“That’ll be one silver, little man.”

“Sure, no problem.” Asher dug into his coin purse and took out the coin, setting it on the counter of the food stall. The vendor proceeded to hand him meat skewered on a stick that Asher had watched the woman cook rotisserie style. He had been pondering the different food options, but after watching the woman baste the meat with a type of sauce, the decision was made for him.

He wasn’t disappointed as he took his first bite into the skewer. The meat tasted like chicken, and the sauce that had been caramelized on it gave the meat a very distinct sweetness. He began walking away from the stall scanning the area and people in it. As he finished wolfing down his meal, his targets had already been decided. Asher tossed the skewer into a bin that he had seen others toss their trash into, concluding that it was some type of public trash can. He began making his way towards his next target.

The two brothers, Four and Five had settled into a routine that made the best use of their teamwork. One brother would serve as a distraction while the other would discreetly loot the mark. This took shape in many ways, asking for directions, impromptu performances, even acting like they were playing tag and running into people on ‘accident’. They had managed to get their hands on ten coin purses which totaled up to a whopping eight gold, five silver, and fifteen copper.

As the two brothers finished counting up their coins they both nodded in unison. Deciding that their task was complete, they began making their way to the drainage pipe they had originally come out of.

Seventeen didn’t have any issues throughout the day. Hours had passed since they had been let loose on the city and he had been at work the entire time. He would spend his time identifying marks, taking in the surroundings, coming up with a plan, and executing. The entire process once the mark was determined wasn’t very long, finding a potential mark is what took the longest. You couldn’t just go on a rampage looting everyone in sight. You had to pick someone you felt offered the highest chance of success, steal the goods, then move to a separate part of the city, and lay low until you felt the heat was comfortably off of you.

The boy was confident that no one was on his trail and began sorting out the money he’d managed to get. He had taken the effort of picking people he felt were carrying the most money, without having any type of personal guard. He had figured that the less pockets he had to pick, the better. No one would bat an eye towards him, or be suspicious of him. Out of the hundreds and possibly thousands of people he had seen in Benetia, he only stole thirteen coin purses.

“Nine gold, twelve silver, and twenty-eight copper,” Seventeen said almost in awe, his eyes big at the haul of loot he had.

“This is good enough. I’ll be able to help Four or Five if one of them doesn't manage to scrape together enough money.” Seventeen was happy with today's outcome, never noticing that he was being watched the entire time as he began making his way back to the drain pipe.

Two had been one of the children that ‘failed’ the preliminary test administered by Master Revenant. The beating he received from the assistant he attempted to bump was quick and brutally efficient. Two had always had trouble being subtle, he was the largest kid in their training group, and growing up he preferred to settle things using his size advantage.

His size advantage didn’t matter during training though. He had tried using it to intimidate another kid their first day and found himself face first in the ground before he knew what hit him. He had heard the other kids gasping, aweing, even laughing at him getting beat. That little shit, One, would pay one way or another. They weren’t allowed to fight while they were in the training area, Master Revenant made sure to beat the children who tried ignoring this rule, but they weren’t in the training area today.

He hadn’t seen One at all today, not that he was really looking. He had watched the boy while they trained and decided that the kid was some kind of freak. He could fight, maybe it was a lucky punch, but he didn’t want to test it. He did learn something though, if he couldn’t get his hands on One, then he would just put them on someone he was close to. Two hadn’t managed to get any money at all today and it was getting late. His pockets were empty, he needed to pass, there weren’t any rules, and what better way to get money than by taking it from someone weaker than him?

Seventeen was happily walking towards the safety of The Underpass when he had heard footsteps behind him. He looked back to see the boy Two there, walking towards him. He quickened his pace and so did Two. Seventeen began running and turning down different streets and alleys. He turned down another alley only to find himself in a dead end, with the figure of Two blocking the only exit.

“Looks like all that running didn’t do ya any good huh Seventeen?” The boy smiled.

“What do you want Two? I’m busy here.”

“Sure you are, sure you are,” Two began casually walking towards Seventeen “The money. Give it to me.”

“Get your own,” Seventeen smiled back “Or aren’t you good enough?”

Two promptly punched Seventeen in the stomach causing the smaller boy to double over. The pain in Seventeen’s stomach made him feel like vomiting, but he had no intentions of giving up all his hard work to some asshole. He growled as he stood up and tried to land a punch of his own only to be punched in the face this time.

“Don’t” Two punched the boy again.

“Get” another punch

“Cocky” another punch

“Just because you’re up One’s ass every day.” Two continued to beat the boy into a bloody pulp. Two looked satisfied with his work, Seventeen lay motionless on the ground. He reached down, beginning to turn the boy’s pockets inside out and proceeded to take all of the coin purses Seventeen had managed to snag during the day. Seventeen tried to protest but all that could be heard were muffled groans, spit and blood coming out of his, spattering on the ground. Seventeen’s eyes were close to swelling shut, but he could just barely make out the silhouette of Two.

“Thanks for the money.” Two kicked the boy in the face knocking him out cold. “Good luck on the test Seventeen,” Two said as he began walking to the in his money and complete his test.

Asher had been thoroughly enjoying his time. He spent a lot of time visiting different food stalls, trying different drinks, and generally exploring the city. He made a mental note of the different parts of the city. There were the slums, which were towards the outside of the city, and the center of town which is where a majority of business occurred. In this area of the city was the main market place. In this area you could find plenty of different vendor stalls, also more permanent brick and mortar establishments of various types. This area easily had the most traffic and the greatest diversity of inhabitants and customers.

From what Asher could tell, the city could best be described as a teardrop shape. The bottom of the tear is where the poor lived. The middle and bulk of the tear, is where the average to upper-middle class, as well as businesses resided. Finally the tip of the tear was reserved for the wealthy. Asher hadn't been able to explore this area much because the security around it was noticeably stricter, he would stick out like a sore thumb. He also didn’t have much of a need to explore the lands of the uber wealthy at this moment. Would he get there, yes eventually, but not right now. Why take risks when he can safely enjoy spending his time in eighty percent of the city?

He took mental notes of all the places of interest he had found and in his exploration, he picked pockets. Through some brief experimentation, he learned that he could store anything on his person in his ‘Inventory’. This discovery was a bit of a game changer to Asher, whereas others may have to worry about hiding the loot they were getting, his would just disappear into a type of pocket dimension if he willed it. Learning this, he began picking pockets left and right. His debauchery continued well into the night as he saw new sights and smelled new smells. He even managed to find the building he believed to be the Adventurer’s Guild. His deduction came from the fact that many people equipped with various weapons and armor were seen entering and exiting. The total lack of uniform disqualified it from being a guard station or barracks.

“One of these days, I’ll get in there. Go on some real adventures and see Solaris for what it really is,” he thought to himself.

The nights of Benetia seemed to be just as busy as the day. Magical lamps and torches began to come to life as the sun settled down beneath the horizon. The city was beautiful, Asher had to take a moment to pause and let it all sink in. He really was in another world, a fantasy world where magic was real and adventuring was considered a career path instead of something a vlogger did to get famous.

As Asher stood there taking in the night life, he came back to the reality of the situation. He was in the middle of a test and eventually he’d have to turn in. He imagined midnight was the deadline, he decided he’d be back before then. He opened up his ‘Inventory’ and began to take stock. He only had one bag slot available to him, the other 4 bag slots were greyed out. His single bag slot was no laughing matter though, it was a 5x5 grid. Twenty-five slots to put anything in and identical items stacked. His first five slots were taken up by the loot he’d received from the Black Dragon Citiad, but that still left twenty available slots.

Well it’d be more accurate to say the slots were available, until he went on his massive stealing spree during the day. Curiously, the coin purses didn’t stack, he assumed it was because each one contained a different amount of money. Once Asher finished counting everything, his haul was…monstrous to say the least. In one day he had managed to take twenty coin purses containing a grand total of one hundred and twenty three gold, seventy nine silver, and two hundred copper pieces. In all fairness, he spent more time playing about, exploring, and eating. He could’ve easily stolen more, but there wasn’t any reason to, he knew he had passed.

He made his way to return to the drainage pipe when he heard a strange noise coming from one of the alleyways. Peeking his face into the alley he noticed that the noise had been coming from a heap at the end of it. Upon closer inspection, his face grew a little pale, that heap was Seventeen letting out pained groans. Tears were barely managing to make their way out of his swollen eyes, the boy reached up towards him. Asher quickly grabbed hold of his arm and brought it around his neck, hoisting the boy up and assisting him while they walked.

“Seventeen, what happened to you?”

“T-T-T,” the boy sputtered out, trying to speak.

“What?”

“T-Two” He finally managed to say as he hung his head, his shoulders shuddered as he started sobbing a bit.

“That little bastard. He’ll get what’s coming to him. Come on, let's get you back into the Sanctuary.” Asher said as he tried to quicken their pace.

“I-I-I don’t have any money. He took it all from me.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll cover for you. Let’s just get this test over with and you checked out.”

Asher brought Seventeen back to Bartholomew’s shop so that he could take care of an issue before it became one.

“I need to buy a burlap sack.” Asher said to the big man.

“I think I got some laying from old deliveries of different materials I use to make our in-house ale. It’ll be two copper.” The man said as he scratched his beard.

“Aww crap, I need a bunch of garbage too, papers, anything you don’t need.”

“What for?” The man raised an eyebrow at him.

“For the test,” Asher smiled, “So what’s the new price with the other stuff added in?”

“Well seeing as how the other stuff is trash..that’ll be a total of two copper, for everything.”

“Done.” Asher quickly put the coins on the counter and began leaving with his bag full of garbage on one shoulder and Seventeen on the other. Once he felt like the two of them were in a secluded area, he leaned Seventeen up against a wall, and opened up the sack.

“What’d you get that for any way?” Seventeen said. Asher just looked at him and smiled.

“Well you can never be too cautious,” Asher could swear he saw Seventeen’s eyes get even bigger as he watched Asher drop coin purse after coin purse into the sack and proceed to cover them all with trash. Once he finished he slung the sack over his shoulder and had Seventeen grab the other for support. They finally managed to make their way back to the drainage pipe only to find that one of Master Revenant’s assistants was there waiting for them.

“Come.” The shrouded figure said. To Asher’s surprise the voice sounded younger than he’d imagined it to, perhaps the voice of a boy in his mid teens. He led the two boys back to the training area where Master Revenant as well as roughly half of the children were waiting for them. As One and Seventeen walked, they could hear Two cackling along with the rest of his team when they saw the state that Seventeen was in.

“Looks like he had a rough time out there,” Two Jeered.

Asher shot him a look that carried such wrath and fury behind it, that Two as well as his three stooges shut their mouths.

“Soon.” Asher said as he stared into Two’s eyes. Two felt a chill run down his spine.

As Revenant looked at the boys, he felt such a distinct feeling of killing intent come from One, he thought he’d have to step in to stop the boy from killing Two. While the Syndicate didn’t play favoritism, it was still true that the little bastard known as Two, was the son of one of the higher ranking Syndicate members in the city. If he let the boy simply die under his supervision, there would be hell to pay from the doting father. The father wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle, he just didn’t want to deal with the hassle. Luckily One decided to withdraw his killing intent, as he shambled over before him with the other boy, Seventeen, in tow.

Revenant knew what had happened to Seventeen. The incident was reported to him almost as soon as it happened. This type of thing was very common during recruit training. Frustration would be built up during the weeks that wasn’t allowed to be acted upon. Grudges form, and tend to be brought to fruition during the test days. All of this was part of the training. The Syndicate values people who can be stealthy rogues, sure, but they also want people who can adapt and overcome.

Revenant specifically said he didn’t care how the boys earned the gold for this reason. It left the door open for the children to steal from one another. ‘If you can’t get it from here, get it from there’ is a very simple concept often overlooked by people. The Syndicate wants people who know how to play to their strengths. He looked down at One.

“You took your sweet time One, did you have difficulty completing your task?”

“No Master Revenant. I was just helping Seventeen get back to the Sanctuary, sir.”

“Well you’ve kept us all waiting, go on, let's see what you brought back.”

Asher let Seventeen stand on his own while he opened up his burlap sack. As he pulled out the trash some of the boys began to giggle, Master Revenant stayed there staring, stone faced. Finally Asher dumped out the true contents of his bag, twenty coin purses. He then proceeded to open up all of them and dump them all , creating a decent sized pile of coins. He then handed over four gold coins to Seventeen.

“One hundred and nineteen gold, seventy-nine silver, and one hundred and ninety-eight copper sir.” Asher said as he looked up as Master Revenant. Seventeen put his four gold coins on the ground next to Asher’s pile.

“Four gold coins, Master Revenant.”

“Ha..Ha..Hahaha,” Master Revenant let out a sudden burst of laughter as he looked down at the two boys.

“Pass.”