Chapter 54: Raiding an E+ Rank Dungeon Part 2

"Does Frank seriously hold that much power in the Black Panda team?" Kayn can't help but ask Alice whose face was twitching in annoyance.

"No," Alice shook her head. "That guy is clearly planning something else,"

"Luckily, I am not the only one who notices that," Kayn chuckled.

"He is always like that. Acting as if he is the Vice-captain just because he has a backer from the White Panda team. But he is not. The real Vice-captain is sadly preoccupied with something extremely important along with the White Panda team, that's why Rys' had to replace him temporarily," Alice always felt displeased at Frank. That guy seems to be like those people who believe that they hold some sort of privilege or some sort. I think they call those kinds of people — Karen.

"He is bitching around a bit, don't you think?"

"I agree,"

"So, why don't we do this.." Kayn started whispering to Alice his plan.

Meanwhile, inside the tent, Frank was still trying his best counter arguing everyone's opinion. But unbeknownst to him, he is literally exposing himself that he is scheming something. As a matter of fact, the rest of the main members of the Black Panda team were already feeling tired of the noises he was making, and if only it wasn't because they don't want to offend Frank in fear of offending an Executive in the White Panda team, then it's quite possible that they would have strangled his neck a long time ago for not knowing his place and for obviously trying to bring harm to the team.

All of a sudden, the meeting inside the tent was interrupted as they started feeling cold. As time went on, the coldness they are feeling was turning freezing at an alarming rate.

"I think something bad is happening outside," Victor immediately interrupted Frank from talking.

"Alice and the reserve team could probably handle it," Frank tried to assure everyone.

"I don't think so," Diana didn't hesitate as he signaled for both Joshua and James to follow him outside.

Seeing this, Victor, Rys, Alex, and Frank were left with no choice but to quickly follow behind them. After all, they can't continue the meeting with half of the main members of the Black Panda team not being present.

Unbeknownst to everyone, this was exactly what Kayn intended to achieve. As someone who has a lot of experience when it comes to meetings, he knows that once half of the members of a meeting are away or not present in the scene, the meeting would have to come to a halt no matter what. That's because regardless of all of them agreeing to the plan, there's still the remaining half that hasn't voiced out their opinions yet.

A moment after, Diana, Joshua, and James saw Alice who was having trouble trying to block out the cold from seeping inside their base of operation.

Looking around, they notice a few of the Mages of the reserve team were already present trying to lend assistance to Alice, but despite that, it seems that they still can't handle the cold from breaking inside the barrier made of the fire element.

Of course, they can't, because it was Alice herself that's purposely causing the cold inside the main base of operation.

"See! This is what I meant when I told you that it's much better for us to go back and make another preparation," Alex expressed his opinion once again. This time, he has evidence to prove why his claim is correct.

"I agree," Rys added, albeit he didn't explain why because unlike Frank, he knows his place in the Black Panda team.

"Oh," Frank could only nod his head to show to everyone that he agrees, though in truth he doesn't. If back inside the tent he has the opportunity to speculate freely, but now that everyone is outside and sees and experiences for themselves the reality of their current situation, regardless of how much he persuades everyone right now, it won't be of any use as they can easily counter his argument. At this moment, he has no other choice but to go with the flow so that people won't know that he is planning something else.

Apparently, Frank still thought that the main members of the Black Panda team didn't notice that he is planning to do something. Albeit they don't know what yet. But nevertheless, they are aware that it isn't going to be good, especially knowing that Frank is always up to something that doesn't bring any benefits to the Black Panda team.

"Let me help you with that," Diana quickly offered after seeing that Alice is having a lot of trouble.

"Much appreciated," Alice expressed her gratefulness.

Without wasting any time, Diana gathered mana from her surroundings. Simultaneously, she started establishing contact with Alice's spell and as soon as she completed it, she then directed all the mana she has gathered toward the barrier that Alice had conjured.

However, the moment Diana's mana touched the barrier, Alice instantly directed it toward the secret that she's been preventing all the mages from discovering. It was the main reason why everyone is feeling cold right now.

In one unsuspected corner of the barrier, a small hole could be felt using one's mana. But around this hole, another barrier was created as a way to block everyone's senses from detecting this hole. This hole was the cause of why everyone is feeling cold right now as the cold air passes through this hole to get inside the base of operation.

In other words, there's nothing wrong with the barrier. It's just that, there's a hole where the cold air could get inside. As long as they cover this hole, everything would instantly go back to normal.

Upon discovering this, Diana turned to look at Alice in surprise.

Seeing Diana looking at her, Alice winked at her meaningfully.

Diana finally understood what is going on. Evidently, Alice heard their conversation inside the tent just now. And as means to interrupt Frank without offending the latter, she decided to stage a harmful and disastrous event.

"Who thought of this idea?" Diana asked. Alice was never someone who can think of something like this. So, she believes that someone else lent her a hand.

"Kayn," Alice didn't hide the truth. She pointed to where Kayn is hiding with her eyes so that no one else would notice. "Not only that, but he also made a new plan to make the work of the Porters more effective,"

"I guess Rys' wasn't lying to us," Diana finally believe Rys' description of Kayn. In fact, Rys' might still not know the latter that much as he didn't mention him being an excellent planner.

"No wonder that he is the son-in-law of Mayor Sebastian," Alice finally understood.

"I believe that young man is still hiding a lot more things from everyone," Diana thought. After all, just this much won't be enough for someone to become the son-in-law of Mayor Sebastian. There should be something more than what meets the eye which is what holds him in such high regard by one of the greatest men of the Moon Dragon City.

Diana was actually right. Other than being a good planner, Kayn can also predict the outcome of his plan. Take for example the situation right now. He already expected that the person who will assist Alice in repairing the barrier would be Diana as she is the only other magic user among the main members of the Black Panda team due to her being a priestess. And because she is the wife of Captain Victor, there's no doubt that she would relay this information to him once everything is done.

"Anyways, what did he say once you inform one of us about his plan?"

"He told me that we can begin slowly fixing the barrier,"

"Understood," It's probably because one of his main intentions was to interrupt the meeting. And since he already achieved that, there's no need to continue with this stage event. And besides, he's probably the one who's suffering the most right now. After all, he should be the weakest person in this group.historical

Diana couldn't be any more correct. Regardless of how smart and experienced Kayn is, his body still can't handle something at this level of coldness. It was simply too freezing. If this continues, then there's a huge risk that he'll start experiencing frostbite, which is still not good even though he is a Superhuman.

Not long after, the barrier was finally patched up. Soon, everyone started feeling warm, making them sigh in relief.

No one other than Alice and Diana knew the truth. The rest of the Mages simply thought that there was a mana deficit that's why they weren't able to solve the problem. And Diana simply filled up the required mana.

"Finally," Alice and Diana pretended like they were tired. The people who are genuinely tired are clearly the rest of the Mages.

After pretending to rest for some time, Diana approached Victor and started telling him about what exactly happened.

Victor turned to look in the direction of Kayn secretly and nodded at him to express that he is thankful for his assistance.

Kayn nodded back in response.

Just when Victor was about to turn his attention back to the important matter on his hand, he suddenly noticed Kayn beckoning him to come.

"Why?" Victor asked.

"What do you mean why?" Diana wondered.

"Kayn seems to want to discuss something with me,"

"Is that so? Then, go to him. I believe he has something in mind that can help us fix our problem,"

"Will you be able to distract the others while I sneak to Kayn?"

"I'll ask for Alice's assistance,"

"Okay, I'll wait," Victor decided to patiently wait for how Diana and Alice intended to distract the others.

Diana approached Alice and informed her that Victor needs a distraction so that he can go to Kayn without anyone noticing, or at least, without Frank and the reserve team noticing.

The two discussed for a bit before finally thinking of a plan.

"Everyone, I want you to group yourselves into five different groups,"

"Why?" Frank was curious as he watched everything unfold and felt that something suspicious is going on. He just can't figure out why.

"Since me, Diana, and the rest of the Mages are already feeling tired. I want to ask for assistance from the rest of you to patrol the surrounding area and see if everything is okay,"

"It might seem like the barrier is already fixed, but we can't be certain yet that no problem will pop up later on. To make sure of that, group yourselves into five different groups and spread out to check every part of the barrier. If you notice something is wrong, quickly report the situation to us so that we can start fixing it,"

"Okay!" Everyone finally complied after hearing that. Evidently, no one wants to feel that freezing feeling once again, even Frank wasn't excepted to that as the latter hastily gathered some people from the reserve members to form a group with them.

Respectively, Joshua, James, Alex, and Rys also went to form a group of their own with some other members of the reserve team.

As soon as that was done, the five groups immediately split up and started checking the barrier.

Seeing this, Victor didn't waste any time as he walked back towards the main tent, which is where he and Kayn agreed just now to meet together. As the tent was located at the center of the base of operation, thus they can expect that none of the groups would go there as it is far from the barrier.