The Insider System

Chapter 123: Fast Forward Pt.1

The next day after Lake got up he did what he had been told to do and went to work in the Master Lab with Nancom. They had to make ten vats of poison then he could go and do whatever he wanted. He couldn't see it taking more than five hours, so he wasn't really even considering it the main thing he would do today.

...

It ended up only taking four and a half hours and he was pretty sure the speed had to do with his skill Poison Control getting stronger again. He wasn't sure if that was the right way to put it, but he wasn't sure if he was getting better or the skill was. He was now at the point where instead of slowing down reactions he was making them go faster than they should.

That of course was only with the weakest of the ones that happened in the poison, but it was still a huge time saver after ten rounds of brewing. Now that he was done he was heading back to his room to see if there was a battle happening outside. He had been in a hurry this morning, and forgot to check before heading to work.

...

Stepping out onto his balcony Lake saw everyone he lived with out here. No Millie, and he took this as a sign that his talk had gotten through to her and she had been able to focus at work today. This was a good thing for every person who could eat in the guild, and it made him feel bad for anyone who had a skill that made them unable to eat as often as a normal person like him.

Watching for a while after he saw there was a fight happening in the city, Lake headed inside and went down to the library to look for the book Master Nancom had recommended to him. Scrubbing the library for it Lake never found it, but he did stop to read a few interesting books while he was looking so it hadn't been a complete waste of time.

It made him wonder if he was starting to hit the limit of what Lucas had called a beginner library had to offer. He was pretty sure the next library in the spire was on floor 49 right under the floor seniors that lived in the spire who hadn't quite made it to master lived. From what he had heard none of those so-called seniors were ever around, so he could probably head there with no problems.

That would be a good thing for him to do after lunch though. He had already been awake for almost 8 hours so he was starting to get hungry. He planned to just eat dessert today, and it was something he had been looking forward to for a while, so there was no reason not to head there now even if it was a little early for his once a day meal.

...

He had accidentally stuffed himself so instead of heading straight up the elevator and flying his way to the 49th floor because he thought he might barf on the way up he took the elevator down to see if joy was normal again. It was kind of annoying that whenever something happened that caused the guild to go into a state of high alert all the guards were affected by the Loyalty curse.

He hadn't even bothered to come see her for the last few days after the battle in the city had started because he was sure he would just be wasting his time. He thought she might be back to normal by now though because even though the situation outside wasn't good it was stable enough that he could see them letting down the alert level on whatever system they used to control the curse on the guards.

Once he reached the basement he saw the gate and totally forgot why he had even come down here. It was almost like he had been purposely forgetting about the last time he had come down here, but that was over now. He needed to actually think about the implications of the Demon Lord talking to him while he had been in the dungeon.

Lake had been expecting more after first contact and the silence from the Demon Lord was probably why he hadn't thought about it at all. He guessed he should probably ask Lucas about it when he passed through the office later. Lucas would probably know the best thing for him to do about it.

Pulling his eyes from the gate, Lake saw Joy was staring at him probably wondering why he hadn't done the usual of saying hi as soon as he saw her. Getting back to his plans, Lake did what was expected of him. "Hey Joy."

"Hello, are you here to enter the dungeon?" Lake shook his head maybe slightly too hard and said. "No just coming to say hi because it had been a while since I saw you. I've been kind of busy because I started to help one of the masters as an assistant." Lake was bragging to show off how much progress he had made in the last few days, but it didn't seem to impress Joy at all because she said.

"I Surprised any of them would let a rookie like you near what they were doing, you must be letting that skill of yours do all the work." Lake wasn't surprised that Joy would say this but he was sure she would be surprised that he dared to say this. "You're right, your work is definitely much more impressive."

After he said this he didn't let her respond, and just rode the elevator back up to the office. His insult would just grow in power the longer she wasn't able to say anything to him in retaliation. Getting to the top, Lake stepped out to see Lucas wasn't in his office, but because what he had to ask him was so important he sat down without even seeing where Lucas was first.

Lake usually checked then decided if it was worth the wait but he didn't have the luxury of letting this wait till later. He should have taken care of this as soon as it happened. After about ten minutes Lucas walked in with one of his seldomly seen servants. Lake wasn't sure just how many Lucas had, but all of them were probably some of the busiest people in the guild.

Lake didn't interrupt whatever they were doing and just waited patiently for the servant to leave after they received their assignment from Lucas. "Lake I just saw Master Nancom a little while ago. He said you have been doing good work for him." Lake waited about a second for Lucas to continue to talk, but when he didn't, Lake said.

"I'm actually here to talk about something kind of important. The other day when I was in the Dungeon I heard a voice and I'm pretty sure it was the Demon Lord." Lake wanted for the reaction but it never came. Lucas looked extremely calm as he asked. "Have you heard it outside of the dungeon?"

Lake shook his head no so Lucas continued. "Then all I would recommend is for you to stay away from there, and make sure to tell me if you hear it again." Lake nodded and asked. "Why are you so nonchalant about this?" Lake had expected a bad reaction from Lucas so the fact it almost seemed like he didn't care at all was a little weird to him.

"The voice is something almost everyone who has any strength has to deal with and it's actually one of the benefits of working for the Alchemist guild. The Demon Lord will have a hard time talking to you as long as you're in the spire. It's still possible, but you would need to form a relationship with him."

Lake didn't understand what Lucas meant by relationship so he asked. "What do you mean to form a relationship?" Lake was sure Lucas didn't mean this in the classic use of this word, like become friends with the Demon Lord. "There are a few things that can make it easier for the Demon Lord to talk to you. The first and most common is using Unholy magic, a lot of people who are given this affinity just pretend like they don't even have it."

Lake had seen the warnings in all the books that talked about the Unholy element so this wasn't new information but Lucas wasn't done. "After that the worst thing you can do is listen to anything the voice says to you and actually listen or accept any of his offers." Lake nodded this pretty much confirmed what he had thought about the voice and how he should avoid the Dungeon from now on.

It was too bad though, he had really wanted to see what the mark formed from using Treasured on Lucas was. He guessed he could just go and check it out after the war. Getting up Lake was about to leave when he remembered he had been meaning to ask Lucas about the teleporters. "Lucas, one more thing. I wanted to know what the teleporters use to run." It seemed Lucas was asked this question a lot because he opened a drawer and handed Lake a piece of paper from a stack he had prepared. Looking at the paper he saw it was a list that had the names of curtain resources.

"It took you a lot longer to ask than most of the people who live in the spire but you all do eventually." Lucas was laughing a bit as he said this then continued. "If you ever come across any of the things on this list consider selling it to us first because we have the most money and I'll make sure to give whatever you want for it."

Lake nodded and put the list in his bag, then said. "Do you know where I can find a book called Cascading Alchemy?" There was no point in him blindly searching when he was already talking to Lucas. "Are you sure it's kind of complicated?" Lake nodded, even if he didn't understand everything he was sure with time he could comprehend what the book was about.

"Ok well there should be copies of the book in almost every library, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. It is a popular book though, so if you can't find it it probably means someone has it and you'll need to wait a few days, or look in a different library."

Lake thanked Lucas and went to look for the book. He was sure this would probably be what the rest of his day was spent doing and if he was lucky enough to find it relatively fast he would probably read a bit before going to watch the fight that would happen tonight.