There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 418

Chapter 418: Chapter 411. Asserting Priority

Somewhere between Althrea and Neyta, there was an eternal dungeon that belonged to Trinity.

It was an underground terrain with a complex cave system that took Trinity a whole year to map out completely. As if to reward the explorers, the commodities coming out of this dungeon were magic stones; from mana stones to aetherite. As of now, only twenty percent of the dungeon’s terrain had been mined, and by the time they reached the farthest tunnel, the early ones would already regenerate more stones.

Naturally, it was considered as Trinity’s most precious dungeon. What they didn’t know was that the dungeon became precious not only because of the resources it brought but also because of its resilience. The terrain itself was made to absorb magic and vibration, so no matter what they did while mining, there was no fear of the cave system collapsing.

Which means, it was perfect for espers to go wild with their skills.

For this reason, the dungeon had been designated as the training place for the advance troops; the strike squads of [Anzus] and [Hagalaz]. The empty mines that had been excavated were now the home of rumbling sounds, blasting explosions, clanking weapons, and several curses for spice.

Their training was pretty simple; it was everyone against Bassena Vaski. Alternating between Hagalaz and Anzus, they treated the Saint-class as a boss monster--which, to be fair, was an overestimation on the boss’s part. After all, Bassena had already established himself to be stronger than even a black dungeon’s boss.

Lately, however, there has been an addition to the raid party; a prodigy who used to be groomed as Bassena Vaski’s replacement. Naturally, their firepower should be greater, but right now, as Zein watched the ’raid’ from a safe place, it looked chaotic.

"No--don’t go over yet! His children of darkness are still roaming around!"

"I told you to go left! LEFT!"

"I’m trying!"

"Don’t cover my line of sight, goddamnit!"

"DUCK!"

"Aargh!"

With just the addition of a new girl who had never cooperated with anyone before, the group who had solidly cleared high-level dungeon after high-level dungeon suddenly looked like a bunch of rookies.

"How chaotic," Zein commented as he peered down into the cavern that had become the hidden boss Bassena Vaski’s lair. The man himself was casually sitting on a boulder, fending off the attack without moving and with an exasperated frown on his face.

"Team play is a completely different skill, after all," Rina, who was in charge of the guides’ safety during this training, chuckled. "Only someone with overwhelming strength like the Commander can afford solo play."

"Because he’s strong in both offense and defense?"

"That," Rina smiled, pointing at the fleeting darkness all around the field. "And because he wasn’t completely alone."

Ever since the last trial, Bassena’s children of darkness had become more sentient, and could independently take action without Bassena needing to order them around. Even if Bassena was getting restrained, they could help free the esper.

’And still, he thinks it’s not enough,’ Zein mused inwardly.

It was admirable; this constant thirst for getting stronger. It was also adorable when the esper said he did it because Zein told him to be the best esper in the world. But Zein often thought that perhaps...Bassena strived to be strong because it was all he knew. It was all he had been taught of during his childhood; to be strong.

Ah, his sweet esper. Zein smiled as the training session ended in the raider’s total defeat. The guides came over to cleanse the exhausted and exasperated espers, but Bassena, who had been stationary all this while, immediately moved to approach Zein inside.

Was it because Senia also started to walk toward Zein? Who knew...

But Bassena immediately grabbed the guide’s cheek and kissed the man hard. Of course, it was guiding--but it was a guiding specially reserved for him. He couldn’t do something like that when Zein was still in his mask, and when Zein wasn’t wearing the mask anymore, everyone knew about their relationship already--so he didn’t need to ’assert dominance’ or anything.

And it wasn’t like he needed to do it now, but Bassena didn’t like more espers coveting his guide, so he had to show the newbie who the favorite in the room!

Still letting the esper consume his lips, Zein glanced past Bassena’s shoulder, toward the fallen princess who was puffing her lips. Chuckling at the childish display, he caressed Bassena’s nape and quickened the cleansing--although the man was barely corroded.

"So much for saying you’re going to stop acting like a brat," Zein whispered after the quick guiding.

"I’m just using my right," the esper cheekily replied while shrugging, leaning forward to kiss the guide again despite having nothing more to be cleansed.

"As the highest-rank esper?"

"As your boyfriend."

Zein stifled a laugh. "That’s hardly professional, Sir Vaski."