There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 391 - 383. Taste of Poison

Chapter 391: Chapter 383. Taste of Poison

"Yes, yes--you can whine all you want," Zein responded nonchalantly to the cry of lament that his kids produced.

The guides sighed in their premature excitement. The younger ones especially pursed their lips in an attempt to look pitiful. Nadine chuckled inwardly and shook her head. "What kind of training would it be, Captain? It must be different from before, right?"

"Right," Zein nodded, assessing the guides one by one. "As you know, we will start marching to the Deathzone in two batches; in June to establish a headquarters, and in August. In other words, there’s not much time anymore for us to prepare."

Now that Zein had mentioned the Deathzone, the guides became more serious, straightening their back and stopping their whining. Even those who weren’t chosen to go there kept rapt attention.

They already knew that the first batch was sent to establish a safe zone; a headquarters where they would rally their forces and expand little by little. Thus, the first batch would face the most danger, with no place to fall back into, where they had to enter the unpenetrable darkness and be surrounded by toxic air. That was why Zein had chosen his best pupils to go with him for the first campaign.

That being said, it was imperative for all of the chosen guides to receive the training. Depending on how the campaign progressed, there might be a time when all guides needed to be mobilized.

"You don’t have to go through rigorous endurance training anymore--I think you all have built sufficient stamina to follow the espers around," Zein continued. "What you still lack, instead, is also what you need to have the most--defensive skills."

Some of the guides’ widened eyes had sparkles on them now. Defensive skills. Skills that set Zein apart from the other guides; skills that made him thrive as a combat guide.

"How to dodge attacks efficiently, how to utilize shields better, and of course," Zein raised his palm, where a white knife materialized, and promoted even more sparkling eyes. "How to handle a weapon so you don’t have to be passively waiting for a rescue."

"So...so you’ll finally allow us to use weapons, Captain?"

"Eventually."

"Whaaaat--"

"Sush--listen to him first," Nadine scolded the overly eager younger guides, who thought wielding weapons was cool just because Zein looked cool while doing it.

She bet they would revisit this eagerness when they finally did the training and had to kill a miasmic beast for real. Even the rookie espers sometimes had a difficult time on their first hunt. And where did they think those callouses and scars in Zein’s fingers came from? Would they still be so energetic after their skin peeled and chaffed and bleeding from weapon training?

"You seemed to be excited, but I have to remind you that attacking is your last option," Zein told them sternly. "An inexperienced attempt more often only leads to even more accidents, because it prompts you to abandon parts--in not all--of your defense."

"So you’re telling us we should focus on mastering how to dodge and deploy shield properly first," Nadine concluded.

"Exactly," Zein nodded. "I will still let you train with weapons once a week, but you’ll have to train in the other two twice a week each."

"Like what you usually do, Captain? Dodging projectiles and such?"

"Yes. We’ll employ the espers who will stay in Althrea to provide the training. There--Alice has put the training schedule for all of you."

Their gaze shifted toward the screen, where there were two timetables. Just as Zein had mentioned, their endurance training had been replaced with reflex training and shield utility. There was something different between the two timetables, however.

"Captain, are those schedules divided between those who stay and those who will go to the Deathzone?" asked Nadine.

"Yes."

"So...only those who join the campaign will receive simulation training? The other doesn’t have to do it anymore?"

Zein glanced at the screen with a rather grim expression that stirred tension among the guides. "This simulation will be different," he said. "I’ve been letting you experience what it feels like inside various dungeons, but this time," he swept his gaze across the room, "you will experience what it would feel like inside the Deathzone."

* * *

"You’re sure you want to experience it too?" Zein stared at his kids keenly as they stood outside the simulation chamber.

The training was meant for those who would go to the Deathzone first, because it was imperative for them to experience the pressure and fear inside the toxic darkness. But then, the rest of them said they also wanted to experience it, which was why they were all here together--the whole division.

They nodded at Zein with a firm gaze in their eyes, and he had no idea whether he had to feel proud or worried.

Oh, well...some of them would probably shed their bravado once they experienced the bitterness of thick miasma wavelength.

Fortunately, Trinity had enough simulation pods for all of them. After all, the espers who would come also needed to use them. Just like Zein’s guides, the whole squad who was drafted to go in June would have to go through this newest simulation too. And for this first experience, Zein would also use the simulation, so he could check how similar it was to the real thing.

As he lay on the pod and was transported to a virtual world of darkness, Zein once again marveled at how advanced technology was in the high zones. To be able to activate senses in a virtual world when in reality, they were only lying inside a pod chamber. They could even set pain receptors and detect the user’s mental condition from the biometrics reading.

Still, he was pretty disappointed.

He had tried the hardest dungeon setting here, and it was still nowhere near the Deathzone level of toxicity. Even the undead field was only dark because it was placed in perpetual night, not because no light could pierce the accumulated miasma in the air. The heavy pressure that constantly put fear and tension in people’s minds was less severe, because there was no Specter core seeping out mental corrosion fume to the environment.

Zein realized after he touched the core at that time, that the Specters were the opposite of the shard. They were the sources of miasma, just as the shard was the one who expelled it. Those Specters were what made Deathzone the Deathzone, and not just another extremely hard dungeon. The miasma wasn’t just suffocating; it would erode people’s minds slowly. A lot of expeditions ended with people fighting and killing each other if they spent too much time inside. The only reason why the Mortix-Trinity expedition went smoothly was because they found the shard fragment of Setnath and took ample rest there.

And this was what the new simulation system trying to achieve--the mental corrosion effect.

The first thing Zein noticed was the darkness. As expected of Mortix, they managed to replicate the kind of darkness that felt like he was being thrown into a basement room with no window and no source of light. It wasn’t the kind of darkness that would be bearable by getting used to it. A guide like him--and his kids--had to equip the goggles to help with the vision.

When they entered the virtual world, they were immediately equipped with the combat uniform, dark-vision goggles, as well as a filtering mask--the set they would wear in the real Deathzone. The goggles, however, wouldn’t get activated by itself. The guides had to turn it on by themselves, so Zein predicted some would be so overwhelmed that they forgot about it.

Another thing they would feel immediately was the heavy air as they breathed through the filtering mask. It would feel so different from the dungeon they had been raided before. Even with Mortix’s high-grade filtering mask, first-timers would feel like they were breathing on top of the tallest mountain.

And that was what Dheera felt. She wheezed, feeling like she was thrown into a box and being locked, trying to survive with a limited supply of air. Her body felt heavy, as if there was a giant pressing on her shoulder. Eventually, she crouched on the floor with bated breath, and only after a few minutes did she manage to remember that she was supposed to activate her goggles.

So she did, pressing the button on the side. But if she hoped for relief, she would be mistaken. She could see now, somewhat, recognize the shapes of things. But what she saw was almost worse than the total darkness.

She found herself in a forest--or at least she thought she was. Dheera was sure what surrounded her were trees, and yet they didn’t look like trees. The barks looked like flayed human skins piled upon melted body parts. The branches and the foliage looked like a grotesque sculpture contrived by psychopathic artists.

"Ugh...!" she wanted to hurl, but there was a mask covering her mouth and nose. Taking a deep breath to calm her down didn’t work as the air felt so heavy, and she almost felt like drowning.

As if it wasn’t enough, the pressure she felt on her shoulder seemed to spread to her whole body. Her skin felt like they were being pricked even though she was supposed to be wearing a protective uniform.

Scared. She was so scared. She knew it was just a simulation, that everything was fake. But her brain, which could sense everything, clouded her rational mind, and sent her nerves into an overdrive. The heightened senses prompted her heartbeat to soar, and she was promptly ejected from the system.

It had been less than five minutes since she entered the simulation.

But even after the pod opened and a staff helped her out, she couldn’t stop trembling. She wasn’t the only one, though. More than half of the guides were in the same state as her, lasting only a few minutes before panicking and triggering the pod’s safety guidelines. The ones who held on the longest were Dean and Brisk, who had been raiding harsh dungeons with [Hagalaz] squad, and Nadine, who was known for her mental fortitude. Even then, they looked like they were just woken up from a terrible nightmare when they joined the other on the lounge.

Not long after, their Captain came out, looking unfazed as usual. No--he actually looked rather disappointed. And Dheera felt like she was indeed disappointing. They had been acting big just because they could raid dungeons with the espers.

But the reality was just as harsh as the Deathzone itself.

Zein sighed, wordlessly patted Dheera’s head. And she burst out crying, hugging her tall and sturdy Captain.

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