It had been a week since the Thieves Guild made themselves known, and the town was ablaze with gossip and rumors about them. Aurus decided that keeping that information a secret was probably not a good idea. The more people knew about them, the harder it would be to do anything in secret, as thieves usually did. Unfortunately, this also meant that they would get very popular. For some forsaken reason, people are unusually fascinated by villain groups, especially one that opposed the largest guild in the kingdom so boldly. So despite halting their activities temporarily, Aurus had inadvertently made them famous. However, this didn’t make him regret his decision. He already knew this would happen, but it was the price to pay to get some time to think.

He had already came up with a plan, part of one at least. The first thing he needed was more information, and a lot of it. He talked to the captain of the guard to share whatever they might know, and in turn, the city guard would provide assistance. Aurus also made an open quest to the public, offering reward money for any kind of information they could provide. Of course, that meant the whole office would have to go through piles of false information and leads and try to find something real, but in the end a little bit of truth was better than nothing at all.

Once Aurus had enough information he could go ahead and start planning how to take them down. It would take some time, and they would probably continue their activities in the meantime, but stopping a criminal group that had established itself in the middle of the city was hard. Specifically because just going after them directly could result in a fight and civilian casualties were the last thing Aurus wanted to happen. He needed to be careful, and work with the city guard as best he could to arrest the thieves with the least amount of confrontation possible. However, looking at the latest information report, it seemed like this might take a while.

“My cousin knows a guy who says there are thieves living in his basement! I think you should do something about that.”

The report also had the name and address of the person who gave the information. Aurus would have loved to believe the note, but unfortunately, whoever said this didn’t seem to provide any evidence other than “P.S. I heard this from my brother so you gotta believe me.”

If only they brought something other than “trust me” as evidence. My job would be so much easier.

He was going to look over more reports when Nia walked into his office.

“There’s someone here who wants to speak to you directly about the Thieves Guild.”

“Tell him it’s someone really special!” A familiar voice echoed from behind her.

Aurus sighed, as he knew very well the identity of the person behind Nia.

“Thank you Nia. Come in Andrew.”

The lazy, homeless-by-choice adventurer walked in looking as dirty and unkempt as ever, and sat down on a chair facing Aurus’ desk.

“What miracle brings you here?” Aurus asked.

“The only miracle that I really care about. Money.” He answered with a smile.

“Hmmpff.” At least he’s honest. “And how do you plan on making money this time?”

“With information of course! It’s the easiest way to make money other than peddling on the street.”

“What kind of information can you offer that you needed to speak with me directly?”

“The kind that is the most important, a real lead on the Thieves Guild.”

Aurus furrowed his brows a bit, “You seem really confident about it.” He crossed his arms, “Humor me.”

“So here’s the thing. I don’t usually peddle near the poorer parts of town for reasons you might be able to guess on your own. But this day there seemed to be a lot of people carrying around spare change so as I begged I eventually found myself near downtown. Now I’m not one to complain, but there was this one guy who was just obnoxious. He was making up sob stories and tearing up trying to make people give him more money, but the stories contradicted each other, and I know I beg for money but I have a little more respect towards myself than…”

“Andrew, get to the point.” Aurus interrupted the ranting.

“Oh sorry. That guy just gets on my nerves. So as I was getting away from him, I run into some random person. It was more like he ran into me, I was really annoyed. I mean, who doesn’t look where they are going in a town like ours. You either go where you need to or…”

“Andrew!”

“…Sorry. Either way, as I was walking away from the second guy, I heard him talking about something to do with poisons and the such. Since I know that they stole a bunch of those from you guys, I thought I would trail him a bit and try to overhear some more stuff. Long story short, I got you an address.” Andrew said handing him a scrunched up piece of paper. “Heard the guy saying it was a meeting place or something.”

Aurus looked over the note. If he remembered correctly this was the address of a small warehouse near the north side of the city, where downtown was located.

“This… is actually really useful. Thanks Andrew.” Aurus said in genuine surprise. “I’ll get some adventurers to investigate it as soon as possible.”

“Awesome. So about that reward money.” Andrew said expectantly.

“Go talk to Nia. She’ll arrange something.” He said while grabbing some empty files to prepare the quest immediately.

“Great. By the way, I spent the last money I had on the tavern before I came in. I really wanted to save the money from the incredibly useful information I gave, so would you happen to have a spare gold coin or…”

“Get a life Andrew!” Aurus said loudly, still focused on writing up the quest.

“Understood boss!” Andrew said, leaving the office in a hurry.

I am tempted to go investigate on my own. The last thing I want is to have to clean up another mess. Aurus thought, already writing the quest forms. I won’t risk it, something seems off about this.

“Hey boss? Andrew is telling me that you agreed to give him a reward?” Nia asked, walking into the office.

“Yes. He actually gave some useful information.”

“Oh. I’ll arrange for a reward then. What was the information by the way?”

“The location for a possible meeting place of the Thieves Guild, an abandoned warehouse near downtown.”

“Hmmm. Sounds promising. Hopefully this whole thing will be over soon.”

“Hopefully.” Aurus said, finishing the preliminary quest form. “Nia. I’m going to the garrison to discuss this with the captain of the guard, make sure no one goes into my office.”

“Yes sir.”

“No one also means you. I would like to keep my windows intact this time.”

“Yes sir…” She blushed in embarrassment.

Grabbing whatever essential documents he needed, Aurus headed out towards the garrison. It was already past noon, and the clouds were beginning to show hints of yellow as the sun made its way slowly towards the horizon. The town had been extremely active the last few days. Business seemed to be booming, more and more adventurers began their journeys, and there were even talks that soon the kingdoms borders would be expanding. Aurus knew that this particular subject would be brought to attention during the yearly meeting at the Royal Bank, which was drawing nearer with each passing day.

Ignoring the fact that there’s a criminal group in the city, expanding the borders of the kingdom might not be a bad idea. It would take quite a few resources and time to establish a proper well defended town further into the wilderness, so I don’t think it will be happening this year.

Thinking of the wilderness, Aurus wondered when he would ever have some time away from work. He couldn’t remember the last time he had set off to gather materials and activators for his experiments, or just travelled anywhere for the sake of enjoying the sights. He didn’t mind the city. In reality, he had come to like it in his own way, but something made him wish he could have just a little time off, and by something he meant his job. He sometimes just hated his job. There were few days where he could just relax, there was always some last minute credit report to turn in, or property claim someone at the office forgot to include in the tax form. And when the issues weren’t paperwork, it was adventurers, or townsfolk, or the mayor, or any number of people. Aurus was just tired, and in desperate need of a vacation.

“Hey there GM!”

Aurus turned to the eager looking Ren who had walked up beside him, “GM?”

“Yeah, it’s Guild Master. GM. Get it?” He said excitedly.

“Oh alright.” Aurus said continuing to walk.

Ren seemed to have gotten better equipment since Aurus last saw him a few days ago. In fact, his whole team seemed to have improved weapons and improved armor as well.

They must have completed quite a few quests in a week.

For whatever reason Ren was now walking beside Aurus, with his party just trailing behind him.

“Look what I just got.” The young man showed him a silver badge. “I’m an official silver level adventurer now.”

“Congratulations.”

“Did you know that no other adventurer ever reached silver as fast as I did?”

“Yes I did know. I’m the ‘GM’ after all.” Aurus’ expression remained unchanged.

“Oh right… so I heard that there was a Thieves Guild lurking around. I was thinking, since I reached silver so fast, that I might help with taking them down.”

Aurus paused before speaking, “Maybe once we have enough information. Right now the last thing we want is a fight with them.”

“Why is that?”

“Because fights are dangerous. Especially fights in the middle of the city. We could have a lot of property damage and even civilian casualties if we aren’t careful.”

“That makes sense… but we have to do something about them, otherwise they might keep stealing stuff.”

“We are doing something, gathering information. Once we have enough I might consider letting you help with the arrests, but right now we need experienced adventurers who know how to investigate and gather specific details about the situation.”

“More experienced than a silver adventurer?”

“More experienced than gold adventurers.” Aurus said glaring at Ren.

“There’s a level above gold?”

“Two levels. Platinum and Emblem.”

“Emblem?”

“You know there is an Info Desk at the guild right? I’m pretty sure I’ve told you this before.” I’m not even going to bother asking why he’s following me.

“Yeah, but you’re just so filled with wisdom and knowledge and…” Ren said, trying his best to flatter the annoyed GM.

“I’m not teaching you magic Ren.”

“Aww c’mon! I have potential! Just look at how quickly I got this badge.” He showed him the badge once more.

Aurus turned to look at his party, wordlessly asking for confirmation of what he had just said.

“He did reach silver faster than we did.” Denna the paladin said.

“And he did kill most of the trolls in our last mission too.” The fighter added.

“But he was the fastest to run away when the large troll showed up.” The mage interjected.

“Shut it Almer!” Ren pounced on his party member.

The rest of the group began laughing at the scene, except for Aurus who remained stone-faced.

“Ren, just stop bothering the guild master. He’s really busy.” The priestess in his party chimed from the back once the laughing had ceased.

“Alright…” Ren said dejectedly before turning quickly to Aurus. “But at least tell me what the Emblem tier is!”

“Fine, so as long as you never ask me to teach you magic ever again.”

“Deal!”

The rest of his party drew closer before Aurus began his explanation. He looked at them confused before speaking.

“Shouldn’t you all know what Emblem tier is?” He asked the rest of the party.

“We’ve only heard superficially about it but never bothered to look into detail, but since we’re focusing on ranking up now, we are very interested in knowing what the highest rank is like.” Denna said as the rest of the party nodded in agreement.

Of course they never bothered to look into it.

“Once an adventurer completes a certain number of large scale quests or performs enough feats as a platinum rank they become eligible to acquire the Emblem rank. A special council at the capital then evaluates you and if you are found worthy, you rank up. The Emblem rank rewards the adventurer with a title, usually designated by their primary class, like Swordmaster or Archmage. Once you have reached Emblem rank, you can do all quests available in the guild, and you can even be called in to do special quests given by the king himself.”

“Isn’t it a problem when a lot of people have the same title?” Ren asked.

“It would be if enough people reached the Emblem rank, but as of now there are no repeating titles yet. The closest we have to a repeating title are two adventurers who earned the titles Swordmaster and Spearmaster.”

“How many Emblem ranks are there!?” Almer asked, eyes wide.

“Around 23 last time I checked.”

“That’s so few. No wonder I’ve never see one at the guild.” The priestess remarked.

“They usually work with extremely difficult tasks. Some are on diplomatic missions with the neighboring kingdom, some are in the Far Wilderness exploring, and others are at the capital performing tasks. The guild still keeps track of them, but once an adventurer becomes an Emblem they rarely return to town.”

“What about you Gherson? Were you an Emblem ranked adventurer before you became guild master?” Ren asked.

“No.”

“Wait. Why not? You’re the guild master!”

“You don’t need to be an Emblem to be guild master.”

“That’s weird… What rank were you then?”

“Platinum. Now is there anything else about the Emblem rank that you might want to ask? Because I am not answering anymore questions in the future. You’ll have to go to the Information Desk.”

“No. I think that’s it. Right?” Ren turned to his party members who all nodded in agreement.

“Great! C’mon guys! That cave isn’t going to explore itself!” Almer said excitedly as the party began to go on their way.

As Aurus walked away from the silver ranked party, he wished never to have to answer questions like that ever again. Especially considering that these kind of questions were the main reason he made the Info Desk existed in the first place. Before he became guild master it was only known as the Quest Board, but as the number of adventurers grew, so did the number of doubts about various different things. Which is the reason he revamped the old Quest Board and turned it into the Info Desk. Now he just wished people would use it more instead of taking away his own time.

Fortunately, the whole situation passed by fast enough since he reached the garrison fairly quickly from where he was interrupted. The building itself was directly attached to the wall since it allowed the soldiers to be quickly deployed in case of an attack. It was large compared to the buildings surrounding it since it was also the official barracks of the city and had to house most of the soldiers on duty. This meant that the garrison was the most defended place in Anderess, a perfect place to discuss strategy with the captain.

Captain Eranor Marlowe was also one of the few people in the city who took their job seriously. If he wasn’t so eager to arrest anyone who so much as sneezed in his direction, him and Aurus would get along perfectly. Preventing him from flooding the downtown area with soldiers when he was first told of the Thieves Guild had been taxing, but at least he came to agree that they needed to know more before rushing in.

“Gherson! Anything good? Tell me we have a lead!” The rough looking captain answered.

He was in his office, standing near a table with the map of the city. Years of self-imposed training in the wilderness made the captain one of the strongest in the barracks. His disposition also helped him land his job with ease, that and the fact he came from a line of soldiers who fought valiantly during the war 50 years prior. Oddly enough, even during the time of peace, he and his whole family seemed to be preparing for another war, not that there would be another one anytime soon.

“We have a lead. Sort of.”

“What do you mean sort of?”

“It’s just an address. An abandoned warehouse.” Aurus said, handing the captain the paper with the address. “From what my adventurer heard, it’s a meeting place.”

“I’ll send over a battalion right away!” Marlowe said excitedly.

“Don’t.” Aurus replied calmly. “I’ll send over a few adventurers to investigate.”

“You think a few measly adventurers can arrest an entire guild of lawbreakers?!”

“Not arrest, investigate.”

“Why would we need to investigate? We have to…”

“I think it’s a trap, which is why I’m sending them to investigate only.”

“What makes you think that?” The captain lowered his tone.

“A few things have been off these past few days. First the letter they ‘gave’ to me, thanking me for the poison.”

“What’s off about that?”

“Thieves work in shadows. Revealing their activities so abruptly is odd, to say the least.”

“They gained quite a lot of popularity with that letter. Besides, they’re stupid thieves who thought they could pick a fight with your guild. What’s new?”

“What’s new is what they did after the letter. Nothing. All suspicious criminal activity ceased in the week since we were made aware of their existence.”

“Well, we did double the guards roaming the city, so they wouldn’t try anything.”

“Yes you did. But if they were stupid, or trying to increase their popularity, like you said, wouldn’t it make more sense to continue to steal things right when we are focused on finding them? And let’s just say that they aren’t that idiotic and realized they bit off more than they could chew. Why would they discuss a meeting place so openly on the street? Even novice thieves know that you don’t talk about these things during the middle of the day. Either they have severe discipline issues or…”

“They’re planning something.” Marlowe said in a low voice as he caught on to the point Aurus was trying to make. “But it could just be discipline issues, I know my soldiers need a kick to the face every once in a while. Don’t you have discipline issues in your guild?”

“I do…” Aurus tried to suppress the years of mishaps caused by adventurers, “But if it was discipline issues, they wouldn’t be organized well enough to steal poison from the guild shop during broad daylight. My point is their lack of activity makes me think that they are planning something. The warehouse might be a trap, but it might also be a dead end, either way it’s a distraction. Sending a lot of soldiers there would just be diverting them from other places they could be standing guard over.”

“Playing directly into the thieves hands. Those sly bastards!” Marlowe slammed his fist on the table.

Aurus ignored the sudden display of anger as he continued to talk, “Our best bet right now is to keep a watchful eye on the entire town. It should make whatever they are trying to do or steal much harder. For now, I’ll send the adventurers to investigate the warehouse, worst case scenario it’s a trap and they’ll have to deal with that.”

“I’ll post a battalion of soldiers nearby...”

Aurus gazed at him with a piercing look.

“I’ll post just a couple of soldiers nearby in case they need help.”

“Good. If it turns out it’s a dead end we’ll just have to keep looking for more leads.”

“Understood. I’ll make the rest of these weak pansies I call soldiers understand that they need to watch the entire city. Good work Gherson!”

“You too.” Aurus said with not even a fraction of the enthusiasm of the captain.

Walking outside the garrison, he saw that the sky had turned a light shade of orange. The day was almost over. Aurus was thankful for the lead, even if it didn’t go anywhere it still helped him realize that the thieves were planning something. Now what that could be was anyone’s guess. Aurus wasn’t one to trust his instincts but his gut told him that they were planning something big, and for once he almost agreed with it. All that was left was to find out what it was and stop it before it could happen. Aurus’ thinking was interrupted, as the next thing he knew was that he was on the ground. A sharp pain on the back of his head cut off any train of thought he had up until a moment ago. As he tried to get up, he spotted what seemed like a boot making its way to his face before everything went dark.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Aurus awoke with his head still throbbing from the pain, listening to two people argue. Initially he couldn’t make out what they were saying, but as he regained consciousness everything started to become clearer. He was tied to a chair, with his hands bound to his back, and in front of him, a few meters ahead there were two men arguing about something. Well, one seemed to be arguing and the other seemed to be listening. They both looked unkempt, but the one shouting at the other was a bit taller and had a regal looking coat on, and the other was shorter but looked stronger.

“Could you be anymore stupid!?” The taller man screamed

“I thought you would like this…” The shorter one said in a low voice.

“WHY!? Why would I like what you’ve done?! You kidnapped the one person we were supposed to stay away from!!!”

“But maybe he knows something about our score.”

“Yeah, maybe! But now he knows what we look like! That and EVERYONE in this stupid city is going to be looking for him! Which means they’ll be looking for us!”

“Oh yeah…”

“And that will make our jobs even harder! We wanted them to keep their attention on downtown, but now they’ll be looking through the whole city!”

“Sorry…”

“Ugh…. Leave. I need some time to think.”

The shorter of the two men left the room while the other sat on a table facing Aurus. Despite that he didn’t seem to realize that Aurus was already awake.

“Yeah… Yeah! This could actually work!” His face twisted as a grin made its way across his mouth.

A bit of the lingering pain from his head made Aurus grimace. The tall man noticed this and realized that he wasn’t alone anymore.

“Oh didn’t notice you were awake there. Did you sleep well?” The grin was still on his face.

Whatever anger he had previously was now gone and his face shone brightly as he realized the true potential of having the guild master as a hostage. Aurus remained silently staring, as the tall man moved closer. Despite the poor lighting, he could see the man’s face clearly, though it wasn’t anyone he knew.

“Ah where are my manners! Aurus Gherson, welcome to the Thieves Guild!”