Hearing a gentle knock on his bedroom door, Kaelen dragged himself out of bed and made a crude attempt at fixing his disheveled scalp.

[Ugh... I regret it. I shouldn’t have stayed up all night.]

He felt a strange gravitational pull between himself and his bed, one which required sheer grit to resist.

It wasn’t that his body was tired, his regeneration skill would not allow for that, but it had its limitations —Mental fatigue for example, was beyond its realm of influence.

Kaelen had spent all night practicing the skill, [Claws of The Fire Dragon]. He had hoped to atleast master it up to the second claw, but alas...

[I can barely even use one claw, it’s a more complicated skill than I thought...]

[Gathering power at one point. Explosively releasing it. Gathering the released power back to the focal point. Amplifying it with new power of the same magnitude, effectively multiplying it. Repeat.]

[It sounds simple enough on paper, but actually putting it into practice? A total nightmare.]

Kaelen pinched his droopy eyes to rid them of the crust caking them, and then he stretched, his spine and joints producing satisfying cracking sounds.

[It’s like throwing a grenade, letting it explode and then gathering the flames from the explosion, collecting every scattered fragment and reassembling that same grenade. Except, this time, you put another grenade inside of the first one!]

He grumbled inwardly and fixed his posture to one that was befitting that of the Captain of the most powerful Decadon of the 20th generation.

[... I made excuses about my current weapon being the reason why I couldn’t get up to the second claw, I mean, it sort of does. But still...]

[I should have been able to do it.]

[Just what am I lacking? Is there something I’m missing?]

[...]

[Well, whatever. I’ll just have to keep grinding until I figure it out.]

[The problem is that I’m running out of time.]

[Also... Why the hell are my flames pink damn it?! This bug is really starting to get to me, I didn’t think it’d also affect Elemental Magic.]

[...]

[Wait... If I conjured some water, would it also be pink? Ugh I don’t really want to find out.]

Kaelen sucked his teeth as he wrestled with those thoughts and opened the door.

"Good morning Captain, did you sleep well?"

Specimen 2555 politely bowed his head, the dark bags under his Captain’s eyes bringing forth a negative answer to his question.

"Good morning. Yes, I did."

Kaelen sluggishly stepped outside.

"... You don’t have to keep coming here every morning you know? I know my way around this place now."

Those words were spoken through a yawn he failed to contain.

"Veylith’s orders, Captain. Please allow me to keep fulfilling this task."

Specimen 2555’s voice quivered slightly, and Kaelen could tell he was genuinely begging him not to stop him from waking him and accompanying him to the latrine every morning.

[What hell do you do to these guys when I’m not around, Veylith?]

A cold shiver crawled up his spine and he couldn’t help but feel bad for the Homonculi of his Decadon.

[Well at least she agreed to not go with me to the bathroom anymore.]

Remembering how long it took for her to agree, Kaelen felt the side of his head throb for a brief moment.

///

[Of all places...]

Kaelen bit his inner lip to stop his body from visibly cringing, he wanted nothing more than to runaway.

[... Why did I have to be called down here?!]

He screamed inwardly, but his face did not express his inner turmoil.

Standing beside him were two other Homonculi.

One was a feminine looking boy with pitch-black eyes unlike the rest of the 20th generation. His name is Draven. He is not to be confused with Sylas who also has a feminine appearance.

The other was brutish looking. He had a scar on the left side of his face from the very tip of his frontal lobe, across his eye which had lost its light, down to his chin. He had yet another scar across his neck as though he had somehow survived decapitation.

He was named Thyra.

[What are the odds, you got a scar on the exact same place again?]

Kaelen remembered that Thyra had that scar before the hunt, but seeing as he had lost his left eye...

Feeling Kaelen’s gaze, Thyra glared at him with his one, bright green eye.

"What is it?"

He asked, his voice as cold as steel.

"..."

Kaelen ignored him and looked forward, he still grappled with intense nausea after all, so talking would only make it worse.

"..."

Draven glanced at Kaelen and Thyra with his hollow eyes, as though gauging them.

Why were these three together and where were they?

They had each responded to summons from the Roach, who had instructed them to make their way down to his... "chambers."

Well, rather than chambers, it was honestly just a large cockroach nest —Or better worded, a harborage?

Wherever Kaelen’s eyes landed, he saw a cluster of regular-sized cockroaches quivering as though they were a single organism. This place was hell for anyone with trypophobia...

... Such as Kaelen.

The walls of the Roach’s chambers? There were none, everything was just a cluster of cockroaches. Even the furniture wasn’t visible anymore

[Never again will I project my fears onto my prospective customers.]

Kaelen lamented creating this place when he was designing the Basement Floor.

Just as he was wrestling not only his lament, but intense phobias, a cluster of cockroaches suddenly writhed and scattered, revealing a door. This was a clear invitation from the Roach.

"..."

Kaelen twitched and hesitated, but the other two, Draven and Thyra, boldly walked toward the door and twisted the knob.

He did his utmost best to conceal his fear and also stepped forward and the trio entered the Roach’s chambers.

/

Upon entering, Kaelen screeched inwardly as he beheld a swarm of thousands of cockroaches scattering, revealing the walls, furniture, and even a pile of documents on a desk. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

And on said desk, sat the Gentlemanly Roach with his usual attire and refined posture.

Kaelen marveled at the fact that the chambers, or rather, office, seemed remarkably clean and tidy despite the intusion of cockroaches that had scattered before their very eyes.

[...Did I just hallucinate that?]

Kaelen couldn’t help but wonder, his cherry-pink eyes reflecting the sparkling tiles beneath his feet.

"Welcome, Kaelen, Draven and Thyras. You have done well to heed my call."

"Please, make yourselves at home."

The Roach adjusted his long, red, striped tie and gestured toward a couch that seemed lengthy enough to accommodate at least six Homunculi.

The trio of artificial children walked toward the couch which was positioned across a shorter one, a glass coffee table dividing the two.

The Roach stood from his desk and walked toward the one-seater couch and sat down with impeccable grace.

"I have called you here on Lord Charymos’s order. He would have liked to see you three personally, but unfortunately, he had pressing matters to attend to."

The Roach spoke as he crossed his legs and adjusted comfortably, occupying the entire coach.

"Well done on surviving the Hunt. The three of you will now receive rewards hand-picked by Lord Charymos himself."

The Roach’s words caused Kaelen’s eyes to sparkle with anticipation.