A Showoff Like Its Master

After completing their mission and capturing a brief recording of the drakes' corpses, Shye and Shirley descended the mountain. 

Then, once at the base, they mounted Zeth, and the three of them headed toward the Varca Death Zone to meet Nookie.

The zone wasn't far from the rocky mountain.

With Zeth's incredible speed, the trio arrived at the zone's empty lobby after just an hour.

Strong and terrifying as their lineup was, Shye still performed the usual inventory checks before entering, learning from his past experiences that he shouldn't be overconfident, as doing so could create an opportunity for his downfall.

After all, anything could happen inside a death zone.

A few minutes later, the three entered, heading straight towards Nookie's training area.

However, as usual, the imp and its army weren't there.

"Shall we eat while we wait for Nookie?" Shye suggested.