The Insider System

Chapter 260: Home Work

Lake started the process of figuring out how to run on air by just going as fast as he could whenever he had a really long stretch of open area in front of him. His top speed was something he had never really dealt with before and it made him feel like he was some type of missile that would explode on impact.

But even at that speed he wasn't able to get traction on air and was really only able to get a bit of lift if he leaned forward or used his arms like wings but that wasn't walking on air. Realizing that it might not be possible to use air like a solid since it would just get pushed out of the way at his level of speed he decided to try and use well timed bursts of Wind magic to solidify the air enough that he could run on top of it.

Of course this wouldn't be him actually running on the air since he would be stepping on small mana platforms but he still felt it would be faster than if he had to slow down every time there were things in his way. It would also let him save his Wind mana to cast fly if he was somehow knocked out of the air.

Joy had told him you weren't really supposed to Fly if you didn't have a backup way to catch yourself if you started to fall so this would be it in the future once he got the skill to a level where he could use it at any time. Gathering the mana Lake made a small platform in front of him and used it to propel himself slightly off the ground.

He had no plans to go into the sky until he was confident that he could do it more than once in a row. Once he started to come back towards the ground he waited till his foot was about to hit the ground and made another mana platform to jump into the air. Seeing it really wasn't that hard to do at this speed Lake stepped it up and went faster than he could really control.

He had some confidence that this was fine because all he had to do was make the mana solidify at the bottom of his foot for a brief second and this had nothing to do with your eyes. He found that at this speed he wasn't really able to make the mana solid enough that it was able to propel him forward enough to keep himself at this speed.

Landing back onto the ground, Lake knew this was a problem caused by his inexperience in principle training. If he had trained a bit more and was able to compress the mana faster he wouldn't have this problem. Thankfully it didn't really stop him from using this as the perfect opportunity to do some solid principle training.

Keeping his speed to a level that he was able to walk on the platforms he made, Lake slowly got better and better at this for the next two hours of running and only stopped when he saw the capital wall. Realizing that this meant he had already made two thirds of the trip back, Lake just sped back up and passed through the still open gate.

With his journey almost already done, Lake went ahead and checked on the progress he had made by slowly bringing his speed up from what he had capped it at for most of the journey. He was happy to find he was able to go over the speed he would have considered safe while using the mana as stepping stones earlier.

It was always a good feeling when you were able to feel like you had made good progress in a short amount of time so Lake was looking forward to being able to hone this skill the next time he went on a run. Finishing the last third of the trip even quicker, Lake stopped for a while to get a good look at the city before he went any further.

There was a war going on at the moment and he didn't want to go running towards the city dressed up like a Demon Worshiper so he needed to make sure he wasn't attacked by someone he was technically on the same side as. Once he had a chance to see there didn't really seem to be any active fighting going on, Lake took the robe off and made it into more of a skirt.

He had never seen a Demon Worshiper dressed like this and it wasn't like no one else was allowed to wear black so he felt no one would bother him if they saw him while he was heading towards the guild. He was sure he would have an issue actually getting inside though. All his stuff was gone which included his badge and identity scroll.

Trying to use Retrieve one more time to see if he had anything that he could use to prove it was him, Lake guessed the only thing he could do was let himself be taken into custody until Lucas or someone who could tell a fake came and confirmed it was him. Lake had no idea how long that would take but he would put up with it and maybe they would give him a book if he asked.

Getting to the guild Lake finally noticed the barrier was down. He had seen the spire from a distance and he had just never even thought about the fact that the barrier had been up when he left. He took it as a sign that it was nice and peaceful at the moment and walked up to the guards. "I lost my identification badge and scroll, how do I get inside?"

"What's your name and who is your direct superior?"

"My name is Lake Fuller and my direct superior is Guild Master Lucas. I live in the spire."

"Guild Master Lucas doesn't have time for this in most cases so you should be ready to wait for a while unless you want to try another name."

"Master Nancom."

"Alright we will see if he is available, come with us." Lake was brought to the same room he always was whenever he returned to the Alchemy guild where he was checked for any curses and then was asked to wait till Nancom was able to come see him. He was guessing this was much better treatment than the average member would get if they were unable to prove who they were.

He had really expected to see something akin to a jail cell but he felt saying he was an inhabitant of the spire had kept that from happening, Lucas' name had probably helped as well. After an hour or so Nancom finally showed up and Lake was expecting to get some shit but Nancom instead said. "It's good you're alive. Lucas told me you went to the Metal Domain so when we heard the news I feared the worst."

"That's nice of you to say Master. I'm sorry to trouble you like this."

"No No it's fine. Come on, I have to test your skills to make sure it's you. It's procedure." When he heard this Lake realized why he was asked who his superior was, it was because there was a test and they were the person who knew them well enough to say if they passed or not. "Alright what's this?"

Lake was expecting for Nancom to explain the test first but as soon as they entered a new room it started. Looking at the small bottle Lake was about to inspect it to see when he remembered. "It's the poison I made the first time we met. You had me feed it into that bottle at the end."

"That's right, now what is it?" Lake literally didn't remember anything about the potion other than it was poison and was about to say so when he remembered one of his skills.

Observer (U) Lv.1

Nothing can stop you from accessing somethings information.

(allows you to see hidden details)

It was a skill he didn't particularly like using because it filled your head with more than you needed to know but it would give him the information he needed for the question. Activation Observer lake started sifting through the information until he was able to find all of the ingredients.

After he listed them out he didn't get the reaction he wanted and was about to ask what was wrong when monster Nancom said. "You should have just said you didn't know because it was a blind brewing test, remember. I'll let that one slide since you clearly appraised the poison."

After Nancom said this he vaguely remembered the test and was happy Nancom seemed to not take what just happened as a sign he wasn't him. "Alright it's time for you to show your skills." Seeing Nancom motion to the table next to them, Lake got ready to brew some poison.