There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 585 - 579. Territory

Chapter 585: Chapter 579. Territory

When Zein and Bassena arrived at the new base, a pair of watchtowers had stood proudly on the field between the canyon and the camp.

The watchtowers completed the base, which had changed a lot since the first temporary one Radia’s summoned secretaries made. The auditorium where the corrupted shard used to be--and had become where the cliff shard hung out--had become a meeting plaza, and the camp’s facility was built around that.

While there weren’t many people yet, many residential tents had been erected in preparation for the big rally. The mess hall, aid stations, and guide clinics were bigger than the other bases. The logistic team had even successfully dug the ground and made several wells across the base.

"Now it feels like a proper base," Bassena nodded in approval at the logistic team’s report.

"Right?" Tian Yu, who felt more and more like a part of their community as days went by, laughed in satisfaction.

The others had stopped being jittery around the old man, and some were even comfortable enough to converse with him. It reminded Tian Yu of the old days when he was still actively raiding dungeon with good comrades, and he looked considerably more relaxed.

"Ah, the team you sent to snoop around the lake came back," the old man told Bassena while they were walking toward one of the watchtowers.

"That’s fast," Bassena frowned in alarm, recalling what happened to Jock and Eleanor before. "Are they hurt?"

"No," Tian Yu smiled and patted Bassena’s back before pointing at an approaching group with his chin.

It was the three-man squad Bassena sent to scout the condition around the lake as stealthily and safely as they could. They were jogging lightly while approaching him, and while they looked tired, they didn’t seem to be hurt.

"Commander!" the espers stopped in front of Bassena and managed their breath.

Bassena quickly scanned each one of them for any injury, but their clothes were fine--just dirty. "What happened, Kaf?"

The scout, who was designated as the squad leader, replied immediately while pulling off his commlink’s map. "We placed all the markers in the canyon as ordered, and then went to this point--the small hill after the meadow. But..." he glanced at the defender, Sen, who was crucial for their survival earlier.

"There are enemies on the hill," the defender reported briefly.

Bassena frowned. "Guards?"

"We didn’t know if they were guards or scouting squad too since we immediately retreated," the scout shook his head.

"Did you fight them?"

"No, Sir!" the three of them shook their head and the gunner added. "We just focused on running away while Sen shielded us from behind."

They talked carefully, worried that their decision would look too cowardly. But Bassena gave approval for their action. "Good job," the Saint class said. In the first place, he wanted them to do it ’safely’, so the moment their position became compromised, they should abort their mission immediately.

Which they did; and they came back safely because of that, so Bassena was satisfied. It might look like the mission had failed, but it told them that their enemies put patrols around the lake’s vicinity, which was still something.

"But..." the scout spoke again with intrigue in his eyes. "Once we reached the canyon, strangely, they stopped chasing us."

Bassena and Tian Yu raised their brows.

"We looked back and saw their silhouettes on top of the cliff, but none of them went into the canyon," Kaf continued. "We stopped in the middle to check for any tracker, but we found none. There was nothing in the sky or beneath the ground too."

"Hmm..." Bassena tapped on his arm in pondering.

"So they admit to territorial zone," Tian Yu chuckled.

"I guess so..."

Zein tugged Bassena’s arm. "What do you mean?"

"They considered the canyon as our territory and the lake as theirs," Bassena explained simply. Most of the corrupted beasts were territorial, which probably came from their natural instinct before they were infested with miasma. That was why inside a dungeon with multi-species in it, seldom would they find several types of beasts attacked simultaneously--which was why they were surprised about it inside the Deathzone. "If they crossed it, it would mean total war."

"Ah," Zein nodded before curling his lips. "So they avoid total war too?"

"Well, it’s only reconnaissance after all, so they wouldn’t think it’s worth moving the whole force," Bassena shrugged. "We wouldn’t do it too if we found some beasts sneaking around to spy on us. But did you see the lake?"

"Yes, Sir," the scout tapped on his commlink and sent a file to Bassena’s address. "We recorded it too."

Bassena was pleasantly surprised and checked the recording immediately. It was taken from behind a field of black grass before they were forced to retreat, so the view was framed with spiky black fences on both sides. But there was enough vision for them to see a huge lake...not filled with water.

Well, there was still water, obviously; but the water’s surface was covered by many underwater beasts that no longer stayed underwater. It was blurry due to the distance, but Bassena was certain the one staying in the middle was a dungeon boss.

But it wasn’t just the lake; the region around the lake had been filled with beasts--Bassena had a feeling that they freshly came from the dungeons being summoned a few days ago. Perhaps the dungeon was generated in every corner of the Deathzone.

And of course; several fleeting blurry robed figures above the island which they could easily deduce to be the Fallen Star’s fragments.

"Haha..."

"A total defensive stance," Bassena smirked.

"Seems like the Fallen Star is preparing a siege battle," Tian Yu stroked his chin in interest.

He came to the place called Deathzone, but the only thing he faced was just...normal dungeons. He had yet to see the ’native’ monsters of the Deathzone such as the Specters and the Fragments.

"Alright, good job," Bassena patted the squad’s shoulders. "Take some rest and get some cleansing."

"Thank you, Commander."

They watched the three espers trudged toward the mess hall before heading to the watchtower as they had planned before. Bassena was fiddling with his commlink to sort a report for Radia when the Iron Mountain suddenly spoke in a playful tone.

"Should we test this territorial thing?"

Bassena and Zein looked at the old man inquisitively, and Tian Yu just shrugged with a little smile playing on his lips. "I need to see the lake if we want to do that swap thing."

"Ah," Bassena nodded. No matter how great Tian Yu was, he couldn’t affect a region he had never physically at before. The old man had toured the rest of the territories they had conquered, but he never crossed the canyon. "Let’s go then."

"What happens if you can’t get to the lake?" Zein asked.

Bassena simply pointed up. "We’ll take a look from the sky."

"Sounds fun," Zein smirked.

Bassena caught the smirk with his lips. "I’ll get back in time to make your dinner."

Without checking the watchtower as they initially planned, Bassena and Tian Yu disappeared toward the canyon instead. Han Shin, who was watching them from the watchtower’s second-level balcony, rolled his eyes and grumbled.

"Why are you having a domestic romcom in the middle of a Deathzone?"

"Because we’re so far away from anything domestic?" Zein shrugged.

"Huh..." the healer tilted his head. "Make sense."

* * *

Standing at the outer edge of the canyon, the two Saint-class espers pondered while staring at the meadow that separated them from the lake.

Obviously, they couldn’t see the lake from the canyon. They also realized that the beasts chasing the reconnaissance squad were no longer in the meadow. They tried to look for them around the edge of the canyon, but Tian Yu couldn’t sense anything.

Seeing that the beasts didn’t even wait to make an ambush, it seemed that they designated the meadow as a buffer zone. Too bad--it would have been fun if those beasts came through the canyon and got blasted by the many traps they had placed there.

"How should we do this?" Tian Yu asked.

"You need to see the lakeside, don’t you?"

"Not just the lakeside; if we’re going to put the bridge correctly, I need to see the island too."

"Hmm..."

Bassena tapped his lips in contemplation. Honestly, there was not much high ground around the lake from their direction. If it was from the seaside cliff, they could easily gain a nice vantage point, but teleporting to the other side was too inefficient.

Of course, between the two of them, there was no qualm about some skirmishes, but if they acted too obviously, the Fallen Star might send that energy beam that was a pain to defend against. Oh--but that might be a good chance for them to see if the old man could detect and defend the energy beam in a timely manner.

Bassena tilted his head to look at the old man with twinkling eyes.

"What? You look like you’re thinking of something fun."

"Grandpa," Bassena smirked. "Have you ridden a rollercoaster before?"