Chapter 177: Rooftop Talk
The meeting hadn't taken very long and the only detail Masters had been vaguely interested in was when Lake had told him how they had been shaving down the body's features for whatever reason but since masters hadn't known why Lake guessed it would just stay a mystery for both of them.
Lake had lied a bit about how he had been able to get close enough to get this information and even capture someone who could kill themselves in a millisecond but Masters hadn't acted like he had noticed so it was fine. Once he had told him everything Masters had said he would send someone who knew how to investigate into what had been happening there and told Lake where his team was so he could go join them.
That meant he had another elevator ride to look forward to but he didn't really mind because as far as he could tell his team mates were working on something important. Yesterday's search had found a few hot spots that the guild was now focusing its efforts on and that meant he would be in a place where he could get some actual work done.
...
Stepping off the elevator Lake took in the 21st tier, it was the same size as the last city he had been in but Lake could tell there was a lot more going on here. The streets were packed and Lake didn't think it was for a good reason that would be helpful to the guilds work. The most likely reason was the word had gotten out about what the guild was doing here and it had caused the people to panic.
The thing was, the people who were on the verge of rioting were mostly dwarves so he wasn't really as freaked out as he had been when people his size had been doing it because he felt like he could just step over them if they were to start causing a problem.
He knew this was just him looking down on them because they were funny to watch run around with their short legs and that they were actually just as dangerous as any other person but people couldn't help what they found funny and sadly he had a pretty mean sense of humor.
It had gotten him in a lot of trouble when he was younger because adults didn't like it when kids made fun of people but there had been one good thing to come of it, he knew how to keep his actual thoughts to himself and just say what others wanted to hear. He still messed with people at every chance though so he hadn't learned all the lessons he could just yet.
Following the marks he had placed on the others Lake quickly found where they were and when he saw them crouched on top of a building Lake knew they were busy and that he shouldn't just sneak up on them because they might make a commotion and give themselves away to whoever they were watching.
Landing behind them Lake said. "What are you guys up to?" Lake saw that he had startled them like he had thought he would but they hadn't done anything that would have given them away. It seemed they had been through a few stake outs so they knew how to keep their voices down even if something unexpected happened.
"Get down." Lake was standing behind them so as soon as Freed saw who it was he made him get down onto his stomach like them to stay out of vision of the street below. Lake crawled up to the edge to see what they were looking at and was about to ask to confirm what he suspected it was when Freed asked. "How'd you find us?"
Lake could see why Freed had a problem with him being able to find them like he had because they were in a place a normal person wouldn't have been able to see no matter how hard they were to look. "It took a while, but I just happened to see you as I was passing over." Lake decided to just blame it on luck because it wasn't really something people could deny.
With that out of the way Lake asked. "What are you guys doing?" He vaguely knew but he wasted specifics. "That house there is suspected to have Demon Worshipers inside." Lake still didn't understand why they were just watching the house and not going in so he asked. "How long do you plan to watch?"
It was worth remembering that they had less than two days till whatever they had been warned of happened. This meant they couldn't just wait here all day and they needed to actually get something done. "We're still trying to confirm we're in the right place so we're waiting until one of them leaves so we can force them into a fight and see if they are a Demon Worshiper or not."
Lake thought it was a bit clunky to do it this way but he could understand the plan. If they attacked someone who ended up being innocent they could always pull back and end the fight, but if the person was a Demon Worshiper he was sure the fight would give it away. But, with him here there was no need.
"I can find out real quick if you would like. It will only take me a few seconds." The range on Detector was pretty short so Lake would have to get closer to the building they were looking at but it was better than spending all day here. "Do you have some sort of scouting skill?" Lake nodded and said. "Yeah."
"Ok, go ahead." Lake gave Freed a thumbs up and started to climb down the building they were on until he was back on the road. As he was walking towards the building he wondered if he should have just told Freed that he had used a skill to find them after all because he had just said he had a skill that could be used to find out if the Demon Worshipers were inside anyway.
Being caught in lies was never good even if they were small and no one even cared. He didn't really want people to think he was secretive and was just happy he had no plans to have any sort of long term relationship with them. Once this was over he was sure Masters wouldn't care if he took on solo work and if they failed he would be leaving after telling Nia she should split as well.
He was sure Lucas would find him not helping her annoying if he was to return alive without her and having someone like Lucas mad at him would probably be bad for his future of hiding inside the Alchemist guild if he ever needed to. Walking past the building Lake made sure Detector was set right and as he was passing noticed there was a similar situation going on below the street here as last time he had found Demon Worshipers.
It seemed they were partial to making basements their hiding places and it made perfect sense to do so if you needed a large place to work here in the city. By expanding your basement under the road you could make a pretty sizable space to work and since you were a few feet of stone underground the noise of people passing over all day was probably not that bad.
But, now that he had confirmed there were in fact Demon Worshipers here all he needed to do was tell the others and they could start their attack so turning around Lake made his way back to Freed and the others and said. "There are over ten of them and they are right below the road."
Lake made it sound like he hadn't been able to tell the exact number of them to downplay his skill a little but he could tell he had still surprised them with how fast he had been able to do what he was sure they had spent hours on. They got over it quickly though because he was sure they were under the impression that he had some legendary skill that made him really good in this one area like he was sure they would be in others.
Joy had told him once that most people who leveled up jobs eventually got at least one Legendary skill so he was sure at least one of his team members had one and it was possible more than one of them did since he was pretty sure they were considered elites like he was; whatever that meant.
"Alright in that case, what do you guys want to do?" Freed asked them how they wanted to proceed and the only thing he could think of was to just go in. He could sneak in if he wanted but there was no way he could get the others inside and there wasn't much of a point if they were just here to kill them.
Now that he knew there wasn't really a point in capturing any of them alive that meant the only way he could gain information was to take the identity of another member and stick around until one of them said something important but that took too long. He would rather just kill as many of them as he could until tomorrow and hope he got the right ones.
Lake was about to say they should just rush in when Grendia started to talk. "We don't really have any way other than just fighting our way in and we have just been given orders to kill any Demon Worshipers we come across so there isn't really anything to discuss."
Lake was happy she had come to the same conclusion he had but it made him wonder why Freed had even asked if they had all known this and after thinking about it he realized it was because of him. Freed had probably realized Lake was someone who might have a better way to do what they were about to do but Lake really didn't so he said. "I agree, we should just go."
After he said this, Freed nodded and said. "Peter, do you want to go first this time?" Peter started to nod and said. "It's finally my turn to die huh." Lake could tell this was a joke but under the circumstances he was sure the others thought there was actually a real chance of this so no one laughed and instead just got ready to get down so they could rush the building.
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