The Insider System

Chapter 423: Hidden Hostility Pt.5

Handing the item he'd just stolen to Lucas, Lake said. "Go ahead and put that with the others." On the way back to Lucas, he'd inspected the item and decided to sell it. "That's more than enough to sell to the Thieves Guild already. Do you want to switch to only going after items in the fifties?"

When they'd drawn the path they would take, Lucas had drawn it to include every item they could go after, so almost 80% of them were items marked as 40. "We might as well keep going like this; we're making such good time, and we can hold on to some of the items to sell later if you're afraid that we're getting too many to sell at once."

Lucas didn't seem convinced by what he said and quickly added the reason he thought they should change how they were going about this. "If we arrive back at the guild a few days early, I'll have the free time to teach you about curses like I said I would."

The original plan was to stay in the Metal Domain for around three days, but it had only been around one since they left the guild, and Lucas was already talking about going back. It made Lake wonder if there was another reason for them to return sooner that he wasn't aware of. "If that's why we can cut the trip short. Here's the map if you want to redraw our path."

After handing the map to Lucas, Lake silently watched as their path was simplified before asking. "It should only take us a few hours of running to make it to each place. Are you sure you don't want to at least scope out the location of one of the level 60 items?"

Lake knew Lucas had been pretty firm when he'd said no the first time, but he'd also said it was very tempting, so Lake thought there was a chance he could tempt Lucas into going if he was persistent. "No." The short and to-the-point way Lucas said no made Lake think maybe he was barking up the wrong tree.

...

"Congratulations, Greg." It had already been over 2 hours since the ceremony had ended, but this was Tiff's first chance to speak to Greg one-on-one. "Thank you. I look forward to working together to protect the others until they're able to join us."

The words Greg chose were nice to hear because even if she wanted Dawn chosen, Greg was the obvious choice when it came to prowess. He'd always hit harder than any of the others, and that was sure to come in handy in keeping everyone alive. "Did the God of Light say me and you are allowed to speak on any subjects we normally can't with the others?"

Greg had yet to share which job the God of Light had given him, and Tiff wanted to see if he could tell her now that they were alone. "You want to know what job I got, don't you." Nodding her head, Tiff waited to see if Greg would continue. "He said I could tell you and the Temple Head, but you have to wait to tell me your job."

She was happy the God of Light had already gone over this with Greg because she would have probably told him or at least tried to had he not said this. "My job's called Flashblade. There are already a few other Demigods with this job as it is a job shared between multiple elements, but the God of Light told me there's a skill that's only been recently added that I'll be the first to have."

"Did you get your first mission?" Greg was already strong enough to kill a giant in one-on-one combat, so she couldn't see him going to waste by being assigned something that wasn't directly related to fighting. "No, not yet. The God of Light said being out in the open is too dangerous for me."

Tiff guessed that was true since Greg couldn't hide like she could, but him just staying here doing nothing was a real waste. "Did he say anything else that was meant for me?" Tiff knew that at any moment, she might be sent out for the next giant, and since each hunt meant another member of the 23 would be granted a legendary job, she was more than ready.

"Me and him didn't really speak for very long. It seems he's pretty busy at the moment, which makes sense." One of the things that was keeping the God of Light so busy was probably looking for her next target, but she still wished he would hurry up. Just because she felt more confident in her ability to kill giants now didn't mean she had lost all her urgency.

The amount of time the war would stay in its current state was probably only enough time for her to kill a few more giants; after that, the rest would have to be gathered on the battlefield. The downsides to doing it out on the field were obvious, so she wanted at least a few other members of the 23 to be Demigods by then to help her.

"Yeah, it does make sense, but it's too bad you can't go with me on my next mission." Skills that affected other people were rare, even if you were talking about Legendary ones, so it was unlikely she would ever be able to take others with her and have them under the same protections she was.

"Don't worry, once I'm fast enough I'm sure we'll use me as bait." It was true that as Holy affinity holders, any of them could draw enemies to certain locations before the rest of them cleaned them up. Drawing out giants like this would only work a few times before the Demon Worshipers realized what was happening.

"Once you're fast enough, I'm sure, you'll just go on the offensive. There's no need for you to take a passive role like bait when it comes to a fight." Tiff wasn't sure why, but this was probably the closest she had ever felt to Greg. For years, their relationship had been strained by the constant comparisons, but now she guessed that was truly over.

It was a nice thought that maybe now, after all this time, the two of them would be able to have a normal conversation that didn't just sound like Greg trying to be overly nice to her for no reason. "Sorry to keep you two waiting."

"It's alright Temple Head, we know you're busy." Turning to see if the three of them were alone before answering, Tiff asked. "What was it you wanted to tell us?" The Temple Head had asked both of them to wait in her office after the ceremony, saying she had things to tell them, but then she'd disappeared soon after, leaving the two of them to wait for almost an hour.

"Bad news. Enough time has passed since the first few gods made a deal with the Demon Lord that the details are starting to spread, and it seems the details aren't that bad, making it an easy way to protect their Domains from Demon Worshipers."

Tiff already expected this news as it had been the reason they'd run from the Holy Domain so quickly, but hearing it confirmed was still hard. "Are we going to continue the fight?" Greg's question cut straight to the point, so Tiff patiently waited for the Temple Head to answer even though she had questions of her own.

"Fighting is uncertain for now, but the God of Light has asked to see you two in a few hours, so you should be prepared for a new mission. Tiff, you just got back less than a day ago, do you think you're ok to go again if that's the assignment."

Tiff couldn't see saying no as an option, so she nodded before saying. "I'll be fine. I've been put through worse than my last mission during training." Tiff only meant this physically, but she was doing just fine mentally as well, and it seemed her confidence showed because the Temple Head nodded before moving on to Greg. "What about you?"

"I'm doing great." If it was someone else saying this, Tiff might think they were being overconfident or putting on a strong front, but when Greg said it, she knew he was telling the truth. Greg was the only other member of the 23 that had killed a giant, and he had done it with his level of strength before becoming a Demigod, so all that had changed for him was that he was more prepared now.

"All right, good. The two of you can return to the others but don't tell them about anything I just told you. It's going to stay a secret for morale purposes." Tiff knew she still hadn't asked any questions, but she decided to use whatever time she had left to say goodbye. She was going to be talking to the God of Light anyway, and he was a better source of answers than the Temple Head.

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