There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 79 - 77. Homeworks

In the end, all the fifteen guides signed their new contract, and Zein immediately informed SavAsh to get their uniforms ready. The siblings had to recalculate the fifteen guides’ schedule to accomodate Zein’s training regime, but all in all, everything went smoother than Zein thought.

He visited Mortix again, still with that shady driver. The shard didn’t show him anymore memories, nor replaying the last one. But he could communicate with it still, to some extent. It helped with the researchers’ effort in dechipering the shard ’language’ as Zein called it, interpreting mana waves with certain means.

Aside from that, they had been having fun watching the shard dissolving the miasma coming out of the corrupted mana stones that Han Joon gave to the Chairman. Zein, on his part, just watched the researchers having fun devising formulas to explain the way the shard attacked the miasma.

He was also having fun seeing the chicks back home gasping for breath as they followed Zein’s physical training regime. While Zein also consulted the program he devised with a professional civilian trainer, the guides who almost never exercised still found it hard.

And these were already the ones with comparably higher physical condition than the rest.

They wailed and begged, but Zein just picked up the ones who fell and dragged them to their feet. It was just running for several laps through the training hall, and these chicks already looked as if they were running through a marathon.

"Run!" Zein clapped from the side--he’d been running alongside them with greater speed and more laps. "It’s not me who chases after you, it’s the beasts! Run! You have to be able to run away from them!"

He said that seriously, but he also held back his laughter at their pathetic display. Guides truly weren’t a species designed for athletic conduct, but humans also a kind that always strove to adapt. So these weaklings would need to quickly get used to this hard lashing upon their muscles.

Zein didn’t ask them for much. He always gave them the reason why they have to run, why they have to strengthen their core, why they have to train their reflex. Just like his shout, everything had to do with the condition inside the dungeon. To run from the beast, to dodge the beast’s attack, to hold their shield and weapon steadily...

Everything had meaning and a clear objective, so no one could protest and questioned why they needed to do this or why they needed to do that. Besides...how could they make a protest when the boss himself did a way more rigorous routine than them?

"You...have been doing this...for how long again?" Abel asked with bated breath after finishing his required lap, holding into Zein’s shoulder.

The tall guide just responded with a little chuckle, clapping twice loudly to announce a break. The guides were collapsing on the floor, chasing the blissful coldness as their rarely-used muscles wailed.

"Since it’s just the start, we won’t do it too hard," Zein said as he walked among the sprawling figures who couldn’t even gasp at the unbelievable words. But Zein told them the truth though--this could be considered a warm-up for their future regime. "Stretch out properly before you go home, showered with hot water, eat a warm meal, and sleep well."

He lowered himself to a B-class guide that seemed to have it the hardest, and put his palm over the guide’s forehead. "If you feel too stressed out to function tomorrow, tell me now, or find me before your guiding session tomorrow."

The B-class guide under his palm stared at Zein without blinking, as a refreshing feeling flooded into his mind, as if dousing his tired brain with cool water. "Sir...are you...a Saint?"

"I’m not," Zein answered briefly, getting up and walking toward Dheera who had been shouting me, me! from across the field. "I’m sending something to you, read it at home."

The guides’ commlink beeped then, and they sluggishly checked the content before groaning. It was a document--an e-book, to be exact. [Handbook of Miasmic Beast] was written on the title and the cover.

"What is this, Cap?" Dheera asked while Zein did his miraculous refreshment on her mental state.

With a subtle smile, Zein answered briefly. "It’s your homework."

Another series of groans ensued, but whether those who still laying on the ground or those who already find the energy to get up, they were all opening the document.

Just as the title suggested, it was filled with information about miasmic beasts. It was classified and color-coded based on the difficulty of the dungeon they came in. At a glance, it was no different from the handbook all esper would receive when they attended the academy, but upon reading them, the guides realized the difference.

Rather than informing them about weaknesses or how to take them down, the compiled handbook stressed more on the beasts’ traits and how to avoid or ran from them. In short, it wasn’t information for fighting, but for surviving.

A handbook made for guides and civilians.

And as they looked closer, they also realized that it was made personally by their division leader.

"Read them. Learned them. I have classified the directory based on the dungeon difficulty, so prioritize learning the one cater to your capacity," Zein instructed as he treated another guide, who also looked at him with wide sparkling eyes. "The guild won’t send you to a dungeon above your ability anyway."

He looked at the guides who were now busy reading the handbook. "As long as you know their trait, habits, and movement, it’ll be easier for you to run away from them or defend yourself,"

"Did you compile this yourself?" Abel asked as he read the handbook from someone else’s commlink, staring at Zein in astonishment.

He knew Zein was a textbook model employee, but he didn’t expect the man would be this thorough.

Truly, the Guildmaster’s eyes had never failed.

Zein didn’t think much about it. He’d been entering dungeons since he was thirteen, so he had a lot of encounters with beasts of various difficulties. He’d been learning about those creatures on his own for his survival, and just imparted that experience in a written form.

And he didn’t do it alone. The researchers helped him last week, as well as Bassena, who was happy enough to just spent any time with Zein.

"I’ve had help," Zein shrugged.

"Still..."

"You want it too?" Zein asked the Chief Guide, who just nodded affirmatively since he was still quite bewildered.

It was a sentiment shared by the other guides. Even though they were whining over the new homework their Captain put them through, they couldn’t help but admire the effort Zein put into all of this.

And he was true to his statement; he didn’t ask for them to be able to face any beast. He just wanted them to be able to keep a sound mind in front of such creatures. Their priority was then to run away from the beast, or to at least be able to dodge and defend themselves until the esper came to get rid of the beast.

Up until now, they had been looking at Zein with fear, perhaps mixed somewhat with admiration. But at that time, they finally looked at Zein with something he deserved; respect.

* * *

"Hey, don’t you think we should hold a welcoming party or something?" Han Shin said as he rolled around the executive lounge’s couch.

"For who?" Ashur asked, for once didn’t roll inside a random dungeon or isolated himself inside the private training chamber.

Han Shin clicked his tongue and looked annoyedly at the other esper. "For Zein, duh."

"Oh..." this time, the response didn’t come in a flat tone. Rather, the tanned esper sounded rather dreamy, with a blank look in his brown eyes and a slight blush on his brown cheek.

Rina, who just came and caught the juicy tidbits, jumped the unguarded Ashur from behind and poked the esper’s cheek. "What is this? What is this? Do I catch our dear Ashur having a crush?"

"I’m not having anything--get off me!" the weapon meister shrugged Rina off, but a tanker’s physical prowess wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

"Hey, hey, you’ll get in Bassena’s bad book if you continue~" the tanker continued her teasing nonetheless, giggling gleefully without letting go of the grumpy esper.

Han Shin laughed from the side, but he supported Rina with his own commentary. "That’s right, Ash. Bas is really serious about him, so give up."

"I’m telling you I’m not!"

"So the rumor is true?" Han Shin’s assistant, Wonho, asked from the corner while he took the healer’s iced drink from the dumbwaiter. "About Sir Vaski and Guide Zein?"

A response came from all three 5-stars. "What rumor?"

Delivering his boss’s drink, Wonho replied casually with a shrug. "I heard some guides saw them making out in the first-level basement,"

"Ooh~" Rina closed his mouth while exclaiming scandalously. "So it’s not just one-sided?"

Han Shin, who knew those two had done more than make out in the past, but also knew that Zein hadn’t accepted Bassena’s feelings, just sipped on his drink in silent frustration. He was the one who knew about them the most, which was why he was the one who was most confused about their relationship.

"Are you disappointed, Ash?" Rina nudged Ashur teasingly again, who adamantly refused all allegations, although he did sound grumpier than usual.

Han Shin narrowed his eyes and stared at his drink mysteriously. "Let’s have that welcoming party."

"Huh, for real?" Rina exclaimed excitedly. She liked parties, but it would be best if the party was held inside a safe environment where she didn’t have to be scared of her image--like inside Trinity.

The healer nodded, looking uncharacteristically serious. Welcoming party or whatever, he just wanted an excuse to throw Zein into a social situation where the guide would need to interact with many people in a casual setting. Wouldn’t it be better if drinks were involved too?

Smiling mischievously, Han Shin was thinking of what would Bassena do with that possessiveness of his. Would he hover over the guide like a protective hawk, glaring at everyone? Would he whisk the man away from the party?

Whatever it would be, as someone who had been watching those two since the start, he was starved for development!

"I don’t know about making it for Guide Zein only," the man who had been quiet the entire time he was there, the HR Director, suddenly spoke up. "But we’ve never held any event for the new recruits that came through our annual recruitment two months ago."

"Minho, you’re my man!" Han Shin threw his hand up, smiling widely. "Let’s get that party going!"