Asher chatted with Theorn as the two of them made their way across the grounds, thankful for the cover his newest acquaintance provided. They passed a number of guards patrolling the paths as they walked, but each of them simply stepped aside and bowed toward Theorn, not doing so much as sparing Asher more than a passing glance as they walked by. It would seem the simple act of getting inside the grounds in the first place, wearing the appropriate clothing, and having a class as absurd as awakened beast hunter was all the camouflage he needed.

Naturally, it was just as he began to grow complacent that Asher stumbled upon his next obstacle.

In the middle of regaling him with a story about the time Theorn had fallen from his pegasus mid-flight and had to order the beast to dive back under him and catch him before he splattered against the ground, they finally approached one of the side buildings that looked more like a decorated warehouse than anything else. Asher was in the middle of analyzing the building and trying to decide if it might be the one Eight used for cover when Theorn said something that snapped him out of his plotting.

"You have your signet ring, right?" he asked, holding up his hand and showing off a ring containing the crest of the Frent family stamped on the front; a tree with branches stretching out of it in the shape of various weapons. "I'd rather not trip the alarms and have the deal with the guards if I don't have to," he laughed.

"Oh, the ring!" Asher exclaimed, his eyes widening as he began pretending to sift through his pockets. "Apologies! My, uh, family home doesn't have such defenses!"

"I'm not surprised, this is rather new! It's an enchantment array that only became truly feasible and cost effective to run a few years back," Theorn explained, grinning at his frantic search. "There's a field covering each of the different buildings. Too costly to waste on the vast grounds, but that's what the walls and guards are for, I suppose. Anyway, if anyone without a ring attempts to enter the side buildings, the alarm will sound. I hear the main building has an even more dangerous version set up that will simply kill intruders, but my father refuses to admit whether or not that's true."

"Of course, can't have unwanted guests crawling around in there," Asher chuckled, beginning to sweat as he tried to come up with some way out of this. His plan to simply slip past whatever defenses that were in place had been thoroughly dashed, and he needed to come up with a backup, and fast. "Say, hypothetically… If I lost my ring, how simple would it be to get a replacement?"

"Well, Elnor wouldn't be pleased, I can tell you that much," Theorn frowned, dropping the name of the leader of the family and Whikoga as a whole. "The rings are restricted items that lose their magic mere minutes after being taken off as a precaution, and it would require the entire enchantment array to be adjusted to ensure nobody could use the missing ring to enter. Once that was done, you'd probably have to convince her yourself why you deserve a new one, but good luck with that. Don't tell anyone I said so, but she's a bit of a hard-ass, if you know what I mean."

Alright, strike that plan. Desperate for some sort of solution, Asher activated the second tier of Comprehend to buy himself a few more seconds to think, relaxing as the world around him slowed to a crawl and he was separated from his own anxiety.

I could knock Theorn out and steal his ring? But then I'd have to hide his body somehow, and I'd lose my guide. I could theoretically store his body in my Personal Rift if I killed him and took his ring, but Theorn seems like a decent guy for a noble. His aura is practically spotless, I couldn't possibly kill him unless he attacked me first. Damn it, Asher, don't let everyone's efforts go to waste just because you couldn't get your hands on a ring for one second!

Even as his skill ended and time snapped back to normal, Asher blinked as a rather simple solution came to him. The tricky bit would be how to convince Theorn to do what he needed.

"I swear, I have far too many bits and baubles stored away," Asher chuckled, still pretending to sift through his almost entirely empty pockets. "You know, from all my various adventures, and what not. Say, would you mind lending me your ring for just a moment? I have a unique skill I can use that lets me find similar magic items. Rather than waiting around for me to find my ring in all this junk, I could use yours like a dowsing rod. It would only take a moment."

Asher held his breath as he made his shaky request. Not only was it a rather weak gamble, he was taking a huge risk by making a flat-out lie for the first time since he and Theorn had first started talking. If Theorn had any sort of lie-detecting artifact on him, or simply thought Asher was suspicious, all it would take was one shout for the guards-

"That's a rather interesting skill!" Theorn laughed, slipping off his ring and tossing it at him with a wink. "Technically, we're never supposed to remove these, so don't tell anyone."

"…Thanks," Asher said, snatching the ring out of the air and feeling momentarily bad about using Theorn like this. The noble had one of the most carefree and friendly auras he'd ever encountered, and something about using him to sneak into his family compound and potentially murder his own aunt just sat wrong with him.

Granted, it wasn't as though he felt bad enough to stop, but he could still acknowledge the feeling.

[Signet Ring of Identification (restricted)] - Allows the wearer access into the Frent family estate.

Shoving his hand with the ring into his pocket, Asher nimbly slipped it over his finger one-handed and felt the magic of the ring sweep over him. It was a shame what he was about to do, but he couldn't risk dropping the Concealing Shroud skill and revealing his elements to these people.

With a flex of Permanence, Asher let go of the Honest Ears skill he'd borrowed from Bordan's ring and replaced it with the Identification from Theorn's own signet ring. It was unfortunate he could only hold two effects at a time with Permanence, and he was looking forward to seeing his upper limit hopefully increase once the skill had leveled up more.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For now, he'd just have to figure out who Eight truly was without the assistance of the truthseekers' skills.

"There we go," he laughed, slipping the ring off his finger while his hand was still hidden before handing it back to the noble. Raising his other hand, he held his Ring of the Gourmet in a way that only showed the band and hid the blank top from view. "It was on my finger the entire time!"

"I've been there," Theorn grinned, slipping his ring back onto his finger and motioning for Asher to follow him inside. "I once spent the better part of an hour hunting down my pegasus' enchanted horseshoes before realizing I'd already put them onto her and forgotten!"

Despite knowing he was protected, Asher held his breath as he followed Threorn into the building. Part of him still expected to hear the sound of shrill alarms or footsteps rushing their way as he was immediately discovered, and he let out a sigh of relief when all that happened was Theorn closed the door behind them.

"This way, Aunt Leighann's workshop isn't far," Theorn smiled.

Despite being one of the offshoot buildings that few people seemed to use, it was still one of the nicest places Asher had ever been in. The floor was made from smooth, black slate, and the walls were a rich, well maintained wood that somehow looked as though it had been freshly waxed. There were expertly made paintings hanging from the walls depicting what Asher could only assume were notable members of the Frent family standing victorious over different battlefields, and the occasional giant gemstone to keep the rooms and hallways well lit. Theorn must have caught him eyeing up one of the paintings containing a large man hoisting a greataxe high over his head as he faced down what had to be a hundred screaming warriors, as he chuckled and tapped the frame with his knuckle.

"Ah, that was great uncle Plorn at the Battle of the Three Rivers. His combination of elements, Axe, Fury, and Strength, made him a true terror on the battlefield. I heard lots of people used to look down on him before that battle because of his rather ordinary elements, but few ever dared make such claims to his face after he almost single handedly tore his way through an entire army to win the battle. It just goes to show, you should never judge someone by their elements!"

"Good rule to live by," Asher muttered, absentmindedly rubbing his side as he remembered the poisoned knife he'd received to the kidney the day he'd grown overconfident. It was the first and last time he'd ever underestimated someone just because they had a single element, and he hadn't made such a debilitating mistake since.

Theorn led them through the halls, and Asher took in the many unique paintings as they walked. Each one told a powerful story, and he was admittedly tempted to ask questions here and there, but he had a job to do. The longer they spent walking around, the more likely someone would spot them and finally think to ask Theorn who the hell was the stranger he was giving the grand tour to so late at night.

"Fair warning, Aunt Leighann is a bit… odd," Theorn decided on, shooting him a grin over his shoulder. "When she's not cooped up in here working on her concoctions, she spends most of her time dissecting animals and trying to figure out how they work. My father says she's always been that way, and he's tried time and time again to get her to attend more formal gatherings and act like an actual member of the family, but she refuses. Honestly, I'm not sure why Elnor doesn't just order her to do such things, but it seems the head has a soft spot for Aunt Leighann for whatever reason."

Or Eight is blackmailing the head of the family somehow, Asher thought, his hands clenching as he prepared himself to summon his daggers from his Personal Rift and get to work. Or maybe the head and Eight are in all this together, ruling the city from both the daylight and the darkness.

"I'm sure I've met stranger people," Asher reassured him as they turned another corner and continued further into the building.

"I don't know about that…" Theorn admitted, looking a bit uncertain. "Oh, I doubt I have to tell you this, but whatever you do, don't touch any of her projects or materials without asking. She drilled that into our heads growing up, to the point where I can still see her pointing between one of her many vials, and an actual human skull she had for whatever reason. She's rather blunt, if you hadn't picked up on that just yet."

Asher nodded, preparing himself for what was about to happen. If he decided Theorn's aunt truly was Eight, ideally, after killing her, he'd like to get a chance to investigate her workshop a bit. It was a long shot, but Eight had still been one of the Fingers for the Guild for nearly a decade. If anyone had any sort of lead or hint as to who the Head was or how to find them, it would be them. Killing Eight was just to ensure Samantha and Brian's safety.

Taking down the Head and the entire Guild as a whole was an idea so ripe with combat and conflict that Asher could barely contain himself at the very thought.

"Remember, don't touch anything," Theorn reminded him as they finally got to the workshop door. Asher nodded as he glanced at the giant warning sign hastily scribbled on the door in what was clearly black ink, and he readied himself.

"Hi Aunt Leighann! I brought someone with some rare materials you might be interested in," Theorn said, opening the door and leading them inside. "How goes your latest experiments?"

"Terrible! Nothing's going the way I want it to!" An older woman cried out, throwing up her hands in defeat. "Griffin blood has to be the answer, but no matter what I try, I can't get the concentration right! I'm about ready to dunk an entire Griffin into the pot and call it done!"

Theorn's aunt appeared to be in her mid-fifties, with long brown hair that looked like the edges had been singed more than once. She wore a loose white robe over her own clothing that seemed to be this world's version of a lab coat based on the heavy stains covering it, and she had protective gloves on made from overlapping layers of gleaming scales. As soon as they entered her workshop, she turned around and looked at them.

Asher nearly flinched when he saw her face. Leighann's eyes were dark voids of black that filled her entire sockets, and he couldn't help but feel like they were drawing him in and eating away at his secrets the longer she looked at him. Her aura was cluttered and choppy, with chunks of dark energy swirling around her and smacking into one another as though they weren't sure exactly where they should be. Judgement gave him the sense that she looked out for herself above all others and had committed a number of dark deeds over the years, but didn't make a habit of killing.

Judgement - Lvl 8

"Anyway, enough about griffin blood," she said, grinning at the two of them. "Who's your new friend with the rare materials?"

"I'm Asher," he smiled, stepping forward and extending one hand by reflex as he kept the other ready to summon a dagger at any moment. He remembered too late that most people in this world didn't tend to go for handshakes, but her eyes had startled him badly enough to forget for just a moment. "Theorn's told me a lot…"

Asher froze mid-sentence, his own eyes going wide as he looked past Leighann's head and spotted a rack containing half a dozen clear vials, each filled with different materials.

And smack dab in the middle of the rack, was one filled to the brim with a glowing, beautiful-looking blue powder that he would have recognized anywhere.

Magadrine powder.

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