They laughed and, once Seth checked the hallway, they both left and went to the tavern.

As they walked across the dirt roads, Seth brought up a question first, "So, what did you take? Know if it's that bad, I'm fine not learning."

Liam smiled at Seth's sincerity, "Nah, I guess I owe you that much. Here," he passed Seth an amulet and started to describe what it was, "It was my mothers. It's a class inheritance, but, before you get any thoughts it's bound by my bloodline and only I can receive the class."

Seth stared at the object in envy. Inheritance devices were only created by those above the Master level and were one-time-use objects that could even contain the ancestor's downgraded class.

Seth said, in a daze, "Do you know what class is in there?"

Liam smirked at that. "My family is an old one, with many legends about this very object. You know we used to be Dukedom in this Kingdom, yeah I know right, How in God's name did they fall that far? Annoyingly I can answer that, do you know my father by any chance, or, in other words, have you been to any casino and played."

Seth nearly laughed at that. Of course, he had done his research, but he couldn't show this, so he put on a confused look.

"Good for you, don't get into it: the best advice I could ever give. That drunkard and his father, and his father all seemed to be addicted to wasting money and, well, here we are. Selling of our most precious inheritance for a coin more to spin away."

By this time they had arrived at the tavern, and Liam seemed rather thirsty after telling his family's story.

"You know you didn't answer my question right?" Seth still wanted that answer.

Liam smiled more than Seth had ever seen him. "It's the Trickster class, a heavily evolved version of the Jester class. Cool right?"

Seth knew that at that moment he was going to have this man join his organisation. No, matter, what.

"Yeah mate, now I think I should tell you a bit of truth as well." Liam seemed confused and set down his cup. "Firstly, I am no Beggar. Sadly, I was given a much more... complicated class."

Seth stopped and thought about how much he wanted to share. His heart wanted someone to tell his problems, but his mind told him to be wary. He decided on a compromise.

"Since you told me about your class or your future class, I will tell you mine. It's rather simple, I'm a Thief."

Liam looked confused, after all, he had never heard of this class before. He decided to ask the man himself, "What's a Thief?"

Seth sighed at himself; he barely had an answer to that question. But he gave it his best effort, "A Thief is a criminal who steals that which is not his. Whether through trickery or forced entry he takes that which he desires. That for me is the essence of what my class is, though I'm sure I am far from the real answer, if there is one."

Liam seemed shocked by the consequences of Seth's words. He was clearly an Evil class and that itself was enough for most to run like the wind. Liam thought about doing exactly that, he even shifted in his chair, but after thinking about it. This guy had no means to harm him, just rob him.

Liam clutched his inheritance close to his chest and said, "So you're here to take my inheritance?"

Seth laughed at this. His messy face combined with his ragged clothing gave of the appearance of a madman.

"Of course not! Why would I tell you if I was going to rob you? No, I'm here to recruit you. You will get paid in coin, decided upon by the collective contributors for every raid/robbery or whatever money the group steals. Apart from that it's just your average secrecy stuff. Essentially, you will get to join a robbery every now and then, get paid, and then, nothing. No bullshit, just occasional high-paying work that you can even refuse."

Liam slowed, shifted closer to the table, and put his hands on the counter. This was a large decision and whilst the deal sounded good, he had to get proper knowledge of this organisation first: make sure he wasn't going to get hunted down by The Order.

"No nothing? Seriously, how would this org even make money? Wait, no, don't answer that you evil classers after all, you make way more money than us. But that's for a good reason: what about the risk in these jobs?"

"High pay comes with high reward. Of course, I would plan it properly to minimise risk but I'm no God."

"I see." Liam shifted in his chair; Seth was sweating now. He knew the deal had come to a crucial point.

He took a deep breath. Liam was living a life of suppression and for once in his life, he had gained freedom, the boss no longer had anything that guaranteed his subservience, but he knew once he entered the world he needed money.

Not only that, robberies were clearly, at least in Liam's mind, a great source of experience. He was now aware of the trickery that Seth had committed and gotten a day's work in only minutes with a bit of mud and some poor clothes, he could imagine himself stealing from Kings like this and for that, he had decided.

But he needed to know one thing first.

"What is the name of this organisation?"

Seth sighed at this question. He had a name, but my god, he felt like such a dweeb saying it.

"Fortune's Syndicate. We are a small group, but we are building up quickly. Completely unknown to the world we pledge to take from those who have too much and spread the wealth that the world deserves. That's fancy waffle for we then spend the money however we want."

"Okay, I'll sign up. Do I get a badge or anything?" Liam was now looking like an expectant child; he liked the feeling of being in a group which appreciated his existence and valued him for his skill.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Sorry not yet, I need to apply for that. Yeah, I know sorry mate. For now let's celebrate, bartender, refill us!

The night faded as the two men appreciated a new beginning in their eventful lives.

Seth woke up groggy in an inn he must have newly booked, what a waste of money. Alas, Seth was in no mood for regret, he had just signed a star player to his new organisation, and he believed his celebration to be well worth it.

Now he needed to do 3 more things: sign a few more people, go to class and practice his skills. Calm mind was easy as he just needed to keep a calm mind when he had feelings of anger or hate or any emotion that might cloud his mind, and Deft hands could be passively levelled if he pickpocketed when he could.

Speaking of, he hadn't seen his stats for a while and Seth needed to check if the convoy had evolved him:

Name: Seth

Class: Thief/ lvl 24

Skills:

=Deft Hands, (Mastery/ Rookie 91/100)

=Calm Mind, (Mastery/ Rookie 62/100)

Yeah, Seth thought so. Evolving was a process described as being incredibly painful and Seth had felt nothing so he kind of expected that. Deft hands were super close to increasing in mastery level, which made sense as he did passively pickpocket from time to time. Finally, Calm Mind likely levelled due to the high-stress environment of his last heist.

`Good progress` was Seth's summary, now he needed to continue the said process. In other words, he wanted to find another accomplice.

He had a good speaker and performer in the form of Liam, and he had a good thief in the form of Seth but how would he make the group just that much better? He needed someone who would boost the performance of others and potentially play a role in the heist themself.

Seth concluded that he needed some form of Docter. Firstly, poison was a great ally of any thief as seen before in the Caravan heist. Secondly, he could heal any potential injury the team gets on the way. Finally, he could potentially boost their performance via drugs, though only if needed.

Drugging for performance was something done often in the theatrics world, it increased levelling speed and if you were high enough levelled then usually your body would heal itself but it was a race against death and many more lost than won that race.

Anyway, Seth needed to find a morally grey Docter and for that, he decided to go to his local practice. In the nicely wooden furnished practice, Seth had dressed himself up with a clipboard and pencil and walked in asking the receptionist "When was the last time a Docter was fired here?"

Perhaps because he had a clipboard or perhaps because it wasn't particularly sensitive information, he gained information on a Dan Gregor. He asked where he could find this person, but the receptionist seemed that was not afforded by his disguise, so he had to find a person in a city and all he had was a name.

That was not as hard a task as it seemed all he had to do was go to the City Sect and ask if the person had an address, which he did and so Seth ended up on 67 Lington Avenue.

The house itself reminded Seth of his old house: a double-storey wooden cabin with a garage. In his old house, this garage was transformed into his dad's workshop.

Seth walked up to the detached house and knocked on the door. Waiting a moment, Seth could not help but peer inside the house through an open shutter he saw a perfectly normal house, oddly normal.

Nothing suggested anyone lived there, like paintings or any sort of unique character it was just, normal.

Knocking Seth out of his thoughts was the sound of someone coming down the stairs, so he stopped looking through the shutter and tried to look normal.

As the door opened a small person greeted him, "What do you want?"

Well, Seth didn't hate being upfront, "I want to see a Dan Gregor, I believe he lives here."

The small man looked at Seth like he was an idiot, "You looking at him, now what do you want."

Wow, this guy was not fun to have a conversation with. Had he even heard of `small` talk? Seth didn't mind though, he had been far more tolerant of small annoyances ever since his death, so he continued his chat.

"I was hoping you could make me a little something," Seth flashed a few silver coins, "I heard you were Docter correct?"

"Yep."

"Then can you make potions?"

"Nope, not an alchemist."

"Do body enhancers?"

"A few."

"Poisons?"

"Most of them."

"Alright then, how about the cost?"

For the next for minutes, the two sorted out a deal where Seth paid for material costs and a little labour fee and Hex (which was his codename) would then deliver the potion within 3 days.

It was an outrageously good deal that Seth sketched it up to his great charisma. Sadly, Seth did have a few concerns, so he spent the next few days trying to get information about the guy.

Hex only left his house once a week for food and apart from the occasional visit from a few people he would never leave. An interesting thing Seth noted was the constant smoke coming from his chimney.

Overall, He seemed like a dedicated Docter who was madly into his science.

Enough of that, pseudo member number 2 secured, he now had to find numero tres.* This time he knew exactly what he wanted: a Gymnast or any flexible class that could shine when stealing from a hard-to-reach place.

It would be an extra if they knew how to pick locks but that was just an extra, he could always find a teacher if need be.

So, he went to a place famous for people's flexibility a ballerina hall. The Kingdom of Historia had few positive traits but one of its great decisions was its focus on the arts and dancing was a sector that thrived.

This was likely the cause of the Queen's mother being a fanatic dancing lover, but that's a different story.

Seth was walking down the high street, ignoring all the skills that tried to attract his attention, and in the hour, he reached a mildly famous dance hall. It had a concert going on, so Seth walked in and paid a reduced fee to sit in and watch the rest of the show.

It was a little like tap-dancing but mixed with the more elegant style a ballerina usually performed, that odd infusion created a rather chaotic, but just as beautiful creation that the residents of the place had called Mayaria.

Seth was not here for the best dancer; he was here for the most flexible person he saw. Which was luckily quite obvious. A woman, in the back row, was evidently flexible and though her dancing was subpar her flexibility was likely a large attraction in her employment.

After the show ended, and people applauded their efforts, Seth was backstage trying to find his future prospect.

He had simply put on his clipboard and, rather like magic, he was given entry. It was rather amazing how far one could go with a confident smile, decent attire, and a trusty clipboard.

After moving past swaths of dancers that were not the target, Seth came upon his mark.

"Good morning, I am here from a scouting agency based in Goodrington (A nearby city) and I couldn't help but notice your extreme flexibility. I was wondering if we could perhaps discuss a potential job that, though short, would pay rather well?"

She looked at the man with an oddly polished accent, he had put it on for credibility, and through her thick makeup, Seth got the equivalent of an excited nod.

It seemed the people he was meeting today were not the chatty sort.

Anyway, Seth walked out with her, and they ended up in a Bubbletop shop down the street. Coffee didn't exist here, but they had an equivalent that Seth had interpreted as the same, in reality, it was a milder taste with less caffeine. It was called Bubbeletop.

The smell was the same, and so with the setting set Seth had everything ready to test and then recruit this woman however first he needed to know her skill.

"Right, so before we start could I get you to fill out this form? It had name and date of birth, and optionally, your skills but know that employment is much more likely if that box is filled in. While you do that I'll go order something, Is there anything you want?"

"A Latte, please." She said, this time far more confidently than before. Perhaps it was less a talkative issue rather than a confidence issue.

After Seth had ordered the drinks, and a little side snack, he returned and waited as she filled out the last bit of the form. Now he just had to see the results:

Name: Amelia Heart

Age: 21

Skills: High Flexibility

Work Experience: 3 years in Ballerina Dancing, Learnt gymnastics from age 3.

Extra: (Empty)