“Where is Asher? He should’ve been back by now.” Aldren said with slight anxiety in his voice as he paced back and forth. Revenant and Felix stood there in his office looking like two children being scolded by their father, well in Felix’s case he technically was. Felix didn’t know what to say, he’d never seen his dad’s temperament change this drastically before.

“I don’t know, dad-”

“Guild Master, when we’re in the Sanctuary discussing Syndicate business, you WILL refer to me by my title.” Aldren instantly cut the teenager off in the middle of his excuse.

“G - Guild Master.I’ve been watching him from a distance, and he seems to have settled into a schedule each day, so I decided to take a little break from watching him. I was gonna head back out soon.”

“It’s as you say Master,” Revenant butted in “I believed the boy would have made his move by now and returned.”

“I approved this ridiculous request for his test because I was under the impression that YOU,” Aldren pointed at Revenant who had his head down “ Would be supervising him.”

Aldren dialed everything back and began to compose himself. He let out a deep breath and began thinking. He pinched the bridge of his nose before looking up at the two in front of him.

“Where is Master Evans? He made the request for this assignment to be given specifically to Asher, were you two able to locate him?”

“No sir, he’s not in The Sanctuary and he wasn’t at home.” Revenant said calmly.

“I told you this Revenant, I told you months ago that if anything were to impede that boy other than his own abilities, then it would be your failure.” Aldren said as he stared into Revenant’s eyes.

“Yes sir, I understand sir.” Revenant said with his head still bowed down.

“I thought me and Evans had come to an agreement on this issue, I was wrong..” Venom coated Aldren’s voice. The anger and disappointment could be felt in his words. He glanced between Revenant and Felix.

“Both of you, find them, and bring them to me.”

“Yes sir!” Revenant and Felix replied in unison before immediately exiting the office.

The duo began sprinting through The Underpass and planning out how they’d go about scouring the city to efficiently accomplish their task.

“If you run into Master Evans, don’t hesitate to run away and come get me for help if he refuses to return with you willingly.” Revenant said to Felix.

“How come, I’m pretty sure I can handle most people in a fight. I don’t think I ever see Master Evans really ever doing anything as far as Syndicate business. He can’t be that much of an issue.”

“Our branch employs ten Eyes, enforcers who take on the most difficult jobs and carry out disciplinary actions on other Syndicate members who violate the code. They’re the only ones with authority from the guild master that can legally put their hands on fellow Syndicate members.”

The duo was using ‘Quick-Step’ mixed in-between their running throughout the many twists and turns in The Underpass. They didn’t have the stamina to spam the skill, and they needed stamina in reserve should a fight take place. Time was of the essence though.

Skill: Skip-Step

Use stamina to quickly cover distances in a single step. The amount of stamina used is affected by the distance traveled. Skip-Step is limited to eyesight. Can NOT phase through solid objects using this skill.

“The Eyes are given ranks based on their combat ability and efficiency. 10 being the ‘worst’ of the enforcers.” Revenant said as Felix glanced towards him. “Master Evans is ranked 1.”

Hearing that Felix began to increase his speed and admonishing himself for slacking off on his job to watch the kid. “Damn it, dad is gonna be so pissed at me.” He thought to himself.

The two had finally made it towards the entrance of The Underpass that the recruits were familiar with when they saw a surprising sight. The small body of Asher was walking towards them bleeding from different places. The boy gave a cheeky smile and a thumbs up before falling face first into Revenant’s arms.

“Hello, boy.” The man said.

“Do I know you?” Asher said pretty confused about the whole situation.

“No, but you know my son, and it seems like you’ve been giving him a hard time.”

“Yeah, I don’t know any kids. Sorry.”

“Oh so you haven’t beat the shit out of any kids recently?”

Asher’s mind flashed back to when he’d first gotten into a fight on his first day as a recruit. The other boy had started it even after Asher had tried to warn him. He remembered the boy saying something about how he’d regret doing this because of who his father was. Everything clicked.

Asher let out a little laugh, “Oh, so you’re that little asshole’s dad.”

The man gritted his teeth in anger, while Asher continued to push him.

“Well sorry that you have a kid like that, but I kinda get it since he has daddy come to solve all his problems.”

“Enough!” The man yelled out, killing intent permeating the air.

“Look, I don't have time for this.” Asher said as he used ‘Quick-Step’ to quickly cover ground and get closer to The Underpass’ entrance. He was caught by surprise when the big man appeared right next to him and sent a punch right into his jaw, sending his little body flying into a wall.

“Now that we know where we stand,” the man pulled out a dagger. “Let’s get to business.”

Asher rubbed his jaw for a second, his face throbbing a bit from the pain. Asher pulled his dagger out as well, the two of them staring one another down.

“Guess this can’t be avoided huh?” Asher said.

“No, no it can’t.” the man replied

“All this for one little fight?”

“Isn’t it a parent’s duty to protect his children?”

“Yeah, but not kill a kid over a small fight! Maybe rough me up a little or something sure, but this is kind of crazy.”

“That was the plan until you went and pissed me off kid, sucks to be you.”

The two quickly disappeared, lunging at each other. The sound of their daggers bouncing off one another ringing out.

*Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

Neither person was making much progress in their attempts to hurt the other. Asher was surprised that he could hold off the man’s attacks. His strength stat seemed to actually mean something, seeing as how there wasn’t much of a difference from Asher’s perspective in their ability to overpower the other. The full-grown man with a very muscular build, had roughly the same amount of strength as a small, although muscular, ten year old boy. Asher was reminded how absolutely ridiculous his stat rolls were when he had made his character sheet back on Earth.

The man seemed to be taking him rather lightly, because as their fight progressed, Asher was starting to notice openings with his ‘Cheap Shot’ skill.

Skill: Cheap Shot

You notice the chinks in your enemy’s armor. Use stamina to recognize and deliver a debilitating blow to enemy weak points. Damage while using this skill is increased.

Asher swung his dagger at one of the man’s weak points and managed to slash his assailant’s arm. Blood began dripping out of the cut. “Too shallow..” Asher mumbled to himself.

“You’re pretty good kid,” the man said. “It’s a shame you went and pissed me off. Probably could’ve been someone of value to The Syndicate.”

“You’re pretty good at talking for someone that’s losing to some scrawny kid. You remind me a lot of your son, or should I say he takes after you?”

“RAHH!” The man screamed out before disappearing and launching a vicious series of attacks. Asher couldn’t block and parry all of them, the man was simply better at using his dagger than Asher was. What he could do was let some hits in that he knew wouldn’t be debilitating, or redirect the force of the man’s attacks slightly so that they would only turn into superficial injuries.

*Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

The two of them looked like blurs, and their fight continued up and down the alleyway. The close proximity of the buildings helped Asher move from all angles as he would use ‘Quick-Step’ to jump from wall to wall and deliver attacks from every direction. The two of them had more than a few cuts. Blood noticeably beginning to stain their clothes. Although the fight felt like a stalemate that would continue to slog on, something felt…wrong.

Each time the two of them exchanged blows, when their daggers hit each other, Asher couldn’t help but get this ominous feeling. This ominous feeling came to a head when the two of their daggers met once again and he heard the man say “Sunder”.

Skill: Sunder

You can use a melee attack with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon to strike a weapon or shield that your opponent is holding. This skill allows the skill user to break weapons, shields, or armor by reducing the item's durability. Large gaps in strength or size will allow the skill user to sunder an object faster.

Asher’s dagger shattered and the man finally landed a real attack. The pain he felt was immense as he could feel the massive gash that the man had sent across his chest. Blood began coating his torso and Asher’s previously white shirt now looked burgundy. Asher used ‘Quick-Step’ to get some distance.

Skill: Skip-Step

Use stamina to quickly cover distances in a single step. The amount of stamina used is affected by the distance traveled. Skip-Step is limited to eyesight. Can NOT phase through solid objects using this skill.

“Well, looks like this is the end, kid.” The man said as he began tossing his dagger in the air.

“You sure there isn’t some way we can talk this out?” Asher said, trying to lower the man’s guard. He knew this man had no intention of stopping with just a few cuts. The guy was crazy, and seemed to enjoy killing. The killing intent radiating from him told Asher that much.

“Nah. Not after what I’ve seen you can do today. Can’t risk leaving you to get older. Are you just gonna forget about today, act like this never happened?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a pretty forgiving person.” Asher lied while he worked out the next few moves in his mind.

“Doubt that, besides, The Syndicate doesn’t like loose ends.” The man lunged forward with his dagger ready to deal the final blow. Ashed dodged slightly out of the way, earning himself a small cut on his cheek, but buying himself the biggest chance he would get in this fight. In Asher’s empty hand a sinister looking dagger appeared, resembling the shape of a dragon’s jagged tooth, Citiad’s Legacy.

Citiad’s Legacy: This dagger - formed from the fang of Citiad, the Black Dragon, has the chance to afflict a powerfully acidic venom. Since the venom itself is a very strong acid, wounds can be expected to corrode for a short duration after impact. The owner of this dagger becomes immune to acidic damage. (Growth Item)

Asher drove his dagger into the man’s chest, sticking it into the man’s heart. Citiad’s Legacy went to work, pumping the man full of its potent venom. The man slumped forward coughing out blood and wheezing for air. The veins began to bulge on the man’s head as he felt the venom painfully go to work. The veins in the man’s chest turned into a black spiderweb that began slowly creeping throughout the man’s body. His heart began dissolving from the acid. He grabbed Asher and looked him in the eyes as he let out a final gasp, black ichor dripping from his mouth. Asher looked at the man and kind of pitied him, that looked like an excruciatingly horrible way to die. As he looked at the scene where the fight took place, he could see traces of blood splatter everywhere. It was finally over. The fight was brutal, fast, exciting, and Asher came out on top. He saw the man’s body laying there motionless, seemed like the perfect chance to test out his inventory’s abilities.

Revenant and Felix rushed the boy through the maze of tunnel systems, ultimately returning back to the Guild Master’s office. Aldren looked at the boy who was sleeping in Revenant’s arms, covered in cuts and blood. He made note of the gash across the boy’s chest which was still bleeding. He went to his desk and opened up one of the drawers pulling out a bottle filled with bright red liquid. He poured the contents in the boy’s mouth who reflexively swallowed it.

After a few moments, the various cuts began healing themselves, leaving only slight scars. The wound on his chest began sealing itself, ultimately leaving a scar that ran from the top of his left collarbone where it met his shoulder, down his pec, and stopped just near his solar plexus.

“Was that a lesser healing potion?” Felix asked his father.

“No, it was a full blown healing potion.”

“Why? Those are pretty expensive, his wounds weren’t fatal.” Felix asked, genuinely confused.

“Because I need him awake soon, I want to hear what happened. Also, Revenant, go summon the rest of the Eyes as well as the other masters in my name.”

“Yes sir.” Revenant replied and disappeared through the open office door.

After a few hours, Asher’s eyes began to flutter open. The pain that was rattling his body had faded, nothing seemed to hurt too bad. As he looked down inspecting his body, the first thing he noticed was that he was shirtless. The second thing he noticed was that all of the damage he had taken in the fight with Two’s father had disappeared. He ran his fingers along the scar that was now on his chest. As he was finishing up his inspection, he looked around the room and noticed he was surrounded by people in an unfamiliar room.

From the group of people, he recognized Aldren, Felix, and Revenant. Even Wallace the butler was amongst the crowd, standing next to Aldren.

“Wait, what’s Felix doing here?” Asher said confused as he looked towards Aldren.

“He’s a part of the Syndicate as well. Trained him up myself,” Aldren replied “But that’s besides the point. Tell us what happened to you.”

“Well, I got attacked by some man, pretty sure he was Two’s dad from the way he was talking.” Asher began scratching his chin and standing up to face everyone. His little muscular body was covered in scratches and scars.

“Has anyone been able to locate Evans?” Aldren said out loud.

“No sir, but we have people spread all through the city trying to find him.” Someone in the crowd replied back.

“That isn’t necessary, you’re not going to find him.” Asher said to Aldren.

Everyone looked at the boy curiously as he spoke with their Guild Master. Curiosity in their eyes as they tried to understand the implications of what the boy was saying.

“We can’t let this go unpunished,” Aldren began saying “He had no right, or reason to do-”

Aldren stopped speaking. Asher had opened up his inventory and summoned up the body of the man who had attacked him. Laying on the ground in front of everyone was the body of Master Evans. His face had the look of pain frozen on it, while his eyes showed complete and total fear. Black lines ran throughout the man’s body that seemed to originate from the center of the man’s chest where a hole now was.

The room was silent as everyone looked at the corpse on the ground, then the murmurs and whispers began as people started frantically speaking to each other. Felix and Revenant exchanged surprised looks, while Wallace and Aldren seemed to have an approving smile.

“Did you do this?” Aldren asked.

“Well, no one else helped me right?” Asher replied and the crowd was silent again.

Asher began to feel a familiar sensation. He had felt it when he fought the dragon, though much more overwhelmingly. He also felt the same sensation after killing Dominick but to a lesser extent than he was feeling now. Suddenly, the corpse on the ground began to disintegrate, turning into a cloud of black particles. The cloud circled around Asher like a swarm of gnats before ultimately being absorbed by him, leaving only an empty spot on the ground.

Experience. It felt like he had just earned experience points in a video game from his old world or something, that was the only way to explain this slight sensation of ‘growth’ he felt. Aldren looked at the group of people that stared at the boy in pure disbelief. “Ahh shit,” he thought to himself.

“Prepare for the induction of a new Eye amongst us. Get the materials ready for the ceremony.”

“Yes sir.” Asher heard from a person in the crowd that had begun to scramble out of the room.

Aldren walked up to Asher and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. With a big smile he looked at him and the rest of the people surrounding them.

“What you have done is nothing short of incredible. You should feel proud of yourself.”

“Well all I did was defend myself, the guy was a psycho.” Asher replied.

He wasn’t wrong, Master Evans had earned his rank as number 1 amongst the Eyes for good reason. The man was brutally efficient, loved his job, and borderline sadistic at times. No one ever questioned his capability when it came to executing orders, in fact most of The Syndicate’s assassination and subjugation orders would get sent to him. The man was borderline psychotic, but no one ever said anything out of fear. They didn’t want to risk provoking the man and starting up a fight, especially since he was an Eye, he could just conjure up some kind of reason to pick a fight with them.

“Oh before I forget,” Asher said. He opened up his inventory and summoned up Dominick’s hand and presented it to Aldren.

“Job complete.”