Seed of Titan

As the one hour mark was approaching, the three girls grew increasingly worried.

"They can't be lost, can they?" Flo asked, feeling concerned.

"If Jian were alone, maybe. But there's no way Christo would get lost," said Natalia.

"I agree," Auri chimed in. "The guy's got that weird compass after all. I suspect he can even find us a way out of this place."

"Even without the compass, he still wouldn't get lost—his shrewdness wouldn't let him," Natalia added.

"What the deal with his class anyway? From what I've seen so far, I can infer how your classes work, perhaps not so much for Flo's. But I don't have a clue about Christo's powers. I know he keeps a bunch of items in his leather satchel that he often brings out during our training, but is he kidding us? Intuition, really?" Auri remarked.

"Are you saying he's lying, Auri?" Flo asked.

"I'm saying that I don't have a clue when it comes to that guy. Not only his class, even his long ass name is baffling. Is he a fallen noble? A foreigner even? Or were his parents feeling inspired when naming him and it doesn't actually mean anything at all?"

Natalia listened to Auri's guesses in silence. She had an inkling regarding Christo's name, but she felt it wasn't wise to reveal it, especially since Christo had turned out to be quite different from what she had assumed prior to meeting him. Even she couldn't help but find him dependable regardless of her skepticism.

'And it's not like I know it for sure. It's just my assumption based on Father's intel,' Natalia thought.

"I don't think we should pry too much, Auri. I'm sure sooner or later he'll open up more," Flo tried reassuring her friend.

"Yeah, you're right. Well, speak of the devil…"

At this moment, two figures could be seen approaching their resting area. The girls felt relieved at first, but they quickly reverted back to being concerned after realizing that Drai wasn't there.

Natalia immediately rushed forward and grabbed Jian's shoulders.

"Where's Drai?! Don't tell me he's…"

Jian looked at Natalia's worried eyes and quietly said, "I'm sorry…"

"No…" Natalia muttered as her heart sank. She dropped to her knees, tears swelling up in her despondent eyes.

"…for taking my time," Jian continued.

Natalia slowly raised her tearful face in daze, looking at Jian.

"My stomach wasn't feeling good, so I had to let it out, you know? We found out early on that Drai seemed to be fine and had left the area, so I took my time with it since there were still plenty of time until the one hour mark. After all, it's not every day that I get to shit in a jungle. And honestly, it's quite an experience. I definitely recommen—"

Before Jian could finish his words, he was sent flying.

Natalia stood there with her fist stretched, fuming.

"How dare you! I'll kill you, motherf**ker!" she shouted as her chest heaved up and down in rage.

"Natalia, stop! Save your energy, we still have to escape this place. And don't you want to know what happened to Drai?" Christo shouted from the side.

Natalia glanced at Christo before looking back at Jian who was sprawled on the ground a distance away.

As she thought of Drai, Natalia's rage quickly subsided. She then felt a sense of relief upon realizing that her worst fear didn't actually happen.

"Fine," Natalia finally said as she lowered her fist and walked toward Christo. Auri and Flo also joined in.

"What happened?" Natalia inquired.

"Like Jian said, when we arrived at the destroyed entrance, the fight was already over. Sensing that it's safe, we immediately scoured the piles of rubble. And when we couldn't find Drai, we looked at the place where the root had came from. And there we saw that the root had disappeared, leaving a small chasm on the ground."

"Do you think Drai was pulled underground?" Flo asked worriedly.

"We thought of that possibility too, but then we found traces of a person heading to the other direction along the cave wall. There were also footprints scattered around the site. We even found his tattered shirt on the ground that didn't seem to be ripped off from him.

"So based on our findings, we concluded that after the fight had somehow ended, Drai roamed around the area for a bit before leaving, walking along the wall to the opposite direction. He might be fine because there were no traces of blood and his footprints were consistent, but we can't know for sure."

"He must've confused right and left," Auri remarked.

"To be fair, it's my fault for not including a point of reference. I was thinking 'right' because we were looking at the jungle from the entrance, but Drai probably went right after looking at the entrance from the jungle. Anyway, what's done is done."

"So what do we do now, Christo? Should we chase after Drai?" Flo asked.

"I don't think so. It's been quite a while since he left, and we don't know how far he has gone or if he even sticks to the wall. If he decides to go into the jungle, then it will be difficult for us to follow his tracks since we're not as strong as him. We'll also be wasting precious time and energy that can otherwise be spent looking for a way out."

"I know you're speaking with rationale, but do you really have the heart to leave Drai alone in this dangerous place?" Natalia said while eyeing Christo sharply.

Christo looked straight back into Natalia's probing eyes.

"I do—because like I said before, I know Drai better than you regardless of what you think. And remember what Jian said earlier about Drai having heaven's providence? I think it's not too far-fetched from the truth. So just believe in Drai's survivability, and let's try to find a way to escape. That's the best we can do now."

Hearing Christo's words, Natalia fell silent.

'Auri's right on the mark when she said that she doesn't have a clue when it comes to this guy because I definitely can't figure him out right now. He tries so hard to reassure us but isn't willing to reveal his cards. And when his predictions come true, it becomes harder to argue with him. What a schemer,' Natalia thought.

"Now let's pack up," Christo ordered. "We'll be cutting through the jungle because it will take too long if we only stick to the wall. Follow my orders closely to avoid stumbling into something we can't handle, and always be vigilant and combat-ready.

"I'm not sure if there's a day-night cycle here but I'll be keeping tabs on the time and our stamina. If there's a night cycle, we'll probably camp it out and take turns keeping watch since it's dangerous to move in the dark. If there isn't, we'll try to periodically rest instead. And if you notice something dangerous or interesting along the way, notify me immediately. Now let's get moving."

Following this, the group scattered and picked up their belongings. Flo, however, approached Jian who was still sprawled on the ground, unmoving.

As Flo crouched near Jian's face, he slowly opened his eyes.

"Yo," Jian muffledly said.

Looking at Jian's swollen cheek, Flo shook her head in pity.

"Is it worth it?" she asked.

Upon hearing this question, Jian fell silent. As he closed his eyes once more, a single tear rolled down his face.

***

At the headquarters of Valiant Ventures, the Operations Division members were currently on a meeting, their faces looking solemn.

"It's officially been two hours since we last heard of them," stated Maxwell.

"Have the higher-ups been notified?" Aldea asked.

"We've notified them half an hour ago. Bismar and the others are currently heading here," Halo said. "We've notified the local officials too, but don't expect too much from them."

"What happened to the party?" Rofalo frantically asked.

Rofalo wasn't part of the monitoring team, so he was quite surprised when he was told that they would be holding an emergency meeting. And after it was revealed that the team had lost all contact with Mango Seekers, he and the few others who weren't on duty were totally shocked.

"Christo last contacted me when the group was documenting the site. If nothing happened to them, they should be out of the forest by now unless that went sightseeing. But this is highly unlikely since we can't reach any of the party members," Halo said.

"This means that they are currently somewhere without any comm signal or all their comms are off. And honestly, none of these scenarios make sense. We've confirmed that the comm coverage covers the entire area, so the first scenario doesn't seem likely. The second scenario is more likely, but what had happened for them to turn off their comms rather than contact us? It's very improbable and unreasonable," Halo pondered, her eyebrows furrowed.

"There's also a third possibility," Enda spoke up. All eyes immediately turned to Enda.

"Their comms aren't off but damaged, rendering them unfunctional," he said with a grim expression.

Upon hearing Enda's statement, everyone's expressions turned grave.

Biting his thumbnail, Rofalo muttered, "But for all their comms to be damaged, the cause must be a local biotic or abiotic phenomena that we had no knowledge of… 

"…or a drifter." Enda stated.

The room fell silent as they processed this frightening notion.

Halo gritted her teeth furiously as she refused to accept this possibility. Most of the others slumped on their chairs with a defeated look, and even the usually expressionless Muzie seemed rather down.

Meanwhile, Maxwell massaged his temples with a look of exhaustion.

'Will this be a repeat of the Hock Valley Tragedy?' he fearfully thought.

As the Ops members were contemplating in silence, the door suddenly blasted open, jolting them awake from their thoughts.

Bismar immediately entered the room, followed by Selis, Fern, Ross, and Amelia. All of them were looking solemn.

"What's the situation?" Bismar asked Halo, who promptly explained the whole situation, including their recent discussion.

After hearing Halo's explanation, the higher-ups' expressions turned grave.

"So what are we dilly-dallying for?! Let's depart right now!" Bismar loudly ordered as he turned around and exited the room.

"Who's coming with us?" Amelia asked Bismar as the group was marching down the hallway, for she would have to manage the logistics for this sudden excursion.

"Get every single second-year and above who are available on board. We won't let a f**king tragedy happen again."

Bismar's face was a mix of emotions, and his eyes had never seemed so pensive.

***