Chapter 86: Something in the air
"Shameless flirting aside, Guide Kellen has finally shown up, and we can now begin the meeting in earnest." Kellen blinked, confused by Captain Sergei’s warm words. Why had they been waiting for me?
"Why have you been waiting for me? I’m a nobody here." Four sets of S Class eyes turned to him, and Kellen did his best not to wince.
"You are not a nobody, Kellen! You are our leading expert!" Sakura said, her eyes wide. Kellen thought that was rich, coming from the Guild who had quietly taken over the poison making and poison nullifying field without most people paying attention. Especially when she played so hard to make it seem like she was all sweet and innocent, but Kellen, of all people, knew better.
"As much as I would hate to agree with her, but Captain Sakura is right." Uncle Tom spoke up, and Kellen felt the Captain tense. "If it wasn’t for your knowledge, we wouldn’t have known about how dangerous the gate was. It shows you the kind of character C Classes must have." He laughed, and Kellen chuckled too. The Captain, however, tightened his grip on Kellen’s waist.
"Yes, Mr. Woods. Do not sell yourself short. You are very valuable to me." The Captain’s tone held a hardness to it that made a few of the others in the room glance over at them. When Kellen looked over at Casper and Hill, hoping for an assist, he found that the two of them had rather hard gazes. And they were directed at Uncle Tom. Uh oh.
"Thanks for that vote of confidence, everyone, but lets see what I actually know before you go blowing smoke up my ass." Kellen laughed nervously, putting on his best Guide smile. The Captain frowned.
"But I don’t want to blow smoke up your ass, Mr. Woods. I would rather-" Kellen slapped his hands over the Captain’s mouth, silencing him. He turned towards the Captains on the screen.
"A-Anyway, how much information have you gathered about poison gates while I wasn’t here?" He asked, and watched as they glanced amongst each other.
"Well, not much beyond the obvious. They’re poisonous." Sakura offered, and Kellen nodded.
"Yes. Have you had the teams around the gates put on hazard protection suits yet?" He received blank looks across the screens and Kellen realised he’d jumped a few steps. Brent would have got it. Kellen lowered his hands from the Captain’s mouth, and unknowingly settled into the hold the Captain had on his waist.
"So, with what is known about poison gates, we are right to assume the gate is poisonous. That also means that the area that is transforming around the gate, which always happens, is also poisonous. The water, the wood, the flora, the fauna, the monsters, and the air. Which is why we need to be monitoring the air around the gate, and have everyone within a certain radius in hazard suits until we can somewhat pinpoint the poison leaking out." Kellen sighed. "A fair warning, they still can’t identify what kind of poison is coming out of the gate that exploded, and therefore, can’t protect against it. And that’s a D Class gate." Kellen didn’t mean to scare them, but at the same time, he thinks he did. The tone in this room was frantic, but it wasn’t desperate.