The Insider System

Chapter 250: Waste Of Time

Lake, done with everything he could think to do, started to head back to the book room to continue reading when he saw Wezz turn the corner. It seemed he had finally woken up. "Hello." Wezz was the first to start talking but Lake wasn't far behind. "I'm about to head out, I'll be back in a few hours."

Not wasting any time, Lake was outside and had Detector set to look for items over level 30 before Wezz could say anything. Once he had the mana he cast fly and was heading over the city at a high speed looking for new gear for himself. Once he was done with this he would go see if his tunnel was ready for him to start digging again.

Stopping as he passed over a pile of bodies Lake pushed them all to the side until he saw the item he had seen with Detector. Taking the helmet off of the corpse, Lake saw it had done its job and the woman's head was in one piece. This hadn't stopped the spray of blood from her mouth though and he would need to clean this helmet before he had any interest actually putting it on.

Packing it away Lake moved himself back above the buildings before he continued on his way. Passing over another item Lake was about to go after it until he realized it belonged to someone still living. They were inside a building and wanting to know who they were he lowered himself onto the room before using Detector and setting it to look for enemies.

When this didn't light up the people inside Lake gave up on the sword and flew away. He really wanted new armor because the stuff he had taken from the Demon Worshiper was already damaged again with a couple uncomfortable dents and his swords level didn't really matter that much with Crunch.

Stopping after a while when he saw something he wanted Lake looked at the ring on the man's finger and guessed it made sense that rings had levels too. He hadn't really thought about it but it seemed setting Detector to look for items over level 30 and not just weapons he had opened up what he was going to find to everything.

Trying to take the ring, Lake found the man's finger was too fat to get it off. Lake had heard of this happening as people got older or fatter but he was pretty sure the reason had something to do with the smell coming off the man and not what he had been eating for the last few years. Seeing this as a good way to christen his new Knife, Lake quickly took the finger off and slipped the ring into his pocket once it was free.

He would worry about seeing what it did later when he wasn't out in the open. He also had to figure out if it was something he could wear with the stuff he already had on so putting it in his pocket was the best he could do for now. Finding another piece of armor Lake was happy until he saw that it was a pair of gloves that he had no chance of being able to wear.

Deciding he might as well take them since he was here and they were in good condition Lake pulled them off of the lady's hands and put them in his bag. Getting back into the air, Lake saw he was starting to get close to the part of town the Demon Worshipers were hiding in. Lake was about to turn when he saw an item light up in the distance and decided to go after it since it looked big.

He would be fine ending his search now if it ended up being a chest piece he could wear. Landing on the building next to where it was, Lake looked down to see what the situation was like down there before he went to grab it. He wanted to make sure the street was empty since these were the bodies the Demon Worshipers should be digging through.

He didn't want to cause a fight that would lead to a big scuffle between the two groups living in the city. Landing on the ground, Lake went after the body, grabbed it and drug it away. He was being more careful on the off chance there was someone who could look this way and see him.

Once he had the body in a dark corner Lake went ahead and inspected the item that had triggered Detector. Seeing the cloth Lake was a little disappointed but he soon noticed the actual gear was underneath. Opening the man's shirt Lake saw the thin layer of chainmail that was covering his vitals.

Getting the man's clothes off so he could look at how the chainmail was attached to the man, Lake saw it was like a shirt that he just had to get off the man like normal. If he thought about it this was perfect because the straps of normal armor were kind of a pain whenever he took them off or put them on.

Folding the chainmail up and putting it into his bag, Lake looked around before casting Fly and headed to a new part of town that he had yet to check for armor. Once he got there he stopped as he flew over a person with what seemed to be a full set of armor that was above level 30. Lake had wished he had found this earlier but whatever the chainmail was still a good find.

Landing next to the person dead on the street, Lake looked around and saw they were the only person dead in about a 15 foot radius and looking at the guy Lake noticed a distinct lack of injury that might have caused them to die. That meant he might need to flip them over to see if it was on the other side but he decided making sure they were actually dead came first.

Using Detector Lake set it to look for alive people and ignored the people underneath the road that it picked up. Not seeing them start to glow, Lake used Detector again and set it to Undead. With the guy still not glowing, Lake guessed it was fine and started to walk closer to the body only to be stopped at the same 15 foot distance that everything else had.

Realizing this guy had some kind of barrier or ward up that was stopping him from getting any closer, Lake really started to wonder what had killed them. He guessed the barrier had acted late or there might have been an attack like the one that had been able to hit him in the back even though he had a ward ring on at the time.

Trying to get a better look at the barrier that was keeping him back, Lake wondered about how much longer a personal barrier with no apparent formation could last and decided it was worth his time to find out. But, there was no reason for him to just stand here the whole time. Placing a mark on the ground, Lake went towards the elevator shaft.

It was time for him to see how the tunnel was doing. Flying into the tunnel Lake was happy to find the leak hadn't seemed to get any worse while he was gone but it didn't seem to be better either. Getting to the natural stone and seeing water still pouring in through the cracks, Lake turned around and headed back to Wezz's base.

...

Looking out from behind the tree she was hiding behind Tiff wondered if their attempts at hiding really mattered. The People they were really trying to get past were looking down from above and Tiff didn't think a tree could block their eyes. She shouldn't be complaining yet because it seemed to be working.

Tiff didn't get it but it was her turn to move so she stopped thinking and dived from where she was hiding to the next tree. As soon as she got back into cover she instantly started criticizing this method of getting home by trying to guess how many more trees she would hug until she was there.

They had already been moving like this for over an hour and she didn't think they had even passed the first town on the way back. Of course every inch they took like this was one less they would have to run once they were spotted so she needed to stop complaining and get ready to move to the next tree.

She took the chance to look up while she was passing to the next tree and was happy to find the clouds hadn't started to spin fast yet. This meant at worst they had a few more seconds of safety to waste going from tree to tree. Looking back and seeing the Temple Head make it to her tree Tiff went to the next one. "There!"

Tiff guessed the jig was up and started to run like they had planned ahead of time. Activating her stealth She just trusted the fact that the Temple Head could see her just fine and headed out into the open to get a look at the clouds. She didn't know how fast the ones up there would notice the chase happening down here but she wanted to be able to anticipate the first attack.