Assimilate All Talents

Chapter 261: Breaking In

"So you’re heading to the museum next?" Sol asked Rex through the glowing communication gem.

"Yeah, Aron wanted to see something more interesting than empty houses, and it’s within the expanded search perimeter."

Faintly from the gem, Aron’s grumbling could be heard. "Since when were museums interesting..."

Sol chuckled not knowing why he was so displeased and gave the go ahead. "Sure, it’s your call. Maybe bring a few scholars to check it out once you deem it safe."

"Will do, Captain. How’s it going on your end?"

Sol looked ahead at the massive castle like structure, surrounded by an empty moat. "We’re about to head into the heart of the city."

"Alright, good luck."

The gem stopped glowing as they cut off the mana sustaining the connection. Sol pocketed it and turned his attention to the massive doors ahead of them.

"Let’s hope this works." Sol muttered, taking out the Midamol Key at the gate. After a moment of waiting, nothing happened.

He looked at the cube in disappointment. "Guess it’s only good for getting into the city."

It could have other uses, but they had no way of knowing where, so they could only blindly use it wherever it seemed applicable. With the key proving useless here, they had to find another way into the metal structure.

’No windows... and it’s fully made out of that strong alloy. Should we just try to break it?’

As he considered their options, Lapis spoke up.

"Down there." she said, pointing toward the bottom of the empty moat. A large pipe wide enough for them to walk in was visible.

’It does lead into the castle, but it probably goes into the water supply... though it could also be something worse, like the sewers...’

Hoping for the former, Sol thanked Lapis and hopped down to the bottom of the moat with her and Nataly, ordering the rest of the team to stay back while they found a way inside. A group their size wouldn’t work well in the pipe, especially for the larger orcs who would have to crawl to fit. If anything went wrong, retreating would be extremely difficult with so many people crammed together.

There were grates blocking the entrance to the pipe, and although they were made of the incredibly durable alloy, a well placed shot from Sol’s Tynamo Cannon broke the lock, allowing them to enter without hassle.

They followed the pipe, searching for any kind of hatch or opening they could use, until they eventually came across one. A ladder led upward, and judging by how far they had walked, they were still within the castle.

"Is this some kind of storage room?" Sol asked as the three of them climbed up, finding themselves in a small room filled with miscellaneous tools and supplies. There were bags with labels, but without understanding the language, they could only assume they were maintenance related.

"Looks like it. Oh! This leads to a small passage." Nataly said, peeking her head out of the room’s only door.

The five soldiers accepted their assignment and stayed behind while Rex, Aron, and the remaining soldiers returned to the base to escort a few lucky scholars and sages to the museum.

When they arrived at the base, Aron secretly approached Lazuli while Rex was busy discussing who to send with Duncan. Lazuli was sitting peacefully under a tree, reading a book on intermediate poison spells.

"Hey, Lazuli, how are things here?" Aron asked.

She closed her book and smiled. "Hi. It’s alright. Nothing’s happened except for the occasional cheers and arguments between the scholars."

"Cool, cool, cool. So... you finding it boring?"

She shrugged. "A little, I guess. Why?"

Though she had her book to practice magic with, it wasn’t exactly related to her task here.

Seeing that she was also a bit bored, Aron decided to get to the point. "Well... what if we swapped teams?"

"Huh? Why?"

"I just thought you might want to get out and explore, you know, since it’s your first mission..."

Aron, of course, didn’t tell her his real reason: he wanted to stay back and relax with the human and orc soldiers and maybe spar with them.

"I don’t know... Captain Sol assigned us to our teams. I don’t think we should be swapping around on a whim. Besides, I’m fine here. I can practice my magic." She didn’t mind staying or going, but didn’t want to go against orders on her first mission.

Aron sighed, realizing she wasn’t interested. He didn’t push it further. "Okay... Guess I’ll go help Rex escort the scholars to the magic museum."

Before he could leave, he felt her grab his arm.

"Did you say magic museum?" Lazuli had a strange look in her eyes, one Aron had never seen before. It actually scared him a little.

"Y-yeah?"

Without letting go, Lazuli began dragging him.

"Where are we going?" Aron asked, bewildered.

"To Duncan. I want to swap teams with you."

’The hell? Does everyone here love museums?’

In the end, Aron got what he wanted, just not in the way he expected.