There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137: Chapter 132. Tears-Stricken Face

Zein had his own concern about his vision, but Bassena’s concern was only one. After staring at the quiet guide for a while, he shifted his gaze to throw a serious look at the man across the table.

"Guildmaster..."

Radia groaned immediately in response. "It always gives me goosebumps every time you talk formally to me," the man shook his head and shoulder. But he also put out his palm as a signal that he understood what Bassena wanted.

"Zein," Radia called, prompting the guide that had been drowned in his own thought to snap back and lifted his face. "Did you finish drawing the formation?"

"Yeah, the Hagalaz raid was the last one," Zein answered almost in a daze. "Since Anzus rarely go anyway, it’ll be just me and whoever is available."

Radia nodded in agreement. "Good, so you don’t need any trial run again, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Then I’ll have you stick with Bas. Don’t go inside the dungeon without him, got it?"

Zein blinked slowly before answering with a nod. "Alright."

With this case, they now found out that the force of the Deathzone could manipulate the dungeon in other zones. Although they had no idea if something like that could be done again, they couldn’t take risks. For Zein, it wasn’t just a matter of his safety, but those who would be dragged alongside him. It was fortunate that there were no casualties among the member of the raid, but if there were, Zein wouldn’t be able to live past the guilt.

At least, if he entered the dungeon with Bassena, even though they got dragged by another anomaly, the esper would be able to handle it.

"Haa...if I knew about this beforehand, I’d put on more enchantment," Bassena sighed as he slipped his fingers beneath the bracelet’s chain on Zein’s wrist.

"What more can you cram in here?" Zein replied with a roll of his eyes.

Rubbing the blue gem, Bassena shrugged his shoulder while listing some effects he had in mind. "Like...dispel curse, mental barrier, repel force..."

"That’ll need a bigger stone,"

"Well, I can just buy a bigger one--"

"I won’t wear it then," Zein cut the esper swiftly with a tone so flat and sure that Bassena groaned instantly.

"Ugh..." Bassena groaned and sighed, still rubbing the bracelet while thinking about other stuff he could give the guide and what should he do so Zein would accept them. As he looked at the gem, he suddenly thought of something, and looked up at Zein carefully. "...will you get mad if I put on a tracker?"

"I will," the answer, of course, came swiftly too. Bassena wasn’t disappointed, though, since he already knew the answer anyway. He only asked for the sake of it--that ’who knows’ probability. The guide, however, added. "But why would you do that? Radia had been tracking me through the commlink."

"...Huh?"

The crimson esper chuckled at Bassena’s face, which looked blankly into the air. "You’re so dumb sometimes, Bas," Radia shook his head slightly. "All guild members had their commlink account registered to the guild network so we could find out if they were in danger or need help. Shouldn’t you know about this?"

"Ah...I forgot..." the esper replied dumbly.

"Yeah, you also forgot to tell me about your own trial," Radia added rather sharply.

Despite the guildmaster’s tone, however, Bassena just shrugged nonchalantly. "What’s there to report on?" he replied. He truly made it seem like the trial wasn’t much, as if he just got out of a regular dungeon or something.

If all the espers who had been painstakingly trying to climb the tower saw this reaction, they would be fuming and cursed Bassena even more. Especially the ambitious 5-stars who’d been trying to attain the last floor trial.

Fortunately, Radia wasn’t that ambitious about the esper side of his life, so he didn’t have to struggle with the desire to smack Bassena’s head. But he did sigh as the guildmaster.

"Your new blessing," Radia said exasperatedly. It was a must for the guildmaster and management to know what their espers were capable of; their skills, and their physical and mental status. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to draw appropriate strategies.

And Bassena was supposed to know this too if he wasn’t so preoccupied with the state of his beloved guide.

"Oh, right," the man grinned slightly. "It’s called the [Third Skin of Evolution]. Gives me three chances of doing something similar to the tower trial in a hyperbolic time chamber."

Silence followed those words, which were uttered so casually as if it was nothing. It took a few dozen seconds until Radia burst out laughing.

"Hah! That snake really wants to strengthen you even more, huh?"

"Captain!"

"Captain!"

And before he knew it, Zein was already surrounded by anxious chicks, who looked at him as if he had a terminal illness or something. Wide, inquisitive but worried eyes looked at him, some even glazed in tears. Fortunately, no one burst into tears like the one still clinging to him right now.

"Are you okay?"

"Why are you here already?"

"Chief said you’ll be out for a week!"

This kind of attention was...new and jarring. First, because there was nothing happened that warranted this kind of thing. Anomaly? Burnout? That was the risk that came with being a dungeon-diving guide. Second, it wasn’t like his life was in any kind of danger, so why these chicks acted like he was rising from the dead?

Certainly, there was no such melancholy in the red-zone, much less in the black zone. The most he would get was an ’Oh, you’re alive?’ and a high five if they were in a particularly good mood.

The attention was bad enough, but it was also Friday, which meant there were lots of traffic in the lobby. The congregation of black uniforms talking loudly and anxiously easily became a show, and Zein sighed, suddenly feeling like he should really take another resting day.

"Alright, that’s enough," he spoke in a deep voice, with a tone he used when he was about to give an order. And like a reflex, the boisterous guides immediately stood in attention, including the sniffling girl clinging to him.

Zein looked at them briefly, before asking, tone back to normal. "Does anyone have a cleansing schedule?"

"Only later in the afternoon, Sir."

Some of them nodded to that, and some who had no schedule shook their head. Zein glanced at the Chief Guide, who was leaning at the front desk with a grin plastered on his face, before sighing inwardly.

"Go to the meeting room for now," Zein said.

"Yes, Sir!"

And so, like finding their mother hen again, the black-uniformed chicks strutted behind the tall guide toward the meeting room, faces brighter than the past week.