Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 186: 186:Mission Bonanza (6)

Sss...

Lucy briefly flicked her forked tongue out, picking up the microscopic particles that lingered in the air.

This scent...

She dearly wished Ashfield was next to her right now. While Sparky’s sense of smell was powerful, it was different compared to Ashfield’s.

Sparky’s was more close-up, picking up the particles in the air and analyzing them within the jacobson organ. Due to its forked nature, she could also determine immediate direction better.

But Ashfield’s was stronger, able to detect much fainter smells in the air. Capable of following scents through vast distances with near perfect accuracy.

Sadly, she couldn’t bring Ashfield with her everywhere. Same thing with Vesper, whom she had recently managed to sign a contract with. Only Sparky remained small and cute enough. It was annoying how she couldn’t use her full power at all times, but she would rather have a safe Ashfield.

Right now, the two of them were in an employee only area of the club. While normal employee only areas might consist of just storage rooms, break rooms and what not. Audrina had managed to detect demonic energy after scouting out ahead. So that was their first sign something was off.

Lucy had wanted to go back to get the others, but Audrina was strangely insistent on going ahead first by herself. So in the end, Lucy had no choice but to follow her.

Just in case however, she made sure that Candor stayed within range of their bond. Allowing her to send him a distress signal if necessary. Unfortunately, such a signal was extremely difficult to use at her current level. So it couldn’t be used freely.

Her feet seemingly glided along the floor, that and her extremely minimal movements made her unbelievably quiet.

Arriving at a metal door, she flicked her forked tongue again.

"Two people...Audrina, can you handle them?"

She didn’t get a response, but she could brieelfy see her own shadow wiggle and deform.

After waiting another minute and not hearing another sound, she opened the door and walked inside. Spotting two individuals laying on the ground with foam coming out of their mouths.

"You didn’t kill them did you?"

"...no. Only incapacitated."

Stepping over the two, Lucy frowned as she picked up a book one of them was holding.

CHASING WINDS ART MANUAL

WRITTEN BY:SILAS FLORIZA

The Floriza Family was the Family most renowned for its Arts, with some of the best Arts experts on Terra. Constantly working to improve and create new Arts. Selling any lower quality Art they created was just one of the main ways the Family earned money. Alongside custom Arts commissions from wealthy individuals, usually other Families, as well as also being the number one regulator of sold Arts. Responsible for making sure that all sold Arts were safe to use, and demonstrated effects as advertised, to the point that people trusted their word more then the government.

So it wasn’t a surprise to see an Arts manual written by her Family in public. But seeing it used by people like this put a foul taste in her mouth.

Still she put the book away for now, it was a relatively good Art for running away and escaping.

"I can sense the demonic energy moving. We need to hurry."

Lucy didn’t even question how she could sense demonic energy. Mana and demonic energy were two entirely separate energies after all, controlling one didn’t mean controlling the other.

Continuing to navigate the maze of rooms and deep hallways, the two stopped at another metal door. Rather then an actual metal door however, it was more accurate to call it an abrupt dead end wall of metal amongst concrete.

She flicked her tongue, unable to get any smells from behind the door. Showing just how tightly sealed it was.

"...its here."

Lucy sighed, things just couldn’t ever be easy could they? "Figured. Any idea on how to get in?"

Audrina didn’t answer her, merely popping out from her shadow and staring at the wall.

Putting a hand to the wall, she pushed on it with all the strength she could muster. Only managing to shake some dust and dirt.

"Raymond should be able to open this door right? Why not just call him over?"

"...no. Less people know, better."

"Right. But we can’t open this door ourselves."

"..."

Seeing Audrina at a loss for words. Lucy just chose to call Ashfield over. Which would in turn, alert the others waiting outside, which would then alert the ones inside that they had left behind.

---

"Cador! Stop moving dammit! We haven’t gotten a signal to enter yet!"

Several hands tried desperately to pull the oversized teenager back. Considering he stood nearly two heads taller then all of them, and had muscles the size of logs. Even the awakened strength of three warriors couldn’t hold him down easily.

To be fair, none of them were specialized for pure brute strength like Cador. But it was still an impressive feat for him.

Each of them slid against the ground, with Cador merely pretending they were some very active leeches stuck to his body. Each step he took progressively made the others strain even harder.

Just then, a small flash of green light appeared on the ground. An engraving prepared by Raymond ahead of time.

"There! Green light means we go in without any fighting."

Letting go of Cador, with the exception of Thomas. Both Zachary and Lin Qingyi couldn’t help but get their pride hurt a little bit.

They might have been warriors specialized in speed and agility rather then pure strength. But they were still warriors, with the three of them barely able to hold one person at the same level back.

"Damn, I need to hit the gym after this."

"More sword indeed."

If they had tried to enter like Raymond did, they might have gotten a nasty look and been turned away.

There were always alternative methods for those radical enough however.

Standing at the entrance like usual, the bouncer suddenly spotted a strange sight. As an awakened, his employees trusted him enough to give him the freedom to move around if determined necessary, and he currently deemed this situation as necessary.

"Floating swords..?"

What he had assumed to be two people viciously...fighting. Had instead turned out to be two floating swords, large clothes draped over them made their silhouette roughly resemble real people.

The moment he pulled the clothes off and saw the floating swords however, the two swords immediately flew away.

"What the?"

Turning to return to his position, he immediately spotted the door wide open however. Something he was sure he had never done.

"...i hate this job."

It was just incident after incident today, and he was always blamed for when underage kids snuck in and got them in trouble with the law as well. Even though it wasn’t his fault.

Since he didn’t have any tracking abilities however. He just gave up, returning to his position outside the entrance.

Inside, the four of them looked around. With dozens and dozens of people all crowded together, looking for a few specific people was difficult for them.

Again, there was another simple solution however.

Cador lifted his head up high, sniffing the air. The moment he managed to lock onto Lucy’s scent, he immediately made a straight beeline towards it. Pushing through anyone in his way. Which also left a temporary gap the others could use to follow him.

Through the door, left, left, right, straight, down the stairs, straight, down some more stairs.

It was a really long walk, occasionally they could even see some of the handiwork left behind as well. In the form of collapsed, unconscious individuals lying on the floor.

Reaching the end of a large hallway, the four of them regrouped with Audrina and Lucy.

"Zachary, can you cut through this door?"

"I’ll try."

It looked like just a solid block of met, without any seams, nuts or bolts. So Zachary had to rely on pure swordplay here to cut through.

As much as he used his sword however, his skill with it was currently dragging behind his Arts skills. So he wasn’t actually all that confident in being able to cut through. Still, he wanted to at least try before giving up.

An outline of solid light formed on his longsword, holding it up high. He slightly widened his stance, his muscles—built for speed and agility rather then strength flexed as he attempted to exert as much force as he could.

At the same time, his mana flowed not just into his sword. But also to activate several skills at once.

Power Strike, Light Cutter, Willful Sword Path Art.

Each of these factors combined made this into one of his strongest attacks yet. An attack that was completely impractical to use in combat due to how immense the preparation and effort was, considering that he could barely even move during this. But still one of his strongest.

At first nothing happened, but a faint rough circular outline could be seen on the metal.

"...did you do it?"

He gasped, "I swear I felt my sword go in way deeper then just the surface. Is there something wrong with this material?"

Putting a hand to the wall, Lucy applied a small amount of pressure just to test it.

BAM!

The moment she did so, an almost perfect circular wall of metal fell forwards. Revealing what lay behind it.

A man in a suit and tie stared at them, pausing as he leaned over an unconscious woman lying on the ground. His posture like that of a fly as he was mid-rubbing his hands together before they interrupted him.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"GET HIM!"