Chapter 357: Skill Stacking Pt.1

Lake didn't waste any time in getting close to the door to see if he could see through it with Mana Vision. He had figured out this door was probably what Hampton had made the eye thing he had shown him earlier for and he wanted to see if his skill was better. Sadly after activating Mana Vision Lake was unable to see anything and he knew better than to think it was because there wasn't anything behind this door that was giving off mana.

Scared what this could mean for his other skills he quickly tried to use Detector by setting it to look for a door. Up to this point Detector had never failed him and was even able to find things he didn't think it should so when the door right in front of him didn't light up he had a feeling they were all about to waste their time by coming down here.

This was when the first phantom decided to emerge from the door in front of them so Lake used the opportunity to back off and try to think of something. He didn't really have any ideas while Hampton set a formation that would keep him safe so he had to approach the door with trying to use Ghost Touch as his only option.

He knew it was going to fail but he felt this failure would force Hampton to share more information with him which would give him ideas on what to do next. Well he hoped that was what happened there was a small chance the mage would turn on him the second he failed and Lake would have to fight everyone here to the death to keep Hampton from blowing his cover.

Placing his hand on the door, Lake instantly retreated a few steps after feeling some kind of jolt. After he realized nothing had happened to him he reminded himself of the past when he had touched enchanted objects because it was the same feeling he got from the door, just much stronger.

Knowing that this probably meant it was safe to come into contact with he placed his hand on the door again and tried to use Ghost Touch. He wasn't surprised when nothing happened but he pretended he was still trying as he pulled up the description of Ghost Touch as a refresher.

Ghost Touch (L) Lv.1

You can turn things you touch ethereal for a short amount of time.

While they're ethereal you can still interact with them.

Doesn't work on living things as well.

(Amount of time scales off of Intelligence)

The living things part was what he was interested in since he had already seen a phantom move through the door while they were standing here. If he made someone like maybe himself ethereal he should be able to slip through with no problems. He wasn't sure how walking would work though if your whole body could slip through things.

It would have been nice if he would have taken the time to familiarize himself with the skill before now but since that hadn't happened he would just have to go for it without knowing what was going to happen to the person he tried it on.

Walking over to Hampton Lake said. "My skill doesn't work on the door but there's still another option." Lake wanted Hampton to ask what this option was but all he got was a slight rise of the old man's eyebrows so he just said it. "My skill works on people as well. Since the phantoms can move through the door we should be able to send someone through."

"How will we walk in such a state?" Lake wasn't surprised the older man caught on to this problem so quickly but since he didn't know all he did was shrug and say. "I've never used it on myself for that exact reason. We'll need a volunteer to see if it will work."

Lake couldn't be the one who went through first since if he died inside or used the chance to escape the only way for them to get inside would be gone so he just told the old man what he needed and waited to see if he would get it. "Anyone want to volunteer to try and pass through the door using my friend's skill?"

Lake was surprised when six people put their hands up since he felt this was going to be extremely dangerous but this just fed into the fact he felt they all knew what was going to be inside. "Pick someone."

Having the option Lake picked the tallest person who was the person from the sky since Ghost Touch let him control how much of something he turned ethereal which would let him turn just the man's upper body and since he was tall he would have a good chance of getting his head to the other side to see what was in there.

If that worked he would try and find a way for him to send someone through and have them be able to walk, which he had no idea how he was going to do. "Alright I've never done this to someone before but the skill works on animals so you'll be fine." Lake just decided to lie to the guy when explaining what he was going to do to them.

"Alright I'm ready." Lake decided to put his hand on the top of the man's head so the last thing that would turn ethereal would be his feet so he wouldn't lose them by accident. "Wow, that feels weird." Lake was sure it did and almost started to think how it was even possible that he could turn only half of someone ethereal and they didn't die but decided the fact it was working was all he needed to know.

"Alright go try and look through the door." Lake wanted to make sure the guy moved fast because he didn't want the effect to wear off while the guy was still inside the wall. The skill clearly said it didn't work as well on living things and the guy being killed because of this would be a real annoyance since he didn't think anyone else would trust him after that.

Seeing the guy's head start to approach the door, Lake couldn't help but hold his breath a bit which quickly ended when the guy was unable to pass through. Lake was worried for a second until he realized there was a chance the effect had already worn off of the man. "Come here."

Lake could probably assume that the person who he used it on stats would matter when you were trying to find out how long the effect would last so if this guy was even decently strong, which he seemed to be, it only lasting a few seconds was very possible.

Touching the guy's shoulder he could feel his assumption that it had worn off was right so he said. "Alright we're going to try again but this time I'll be keeping my hand on you so the effect doesn't wear off so fast."

Lake kind of expected for the man to ask what would happen if it had worn off while his head was in a wall but when the man didn't seem to notice this very obvious problem with their last try Lake didn't bring it up and motioned for the man to try again. This time with him applying a constant effect on the man the top of his head was able to pass into the door but the look on the man's face as he did this showed it wasn't easy.

No one else was able to see this look through so when his head started to pass through the door around half of them let out excited voices. That quickly changed though when the man pulled his head out as fast as he could while letting out a scream. "Oh fuck something has me!"

Everyone was able to see the man's head was being held onto by one of the phantoms and this wasn't a real problem with Hampton's formation dealing with it almost right away. After the phantom was gone Lake looked towards the older mage and waved him over to ask some questions. "What is it?" historical

"I figured you'd want to hear what he has to say about the other side." Hampton gave him a look before saying. "There's no way he saw anything. His head barely made it into the door before he had to pull it out."

"You're right that I wasn't able to get to the other side to see anything that time but I'm ready to try again." They both turned to the adventurer after he said this before turning back to one another to continue speaking. "Would you like to try?" Lake didn't think the older man would take him up on this offer because it would put his life into the hands of an untrustworthy thief so when the older man nodded it was a real surprise.