The Insider System

Chapter 54: Actually Going Back To Work

After getting her to understand the concept of cheese, Lake thought it was time to go. "Alright, I'll see you two next time." Lake could tell he had made a strong enough impression that he was going to be invited back. Once he was out the door Lake realized he had forgotten to grab any food for his servants but he decided it didn't matter, because if his plan worked soon everyone would be eating it.

The thought of eating it for every meal made Lake happy enough that he decided to follow through on his thoughts of working later. Usually when he said he would do something later it never got done. Lake went towards his room and since it was so close he was there. Opening the door, Lake saw his servants. "Sir."

"Sorry to do this to you, but would you mind setting the Lab up again? I can get back to work now." When it had first happened Lake thought this was going to be a serious problem. He wasn't expecting to just drink one potion and be able to get back to work. If he did, he would have told them to keep the Lab ready.

"It's no problem sir, we'll have it ready soon. We kept the ingredients on the Lab floor so we could get back to work when you were ready." Lake appreciated them being proactive so he told them. "Good work, let's go." Lake just wanted to max out Alchemist to see what his next two skills were so he could decide if he was going to get serious about Alchemy.

If his next two skills were just normal Rare skills and not Unique he might just set aside Alchemist as an auxiliary skill holder. Entering the Lab Lake said. "Get the stations set up." Lake didn't say any more because he realized they weren't alone in the Lab. Solomon was over in the corner looking through some of the discarded potions they had left here earlier.

Lake thought it was weird that Solomon wasn't even hiding his snooping. Lake guessed he was going to play it off once the conversation started. Maybe he thought it would have looked suspicious if he stopped after Lake had seen him doing it; this would make it seem like he was fine with Lake seeing him.

Lake put on his nice and stupid face, he didn't want Solomon to know that he had already caught on. "Hey Lake, did you make these? What is it, an Intelligence poison?" Lake had no idea he hadn't really chosen it for its effect. He had picked it because its description said it was really easy. "I don't know, I already forgot."

Lake could feel Solomon secretly getting mad. Maybe that question had been more important than Lake realized. Solomon probably thought the effects of the potion would help him figure out Lake's skill. "Why don't you taste a little and see." Lake turned around to see Nia had just walked in and she didn't seem like she was going to play along with Lake's acting.

She was openly hostile towards Solomon. This made him think there were more things than just him breaking into Millie's room going on. This was bad for Lake. He was hoping to play both sides a little until he felt it was safe to pick one. His only option was to be subtle. He looked at Nia, and told her with his eyes to go away.

She seemed to get the idea because she turned and walked over to one of the empty stations. "Is this when people come to the Lab every day?" Lake found it odd that both Solomon and Nia were here at the same time and it made him think there was a reason. "Yeah, the Lab's always open, but this is the time that some of the older residents of the spire set for lessons, so there's always a chance one of them will come to teach us something."

Lake noticed a lack of Millie which made him wonder how bad was the tension between them that she would rather miss the lesson then see Solomon. Lake also found it weird that Solomon hadn't tried to turn Lake onto his side yet. He had to know Millie and Nia would warn him about him.

"What's up with Nia, why is she so hostile towards you?" Lake had to ask this or Solomon would find it weird. Lake had pretended to have decorum by waiting till Nia wasn't around to ask. "They think I broke into Millie's room. It happened about a year ago and Nia's been like that ever since."

Lake saw Solomon's angle now, by not bringing it up first he could act all sad when Lake asked about it. It was a good move instead of trying to get Lake onto his side Solomon was acting like there were no sides. It made him look innocent and it made Nia and Millie look wrong. "Why'd they blame you?"

Solomon would see this as a very important question, so Lake was expecting a very thought out answer. "I don't know. The day after it happened I didn't know about it yet so I went to lunch like normal but I saw Millie's servants carrying everything out of Millie's kitchen so I thought she was too busy to make lunch so I ate by myself. The next day Master Lucas told me Nia had accused me of breaking into Millie's room."

This was starting to feel like a high school drama. Maybe Solomon hadn't been the one to break into Millie's room and the bad vibes Lake had felt from him was just him being a little weird. He hadn't felt like Solomon lied either, and one of his skills could tell apparently. Lake decided this was no longer worth his time. Nia had just come back anyway, so Lake was going to start to Level up now.

"Will you three set up three stations like we did earlier?" There were plenty so him hogging three wasn't a big deal. 40 minutes and 30 something potions later, Lake had finished leveling Alchemist. Both Nia and Solomon were still here so he decided that he would wait till later to look at what he unlocked.

He didn't want to make either of them think he had already maxed out Alchemist, because the guild might make him take another test to see what rarity his new skills were. Pretending like he needed a break Lake asked. "How much longer do I need to stick around for the lesson?" Solomon waved his hand a little and said. "It doesn't look like anyone's coming today, you're good to go."

"In that case I'll see you two tomorrow. Let's go back to the room you three." Lake wasn't actually going to stay in his room for the rest of the day, he was just going to see what his new skills were then head down to see Lucas. Lake wanted to know if he could go back into the dungeon at any time he wanted, or only when he received permission.

Walking back to his room, Lake was really getting amped up. He couldn't wait to see what his next two skills were. He was hoping at least one of them was Unique. The handwriting that changed Alchemist seemed to be from one person so far so he didn't know if they had been able to change multiple skills, or just the one because they hadn't touched Distill.

Lake wondered if skills everyone got like Distill were somehow harder to change, or maybe whoever had changed it just thought it wasn't worth it since it was already perfect for the job. If that was what they had done Lake bet at least one more of his skills would be Unique. The person who did it seemed to like poison so Lake was expecting another skill that had to do with poison.

Lake honestly would like a skill that kept him from being mind controlled, or some other negative effects. He would miss out on the ice cream, but it would keep the Demon Lord out of his head. He was getting more paranoid now that he knew Poison only referred to Poison and not all negative effects. Lake wondered what would have happened if his skill had triggered on the ice cream earlier. It probably would have just made him not want to eat it. Lake bet Millie's feelings would have been hurt if he had spit the ice cream out.

Opening the door to his room Lake sat down at the table next to the kitchen. Then he pulled up his stats, and skill pages.

Race: Human Lv.5 ( 7/10 )

Job: Alchemist Lv.10 (Max)

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

Stats

Health 50

Stamina 50

Mana 50

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 19

Dexterity 42

Perception 78

Intelligence 109

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 2

Skills

Poison Control (U) Lv.1

Grants the ability to control poison.

Concentrate (L) Lv.1

On activation, increases the effect of targeted potion by decreasing volume and stability.

Today was Lake's lucky day apparently, another Legendary skill. That either meant he beat the odds or Unique Jobs defaulted to Legendary skills once they ran out of Unique ones. "Ok I'll see you guys later I'm gonna go see Guild Leader Lucas." Lake grabbed his sword, and walked out the door.