steadily approaching face away — gently at first — but her muscles tensed, refusing to let him escape.

"Hey, let go. I’m not your father." Daru mildly admonished.

Unfortunately, Elara only increased her strength the more he struggled, so he increased his strength, too, patience thinning.

Soon, it completely snapped.

His fingers moved, pinching Elara’s cheeks hard.

"Oww!" she yelped, instantly awake. It was definitely one of the less desirable ways to be woken up.

"T-That hurt! You brute! Can’t you be gentle wi–"

Before she could finish her words, however, she realized that her arms were wrapped around Daru’s neck and were even pulling him down.

With her intelligence, it wasn’t too difficult to connect the dots. She knew well how much of an unruly sleeper she was.

"Ahem!" Elara cleared her throat. "Your shift is over?"

Daru, exhaling in relief, nodded.

"Alrighty, then, this princess shall watch your back," she smiled, delighted that they wouldn’t be dwelling on her mild transgressions. "Ah, right. Before you do...how’s the night? Are there oddities?"

Daru nodded again. "The night hunts would last quite long. After that, the trees would move. Not only the Runebarks, but also the predatory trees. It’s best not to go out..."

As he said that, heavy thuds sounded close to their hollow, followed by frantic screeching, as if another rodent — one of a different species than the Volinis — was caught and was being killed.

"Poor things..." Elara remarked with a sigh. "Go, then, I’ll wake you up at dawn, so we can see what’s going on."

***

Daru sat up, yawning as he stretched.

"Rise and shine, handsome devil. I imagined that with how stiff you are, you should be quite punctual, so this princess had decided to let the savory aromas wake you up." Elara’s voice boomed.

He turned to look, lightly rubbing his face with his palm, then his eyes.

The two of them talked about how the night went while eating a hearty breakfast of random fried eggs, meat, bread, and, to his surprise, tea.

She even requested such luxuries from her future guild...

Outside, the nonexistent sun was beginning to ascend, painting the regal skies with hues of amber, dandelion, vermilion, and a taint of purple.

Daru woke up right in time for dawn.

With subtle, well-mannered burps, their breakfast concluded, and the two left the safety of their hidden hollow to investigate.

They first observed everything from the low branch adjacent to the hollow entrance.

"It’s peaceful..." He murmured, eyes scanning the lands beneath.

Just as he thought that, however, the leaves of a distant beech rustled, and from one of its high branches emerged a larger rodent.

Clamped on its lean, muscular arm was an odd, hairy nut. Sharp, dagger-like claws slowed its descent.

Then, it vanished into the hollow of that tree.

"That...was a massive squirrel..." Elara remarked, having also witnessed the scene.

That rodent spawn was taller than her!

The same scene happened at another beech tree farther in the distance, but this time, the leaves rustled, and a reddish-brown figure swooped.

The squirrel-like spawn, however, was swift and decisive, thwarting its lethal talons away with a snarling claw attack.

It almost fell out of the tree.

But ultimately, it survived, returning to the safety of its hollow.

Only, the hunting half-avian — this one of brighter feathers than the one they saw during dusk — suddenly returned from above the dense foliage, diving at the hollow.

Clangs, shrieks, screeches, and the occasional high-pitched snarls ensued as the bold hunter found it a struggle to enter.

A few moments later, the half-avian left with nothing.

"I see..." Daru said in a low voice.

With this, they now have a rough idea of what goes on in the forest during dawn, mid-morning, lunchtime, the afternoon, dusk, early evening, and the night hours.

Dawn, early morning, dusk, and early evening was where the rodents looked for food, which was also when the hunting avians took flight.

Mid-morning and the afternoon were when the three species — perhaps more — of half-avians were doing their nonsensical riot, though it was only temporarily termed this way because the two of them didn’t know of the real reason yet.

Lunch to early afternoon was relatively peaceful; this was the window where they could go and gather Life Sap, though the standard threats remained, with the Verdant Runebark being the most annoying and dangerous of them. At least in this location.

Then, the late-night hours...the time when the forest comes fully alive.

Elara experienced it too, and there were a few moments during her shift when she couldn’t help but glance at the sleeping Daru, heart beating out of her chest and uncertain of what to do the moment one of the heaviest thuds she had heard sounded and lingered close to their young fir.

They should not be moving during these hours.

Knowing all this was paramount if they wanted to survive and grow stronger in this environment.

"So, should we carry on with our bird-hunting?"

While the rodents are quite unpredictable and there was a chance those spawns would attack them, it was highly unlikely, as they are probably more worried about themselves being prey to those half-avians.

Elara believed they could continue with their usual tactic.

In fact, they weren’t even given time to get into position.

The leaves above them rustled, and a reddish-brown figure — the same as the one who swooped at the squirrel-like spawns — dove at them, specifically at Daru.

It was rather unfortunate for the half-avian that the human duo’s mind was at full-throttle and fully refreshed.

He reacted quickly, striking the pose for Stoic as the lethal talons gripped his arm.

To the Dawnblade Kestrari’s bewilderment, it couldn’t carry the prey and was stuck in position for a while.

A huge silver sword dropped right on its neck at that moment.

[-51,650!]

With a nauseating clack, it fell, almost pinned to the ground but slipped free at the last second.

The reddish-brown, spotted half-avian desperately flapped its wings to flee.

Unfortunately for it, Daru was aware that it was almost impossible for Elara’s Sword Skill to work perfectly, so he immediately transitioned into a sword manifestation himself.

His was azure.

Before the Dawnblade Kestrari could even rise to a barely decent altitude, an Azure Sword descended upon it, striking from the side and pinning it firmly around the base of the nearby pine.

[-15, 350!]

Daru then pivoted his foot, erupting into the second part of Azure Swordfall, half-dashing towards the barely-alive half-bird and severing its head completely with a massive, azure slash mark.

[-32,560!!]

[You’ve slain a Swordspawn of the High Winds, Dawnblade Kestrari Lv.83]

[You’ve obtained 35,600 experience points.]

[You’ve obtained (1) Wind Raptor Claw.]