"We're severely behind schedule," Vrak states with bags under his eyes and a strained voice. "Our team is supposed to meet Lilith's team here." He points to a location on the map, his fingers digging into the paper.

Penny sits beside him, nodding along to the conversation as her eyes struggle to stay open.

As the heat inside the tent slowly rises, some begin wiping their foreheads with a handkerchief.

One of the people around the table sighed as he fanned himself with his hand. 'Don't you think I understand that? I have my main team out there, constantly surveying the area. The others assigned to scouting are good, but they can't account for everything!' He turned toward someone with mushy, flabby-like skin and a pig snout. 'If it weren't for a certain somebody..."

"Me?!" the pigman shrieks. "How is this my fault?!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn't drawn every single monster that crossed our path!"

The pigman narrows his eyes, biting down on his bottom lip and throwing his head to the side with a snort.

"Chris, are you stupid or something? We have quotas to meet. Do you want to be the one explaining to them when a horde of monsters, far above this dungeon's usual rank, escapes?"

Chris's forehead wrinkles as he glares at the pigman.

"Some monsters are too dangerous to handle alone. We need team 1's collaboration for that," Chris mutters crossly, holding the pigman's gaze. "Or are you too pigheaded to realize that?"

The pigman suddenly rises from his chair, slamming his fist onto the table. "What do you expect me to do?! High-ranking monsters are crawling all over the place. If you and the others had done your jobs properly on the last expedition, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"I was part of the communication team, Grunkle, not directly involved in it!"

"Woah, whoa, whoa," Vrak cut in, drawing their attention. "I think the stress is getting to us all. Do we need to take a break?" He turned to Penny. "What do you think, Penny?"

Penny doesn't answer, standing motionlessly with her eyes half-closed. Her head droops with every passing minute.

"Ey, Penny?" the half-orge grabs her shoulder, giving it a light shake. "Oi, you with us, human?"

Penny suddenly jolts awake, swiftly straightening her posture. She places a hand on her forehead, rubbing it insistently.

"Apologies," Penny shrugs off the half-orge's hand. "As I was saying, we need to speed up our progress. Ideas?"

Vrak taps Penny's shoulder to get her attention and whispers, "Are you sure you don't need a break?"

"It's fine, Vrak," Penny replies as someone at the table stands up. "Continue."

Vrak frowns at her response before slowly shaking his head.

"I suggest we cut through here," a black-haired man says, drawing an imaginary line on the map. "It cuts our travel time in half and avoids many dangerous monsters."

"I don't think that's going to work," Chris interjects, taking out several maps. "Based on the information gathered by scouts and my main team's report, there are signs of Essevian pods in the area."

"We received reports before this expedition about a pod infestation," Grunkle adds. "We might need to address that issue."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"We are unprepared for it," Chris says with a glare. "It's an infestation pod of Essevians, something the last expedition failed to mention." He sighs, turning towards Grunkle. "I won't deny that I might have played a role in it, but the higher-ups did not handle it properly."

Grunkle crosses his arms and grunts in response.

"Chris is right," Penny says. "It's too risky to travel through it without proper preparation and backup. We don't have enough people with light affinity asuras to deal with them or enough antidote if things go south."

The black-haired man glances at the ground for a minute before looking up. "We could always use the Essevians our expedition has."

The whole tent goes silent as everyone stares at the man with varying emotions displayed across their faces.

"I am not cleaning up the mess that would be caused by doing that!" someone yells.

A few murmurs of agreement ring through the air.

"I don't think they are trained for that kind of work," Penny mutters, blinking her eyes. "Considering how most of them aren't born but are turned into one, their reactions toward the thing responsible for the transformation can be a wildcard."

"Pfft, understatement of the year," a woman from the table rolls her eyes, crossing her arms. "If I became nothing more than a walking corpse, I would rather die again or never recover my conscience. Especially if I'm a tier one Essevian." A shudder passes through her body. "Can you imagine? A world without asura while they are all around you? What's even worse is the little gross parasites that attach themselves to the host."

"Well, if you're an Essevian," Chris says casually, "At least you wouldn't have to use your asura to look young." He glances at the woman, who frowns in response.

"But then again,' Chris continues, "it preserves your face as it currently looks, rather than changing it temporarily."

"Regardless," Penny interjects, 'I don't think many of them will be happy about it."

"How about we have the porters work a little longer?' someone else suggests. 'Their dillydallying is slowing us down."

Grunkle snorts, placing both feet on the table. "You call that work? I could finish hundreds of those bodies without breaking a sweat. Those guys complain after barely reaching sixty, while the rest of us are fighting off countless monsters." He tilts his snout into the air. "I agree with the human; the porters are too lazy. They should be made to work longer."

Vrak's face twists into a grimace as a frown appears on his face. He turns toward Penny, watching her expectantly. Penny sighs and slowly nods.

"While you're not wrong," Vrak begins, clasping his hands together, "I don't think we should push more workload onto them. Most are already unhappy that we didn't share our supplies. It wouldn't be wise to anger them further."

"They barely do anything! We're the ones risking our lives fighting off monsters!" Grunkle insists.

"It's probably not as easy as it looks," Penny suddenly coughs, capturing everyone's attention.

'Kap!'

Vrak claps his hands together as he rises to his feet. "Well then, I think it's about time the leader of my main team heads back to bed," he declares, casting a pointed glance around the table. "Now, unless there are any objections, I'll excuse her for the rest of the meeting."

Ignoring Penny's attempts to wave him off, Vrak escorts her outside. A light breeze passes by, carrying with it sweltering heat that brushes against their faces.

"Honestly, you're going to keel over at this rate," Vrak mumbled, gently tugging Penny along. "I know your work is crucial, but—oi, don't give me that look," he interrupted as Penny glared at him. "It'll only be a few minutes. Everything will be fine when you wake up."

"But—"

"No," he hushed her, "It was a mistake to let you go this far without rest. Everyone's stressed, not just you. Did you see the way Grunkle and Chris snapped at each other?"

Penny sighs as they pass several people who give them a quick nod. Some porters in the distance immediately duck out of sight.

"Yeah, they are usually not like that with each other," Penny says as she continues to let Vrak drag her along. "Just a few days before the expedition, they were trying to see who could balance the most paint cans on their heads."

Vrak chuckles, drawing some people's looks. "Idiots."

A boy with light, red hair marches by them, his green eyes searching through the crowd of porters. He looks up at their approach as a flash of recognition briefly appears on his face.

"Good day, Vrak," He nods his head before turning toward Penny. "You as well." With that, he quickly scurries off.

"What was that about?" Vrak asks Penny.

"I'm not sure," Penny shrugs. "He's been rather strange for the past few days. He even thought he was part of Aequitas for some reason."

Vrak glances behind him, watching the redhead's retreating back.

"Should we be worried? He's been spending a lot of time watching the porters."

"About Shaun?" Penny quickly shakes her head. "It's probably just stress from his last time in a dungeon. It was his first one, after all."

Vrak frowns as he turns away. "If you say so."

They walk in comfortable silence until they reach a cluster of small tents nearby.