The Insider System

Chapter 85: Making Poison

Waking up Lake got straight out of bed, he had a lot he wanted to do today plus whatever he had to do, so he didn't have time to waste in bed. Getting dressed, Lake said bye to his servants; who had been very surprised to see him last night because no one had bothered to tell them he hadn't left, and rushed down the hallway only slowing down when he saw Millie.

"Hey Millie, you're still here too huh?" Millie turned around and said. "Yeah, Lucas asked me if I wanted to stay until the restaurants were approved." There was probably more to why she had stayed but this was probably the reason she actually believed. Lake could tell Millie wasn't a fighter, so it made sense she was still here because she would be too scared to pick a side.

This made Lake wonder if Solomon was actually still here because the only person Lake had seen leave yesterday was Nia. "Is Solomon still here?" Millie had already seemed kind of upset before he asked, but her face fell even more, as she said. "No, he left in the first wave, so I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Lake didn't want Millie to cry, so he quickly changed the subject by asking. "Is the feast going to happen today?" Lake knew the answer was most likely going to be no but it was still good to make sure. "No, we're just going to send some food to the palace."

This sounded like a better plan than the feast to Lake, so he was happy it had been changed. Especially after what had happened when he was at the palace, he would rather not see the king again. "Alright I'll see you."

Lake excused himself because he didn't want to spend the whole day talking to Millie. He was sure she would be feeling lonely now that Nia was gone because the two of them spent a lot of time together for the last few years.

Getting to his first stop today the library Lake looked for a book on poisons. Yesterday when he was using Poison Control to pull the poison out of that mushroom it had made Lake realize he was wasting a valuable skill, and he planned to remedy that by making some strong poison he could use as a secret weapon.

In the future anyone who got too close to him in a fight would regret it. Looking through the book, Lake stopped once he got to the best poison he thought he could make, and returned to his room to get his servants to prepare the lab.

Once he was in the lab It didn't take long for his servants to enter carrying 5 metal containers. Lake was confused at first until he remembered not everyone was able to drink poison. The containers were clearly a safety precaution, one that he would be disregarding as soon as everyone else left the room.

"You three can leave the room. I'll take care of the rest." His three servants dropped the containers and left like he told them to. Lake walked over to the first and only container that looked different and picked it up. This was the first time Lake was doing actual Alchemy because so far he had only been mixing things with clearly labeled properties anyone could see if they used inspect.

Plants had levels as well, and as they leveled up they gained new properties that made it real easy to make potions, but plants weren't the only things you could use in Alchemy. The only problem was other things didn't have their properties listed in their description like plants did, so it was really easy to mess up when you used them.

The cool thing was they usually added really strange properties to the potions you couldn't get if you just used plants. And the special property he was hoping for today was texture, this poison was renowned for being almost impossible to get off of skin giving it plenty of time to pass through the skin and into the body.

That wasn't even the best part, even if the person used the right antidote, there was a good chance they were still covered in the stuff, meaning they would just be poisoned all over again until they either ran out of antidotes and died, or they found a way to get it all off their skin.

Opening the container Lake saw the special ingredient, small purple slugs that had been dried. Lake needed to grind them into powder because when it came to things this dangerous most people weren't willing to risk their life just to make somebody like him have an easier time making a dangerous poison.

For most people if you breathed in some of the powder while crushing the slugs that was it, you were dead because as soon as the powder met your wet lungs it became glue, and poisonous glue at that. Good luck coughing that out. Your best bet was actually to cut your own lungs out one at a time while drinking an antidote and a potion that could regrow them.

It was brutal and exactly what Lake wanted for his enemies. Breaking some of the slugs down into a powder Lake activated poison control to make sure none of it got into the air. Once he was done he moved on to the normal plant ingredients. The first being.

Millo Root Lv. 25

Effect 1: Damage Health 26 Points

Effect 2: Damage Stamina 16 Points

Effect 3: Decrease Agility 6 Points

Lake forgot the part about it slowing people down as well. It being like glue already made it hard for people to move if they got hit but once it got in their system their agility would start to be affected. Lake did the same for this ingredient, and broke it down before moving to the next.

Ugly Flower Lv. 21

Effect 1: Decrease Agility 22 Points

Effect 2: Damage Health 12 Points

Effect 3: Damage Stamina 2 Points

Looked like someone skimped on the Ugly Flower because its level wasn't the same as what he asked for. He guessed the fact it had a better effect as its first made it more expensive, but it still made the cut because it had the first three effects unlocked which was all he needed for it to work. Lake broke it down, and moved on to the last plant ingredient.

Dane Lion Lv. 25

Effect 1: Damage Stamina 26 Points

Effect 2: Damage Health 16 Points

Effect 3: Decrease Agility 6 Points

Lake liked the last one's name because this plant looked almost exactly like a dandelion. The only difference was this one was extremely poisonous apparently. It didn't really matter though so he broke it down and moved to the last container.

This one held the catalyst he would be using, spider venom, since he was making such a strong poison he had to use something better than water because water would most likely not be able to contain the reaction that would happen once he added all the ingredients. Even if all the ingredients liked each other as much as these three did there would be something similar to an implosion.

Lake was actually going to have to use his two skills to slow the reaction down so it mixed correctly. Pouring the correct amount of spider venom into the mixing pot he would be using to make the poison, Lake got it over some heat. Heating it up was the only way he would be able to mix it once the slug powder was in. Lake activated both Distill and Poison Control and added a small amount of the slug powder. Since they both had poisonous properties that affect health this was a mixture and the first ingredient. Inspecting it Lake saw this mixture would do 15 points of damage a second if he was to stop here but Lake had no plans on doing that.

Adding the Millo Root and the Ugly Flower Lake could feel them start to interact as soon as they both dissolved in the catalyst and a few seconds of stirring the Damage Health portion of the potion was stable at 53 a second.

This was an interesting state for the potion to be in because the other two effects were still missing the third ingredient they would need to become stable but the damage heath was fine as is, so this potion was technically a split potion while also being stable enough to be done.

This meant if he stopped now this potion would deal 53 damage to health a second 19 to stamina and would damage someone's Agility by 28 points all while being sort of sticky. Lake wasn't done though, he just thought it was cool that this poison could kill him in less than 2 seconds if he wasn't immune.

Picking up the last ingredient Lake poured it in and braced Poison Control he planed to use it to make sure the last two effects didn't bond to fast and to keep the new Damage Health effect from the already stable one because he would have to deal with it after he was done with the other two by adding more slug powder.

Mixing the Damage Stamina portion first Lake made quick work of it because it had wanted to do it on its own. Then he did it with the Damage Agility portion. Making this potion have three stable effects with an unintegrated matching effect. Grabbing the slug powder Lake added a little more to thicken it up some more and to make it easier for the Damage health effect from the third ingredient to integrate into the already stable potion.

Once he was done Lake removed it from the heat to let it cool then added up the effects before checking using inspect.

Sticky Poison

Effect 1: Damage Health 69 Points a second

Effect 2: Damage Stamina 44 Points a second

Effect 3: Decrease Agility 34 Points for duration

Added effects: Sticky Lv. 3, Flesh Corrosion Lv. 1

Duration 9 hours

Lake saw the spider venom had also added an Corrosion effect, and was happy with the final result, and tested out how well he could control it using Poison Control. Making it fly around the room for a while, lake had it land in a bottle he would be keeping in his satchel from now on until he needed it.