The Insider System

Chapter 107: More Magic

After their meal Lake and Joy had gone their separate ways for the day and Lake had looked around for Millie, but gave up after he had found her and saw she was too busy to stop and talk to him. After that he had just gone to the library and wasted his time until he could go to bed. He hadn't actually wasted his time because he had learned a few things, but he had been really bored the whole time, and that was what he had meant by wasting his time.

The nice thing was he found what he planned to do today while he read and having just woken up he needed to find Lucas to ask permission. Getting up to get ready Lake looked around till he found one of his servants and told them to clean him. It was nice to take a shower but Lake was the kind of person who didn't like how long all that took so whenever he thought he stunk he just had one of his servants clean him using magic.

When that was over Lake headed for the door when one of them called out to him. "Sir you should go out onto the balcony before you go." It didn't take much of a reminder for him to remember that he had seen the smoke out in the distance yesterday and thought there was a chance the capital could be the new front lines today, but he had totally let that slip his mind last night and this morning.

Stepping out onto the balcony, Lake saw what he was supposed to. There were a few fires set in the city and a portion of a wall that separated two parts of the city had collapsed. He couldn't see fighting going on though so he guessed whatever had happened while he had been sleeping was over now.

Lake guessed this gave him something else to talk to Lucas about as he headed out his door. Once he was in Lucas's office Lake got his attention. "What happened last night in the city?" Lucas didn't really seem to care about what he was saying as he told Lake. "Some Demon Worshipers that had been hiding in the city tried to do something last night, but from what I've been told it didn't go well for them."

"Do you know what it was they were trying to do?" Lucas shook his head and said. "It had something to do with the Light Temple but they wouldn't say what it was so it must be important." Lake took the fact that Lucas didn't seem to care as it was fine for him to disregard whatever had happened for now.

"Can I go to the top of the spire for the day?" This was what Lake was going to ask originally before he had seen what had happened. Lucas seemed to be taking his time to give an answer so Lake thought it would be a good idea to add more details to his request. "I just want to go to the formation room, not the Master Lab."

The formation room had been mentioned in one of the books Lake had flipped through last night and from what he had read it was a pretty helpful place for those wishing to train their own mana instead of using the elemental mana you could pull out of the air. "It's kind of early for you to go in there. You know it's up there for a reason."

Lucas meant it was for masters only that was why it was where they lived. Lake had only asked because Lucas seemed to usually just give people whatever they wanted so he thought he would receive a yes with little effort. "It's fine if no one stops you, go ahead and try."

It seemed Lucas had convinced himself so Lake was free to go. It also seemed Lucas was leaving it up to him to actually get there. "Lucas, how do I get through the barrier that blocks off the top ten floors?" Lake remembered Lucas had stopped him to let him through some form of invisible wall.

"You're good, I only had to do that because you didn't have your badge that said you were a resident of the spire yet." Lake nodded and asked one more question. "Is that the only obstacle I'll need to pass to get there?"

"Your badge will get you through everything." Lake nodded and started heading up the stairs when he remembered he could fly now. Getting into the center of the stairwell, Lake started to rise and sped up until he was passing a floor every few seconds. He was happy with this speed and held it steady as he quickly made it to the top of the spire.

It looked like he had made the right choice in learning to fly yesterday because he had just saved himself so much time, and from now on he would only need to walk when he was with someone who couldn't fly. Stepping back onto the stairs, Lake passed through the barrier, and walked up to the floor the formation room was on.

Seeing no one around like last time he had come up here Lake was pretty sure no one was going to try and stop him. It seemed the Masters spent most of their time in the Lab and he didn't need to worry about them too much. Opening the Door Lake walked in to see there were actually people inside.

They all had their backs turned towards him and hadn't looked to see who it was who had just entered st Lake just walked in and sat down at one of the screens. Once he started he was sure people would think he was supposed to be here so he wanted to waste no time in getting started. Putting his face as close as he could in front of the screen, Lake stretched his hands out until he felt them enter some sort of wet area.

There wasn't actually anything there other than some form of mana produced through a formation, but the book had said it would feel like your hands were in water so that's what he had thought when he touched it. Now that he was in position with the screen over his eyes and his hands outstretched he squeezed his hands into fists which told the Formation Trainer to start.

Seeing a shape form around his hands, Lake tried to use his mana to make the shape but was unable to even get it out of his body. This was the reason he had wanted to come here up until now he had never even tried to cast a spell using his own mana and he had found that it was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be last night.

It was the reason he had picked up the book on mana training that had led him here. After a few seconds Lake saw the shape outlined around his hands on the screen change again and did his best to push his mana out of him and into the shape it wanted. He failed again but he had expected to fail for a few hours until he could find out what he was doing wrong like he had done yesterday when learning to fly.

This thing was also way above his level; this was for people that could already do what he was trying to learn to do and were actually already at the level where they could form their mana into formations that did things. Lake had learned last night that the feeling he felt anytime he put mana into his ward ring where it felt like it was being bent into a shape was actually correct.

The shape was the formation that once powered activated the ward that kept him safe but the thing was once you could control your mana you didn't need the ring anymore if you wanted to make something like a ward. You could just form any formation using your mana. The only problem was it was really hard, and that was why people used things that held your mana in the right shape.

Lake had no plans to learn that today and just hoped to get basic control of his mana so he could use it to make custom spells. On the next shape Lake tried to replicate the feeling he felt when mana was put into something. It was like he had grown a tail from his finger the first time he had put the ring on and filled it, and it was a sensation he would never forget.

That experience had shown him what it felt like to use his mana so trying to actually put it into practice Lake saw a small amount of mana swirl around his finger where his ring usually was. He had his ring off right now in case it would somehow mess with the Formation Trainer and it seemed he had made the right choice because it had allowed him to push some mana out into the trainer instead of into his ring.

This formation Trainer stabilized his mana as well, that was what the wet sensation around his hands was for, it was some form of environment created by the trainer to help beginners like him learn to move their mana into shapes faster, and the reason he had wanted to use his machine, because usually unless you had something that would keep your mana stable it would collapse ass soon as it left your body unless you added principles to use it to cast a spell.

In a normal environment you couldn't do what he was doing now and just move it around into various shapes in its base form unless you were experienced in mana control. The act of adding principles was what made mana stable and that was what the elements were, stable mana that the gods had expelled from their bodies into the world for people to use for varying purposes.

With his new string of mana Lake did his best to form it into the shape the display told him to. Not even getting close Lake tried again with the next one and was pretty sure he did even worse. It must have been beginner's luck that first time which meant this was probably something you couldn't overthink or it would mess you up.

Lake had realized a long time ago that beginner's luck usually applied to things that needed very little thought to be good at. Trying to just make it happen instead of trying to figure out how to make it happen, Lake found he had been right and this was a feeling thing not a thinking thing and found he had done much better than last time.

He had already done what he had come here to do as soon as he got his mana out of his body but there was no point in leaving just yet because he wanted to see if he could get better at this formation thing as well and maybe even find a way to get more than just this small amount of mana out of his finger where his ring went.