"Goddammit, Zeke!"

Just like how a certain mage predicted, Mikella cursed his name like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her anger was reaching a boiling point.

Not that she blamed him entirely, that would be unreasonable. Still, she needed an outlet, and Zeke is constantly the source of her stress, so it was natural to curse him out for always getting away from her.

"Why is it that everytime we do crap like this, you fucking disappear on me like that? You're trying to say something, huh?! You don't like being around me? Is that it?!"

Well, perhaps this might be taking it too far even for her. She breathed heavily after her selfish little rant, her head rising and letting it hang there for a while as she pushed through her thought process.

Unfortunately, another person was there watching everything, and it was the last person that she wanted to watch this scene.

"Umm… are you okay, Mikky?"

Janet asked as one responsible and mature person would after witnessing their comrade losing their marbles like that. There was a concerned look in her eyes like she was staring at someone from a mental hospital out in the prowl.

"I mean, it's not just Zeke–everyone disappeared on us…" Janet made a valid point, which is only making Mikella feel even worse about herself.

"Ugh, I know," Mikella groaned. "I was just getting it off my chest. He does this crap all the time, I swear."

"Disappear in a dangerous area?" Janet asked, now more shocked than mere surprise. "That doesn't sound very wise."

"Oh, none of it's his fault. He just always ends up getting separated from me. One time, monsters took him away and left him alone in a zombie-filled tower, then the next time we got scattered all over the place when a tower blew up on us. It's ridiculous, I'm telling you."

At first, Mikella was trying to ease the mood by telling her some stories she thought were funny, but clearly hearing those little details only made her more concerned. Especially since they were in a tower where it could easily happen again.

"Uhh… forget I mention that," Mikella grimaced after realizing her mistake. "Don't worry. We'll be fine."

She said, though even she felt a bit off saying it straight up like that. She looked around her to see the reddish colored forest that could easily hide giants rather than small creatures. Thankfully, there were no monsters around, though it could just as easily be revealed that the forest is so large that monsters are too far away from the rest of them.

That, and the fact that the others that were sent along with them disappeared. Perhaps Mikella and Janet were lucky to find each other, but perhaps the others weren't so lucky. At least they had a water source, with the stream flowing by at the distance by her left.

However, the water was absolutely bubbling, but it wasn't the acid like liquid like in the last tower. If anything, it looked like a hot spring than actual acid, and touching it could easily cause some serious burns.

If she had a fire attunement, she would probably consider this home, but at the moment, she feels nervous, and even stranger was the fact that she wasn't even sweating. If anything, it felt oddly cool, as though winter was approaching just like the outside world.

"Okay… so what do we do?" Janet asked, seemingly not really believing Mikella's words of consolation. "Do we try to find them?"

"That's a given," Mikella nodded. "Though let's first set some priorities. First–our lives are important."

"That's obvious," Janet said, almost looking offended. She even tilted her head at her as though there was clearly more to this.

"Second priority is finding our party members," Mikella continued. "But since we're in the tower, we should probably look for others that aren't with us."

"...The otherworlders," Janet nodded. Then she frowned. "Umm… what if they attack us through a misunderstanding?"

"That's where the first priority comes in," Mikella said, her face stoic. "Our lives matter."

For a moment, Janet stared at her in confusion. Realization hit her closely afterwards, and her face turned crestfallen as she looked at the ground.

"Oh… oh…"

"First, we'll subdue them," Mikella assured her, putting her hand on Janet's shoulder. "If that's not enough, I'm not planning on saving jerks that refuse to listen. Still, they're probably super weak, so we need to be careful in subduing. But that's why I said our first priority is ourselves. If we can't do that, there's no point in suffering and probably dying, right?"

"...Right," Janet took a moment before responding with a nod. "Let's go with that."

Mikella smiled. She was glad that Janet was the kind of girl that understood the situation rather than constantly question the probably dubious moral actions MIkella was doing. Being an assassin, she understood that moral upstanding would only kill you.

Not that they planned on becoming monsters either. If they can, they would rather save the people here than leave them to die. But after seeing Amber, Mikella decided that sometimes, being a little rough can be more helpful than harmful. Janet also knew about Amber, and fully shared Mikella's sentiments.

"Alright, now that my bitching is done," Mikella grinned, making Janet do the same. "It's time to get to work. Where do you think we should go from here? I'm pretty confident in my directions, but I'm kinda clueless like this."

"Mmh…" Janet took the lead this time, scouting the scene with her own senses. Everyone's senses, especially at Journeyman, is different. And considering Janet's high-realm attunement, her senses are probably better than her own.

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"I think we should follow the stream," Janet surmised after a moment of consideration. "I'm not sure if it'll lead us somewhere we need to be, but normally people would follow the stream to get a decent water source."

"Sounds like a plan," Mikella nodded. "Follow me, and back me up if we spot something. I evolved my class to be more defensive, so I prefer to be in the front and take the hit rather than risk you getting hurt."

"I understand, but please don't take too much to yourself," Janet assured. "I'll do what I can to back you up."

"I know you will," Mikella smiled earnestly. "Let's go. Who knows what our men are doing right now. Maybe they stopped doing anything important and started talking about their nerd stuff, like finding plants or some shit."

"Hah… that does sound like Lyle," Janet let out a tired breath. "And Zeke… yeah, let's find them quickly."

Mikella nodded in assurance as the girls headed off to the direction Janet pointed out. Mikella already had her sword in hand, ready to fight anything… or anyone that might stand in her way.

…..

Following the trail, Mikella and Janet made sure to take a couple of detours to see if their comrades were around. But after about a half hour in, they had no signs of life other than their own.

Mikella also tried using her rune stone Zeke gave her, which unfortunately caused a loud explosion that made a large crater on the ground. She should've expected that the tower would fuck up the rune stone, but now she was even more pissed off right after finally remembering about her communicator again. Despite having her own for Lyle, it also didn't work, though thankfully it didn't blow up like her own did. Apparently it was built on better, more expensive materials than just some hard metal chunk Zeke used.

During their travel, They spotted their first monster–a small fox with a tail made of ember-like flames. Its level was surprising for Mikella.

Flame Fox, Level 34.

"A low Expert-rank?" Mikella widened her eyes. "Haven't seen one of those in a long while."

For someone like her who practically hunted Expert-rank creatures like it was lunch back in Eve Glade, it was almost a sight for sore eyes. It was even a bit adorable to look at, its beady eyes looking expectantly at the two women.

When Janet couldn't take it anymore and approached it, the fox quickly leapt away, sensing incredible danger from the two.

"Aww… I wanted to keep it," Janet crooned, a clear look of sadness in her eyes.

"Probably not a good idea Janet," Mikella said. Though she tilted her head when she remembered Brucey. Then she shrugged. "At least from here. Who knows what might happen."

"Isn't it weird that it didn't attack us on the spot?" Janet asked.

"Probably 'cuz it saw how powerful we are. Maybe if we had someone weaker than it on our side, it might attack us, but I doubt it likes to do that."

"Ooh, cool," Janet nodded. "Still, it was really cute. I always liked foxes. And that was a pretty cool fox!"

"Sure was," Mikella's eyes softened. "I wish Clara was here to see that… then again, I want her to be anywhere else but here."

The two continued on their way, but other than the fox, there was no other creature to be found. Eventually the forest slowly changed to a more dirt like field. The giant roots connected to the trees were practically roadways that mixed and mashed together, creating an array of complicated wooden platforms.

The girls traversed the path with ease, their Dexterity easily capable of doing this, but she can't imagine anyone at Beginner stage or even Apprentice stage to ever get through these without some serious physical labor.

Eventually Janet went around the area to scout ahead, going up the trees with Mikella keeping a low profile. As an assassin, she was much better suited for scoping out the scene from far away, and while Mikella can do the same, she would prefer keeping a look out for anything dangerous.

But despite an hour passing by, not a single living being was found… but eventually–

"Mikky! I found something!"

Mikella rushed forward to the excited Janet's shout, jumping straight up the trees with a powerful gait and jumping across the vast branches until she eventually found Janet crouched on a branch, her hand on the trunk of the massive tree. There was enough room there to build a huge tree house, so Mikella easily jumped straight beside Janet to see from her vantage point.

"What the…" Mikella sounded out, her eyes widening.

Straight down where the trees left a large enough room for a big field to take over, some ruined pile of wood and debris was scattered everywhere. It looked like someone busted it up in pure anger, or perhaps it exploded from within.

But what really surprised her was the fact that it looked like a carriage of sorts–built for people at that.

"You think it's some sort of trap?" Janet asked. She knew what this entailed, and there was no better way to believe other than someone was probably trying to lure them out.

While that seemed ridiculous, Mikella wouldn't put it past the towers for making traps like these to mess with their heads.

"Even if it was, it's a little too random," Mikella said honestly. "But just to be safe, you stay here and keep a lookout. I'll check it out myself."

"Okay," Janet nodded. "Stay safe."

"I will."

With that, Mikella jumped off the branch with a hop and easily landed the several miles down fall to the dirt field. She plopped on the land, her legs taking the sudden landing with grace and poise.

She propped her sword, but kept its blade down as she approached the ruined wooden vessel. After a closer inspection, it really looked like it was ruined on purpose, and weirder yet, it looked recent.

She examined it further, trying to inspect for any people within that were caught in this demise. For now, there wasn't any blood, or any hint of the carmine scent in the air. It was just the same fire-like smoke that smelled like incense.

It was weird that it didn't catch fire, but then again, the wood did appear to look like it came from the trees here, but she can't imagine anyone making wood out from these massive trees and making horrible chunks.

Though she did notice that some of the working parts, like the wheels and axels, were pretty shoddily made. Rather than ruined, it might be better off saying that this thing crumbled on its own from the crappy way it was built.

Yep, she definitely believed humans from their world built this. She can't imagine some random smuck knowing how to build a carriage of all things, but the person sure did their damn hardest to try. She had to respect that.

Better yet, there was no hint of death here, so she breathed out in relief before calling Janet over.

After she made her own inspection, taking several minutes, she walked up to Mikella.

"You think our people made this?" Janet asked.

"Maybe, or it could be some sort of civilization around here," Mikella mused. "I wouldn't put it past the tower to suddenly make a damn livelihood of monsters who are good with their hands."

Janet shivered. "I can't imagine fighting a monster that could be as good as making these things… though they look pretty shitty, I don't think they broke on their own. I think they were attacked, then they fled away from here to wherever they went."

"Probably, but what did it? And who did it attacked? Ugh, I hate this stuff. Zeke is usually the one who likes to think about this stuff."

"Not like we have to stay here and investigate further," Janet shrugged. "I say let's keep going. Maybe it's a good chance to find something actually interesting."

"Good plan," Mikella nodded. "Then let's–"

"Who are you people?!"

The two girls instantly flinched, immediately flashing their weapons at the source of the sudden shout. In response, the one who shouted quickly yelped in alarm, promptly falling on her ass as she shivered.

"Y-You… who are you?!" Despite her constant shaking and shivering, the girl still stared back at the two women with eyes filled with incoming fury. "What have you done to the people in that ride?!"

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