The Insider System

Chapter 154: Increased Synergy

Like the map said, after a while of running on this road he started to see a mountain in the distance so he stopped and looked at the next direction. It said he could just go towards the mountain and he would eventually find a massive lake that would be at its base. It sounded pretty easy so Lake got off the road and started to run towards the mountain.

After passing through some trees Lake saw the Lake glittering in the setting sun and stopped to think about what he should do tonight if he was going to sleep out in the wilderness. He wasn't really worried about it but he knew sleeping outside had a level of danger associated with it and he would probably need to find a good place to do it that wasn't just out in the open.

That being said it wasn't really something he should try to find now, he first needed to find the bandits base then find something close if he didn't end up going in tonight while they slept. Looking at the map for the next step, Lake read that he was looking for a wooden fortress that was on the side of the mountain facing the lake.

There was also a note from the scout that said to be careful because the bandits were all over the place on the mountain and didn't just stay inside their fortress. Lake saw this as a good thing though because it would make it easier for him to get an identity that would allow him to blend in; he would just need to make sure to hide the body really well.

Plus depending on how many he found just out and about he might be able to kill off a good portion of them before he even went inside. Of course he would need to be careful not to kill too many because it would give away the fact that he was out here killing them. The last thing he would want is them to be on high alert when he tried to walk inside and say something like he was the first person to return all day.

They would be heavily suspicious of him if something like that happened. He didn't think they would suspect him of being someone else wearing their companion as a disguise but they would probably think he was responsible for the others disappearances. So to be careful he should probably not kill more than five before he went inside the fortress.

After he got to the other side of the lake, Lake started to be more sneaky and activated Mute and Mana Vision as he crept up the mountain. All he needed was to find one of them and he would be good to go so his goal wasn't to find the fortress just yet. That being said, if he did find it before he was ready to go in that would save him time later.

...

Seeing a core that looked to be the right size to belong to a human, Lake started to head towards it slowly. They weren't moving very fast so he didn't need to either to catch up to them. Once he could see them, Lake saw they were carrying water back to their base and he decided this wasn't the person he wanted to Impersonate because it might mean the other bandits would think it was weird that he wasn't doing his job.

Plus they would probably spill the water when he killed them so he would have to refill it before he went inside. Lake just put a mark on them and let them continue their work. With this he would be able to find where the fortress was later if he still hadn't found it.

Lake didn't just go back into the forest randomly though he stayed behind the guy carrying the water hoping they would come across other bandits as they got closer to the fortress. He felt this was a better way of finding an acceptable person to impersonate, maybe someone who was wearing a coat or something he could use to hide his armor so he didn't have to leave it out here.

After a while Lake started to see footpaths that made him realize they must be getting close to the fortress and soon after that he saw it. Wooden walls made from logs that had been driven into the ground around a sharp bolder striking out of the side of the mountain. The boulder stuck out at an angel and the bandits had built buildings under it giving them a stone roof to their wooden fortress.

In Lakes opinion it was pretty good for a bunch of bandits but he felt he would rather have stone walls and a wooden roof if it was him. Having found the fortress, Lake quickly marked it and started to look around at the bandits he could see to try and find a good one to Impersonate. Of the 11 he could see from his vantage point Lake decided three of them were wearing things that would allow him to keep his armor with him.

Now he just needed to wait till one of them came out here to where he could get them. He was fine with the wait though because he could use this time to pick off some of the ones who went out before the ones he was waiting on. If he was lucky this would allow him to max out Archer before he went inside.

The next job he was going to level up would be Mugger and once that was level ten he would have all his Unique jobs at level ten meaning he would need to unlock more to keep getting stronger and he had an idea of a good one to get next, Bandit. The only problem was he would have to meet its unlock requirements which were kind of a pain.

That being said he had a lot of luck when it came to unlocking criminal jobs so he doubted he was going to have as much trouble as the book about jobs he had read said he would. He would probably only need to rob a few carts and live in the woods for a few days to get it. And Bandit led to another job called Highwayman once it was maxed so it would be worth it to unlock it even if he did have to live in the woods.

The only problem was the time it was going to take, if it took too long he would have to give up and return to the guild so they wouldn't think he was dead. That wasn't actually the best reason for why he should return before too long, he felt if he was out here too long and the war resumed he would be unable to get inside the guild until it calmed down again.

That might seem like a good thing but Lake knew the Alchemist guild was truly the safest place to be even if it was in the middle of a war zone. Especially since the Demon Lord had shown some interest in him. It hadn't happened except for one time but Lake had heard the voice while he had been in the dungeon so it wasn't impossible that it would happen again while he was out here.

He saw the skills page flashing and saw that his Dexterity had passed 100 so he quickly opened it to see what he had gotten.

Increased Synergy (U) Lv.1

If your Dexterity is higher than your Agility or Endurance they become equal to your Dexterity.

If your Agility or Endurance is higher than your Dexterity gain a bonus to your Dexterity equal to the difference.

Lake would have preferred an ability like something he could activate for a fight but as far as passives when he had to say this one seemed pretty good. Especially since his endurance which was at 15 was now effectively 103 and his agility which was 85 also got a huge but less drastic increase to 103 as well.

He then turned his attention to the name of the skill itself Increased Synergy, Dexterity had always seemed weird to him because it seemed to do something similar to both Agility and Endurance but it only affected your hands instead of your whole body like the other two did. That being said it did seem like they stacked naturally with Dexterity, Agility and Endurance all affecting your hands at once so that explained the name of the skill.

Now that he thought about it Strength wasn't something Dexterity overlapped with because Dexterity didn't seem to make your hands any stronger, just tougher and faster. He wondered why that was, why was strength different to the others? He was sure there had to be a reason and guessed he would have to ask a god if he ever had the pleasure of talking to one he could trust.

After Lake got done thinking about his new skill he turned his attention to an old one and looked for it in the list.

Grip Strength (L) Lv.1

When unarmed your Strength is added to your Dexterity.

His strength was 73 so did that mean if he was to put his bow away his Dexterity would increase to 176 which would then increase his Endurance and Agility to 176 as well and if that was the case what would happen if he was to then use Burst?

Burst (U) Lv.1

Doubles the effect of the Agility and Strength stat.

Consumes Stamina (1 per hour)

Would his agility effectively be 352 at that point and if so how fast would he be and then what would happen if he was to use Fast Hands?

Fast Hands (L) Lv.1

Your arms and hands move five times faster.

Consumes Stamina (1 per second)

Lake stopped thinking about it at this point and wondered if he would be able to kill someone like Lucas with a combo like this, or what about those giants he had secretly been afraid of since he had met the one named Domare. Surely he could kill it if they were to meet again, he had seen the fight from the other day and he had to say the giants didn't really seem that strong and all he would be worried about if he was to fight one was the weird skills Domare had shown off.

It had been able to see through his Impersonate skill and had even said his name and then had just let him go after they had made an offer to him to get him to join their side. It had been a creepy experience that had been in the back of his head since but now he wasn't sure he needed to worry about it anymore.

Realizing he should probably get back to the place he had been watching the fortress from so he didn't miss any of the other bandits that left, Lake turned around and started to run back. After a few steps he realized how fast he was moving, which was the same as his old top speed; the only difference was he wasn't using Burst at the moment.

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