There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90: Chapter 87. First Stop

"With enemies that attack indiscriminately, unless the raid captain told you to hide, just stay put in your formation. Don’t confuse the defender by scattering around."

"Projectile attacks can come from anywhere, so compress your body and raise your shield."

"Your two shields are there to protect your brain and heart--don’t mind your face! No one cares about you being pretty if you are dead!"

"If you can’t predict the timing, just deploy your shield from the start--it will recharge by absorbing mana in the dungeon so don’t bother about preserving it."

"Are you offering yourself to the beast? Stay close and press your back together--protect each other!"

"Don’t close your eyes! You’re dead meat if you can’t see the enemies!"

The espers pressed their lips at the sounds of the Guide Captain barking instructions from the back at the other guides. Sometimes not even from the back--he would come forward and snatch the guides from harm’s way, or fix their defensive posture. The quiet, reserved man suddenly turned into a naggy instructor.

Those who were positioned near the three guides would occasionally hear mumbles like so scary...he’s so scary or something like aah, I don’t want an additional set and lamentations such as he’s soo~ going to send me back to the chamber...

It made them unconsciously smile and held their laugh--not because they thought it was funny, but because it reminded them of the old days, when they just started their career. Rather than guides, they seemed more like rookie espers, and it brought some nostalgia to the squad members.

But that only applied to the three guides though. Their Captain, meanwhile, felt more like a veteran esper who had gone through life-and-death situations more times than one could count. The man knew the sign and timing of the beast’s attack better than the surveyor sometimes, and could casually deflect attacks with his daggers.

And it wasn’t just a matter about the beast that he instructed the guides. He also constantly coached them about their role as a guide.

"If you have the leeway, observed the esper’s fight. Take notice of who use their skills the most, who would have corroded the most."

"Be vigilant of your vessel’s capacity. You need to coordinate with your fellow guides and divide the cleansing properly--remember: dungeon raid is a team play."

Even about their physical condition.

"Drink your water steadily, don’t just follow the esper’s scheduled--they have a different metabolism than you."

"Regulate your fatigue level. Tell the captain or the surveyor before it hit bottom. You’re not doing anyone any good by passing out suddenly in the middle of a raid."

Rather than a trial run, it became a practical training lesson. Especially because the espers didn’t get excluded from it. Only, it was the Serpent Lord that made the critiques and assessments.

So the orange-level dungeon really turned into one huge joint combat training. The espers and the guides also learned to match each other pace, so the esper wouldn’t make the guides burn their stamina too fast, and the guides wouldn’t slow down the raid progress too much.

The one having a field day was, actually, the surveyor, whose task was to record everything that happened in the dungeon for the guild’s archive. Imagining what the R&D department and PR team would do with all of the footage made the surveyor work even harder to capture everything with his recording skills and beloved drones.

With how smoothly the raid going, it didn’t take long for the squad to reach their first resting place. The scout had found them a big pond with a waterfall on the other side. There was a quite huge clearing they could use for rest, meals, and guiding.

And it was the first real battlefield for the guides.

If Zein was already scolded them hard before, then he was even more merciless during this time. He didn’t let the esper activate a guiding tent, and instructed them to do the guiding there and then.

"Don’t get used to comfort inside a dungeon. Unless you’re in a declared safe zone, anything could happen, so you need to be able to guide while being vigilant and ready for anything," he ordered them to pick a place that could protect their back, like leaning on a boulder or a tree. "Discuss the order of the guiding with each other and the raid captain."

The three guides let out a long sigh, letting themself slump for about a minute, before straightening their back and patting their own cheeks hard. With an energetic gaze and clenched fists, they walked toward Florence to do what Zein told them to.

"Aren’t they good?" Bassena chuckled at the tall guide watching over his three chicks with crossed arms. Zein might look cold, but someone who spent a lot of time with him like Bassena could see the slight tenderness in the blue eyes.

"Well, they are the good ones," Zein replied with a slight frown. "I just hope the others could do this well too,"

Although they still got scolded here and there, Zein still commend them on the sheer fact that they weren’t whining and had a steady mind. The rest of their mistakes could be attributed to their lack of experience, which was also common in rookie espers, so he wouldn’t hold them against that.