A pointless formality, as Zark'thul saw it. Elspeth had been keen on mentioning the requirement, and he knew from her punctual personality that it was something that could not be skipped.
This day, however, they were back at the store. Today, Zark'thul had brought Alice along to give her input.
The marketing director admired the interior, gushing over the storefront's design and the ample street-facing glass windows. "Oh my, it looks absolutely stunning. I can't wait to see what we can make of this."
"You'll have free rein to furnish and design it however you wish," Zark'thul said, his eyes lingering on the large, vacant storefront. "But keep it under budget. I don't want us overspending on this project."
"Yes, of course, sir! We'll be prudent," Alice replied with a nod. "Xashai and I have already decided to hire an interior designer. She has quite a good eye for these things."
"That's not what I..." he sighed, thinking it best to let Xashai handle any potential issues of expenditure.
As they circled the ground floor, Elspeth made her way up to the second. Zark'thul heard the telltale sounds of her footsteps echoing on the stairs.
"Do you have any plans for the upper floor, sir?" Alice asked, turning her gaze toward the staircase.
He shrugged. "Right now, no. The upstairs will be for employee offices and perhaps some storage space."
"Oh. So, we can...?"
"Go ahead," he gestured.
With a grin and a nod, she dashed up the stairs.
He waited downstairs, listening to the muffled voices and footsteps from above. It seemed they were busy making plans for the future of the store.
Sooner than he thought, both Elspeth and Alice returned to the ground floor, looking pleased. "Finished already?"
Alice nodded. "Yes, sir. It was a brief overview, but we've already started to discuss our vision for the space. Don't worry, I'll make sure you're informed about all of our plans and ideas before we move forward."
"I'm counting on that," he replied.
"Now that the property is in our possession, there are a few additional steps we need to take," Elspeth interjected. "We'll need to apply for the necessary permits for any physical alterations, and we'll have to hire the required personnel."
"I'll arrange the permits," Alice said. "That's part of my responsibility."
"The hiring will be on us, sir," Elspeth said, looking at him.
Zark'thul sighed.
More interviews. He would rather face an army of fanatics again than deal with those.
"Anything else?"
"Yes," Elspeth continued, unbothered. "You need to choose a name for the store. Alice can't go to the licensing office without one."
"She's right, sir," Alice said. "And a catchy name could help with brand recognition."
Names. Names. Names.
Everyone wanted him to name something or someone. First, it was the REDLINEs, who had demanded he give each of them individual names, names for products, office room names, and now the store. When was it going to stop? At this rate, he'd even need to name individual items and articles within the store.
At what point does this end?
"It's not that easy on the spot," Zark'thul complained. "Give me some time."
As the two women turned their attention to discussing their plans for the store, Zark'thul turned to stare out the window. The bustling city was on full display, showing the skyscrapers in the background, with crowds milling about and vehicles streaming by. There was a bus stop in front of their store, and he watched as a group of humanoids alighted from the bus.
Inspiration struck.
"The Name," he said, looking at the two women. "I've thought of it. 'Babel's Basement.'"
Both of them blinked, confused.
"Excuse me, sir?" Elspeth asked, her head tilted slightly.
"The name of this store: 'Babel's Basement.' That's what we're going with," he said.
"Um, sir, is this perhaps some kind of metaphor? What is a basement doing here?" Alice inquired.
Elspeth looked thoughtful. "'Babel,' I know, refers to an old parable. In the parable, people wanted to build a tower to reach the heavens, but their hubris incurred the wrath of the gods who then cursed them with different languages. This made it impossible for them to cooperate, and thus the tower fell. Some say this is how humanity became multilingual."
"How apt," Zark'thul mused. "In a way, the story is similar to mine. A fall from grace, one could say."
"But why basement, sir?"
Zark'thul pointed out of the window at the distant Tower that loomed in the background. "We are dealing in items of the Tower. Wouldn't that make this a basement of the Tower in a way?"
Both women stood staring at him.
Then, they looked at each other.
Elspeth said, "Well, it's..."
"... certainly creative," Alice finished. "It has a certain ring to it, though. Babel's Basement."
Elspeth nodded, consulting her tablet. "Nothing like it in the business register, either. So we could secure the trademark for that."
Alice hesitated, "Well, I suppose we could do a survey with our current customers—"
"Are you saying I'm wrong, Miss Blankenship?" he interrupted, glaring at her.
"Ah! N-No, of course not! If you think that's a good name, sir, I'm sure the rest will agree as well," she replied, cowering.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"Good, that's settled then," he said, turning. "We'll get started right away. Alice, make sure we have the permits. Elspeth, we'll start the hiring process."
"Yes, sir."
As he stepped out of the store, he murmured to himself. "Babel's Basement. I like it."
Back in his office, Zark'thul stared at his computer screen, his fingers poised over the keyboard. Managing the business aside, he still had to coordinate his Agents to complete the fourth-floor directives.
A ping drew his attention to his monitor.
[Squad 3 has completed Directive 4-4: Patrol the Trade Route. Rewards have been allocated to your account.]
The results of a live playback appeared on his screen. A visual feed showed the last few minutes of Squad 3's confrontation on the trade route. The combat and its conclusion were replayed in a matter of moments. The battle itself didn't pose significant interest to Zark'thul; it was a mere repeatable directive that had to be routinely addressed.
The performance of Squad 3, though, was worth noting. The squad had successfully managed to protect the merchants and vanquish the attacking bandits within the time limit.
"Hmm, better results," he noted to himself. That was the fourth iteration of this particular directive.
With a command, he altered the feed, the battle rewinding. This time, he focused on the details of the confrontation, scrutinizing the actions of each Agent in the squad. One action caught his attention in particular: Albert's activation of his 'Suppressive Fire' skill, an ability to provide cover fire to protect an ally, thereby causing enemy attacks against them to be ineffective.
The enemy attack had been aimed at one of the merchants they were tasked to protect, a recurring element in this specific directive.
Pleased by their performance, he began writing up his evaluation report, adding notes to each Agent's file. As he navigated to the next tab, another ping drew his attention. Another squad had returned from a mission: Squad 4, this time with an accompanying live playback. They had completed their mission as well.
[You have advanced to Level 7]
[New Ability Unlocked!]
[Footsteps of the Void] You partially phase into the void for a limited time, allowing you to move silently and avoid detection. Gain increased movement speed and a chance to evade physical attacks entirely. Increased chance to dodge physical attacks while ability is active: +10%. This effect can be extended by consuming 5 Essence for every additional minute. Maximum extension is 10 minutes. The ability will deactivate when Essence is depleted below the extension cost.
Smiling to himself, he opened the new ability's page to review its details. His initial impression was that the ability would prove very useful for espionage, reconnaissance, and covert operations. Invisibility was always a potent skill, and with the added bonus of enhanced movement speed and increased probability of dodging attacks, this new skill had multifaceted applications.
He would need to experiment with it to see just how versatile it was—and that meant going out in the field again with his Agents.
Later, though. First, he had to get through his administrative tasks.
Dismissing the notification, he watched Squad 4's feed, ready to assess and evaluate their performance. The task they had completed was the repeatable Directive 4-3. Gathering the alchemical ingredients wasn't a high-risk task, especially with the information they had regarding the enemy threats in the area, which were mostly beasts. A direct clash between them and his Agents was unlikely to lead to any casualties.
On the playback, Zark'thul observed as the goblinoid agents began to collect the required herbs and minerals. He spotted Krark, the Artillery-role goblin, stationed atop a tree, acting as a lookout and defender in case a beast happened to stray too close to their operations.
Lokz, a Warrior-Mage, led the group, assisting with the gathering where he could. Silm, a Support-role goblin, helped Kaasil, an Artillery-role goblin, with her harvesting efforts. Lastly, Gorlag, a Berserker-role orc, was put to work lifting the heavy objects, whether they were rocks or boulders that had to be broken or hauled aside for easier access.
They moved as a coordinated team, as expected. He'd overseen their training closely; their competence was his own success.
Another screen flashed as he tabbed over. It was time to review their results. Their yields were recorded by the system and automatically added to his inventory.
Duskpetal: 74 units
Frostthorn: 65 units
Windburst Seed: 31 units
Vellumroot: 48 units
Torcspore: 2 units
An increase in their numbers, overall. However, one item stood out.
Torcspore? There had been none in their previous harvests, and yet this time, they had stumbled upon two. He opened another browser, doing a brief search for the term, and an image popped up. A mushroom with a golden cap, segmented like an insect's abdomen, dotted with reddish-orange spots, and bearing spiky growths, looking almost like a long-legged insect rather than a fungus.
Despite its unsettling appearance, it was highly prized by alchemists, apothecaries, and enchanters alike. His inquiry revealed a staggering price of about 3,500 credits for each Torcspore harvested.
He inhaled deeply and leaned back in his chair. In a quick mental calculation, he added their value to his list of profits. They could certainly turn a tidy profit from these Torcspores—assuming, of course, they managed to harvest more in the future. But this was good fortune; more could be found, perhaps in greater abundance.
His schedule was a mix of the mundane and the unexpected. The strategic placement of his Agents and the careful allocation of resources were routine tasks, interspersed with the occasional moments of unforeseen events, like the discovery of Torcspore, which kept him on his toes.
The screen blinked, drawing his focus to another pop-up notification:
[Your agents have uncovered a bonus objective while fulfilling a directive: Rare Harvest.]
A bonus? Interesting. He quickly pulled up the information.
[Rare Harvest] Find and recover five Torcspores.
[Reward] A unique Artifact for each member of the squad who participates in this objective.
Well. Now there was a challenge. Locating the Torcspores appeared to be a daunting task, given their rarity. Locating another three would be a tall order.
He needed to think carefully about who could be best deployed to secure these rare and precious mushrooms. Bonus objectives were always optional and offered no penalty for not completing them, but why would he pass up free Artifacts?
No, he needed a team that could maximize their chances of finding and recovering all five Torcspores, or at least as many as possible. Five unique artifacts was a rare and valuable reward, and not worth passing up. His gaze shifted to the names listed on the roster.
None of them were particularly appealing for this task. Most were best suited to combat-oriented missions, not to searching for rare materials.
He sighed, his fingers steepled under his chin, and then it struck him.
The 'Sylvan Dossier'.
With a few keystrokes, he accessed the Sylvan Dossier category, revealing a roster of available Agents. All of these Agents were classified under the Sylvan recruitment category, the third such dossier available to him. As expected, the Agent roster was filled with forest and fey creatures: Dryads, Nymphs, Sprites, Pixies, and so on.
And their appearances were all uniformly female. Odd. Why was that, exactly?
He didn't dwell on that question, though. The one thing that caught his eye was their special ability: 'Natural Trapping.' The description of the ability indicated an inherent familiarity with nature and a heightened awareness of their surroundings. If anyone was going to find these Torcspores, it would be these Sylvans.
He sent a recruitment request.
The response was swift, and soon he received his new batch of Agents—a squad of three dryads, a sprite, and a nymph.
Zark'thul left his office and entered the summoning room where the five Sylvan Agents awaited. One dryad had an almost purple hue to her skin and her leaf-like hair was the color of a bright sunset, another one was a more vibrant green and her hair was dark brown, and the third was an almost pink coloration with brown, earthy hair that fell around her shoulders.
The sprite was a tiny, lithe creature with pointed ears and transparent, gossamer wings. She fluttered around the room, exploring the place like an inquisitive bird.
Then, the last Agent, the nymph. Unlike the others, she didn't look fey-like. Instead, she appeared almost indistinguishable from a human, save for her pointed ears.
Her skin was a light, cream color with rosy undertones, and her hair was long, silvery-white, and it shimmered subtly, as if each strand was its own tiny moonbeam. She was adorned in a simple white gown, while the dryads wore dresses that resembled woven vines and the sprite wore nothing, instead preferring her natural, pale lilac skin.
Five sets of eyes fixed on him as he approached them.
His gaze drifted to one of the dryads. She looked vaguely familiar…
Wait, she was one of the ones he had saved from the corrupted tree in the previous directive. That dryad now gave him a slight bow.
"Welcome to the Tower," Zark'thul said, standing in front of them. He noticed the fairy flitting around his head and the way she looked at him, with a mixture of curiosity and wariness.
"My name is Zark'thul, the Chief Executive Officer of this organization. I'm sure you all have questions, but first, let us proceed to the orientation room where you will be given a brief on what to expect. Then I'll decide what to do with you."