There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 558

Chapter 558: Chapter 552. Looking For Coal to Find Diamond

After building their camp and using it for just an hour, they abandoned it right away.

Leaving only the purification device and a marker behind, the group immediately followed Ashur in the direction he came from before. The warrior didn’t even have the time to sit down before he had to go again while explaining on the way.

"I saw a group of lizardmen on my way and pursued them. They stay on a riverbank, and after taking care of them, I looked around for a dungeon, because they didn’t look like the mutated horde," Ashur told the group about his finding. "Well, I couldn’t find the dungeon, but I found a strange place."

"Strange how?"

"Hmm...I can’t describe it well, just..." the warrior frowned. "It was covered in vines--the entrance, I mean--and the vines felt...younger? Less grotesque?"

Ashur scratched his neck and shrugged. "Anyway, I felt off when I saw it, so I tried to probe around. You’ll know what I mean when you see it later."

"About the lizardmen," Jock looked around the path they took. "They could come from the dungeon we came from, don’t you think?"

"Ah, it was a swamp!" Han Shin clapped his hand. "Maybe they got away because they lost in the hierarchy?"

"Who knows--ah, we’re almost there," Ashur slowed down his run, and pointed into a pile of grilled lizardmen on the side, still with smoke rising from it.

As expected from Ashur Iddina; even the clean-up was thorough.

"This way," the warrior steered from the path and led them to the riverside.

The river reminded them of the first one they used as a basecamp back in the day; not too wide, not too deep--just like a countryside river where children could play around. They walked along the river for a few minutes, until the river seemed to stop against a stone cliff.

"The river continues down there," Ashur pointed to the bottom of the cliff.

After looking at it keenly, they could see plants crawling along the bottom of the cliff; black and stiff, almost looking like crisscrossing metal rods.

Except for those above the water.

Like proper plants, they swayed, and although still looked black in color, they were more...alive--for a lack of better description. Ashur was right; the difference was clear when they saw it themselves.

"There’s a tunnel behind the vines," Ashur said while going into the river. He approached the vines, cut a small section, and came back to the group waiting on the riverside. "Here--the inside is green."

"Huh..." Bassena rubbed the shedding black bark and glanced at Zein. It reminded them of the vines--a part of a Specter--they found in the cave leading to the core shard. "Did you venture inside?"

"A bit," Ashur nodded. "No Specter inside, but I didn’t go far, since you gave out a signal to gather."

Bassena looked at Zein, who nodded firmly. However small it was, they needed to follow any trace of a shard. Actually, at this point, they needed to follow any trace they could find about anything--shards, dungeons, Fallen Star...even a stray Specter.

Seeing that they were likely to go inside, Han Shin stared at the black water. "You come through this?"

Ashur shrugged. "Naturally."

"Eww..."

"You silver spoon brat," the warrior scoffed.

"Thanks to my hyung who raised me carefully?!" Han Shin’s bragging ended in an undignified shriek followed by a splash as his body plunged into the water with the help of someone’s push. "Aaack!"

He gasped as he found his balance, staring down at his wet clothes before looking up dumbfoundedly at his older brother, who gave him a nice, charming smile.

"Dear, oh dear," Han Joon entered the river with a relaxed smile as if he hadn’t just shoved his younger brother into the river. "It’s okay, baby boy~" he ruffled the stunned healer’s hair. "You can get a little dirty from time to time."

"Hyuung!"

Amidst Han Shin’s whine and protest, Zein chuckled while going into the river together with Bassena. "I see now where Han Shin got his cheeky side."

Bassena smirked and shook his head--well, it was good that they could have fun even in this situation. Jock helped Eleanor into the water, and Cohen went last after storing his shield, looking back to make sure nothing was around to ambush them from the commotion.

Following Ashur, they approached the cliff--or rather, the vines covering an opening behind them. The vines itself was so dense that they wouldn’t be able to see the hollow space if it wasn’t for their keen senses. Instead of cutting the vines, Ashur put mana into his arms and parted the vines to make a gap, allowing the others to come inside.