Soul Traveler: Venator.

He arrived well into the night, but found that his former dealer was still outside with his crew, making all the noise. That noise died down though when they saw the Venator, and they went from having a good time to being serious really quickly. The leader, flanked by his two lackeys, started marching towards Rex, who just rolled his eyes after letting out a sigh, and looked directly at the leader.

"What do you want?"

"Why so angry, Venator? Maybe you need a little something to help you unwind after these long walks of yours."

"I don't need anything from you; I told you I'm done with your product, so I'm done with you. You can't force me, and unless you idiots want to be embarrassed by an injured man in front of all those women, I'd suggest you back off. I'll only issue this warning once."

"You think we're afraid of a one-armed F-Rank?!" One of the lackeys roared as he moved aggressively towards Rex.

That was a mistake, as Horatio planted his left foot, before pushing off from the ball of his foot, bending his right knee as he raised his leg and extended, thrusting his boot directly into the solar plexus of the advancing goon, collapsing his chest and rendering him limp and unconscious and launching him into the air. The lackey absolutely flew across the lot and into one of their SUVs, causing most of the girls to squeal and jump out the way. The silence was deafening and everybody looking at the crumpled heap that was the lackey, bleeding from the mouth and barely breathing. Rex said absolutely nothing else, and just glared at the two remaining men, before stepping backwards towards the building entrance, not even blinking or breaking eye contact for the first few steps before turning around and striding into the building, and by extension, his apartment. Rex wasted little time in entering his Mind Realm, and as he did, four windows appeared before him, each belonging to an animal that he had injected his Primordial Blood into. The windows belonging to the rats were all showing real time imagery of what the rats were seeing and doing, while the only screen that was blank was the one belonging to the cat.

"Hopefully that gamble pays off." Kumkani said as a desk and chair materialised behind and before him.

He sat down to make more notes, as he had done every time after coming back from his walks, and afterwards, spent the rest of the right assimilating more of the body, and memories, although there wasn't much more to be done regarding the latter.

The following morning, Kumkani, having more or less processed all of Rex's memories, got on the phone and texted the man who had actually recommended the last Expedition to him.

"Yooo, Rexie!" The man answered, clearly still seeing off the last of the previous night's festivities.

"Nathan." Rex answered. "When is the next Expedition into the new Zone set to take place?"

"That depends… what day is it today?"

"Wednesday."

"Then it's happening today!" Nathan beamed, before belching a touch. "But last I heard, you fucked and, in the hospital… when you didn't respond to my text, I thought you were dead."

"No, I was in really bad shape. Took this long to recover enough to go on another trip to the Zone."

"Alright, man. Well, you know better than I do how long it takes to go from the city to the Zone, so uh… don't be late! And don't forget my cut of the pay!"

"Sure thing." Horatio said as he dropped the call, which was just as well, as the woman from next door came to assist.

As much as Rex was not able to bathe himself, he still needed help with changing the gauze and putting his shirt on. Also, as he was now able to eat semi solid food, she was bringing him more than just soup. That morning, Rex ate breakfast with Jess and her grandma, and as they finished, he spoke as he took the plates to the kitchen.

"Ma, I'll be going back to the Zone today."

"What? But you're still healing."

"I'm also still swimming in debt. Last night, those dealers downstairs attacked me, and it made me realise that I have to settle with all my creditors as soon as possible."

"You barely survived the last Expedition!"

"Yeah, but I was… barely lucid. At this point, I've even overcome the worst of the withdrawals, so… also, I need to start kicking in towards my kid's hospital bills. I don't have the luxury of time, unfortunately. Anyway, thank you very much for the last seven days. It means more than you know."

"…please be careful, Horatio."

"I will, Ma."

The woman took Rex's phone, and quickly added her phone number to his contacts – something that neither of them had ever thought of offering or asking.

"Please text when you leave the Zone to come back."

"Understood." Rex said with a nod.

The woman – Rochelle – took Jess and left the apartment. Horatio began packing his rucksack with sole remaining set of fortified gear. It wasn't extensive enough to be called armoured clothing, but fortified enough to be considered better than regular clothing.

"I'll have to purchase provisions in the city, nobody knows how long I'll be in there this time."

After everything was packed, Rex left his apartment and made his way downstairs. The drug dealer and crew were down there as per usual, however this time, nobody made a sound, or even made eye contact really. As he had done since inhabiting Horatio's body, Kumkani ignored the group and just left, before walking to the bus stop. He caught the bus going to town, and got off at the closest stop to the Venator Union. He simply walked to the building, using what were now his memories to navigate through the streets, however even those weren't necessarily needed as street signs, billboards and even directions painted on the tarmac below all let him know exactly where he had to go. The electronic billboards also showcased Union Venators, advertising various Union sponsored or made items, such as weapons, armour, and even fragrances and lotions. After a fairly brief walk, he arrived at the obnoxiously tall and shiny building, with the Union's logo adorned at the very top.

'Whoever thought that amount of reflective glass was a good idea was insane.' He thought before continuing into the building.

As he entered scanned his Licence at a kiosk, which unlocked a gate and walked in. Rex made a beeline straight for the lift that led to the Venator exclusive marketplace. It encompassed multiple floors, and had ridiculous number of stalls, shops and vendors. That being said, Venators that were C-Rank and below were only able to access the first two floors of the Market, with the remaining floors reserved to those who were B-Rank and above. Guards and surveillance cameras were posted absolutely everywhere, and that wasn't any different in the Market. Horatio simply looked around for stalls that sold simple provisions and after finding one such place, he purchased tinned food, jerky, water purifying powder and even toilet paper. Once all that was prepared, he walked around and viewed the stalls and such, taking mental notes for future reference. His status as a low ranking Venator was actually perfect for things like this, as nobody paid him any mind at all. That being said, he made sure to be done by around midday, and went to go wait at the meeting point for Expedition, which was on the side of the building. The Guild that had been given the contract to scout and explore the new Zone was the Aegis Guild, and they were using the minnows as foot soldiers for lack of a better term. Due to the fact that the Guild was commissioned by the Union, the meeting point was Union HQ, as opposed to Aegis HQ.

Bit by bit, more and more Venators arrived at the meeting point, and they all eyed each other, as if they were getting an early start on deciding who to team up with. Cursory glances were tossed Rex's way, but the sling, cast and patched up head quickly eliminated him as a viable candidate. Eventually, the Aegis convoy arrived, pulling up rather impressively and parking on the side of the road. Aegis Venators hopped out of the impressively armoured, branded vehicles, whilst the less impressive, unbranded ones were empty – clearly reserved for the grunts. The large greatsword wielding man and the sword and shield woman from ten days ago both appeared and looked the assembled Venators over silently. The man, who looked about as disinterested as possible, simply grunted before nodding and looking at the woman, who appeared to be his aide.