The Insider System

Chapter 275: New Methods

After thinking for a while Lake was pretty sure some of the tracks were misleading so he tried to think of a way to get around this using Detector. He found an obvious setting with places or things where the person I'm looking for put their feet or boots that will lead me to them which would probably work with a few small tweaks. He had another idea that he wanted to try first though.

"Turning to the Temple Head Lake said. "I need a minute to do something." As he was walking into the woods Lake wondered if the Temple Head thought he was heading off to go to the bathroom. Taking an arrow out of his quiver, Lake turned it into a magic arrow and started to slowly spin it in all directions.

Once it was ready Lake set Detector to look for arrows that were pointing at the person who had taken Tiffany once it was set Lake started to spin the arrow around in every direction as fast as he could and a few seconds later he saw the arrow briefly flash golden. Seeing his magic compass idea worked, Lake realized this could probably be used to find anything in the whole world and was about to put it away because it was actually too good to let someone else see it when he remembered that Detector wasn't a unique skill.

There would be other people that had this skill somewhere in the world so something like this wasn't really worth hiding from someone who could be trusted like the Temple Head. She was probably more trustworthy than someone like Lucas who he had told a lot about himself already.

Stepping out of the woods with his spinning arrow that every now and then would flash golden telling him what direction he should go, Lake said. "I'm ready." With this new method Lake wouldn't need to tell the Temple Head to stop anymore so they would be going a lot faster.

"What's with the arrow?" Lake hadn't expected for her to actually ask since most people minded their own business and the Temple Head had actually been one of the first people to tell him to not just tell people everything but Lake didn't have to tell the truth so he said. "Magic compass. It will tell us where to go without needing to stop constantly. It's a combination of a few skills that I just thought of."

Once he got done talking Lake realized he hadn't actually lied and wondered if this was the effect of charisma. Charisma was also what was making him feel like the temple head was so trustworthy in all likelihood and he didn't think there was much he could do about it either. "Will you be able to keep it spinning above your hand while we run at full speed?"

Lake really didn't know but he had high hopes that it would be fine so he said. "Just keep the amount of speed you gain steady for a while and it should be fine." Climbing onto the Temple Heads back again, Lake realized he really didn't need to keep the arrow above his hand and moved it next to his head since he needed to use his hands to hold on.

As they slowly sped up Lake had no problem keeping the arrow next to him or being able to read it to tell the Temple Head where she needed to go. After a while he could tell the person they were after was all over the place to keep them from being able to track them so they had to change direction a lot but Lake was fine with it because he just saw this as them panicking.

It was also making whoever they were after travel less distance since they weren't moving in a straight line so it was probably making them catch up to them even faster. He had no idea how far away they actually were though so this could still take forever. "It looks like we're going to be entering free territory and not the Fire Domain after all."

Lake was barely able to hear what the temple head said at this speed with all the wind in his ears but he still asked a question. "Is that a good thing?" He knew nothing about any of the places they could have ended up in so he wanted to know if this was a good outcome. "Well we don't need to pass through a border so that will make it easier but it makes the chances of being attacked by one of the dark guilds much higher."

"So does it tell us who did it or at least make it easier to guess." The Temple Head didn't answer right away but that was fine because he needed to tell her to change direction slightly. "Go slightly more left." A few seconds after he said this the Temple Head finally answered the question he had asked.

"Yeah it has to be the dark guild alliance but there's a good chance the Demon Worshipers put them up to it. This means we could be attacked by any of them so it really doesn't matter who did it." After the Temple Head said this they were silent for almost an hour which gave him time to think about the people who had been the first to attack him in this world.

Nelg had been a member of the Dark Guild Alliance and had almost succeeded in kidnapping him when he was still much weaker than the average person you ran into in fights. He had never forgotten this, just gotten distracted by other things and he had kind of assumed the Demon Worshippers would be part of the Dark Guild Alliance since they seemed to be what one would call bad guys.

"What's the Dark Guild Alliance, and are the Demon Worshipers also a part of it?"

"I'll answer the second part of this question first, the Demon Lord hasn't made his army a part of the Dark Guild Alliance but most of the people who join his army are a part of one of the Dark Guilds. For example, there is a group known as the Dark Temple that claims to be separate from the Demon Lord but almost all of its members join the Demon Worshipers eventually because of the fact that the Demon Lord has control over the Dark element. As for the Dark Guild Alliance it is a group of around twelve known dark guilds that deal in things most Domain consider illegal like murder or stealing."

"I know about the Assassins guild and the Thieves Guild are there any more groups in the Holy Domain that belong to Dark Guild Alliance."

"All of them but really the only other one you hear about in the Holy Domain is the Dark Temple. Lots of people see them as the opposite of the Light Temple so they're brought up a lot around us like it's our fault that they do stuff that no one wants." Lake was pretty sure he could hear a heavy amount of annoyance in the Temple Heads voice but at this speed it was kind of hard to tell.

It seemed it didn't matter who you were if you were in charge of a large group you had a lot of annoying stuff happening to you at all times. Thinking back to how Lucas had been treating him recently, Lake almost wanted to start laughing. He wondered just how busy Lucas was actually and it felt like all he ever did was bring him more bad news.

At this point Lucas probably just wanted him to stay inside the guild and stop getting involved in whatever the Demon Worshipers were doing around them. "I just saw someone I think." Realizing he had kind of spaced out Lake looked at the compass and asked. "Where?" Painting the arrow in the direction the Temple Head pointed towards Lake started to see if whoever she had seen was the person they were after by spinning the arrow in a different way that only focused on the area in front of them.

Seeing the amount of times the arrow flashed increased by a lot, Lake said. "I think it's them. Get close and I don't need the arrow anymore. I'll be able to tell you where they are at all times."

Feeling the Temple Head get slightly faster Lake made sure not to fall off and got ready to set Detector to look for Tiffany. He already knew Detector would be able to pick her up since he had done it before during their fight so it was better to look for than the person they were after who might be able to mess with Detector with one of their skills.

"Right there. We're so close." Seeing that they were probably in range already, Lake put the arrow away and switched Detector. Seeing something up ahead start to glow, Lake said. "They are still holding Tiffany. Don't spook them by getting too close." It was important to remember that in this case Tiffany could be used as a hostage and if they weren't careful she could die.

They had to take the person carrying her out in one attack or they would probably have to fall back or give up something to avoid her being used as leverage during the battle/negotiation. "They'll see us as soon as we're out of this patch of woods so I'm going in, get off of my back." Hearing the Temple Head planned to attack right away before they had more time to get ready, Lake wasn't sure but he did what he was told since it would be on the Temple Head if something bad happened.

Letting go, Lake watched as the Temple Head sped out of his vision and couldn't help but think he should probably go after her. He didn't want her to see him going the same speed as her because he was sure she would be mad that he had ridden her like a horse but he really didn't want to get left behind. Activating Mute Lake started to run at a high speed not worrying too much about hitting anything since Mute took care of the sound.