The Insider System

Chapter 293: Hey Tiff

Entering the room the gate was in, Donny saw the guards were already dead and feared the gate had already been opened and then closed to hide the fact something had been let in. There was also the possibility that mindless undead had killed them and then left to find more prey but the fact the bodies were just laying here and hadn't been completely ripped apart or turned into more undead made him think the first thing was more plausible.

"Keel, I think we should abandon the fort." It probably wasn't going to be much safer outside but with the real possibility the Demon Worshipers had let themselves in there would definitely be something here that was capable of killing them all. "Why would we do that? The gate is still closed."

Donny nodded before telling Keel what he thought had happened before they got here. "I think it's been opened already. You see how these bodies are in good condition? This probably means whoever killed them wasn't the mindless undead we seem to be fighting on the way here."

It took Keel a second to respond but When he did Donny's face quickly fell into worry. "Where would we go? The buildings outside are filled with those things." Donny hadn't thought of the real possibility they would end up running into one of those things if they tried to enter into a building to hide. All it would take was for all of them to get close to one and the barrier to come down and it would be over for them if they weren't able to do anything about it.

Donny really didn't have the confidence that he would be able to get them out if it came down to it so he didn't want to risk it outside. This meant they had to stay here and try to survive inside the same walls as Demon Worshipers until rescue arrived. Dissipating his shield formation Donny got ready to make a barrier but remembered Fendis was here.

With Fendis he would be able to make a barrier that fed off of the mana in the environment instead of draining himself so he called him over. "Fendis I need your help making a barrier. Let me see what you'll be using as a mana siphon?" After he got a look at the best Fendis would be able to do to power the barrier Donny quickly designed a barrier around it and activated it as soon as it was ready.

Once they were enclosed Donny turned his attention to the people that were with him. Every single one of them including Fendis and Keel could be a problem so he needed to get everyone spread out. "Alright everyone into two man teams." Once they were all split up Donny said. "Sit on the ground back to back. If your teammate tries to move, yell. Keel on the other side of the barrier and help me watch everyone."

Once he was in position Donny started to look at each person while he worked on a plan for them to get out of here or at least survive for a few days. Help was coming in a little less than two days but that was just when they would get here there was no way for him to know when they would get through the barrier and show up at the fortress.

There was also the problem that at any second some Demon Worshipers could show up and start trying to break the barrier they were hiding in/using to keep the gate closed. They could also already be in the barrier which was almost as bad as the two other things he had stated as problems with their current situation.

The only good thing about the last thing was he didn't think the Demon Worshipers that were inside with them would act up until there was a situation that they could use to make sure they got the upper hand in the fight.

...

Seeing a group of Demon Worshipers get wiped out in this most recent exchange Tiff dropped down and said. "Only two groups remain." Lake didn't react much to her words but she could tell he was thinking of something so she didn't let it bother her because she had done a similar thing to him earlier.

She did need to talk to him about something though so she tried to get his attention again. "I think we should move on a bit closer to the Metal Domain. There's a good chance we could get caught up in the fight if the Demon Worshipers plan to run now that the fight is lost." This wasn't her real reason for wanting to move but she didn't want to tell him about the fact the Demon Worshipers would sense her because of her holy affinity if she stayed here much longer.

...

Hearing she wanted to move down the road where they could wait for their group Lake was fine with it. He didn't need to have his eyes on them constantly to know they would be fine after hearing that they had already taken one of the other groups out. "How far would you like to go?"

"Let's just run for around ten minutes. If we go full speed we should get far enough away." Lake nodded and got onto his feet to get ready to go. "Do you want me to lead or, who's following who?" Up until now Lake had been in front but he was now acting like he was waiting for her. "Either's fine."

After Lake said this Tiff couldn't help but think he was messing with her because they were still just standing here waiting on the first person to go. "Alright I'll go first." Turning and starting to run around where the groups were fighting up ahead Tiff wondered if the people the Temple Head had sent out to look into the people that had taken Dawn and her had come back yet.

She was still thinking about it and 'the coliseum did it' wasn't a good enough answer for her. Looking back at Lake Tiff wondered if when he said he could probably find anything she could use him to find the group that was after her and why. Of course she would only ask for his help again if the Temple Head didn't have an answer when they got back.

...

Lake wasn't sure why Tiff had been staring at him instead of looking where she was going but he felt they had run far enough so he said. "That looks like a good place to stop." He was pointing at a nice rock log combo that they would be able to hide in while they sat on the log. "That's fine."

As they were sitting down Lake remembered the reason they had moved and set Detector to look for Demon Worshipers. It was unlikely that any would be close enough for Detector to pick them up but it was good to be careful. With that done Lake decided the best way to pass time was to talk to Tiff about the Temple of Light since the first time they had met she didn't seem to like it that much and had been trying to hire him to help her run away.

Of course he had been Jon at the time so he couldn't ask in a straightforward way. "So how did you come to join the Temple? I figure I'll probably be a member soon and I've been wondering how it works." He felt this was a good place to start and he could try to tell how she felt about the Temple by her answers to future questions.

...

Tiff really didn't want to tell Lake about how her family had been killed so she wasn't sure how to answer this question. It was nothing against him but they weren't close enough to talk about something like that so she just skipped to the second part of the question that he had asked. "It's close to how you join a guild but there are a few other requirements. The light Temple for example makes you prove you can use the Light element."

As she was saying this she was pretty sure they would make an exception for Lake if he actually wanted to join because of his skills and all the things he had done to help. Realizing just how much he had done Tiff wanted to ask him a few things really fast since she was sure he was about to ask her something.

"Why haven't you asked for any payment? Even a member of the Temple gets some gold for the things they do." She understood if he had a grudge against the Demon Worshipers or something like that but she hadn't gotten that impression from him at all. At this point she was sure they would give him a pretty good sized bag of gold for everything he had done.

...

Lake had never even thought about asking for money for the things he had been doing since it had all been because the Insider had wanted him to do it but now that she asked he guessed he should have even if it was just a little. You never wanted to make yourself seem like you were happy to do things for free when in reality you needed money because whoever it was you were working for would get into the habit of giving you nothing.

"I figured we could worry about payment after everything was over. You guys seem to be going through it right now and I didn't want to halt our progress to ask for money." He had just made this up but it seemed like a perfect answer since it made him seem polite while still getting him paid later.

This would be nice if he ended up falling short of the one million he needed after getting paid by the Metal Domain especially if he never got paid because they failed to save it. Lake was about to go back to asking his questions so he could get a better read of the Temple and Tiff when he had to stop.

It had been brief but he had just seen something golden pass by extremely quickly and since Detector was set to look for Demon Worshipers he knew whatever it was was heading for the battle they had just been watching. "Hey Tiff, someone really strong just ran by heading towards the battle."