The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 340: Lapis Lake

Chapter 340: Lapis Lake

The inspection of the newest Restricted Zone took them three days. Because it was on their side of the Gate, and there was the danger of the high-ranking parasite monsters, the inspection had to be even more detailed. Three whole days, walking around in the summer heat, from early morning to night, among the heaps of rotting corpses.

And they didn’t even get a day off after that!

The lives of the members of the newly formed high-ranking Field Team were so hard...

But at least Clara and Ethan’s Lane-hating alliance ended up after only one day. While Clara by no means suddenly found herself being fond of Lane, at least she was fair in her judgment of her brother’s suitors. She didn’t want to choose the ’lesser evil’ either - the only person she would be willing to accept was someone who would be truly good for Damien. And since she already knew that Ethan had intentions toward Damien, she didn’t want to listen to him talk trash about Lane. After all, with Lane being Damien’s boyfriend, who knew whether his words were honest, or just spoken out of bitter jealousy? Taking that option into consideration, it actually made her think less about Ethan.

So, although there were still two people watching him like hawks, one openly for ’the sake of her brother’, one secretly spying for the Allens, Lane’s time at the high-ranking team got much better.

At least it was quiet.

And now that they had finished inspecting the Restricted Zone, he no longer had to bear with wearing the big facial mask with the air filtering system in this heat, or endure the rotten stench.

The next mission of his team was the second Capital’s Restricted Zone, the one at the Lapis Lake. There were quite a few Gates in the area, but no other team could enter, because of the presence of the S-ranking monsters with the hypnotic ability that appeared in the lake every now and then. Because of them, even just passing through the area to get to the Gates was dangerous to the other teams, thus the A-rank team had to step in to conduct the inspections in their place. It seemed like such a waste of time and resources, since most of those gates were low-ranking...

But there was no other way. To begin with, because the number of the Gates was too big, and the number of the Field Team at the Association too small, even before, Damien’s team often had to inspect some of the low-ranking Gates.

Well, it was just whatever. A while ago, Lane might have complained... But now that he no longer cared about planting the Fertilizer, it didn’t matter.

They had already finished inspecting two E-rank Gates, and they were walking toward the third they had planned for the day, a C-rank Gate located near the lake. Not on the beach, but further away, in the forest surrounding the lake. They trudged slowly through the swampy terrain, heading toward the site of the Gate, their boots sinking in the muddy water of the marsh, a gentle breeze brushing against their skin and gently lifting their hair...

When all of a sudden, Lane felt it. The stir in the air. No noise, no smell, just Mana, fluctuating.

He didn’t even have to activate his Mana Scan. He was already familiar with this feeling.

Naturally, with his incredible wavelength sensitivity, Damien had also noticed it. His steps momentarily faltered, and his body grew tense. For a moment, he completely freeze, as if his mind turned blank...

It didn’t last long. Only a few seconds, before he snapped out of it.

"Everyone, hurry up!" he called, charging ahead.

They were right by the lake, practically in the middle of the Restricted Zone. Far away from the road. At this moment, the best option for them was to hide in the inactive Gate they were about to inspect...

Because there were monsters in the Lapis Lake again. And, judging by the intensity of the Mana in the air, even more than during the initial dungeon break.

The Lapis Lake had been cleared the day before their visit. One of the Guilds went on the ’fishing trip’ to hunt down all the monsters present. That was only for the monsters on THEIR side of the Gate - the underwater Gate that the monsters came from still remained uncleared. There had been a few attempts to enter it, but... Since the dungeon on the other side was also underwater, no Guild could effectively challenge it, especially not with S-ranking monsters swimming around. Underwater combat was simply too difficult, and there weren’t many Espers who could take on the whole dungeon like that. Not even if they were to create a new team with members from various Guilds combined.

And since the Gate remained uncleared, the monsters were still inside. With the Lapis Lake quickly undergoing Manaforming, they could pass through at any time. On top of that, while the exact situation inside the Gate remained unknown... It was possible that the dungeon might become overpopulated again at some point.

Which would lead to another dungeon break.

And it seemed that something like that was happening right now.

All the members of the team quickened the pace, following Damien. Although they were all anxious, there was no panic in their steps. Even though they were moving in a difficult terrain, the muddy ground squelching and slipping under their feet, even though they were in danger because of the hypnotic ability that threatened to take over their minds, no one screamed, no one complained, no one tripped and fell. Everyone moved forward at a swift pace.

They were all experienced Field Agents, after all. It wasn’t their first time facing a difficult situation.

Soon, they reached the Gate. There was a metal shed built around it, the doors of locked shut, and wrapped in heavy chains. It was all to stop the reckless dungeon explorers from wandering around where they shouldn’t...

But now this safety precaution got in their way.

Breathing heavily, Damien reached into his spatial bag, and took out a bundle of keys, rushing to unlock the metal door. But his hands were shaking. So much so, that it became difficult for him to put the key in the lock...

Among the people gathered, he was probably the most disturbed, even though he himself was relatively safe. He might have been the Team Leader of this newly formed team, but he was most certainly not the most experienced...

However, that wasn’t the main problem. The reason why he was so shaken was because...

During the dungeon break at the Lapis Lake, he had seen ’Noah’, that is Lane, ’die’ in front of his eyes again.

And on top of that, he had almost lost one of his sisters. As he later found out, Samantha would have been hypnotized and dragged underwater, if she hadn’t seen what Lane was doing, and knocked herself out by smashing her head on the table.

In other words, the Lapis Lake and the monsters hidden inside were a particularly difficult memory for Damien.

As he was fumbling around with the keys, trying to unlock all the locks one by one, the hypnosis started slowly getting to the rest of his team. Although they were A-rankers and could endure it for a while...

There was only so much they could take. Their eyes eventually turned hazy, and instead of waiting patiently for Damien to open up the way to the Gate, they started turning toward the lake, toward a completely different Gate, one that wasn’t a safe place to hide, but would become their grave...

"Hey, hold on." Lane grabbed one of the members of the team. "Not so fast!"

Of course, the man didn’t listen to him. He just tried to shrug Lane off and walk toward the lake again. He failed, of course - not only was Lane much stronger than him, but under the hypnosis, the man couldn’t use much strength - but he still refused to give up.

Which was annoying. So, Lane hit him on the side of the head, knocking him out.

"Tut, tut. What are you doing?" Ethan shook his head, looking at the limp body on the ground. "How can you hit your teammate?"

In his arms, there was a young woman with shoulder-length, wavy, light ash brown hair, struggling to go to the lake just like the man Lane had knocked out just had.

Clara.

Lane swore inwardly. Why did Ethan have to be the one to rescue Damien’s sister?

But there was no time to think about that. Because out of the whole team, only Damien, Ethan, and Lane were still alright. Not everyone was stumbling toward the lake, as some were still trying to resist, but no one could be of any help.

Should Lane knock them one by one? That seemed to be the most reasonable decision, but...

Considering the Association’s stupid rules and protocols, he’d most likely be scolded for that.

So, instead, he grabbed two people who had managed to stumble the closest to the edge of the lake, pulling them back, and then turned to Damien.

"Step back. I’ll deal with that," he said, quickly taking out his twin daggers. Then, with a few swift moves, he severed all the locks and chains, finally opening the metal door, and revealing the dark Gate hidden inside.

It was simple like that. If it wasn’t for the Association members’ foolish attachment to the rules, it could have been done by anyone, and they could have all long been inside.

Anyway, the Gate was now accessible, so they finally had a place to hide.

"Let’s throw them all inside!" Lane called out, grabbing the nearest person, and tossing him through the Gate. Damien and Ethan soon followed his lead, catching the hypnotized members of the team before they could reach the lake, and bringing them to the other side.