-

The sixteen man gang that Alric started out with had now grown to a thirty man army thanks to new recruitment.

Alric started giving out a steady fortnightly wage to his underlings as opposed to merely paying whenever a job was done. This bolstered the already existing members and encouraged new ones to join.

All the members of the newly named Shadow Wolf gang had gathered inside the warehouse.

It was only thirty men but they gleaned with hope and vigor as they saw the man with the shadowy aura take to the upper floor to look down and speak with them.

They had assumed that since they had gotten a few new members then obviously the boss had to promote some of the older members to higher ranks to assimilate the new members better into the fixed rank structure that he had established.

After Alric appeared a bright light glowed behind him and fourteen more people appeared.

“Each of these are the new leaders and senior leaders.

They are all on par with at least a beginner-level mage or a pawn Ranked Paladin.”

The crowd burst into an uproar, how could a small-time gang like themselves have not one but multiple pawn ranked paladins?

A few of the Shadow Wolf gang members were skeptical until someone shouted.

“Hey that’s one of the scrawny guys we rescued from Ironside prison!”

Eventually the gathering of men realized the marks on each of their faces, they all had the dragon’s claw burnt into their faces. Each of the Leaders visible were criminals broken free from Ironside.

Alric continued to speak to break the noise that had accumulated from his pause,

“Yes, they were all half dead skeletons from Ironside prison when we rescued them, but now they are warriors thanks to dedicated training.

If any of you have the guts to go through the training that they went through and think you deserve their rank, then step forward. ”

Alric raised two fingers and spoke, “Two months, you can reach their levels in only two months if you are willing to train like hell.

If any of you think you deserve this then step forward.”

The first person to step forward was Waller.

Waller had helped with breaking into Ironside. A job that when he took he thought was an impossible Task. But now after seeing how the boss had time after time made the impossible possible, he had no reserves in stepping forward.

He yearned to get stronger, he had a sick daughter at home who needed a father that could survive anything to continue to take care of her. He needed any and all advantages he could get.

So far Waller had done well for himself, he had already been promoted to a Junior Leader and now was no longer at the bottom of the food chain but he felt he could do much more.

The others saw Waller, who was a Junior Leader, step forward and the Juniors below him also stepped forward. They had known Waller for a while and knew his decisions always turned out the best for him, he had an uncanny sixth sense when it came to picking the right jobs.

Alric ended up getting a total of seventeen men to return to the space to train.

-

[Wallers POV]

When we arrived at the training space instantly I regretted my decision.

I was already doubtful, how could I leave my daughter alone for two months?

If it wasn’t for the boss who came to me personally and handed me an advance so I could pay a maid to take care of her I would never have come.

My mother never grew a quitter. Sure I wasn’t the most moral person but I was never a quitter. I promised my daughter I would get stronger and make more money to pay for her to be healed and that is what I will definitely do.

But this intense pressure attacked us the moment we arrived. I could hardly keep my eyes open. I looked around to see the other guys fairing equally as terrible.

Then a man appeared before us, he was a young man with a medium build, about twenty one years old with deep black hair and thick facial hair, behind him stood six other men all with arms folded as they scoffed at us.

“I am the Commander of Training, Klause, and for the next two months, or so.”

The other six men behind the commander both chuckled slightly when the commander said two months.

“Look they can’t even walk yet”

One said to the other and the laughter got even louder.

“ahem!”

The Commander cleared his throat.

“As I was saying, your training is my responsibility, you will be broken and then rebuilt into fighting, thinking and soldier like machines.”

He looked down at them pitifully as they lay sprawled on the floor barely able to keep their heads looking up.

“Your first mission is to make it that cabin over there,”

The Commander said as he pointed to a house that seemed to be a thousand meters away.

“You may take as long as you wish. Just bear in mind that all the food and water is there and supper will be in three hours, so if you reach after that I doubt much will be left.”

The commander and the men chuckled together as they walked casually off towards the direction of the cabin while we had to crawl and drag our bodies towards it moving slower than a snail.

-

Meanwhile Alric returned to the warehouse a few days later and gathered his commanders.

“Report.”

Alric said with his usual voice, causing the adjutant to grab up a few papers and start his report.

“The magic formations that you asked us to put all around the base are about fifty percent complete.

Apart from some runes which require rarer materials which are taking us a little longer, Sir.”

The adjutant hurriedly reported.

“Continue putting up what you can and get me a list of all the needed materials or ingredients that are needed.”

“Next report, Commander Kirk.” Kirk was a short fellow with un-noticeable facial features, apart from his black hair with a slight brown hue that was catched up into a ponytail he would look like the average person you’d walked past.

Kirk was one of the two original officers he had set to oversee the gang when he had taken over.

Alric gave him responsibility mainly over spying on the noble families he had suspected to be involved with his family as well as gathering information within the city.

“There has been some movements within the city council, however my men do not have enough clearance to find out exactly what is happening.”

Alric looked at Kirk as he closed his eyes and reported, he thought for a moment then asked,

“Who is the current head of the city council?”

Kirk paused for a moment, then answered

“I believe it should be Grenji Winchester, but as I said we can’t get close to him.”

Alric’s face contorted into a sly grin as he heard the name.

“That is okay, I will deal with this matter.”

Alric waved his hand and continued.

“First Commander Gideon, report.”

“According to my guys on the streets, there has been a rise in the activities of the other gangs trying to fight each other for territory. I feel this may get the attention of the city guards.”

Alric once again had to think deeply about the broader picture of what could happen if the city guards found out about his gang at such a tender stage.

“We cannot allow them to put us on the map yet. We are not strong enough to take on the city guards, Gideon, Commander Merrik and myself will plan a coordinated assault on all the nearby gangs and remove the problem.

We will need you to provide manpower support.”

“Yes sir.”

“And finally what about those ingredients I asked you to collect, Han?” Alric looked at his adjutant once more, he jumped from his glare and searched for another scroll.

“S-Sir, we have gotten the corpse of a dryad, the claws of a werewolf and the magic formation here on a scroll but as for the blood of an Adlet, we are yet to find anyone selling it.

But we have received information of one living in the forest nearby but they are at least servant ranked creatures so there isn’t much our men could do against it.

maybe you could provide us with more funding to hire a group of hunters, sir.”

Han’s voice grew lower and lower the more he spoke, sensing the darkness energy seeping from the boss.

It had already been a little over a month since Alric had taken over the gang and he had spent over five hundred gold coins to pay and equip the gang. Plus he had to provide the animals and grains for those who were living in the training space.

Even though all this was within his calculations it was still heart wrenching to see the gold coins slipping from his fingers.

Currently the gang was not doing much to make money and had been ordered to stop all illegal activities so he had been paying them out of his own pocket.

Eventually if this continued he would have to sell his own precious items to maintain the gang.

Alric had already planned to give his gang a few more months before he set them out on any dangerous missions to start earning money.

However, after much research this was something he needed so he would have to weave his incubation period for his gang.

Irritated, Alric replied,

“This is more immediately needed. We will postpone the coordinated assault on the surrounding gangs.

Instead, Commander Merrik and Second Division Commander Freya will assist me in obtaining the blood, you have three days to prepare for the coordinated assault.

You are all dismissed.”

It was deep into the middle of the night inside Alrics room when the door to his training space opened and he stepped out and landed flat on the bed throwing off his mask.

leading a double life as a gang leader and a daylight life as a student had taken its toll on him.