Grunt's eyes opened and he yawned, then pulled the covers off his beds and planted his feet on the floor of the warehouse loft. He cracked his neck, knuckles, and jaw, then stood up and made his bed, huge hands abusing his absurdly high dexterity to do it neatly in moments.

A shower and change of clothes later, Grunt was ready to face the day, except that his stomach was growling. He went over to the break room fridge and opened it, saw he hadn't stocked anything he could cook, and shrugged and checked his wallet. It was telling him that it had about 1.5 million credits left in it. He'd let someone else cook today, after all, he had been working pretty hard the last few loops.

He grabbed his coat off the hook, the bright orange miners jacket making him look like an inmate. Maybe he'd paint parts of it black so it made him look like a poison dart frog? Well, most people who looked at him knew he was a threat.

He passed two new guards he was training to actually watch the warehouse. They were watching TV and talking about what classes they were going to get. Grunt didn't interrupt, they needed to plan. Corvayne's pacts were just barely affecting them but that was enough to level twice as fast as they should. He didn't really need them to be anything more then present during the day, so that was fine.

The Cascadian Jasper was next to worthless to anyone who couldn't ship it off planet and totally worthless if they didn't have a business installing counter tops, but people STILL broke in. People who did not have all the information. He recalled back in the good old days when all you needed to let folks know crime was not welcome was to stick a few orc heads on pikes around the place.

He could have used the assassins or sky knights, but it was lazy when they were following more important orders, which was stay vigilant for anyone trying to mess with Wick or Corvayne and to zero anything they could take.

The boy was doing well, and it warmed Grunt's heart to see him living a normal life. Poor kid had never been happy with The Watchers. That he and Spears were an item was nice. It was a little worrying that a Magus apprentice was in the house, but she didn't seem to have her brain burned out so it was probably okay that they would probably start dating. She might be the Magus's daughter, though it probably would have marked her as a Pilgrim Hybrid on her status sheet if that was the case.

He made his way down Copper Mill Road to Ayame's place. He was not surprised to see both Ayames there, the cook and cyborg hitting it off after learning about each-other. The smell of eggs were nice, but Grunt needed carbs. He was already losing weight since the last loop.

He took a menu and sat up at the counter rather then a booth. He pointed at pancakes, then took out some dice Gary had left at the warehouse from the last DnD session. He flipped up a six and a nine.

Cook Ayame narrowed her eyes. "Fifteen Pancakes?"

Grunt laughed silently and shook his head. He pointed at the six and the nine.

"Your record is only fifty eight! You will be useless all day if you eat that many!"

Grunt let his stomach rumble.

"Your funeral."

Grunt could probably eat everyone's breakfast on the entire planet and still have room for seconds, but he didn't need to give away exactly how much mass he actually had. It had been a touchy point before everyone got dragged into this universe. Newer Adepts were made of hyper compressed crystal, but he had been trained by the Kirogami and had opted for the space magic approach to forming a formidable warrior body.

Cyborg Ayame nodded at him, and Grunt nodded at her, then slipped her the note with his next few requests for Smoke-Theres-Fire. He was threading the line that the Curse would consider triggering for Corvayne, but Spears realizing who he was hadn't set it off. Fingers crossed he could get information on anything coming their way before they hit another reset. That and finding Waves-Within. He had a pretty good idea where One-Last-Note and Whispers-In-Dark were, and would certainly make sure he displayed his displeasure once he found them. Spaces-Torn-Asunder was anyone's guess, he had been hoping the lab they found in Cascadia would have him, but all signs pointed to him not being home. It was possible he had a method of moving past 'The Dome', given he probably built it.

The rumors of 'Infinitus' of course lead to a bunch of dead ends. He had been pissed at Half-Claimed-Crown for doubting they would find the boy, and now he was pissed that the man's only footprint was as elusive as the monsters Wick wanted to chase.

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Most of the Watchers he had found were damaged in some way, sometimes to the point where they barely remembered anything. The Magus liked 'puppies' so had left Smoke-Theres-Fire alone, even though the hell hound was in many ways more dangerous then anyone outside the arms masters.

He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. He had some more questions for Diamond regarding exactly what she remembered, as it would determine if she could reform her avatar or if she was stuck in orbit, but he was still scrubbing the stink of space off after the last trip up to her.

Pancakes started appearing before him, and Grunt started seeing how many he could eat with just his primary stomach. He would cheat after it was full, but he had once packed away nineteen before switching organs, and he was pretty sure he could hit twenty given how hungry he was.

He didn't hurry as he sliced the pancakes into quarters so he wasn't stuffing his mouth. The stack of five that Ayame had handed him had some syrup on them, but he started lifting and applying more to the interior, turning them into a sweet mess.

Ayame brought him an ice cold milk, which made him smile at her. He had come to really like Old Town, even with how grungy it was. The people who were nice? Great.

The bells attached to the door rung as a blast of cold air swept into the restaurant, which was a nice way for Grim to announce he would be reasonable and to the point today. Sometimes the assassin tried to sneak up on him and he'd have to direct the man to get his ass out of the ceiling panels/HVAC/plumbing and go clean up.

Grim sat down and ordered the waffles with strawberries, also choosing not to speak. Grunt had done his due diligence and warned him of the dangers of processed food for anyone under 30 CON, but the man had spent a lifetime drinking actual 'trying to kill you' poison and living off scorpions in the wastes, so Grunt guessed a few months of greasy spoon before he hit super human constitution wasn't going to put a dent in him. Looking again, it seemed being able to order out had actually helped remove the impression Grunt had that he was a twig.

To be fair... compared to himself? Just about everyone that wasn't Diamond was a twig.

He was still hungry as he traded his first plate for the next set of five. The assassin next to him spoke. "No changes at Wick's. No threats at Corvayne's besides teens and one group of burglars comprised of violent felons. The teens were relieved of their toilet paper and their parents were contacted. The burglars will never be found again. The walls are doing their job, though there are more Cult of the Damned masks flowing in through smugglers. The Western empire has seen redeployment of troops to just outside the range of the wall. A few signs of high tech observers, now that we know what to look for, but no signs of black crystal weapons outside of the Lythandies Order."

Grim didn't say the order was making that last request hard, but he didn't need to. He signed 'Any odd names showing up?'

"There are many youth who look up to the priestess of the rolled die. It has made our job difficult to monitor everyone with a three-fold-name."

Grunt nodded, chewing pancake. His second biggest worry was, at the moment, ambush by a rouge Watcher who might be able to take Corvayne or Wick out before they knew they were under attack. Mostly Wick. If Falenti had trusted Gylwin to watch his back in the old world, then Corvayne couldn't be in better hands.

He signed a bowling ball motion that meant 'three holes' then put a hand to his face. 'mask.'

"Besides the cult of the damned, we have not seen a leader that fell outside the standard insanity that the masks cause. Nor have we heard word of this Magus from those who are hidden in the host of the Cult, somewhere far north of the high plains."

He nodded and made a gesture to let the assassin be 'at ease' so he could enjoy his waffles. Nothing new.

He signed Grim a few recommendations for movies, mostly action films as the man did not like romance in his stories. The assassin thanked him.

Grunt took his third set of pancakes to the window outside and opened it. Someone in a booth behind him started to complain, but saw it was Grunt and shut his mouth. Smart man. Not that he'd start a fight in Ayame's restaurant, but he was not above giving mortals wedgies the next time he saw them.

By the window was a draconian face, sky blue scales forming a jagged maw. Grunt didn't bother addressing the human rider, as they were one and the same. A true gestalt. He instead snapped his fingers and ordered them a half dozen plates of bacon.

The creature whistled and clicked, then remembered it was talking to a 'human'.

"Ser Grunt who DANGERSMELL DANGERFEEL, we report BLACK SKY WASP movement has been down..."

Grunt held up a hand. He signed that Argyle was to be monitored but he didn't need to report unless they bunched up.

"Very well. We also saw the Adventurer's guild leader in Cascadia."

Grunt smiled. That was a good out of place person. Corky was on his way!

"Patrol over the High Plains saw man floating by with DANGERSMELL DANGERFEEL MOUNTAINCLOUD. Wearing rubber ducky swim suit over his robe-"

SHIT. Grunt surged to his feet. The Sky knight kept talking. -We declined his cookies. Wanted to know about gate rode. Broke into the palace and walked through the portal."

Grunt eased himself down. He gestured for three holed mask. "Yes." No fire. "Yes." Trailed black thorns while flying? The Sky Knight nodded. Grunt looked at his pancakes, then sighed and pushed them aside and made the symbol for spread the word.

Grunt then signed. 'Every flier is to stay near portals, no more then five minutes from them. Make sure your squad leaders have their scroll of 'OhShit' on them. Break it if you see a meteor then hightail it to a portal. We are pulling out of Cascadia.'

He was using his other hand to send out a text to Corvayne, Wick, Gylwin, Dawn, Mosh, and Mister I. He then sent one to Grim. Why not? He liked the assassin. He wasn't worried about Corky. He would need to get a radio transmitter to tell Diamond to not try to help if the Magus showed up.

He turned to Ayame, then took and wrote a note, weighing it down with a storage ring full of everything he deemed a civilian would need to survive and thrive through a portal. He tipped her in platinum coins and black essence crystals. Hopefully she'd take the advice and get the hell out of there.

He thought about Bearer-Of-Burdens then, and sent her a text as well. Would Cascadia Public planning come through? No time to worry about everyone else when the Magus was around. It was likely that anywhere from a minute to a day from now, the entire planet would be nothing but a smoking ruin.