The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 350: Leaving a Trail

Chapter 350: Leaving a Trail

Even though their speed significantly improved ever since Lane pulled out the night vision goggles, it still took at least fifteen or so more minutes of quick march before they could hear the distant murmur of the river, still faint, far away ahead of them. Then at least an hour more, perhaps even two, before they had reached the riverbank.

It took... far longer than they had expected. Looking at the map, the river seemed to be rather close to the gate... So they had assumed that it would be a quick march. But the map lacked the scale - not all dungeon maps were well-drawn. With so many Gates, the Association didn’t have enough resources to spend on making detailed maps of each dungeon, and it seemed like this Gate was one of the more unlucky ones that only received careless, sloppy treatment! - so they couldn’t tell for sure...

Was it that the dungeon was bigger than they had expected, or did they perhaps curve their path a bit without realizing, which led them to arrive at a different point of the river than they initially expected?

Navigating in such an empty, plain dungeon was truly hard...

But it was fine, it wouldn’t be a problem from now on. Now that they had reached the river, they could follow its path until they reached the Wall. Then, circle dungeon using the Wall as the navigation point, until they have walked all the way around. Follow the river back to this point... And from here, they should be able to find their way back to the Gate. Clara didn’t seem to have realized, but Lane had been dropping small items along the way, leaving a trail. As long as there wasn’t any wind strong enough to carry them away, or a horde of monsters who would completely ravage the fields, they should be able to use them to find their way.

Lane took a glance at the slow, peaceful river, before pressing the button on the Mana fluctuation measuring device that he had borrowed from Damien. The Mana fluctuations had risen up a lot since his first measurements earlier, but they weren’t dangerous yet. ’This is not an inactive dungeon, but there are no monsters in close proximity’ was what it meant.

Well, that was to be expected. The monsters wouldn’t spread so fast. Usually, with dungeon reactivation, the monsters would slowly travel around the area that had opened to them, repopulating it. The scientists might have described it as ’unusually fast’, noting that following the dungeon expansion, the monsters inside might be agitated... But what they had meant by ’fast’ was from three to four days, depending on the size of the dungeon. It was, of course, very different from what had happened in the Eldenveil...

However, the Eldenveil couldn’t be used as a representative example. Because when the Wall started receding, the dungeon was filled with people, all spread around, some wandering near the old Wall boundary. The monsters sensed them and attacked, leading to the bloodshed... Which attracted even more monsters. Then there were the evacuation efforts, which lured the monsters toward the Gate... And even then it took a few hours. Sure, the dungeon was an A-rank, so it was much bigger than the C-rank they were in now...

But still. Two or three hours wasn’t enough for the monsters to spread. Lane had checked more out of the necessity, to follow Damien’s beloved protocols, and to return with a detailed, comprehensive report. He might have had his own intentions behind this mission, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do his job well, while he was at it.

He took out a large spear from his spatial bag, and stuck it deep into the ground. It was to leave a clear mark that showed from which point they were supposed to start looking for their way back.

"Let’s go," he said, without sparing Clara a single glance. "Let’s head up the river first."

But for some reason, Clara stood rooted in place. "This spear..." she muttered.

Which caused Lane to falter in his steps as well. "What about it?" he asked, trying to sound casual, even though he was suddenly tense.

Did she recognize this spear from somewhere? Had she seen him use it in one of his previous possessions? Spear wasn’t his preferred weapon, so Lane didn’t use it often, but there were some identities in which he picked up a spear, especially when acting as a Guide! He didn’t remember which or when, though - those were all just tiny details, why would he bother keeping track of it? Before Damien, no one had ever raised any suspicions regarding his identity, even if the fighting style he used was similar to his past identities! And since he, himself, didn’t remember his past weapons, why would anyone else? Especially Clara, who had never been close to any of Lane’s possessions, ever!

But he was thinking too much. Clara didn’t seem to recognize the spear, because she just asked, "Why are you leaving it here?"

Lane exhaled, all the tension instantly escaping him. Even though Clara could be pressured into keeping his secrets for Damien’s sake, he didn’t want the woman to find out too much. Since that wasn’t the case...

"To mark the point, duh!" he rolled his eyes. "How else are we supposed to know from which point of the river we have to split onto the fields?

"Ah, yes, that makes sense, but... This spear... It seems like a high-quality weapon..."

"So?" Lane lifted his brows.

"So isn’t this a bit of a shame?" Clara asked. "What if it gets lost?"

"Then it gets lost, what’s the problem? I can afford a thousand more such spears!" Lane shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Now, are you just going to stay here and stare at it, or can we continue with the mission?"

Clara grumbled something about a spoiled Young Master under her nose, but she still followed. She didn’t even criticize Lane out loud, or try to provoke him, only voicing her complaints in a barely intelligible muttering. Of course, it wasn’t because she had suddenly changed her mind about Lane or anything...

But when Lane mentioned the mission, she knew she had to shut up. If he could remain quiet and well-behaved (?), then she couldn’t possibly be any worse! It was just a few hours... Or, well, perhaps more than just a few, judging by the time it took them just to reach the river... But she would still endure it, even if she had to saw her mouth together to stop herself from arguing with Lane!