The Insider System

Chapter 38: Mastering Alchemy

Picking up the last powder Lake poured it into the cup and activated Distill. "You don't have the appraiser job, so this will be a little difficult for you. I didn't tell you what all the ingredients did on purpose to simulate what people call blind brewing, so you're gonna have to try and feel what's going on using Distill."

Lake was already in this process; he could feel something like a pressure pushing outwards from the cup. "What's this force coming from the cup? it's all I can feel from Distill."

That's the reaction that's happening between the powder on the top and the bottom. The only thing that's keeping it from exploding is the already formed mixture. You can think of it like a womb, a safe place for the potion to form."

"Why didn't the first mixture react like this? It just formed peacefully."

"That was a mixture. This is a split potion when you form a mixture inside of another one the first ingredient is the first mixture the second ingredient is the powder on the bottom the third is the powder on the top. Alchemy is just the process of turning 3 things into 1. This potion is."

Lake saw Lucas pull out a peace of paper an write 1+1=1+1+1=1+1=1. "The last 1+1 is a little wrong, because the last ingredient reacts with the split potion in two different ways so it's like there are 3 separate ingredients." Lake actually found this way of thinking about Alchemy much easier, the first two ingredients made a mixture, and that mixture was actually the first ingredient of the potion.

The resulting potion was two different mixtures with two effects, so it had the potential to be two ingredients since nothing was actually binding them, so when you added the last ingredient that had the same two effects it fulfilled the potential and the 1+1 became 1+1+1 and it refined the potion even further, it still had 2 effects but the last ingredient bonded everything together and Lake guessed the better it was bonded the longer the effect lasted.

Lake had been stirring this whole time and he could feel the potion was starting to form because it was calming down. "If you keep it steady for a few more seconds we can add the last ingredient." Finishing up Lucas said. "You can go ahead and add it, make sure Distill is still active."

Pouring the last powder in Lake felt the opposite of what he felt earlier instead of pushing out it started pulling in. "When you feel that it means the potion will finish itself. This only happens when the ingredients fully match. You remember earlier when we made the strength potion how it turned blue even though you weren't stirring it anymore; this is the same situation."

Understanding what Lucas meant, Lake pulled the spoon out and watched as the potion turned a deep red.[Level up] [Level up] [Level up] "Alright it's done. Go ahead and drink it. It's poison so I want you to tell me what it does to you."

Grabbing the cup Lake lifted it to his nose and sniffed it. Lake thought it had a bit of a metallic smell but tasting it Lake found it really didn't have much of a taste. "Most poisons don't have a flavor so it can be hard to tell when someone adds it to your food or drink."

Downing it, Lake didn't feel anything happen and after a few seconds of waiting Lucas asked "Did anything happen?"

"I don't think so." Opening his stats, Lake took a good look.

Race: Human Lv.2 ( 9/10 )

Job: Alchemist Lv.5 (38 / 160)

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 3/5 )

Stats

Health 20

Stamina 20

Mana 20

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 19

Dexterity 32

Perception 23

Intelligence 42

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 2

He couldn't see anything that seemed weird. "I don't think it did anything."

"That's because your health and stamina were already full. If a normal person drank that they would have taken damage to their health and stamina."

"How much damage?"

"Well normally you'd take 14 to your health and 3 to your stamina every few seconds until the duration of the effect ran out. We need to get you the Appraiser job so you can see item details. How close Is your Intelligence to 50?" Lake wondered if he could use Insider Information to simulate Appraiser but he could worry about that later.

"42."

"That's two levels in any mage job Let's end this for today you've pretty much learned the basics I would rather get you to 50 Intelligence so we can get you Appraiser. Let's go to the dungeon and level you up a few times."

"What's the dungeon?"

"It's under the guild. It's catacombs but there's a lot of monsters there so we use it to level up jobs that only get Exp from combat." Lake was happy to hear there was somewhere to fight; he had been afraid he would have to sneak out to fight. "Ok lets go." After he said this, Lake realized he was about to go down stairs and later after they were done he would have to come back up the stairs. He was looking at an hour of stairs if he added them together, but Lake felt it was worth it if he got a new job out of it.

"Alright I don't want to waste too much time on these stairs so let's go as fast as we can, you go first, and I'll keep up with you." Lake wasn't surprised that Lucas was confident about keeping up with him; the Guild was responsible for stat potions. Lucas was probably one of the strongest people in the world. Lake smacked his forehead he could just look there was no guessing necessary. Lake looked at Lucas and activated Insider Information.

Lake's hand shot over his eye and he almost cried out in pain. "Did you just try to look at my details?" Crap not only did it not work, Lucas knew. "Yes." Lake knew better than to lie in this situation. There was some form of magic at work here. "You should be careful to not do that, most people get mad."

Lake could understand that he wouldn't like it either. "Why didn't it work?" Lake's eye had stopped hurting so he looked at Lucas to see him holding a necklace up. "This is an Anti-scrying device that keeps people from looking at my stats. It's a big advantage in combat if people can't see what they're up against. I don't know what skill you used but it depleted its charge by 40%. That's the most I've ever seen and let me tell you a lot of people Have tried to find out how strong I am."

"Does that mean if I did it multiple times, it would work?" Lucas looked at Lake's eye and said. "Maybe for you but most people would've been blinded by the counter spell from my necklace." Lake wondered why his eye had been able to survive and remembered one of his skills strengthened his eyes he would have to look later because he couldn't remember which one.

"I've never seen someone with strong eyes before. It's a weird ability but I wouldn't call it useless, because if not for it we'd be rushing to the infirmary to regrow your eyes." Lake was just gonna take that as a compliment, and not think about the fact Lucas was probably catching on to the fact that he might have multiple Unique skills.

"Alright let's get going, and you don't need to worry about me being left behind. Go full speed." Lake didn't need to be told twice he was actually a little curious how fast he could go down stairs even if it was a little dangerous. After a few steps Lake activated burst he hadn't done it right away just to make sure he could control himself at half speed.

A few minutes later they arrived at Lucas's office. "That wasn't too bad, am I allowed to go that speed all time?" Lucas thought about it for a few seconds and said. "No." Lake hadn't been expecting that and was about to ask why when Lucas said. "Go about half that speed that will probably be fine and don't do it in the mornings there are a lot of people on the stairs around then."

Lake thought this sounded fine, he would just sleep in. "Ok, we can take the elevator the rest of the way." Nice, Lake wondered if he should invent escalators. Maybe if he ever saw Wallace again he would tell him. "Once we get there I'm just gonna send a guard in with you. The time I set aside for you today is almost over. I need to get back to work."

Lake wasn't surprised to hear this, Lucas was probably a very busy person. "Will I still get lessons from you or is it self study from now on?"

"That's up to you, you're free to come and see me and you can also ask one of your servants to help you. One of them is also a teacher."

"Which one?"

"You should ask them."