The Hall of Forging was a massive underground structure. If James didn’t know better he’d think it belonged to some dwarfish race. It spread out over nearly a kilometre underground and hundreds of ventilation stacks channelled through the underground back to the chimneys in the circle courtyard up on the surface.
The stone halls and walls were all lit by odd spirit stones, spread out evenly and letting off a humble glow not dissimilar to incandescent bulbs.
Little green stones sat on the ventilation shafts running across the roof presumably as some sort of wind stone pushing air flow out through the chimneys or pulling fresh air down to the underground.
Skay and James were both quite impressed as Anvil led them through the halls to a large room with a huge glowing furnace in the corner. On the wall was an assortment of tools and odd equipment along with a massive anvil and sledge hammer next to the furnace. Along with the multitude of work benches and other generalised smithy stuff and apart from being fully enclosed underground it truly looked like a mystical fantasy smith where someone would forge a sword of the gods or some such thing.
Anvil led our morally twisted duo towards an elderly man in grey robes tapping away on a little bone white rectangle with a tiny hammer and a little metal pin. Whenever he lifted the pin to blow away dust his hand shook like he had Parkinson’s disease but the moment he focused back in on the seal his hand was as solid as the stone floor.
As the group approached the old man lofted the pin one last time and dusted of his workmanship.
In his hand he held the splitting image of James design. In fact it was such a perfect replica he somewhat felt dissatisfied with the man’s artistry. This was because James was an absolutely horrible drawer. The 7 looked like it had been made with putty and squeezed out through someone hands, the Ouroboros looked like it couldn’t quite decide if it was going in a circle or oval and was even more lumpy and squiggly than the 7. The lightning it was made of looked like oddly shaped noodles and only looked like lightning from a long, long distance.
On the back however it was carved in intricately carved and masterfully cut patterns that overlapped and intersected everywhere, covering almost every bit of space. When they arrived in front of the man appraising his work he gave it to anvil patted his apron off and gave a bow before taking his leave.
James peered over anvils shoulder at his new seal. “I take it that’s our seal?”
Anvil gave a nod as he ran his hand over it checking the patterns in the back. “Yes this is your seal. It looks ahhh ... Unique.”
“Oi. I thought he’d spruce it up a bit when he inscribed it. Will it affect the seal if we re-cut the face of it?”
Anvil gave a shake of the head. “It should be fine as long as you don’t effect the array patterns.”
Anvil walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a jar with a red viscous liquid. He then pulled James over to a strange circle painted on the stone floor and handed him a knife. “Now then, just make a cut on your hand, hold your seal with it and as I poor the one heart beast blood onto the seal and hand the array circle your standing in will tie your guild seal and your soul together.”
James was dubious about this whole thing, but he doubted they’d go to so much trouble just to entrap him. With that thought he reached out and cut his hand, placed the seal in it and watched as Anvil pored the blood onto his hand. At first nothing interesting happened and the blood just began pooling on the floor. James was just about to ask, when the array circle he stood in lit up like a flare bathing the room in light.
Following this sudden change, James felt his hand burning like he was holding a blazing hot iron rod. The pain grew more intense until he could hardly move his body and dropped to his knees panting and screaming into the air.
Once the light began to dim he saw the last of the blood that had dribbled over his hand pouring into his cut like the blood flow had reversed and was being sucked in. The once bone white seal was now the colour of red blood and after all the blood finished it’s reverse flow, the seal gave an intense flash and the room had returned to normal.
James looked at his hand and the rapidly closing cut. Then at the blood red seal. After closing his eyes his seal disappeared from his hand and appeared in his spirit realm, just floating around weightlessly. After opening his eyes again a smile split his face. He could sense his seal like a part of himself and more than that he could sense it already had an oath sworn to it. When he investigated this sensation he felt the oath Harvy had made earlier.
James brow furrowed slightly. ‘I thought they said that oaths to a group like the one we plan to make needs a seal. I wonder why Harvy’s previous oath to the dark brotherhood is here as well. Even more odd ... It feels like, I just know that Harvy is currently alive. I don’t even know how I know. Is that because he swore his life to the brotherhood?”
After thinking about it for a short time he decided not to pursue it too much. If he’d been duped he wouldn’t know about it until later on anyway.
Once James managed to climb to his feet and wipe the sweat from his face, Anvil showed them around the hall for a few more hours. When they visited the materials storage, Skay and James nearly couldn’t contain themselves, as they both pulled out a black pad and started noting things down that they particularly found interesting, which amusingly was almost everything.
Anvil had to force them out because they started trying to start assembling something from old parts and odd materials even he wasn’t certain about. “Just a little fusion reactor...” Skay complained as they were escorted out.
Once leaving they returned to the mansion where James consumed a few fruits and a colourful tonic Skay had prepared called 616. Although he wasn’t quite at the half barrier realm he obviously had enough spirit energy to swear an oath after testing a simple oath like “I swear an oath to pass this cup of water to Harvy.”
-Gau Clan’s Main Hall-
In the main hall sat the leaders of both parties, Hao and James, facing each other. Behind them sat their subordinates, the 4 Elders behind Hao and Jessy, Skay and Harvy behind James.
Both parties swore an oath of mutual defence and trade along with some other odds and ends they worked out beforehand. In the end, their two oaths encompassed a number of things.
The oath of mutual defence consisted of:
The Gau Clan swears to protect the Dark Brotherhood until such time as they can defend themselves and to a mutual defence pact thereafter.
The Brotherhood swears to assist the Gau Clan in times of need if they have the power to do so.
The Clan and Brotherhood will serve to assist each other in growing stronger through joint training exercises and instruction for anyone under the spirit realm.
After the Brotherhood reaches the spirit realm they will assist in disciple missions, like resource gathering and beast clearing.
Any beast materials or extra materials gathered by Brotherhood members will be kept by the brotherhood.
This pact is inclusive of all members of both parties now and in the future.
The trade pact contained a little more being the thing both parties were most interested in.
The Brotherhood swears to sell no weapons plans or completed weaponry to anyone other than the Gau Clan or the Empire itself within the Kantsu Region of which Gau city is a part of.
The Gau Clan swears to not step in and attempt any oversight of the Brotherhood in Gau City provided they don’t endanger public security. (This came about after the Elders visit to the laboratory.)
The Brotherhood’s trading of resources in Gau City are exempt from Tax including designs and artefacts the Gau Clan hasn’t paid to reserve the rights to.
The Gau Clan has the right of first bid on any artefact or design developed by the Brotherhood in Gau City for the purposes of sale to other parties.
The Gau Clan has the right to purchase the ‘Reserved from Sale’ status of certain designs and artefacts provided they fall within a set area that would directly affect the Gau Clans production and sales.
All deals are to be conducted fairly and transparently between the Clan and the Brotherhood. Any offenders breaking this rule will be tried and executed by a joint counsel of both parties.
The Guild is free to produce and sell any item they wish to anyone on any scale provided they follow all prior rules of this trade agreement.
The Clan and Guild are free to share and corroborate information and techniques in regards to the matters of trade and crafting but not required.
Apart from the main body of their alliance there was also a number of small oddities such as limitations towards whom the Brotherhood could recruit. For example the close descendant of a rival faction in the city would only be allowed to join provided they swear an oath of absolute allegiance. The only other condition of note was that after 10 years the alliance would be tabled for fresh discussion and renegotiation from both parties.
This was to prevent other powers trying to gain a foothold within the Brotherhood and using its alliance with the Gau Clan to strike the clan a blow. Although some people in the Gau Clan party, Elder Jeng most notably, tried to weasel in some more unfavorable terms for the Brotherhood, Jessy was quick to dismiss them.
Jessy was the main mouth piece during the drafting of the alliance and James would simply lean back to discuss some thoughts with her now and then. Both James and Skay had vastly underestimated her ability to do business and it was one of the first things they discussed with her the next day after the celebrations for the treaty were signed and sworn to.
As they sat in the lab nursing hang overs James finally shot a question to Jessy. “Jess, you’re unexpectedly rather skilled in business. Did you do some sort of business studies before you became a fitter?”
Jessy, who’d been lying sprawled out over a desk rolled to a sitting position. “Quite right James. I actually owned my own contractor company before the end of the world you know. It was only because this was such a high end job that I personally took on the contract to come out to the sea lab. Actually, both my parents ran a corporation when I was little and dragged me around half the world to their discussions and meetings.”
Jessy let out a long sigh at the thought of her parents. Although they were always busy and rarely had time for their little girl, Jessy still missed them. The fact the dragged her to all their meetings after she turned 15 was undoubtedly an attempt on their part to prepare her for the world they expected her to eventually join. To say they were disappointed when she took some filthy commoners job would be an understatement.
After that moment of reflection Jessy came back to the present. “I may not be as knowledgeable as the two of you in your science stuff but I’m prepared to boast that I’m leagues ahead in the world of business.”
James grew a crooked smile and after a chuckle gave a strong nod. “Good, that means you will now be our Business Manager or err ... What would that be in a guild? Well it doesn’t matter. We will be creating our guild from the ground up so we can create the structure as we go. Actually, now I think about it. Perhaps we should create a framework and a guild charter or something...”
“Lady of Lust.” Jessy threw out.
James eyebrow lifted as he looked at Jessy confused. “Huh?”
Jessy gave an exacerbated sigh as if talking to a child then said. “You said earlier that you wanted your 7 core members to represent the seven sins. So what does it matter what our jobs are for now, eventually we will be known as our sin. If I beat the crowds now I can coin my own moniker, instead of becoming known by people as The Tart, or Jessy the Slut. As long as we know what our duties are, what does it matter what we title ourselves as? Like you said we’re creating a whole new faction in this world and can call ourselves whatever we want.”
James cupped his chin and thought for a while. “Fine, sounds good actually. I like it. Regardless of your title, you will be in charge of our business in Gau City for the time being. I’ve no doubt that we will eventually run into someone we can call Greed that has the capacity to take that burden from you. Until then for the next few days you will need to take Harvy and scout out the city. We need a building with plenty of room and in a busy area to attract members. From what I understand the Builders Guild is full of cultivators and building things is rather quick for them, so even if you get a plot of land or some old building and have something built that would be fine too. When you need to trade for money try to go to the Clan first. We just chartered our trade alliance and it would be a good chance to show that we plan to keep them as our top priority in trade.”
After another hour of discussion and after Skay and James had decided on what they needed for an acceptable workshop Jessy left to make some enquires and hunt down some land in the city.
-Ten Days-
For the next ten or so days, things were slow and steady with no massive upheavals in the city. Jessy arranged a plot of land not too distant from the Hall of Forging and the Builders Guild accepted the job request in exchange for a number of interesting things thrown together in the lab, from building designs to construction methods and even something Skay had termed Ultimate Cement, which he accidentally created in one of his bizarre lab accidents. Strangely his accidents seemed to be growing disturbingly frequent the more he played with things from this world.
Surprisingly, the Builders Guild only took a few days to construct a building that was designed by James and Skay. They even helped to dig out the underground area which reached nearly 80 meters below surface level. If not for the assistance of some True Spirit Realm cultivators with earth affinity, which could compress soil and stone to an unimaginable degree, then the surface would long since have collapsed in.
After the building was established the trio spent a day watching Harvy slowly packing everything from their borrowed lab and moving it to their new lab.
On the surface the new lab was actually a very normal two story Guild Hall with the cleaned up crest of the Dark Brotherhood carved into the door. It was situated in the corner of a large circular plaza spanning nearly 600 meters in diameter with a fountain in the middle. It was the second busiest and most traveled market in the city. The hall was in a rather sought after location and they only managed to snag it because the previous owner was a member of the Gau Clan.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The first level underground looked like a battle arena around 200 meters in diameter, which would be used for training and sparring. In the foyer of the Guild Hall was a strange metal room with magic doors that opened and closed when you pressed a button on the wall. If you stepped into it, the metal room had two other buttons shaped like arrows to go up or down. Apart from this there was a pad with a number of strange symbols that no one could recognize apart from the one that resembled the ruin carved on the guilds crest.
Apart from Harvy and the trio, no one knew what this panel was supposed to do. Inside the monolith’s range even the stepper trio couldn’t fully recognise the numbers from 0 to 9 but they understood how the keypad was normally arranged. In fact, when they drew these numbers they had to enter the Endless forest and leave the monoliths range just to remember their own language, much the same as James had to do when he drew the 7 for his seal.
The ground floor was arranged with the foyer in front that had the elevator off to one side looking rather ominous. Along the same wall was a reception/service desk, leaving the rest of the foyer with just some nice plants and wallpaper along with short wide corridor that lead into a big main hall. Behind the reception desk was a door leading into a small storage area about 5 square meters that would eventually contain things they planned to sell to guild members.
The main hall was smattered with chairs and tables with an ordering counter attached to the kitchen on the furthest wall from the entry. On the two adjacent walls were massive blank boards that spanned the entirety of the walls length. Both had ‘JOBS’ written on the top of them, but momentarily remained empty. In the corner of the room was a small stage should they ever have someone with any skill or for making speeches and what not.
The upper floor of the guild hall was arranged to house the staff and had nearly 10 bedrooms, some stacked with bunks and a few rather nice ones. At the end of a long hallway, that looked far creepier than it should for a brand new building, was a huge set of double doors that led into the office of the Guildmaster.
Adjoined to this office was the Guildmaster’s quarters which at the moment were much to James style. Wide, roomy and adorned with rather rich tapestry, rugs and furniture, as well as a massive bed. This furniture and style was all arranged by Hao as a gift, much to James’ consternation.
If you were in the know, the elevators strange pad could be used to take you to lower levels. Underground level 2 for example, was the main lab and contained almost everything the old lab had plus some new things Skay had Jessy buy from the Hall of Forging. Every wall and corner was stacked with poorly repaired machinery, stacked boxes of half-finished projects and workbenches with computer screens or diagrams.
In various places was a big red button next to hatch doors in the walls or floors, no label was necessary for these now because everyone who entered this lab would know what it was for or most likely quickly experience it. In the lab was also a number of small rooms arranged for various purposes along with a very special room filled with lightning arcs shooting everywhere and what appeared to be a doggy flap on the door.
Level 3 was mostly only used by Skay as an alchemy laboratory. It had a number of odd books Skay had picked up from somewhere, discussing the uses and properties of herbs. There was also a multitude of odd machines Skay had thrown together or rescued from the Gateway incident, that even James could only guess the purpose of. It was also littered with a number of chemistry lab equipment from incubators to centrifuges. This lab was connected by a speedy little mini-elevator to the main lab so that Skay could just shoot between the two when he needed.
Level 4 was a nursery for all of the odd plants and herbs Skay was trying to grow. According to others these herbs usually took anywhere from tens up to thousands of years to fully grow, because apparently their potency was generally dependent on how much spirit energy they could gather.
Skay was convinced he could create an array that would draw in absurd levels of primal spirit energy to this area and insisted that eventually their guild building would become a primal spirit energy hotspot to assist cultivation. According to him that would be the best way to draw in ‘fresh subjects’, which James assumed was Skay’s term for new guild members.
Level 5 had a range of things from a generator that Skay and James had spent 2 days making with black-iron, which was absurdly powerful. There was also some air-conditioning, hot water systems and other basics. Their whole building had modern amenities. The majority of this stuff wasn’t built or installed until after the construction of the building and so James and Skay got a number of odd looks from the Builders Guild when installing pipes and ducting leading down here where there was nothing.
If you walked through the opposite side of the elevator on level 5 you’d walk into an absolutely massive warehouse area. The purpose of which was to hoard and collect as many odd or valuable materials as possible for study and experimentation. It could also be used to store old projects or merchandise that they eventually wanted to be able to sell to members.
After these few days of moving into the Dark Brotherhood’s Guild Hall was officially complete, Harvy was ... sold, to the brotherhood for a few trinkets. Essentially though he was gifted to them by the Elders as a house warming present. Before the trio opened their doors they all sat down in the Guild Masters office on the top floor and began a discussion about the future of the guild and most importantly, their own futures.
The trio sat at a marble stone table in the center of a large open room with some ornaments along the plain wooden paneled walled. From the size of it, one has to question how exactly they even got it up to the second floor. It wouldn’t be a difficult guess though if anyone noticed Harvy’s now dramatically more hunched back. Poor Harvy had spent almost half a day moving a massive chunk of marble up here then carving the table out of it with his spirit energy. James took great delight in pointing out any mistakes Harvy made during this process.
James started their discussion as he placed a tea cup down on the table and savored his tea for a moment. “I can’t believe we’ve only been here for less than a month. It feels so much longer. Actually, now I think about it the days feel dramatically longer. Old Madman, do you think our perception of time is somewhat altered here?”
Skay was tapping away on his pad as he gave a grunt. “Humph! You finally picked up on that huh? You’re right though. Day’s, hours and minutes are all twice as long as on earth. We only recognise it as a somewhat normal flow of time though because we’ve been growing our spirit energy. I suspect normal mortals have just adapted from longer exposure to this planet. The only reason we think two days here is one 24 hour cycle is because of the monolith. You’ll find that you recognise the day as 48 hours outside of its brain manipulating. Even the distances are different but we recognise them as meters or feet. You never noticed it but it took me half the time you were in a coma to figure out a way to teach the computers common instead of English.”
James made a grimace. He added a visit to the monolith as his first priority once the guild was opened. He’d never forgotten about it, but until now he’d had no chance to visit it personally without someone nearby. Perhaps tonight he’d go check it out. The idea that something was poking around in his head disturbed him to no end. Had it not been for certain reasons, he’d have already fled the range of the monolith long ago. Especially now that he was somewhat free of the clan.
After that quick though James jumped back to the present. “Well that doesn’t really matter, from what I understand once we develop our spirit power further our need for sleep will lesson dramatically. Even now I feel I can operate normally for at least 3 straight days. I guess that would be a week on Earth.” James scratched his head and leaned back in the very nice looking chair he’d apparently appropriated from the Gau Clan’s mansion.
Jessy sat next to him with a roll of parchment and a scribing feather and ink well. She’d had some thoughts on what she wanted to do recently and had essentially offered to run the Guild Hall since both Skay and James were unreliable and she was the only one with experience in operating a business. “Let’s get started then. I still need to hire staff and organise supplies for the Guild. What exactly do you want to achieve with this guild? That will decide how we write up the guild rules and charter.”
James cupped his chin and began to order his thoughts. Originally he’d never planned for it to be a big guild, but after some consideration he decided it would be better to make it as big as possible and expand branches everywhere. That way he could develop a reliable information network and create more contacts. More importantly is if he can establish a guild with significant power behind it, that would become a strong backer for him while he remains in this empire.
Eventually he was sure he’d be leaving this empire and the influence of his guild, but he was certain for the foreseeable future it would be essential. If it took him hundreds of years just to reach the Spirit Palace, then a guild system would be a priceless resource. Having a total lack of trust in everyone else, the only way he could see himself joining any guild would be creating his own.
So he started telling Jessy what he wanted the guild rules to be. “Firstly, only members loyal to the guild. Skay, is there some foolproof way we can create a system to identify members of our guild? Perhaps some chip or card?”
Skay looked up from his pad thoughtfully. “Well ... I’m sure we won’t need it immediately. For now we will most likely know everyone who is a member because you or Jessy will be inducting them directly. Leave it with me for a while. I’m sure we can come up with something in the lab.”
James then continued laying down rules. “Make that rule one. An oath to the Guild. No one can join that isn’t absolutely loyal. They can act freely and autonomously as long as they never betray the guild.”
Jessy stopped just before she put the feather quill to the parchment. “James, no one will ever willingly choose to join a guild they have to sell their life to enter.”
James grew a crooked smile on his face. “Oh? Did we not jump at the chance when we first came to the Gau Clan? Our situation was rather unique though and we got incredibly lucky, just take a moment and imagine yourself as a commoner in this world. Weak little cultivators and commoners sit at the bottom rung of society. You’ll never live with more than your few meager meals and shabby house. You’ll never have a true chance at cultivating, because the sects and clans usually only take you in if you can give something back or you’re at the start of your prime years for cultivating. Unless you are born into power or can display some talent or skill that is heavenly, then you will spend your whole life in this world overlooked by your betters. Bullied by the powerful and forever remaining weak. Muhahaha!”
James couldn’t stop himself from allowing a maniacal laugh to escape as he continued to explain his thoughts. The more he talked, the more twisted his smile grew.
“Now imagine someone comes along and says that in exchange for your loyalty they can grant you the chance to become a powerful cultivator. All you need to do is make a simple oath. You maintain your freedoms and liberties and get all the benefits of being in a guild and becoming a cultivator. On the sole condition that you never betray your guild and follow our few simple rules.”
Jessy visibly paled as James talked. If this wasn’t a pact with the devil then what was. Exchange your soul for a wish from the devil. Or in this case exchange your soul to start the journey of cultivation. It sounded good when said in honeyed words, but veiled beneath this opportunity was enslavement to the Devil!
James then calmed himself back down and gave Jessy a nod. “Go ahead and right it down. Rule One: All Guild Members will swear an oath of loyalty to the guild.”
Jessy grimaced slightly as she thought of all the poor unlearned peasants that would be sucked into this trap. She had no doubts in her mind that half of them would most likely disappear into one of Skay’s Specimen Disposal Pits eventually.
Having seen her scribe it down James gave a grin and continued. “Let’s set up a training camp, if we can. I want to educate any new members in some basics like science and math. The first group we will oversee ourselves. After that we can let them train new recruits. It will probably be a few months long. We’ll give them the meditation hypno and allow them to learn and train until they can swear their oath. Once their sworn in we can help them develop some more elements and hopefully by that time we will have worked out this breathing technique thing. We will train them with our breathing techniques.”
Jessy gave a sigh. This was starting to sound like some kind of screwed up militia. “Next thing you know they’ll be running a boot camp in the endless forest training tactics and assembling machine guns in their sleep.”
James lip quirked up at Jessy’s mumbling and his sinister grin widened. “That’s an excellent idea Jess. Let’s table it for now, but perhaps later we will phase that in for our guild members.”
Skay gave a harrumph. “Boy aren’t you getting a little carried away. I suggested this guild to allow us to gather information and resources. If you’re going to build an army you should at least wait until you’re strong enough to run one. We’re still only Barrier Realm cultivators and right now resources and information for ourselves is more important.”
James grin dropped and he glanced at Skay. After a moment he sighed. “You’re right old goat. Let’s take it slow for now. Perhaps I’m aiming too high for the moment. Let’s only have the oath and training for now. Once the guild is properly assembled we will revisit the topic of guild rules and what direction the guild is going to head in. We may even disband it before leaving Gau City. Once the first batch of recruits is done and we have some ... volunteers to assist in research, then we can worry about other stuff.”
Jessy felt some relief. She was actually a little surprised inside that Skay would want to table more discussions in the direction James was heading, after all, she was certain he was crazed and would be salivating at the chance to start some wars and observe mass scale cultivator battles.
That day at high noon Jessy opened the doors to the Guildhall. Out the front she placed a sign that read “Recruiting new staff – All applicants welcome.”
While they waited for Jessy to recruit some staff James and Skay went down to the Lab. “We need something cheap to produce that we can sell to commoners for some income” was the consensus of the two. They knew they could make some big money from schematics and designs for the major factions in town but for the moment just some basic income for the hall was necessary, besides before they could start selling things they first needed to research and develop them.
It would also help attract some more attention to them so word would spread faster when they started recruiting new members. With that thought in mind they sat down for a brainstorming session. James started off the idea bouncing. “What do the commoners in this world need the most that can be made cheaply and easily?”
Skay was busying himself on a computer as usual then stopped after a moment. “What about this. Instead of selling something they need, let’s sell something they really want. We’re an early starting guild with only 4 members and our greatest source of income and resources is you and me selling research and tech to others. If we do like you said and train up a group of people from scratch it won’t be easy. How about instead of taking in commoners, we set up a computer and just flash every commoner who pays a few coppers with the hypno. They all fuck off back to their straw huts and in a few months the town basically won’t have any commoners anymore. Then we start recruiting only people already capable of swearing an oath, until then we can focus on research.”
James sat down at a stool near a workbench and started to think aloud. “Well it’s definitely a good way to earn some income and because it’s implanted through hypno they can’t steal or share our method. Almost all the people on this world believe there spirit energy will manifest as one of the four elements. I suspect there may be other reasons why rare elements don’t appear often on top of this common folklore. We should put some research into that later. For now though I don’t think it’s a bad idea. But let’s charge a little extra and throw in element discovery. We still have a few of those magic sticks or whatever and if any rare talents pop up ... well. Let’s have Harvy escort them to the lab.”
With that said they called Harvy over and spent an hour manufacturing some wireless speakers and installed them into the arena. Once everything was ready they set up a Black-Pad acting as a projector onto the wall and then sent Harvy out to start mustering some customers.
They very quickly realised their mistake when Harvy returned being dragged by the ear. Jessy looked at the two fools and marched up to them with Harvy in tow. “How did you fucking think that sending the man that fucking stinks and looks like a corpse onto the streets would help you to attract anyone?! Twats! I had a very promising young lady who I thought I could groom into a decent fucking receptionist until your god damned Zombie marched out of the elevator and scared her into hysterics! Took me nearly five minutes to stop her shouting about ‘Holtzier’s coming for her soul’ or some shit!”
James and Skay looked sheepishly at each other until Skay jumped back a step a moment before James. “Tsk, fine Old Madman. I’ll field this one, but you get the next time.”
Stepping forwards James put on his most amiable smile and tried to distract Jessy. “Calm down Jess we just sent him out to check how things were going. By the way we have another little task for you when you get the chance. We’d like you to start advertising that we’re selling a meditation technique and element discovery for only a single silver coin. You can have your new receptionist girl send them down here when their ready. Oh! That reminds me!”
James spun to Skay. “We need something that can give them a bit of spirit energy to help discover their element. I think those fruits Hao gave you guys cost nearly a silver each...”
Skay, realising James left his sentence open for him to make suggestions, rapidly thought for a bit then clicked his fingers in a Eureka moment. “Harvy, go to the Chem Lab and bring the vial labeled 616 ... Actually I have a better idea.” After another thought he flicked a pouch with ten silvers over to Harvy.
“Take this and buy ten barrels of grog and grab a handful of mugs from the kitchen. Once you’re done, bring it all here and set up a bench.” When James gave him a questioning look he just grinned broadly. With a “you’ll see soon” he strolled back to the elevator and disappeared down stairs.
That afternoon a new sign was set up out the front of the guild reading;
“Always dreamed of the chance to become a godlike cultivator?
The Dark Brotherhood is introducing to everyone a chance to start your journey with no strings attached!
Gain the ability to peer into your Spirit Realm and Meditate to draw in spirit energy thanks to our new advancements in hypno-memory implants!
Apply today and be granted a free Spirit Energy refreshment and the chance to unlock your hidden elemental talents.
Only 1 Silver coin or 100 coppers to join the ranks of the most illustrious!”
Written at the bottom of the sign in incredibly small print was a single blurry sentence that looked half rubbed out saying ‘Terms and Conditions Apply’.