Nero activated [Invisibility] and waited. A few minutes later, the four criminals appeared with a faint shimmer.

"Where did he go?" Rodther asked, his eyes scanning around.

"I'm telling you. The guy was suspicious as heck," Arden said. "He has no scent!"

"Yes," Rodther agreed. "It was too weird when we were walking. If I stopped paying attention to him, he seemed to vanish."

"Chickens," Husk teased. "Guy has no Skills. You should get your eyes checked."

"The idiot already died!" Cesar mocked and laughed. "That's too stupid even for him. Oi! Level zero, where are you?"

'A couple meters behind you', he thought. Nero remained quiet. The easiest tell would be to make some noise. He was very curious about their motivations and watching them delve on their own seemed like fun.

Arden sniffed around. "I don't smell blood. He's not dead. Look, there are wolves watching us from the treeline. Your level zero friend wouldn't defeat a wolf pack unharmed. He's here somewhere."

"Hey, you coward!" Husk shouted. "Show yourself!"

"Shut up, you idiots," Rodther hissed.

The four looked around, searching for clues. Rodther found Nero's footprints and followed them, almost bumping into him. Nero moved away but the ietermahue kept his eyes peeled on Nero's position, or his feet to be precise. Rodther raised a finger to the tip of his muzzle. Nero stopped and the scaled guy just shook his head.

"What are you looking for there, lizardman?" Cesar came and teased Rodther. "Something funny that way?"

Rodther poked his tongue. It looked like a normal person's tongue, slightly longer but was definitely not reptilian. "No, nothing," Rodther swallowed his anger and answered with a straight face. "Look, the guy probably went to take a dump, let's get this show on the road. We need to get five [Egress] cards or we're dead. Let's kill some wolves. I'm sure this Nero Zero guy will show up when he does."

"Keep looking, man!" Cesar bossed around. "We need to find him, that guy is weak as fuck."

"Your call. We're wasting time," Rodther said and walked around, purposefully stepping on Nero's footprints.

Twenty minutes later they gave up on finding Nero.

"I'm bored," Husk whined. "Let's start our hunt."

"Cesar, you are with me in the front. Let Husk and Rodther flank and kill the wolves that are trying to circle around us," Arden said.

"Don't boss me around, white-grade," Cesar grunted. "Yeah, let's kill some shit."

The pecking order was determined easily. Cesar and Husk's builds and equipment were obviously stronger than the other two. Nero switched the lens on his Arbitrium and studied the Essence flows of their equipment. Even without his [Gadgeteer] Class active, the knowledge accrued remained with him. Just by seeing the Essence and Anima flows from the Arbitrium to their gear showed how screwed the bear-kin would be if he picked a fight with Cesar. The prison wardens would never let Cesar have a blue-grade weapon. Where did he get that? Husk too had a blue set of clothes, some kind of eastern warrior two-piece that folded over itself over his chest.

The quartet walked into the forest and the first pack of wolves attacked. Husk fired some [Chi Blasts] on the wolves at the right flank while Rodther threw dagger after dagger at the wolves to the left. Arden with his flamberge held in one hand favored powerful attacks while Cesar executed quick strikes, probably to whittle down the monsters' mobility with [Harrying Strike]. They took a few bites from the wolves but nothing too troublesome, as all of them had some kind of self-healing Skill. Rodther didn't but between his scales and [Mitigate Damage], he wouldn't get hurt.

They killed the second-to-last wolf and Nero's Arbitrium decided to award an Accolade.

> For defeating a foe eighteen times your level, you gained +1 Willpower

"What was that?" Cesar turned around, suspicious. "I saw a light coming from behind."

"Yes, there was something around here," Husk added. "Maybe our little level zero is invisible using some item. I wonder how he got in the prince's good grace. Maybe he's whoring up that wife of his. Valanaegornif fancied her."

Nero raised his rifle and aimed at Husk's head. 'Dare to say another word about her, you asshole', he taunted in his head.

"Shut up, you idiot," Cesar slapped Husk's nape. "Don't say that about my angel. That bastard stole my girlfriend!" The burly minnid raised a fist to the sky.

They started to pick up the Essence and cards.

"Seriously?" Arden asked.

"Yeah, fuck him!" Cesar spat. "I was going to form a party with her but he got there first. Dude, I hunted him like the plague in that cursed rat tunnels but never found him."

"That's stupid," Rodther said. "Can you guys focus on the putrid wolves?"

"Are we jumpy?" Husk teased. "There's no danger here. Even the monsters. We nailed them mutts just fine!"

"Dude, the monsters here are level twenty," Arden said with a crystal in his big hand. "Or more. I have a crystal here worth a hundred and sixty."

"We can kill level twenty monsters in our sleep, teddy wussy bear," Cesar sneered.

Arden growled but Rodther held his shoulder. The ietermahue shook his head.

"Yeah. Not worthy of losing your life, dumbass," Cesar spat again. "Let's kill more dogs."

Nero gave up on keeping his rifle aimed. He hid his Arbitrium under his cloak instead, hoping the light would be blocked by the thick and reinforced fabric even though both were invisible.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

They walked into the forest and searched for another pack. Arden was grinding his teeth, avoiding to put the minnids in his field of view. They pulled the next pack and fell into their routine. The whole group burned through stamina too fast and after that pack was done with, they had to stop and rest. Arden had a nasty gash in his leg and was using [Vitality Healing] to fix himself.

"He seems an okay guy," Arden said, probably about Nero. "I don't blame him for hiding," He said out loud in case Nero was listening. He was and shouting was pointless.

"Yeah. Pussies, both of you," Cesar grinned manically.

It was obvious that Cesar wanted to get under Arden's skin, provoke the bear-kin into doing something stupid, and picking up a fight so the truth-teller could be fooled. Nero rooted for the bear-kin. Even though he was a prisoner and a murderer, being bullied by Cesar made him feel sympathy for Arden.

"I doubt he stole your girlfriend like you said," Arden talked back. "I think you are delusional."

"Fucking bastard!" Cesar cursed, looking away from Arden. "I almost got him in that Dungeon."

"At least we found a lot of 'treasure chests'," Husk joked, adding to Cesar's narrative.

"Eh? Treasure chests? Not mimics pretending to be chests? I doubt there's a Dungeon that spawns real chests. You guys are full of shit," Rodther challenged, annoyed at the minnid duo's antics.

"Of course there's no real chest, stupid," Husk spat back. "We are talking about the stupid kids that were dumb enough to delve with us."

"Fuck, no. Did you guys really kill other Adventurers?" Arden asked.

Even murderers respected the laws of the Dungeon. No matter how stronger you were, one could get injured or maimed in a fight against a person. Only those really demented would purposefully hunt other people in a Dungeon. That was common sense.

A few yards away, Nero was listening carefully, fighting the bile that was rising up from his stomach. He couldn't believe, but it all made sense. Cesar and Husk moved to the next Dungeon while they were away. The novices from the minnid village of Hom had too many deaths. Deaths without explanation. The rats weren't that dangerous.

"Yeah. Only one escaped us," Husk boasted with dark pride.

"That Simmons kid. Damn scaredy-cat!" Cesar said. "Ran away from us, created a mob train, and died eaten by rats."

"We didn't get his cards. Idiot," Husk added. "Should've stood his ground and fought like a man."

These two monsters in people's skin were talking about Timmy. The image of Agatha Simmons crying on his mother's arm flashed in front of Nero's face. Nero cursed. Everything made sense. How they moved to the next rank so fast, how they got the cards to trade with Razzer. Nero wanted to blow their heads right away. He'd shoot Husk because he had a better dodge and then Cesar. Even in a straight fight, they had no chance.

But he didn't need to do anything. The two were prisoners for life. Doomed to farm crystals and cards for the country until the day they died inside a Dungeon. It didn't matter what crimes they committed, they were already as good as dead. Nero didn't need to dirty his hands with their blood.

"That's in the past now," Rodther said, trying to deflate the argument. "We're all prisoners now, there's no other life for us. Just treat this as any normal delve and let our hidden friend do his thing. We can leave one [Egress] card behind for him."

Both Cesar and Husk exchanged a glance and started to laugh. "Yeah, we're prisoners forever. You are," Cesar said enigmatically.

They kept their mouths shut after that. A few minutes later they stood up, probably with enough stamina for another pack of wolves.

----------------------------------------

Their pattern settled into resting, fighting a pack, resting again. It was obvious as time went by that they were getting tired. Even though stamina was called as such, it was just a resource to power Skills. It had little effect on the body although Endurance did increase the passive resistance to fatigue. The one sagging the most was Arden. In fact, for the last two wolf packs, It seemed Cesar and Husk were slacking, leaving more wolves for the big bear-kin to fight. Even Husk was firing less [Chi Blasts] now, but it was probably because he was running out of mana. Nero forgot to keep a tally of how many times he used his spell.

Nero instead used this time to think about what was happening. They knew he was around, hidden. Why were they talking so openly about their transgressions? Was it normal for prisoners to talk like that while delving? It didn't seem so, Arden and Rodther were clearly bothered by it. Did they think so little of him to really not even consider Nero might take offense (he did) and attack them? There was more to that. Maybe they wanted to kill him. Nero discarded that thought. Mayleefa said the prince would...

No. He couldn't trust them. That was a Dungeon delve and the rules were all that would keep him alive. Not blind trust in some asshole's promises. Nero watched them as they hunted even more wolves. Arden was forced to pick up the slack from Cesar and ran ragged by the end of the day.

The quartet of criminals retreated to the entrance to sleep. Nobody had a tent, just bedrolls. Rodther with his hardened keratin scales just laid on the ground.

"Should we set a watch?" Cesar asked with fake innocence.

"Yes, you can all sleep. I'll get the first watch," Rodther replied.

Arden was already snoring. Nero was tired but he just walked all day. He decided to stay awake and invisible through the night. Sitting on the grass ten yards from the party, he watched.

"So, where do you think that coward is?" Husk asked Rodther.

"Damned if I know," He answered. "We just need to do our job. Find five [Egress] and get out."

"That will take a while," Cesar complained. "We didn't find a single one so far."

"Well, let's catch some shut-eye, Cesar. We'll be in your care, Rodther," Husk said with a yawn.

The scaled beast-folk waved a clawed hand, "Yeah, go to sleep. It will be a tough day tomorrow."

Both minnids pulled their blankets and laid on their sides, turning their backs to Rodther. Soon they were snoring as well, but to Nero, it felt forced. Fake. A couple hours passed without anyone moving. Nero moved to sit out of Rodther's field of view because he had to renew invisibility every hour.

Rodther stood up and scanned the grass around. Finally, he walked slowly on all four limbs, his muscular tail swaying behind him until he found Nero's footprints. He looked ahead and Nero felt as if he was looking at his invisible form. Rodther raised a finger to his lips. "I can hear you moving," he whispered. "Follow me, please."

"Damn. I have to take a leak," He said in a loud voice. "Better not piss near the guys."

Rodther walked to the forest with heavy steps. Nero followed but tried to keep an eye on the camp. Rodther scanned the forest, looking for wolves. Nero knew there were none, their Essence signature too obvious in his goggles' detection. After walking enough to block visibility to the camp, the ietermahue stopped.

"This far is good enough. Listen, those two will try to murder me the moment I fall asleep," He told the air, hoping Nero would listen.

Nero raised his rifle and pointed it at Rodther's head. Then he canceled his invisibility.

"What do I have to do with that?" Nero asked.

Rodther raised both hands. "Valanaegornif told them to kill you," He replied. "That's a frightening gun, dude. I've never seen it before."

"Custom job. My work. Thanks. Quite deadly too."

He turned around to show Nero his back. His tail was held in his hand and the other was in the air. "You're welcome and I don't want to test the weapon. I mean you no harm. I won't even look at you. Truth is, I just want to live. The only way that will happen is if those two fail their secret mission."

Nero was inclined to agree with Rodther, but he was suspicious. It fit too well with his wishes and fears, and it could be a trick.

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"I'm a smuggler, I--"

"I've read your profile. I have it here with me. Straight to the point."

"I smuggled people. Those with high level caps. Above two hundred. To escape the Knights' draft. That's why they slapped me with desertion. I was never in the military. But in my line of work, information is the difference between life or death. A guy in the prisoner group heard something about some Valanaegornif wanting some pampered kid the prince fancied dead, and the info flowed to me. Once I heard about this assignment, I asked around about you. It wasn't hard to add two plus two, especially because Cesar and Husk really hate your guts."

A shout of pain came from the clearing. It was Arden's voice.

"They started the party without us," Rodther said. "Go invisible, I'm going there to check."

"No. Stay here, stay safe," Nero said. "I'll deal with them. I don't trust you. Keep away from those two if you have nothing to do with their mission. I'll handle them but if I see a single scale of yours in my field of view, I'll blow your head. You can go that way and watch them. After I'm done, you can pick your side."

Rodther shrugged. "Works to me. I can solo the wolves. See you around."

They went separate ways. The sound of metal striking metal and combat rang in the Dungeon's night.