Mark had a somewhat confused look on his face as he stared at Anya, her hair was now done in a braided bun and wore a pair of specialized goggles as a replacement for her glasses, instead of a simple winter coat and dress she was now wearing a high-quality Hashira Enterprises Winter Combat clothes and was holding a backpack. Anya too had a look of confusion on her face as she looked at him and then at Sandra who was busy taking a sip of her flask of liquor.

"So tell me again why are you taking in a second protege?" Mark whispered to Sandra who was still drinking from her flask since he was confused as to why the daughter of the President of the Country was now dressed in combat armour looking at them with a look of expectation in her eyes.

"Her father made a compelling argument." She grinned at him and started rubbing her fingers.

"Of course," Mark said with a chuckle.

"So uh my name is Anya Springfield." She said introducing herself as she pulled out her Holo-Phone revealing her 'identity' as such.

That explains the change in hairstyle and appearance, but why would he send her to be a mercenary? Mark thought as he gestured for her to follow them into the Camp, which was currently bustling with the number of people present.

Then again probably wanted her to learn what it means to work hard and get some callouses on her hands or something. He speculated after all she did complain that President Anatoly is a traditionalist and he did have a history of being a mercenary in his youth before he started running for President, so this wouldn't seem out of the ordinary.

"What's going on? There seems to be an event going on." Anya said tugging her backpack as they wandered into Camp Vera that late afternoon. Ever since Mark and the Rescue team returned with the Exploration Team, the entire camp had made exploring the entire Vault a top priority and so they started to send groups of Mercenaries regardless of whether or not they are a rookie or a veteran they are sent out there to clear a path for the scientists and researchers entering the site so they can study and learn the secrets of the Vault and with the reveal that the Vault contained items and treasures that predate the Collision, many more Mercenaries had rushed to the scene trying to get their share of the treasure before the Svashan government finally decided to take action.

"They're getting ready for an expedition into the Northern Vault," Mark explained to her as they went into the tent they were on. "The three of us will be going in there soon."

"Really?" Anya said excitedly as she dropped her bags and Mark gestured at her to follow after him as they made their way to the armoury which was filled to the brim with weapons and armour.

"Let's get you a weapon to prepare you for the exploration cause we'll be venturing in there with a handful of other mercs later," Mark explained to her as they looked at various weapon racks.

"What weapon am I gonna use?" She said excitedly as she looked at one of the weapons and reached for a rotary grenade launcher but Mark quickly stopped her with a panicked look on his face.

"Whoa there Princess," Mark said grabbing her wrist. "That's a Rotary Grenade Launcher fitted with incendiary rounds, one wrong move and what happens next won't be pretty."

Anya went pale as she backed away from the grenade launcher as soon as Mark finished explaining that weapons aren't toys and they are more or fewer extensions of one's self.

"So uh what do you want to suggest?" She said shooting a worried look at the grenade launcher one more time.

"Here take this," he said handing her an automatic crossbow that is loaded from a drum magazine while being fitted with a bayonet.

"It's an Automatic Crossbow, no recoil but ammunition goes pretty fast so you'll need to practice your trigger discipline," Mark said grabbing a similar crossbow and the two made their way towards the firing range where various other Mercenaries are training how to use their weapons.

Mark grabbed the crossbow with both arms and aimed down the sights and--

Twunk

Twunk

Twunk

A handful of Mercenaries started clapping as Mark managed to shoot three bull's eyes with the Automatic Crossbow with little difficulty.

"Whoa," Anya said as she started clapping as well visibly impressed at what Mark had managed to pull off.

"It's not as easy as it looks though, so you'll need to be practising as well," Mark said setting aside the Crossbow and gesturing at her to come forward. "We'll need to rush the training since we'll be delving in pretty soon."

"What can I do to help down there," Anya asked as Mark helped her with the proper postures and handling of the Crossbow.

"For now you'll be our Support, leave the heavy fighting to me and Sandra," Mark explained as he patted Arthur which was sheathed by his waist.

"Alright but are you sure you can trust me with a crossbow?" Anya asked as she fired her crossbow missing the target.

"That's why we're training." Mark pointed out.

"Mark!"

The two of them turned to find the Sidorov Brothers, Grigori and Henri, walking towards them with their weapons. Thanks to the whole rescue mission, Mark had gotten closer to the brothers to the point where they started treating him as one of their own as well.

"Welcome back," Mark said nodding at Anya to keep on practising while he walked towards them. "How did the delve go?"

The two of them had a grim looks on their faces as they exchanged looks. Oh, this doesn't look good, Mark thought to himself as the two whispered among themselves and then turned to Mark.

"You and Miss Bright are scheduled to delve down there right?" Henri said as he started rubbing his arms and started looking around worriedly.

"What's going on?" Mark asked raising a curious eyebrow at them as he grew even more curious as to what is going on between them. Eventually, Grigori placed a shoulder on Mark and then whispered something into his ear, something that made him realize his dive into the Vault and finding Arthur was just a stroke of luck.

"It's filled with Svadraugrs and Yotuns."

Mark felt the colour from his face drain as he felt his knees become weak, for the first time he felt fear in his life as he learned those words. Svadraugrs are easy to deal with yes but Yotuns are a whole different story. Yotuns are bloated versions of Svadraugrs, where the latter is filled with fungus on the head only and is as tall as the average human, the Yotuns stand about eight foot tall and is covered head to toe with fungus and usually take a long time killing them with conventional weaponry and thus Junior Mercenaries are often encouraged to disengage and run away if possible and do not let the Yotun reach you as there had been cases where Yotuns can rip a Mercenary apart with their bare hands due to their strength.

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For the first time, Mark felt uneasy as he looked at the Northern Vault which now took on an ominous form as it loomed over the camp and then his eyes landed on Anya who was slowly improving in her aim with the crossbow.

Will we be okay?

Mark, Sandra and Anya walked towards the Northern Vault's entrance which comes from a vast cave as it was built along the mountainside with the main door resembling that of a massive gear all the while it was surrounded with barricades and various other Mercenary Groups stand about on patrol keeping an eye on the entrance. Mark and Sandra had grim looks on their face while Anya was whistling away while holding her crossbow ignorant of what they are about to face.

"She doesn't know?" Sandra asked Mark who glanced at Anya who was convinced that she'll just be shooting down wild rats with her crossbow.

"I'll let her find out, it'll be a pain to drag her in if she knew beforehand," Mark explained as he was double-checking their equipment and pulled out Arthur from his belt.

"Alright get ready," Sandra said pulling out a pair of goggles for the two of them while Anya pressed something on her goggles turning them green. They were provided with specialized goggles so that they can see through the dark and can maintain a semblance of stealth.

"Ready?" She asked him and Anya, Mark just nodded wordlessly while Anya cheerfully said yes as they entered the Vault. And upon entering Mark couldn't help but gag from the stench of dank and rot in the air, Sandra seems to be used to the smell meanwhile Anya was not as she went to the side and started vomiting in the corner.

"Sorry, I couldn't handle the stench." She apologized with Mark and Sandra nodding understandably at her as the smell was pretty bad.

"Come on we got a lot of ground to cover if we're to get this job done," Sandra said as she looked at the darkness.

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

[The Second Advent]

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In the last few days since the Vault had been opened and many groups have wandered into Vault with the objective that they must reach the top floor or bottom floor of the Vault. Currently, the Vault has fifteen floors with the entrance being the eighth floor of the Vault, this meant that the Vault has Seven Upper floors and Seven lower floors, but it's not as simple as one would believe as each floor is built like a maze and the poor lighting makes it even worse.

Mark and his Party are currently on the First Upper Floor wandering through the fungus-infested walls with Anya shivering in fear as she clutched her crossbow.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Sandra said gripping her sword tightly as they kept a tight formation as they wandered through the halls. Mark was assigned to be the rear guard and to make sure that Anya doesn't get hurt in any way possible.

Mark tensed up as they heard a series of clicking noises and turned to find six Svadraugrs sprinting towards them snarling.

"Where do I aim?!" Anya said as she raised her Automatic Crossbow and started waving them in a panic.

"Don't fire let us do the fighting," Sandra said as she took on a combat stance. Mark grabbed Anya and positioned her in a safe spot in the corridor.

"Only fire when they're near you understand?" Mark said taking the crossbow and setting it to semi-automatic, he didn't want her to start blindly spraying and praying when it was her first try with the Automatic Crossbow, Anya nodded as Mark pulled out Arthur and sliced the incoming Svadraugr that was moments away in grabbing him causing its head to come flying.

He stood behind Sandra who was facing off two more Svadraugrs while he was dealing with two Svadraugrs. Mark tensely gripped his Arthur as he was contemplating on making the first move but they were the first ones to attack causing him to sidestep and slice the Svadraugr in half and then impaled the second one and vertically bisect the Svadraugr spraying him with blood.

"I'm clear on my end," Mark said turning to Sandra who had just finished as well both of them being drenched in black blood.

"Is that... contagious?" Anya asked shaking in the corner and aiming her crossbow at her.

"Just don't get any bites and you'll be fine," Mark said wiping the blood off his hand and offering it to her.

"I'm going to ask my papa to just send me to a nunnery or something, this is gonna traumatize me," Anya said taking his hand which was followed by the sound of clicking causing her to blindly fire into that direction much to Mark's horror but fortunately it was a Svadraugr and it was shot in the face multiple times causing it to hit the ground with a splat!

"Nice shot," Mark told her with a pat on the shoulder but paused as she started hyperventilating and dropped the crossbow with a massive clatter. Mark immediately grabbed her by the shoulders with a worried look as he realized she was entering a state of panic attack.

"Anya just keep breathing," Mark said worriedly as Sandra walked towards them with a worried look.

"Here let me talk to her," Sandra said as she pulled her into a hug burying her face in her chest in the process. "Breathe in and breathe out."

Good grief this was a bad idea, was the man punishing her? Mark thought as his opinion of Anatoly suddenly changed. Sure that he struggled in the past trying to reach where he is but that didn't mean he had to punish her like that. Mark suddenly felt the urge to punch Anatoly in the face for putting Anya at risk as he watched Sandra finally calm her down until Anya finally nodded at the older woman who finally let her go.

"Will she be alright?" Mark asked worriedly at Anya who was looking at the automatic crossbow which fell to the ground earlier and picked it up.

"She'll be fine, she's just not used to killing things that's all," Sandra said as she grabbed a rag and wiped the blood off it. But then her look was then replaced with a teasing one, the same look his parents would give him when he talks about Gray.

"Mark Dirus are you by chance interested in her?" Sandra told him as Mark pulled out a similar rag and started cleaning Arthur who he sword he heard him mutter something about filth.

"I'm just worried that she could be traumatized from the whole mess," Mark said sheathing Arthur back. Besides I'm not interested in children.

"Oh okay okay, I'll be sure to keep this a secret from your fiancé." She said teasingly causing Mark to internally groan from the accusations.

Despite what Anya insisted Mark couldn't help but worry at her as they continued to tread carefully in the Vault corridor eventually ascending into the third upper floor, their pace was somewhat slow as most of the path that leads to the upper floors was cleared. He shot a glance at the younger girl who was trying to distract herself by trying to calibrate on the Automatic Crossbow, while he wasn't interested in her, he was worried since not everyone can shrug off their first kill.

Even if it was a Svadraugr or not.

"You should go talk to her," Arthur's voice said as Mark managed to pair him to a Bluetooth communicator allowing him to pretend that he was talking to someone on the phone and not look like he was talking to his sword. "Yeah, you're right," Mark said slowing down and walking towards Anya who was looking around nervously.

"Hey, are you alright?" Mark asked her as he slowed down his pace to walk alongside her as they enter an abandoned lobby that have been modified to be a temporary resting site for Mercenaries. The walls of the lobby had scorch marks due to the fact certain mercenaries armed with Flamethrowers would cleanse the walls of any fungi or bacteria that would infect any mercenaries.

"Yeah never better," Anya said with a forced smile, as she looked around and spotted a handful of other Mercenaries that were resting around makeshift campfires.

"You don't look alright, we should take a break," Mark said telling Sandra who agreed without hesitation and the three of them sat down to catch their breath, guess she was just as worried as Mark was after all she doesn't have Mark's composure.

"So why did your father send you to be a mercenary?" Mark asked changing the topic and glancing at the scorched walls that already have various graffiti on them as he sat down next to her. Sandra meanwhile rested her head on the floor while taking sips of her flask of liquor.

"He said I needed to learn how to step up and do things on my own," Anya said hugging her knees as she let out a yawn as rested her head next to Mark's shoulder. "So he arranged for me to learn the ropes in becoming a mercenary just as he did."

A tad bit extreme don't you think, letting your daughter learn through hardship? Is it, not the parent's duty to make sure that their children don't have to go through the same hardships as they do? Mark pondered to himself as he was even more tempted to punch Anatoly in the face as he heard Anya start to quietly sob from the stress.

"It's alright, just let it all out." Mark simply said wrapping his arm around her as she continue to sob.