Chapter 356: A Fellowship? Pt.2
Walking into the tea room Lake saw they had the part of the floor he had slipped through sectioned off so no one would fall through it on accident and started to giggle because this probably meant someone had soon after he left. A fall of ten feet or so wasn't going to hurt anyone in this world unless they were a child or the old man he was following now and it was a funny image to think about.
Most likely it had been someone like a guard so the sound their armor had made when they hit the floor below was probably pretty loud and maybe had caused a brief panic. There was no way for him to ask about it now though so he just kept these things to himself. "Go stand over there and don't say anything."
Hearing the old man's words, Lake moved into the corner of the room and waited for this meeting to start. He really had no interest in this discussion and wanted to go and see if his skill would work for what they wanted it for or not but he guessed there was a chance something he could use later could be said so he made up his mind to listen even if he didn't want to.
The meeting didn't start right away though so they all had to wait till the mayor and the man from the sky entered. "Alright I'll start by talking to you eleven from the Metal Domain. We'll pay you once the sun comes up and you can leave even if what we're doing isn't over."
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Donny assumed the mayor said this to calm the obviously annoyed Oracle guard who had been sitting next to him fuming the entire time they were waiting here. The words seemed to have an effect on the man which showed just how much a promise of being able to leave in a few hours meant to them.
"Alright with that out of the way we have to wait for the others to arrive before we can plan the raid on the other side of the door but we can go ahead and go down there to see if how we plan to get inside will actually work. I'm sure most of you have heard about the door under the city that we've been trying to open for as long as the Demigod has been missing and how many times we've failed."
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Lake watched everyone start to nod after these words and guessed he was the only one who didn't know what had been going on here. This wasn't a surprise with the amount of time he had lived here being so short but he wished he had known before the old man caught him. "Our friend here is going to try and open a small passage through the door using a skill of theirs and if it works we'll call everyone we know who wishes to help to form a team to investigate what causes the phantoms."
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Donny couldn't believe his ears when the mayor said they might be here when they went inside the Demigods old home. The way he saw it there was about a 100% chance the body of the Demigod was down there and if they were lucky even the one who had come to kill the Demigod had perished while doing so leaving two divine cores behind the door.
"A job like this is worth more than the one I was hired for. I want the first pick of whatever we find." This came from the man who had been outside in the sky yelling about gold until just a moment ago and Donny wasn't surprised the man would try to get paid like this because there wasn't anyone in all of the Earth Domain that didn't know the rumors surrounding Shallow.
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Lake hadn't thought about it until now but he guessed there was a pretty good chance of there being treasure behind a door no one could open and if he didn't already have everything he needed to make the gold he needed he would probably try something to be the one to get it. He had no plans to do anything to make the old man upset though so he would behave and just do what he was told.
"No, we'll give you some more gold after the fact using the guild's mission assessment. They'll find a reasonable amount for us to pay you." Lake was able to tell a fair amount wasn't enough for this man by the way their face looked after the mayor said this and wondered if there was a reason other than them being a greedy adventurer.
Since they all seemed to know this place maybe they all had an idea on what was going to be inside. For all he knew these phantom things signified there was a special type of rare treasure behind the door that everyone wanted to get their hands on. "Alright Hampton, is there anything you want to add?"
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Donny wanted to know what the old mage had to say about all of this so when the old man shook his head slightly when asked if he had anything it was a bit of a disappointment. "No it would be for the best if we head down now." Donny had been about to stand when the guard next to him stopped him while saying. "I actually have something I would like to ask before we go."
"Well go ahead then." Itr seemed Hampton was ready to get started but wasn't going to refuse one of their questions. "These people you're going to call, who are they?" Donny didn't understand why the guard cared about this so much and felt it kind of came out of nowhere but he was sure there would be a reason if he held them all up for it.
"Are you asking for names or what organization they're part of?" Donny didn't see why Hampton couldn't just tell them both things or why he clarified this but the guard didn't let this weird question stop him and said. "Just the organization is fine."
"Alright, a few people from the Earth Temple will be coming and then a couple of older mages like myself to help investigate anything that is found on the inside."
"How long will it take for them to get here after you've called for them?" After the guard said this Donny finally understood where this was going and started to get a bit disappointed because if he was right they wouldn't be here for much longer. "A few days for the furthest people."
"If that's the case, would it be alright if we leave right after we test your friends skill. If we aren't going to go in right away there isn't a reason for us to hang around till morning with nothing else going to happen. A couple hundred people are waiting for us to return with no idea if we are just late or dead."
Donny knew the guard was right but he wished there was a reason they had to stay because even if he knew there was no way he would be one of the people who would get to use the divine cores they were all hoping they would find. "That's fine but if there's a fight you must stay alright."
The guard nodded to this and finally stood up and everyone joined him in this being more than ready to start. "Alright Hampton you and your friend should lead the way." After the mayor said this Hampton waved for the younger man who had been standing off to the side this whole time and started to walk towards the stairs down.
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Lake was happy to see Hampton didn't move at the slow pace he had been using earlier as they made their way out of the castle. Once they got to a set of stairs down he did slow down again though but there was good reason. The light that got rid of the phantoms didn't seem to be effective down here so while they were descending they had to deal with phantoms emerging from the walls.
"Don't worry about this happening once we get down there I'll set a formation to keep the phantoms away." Lake hadn't been thinking about this but he was happy to know Hampton had a plan for once they were down to wherever this door was going to be.
Five hundred or so steps later they entered an area that looked like a temple and Lake saw a door and thought they were there but then was led to another path that led even further down. "The door is at the end of this hallway." Lake nodded to this information before asking. "How deep does it go?"
"Not too much further from here." That didn't really give him an exact answer to his question but Lake guessed he would see if what the old man said was true. After around four more minutes and a few turns they finally arrived in front of a giant light stone door. Lake was about to ask if this was it but didn't have to when Hampton said. "Go ahead and get to it."
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