This is chapter 2 of Searful. I tried to make a cool action scene in this, don't know how good it was. Any criticism will be welcomed, for it will help me improve.

Edited

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Upon entering, Sear found hundreds of eyes looking upon him. Many were just casually glancing at him while others had taken their daggers out to try and intimidate him. The two men who ushered him in began walking forward, cleaving a path through the group. He slowly began to follow behind until they eventually stood in front of what looked to be a stage.

At the front, there was a man Sear expected to be the Guild Master. He was wearing a gold and blue overcoat and had finely-made, dark leather clothing. On his hip was a dagger with a gem encrusted hilt, most likely passed down from Master to Master.

“You are not quite what I expected young boy. I expected you to make more of an impression but you seem to be another poor peasant who managed to steal some gold rings. I doubt you will be of much use to us here. Do you have anything that can change my mind?” The man talked with such audacity and authority Sear almost threw up. But he knew that the man was most likely more powerful than anybody else here.

"How about this, I will fight against one of your men. If I will, I'll join. If I lose, you can have everything I own, which isn't much to be honest."

“Oh really, then this should be interesting. Greb here will be your opponent.” He reached under his cloak and threw two wooden daggers at the ground. Sear looked around and saw most of the men laughing and saying that he would be massacred in a matter of seconds. When he saw the man that was picking up the knife, he knew it would be a good fight.

The same burly man that was at the entrance was the man chosen to fight him. Grabbing the dagger, Sear crouched down and prepared to begin.

The leader began to count down until the fight began. “Three, two, one, BEGIN!”

The moment he said begin, Greb charged forward with speed that left Sear stunned. In less than a second, the man had traversed nearly 15 meters, cutting their distance by half. Sensing that he heavily underestimated this man, he changed his dagger to an underhand hold and also charged forward.

In a matter of seconds, the two had come together and shared hundreds of strikes. Not one hit its target. They kept this up for nearly a minute, perfectly blocking each other and countering, before they both backed off.

The men watching were left speechless as the two charged forwards once more. Sear could feel his stamina begin to dwindle, so he switched tactics. Instead of winning with stamina, he would win with precise and deadly strikes.

He charged back at Greb, but right before he swung with his dagger, he swooped low and tried to kick his feet out from under him. Instead, Greb jumped over Sear and prepared to land upon Sear. Sear rolled over, then lifted his leg upward so that his heel connected with the man’s chin.

He got back up and took a defensive pose, hoping to buy a few seconds to catch his breath back. His blow had caused Greb to stumble, but he had not fallen like he wished he would have.

Once Sear regained his breath, he charged forward sending a flurry of attacks at him. Once again they went into a mad fight with each person perfectly countering the other. Sear went high, he went low, he even tried to go for the man’s groin, but they were too evenly matched. After a few more strikes, the two collided daggers with such force that they broke into a mess of splinters.

Instead of stopping, they both switched to fist fighting. Sear attempted to uppercut Greb, but he managed to move back and delivered a solid kick to Sear’s chest. The blow sent him flying towards the wall. He crashed into the wall and dented it, leaving the shape of his body imprinted on it. He managed to get back up and once again took his stance, getting ready to continue.

Hoping to use his small size to counter Greb's strength, he moved forward.

The two circled around each other for an eternity before Greb moved forward and landed a hook to Sear’s face. Sear was knocked to the ground and when he tried to stand, he realized his legs were too wobbly. Greb took his opportunity to kick him in the stomach. Sear took the hit and moved over to the wall, gripping it so that he wouldn’t fall.

When he looked at the ground he managed to glimpse the light gleam of a dagger near him. Not wanting to attract to much attention, he slowly began to inch his way toward it. Once close enough, he bent down to pick it up. Upon seeing that, Greb took his own dagger out and ran at Sear. The two collided once again. The crowd watched in astonishment as the two danced their own Dance of Death.

All that could be heard was the clang of steel meeting steel, the screech of their blades scraping past each other, the sound of their footsteps on the hard stone floor. They both managed to land their own share of hits, causing minor bleeding that would stop within a few minutes.

By the time they once again pulled apart, Sear was bleeding for more spots than he could count. He decided to finish the fight, and charged straight at Greb’s heart. Greb did the same and charged at Sear’s heart, each hoping to kill the other first. They were merely inches away from each other, the blades about to pierce skin and slide through ending a life…

“ENOUGH!” Surprised at the sudden scream, they both lost their grips on the daggers and collided into each other. When he looked up, he saw the leader looking at both of them. “Don’t try to kill each other for god’s sake! Do you know how hard it would be to take bodies out of this sewer without being spotted? You two, come with me, the rest of you can continue what you were doing.” He picked up both of the knives and began to walk.

As he was walking, he began to talk. “I will admit, you surprised me. You were perfectly matched with Greb, and he is one of the best men in this guild. Well, before we do anything else, I guess I should introduce myself, my name is Limbo, better known as The Serpent of The Deep. What is your name?”

“My name is Sear. And no, I wasn’t perfectly matched with Greb, he heavily beat me. While he only has a few minor scratches and bruising, I have many deep cuts and tomorrow I will most likely have trouble moving because of all the pain.”

“Hmmm, Sear, quite the strange name. Well, welcome to the Thieves Guild. I have a few questions for you before you can truely join, but for now I will send you and Greb to the healers and then he will escort you to my office. Go on now.” He turned past a corner and continued to walk. I realized that instead of the stone and wood area we were in before, these hallways seemed to be made of a much darker stone, maybe basalt.

There were metal hinges connected to the wall that were holding torches, and there were guards patrolling every 50 or so feet. Sear realized that the guild was much more than he had expected. “This will be very fun,” he thought to himself.

“So Sear, you gave me more of a beating than I was expecting. I won’t be underestimating you from now on, that’s for sure.” Greb didn’t look back as he continued to walk and talk.

“I could say the same for you. I didn’t think you would be that much of a challenge. I guess I still have much more to learn. But I wish he didn’t stop us, I would have loved to see how it would have gone on.” Once again Sear took on his look of bloodlust. He almost lost control of himself and began to attack Greb once more because of it.

The two continued to walk on before entering into a large room. “Well here we are. These guys know healing magic so it will just be a while. The showers are to the left. Once they heal you go clean yourself. You smell like a cow pie. I’ll leave clothing for you.” Without saying anything, one of the people Sear presumed was the healer mage came up to him and began to put his hand over all of his cuts.

He could feel the magic flowing through him and healing him. He hated the feeling of any magic other than his own flowing through him, but he endured it for now. After being healed, he went into the showers and got a good look at himself. His long black hair was patted down by brown mud and his face looked as if someone poured ink onto it. The only thing that looked the same was his blue eyes. He was amazed at how much depth they held, as if he had all the wisdom in the world.

He laughed at that thought and cleansed himself from all this dirt and grime that had built up from a week of travel. Once he was done, he went back to the mirror to see if he had any marks left on him. Sear looked at his body, he was of average height and had a slim yet muscular build. He looked like a good thief. He found the clothes that Greb had left for him and looked at it. He had black pants made of some kind of thin leather. They tightened around the ankles and the waist so that nothing could get into them. He got a grey undershirt that had an emblem of a skull over a burning log. His main shirt was made from a tougher hide, yet still left him with perfect mobility. He looked at the shoes he was given, they were nothing special. Normal black shoes with an extra thick sole to absorb his weight and muffle his footsteps. His gloves were cut at the finger, and had a hardened palm, used for grabbing the blade of a weapon. He grabbed the brown cloak and draped it over his shoulder, set to go talk to Limbo.

He walked out of the shower looking like a completely different person. For once in his life, he felt proud of himself, proud for accomplishing something he had wanted to accomplish for a long time.

Now that he looked like himself again, he walked out to the room and greeted Greb. “I could hardly tell it was you, you aren’t caked with dirt anymore. Well follow me, now it’s your turn to meet Limbo.” Sear was once again following someone in this maze that they called a guild home. A few minutes of going god knows where, Greb walked up to a door ornate with gold and silver carvings and knocked on it.

“Limbo, the kid is here.” The door opened and Sear was shoved inside. He turned around to see Greb close the door and walk away.

"Well, you look like a brand new person now that you are clean. Now then, let’s get to talking about everything you need to know. Firstly, this isn’t just a thieving guild. We also get assassination requests from time to time that we accomplish, for a price of course. Our base has tailors, foragers, blacksmiths, locksmiths, healers, chemists, and mages.”

“The tailors can repair and create new clothing for you. You can pay with all the money you get. The foragers are the people who teach you how to survive in the wild without food. They will teach you to travel by yourself without needing to bring any provisions.”

“The blacksmiths create new weapons for you. The locksmiths create locks and safes for you to bring down to vault in case you want to store something. Luckily for you, you won’t be needing that, I’ll explain later. The healers can heal you, as you just saw. The chemists create poisons and other things that may be useful, such as liquids that create smokescreens. And the mages sell you scrolls or for a higher price they can teach you magic.”

“Now, if you want to sell anything you get, just go to the furthermost right door in the main room. In there will be black market traders who appraise and buy anything you steal. Now on to the guild ranks. There are 5 in total. From highest to lowest is Pawn, John, Commendern, Majicor, and Chief. I am the sole chief.”

"Before I go on, I have a few questions for you. If i disagree with any of your answers, or feel as if they might get in the way, I'll kill you." he asked a few simple questions about Sear's parents and life before he went back to speaking.

“You will be given the rank of Commendern, which you should be happy about. It takes most men about 4 or 5 years to get there and you start out there. Now about what I was talking about your safes and locks. As soon as you become a Commendern, you are immediately given your own store room. Yours is 5 by 5 meters and has a few crates and shelfs in it for you to store things.”

“A Majicor has a 10x10 room to store things in, and mine is a 50x50 room which I almost never use. Quite ironic isn’t it. If you want to know where your store room is, ask someone where the safes are and you will find out.”

“Greb over there is a Majicor. If you want to become one, you have to steal a certain amount of value or get trusted enough within this guild. Here are 2000 pots. Go buy yourself some weapons and poisons at the front. Have a good time, and steal a lot of things. Here is a map of the base by the way.”

With that, Sear left the “office” and began to walk towards the blacksmith. On the way there, he passed many of the other stores, and slowly built a map in his mind of the base. After a while of walking, he finally found the front room. He decided to go to the vendors and sell the rings he got.

When he walked in, he was surprised to find a large room with about 20 different counters. Each counter had a different appraiser for different items behind it. He located the ring appraiser and came up to him. “Excuse me, I would like to sell these 4 rings.” He handed the rings over.

The appraiser was an older man with a monocle on his left eye. “Well let’s see here, 4 gold rings 2 of which have gems. The two gem less rings have a combined value of 550 pots. The gold ring with the blue gem is worth 400 alone. The ring with the red gem is quite special actually. It’s magically enchanted to give you more stamina. Are you sure you want to sell it?”

"Stamina huh, I'll keep the stamina ring and sell the other two." He took the ring and put it on his middle finger. The vendor handed him 950 pots and now he was up to a total of 3100 pots. He walked over to the blacksmith and began to inspect the weapons. The best he could buy was a plain iron dagger that came with a whetstone.

He gave up the 3000 pots and left with a new dagger and a whetstone. Back at the main room, he sat down and began to sharpen it. He realized that many of the people in there were looking at him. Seems that the story of his fight had spread quickly. After sharpening the blade, he pocketed the whetstone and left the base. This would be his first time stealing in a major city, and he was ready.