The Insider System

Chapter 59: The Need To Leave

Lake held the door open for Joy. "Sir." Seeing his three servants, Lake said. "You three are dismissed till tomorrow." Watching the three of them head to their rooms, Lake wondered if they had anything to do in there, or if they were just going to stare at the wall until tomorrow. To be honest the servants were one of the main reasons Lake wanted to leave.

He was pretty sure something had been done to them to insure loyalty, and Lake didn't like the implications of the guild being able to do that to people. He was actually starting to wonder if Joy was the same; it was one of the reasons he had had her come to lunch. He had noticed she had moments of rigidity that reminded him of his servants, but she also seemed to have a sense of humor which his servants did not.

"Joy, do you know what's up with my servants? They seem more like the undead we kill than regular people." The way they just stood around and waited for him was exactly the same. Lake had actually checked their stats to see if they were human, because he had thought they might have been trained undead.

After he had seen they were human Lake came to his new conclusion they were brainwashed or cursed or something. "I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about them if I was you. It wears off when they aren't on the clock." Lake would have never seen this coming, maybe sending them to their rooms was a mercy.

"Is it some kind of magic that makes sure they do a good job?" Joy took off her helmet and said. "Something like that. People who take the loyalty get paid more, and depending on what level you take the more you get. Your servants make ten times what I make." what Joy said gave him more questions than answers.

"What's the loyalty?" This was the biggest concern he had about the guild other than the fact that a lot of internal strife was present. "It's a curse one of the former members of the Mage guild made, and I'm sure you can guess what I mean when I say former member." Joy was saying the guild was still using something made by a Demon worshiper. He just hoped they had bothered changing it.

"So did you take it?" If Joy said yes to this question, Lake could never trust her to do something he needed that might be bad for the guild, for example asking her to help him run away. "Yep, all the guards have to take the first level when we get hired. It just keeps us from slacking off while we're wearing our armor though, doesn't really make us do anything we don't want."

"What are its exact effects?" Joy was being too vague for him to know exactly what she could and couldn't do. "Whenever I lose focus it snaps me back to reality, and makes it impossible for me to sleep in my armor, that's why we get those sleep potions in our kits." So it just made her not suck at her job.

This made him think it was possible to ask her to help him break out and not have her instantly turn him in. Lake knew there was a problem though she might not know all the effects some were bound to be hidden. Lake would have to actually inspect the curse to make sure. With a couple of Lakes' skills it would be possible for him to see more about the curse.

Lake thought it would be stupid to start with Joy though. He needed to start with other curses to see if the action of inspecting a curse was dangerous. It could trigger a defense mechanism or something. "You said you would tell me why you did that once we got to your room. Did you lie just to get me to come here?"

"Nope, I lied for a different reason. Millie likes Solomon, and while we were over there I noticed he seemed to be interested in you. I made it seem like we were a couple so he wouldn't ask you out in front of Millie." Joy seemed to not completely buy what he was saying, because she asked. "You sure there's no other reason?"

Lake could tell Joy was just messing with him as revenge for embarrassing her in front of everyone. Lake wasn't the type to start stuttering and freak out when a woman hit on him, especially when he could tell it was a joke. "What, you mad I stopped him?" Lake knew the only way to get out of this without making Joy more mad at him was to make it funny.

If he just told her he wasn't attracted to her she could take it as an insult even though she was clearly not into him either. "No, if what you said is true you just saved me a lot of trouble. Just getting Glen to leave me alone was hard enough, there's no way I could've refused if he was as important as Solomon."

Lake found it funny so many spindly nerds from the Alchemist guild were attracted to Joy's massive frame. She was a good two feet taller than Solomon and Glen. If she wanted she could already be some Masters trophy wife. "Joy, do you need to get back to work, or can you just do whatever I say? like can I just order you to guard me from now on."

Lake wanted to keep her around, because the closer they were the more likely it would be that she would help him escape if he ever asked. "I doubt my superiors would allow me to just do nothing and continue to pay me. A few days into my apparent desertion they would figure I eloped with you and I would be fired. The guild doesn't pay people's wives unless they actually do something."

"In that case I'll see you later. I don't plan to go into the dungeon tomorrow, so I order you to come to lunch from now on if you want." Lake laughed at his order because it was ridiculous. "That's not much of an order, so I'll be saying you made me if anyone asks." Joy left after she said this and Lake looked at the time.

He still had a few hours before it was time to go to bed so he had plenty of time to start his plan to run away. There were only a few things Lake needed to know first so he left his room and started to go towards the elevator. Lake wanted to see how the guards would react to him just wandering around.

If no one said anything, Lake could probably just hop out a window or something. Passing through Lucas's office, Lake didn't see him. Lake wondered if Lucas was setting up the kitchen Millie needed already or if he was just still upstairs. Stepping onto the elevator, Lake told it to go to a floor he had never been to before, the second floor.

If he wasn't stopped he would be using this floor to escape the only problem was the size of the guild building. It was going to take him a while to find a good route to take to get through all the buildings and walls. When he had first stepped out onto a balcony and saw the scale of the guild he thought it was cool, now he saw it as a pain in the ass.

He was going to have to find a way to get through two separate walls that were guarded all day every day. Thinking of all the effort he was going to put into this plan just for it to possibly fail, Lake couldn't help but think it might not be worth it. It would be worth a shot to just ask Lucas to let him see the city.

Lake had shown himself to be a devoted member of the guild, so there was a good chance Lucas might let him outside. Plus Lake had already run into a guard post and could go no further into the second floor without dealing with them, and that could lead to news about him snooping around getting to Lucas.

Going back to the elevator, Lake moved up to the third floor. Lake thought this was probably the highest floor he could jump from and not end up dead, so this would be the last one he would check. Lake didn't even bother getting off the elevator at the third floor because it was where the guards lived and he had seen about fifty the moment the door opened.

Now that he knew there wasn't an easy way for him to get out of the building on his own, Lake saw no other choice but to ask Lucas. If lake had to put odds on this working he would say about 30% which was pretty good. The only problem being if Lucas said no he would have to wait months before he could ask again to make sure he didn't seem too eager to leave. Lake needed to make sure he came off as nonchalant as possible when he asked.