<h4>Chapter 264: Missed</h4>


    Lake looked up from his book to see if the mark he had ced on Tiff was any closer to the guild. Seeing that it was, Lake got up and started to head outside knowing that she was there for the meeting that she had set up with him earlier. Lake was about to grab the bag that held the dagger that he had left in his room so he could bring it out to her when he decided to just use Retrieval once he was outside.


    Not wanting his servants to see it disappear Lake said. "You can have the rest of the day off." This would send his servants to their rooms so they wouldn''t notice if he had taken the bag or not. Once they were in their rooms he walked out and started to head outside. He had had plenty of time to get all the stuff he needed for the road so he was ready to head for the Metal Domain as soon as this was done.


    As he was passing through Lucas'' office, Lake thought about all the stuff he had wanted to ask Lucas and decided it wasn''t worth it to talk to him. Lake really needed to find a wise and powerful person that wasn''t also stressed and grumpy to ask his questions too.


    ...


    Looking around Tiff didn''t know if whoever else was here was Jon or not but she knew she was going to have to deal with the fact that there was no way for her to find out without possibly scaring Jon off if it was him. Trying her best to keep her guard up without making it obvious she was ready to attack whoever came out, Tiff waited.


    Right when she was seriously considering leaving she saw a person start to walk towards her. Their slow pace made her feel she wasn''t dealing with an enemy but she really couldn''t tell since the person had their face covered. Not wanting to continue to guess Tiff called out to the other person. "Jon is that you?"


    When the other person just kept getting closer without saying anything Tiff felt her chest tighten slightly and was about to turn invisible like she normally would in a situation Like this but still not really feeling any type of threat from the person she just let them approach. Seeing them pull out something from their bag Tiff got ready for the handover.


    Being passed a bag Tiff watched as the person walked off and was a little disappointed that Jon hadn''t wanted to talk at least a bit. Realizing it was weird that she couldn''t feel the dagger from the bag Tiff quickly opened it seeing nothing but a puff of smoke that hit her face. As Tiff felt herself falling to the ground She knew what had just happened and when she felt someone catching her before she could fall to the groundpletely she just hoped someone would save her again.


    ...


    Walking outside Lake checked where Tiff was again so he would know where he needed to head only to to see the mark he ced on her moving extremely fast away from the city. Lake was about to go after her, guessing something hade up when he saw the dark sky light up with a swirling white cloud.


    Lake recognized this as something to do with a god or demigod and just guessed by the color that it was something to do with the Light Temple. Not wanting to get involved in their business, Lake just decided to hand over the knife the next time he got a chance. He was sure the Temple wouldn''t wait too long to set up another meeting since Tiff had missed this one.


    Guessing he should go ahead and go to the Metal Domain so he wasn''t wasting time, Lake took onest look at the spinning cloud in the sky wishing it was safe for him to head to the ce Tiff was rushing off towards. He would love to see what was going on but he really wasn''t willing to risk his life for a quick look since he felt running towards one crisis was already bad enough.


    Getting onto the road that would take him to the Metal Domain Lake went straight to training in the Wind running technique he was working on. He figured by the time he got there he would no longer need to hold back much and could try actually running up in the sky safely.


    ...


    "Did you hear? They are finally nning to send a group out to deal with the undead that are left." Hearing what Fendis said Donny started to drop his formation. He had wondered if they had finally killed all of the Demon Worshipers that were firing spells since it was night and they weren''t attacking but he hadn''t been sure enough to drop his formation and go and find someone to ask what was going on.


    "How are they deciding who will be going?" Donny wanted to go out and fight so he was hoping it would be by volunteer. "I don''t know but they will probablye talk to us soon since our job is pretty much done for now." Hearing it was up in the air at the moment Donny knew the right thing to do would be to go and try to rest so he would be at his best when they came to get people.


    Walking towards the room where they had the beds Donny saw that there weren''t any open and decided he wasn''t willing to sleep on the floor. Sitting at a table Donny waited till someone got up and just took that bed. Ignoring the warm feeling that the bed had from whoever had just been using it, Donny quickly fell asleep.


    ...


    Lake had made great time on the way back to the Metal Domain and could already see the destroyed gate off in the distance. He was going to stop here to rest for a few minutes before he continued on. He had wanted to sleep before leaving the Alchemist guild since it would have been safe but being unable this was his new best option.


    Finding a ce on the ground Lakeid down and was happy the armor he had chosen this time was made of soft leather. This made it so all he had to do to getfortable was take off the helmet so his face wasn''t covered. He didn''t know why but wearing the helmet whileying down made him feel a bit ustrophobic when it didn''t bother him at all when he was just walking around.


    It was probably just because he had never had anything cover his mouth while trying to sleep before but either way he didn''t really need to wear it so it didn''t matter. This armor had just been chosen for how it felt since he was 100% positive it would be destroyed as soon as he got into a real fight.


    Wondering if he should try to find the Metal Temple''s head to ask about what someone at his level was supposed to do for armor Lake thought it was a good idea but not the right time. He had the book that listed strong items but really all it had done was tell him there weren''t a lot around. He also didn''t know if the items in the book were even as good as what he would need.


    This made him think he should really look into trying out cksmithing soon. He was sure some of the other people who had the Insider in the past had run into a simr problem and fixed it by making it so they could make their own stuff.


    Getting up after a few minutes of sleeping, Lake wondered why he felt more annoyed by the fact that he had to sleep now that it was so fast. It was like now that he knew there was a way out of having to sleep; he couldn''t wait till he never had to think about it again.


    Getting his helmet back, Lake walked out and looked back towards the gate to see if the Demon Worshipers had sent someone else that could make a barrier to hold this position. After a while of watching he was pretty sure there wasn''t anyone there.


    He wasn''t sure if this was because they didn''t feel it was worth trying to protect anymore or if they had just yet to hear it had been destroyed, but either way he hoped he was right and it was empty. He really didn''t want to have to destroy his clothes again to get through another barrier that he had been trapped by.


    Running towards the gate, Lake moved into the sky bit by bit but made sure he would be ok if he was hit by something that would knock him down towards the ground. As he passed over the gate he looked down with Detector which he had set to look for Demon Worshipers and saw he had been right and they weren''t there. Lake was happy what he had done had been permanent since it would make it easier for the rest of the people to get through.