Chapter 139: Back In The Guild Pt.2
As Lake watched he quickly found out what they were doing in this room. They were brewing stat potions, and by that he meant the ones that actually gave you permanent stat increases when you drank them. It didn't seem too hard but it definitely explained why this room was guarded.
Like he said it didn't seem hard but the amount they were making was a lot higher than he would have expected. Back when he had learned of potions that could give you stats he had also been told they were a rare resource that you had to be lucky to get your hands on but it seemed the guild had a source because there were crates full of monster cores in this room.
He also noticed they were brewing each core into a different number of potions so he was guessing the cores varied in power and they were doing this to make each potion give you exactly one stat point, so if a core could give you four stat points it ended up as four potions.
It seemed all you needed to do was appraise the core and change the amount of liquid you used for the brewing process. Like he said this was an extremely easy job and he was sure these Alchemists hadn't been chosen for their skills but instead for their trustworthiness.
Whether that trustworthiness was natural or they had all agreed to the Loyalty curse was not something he could know without asking because most of the time people who were cursed didn't seem like it or at least that was what the book he had been working his way through said.
As he watched Dena he saw her start to look back at him every time she finished a batch and he wondered if she was doing this because she was getting close to finishing her shift and was hoping he would step in now so she could leave. He didn't though. Even if he could do this job with no problems because he didn't want to be in the middle of something when he was asked to leave.
After a while Lake saw the door open and someone dressed like the rest of the people in this room came in, he didn't mean they had the same outfit, just the same color robe which was white like the one he wore. Figuring this was probably the person he was pretending to be, Lake silently watched as the same person who had stopped him stopped the new guy.
"Who are you?" Lake watched as the new guy passed his badge to the guy who seemed to be running this lab and said. "I'm Laen, I was told to come work here starting today." As soon as the new guy said this everyone in the room turned to look at Lake. "I lied. I just wanted to see what you guys were doing in here."
Lake just told them the truth because if he was to pretend to be the real Laen he would just waste more time for nothing. It would probably be kind of funny to get into an argument but he had no chance of convincing them he was Laen because he didn't have any evidence compared to the actual Laen who would have a guild scroll with his name on it.
Now that he was discovered Lake just tried to leave. He didn't have a reason why he did this so he wanted to avoid any questions on his motives because he would have to lie again and he usually only lied when there was something to gain from it. "Wait, who are you?" Looking at the guy who had stopped him on the way in and now when he tried to leave Lake sighed.
It looked like he was going to have to answer questions to be able to leave. Lake could understand he probably looked suspicious to this group since he was doing something that could really only have one motive, which was snooping. So telling them what he could probably have said from the beginning and skipped all of this Lake said. "I'm Lake, I'm a member of the spire and I wanted to look around the rest of the guild."
After he said this all of them started looking at each other without saying anything. Lake could tell they were surprised he was from the spire but they had reacted to his name as well and it made him wonder if this meant his name was well known in the guild. He wouldn't be that surprised if that was the case because there weren't that many people in the spire so he was sure the normal members gossiped about them like they were celebrities from his old world.
He knew how boring a regular day could be so he was sure any information about the most important people in the guild made the rounds any time any of it leaked and now that he was thinking about it he had heard plenty of people talk about Millie whenever he was in the cafeteria.
Now that he had thought of this he wondered what the people of the guild thought of him. He was sure there wasn't that much about him going around yet because he was still new and all his contributions were just ideas that other people were taking care of so from the outside it would seem he hadn't done anything and wasn't involved.
"You can stay and watch as long as you want in that case and I'm sorry about questioning you and what you were doing." Lake nodded to what the man said and asked. "What's your name?" He could tell his question scared the man and Lake assumed the man thought he was about to get into trouble but he still answered. "My name's Bill."
Lake nodded and said. "Well Bill have you heard of me?" Lake knew this question sounded like he was flexing his status because he was mad about being questioned; he was fine with that because he was sure Bill would quickly realize Lake wasn't mad and was just curious about what information about him they had heard about him.
"Yes Sir you're the newest member of the spire only joining around two weeks ago and about a week before the war started again." Lake nodded, both of those things were true but neither of them really said anything about him as a person. If this was all they knew about him he could see why his name had never been mentioned while he had been eavesdropping.
"Is that everything you know about me?" Lake could tell that they knew something else but didn't want to say it because as soon as he said this Bill looked at the other people in the room. Lake guessed this was one of the few things pretending to be a normal person could have helped him with but he had been a little slow to realize he should have been using this opportunity to ask about himself.
It wasn't like he was hiding his face or anything so as people started to figure out what he looked like he wouldn't be able to do what he was doing now ever again without changing/hiding his face. "Forget I asked." Lake let Bill off the hook and left heading for the next room. Now that he understood there was actually something to gain by pretending he wasn't Himself and that there was a time limit he wanted to know what the thing Bill wouldn't say was.
Opening the door to the next room over Lake saw it was full of plants and that there were only two people here. When he walked in neither of them said anything to him so he figured it was pretty common for Alchemist to come in here to get some of whatever this plant was. Walking over to one of them, Lake said. "This is my first time in here. Do I just get what I need or am I supposed to ask one of you?"
Lake knew this made him look like an inexperienced person but that was kind of what he was going for. If he made it obvious he didn't know what he was doing one of them would probably help him and that would give him enough time to talk to them and maybe gossip. "I'll get what you need."
After the guy said this, Lake realized this was going to lead to him wasting whatever he had the guy pick because he didn't actually need it so he said. "Alright, how much do you think I should get to make just one potion?" The guy looked at him like he was wasting his time and said. "One leaf will probably be enough."
Lake nodded, the plants did have pretty big leaves so he could see why the guy would say that. "Ok, which plant is the lowest level in here?" Lake asked this while looking around like he couldn't tell the short plants would be what he was looking for. The guy pointed and said. "That plant over there is only level eight."
"Alright, that one is fine." After Lake said this he followed the guy towards the plant and right when they started the harvest Lake said. "You hear about that new person in the spire?" This was the best he could think of to start a conversation about himself. "No, what's their name?" It seemed to work but it also told him he might have picked the wrong person to ask; they didn't seem to even be aware of him.
"Lake, they joined this month." Lake tried to see if maybe he could jog their memory and they just hadn't heard a lot about him but after he said it the guy looked at him with a weird face that made Lake realize there was a chance he had just made himself look like a sad loser because this guy might have recognized him as soon as he walked in.
They had probably only said no to his original question because they thought there was someone even newer than him because he recognized him as the new guy everyone already knew about so they had probably thought he was going to tell them about someone who had just joined today but instead Lake had just said his own name.
If that was what had just happened he could already picture there would be a new piece of info about him being a weirdo who went around trying to pretend he wasn't himself. He had already been caught doing it twice today so there was a good chance one of them would tell someone.
It looked like all he was doing today was destroying his own reputation and he still didn't know what people were saying about him. Deciding he might as well try to use this situation to his advantage, Lake needed to figure out if he had actually been caught. "You know I heard he's really handsome."
After he said this Lake smiled really wide like he was joking around and that he knew the guy knew who he was. When the guy laughed Lake knew he had been right and the guy did know who he was. "So, what have you heard about him?" Lake winked after saying this; he was hoping the guy would realize what he wanted and play along.
It was a weird interaction but Lake still thought it would be more likely to work than just coming out and asking because he was pretty sure all these people would be to scared of offending him to tell the truth but with him acting kind of silly there was a good chance this guy wouldn't see him as a threat.
"I heard he's dating one of the guards." After Lake heard this he dropped the nice face he had put on and he could tell it scared the guy but Lake wasn't made he was just disappointed. This was the lamest gossip and after all the work he had put in and irreversible damage his reputation would take once word of his odd behavior spread this rumor was a let down.
"Is that really it? Everyone else I had asked wouldn't tell me and made it seem like it was something bad." The guy seemed to realize Lake wasn't upset that his big secret was out and said. "It's the first news about you that spread after you joined so it was probably made into a bigger deal than it actually is."
After the guy said this he leaned in to whisper. "You know a lot of the guys in the guild get it." Lake knew exactly what this guy was trying to say. He had also noticed a lot of the scrawny men here liked big women like Joy but he wasn't one of them. She was almost a foot taller than him and it just wasn't something he liked but he could handle people thinking this about him because he had actually been the one to spread this rumor to begin with.
He had done it so Solomon, who had clearly been attracted to Joy, wouldn't try and ask her out because Millie Liked Solomon and Lake didn't want the person who cooked the best food in the world to be too upset to cook. Of course Solomon was gone now but he could always come back and it was too much effort to spread the truth.
People would be unlikely to believe the truth anyway so he would have to make it seem like they had broken up but then it would be weird when they were seen together after the breakup and people would think they were back together. What he was saying was there was no way to stop this rumor and he doubted anyone was even talking about it anymore so there was no point.
He guessed there was one nice thing about this whole situation though and that was this guy he had just met. If he ever needed more information like this he could just come to this guy and he would be able to get an answer. Lake marked him and reached out for a handshake. "I'm Lake. I know you already know that but whatever."
As the guy shook his hand he said. "I'm Triv." Lake finished the handshake strong and said goodbye. He had wasted plenty of time already so he needed to go back to his room and start reading. He was almost through the book on fire magic so he might be able to get started on his training in the next element before he went to bed if he read hard.
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