The Insider System

Chapter 125: That Way Pt.1

Lake did as he was told and arrived in Lucas's office before the sun was up. It had been really easy because he just told his servants to get him up if he wasn't up by a certain time. Lake didn't end up needing them though because at most he only ever slept five hours, and that was after a long day where he was really tired before he got in his bed.

Stepping into the office, Lake saw there were a few people who were clearly not members of the guild because they were tied up and guards were holding them in place. Well they might have been members in the past he guessed, but either way it seemed he might be using his skill on them.

Once Lucas got done whispering to one of the people that were tied up he told the guard. "Take this one back to the prison, there's no reason to take one that's willing to talk. It will just make it harder for us to keep them under control." Lake knew Lucas knew he was here so he didn't say anything and fell into line behind him.

Lucas would tell him when it was time to use his skill so for now he would just watch. After a while and with a few more prisoners sent back to the jail or whatever they were left with two who Lucas hadn't sent back after he had spoken to them. Getting a good look at them Lake saw they were both just regular looking people which added credence to them being ex members.

"Alright take them to the cart, we will be down in a little while." Once the guards had left with the prisoners Lucas turned to him and said. "Your skill can track items that people want the most right?" Lake nodded and said. "It's actually what they care about the most, but it's probably the same thing right?"

"And it works on any one?" Lake nodded again to which Lucas said. "Alright put this on and start charging it with your mana. I'll tell you when I need you to use your skill." Lake received the necklace Lucas was holding out towards him and started to feed it mana. He could tell it could hold a lot so Lake took the opportunity to inspect it.

Now that it was full of his mana he was the owner so he didn't need to worry about any anti inspection effects it had to protect itself from prying eyes.

Scrying Skills Boosting Necklace

Lake couldn't help but to wince at how bad the name was, but he got over it and started to read through the effects the necklace had.

Counters the protective effects the target has placed on them by using the mana stored in the necklace to boost the power of the skill.

Protects the wearer from any anti scrying effects by using the mana stored in the necklace.

These were the main two things he found after reading all the facts his various Appraiser skills brought up. Also the necklace could hold 310 mana before it was full so he was going to need a mana potion if he wanted to fill it in a timely manner. "Lucas, do you have a mana potion I can use to fill this necklace?"

Lucas nodded and went over to one of the shelves in the room and brought Lake a bottle. Taking sips whenever he started to get low, Lake filled the necklace with his mana soon after. "Ok I'm ready. Is it ok if I wear this, and my ring at the same time?" Lake remembered Lucas telling him items could interfere with one another so he was just checking before he put the necklace on.

"Yeah it's only a bad idea if the two items have a similar effect, so you should be fine." After he put the necklace on they went towards the elevator as Lucas said. "There's a risk to what you'll be doing, so if you feel like the Necklace isn't enough to keep you safe you need to cancel your skill before all the mana in the necklace is used up."

"So what is it that we are doing?" Lake felt Lucas was getting ahead of himself by not telling him what the mission was before telling him how dangerous it was going to be. "We have to track down something stolen from the guild about a week ago. We were lucky enough to catch most of the people who were working with the one that got away but none of them have given us any real information even when they try. It seems they were all told fake info so our efforts to make them talk were all wasted."

"Why did you have the guards bring back the ones willing to talk if they were just going to give you fake information?" It didn't make sense to Lake but Lucas seemed to have a reason. "I figured they wouldn't care enough about the item for your skill to be able to track it down if they were willing to give what they thought was real information."

Lake saw what Lucas meant the two that wouldn't talk would probably be the best targets for his skill since they seemed to care the most. "So what did they steal?" Lucas was always keeping the most important detail out of anything he said, Lake wondered if it was from the years of being uncertain if anyone was listening to what he was saying.

"They stole around forty Elixirs with the plans to use them to make themselves stronger before they abandoned the guild. Of course we caught most of them but the few that got away was enough to make us think there was no point in trying to track them down because we thought they would have already used what they could and sold the rest, but one of the scouts we had out in the town got some info that the people who had stolen them had been attacked before they made it out of town. This makes it much more likely that we will be able to recover what was stolen with almost no risk since we won't have to leave town."

Lake didn't know what the elixirs were worth but it must be a huge amount if Lucas was willing to go and do this himself but Lake did have one question. "How were they able to steal them? I thought they were kept in the Master Labs vault." Lucas nodded and said. "The good ones we give to important people are but the ones normal guild members have to work to earn aren't as well guarded, but they didn't break into a vault or anything they just took a shipment they were supposed to guard. Usually we have multiple sets of guards and members from different parts of the guild take such shipments to make it hard for them to plan something in advanced but with the amount of shipments we sent right before the barrier came up we were a little lax with who we sent out together because we didn't have the manpower to do otherwise."

"You thought there wasn't a way around a few of the shipments getting stolen, so you didn't even worry about it." Lake just stopped Lucas from giving him every detail by saying what he thought the gist was. "Yep." Lake new big businesses like the Alchemist guild expected some losses but he also knew they didn't just let it slide if they had the chance to right the wrong.

He had learned this the hard way in his last life when he had gotten caught after stealing from the same place one too many times. That was how he ended up spending all his free time either in court or at the therapist's office. He was sure he had gotten off easy compared to how this world handled theft though.

They were probably on their way to execute anyone who they found, and take back whatever was left of the Elixir. Lake guessed it would have actually been better for him in the long run if they had executed him though, probably faster than burning to death, and he wouldn't have had to sit through all that bullshit.

Once they made it to the cart bay Lake saw there were quite a few carts ready to go, but he wasn't sure if all of them were for what they were doing because he had heard Lucas say this would be a good chance to ship and receive while the war was on pause in the capital. He just followed Lucas because he was sure Lucas would know which carts they would be leaving in.

Seeing Lucas open the door of one of the large carts, and get inside Lake did the same. Sitting next to Lucas Lake saw the two prisoners and a few guards were inside as well. "You can go ahead and use your skill whenever you're ready." It seemed everyone was waiting on him to tell them where to go so Lake went ahead and used Treasured on the first of the two prisoners.

After feeling some Mana drain from the necklace and seeing a dot appear in the distance, Lake looked around to see there were three. Two were too far away to be in the city so Lake nodded to Lucas before he said. "I'm ready whenever. No guarantee it's right though." Lucas gave the order for the cart to start heading out into the city then looked at Lake and said. "Tell me when we start getting close."

Lake nodded as he felt the cart jerk forward. Looking back towards the prisoner he had just used the skill on Lake saw they were confused. After a second of thinking why he realized the two had probably expected something akin to torture to get them to talk but instead all Lake had done was look at them for a second.

These two probably didn't know that their info was no longer good since their colleagues had lost the Elixir soon after stealing it. Giving the two a small smile Lake dismissed them and started paying attention so he could give Lucas some basic directions to where they were going.