The Insider System

Chapter 47: The Master Lab

Lake watched as Lucas walked up and touched a symbol that was carved into the door. "It's unlikely that you'll ever come here by yourself but this rune right here is how you open the door." Lake felt Like he was just being handed the keys to the vault and he wasn't the only one excited by this development. Lake could tell the insider really wanted to steal something.

Up until this point the only thing Lake had ever stolen was corn. If he somehow was killed he would go down in history as the worst thief of all time. When Lake finally left for greener pastures he would make sure to take as much of their stuff as possible. Just to set the record straight if nothing else.

Lake saw the door start to open and even through the small crack he could see all sorts of flashing lights. Every color like a strobe light Lake wondered how anyone could focus in an environment like this. Strangely enough there didn't seem to be any noise and that was all Lucas had warned him against, so it seemed they were all fine with any visual stimulus.

With the door finally completely open Lake could finally see what was causing all the flashing vats of varying fluids with old people all around them throwing giant bales of ingredients in and with every ingredient a flash would be released. Lucas crouched down and whispered in his ear. "You remember when I showed you how to remove impurities and it came out as smoke. Those flashes are similar, just a more advanced technique that removes them faster. It just destroys them without polluting the air. You see if impurities build up in the air it can affect whatever you're brewing."

Lake thought back to how Lucas had fed the smoke into a crystal, he guessed that was to keep it from dispersing into the air. Lake nodded to tell Lucas he had understood what he had said and felt Lucas guide him forward with his hand on his shoulder. After they passed the giant vats, Lake saw something even weirder. It was a massive monster that looked like a gorilla. It was strapped down and struggling to get free from the table it was on.

Looking closely at the man next to the monster Lake could see the man was injecting it with a massive syringe. Lake wanted to ask questions but he guessed that it would have to wait for later, because Lucas kept guiding him forward. Lake watched the gorilla start to go crazy after a few seconds and its skin started to turn green.

Lake saw the man next to it grab another syringe and inject it into the monster's arm. Lake was expecting it to counteract the effects of whatever the first one had done, but instead Lake saw the gorilla start to dissolve from its arm towards the rest of its body. Lake saw the man quickly grab a large bucket from next to the bench and pour it onto the monster.

This seemed to stop whatever was happening because the monkey stopped dissolving, and a small amount of steam rose from the stump that used to be its arm. Lake saw the man grab a notepad and start to write a few things down before he raised his hand. Lake saw a flash of white light and the monkey's arm started to regrow.

Then he saw the man grab a new syringe and start the process all over again. Lake looked away at this point, he found this interesting but something new had grabbed his attention. A metal door that had been blocked from his view before had just been revealed and he and Lucas were headed right for it.

Once he and Lucas were standing next to it Lake saw Lucas do a series of different things including inserting his ring into a small groove in the door, and after all of that the door disappeared, it didn't open it just vanished. This made Lake rethink ever trying to break into this vault. Not only would he have to take Lucas's ring, the door was in plain view of all these people who Lake guessed doubled as guards.

It all of a sudden became much easier to become the guild leader which was way more effort than Lake was willing to put in for stuff that would just make him better at alchemy, something he really didn't even really care about. Lake saw Lucas wave for him to follow him inside the vault.

Even though the door had disappeared, Lake still wasn't able to see what was inside. It was just a pitch black doorway but Lake saw Lucas walk though so Lake followed him inside because it seemed safe enough. As Lake walked through the doorway he felt like he was on a rollercoaster and had been flipped upside down.

Regaining the ability to see the feeling of being upside down didn't go away. Looking around Lake could see they had appeared in the center of a warehouse. "Why do I feel like I'm upside down?" This was one of the strangest things Lake had ever felt. It was making him feel like he couldn't move.

"This is a pocket dimension. You'll start to feel normal in a few seconds." Lake wondered what Lucas meant about pocket dimension because earlier he said the increased mana helped keep the elixirs stable. "How separate is this space?"

"It's still in the spire if that's what you're asking." Lake thought maybe Lucas got what he was getting at. Starting to feel better, Lake stood up. "Alright let's go down this way the elixir section is down here." Lake slowly followed behind Lucas looking around at how big this place was, Lake found it interesting enough to put a mark on the floor.

Later after he left he would see if he could find where this pocket space was by seeing where the mark was. Lake saw Lucas stop in front of a shelf. "Alright let's see." Lake saw Lucas start to go through the bottles one by one. "Ok this is it, the highest tier elixir we can make. Go ahead and see if you can appraise it."

Lucas handed the elixir to Lake looking at the vial Lake could tell it held something extraordinary every magic item he had held up until this point was blown out of the water by the strength of the elixir. Switching his job to Appraiser Lake said. "Details."

Skill elixir.

effects.

False Divinity (L) Lv.1

Grants the effect of a tenth of a point of divinity.

[Level up] [Level up] [Level up] "Were you able to see the effect of the elixir?" Lake nodded his head and pulled up his stats.

Race: Human Lv.4 ( 7/10 )

Job: Appraiser Lv.3 (24 /40)

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

Stats

Health 40

Stamina 40

Mana 40

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 19

Dexterity 36

Perception 40

Intelligence 100 [Max]

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 2

"Ok well you can drink the elixir whenever you're ready there's no reason to wait." Hearing this, Lake smacked the cap off and drank it. After he downed the whole thing Lake looked back to his stats.

Race: Human Lv.4 ( 7/10 )

Job: Appraiser Lv.3 (24 /40)

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

Stats

Health 40

Stamina 40

Mana 40

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 19

Dexterity 36

Perception 40

Intelligence 100

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 2

Seeing the max had gone away, Lake turned to Lucas and said. "It worked." After he said this he opened his skills to see what his new skills were.

False Divinity (L) Lv.1

Grants the effect of a tenth of a point of divinity.

The first one he saw was the one the elixir had given him but he also had the two from Appraiser hitting level 1 to look at.

Appraise (E) Lv.1

Increases the amount of physical details you are able to see.

(Scales off of Perception)

Increases the amount of magic details you are able to see.

(Scales off of Intelligence)

Critical Eye (E) Lv.1

Grants the ability to see flaws.

These two skills definitely would help with seeing how good an item was but Lake wanted to know if these were the skills everyone got and if so why weren't either of them common like Distill was. "Are the skills for Appraiser random?" Lake thought the skills fit to well to for them to be random.

"Yes, but most of them do very similar things." This seemed kind of dumb to Lake, but he wasn't the one who made the job so he wasn't the one who wasted his time. "We're done here technically but would you like to look around this is a good place to max Appraiser. Lake thought this sounded like a good idea so he said. "Ok."