The Insider System

Chapter 26: Nelg and Friends

Lake was trying to find a good way to convince them he wasn't planning anything, when he thought "I should just plan something, it's worth a shot who cares if I fail."

And with that thought Lake's plan started, really putting his brain to work, Lake smirked. He just realized why they had sent so many people. It wasn't Joy; he bet they went overboard because of him. "What do you think my skill does?"

Lake saw a few of them back up after he said this. This proved they were treating him like a bomb that could go off at any time. He was curious what Legendary skills made others capable of. How much of an advantage did they give you? "Shut up and come over here."

This was a volatile situation. Nelg didn't seem like he was willing to mess around. Lake wondered if they really thought he could pose a threat to them. Opening his stats and skills Lake wondered if they were right; he hadn't really spent much time with these skills; if you quizzed him on them he would probably fail. They were good but he wondered if they could close such a big gap.

Looking through his skills Lake couldn't really think of a way to get out of this. The only thing he could do is bet on the skills he would unlock if he used his free points to boost stats to 10. If he got lucky maybe he would get another skill like burst.

Race: Human Lv.2 ( 0/10 )

Job: Alchemist Lv.1(3 / 10)

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 2/5 )

Stats

Health 20

Stamina 20

Mana 20

Strength 6

Endurance 7

Agility 19

Dexterity 24

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Perception 19

Intelligence 9

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 10

Lake decided to start with strength; this was combat and Lake thought it had the best chance to be helpful. Using 4 points Lake felt the familiar feeling of receiving a new skill.

Crunch (U) Lv.1

Strength doubles for the next attack ignores the target's endurance and armor.

(Cost: 5 Stamina)

This was the kind of stuff Lake was looking for. This skill had also been changed with gold writing, whoever did it had added the ignores the target's endurance and armor part but had left the cost the same. Lake moved on to Endurance adding 3 points he looked at the new skill.

Refreshed (U) Lv.1

Halves the need for sleep, food, and water. Stamina refills twice as fast.

This was a good skill, just not too useful for this situation. Lake only had 3 points left so he wasn't going to be able to buff Charisma to 10 so he put 1 point into Intelligence. This was the last chance to make this situation better. He was still not convinced he could win, maybe kill a few with crunch but they would still lose in the end.

Race: Human Lv.2 ( 0/10 )

Job: Alchemist Lv.1(3 / 10)

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 2/5 )

Stats

Health 20

Stamina 20

Mana 20

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 19

Dexterity 24

Perception 19

Intelligence 10

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 2

Comprehension (U) Lv.1

Grants the ability to understand and control mana.

Grants basic affinity for every element.

Lake found the name to be a little funny because he didn't really understand how to use this skill at all. Whoever had changed this skill had decided to add/change one word, every. nothing else was golden, but lake guessed this was a big change. Using this skill Lake felt a sensation similar to the feeling from holding cores but spread over his whole body. Once the sensation subsided Lake had gained nothing from the experience.

But this gave Lake an idea, there was a way for him to get information with some basic acting. Nelg and them were waiting for him to try something, so he could pretend to explain his plan to them while fishing for information.

"Do you know the skill Comprehension?" After he said this a few of the people beside Nelg backed up a bit. "Do you mean the skill everyone gets when their Intelligence reaches 10?"

"Correct. Do you know what makes it special?" Nelg looked a little confused by this question but Lake could tell he had peaked his interest. "It's one of the few skills with different effects based on the rarity while the name stays unchanged. Common grants one elemental affinity while legendary grants five. I don't see how this is related to your Legendary skill."

Neither did Lake but it was still nice to know. "Relax, I'm about to make my point. Do you know how Comprehension works?" Nelg looked furious at this question. "What do you mean, can you not tell I'm a mage? Of course I know."

Lake saw a weird distortion form around Nelg. It was like the area around Nelg wasn't being lit anymore. Not understanding what he was seeing, Lake turned on his skill Mana Vision. This ended up being the right choice. Lake saw Nelg was somehow affecting the balance of elements around him. It looked like he was pulling black mana towards him, and pushing everything else away.

Lake remembered that Nelg was a Dark mage, so Lake assumed Nelg had an Affinity for the Dark Element? Seeing what Nelg was doing Lake tried to imitate him. Reactivating Comprehension Lake tried to single out a single element. Having a hard time he remembered there was already a place where a single element was singled out.

Locking on to the Black mana around Nelg Lake felt a connection form. "What are you trying to do? I can feel you trying to wrestle my Mana away from me." Nelg dispersed his mana but it was already too late. A black cloud a few inches thick had formed around Lake. It wasn't as big as the one that had been around Nelg but it was enough for Lake to get a notification. [New job unlocked Dark Mage]

"Alright that's enough you're clearly wasting time in the hopes someone comes to help you. Attack!" Lake switched to Dark Mage even though he didn't have the time to look at its details. He was unarmed so he was hoping to use magic to fight.

Joy had taken his weapons earlier, and never given them back. After Nelg had said attack the five people who had been holding melee weapons and joy had disappeared from their spots. Lake wasn't able to see what was happening but he could hear them fighting in between him and Nelg.

Suddenly Lake saw a flash move towards him he realized his skill The Sight had kicked in, he was now able to kind of tell what was going on. Lake saw the person who had gotten past Joy was now reaching towards him but wasn't using their weapon. He saw as their hand touched the cloud of black mana around him. Lake tried to exert control over the mana to attack but nothing really happened.

Switching to plan B Lake activated burst and said "Crunch." Punching out Lake saw his stamina drop to 15 he also saw his fist rip through the man's chest. Lake felt as his hand crunched through the man's rib cage and stop when it hit something hard in the man's chest. [Level up][Level up][Level up][Level up]

Lake looked at the dead man hanging from his hand and said, "Oops." He hadn't been trying to kill this guy, but thinking about it Crunch had done exactly what it said, so this was on him. [New Quest: Acquire human core]

After he had killed this man the fight had stopped, and Lake could tell the black cloud around him had gotten thicker. He also knew he had unlocked some new skills from hitting level 1 in Dark mage, but he didn't dare look because the people holding bows had just released a salvo towards him.

Lake lifted the man still on his hand to use as a shield, but he didn't stop there, he once again tried to control the mana in front of him this time trying to harden it. As he focused on the mana Lake heard something similar to a whisper coming from it, without thinking he repeated what it said. "Dark Shield."

Lake Watched as the arrows got stuck in the wall of darkness in front of him. "Stop firing. We can't kill him, remember. All of you focus on Joy. I'll take care of him." Lake grabbed the core his hand was touching and let the man's body fall to the ground. [Quest complete: Reward Skill: Impersonate] Lake saw a dark cloud start to form around Nelg again and could feel the mana around him being pulled towards Nelg. "You surprised me I wasn't expecting you to be a Dark mage like me, but my control is much higher than yours so give it up."

Lake could tell this had turned into a tug of war and he was at a heavy disadvantage. He watched as his cloud of mana slowly shrunk and instead of fighting Nelg, Lake decided to support Joy. Lake used the last of the cloud to put up a shield to block the arrows they had shot at her and then used burst to rush behind one of the melee fighters she was still fighting. "Crunch."

Lake punched through the back of this man.[Level up] Lake smiled this time it had been on purpose. Before he let the body hit the ground he grabbed the short sword that was still in his hand. When Lake grabbed this sword he felt a feeling similar to the knife Mary had given him and he knew it was enchanted. "Black slice."

Lake felt the mana fluctuate and knew Nelg had fired a spell towards him. Not looking, He used Burst and jumped behind one of the people Joy was still fighting. He was planning to use them like a shield but it hadn't been necessary.

Lake watched as the spell passed over the place he had been standing. "Dark shackles." Lake felt something grab his wrists and ankles. Looking he saw black chains had formed and grabbed onto him.

Pulling Lake found he wasn't able to move his arms or legs from the spot the chains had formed. "Ha ha, I got you. Now that you're in those you can't get away. Just sit there and watch as I finish this bitch off." Lake guessed Nelg didn't like Joy for some reason, they had been working together and it was pretty common for coworkers to not get along, but name calling wasn't very nice.

Lake saw Nelg start to charge up for another spell; it looked like he planned to use a big one to finish Joy off in one hit. Not willing to sit here and watch, Lake also started to gather mana and as soon as it started to gather around him Lake saw the chains start to absorb it. "Oh shit." Lake stopped out of fear of making the chains stronger.

When he thought about it it made sense he was using the same element as Nelg; what he needed was the opposite. Thinking about it Lake bet Light was also an element so taking what he had learned earlier. He tried to gather Light mana out of the surroundings.

After failing his first attempt, lake heard Nelg say, "Dark Flash." Lake knew Joy was surrounded on three sides so she wouldn't be able to doge. "Magic resist." Lake saw a red barrier form around Joy.

When Nelg's spell hit, the barrier broke and Joy was hit with the remaining power. Joy's barrier seemed to negate some of the spell but Lake could tell she had been injured. Going back to trying to use Light to break his chains, Lake had a mild success as he saw a few colors of mana flash for a millisecond before they reintegrated back into his surroundings.

That was fine because he had gotten a whiff of the scent he was after and was now able to feel it. Zeroing in on it, Lake started to gather white mana in a cloud around him. After it started Lake felt all eyes on him which wasn't a surprise because he was glowing like a beacon.[New job unlocked Light Mage]

Switching to the new job Lake tried to think of a way to break his shackles. He could tell they didn't like the Light mana because they were not absorbing it this time, but they didn't seem like they were being damaged. That meant he needed to form an attack. Shaping the mana into a blade, Lake heard something similar to when he had used Dark Shield for the first time. "Light Blade."

Repeating what the voice had said Lake saw a Light Blade smash into the shackle on his hand that was holding the sword he had taken. With a crack the shackle dissipated and Lake's arm was free. "Dark Flash."

Lake saw Nelg fire another spell at Joy and this time she didn't use Magic resist. Lake saw her swing her sword towards the spell. "Repel." The spell was hit to the side and impacted into a tree blowing a chunk out of it; with a snapping noise the tree fell towards Joy and the three remaining melee fighters.

Lake saw they scattered out of the way but Joy dashed towards him. "Dismember." Lake didn't like the sound of that. Was she going to free him by cutting his limbs off? Lake closed his eyes not wanting to look, but he didn't feel any pain. He instead felt one of his legs become free.

Opening his eyes, Lake saw she had tried to cut through both chains but the one on his other leg had stopped her sword. "Dismember" Lake saw her cut the other Leg free. Seeing he had built up more Light Mana Lake used Light Blade and freed his last arm. "Run, they aren't fast enough to catch me."

Lake felt Joy grab his arm and start to pull him behind her. "Chase them." Getting his feet under him he started to run. "If they couldn't catch us, why didn't we run at the beginning?" Lake could hear footsteps behind them and knew they were starting to fall behind.

"The first guy you killed was from the assassins guild, his name was Jon Melon. If we had run he would have caught us and probably killed me with a sneak attack. I wouldn't be able to sense his attack coming and after I was dead he would have captured you."

Thinking how Jon had slipped past Joy at the beginning to grab him, Lake guessed he was faster than her. He had unknowingly killed a big shot and made it possible to escape. Then Lake remembered he had taken Jon's core. Looking at it Lake wondered if human cores were used the same way as monster cores. He put it into his satchel so he wouldn't drop it. "Stop gathering Light mana, you're making it impossible for us to lose them."

"Oops, sorry." Lake didn't let it just dissipate; he shot it behind them at the closest person, he missed, but it had made the person slow down to dodge so it hadn't been a waste. After 20 minutes of running they had reached Feldon. Lake was expecting for Joy to run towards the Alchemist guild but she ran towards the unmarked building Lake had assumed was a church. "Come on, we can ask for shelter from the Light Temple."