Chapter 303: In A Hurry
"Alright make sure to come to the meeting later." They were about to part ways when the Temple Head said this and he guessed she saw the look on his face because she stopped walking and said. "Don't look like that. There's less than a day before we leave for the Metal Domain so we need to start discussing strategy."
Lake guessed this was true but he still felt like the last meeting had just ended. "Don't worry I'll be there. I know I'll probably be important to whatever plan we make and that I need to be there to add my input." Lake was the guide they would be using to track down the dagger so they would be going wherever he told them.
This made his input before and after they set out important. "Alright the time still isn't set yet so make sure you're easy to find." Lake was just about to go back to the training room so he said. "I should be training in the room we were just in if I don't show up when I'm supposed to look there."
After he said this the Temple Head started to walk away again so he headed to the training room. Walking into the room where the Temple Head had shown him where he had messed up, Lake formed the sphere and started the training routine to see where he could get to without making the internal compressors.
He was only able to make it to the eighth round before his speed slowed down and he understood why the Temple Head had only told him to go to 15. Without relying on his old method it seemed he wasn't as good as he thought he was. Trying to figure out how long it was going to take for him to make it to 15 Lake could only guess he wouldn't have time to do it before it was time to leave.
It was too bad but there was nothing stopping him from continuing this goal while on the road. He was sure they wouldn't be getting to the Metal Domain in a few hours like he would be able to if he was alone. As long as they weren't constantly being attacked he would be fine to do this while walking. If they took carts it would be even better since he would be able to sit while he was training.
Seeing he had finished with the compression, Lake started to grow the ball of mana again and started to realize why the Temple Head had told him to switch the shape. Even while he was struggling he never had to stop to get the ball back into shape and could just keep pressing as hard as he could to shrink the ball.
At first he hadn't really understood why this was better than just doing the cube method correctly but now he really got the fact that he was making good progress on catching up his ability to forcefully compress mana to his ability to control it. When he started the next round of compression Lake knew there was a good chance he wasn't going to be able to make it through this one without it popping.
Every time he would make any amount of progress on shrinking the ball one of the sides would bulge and since the only tool he had was to press the ball even harder he quickly lost control and the ball popped. Starting the process again Lake did this for almost two hours making ok progress each time he had to restart until he heard someone knock on the door.
Guessing it was time for the meeting Lake dissipated the ball he was currently working on and opened the door. "Oh, hello Lake." Seeing Dawn was the one who had come to get him, Lake was about to ask if the Temple Head had sent her or if she had knocked for another reason when he saw there was a large group of people behind her.
He recognized a few of them but he had no idea what they could want so he just asked. "What is it?" If they didn't even know it was him he felt there was a good chance they didn't need anything important. "We just got done training and were going to sit in on the meeting even though we aren't going and I saw someone was in this room and figured I would let them know the meeting was starting in case they wanted to go."
"Well thank you, I did need to go since I'm part of the group that's going." Closing the door to the training room, Lake started to walk to the meeting room with the group. Turning to Dawn, Lake asked. "How long do you think this one will be?" Dawn had been close enough to him to hear him asking Tiff when the meeting would be over so he didn't think he needed to word this question better for her to know what he was asking.
"We should be out of there in less than three hours. There's not much you have to plan before you set out since you don't know what will happen. The real planning will happen out on the road." Three hours didn't sound that bad since he was sure there would be parts where he would be included in a discussion instead of just listening for the whole time.
Listening to something you didn't feel pertained to you or interesting was really what made time drag, not how long it was. "So why aren't you going? All of you were in the meeting after the Temple Head dismissed people who didn't want to go?" Lake knew all of these people were probably important to the Temple in some way but none of them going was a bit weird.
Right after he thought this, Lake saw the weapons the people around him were holding and thought he should count how many of them there were. Once he counted up to 22 he realized he was right and these were all the weapons from the vault he had taken the dagger from and knew why they couldn't go before Dawn even tried to answer his question.
"We're being targeted so if we went we would draw in more enemies." Lake nodded like he didn't know she was only giving him part of the answer and said. "I won't be able to help in saving anyone who gets taken while I'm gone so make sure to be careful." They were to the meeting room so Lake said this as an annoying way to end the conversation.
Looking around he saw Tiff and went to take a seat next to her in the front of the room. He was guessing she was in the front of the room since she was one of the main people who would be going to look for the dagger and that meant he should be there too. "How'd you sleep?"
He could tell Tiff had just woken up so he felt this was a good way to say hello. "It was fine. Nice ring." Lake knew she was talking about the ring that showed he was a member of the temple now since it was the only one he had on. "It's alright. Do you know when the meeting is going to start?"
"Probably as soon as the Temple Head walks into the room." Lake noticed the Temple Head wasn't here yet after Tiff said this and looked around for her using a few of his skills. Seeing she was quickly heading this way he said. "Here she comes." There was no point in hiding the fact he could see through walls after everything he had shown her so he went ahead and shared this information with Tiff.
Right after he said this the Temple Head walked into the room and climbed onto the stage. "Alright I need to keep this meeting short so I can get all the work I need done before I can leave. Does anyone have anything they think we should take into account that would make our plan differ from the norm?"
There weren't that many people in the room so thankfully only two hands went up and the Temple Head quickly dismissed them. "I already know what you two are going to say, that's already been accounted for. Anyone else?" No hands went up after that and the Temple Head went straight into explaining how they would be getting to the Metal Domain.
"We'll be taking six carts to the gate to the Metal Domain. Four for people and two for supplies. This will give us three weeks of food and enough potions to last a few hard battles which will be more than enough to get us through this mission with minor difficulties. We'll be leaving as soon as we get word the barrier is down." After the Temple Head said all of this she quickly left the stage and walked out of the room.
He could tell some people had wanted to ask some questions but Lake wasn't going to complain because this was the ideal meeting for him. Plus they would have more than enough time to ask questions on the cart ride there. Looking at Tiff, Lake was about to ask her what she thought but he could tell she already had something planned since she was walking off in a hurry so he let her walk away and got up to head back to the training room.
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