The Insider System

Chapter 62: Cart Ride Through Town

A little while after the cart started moving, Lucas said. "We just entered the area you pointed to, tell me when we get close." Lake nodded he already knew they were almost there because he could see the dot that represented the journal getting closer the whole time. Lake had to admit he had been wrong about this skill; it was good its uses were just limited.

Watching the dot get closer and closer, Lake said. "It seems to be under whatever road we're on right now. We just went right over it." Lucas looked out the window, and said. "That makes this a little more complicated. I needed to know what building it was in to tell the guild where to send their guy."

Lake didn't see this as too big a deal. "Just send someone to every surrounding building; it has to be one of their basements." From the smell Lake didn't think this city had a sewer, so it was unlikely that the book was being kept in one. "You're right there's no reason to skimp on something like this. This will still be much cheaper than the job in the palace."

"Lucas, do you know what the two buildings we just passed were? If you did, we might be able to guess which was more likely to be an offshoot of the Mage guild." Lucas seemed to like his suggestion because he had the driver turn around and drive past again. "I guess the bookstore is the best guess. The journals don't give off any special magic to show how precious they are or anything, so I could see it ending up for sale here by accident. I bet they don't even know what it is."

Lake thought differently, the fact it was in the basement might mean it was in someone's private collection and not for sale. "Lucas, would it cost more to have them take more than one thing? Because I bet it's in someone's collection, so whatever it's with would probably be worth taking. Most of it was probably stolen from the guild anyway."

"The guild charges more depending on how much they're stealing. They charge per bag so we can probably get them to take 10 books without the cost going up." Lake thought that seemed reasonable, he wondered if they charged for weight as well, but then he remembered the strength stat made it so every person was superhuman, and weight didn't matter really.

If it could fit in a bag there was a good chance they could carry it. "Are we headed straight back to the guild now that we're done?" Lake was using the fact he had a date with the library to make it sound like he wanted to go back to the guild. "Yeah, unless there are anymore journals close by."

Lake shook his head, there were very few not in big clusters so the fact that there were two stand alone in this city was pretty good. "You never told me how many there were." Lucas seemed to realize that Lake was right, because he said. "It's because I don't know. I always felt a few were missing even before they got split up by the collapse."

"What made you think there were some missing?" Lucas's eyes glazed over and Lake knew that meant he was remembering something. "Amanda kept them a secret until she ascended. None of us even knew she was from another world until we found the journals in a secret shelf in her room. When someone ascends there's always a mad dash to find their belongings because there's a chance of them being artifacts. I was there when the guild searched her room and found the shelf that held the journals and I was one of the first to read from them but I don't think we were the first to find them. The shelf had three spaces empty when we found it. The Last space was one of the three spaces empty so it's possible that it was never filled but the other two spaces were wide so it was obvious someone had taken some from the middle. I would estimate 20 to 30 were missing."

"Why would someone only take some of them? Don't you think it's more likely Amanda hid some of them somewhere else." Lake would bet money on her being the one to put the one in the dungeon down there so he could see her hiding some of the more interesting ones as well. "I've thought that as well but she didn't leave any hints for us to track them down so either she didn't want us to find them which means we won't because she destroyed them or someone took them which would mean they still exist and I would rather believe the second theory."

"Maybe you just never found the hint." Lake was hinting that there was a journal in the dungeon but there was no way Lucas could know this. "I looked everywhere I could think of. I even went through the entire dungeon which took over a year because the teleporters down there stopped working after Amanda did whatever caused the dungeon to become the way it is."

"You mean the darkness not the undead right?" Lucas nodded and said. "The undead came much later. I'm just happy I searched down there before they showed up because It's much more dangerous now. When I looked it was just dark and confusing." Lake guessed Lucas had missed whatever puzzle led to the journal hidden down there, and if that was the case it must be hard to find.

Lake knew Lucas must have been very thorough because he was obsessed with the journals. The fact he spent a year in darkness proved that. "Lucas, can you use dark magic?" Lucas looked a little aggrieved as he said. "No, it didn't exist when I was born." Lake bet him not being able to use the dark element was what caused him to miss the journal.

It was so obvious that Lake bet Lucas had thought of the possibility every time he went into the dungeon and found nothing. It was probably something he had thought over and over again while he searched, until he was finally forced to accept it and gave up. Lake almost felt bad enough to tell him there was something down there and he could lead him to it.

"So how many had there been when you found them." Lake wanted to know how many they were going to need to get to finish the set the guild had had. "315. The fact that there were so many made me think I had no chance of ever regathering them no matter what, so I never even tried. I was just happy I had the first one. She put all her favorite memories in it because she was afraid she would lose them at any second. The later volumes are about her life before her death and they are in order so a lot of the stuff is mundane and kind of hard to read."

"Is there a noticeable gap when you're reading them, like a big portion is missing?" Lucas made a face like he was getting tired of all the questions and said. "That's enough, I would rather talk about how often you would be willing to help me retrieve journals." Lake just shrugged and said. "Whenever's fine with me, some are really far though so the amount of time we will spend in this cart will probably drive you crazy. I really like asking questions."

Lucas looked at him like he just stated the most obvious thing in the world. "I've noticed you're very curious about almost everything. You should focus more on alchemy, or you'll never make it past journeyman." Lucas would say that considering he was the head of the alchemy guild, but Lake liked to take advice from non biased sources.

...

Lake had just finished the delightful run up the stairs and into the library. He didn't want to spend too much time here so he just grabbed the first book that seemed to have anything to do with jobs and started to look through it. A few minutes later Lake had a list of jobs that gave agility on level up and was out the door and on his way to his bed.

Today had been ridiculous in the amount of things that had happened and he was ready for bed. He was also a little hungry, but not wanting to disturb Millie just to get a snack, Lake decided he would just wait for tomorrow's lunch. Getting to his hallway, Lake saw Solomon's door and thought it would be a good idea to apologize for what had happened at lunch.

The barfing part, not the Joy thing. Solomon needed to continue to think he and Joy were dating or at least until he left and none of the stuff going on here could affect him anymore. Knocking Lake was greeted by one of Solomon's servants and that was enough for Lake. "Will you tell Solomon I said sorry." After that was done Lake turned around and went to his bedroom to sleep.