In the weeks of practicing the Bump, it was a safe assumption that Asher was the most proficient by leagues. The Jack of Everything feat was doing some serious heavy lifting, but Asher’s own efforts couldn’t be ignored. During their designated training times he would practice the move nearly until Seventeen was exhausted, at which point he would switch to Four and Five. Repeating the cycle through his teammates until the end of their training session. Since Four and Five were usually glued to the hip, Seventeen wound up being Asher’s main training partner and the experience showed. While Asher’s experience with the maneuver grew, so did his ability to teach the nuances of it. Master Revenant had only ever demonstrated the move to the children the one day, from that point on he adopted a hands-off approach unless he was dishing out some punishment to those he deemed to be too incompetent at the various stages of their training.

The entire time since the children had begun their training, they had been put on an interesting diet. They were given water and a high amount of various fruits throughout the week. The water they were given was never enough to truly quench their thirst, it only quenched it for a brief period of time. The feeling of dehydration always loomed over their shoulder like a predator ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness. Children passing out throughout the day became commonplace to the point where the other kids didn’t bat an eyelash towards it. They simply began to administer the first-aid treatments that were taught to them, and a bit of water would be brought in to give to the child or children who had lost consciousness.

Asher had noticed that the high sugar diet was also beginning to take its toll on the children and himself. Their mental facilities began to decline, everything felt foggy, to the point that some of the children almost acted like drones simply going about their daily routine. Another effect of the sugar was that it reduced their energy levels in the long run. They felt like they were starving, the fruit would give them an energy boost during their training, but the following crash from the sugar high began to feel increasingly brutal. The children quickly got into the routine of waking up, breakfast rations, training, cleaning the training ground and their barracks, and dinner rations.

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Revenant had watched over the children with growing approval. Things were proceeding along as anticipated. The special diet given to new recruits had achieved its desired effect of improving recruit obedience. Recruits weren’t allowed to have energy for anything other than training and working. Discipline would be instilled in them along with skills in a way that was easy for children to understand, through trial and repetition. The training program developed by The Syndicate had always been effective, Revenant had remembered his own days when he was in the same position as the children, scared, tired, a haze clouding his mind. The training program had always been harsh, and the difficulty only increased as time went on.

Revenant had never been in charge of training the recruits, he was always out doing work. The only reason he had found himself in this position was at the request of The Master. He didn’t understand why The Master wanted him to oversee the children, but over the course of the last month, he was happy he accepted the request. He had watched One along with his teammates master the bump at a lightning pace, possibly faster than he himself had learned it when he was a recruit. Today was a special day, it was time to test the youths. A month had already passed since he had first taken charge of them, and it was time to show their worth. The test would weed out the useless ones.

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Asher and his team, along with the rest of the children shambled to the training ground ready for another day of training. The room had taken on the smell of sweat and the slight hint of iron from Master Revenant and his assistants dishing out punishments wherever they saw fit. Luckily Asher felt that he had managed to get off Master Revenant’s radar because his team and him were never subject to any punishments other than Asher’s first run in with Master Revenant. All the children broke away into their team’s de facto training areas. Right before the children were about to begin, Master Revenant cleared his throat.

“Recruits, it is time to test your worth,” he looked at the teams “Today you will be performing the bump on me or one of my two assistants. I’ll allow you to decide which instructor you choose to approach.”

Asher looked at the three instructors as he pondered which one to challenge.

“Who should we go to?” Seventeen asked.

“Yeah which one, One” The two boys Four and Five began to giggle “See what we did there, one, One.” Four looked at Five “Yeah that was pretty good!”

Asher didn’t even know why he was pretending to think, he had already known the second they’d been given the option who he would challenge. He was going to get some payback on Master Revenant. His teammates and him were going to pick that bastard’s pockets left and right. The damage to Asher’s ribs may have healed, but the blow to his ego was still there. While the group sat there and bantered with one another, the rest of the teams chose the two assistants as their opponent leaving only Master Revenant without anyone to challenge him.

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“That settles it,” Master Revenant pointed to Asher and the boys “You four, you’re with me. You’ll be the last team to take the test so sit back while your fellow recruits make their attempts. Don’t disappoint me either” The man clenched his fists.

An hour or so had passed while Team Asher sat and waited for their turn. The monotony was only broken up by the sounds of bumps, the words “Pass” or “Fail”. Failures were then promptly followed up with a quick and brutal beating. Finally after the last team finished up, it was Team Asher’s turn.

“Are you ready?” Master Revenant looked at the boys.

“Yes sir!” All of them replied.

“Good, One you will be going last.”

“Yes sir.” Asher replied

What happened next followed all of Asher’s expectations. In terms of ability, Four and Five were the least capable individually, but during the free time they were allotted in their barracks, it was clear to Asher that the duo worked better as a team. He had learned that the boys were brothers who had been given to The Syndicate to settle a familial debt that their father had incurred through his gambling addiction. When he had heard their story Asher felt bad for the boys, but the two boys seemed happy as long as they were together. Both of the boys made their attempts.

Revenant had kept a close eye on One’s team and knew that these two were the least capable in the group. To his surprise the two managed to pull off the bump to a satisfactory standard.

“Pass.” Master Revenant said to Four and promptly slapped the boy. “Remember, use your index and middle finger to grasp the purse!”

“Pass.” He said to Five who also received a slap. “Use your eyes to identify where the purse is on my person. You were shocked that I had moved my purse to my cloak’s pocket and spent unnecessary time trying to locate it.

Seventeen let out a deep breath and began walking. Revenant was surprised to see that the boy walked with a calm confidence towards him. He pulled the move off extremely well, with Revenant only being able to briefly feel the boy’s fingers in his pocket.

“Well done. Pass.”

The children had all begun to mumble and whisper to one another. Seventeen’s attempt was the only so far that had not received some sort of reprimand upon its completion. Asher smiled, he was practically shaking with excitement and anxious to stick it to the bastard that had beat him to a pulp.

“Come, boy.”

Asher began his attempt. Revenant was looking at the boy walking towards him. He had even taken the liberty of putting the purse in a secret compartment in his pants pocket. He had watched the boy during training, and even during their free time. He wouldn’t make the test as easy for One as he did the others. The next thing he knew, the boy had walked completely past him. Confused, Revenant turned towards the boy, ready to beat him for not even trying. Asher looked back at the master and flashed a devilish grin as he lifted up his hand to show the coin purse. The children all gasped and began murmuring. The two assistants looked towards Master Revenant. The entire thing infuriated Revenant, not only had he been completely bested, but the bastard even went out of his way to embarrass him in front of all the other recruits. The most shocking thing was that he never felt a thing. He didn’t feel a bump, he didn’t feel when or how the boy managed to get into the secondary pocket, and it seemed like the boy had completely hidden his presence all together when he performed the action. All these things flashed through Revenant’s mind as he balled his fist and swiftly delivered two punches to the boy’s face.

“Pass.” Master Revenant growled at the boy who looked back up at him from the ground, still smiling.

“Go back to your team, boy.” Master Revenant looked at the children, “Good work today recruits, but this is only a preliminary test! Whether or not you pass or fail will be ultimately determined by you!” He began to pace back and forth. “Our great city of Benetia will be your true testing grounds.” He stopped his pacing and faced towards the children.

“Most of our skills are about muscle memory and adaptation. For those of you with good eyes, you’ll notice that the floor of the training ground is made of the same material used to pave our beautiful Benetian roads. I’ve done all I can to prepare you for your first trial. I want sixteen gold coins from each team. That means an average of four coins from each member.”

The children began murmuring back and forth to one another over the shocking revelation. The joy that they’d felt from the belief of passing their test suddenly deflated at the task given to them.

“Four gold coins a day is the average expense of someone living a wealthy lifestyle. Luckily for you, our beautiful city of Benetia has money in abundance. For the children who may not have been taught about money…ten copper equals one silver, ten silver equals one gold.”

Master Revenant’s face then grew very stern as he looked at all the children.

“Our city is not very generous to thieves, I’m sure some of you have seen people being hanged. For those of you who failed today, I’d get desperate. If you don’t bring me my money, I WILL make you regret it, and you’ll get something worse than the little beating I gave to One when you all met me. The test starts tomorrow morning, don’t come back unless you get the gold, I don’t care how you get it. That will be all, dismissed.”

Master Revenant and his two assistants left the training area leaving the children to their thoughts. Some seemed anxious, others were excited, and those who failed today showed a visible display of panic and dread written across their face. Asher wasn’t worried in the slightest, as he sat there thinking about tomorrow, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Seventeen was looking at him while Four and Five were behind him smiling.

“So what’s the plan boss?” the boy said to Asher.

“The plan is the only option we have,” Asher looked at the three of them. “We make money.”