They spoke for nearly another hour, hashing out the particulars of Ril’s employment including all Ril’s duties as a member of the White Lily.

Ril would participate in training everyday with the other members of the guild. They would train him in all of the necessary skills that he would need in order to accomplish missions on their behalf. This training would continue for as long as Ril would be a part of the guild, but would eventually be mostly replaced by missions. On top of all this Ril would be provided a stipend of four hundred dekars that he could use as he wished.

In exchange for this tutelage and tuition, Ril would have to remain with the guild until his debt is paid. As such a price of admission was that Ril had to agree to be marked. A tattoo that would allow the members of the White Lily to find him no matter where he went in the world. A thoroughly unpleasant prospect to Ril, but considering that the other option was to leave the city, not really that terrible in the grand scheme of things.

Eventually Ril excused himself from the conversation, claiming that he needed to pick up Hauke from school. He had agreed to the contract and would come to the guild’s training house tomorrow morning to begin his initiation. On his way to the school to pick up Hauke, he pondered the other information that he had gleaned from the conversation.

Bahlinar, the guild leader, had acquired the Stomach of the Chromagnum sometime during his youthful adventures, although he refused to describe the story to Ril. He did say that the Stomach, like all the Fragments provide a stat bonus in addition to the enhanced regeneration effect that Ril had seen.

The Stomach apparently massively increased the Charisma of the wielder, while draining the Strength of the user. At the awakened stage it granted seven Charisma and stole seven Strength according to Bahlinar. A rather strange combination, considering Ril assumed that the stomach would be associated with Constitution but he didn’t question it too much. Regardless, it explained the otherworldly beauty of the Bahlinar, and how his very presence seemed to calm Ril down.

While he skulked through the Warrens, Ril wondered how much of his agreement to joining the White Lily was due to his own desire, and how much of it was the enchanting presence of the guild master. The moment he had left the man’s presence he remembered the fear and humiliation that he was subjected to by Siorraid.

His heart wasn’t into it though. Retaining grudges was not something Ril was very good at, and quickly he forgot about Siorraid and considered more interesting topics.

Bahlinar had also spoken of the other Fragments. The Bones granted enhanced Strength at the cost of draining one's Intelligence. Supposedly the bones also converted seven Intelligence to Strength, but Bahlinar himself admitted that much of what he knew came about by assuming that the different Fragments behaved the same and extrapolating. As of yet, no one who acquired the Bones, managed to retain enough Intelligence to describe their character sheet.

The Skin of the Chromagnum was also fairly straightforward. It enhanced the wielder’s Constitution at the price of Charisma. Supposedly it also changed the color of skin to the same powdery black that all powder beasts exhibited. As such, wielders of the Skin are very visible, but tend not to associate much with other people, preferring to distance themselves as they become paranoid and perceive every action as a slight to their person.

Despite the aggression that wielder’s of the skin exhibit, it is one of the safer Fragments, since it didn’t directly change the mind.

The Lungs on the other hand were terrifying to Ril. At the cost of one’s Wisdom, the Lungs massively increased Dexterity. This made for a strange combination of people who could move incredibly fast, with even reports of wielder’s of the Lungs able to run across water and in some cases even achieve unstable flight.

This all seemed incredible, and obviously a result of the Dexterity buff, but that was not what scared Ril. The Lungs had the side effect of destroying memories. Those who collect the Lungs seem to lose much of their collected memories while also losing the ability to form new ones.

Ril shuddered, hopping out of the Warrens, and joining the crowd, only a couple blocks from the School.

The Heart and Mind were the two odd ones out. Those that collect the Heart seem to die either instantly, or within a day of acquisition. As such no one is sure what the actual stats that the Heart effects, but Bahlinar had speculated that it steals from Constitution to empower Wisdom. Another strange combination to Ril since it seems that the Heart would empower Constitution but most of the Fragments seem to fit with empowering Constitution in some form.

The Mind was the other outlier. Unlike the other Fragments which only required a token effort to acquire, the Mind was excessively difficult to get. In theory the Mind empowered Intelligence but Bahlinar had yet to meet one.

Or perhaps that was disingenuous. The Blood was also an outlier, perhaps even bigger of an outlier than the Heart and the Mind combined. Unlike the other six Fragments the Blood didn’t seem to be bad. It granted a small increase to all stats as Ril was familiar with but didn’t seem to be dangerous like the other Fragments. In fact it seemed downright useful, granting practical immunity to powder beasts and a non-insignificant boost to all stats. If not for the impossibility of acquiring it, King Magnus would have decreed that everyone in the Kingdom would be required to get it.

Because unlike the other six, Bahlinar didn’t know how to get the Blood. No one did.

It wasn’t like the Mind, where the excessive difficulty arose from failing to achieve the almost psychotic levels of self confidence.

No, the Blood was straight up an enigma. It seemed almost common in the population compared to the other Fragments, cropping up everywhere from poor urchins to rich nobles. The only pattern being that it seemed to prefer young children, but even that was not a hard and fast rule. Both toddlers, who hadn’t yet awakened from a divine sphere, and wizened old grandparents had been documented as collecting the Fragment.

Ril smiled slightly as he knocked on the door of the school. It seemed that he had lucked out with the Blood. The other Fragments were interesting but seemed so utterly devastating that Ril didn’t even consider trying to get them. Well, maybe if he was about to die he could try to get the Skin since it didn’t seem to instantly destroy people. Maybe the Lungs too, but would he still remember what he needed to do after getting it?

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On either side of him torches burned merrily and drove back the monotonous blue light of the shrooms. The torches flickered slightly, and the door opened a hair. The Professor squinted through the gap. When he spotted Ril he opened it up the rest of the way.

“Ahh, you are here to pick up your brother?” The Professor said, “I shall go get him.”

“Not my bro...” the Professor was already gone. Ril closed his mouth and shuffled his feet, wondering if he should step inside or whether he should stay out here.

Before he could decide the Professor reappeared with an exhausted looking Hauke.

“Here you go,” The Professor said merrily, shoving Hauke towards Ril. “One younger brother coming right up.”

“Yeah, he’s actually my friend’s younger...” Ril raised his hand to protest but the door closed. “Ok then. Let’s go home? You look tired.”

Hauke bolstered his energy, “You would not believe how bad some of those kids are with the sword. And the Professor made me spend an hour and a half in the academic room! It was terrible. We basically reviewed stuff that I learned years ago.”

Ril scratched his chin, as he made a path through the crowd for Hauke to follow. “But do you like it there?”

Hauke dodged a stray elbow, then responded. “Well, I mean. How much can I learn from peasants like them?”

“I’m a peasant like them you know.” Ril frowned.

Hauke’s mouth formed a perfect O. “You’re different though. You know how to wield a sword and you have powers. They are just a bunch of kids.”

They descended into silence as they traversed a short section of the Warrens to dodge a particularly dense crowd.

“Well, there is some value in teaching others. You can think of it as a method of perfecting your skills.” Ril said. “And also this could be a great way to collect a team of individuals that you can go dungeon diving with. You will train together so when you actually go diving you will be far more efficient than if you just join a random team.”

Ril smiled at Hauke’s skeptical expression. “Just think about it. You could be the team captain.”

That seemed to sway Hauke and his frown dropped away.

They made their way across the city, and in no time managed to leave the crowds behind in favor of the dim tunnels of their apartment. They entered and found Eren with her feet up while drinking a cup of tea and reading a newspaper.

“Yo!” Ril called, “how was your day? Did you manage to find a job?”

“I did actually.” Eren said smiling at them. She took her boots off of the table and gestured for them to join them. “Managed to secure the job with the help of an old acquaintance of mine. Unfortunately my interview was cut short because the captain had to go deal with a disturbance on fifth street. Apparently some tanner’s shop blew up.”

“Uhm, yeah, was anyone hurt?” Ril reddened.

“No,” Eren shrugged nonchalantly, “no one died, though there seemed to be extensive damage to the building itself. Not sure how that happened since as far as I know there aren’t any explosives in a tanner’s shop.”

“Were there witnesses?” Ril asked, “What did they say?”

Eren shrugged again, a slight frown appearing on her face. “Oh plenty, but we didn’t question any of them. The guard here is weird. There is this group called the White Lily that seems like they almost own the guard. One of their members was waiting at the scene when we arrived and told us that the incident was being handled. Apparently, the tanner was being compensated for the damage to his property.”

“Well...” Ril started but Eren raised her hand indicating that she wasn’t done.

“Like, there was corruption back in Anduin, but nothing on this scale. Something illegal happened and this group, this White Lily, just waved their hands and it is as if it didn’t happen. Makes me mad.” Eren took an angry sip of her tea. “I mean, how can an obviously shady organization like that take such complete control of the law enforcement in a city. How is it that people just stand for that.”

She gave both Ril and Hauke a stern look. “Both of you stay away from them. They are dangerous. The man that was guarding the crime scene was covered in shadows so I couldn’t see his face. You don’t walk around like that unless you have something to hide.”

Ril blinked, “Wait, did that guy have a load of daggers on his person?”

“No, he had this giant greatsword on his back. why?”

“Uhm, about the White Lily.” Ril said, scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed

Eren narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?”

“Well, uhm. So you see. It wasn’t my fault. I swear.” Ril said, raising both hands, “I took Hauke to the school, which he liked, right Hauke? Yeah, he liked it, and he can go there everyday, and it won’t even cost us anything. Uhm, I think. And then. Well I guess before that we learned about the Warrens, but that’s not super relevant.”

Eren’s eyes turned flinty. “What did you do?”

Ril shook his hands desperately in front of him. “Well so uhm. After I dropped Hauke off, I went and searched for a job. And uhm. Congrats on finding a job so easily. It really took a lot before I found something. But, ok ok, uhm. So I was minding my own business when this guy cloaked in shadows stepped out a wall and said he wanted to talk to me.”

“Well, see I know a thing or two about people appearing randomly and I didn’t think it was a good thing, so I uh, kinda ran.” Ril smiled weakly, “and I may have uhm...”

Eren leaned back in her chair, a look of disbelief evident on her features. “What did you do?”

“Well, I kinda pushed him into a vat of boiling tanning solution. I think that made him mad.”

“Really?” Hauke said, excitedly from the side.

“Well yeah. He was really persistent.” Ril said, snatching a glance at Hauke before returning all of his attention back to Eren. “But! But, it’s not all bad. Promise. See after I dunked him in acid, he made this big explosion, and chased me out onto the street. He had another person waiting for me there, so I heard them out. And it seemed that they only wanted to talk to me. So they took me to their boss, and we talked, and uhm...Now i’m one of them?”

Ril’s voice rose up several octaves during the last part.

“You’re one of them? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m serious. I mean, I told them I’d do it, you know.” Ril said, smiling weakly.

“Why do you do things?” She asked, as she dropped her head into her hands.

“I... well...you know what, uhm ok. So, think about it this way. I got a job, so we will have more money.” Ril said with a hopeful smile.

A muffled groan escaped from between Eren’s hands. Ril slowly lowered his hands, and licked his lips. It seemed as if he had survived unscathed. Which was a good thing. Definitely.

...

But it would be good to distract her, just in case.

“So Hauke, how was your day at the School?” Ril turned to Hauke and gave him a deeply meaningful head jerk, several winks and an unintelligible hand gesture. Hauke frowned but seemed to understand, diving into his retelling of his half day at school and all the idiosyncratic characters that he met there, along with his plan to train a group of children to be his personal vanguard on his quest to become the greatest adventurer alive.

Ril sighed and leaned back in his chair. Crisis averted.

Tomorrow he would go to the White Lily training hall and begin his initiation to the group. He smiled. It would be awesome to meet the rest of the White Lily, including the axe dude that Eren met, and learn more about weaponry.

It was turning out to be a good day.