The Insider System

The source of this content is 𝐟𝗿𝗲𝗲𝐰𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Waking up, Lake decided to stay in bed for a while. He had nothing to do today, and Lake only slept for a few minutes each day, meaning he never got to relax like this in what was probably one of the best beds in the world. After 2 hours, Lake got bored and got out of bed.

Just because he had nothing to do for the day didn't mean he wouldn't find something after walking around for a while. He'd also like to continue his magic training because his wind magic was still way behind his speed on the ground, meaning he only moved a tenth of the speed when he chose to fly.

To fix this problem, he would probably need weeks of training in the speed principle, but there was no rush because he really didn't need to fly for anything. "Sir, are you going out of the guild today?"

On the way out of the door, one of his servants asked him a question, which was pretty rare, but he had no reason not to tell them his plans for the day, so he said. "I'm not sure yet. Would you like me to have someone tell you if I leave?"

Lake knew his servants had more freedom if he gave them the day off, so he wasn't surprised they wanted him to free them from the loyalty curse by giving them the day off if he left the guild because otherwise, they would have to stand around and wait for him to return all day. "We would appreciate it, but don't go out of your way."

Lake felt that was fair, so he gave them all a small nod before walking out the door. Lake still hadn't decided where he was going by the time he'd arrived at the stairs, so he paused for a while and weighed his options. Eventually, he saw a person going up walk past him and decided to follow them.

Even though he'd based this decision on almost nothing, there were still plenty of things in the Spire he had never seen, so he felt it was the right choice. It had been a while since he walked the stairs of the spire, but wanting to read the signs well enough to find something to do, this was the only option he had.

After reading about a hundred signs, Lake found an interesting-sounding description of a room he'd never been to before. Trying his badge at the door, Lake found it opened with no problems, which meant he had access to this room. Entering, Lake stayed put for a while as he took in everything that surrounded him.

It was nothing special as this was just a storage room, but you never knew he might need to get his own ingredients one day. After a few minutes passed and no one had came up to him to talk, Lake assumed he was alone and started walking around reading the names of the various ingredients stored in this room.

It took him a while, but eventually, he found an ingredient he knew from past usage, which brought back memories of the first few days he was here in the Alchemist Guild, and these memories included memories of Joy. "I should try and find her today."

With a new goal in mind, Lake took an arrow out and said it to look for Joy. When it started to glow, Lake knew Joy was close by the direction the arrow was pointing and went to take the stairs down to the elevator. Passing through Lucas' office, Lake saw the man at work and decided not to say anything to him even though he wanted to ask about the plans for their trip to Metal Domain.

Getting on the elevator, Lake used Detector to find out which floor Joy was on before switching it to just look for her. When he found her, Joy was sitting at a table filled with guards, silently eating lunch. Walking up to her, Lake had been about to say her name to get her attention but decided to try and use the thought projection ability he now had.

The original item made you make eye contact with the person you wanted to speak with to use this ability, but Inner Vault didn't say anything about this requirement, so he was pretty sure he could do it from here while still behind Joy. "Joy Look Behind You." After his first try, Lake was pretty sure it hadn't done anything because Joy never turned around to look for him.

Lake didn't know what the problem was but decided to try it on someone he could make eye contact with from here. "Look Out, Behind You." After he said this in his mind, Lake saw the person start to turn frantically, clearly afraid of an incoming attack that would never come.

Seeing that the skill did need eye contact to work, Lake guessed he should just tap Joy on the shoulder because having to make eye contact with her first pretty much meant she would see him coming. Lightly tapping on her armor, Joy's head spun around, and she said. "It's good to see you, Lake. I was starting to wonder if you'd left the guild for good." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝗯𝐧𝗼𝘃𝐞𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝐦

"No, I have no plans of leaving the guild. Being a member is really just too convenient to ever do something like that." If he didn't find this place so boring, he'd probably never leave the premises unless the Insider made him. "So, did you need something; or did you just want to say hello?" freew ebnov el

This was actually a great question; Lake hadn't thought of a reason to find Joy; he just had nothing else to do and hadn't seen her for a while. "Is there anything you'd like to do? It's been a while since I've had time off, and I'm sure you're in a similar situation."

Lake was technically Joy's boss, so if he wanted, he could just drag her around the guild under the pretense of her working for him. "I'm actually busy today. One of my co-workers passed away, and we're having a funeral."

Lake had always been bad at knowing what to say after someone said someone died because he wanted to ask what had happened, but apparently, that was considered rude, so instead, he looked at the table that was now watching their interaction and said. "Sorry for your loss."

It came out more like a question than he'd wanted, but it was still received much better than his regular response, so Lake made a note to himself to always use this in the future. Turning back to Joy, Lake said. "I'll come to find you the next time I have a day off. We can do something then."

As he walked away, Lake got a glimpse of the person he'd tested thought transmission on and decided to say sorry as he walked out of the cafeteria so they wouldn't freak out about this for the rest of their life. "Sorry, I Was Testing A New Skill, And You Were The First Person I Saw."

After his second transmission to them, he saw their face shift from worry to anger, but he understood because, to them, it would have been like a mean-spirited prank someone they didn't know had just pulled on them.

Once he was out of the cafeteria, Lake took a second to think of what he should do next. He really expected Joy to want to hang out because it would mean she wouldn't be working, but a funeral was definitely more important than a day off to most people, so he understood why she had said no.

It didn't change that he needed to find something else to pass the time with, though. "I guess I'll just go and practice." Practicing was bland, but so was walking around for no reason.

...

Waking up, Lake got straight out of bed and headed for Lucas' office. Today was the day they were heading to the Metal Domain, and Lake wanted to ask when they would be leaving since they had never spoken about it yesterday.

On the way out the door, he didn't forget what his servant had asked of him yesterday and said. "You three can have the day off." Even if he would be here for a few more hours, he didn't need them for anything that he could think of. "Thank you, sir."

Once he was in Lucas' office, Lake noticed a distinct lack of Lucas at the desk and used the mark he'd placed on his amulet a long time ago to look for him in fear he'd already left for some reason. Once the mark appeared, Lake found Lucas was only in the next room, most likely asleep for the first time in days.

Like yesterday, he had nothing to do, so Lake took a seat in the chair in front of Lucas' desk to wait for him to wake up. He didn't think it would be a very long wait if Lucas was anything like him, at most a few hours, which he could pass speed training.