Chapter 10 - 9. The Suicidal Monk
When the world first see portals and dungeons generating, humanity had no means to defend against it. It was one of the celestial beings, Setnath, that urged the others to send their aid as responsibility.
Even then, the world had already been covered in miasma from the dungeon breaks. The beasts roamed free, preying on the remaining colonies of survivors, painting the world in dark miasmas that brought nothing but death to the living.
The towers came down at these desperate times, like a holy beacon that purified the miasma around it, and gave birth to the awakening of humanity's dormant power. With the help of the tower's purifying effect, and humanity's new powers, humans slowly regained their territory and rebuild the civilization.
But there was a limit to the towers' influence. And in the place where it didn't reach, was the land where the miasma persisted, and the beasts reigned as kings. An uncharted territory where the very air was poisonous, and the ground was painted black.
A land where the only thing that was thriving was death.
Despite humanity's advancement, there was always a risk of attack from the Deathzone; rampaging beasts that were driven out from their territory and seeking to corrupt the land of the living; the dark phantom wraith born from the accumulation of miasma; the undead rising from the living being that consumed by the miasma.
For that, the Borderland was set.
The grey between the black of deathzone and the colorful zone of the living; was how it looked on the map.
The Eastern Federation's Deathzone encompassed a huge portion of the continent's eastern coastal line, and the Borderland stood before a wide marsh bubbling with black water, and a dark jungle filled with monstrous plants. A tall concrete wall stood between the marsh and the borderland, with watchtowers standing every few kilometers. These watchtowers were being used to determine the borderland's section, with each section being tended by a main Unit.
Among all units, Section 04-2 was the one bordering the closest to the deathzone, where the miasma was denser. The people who were stationed there were either the toughest or the unluckiest. The battle maniac Captain from the Border Defense Force, the money-hungry mercenary groups, and the 'community worker' convicts.
It was the section with the most breach, and the one that was always tasked with collecting sample material from inside the deathzone for research purposes. As much as the borderland was full of action, no place was as busy as Section 04-2. Espers were always on missions, and guides were always in high demand.