Chapter 267: Volunteer

Lake had been at it long enough to realize that Detector had just told him to dig in the closest place to the weak spot. Throwing the stones out of the tunnels so he could keep going, Lake switched Detector to look for the weak spot so he would know where it was so he didn't dig too far and pass it.

Continuing this process for a while Lake made better progress than he thought he would be able to and ended up finding the reason he was supposed to dig here when he sliced into a tunnel. Looking into the tunnel Lake found it was a completely bare stone tunnel that he assumed used to be part of a mine or maybe still was. historical

The city this far down wasn't completely done so they were still digging and that meant there would be tunnels around. Dropping down Lake went the direction that would bring him under the city keeping his eyes peeled for the small spot that would tell him where he needed to go.

After a while Lake saw the spot appear above him and got out his sword to start digging to it while thanking Detector with his whole heart. It was almost unbelievable the things you could do with a skill that could find things and if he got the chance he would make sure whoever was the Insider after him would be able to get this skill as well.

All he would need to do was make it a Unique skill and it would always be one of the four skills someone got when they unlocked the Burglar job. He didn't know if it was him or the Insider who actually did it though so it would have to wait till later. He was expecting it to be one of the things he got to know once he actually got the Insider to level 1.

Learning from his mistake last time Lake used Mana Vision to make sure there weren't any people where he was going. He had gotten lucky last time and ran into friends but he did not think that the people here would be someone he knew. Not seeing anyone at all, Lake was happy he thought to check and went back to digging.

With him digging up it took almost no time to make it to the barrier and he was about to turn around to go back when he thought maybe he should dig out more room here for whoever might need to come down here. If they needed more space to break the formation it would slow down the process.

Once he had a room about the size of the one that had been at the other weak spot Lake turned around and started to head back. As he was coming out of his hole Lake wondered if he should try to cover it but decided he didn't feel like it. If the Demon Worshipers did find this all he needed to do was kill them which he would have to do eventually anyway.

Getting back to the surface as fast as he could, Lake returned to where the Temple Head was underground and told him. "I found it. There was no one there so I dug a path to it so it's ready if we need it."

"Good. Are you willing to do something else for me?" Lake did not want to say no to the Temple Head so he nodded and asked. "What is it?"

"I've had one of the people on that side copy the formation's design and I want you to bring them to whatever group of people that are being sent to help so they can start deciphering it before they get here." Looking around, Lake asked. "Who is it?"

After he asked, one of the people stepped forward and she said. "It's me." Lake wasn't sure why they hadn't just drawn it on a piece of paper but he asked. "Are you ok with me carrying you? It will make it a lot faster." Normally he wouldn't ask but the lady was slightly taller than him so it was going to be really uncomfortable for her since he wouldn't be able to support her like he would if she was short. "Whatever."

"Alright, we need to get out of here first. We won't fit through the pipe if I have you in my arms."

"In that case we should just go the other way." After she said this Lake actually took a second to think about the fact the people here probably had their own entrance. "Lead the way."

On the way out Lake quickly found there were about three hidden entrances they had to pass through to actually get outside. Seeing the size of the secret base they were going through he could tell they had been looking all over for the weak spot. Once they were outside Lake noticed he had actually passed by this when he had done the first loop around the barrier.

He didn't think it was better than his spot though because of how much quicker it was for him to get to the weak spot from where he had dug. He would try to set Detector to find a door to whatever he was looking for in the future though on the off chance he got lucky next time he had to find something.

"Alright I'm about to pick you up and start running so get ready." Once he had the girl in his arms he chose a good speed that he figured she could handle and set off to go look for the group that should be heading for them.

...

"Donny, they're here to tell us what's going on." Hearing someone waking him up Donny opened his eyes and asked. "Has it started already?" Fendis shook his head and said. "No, they're giving us time to wake everyone up."

Getting up more and looking around he saw he wasn't the only person getting woken up. "Alright where's the meeting being held?"

"Where we've been eating for the past few days." Donny could see why they would hold it there because it was one of the largest rooms in the entire base. "Ok." Following Fendis all the way to the cafeteria area he saw all the other people he had been working with for the past days.

They were all sitting quietly looking forward to the person who was standing in the front of the room that Donny was pretty sure was Rigbis the commander of this fortress. He wasn't 100% sure though because he had never seen him before in person and was just going on the description he had heard from some of the others who had been here longer.

Taking a seat with all the others who had just been woken up, Donny saw someone whisper into Rigbis' ear and in the next second he started to talk. "As I'm sure all of you already know, we have gotten to the point where if we want to kill anymore of the Metal Domain's enemies we'll need to leave the fortress to clear the surrounding areas. We'll be facing Undead and the black gargoyles that drag people away so if you think you will be of value to the team that will be setting out raise your hand."

Donny and about twenty other people in the room raised their hands. Donny looked over to where Fendis was sitting to see he hadn't raised his hand which didn't surprise Donny because they had talked about this a few times and they both thought Fendis was better off staying inside since he wasn't really great at fighting and was one of the best people they had for reinforcing the wall.

"Ok the rest of you can get back to work." Once all the people that would be staying had left the room Rigbis said. "Alright those of you that can only use Metal and Earth magic raise your hands." Donny was one of the few that raised his hand at this time. "Are you sure you'll be helpful to the team?"

Rigbis pointed at someone when he said this and they answered. "Yes sir." Rigbis pointed at a few other people who all answered in the same way before Rigbis dropped it and said. "Alright follow me."

Being led to the upper part of the fortress Donny saw a huge amount of people split into two groups. "Stay here until you are told which group to join." After they were given this order Rigbis and his entourage walked away towards the front of this room before starting another speech on what their plans were.

"Half of you will be staying here in case we're wrong and the Demon worshipers have hidden an army that they plan to surprise us with. The group that will be going first will be decided by coin flip to keep it fair as soon as everyone has been organized."

Donny had the chance to count how many people were in each group while Rigbis had been talking so he knew it was around 100 people per group which meant they had all most likely volunteered for this as well. If this had been mandatory there would be more people or groups here in this room.