Chapter 365: The Deal Pt.1
As soon as Hampton got rid of the formation the five of them walked out of the door and Lake saw the ones they had left behind still there waiting. Lake had thought there was a good chance they had died in one of the quakes that had taken place while they were inside but this hadn't happened.
"So what did you find?" It seemed the mayor had already waited too long and wanted answers right away. "Nothing that's useful to us." Hampton had gone back to acting the way he had been before he had his arm cut off so no one was able to tell the five of them had been trying to kill one another around ten minutes ago.
"Well did you at least find the source of the phantoms while inside?" This was a good question for Hampton to answer because they had all guessed they were being formed from one of the types of mana that had been trapped inside the lab but there was no way to know for sure unless you were like him and had a skill like detector that could answer most of your questions.
Lake had no plans on sharing any information he had on this matter even if he had bothered to check because it wasn't what he had been hired for. Maybe if he was offered more money he would be willing to use his abilities a bit more before he left but right now he just wanted to get out of here so he could go back to what he was doing before Hampton had caught him.
"There's a good chance they're just a byproduct of the environment inside. Like how normal undead can be born in an environment filled with Unholy mana." Lake hadn't thought about this but Hampton was completely correct about it being similar to how undead were made. This was just more evidence that the Demon Lord was in some way connected to this even though that wasn't really in question.
...
Feeling the slight weight from the stone in his pocket Donny couldn't believe no one had noticed what he had done or the fact that he had taken the risk to begin with. When the young man who had taken charge of the group had said it was too dangerous to try and take anything he had been more than right but for some reason he had still grabbed the looking stone as soon as no one had been paying attention to him.
"So it's a problem that can be solved easily as long as we negate the principles within the problem element. It's not a real element that will be replenished so the only reason it's in there is that it was trapped right?"
"That is true but we'll need to do it slowly because it seems the amount of mana inside the Demigods residence is enough that anything that will start changing the balance could lead to another disaster like the quakes that were just caused by my magic."
"It doesn't matter. The Earth Domain will be happy to solve the problem of the phantoms even if it means we have to abandon what's left of the city afterwards because the only reason people still live here is so they can kill the phantoms before they move into other areas of the Earth Domain."
...
Lake could tell Hampton and the mayor would sit here and talk for a long time if he just left them too it so he got close to Hampton and whispered. "I'm in a hurry." Like he had hoped this caused Hampton to hold up a hand to the mayor to stop him from saying anything else. "We should do this later while we're alone. Let's make getting ourselves to the surface our top priority for now."
The mayor didn't seem to notice Hampton was only saying this to appease him but even if the man had Lake wouldn't have really cared. He had no plans to let Hampton live much longer after they reached the surface since the old man wouldn't be the ones taking care of the situation inside the lab.
He already had everything marked so in a few months after whoever replaced Hampton had dealt with this problem he would use the marks he had placed on the items to track them down. That was about the amount of time he was sure he would be feeling like he needed to get away again and he would use needing to find these items as an excuse to take another vacation.
"Alright the three of us are the only ones who will be doing anything while we escape so the rest of you just be on the lookout. The phantoms are still in the earth around us so we need to be careful." After Hampton said this he explained his plan that used the guards Earth magic and his Ghost Touch skill to get them out of here.
It was a very simple plan that took advantage of the fact there might be a large amount of loose earth that would fall on them the second he used Ghost Touch on the ceiling above them so that the guard could use Earth magic in a place that they knew no phantoms would be. Of course if nothing actually fell they would have to try something else but Lake had a good feeling he could make sure this plan that would get them out super fast would work.
Because of the fact he could control what was affected by Ghost Touch he could just keep increasing the area until stuff started to fall towards them. "Alright I'm going to start now." After he said this Lake cast Fly and ascended towards the ceiling. Placing his hand above him he turned it ethereal.
...
Seeing the amount of earth that came towards them after the ceiling was affected by the guy's skill finally snapped him out of thinking about the thing in his pocket. "Oh, is that too much?" The question that was asked was quickly answered by the guard when he used magic to start forming the loose earth into small bricks that he started to place near their feet. "I guess not."
"At this speed we'll be out of here in less than an hour." Donny didn't feel this estimate was right but decided it wasn't worth correcting anyone about how long this would take because he could tell everyone was ready to get out of here.
He also needed to start working on spreading the word of what had happened while they were inside to the rest of his group so they would be ready for whatever happened once they reached the surface and this meant that he didn't have time to try and accurately formulate how long it would take for them to reach the surface.
Getting close to Fendis since he was the furthest from the mayor Donny whispered. "There was a falling out while we were inside the Demigods home so while it isn't curtain expect a fight when we get to the surface." Donny wanted to go into more detail about who would be on whose side but he didn't know this and he had eight more people to tell before they reached the surface.
Like this he passed the next twenty minutes slowly telling each person in their group to be ready while avoiding the mayor, adventurer, and Hampton. Sadly they still had another hour after he was done before they heard the guy that was making the ceiling intangible say. "I think we're to the surface."
...
Lake could tell that they had made their way up to the surface by the feeling he got when he had tried to use Ghost Touch and felt open air just a few feet above him. "Do you want to send someone through to check?" After thinking about this question Lake nodded and said. "Hampton you should go just in case I'm wrong and we've hit a subterranean structure that's filled with phantoms."
Since Hampton was still the most effective against the phantoms his proposal made perfect sense but he could tell Hampton thought something was up by the way the old man was looking at him. Hampton didn't have a choice though so he quickly flew up and went through the part of the ceiling that was affected by Ghost Touch.
Lake didn't think it would take long for Hampton to come back with an answer since it was only a few feet from the surface so when a minute passed without any sign of him he had to start wondering if something had happened to either Hampton or to the town and it was bad enough Hampton hadn't had time to come back and tell them what was up.
Activating Mana Vision Lake looked through the few feet of dirt in front of him and saw someone who looked like Hampton just sitting still a few feet away from the area he passed through. This was obviously weird and Lake looked around a bit more to see if he could see anyone or anything else around to see if it was safe to come out.
He eventually saw a few other people close by that were moving and called down to the others. "Alright it's safe to go through. Even if he was wrong he planned to be the last one to go up so he would have plenty of warning as long as he watched them.
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