Talk about a freeloader.

Nathan resisted the urge to grumble at the sudden reappearance of the Neran Rabbit. Heck, at this point, he might as well give it a name since it seemed quite intentional about mooching off him as often as it could.

Hmm, naah.

He glared at the bunny, but it wasn't bothered as it was being stroked by the ladies in the group who let out coos at the innocent-looking creature. "Looking" being the keyword there, and that was part of the reason why Nathan had decided not to even continue down the train of thought of naming a killer bunny.

Ruben had stayed back this time, and Nathan was curious as to what was holding back the Berserker from fanboying over the rabbit that had just returned. On a whim, he decided to analyze the bunny.

[Neran Rabbit

Level 19]

Awww, come on!

That was really unfair—while he'd been out here supervising the others, the bunny had leveled up, twice! Nathan felt a little envious and then a little ashamed because his envy was directed at a freaking bunny—an apocalypse bunny, but still, a bunny.

Pirlo hung back also, and Nathan hadn't really expected anything else; the rogue wasn't one to show emotions. This time, the wiry teen's cold and distant demeanor was somewhat overwhelming. Probably his close shave with death had already put the rogue's focused mind in overdrive, and while Nathan could respect someone who was all about the grind, he had to admit, people who became all about the grind were often unpredictable—and it was the bad type of unpredictable.

Hopefully it's the good kind for him.

"I want to hit the E-Ranked Dungeon with you," Pirlo muttered.

And there it is.

He'd seen the look on the Rogue's face when Ciara had said that the rest of the squad would hit F-ranked dungeons on their own. The rogue had opted out of protesting the decision at the moment and had gone into a level of brooding that made Nathan question if the teen had any emotions other than murderhobo and brood-o-bo.

"No," Nathan said as he bit into his own serving of the roasted Soza.

He wasn't going to make the already strained relationship he was beginning to have with Ciara grow worse; she clung to her leadership position like... well, any other leader. He understood in a sense that Ciara taking them to an F-ranked dungeon without him there would be a way for her to stamp her authority once more. What Pirlo was suggesting right now in the absence of the rest of the squad—excluding an eager-eyed Ruben—was going to be enough to jeopardize Ciara's plan before she could even enact it, which was a no-no for him.

"I want to hit an E-ranked dungeon with you too, bro," Ruben whispered.

It seemed like the answer he'd just given the rogue moments ago had gone over the Berserker's head. Or maybe it hadn't—everyone else was at the other side of the stronghold with the bunny; just these two were still with him, which made him wonder if this discussion had been planned.

"Let me think about it," Nathan said, feigning a thoughtful expression. "Nope."

Ruben and Pirlo shared a look at his answer, which somewhat confirmed his thoughts of the two being in cahoots—which was pretty weird seeing as the two guys were polar opposites and the fact that Pirlo hadn't been buddies with Ruben when he first met the squad.

"Ciara says you guys are hitting an F-Ranked Dungeon," Nathan said. "If you don't agree with her decision, talk to her, not me."

The words that the pair wanted to utter were swallowed up by his quick addition to his earlier answer. He could tell that the two teens wanted to press him into overriding Ciara's authority—which he could very well do—but he wasn't going to. Ruben grumbled at his answer, but the rogue just glared at him like he'd destroyed his childhood dreams of getting into an E-ranked dungeon.

Oh wait, I did.

While Nathan was a little bit remorseful for what he was about to do, he did it anyway: he flashed the guys a bright smile, which only seemed to aggravate the pair. But at the end of the day, none of them could hurt him. That cockiness on its own was a message—a very important one. They had to be as strong as him to contest his decision.

Pfft, at this rate, it'll take them two to three weeks to match up.

That was if Nathan decided to neglect his own improvement like he'd just done the past five days; if anything, he needed to sit up as fast as possible. These guys weren't his competitors by any sense of the word. That was the truth, and the level lead he'd built over time had started to vanish. The E-ranked dungeon was the best route, and the lack of dead weight in his next run—thanks to Ciara's statement—made him sure that he'd be leaving the dungeon with something.

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"Well, that's plan A in the mud," Ruben muttered.

Naturally, Nathan was interested in the words that had just left the Berserker's lips. What in the nine realms did Ruben mean by saying that Plan A was in the mud? His thinking bore fruit as a singular thought occupied his mind about what Plan B or, God forbid, Plan C was.

Nahh, they're both blockheads, but they both can't be that stupid.

He had a sneaking suspicion that this deadly pair of dumbasses were going to attempt hitting an E-Ranked Dungeon with or without him. Pirlo's expression had gone from impassive to grim at the words of the Berserker, making him wonder how close to the mark his suspicion was.

"You two dumbasses better not be planning to do anything stupid," Nathan said pointedly.

"Us, anything stupid?" Ruben asked as though Nathan had asked the most outlandish question.

"Yes," Nathan said in a clipped tone, his voice like iron, unyielding in his accusation. "You guys are the only frontliners the squad has. Abandoning them even in an F-Ranked dungeon is highly irresponsible. Plus, if anyone dies or loses a limb because you decide to be rebels, then it's on you two."

That actually felt good.

He could tell his words had hit home as Ruben was looking a little bit too guilty, and Pirlo couldn't even meet his eyes, which was weird because the rogue normally glared at him every chance he got. The feel-good part of the conversation was how he'd gotten to berate both teenagers; for a minute there, he'd sounded so wise he couldn't even believe the words had come from him. The additional feel-good aspect was the fact that he'd literally dropped the weight of leadership on the shoulders of both men.

Now they'd have no choice but to stay back and support Ciara's decisions. The lives of their squad were now in their hands, and they'd think twice before going through with any stupid alternatives their minds had come up with in case they couldn't pressure Nathan into taking them with him.

Checkmate, noobs.

"No fair, you can't d—" Ruben paused mid-whining, his eyes flashing up a little higher than Nathan's head. The footsteps that his ears had been picking up during their conversation came to a stop.

"What's his name?" Yola asked.

You can't name a wild animal; people don't go out naming wolves and bears.

That was the line of thought the question sparked in Nathan's mind—the bunny was a feral beast or was semi-feral as far as he was concerned.

"I haven't decided on a name for him," Nathan replied.

More like Wildebeest 2.0.

"Oh, I could help you with that," the Ranger offered.

"Nah, I'll get to it later. Besides, I don't think the bunny would take too kindly to getting a stupid name," Nathan said.

He'd said it to escape the soft trap that the ranger had set for him, but as far as he could tell, the bunny could have its own way of understanding human words, or maybe it just inferred the meaning from their pitch. If a dog or cat didn't like the name you tried to give it, they'd nip at you or make their respective sounds. On the other hand, he was loath to find out what the bunny would do to the squad if they tried to assign it a stupid name.

It'll probably eat them all.

At the moment, the bunny was level nineteen, three levels below the Rapid Soza that they'd fought. In other words, Nathan didn't believe that there was anyone in the squad who could take on the bunny solo—maybe Pirlo, but that was a big maybe. If it managed to paralyze them, he had no doubts that its teeth would tear into their skin like a knife through butter—they were all lower leveled than the Bunny.

It'd make for a good trailer for what not to do during an apocalypse.

Nathan left a gentle smile on his face even through the morbid possibilities that his mind sifted through. He'd done it mostly for the sake of the Ranger, who was looking a little deflated.

"Oh, well, I better go tell them that," Yola said, her shoulders sagging as she turned away to meet the rest of the squad that had formed their own little picnic away from Ruben, Pirlo, and Nathan. Apparently, Nathan had forgotten to factor in the most important candidate when he'd been considering who between Pirlo and Ciara the squad would follow. Turns out the bunny was leading the poll by far; all the infernal thing needed to do was get a translator or, better yet, learn how to speak human, and it'd be the leader of the squad.

Imagine if it gets the voice of an old man, all wise and all-knowing.

Nathan rolled his eyes at the thought before focusing them on the two dumb-dumbs facing him. Ruben had gone back to tearing into the roasted Soza like a barbarian; the Berserker seemed to have lost interest in pursuing the conversation, which made him grin triumphantly. His gaze flitted to the Rogue—Pirlo, too, seemed to have turned his focus to his food, the wiry teen biting into his own serving of the Rapid Soza with grace, which was surprising since the Rogue was one who didn't like to waste time. He seemed quiet and calm, like a wolf in sheep's clothing.

In that regard, he and the bunny are alike.

Crazy how it was always the silent ones that were the most dangerous. People like Pirlo usually kept so good a facade that you couldn't tell what was going on behind their eyes, and while Nathan was experienced with people like that, Pirlo was fast turning into someone that he couldn't read easily.

An enigma.

Shrugging his shoulders, he returned to his own roast, grateful for the silence as all involved had wordlessly decided to drop the matter of changing dungeons. Call him a child or not, Nathan was pretty much looking forward to having the rest of tomorrow to himself, even if it mostly involved him risking and fighting for his life in whatever messed-up dungeon was unfortunate enough to be paid a visit by him.

This is probably how parents feel when they hand over their children to babysitters or their grandparents so they could have some time off.

"Yo, Nate," Ruben called out suddenly.

The sound of the Berserker had already started to irritate him to a weird degree. Maybe it was due to the fact that he was expecting some alone time tomorrow, or maybe because the berserker had broken the comfortable silence.

"Yessss," Nathan said.

"Not to be that guy, but you should really get some spices. This roast is pretty bland," Ruben barreled on, paying no heed to Nathan's tone.

Nathan wanted to say something rash but kept himself in check because he kind of agreed with the Berserker's observation. Either way, he wasn't going to fall for the Berserker's trap and start going back and forth about spices. Instead, he let out a grunt, and that signaled the end of the conversation, much to the disappointment of the berserker.

I can't wait to be done with today.

Nathan stood up from where he sat and began chucking the leftover roast into his bag of holding—both the one he'd had leftover from his serving and the one that had purposefully been left aside for later.

His eagerness to get through the day was quite understandable because tomorrow he was going to go on a dungeon run.

Alone.