The Hunt (8)

Once all the guests left, the six of us remained inside the dining room. I couldn't help but give them my signatures when they begged for it through their eyes. It was my fault for having high expectations from Ethan's friends from another school. I wouldn't be surprised if they were passionate about catching bugs at this rate. I turned to Ethan, "why didn't you tell me from the start that your parent's connections were inside a gaming club?"

"I didn't know. It's the first time they revealed it," Ethan had joined their business circle with me.

In fact, Alex had also signed Luke up for the secret gaming club with him. All six of us were welcome to join after the guests discovered we were already inside a secret gaming club in our school. I never thought I would become famous in the dungeon game for trying to collect a harem. It was nice to have followers who admired me. This just showed how many people possessed a bogus mask in high society, desperately trying to cover their true selves.

"By the way, do you have some free time right now?" I needed help.

"What is it?" Ethan was in a good mood.

"Help me dig some holes in your garden," I planned to hide from the hunter.

"I'll give you all the bugs that come out of them," I offered.

"Let me choose the section, I know where most of them roam during the spring," he agreed.

"Are you in the bug catching club?" Alex recalled.

"The three of us are," Oili remembered my excuse.

Before I could ask Oili's partner and Flora, they immediately ran away, sending them messages they will be busy handling the guests. Alex frowned as we quickly moved to another location, Ethan passing shovels to me and Oili. I could tell his impression of Oili and Ethan immensely lowered by several levels. Although Oili had never dug holes in the ground before, he knew the process from watching us during one of our club activities.

"Would you like to join us?" Ethan turned to Alex.

"I'm fine," Alex stood a distance away from us.

I shrugged as I began to determine where I would make the holes by stabbing a shovel inside. The shovels were just for show anyways. I took my cages out and placed them next to me. Ethan and I were busy with mumbling spells, lifting the dirt out and throwing them into a pile. Meanwhile, Oili struggled to transfer the bugs into our cages, making sure none of them would fall on him. Thankfully, Alex was too disgusted to notice Oili was out of sync from us.

"The hole needs to be deeper," I grimaced.

The height of the hole would barely fit me, allowing the possibility of the hunter noticing the uneven grounds. I planned to make the holes into a mini capsule, scolding Ethan, "how do you expect a person to fit inside there? We also need to cover my height in addition to making it look like nothing is out of place."

"What?" Ethan briefly froze.

"I'm planning to spend five minutes inside there, it's a great place to rest," I revealed.

"Are you crazy?" He stopped digging more holes.

"Why wouldn't the idea work? We could teleport there to instantly gather bugs without any work. It would be more convenient," I tried to convince him.

"Most people will suffocate from the lack of oxygen once their mana runs out," Alex avoided the holes without any effort.

"Let's go home. We're leaving this event," he began to call for our hover car.

"I'm not going to your mansion. I have to create some holes where I can live inside," I couldn't abandon this plan.

"You banned me from your garden. That's why I'm doing it here," I continued to dig.

I brightly smiled when a sudden screen appeared in front of me:

[Round Start: One Minute Remaining]

I jumped inside the hole, using the rest of the time to cover myself with the dirt and grass over my barrier. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to work on the other holes. I had to hope that the hunter wouldn't think of digging this one. Thankfully, I had a shovel with me, using it to make the hole deeper. I yelled to the people above me, "don't bother me for six minutes. I'm digging deeper so if you try to pull me out, I might die from the poor infrastructure."

"How much do you want us to compensate you?" Alex was likely asking Ethan.

"It's fine. I don't need any money. Rika may be right. I could use these holes later," Ethan declined.

"I'll make some proper capsules later," he mumbled.

"I can help with the blueprints," Oili considered it to be a part of our club activities.

"I'll leave it to you," Ethan tried to see how sturdy my hole was.

[The barrier is holding up, it's not bad for a makeshift capsule. I'm several metres into the ground] I sent them a message.

"What did Rika send you?" Alex noticed.

"She's several metres into the ground," Ethan showed him, not having a choice from Luke's contract.

I stopped digging when the screen warned me: [Round Started: Five Minutes Remaining]

I stayed in one place, using my barrier to leave me some space from the dirt below me, representing the ground. As minutes passed, I wondered if it was too easy to be true. Did no fairies dig holes to save themselves before?