There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 468

Chapter 468: Chapter 461. Onward

"When I got your report, I couldn’t really believe it, but...you went through a war, huh?" Ashur said the moment Hagalaz’s squad members entered the tree fortress, glancing past the closing wall to the piles of burning corpses at the far side of the valley.

"We’ll have to face it sooner or later anyway; now we have an example," Bassena looked at the squad members who, just like anyone else, stared at the shards and the dome with parted lips and pure amazement. "How’s the journey?"

"Thanks to you, it was even easier than dungeon raiding--except for the miasma level and the perpetual darkness," Ashur shrugged and pointed at the crates and chest they brought. "Where should we put this?"

"Just pile it near the wall; we’ll take everything to the ruin tomorrow anyway. Give your recording to Kei, and we’ll send the report together. Have you guys eaten?"

While the espers were busy with logistics and whatnot, Zein was welcoming the three guides who looked like they wanted to cry at the sight of him. They didn’t go as far as hugging him as Dheera did, thankfully, but they did look like kids who finally saw their parents at the end of the school period.

"Captain!"

"Captain, I miss your nagging so much!"

"Not hearing the sound of your scolding feels weird..."

Zein rolled his eyes, but he also patted the three guides one by one. "Was it hard?"

"Not the guiding," Brisk shook his head. "There’s not much battle anyway, so no one went past yellow. It’s just..."

"The miasma level is..." Silva let out a heavy exhale that was mixed with a breath of relief since she could finally take off the goggles. It wasn’t fun wearing one when you were already in glasses to begin with.

But alas--they didn’t make dark-vision goggles with eyeglasses lenses in mind.

"You’re right, Captain; it’s worse than the simulation," Dead added, hugging himself while shuddering. "It feels so heavy and...disgusting."

"But you persisted, didn’t you?"

"Of course!" the three of them replied without hesitation, and Zein nodded with a smile on his face. _{free𝑤ebnovel.com}

"Get some rest for now," he patted their shoulders and pointed to his back. "These two will take you to play if you want."

Dheera and Leehan grinned, raising their arms as they welcomed their three colleagues; the difference in their facial expressions was palpable. Zein turned to the command center then, where Bassena, Ashur, and the scouts were.

"Are your level good?" Zein asked the Hagalaz Captain.

"I barely did anything," Ashur shrugged. "There’s not many beasts attacking us, and the troublesome ones were the wight--which I couldn’t attack, since all of my skills are physical."

Zein scanned the esper to check, and the man was right; even without guiding for days, he was still in yellow. Ashur chuckled and added. "I was basically useless the whole way."

"Isn’t it good that we managed to make you useless?" Bassena smirked. "Means we’re doing it right."

Ashur laughed. "I hoped you left something for me to do tomorrow."

"Oh, don’t worry," Bassena turned toward Ron. Combining Bassena’s children of darkness with the scout’s shadow travel, they had tried to see as far as they could, checking the path and what lay in the path toward the city ruin. "There’ll be a lot more tomorrow--enough for everyone."

"Oh?"

Ashur raised his brow and took a seat on the bench of the command center, listening to Bassena’s deliberation about their route tomorrow while being guided by Zein. The discussion was a good thing to distract him from getting flustered by Zein in front of the guide’s own boyfriend.

"So...some of the hordes came from our direction, and the rest came from the area beyond the valley?" Ashur summarized. "It’s such a coincidence, isn’t it, that you arrived when the attack happened?"

"It’s not," Zein shook his head. "The core had no concept of time measurement, so I can’t say the exact time they got here, but...they’ve been here for a while, mindlessly trying to break the wall."

"Ah..."

"They should be rallying after our team left," Ron said. "Since there’s no trace of any horde when we checked the last time."

"A few weeks or a few months, it doesn’t matter," Bassena muttered. "What mattered is whether they came by instinct..."

"Or by order," Zein finished the words.

"Hah--" Ashur frowned and rubbed his lips. "Among all dungeons I had experienced, the only creatures with this kind of order are undead and bipedal ones. Even then...it would be just one kind of creature..."

"Right," Bassena nodded. "While there are clear hierarchy based on miasma level, it’s usually more of a prey and predator relationship."

This was why pitting creatures against each other was one of the feasible strategies in the dungeon raid. But that was in the dungeon. While Deathzone was established due to numerous outbreaks that were left unattended in an area--which meant the creatures still retained the characteristics of the dungeon’s beasts--the last excursion showed that these creatures were able to evolve.

"And the purple stones," Han Shin reminded them.

"Yes, the stones," Bassena exhaled heavily. "I think we can’t no longer deny that Zein’s vision about their gathering and marching is true."