Magnus made his way back to the hideout bedraggled and slightly bruised, at his side were three purses filled with iron shims, just like Taylan requested.

“Well done, well done! I must say that was a good outing, for a first time.” Taylan said as he opened the back door entrance for Magnus.

“Do you want the purses?” Magnus asked, ignoring Taylan’s pomp while he wobbled inside. That smack must have rattled his skull around if he was still feeling the after-effects.

“Nope, it is yours to keep and do what you want,” Taylan said, playing out an empty magnanimous gesture. “Anyways, do you want to tell me what you learned today?”

“Never go for a grey turban’s purse even if he is drunk on his feet and oblivious to the world,” Magnus replied. That run-in was a close thing, after two easy pickpocketings, he got a bit arrogant and went after some folks he shouldn’t have.

“Yes, that is a wonderful lesson, which you should stick to from now on if you do not want to lose your hand surely. But what else did you learn? What was the mistake you made that got you caught?”

“Ahh… I think it was because I reached out for him thrice?” Magnus revealed. He knew he should have left the guard alone, but the allure of stealing from an authority figure could not be denied.

Just seeing the man drunk in broad daylight on ill-gotten money, got his blood boiling. He hated the injustice that goes on this world, he wished he could do something, anything about it, but he was powerless against it. So stealing from him was just his way of evening the scales.

“Yes!” Taylan said, more excited then Magnus has ever seen, and that was saying much. The man must enjoy the subject of steal, huh.

“You went against a cardinal rule, do not tease more once, ever! Also, why on Pandora’s mercy were you holding on to your prey like some child at his mother’s tits?”

“I wasn’t doing that!” Magnus shouted, offended at the apparent insult.

“Really now,” Taylan simply asked, peering down at Magnus.

“All right fine, my teasing needs some work,” Magnus admitted, even he knew that deep down inside. His first two targets were a distracted young man, who was quite taken in by the sight of some street harlot. The other one was a man looking over some wares at a street vendor.

“Keep in mind, you teasing should not last more than a few seconds, and when you steal from somebody, even those with the emptiest of heads, leave the scene. You should never be found on the sight of your crime scene.”

“But, but,” Magnus splattered, “Aren’t I am supposed to keep in sight of you? If you weren’t nearby and rescued me, I would have been hauled off to the dungeons!”

“You do not need to worry about that,” Taylan stated. “Let me worry about how I will keep watch. All you need to worry about is improving your skills.”

“Fine,” Magnus said, giving in. “If I ever get my hands chopped off, it’s on you. Not me!”

“Well, then make sure that does not weigh us down but not getting caught, again.”

--------------------------------------------

Magnus made his way to his final lesson of the day. Before Taylan sent him on his way, he brought him over to Shui to get his head checked out. Shui was not happy at all when he got it out of Taylan how he got injured. Though Magnus found it funny how the man contradicted himself as he got injured in his class as well.

He already knew what he suffered from a slight concussion, but he played along so as not to raise any suspicions. He really couldn’t say that he had a machine in his head, that wouldn’t fly around here.

Shui diagnosed him with the same medical condition that Codex did and told him to lie back for a while and rest. Getting hit by a gloved iron hand was not something he wants to repeat anytime soon.

Now here he was setting up a game of square with Soykan.

“Alright, let’s get started!” Soykan said as he brought out drinks and snacks.

Magnus raised his eyebrows, shocked with the layback attitude Soykan had with his lessons. But still, if they were going to take it easy, who was he to deny himself such luxury. So Magnus sat himself down, then grabbed a handful of grapes and poured himself a drink.

“Should I go first?” Magnus asked out of politeness, he already knew as a beginner he would be getting the first move.

“Go right ahead,” Soykan said with a wave as he threw a grape into his mouth while also pouring himself a drink.

Then Magnus made his move.

And the game only lasted a few minutes.

Since this was Magnus’s first game, he was trying to get the hang of the game and pry into the intricate details of it.

Now unlike chess, the hard-hitting pieces were hard to get out immediately. So he had to make do with his footman. Which kind of reminisced to real-life battle. In the field, the generals and lieutenants rarely come up to battle, and if they do, it is during pivotal moments.

So the game started out slow, Magnus and Soykan traded one footman after the other. Then midway into the game, the field opened up.

Now was it, the game had reached its climax.

Though an issue popped up, he was proficient enough to wield his precious pieces skillfully. So, in a matter of minutes, he lost, and the king is dead was called.

Without a word, Soykan set the game again and let him go first.

This time he closely watched what Soykan did and tried to find meaning in it. Though the issue was, he couldn’t make heads or tales what Soykan was really up to since he did not have the knowledge or the grasp of the game. Hence he couldn’t keep track or understand much of what was going on.

Thus he tried a different tactic after he lost another game in a matter of a few minutes. This time he would focus solely on himself. He could concentrate on what he was doing, then see what he does wrong and right, and experiment.

The key being here experiment; it does not matter if he makes mistakes. It only matters when he makes mistakes out there, in the real world-- where it could have deadly consequences, which is life-threatening to him, especially since he is an orphan with nothing to fall back on and nobody to support him back up.

Therefore he thought and thought and thought. Each move he made, he looked at what he should have done and what he shouldn’t have done.

And he felt like he was making real progress!

He didn’t beat himself over it when he made a dumb mistake, nor did he become arrogant when he made a smart move. All that mattered to him was that he learned from both good and bad.

What was a big help to him was Codex, she wasn’t the same Super A.I. she was back home, on Earth--with massive data processing capabilities. Magnus also knew she would never be, but she was still awesome and useful.

She took a real hit when she came to this world with him, however, which way it happened. Now she was no better than a retro Nintendo in comparison, yet she had more surprises in store than you would ever imagine.

While out pickpocketing, he had her do a Perception check on him, and it turned out just as he expected.

[Name: Magnus Clade Highest Stat: Will(11.61)]

For the fun of it, he also asked her to do the same for herself, if it were possible. He didn’t expect much out of it, but ow boy was he in for a surprise.

[Name: Codex Highest Stat: Intellect(ERROR)]

Immediately he asked what the hell that meant while he also nearly fell out of the roof in shock and bewilderment during the moment he was surveying out a prey.

Codex had no clue what it meant just like him. There really is a trend going on here, with him and her not having a goddamn clue about much or anything for that matter.

Still, that could only mean one thing; her one stat-- which she pointed out, in a suppressed voice which he found unusual, was the only one she had-- went beyond the measuring schematic they developed so far. Was this what the Matron meant when she was talking about ‘above the realm of the mundane?’

Nevertheless, that was the only clue they had, which answer absolutely nothing. But it did show Codex had much in store and was now layered in mysterious.

At any rate, Magnus did not find it fair at all. How could she be intricately connected him while being so far above and beyond him? Despite it all, Magnus did not let jealousy get to him. Jealousy is the one thing that divides all and ruins all it touches.

Also, if you look at things from another perspective, he has more potential than her, with more stats to work with-- leading to more areas to branch out in and grow.

Anyways it is thanks to her mysteriously high stat that they could do this.

“Oww, that was an inaccurate move,” Codex said, giving his move a yellow rating. “You could have done this or that.”

Even with insufficient data, Codex was able to give useful pointers, which Magnus was able to learn from it and boost his game in unseen ways.

Though even now that was all Codex did, give him pointers to learn from, neither he or she wanted him to become a puppet on a string, needing to be told where to shit and when to eat.

Even if it were a quick short cut, it would go a long way for him to learn on his very own. Also, these lessons gave the added benefit of increasing his Intellect stat, which he found was impossible to train like the two spiritual stats and the other mental stat.

“Would you look at that,” Soykan said, taking Magnus out of the zoned in state he was in. “The time is already up.”

Magnus got up from his hunched back shape and looked around, which he immediately found was foolish, since there was no clock to go off the time. He stored that for later in his mind, this world really needs a clock, using the suns and moon to go off the time is so inaccurate and obnoxious.

Regardless of his befuddlement state, he never knew time could pass so fast as today. It really only felt like a few minutes past for him. But now that he was out and about, he noticed his pangs of hunger and thirst.

So he reached out for his poured drink, which he must have poured hours ago and drained it in a single gulp. After that, he sated his slight hunger by eating away at the remaining snacks that Soykan left.

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Soykan asked as he watched Magnus literally inhale the last morsel of the snacks.

Magnus shook his head, “No, I got to be back home. If I am out too long, they would worry and start asking questions.”

Soykan rubbed at his clean-shaven chin as he nodded along, “You do know that you will be needed to put more hours into your… work.”

“I know, I know,” Magnus said, now that Soykan brought up the subject, there really wouldn’t be any moment better. “I only need to go back home for two phases of the celestial bodies, to set things straight and get by business in order.”

Soykan kept rubbed at his clean-shaven chin, if he wanted to be all-wise and sagely, why not grow the damn thing. “Between the waking hour and the sleeping hour, right?”

Magnus nodded his head, “Well, I guess we can give you that,” Soykan said.

Then the silence encompassed them as they just sat there doing nothing.

Magnus did not know what came over him, but he just felt like this was the moment to go out on a limp and try to have his questions answered. “Soykan, I do not want to presume, but could you answer me a question?”

Soykan chuckled, “You have already presumed, kid, so why not go on?”

“Well, if you say so,” Magnus said, taking that as a good sign. “I wanted to ask, why did you bring me on board. I know I do not have much to offer, but you guys went beyond and above for me. So why?”

“Ahh, the dreaded question. Must have given you many sleepless nights, aye?” Soykan said. “Well, if you want the honest truth and only the honest truth, you reminded me of someone.”

“So,” Magnus carried on with, not sure how he should feel like right now that the truth was out there. “It was for sentimental reasons than practical?”

“Yes,” Soykan said, “and no,” he finished with. “You are a very smart kid, and this training session provides it. You have made more progress than what I have made in months at the game. You are already thinking ahead of people twice or thrice your age!”

“But still, I am accepted because of sentimental reasons.” Magnus finished for him.

“Yes, even if you were the son of a Guild Master, I would not have accepted you.”

Magnus wondered who he must remind Soykan of to do him such a grand favor, so he asked. “Are you going to share who I remind you of?”

Immediately Soykan face turned shadow lit and maniacal. The once cheerful man that was seated before him transformed into something else, something more dangerous and deadly. For a moment there, he sensed the same power that he felt coming off of the Matron in boiling waves.

Magnus shivered in fear and awe like a prey in front of a predator, and he coiled back into his chair as if trying to become part of it.

As soon as the emotions boiled up to the surface, it was quickly pulled back and retained.

After a few minutes of long silence, only then did Magnus dared to look up at Soykan, the upper section of his face was in his left hand. Magnus had no clue what he was experiencing, but he sort of knew it wasn’t anything pleasant.

Then as if he was sensing that Magnus staring at him, he looked up from position and stared up at Magnus. Magnus stared right back. It looked like Soykan was back under control of himself, but there was still something in his eyes, like some beast banging on the deep, dark roiling pool hiding it away.

With a weak smile on his face, Soykan spoke up, “I am sorry for losing control for a second there.”

“It is alright,” Magnus said, waving it away, “My question was sort of tactless.”

“Still, that does not excuse me for making you uncomfortable,” Soykan said. “You didn’t know any better, and I am it worse by going off the rails.”

Magnus wanted to roll his eyes and scuff at that remark, that is the underestimate of the year. His minor outbreak did a lot more than making him uncomfortable. Lesser men would have been pissing themselves and crying out for their mothers!

Even so, Magnus knew he was in the wrong. He asked a personal question that seems to hurt Soykan to his very core. He wondered who he reminded him of, and even though Magnus loved to solve a great mystery and get to the root of things. There came times when you had to just leave a people’s secrets be.

As a matter of fact, he has his own secrets too. Furthermore, he would prefer to keep hidden and he wouldn’t want anybody to pry in without his explicit permission.

Nevertheless, it is his duty to set things right and accept the blame, “Look Soykan even though it was mostly because of sentimental reasons that you let me join, I still owe you a great deal! You did me a great favor letting me on, I do not know if you know this, but your help was indispensable and came at an excellent time.”

Magnus thought back to all the stealing he had to do on the streets, and even when he put himself and every other kid within his care in danger, it still wasn’t enough. He remembered how he felt when the Matron told him the situation of the orphanage and how his effort would really amount to nothing.

Being offered this job by these folk was a huge saving grace even if it was lawbreaking work.

“Although it is a massive hit to my ego to learn that I wasn’t accepted because of my good charms, silver tongue, quick wit, and most importantly of all just being me,” Magnus said as he pointed at himself.

That got out an amused chuckle out of Soykan just as Magnus planned, which in turn cleared up the air and good the atmosphere back to its upbeat nature.

“Nevertheless, you have my thanks and this mystery person as well,” Magnus said, stepping lightly around this offsetting topic. “If I ever meet them, I shall give my thanks in person.”

Instead of getting the response he expected, things took a swing for the so-so. Soykan face darkened, and an icy coldness took over. He did not lose control of himself like last time.

This was a more genteel response, and it made it all the worse. There is a difference between a man who lets his emotions take over, and one who lets it temper him.

Soykan was clearly the former, and he responded in a deep tone voice, “They’re dead!"