The Insider System

Chapter 98: A Matter Of Skill Pt.2

Lake hadn't thought about the fact that someone could use magic to fix something before but now that he did it was pretty obvious. He wished he had known this before he had spent so much to get his knife fixed, but most of what he had paid had gone towards upgrading it, not just fixing its shape.

Not wanting to give Donny the chance to pick up speed for his strike, Lake Used Burst to close the distance and swung for Donny's arm. Lake doubted Donny would be able to reattach his arm as easily as he had his spear, so Lake guessed he was going to have to take a risk and use Crunch on Donny.

Donny seemed to understand Lake could just go through his spear if he used it to defend, so he moved out of the way of the strike instead of blocking. Lake had expected this and made the next strike towards Donny's fingers as fast as he could using both Burst and Fast Hands.

Lake stopped the swing before he took all of Donny's fingers so he would be able to heal him after he passed out from blood loss again. Because of his Blood Loss skill Lake had a hard time with being nonlethal, so if he went overboard with how big of a wound he opened on Donny there would be no way to stop Donny from bleeding to death.

Donny didn't react much at first but once he saw the amount of blood he was losing It looked Like he was about to run so Lake said. "If you pass out where I can't find you, you'll die before I can close your wounds." Lake marked Donny just incase He didn't take his advice, but it seemed it was unnecessary because Donny laid down the spear and said. "Fine you win!"

Lake watched as Donny got on the ground and started squeezing the two nubs where his fingers used to be and said. "Almost bleeding to death twice in one night is pretty dangerous. You should have quit after the first one." Donny didn't seem to be in the mood to talk so Lake shut up after he said this.

Lake could tell Donny had some time till he passed out because this wound wasn't bleeding anywhere near as much as the one in his neck earlier, so he knew this would be a boring couple of minutes so he had been hoping to talk to him while they waited.

Once Donny's face had started to turn white they both could tell he could pass out at any moment and surprisingly Donny asked. "Is this poison or a skill making me bleed this much?" Lake had no idea why he would answer this so he said. "Does it matter?"

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"No. Just wanted to know if this was a skill from Assassin because it seems specialized in killing people." Lake could see what Donny meant but he was wrong, he was pretty sure Ripper was actually one level higher than Assassin, but he didn't actually know since his said U where the rarity was.

"And It isn't just my Health falling as I bleed out either my Stamina and Mana are falling as well, that's why I thought it might be a poison." This was info Lake was happy he had because he had actually wondered if Blood Drain and Blood Loss worked together Like they seemed to. "How much did my brother pay to hire you?"

Lake could tell Donny was about to lose consciousness so he said. "I don't know." and moved to close the wounds on Donnys hand before he died. Lake used most of what was left of his potion to close the skin around the amputated fingers and then he left Donny lying there, and went home to his cart.

He was tired and the sun was about to come up, so he would do the rest tomorrow. Lake knew that Donny would probably be up by then and there was a chance he would be here waiting for him, but he hoped Donny would assume he had already turned the shield in for the reward, and head home. Getting to his cart, Lake decided to leave the two things he had stolen and wanted to inspect today for tomorrow, and went straight to sleep.

...

Once he woke up Lake opened the cart door and was about to head off in the direction of the shield when he saw everyone was looking behind his cart. There was a massive crowd all looking off in the same direction, so Lake assumed something must be going on.

Getting far enough from his cart that he could see what they were all looking at Lake was a little relieved that it was just smoke rising in the distance. It wasn't good news, but it was better than a giant army or something headed towards them.

Lake guessed this was a sign that the war was getting closer to the capital, and maybe by tomorrow it would be here. Either way Lake was sure it would be much more chaotic in the city today, people would most likely start to panic now that they could see how close the war was.

Now that he knew this might be his last day of safely being able to wander the city, Lake tried to think what would be a good use of his time. There wasn't really a way for him to make a dent in the million gold he needed, so he decided today might not be a good day to steal anything.

He already had plenty of money for the day so other than to level up a job there wasn't much reason to steal. He needed to pick up his knife, but he still had a few hours until then, so he figured he should go ahead and go get the shield before he couldn't leave the city anymore.

It didn't take him too long to find it and he was quickly on the way towards the Thieves guild. He also stopped to get some food on the way. He didn't eat it, but he figured it was good to have some with him at all times from now on just in case he was ever cut off from a supply.

Once he got to the place the card told him to go he saw a guy sitting on a chair next to the door. After a few seconds of staring at each other Lake tried to walk in when the guy said nothing so Lake walked inside with no problem.

Once inside Lake saw quite a few people all looking at massive boards that Lake assumed had jobs posted. Lake wasn't surprised by the lack of security because he remembered what Joy had told him about messing with the dark guilds, and how no one did so if they wanted to live.

Lake didn't see a place to turn the shield in for a reward, so he walked through the only door he could see to find a much more office looking place with counters and people at desks. It seemed there was a lobby for people to look through jobs before you came back here once you completed them.

Walking over to one of the desks, Lake showed the person behind the counter the shield and said I was told to bring this here. "Do you know what mission this was for?" Lake had no idea so he shook his head. "Well usually I'd be pissed at you for not knowing the mission code, but since this is obviously Donny's shield I'll let you slide."

Lake saw the person get up and go into one of the doors that were in the room and come back out a few seconds later holding a bag that Lake assumed held gold. It was kind of large and Lake didn't want to lug it around for the rest of the day, but he guessed this was still a good thing since it got him closer to his goal of a million.

"Here's the reward, can I see your badge to update your status?" Lake didn't see a reason to say no, so he held out the piece of gold that was his guild badge. "This was your first job. Does that mean you're new?" Lake nodded.

"Ok then I'll give you the rundown this badge of yours has all your guild info so you need to have it whenever you come in. You already know how missions work so I'll skip that, so the last thing is the gold storage we offer. I'm sure by the name you can figure out what it is but I'll still tell you we will hold your gold in the vault if you would like and as long as you have your badge you can come and get it whenever you'd like. It's not popular with the new members like yourself, but once you get richer, and gain more trust in the guild I'm sure you'll take advantage."

Lake guessed he wouldn't mind keeping this here until he found a good place to keep his secret stuff that he didn't want at the guild. If everything was at the guild it could all be taken at once if someone like Lucas ever thought it would be best if Lake didn't have it anymore.

"How much is this?" Lake asked while pointing to the bag. "It's 11000. It's not everyday I see someone not know how much they're getting paid for a job." Lake was also a greedy person but last night he had been in a hurry so he hadn't even spent that much time looking at what the mission entailed let alone all the other details.

"Would you mind putting this in the vault, and do you buy stuff here, or do I need to go somewhere else?" He wanted to know where he should go to sell stolen things that were too advanced for the guy in the alley from now on.

"You see the guy behind the green desk he's the best Appraiser we have so most people like to go to him when they have something good." Lake thanked them and walked away after they updated his guild badge, and walked over to the man behind the green desk. Handing him all the items from the jewelry store he was going to sell.

After the guy looked at each item he said, "19,500." Lake nodded to show he approved of the price. "Ok let me go get it for you." Lake stopped him and said. "Can you just add it to my vault?" The man nodded and said. "Let me see your badge then."

Lake did his best to see what the man was doing to the badge but he still couldn't tell any difference once the man handed it back to him. Lake guessed it made sense that this place would use such a secretive method to store personal information but he still wished he could tell how they did it.

The man told him his total in the vault was 30,500 and after Lake heard this number he left the building. Seeing the time Lake headed in the direction of the Blacksmiths guild. It was early but not by much. Maybe they would be done with it already.