Info Gathering

Alaric put on the necklace. This now added to his collection of significant jewelry.

He had received a stone cuff from his home town to indicate his birth in Millstone village.

Along with that, he had also received a black ring with a slight amount of gold on it for completing high school in his town.

His family was not wealthy or significant, so they did not have a family marking to indicate that he was a part of them. That was reserved for people with last names, or significant status.

All feudal lords, noble families, and of course royalty all had these things. They often had elaborate and obvious things that indicated them as part of the family. This also prevented powerful people from going undercover easily, as massive piercings, tattoos or huge pieces of permanent jewelry would immediately give them away.

Alaric compared to other people had very few honor markings. He had no friends, so he hadn't received anything from even slightly powerful families within his village.

He also didn't have an official job anywhere, instead doing agricultural work for his parents. Nothing in his life warranted major honor recognition.

But he wanted to change that. Jingling while you walk was a telltale sign of someone's power.

At the same time, although Alaric saw status and recognition as the ends, the real means he was looking for was personal achievement.

Now he would need to gain information. There had to be at least someone in the guild with some information.

Alaric went back to Emil to ask him a question.

"Emil, is there a library here? Or some kind of place where scripts are kept?" Alaric asked to Emil.

Emil immediately answered.

"Yeah we have a record room in the basement. You will have only basic access to scripts, the higher you are in the guild the more scripts you will have access too." Emil explained.

"Alright, thanks for the help man." Alaric was now on his way to the basement. Heading to the back of the large common room he was in, he found the staircase that was mentioned.

There were two directions to go. Alaric could go up to the tower, or down into the basement.

All in all, the majority of the guild building was just the common area. The tower, which Alaric now saw the sign for, was the administrative section.

There was a sign that listed the offices.

"Guild leader"

"Vice guild leader"

"Guild elders"

"Script master"

Positions that offices were in the tower were listed. It seemed there was a strict hierarchy.

"I'm not necessarily planning on doing my progression in the guild, it'll just be a place for me to connect. Eventually, I'd like my own guild..." Alaric salivated as he thought about himself as a guild master leading people. He would have a large collection of insane things he fished up, and everyone would be praising him as the leader.

The fish in his eye emitted a positive aura, giving Alaric more motivation towards his goal.

In terms of resources, Alaric had little money and status, but he had motivation in bounds. This would not be enough. Alaric would have to start converting motivation into money and status in order to succeed fully. In order to become the top fisherman and bring the world under his iron fist gripping an iron fishing rod through Esoteric Fishing.

Alaric headed down into the basement. He felt the temperature becoming cooler. The stone was cold and as he headed down, it became cooler.

There was a door that said

"Script room"

Alaric entered the room.

It was a medium sized room with shelves on it. At the back of the room, there was another door.

"Probably the room for higher clearance." Alaric thought.

There was also a desk with a woman working at it.

"Hello." Alaric said. If anyone would know where to find specific data, it would be her.

He went closer. She was an older woman, about sixty. She had a strong build, and wore a simple cloth shirt and pants. Her eyes are what intrigued Alaric. Her eyes were completely black all the way through, giving her a strange appearance. She was scribbling something down rapidly on a piece of paper. She was using a pencil.

"What looking for?" The woman said sharply. She spoke in a choppy voice.

"I was wondering if you had anything on Esoteric Fishing? I'm interested in reading about it for fun." He asked.

"Esoteric Fishing …. Yeah fun huh? You're not trying to fish something up?" She looked at him.

"I mean, I was just interested in it." Alaric responded.

She got up from her desk. "We have news articles. Legends too. Some true, some stupid." She said.

Exiting her general desk area, she stood up to go get a script for him.

The scripts were of various formats, some scrolls, some books, some newspapers. Society was variable on media as certain technological advancements were created and destroyed occasionally. Sometime certain areas forgot about how to make a certain thing due to just people forgetting, or unintentional destruction of important data.

She went out into the scripts and brought back two things. The first was a pile of newspaper clippings, the second was a book.

"Newspaper is random stories. Some truth in them, some are NOT true. Book is fishing legends. Even more not true, some are true." She said finally, handing the two things to Alaric.

"Sign." She handed him a slip of paper that indicated the things he was taking out.

Alaric promptly signed it.

"Two weeks to bring back. Otherwise fine. If you're new maybe you get suspended." She said quickly. "Bye." She ended her conversation, and went back to her work.

"Alright, looks like we have some stuff to work with." Alaric thought. He was accustomed to reading, he wouldn't mind doing some digging.

Because there was so much false information in these, he would have to do some intense trial and error in order to find something that worked.