Biohuman

Lee Seng carefully carried the male shifter back into the tent. He set the body on one of the metal tables and held the gravity bubble. Lee Seng grabbed his phone and looked at the three workers.

"You can send the creds now." Lee Seng spoke. "Doesn't matter how you do it." He motioned at the three workers. The workers reluctantly pulled their phones out and scanned the QR code on Lee Seng's phone. They punched in the creds and clicked send. Lee Seng watched the 1.6 million creds flow in.

"You knew a female shifter's bones were denser than a males this whole time?!? You played us dirty!" The second worker shouted. They wagged their finger at Lee Seng who kept a smirk on his face.

​ "I thought that was knowledge people knew about." Lee Seng shrugged. He spun on his heel and walked towards the exit of the open tent.

"You think we would know that?!?" The second worker barked. Lee Seng could hear their footsteps quickly rushing over to them. The sound of their arm moving was all it took for Lee Seng to spin and quickly grab their arm. "W-what the--"

"If I were you, I wouldn't embarrass yourself anymore than you already have." Lee Seng growled. His grasp tightened, watching the second worker's anger quickly fade into fear. Lee Seng threw their arm back and rolled his eyes as he turned around. "If your main job is to extract things from monsters, you should at least know these basic facts."

He moved out of the tent and stormed off.

'People like them really piss me off.' Lee Seng's anger radiated off of him and most people kept distance with him. He started to march past the hole when he heard someone call him.

"Lee Seng!"

He turned towards the hole, looking around for whoever called him. He saw Jason and Felicia waving him over.

"Lee Seng, come here!" Felicia motioned. Lee Seng took a breath and moved over to Jason and Felicia. They were standing near the smoothed entrance of the dug hole. The descent down into the hole had been replaced with stairs and a stone platform off to the side every twenty feet or so.

"What's up?" Lee Seng asked, hiding his anger. Jason casually glanced at him before looking back down the hole. A slowly growing light was heading their way. The sounds of people carrying something grew louder.

"They're coming back. We were told to wait for them here." Jason answered.

"Where's Ritsuka?" Lee Seng looked around. Jason pointed down in the hole.

"He went to help them. They managed to get to the spot where the pulsing thing is, but immediately had to stop after some people got injured. Ritsuka was told to go assist with some other adventurers. We were told to wait here in case they needed back up."

"What if backup includes fighting? You two aren't quite suited for ranged battles."

"Mmm, that's why we called you over." Felicia punched Lee Seng in the shoulder. "Mr. Luis said once you figured out your bet stuff with those workers, to call you over." Lee Seng nodded and squatted in his spot. He watched as the bright light climbed up. He could hear the echoes with the reinforced stone around the dug hole.

They spent the next couple of minutes watching the hole explorers ascend back to the surface. The sun was starting to set and mechanical lights were being setup and turned on. Ritsuka climbed up the steps with red haired woman in his arms. Lee Seng moved forward and nodded at him.

"I can take her for you." Lee Seng said. Ritsuka nodded and handed Lee Seng the unconcious red haired woman. Lee Seng turned around and saw some people waving at him.

"Over here!" They shouted. Lee Seng moved and set the girl down on a raised bed. He moved out of the way and let the healers do their work. Lee Seng moved to the side of the tent and watched as more of the explorers moved into the healers tent. They were cut and bruised.

'The darkness must've screwed with them. Goblins had the advantage, probably.' Lee Seng theorized. He watched as Akali led Felicia, Jason, and Ritsuka over to him. Akali had some cut marks but ignored them.

"Are you all right?" Lee Seng asked.

"Climbing all those stairs is tiring..." Ritsuka complained, out of breath. "I need more leg days."

"We'll be fine. We just got jumped by the goblins that hid from the light. They were guarding the black mass we saw." Akali answered.

"Do you need to get healed?" Lee Seng pointed at her cut.

"No, this is nothing compared to what the team got." Akali motioned.

"So what now?"

"The sun is setting. I think you guys are done now."

"Oh, we're done?" Felicia looked at the sky. The sky was turning orange with yellows and reds mixed in between.

"Night is coming and a new set of people are going to replace everyone here. I need to give a report on what happened here, but you guys need to get back." Akali told the students. "Anything to report to me while I was below before we leave?" She turned and looked at each of her students.

"Nothing interesting in perimeter duty." Jason reported.

"Nothing to report either." Felicia answered.

"There were a sighting of goblins on the east. Mr. Luis had me and a small group chase them down. Other than that, nothing much." Ritsuka reported.

"And what about you?" Akali pointed at Lee Seng.

"Cleaning duty was... cleaning duty." Lee Seng shrugged. "Other than that..."

"Oh, the BET!" Ritsuka blurted out. Lee Seng gave daggers at Ritsuka who immediately shrank.

"What about a bet?" Akali asked.

"Uhh... nothing too big." Lee Seng gulped. "Some workers didn't believe me when I said I severed a female shifter's head apart. Well, they didn't believe that I killed a shifter."

"And what was this bet?"

"I bet forty times the value of shifter blood that I could behead a shifter."

"And they didn't know that a female shifter's bones are tougher than the males?"

"Nope. I got 1.6 million creds off of that bet, though." Lee Seng smiled. Akali sighed and punched her younger brother. Lee Seng stumbled backwards and rubbed where he was hit. "I thought I told you not to get into trouble,  whatsoever."

"Mr. Luis watched the whole thing. He allowed it." Lee Seng defended himself.

"Lu, what?!?" Akali turned around and like a hawk, pinpointed Luis making his rounds. "LU, COME HERE!" Lee Seng and the students watched as Luis jogged over and gave Akali a confused look.

"What's the problem, Number 9?" Luis asked.

"How could you let him bet on beheading a shifter?" Akali pointed at her younger brother. "He's going to easily win because of he has large amounts of knowledge on the monsters in this whole area."

"To teach others to not pick on students just because they're  students, ma'am." Luis answered. "Don't worry, Number 9, if it wasn't worth a teaching lesson, I would've shut it down like nothing. He would've lost money out of his own pocket if he let easy blood go from the shifter."

"Ahhhhh," Akali rubbed her temples. "Fine, whatever. It's getting late and I need to leave with the students. I'll let you handle things here until the next set of groups come in. I got to report what we found in the hole. Make sure you guys light up that hole and be ready for  anything, got it?"

"Yes'm. I'll make sure things are settled here. Don't worry too much, Akali. The students did well today." Luis smiled.

"Come on, let's go." Akali nodded. She waved at Luis who waved back and Lee Seng moved to follow Akali back to the base.

The group spent the next fifteen minutes getting back to base with a sun setting. They moved back down the left hall and followed it until they reached the portal room. Akali stopped in front of the portal room and turned around.

"Alright, I will input everything that's needed for your return. Once you return, you guys can head to bed. The Academy will be notified of your return. You did good work today and followed orders well. I hope you guys have learned a lot on this field experience. You'll need to be just as prepared for the future expeditions you take outside the city walls, alright?"

"Yes, ma'am." The group answered.

"Good. Let's all get inside and I'll send you back." Akali opened the door and allowed the students past her. Lee Seng moved to stand on the slightly raised platform and watched as Akali tapped away on her watch. The room began to rumble to life and Akali looked up.

"Get plenty of rest, guys." Akali waved.

"Goodbye, ma'am. Thank you for the experience." Felicia waved.

"Goodbye." The boys waved.

"Don't get into anymore trouble, Lee." Akali shouted in Japanese before hitting her watch. She closed the door as the room lit up. "I shouldn't be surprised he schooled some extractors." Akali chuckled.