The morning seemed to last forever.

Once we finished making pastries, I had to run the front desk. Which wasn’t hard in theory. I just had to ask people what they wanted, put it in a box and give it to them. The hard part came from the people who wanted specially made pastries. It felt like I spent most of the morning explaining to people that I was new and didn’t know how to make whatever it was that they were wanting me to go back into the kitchen and make for them.

About seven thirty, Trixie came in with two other guards. We only had one other customer dining in the shop and I started going over ways to get them to leave as I greeted the copy of the woman I’d been working with the last few days. The biggest difference that I noticed between the two was that Trixie had her hair all pulled back in a band instead of the complex braids that Nyssa wore.

“Morning! What can I get you?” I smiled at her as the two men with her took their chairs.

“Six chocolate rounds and three glasses of tea.” She smiled in a pleasant way that I hadn’t seen from Nyssa.

“Right here.” I grabbed three cups that I’d already set out with a sedative in the bottom and poured hot tea in them. Grabbed the round and put them in a box. I entered her total into the register and shook my head. “Five All.” I could have gone down to the thirty-sixth floor and farmed for an hour and made more All than they had this morning. I supposed that if someone wasn’t going into the Dungeon, then they only needed to eat and not stack other buffs. Not that many people utilized the buffs that food made from higher Tier materials gave. It was far more efficient to just eat Mundane food and sell the crystals.

“Thank you.” The redhead smiled again. “I hope you have a good morning.”

“Thanks.” I returned the smile and watched her pass out the drinks to the other men. I looked at the other guy in the shop. He was taking his time with his pastry and drink. Somehow I doubted that he’d be finished before we got to the jail.

It didn’t take long before all three of them started wobbling. When that happened, Gall came out of the back and snapped his fingers. The extra patron slumped over the table.

“Why didn’t we do that in the first place?” I hurried around the counter to lock the front door and close the shades.

“That one’s a Mundane.” Gall was already stripping the guards out of their black uniforms with red trim. “These are Tier Four.”

His Sleep spell must have only been Tier Four or lower. That would explain why he didn’t use it on the guards. Or they could have had a passive that made them immune to Sleep spells and the drinks had something to negate that passive. Whatever the reason, all that mattered was they were asleep now and we needed to get into uniform.

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Nyssa came out and carried her sister into the back, while Garlin walked over to me and handed me an earbud.

“Ella is going to tell us when she has the system down.” The Anubis held out a second item that looked like a markless coin. “She needs you to put this on one of their systems where they won’t see it.” He pulled it back as I reached for it. “Don’t put it in your CB unless you want her to have full control of it.”

“Good to know.” I started stripping down so that I could put on the uniform of the guard that I’d just taken off. “What happens if they decide to scan us?”

Gall nodded at the guard’s CB. “We’ve got a chip for that. Put that on and Ella will make it so that any scan they’d run will only see the guard.”

“I took my CB off my wrist and looked at it. I felt naked with the crystal on a tan leather strap around my wrist. “What do I..?”

“I’ll take them.” Garlin held out his hand. “It won’t stop them from scanning you, but it’ll make them have to work harder to figure out who you are if you get caught.”

I reluctantly handed over the thing that held all of my items. Garlin took mine and Galls and put them in his own CB. I quickly wrapped the red crystal on a black leather strap around my wrist.

Once I was dressed, Garlin gave me the silver chip he’d shown me earlier. “This one goes in your pocket.” He handed me the silver one. “This one goes in the CB.” He gave me the white one.

I nodded and put them where they were supposed to go and looked down at the CB display.

Rene Archer - Level 43

Age: 41, Hair: Black, Eye Color: Yellow

Skin: White, Blood: Red, Height: 5’ 11”’

302,156.7 Exp

Guard - Mana 312/312

400 Power 432 Defense 96 Speed

48 Magic 64 Recovery 64 Aura

Skills: Thorn Wall, Bind, Shield Smash, Damage Link, Look At Me, Nullify Magic

Passives: Intervene, Immovable, Feedback, Silent Casting

“This guy is a wall.” I looked down at the milky-white man that Garlin was restraining.

“Less talking, more moving.” Nyssa walked out with her hair pulled back like her sister’s. Her tone was sharper than her sister’s pleasant greeting this morning. I thought about pointing that out, but decided against it as I put the helmet on.

I nodded at her. “I’m ready.”

“No talking.” The redhead held up a finger at me. “You definitely don’t sound like that guy.”

I nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

“Ella, can you hear us?” Nyssa touched her ear.

“Loud and clear!” The cheerful voice was practically cackling on the other end. I wasn’t sure where they’d found this person, but they sounded young.

“Good.” The golden woman walked over to the door. “Let’s go do a prison break.”