After a quick apology to Rosh for scaring the living hell out of him yet again, and a promise that he would try and figure out if there was a way of warning his marks before he suddenly appeared next to them, Asher took off into the night. Before he went to run his plan by Draken and Crush, he had a mark to check on.

Unfortunately, his hope of finding another one of the Guild's secret bases by heading toward the mark that had once been on Leonard's body was quickly dashed. Asher didn't know if someone from the guild had tossed him in there, or if an ordinary citizen had found him on the street and done it, but his mark was currently leading him to what was clearly a building specializing in cremation. A quick look around with Astral Dip and the silence offered to him by the assassin class confirmed it. The building didn't appear to be anything special.

Despite the fact that there was no real downside to leaving his marks out as he could erase them at any point when he needed to place another, there was something that felt inherently wrong about his mark simply existing in space without it actually being tied to anything. Asher wasn't a fan of the sensation one bit, and as soon as he confirmed that the crematorium was unrelated to the Guild, he recalled his mark.

Yet just as he was about to head off in search of Crush, Asher paused, remembering an entirely different errand he'd been meaning to do for some time now. Taking advantage of the fact he was within a crematorium and entrusting his borrowed Awareness skill to alert him in the event he was spotted, he held his breath as he brought out the three different corpses that he'd been keeping in his Personal Rift.

The assassin with the ice powers, Frostcut, was in pretty good condition. But as for the two members of Cinder's gang he'd killed before picking up Kree…

Asher now knew at the very least, his rift did not halt decomposition.

After a quick visual sweep of the decaying bodies, entrusting Secret Seeker and Identify to notify him if either of them were carrying anything remotely valuable, he quickly tossed the corpses into the incinerator. He was curious just how they managed to reach such high temperatures so effortlessly without electricity, but a quick peek into the incinerator with Identify revealed that it itself was an artifact imbued with, unsurprisingly, the Incineration skill.

The Fire element has all sorts of uses, he thought, moving over to give Frostcut a more thorough search. While he hadn't expected anything useful from Cinder's goons, he'd be shocked if one of the senior assassins from the Guild wasn't carrying at least one or two things worth his while.

Sure enough, he spotted the shining ring on her finger within seconds, and found two small knives sewn into her clothing, which granted him another pleasant surprise.

Secret Seeker - Lvl 18

Almost there, he grinned, holding up the two knives and peering at them. As far as he could tell they were simple, mildly rusty iron knives, almost similar to scalpels. At first, he wasn't sure why someone capable of summoning massive ice blades would feel the need to carry around such poorly maintained instruments on them. But then he recalled the sensation he got when he looked at her aura, and he shuddered at the thought of exactly what the two knives must have been used for. Returning them to her body, he instead turned his focus toward the ring.

[Ring of the Gourmet] - Allows the wearer the use of the Taste Tester skill (tier 1).

…What? Why on Earth would she have something like this?

Curious, Asher tried slipping the ring over his finger. The sensation of the metal band first growing slightly to slip over his knuckle, before shrinking a hair and securing itself to his finger was rather strange. But not nearly as strange as the skill it offered.

Taste Tester (tier 1) - Receive advance warning of any contaminants in food and drink you handle.

The moment he saw the actual skill, it clicked.

Leonard had somehow managed to get his hands on a vial of magadrine powder and demanded to know how I'd managed to survive it. And now this woman had an entire artifact dedicated solely to warning her if she was about to ingest poison. I think it's safe to say the Whikoga branch of the Assassin's Guild might not be quite as harmonious as I might have once thought.

While the new skill wouldn't do anything for him if he was handed another suspicious parcel addressed to him, it was nice to know that he wasn't at risk of getting poisoned at the tavern or anything like that going forward.

One unexpected thing Asher did realize was that he could almost feel some sort of invisible weight tied to the ring when he put it on. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but it almost made him feel bloated, in a way he'd never felt before. The closest comparison he could think of was the sensation he got when he evolved one of his skills, where what he assumed was his very soul felt as though it was simultaneously being squeezed down and stretched open simultaneously. Except rather than feeling both at the same time, he just felt like his soul was stretched a bit.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Making a mental note to try and figure out what the hell that was all about when he had a second, Asher tossed the assassin's corpse into the incinerator and slipped away. He had to make it to Crush before the Guild made their next move, and he'd wasted enough time as it was.

Luckily, it seemed he needn't have worried. When he finally arrived at Draken's manor and was ushered inside by Thunder, he found Crush sitting unharmed in the entrance hall.

"Reaper," Crush nodded, the large man looking almost comical sitting quietly in one of the fancy chairs that were clearly designed for noblemen about half his size.

"Crush! I'm glad to see you're alright," Asher smiled, being entirely sincere. He hadn't had too many interactions with the elite just yet, but he'd spoken with him enough times by now to understand that the man had a good heart.

His Judgement skill confirmed his intuition, as a solid, stable wall of iron seemed to shift around the man. It gave the distinct impression of safety and security that would have been provided by an actual wall of iron, while also feeling like it could tip over and crush anything threatening that got too close. Crush had clearly killed before, his skill made that much obvious. But at the same time, Asher could tell that he took no pleasure in the act, and even tried to avoid it as much as possible.

He was functionally a big ol' softy. One willing to kill to protect Draken and his family.

"Draken told me about what you found," Crush said, nodding his thanks. "I appreciate letting him know so quickly."

"You helped me get Rosh out of Loratta's compound, it was the least I could do," Asher said. "Do you guys have a plan in place yet to deal with the Guild?"

"For now, the plan is for me to stay close. The Guild wouldn't dare attack the manor, so I'm safe as long as I stay here," Crush shrugged. "Though I hate to inconvenience Draken like this."

"You have your own place? I guess I kind of just assumed you lived here already."

"No, I have my own place," Crush said, shaking his head. "Hopefully my neighbor is willing to feed my fish while I'm here."

"...You have pet fish?"

Before Crush could respond, Draken appeared at the end of the hall. The gang leader looked entirely unsurprised to see Asher standing in his lobby, and Draken nodded at him as he approached.

"I see the Guild hasn't managed to put you down just yet," Draken said, a hint of a smile playing across his face. "Either they're losing their touch, or you're even more dangerous than I originally gave you credit for."

"Maybe a bit of both," Asher grinned. "What's the plan, here? Are you just having Crush camp out in your lobby for the next few weeks?"

"I tried to get him to relax in one of the rooms, but he insists that he guard the front door at the very least," Draken said, frowning at that large man. "I could list the number of people willing to go against one of my orders on a single hand, and Crush is one of only two of my own members on that list."

"Sorry boss," Crush shrugged, at least having the understanding to look a bit embarrassed as he scratched his head. "I can't just sit still knowing an assassin might attack your manor coming for me."

"They would never dare make the attempt. I would sense them the moment they decided to try and kill you, and they'd drop dead before they could carry out their plan," Draken stated matter-of-factly.

Rather than let them delve back into what sounded like a rather fresh argument, Asher cleared his throat to get their attention. "I may have an alternative solution. One that I imagine Crush would be a fan of, at the very least."

"Which means I wouldn't be," Draken said bluntly, his frown deepening.

"Perhaps… I suppose that depends on how willing you are to take a risk," Asher admitted.

"Boss, let's at least hear him out," Crush said uncharacteristically quickly, shocking Asher by interrupting Draken as he opened his mouth to no doubt shoot down the plan before even hearing it. "I don't like sitting around like this doing nothing."

"Fine. I suppose I can indulge you at the very least," Draken sighed. "Let's head into my office."

The three of them retreated to Draken's office, where Asher once more activated Spatial Lock to prevent sound from escaping the room. Despite Draken's confidence in his manor's defenses, it never hurt to take extra precautions.

"Eight won't retract the hit on Crush just because Leonard is dead," he said, getting a nod of agreement from Draken. "They'll send another senior assassin after him, and probably sooner than later. I want to be there to capture them and use them to figure out where Eight is holed up."

"You want to use Crush as bait," Draken summarized, drumming his fingers along his desk. "And do tell, Asher, what happens if you slip up and the assassin sent to kill Crush is successful? Have you considered that possibility?"

"I don't know… Can't you just resurrect him, or something?" Asher asked, earning a sharp look from Draken that seemed to convey a whole host of feelings.

"While I would spend whatever it took to bring back any of the people I've lost, even if I had the shards required to pay for such services, I long since gave up my connections required for something like that," Draken explained, seeing the confused look on Asher's face. "...You don't actually know how difficult it is to resurrect someone, do you?"

"I read in the library that certain elements have skills capable of such when evolved to the third tier," Asher shrugged. "I don't know much more besides that."

"It's far more complicated than that," Draken sighed, leaning back in his chair. Without saying so much as a word, Crush walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured Draken a drink, his wide frame blocking exactly which of the countless bottles he'd selected. Accepting it with a small smile, Draken took a sip of the rich brown liquid as Crush took his seat once more. "I got the sense last we spoke that there were some strange gaps in your knowledge. There are many things the common folk don't know, things you wouldn't even be able to find in the library, completely by design. But you appeared to be a step beyond even that. I won't pry into your background, out of respect for the fact that you haven't tried to pry into mine. But tell me, Asher…"

Draken paused, carefully placing his glass onto his desk as he steepled his fingers together and gave Asher an inquisitive look. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, as though he wasn't sure if he truly wanted to go down this rabbit hole. But after a few seconds of silence, during which Draken's gaze flicked to Crush, he came to his decision. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, staring deep into Asher's eyes as if trying to add the weight of the world to his next question.

"...what do you know of the four stages of elemental advancement?"

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