The apartment that the group spent the rest of the morning moving into was larger and more lavish than Jasper had expected based on the haughty way the council had treated him so far. It took up the space of the entire top two floors of the building including ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, a colossal kitchen fitted with all kinds of runic appliances all of which worked, a large room with mats lining the floor, and a room with a pool. The entire bottom floor of the apartment had beautiful cedar flooring and there was an imperial staircase leading to the top floor of the apartment. The staircase was blocked off with a chain and a sign saying not to enter though. When asked about the blockade Aaron said.
“The rooms on the top floor are being converted into different crafting rooms for Jasper to work in as well as our bedroom. Master builders will be in soon and they’ll have it done by the end of the day.”
“Our bedroom?” Jasper asked, worried that he would have to spend more time with the handler than he’d originally projected. A smile spread across the gruff-looking mans face and he let out a chuckle before answering the crafter’s question.
“Don’t worry it will be separated into two rooms and will have a door. We will have the smallest bedrooms in the apartment though. You’ll still have your privacy I’ll just be close by so that I can make sure that you make it to all of the appointments that you’ll have. For now, you’ll be glad to know that all of your teachers both for citizenship as well as crafting have agreed to come here for your lessons. I’m just here to make sure that you’re taken care of.” Jasper could read between the lines when it came to the handler that stood smiling at him. For most people, it might seem that they were doing everything they could to make Jasper’s life easier, but he could see the double-edged sword that it was.
A beautiful new apartment, all of his needs taken care of within it, crafting materials and crafting rooms all fantastic all reasons to keep him inside the apartment. The handler had the friendly expression, but also the feeling that he could suppress the entire team in a moment stuck literally in the same room as him. This was a beautiful and comfortable cage, but Jasper knew it for exactly that it was a cage. He wasn’t free here he was on house arrest. Based on the faces of the members of the team he could tell that he wasn’t the only one who saw what was going on.
Jasper pulled his face into one of gratefulness, but he knew that Aaron had most likely already seen the expression he’d made only made clear when the handler continued and said. “Don’t worry Jasper I know that you’ve been through quite a lot, you’ll be safe here I’ll make sure of it!” Jasper thanked the man probably laying it on thicker than he needed to but feeling that he needed to do it that way to make sure that the reports he sent back to the council were positive. He didn’t know what they wanted from him, and he didn’t want to offend them to the point of violence before he had a chance to find out.
“Your first teacher will be here soon, and I think you’ll like her! She’s going to be helping you with your sewing while the builders work on our room.” The emphasis on the word “our,” was only slight but it was there infused with the feeling of oppression that Jasper was sure Aaron had meant to convey. Still, Jasper was excited to begin lessons in crafting. Jasper knew that many people would look down on sewing as just a small hobby that would let people patch holes in their clothing or maybe make pillows, but Jasper knew that sewing could be used for all manner of things.
His creativity churned as he dreamed up thoughts of making fine leather armor, flags with runic abilities, and giant tapestries that could take down armies. He had to stop himself from cackling madly as he kept thinking of new ideas having to do with sewing as well as other yarn or thread-related crafting. Jasper excitedly paced around the foyer while he waited for his teacher to arrive while his handler stood off to the side leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, and an amused look on his face. A few minutes later a chime rang out announcing the arrival of Jasper’s sewing teacher.
Aaron stood up and went to the door answering it smoothly and allowing the new person inside. Jasper had imagined his teacher as an old woman with a kind voice patiently sitting with him and explaining calmly what he was doing right and wrong. The giant man with piercing black eyes a bald head, and a sharp red and white three-piece suit was not what he expected, but there he was.
“Welcome Master Tailor Hawkins this is your student Mister Jasper Cartwright.” Aaron introduced Jasper to the new man. Jasper reached out his hand to shake and the massive man stared at it with distaste until the runic crafter lowered his hand.
“Let us start.” He said pulling out an embroidery hoop with a piece of fabric stretched across it thrusting it into Jaspers's hands from a spatial bag he had stuffed away inside a pocket on the inside of his jacket. They walked over to the training room since the other rooms were either occupied by the other members of the team or were under construction by the builders who were coming in from the entrance on the roof that led into the apartment. Once they were settled in, he was given a basic needle and thread and instructed to thread it.
Jasper immediately obeyed the order attempting to start the task, but it was much harder to perform than he had originally thought. The Runic Crafter was struck on the hand with a ruler each time he didn’t manage to thread the needle on the first try and after hours of attempting the task he had gained four dexterity and finally managed to place the end of the thread directly into the eye of the needle with a single thrust every time. After he managed that he was told to place the needle into the fabric. Again, Jasper started the task only to be smacked in the hand with an admonishment.
“Don’t split the stitch!” The man screeched in Jaspers's ears again and again. Another several hours passed as he continued his practice gaining more dexterity as well as two levels in his proficiency with needle and thread. By the end of the day, Jasper had a distinctive hatred for the man as well as an incredibly sore hand. It didn’t help that Aaron stood against the far wall the entire time occasionally letting out a chuckle now and then when Jasper had an especially funny look of annoyance or pain on his face. At the end of the lesson he was given a book titled “The Basics of Sewing,” and told that he was to read the entire thing before the tailor was expected for his next lesson. When the giant tailor finally left the apartment Jasper couldn’t help but glare at the handler trying to bore a hole in the man’s head.
“Oh, come on! It was funny!” he said as Jasper stormed over to his newly finished room. The crafter slammed his door behind him and turned only to be shocked out of his annoyance by the room. Jasper knew that he was going to have one of the smallest rooms in the building from the warning that Aaron had given him earlier in the day, but what he didn’t consider was just how large the rooms were going to be. Even with a newly formed wall in between his room and his handler’s attachment the room was large enough that he could have kept three of the rooms he’d once slept in with six other boys when he still lived in his city.
Soft white carpet covered the entire floor, the walls were a deep forest green, which was his favorite color and Jasper didn’t know how they knew that. There was a wooden trim perfectly stained in a reddish brown color that was pleasing to Jaspers’ eyes. On the far side of the room was an alcove with empty bookshelves and a bay window which Jasper immediately checked only to be disappointed with the fact that they didn’t answer. His plans for a possible quiet escape out of the window were dashed with the knowledge that he would have to shatter it if he wanted to go out that way. He turned back around and studied the new furniture that he’d been given.
A large canopy bed with numerous pillows and the most comfortable blanket he’d ever seen laid across the top of it made him immediately want to jump into it and never leave it. Pushing that desire down he continued to look around finding a walk-in closet, a bathroom with sink, shower, and luckily toilet included since he wasn’t quite at the Vitality status he needed to not have to worry about such things. In all, he was very impressed with the work that the builders had put into his room. As soon as he finished looking over his new room, he sat on the bed only to be disrupted by a knock on the door.
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Aaron called out from the door to let him know that dinner had arrived. The timing made him suspicious of his handler yet again and Jasper made a mental note reminding himself that there was not any more privacy in his room than there was standing directly in front of the other man. With a deep sigh, he pushed himself up from his bed and started toward the door. It was then that he noticed another door out of the corner of his eye that he hadn’t noticed up until this point. Before leaving the room, he went over to the adjoining door and tried to open it only to find it locked.
As soon as he turned away from the door it was like the door disappeared. Jasper looked at it again and it was there. “Some kind of perception filtering skill?” He wondered before another knock on his door.
“Come on Jasper! There’s meat!” Luke’s voice rang out on the other side of the door. He joined them in the kitchen where an entire spread of meat that Jasper recognized as food. Fried chicken, steak, pasta, and various other food items were placed on the island counter and the entire group including his handler were tearing into the feast. “Hurry up or you’re going to go hungry!” Luke called out, being the last one to the counter before Jasper. Those words sped up Jaspers's malingering lope to the food into a full-on sprint grabbing one of the steaks with his hand crouching down and ripping into it with his teeth. The others stopped their eating to watch the Runic Crafter rip into the meat with almost animal-like intensity.
“You know we have cutlery, right?” Sabina asked him a barely audible laugh playing at the edge of her voice. Still getting used to living with other people again Jasper turned a deep red before standing upright and going to grab a plate. His embarrassment must have caused some amount of entertainment for the others because in the next moment, a peel of laughter ripped from the other members of the team. Some lighthearted ribbing later directed at each member of the team and Jasper felt much less like the butt of a joke and more like a member of the group. Aaron even got a couple of jokes thrown his way about his career turning out to be just a babysitting job for a crafter found in the wilderness.
After the food was finished everyone started to get into the after-dinner nap-time feeling. Each person helped clean up before heading off to their rooms. Aaron said goodnight and entered his door leading to his part of the room. Again, Jasper hadn’t seen the door before, and it confirmed his suspicion that it had a perception filter on it which gave him more insight into the types of skills his handler might have. He entered his room and crawled into bed staring out the window as the lights dimmed themselves.
He was exhausted, it had been a long couple of days since Jasper had been taken prisoner and placed in front of the council. Within that time, he’d gained levels in one of his tool proficiencies, a new apartment, teachers, a handler, and possibly some new friends although he wasn’t sure about the last part just yet. Before falling asleep Jasper decided that he’d check his stat sheet only for the reason that he hadn’t checked it in a while.
JASPER CARTWRIGHT LEVEL 19 STATS
STRENGTH: 85
VITALITY: 80
DEXTERITY: 112
CREATIVITY: 107
MAGIC: 132
CONTROL: 129
He was happy with his progress so far but looked forward to progressing even further with his new training. With what he knew about crafting and runes so far Jasper knew that he wouldn’t be able to escape from the Undercity just yet, but he didn’t know yet whether or not he wanted to. After all, so far, they hadn’t done anything overtly bad to him. He’d gotten so much from them with little in return and all he had to do was put up with a lack of privacy. “Maybe it’s worth it? Maybe I don’t need to escape I could still accomplish my goals here, right?” He thought to himself before shaking his head.
He'd made a promise to himself that he would build something that outshone any of the other cities. Maybe he could use this place to train himself and learn far more than he knew before. What he didn’t want to do was just improve someone else’s work, and even if he did the other Runic Crafters' work may impede his progress by not allowing his creativity to work. Would he be able to invent his projects, or would he cripple himself by taking everything that had already been done as fact?
From his time in the forest, he already knew that experimentation was the root of creativity and that he would have never been able to get to where he was at in his growth if he had just continued using exploding rocks as his only weapon. He would have never made his electric fence, or Effen, or his Jacko-Tank-Urn, which had gotten him the attention of one of the gods giving him a title. So, what if the title was Pumpkin Carver and only gave him boosts to carving pumpkins? It was still a title that most people didn’t have.
Jasper allowed his thoughts to wander thinking about new and exciting projects that he’d be able to start executing here soon after his training had started. His eyes got heavier and before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep. What felt like minutes after he’d closed his eyes, a knock on the door interrupted his sleep. The pale blue light from the giant crystal above the city was just starting to peer through his window and Jasper was not happy about being yanked out of the most comfortable sleep he’d ever had in his life.
“What!” He snarled, yanking open the adjoining door that he had forgotten about again, only to find a smiling Aaron waiting for him.
“It’s time for your next lesson! I figured it would be best to schedule a few for you but you’ll have to start earlier. Didn’t think you’d mind since your testimony states that you were used to getting up early and exercising. Today I’ll be your first teacher!” Aaron spewed out the information with the kind of cheerfulness that could only be exhibited by someone trying to be annoyingly cheerful. Jasper glared at the man and almost closed the door in his face before the man continued in a sing-song voice. “Just a reminder you’ve agreed to the terms of the council to go to each lesson that you are scheduled!” He ended by beaming another stretched smile. Jasper scowled but told him that he’d be ready in just a couple of minutes.
After a quick shower, he redressed himself in the clothes that he’d been wearing for three days now and joined his handler in the training room. The man tossed him a pair of thick padded gloves and some head gear and chest padding before motioning for him to take a spot in the middle of the floor.
“I told you that I was going to be acting in a bodyguard capacity only, when necessary, right? Well, I figure this way it won’t be necessary.” Aaron said, continuing to smile. The other members of the team were already in the training room stretching out while Jasper was still sleeping so when he joined Aaron in the middle of the floor, they paused their training to let out some cheers.
“Woohoo! Go, Jasper!”
“Kick his butt, Aaron!” Jasper shot a glare at Figis who was swinging his sword while looking at the two in the mirror. The two men started circling each other studying one another’s movements. Aaron moved first clearly slowing himself down to a speed that Jasper could handle while raising one of his feet and raising the other. He thrust the raised foot forward catching the crafter in the chest padding knocking him several feet back and landing on his backside. Rubbing his back in pain Jasper slowly got to his feet before being told to keep his hands up.
This beat-down style of training went on for an hour with Jasper having to stop now and then to catch his breath. When it was finally over the crafter found himself lying on his back for the umpteenth time breathing heavily. Aaron helped him up with a hand and directed him to the weights in the corner of the training room. The others had already started sparring with each other around the room and while Jasper started lifting the weights with instruction from his handler, he watched them.
Osur was a caster, he knew because of the weapon they’d drawn on him the other day, but they also worked on their physical fighting training with Luke. The spearman thrust a training spear toward Osur, and they dodged or parried using their bare hands. Meanwhile, Figis and Sabina were taking on an impressive fight of their own. Figis slashed his shield and bashed his shield at the petite black-haired woman, but she dodged and flipped through the air. When she stopped landing on both of her feet Figis's sword was already upon her but instead of panicking she slipped underneath his strike grabbing his arm and throwing the six-foot-something man straight over her head and slamming him onto the matt. Jasper let out a small cheer which was a mistake because even if it meant getting a smile from Sabina it caused Aaron to add more weight to the bar that he’d been pumping.
“If you’ve got the energy to cheer then you’re not working hard enough!” He said. Jasper groaned and continued his barbell curls now at 250 lbs. Once he’d gained a couple points in strength, he stopped complaining though happy that weightlifting was an exercise that he could still gain stat points from. After everyone had finished their workout, they gathered in the kitchen for a small breakfast. Everyone else was wearing fashionable workout clothes and still smelled good, making Jasper feel self-conscious about his appearance and hygiene. He wasn’t the only one who noticed it either.
“You know Jasper,” Luke started. “I think you can keep those clothes; you are rank!”
“Yeah, I was going to mention it to him later and in private.” Sabina scowled at the spear wielder. Turning to Aaron, she asked. “Any chance we can take him clothes shopping sometime today?” Aaron shook his head in the negative before responding.
“He doesn’t have time for that today, but Master Tailor Hawkins is sending over an entirely new wardrobe which should be here soon so don’t worry about it.” Sabina’s face fell as disappointed in missing out on a shopping trip as Jasper was remembering that he was a prisoner in this opulent apartment. Frustrated, he slipped out of the kitchen to take another shower so that he could rid himself of the smell at least. Not wanting to put the dirty clothes back on he sat down in his reading nook completely in the buff and started reading over the book that the tailor had left him for homework.