The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 65: Final Day of Spying

Chapter 65: Final Day of Spying

Days before the auction starts — 8.

It was nearly time to set my plan into motion. The goal was to make my way up to the second layer during the early morning of the next day.

I had thought about it for a bit and decided to keep to my decision of going up one of the elevators.

From my observations, the time when there were enough people to hide between, but not too many that security was increased to manage the large crowd, was in the early morning for Jelannax.

I acquired some public maps of the area of the third and second segments that were available to visitors through publicly accessible computers. It did not make me happy to be so heavily in the public spotlight when I used these machines, but with my appearance covered and my armour’s shape changing slightly after the self-repair, I felt it wouldn’t be a big problem as long as I didn’t stick around. 

I quickly went through them and found a few areas where the security near certain elevators didn’t seem overly impressive. This was mostly just my opinion formed by looking at the structures surrounding the doors of the elevators of the segments. Unfortunately, a lot of this was guesswork.

(“ I’m going to suggest again, you should probably go sneak onboard a ship ”)

Great idea, but as mentioned, that has its own damn risks.

(“ Less risky than what your current plan is ”)

That’s your opinion.

There was a lot of merit to what Espr was suggesting, but with the auction excitement ramping up, security and searches on ships and docks were at an all-time high. Even when I looked at the docks on the third segment, they had three times the number of guards that were needed. All public locations had increased security, but what didn’t were the internals of the elevators themselves. It wouldn’t be the only location that didn’t get increased security, but it wasn’t needed; what was put in place would normally be enough. There was also the simple fact that they had limited resources to spread across all three segments. So, the elevator shafts from the third to the second segment seemingly weren’t considered.

The lifts had additional people on them, but the insides of the tunnel were kept the same because no sane man would ever try to climb one.

Either way, I made my decision.

So, before I left to attempt to reach the second segment; I had time to waste, as I wanted to wait for the next day, so I decided to search for Dominous Hood members. They had to be somewhere on this station, no way would they wait until the auction started to set foot on the segments. 

I stayed in the corners and observed everything and anyone that seemed suspicious for hours on end. I was constantly on the move to keep myself hidden and search for new areas where they could be hidden.

This was a massive waste of time.

However, I found absolutely nothing.

I knew that actually finding anyone who worked for Dominous Hood would be nearly impossible. Expecting them to just be walking around in hoods and being shady was a pipe dream. No, they probably disguised themselves among the civilians and potentially had identification that could work with security. The latter was what I was looking for, but I didn’t have the skills in the area, so my attempt was doomed to fail from the beginning.

Espoiramissa decided to begin some banter.

(“ Are you finally done with your spying? ”)

Yes.

(“ Was it any bit successful? ”)

You know the answer to that.

I decided to go along with the banter; the day had been long, and some stupid was a way to wind down.

(“ But do I? ”)

What? Is the planet’s short-term memory failing them?

(“ Maybe it is; do you know any doctors I should go to for my predicament? ”)

What are the criteria? Do they need to be a geologist, a hydrologist, or something else?

(“ I don’t know; that’s why I’m asking you ”)

Well, I don’t know either. I guess you're stuck with the ailment then.

(“ How sad. Aren’t you going to look for me? ”)

Are you going to pay me?

(“ Nope ”)

Then no.

(“ Sad ”)

The banter quickly ended, and I continued to look around, but the effort continued to be fruitless.

A new day finally did arrive, and so I made my way to an elevator on the far eastern side of the third segment.