Lilith had her both of her axes raised as she slowly walked towards the front of the central building. Aurora had her bow half drawn and kept sweeping her aim around checking for any possible threat. I held my katana out in front of me and kept watch on Aurora's blind spots, similar to how we fought back in Aincrad.
Sky on the other hand had her sword sheathed and was casually walking behind the three of us. Whenever I looked in her direction, she looked amused at the precautions we were taking. She was either completely certain that nothing would attack us or she simply didn't care.
Lilith moved up to the side of the dark wooden door, placed in the centre of the front wall. The door had a basic rope handle on the outside. Lilith pushed herself up against the wall next to it, grabbed the rope and signalled to us to be ready.
Aurora quickly went to full draw in a single fluid movement and aimed directly at head height of the door. I moved up to the other side of the door as Aurora and crouched down with my blade held ready for a quick strike.
Sky on the other hand stopped next to Aurora with her arms crossed and with a questioning expression. "Really? You're really going to do this prim and proper even though we know there's no one there?"
Lilith gave an annoyed sigh and shook her head before pulling hard on the rope handle. The door gave a slight creaking sound but didn't move in the slightest. Lilith then moved in front of the door, without letting go of the rope, and shoulder barged into the door.
Initially I thought the door would remain still, but the force behind her hit seemed to crack the wood of the door and the wall around it seemed to crumble slightly. Lilith then pushed gently against the door so that it swung inwards and open. On the floor a snapped latch lock could be seen.
"The door was locked from the inside, not the outside." Lilith spoke with a venomous tone towards Sky.
"There are windows and people have wings in this game. A locked door means nothing." Sky instantly shot down Lilith's argument. "Now for the good part. Have you levelled up any form of thievery skill?"
Lilith looked at Sky with a look of almost physical disgust, what Sky had asked seemed to have insulted her. "No, I have not levelled into any thievery skill. What kind of craftswoman do you take me for?"
"One that has a range of skills, other than complaining of course." The reply came quickly and was sharp with anger, so much so that Lilith seemed to be taken off guard
"So are you going in or not?" The question from Sky was filled with hate and annoyance; once again I could see a drastic flip in her mood and attitude that didn't make any sense.
Lilith seemed reluctant to argue any further or provoke Sky anymore, so she placed one of her axes back into her belt and slowly walked into the building. Aurora nodded at me to signal that it was safe for me to follow. So after a nod back at her I moved around the wall and into the building.
The inside of the building seemed much darker than outside, even though three clear glass windows were providing light for the room. However on each of the 4 walls was a candle holder with dried wax hanging down from the edges, however the tall candles weren't alight
The floor had been made out of a dark coloured wood and was polished and immaculate. The entirety of this floor was made up of this single room, with most of the room being filled up with furniture and one wall being taken up by a staircase.
In the centre of the room was a large, carved, wooden table that seemed to have a map attached to the top of the side of it. Around this table were a number of basic four legged chairs that had been pushed under the table top.
Along the far wall was another table, much more basic than the other one, which held a number of wooden board pieces. Presumably these pieces were intended to be used with the main map table as the pieces included figures of monsters, players and different types of terrain.
"The room is clear." Lilith reluctantly called out through the door. Aurroa was the first to rush through, she took a quick look at the room before turning around and aiming her bow through the open doorway.
Sky followed in after and was shaking her head, "Come on, there's no one here, why are you being so cautious."
"Because they might come back at some point." Aurora spoke this time in a level tone, "I also assume that concealment magic exists." Lilith gave a nod to confirm this. Sky seemed to consider what Aurora had said before giving a slight nod and drawing her sword once more.
With a quick glance to Aurora I could see that she was both confused and relieved at the same time. Lilith on the other hand looked defeated, as if she had given up. Sky's actions had been making little to no sense and this furthered this.
"Well there's nothing down here of much use." Lilith spoke as she moved onto the staircase and slowly began to walk up them, keeping her back to the outer edge to give her more visibility. Almost on que Sky walked in the complete opposite direction, towards the map table.
Aurora signalled for me to go upstairs with Lilith. I nodded, knowing that she had a much better chance of dealing with Sky than I had. As I moved up the stairs I saw Aurora lower how bow and join Sky at the map table.
At the top of the stairs was another single room with windows and unlit candles used for light. This room had a similar map table in the centre, however it was much smaller. This change in size seemed to accommodate for a large bookshelf and a writing desk on the far side of the room.
I saw Lilith standing over the map table where she stood static. Moving up beside her I could see that she had thrown her axe across the table and her hand was next to a large, red inked, circle that had been marked onto the map. Next to the circle was a similar red ink rune that I couldn't read.
Lilith pushed herself off of the table, pushed me out of the way and ran over to the writing desk . She grabbed the papers, which had been left neatly on the desk. The expression on her face and the frantic manner in which she was going through the papers didn't bode well.
"What have you found?" Given that I had no idea what the map showed and I doubted that she was going to let me read the papers.
"The entire outpost…" She had so far only been scanning over the words of the documents she held, but her entire attention snapped onto something she read causing her to stop talking for a few seconds. She seemed to reread the same line a few times before rushing back towards the map table.
"They found a way to predict Fallen Knights. They still think they're a legendary game boss." She pushed one of the papers into my hand and reached over for her axe. "The main salamander vanguard was after one of the knights. Black two handed sword with a dragon head and wings at the cross guard of the blade. They're calling it the 'Dragon Knight'."