Nathan glanced at the rogue with a question in his eyes.

  "What do you mean you were followed?" he asked.

  "That we were followed," Pirlo replied in a dry tone.

  Nathan had half a mind to smack the nonchalant rogue in the face with his sword, but he instead held himself together. Violence wasn't the only solution, especially right now when the rogue might have information that could benefit him.

  "You've already said that. I am asking you what you were followed by and why you didn't kill it or alert the rest of the squad," Nathan said.

  The rogue seemed to be having an internal war with himself before he let out a low mutter that Nathan couldn't pick up, the wiry teen rubbing a hand at the back of his head sheepishly as he sought the words to reply to Nathan with.

  Dear God, I hope that he hasn't done anything stupid.

  "A gremlin and a dwarf, if my guesses are right," Pirlo said with a wince.

  Nathan decided to keep quiet, not responding immediately to the rogue's words. He didn't trust himself not to launch into a tirade like Ruben, so he let the information stew in his head while he looked straight into Pirlo's eyes to make sure the rogue knew that Nathan considered him a fool for such a decision.

  "So let me get this straight: you saw a bunch of miners trailing you all and you didn't say anything? Rather, you led them straight to MY stronghold?" Nathan asked calmly.

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  Nathan hoped that for the rogue's sake, he had some kind of excuse—no, not just some kind, but a reasonable excuse that could fly in Nathan's eyes. Else Ciara would have to find a new second because the one standing in front of him was very close to losing his head.

  "Well?" Nathan asked the still-quiet rogue.

  "I wanted a real fight. Hitting F-ranked dungeons has been a waste of time for me. I don't know about the rest, but I'm tired of fighting against low-leveled monsters," Pirlo said quietly.

  This idiot.

  "You moron, is that why you led two miners to my stronghold, so that they could return to attack us?"

  "Yes," the rogue replied, still wincing.

  While Nathan could very much understand the rogue's frustration at being forced to play nanny to the others in dungeons—because he himself had done the same—Nathan wasn't going to side with the rogue on this one, no way. Pirlo had multiple options when it came to handling that issue. Off the top of his head, he considered the fact that the rogue could've met Ciara and told the mage that F-ranked dungeons were no longer doing it for him, and the mage would've figured it out for him.

  On the off chance that the mage declined the rogue's request—which Nathan highly doubted—Pirlo could always leave the squad and go solo in an E-dungeon. After all, Nathan had been around the same level when he'd hit his first dungeon. Heck, the rogue was higher than he'd been then. He quickly analyzed the rogue:

  [Name: Pirlo Vox

  Moniker: N/A

  Archetype: Rogue

  Level: 19]

  The rogue's growth rate had slowed down by far compared to his earliest days on the island when he'd been jumping from level to level, and both teens knew the reason why: F-ranked dungeons weren't doing it for the rogue anymore. He needed a bigger challenge. Too bad that the rogue, whom Nathan had begun to rate highly, had made such a stupid and selfish decision.

  "You do know that if those miners were scouts and they return with more of their kind, there'd be bloodshed?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you also know that some of your squad mates are... terrible at this apocalypse thing?"

  "...Yes."

  "So you do know, and yet you decided to risk their lives by letting those miners go?"

  "I... yes."

  What more was he supposed to say to this buffoon who'd just risked the life of everyone else in the stronghold just for the thrill of battle? Pirlo seemed to have little regret about what he'd done, but at the same time, the rogue wasn't apologizing for anything he'd done or not done, as the case was.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "I'll tell you what I've told you before: if any member of your squad dies because of your stupid decision, then it's on you—only you," Nathan said sternly.

  He turned away and left the rogue, walking away from the spot where the rogue had pulled him to have their private conversation. Nathan seethed inwardly; the rogue seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, so Nathan couldn't believe what he'd just heard.

  Just for the thrill of battle.

  The rogue had done all that just for the thrill of battle, and Nathan wasn't even sure there was going to be one. Maybe the miners had deserted the camp that he'd seen them with, or maybe the miners had started acting on one of his earlier assumptions and they'd started expanding—nobody knew.

  Right now, Nathan was trying to figure out what he was going to do. A part of him just wanted to turn around and kill the rogue for such an act, but he held himself back. After everything was said and done, Pirlo was their second-best frontliner in the stronghold, the first being him, Ciara third, Ruben fourth—the rest of the squad filled up the quota.

  It's just up to me to decide if I'm going to let them come to me or if I'll go to them.

  While Nathan had hopes that the miners Pirlo had seen were nothing more than deserters, his experience with the apocalypse convinced him that he had to think the worst: they had to be scouts, and if they were scouts, he had to get everything in order for their eventual clash—and he had to do it as fast as he possibly could.

  "This moron has just put me in a pickle jar," he muttered to himself.

  Nathan walked towards the cabin. The rest of the squad were still in it since it was the late hours of the night. Ruben, as always, was retelling his own side of his fights in whatever dungeon the squad had completed today. Funny enough, he'd come to like the late-night berserker blabberings; it helped alleviate the tension amongst the group. Ruben was no comedian by any stretch of the imagination, but he was certainly a fun person to be around when he wasn't fighting for his life.

  A fun one, that one.

  He rolled his eyes even as he climbed up the steps to the porch. No doubt the berserker hadn't been the most reliable person at the beginning, but he was starting to see a new side of Ruben that he respected. The berserker seemed to have taken to his new reality slowly, but he'd adapted over time, and now the berserker was well-regarded amongst his squad.

  His respect for the berserker doubled because of the fact that Ruben hadn't changed after he'd adapted to what an apocalypse was. He hadn't become cold and distant like Pirlo, or stoic and calculating like Ciara. No, the teen had remained the same as before: jovial and talkative. While some might argue that such things might get the berserker killed, he'd reply that life isn't worth living if a person had to change everything about themselves to live it.

  Look at that, Lord Nathan turning into a philosopher.

  Nathan chuckled at the thought, taking a moment to bask in the humor before clearing his thoughts and his throat, and then pushing the door of the cabin and stepping in, warmth from the fireplace enveloping him as he shut the door behind him.

  "...And I thrust it with my sword like it was a kebab..." Ruben said before pausing to look at who entered the cabin. "Oh hey, Nate, I was just giving them a rundown of my fights. Wanna hear?"

  Now why would I want to do that?

  "Not tonight, bro. I'm afraid I have bad news for you guys," Nathan said.

  Click.

  He didn't need to look back to know that it was the rogue who'd entered the cabin. His intuition proved correct as the wiry teen walked past him to sit on the floor like everyone else, his head downcast. Nathan was the only one left standing and pretty much decided to remain so. The news he was about to drop wouldn't be pleasant to the ears, but the squad needed to hear it, and he was going to deliver it as best as he could.

  "So while I was coming back from my dungeon run..." Nathan began.

  He replaced Pirlo with himself and pretty much twisted the retelling as much as he could to cover up for the rogue's screw-up. There was no point dividing up the squad in what was going to be the most crucial period of them being together. Nathan wasn't afraid that they'd judge him for not killing the scouts since he claimed he'd known that they'd been following.

  All the members of the squad knew he liked to avoid potential problems and neither was he scared of confrontation, so if he said that he left them for a reason, he knew that they'd believe him. But if Pirlo had said the exact same words, most of them would've been skeptical of the rogue's words, and so Nathan chose to be the fall guy, this time.

  You can show it on the battlefield.

  He didn't bother to acknowledge the look of gratefulness on the rogue's face. If Pirlo wanted to thank him, then he better be in tip-top shape when they eventually had to go toe-to-toe with the miners. The rest of the squad had very different reactions to his words: the rangers had worry painted over their faces, the priestess had fear on hers—rightly so. Ruben had a grin on his face as though Nathan had just told him the best news ever; Ciara was nonchalant, the de facto squad leader just taking up everything he said without a reaction.

  "...Now I believe that we should expect the worst. We'd either get ready to fight them at their own turf or let them come to us."

  "So either way, we're still going to fight them?" Daniel asked.

  The ranger had immediately spoken up after Nathan uttered his last words. No doubt the tall teen was hoping that Nathan had a way for them to avoid the confrontation with the miners. To be honest, the only way he could think of that they'd be successful enough to avoid clashing with the miners was if they got a boat to get off the island, and as far as he was aware, they had no boats and no way to safely get off the island. Hiding wasn't even feasible, as the miners by far outnumbered them, and it would only be a matter of time before they'd be found and killed.

  "No, there's no avoiding this. It's going to happen no matter how anybody feels about it," Nathan said.

  "How soon, my man? I can't wait to put my sword to good use," Ruben said giddily.

  Nathan resisted the urge to chuckle at the different reception he'd gotten from the information he'd just dropped. The majority seemed like they'd rather avoid it, but Ruben—and Pirlo by extension—seemed to be itching for a battle.

  "Depends on if we are the ones attacking first," Nathan said. "If we decide to wait, then it's up to them, but if we want to take them by surprise, then we have to hit them tomorrow or the day after. We can't give them time to mobilize and organize themselves."

  Ruben pumped his fist at the response, earning him a glare from the tall ranger. Ciara, on the other hand, had closed her eyes, seeming to mull over his words before she opened them abruptly, looking him dead in the eyes before speaking.

  "I think we should hit them first, and if we are going to do that, then there's only one thing that I can think of that'll improve the odds of everyone here surviving the attack," she said. Pirlo looked up, his eyes widening like saucers at the mage's words. "I believe that we have to join your faction."