The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 47: Unknown Gate

When Lane arrived at the garage, people already started gathering, getting ready to depart. They moved in an organized way, checking all the weapons and equipment, and dividing into teams based on their abilities and ranks. However, they completely lacked enthusiasm - judging by the expressions of some of them, one might think they were being sentenced to death!

...Which, considering all the past experiences, especially the last dungeon break, might not have been that far from the truth.

Of course, Lane didn’t share their sentiments. Still, not wanting to appear odd, he suppressed his smile, as he approached the person in charge.

"Good evening, Sir. I am here to join the emergency dispatch."

The operation leader looked Lane up and down. "What’s your ability and rank?"

"A Guide, A-rank." Lane flashed his badge.

"Alright. You’ll be under Phoebe Dean. That’s the Guide over there," the operation leader pointed at a woman in her forties.

"Yes, Sir!" Lane nodded, and quickly went on the way. He introduced himself briefly to Phoebe, and was immediately directed to the minibus, without a word of explanation.

It didn’t take long before the minibus was filled, and drove out of the garage. Lane looked out of the window, observing the road carefully.

They were heading south.

’What dungeons were in this direction again...?’

Well, there were too many to remember them all. Lane didn’t even know what rank was the Gate experiencing the dungeon break, or what sort of monsters appeared, so it would be impossible for him to guess until they got to the scene.

The other people, however, should have at least a general idea. Lane missed the briefing due to joining at the last minute, but it wasn’t the case for the rest of his team. So, he turned to the girl sitting next to him.

"Hey, do you know where are we going?"

"...La-lapis Lake."

"Lapis Lake?" Lane furrowed his brows. Was there any good dungeon around there? He couldn’t recall anything, so perhaps not... His enthusiasm had dropped a bit, but he still asked, "What rank it is?"

The girl only shook her head.

Lane focused his gaze on her. Did she not know, or was she simply incapable of answering? Her shoulders were shaking, and her face was deathly pale...

"We don’t know, actually." A woman sitting in front of them turned around, answering Lane instead.

"Didn’t they tell you at the briefing?"

"The thing is, nobody knows the rank. We simply don’t know what dungeon the monsters are coming from."

Lane lifted his brows. "How could that be? Did no one see the monsters crossing through the Gate? Or can’t they figure it out based on the type of monsters?"

"No. The monsters just appeared in the lake all of a sudden. And there were no such monsters in any of the dungeons nearby," the woman explained. "It’s really as if they came out of nowhere..."

"Maybe there’s a Gate underwater?" a guy sitting in the row behind Lane suggested.

The minibus immediately fell into silence, everyone turning their eyes to the guy who had just spoken. Even the driver glanced at him through the rear-view mirror.

"What?" The guy furrowed his brows, taken aback by the reaction. "Did I say something wrong?"

"This... There hasn’t been such a thing as an underwater Gate before."

"There hasn’t?"

"...No."

"Oh. I didn’t know." The guy shrugged his shoulders. "Well, maybe I should have studied hard then."

"No, you’re not necessarily wrong... Just because something hasn’t happened before, doesn’t mean it cannot happen in the future."

A lot about the Gates and the dungeons still remained unknown. Why did they appear? How? Were their appearances random, or did they follow any rules? Despite their hard work, the researchers were yet to discover anything of much significance.

"But an underwater Gate... Do you think it’s possible that the whole dungeon might be underwater?" Another man asked, his face uneasy. "Wouldn’t that be hard to clear?"

’Yeah, more than hard.’ Lane nodded lightly, thinking to himself. ’If it’s a high-ranking one... Then it might even be impossible to deal with right now.’

Water monsters were always the most difficult to fight.

The land monsters were naturally the easiest. Flying monsters were also alright - there were plenty of Espers with skills that allowed for aerial combat, and it was also possible to attack them with ranged abilities and weapons. Specialized flying gear was also in development, with the prototype already available on the market, although for an exorbitant price.

But the water monsters? Unless they lived in the shallows, they could always dive deep, and escape from the Espers to recover. Ranged attacks didn’t work well. And there were hardly any Espers capable of decent water combat - some with water abilities could fight underwater, but only for a limited time, and they were rarely a match for high-ranking monsters.

Lane pressed his lips tightly, suppressing a smile.

If this theory was right, then there were high chances Lapis Lake would soon transform into a Forbidden Zone!

"You’re worrying too much! There are so many great Guilds around, surely at least one of them will handle it!" the woman from earlier reproached the man.

"...Yeah, you must be right."

"Of course! So, don’t stress too much, alright? And it’s good that the monsters are in the lake. Thanks to that, they won’t be able to spread around and attack people! We’re just going to wait on the shore for a bit, until the situation is under control, and we’ll all be back home safely by the evening!"

’Well, she at least got that right.’ Lane let out a sigh. Although this dungeon break would most likely result in great changes to the environment in the future, for the time being, things would most likely be calm. Unless there were any monsters capable of moving on land, it would all be pretty boring for Lane.

If he was unlucky, perhaps he wouldn’t even get to see any monsters?

With this, the atmosphere in the minibus completely shifted. The mood of all the previously anxious Guides lifted, as they felt a bit reassured by the woman’s words. Although not all of their tension went away, they tried their best to believe that everything would be alright, just like she said. Lane, on the other hand, lost most of his enthusiasm...

Still, it wasn’t as if he had better things to do. It was always better to check out the situation in person, he consoled himself.