The Insider System

Chapter 33: Five Hours Later

The cart had just come to a stop in front of the Alchemist guild in Mondis, the town where they were going to switch carts. The door jerked open, and the driver said "What the hell is going on back here?!" Then he saw what was happening, and his anger was replaced with fear. "What's wrong with him?"

"We don't know, go get the Master, and tell him we need an antidote." The driver ran into the guild, and a few minutes later he and a man wearing a red robe came out. "What did he ingest? How was he poisoned?" The master was panicking a little. This was originally supposed to be an easy operation, and he was afraid of what would happen to him if Lake died while he was at his guild office.

"We gave him a sleep potion, and ever since he's been freaking out."

"A regular sleep potion, are you sure it wasn't tampered with?" The master did not want to risk anything if he got it wrong he could make the situation worse. "Yes sir I've had it in my kit for over a year, and unless it was tampered with before the guild gave it to me it should have been fine." In situations like these you had to use the right antidote, and guessing the type of poison could be very difficult.

Gulping the master took a red vial out of his bag and said, "Hold his mouth still we need to make sure to get most of this in his mouth." Joy let go of Lake's shoulder and held his head still; she wasn't too worried about his mouth staying open because he had been screaming for the last few hours. The master poured the red liquid into Lake's mouth. "Let me go Ahhh! ah, ah, ah." It worked almost instantly, and as soon as Lake stopped screaming he passed out. "Looks like it worked, but bring him inside so I can do an examination."

"Alright but try to make it fast, our orders are to get him there as fast as possible, but his safety takes precedent."

"You can take him as soon as I make sure he's stable."

Five hours Later the cart went over a bump, and Lake opened his eyes and tried to say something but no sound came out. "He's up!" He heard Joy shout. "Here Lake, Master Fred told us to give you this after you woke up." Joy handed Lake a green potion to Lake.

Lake inspected the potion a little, and he was pretty sure it was glowing a little, but was reluctant to drink it because of what had happened earlier. "Don't worry Master Fred gave us this in case you react badly." Joy held up a purple vial that Lake guessed counteracted the green potion. "He said to take a sip and it should heal your throat but if it doesn't sip this purple one."

Lake would rather not risk it. If this potion did the opposite of healing his throat he didn't even want to think of what would happen, but he knew a way he could test it without melting himself. Lake grabbed his knife and cut his finger then dipped it into the potion a little. "Master Fred gave us an enchanted potion so it's going to heal you with magic so it should be safe even for you." She was right. Lake's finger wound closed almost as soon as it touched it.

This was good enough for Lake, he tipped the potion a little and let a small amount of it into his mouth. After a few seconds of relief Lake tested his voice. "Hello." He was happy to find that his voice was working again; talking was one of his favorite things. "Was I asleep for long? How much more time till we get there?" Sitting up Lake realized why he had been able to lay down one of the guards was gone and now two were squished onto the floor so he could have a whole bench to himself.

"You were asleep for about 5 hours. We'll be arriving in less than an hour, around the same time the sun comes up."

"What happened to the other guard?" Lake was wondering if they had left them because they weren't able to get three to fit on the floor. "He was put into custody until we can confirm what happened was an accident." Lake didn't really care what happened to that guy but this had been caused by his own carelessness so he said, "I won't get into what happened exactly, but he wasn't responsible."

All the guards seemed to relax a little after they heard this. Maybe they were friends with that other guard, and they had been worried he actually tried to kill Lake. "Good, we were scared the Dark Guild Alliance had somehow made Chuck try to kill you. Once you explain what happened to the guild leader he'll will be released." Said one of the guards on the ground.

The cart started to come to a stop. Lake was a little worried at first but Joy said, "Looks like we're lining up to enter the capital. This won't take long since we're in a guild cart. They'll wave us through soon."

Lake was relieved that they were almost there this had been one of the worst moments of his life, the only thing that he could think of that had been worse was when he was on fire in his last life, but he couldn't really remember that to well. He could remember the 5 hours he had been freaking out, he doubted he would ever forget it.

The only good thing was this was a valuable lesson that he needed to still be careful of what he ate and drank, before this he had been under the assumption he was fine no matter what when it came to poison. Whatever crazy effects he had to put up with was still better than dying, but he had been in no danger from the sleep potion, but his skill still flipped the effect.

The cart started to move again. "We'll be at the capital guild office in less than 20 minutes. You should be ready to see the guild leader as soon as we get there." Lake was fine with that, he was hoping this would go well and he would get all the stuff he needed to make those permanent poisons. "Oh crap, I don't know how alchemy works." Lake just remembered that alchemy might be really hard and he was going to have to put a lot of effort into this.

"Hey Joy, how hard is alchemy? Like how long is it going to take for me to get to level 10?"

"You're not going to have a normal experience. The guild Leader will pull out all the stops for you, I wouldn't be surprised if it only took you a few months, but if you factor in the other jobs that help with alchemy a few years."

"What kind of jobs help with alchemy?"

"Enchanter and Appraiser are the main two everyone tries to learn. Of course those jobs are both Epics so the chances of getting them isn't too good but even one makes you much better at the job, and then all the Mage jobs you can get to buff your intelligence."

"If Enchanter and Appraiser are better jobs, why isn't the guild named after them?"

"The jobs are too rare their guild wouldn't have the manpower, so most Enchanters and Appraisers are split between us and the blacksmiths guild." Lake didn't understand why there were so many different guilds it seemed stupid. "Why not just combine everything into a mage guild?"

"The blacksmiths guild predates ours so I would doubt they would join, but there used to be a Mage guild until recently, there was a schism over Unholy Magic being allowed. All the different magic guilds used to be part of the Mage guild. The Alchemist guild was the most profitable part of the Mage guild so most of the rarer jobs stayed with the Alchemist guild. We also kept the Mage guild headquarters which is where we're going now. You're going to love it, it's almost the size of the rest of the capitol all by itself."

This did sound cool; it was almost like he was about to become a prince. "What's it going to be like for me there?" He wanted to see, before he got his hopes up to much. "You'll be living in Legend spire with the rest of the Legendary skill holders so your life from now on will be luxury. You'll even have servants who will take care of everything for you so you can focus on your studies."

This sounded pretty good to Lake. There was just one thing he was worried about, "Will I be able to leave the guild to look around the capital?" After he asked this he understood this was something they weren't supposed to talk to him about. "It might take a while but eventually, once you're stronger you'll be able to do whatever you want."

Lake had never been treated like royalty before, hopefully he enjoyed it and he was fine staying inside for a few years. Lake felt the cart stop, and realized they were there. "Don't get out, they will just move the whole cart inside; they just have to detach the horse first."

"Oh, okay." all this for him. the amount of effort, and money they had spent on him was crazy. Lake felt the cart start to move again. "Only a few more minutes and you'll meet the leader."