"Asher!" Samantha gasped, flinching back as he popped into existence right beside her in the living room. Based on the hooked needles and yarn in her lap, it looked like the hunter had been in the middle of crocheting a new blanket before he'd startled her.

"I never took you for someone who crochets," he teased, collapsing beside her on the couch. "Always seemed like more of an 'old person' thing."

"It's more of a 'cold person' thing if anything," she said, rolling her eyes and she nudged him with her shoulder. "How did entering the city go? You had me worried for a bit there when you didn't show up for dinner."

"Yeah, sorry about that," he sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. Rosh had demanded that they celebrate and spend some time in the tavern among all the strangers. Asher hadn't been able to keep himself from trying to keep watch of all the unknown faces the entire time, and his brain felt positively fried after a few hours of careful observation. Though that struggle didn't come without reward.

Comprehend - lvl 22

Secret Seeker - lvl 16

There had been a lot of cheating at dice that he'd noticed throughout the night.

"I managed to meet up with Draken and figure out where Rosh was hiding, but when I got to him, he demanded we celebrate," Asher explained, shaking his head. "I was so concerned about an assassin making another attempt on my life that I didn't even drink, and I still think I walked away with a worse hangover than Rosh did."

"Glad to hear he's doing alright at the very least," Samantha smiled. "Anything else exciting I should know about?"

"Well, uh… I did have to kill a few people…"

Asher quickly explained running into Cinder's gang and the events that transpired thereafter, and was relieved when Samantha merely nodded her approval of his actions.

"Even without your Judgement skill showing you all the bad stuff they'd done, those people tried to roast you alive and threatened to stab you, just for walking down the street." Samantha scowled, her knuckles whitening around her crochet needles as though she wanted to ram them herself into the thugs' eyes. "I'm glad you got rid of them."

"You're seriously fine with the fact that I just killed those people?" Asher asked, still surprised to hear how on-board Samantha was with his actions. Killing Trellis or Loratta and her elites had been one thing, but these gang members were less criminal overlords and more low level cogs in the machine.

"Asher, assuming you're telling the truth, you did absolutely nothing wrong and that guy threw a fireball at your face," Samantha said bluntly, looking at him like he was an idiot. "I have no reason to think you would lie about any of that, so of course I'm fine with you defending yourself. The fact that you held your hand and chose not to kill the thief when he tried to run instead of attacking you shows that you're not some ruthless killer out to satiate his thirst for blood."

"Huh…" Asher mumbled, watching Samantha as she went back to crocheting her blanket. There was something about seeing the hunter's dexterous fingers creating something rather than killing something that was enthralling to him. "…I guess part of me is still hung up on the way my old world worked. I mean yeah, I'm pretty certain it was still legal to defend yourself if you were attacked, but you'd still have to submit yourself to the police and have a trial and all that. The fact that I just killed two people and walked away just seems so strange."

"Well, technically, you should have reported what you'd done to the guards," Samantha pointed out, rolling her eyes at his sheepish grin. "…but seeing as it was deep into gang territory, I highly doubt there's going to be any sort of investigation or anything. Not like I have any experience with city gangs, but my parents always warned me to stick to the main path in the event I ever visited one of the cities when I got older."

I definitely doubt there'll be any sort of investigation. Especially seeing as I took their bodies with me.

"I don't suppose your parents ever told you anything about the Assassin's Guild either, did they?" Asher asked hopefully.

"Asher. My parents were ordinary hunters," Samantha snorted, finally putting her half-formed blanket aside and giving him her full attention. "I'm aware of the major guilds like the Slayer Guild, the Courier Guild, and the Crafter's Guild, but this is the first I've ever heard of any sort of Assassin's Guild."

Asher quickly filled Samantha in on his whole conversation with Draken and the job he'd given Kree, watching as she nodded along curiously to the gang leader's explanation. She seemed less surprised by the existence of the Assassin's Guild than its primary purpose.

"I guess that makes sense… Not that I've ever met anyone from a noble house, but even all the way out here on the edge of the kingdom we've heard rumors of the 'undying noble families.' I guess I always just assumed it was more legend than anything." Samantha frowned, her forehead creasing in thought as something occurred to her. "It seems a bit messed up when you think about it, though. The noble families might be able to bring their people back from the dead with their expensive healers, but clearly the assassins don't just target the noble men and women. I mean, the fact that one went after you shows they are quite happy to kill whoever. And when a regular person dies, there's no coming back for them."

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"Maybe I shouldn't stop just at taking down the assassin that tried to kill me," Asher mused, absentmindedly summoning a dagger from his rift and fiddling with it as he thought. "I mean, taking down an entire Assassin's Guild does sound kinda fun…"

Even just saying the words out loud made his heart start racing in anticipation of all the fighting such an act would entail, and Asher barely managed to hide his hungry grin as he realized Samantha was giving him a worried look.

"Not that I'm not confident in your abilities after everything I've seen you do, but taking on an entire guild of assassins on your own? Doesn't that seem like a bit much?"

"It's not like I'd be fighting them all at once," he reassured her, storing his dagger away again before pulling her in close and running his fingers through her hair the way she liked. "I'd be sure to only fight one or two at a time. Up until now I've kinda just been reactively bouncing from one thing to the next. Helping you deal with Trellis… Trying to hide from the truthseekers… Saving Rosh from Loratta… I feel like everything I've done has been because of someone else. Which is fine of course, I'd help you or Rosh again in a heartbeat. But I've yet to really do anything because I wanted to do it."

"And you think single handedly taking on the well-established Guild of Assassins that the High Prince's own truthseekers haven't been able to root out is a good first step?" Samantha asked, tilting her head back and raising an eyebrow as she looked at him. "I'll admit your confidence is attractive, Asher, but only so far as it doesn't get you killed."

"I wouldn't be completely alone," Asher chuckled, his mind already firing away as the thought of taking on the Assassin's Guild quickly went from a half-baked idea to more of an actual plan. "With his Shadow element, Kree should excel at infiltration and gathering information. I doubt there are many skills other than my Spatial Lock that are truly capable of stopping him when he morphs into a living shadow. And I'd bet after I start showing some results, Draken will throw in with my side. He may try to avoid the Guild now, but I think that's just because he doesn't think he's capable of winning that war. Once I have Draken fully on my side…"

As the various pieces fell into place, Asher grew more and more excited at the realization that his plan might actually work. Sure, talk was big, and he hadn't even gotten started yet, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was something he could actually do. Not only would it satisfy his ever-growing hunger to fight powerful, intelligent opponents, it would no doubt earn him the shards he needed to evolve his quickly growing skills, and it would benefit the people of Whikoga as a whole. The nobility might get annoyed that he was breaking one of their toys, but he really didn't care what they thought.

"You're serious about all this, aren't you?" Samantha asked, watching him carefully as he slowly put his plan together. "Please tell me you're not about to try and take down the entire Assassin's Guild just because there was a chance Brian or I might have opened that parcel by mistake. I'm not sure how I'd live with myself if I knew you were starting a shadow war within the kingdom just because of us."

"That's definitely part of it, but no, I'm doing this because I want to," he reassured her, leaning down to give her a quick kiss before wrapping her up in a big hug. "And don't worry about me, you know better than anyone just how hard it is to put me down."

"Don't worry, it's not you I'm worried about," Samantha giggled, returning the kiss before nestling further into his arms. "…Though I'll admit I am a little concerned we might receive another surprise like that parcel. What if they send a person next time after they realize you're still alive?"

"I don't know," Asher sighed, a bit of the wind leaving his sails as he remembered it wasn't just his own life he was putting at risk with this plan. Sure, he had Eternal Regeneration and Complete Resilience backing him up, but Samantha and Brian didn't have anything quite so fancy. While Samantha now had a healing skill at the very least, that wouldn't do her any good if she got a dagger to the back while she was distracted. "I'll see if I can't figure out some way to offer you guys more protection. Maybe there's an artifact or something Draken can help me get my hands on. But honestly, the solution might just be to dip into the forest and hide out for a while when things start getting really rough. I doubt anyone will be able to catch you in there."

"Damn right they won't. If they did, I think I'd have to turn in my Forest element," Samantha grinned. "I'll keep the enchanted bow you gave me within arms reach from now on as well. Knowing I can fire an arrow through a small tree when needed certainly helps me feel a bit safer."

"I love it when you talk about blowing up trees," Asher teased, feeling Samantha shiver as he whispered in her ear. As much as he'd love spending some more intimate time with her while Brian was out, his blood was already pumping at the thought of taking down the entire Assassin's Guild one assassin at a time, and he needed to get up and move.

"Any chance I could convince you to shoot some arrows at me? To help me practice triggering Comprehend's new tier two ability a bit?" he asked, already thinking about what skills he needed to get more practice with if he was really going to do this. "I have a feeling the skill's new function is going to be the difference between life and death, but I need to get used to triggering it reflexively when I get hit with a surprise attack. If I have to consciously do so, it will probably be too late."

"I'll admit, that is far from what I thought you were going to ask me," Samantha giggled, getting to her feet and snagging her bow and quiver from beside the front door. "But so long as we're doing skill practice, I'd like to get in on this too. Do you mind running around and letting me try to hit you with bursts of water? Like I said, I think I can turn Fountain into an actual attack if I focus hard enough, but I haven't really had the time to try just yet."

"Don't worry, I haven't really practiced mine either," he laughed, taking her hand and leading her out to the area Brian usually spent practicing his archery.

"In fact, there's a good chance we might inadvertently end up seeing just how Eternal Regeneration's second tier ability works as well!"

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