The Insider System

Chapter 410: Not My Problem Pt.6

"It's a barrier. We're inside of a barrier." Lucas' words made Lake finally realize what was going on. They had just arrived a few minutes ago, and ever since, he and Lucas had been unable to keep themselves moving in the right direction, and it seemed this was the effect of some type of magic that was messing with them.

"Barrier? We didn't move through anything resembling a barrier, though." He wasn't entirely sure why Lucas had said it was a barrier, though, because barriers kept things out with a wall, not misdirection. "It's the best way to describe it until we find out if it's a spell or skill causing this spatial effect."

Lake guessed Lucas was right. It didn't matter what they called it as long as they knew its effects on them. Taking out his arrow, Lake used magic compass because no matter what, Detector would tell them the right direction, even if the ground below them was moving or the space around them was twisting.

"Grab onto my shoulder. I'll lead us through." Feeling Lucas' hand hold onto his shoulder, Lake started the walk again, changing directions every second or so when the arrow told him they were somehow going in the wrong direction.

After a few minutes, the arrow stopped pointing in a new direction every few feet, and he told Lucas, "I think we're through." There was always the chance that this reprieve could just be a trick, but he didn't think there was any point in trying to trick someone if they got through the first part of your barrier unless you had a better trick. Someone with a better trick would have probably used it first, though.

Another minute after he informed Lucas that they were probably through the barrier, Lucas let go of his shoulder and said. "I hear someone talking up ahead. It seems they're planning to try and run before we arrive." If they were saying their plans out loud, there was a good chance there would be more than one, and when he used Mana Vision to see if he was close enough to get a look at the people up ahead, he confirmed this.

"It looks like a family. Two adults, two children, or dwarves. Probably children, though." after he said this, he and Lucas picked up speed and were outside the building they found before the people inside left. Lake was about to ask if they should knock on the door when Lucas called out to the people inside. "Hello. Can we talk?"

Seconds passed as they waited for a response, but eventually, a scared voice called out to them. "What do you want, Lucas?" Lake could also tell there was a bit of anger in the man's voice when he said Lucas' name, but if the two of them knew each other, he was sure there was a good reason.

Lucas had told him briefly about the end of the Mages guild. It sounded like most people had left mad at the other members for what had happened leading up to its collapse, and with Lucas coming out of the collapse in charge of the Alchemist guild, most of them were probably mad at Lucas directly.

"Just here for Amanda's journal. Feel free to hand it to me through a window if you don't want me to see your face." After Lucas said this, a hand eventually held a book out toward them, and Lucas quickly took it before turning to leave. "Most of the books taken were stolen on a whim by people who had been reading them when they decided to leave the guild, right?"

Lucas nodded before adding. "Some were stolen long before that happened, though." Lake nodded because he remembered when Lucas said some were missing when they first discovered them in Amanda's old room. "This one was one of the ones lost later, though, right?"

Lucas looked at the cover of the journal before saying. "Yes, it's number nine. If I remember correctly, we had this one."

"Alright, let us go on to the next thing." Taking out his map, Lake quickly pointed out the direction they needed to go next before saying. "Next is an item in the forties. We can skip it if you want."

"No. It will only add a few minutes to our travel time as long as it's not heavily guarded, and we can leave soon after arriving."

Lake had still wanted to get this item before moving on, so after estimating the amount of time it would take for them to get there, he said. "We'll be there in around five minutes." Lucas had chosen their path to head towards the part of the map that had the most dots close to one another, so now that they had made it here, they would be hitting four more spots that were all extremely close.

Five minutes later, Lake switched Detector to look for the item from his list they were closest to and told Lucas. "Finally, boots. They're the entire reason I started this list." High-level boots seemed to be rare, and he was guessing it was because most of them were originally part of high-level armor sets, which tended to get split up or partially destroyed over time, but that was just a single guess.

There was also the fact that if he was a blacksmith, he probably wouldn't spend much time making shoes either when there were things like swords and chest pieces to make, and most blacksmiths probably felt this way as well.

Then, a lot of the ones made were destroyed while in use by people like him who ran too hard for them to take, so there were loads of reasons the things he wanted the most, boots, were hard to find.

"I'll let you get this one on your own." Hearing Lucas say this, Lake nodded and rushed towards the item while using Mana Vision to see if anything was around. Eventually, he noticed what looked like people and a few items glowing strong enough to be enchanted and got ready for a fight.

Like always, his only goal was to touch the items he wanted, but with no guards around, Lake had no way to make this happen that didn't involve the chance of being attacked. Slipping into the ground using Ghost Touch, Lake eventually arrived under the feet of the people and used Detector to look for Heelios.

Seeing the feet of one of the people start to glow golden, Lake used his skill Ghost Touch to turn the ground they were standing on ethereal, making them all fall into the ground around him. All five instantly started to thrash, clearly unable to understand what had just happened. Lake had expected this, so before they got a grip on the situation, he had touched both boots and retreated above ground to get a breath and to wait for them to climb out.

The others had items he wanted as well, and he needed to know the name or what the item looked like enough to be able to use Retrieval on them later. The first person to climb out of the ground wasn't the one wearing Heelios, so after identifying the highest level item on their body, he touched it and kicked them back into the ground with the others.

With this method, he touched all the items he wanted, but one because it seemed the last person passed out before they figured out all they needed to do was jump to escape. Feeling bad, Lake grabbed them before stealing their item and leaving. Returning to Lucas, Lake summoned all the items to his hand but made it look like he was pulling them out of his bag before handing them to Lucas.

Lucas' bag seemed to be enchanted, so Lake had no problem letting him carry the items until they returned. He would decide once they got back to the guild which items he wanted after they had been cleaned of any trackers by Felg. "That was a good haul." Lake nodded to this instead of explaining that there was more than one person; Lucas most likely already knew, but even if he didn't, it wasn't important.

"Next is another journal. There's a good chance the person from earlier is in contact with whoever owns the next one based on location, so be ready for a possible fight." Lake hadn't thought about this, but Lucas was right; if they were both ex-members of the mage guild and were living so close to one another, they probably were in contact.

"Do you think they decided to live close on prepose or just noticed one another after some time passed?" It was a dumb question in all reality, but Lake wanted to hear what Lucas thought. "The fact three are so close probably means they did it on purpose. The fourth was probably an accident, though."

The fourth Lucas was talking about was actually pretty far away when compared to the first three, but it was less than twenty minutes away for the two of them. "With how fast we're going, we'll be going for it as well, right?" Getting a nod, Lake took out his map and handed it over to Lucas so he could draw more lines.