The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 35: Calm Before the Storm

The sun - or rather whatever star passed for the sun in this world - had already set, and the sky was slowly turning black, covering the Eldenveil in velvety darkness. From the thickets around the lakes, whole swarms of firefly-like insects rose up, turning into countless tiny yellow-green flickering lights, which gave the place a magical atmosphere.

Lane’s eyes glazed over the sight with much interest as he stepped out of the building, a yawn escaping his mouth. He strolled over through the parking lot by the Gate, and plopped down on the bench from where he had a good view of the surroundings.

It was his turn to keep watch.

Two hours had already passed since the dungeon started expanding, and the situation by the Gate had calmed down. Of course, it was only temporary - what they had dealt with was the first big wave of visitors swarming toward the exit.

Just as Lane expected, most of the people had no intention of ’remaining calm’ and listening to the instructions, and they rushed into the reception hall. By the time he arrived at Emerald Manor with Tina and Ana, which didn’t take long as they took a jeep, the place had already descended into complete chaos. People were fighting and elbowing others out of the way, breaking the windows to clamber through them, just so that they could get out even a few seconds faster - even though they probably would have achieved it better if they did what they were told...

After all the visitors that were in close proximity had passed through the Gate, however, the place became eerily quiet all of a sudden, with the only sounds being heard were the chirping of the crickets, and the not-so-quiet wailing of the terrified members of the Trailblazer Guild.

"This, this is not what I signed up for!"

"I wanna go home..."

"I’m feeling sick, please let me out!"

"I, I can’t, I really can’t..."

Lane scoffed upon hearing their cries. ’How pathetic.’

It was a good thing that Tina was in charge, so at least he didn’t have to deal with trying to calm them down. They were supposed to all be licensed Espers and Guides, but even some of the civilians were less hysterical than them.

Not that their reaction wasn’t understandable. Most of them were just casual staff members, low-ranking Awakened working in housekeeping, food and beverage, and as tour guides. They had never even seen a monster before, let alone fight one, yet all of a sudden they were forced to stay and defend the Gate. It wasn’t odd for them to feel scared.

It was just a calm before the storm, after all. Sooner or later, monsters were bound to reach this place.

Lane, however, had no sympathy for them. ’They should at least try to act calm. They’re bringing shame to their Guild and all the Awakened. I was far more composed than them even during my first dungeon break, and I wasn’t even sixteen back then...’

A growling of an engine came from a distance, making Lane turn his head. He squinted his eyes, staring in the direction the sound came from. A good moment had passed, before a jeep emerged out of the forest far in the distance, heading toward the Gate. Another batch of visitors being escorted out of the dungeon from Blue Pine Inn, it seemed.

Without much of a rush, Lane scooped a pair of binoculars out of his pocket to take a closer look. The jeep was indeed packed with civilians. Aside from them and the driver, there were three more people, sitting on the roof. Damien, Arlo, and Hallie. Upon seeing them, Lane put his binoculars away.

Since that was a group escorted by Damien, there was no way any monsters would be chasing after them.

A few minutes later, the jeep entered the parking lot, stopping right by the entrance. The door immediately bursted open, and the people jumped out of the car - well, at least some of them.

"Move on, move on! Quickly, come help carry the stretchers!" the driver, an Esper from the Trailblazer Guild, motioned at his colleagues who were skulking around. "We need to get them to a hospital right away!"

All of the civilians in the jeep were injured in some way, their limbs wrapped in bloody bandages. Although Lane couldn’t see their wounds, judging by the amount of blood, some of them were pretty serious. Especially the two people on the stretchers, who lay unconscious with deathly pale faces.

"Move on!" the driver shouted at his colleagues again, seeing as they had yet to move. Arlo and Hallie already grabbed one of the stretchers, rushing them to the Gate. Even Damien stepped out to help, assisting a woman with an injured arm, who was swaying on her feet. One by one, all of the passengers were escorted out.

Lane, obviously, only observed all the effort from his spot on the bench, without moving so much as an inch. He was supposed to keep watch, after all! He couldn’t just abandon his duty for the sake of the wounded, it was too important for him to stay on the lookout for monsters... Even if he didn’t actually pay much attention to his surroundings, as the new arrivals caught his interest.

"Murray. How are things here? Are you doing alright?" After escorting the person out of the Gate, Damien approached Lane. His brows furrowed, as he caught sight of the weapon resting next to him on the bench. "What’s with the spear?"

"Well, it’s my new weapon. I bought it before we came here." Lane lifted the spear with a proud smile. "It has a medium-grade Mana stone embedded in the head, with fire properties. What does Team Leader think? Isn’t it nice?"

"Why a spear though? Wouldn’t a sword be much better for you?"

Lane let out an embarrassed chuckle in response. "Well, Team Leader. You saw yourself how terrible I am with a sword. So, I decided to give something else a try, and asked Eric to show me a few moves with a spear. I’ve been practicing a lot at home, and I think I’m getting a hang of it! It definitely suits me better than a sword."

It wasn’t entirely the truth. While Lane had learned some basic spear skills in the past, it was far from his favorite weapon. But then again, neither was the sword - swords were better, of course, but were still only his second choice.

With his current circumstances, however, the spear seemed to be the safest option.

Especially the spear that he bought. With its fire properties, it was highly incompatible with Damien’s ability... And therefore it wouldn’t be suitable for Lane to fight by Damien’s side! If Lane insisted on using it, Damien would have no choice but to pair up Lane with someone else during raids and dungeon breaks.

"Is that really what you think?" Damien was not convinced.

Still, it was not the time to discuss that. He had to continue with the evacuation efforts. He quickly took a glance back to check whether his team was ready to head back to Blue Pine Inn, before turning back to Lane for a second. "Either way, be careful. The area around the inn is already full of monsters. We try to kill all monsters we see on the way, but... That’s only one road. There might still be monsters heading here from other directions."

"Yes, yes, I know. Don’t worry, Team Leader, I’m sure the reinforcement will arrive soon, and then everything’s going to be alright!"

"...Let’s hope so," Damien said after a brief pause. His voice, however, lacked any optimism.

No wonder. So far, the Trailblazer Guild’s response to the situation was... far from great, to put it lightly. Thanks to their internal dungeon communication system, the initial step, that is spreading the information about the emergency and raising the alarm, went quickly and smoothly... freēnovelkiss.com

But that was about all that went well.

Even though so much time had already passed, the reinforcements were yet to arrive. The Guild Leader, who was in the dungeon just the evening before, having dinner with Damien and his team, was now nowhere to be found. The Trailblazer Guild members were completely unprepared to lead the evacuation. They didn’t even know where all the visitors were - while the official rules stated that everyone must be accompanied by a tour guide while exploring the place, in reality, people were left to wander around wherever and however they liked. This, naturally, now resulted in injuries and casualties, as ignorant civilians strolled into monsters’ territory...

Lane’s eyes followed the jeep, as it drove away in the direction of the inn at full speed, until the lights disappeared behind the trees far in the distance. A light breeze tousled his hair, bringing the chill of the night. He returned to his duties, staring into the dark forest in front of him, while mindlessly drawing circles on the ground with the butt of his spear. A spark of anticipation started kindling in his chest.

His intuition told him that it wouldn’t be long before the exciting part would finally start.