"Are you guys from Aegis?" A skinny man with a rapier asked

"Yeah, we're from Aeigis" I replied

"Hehe, better watch your backs who knows what 'accidents' may happen during the subjugation mission" he laughed

I didn't really care, instead, I anticipate his reaction when his companions get ripped apart in front of him.

We waited for a few minutes before Astarotia came

"Zeno? Who are your companions?" Astarotia asked

"This is Cynthia while this is uhm... Fives" I introduced Cynthia and Guardian 5 to Astarotia

"Cynthia? Did Lea approve of you coming here?" Astarotia asked Cynthia.

"We came to an agreement" Cynthia answered

"I won't ask any further then" Astarotia looked at Guardian 5 next

"I followed sir. Zeno to this land" Guardian 5's voice was still a bit robotic

"Oh? Is Zeno a high ranking man from your land?" Astarotia didn't seem to be bothered by Guardian 5's voice

"He was very well known soldier" Guardian 5 replied

"Oh? So he was a soldier" Astarotia smiled before looking at everyone

"It's time we go" Astarotia announced before riding the horse she brought with her

There was already a horse for everyone, all of them were prepared by Astarotia. Astarotia took the lead as we ventured deeper into the forest, we passed by some skeletons of dead animals along with a bloody trail that led straight to the cave where we are heading. After some time, we finally arrived.

"Everyone stick together, watch each other's back" Astarotia strictly ordered

We left the horses at the entrance before Cynthia and Astarotia released a light ball that provided vision while I activated my night vision, we started exploring the cave as the smell of blood and guts grew more and more repugnant as we descended.

'Zeno, 12 o'clock, at the ceiling!' Lilith alerted me

I quickly looked above and saw a Formar on all fours crawling, I quickly took out my desert eagle and started shooting at it. It fell down after I hit its arms and feet, it tried to stand back up but Guardian 5 beheaded it before it could even move. Everyone was shocked while Astarotia had her fingers on her chin

"I didn't detect it, that's weird, I always set up a magic sphere around me to detect any monster that tries to approach..." Astarotia muttered

"That's because these aren't monsters" I answered her question

"What? Then what are they?" She asked

"Monsters are born from this world's magic but these things aren't, you can consider them to be closer to an animal" everything was based on Cynthia's explanation of monsters and my understanding of this world

"Is that so? Then this will be a very troublesome task" she massaged her forehead

We started walking deeper and deeper

'Zeno at your twelve, a swarm is coming. Bug number 34: large scarabs and a few more Formars' Lilith alerted me again

I looked at everyone and it looked like they didn't notice the oncoming danger

"They're coming!" I announced as I took out the M4A1 strapped on my back

The M4A1 had an ACOG sight and a forward grip attachment along with an energy bullet counter

"Hah? Coming? I don't see anything! Remove that crappy helmet and look again!" The man with a rapier laughed, mocking jeers soon followed after

"Shut up!" Astarotia quickly got mad as two blazing balls came out of her hand

"Zeno, where are they?" She asked as she looked at me

"Front" just as my voice fell, the ground shook and scarabs as large as a dog came swarming as a few Formars followed behind

There's at least a 100 scarabs and 14 Formars coming at us. I started shooting as each bullet took out a scarab, my bullet always pierced through their tough shells before destroying their brains. I always aimed for the head and it looks like my marksmanship hasn't gone rusty. Everyone from the axe and spear guild quickly formed a defensive line as the swordsmen positioned themselves at the back, my M4A1 was on cooldown so I took out my desert eagle and continued shooting as Astarotia kept throwing blazing fireballs while Cynthia used [Lightning].

They finally arrived at the defensive line but their numbles have dwindled down to 43 scarabs and 6 Formars, the people from Mardoth's guild took out their large shields and started repelling the attacks from the scarab but the men from the Axe guild got too arrogant and ran forwards with their large axe. The result was catastrophic, their attacks could kill a few scarabs but they were outnumbered so they soon got torn apart. This struck fear into the swordsmen but the people from Mardoth's guild stayed strong and continued to repel the scarabs, I ran forward and brandished Azazel as I mowed down the scarabs to ease the pressure on the Mardoth's men.

I tore through the swarm, crippling or killing a scarab in a single strike, I have to keep moving so that I won't be surrounded. I jumped up and stabbed the scarab underneath me before tightly gripping Azazel before sending out a [Crescent wave] that tore through the scarabs that were striking the shields of the spearmen, I noticed a scarab raise its legs behind me. I was about to block it but a spearman tackled it with his shield, the scarab lost its balance and fell, I didn't miss this chance and stabbed its head.

We both looked at each other and nodded our heads before I started my onslaught while he and the other spearmen pushed forward.

"Get back!" Astarotia called out

Everyone quickly moved behind her as two blazing snakes rose from the ground and coiled around her

"Pesky little bugs, burn! [Dance of the burning snakes]!" Astarotia pushed both her palms forward and the two snakes around her blasted forward with mouths agape

The two snakes started to coil as they tore through numerous enemies, only the Formars were left after Astarotia's attack. 3 Formars ran forward with scythes raised up high, I took the one in the middle while the spearman took the one on the right, the swordsmen were left to take care of the Formar that came attacking from the left.

I was facing a mutated Formar that had two bodies, one was responsible for attacking and navigation while the other was responsible for movement because it was the one that the other Formar rode on. Their bodies were connected at the waist, they rushed forward as it attacked with its scythe. I took out my M4A1 from my back and started shooting at its head, it had no choice but to use the scythe to block my attack. It couldn't see where it was going so it kept charging forward, I rolled to the side to escape its charge before shooting down its arms for a leg.

The Formar lost its balance and crashed face first to the ground, I emptied the M4A1's energy bullet on the back of its head before stabbing the other head with Azazel. I looked at the spearmen and they seem to need a bit of assistance, the Formar kept flinging its scythe sidewards, their shields couldn't take it and just broke apart so all they can do is jump back but due to their heavy armors, the Formar still managed to injure them. I ran towards the formar before sliding and cutting both its knees, the Formar was about to fall to the ground but I stabbed Azazel to the ground to stop myself from sliding before rotating around Azazel and sending a kick towards the Formars back that caused it to fly towards the spearmen in an ark, the spearmen raised their spears and 10 spears stopped the Formars descent.

I looked at the swordsman side and what I saw was just disgusting, there were limbs and blood everywhere. Only 4 of the original 10 were now left to deal with the Formar that still had a decapitated head on its mouth, the man with a rapier fled with his wet pants and the other three swordsmen followed. The Formar burst forward before slicing one of the swordsmen vertically, the Formar was about to give chase but I stopped it by shooting its head with my desert eagle. My attack wounded the Formar on its head but it wasn't enough to kill it, it changed its target to me and charged with both scythes scraping on the ground. I too ran forward with Azazel on my right hand while the desert eagle was on my left, Azazel met with the Formars left scythe but I only dodged when it attacked its right scythe. This continued on for a while until I finally found a chance when it raised its right scythe, I delivered a quick strike that severed his right arm. He swung his left scythe but I jumped up to dodge before stabbing Azazel on the ground, keeping the left scythe in its place. It tried to bite me but I aimed my desert eagle on its mouth and emptied all my bullets, the battle was finished.

"Zeno, are you ok?" Cynthia asked as green light emanated from her right arm

"I'm fine, heal the others" I replied as I walked towards the group

"The men from Raizar's guild has been wiped out while Raiz's wussed out" Astarotia wrote on her small book

"... you guys return and report everything that happened here" Astarotia looked a the spearmen and announced

"But Ms.Astarotia, we can still fight" a spearman spoke out

"No, we're not fighting, not for now at least. We'll only gather some info, you guys go back" she replied

The spearman struggled a bit before nodding his head before leading all the supermen out the cave.

"So? What do you think?" Astarotia looked at me and asked

"This is better, we would attract less attention in small a group but this also means that we could get killed if we are caught" I briefly replied

"Alright, let's proceed with caution then"

I led the way as Lilith automatically mapped out the areas we passed through, we met with a few Formars but we quickly silenced them. We found a nest as we traversed the 3rd underground floor.

"...what are these?" Astarotia asked as she stared at the amber like egg that had the size of a small oven

"An egg obviously" I looked around in case there's a guard

"Why do you have to be so mean~" Astarotia tapped on my helm

"Let's break them" I brought out my gun and started shooting

Cynthia, Astarotia, and Guardian 5 started breaking each egg in their own ways, 10 minutes after, all eggs were now broken. There were at least 300 of those eggs here, we found another set of stairs leading down while we were destroying the eggs and now that that's done, we can finally descend. We cautiously went down and saw an entire swarm of giant ants heading straight for us

"Run, NOW!" we all started running as the ants toppled anything that blocked their path

After some continuous running, we finally got out of the cave.

"Don't stop now" Astarotia had her hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath

"Give me five minutes" She replied

"Those ants will need 3 to turn you into meat paste!" I carried her and caught up with Guardian 5 and Cynthia

Cynthia wasn't tired because of the Nexus armor, it may be military armor but it has features that help the user use less energy but have twice the effect. We saw the city gates just as Cynthia was starting to get tired

"Open the gates!" Astarotia shouted out

The gates soon opened and we entered

"Ready the mages we may have company!" She quickly instructed as Cynthia and I sat down to rest

'Lilith, how much energy does DK have?' I asked

'78%' she quickly replied

"These are amazing" Cynthia suddenly spoke out

"You getting used to it?" I asked

"Yeah, it's a bit weird at first but I'll get used to it. Is this what it feels like in your armor?" Cynthia asked

"You could say that" I chuckled as I knocked on her helm

She removed her helmet and shook her head left and right, beads of sweat streamed down her face as she fixed her hair.

"I've been waiting to ask this, what's that on your back" Astarotia came out of nowhere and asked as she sat beside me

"You can call it a bow, it was made back home" I lied

"It shoots weird blue beads?" Astarotia was still curious

"It's concentrated mana" It is easier to explain using words she knows

"That's amazing! Is it alright if you make more of these?" She requested with puppy eyes

"Can't, materials needed are only found back home"

"That's too bad" she quickly gave up and just leaned her head on my shoulders

I was about to stop her but Cynthia spoke out

"Don't get too intimate with him" Cynthia spoke out as she stared daggers at Astarotia

"Oh? Who are you to tell me that? Are you Zeno's lover?" Astarotia shot back as she looked down at Cynthia

Cynthia could only grit her teeth and pull me away from her

"Hey! What're you doing?!" Astarotia got mad and pulled me

"Cut it out" I stood up and ran up the walls because Lilith alerted me of another swarm coming

I looked at the forest and saw several ants come out before an entire swarm showed itself

"Prepare for battle!" A sentry roared out as he blew the horn that echoed out throughout the entire city.