Chapter 302: Planning

"Well, as long as there’s no problem," Daniel nodded after hearing her response. He could sense that when she explained the situation, a trace of discomfort appeared in her eyes.

Clearly, she didn’t want to talk about it, and honestly, he didn’t really care either.

"Anyway, let’s get back to the main topic — the thing you need to retrieve," Lana spoke up after sensing the tension in the air.

All eyes turned to her, waiting for her to continue.

"The weapon you’re supposed to recover was stolen by the Golden Tooth Bandits — one of the most infamous bandit groups on the continent. They’ve got branches all over, and they’re involved in every kind of filth you can imagine."

"According to the intel we’ve gathered, the weapon is currently located in a city called Crystalgard. That city is under the control of the Valenberg family. I suggest you avoid making trouble while you’re there. Although I’m not too worried about Serys... I mean you, Daniel." Lana gave him a serious look.

"Hey, I’m not the troublemaker type," Daniel said, shrugging with a bit of annoyance. Apparently, a lot of false rumors had spread about him.

"Whatever. The city we’re talking about is extremely secure — not by the Valenberg family itself, but by Golden Tooth forces. At this point, probably half the city’s population is part of that damned group."

"That could be a big problem. Do we have any info about their strength?" Daniel asked with a frown.

"Not exactly. But from what I’ve heard, their strongest members are probably ranked somewhere around high A-tier. If you work together — and with your summons — there shouldn’t be any major issues." Lana paused for a moment, then continued.

One of the main reasons she entrusted this mission to this boy in the first place was because of his bizarre summons. She still remembered that among them, there were even A-rank monsters.

With an ace like that, even facing an army of Golden Tooth Bandits shouldn’t be a problem.

"A black market auction is scheduled to take place in that city three days from now. A lot of wealthy individuals from all over the continent will be there. So chances are, using force during the auction won’t be an option," Lana added.

"The best advice I can give you is to either find the weapon before the auction begins, or wait until it’s over. If the weapon ends up being one of the items for sale, then great — just buy it. Don’t worry about the cost at all."

"So there’s a chance they won’t put it up for sale?" Serys asked. The initial plan of the Central Magic Tower had also been to purchase the weapon.

Normally, the Tower would’ve sent a few of its best and most powerful mages, crushed the bandits without a second thought, taken the weapon back, and returned.

But this weapon was different — and neither they nor the Everlight Moon Guild wanted any information about it leaking out. This was the one chance both factions had to reach the peak of power in both worlds.

"I’m not sure. The list of items for sale hasn’t been released yet. And to be honest, how they even managed to steal the weapon is still a mystery to me — and very suspicious," Lana said with a frown.

"You think there was another force involved?" Daniel asked after hearing their discussion.

"Intuition says yes. The security around the weapon wasn’t high enough to draw external attention, but it was still layered and tight. A small branch of the Golden Tooth Bandits shouldn’t have been able to pull it off... unless—"

"Unless they attacked while fully prepared," he finished her sentence.

The room fell silent for a moment, the three of them exchanging glances. It seemed the idea had already occurred to them, but the two girls didn’t want to accept it.

"There’s a spy," Daniel finally said when it became clear neither girl wanted to say it.

"That’s impossible! Only the highest authorities of the Magic Tower knew about this project! If there’s a spy, it must be from your guild," Serys snapped.

"Hmph. In our guild, only my grandfather, my father, and four other high-ranking officials knew about it. There’s no way it was one of us. But it wouldn’t be surprising if the spy was among you guys. After all, the number of people you’re referring to goes into the dozens. Who knows? Maybe one of them is the traitor," Lana said with a snort and shrugged.

"You—!" Serys was about to respond, but Daniel had to intervene — he released a bit of his aura.

The moment they felt his aura, both girls turned toward him, eyes slightly wide with fear. The amount of energy he released was enough to make both of them tremble.

What is this power?

’He’s gotten stronger,’ Lana thought, looking at Daniel in disbelief.

"Even if there is a spy, that doesn’t mean you should jump at each other like cats and dogs. In this situation, you need to work together — to both find the traitor and recover the weapon."

The girls exchanged glances again and sighed.

"You’re right. I apologize for my behavior," Lana said first.

"Me too... I shouldn’t have said those things," Serys added.

"Good. Now that we know there’s a spy among us, it’s best we find them. I don’t know your officials, so that job’s up to you," Daniel said, looking at them.

"Fortunately, right now no one knows about this weapon recovery mission besides the three of us — and my grandfather, of course. It depends on how many people at the Magic Tower know," Lana added.

"On our side, it’s just me and my master who know. He told the other officials that once the time is right — once we learn who stole the weapon — we’ll act. But they don’t know we already found out it’s in the hands of the Golden Tooth Bandits," Serys explained.

"Good. So while we go recover the weapon, Lana — you look around and see if you can find any suspects. Once we’re back, Lady Serys can tell her master about it."

"

What do I do once I’ve found the suspects? How do we figure out who the spy is?" Lana asked, nodding but concerned.

"Leave that to me," Daniel said with a smile. Naturally, he had plenty of ways to uncover the truth.