There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)

Zein had a new morning routine now; watching the underwater lakes and listening to the sound of the mini waterfall as the colorful fishes fleeting between trees and stone tunnels.

He’d leaned on the bedpost with his morning coffee, watching the scenery in a trance while sipping on his steaming mug. It was twenty minutes of tranquility that he could never imagine before.

That, and taking care of all the plants Bassena left for him there. Watching the water trickling down the sprays and watering can to the plants was funny before--he was so cautious, feeling uncomfortable as if he was wasting perfectly good water. It took time for him to get used to it, and now it became a part of his peaceful morning.

Thinking about watering the plants and feeding the fish got him motivated to clear the dungeon faster. Unfortunately, it wasn’t up to him, but to the espers. And there was no Bassena trailing him in this second raid, since the man had gone to another zone for a charity event or something.

And Zein ended up lashing the guides even more this time. Part of it because he was impatient, and part of it because the guides this time were worse than the first batch, which was the division’s best aside from Zein.

But the three poor guides had seen the footage of the previous raid, and had been warned by the first batch, so they weren’t really surprised by the scolding and berating. It was two B-class and one C-class this time, accompanying the [Isa] squad where Rina Solstice was the Captain. They were a defensive and resistant squad, so their whole strategy lay in being cautious.

Unlike in the previous raid, where Bassena was there to keep him company, Zein had no partner to talk to this time. He ended up being even more observant, noting even the smallest details and criticizing even the tiniest mistakes. The two B-class would be joining [Isa] squad’s raids from now on, so Zein really made sure to get them acclimatized with the whole squad.

During break time, he made sure the guides did the cleansing properly, as usual gave them pointers during the guiding just like what he did with the previous batch. Between that, and instantly guiding Rina after, he seemed to have no break time at all.

Even then, his stamina and mental capacity did not wane. After all, this kind of raid held no candle to being stranded for three days inside the Deathzone where they couldn’t even fall asleep in fear of the beast’s and the specter’s attack while keeping on the move to get back to the unit.