The Insider System

Chapter 226: Outside

Almost as soon as Donny got the guy to the base the guy ran off and found his wife. Donny had kind of assumed she wouldn't be here but this guy seemed kind of strong so maybe his wife was as well and Donny had only saved people that had been putting up a fight so he guessed it made sense.

Seeing everyone was happy enough, Donny decided it was time to go to the fortress. It was light enough now and he couldn't wait forever if he planned to do this. Stepping back outside Donny retraced his steps to where he found the buff warrior. From here forward he would be much more careful and therefore slower.

Moving from alley to alley Donny found himself starting to detect movement in some of the buildings around him and wondered if the Demon Worshipers were using them to hide in now that the sun had come up. Moving forward now would be crazy since all that needed to happen for him to be noticed was for someone to look out a window so he decided he was close enough and looked for a quiet way to get onto a roof.

He should be able to see the fortress from here and as long as no one heard or saw him climbing onto a roof he would be able to go back with an idea of what he needed to do when they tried to get there later. Finding a building he could climb, Donny quickly got on top of it and looked towards the fortress.

Donny wasn't happy with what he saw. The building was completely closed off and it didn't look like they would have a place to land if he was to fly them there. He guessed there was a chance that the fortress would change shape when they started to fight again but the circular roof looked like it was permanent.

Getting down so no one would see him while he tried to think of a new way to get them to the fortress that didn't involve being able to land on its roof. He couldn't get the wounded there like he had planned now that he knew they wouldn't have the time to get them inside before they got swarmed since they would probably have to land on the ground.

Donny would need to get closer to see the lower half of the fortress because he was pretty sure there would be a good place for them to land. There should be some flat parts for people to stand on while they fought. He didn't feel good about just assuming this about the fortress but there was no way he could get any closer.

Getting down Donny was real careful to not make any noise and he was soon back on the way to their base to bring the others the uncertain reality of their plan but hoped they would be able to tell him more about the layout of the fortress past what he assumed.

He had always planned to ask them this anyway since he had been coming here to get an estimate on the number of enemies they were facing and had decided to still get a look at the fortress when he realized the Demon Worshipers were hiding so his trip wouldn't be a complete waste.

Once he was back to their base Donny gathered the people that were awake and asked them. "Is there a flat area we will be able to land on?"

"Did you not get there?" Donny shook his head and said. "Not close enough to see all of it. I could only really see the circular roof."

"Why didn't you get any closer?"

The Demon Worshipers were using the building surrounding the fortress to hide." No one seemed surprised that the Demon Worshipers had fallen back now that the sun had come up because they always chose to fight at night if they could choose.

"To answer your original question there is a place that we will be able to land and enter the fortress. The only problem will be getting them to believe we aren't a trick by the Demon Worshipers and them actually letting us land near them."

Donny had thought of this already and to be honest he wasn't too worried about it because even if it took a second there should be a scout or something that could tell if they were human. Skills like that were pretty rare but there should be at least one person that could tell around or the fort would have already fallen to a trick.

It was common for the Demon Worshipers to trick their enemies if they could so the fact the fortress was still intact gave him a good feeling. He realized this was an assumption but there wasn't a way for him to get in contact with them to ask or set anything up so it was his best bet.

"I think they will be able to tell soon after they see us and we'll be able to land." Donny went ahead and told them what he was thinking about this but stopped before he could say all of it because someone asked. "Why are we waiting to go to the fortress instead of going towards the temple?"

This was a good question and his only reason was because the fort was closer and he hadn't put any real thought into going to the temple. When he did think about it though he felt like he had made the right decision because of how close they were to the fort. He also felt the temple would have something that would keep them from flying to it like a barrier.

"I don't think we would be able to just fly to the Metal Temple. Even without any Metal mana there's no way they don't have any defenses up." Everyone seemed to think he was right about this because no one said anything else. He took this to mean there wasn't really anything left for them to talk about the plan and all that was left was for them to wait.

...

Seeing people start to leave the room because they had run out of things to investigate, Lake took the opportunity and followed them out into the hallway. The hallway they entered was empty and it made Lake think it was because people had congregated towards the two places the arrow had attacked people.

Walking past the place where he had been standing while pretending to be a guard, Lake didn't see anyone around yet meaning they hadn't found the body or where he had made it seem the arrow had been launched from. This meant they hadn't been able to trace the arrows path through the base yet and it made him stop worrying about their investigative abilities so much.

He felt he would know by now if they had some sleuth that would be able to trace his steps back to him through all the bull shit he had done to cover his tracks. That being said, there was a chance that someone like that could come to help them find what happened. Lake planned to be gone soon though so it didn't matter too much who came unless they could continue to track him after he left but with his skill Trespasser they shouldn't be able to.

Breaking off from the people he had been following because he saw a large door with a crowd around it that he felt was probably the way out, Lake joined the group that seemed to be waiting to be let through. Lake wasn't sure what was keeping them from opening the door if they would notice that he didn't really have reason to be leaving but he felt he would be able to get through because they probably weren't thinking that the attacker was already inside trying to get out.

They would be scared of someone who was trying to get in and once they realized the attack had come from the other entrance where he had left the dead guard they would probably let this door open. After a while Lake heard someone calling out to the guards that were guarding this door to let them through.

Seeing the door open and the group start to move, Lake made sure to look like he was doing what he was supposed to to blend in with the others. Once he was through the door he saw he was in a dark hallway that had another door at the end. The other door was closed but had no guards and lake assumed it was another secret entrance like the one he had to dig through to get onto the stairs earlier.

Once they reached the other door it slowly opened and after they walked through it closed and looking back he saw he was right and the door just looked like a wall when it was closed. Recalling his arrow Lake Imbued Fire and threw it into the air flying it towards the small group of Demon Worshipers he was with.