824 Chapter 824 Into the Mastermind’s Layer
“Okay, that sounds like a good plan.” Marcus said agreeing with Mrazivý.
Surely if they followed the goods that were being transported on the teleporting ship, they would eventually find where the mastermind was.
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They could be about to poke their noses into something they could not handle.
Certainly, they were considered very strong in comparison to most entities on Mirrion where they were currently at, but there were still plenty of people, monsters, and beasts more powerful than them.
Among their associates Marcus could count seven that neither of them stood a chance against even now.
‘I suppose if things get really bad, we can call Boreas for help.’ Marcus thought, gripping the golden piece of wood he had been given.
His resolve steeled; Marcus decided to continue going for as long as Mrazivý wanted despite the unsettling feeling he had.
For nearly an hour they watched from high up in the sky as everything was unloaded from the ship.
The homunculi that were doing the work moved quickly and without wasted movement and all of the cargo was seamlessly stored into the warehouse.
After that the teleporting ship left the confines of the resort, and when it was out of sight it warped away to wherever it had come from.
‘I really did want that amethros mana furnace, but we have a worldwide conspiracy to uncover that is more important.’ Marcus thought, a disappointed expression on his face.
Another three hours went by while Marcus and Mrazivý made sure that there was no more movement in and out of the warehouse.
“Seems like the coast should be clear. Marcus, would you mind going to check inside? There are no windows so I cannot tell if the place is empty.” Mrazivý said, after she confirmed that the last person to go in had come out.
Nodding his head, Marcus reverted to his ghost form and began floating down towards the warehouse.
Once he had made it to the ceiling he checked for any traps that might detect him, but there was nothing there to stop an ethereal being.
Easily enough he slipped through the thick wall into the warehouse, only to be stunned by what he saw.
Despite the place having just received a sizable shipment and having dozens of crates brought into it, the place was completely bare.
‘Where is everything?!’
Naturally Marcus was confused by what he was seeing.
All of the cargo had been brough into his place but now it was all gone.
At first, he wondered if it had been stored into several dozen high-capacity magic bags, but if they had the capacity to do that, they would have done so already instead of having all the items in crates.
Quickly enough, Marcus realized that the most likely scenario was that there was a hidden door or area within the warehouse that led somewhere else.
‘I suppose I can just keep passing through things until I find it. Still, this is going to be a pain.’ Marcus thought while internally sighing.
He could not see anything when he phased through completely solid objects, and he did not like just wandering around looking for an opening he was uncertain existed.
With no better idea that would not get him noticed, Marcus flipped upside down and dunked his head into the floor.
He was going to look for some sort of hidden underground hatch and to do so he started in one corner.
Systematical he went from one edge of the building to another, searching the entire area with his head being underground.
Unfortunately, even after thoroughly searching through the floor, Marcus failed to find anything.
He admittedly had not gone too deep for fear of disorienting himself and accidentally getting lost, but still he figured that some sort of hatch would have to be near the surface to be accessed.
‘Perhaps there is something in the walls then. Though since the ship can teleport, it might be that the connection is through a teleportation circle which would be completely useless to us.’ Marcus thought, imagining the worst-case scenario.
There was simply no way he was going to get onto a telportaion circle he did not know the destination of and if that was how the goods had been moved out of the warehouse then all of this would end up being a dead end.
Thankfully that was not the case and after searching through the abnormally thick walls Marcus found what he was looking for.
‘So, this is how they moved all of those crates out of here.’
In one of the walls Marcus had found a fairly large cargo elevator. It could easily hold ten of the crates at once if no people were in it as well, and with how efficient the homunculi were at moving things he could imagine they seamlessly transferred all of the goods into this elevator and sent them underground.
Having found what, he was looking for Marcus left the warehouse and went to inform Mrazivý.
“Looks like we finally found a way inside to the base of whoever set this place up. Now we can sneak in and see what else we can find.” Mrazivý said enthusiastically.
“Mraz do you really want to keep going? Things are surely about to get more dangerous” Marcus said.
He knew that his wife was not stupid, but he wanted to make sure she knew what they were really getting into here.
“Yes, I have already considered that we could be in over our heads, but this is our discovery and our path to follow. We have already gone into dangerous situations without knowing what was waiting for us before. What is going on here is not just a threat to Borealia, but the entire world. We do not know what the information being collected from several thousands of people is being used for. Certainly, we could turn a blind eye to this, but what if in the future our decision came back to bite us. I know I would never forgive myself if we could have stopped a catastrophe but did not because we were afraid.” Mrazivý said, a determined look in her eyes.
“Okay, you have won me over. This could be the biggest mistake of our lives no matter what we pick so we might as well go all in.”
A bright smile on her face Mrazivý thanked Marcus before asking him what approach he thought they should take.
“The warehouse and elevator have plenty of defenses to keep outsiders from sneaking in, but the enchantments are a degree under what is in the castle. I should be able to disable them without being detected so long as you help me.” Marcus said
Immediately agreeing, Mrazivý followed Marcus back down to the warehouse and they began their operation to break in.
“I see them. There is a detection enchantment here, one that activates a lightning magic attack if the door is not properly opened here with a key, and over here is one that sets of an alarm.” Mrazivý said, pointing out the location of the traps on the side door they were using.
While Marcus could detect the traps with his skill, understanding their intricacies could take a bit of time, but with Mrazivý’s dragon eyes she could receive information on what they did immediately.
This was an immense help and allowed Marcus to work faster while also not having to worry about hitting a trap that somehow evaded his detection.
As long as Mrazivý focused on something while using her dragon eyes she would almost always know exactly what it was and did.
The moment the door was open though, she groaned loudly since the warehouse was packed with enchantments.
“This is going to take a while. She said before telling Marcus everything that was in their way.
Eventually they did manage to reach the elevator thanks to their collaborative effort. Mrazivý would identify all of the traps and Marcus would use his glyph tuning skill to disable them temporarily.
Now they were at the elevator door and with a bit of tinkering Marcus managed to get it open without activating any traps that would alert the enemy to their presence.
“How are you doing, Mraz? You look pretty tired.” Marcus said, a tinge of concern in his voice.
“I will be fine. Just the first time I have used my dragon eyes so many times in succession. It takes a good deal of mana and focus depending on what I am trying to appraise.” Mrazivý said, rubbing her head to try and ease the bit of discomfort she was feeling.
“Here, drink this. We both need to be at our best before going any further.”
Taking the potion from Marcus, Mrazivý downed its contents and began to feel better right away.
“Now let us go see what awaits us here.” Mrazivý said, striding into the elevator with Marcus right behind her.