The Insider System

Chapter 80: Orchard

Lake was running at a level he could handle for a long period of time towards the mark made by his Treasured skill. He could tell he was getting closer though and figured he would be there around midnight. The sun had only been down for about an hour, so it was tempting to pick up his pace, but he knew he would have to stop for breaks if he did, defeating the purpose of going faster.

A few hours of running seemed crazy to Lake, but he was actually happy to be getting further from the capital. Lake knew he could profit from the chaos that the capital would devolve to, but he didn't really want to get involved in something else today. He would rather find a place to sleep and maybe some food.

...

Lake had to stop for a rest, even holding back his legs were starting to get tired again. The nice thing was he was now close enough to see where he was going. There were a few buildings right next to a small orchard. The fact there were plants here made Lake think of the Alchemist guild because he knew there were people who grew certain plants for the guild all over the place.

It was a loose connection, but it still made him think this wasn't going to be a bloodbath to get the journal. This seemed to be a nice place so he could probably just climb in through a window, and grab it before anyone noticed. He doubted a place like this would have any guards or anything, just whoever lived here.

Lake looked at the moon and thought if he just waited a few more hours they would probably all be asleep which would make this very easy with his Mute skill. Lake realized he was about to do a robbery and got excited and not just because he thought it would be fun. There was a criminal job that could be unlocked by breaking into places.

There were a few actually but he would have to max out the one he was about to get before he could get any of the others. Every job had requirements you had to meet and this ones were to have thief at level ten and to break into places to steal things. It was called Burglar, and it was a Rare job, but Lake expected it to be Unique when he got it.

Lake was pretty sure all the criminal jobs would be Unique when he got them. He also got a nice surprise every now and then as well Like Alchemist and Archer. If it wasn't for Appraiser, Lake would think one of the past Insiders was turning extra jobs Unique alphabetically.

Maybe in the hopes that eventually every job the Insider unlocked would be Unique. Lake also saw the fact that a few jobs that weren't criminal jobs were tampered with as evidence that every criminal job was already done, or at least to a level where it made more sense to move on to other useful jobs.

Lake had always wondered if jobs got harder to change as you made them stronger, and that was the reason only Thief's level cap was 100 instead of 10. It must have been really hard to do, so no one else had been able to replicate it on another job.

...

Lake had finally made it to the orchard from where he had been resting. All the lights were off so he was about to make his way inside. Activating Mute Lake moved to the side of the house that the Mark was closest to. Lake would need to jump to reach the window he was going to enter from, but he was more than capable of making it.

Grabbing onto the window frame Lake found it odd that none of the things he was doing were making noise. He had noticed it earlier when he had used it in the forest but right now when he was trying to be quiet so no one would wake up it was even more noticeable.

It wasn't just his body, it was things he was interacting with as well, any noise he should have caused just didn't happen. He was pretty sure if he just smashed this window to get in the glass would make no noise when it broke or when it landed onto the ground.

Lake would test that later when he wasn't in the middle of actually needing to be quiet. Wiggling the window just enough to get it open Lake put his arm inside and started to drag himself inside the house. Once his head was in he looked in the direction he was expecting the shelf or table that held the journal to be, to find a bed.

Seeing someone in the bed, Lake started to move more slowly. The fact that the moon was full tonight and that he was blocking that light by using the window to enter, meant even if he was silent the shadow he was casting into the room could still give him away if the person happened to open their eyes.

Getting inside the room Lake walked over to the bed to see if the person had been reading the journal when they fell asleep. They happened to be boring enough to put someone to sleep from what Lucas had told him. The mark was under the covers so Lake grabbed the corner of the blanket and started to slowly pull it off the bed.

Lake didn't need to move it too far to be able to see where the mark said the journal was, but once the blanket was pulled back all Lake saw was the person's chest. Crouching down to make sure the mark wasn't under them, Lake confirmed the person was marked. Lake opened Treasured and he reread the description.

Treasured (U) Lv.1

Able to identify and locate someone's most valued item, person, and place.

Lake had never realized how weird it was that it showed so many dots when it was item, not items. Lake guessed it was because the journals were a set so they counted as one thing. That wasn't important right now though what was important was this was Lucas's most treasured person.

Lake really wanted to know who they were but for now he would settle for seeing their face. Leaning over for a better look, Lake saw that they were probably in their teens and a boy Lake could have guessed they were going to be a boy from the fact they had short hair but since some girls wore their hair short Lake still needed to look.

Lake couldn't see any obvious family resemblance to Lucas, but Lake was still pretty sure this was his son. That also meant this place was probably more than just an orchard, Lake bet if it wasn't for his Trespasser skill he would've been screwed the second he stepped foot inside the house.

There was probably some magic alarm or something here to protect this boy. Lake understood why Lucas would keep him here instead of the guild. There were a lot of dangerous things happening at the guild so it made sense to let your kid grow up away from all that. It also made it less likely for other people to use Lucas's son as a bargaining chip if they didn't know he existed.

Lake was sure Lucas foresaw people trying to attack his son before he was even born, so he had never let anyone know about him. Lake decided to leave before anything happened. He had come here for a journal, so now that he knew it wasn't here he should leave.

Lake decided not to steal anything even though he needed to to unlock Burglar because he might accidentally trigger the alarm he thought might be here, as he was climbing out, Lake realized something the skill also showed him someone's favorite place so the mark he had seen in the dungeon might not be a secret journal it might just be showing him Lucas was obsessed with the dungeon the same way he was with the journals.

Maybe there was nothing actually down there and the journals meant nothing. In the end nothing so far proved they were actually important, just that Lucas was obsessed with Amanda. Two of his three things were something related to Amanda. Lake stopped when he thought this.

"Related to Amanda." There wasn't actually any sound when Lake said this because he still had Mute on but he did say it. Looking back at the orchard, Lake wondered if maybe the boy was somehow related to Amanada in some way. Master Donna was Amanda's daughter apparently but she was already pretty old, probably thirty, so it was possible that this kid was Amanda's secret child or something.

If the two were 12 years or so apart it was possible they were siblings but all this was conjecture and there wasn't really any reason for him to think about it any more he had a long run back to the capital so he needed to conserve his energy. With a brain as smart as his anytime he used it used a massive amount of energy.