The Insider System

Chapter 79: Domana

Lake looked at the giant. It had said he could leave after it showed him something, and the fact that he couldn't leave now probably meant that what it wanted him to see hadn't happened yet. Refocusing on the undead giant Lake waited for whatever he needed to see before could leave and after about a minute of waiting Lake saw the giant's eye open.

Right after it happened Lake felt something stir in the air around him and from the sky Lake saw some form of dark cloud start to form. The cloud was the color of rust and it was directly above where the new undead giant was kneeling. Lake was pretty sure this cloud and the aura it was giving off was what he was supposed to see because this was actually affecting him.

He felt like he was about to explode from the pressure and it was getting worse as the cloud grew. Lake guessed the giant just wanted to show off how strong they were, so he would reconsider joining them, but really Lake just wanted to run away, but just like earlier he wasn't able to get his legs to work.

After about a minute of the cloud growing the center opened and Lake saw what looked like a mouth form in the middle. Lake didn't really know what to expect next but eventually the mouth said something. "Domana." After the one word the cloud moved like a bolt of lightning and struck the giant.

Once the cloud was gone, most of the crushing aura was as well. Only a small portion was still clinging to the giant. "That was what I was really offering you. The Demon Lord gives more divinity to his followers than any other god. Someone Like you would be a demigod in no time."

Lake felt it was a little early to become a demigod; he wasn't really comfortable with fighting normal enemies, let alone those that were good enough to become demigods. Lake knew he was technically strong but it wasn't really because he was skilled in any way other than skills. Almost all his strength had been handed to him like it was nothing because of the Insider.

Even the Insider itself had just been handed to him. What Lake was saying was he didn't think he was ready for the big leagues yet, so while he might be crazy for turning this offer down he was still going to, at least for now. "No thank you."

The giant didn't seem too surprised by this, and said "Ok you have about 30 seconds before you can leave so just keep watching." Lake looked back at the giant that had finally gotten to its feet and saw it flexing its hands for whatever reason then he saw it look up and cover its eyes with its hand.

Like this was its cue the other giant walked over and draped one of its robes over the other giant's head. Lake guessed undead didn't like a lot of light or something. "You three get Domana to a safe place." Lake saw the giant point out three of its followers and tell them to protect Domana which seemed to be the new giants name.

When the cloud had said it earlier Lake thought it had just been a spell or something but he guessed it was some naming ceremony or something for the new demigod in the Demon Lord's army. This made Lake wonder if the giant he had been talking to this whole time had a name as well so he asked.

"Do you have a name as well?" It didn't really matter. Lake was just curious. "My name is Domare. You can go now Lake." Lake guessed it had been about 30 seconds, so he turned and started walking away. It didn't escape his notice that Domare knew his name even though he was in disguise and even if you checked his stats which he was sure they did it would say a different name.

The weirdest part was the giant really only seemed to know his name right at the end right after he asked for theirs. It also happened right when the giant said he would be able to leave and that made Lake think what Domare wanted him to see all along was it call Domana its name so Lake would ask if they had one as well.

But if it wanted Lake to know its name why not just tell him, why go through all that to make him ask. After Lake thought this he understood Domare probably had some weird skill the Demon Lord had given it that had something to do with being able to know things if certain requirements were met.

Lake guessed him asking Domare for its name had given it his as well. Lake assumed Domare was going to give his name to the Demon Lord now, so Lake needed to be ready for a visit sometime soon. Lake had kind of glossed over it because he was so relieved he hadn't been crushed, but he wondered what that snapping noise was when Domare had first picked him up.

Lake couldn't really see very far at the time so it could have been a tree or something being knocked over but it had sounded like it came from his body at the time, and the fact that this was his only clue made Lake pretty sure while it was important if he wanted to understand what just happened, with no clues he couldn't really guess the right answer this time.

He was just going to have to say he got lucky this time, and be happy with this answer. Lucky was an understatement actually because any way he saw it, if he had fought Domare Lake would have been dead before he could even inflict the equivalent of a paper cut to them.

Maybe in the future he would be unlucky enough to be near a battle involving some of those giants, and he would be able to see what they were actually capable of. Lake was moving much faster now because he was able to see, so he was hoping to get out of the forest before he got caught in anything else. They weren't that far from the capital, so Lake assumed there was going to be a battle that fit his description soon, and he didn't want to be anywhere near it.

Getting close to the edge the trees became less dense so Lake picked up his speed even more by activating Burst, and started to head in a direction that wasn't towards the capital because Lake assumed that would be where the troops coming to see what was happening would be, so he was going to take the long way home.

Not running into a bunch of soldiers was worth a few more minutes of running to him. He didn't feel like trying to convince them he wasn't one of them because he felt like even if they believed him they would still ask him more questions than he felt like answering. Finding a path that led in the direction he wanted to go, Lake got on it and started running full speed.

...

Lake's legs started to hurt after a while of running full speed so when he passed a rock that was next to the path he stopped and sat down. Lake guessed his Endurance being so low was catching up to him. Lake didn't know how long it was going to take for his legs to feel better so he pulled up his stats to see what this identity was called.

Name: Carl Nit

Race: Human Lv.8

Job: Thief Lv.10 ( 1587/5120 )

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 4/5 )

Stats

Health 80

Stamina 80

Mana 200

Strength 43

Endurance 15

Agility 49

Dexterity 49

Perception 83

Intelligence 114

Charisma 23

Free stat points: 57

Lake never expected to use this identity again, he just wanted to know what its name was. Then Lake saw he only needed one more Exp to make the Insider reach level one. He wondered what was going to happen, but to find that out he needed to get his last mission.

Unlike the last one Lake had no idea what it could be or what he needed to do to get it. All his missions so far had walked him through all the basic things he needed to do as a thief and the Insider, so he guessed he just needed to keep doing what he wanted to do.

Not being ready to keep running yet, Lake continued to think about what his next mission might be about until he realized he might have just turned down exactly what he needed to get to complete it. It made sense to him that it might have something to do with divinity.

Even if that was the truth though, Lake still thought he made the right choice turning down Domare's offer. There were other ways to get divinity that he wouldn't have to get involved with the Demon Lord for. Thinking about it, Lake pulled up the locations of Amanda's journals.

So far these were his best bet to get an artifact that apparently gave free divinity to anyone who found one. Looking around Lake realized he was actually already heading in the direction of the journal he and Lucas had planned to get today before all of this had happened.

Seeing as he didn't have a place to sleep tonight because the capital was full, Lake decided to go get it once he felt better. Maybe he would get lucky and they would have a empty room for him to sleep in.