Chapter 21. Where the Night and Day Merge

The night and day in the borderland almost had no difference. It was still dark, still suffocating, still full of danger. The only mark was that the day came when it felt like the sky grew slightly brighter, like someone lit a torch in the distant sky.

And it was at this slightly brighter state that the Mortix van roared across the marsh. As expected of a military-grade vehicle made by a leading company, the deep red van was equipped with artillery. It obliterated the wraith and beasts wandering between the route it take from the gate to the jungle's entry point.

But while the van looked rough and scary from the outside, the inside was actually rather snug. Of course, it couldn't be compared to the cars those elites from the green-zone usually used, but for Zein, he had never traveled in such a comfortable container before. All the vehicles he traveled in was either logistic truck or big wagon with hard seats.

Nothing with this comfortable leather couch and built-in mini-fridges. Nothing with the absence of a silent annoyance of stuffy space and the tension of dangerous missions. Everyone felt calm, some were even excited. Whether it was because they had no idea how dangerous their destination was, or because they were confident in the level of security. Probably both.

It was the first time Zein became a part of such an atmosphere; a vibe that was far from threat and danger.

It was strange and unfamiliar. But...Zein looked around him; a 4-star tank, a 3-star sharpshooter, a 5-star healer, and—

He glanced at the seat beside him, at the one who looked the calmest, crossing his arms with closed eyes as if he was just sleeping. Instead of a suit or leather jacket, the man had changed into a dark red scale armor with gold lines, and a black leather coat. With a pair of gauntlets, and two rings emanating mana, now he looked like an esper instead of a celebrity.

Zein had never gone with a party of a Saint-class esper before, and he had to admit that having someone with that enormous mana core was...comforting.

Well, no wonder the other looked at ease.

But having someone that good meant you couldn't sneak a glance without being find out immediately.

"I like it," Bassena opened his eyes and spoke softly with a smile, amber eyes turning toward Zein.

"...what?"

"When you look at me,"

Zein scoffed and tore his gaze from the esper. "Just keep your promise,"

"Will you praise me if I do?"

"What are you, a kid?"

"Who says only kids want to be praised?"

"Who said you can flirt here?" Han Shin shoved his hand between the two and grunted.

Bassena glanced at the healer with a smirk. "If you know I'm flirting, why are you disturbing me?"

"Have a conscience, will you?" Han Shin grumbled with a fake annoyance. Honestly, there was no reason for someone who already had a fiancée like him to feel annoyed at others' attempts at courting. But his constant jab at them wasn't particularly born out of spite. Well, there was the fact that he liked to use any chance of disturbing Bassena, but mainly, he also wanted to gauge this interesting guide's reaction.

That being said, Zein just calmly looked outside the window under the healer's gaze. He didn't make any remark since yesterday, whether it was about being told to 'get a room' or about him being an object of flirtation.

"Hmm..." Han Shin narrowed his eyes and begin to type a message.

[I don't know whether his lack of reaction means you got no hope or that there's still hope...]

Bassena smirked at the text. It didn't matter to him. As long as Zein didn't tell him to fuck off and disappear, he would treat it as a chance.

[But anyway, we'll still try to recruit him] another text came, and Bassena glanced at Ron and Agni, who was today's driver, since the Captain would be the one to take the van back to the Unit's headquarter.

There was nothing Bassena would want more than bringing Zein to his side, but even someone as inconsiderate as him knew what kind of value Zein's existence was for the borderland.

Also...he stared at the impassive guide, now fiddling with the commlink in his wrist. [I don't want to use force]

There was a long stretch of silence from Han Shin's side, before a reply came in bold, capital letters. [WHO ARE YOU? WHERE IS MY RUDE AND VIOLENT FRIEND?]

Looking at Bassena and Han Shin exchanging messages, Zein stared at the bracelet on his wrist. It was the first time he had a commlink attached to his person.

The bracelet was an indispensable communication device that the general population widely use. It transmitted signals through nerves that allowed the user to see a screen interference unique to them. It was used for calling, texting, searching for information, monitoring one's body condition, and even for commerce. The device was operating with the help of the energy transmitted by the towers and temples.

Which means, it couldn't be used in a place where that energy couldn't reach; the end-zone. Zein, who spent his entire life in the red-zone and the borderland, never had any use for such devices, and so had never procured one for himself.

Technically, this bracelet should be useless in the borderland, even more in the Deathzone. But this special commlink was made to be used in those unreachable places. The Mortix Group had released a portable communication terminal that could be connected to certain numbers of commlink in a certain radius. The idea was to use it inside the dungeon where the tower's energy didn't reach, and enabled communication between strike squads. It allowed the guild to divide their strike squads inside the dungeon—especially the vast and maze type—so that the clearing time could be hastened and raids would be more efficient.

In another word, this bracelet on Zein's wrist only allowed him to link with other members of the expedition as far as the terminal allowed. It was the reason why Han Shin could send messages and called Bassena at the sentry box on the first day.

Again, Zein realized how convenient the safer zone was.

"Hmm...it'll be nice to have something like this in the Unit," the Captain commented with a delighted chuckle as he control another turret to blast a stray beast.

"Too bad, not even Mortix can bypass government regulation," replied Naomi, who rode in front with the Captain. "Since the production of the van is under strict surveillance from the government, we won't be able to give you one even if we're willing to,"

"Well, unless the government grants you one..."

At that, the Captain burst out laughing. "Hahahaha! Yeah, of course," he clapped on the steering wheel as if he just heard the funniest joke of the year. "If the government grants us—pfft—ahahaha..."

He kept laughing as the van swerved to avoid a large pool and blasted through the rest of the terrain. Both Ron and Zein who sat behind were just scoffing and smiling subtly. With the laughter from the Captain, the van slowly came to a stop.

They had arrived at the edge of the Deathzone.

There was no clear sign that the place was any different from other parts of the black jungle. But Ron walked toward a stone that was half-buried in fallen blackish leaves and swiped it with his boots. A marking could be seen there, and he nodded at the Captain.

"Well, good luck. Please bring my prized scout and guide back," the Captain turned and faced the Saint-class Esper who looked at the dark jungle with a smile.

"Well, I made a promise, so..." Bassena glanced at Zein, who was in the middle of observing them, and accepted the Captain's outstretched hand.

The entry point wasn't anything much—it was just a place that had less density of miasma and plantation compared to other places. Also, because the Unit often used the place to come and go, there were fewer beasts there. The stone with the mark was the first sign, and the first thing Ron did was to detect any monster loitering around.

Evidently, there were a few stray goblins and wolf pups not far from there, and Sierra's silent arcane bullets were enough to get rid of them while the others made their farewell to Naomi and the Captain.

"We'll send signals every other day, as we had planned. Whatever happened, at the end of the two weeks, we will teleport back here, so please ready the vehicle around then."

Naomi made a respectful bow toward Bassena and Han Shin. "Please return safely,"

And with that, they entered the point with the formation they had decided. Ron upfront as the pathfinder; Bassena as their main gun; Sierra in front of the researchers, Han Shin and Zein as the team's healers, and Balduz to secure their back.

One by one, they stepped into the darkness of the black jungle, the first land of the Deathzone.

* * *

The first thing Zein—as well as the researchers—did once they stepped inside the jungle was to activate the night vision on their goggles. Even though they came at dawn, and the borderland still had some semblance of light in the sky, once they came inside the jungle, it was like someone shut the light off.

It wasn't to the point that they couldn't see at all, but it would be enough to make them trip at the smallest rock and bump into random barbed leaves. Even the espers, who had a natural night vision, had to put in extra effort.

The high-technology mask—which made Zein feel like he was breathing fresh air in the borderland—failed to bring out the same effect here. The instantaneous suffocating air was enough for the civilians to groan and the espers, whose bodies naturally deter miasma, scowled in disgust.

The only ones who maintained their facial expression were Ron and Zein. Not because they didn't feel the suffocation or the pressure, but because they were used to it already, and had mentally prepared themselves beforehand.

Rather, for them, this time it felt better because they were now equipped with the new clothes and mask that Mortix provided. Zein didn't even feel the need to extract the magic power reserve to strengthen himself, thanks to the resilient clothes and high-tech mask. Even the goggles provided better night vision than the one he used to.

But as expected of the elites, they immediately regained composure and stopped any noise. The group halted for a while, observing their surroundings to get used to the darkness and the pressure, as well as taking note of the terrain.

There was nothing complicated about the Deathzone, as it could be described with one word: corrosion. The black color of the jungle they saw from the borderland wasn't a result of density or the lack of light, it was because the jungle was truly smeared in the blackness of corrosion.

The land they stood at was hard and greyish, covered in fallen leaves which whether they were dry or rotten, were all black. The trees were big and sturdy, with cracked bark stained black. The area where they stood had been cleared up by the Unit's efforts, but they could see the denseness of the further area, from the trees and wild plants covering the way.

"But it looks more normal than I thought," Han Shin commented. "Except for the seeping miasma, of course."

"Hmm...it's kind of like a forest dungeon," Bassena put his hand above his eyes, the amber looked like a pair of torches.

But Ron quickly debunked their relief. "That's because this is the edge of the jungle, so this is the place where the miasma is the thinnest."

"Thinnest? Here?" A shocked reaction could be heard.

It was a normal reaction, since this much land corrosion usually only happened inside high-class dungeons.

"The further we go, the more the vegetation will transform. Some turned into monsters too, so please proceed with caution," Ron looked back, and the rest of the group stiffened at that. But it raised their caution, and even the casual Han Shin turned serious. "The brook is that way, please don't stray from the path."

With Ron leading in front, they progressed through the thick jungle. Once they left the cleared area, they immediately understood why the scout warned them of straying, because there was no clear path that indicated their bearings. The blackened trees were full of claw marks of beasts, so there was no use in making a sign on it, and the ground was filled with plants that looked the same in the eyes of common people. They couldn't look at the sky to search for the stars and the moon because dark fog was hanging above.

It was easy for people to get lost, and the only reason they could proceed was that the pathfinder class had an ability called [mapping] that enabled them to draw a mental map for any area they had charted beforehand. So the only one who could bring them in and out safely was Ron, and the rest would die without him; either from going crazy or starvation.

Except for Bassena, perhaps, since the Serpent Lord could just try to destroy his way out, provided the miasma didn't consume him first.

So they quietly, carefully, followed the path carved by the scout. "We have two ways of doing this," Ron spoke in a low tone to the espers behind him. "We can either proceed while preserving the initial state of the area so the beasts wouldn't notice, or we can hack our way through so we can go faster."

It wasn't just about going faster, however. Opening a path by removing the dense vines, plants, and branches covering their way would be easier for the non-espers. But of course, doing that would make their trace that much easier to track by the scouting beasts, so there was a risk of being attacked by a pack of monsters that way. Usually, the Unit's team would proceed as carefully as possible, making sure they didn't get discovered.

But this was not the usual team.

"Just hack through," Bassena ordered, and Ron just shrugged and began opening the path.

It might sound reckless, but they had no option since there was no way the civilians could traverse through the thorny vines and hard branches without any issue. Their soecial suits, which was equipped with strengthening circuit to help their physique, only went as far as making them able to follow the quick movement of the espers, but nothing more.

Actually, the weird one would be Zein, who could follow them even without an equipment booster. In fact, the guide even had a leeway to observe his surrounding.

'It's too easy,' Zein narrowed his eyes, looking at his left side. 'We've been walking for a while without any disturbance,'

It wasn't as if Zein wanted a disturbance, but in his experience, they had been proceeding too smoothly. He remembered just two days ago, Bassena told him that the presence of Saint-class esper would aggravate the miasma. So, wasn't it weird that the Deathzone was this quiet? But it was also weird that his keen intuition didn't send any alarm of danger.

"What?" Han Shin whispered beside him. "Why are you looking around?"

"No, it's just..." Zein looked ahead and concentrated his senses. He could see it then, the mana emanating from the broad back that walked confidently. He looked down, along the esper's arms, and saw the fingers moved about, as if the man was playing a silent instrument. "Ah..."

"Hmm, what?"

Zein spread his senses again, outward, and felt one, two, several corpses around them, hidden inside the darkness, as if they weren't there in the first place. For a split second, he also felt a fleeting moving darkness in the shape of stakes that felt familiar. He saw it before, when he was in the sentry box with Bassena.

'But I took care of it, didn't I?' he remembered the esper said, with a confidence that matched his rank.

Before he could realize it, Zein already let out a soft chuckle. So that was why; it wasn't that there were no beasts following them, it was just that they had been taken care of before anyone could even sense them.

The darkness might be the miasmic beast's friend, but it was also the Serpent Lord's domain.

"Pretty amazing," Zein whispered with a subtle smile hidden beneath the mask.

Han Shin, whose question had been ignored, looked at the guide and followed his gaze. Raising his brow, he whispered closely, "Should I tell him you say that?"

"You think he didn't hear?" Zein replied while looking forward, eyes met with an amber gaze and a smirking face.

It was at that time that Ron stopped and turned around. "The brook is up ahead," he said, and true to his words, their ears were greeted by the gurgling sound of water.

After moving through another dense thorny vine that felt like barbed wire, they arrived in a comparably open area. A stream of black water flew in front of them, looking more like a sewer than anything.

"Alright, we'll have our first test here," Han Shin, as Trinity's Chief Researcher, decided.

Ron, who thought they would keep walking, stopped. "Here?"

"Yep," the healer nodded, as Balduz helped the researchers pull out their equipment from the dimensional storage bag he'd been carrying. "You said the jungle had different density levels of miasma, right? Then we had to measure the difference in effectiveness. We have to see how long it'll take to purify this point with the one that got denser miasma."

"I see..." the scout nodded. Well, he was just there to show the way, so it would be up to the contractor how they would want to proceed. "Would it take long? Should we secure the perimeter?"

"Yes, that would be the be—"

"Halt for now," Bassena stood at the edge of the brook, and peered down. "We have to greet the host first,"