Chapter 110 108 - The Underground

Once his Magic Power stat hit 50, Milo received a notification from the system telling him that another new skill had been unlocked in the Plunder tab of his system. This was a bit later than he was expecting, as he expected one to be revealed at level 40, but the pattern he thought he saw must not have actually been a thing. Milo opened his status screen and went over to the Plunder tab.

[Stats] [Tutorials] [Plunder]

[Plunder]

Plunder (lvl 4): Possibility to copy the ability of other awakened if certain conditions are met(Active)

(Cooldown: 0:00:00:00)

Fusion(lvl. MAX): Able to combine compatible abilities into a new stronger ability. Will consume the two combined abilities when used.(Active)

(Cooldown: 0:00:00:00)

Extortion(lvl. 1): Able to use two abilities at the same time.

(Passive)

Larceny: Locked until level 50

Burn: Locked until level 75

(Hidden)

The first thing Milo thought of when reading the name of the new skill, was the fire ability. Burn just had that ring to it. Milo doubted this was the case but couldn't just throw away the idea as it was the system that named it. Milo gave up on trying to guess what the skill could do and decided to just wait until he unlocked it to see what it did for sure.

Milo went to the guild that day and was expecting to be closing a simulated gate again with his team, but when entering their usual station they trained in he was surprised to see no one there. He sent David a message and asked what was going on. He responded soon after, saying that the group would instead be meeting in the lounge. Milo wasn't sure why the team would be meeting there but shrugged and made his way over to the elevator to go up to the lounge.

Once he entered the rest of the team was gathered around a coffee table. A chess set was on the table and Seamus and Harvey were both locked in a game. Milo took a seat next to Seamus as there wasn't enough room next to Harvey with how large of a person he was.

"Anyone know what's going on?" Milo asked, watching the two older members of their team continue their chess match.

Harvey picked up his rook and moved it forward taking a pawn before answering, "no idea, but David should be up here soon with the answer."

Milo nodded in understanding and went to get a drink from the countless fridges that were there filled with refreshments for the guild's gatecrashers to enjoy. After grabbing a can of his favorite soda, he made his way back to his seat and watched the end of the chess game.

As Seamus put Harvey in checkmate, David entered the lounge with Mikael in tow. Mikael had a slight grin on his face and winked at Milo as he was entering. It was obvious he knew what the meeting was all about and based on his actions, it would most likely be something Milo would be excited about.

David came up to the group and handed each of them a small folder. When opening it, Milo's eyes widened at its contents. David then went on to say, "I called you all here today to let you know that you are going to be sent to close a B ranked gate."

The team got excited hearing this news, clanking their drinks together and making some cheering noises. David explained that the team would be spending a week in Atlantic City, Maryland to close some gates in the area. There was 1 B ranked gate and 3 C ranked gates. They would be receiving their usual commissions and rewards, but David would not be accompanying them this time. Essentially they were officially recognized by Jorge and David, and their training wheels would be getting removed. With it being mid July, the summer would be ending in a month and Milo would be returning back to school. He wanted to get as much experience as possible before then and this would be his chance to do so, now that David had decided to let them go out on their own.

David went on to tell the team to pack up by Friday and that until then they were free to do what they like. They'd meet at the guild and then take a teleporter to Atlantic City. While there they'd be put up in a hotel by the association. Milo was going home to pack but was surprised by the twins when they approached him and asked him if they could talk somewhere before he could leave. Milo agreed and the two met up at the entrance to the guild.

Once he arrived the twins gestured to meet them a bit ways away from the entrance, the two said that they wanted to avoid people hearing what they were about to talk about. This made Milo a bit confused but he agreed to come with them. It was getting pretty late in the day at this point due to David going over all the details of their assignment in Atlantic City, and the sun was setting causing the sky to become a deep orange color.

Once the three of them were a ways away from the guild they turned down an alley and the twins finally fessed up as to what was going on.

"Have you been to the Underground?" Cameron asked.

Milo had never heard of this before and said that he hadn't and didn't even know what it was.

This came as a surprise to the twins, and they were shocked but Milo had no idea why.

"How have you not heard of it before?" Conner said, "Every gatecrasher should know about it."

The two of them went on to explain that it was essentially a black market where gatecrashers could go to buy items that normally wouldn't be sold at a normal market. It could range from essence cores to beast parts, some even had elixirs that were meant to increase one's magic power output.

Hearing about the place, Milo thought that it was too good to be true. A place where gatecrashers could get their hands on hard to find items would be extremely useful. Milo questioned the two about it more and they said that they were planning to head to the Underground tonight to get any things they might need for their assignment and thought Milo might want to come with them. Milo agreed to come with the two and so he followed the two of them to where the entrance to this black market for gatecrashers seemed to be.

They entered Central Park and made their way towards where an old amusement park ride used to be. Since the dimensional doors appeared the carousel had been abandoned. With the help of magical energy, amusement rides had become much faster and more thrilling, causing the carousel to lose popularity until it eventually fell into disrepair.

Once they got to the carousel, Cameron and Conner checked the surroundings to make sure no one was watching. At this point, the sky had grown dark and the only light in the area was being emitted by street lamps. Once they confirmed the coast was clear, Conner climbed aboard the abandoned carnival ride, and started to walk around the carousel checking each of the horses. Milo was curious about what he was doing, until he apparently found what he was looking for. He waved the other two over and Milo immediately took a look at the carousel horse to see if there was anything different about it. Like the other horses it looked run down and didn't appear to have anything special about it. That was until Conner pointed out a peculiar symbol on the horse's saddle. The saddle itself was red and had a gold trim going around the outside, on the top of the saddle, right behind the horse's head, an upside down triangle could be seen with an eye in the center of it.

Conner then walked around to the front of the horse and pressed on the roof of the horse's mouth. Once he had done that, the horses eyes glowed yellow and a panel on the inside of the carousel could be seen sliding open, once inside the center of the carousel the panel slid closed again and Milo followed the twins down a thin staircase that led to a sort of storage chamber under the carousel itself.

Once they got down to the bottom of the stairs, Milo's eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Among all the run down tools and replacement carousel horses, there was a glowing green ring that seemed to be warping by the second and above it etched into the wall was the same symbol that was seen on the back of the saddle of the horse that seemed to be the lock to this place. The twins then walked into the warping circle, disappearing through it. Milo walked forward to get a closer look at the strange ring and couldn't help but feel that it looked familiar. He stepped through and felt a strange feeling, he had felt this feeling before and while it didn't hurt, it did feel weird. Once the feeling ended, Milo opened his eyes and could see the twins standing next to him. In front of him there was what appeared to be a small city that was built inside a strange cave like structure. Improvised buildings could be seen and hundreds of people could be seen milling about in the streets between them. Milo then looked up towards a platform at the back of the improvised city and what he saw was another surprise.

On top of the platform, a large cage seemed to be standing and inside it was something Milo wasn't expecting. It looked like a bird type beast, and when activating inspect he could see that it was in fact a gate boss. This could only mean one thing, the Underground was hidden inside of a gate.