As Asher walked through the Sanctuary proper, he couldn’t help but be in awe of his surroundings. He was in a completely self-sufficient, subterranean city. The auras of light given off by some of the underground crystals did a good job of invoking a warm feeling. Asher couldn’t help but feel like he was walking through the fantasy equivalent of a Cyber Punk neighborhood, where the neon lights and sleek buildings were swapped out for cobblestone structures and luminescent rocks as well as other sources of magical light. He glanced at the entrances to the various houses before finding himself standing in front of Aldren’s office. A couple knocks later and he found himself standing in front of his adoptive father.
“Asher! I’m glad you could see me.”
“Well, you’re the Guild Master here…it’d be a little rude to keep you waiting. I came as soon as Master Alaria told me you were trying to get a hold of me.”
“That’s good. How are you two getting along anyways?”
“Pretty good. She gave me the rundown on things and is teaching me basic brewing and potion making.” Asher said as Aldren was taking a sip from a mug, nodding as he listened to his adoptive son.
“She also introduced me to the Herbinomicon, and said I can start learning from there.”
This bit of information had Aldren promptly spit out most of his drink and cough out the rest, fighting off the slight sensation of choking. “Already?” He righted himself and stood tall again, trying to regain the composure that his many titles carry behind them. “She’s historically kept a pretty tight grip around the information in that book after one of the apprentices got themselves killed trying to hunt down some of the ingredients a few years back.”
“Yeah she did mention that some of the more potent potions and elixirs could be made, but that it was so dangerous it simply wasn’t worth it.” Asher said.
Aldren nodded in agreement then continued, “It isn’t that she doesn’t want to explore the old recipes, she’s an adventurous woman, but she’s also very practical. All the members of The Syndicate are investments, we train them young…give them some skills to live off of and they pay us back a hundred times over.” Aldren leaned and sat on the desk in his office. “It isn’t good business to invest in something or someone and have them die soon after.”
“I imagine that to be true, but being curious is a part of being human…we explore and reach for the stars.”
“Hmm, well I don’t disagree with you…but there’s a difference between being curious and being dumb. Probably one of my favorite teachings that we have in our branch of The Syndicate is that we aren’t heroes.” Aldren adjusted his seating on the desk and folded his arms giving Asher a pensive look. “That phrase can mean a lot of things - but the thing I’ve always taken from it is to try and use this”
He pointed at his temple.
“A little more than using this” he pointed at his chest. “Get it?”
Asher nodded in agreement, “I think I do, but sometimes getting the chance to be the hero is something someone would literally die for. Glory, fame, all of it.”
“Yeah, yeah…a lot of good glory and fame does when you’re worm food.” Aldren mumbled under his breath, Asher was barely able to make it out.
He doubted he would’ve heard it at all if he were still living in his old world, but he wasn’t. His ridiculous stats manifested in ways, some overt like his Strength stat, and some more subtly like in this situation. His Perception was something that branched off from his Wisdom stat, and seeing as how his baseline was an 18 in every stat. Imperceptible things like whispers and mumbles in his vicinity seemed like casual conversation if he focused on it.
“Anyways, I didn’t call you to talk about the ideals of being a hero. It’s for your work as one of my Eyes.”
Asher’s face perked up a little bit. He’d enjoyed spending his time with Master Alaria and their potion making lately, but he’d always be happy to take the chance to explore. “What is it?”
“Fortunately, you’ll be doing what eyes do - watching.” Aldren said with a sheepish grin.
Asher let out a groan. “Jesus…I thought dad jokes were left in my old world.”
“Who’s Jesus? And my sense of humor is very good, I’ll have you know Mom tells me I’m on par with court jesters.”
“Not the conversation for now, and I’m sure Mom tells you very nice things that make you happy. I need details for what I’m expected to do.”
Aldren sighed and shrugged his shoulders, letting the exasperation exit his body as quickly as it had come. “You’re going to be looking after one of our farms.”
“A farm?” Asher replied. “What does the Syndicate need a farm for?”
“You think ingredients just magically fall out of the sky?” Aldren said in a tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, maybe?” Asher said with an awkward grin and a shrug of his shoulders.
“Hmm, sadly no. Although that would make things a lot easier.” Aldren got up from his slightly seated position on his desk. “We need farms for production and basic manufacturing for various goods that we offer.” He walked towards Asher and dramatically pointed at him “You’ll be there learning the ropes, the way our assets operate, and providing security.”
Asher squinted his eyes and raised an eyebrow. “Do the farms tend to get into a lot of trouble? Why the need for security?” he asked.
“No, they’re completely legitimate…mostly. It isn’t illegal to grow the crops that are grown, but if you’re in the business then you know what those crops can potentially be turned into. You won’t get any trouble from the city guards, but we send in a team of Lions to keep the peace and deter other factions from stepping foot on our turf.”
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Asher nodded as his adoptive father spoke, taking in all the tidbits of information being given to him. He felt like Aldren was purposefully leaving out some details, but he didn’t sense any malice behind it, so he didn’t push any further. Aldren proceeded to pull out a map of the surrounding area and pointed to a location outside of the city.
“All of this is-” He gestured towards an area on the map. “Is technically Benetian land. The city of Benetia proper is everything within the walls of the city, but everything in the nearby area still belongs to the Duke.” He pointed from the city tracing a path on the map to an area that was comfortably sandwiched between the city’s external walls and the jungle Asher had found himself dropped in when he first came to this world months ago. “This is the area where you’ll meet our farming associate. You’ll be guided by whichever Lions were meant to rotate into that area and relieve the ones currently posted out there.”
“The city doesn’t find it strange that there is some type of auxiliary security force patrolling various areas on their land?” Asher asked somewhat in disbelief at the seemingly obvious operation. He felt like if he were a detective in his old world, this place would be screaming ‘drug house’ louder than a middle-aged bald man flinging around bright blue crystals butt-naked out of his RV.
“There’s nothing strange about farmers - or people in general - outside the city hiring security. The Adventurer’s Guild exists, but you don’t need to be one to be hired by somebody for help. Adventurers are basically just mercenaries with special privileges in the world.” Aldren traced a circle around the city then tapped the center of it. “The world doesn’t stop being dangerous just because you live next to a city. Logistically speaking, auxiliary forces help relieve the strain on the city guard a great deal.”
“Basically too much land and not enough bodies to patrol it?” Asher added in.
“Bodies and time. The city is massive and presents its own unique dangers which the guard readily responds to. Between physical patrols and actually dealing with civil unrest or menial issues, there just isn’t enough time in the day to afford to send out a regular patrol outside the city. In Jandar’s defense he does send the guards out every few days to check out the surrounding territory, but would you want to wait every few days for a solution to a problem you’re having here and now?”
Asher shook his head in disagreement. “Can’t say I would, but what type of problems are we talking about?”
“Typically the Lions in that area act as a deterrent against rival factions or you’re run-of-the-mill thug trying to shake down a farmer for some coin, but it isn’t uncommon for them to kill a few monsters. Rare, because of the proximity to the city, but not out of the realm of possibilities.”
“I think I know everything I need to know to get the job done.”
“Remember, you’re there to be security AND learn about everything you can with how stuff works out there.” Aldren said with an emphasis on the word ‘learn’.
“I got it, I got it. You don’t have to tell me twice. I like learning anyways…if it’s interesting.” Asher replied.
“Well I’m sure you’ll find it all very interesting. You get to go near the jungle we first crossed paths in.” Aldren said with a devilish smile.
“Yeah about that, I’m not going to have to worry about any more dragons right? I don’t think I can survive another encounter like that.”
Aldren let out a hearty laugh. “No, that dragon appearance is something you’d only expect to see in the Old Times. No one has seen a dragon in decades from what I hear, and the ones that do, don’t live much longer after the fact.” Aldren’s face became serious. “I never thanked you for that day. You saved us all, my family included. A dragon's appearance is something that wipes cities off the map.”
“Don’t mention it, if anything, I was just saving my own skin. I would’ve died as well if I didn’t do something.” Asher said a bit awkwardly, not really knowing how to handle the sudden and honest praise coming from the man. It was one thing to hear it from an old woman after you helped her with her garden, but it was different hearing it from a grown man in a momentary heart-to-heart.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Aldren said with a small chuckle. A few knocks on the door soon revealed a small entourage of people, mostly in their early teens. Aldren gestured towards them. “This is your Lion escort, they’ll bring you to the area and they’ll be the ones relieving you in a week.”
“I hope we’re not late Guild Master.” One of the boys said, taking a deep bow. He was a tall lean boy with brown short cropped hair. The others followed the gesture soon after.
“Exactly on time, as a matter of fact.” Aldren said and waved his hand at the group. “Rise.”
The group snapped back to attention at the command then took on a more lax body language. “We’re bringing this kid? He’s supposed to replace our entire entourage out there?” The brown haired teen asked, looking at Aldren with incredulity. The others in the group murmured among themselves.
“This kid is the newest Eye, I’m sure you’ve heard about.” Aldren responded in a matter-of-fact tone. “So yes, he’ll be your replacement while he learns about the operations out there. Is that a problem?”
“No sir, just double-checking.” The teen responded quickly.
“Well it’s best that all of you be on your way, the day isn’t getting any longer.” Aldren said as he made a ‘shoo-ing’ gesture with one of his hands.
“Yes sir!” The teen responded as he quickly bowed and grabbed one of Asher’s hands, practically dragging him out of the office.
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As the group exited the office, a shadow appeared to peel itself off the wall, it was Master Revenant. “How can I be of service, Guild Master?”
“Just keep an eye on him, try not to interfere, and report everything that you see. Everything should be normal, but that boy seems to always attract attention wherever he goes. If things somehow take a turn for the worst and he isn’t able to solve it, then you have permission to help him with his task.” Aldren said in a tone befitting a Guild Master.
“Yes sir, but I doubt that he’ll ever have trouble dealing with anything that’s found around these parts.” Revenant said calmly.
“Let’s hope that’s the case.”
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The sun felt great as they all made their way to the farm. Asher felt happy to be out of the subterranean compound known as The Sanctuary. He remembered hearing from somewhere back in his old world that being exposed to direct sunlight reduced depression levels - maybe that was why some of his fellow Syndicate brothers and sisters were such assholes. They needed some good, old fashioned vitamin D. While it was common for the Journeyman and Masters to come and go from Sanctuary as they pleased, depending on which house you were in, some apprentices wouldn’t see much sunlight for the first few years after they became fully fledged members.
Asher felt a bit out of place with the group of teens. He still very much had the body of a child but at least not an eight year old one. If he had to guess, he looked to be about ten or something in that ballpark. With some basic math, Asher had concluded that he’d physically develop about a year every few months and it had been around a few months since he’d come to this new world. Even with his aging, he was still easily a head shorter than most of the group who Asher had learned were all Journeymen Lions.
“So why do they send Journeymen to do a job like this?” Asher asked the brown haired teen. “Wouldn’t they want some heavy hitters to protect their interests?”
The teen looked at him with a bit of a puzzled expression on his face. He looked around at the rest of the group before shrugging his shoulders and answering. “We pretty much are the heavy hitters. I’ll explain once we’re out of the city and away from anyone who might accidentally listen in on our conversation.”
They made their way through the crowded Benetian streets and exited the outer wall of the city. It was surprisingly easier than Asher had believed it would be to leave the city. Entering was a bit different, everyone had to undergo a mildly invasive inspection, and merchants would have to declare the goods they were bringing into the city. It seemed the guards didn’t actually care much about what was leaving the city, only about what was coming into it.
The entourage had walked about fifteen minutes, before the leader glanced around and spoke again. “So like I was saying, we’re the heavy hitters in the Syndicate.”
“Not trying to be offensive or anything, it just seemed interesting that the Journeyman members were the ones typically in charge of a seemingly important asset.” Asher replied.
“You talk pretty smart for being just a kid, but the fact that you said that shows you’re still kinda naive.” The boy said. Some of the others lightly giggling or nodding their heads in agreement. He continued “Journeyman make up the bulk of the Syndicate’s useful bodies. Apprentices are practically useless since they’re still learning, even the good ones still take a while to get a hang of the ropes. Master is an extremely hard rank to achieve and not everyone gets it. In fact, most people never get it.”
“That makes sense, so you guys basically make up the bulk of the Syndicate’s ranks.”
“Exactly. Think of Journeyman as a rank where you do it all - you’re given more freedom and opportunities to lead. This job is a perfect example of that idea, it gives us a chance to be independent and problem solve on our own without the gaze of the Masters looming over us.” The teen kicked a rock off the main road into the grass. “As a Journeyman we’re expected to lead the apprentices, and ourselves. Masters are the leaders of us Journeymen, so they’re capable of managing a large group of people while also displaying exceptional skill in their areas of expertise.”
The sound of nature could be heard more clearly as they veered off the well established road onto a smaller foot path. The teen pointed at Asher, “Your rank is where things get weird, Little Eye. The Eyes operate totally separated from the rest of us and report directly to the Guild Master himself. You can enforce various judgements at will and rank doesn’t really matter to you. You basically have the authority to look at a Master the same way you’d look at an Apprentice.”
In the distance Asher could make out the silhouette of a roof and the land gradually changed from grass to plowed and tilled rows of farmland. The group made their way to the decently sized farm house and relieved the other group of Journeymen from their duty. The teen knocked on the door which was promptly opened and revealed a smiling older man.
“Who’s the new kid?”