Honestly, I’ve never thought about it, but people don’t look up that often.

I mean think about it. How often does the average person look up in a day?

That’s how I was able to slip a [stray cat] in and out of the rafters of the Skisfink storehouse without anyone noticing.

“Man, if these people weren’t trying to kill me, I’d have never have done this,” I thought as I watched the people count crates, move crates, curse at the crates, and do just about everything you could do with a crate in a storehouse.

When the workers weren’t moving crates, the time was spent shouting, grumbling, and enough swearing to remind me of an open coms lobby of an online game.

It wasn’t all wasted time, however.

I had learned that Rex was a part of a group that was officially known as Skisfink Insurance Agency. On paper, the company did what the name suggested and they insured homes and places of business.

Unofficially, a “representative” would show up at your home or place of business, and once you were strong armed into signing up with them, the Skisfinks would subtly try to sabotage the place you worked or your business and all of your stuff would get taken in order to make up the difference of the contract duration.

People who didn’t sign on with them usually got put on the front of the list and were treated the worst out of all of them.

Basically it was a protection racket disguised as an insurance company and this storehouse was where they kept everyone’s stuff they “reclaimed” before it got sold to someone else.

The storehouse got emptied once every fifteen days, the next one being eight days from now.

“OY! The Don doesn’t pay you to just sit around!” a man’s voice, who I’d come to recognize as a boss or supervisor, shouted from around the corner.

“There ain’t no work to do,” someone retorted.

“Ain’t no work! Well that won’t do. Looks like you lot are going to start unloading shelves, cleaning them until they get nice and polished, and then loading them back!” the supervisor shouted back.

A series of groans and curses quickly followed as the workers shuffled into the main area and began to unload the shelves.

“Rookie mistake,” I thought, “you always need to look busy or the boss can find you something for you to do.”

Sighing, I looked around the storehouse through my cat’s eyes.

I was quickly discovering that spying wasn’t nearly as glamorous as the movies made it out to be.

“Hey boss, one of the records you lost was stuck to the bottom of a crate!” one of the workers shouted.

“Gimme that!” the boss shouted back as the paper was snatched out of his subordinate’s hand.

“Hmm,” I thought, “If they keep records of what they are taking and from who, maybe I should try to get my paws on them.”

***

“So are you saying that you managed to get all of this equipment for twenty-seven silver?” asked Odez.

“Not exactly,” replied River, “it seems like the dungeon has a special area designed to entice delvers to gamble.”

“Why do you think that Mr. House set that up?” Morgana asked.

“Probably because he knew that we would go back for our stuff,” Edwin replied, shooting River a glance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Yeah, well I just thought I’d tell everyone in case it was something we wanted to try our hand at,” River said, ignoring Edwin, “there’s no guarantee. It’s literally a gamble.”

“If it means I don’t have to get up before the sun rises again, you can count me in,” Odez said.

“I’d like to see if I can pet the cats and say hi to Southpaw,” Morgana grinned.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I’m sick of cleaning windows,” Edwin sighed, “besides you three would get in more trouble without me.”

“Well we can’t exactly call ourselves delvers without taking some risks. Let’s show Mr. House what we’re made of!” River exclaimed.

***

“Not that it isn’t good to be speaking to you again Amanda, but you usually don’t try to contact me unless something bad has happened,” Hilda said as she looked into the mirror on her wall.

“Well not necessarily bad, but there’s something I wish I would have been made aware of earlier,” Amanda said with a sharp tone to her voice.

“Ah,” Hilda replied.

“Yes, I recently found out that a dungeon recently appeared in the warehouse district of our fair city,” Amanda explained, “but not only that, I’ve found out that someone close to me has been studying the dungeon without informing anyone of it’s existence,” Amanda scolded.

“I don’t suppose you would be interested in hearing about the once in a lifetime academic opportunity this dungeon provides?” Hilda asked with a slightly guilty expression.

Amanda sighed.

“What could possibly be so academically important that you had to hide it from everyone?” she asked.

“One moment,” said Hilda before getting up and returning with a small vial.

“This is a shard of luck magic in stable form,” she said, holding up the vial to the mirror.

“Luck magic? Then does that mean that the dungeon…” Amanda said trailing off.

“It makes sense why Mr. House is a casino, doesn’t it?” Hilda said with a smirk.

“Hilda, I understand why you’ve hidden this from everyone, from me, but don’t you think that you’re playing with fire?” Amanda asked, “if things get out of hand, you could end up attracting the attention of the church.”

Hilda scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I’m not going to do anything that drastic with it,” she said, “besides, what would I even do with eternal life?”

“Unwinding yourself from the tapestry of fate would be foolish, but you’ve just had the tool to do so fall right into your lap. I’m just concerned that if someone finds out, the church will assume the worst and send an inquirer to your doorstep,” Amanda replied.

“Amanda, the only people who even know that I have this are you and my apprentice and I doubt either one of you is planning on running off and informing the church,” Hilda said.

“Just be careful,” Amanda sighed, “the church has come a long way since they went around burning mages, but I have it on good authority that there is a small number of people who want things to go back to ‘the good old days.’”

“I’ll be careful. My tower is safe and this luck shard isn’t any more dangerous than some of the things that you have in that vault of yours,” Hilda said with a smirk.

“Fair point,” Amanda conceded, “Anyways, I heard that you checked quite a few people in the area for enchantments and mind control. Could I have a copy of the results? For paperwork’s sake, of course.”

“Of Course, Amanda,” replied Hilda.

***

“It always surprises me how fast the [cat-kin] pick things up,” I muttered as S’more, the newly minted head chef, presented a baked potato to Selina.

The damn thing looked picturesque with the cheese and sour cream glistening in the candle light while the chives looked like they had each been placed there individually with how evenly they were spaced out.

S’more waited with anticipation as Selina scooped up a piece with her fork and put it in her mouth.

“Mmmmhm,” Selina moaned as she savored the bite.

S’more grinned triumphantly as Selina continued to dig in.

“Okay, so far we have the baked potato, the salami sandwich, and the roast veggie plate. I think that should be good enough to start with before we get into anything more complex,” I said.

“Are you sure?” Selina asked, “I’m always willing to try more food.”

“It’s best not to overwhelm S’more. Even with the other line cooks, Marsh, Gram, and Choco, things can get exponentially more complex the more dishes you add to the menu,” I said.

“Oh fine,” Selina sighed as she continued to enjoy her baked potato.

“Don’t worry Selina, you’ll be the first to know if I add something new to the menu,” S’more said in a way that was somehow gruff and adorable at the same time.

“I’ll hold you to it,” Selina beamed.

I chuckled as I made a mental note to ask Jasper about pastries and other desserts in the future.