The day started early, right as the sun had first started to reveal itself above the horizon and immediately, Seth got to work.

He got dressed in a beggar's outfit, and, just in case, pocketed his trusty dagger and a spare sleeping potion. He reviewed the plan in his mind one last time before he picked up his snake friend and started to make his way towards the theatre.

Security was as tight and it seemed that John had brought over more security for the big show, but Seth had planned for this.

His goal this morning was to get some more information on the guards and maybe have a test run for his snake distraction. The show started at 6 PM and Seth therefore had 12 hours before it even started: it was going to be a long day for him, but the rewards were well worth it.

Seth scuttled along the street and made his way towards the DDC security management office. The DDC was an acronym for Darter's Defensive Corporation and was a group of pre-adventurers turned security guards.

That was actually extremely good news for Seth as that meant that the group guarding Johns Theatre weren't specialised to be good guards, their classes were built to match the task of raiding dungeons and not protecting an area.

But Seth still wanted to get an idea of their skills and levels, especially that old man. From his aura from before Seth could tell he was fairly high level, and Seth hoped he didn't have the skills to match.

As expected from a building managing a security company, they had a lot of guards.

The building itself was a 4-story office building with the third floor being the floor that the security one was based on. Breaking in was fairly easy, Seth just needed to find a uniform from one of the other companies that worked in the same building.

There was a compound around the building that was just a small, gated area and Seth easily hoped over without anyone spotting him.

Looking around the building, apart from the guards, Seth managed to spot a couple of office workers having a break of fresh air.

Moving closer, Seth started to make out some idle talk. Looking at the uniform it seemed they worked for the company based on the first floor. This information was gleaned from the gate at the entrance to the compound.

Seth waited patiently for the office workers to give him anything to work with when one of the workers walked away from the others stating he needed to make a phone call.

Taking the chance, Seth started to follow the man as he walked further away from people's view but just as Seth was about to pounce he spotted a patrol of 2 guards walking in the man's direction.

If he didn't take the change now Seth would run the risk of losing this opportunity, so he quickly incapacitated the person with a sleeve that had enough sleeping potion on it to knock out an infant wyvern.

At least that's what the merchant had sold him with, and it looked like the merchant wasn't lying as Seth found the man stop struggling and Seth dragged his unconscious body into a thicket of bushes.

Seth quickly and quietly changed into the man's clothes. He also managed to grab a sort of ID from the man's pockets.

Seth then left the poor man and made his way towards the front entrance.

Here he walked past the guards who just barely glanced at him before he was allowed in. Now in the building, Seth found that each floor had an ID-locked door that Seth needed before he could get in.

The ID card had a sort of mana beacon that reacted with the door. Seth didn't really know how it worked but it was fairly intuitive so reasoning that information Seth now had access to the first floor completely but could only enter the staircase of the rest.

Seth needed the ID card for the third floor, so he went up the staircase looking for answers. Walking past a few guards on the way up Seth found himself on the roof with nothing.

He saw no office staff on his way up and the guards paid noticeably more attention to him than Seth would have liked.

On the roof with him was another set of employees but there wasn't enough space to isolate them. Luckily or unluckily for Seth, they all worked for floors 2 and 4 so none of them would notice his disguise but they didn't have the ID he was looking for.

Seth decided to join the conversation with them, maybe he could gain another clue to get into his target floor.

After a conversation about romance Seth provided nothing towards the group and moved on to minor annoyances. Thinking it was another dead-end Seth found himself wanting to move away before he heard this from one of the workers.

"DO what I just don't get? Why on earth do we all have to share one set of toilets, I mean I have to go all the way from the fourth floor just to get there."

Perfect!

Seth quickly dismissed himself sitting the need for the loo, so he made his way towards the bottom floor. After completing the stairs yet again Seth arrived at the communal toilets which were right next to the stairs.

After admonishing his own eyesight Seth entered and prepared to gather another ID.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He waited...

And waited...

About an hour passed and he still waited...

2 hours...

3...

Finally, someone entered, and Seth said a prayer before a second-floor employee appeared in his vision! About to punch the wall, he heard the door again and this time it was a fourth-floor employee!

The two silently did their business as Seth was trying to find a rope.

Just as the two left, he heard the door again; this time, it was a third-floor employee. About to dance Seth heard the door again and it was another third-floor employee.

`What is this a party? I wait 3 HOURS!`

Ignoring the parade of anger from Seth's stall, he ducked down and wondered how he would take one of their ID cards.

Making it harder the two were in conversation and one entered the stall next to Seth as the other used a urinal. The obvious plan was to jump into the other urinal, but Seth thought another plan was far easier.

He walked out of his stall and washed his hands. Seth was waiting for the man to stop peeing as he didn't really want to drag an unconscious fountain. That would not be pretty.

So, Seth took his sweet time washing his hands as the man finished up Seth quickly walked up to him and knocked him out cold.

This sleeve thing was incredibly effective, and it made Seth wonder why nobody else was using it.

Seth dragged his new buddy into an empty stall and whilst the man tried calling for his friend Seth answered him back.

"Dude he left."

With that out the way, Seth waited for him to leave before he changed disguise again and finally obtained the treasure that was the ID card.

With that in hand, Seth made his way back up the stairs and into the 3rd-floor office. He prepared himself for the worst so once the door was open Seth was ready to avoid attention at all costs.

When he did walk in Seth found that there were office benches to the immediate left and a storeroom to the immediate right.

Seth ducked out of the view of the benches and made his towards the storeroom. Peeking inside whilst trying to be discreet Seth saw nobody so he quickly entered and closed the door behind him.

Seth looked around for anything of particular interest but saw nothing except spare stationery. Seth sadly couldn't wait them out as he had the play to catch so he opened the door and plunged himself back into the deep end.

A line of doors made up the wall to the right and each had an office with a sign on whose it belonged to on the door. Looking for the most senior of the group, Seth was peeking into each one before he got noticed by a keen-eyed worker.

He hushed Seth over,

"Oi, you. Yeah you, get over here. What are you doing?"

Seth needed to think up a story quickly and his extra intelligence helped him create a decent excuse in near seconds, "Ur, so I was just delivering a message to our boss, and I forgot which office was his? Sorry, my memories have never really been great."

The keen-eyed worker seemed to ponder for a moment before Seth gained information key to his prep heist. "Well our branch manager isn't here right now he's on a mission, but I can leave a message for his office. Tell me what the message is, and I'll deliver it when he gets back."

Not the response Seth was looking for, he tried to get the conversation back in a good direction. "Sorry, it's kinda private so if I could leave it at his desk on a note, that would be much better. Please... all I need to know is which office it is."

She looked mildly annoyed but relented due to Seth's `incredible` charisma.

"It's that one," she pointed to the one somehow furthest from the door, "now go deliver your private message. Also, I don't believe I've seen you before, names Daisy if you couldn't read my nametag."

Seth was overjoyed at his success but downplayed it, as if to look cool, to absolutely nobody.

After saying goodbye to the nice woman, Seth quickly wandered over to the office and walked in. Closing the door behind him Seth immediately got to work.

File after file Seth quickly made progress in learning which guards were hired where and what abilities they had. He hit the gold mine when he found the hiring contract for exactly who was hired and for how long.

Looking at Johns's signature and the amount paid it seemed that old money was as old as it was vast and that made Seth even more excited.

The experience he would gain would be higher and such his goal of immortality closer.

After a couple minutes of sorting Seth had a decent idea of what he would be facing as guards. The first and most important person was the Branch Manager himself, he was on a mission, and it was this one.

His skills were nauseating,

Name: Snow Devonshire

Class: Peerless Dual-Swordsman/ lvl 66

Skills:

=Frenzy (Mastery/ Advanced 7244/10000)

=Perfectly Ambidextrous (Mastery/ Advanced 8435/10000)

=Danger Detection (Mastery/ Intermediate 598/1000)

This was by far the highest-status screen that Seth had ever seen. 66 was enough for knighthood for any average individual and this was a man who was 72.

Now he had been through 2 evolutions, so his lifespan was at 150 but time eroded his experience.

The sea in Seth's Island Soul was eroding away at his experience and as it continued he would naturally decrease in level if his experience gain did not increase to outweigh it.

This was why all old people weren't level 70, but they were nearly always higher level than your average person.

There was more to it, like the diameter of the island playing a role in it but Seth didn't really pay too much attention to that as he was still 18 and who cares about old age stuff when one is 18.

Anyway back to the status screen, Mr Devonshire seemed to have one skill in interest and that was Danger Detection which could be an issue if it detected that Seth was a danger.

Now Seth could assume thanks to its fairly low level that it wouldn't detect him stealing as it wasn't a danger to him. Unless not getting paid counted but that couldn't be it as that would simply be too overpowered. Maybe at higher upgrades but for now it likely only meant life-threatening danger and it likely only increased in range or time before warning the user.

Ultimately as long as Seth wasn't trying to stab the guy through the heart, he should be fine.

The only other skill that the guards had of interest was a guy named Fort who had the status screen,

Name: Fort

Class: Observant Rogue/ lvl 26

Skills:

=Eyes Of Prey (Mastery/ Intermediate 14/1000)

=True Aim (Mastery/ Beginner 80/100

This guy was clearly a new talent and he had likely never even seen a dungeon. He was the guard company's talented rising star and looking at his track record Seth got a good idea of the skill of interest.

Eyes of Prey was a rare skill that highlighted people who `meant ill of the user`, in other words, Seth would light up like a Christmas tree on Christmas day. Or would he?

Seth certainly did not want to be caught off guard by such a possibility, so he had to factor the skill in like Seth was going to be highlighted in this man's eyesight.

That was the bad news, the good news was that it was obvious where the guard would be sitting. So, much so that it was added into the contract that the guard would be sitting above the stage on the light rack to see the entire audience.

Seth had been on that very light rack so he knew where he could sit but if he moved or was relocated somewhere else last minute then Seth had no plan for that. Finally, it didn't specify where Fort would be at the start of the show or after as it only said during the show he would be on the light rack so that was another possibility that Seth had to factor in.

With so much new information, Seth had 6 hours to plan for it all but he did have to go home first, and Seth was feeling mighty hungry.