The Insider System

Chapter 133: Forced Pt.2

Stepping out of the shop, Lake inspected his new chest piece and backpack set. It was pretty obvious why he had only bought a new chest piece and left the rest of his armor the same, so far every attack that had broken his skin had been aimed at his body. He had also been punched in the face but that hadn't gotten through his armor just smashed his nose.

Plus he had seen this chest piece that had a backpack designed into it meaning he would be getting a new bag like he wanted while getting better defense for his body. It was also black something he had been wishing his armor was for a while now. It was the perfect item for him and it had been right around the amount he had, so he wouldn't have to give much back to Lucas once he returned to the guild.

It was also the best deal as far as he was concerned because while he had been looking around it seemed if he was going to just buy a new bag spending 10,000 was overkill and getting a new bag and a chest piece separately would have been more expensive meaning he would've wasted some money if he wanted to get stuff that was the same quality as this combo piece was.

What he was saying was he was happy with his purchase and while he couldn't see the level of the piece himself the person who had sold it to him said it was level 24, 9 whole levels above his last chest piece, and the satchel had turned out to be made from leather that came from a level 3 monster, so not exactly what he would call sturdy.

As he headed towards the place they said they would meet if they had time, Lake went ahead and checked where the mark he had placed on her said she was. After looking around he finally saw it. It seemed she was underground, Lake didn't know what that meant though because he was sure most places one could go at the moment were underground.

Like he couldn't use the fact she was underground as a sign she was meeting the thieves because she might be meeting someone else first or after she had already met the thieves. She did work for the Temple and he was sure they had plenty of underground bases. The thing was he wasn't worried about her betraying him.

When she had told him why she was trying to run she had been telling the truth so unless she had suddenly changed her mind about wanting to live she would be doing exactly what she said she would. Seeing as she wasn't anywhere near the place they were going to meet up at, Lake decided it didn't make sense for him to waste his time waiting there.

He couldn't really think of anything better than going to check out where she was so that's what he did. The way he saw it, if this was actually where the thieves with all the money were hiding he would want to know where that was because it kind of sounded like a place where he might be able to find a million gold.

Now wasn't a good time for him to break in but maybe in the future he could come back. Actually he guessed he didn't know if now was a good time or not, it would depend on what he saw when he got there.

Walking right above the mark Lake looked around to try and guess which building the entrance to whatever underground structure she was in would probably be in. He knew this part of town pretty well considering he had spent a good portion of his time as a thief here because this was where the thieves guild office he had been to was located.

It was only a few streets over from where he was now, and it made him sure Tiffany was meeting with thieves. Not being able to guess which of the buildings it was, Lake decided he could just wait to find out. Once Tiffany came out he could mark the right one and be on his way.

Finding a good place he could watch the whole street from without being too noticeable, Lake knocked some trash off of an old barrel and sat down. He saw this as an opportunity to switch the contents of his satchel over to his new backpack. He couldn't get the dagger out but everything else would be easy to do, and it would make it so he could dump the satchel at any time if the need arose.

Getting everything organized in his new bag, Lake tested out his ability to reach back and grab the right thing to see if it was faster than his old method of having to rummage through his satchel to find it was indeed faster even if he did think there could still be some improvements to his speed.

This wasn't the bag's fault though he had bought a backpack on purpose with the intention of getting a toolbelt custom designed in the future. A backpack was more for being able to carry a lot at once, not for use during a battle; that was what the belt would be for and the reason he hadn't bought one now was when he had had the idea he also knew exactly where he could get one.

He had seen a lot of the exact type of belt he wanted inside the Alchemist guild, guards, servants, and even the actual Alchemists were wearing them. This made him think it would be a waste of money to buy one here when he could probably bet an Alchemist belt at the guild.

This would allow him access to his potions, the things he needed the fastest and most often in an instant. This also made Lake remember he needed to spend some more time making poison. When he had been making his trump card he had used spider venom as the Catalyst without really thinking about the fact it would make his poison corrosive to meat.

This was a good thing if he planned to use it on his enemies but his original plan had been to make something that could heal him while killing others and he was kind of scared to test if his skill would reverse the corrosive effect if it was to get on his skin. He would still gain more health than he lost if it didn't reverse the effect, but he was pretty sure he would still lose his ability to fight from the pain of his skin being dissolved.

He needed something he could cover both himself and his enemies in during times where he didn't think he could win through normal means. He suddenly thought of something he hadn't thought of since he had met Master Donna for the first time, cursed poisons that lasted forever.

He still wasn't skilled enough to actually attempt this but it was something he had been working towards when he first arrived at the guild. He had stopped having it as a top priority when he had found out how much time he would have to commit to Alchemy to be able to ever actually make one and at that time he wasn't really that interested in learning Alchemy.

His original plan had been to escape as soon as possible so the whole time Lucas had been telling him about the permanent poisons he had been thinking it would never end up happening because he would have already moved on. Now it kind of felt like he might be at the guild for the rest of his life so he was pretty sure he would end up making a permanent poison eventually.

He remembered he needed something from a vault to do it though and as far as he knew the only person who could open the vault was master Donna and he remembered seeing her getting into a cart to leave on the day the war started so Lake would need to talk to Lucas to see if she was even still available to him when he would need her.

Seeing someone land in the street he was watching, Lake started to focus on what he was actually doing at the moment. When the person stopped in front of a building and knocked, Lake didn't waste any time and marked them. If they were going to where Tiffany was he would be able to tell if the two marks got close to one another, and he would know which building held the entrance underground.

When he saw the door open, Lake knew he had made the right choice in marking them right away because the person who had knocked was gone in an instant. Watching the mark head down it wasn't too long before the new mark was right next to the one he had placed on Tiffany.

Happy his plan worked, Lake marked the building and was about to leave when he saw the two marks start to head upwards at a fast pace. Since they were on their way out Lake decided he might as well stick around to see where they went next. He thought maybe he could follow them to another secret base or on the off chance these two planned to ambush him he would actually be the one in the position to catch them off guard.