There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 91 - 88. Blue Aetherite

Chapter 91: Chapter 88. Blue Aetherite

"We’re just going to leave them like that?" Zein looked back in the direction of the temporary camp, but his sight was already obstructed by the curtains of water and the white foams.

"They’re fine so far, aren’t they?" Bassena replied nonchalantly. "And I stationed my kids there so it’s alright."

"Mm..." Zein still set his eyes over there, blue eyes hardened slightly.

Bassena turned the guide’s face back toward him, pushing the button on the mask to reveal the worried face. "I put special attention to your children, so don’t worry too much. Haven’t you trained them enough?"

The esper’s hand, which was still on Zein’s waist, pulled the guide toward him, pressing their body together. Zein pressed his hands on the esper’s shoulder in turn, maintaining a slight distance and looking up with an unimpressed gaze.

"Are you taking me here for this?"

Bassena smirked unapologetically. "Among other things..."

"I came for that other things though," Zein reached up and flicked the esper’s forehead, who laughed softly in response.

"Can’t it wait?" Bassena loosened his hold on the guide’s waist, but didn’t let go. He tilted his head with pursed lips. "I’ve been totally guarding those three, so can’t I get a reward?"

The blue eyes narrowed at the man acting cute while clinging to him. Zein knew though, that Bassena put his skills inside the three guide’s shadows, in case something fatal and life-threatening happened. Although it didn’t get activated so far, he knew Bassena had been vigilantly keeping eyes on Zein’s prized disciples.

And just like he said, even now, his children of darkness still guarding the guides. Zein didn’t really have any qualms about giving the man leeway to demand a ’reward’ as he said, but...

But...Zein pulled back to look at the esper better. Bassena was usually really good at holding back. But today, he’d been really touchy, even before he kidnaped Zein inside the cave.

"You’re kind of impatient today," he commented, staring at the amber eyes that blazing more than usual.

Rather than answering, Bassena blinked twice, and then leaned his whole weight to the guide, who caught him in surprise. "Yaay~ a hug..." he muttered with a chuckle, and Zein almost thought the esper was getting drunk somehow.

"You sound like Han Shin,"

"Ugh..." Bassena groaned on Zein’s shoulder, but didn’t make any move to pull away, circling his arms on the guide’s waist and pressing his face on the guide’s neck.

"What is it?" Zein let out a sigh, leaning back to the cave’s wall. It felt like a deja vu somehow, what with it being a dark place and Bassena all over him. Like the time they fell down the hole into the city ruin.

"Guess I’m just annoyed," Bassena muttered after a while, voice muffled by the black uniform. "Seeing people look at you with sparkling eyes. Cameras too..."

What was that again? So what if people looked at him? Zein smacked the platinum head slightly for how silly it was. "What sparkling eyes? I told you I don’t want that kind of publication."

The esper groaned again, either because he also realized it was ridiculous, or because he couldn’t believe how dense this man was. "You’re really...cool today," Bassena pressed his nose at the guide’s neck, inhaling deeply. "Sexy..."

"What nonsense..." Zein rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Are you bringing me here to seduce me?"

"Can’t I? I’ve been patient, haven’t I?" Bassena laughed against his hair, and Zein winced from the tickling sensation. "You said I can..."

Did he? Zein tilted his head. Well, he did say Bassena could kiss him as long as the man asked first. He looked up at the ceiling, groaning inwardly. Not because he felt apprehensive, but because he felt like he might cave soon.

"Not yet," he said finally, pulling the nuzzling head off his neck. Bassena raised his brow at yet, the amber eyes glowed in anticipation. "My business first."

* * *

It was only after Bassena let go of him that Zein could observe the cave further. It was more like a cavern, almost as big as his dorm room, with a big stone pillar in the center. It was damp and cold, not to mention dark. The only source of light was coming from behind the waterfall.

While Bassena could faintly feel the presence of mana here, he couldn’t pinpoint its exact location. In the first place, if Zein didn’t tell him there was something behind the waterfall, he wouldn’t know. Even after sending his offshoot there, he couldn’t find out what it was. So he just followed Zein to the back of the cavern.

With a flashlight in hand, Zein walked to the corner, standing in front of an empty wall, and then turned toward the esper.

Bassena grinned as he put his palm on the stone wall. "Will I get a reward for this?"

Zein rolled his eyes, taking the esper’s wrist, and moved his palm down slightly. "About a meter, be careful with it--it’s a small burrow, around a foot wide."

"Aye, aye," the esper replied cheerfully, and tapped on the wall carefully. Zein could feel a surge of dark mana, little shadowy snakes burrowing inside the cave wall like a drill. "Oh..."

The wall in front of them crumbled--or was it dissolving?--into the void of the dark snake’s mouth. They stopped in front of a small opening, about an average male waist-high from the ground. They leaned down to peer into the small natural vault, and Zein turned off his flashlight.

Because he didn’t need it anymore.

"Whoa..." even the Serpent Lord, with his fair share of experiences, looked at the vault in astonishment.

It was filled with a cluster of crystal jewels, shining in a pale blue glow from the dense mana swirling inside. It looked like mana stones at a glance, but these gems were something even more precious than that.

"An attributed aetherite..." Bassena muttered.

Zein never saw aetherite before, but he knew the concept. It was basically a dungeon version of a diamond, rarely found without luck. It was the only natural crystal with elemental attributes, since mana stone had a neutral attribute. The only other option for elemental crystal would be by purifying certain miasmic beast’s mana hearts.

"Seems like it formed by extracting the lake’s elemental mana," Zein said.

"Water, huh..." Bassena stared at the light blue glow emanating from the crystals and smiled. "It looks like your eyes," he muttered, turning toward the guide. "Like when you’re guiding."

"Is that so?" Zein wouldn’t know, he never looked at a mirror when guiding. Actually, he rarely looked at a mirror at all.

"It might have healing properties if the attribute is water," Bassena added, and they stared at the cluster of crystals for a little while. "At any rate, this is a good find."

No, actually, from the amount, this was a great find.

It was hard to scavenge everything in a time-limited dungeon. Since the dungeon would collapse not long after the core was destroyed, they only had time to harvest what could be seen. It was also one of the surveyor’s tasks to map the dungeon and marked the locations of dungeon resources. Raiding squads did not always have time to check every nook and cranny for resources, so they depended on a mana detector device to sniff the hidden resources.

Aetherite, however, had a very subtle mana wave. It was because the gem’s hard surface kept the mana secured inside and blocked from detection. It was this particular trait that made aetherite popular as a magic gemstone. The blockage function made it possible for the stones to be fashioned as accessories, because they wouldn’t disrupt mana wave--unlike raw mana stones--while still having a magical property.

It was basically an upgraded version of precious gems, even more expensive than the rarest diamond.

But due to that little mana wave, it was hard to detect aetherite in a wild. Especially one buried beneath a stone like this. With luck, sometimes the raiding team would find a mana stone’s mine where aetherite could be found with low probability.

"You really are like a detector," Bassena chuckled, looking at the scattered blue gems. If extracted properly, they could fill a small jewelry box. After processing, the total weight might come to a couple of hundred grams. Bassena wasn’t an expert, but with the density level of the mana inside...

"Probably reaches a hundred if we use the auction," Bassena muttered. "No, if the property really is healing, then...double that?"

"What are you mumbling about?"

Bassena hummed and answer cheerfully. "Calculating your earning,"

"...huh?"

"As the one who finds it, you have the right to eighty percent of the profit. Seventy, if you left the processing and marketing to the guild," Bassena tapped on his chin while calculating. "Aetherite is pretty heavily taxed, but if we used the auction, you can shove it to the buyer. You’ll need to be a bit patient, but the payout is bigger..."

Zein just blinked as Bassena spewed numbers and whatnot. He was just checking the place out of curiosity, but suddenly they were talking about money. And what--he’d get at least seventy percent of the earning from these aetherite?

"Wait, you mean it’s mine?"

Bassena tilted his head. "Of course it’s yours. You’re the one who finds it."

"Isn’t resources found in a guild-registered dungeon belong to the guild? We only get a fix percentage of the total earning..."

"That’s for normal resources," Bassena explained with a smile. "For something rare like aetherite, it belongs to the finders. The contract should mention it in detail."

"Huh...okay,"

Bassena chuckled at the way Zein looked flabbergasted one second, and then nonchalant the next. "Still, we should call the surveyor since I can’t extract this without compromising the quality."

"Mm," Zein just nodded, since he didn’t really understand this side of doing things. He was never been involved with resource business before, furthermore for something as precious as an aetherite cluster.

The amber eyes curled slightly, as Bassena observed the impassive face of the guide. He chuckled slightly before throwing out a casual remark. "It’s too bad that you don’t seem to get turned on by money."

Zein raised his brow at the sudden shift of conversation. "Why?"

"I have a lot of it," the esper smirked. The curled amber was filled with youthful cockiness and blatant flirtation.

"Haa..." Zein tilted his head at the adorable display, and snatched the platinum locks, pulling the younger man toward him. "Come here,"

He could taste the mirthful laugh on Bassena’s lips, and the heat of the man’s touch in contrast with the coldness of the wall against his back. The esper was definitely eager, fulfilling his repressed desire, pressing their body together.

But Zein had no intention to go with the esper’s whim. Not here anyway, just a stone’s throw away from the others.

And not now, when he barely found any answer.

So he gripped a fistful of hair again, scraping the scalp beneath, and pushed the man down, pressing on the esper’s shoulder until Bassena was on his knees. With a slight lick of his red lips, Zein looked down, blue eyes gleamed deeper than the aetherite.

He tugged on the esper’s lips, slipping his thumb inside, and felt a wet flesh licking his digit. "You have ten minutes."

"Ten?" Bassena raised his brow, smiling deeply while pressing his cheek on the guide’s hips. "You underestimate me, Mister."