The morning of their test came quicker than anticipated with most of the children spending their evening and night anxiously waiting to be out in the city after weeks of preparing underground. Master Revenant, followed by his two assistants entered the recruits’ barracks.

“Alright you sorry excuses for a Rogue. It’s time to get to work and prove your worth to the Syndicate. There are no rules, I want my four gold from each of you. Don’t disappoint me and try not to die. This is a team effort, but also an individual one. You bring me my money, you pass. The team that brings in the most money will be rewarded.”

The children gathered behind Master Revenant and his assistants as they guided them through The Underpass.

“Try to remember the routes we take. The Underpass can be a maze and many new recruits have been found dead after wandering off and getting lost. You’ll learn with practice.”

All the children silently nodded as Master Revenant attempted to educate them on the intricacies of The Underpass. As far as Asher was concerned, every passageway looked the same. The Underpass was a true testament to the skill of people who had developed its network. The only ways he could determine navigating this place were through practice, and having a great sense of direction. His thoughts were pushed to the side as the group came to a halt. He realized that they had ended up inside of a massive sewage drain pipe, and from there, all of the children could see the city again. The smell of fresh air, even though is was mixed in with the smell of the city’s sewage, definitely beat the stale air of the training grounds and the interior of The Underpass

“Go my little recruits, enjoy your time out in the city and return here once your task is complete.”

The children stormed out of the drain like a horde of sewer rats running towards freedom. They began to split off in different directions, as Revenant and his two servants simply observed them. Revenant looked at one of his assistants.

“Follow One and his team, give me the details after they return today.”

The cloaked figure merely nodded and disappeared from the drainage pipe.

“What surprises do you plan on giving me today..?” Revenant thought to himself as he gazed at the city.

Asher along with the rest of his team had meandered into the city, brainstorming while they walked.

“So what’s the plan?” Seventeen asked Asher while Four and Five listened.

“We’ll cover more ground and draw less attention if we split up. I’ll be working by myself, you to Seventeen. You’re good enough that you should be fine on your own.”

“Hey!” Four and Five said in unison, with hurt expressions on their faces.

“Don’t worry you two…I’m not saying you’re bad, but from what I’ve seen, you two definitely work better as a team. Let’s all play to our strengths and get this job done.”

The two boys smiled, their hurt egos restored with the acknowledgement of their teamwork. Asher clapped his hands together. “Well that settles that. Time to spread out!”

And with that, the boys went their separate ways. The city was their oyster and the purses in people’s pockets would be their pearls.

Four and Five found themselves walking in the part of the city just outside the main marketplace. They had determined that their best bet at finding marks would be those going in and exiting the area. What better place was there to find money than the place where people go to spend it? As far as they were concerned the logic made sense so there they lurked.

In the time since their training had begun, the two brothers had been impressed by One, and were happy when they were put on the same team as him. They’d seen the boy effortlessly beat up one of the biggest kids in the group on their first day after the boy tried to pick a fight. Once their training had begun their opinion of One had only grown. The boy was extremely talented and never slacked on training, they’d often noticed him even practicing during their rest periods while the other kids would relax or play games. Although the brothers were more comfortable working and training with each other, they did enjoy practicing with One. As time progressed, One seemed to be getting better every minute, training with him reminded the brothers of when Master Revenant had demonstrated the move.

Four and Five saw their potential mark, it was a large man with a pot belly. The man seemed to be a bit in denial, because all of his clothes were tight fitting, revealing exactly the location of his coin purse. The thing was in his front left pocket. Four nodded towards the man.

“What about him?”

“Nah, pants are too tight around his fat legs. It’d be too much of a risk trying to squeeze our fingers in there.” Five replied as he stared at the man.

“Hmph..I didn’t consider that.”

“Of course you didn’t, that’s why I’M the smart brother.”

“Hey!” Four punched Five, and the two boys began to fight.

Seventeen found himself walking through the streets of Benetia, eyeing everyone down that looked like a potential mark.

“Four gold, four gold is all I need,” the boy mumbled to himself.

He tried to make light of the task, but four gold was nothing to scoff at for the average person. Most people managed to live off of around thirty gold a month, some people lived off of even less. His family had been in the category of people that lived with less, four gold seemed like a fortune to him. He was anxious, but not very worried. He had been preparing for this, he trained with One everyday without fail. He couldn’t keep up with One, the boy seemed like a machine, but he tried. Not including One, Seventeen had concluded that he was probably the most skilled kid in their training group. He wasn’t being cocky, simply making judgements from his observations. He could pick apart the other kids’ mistakes the same way One could see all of his.

He had managed to find his way into an area with heavy foot traffic, and bumped into a woman as they brushed past each other. He didn’t bother looking back as he kept walking and turned into an alley. He followed the alleyway to its completion only to end up on another street. Seventeen opened up the purse and began counting.

“Eight silver, four copper,” he mumbled as he looked down at the coins jingling inside the purse with a shocked expression.

“Only three gold and two silver to go.”

Asher wasn’t exactly racing to steal purses just yet. In his time he had been underground, he had grown a little bit, no doubt due to the accelerated aging Dolos had told him he would undergo. With his appearance altered to this extent, Asher found himself feeling relaxed and a bit excited. This would be his first true time experiencing the city. Ever since he had come to this world, he had never gotten the opportunity to enjoy himself. There was always something happening to keep him from just doing whatever he wanted to do.

Another thing that nipped at the back of his mind was the things he’d be doing today. Asher had always hated criminals, sure there were some exceptions he conceded, but for the most part he found criminals to be disgusting. In his old life, there had been more than a couple times he had stopped some would be mugger to dish out some vigilante justice. He didn’t think he was a hero or anything, but why let someone else be assaulted when he could stop it? The idea of stealing bothered him, it bothered him a lot, but this was the new world he lived in. He didn’t have any other opportunities as far as he could tell, so he would just roll with the punches.

Asher walked around the city, trying to explore every nook and cranny. He went through the slums that Wallace had once escorted him through and everything was pretty much the same as he remembered. It was a bit difficult not being able to read or write common, but illiteracy must be common enough because a lot of buildings had signs with pictures that pretty much summed up what type of business was conducted there. As he walked, he noticed a familiar sign hanging off of one of the buildings and made his way inside.

Behind the counter of the bar Asher saw the familiar face of Bartholomew, who smiled back at the boy when he noticed him. The other customers in the bar spared a glace in his direction then continued on about their business.

“Still pretty busy I see,” Asher said to the man.

“Eh, it’s business as usual. Test day?” Bartholomew asked the boy.

“Yup, they finally let us loose. What other stuff do they have in store for us”

“I’m not allowed to say, you know that.”

Asher pouted his lip and pulled up a seat at the bar. Some of the customers looked at him again, a child alone in a bar casually talking to its owner was an interesting sight.

“Oh crap, sorry for even talking about it out loud like this,” Asher hushed his voice a little bit “You know. All the secret syndicate business.”

Bartholomew let out a hearty laugh and went to the back for a second before returning with a bottle. He opened up the bottle and began pouring it into the cup he had just finished washing and handed it to Asher.

“Kid, The Syndicate is about as famous as a secret group could be. Anyone in here wouldn’t dare run their mouth, and the rest are a part of it. I’m less active than I used to be, but once you’re in…it’s a lifetime membership.”

Asher took a sip from the cup and was…disappointed.

“Apple juice? Really?”

Bartholomew let out another hearty laugh.

“Sorry kid, it’s the law. I’m not allowed to serve minors.”

“You know, for a criminal, you’re surprisingly considerate of the law.”

“Ehh..you pick and choose your battles. Grow up a little then come talk to me. Anyways kid, you shouldn’t be slacking off. You got work to do.”

Asher finished up the rest of his juice and hopped off the stool. “I’ll see ya later Bartholomew!” He waved back as he was leaving.

“Good luck out there kid!”

Asher made his way back out onto the street and began walking. He felt his stomach rumble, “Damn..I’m hungry. I think I saw a few food stalls back towards the center of the city.”

As soon as Asher left the slums he looked for his first mark. He soon noticed a young man, probably in his early twenties, with some decent looking clothes. The man looked like he had a hard time growing a moustache, and his hair was parted down the middle. The goofy aesthetic this guy chose to live his life by didn’t matter, the silk clothes the man wore indicated that this man was someone with money. The more Asher looked at the man the more he could see that this man was practically begging to be robbed, he had no sense of situational awareness. The slight bulge in the man’s chest gave away the only hint Asher needed to see, a fat little coin purse.

As the distance between the two reduced, Asher ran different simulations through his mind. Should I just bump him? Do I do some sort of act? “Ehh screw it, let’s just have fun with it.” Just as the man was about to walk past him, Asher subtly matched his pace. At the exact moment the man was planting his front foot, Asher kicked his foot back so that they were heel to heel. He pushed the man’s heel with his own causing the man to lose his balance and fall onto Asher.

“What the-!”

“OW!” Asher yelped.

He quickly scrambled to get up and grabbed the man’s arm with one hand and under the guise of needing extra strength to haul the man up, he got in close for a hug. Asher quickly fished out the man’s coin purse. He swapped the coin purse to his other hand and instantly pocketed it while blocking the man’s view with his head. He began grunting in an act to act as if he was truly struggling to help the man up. As the man began to stand on his own, Asher immediately bowed his head.

“I-I-I’m sorry mister. I didn’t mean to be in your way.”

“It’s fine, I just lost my balance. Be careful next time alright?”

“Y-Yes sir! Thank you for being forgiving!” Asher bowed his head even deeper than began jogging away. He zigged and zagged through various streets until he felt he was a comfortable distance away from the scene. He looked inside the coin purse and was surprised with what he saw. The coin purse held a total of twenty three gold coins, thirty silver, and five copper. “Man that was way too easy..” Asher grumbled to himself.

“He did say there were no rules AND he didn’t give us a maximum limit…yeah I’m not going back yet,” Asher thought to himself “I still got the rest of the day and more of the city to explore. He heard his stomach rumble even deeper this time.

“But first, food stall time!”