^^ Lesser Empyrean Wayland ^^

— Arcata, Muradin's Tower, Anitra —

The five Rogues followed me like ducklings downstairs into the Market, then into one of the covered tents, where a set of simple stone stairs was revealed a wave of my hand. "These are illusory; this is the only time you will ever see them from this direction, as they will be hidden from now on. Simply walk down into them, and all will be well." I reapplied the hallucinatory terrain, then stepped down into the illusion calmly, leading the way into the Undermarket, where the Thieves would make their headquarters. "I intend for you all to use this place as a drop-off point, of sorts, where my new Dark Merchants would buy things off of the Thieves Guild's Members, and then sell those items to the Dungeon Merchants, who will sell them out into the world via the many portals that will soon spread outwards from Arcata like a plague. Any questions?"

One of them, the pale woman with the braids, raised a hand slowly. "Yes? What is our job, then?"

"I'm glad you asked!!! Your jobs will be mostly to be Liaison to the Thieves' Guild, bringing requests to them and receiving requests in return. You will be acting more as Managers than as Thieves, which may impact your Leveling, so I'll be providing a Tier Five Dungeon soon for your leveling needs. Your pay will be monthly, five gold a piece, but individual requests will often have payments, 80% of which you may keep as personal money, paying only 20% to the Guild as Tithe. You will also gather information alongside Aric when schedules allows, and deliver reports of anything you find to your Guild Master; they will deliver to my assistant anything they find useful to me."

"Okay... I was under the impression you wanted one of us to be the Guild Master?"

"And I do, I just don't know which of you is best suited for the job, and if someone else comes along who's more suited, I don't want to have already filled the position. For now you are all Senior Acquisitions Managers, and your jobs will be to deal with the Thieves guild and keep my newly acquired Merchants honest, to ensure they are following the rules. If they aren't, that is reported to the Vice-Guild Master, who will make a decision based upon the situation. More questions?"

The pale girl lowered her arm slowly, then looked at the others. "Alright... that seems easy enough. So all the Fences and Dark Merchants from the Thieves' Guild need to come here?"

"With the alternative being, stay away and be priced out of business as their profits dry up? I'd say yes? Now, what are your names, by the way?" I glanced between them curiously, as Aron stepped away and his mother and Aric followed.

Once we were alone, they all began to lower their masks, revealing their faces briefly before covering back up after saying their names. The Pale Woman had no mask to remove, but introduced herself as 'Zaya, The Death Knight', the small African woman introduced herself as 'Derrin, the Vine Creeper', and the two men at the back, apparently twins, called themselves the 'Tamri Twins', leaving only the fifth, a short man with blonde hair, who introduced himself as 'Mirin Attal, Baron of Arcata, Mastermind Rogue'.

"Ah, and there we have our first tentative candidate for Guild Master! Mastermind Rogue is a Planning-based class, yes? Relatively Int-focused?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Perfect! You don't have to tell me all your Stats or Skills or anything, but do you have a Truth Seeking Skill or something similar?"

"I do."

"Great! I'll have you working directly with me and my assistant to plan out any conquests of the Cities I'm pushing my way into; if you feel overwhelmed, that's fine, just let Aric know and we'll get it handled, no muss no fuss! Now, for all of you, to join the Guild officially, you need to sign a Geas Contract, do you know what that is?"

The Mastermind frowned slowly, but nodded, and the others shook their heads, so I sat us down in one of the alcoves for a longer conversation.

"Okay, well, it's a magic contract, breaking it brings about a 90% Debuff to all stats and XP Gains, alongside an Infamy Title, Oathbreaker. The terms are relatively simple, though, easy to follow; you just have to promise you'll do your job and you won't bring harm the guild, and that you won't sell out information about the Guild to outsiders in the event of your capture or something like that. It also gives you a buff, while it's active, to your Health and Mana Regeneration Rates, if you have them. The Merchants will sign these as well, or I will toss them into the dungeon to be eaten; it's nonnegotiable for them. For you it's a choice: you can choose to walk away, no harm done, no hard feelings, and I can sign a Geas myself stating that I won't harm you so long as you leave the city, if you'd like assurance of your safety."

Zaya, the pale one, hummed softly before replying. "So it's not a slavery contract? We can leave any time we want?"

"There is a clause for leaving, yes, which involves a Spell to remove all your knowledge of the Guild, and then severance pay in the form of a platinum piece, if you've been with us for more than ten years, or just fifty gold, if it's been less than that. If you are banished, however, you get nothing in severance, and you lose all memories and get sent to a random city to go it on your own, Or, if your reason for banishment is bad enough, you might find yourself in the Shadow Realm or in a Dungeon. Just laying all the cards on the table, I hope it never happens, but that's the truth of it."

She grinned, shrugging carelessly. "Hey, I like that, putting everything out there, right? Alright, I'll sign your contract!"

"Wonderful. And the rest of you?" I snapped my fingers and created a Geas Contract in front of her, then the others as well, with our stated terms. Each of them grabbed the glowing pen and signed on the dotted line, causing the contracts to disappear and mystical silver chains to wrap the Rogues up before disappearing. "Great! Now you can familiarize yourselves with your new office and it's many exits, though they are currently not working; I intend for people to enter this room through Teleportation, not walking in through the Cathedral. More safe that way. There is to be no one who knows that this place is within the Tower, besides yourselves. The first Teleportation Sigil will be done within the week, of course, and as soon as it is, it will be your main entrance. I trust one of you will find an appropriate spot for such a transportation method, one shaped like a Door. Perhaps within your Tunnels? Not directly connected to the Guild HQ, but accessible from there, to make your lives, and mine, much easier."

Mirin, the Mastermind, tapped the table slowly, nodding. "I know a place. The Rotten Bag; we don't use it anymore as an entrance, but it is still owned by the Thieves' Guild."

"Sounds perfect. I'll let you know when you can take me to it so I can carve the Circle. As for the rest of you, I thank you for your time, familiarize yourself with your new Office! There'll be another member joining you in the next few days as well, I believe, but we'll have to see." I stood up, releasing them off to their own devices, and walked out of the room towards my Lab; with everything handled and the ball rolling, I had some time for my own new pet project, my Incubus Mage, which I wanted to turn into a full-time Magic Caster for my Party.

—

The Summoning portions of my magical grimoire were pretty simple; Magic Circle, Summon, Planar Binding, Geas, done. The problem was, Demons didn't exist in this world. So, Summon Greater Demon did... nothing. Instead, I was forced to use the Dungeon Core merged with my Magic Core to essentially create a new body and then an AI for it, removing the need for a Magic Circle, Planar Binding, and Geas, because I didn't intend to create an AI that wasn't obedient, though I still decided I'd do the Geas anyway, just in case.

"So... I need to cast Clone, but instead of actually Cloning myself, I need to use the spell to craft a different Body, of my own design..." I hummed and tilted my head, looking at the spell carefully. "So how about I Enchant this Glass Chamber with Clone and Magic Jar, so that A: I can use it to resurrect myself if I get murdered, and B: I can use it to craft new things, like monsters... but I still need a spell to craft an AI, and I don't have one. Though... I do have an Item." I grinned suddenly with my epiphany, looking at my notification history for the Demonomicon of Iggwilv, and what the System had called it.

"Demonomicon of Iggwilv (Spirit Summoning/Imprisoning/Crafting Skillbook). And the Manual of Golems (Golem Frame Crafting Skillbook), perfection... can I buy those again?"

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Total Money: 0 P, 60 G, 72 S, 400 C, 980 B!
Total Mana: 4 Tier 5 Crystals, 1 Tier Four Crystals, 5 Tier Three Crystals, 7 Tier Two Crystals
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—Exchange Crystals for Enchanted Item—
——Options: The Manual of Golems (Golem Frame Crafting Skillbook) and the Demonomicon of Iggwilv (Spirit Summoning/Imprisoning/Crafting Skillbook).
——Cost: 42 Gold, 3 Tier Five Crystals.
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"Great, clean me out why don't you... alright, purchase, and use."

The two books appeared in my hands, one a simple leather tone and the other a vicious-looking book made of pale humanoid skin and metal buckles, then both turned into little motes of light that flowed into my eyes, blinding me temporarily. Immediately I found myself back in the same Divine Space I learned Magic in, sitting in front of a series of books and diagrams, and I groaned out loud. "I'm going to have to study again, aren't it?"

Muradin appeared, laughing lightly as a blackboard appeared behind them. "Anything gained without effort lacks true worth! Now let's start with the basics of Neural Mapping, I think you'll find it intriguing!"

—

My eyes snapped open, finding myself back in my Laboratory in front of the giant glass tanks I'd had made specifically for this purpose, alongside my own Cloning Spell. "Oookay that's a doozy... now I get why people weren't confused by me saying I spent a long time learning magic... does this happen every time you use a Skillbook?"

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): Yes, it does, though usually they get taught by an avatar of the book's creator. Most classes get a Skill for Skillbook Crafting once they hit the Fifth Tier, and while they are very expensive, their usefulness is impossible to overestimate. )))
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"Yeah, fair enough... so let's get started on crafting a Monster, shall we?" I grinned and began drawing the enchantments for Clone and Magic Jar into each of the Tanks, then Magic Circles around them, and finally a Geas into the release levers, so they could only be dropped if the being inside agreed to the Geas. My Magic Ink was limited, but I fixed that rather simply by enchanting the bottle itself with an infinite liquid and Alchemy Jar fused enchantment, passively crafting more Ink as it drank atmospheric mana to charge itself.

With that finished, several hours later, I was moving on to the actual design phase. To make my Incubus Necromancer stronger, I needed to mix him with more powerful beings, without changing his human-like appearance. As he was now, he could appear in public, and no one would know any better unless they had a skill that detected Monsters, and that was a very useful ability. To that end, I decided to summon a Spring Eladrin, (Elf Summoner/Plant Mage,) a Winter Eladrin, (Elf Summoner/Elemental Mage,) and a Deva, (Shapeshifting Celestial,) to hopefully mix together with my Incubus Mage and create a Tier Seven Guild Master for the Dungeon Merchant Guild. The three tanks were quickly filling as soon as the summoning was finished, bodies building themselves from the magic crystals, wood, and Luxos Metal that'd been provided, and I summoned the Incubus Mage from my Grimoire.

The Incubus took a moment to adjust to being summoned, then looked at the tanks and their occupants, raising an eyebrow at me. "Building a Menagerie of Fae?"

"No, they're to be materials for your evolution, actually. We'll start with the Fae, to mix your Summoning talents and hopefully achieve much greater heights. Winter Eladrin first, please walk over to the tank and touch the Blue Fae."

The Incubus walked over easily, reaching through the semi-illusory glass and touching the chest of the immobile, soulless creature. "What now? Do I Drain it?"

"No, just sit still." I selected them for the Gestalt Magic, and watched the Incubus disappear along with the Winter Eladrin, reappearing inside the tank as a Drow-Adjacent creature. "Ooh, okay, I like the aesthetic... maybe not for this project in particular, but perhaps in the future... let's see what that got me..."

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— Familiars —
——Iceblood Drow (Summoner)—
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"Alrighty, that does sound wicked awesome... now for the Spring Eladrin..." I reached through both tanks and grabbed the wrists of both of my Fey, then activated Gestalt Magic again. Soon enough, I had a dark-skinned Eladrin instead of a Drow, but there was still an air of cold around it.

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— Familiars —
——Tainted Eladrin (Summoner)—
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"Tainted Eladrin... alright, so let's see what that gives me with the Deva, last mix..." I gripped both creatures by the wrists once more, and prayed softly that I'd get something usable, that also wouldn't be terribly out of place in a Cathedral.

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): If that's what you want, I think we can swing that. Devas are Divine Beings, after all. )))
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The two creatures glowed and dispersed, replaced slowly by a silver-skinned being wrapped in a blue robe that slowly but surely turned into silver and blue plate armor and brigandine, before the being blinked open their white eyes and looked in my direction silently.

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— Familiars —
—— Lesser Empyrean of Muradin (Magic Knight)—
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"He lost the Summoner tag... I worked really hard for a Summoner, I hope you aren't incapable of summoning after all that bullshit I just went through... anyway, welcome back, will you sign the Geas so I can let you out?" The glowing contract appeared in front of them, and they signed it without hesitation, so I pulled the lever, and they stepped out of the magical glass tank onto the floor with a mildly angelic grace. "How do you feel?"

Their voice, when they spoke, reminded me of Muradin; genderless and calm. "I am adjusting to a physical form. I will be fine."

"Meaning... you had a non-physical form, before?"

They nodded serenely. "One of many of the Deity of Magic's Thoughts."

"So... Muradin's Thoughts... are independent?"

"The more profound ones, yes. Like epiphanies."

"Okay... well, what is your Tier of Strength?" I crossed my fingers and waited as they tilted their head at the question.

"According to Honored Muradin, I am a Demigod, an Empyrean in form, but my strength is derived from my connection to Muradin's Dungeons, and therefore I cannot travel very far away from it, I've been informed."

I clenched my fists and did a quick fist-pump. "Perfection: this Tower is your Territory, the Cathedral of Muradin! Security within it is your charge! Someday the City Beyond will also be your territory, but not yet. Do you still have any summoning capabilities?"

Another slow tilt of the head, and then they nodded. "I can control and summon the Luxos Golems of this Tower, as well as once per day summoning either a Deva Knight or a Deva Mage, alongside using Elemental Magic and Magical Fencing."

"Good. Do you possess any leadership skills which would allow you to lead a Guild?"

"... I do not believe I have the experience required."

"Damn, okay, what about Training Skills?"

"I am aware of how to train others in my Skills."

"Great, then First Paladin of the Order of the Tower will be your Title unless Muradin decides otherwise, and you will eventually also train the applicants we have in your specialties. For now, the security of the Tower is your charge. Any questions?"

"What is my name?"

I paused, halfway turned around, then faced them carefully. "Your... name?"

'Do you have any suggestions? They're your Epiphany, right?'

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): I like Wayland. They are an Epiphany of mine from a time where I was discovering the ancient methods of navigation on your planet. )))
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"Alright, well, Muradin believes your name should be Wayland, so I suppose it is. How do you like it?"

They bowed calmly. "I accept Muradin's Will; I am Wayland."

"Alright, let me lead you into the Tower, then, okay? This is a different tower, though they are connected deeply." I opened a Doorway to the Cathedral Tower, out of my Demiplane, and they nodded and marched through into the entryway, towards their destiny.

As soon as the gate was closed, however, I slumped against my desk, groaning. "So if I make someone too strong, you limit them to the Dungeon. If I make them too weak, they're useless to me."

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): Without the proper materials, they are incapable of recovering their spent mana without a connection to the Dungeon. )))
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"So they're robots with battery issues. Got it." I nodded and placed some of my Crystals in my hands, fusing them into a small sphere, which I then drew the spell for Energy Drain into to enchant it. "How about that as a Mana Core?"

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): They'll still need to gain XP. )))
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"But it'll work?"

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((( Divine Message (Muradin): Yes. )))
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"Good. Wayland! Come here for a second, I've got something for you!"