There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 566 - 560. Substitute Dungeon Core

Chapter 566: Chapter 560. Substitute Dungeon Core

"Alright, you can leave it to us now," Naoya said with confidence and strong conviction. He might fail to cross the field by himself, but he’d make sure he’s succeeded this one.

After Bassena and Han Joon found the ruin, which turned out to be bigger than they thought, they concluded that something was there in the ruin, based on the shard’s reaction. Unlike before, when the shard barely reacted, it buzzed hard along the wall of the ruin.

When they came out later after leaving a mark and making a guide rope from the ruin to the first rope, they received confirmation from the shard-sitter.

Indeed, Zein told them that the shard felt a confusing presence deep in the ruin.

Of course, it could be something else entirely, instead of the source. But they still found something, and Naoya was determined to uncover it this time.

While doing that, some of the espers would also make another camp on the canyon side. It would be bad if suddenly a horde came in the middle of their investigation after all. The camps were established in the morning the next day, just in time for the dungeon team to resume their mission.

"Good luck, Naoya," Bassena patted the archer’s back. As someone who put the archer as the captain of the fog erasure operation, of course Bassena wanted him to succeed.

"Here are the beacons you requested," the archer placed a chest in Han Shin’s hands. "Are you going to install them all over the region?"

"Since we can’t build a watchtower yet," Bassena turned to look at the vast meadow and canyon, stretched all the way to the field and at the end of it, a mountain range. He felt like they would come across a dungeon with an area bordering the one they had already mapped, so they might as well build a communication line. "It’s always good to have a method of communication in a pinch."

"I guess we’ll need it eventually," Naoya nodded. Who knows--they might need to fight right away after crossing the field of fog, without a chance to make a base. So it’d be better to establish it now while there was no fight. "Anyway," Naoya looked at the dungeon team and shrugged. "I think you need more luck than us."

Bassena chuckled. Well, it was true that they were the ones who delved into unknown territory. "Give a signal if you find the source."

Naoya nodded and gave the shoulder pat back to Bassena. The dungeon team quickly headed toward the gate in the canyon, where, as expected, the Queen had been waiting angrily.

"We’re baaack--ouch! Ouch!" Han Shin covered his head, which became a sandbag for the Queen’s tiny fists. She didn’t care though, and kept hitting the healer’s hand while buzzing angrily. "Why are you hitting me? I’m a healer! My constitution is low!"

"Isn’t that why?" Ashur shrugged.

How much could those tiny fists hurt against damage dealers? They wouldn’t even feel like a tickle.

"Whaaat?" Han Shin pouted and squinted his eyes at the Queen. "Bully!"

Surprisingly, the one who got closest to the Queen was Han Shin, not Bassena. Perhaps because the Queen stayed in the back as a spectator in every fight, and as a pure healer, so did Han Shin. The squad was too high level to procure any injury, and none was a reckless bull like Zhan. Eventually, Han Shin, who liked to snack during the fight, offered some to the Queen, and the two childish entities bonded over sweets and gossip despite the language barrier.

"Let’s go," Bassena rolled his eyes and grabbed the healer’s head, leading them forward while smirking. "You might not be able to take it easy anymore after this, Shin."

"If the healer can’t take it easy, it means the vanguard is pathetic!" Han Shin scoffed.

Bassena arched his brow and gasped dramatically. "Did you just call your brother pathetic?"

"N-no?!" Han Shin stiffened and stuttered. "Hyung is not a vanguard!"

But Han Joon clutched his chest playfully and continued the dramatic remarks. "Ah...my heart’s hurt."

"H-hyuung~"

Carrying the laughter from teasing their youngest member, the group proceeded to destroy the dungeon core in the star corridor.

"It feels like a waste," Han Shin sighed as the dungeon gate disappeared. "We can go to the fog field quickly through this door."

With the elimination of the dungeon, they wouldn’t be able to go to the camp from the canyon. If an emergency happened, they would either have to use the desert’s dungeon or looked a path from wherever they were at that time.

Unfortunately, they had no choice.

"We’re not the only ones who can use it after all," Bassena replied.

While the Fallen Star couldn’t use the star corridor, It could still go to the dungeon. Besides, dungeons were like a beast factory; keeping their existence meant they allowed their enemies to keep spawning. It was different with the elemental spirits, who got purified and no longer hostile, even making a contract with Senia. But that was a very rare, almost miraculous occurrence. Besides, if the dungeon broke, it would mean more concentration of miasma in the Deathzone--as if they hadn’t had enough of it.

Weighing the balance, they decided that destroying the dungeons was the answer, like always.

"Alright, this will be a rather bumpy road," Bassena clapped his hand in front of a dungeon back door that gave out a high reading. Han Joon had checked the place and it seemed to be desert--the hot kind--which was annoying for prolonged fights. "Let’s be more vigilant from now on."

With that brief pep talk, they finally started their journey to take down the black dungeons. This time, the espers did not rush and fought at a steady, slower pace. Their corrosion level mattered more, and even for five-star espers, getting out unscathed was impossible. The beasts were more durable, possessed some skills, and more importantly, had high intelligence despite their corrupted mind. Creatures as strong as a Specter or a Fragment were available there.

The previous dungeons were easier despite them facing the boss right away. This time, they had to be careful because the boss could use an area attack that would impact the supports and Zein as well. Coming through the back door wasn’t all good, after all.

Right away, they had to look for a safe place to put the supports in, while distracting the boss and pulling it away from the core. Since the boss could no longer be eliminated in a mere five or ten minutes, minions and the rest of the dungeon residents would smarm mid-battle, making it harder.

Instead of tanking for the team, Cohen had to concentrate on protecting the support while looking for a safe place. At least, thanks to Zein’s long-distance guiding ability, the espers didn’t have to go back and forth for cleansing, but it was quite annoying when the boss refused to move away from the dungeon core area--like what they experienced in the second black dungeon.

It was a ruthless battle where the supports had to go running around deflecting the boss’s indiscriminate attack without any place to hide. It was a huge ice cave terrain, and the broken ice shards just flew everywhere, looking for innocent collateral. Thankfully, the Queen was pretty cooperative and shielded them too despite not having any contract obligation. In the end, Cohen punched the wall and made a nook for Zein, Eleanor, and Han Shin--who giggled with the Spirit Queen for the adrenaline ride.

After that particularly ruthless battle--which made them rest for two days because Zein needed time to cleanse everyone without burdening his mind--they naturally expected the third black dungeon to be as ruthless--if not more, and prepared themselves thoroughly.

And yet...

"Huh?" they all blinked in surprise when Han Joon came from his surveillance. "What do you mean there’s no boss?"

"Well, there’s no boss in the boss area, at least," Han Joon shrugged. "But there were minions, circling something that looked...familiar."

"Familiar?"

Han Joon’s voice dropped as he said grimly. "A Specter core."

"Huh..." Zein blinked. A Specter core in a dungeon? That was unusual. "Specter don’t usually come out in the dungeon."

Ashur narrowed his eyes. "There was one time, though..." he muttered. "That double dungeon anomaly."

He looked at Zein, the only one among them who had come to that dungeon too. But the recording was also available, and both Bassena and Han Shin had seen it too. They widened their eyes and exclaimed softly.

"Maybe it was similar?" Han Shin frowned, stroking his chin. His brain churned hard as some idea suddenly struck him. "An artificial dungeon..."

"What?" the others looked at him inquisitively.

"Mmh..." Han Shin closed his eyes for a second. "It was one of my theories--you know, when you said the Fallen Star might be able to generate dungeons?" when the other nodded, Han Shim continued. "I think we established that the dungeon It created in the other zones might be connected to the dungeon in the Deathzone, but...I was wondering how exactly did the Fallen Star generate the dungeon. Does It create a portal to another world, or does a dungeon have the ability to spawn beasts?"

"And?"

"My conclusion was that the dungeon is created with the core, which the Fallen Star probably has--or knew how to make. But what if the dungeon core runs out? What will the Fallen Star do?" Han Shin raised his finger. "If it’s me, I’ll try to experiment using something else that resembles the dungeon core."

Their eyes widened--even the Spirit Queen listening attentively.

"And the answer is the Specter core?" Zein tilted his head.

"What else have both miasma energy and celestial mana?" Han Shin shrugged, and it clicked in the others’ minds.

"Oh..." Bassena raised his brow and ruffled the healer’s hair while smirking. "You can be smart sometimes."

"Fuck--I have a higher IQ than all of you!"