The Insider System

Chapter 92: In progress Pt.2

After waiting for the guard to leave the room the staircase down from the attic went into, Lake crept down the stairs. He was now in a back office, and after looking around to see if there were any items he could take without going to the front of the store, and not seeing any, Lake waited for the guard to move to the next room.

Lake planned to stay one room behind the guard as they did their rounds. Doing it like this, Lake would be able to check every room without risk of the guard noticing. This place wasn't too big, but from what Lake had seen there were at least three back rooms including the one he was in.

Lake thought this because the guard stopped three times before they returned to the storefront, where they spent most of their time. Seeing the guard had moved on to the next room, Lake followed suit. This room had a few more of the same type of crate from the attic in it. There were less, and Lake hoped that meant what was in them was more valuable.

None of them had tops on them, so Lake looked into the closest one to see what was in it. It was full of all types of things but there was an obvious similarity between them, they were all damaged. Lake didn't know if these would be recycled for materials or repaired, but why would he steal junk when brand new stuff was a few minutes away.

Once the guard went back into the main storefront Lake moved to the last backroom. He didn't look around much in this room though because it seemed to be a lounge for employees, or maybe important visitors. Now all Lake was waiting for was for the guard to start his rotation again.

Once the guard went back into the office he would have about five minutes in the storefront, where all he had to worry about was someone seeing him through a window. Lake was planning to stay low and behind a shelf while out there, so it was unlikely anyone who happened to walk by would see him.

Crouching down and entering the display area as soon as the guard left, Lake wasted no time in finding an expensive item and using Decrypt on it. He had to make sure stuff wasn't booby-trapped to set off an alarm if it was moved before he started filling up his bag.

He picked a really expensive item because he felt they were the most likely to be trapped. Once Decrypt was done doing its thing, Lake looked through all the effects this helmet had and found one was tying it to the stand it was on.

Lake guessed doing it this way made sense at night they would just flip a switch, or whatever, and all the shelves and stands would make sure nothing was moved until morning. This meant Lake had to turn this off before he could take anything, which meant he was going to be spending a lot more time here than he had wanted to.

Seeing if the guard had almost finished their rotation yet Lake figured he had enough time to use Decrypt one more time. Using it on the stand itself Lake wasn't expecting it to take too long or much mana, but when he felt the skill move on from the stand itself, and into the floor towards the office, Lake stopped Decrypt because he had his answer.

The way to unlock all the stuff was hidden in the office somewhere, and since the guard was about to come into the storefront Lake moved on to the office to look. This meant the guard was now one room behind him, so he couldn't spend too much time looking.

Looking in the most obvious places first Like the desk Lake didn't find a switch, of course since this was a magic system a physical switch was ridiculous. He had only checked because he was hoping to do this fast, so he could move on.

Moving to the lounge because the guard was probably about to enter the office. Once they did, Lake reentered the storefront. Now that he had more time Lake used Decrypt on the closest shelf to the office. The skill slowly traced a line from the shelf to the office, and once it was done, Lake started to break down how the security formation that kept the items from moving worked.

The formation was unlocked by using an item Lake guessed was with whoever managed the store during the day. Lake was guessing it was like the ring he had seen Lucas use to open the door while they were at the top of the spire. Lucas had inserted his ring into a divot on the door which had unlocked it.

Lake was a little upset when he realized there was no way to unlock the security system without tracking down the key. There was also no way to know if the owner had the key because this was a guild business, so the owner and the person who managed it had a high chance of being different people.

Lake guessed the owner would technically be the guild leader of the Blacksmiths guild but he had no way of knowing through his name and location he could see because of Burglar Alarm. Lake had one more thing he wanted to try though before he gave up completely. Lake thought there was a small chance the guard might have a key for some reason.

There wasn't a reason the guard would need to unlock the items at night but it was still worth a shot. Lake used Detector, and set it to look for the key. Now all he needed to do was get the guard inside the range of his skill to see if they had a key. It wasn't too hard because he only had to move a few feet with its radius being twenty feet.

Seeing nothing from his skill he knew he was right about the guard not having a key, so this break in was a bust, unless he just tried his luck at pulling the items away from the shelves and stands they were on. This wasn't a good way to go though because the alarm would go off as soon as he tried and there was no way to guarantee he could even do it.

If he was able he could probably only get one item before the guard reacted plus whoever their guild sent to chase him. If he left without stealing anything he wouldn't be able to come back either because of the huge hole he had put in the roof. There was no way they wouldn't increase the security, even if it was just for a while.

Lake was upset about his failure but he saw the bright side of this being a good reason to learn more about a place before he tried to rob it. If he knew who the manager was he could have gone to get the key from them like he had done at the jewelry store.

Lake felt a lot better after he thought about the jewelry store because it made him realize tonight wasn't a total failure because he had really only been wasting time by breaking in here, which he had succeeded at much better than he could have ever hoped with him getting nothing from it.

Getting back into the attic, Lake left through the hole he had made in the roof. If he made a commotion here it might mess up his plans at the jewelry store so he was ok leaving empty handed. With it being late enough that someone who worked all day would go to bed, Lake returned to Ry's house to steal the key.

Once Lake was outside he retuned Detector for the safe key and since he was also using Mana Vision Lake saw the key wasn't near anybody. Lake assumed it was because Ry had left it in his pocket when he had changed to go to bed. This made it easier for Lake because it meant he wouldn't have to pickpocket a sleeping person.

Finding a window into an empty room, Lake decided not to go through it because Ry seemed rich, so the windows were probably trapped. After making this decision it left him with a wall or the roof and of course he chose the roof. Very few people would be able to see him since almost every house or building in this city had flat roofs.

Since Mute had been on this entire time Lake punched a hole in the roof, and made his way in. Ry's house didn't have an attic it seemed so Lake needed to be quick before someone woke up to pee and saw a huge hole in the hallway. Lake dashed towards the key, and only stopped when he saw where the Detector said the key was.