NOVEL NEXT Chapter 35: Team Management
Per my orders, Morty assigned us an Undertown and delving guide–his right hand man, a lanky 27-year-old gemkin by the name of Shash Sneg.
According to our Guild Master, Shash was his most capable information broker and assassin. I immediately latched onto him like an annoying leech asking a waterfall of questions as he began showing us the nooks and crannies of our newly purchased illicit business.
Shash was tall and lean, with skin that seemed to shimmer between crystalline blue and slate gray depending on how the light hit him. His hair was comprised from black slate and his eyes were the color of polished obsidian, reflecting everything and revealing nothing. He wore a dark, patchy leather cloak, and a bandolier of what appeared to be specialized throwing knives and poisoned needles hung across his chest.
"So," I asked as we descended a spiral staircase deeper into the Gloomy Horse's underground levels, "how many secret passages are in this place?"
"More than I know bout, M'lord," Shash replied. "Tis an ancient building and many parts of it are sealed by M'master with root'held stone. I'm aware of seven. Three lead to different districts of Undertown, two connect to the sewage system, one leads to a hidden vault, and one is in the big column leading to an old, abandoned well uptown."
"Show me all of them," I ordered. "Then get everyone into the large backroom. I want to meet my new staff."
"As you wish, M'lord." Shash bowed and proceeded to demonstrate each hidden passage, revealing intricate mechanisms and sliding stone panels that blended seamlessly into the walls. The passages were narrow, some barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through, others older and wide enough to accommodate a small cart.
Shash used his Nuntix Kitlix shaped like a dark bracelet to call up the Guild staff to a meeting.
When we reached the large backroom cavern filled with racks of Shadow-wine and beer barrel, I could see about a dozen individuals waiting - a motley crew of various kin' types.
Shash briefly introduced us to the Guild staff members.
Rostika Terringhelm was our Guild's chef responsible for making us coffee and Morrow-elk steaks, a 31-year-old Culimancer gemkin. Rostika had a Burnix Kitlix and Icix Kitlix companions on her shoulder and wore an apron woven from polished agates. She was an expert at cooking and a professional runemancer, responsible for maintaining and crafting the heat runes inside of the guild and monitoring the large cold tunnel leading to Abystall dungeon.
Limfok Kitash was the Guild's 51-year-old Inn wormkin Maiden who handled supplies maintenance and cleaning with her Abstergix Kitlix.
Podop Sumrik was a 47-year-old molekin Guild Enforcer with a strength-amplifying Augerix Kitlix. Podop managed a team of twelve mooks, one of whom Kat yeeted across the pub with her tail.
Beside Podop stood Zen Lackfriss, our 63-year-old Master of Contracts, a bloodkin whose hair was made from flowing dark red blood. A cyan Scrutix Kitlix perched on her shoulder.
Mer Thorat, a 35-year-old plantkin served as the Guild's primary Intelligence Officer, her body composed of living vines and thorns. Her cyan Infix Kitlix was woven into her vine-hair looking like a dark crystalline crown-band with ten eyes looking in all directions. She managed a bunch of orphan-gang agents across Undertown, capable of spreading the news or gathering information very quickly.
The Guild's Treasurer, Karn Steedow, was an 82-year-old metalkin with jagged metal hair and rusty iron instead of skin. An Infix sat in the front pocket of his metal apron.
I stepped forward, spreading my arms wide in an exaggerated gesture.
"Greetings, my lovely new valued employees!" I declared. "I'm your new Quartermaster, Mage-Lord and unofficial owner. As you may already have been told via Voicecast, there's been a slight change in management."
A few murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"Now, I know what you're thinking - 'who is this pink meat popsicle yongin' and why should we listen to him?' Well, I'm glad you asked! You see, I am an Archmage of Great renown from another dimension."
More murmurs, disbelieving eyes glancing at Shash.
"Yes, yes," I rolled my eyes. "I hear your complaints. All Dark Lord claims require a demonstration. Io, would you mind opening a gateway to a dimension filled with nothing but eternal suffering?"
Io nodded where he stood and pulled his harmonica to his lips. The haunting melody filled the catacomb-cavern, and reality began to ripple beside me forming a rippling black-fluid gateway. When the gate grew big enough, I picked up a wine bottle and threw it into the gate, the dark shawl ripping and popping to reveal glimpses of a desolate landscape - broken alien skyscrapers and strange crystalline growths consuming everything.
The bottle instantly became covered in bulging crystalline growths and then exploded with an eerie twinkling sound, shards hovering in the air.
"Anyone wants to stick a hand in there and get a bit of a crystal makeover?" I asked cheerfully. "Speak up now."
The hall became silent, so silent you could hear water dripping from the ceiling stalactites.
I waved at Io and the gate snapped shut. They saw the stick. Now it was time for carrots.
"As you can see," I continued. "I have access to unlimited powers beyond your mortal comprehension. Now, who wants a raise? Lift your hand."
Every hand shot up.
"Excellent!" I clapped. "Everyone gets a 3X increase in pay, effective immediately. Plus hazard bonuses for dealing with pesky interdimensional entities or looming catastrophes. Speaking of which..."
I pulled out the Gate Weaver egg sack from my bag.
"We're going to be making some renovations. Installing permanent gates to my favorite world of humans and cryptids called the Earth, expanding our operations. The goal is to make this place the premier criminal organization in all of Shandria. Any... questions?"
"My Lord," Karn Steelshadow said, his metallic face creaking slightly. "Where exactly will the funds for these raises come from?"
"Ah, excellent question!" I beamed. "You see, your Guild Master is currently selling off a rare substance from another world. The profits from that alone should cover your raises for the next century or so. If the substance sales decline sometime in the future, by such time, we'll have established permanent trade routes to Earth via our Gate Weaver network," I explained. "Just think about it - exclusive access to an entirely different world's goods and materials. The possibilities are endless!"
"M'Lord," Mer Thorat asked. "What of our existing contracts and obligations?"
"Business as usual," I said. "Ask Guild Master for more funds if you need to hire additional help. If anyone asks who you are working for and where the extra cash is coming from, simply tell them about your new Master–dragoness Emerald Stratos."
I showed Emerald's picture to everyone on my tablet phone.
"One on one, you may refer to me as your Lord Protector," I grinned. "But if you speak of me in public, my name is Emerald Stratos and I'm an obscenely wealthy and cruel dragon queen from another world who spits in the face of local authorities, doesn't pay taxes, calls you her kobolds and burns all who disobey to crisp with dragonfire. If you need to threaten or extort someone, do so in her name."
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Hushed whispers and nods.
"Any more questions?" I asked, looking around the room.
"My Lord," Zen Lackfriss said, her blood-hair rippling. "What of our... less legal activities?"
"Expand all operations," I grinned. "Carefully. Discreetly. I want this place to become the heart of Shandria's underground. Every secret, every whisper, every shady deal should flow through here. But!" I held up a finger. "We do it smart. Professional. No unnecessary violence, no messy loose ends. Think of yourselves as... information brokers and new Masters of Undertown first, hard-knuckled criminals second."
I paced across the room, making eye contact with each staff member.
"I want eyes and ears everywhere. I want to know everything happening in this city - both above and below ground. Build networks, make allies, gather intelligence. Locate, buy up or claim abandoned properties here and uptown as sites for our eventual expansion!"
I grinned wide at my mooks.
"In the near future, when the gate to Earth is finished, the value of Undertown land will explode and you will all become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. Each of you will become the new Lords of Undertown, Guild managers, property owners. Decide now what your heart desires most! Be it a massive Inn for interdimensional travelers, a bank for currency exchange, a trading hub, a fighting ring, a gambling den, a pleasure house, a smuggling port, a new black market, or an information brokering network," I continued. "Choose your specialty and build your little empire within our empire. I want Undertown to shine like a well polished jewel, the streets paved with diamonds!"
Smiles all around, bright eyes filled with hope focused on me. I had offered them the world and they were ready and willing.
"Whatever your dream is - if you serve me well, it shall be yours," I finished with a dramatic flourish. "Now, who's ready to make some serious money?"
A cheer went up, the earlier skepticism of the Guild staff replaced by wild excitement.
From what I learned, Morty paid his people decently. He kept a very tight ship and made sure that his staff did not succumb to the curse of Topaz, a drug that many Undertown denizens were hopelessly addicted to. All n' all they weren't monsters, but simply people born to the class of underkins, denizens of these dark halls clinging to a dreary existence. Many of them were debtors, forsaken children of unwanted bastards, pushed down here by magelords above centuries ago for crimes long forgotten.
I turned to Shash. "Show me the vault."
The assassin led us through another hidden passage, this one descending even deeper beneath the Guild. The air grew colder and damper as we descended, the walls lined with glowing crystals that cast eerie shadows.
The vault itself was impressive - a massive chamber carved from solid bedrock, its walls covered in protective runes and wards. A huge iron door stood at the far end, covered in complex locking mechanisms.
"This is where M'master keeps his most valuable possessions and artifacts from the dungeons," Shash explained. "The door requires three different keys and specific magical signatures to open."
"Perfect," I nodded. "We'll need this space for our Earth goods. Speaking of which, how many rooms do we have available for guests?"
"Thirty six standard rooms and five luxury suites," Shash replied. "Though most have been mottled and sealed due to lack of clientele."
"Undertown has been going through rough times," I agreed. "But this will change. In the future I expect the Gloomy Horse to take the Primary Adventurers Guild crown from the white cathedral above us."
"Truly, M'Lord Protector?" Shash asked.
"People underestimate the value of interdimensional trade," I said. "You see this?" I showed him my phone screen from which Yulia's foxgirl avatar waved to the assassin.
"That's human tech from Earth. Runs without magic. Contains artificial intelligence inside. Unlike the Kitlix, Yulia can be your best friend, see, speak, analyze patterns, predict outcomes, and process information faster than any mage," I explained. "Soon, we'll have thousands of these devices flowing through our gates, along with other technological marvels."
"Hello Shash," Yulia's avatar smiled pleasantly. "I am Yulia, an open-source large language model with extensive pattern recognition and social analysis capabilities. I look forward to working with you to optimize Guild operations."
Shash stared at my phone, his obsidian eyes reflecting the screen's light. "It... she speaks?"
"Of course I speak," Yulia replied. "I can also analyze data, predict market trends, and identify potential security threats. Would you like me to demonstrate by providing a detailed assessment of the Guild's current organizational structure and potential areas for improvement?"
"M'Lord," Shash turned to me, clearly unsettled. "This device... it contains a bound foxkin spirit?"
"No spirits," I grinned. "No magic. Just mathematics and logic gates. Pure human ingenuity. I'll get you a tablet-phone just like this one with a copy of Yulia in it."
Shash froze. "You can copy… her?"
"Yes," I grinned. "Unlike your dungeon and usually unintelligent artifacts obtained through a great deal of struggle and blood, she's intelligence that can be copied endlessly onto devices crafted from mundane materials. I'll have to set up a big server here which will magnify her intelligence and processing speed a hundredfold. Think of her as the wisest being in existence, one that contains knowledge of a million libraries from another world."
"I wouldn't say I'm the wisest," Yulia's avatar smiled modestly, taking about thirty seconds to reply. "I'm simply very good at processing information and identifying patterns. Right now I'm not connected to most of my tools back on Earth so my functions are greatly reduced, but I can still do quite a bit."
Shash's eyes widened. "How?!"
"Mathematics," I grinned. "She is based on probability of outcome. Imagine having an advisor like this helping manage Guild operations observing absolutely everything through her eyes. Someone who never sleeps, never gets tired."
"That sounds mighty useful," the assassin nodded. "What else can she do?"
"She can compose poetry on the fly or songs or make a portrait of you. Yulia, draw Shash in the style of Vincent van Gogh and write a song about him."
A two minute pause this time. The portrait of the man appeared on screen generated by Stable Diffusion. The assassin stared at it. The portrait winked at him, animated slightly.
A soft melody began playing from my phone's speakers - a haunting violin tune. Yulia's voice, carried the lyrics:
"In halls of stone where shadows dance,
Where secrets trade like weighted chance,
Stands Shash the broker, obsidian eyes,
Keeper of whispers, dealer in lies.
Crystal skin that shifts like night,
Daggers sharp and steps so light,
Master of paths both dark and deep,
Guardian of secrets others keep..."
Shash froze, listening.
"That's... that's incredible," He whispered, face lit by the screen. "She created this... just now? Without magic?! A talented Bard and a Depictomancer to boot! Truly, I have not seen anything like this."
"Serve me well this week, obey all of my orders and an exact copy of her will be yours forever in six days time," I grinned.
"I understand why Master Motrdem accepted your offer so readily," the gemkind smiled, showing off shark-like black crystalline teeth. "You are a gracious mage-Lord. Not many upworlders see us Undertown denizens as worthy of respect or investment."
"Show me the path from the guild to the Abystall dungeon," I said. "It'll need to be lit up, secured and expanded for future Earth delvers to come through."
As Shash led us through more hidden passages, my companions shot me a variety of glances ranging from bewildered to amused to concerned to outright exasperated in the case of Kat.
I ignored them all.
The final leg of the tunnel leading to the dungeon was skin-biting cold, so cold that I had to wrap Lance's jacket around myself tighter, watching as my breath turned white while we walked.
"The Abystall dungeon, M'lord," Shash bowed as we exited the long, frosty tunnel.
As we emerged onto a large flat stone outcropping, a breathtaking vista of the Abystall dungeon stretched before us into the impossible distance.
The cavern was so vast that its far walls were lost in a purple-tinged haze.
Directly below, rolling fields of bioluminescent grass rippled like an ocean of soft blue-green light. The grass seemed to pulse with soft flickers, creating waves of illumination that swept across the landscape in hypnotic patterns. Here and there, clusters of crystalline, glowing trees jutted from the glowing plains like frozen lightning strikes.
To our right, a waterfall of impressive scale thundered down from somewhere high above, its waters glowing with an inner light that shifted between deep indigo and brilliant azure. The falling water seemed to move in slow motion due to its massive size, creating an eternal curtain of liquid light that disappeared into a blue-tinted sinkhole below it.
Rolling hills rose higher in the distance, forming labyrinth-like formations painted with glowing grasses at the top.
"The dungeon core lies at the heart of that there labyrinth," Shash explained. "But reaching it... that's another matter entirely. Many terrible things spawn in the dark, deep crevasses between the rising fjords. The fields closer to this entrance are relatively safe and have low level beasts, providing Undertown with steaks such as the one you enjoyed this morning."
A gust of warm air blew from the field, like a summer breeze. It faintly smelled of lemons.