Master Nancom

Once they reached the top floor Lake saw the door into the Master Lab, and wondered how they were going to get through it because last time Lucas had unlocked it with one of his rings, and Lake didn't see a ring on the old servant's hands. Lake knew it wasn't actually going to be a problem, but his inner thief was interested in ways to open this door.

Lake had a goal of a million gold and he could reach it much faster if one day he was able to get into the guild's vaults and take a few things. As they approached Lake saw the servant hold out what was probably the servant's equivalent to a guild badge. When the door opened Lake guessed it meant as long as he had the clearance he would be able to open this door whenever he wanted.

He doubted he had clearance at the moment though, and he was sure the old servant only had it because he worked for Master Nancom. This gave Lake another reason to want to start working in the Master Lab, not that he needed one.

He had also noticed now that he was around the old servant again he wasn't having that hard of a time keeping his mind off of him. Lake wondered if the effect built up the longer you were around him, or if it was because he had noticed the effect earlier and now he was able to defend against it better after fighting it off one time already.

As they walked into the Lab Lake made sure to stay close to the servant as they made their way through it. Lake did let his eyes wander a bit as they walked though. Looking towards where he had seen an Alchemist injecting a large ape with what he assumed to be poison, the first time he had been here he saw what seemed to be the same guy now working on what looked to be a corpse.

Lake wished he could ask if it was a human or an undead corpse because he couldn't tell and he bet this detail would tell him which side the guild expected to face first. As he watched he saw the Alchemist was doing the same thing as the last time he had seen him just on a new subject.

With that source of information depleted, Lake looked around to see if there were any clues just laying around that he could pick up on that would tell them what they were preparing for. As he looked around he could kind of see a few things that he was pretty sure were related to the war but some of them pointed him in opposite directions.

This lined up with Lucas's plan to stay neutral because either side could decide to attack them at any time. Sadly the one piece of information he actually wanted, which was why they were staying neutral wasn't something he could really find out by doing this. Lucas was usually pretty open with almost every piece of information so him not telling him why they were natural was really making him curious.

Lake remembered when he had asked Lucas the first time Lucas had made it seem like he was confident with this choice even if he wasn't willing to share why. "Are You Lake?" Lake looked up to see one of the red robed Alchemists was talking to him so he hurriedly answered. "Yes. Hello Master." Lake didn't add a name to the Master just yet because he was only 90% sure this was Master Nancom.

Lake saw the servant was putting the canister he was carrying down next to a huge vat so Lake did the same quickly before the master could say anything else. "Lucas said you would be helpful to me if I could tell you exactly what I needed. The poison I've been working on is filled with dozens of different interactions so I have to brew it very slowly, so it doesn't destabilize during a large chain reaction."

Lake didn't know the recipe, but he was aware of potions being able to fail if you let them get out of control, and he was sure the problem got worse with something as filled with different effects as this so-called nine element acid. He could also understand how Lucas could think he could help with this.

"I have a skill that lets me control poison which includes during brewing. I can slow down reactions or keep them from happening until you want, but keep in mind I've never tested this on such a large scale." Master Nancom seemed to believe him, but he could tell he was about to be asked to give a demonstration.

Lake could tell because master Nancom was clearly setting up a station where Lake would be asked to brew something while Nancom watched. "You, go get these ingredients." Nancom practically threw a short list of ingredients he had just written to the old servant. Watching him go, Lake wondered why Nancom had spoken with such malice towards the old servant.

Not thinking it was a good thing to ask about, Lake decided to just try and figure it out by himself, or wait till he had known Nancom for longer before asking. It did make the old servant more interesting though and it made it really hard not to start thinking about him again. After a while the servant returned with three ingredients.

Lake didn't recognize any of them because they were all powder making it hard to tell what they were at a glance. When he tried to approach to inspect them Nancom stopped him and said. "I want to see the limits of your skill, so I would like you to blind brew." Blind brewing was something someone like him who was an appraiser never had to do, but Lake could see the merit of the test, so he nodded.

Stepping forward Lake started to mix the water that was in the cup he was making the potion in. Once it was going at a good speed he activated both Distill and Poison Control. Grabbing the first powder Lake added it and did his best to feel what sort of energies were in the cup now. Feeling four different effects Lake knew he was dealing with at least a level 40 ingredient.

He then separated all four of them into their own spaces then added the second powder. Finding a matching set of energies Lake combined them slowly. He could see why Nancom had made him use water instead of a better catalyst. With level 40 ingredients the reactions were so strong that no normal Alchemist could keep the potion from blowing itself apart.

Once he got all four of the matching energies combined Lake moved on to the third ingredient. Lake knew this was the actual hard part. All four of the reactions would be even stronger this time. He didn't think he would be able to keep the potion from failing even with a skill like Poison Control.

Putting something he had noticed earlier into practice Lake lifted the poison out of the cup and spread it out in the air. He then tossed the third powder up and took control of it once it entered the poison he had spread out really thin. Feeling the reactions start, Lake used the skill he had learned during his magic training, and started to compress the poison like he had done during the wind cube training.

His hopes were the increased pressure would keep the poison from blowing itself apart. He wasn't sure if this was a more safe method or not but he knew he would have failed for sure if he tried to do it normally. Feeling the weakest reaction start to subside and stabilize, Lake moved it to the outside of the floating ball of poison and used it as a thick shell that the other reactions would have a much harder time busting out of.

This was kind of like how you used a split potion as a way to toughen up the catalyst before you made the strongest reaction inside it. A stable split potion was much stronger than the normal catalyst because it made it harder for the new reaction to blow the stable potion apart. The two ways to make it so a potion wouldn't explode were pressure and internal stability and he had both now.

As the next two reactions stabilized, Lake moved them to the edge and used them to make sure the final and strongest reaction had no chance of erupting and causing the poison to fail. Once it was done Lake went to put it into the cup he had been using for the first two powders but Nancom stopped him.

"Put it into this." Nancom was holding a bottle up, and Lake used Poison Control to fly the poison into it. Once the cork was on Nancom asked him. "You used Mana control techniques to do that right?" Lake nodded. "What Level were the ingredients in this poison?" Lake could see Nancom was trying to see if Lake had been able to tell even though he had never inspected them.

"The lowest they could have been is 40. I couldn't tell the exact level, and I only know this because of how many separate effects I had to combine." Nancom was the one to nod this time. After a few seconds of silence Nancom turned to the two servants who had just silently watched this whole time.

"You two go help Taron grind ingredients and get the rest of the canisters up here as fast as you can." The two servants gave Lake the stink eye for replacing them, but Lake was too engrossed in finally learning the old man's name to notice. It was like a weight was lifted, and he could finally have no reason to think about the old man any more.

"Lake I'm going to have you make the first and easiest part of the poison I've been working on. It's what I use as the catalyst but from what you just showed me you should have more success than those two. Now come over here and let me show you how to make it."

Lake did what he was told right away. He didn't want to mess this up and be sent back to the grinding room. One day of that was already enough for him, and if he made Nancom think he was unable to get this after one time of him being shown, he was sure Nancom wouldn't like it.