"I…this isn't what I expected," the Outskirt boss admitted.
Gehrman had enjoyed detailing his thoughts and answering the man's questions, but just as he had learned about him (or rather the Red Judge), so too did he learn many useful things.
Naturally, Gehrman was at least aware of the existence of "District Bosses" who ruled over hundreds of Blocks of territory. He had little doubt that despite this man's thin frame, nasally voice, and unimpressive features that he was still one of those bosses. No one else could have held their composure together so well.
As a reward, Gehrman had dismissed the [Cainhurst Knights Attire]. Of course, he had not summoned the entire ensemble, merely wearing a vest over a light undershirt. This allowed him to access the Ascended Memory's [Knight's Honor] Enchantment while also keeping up the appearance of The Red Judge.
Memory Enchantments: [Knight's Honor]
Enchantment Description: [The wearer of this attire carries the aura of a knight. As such they will command more respect from equals and subordination from those weaker than the wearer.]
It had been useless to him before, but now the Attire would prove to be a great asset in this new world…though it might have been more potent than he had anticipated.
Though this Oskar fellow was a mere mundane, he was undoubtedly a special individual. Gehrman hadn't done extensive research on the area. Though he familiarized himself with the politics and norms of the Outskirts, it would be a waste of his memory to find out each and every District Boss.
And the importance of his memory had recently become much more pressing.
As it turned out, Dorian's eidetic memory had its limits. Even with the minds of two geniuses from Yharnam, he wasn't able to become an absolute expert in all the topics he studied, and in fact, he never could.
This was because (despite his greatly enhanced ability to recall snapshots of information) he had limited capacity for what he could remember.
This limit seemed to be exaggerated due to his unique nature, but he had still run up against it recently.
This was why he was importing most things from the Government, such as the furniture, lights, and energy system.
Though he was constantly awake, he found that he was lacking enough time to properly sort through everything in the long records of his memories. And even then it wasn't as simple as just "choosing" to forget something.
Though Gehrman had come across a couple of things to try, he had not been able to add to his encyclopedic amount of knowledge for the past three days.
It had occurred to him then that he was in a bit over his head. This project had become far bigger than Gehrman initially planned. And the more he worked the more potential he saw, which in turn caused more work.
He needed to get this place into a degree of autonomy fairly quickly if he wanted to expand further.
Though Caster could be useful as an overseer who made sure no shenanigans went down, there was no one to cook, clean, and no one to take the load off of teaching.
Gehrman had quietly accepted that he needed new Workshop employees fast, which was why he was so happy to see this elongated fellow walk onto the New Workshop property.
Oskar appeared to be mild mannered, but Gehrman could feel his stress, even if he couldn't see it. Naturally, no sane person would be relaxed in the presence of an Ascended. But his ability to hide it so well showed serious mental resilience.
But even that resilience folded before the [Cainhurst Knight's Attire].
Gehrman quietly designated it as something to wear only in the presence of Sleepers or Awakened.
After the Memory fully dissipated, Gehrman judged the man's reaction. It was suppressed under a false impression of wonder and confusion.
"A Memory? Why did you dismiss it?" Oskar asked.
"I didn't want to wear it anymore," Gehrman said.
Neither of them pushed this topic further.
Oskar had recollected himself and seemed much more confident now that the Memory was gone. Ordinarily one might point out the Mental Attack that was passively applied to this Memory, but Oskar made no mention of it.
It made Gehrman quite curious.
"If you don't mind me asking, I was curious about your story, my friend. How did you end up here?"
Oskar's eyes changed subtly.
"What do you mean? I was born in the Outskirts."
"Maybe," Gehrman smiled warmly. "But you don't seem like someone who has spent their entire life here. Your treatment of me was too respectful and competent to come from a random street urchin."
In a very slight movement, Oskar's jaw clenched at the insulting term. It was evident to Gehrman at that moment that he was either an astoundingly perfect actor or he cared or at least empathised with the people in the Outskirts.
"...I don't think this topic is strictly necessary, do you?" Oskar said, his voice quiet but firm.
There was an uncomfortable beat of silence.
"I suppose so," Gehrman said slowly. At this point he was no longer putting on a jovial facade, and now seemed both much colder and emotionless. Even with no mystical influences, he held a fearful presence.
"I simply wish to get to know you better, and to see if you would be interested in working here."
There was a complete stillness that chained Oskar to his seat. But he soon spoke again, this time very stiffly.
"You seek to invite someone to live near you despite having only met them today? I must say, Red, I do not believe it is wise to be so casual with other folks from around here. You will surely get taken advantage of."
Gehrman smirked at the familiar line.
"I have been told this many times, and every time I say the same thing," Gehrman's eyelids lowered and his face contorted into a natural glare. "Who could possibly take advantage of me? Who would dare?"
Oskar's hand twitched, which was the only indication he heard the menacing claim.
There is something special about this guy. It's a shame he's too old to become an Awakened, just off pure mentality he far exceeds more Awakened I've seen.
But like he had told the man, Gehrman had no plans to turn away those who could not develop Aspect Abilities.
For there was something else he had omitted, and it was one of the things that truly drove him to create this New Workshop: he suspected that he had the potential to turn ordinary humans into hunters capable of killing Dormant, or even Awakened beasts.
After his memories were all sorted and the New Workshop had a semblance of stability, he would start to experiment with his new Aspect Abilities.
Both of them seemed to affect more than Gehrman himself, and if he wanted to fully employ his power he would need people around him who were fearful enough to deal with random commands and trustful enough not to run away when weird shit started happening.
This place was about to become an alien environment. A slice of Yharnam transported across the Universe into another realm. And despite their stubborn resourcefulness, there was nobody in the entirety of the Outskirts who was truly ready for that.
…
Oskar left shortly after. It was a rather quiet departure, but he did mutter something about sending some of his friends over to visit. He also mentioned that it might benefit him to explore the surrounding regions himself and reach out to the more unfortunate individuals. Though he once again warned against being taken advantage of, he assured him that such people would be good for his Workshop.
"Debts are always repaid in the Outskirts, whether they be good or bad," he had said.
For Gehrman, this meant that he could easily increase his numbers early on, but it would also come with whatever baggage made these poor people so desperate in the first place.
Fortunately, most of these people's baggage was something inconsequential to Gehrman.
The first pair he brought after Oskar's arrival was a mother and a daughter. The daughter had been very sick for weeks and her condition had been worsening for some time.
Gehrman's medical knowledge was very surface level and mainly related to grievous bodily injuries and not infections, but it didn't take long before he could get a doctor on call.
Afterward, he also ordered a shipment of a bunch of different medicines for diseases common in the Outskirts. Most of these issues arose from the toxic environment itself, and since the New Workshop was a monolith of cleanliness, this was not a tough fix.
As the daughter recovered, the mother (whose name was Mari) was introduced to the wide variety of new medicinal supplies he ordered.
He recognized that training to be an actual medical professional would take years, but he could still introduce her to what medicines would treat what diseases. He gave her a cheat sheet to look at, and gave her the ability to contact a certain doctor through a device. This off-site doctor would handle the actual medical issues.
He was a philanthropist in the Government who advocated for more medical help for those in the Outskirts. Whether he was attracted to the job by Gehrman's money or his own morality, it didn't matter.
Professionalism and experience was needed, and if it could be bought, Gehrman would do so.
But in the meantime, Mari was forced into the Workshop itself.
…of course it wasn't built just yet, so most of it was done in her and her daughters room.
This was fine. After all, Mari would not be training with weapons, but instead would become moderately familiar with medicines.
Once the daughter recovered, she would also start working, but hers would be very different.
Gehrman would do his best to get resources for specific careers and make sure that his employees knew the bare minimum. But he was under no illusions about their academic ability (which was almost always negligible).
Mari was among the minority as she knew how to read. This was an impressive, and very important feat that Gehrman quickly realized would be a very necessary thing to train.
Afterward, he went out and searched for more future employees. It was a "job hunt" technically, except he was the one searching for people and forcing them into labor.
…but it was completely justified! They got clean rooms, running water, a variety of actual food, and most importantly, fun, fruity drinks.
The next person could not read, so he had designated them in charge of switching out the barrels that would contain the variety of drinks that the [Lustful Vial] would be producing. Gehrman had supplied it with an excess of Essence, and since it was a mundane drink, it was easy to mass produce.
The person after that started to learn how to clean.
Six people later and he found his prospective school-teacher.
At a ridiculous pace he started to add people to his New Workshop. Most of them older folks who no longer had the ability to do the jobs that once helped them make ends meet.
They were now getting trained in new jobs. It was a bit late, but they were a lot more engaged than Gehrman had expected. As he had hoped, the mere opportunity to stay in his New Workshop seemed to be something that was incredibly desirable. And taking 10 hours out of their day to learn new things was not something that they were opposed to anyway.
And so this pattern continued.
A few people, including the boy named Bitz that Gehrman had first met when arriving here. Also came of their own accord.
For him and the two other young ones, they would receive more general training and teaching that would be directly applicable in the Dream Realm should they succumb to the Nightmare Spell.
A while back, Gehrman had asked Sunny what he thought the most important class was for him in his time in academia, and he quickly answered Wilderness Survival.
Indeed, surviving in the Outskirts and surviving in the Dream Realm were very different things. While both required a strong will, the knowledge needed was entirely different…and none of them knew how to read.
Later in the day Gehrman would gather all of them in the 4th building built: a school. It was basically a hut at this point but that wasn't the important part. It offered a space where Gehrman could organize and file all the stuff necessary for teaching reading and writing.
While each of the adults would receive personal lessons on their own assigned task, that was usually done through computers and the internet, as Gehrman was not wholly confident in his skills in areas like cleaning.
There wasn't too much to soak in for a lot of the more menial jobs, and it gave them an opportunity to expand their base knowledge as well. Those who couldn't read would focus on that, while those who were already proficient studied teaching reading.
Though Gehrman was able to get his hands on a great variety of technology, learning from videos and programs was decidedly not the most efficient way of doing things.
He needed other teachers almost as badly as he needed those who were willing to become Hunters.
Speaking of that, though Gehrman had mentioned the eventual routes that all those who took up residence in the New Workshop would have to go through.
Many of them took it better than he expected.
It actually seemed to reassure them that this whole thing wasn't an evil plot. Getting the resources they had such as a safe and clean place to stay was incredibly rare in the Outskirts, and he could tell a lot of them were waiting for "the other shoe to drop" and something terrible happened.
Though the work would be strenuous and they would not have much monetary freedom, the fact that it was so difficult allowed them to reconcile their new situations.
The lady who was now training in medicine, Mari, had taken Gehrman aside and had vowed to follow him for the rest of her life. Most of them felt the debt they now owed was insurmountable.
This was fine by Gehrman, as long as they were motivated to work and not despairing over being endlessly in debt he felt it was optimal.
After three weeks, about 92 people lived in the New Workshop.
Five of which were younger children who had potential to be infected by the Nightmare Spell.
Though it was a bit macabre to admit, these children did have intrinsically more value than anyone else.
They had the highest possible value since Gehrman was fairly confident that he could turn all of them into Ascended (at the very least) with the right training.
The only downside to this was that they would be obligated to work for the Government. This was one of the few details of his contract that bothered him.
Originally, they were essentially slaves to the Government, but Gehrman had intimidated them into allowing them to become independent so long as they made the proper contributions. These contributions were excessive for any Awakened, but they could be finished in a couple of years by an Ascended. And since he would be having all of them going to that level it wasn't too big of an issue.
He was fairly certain all the kids would hate him by the end of it though. They had never so much as worked out, and the training Gehrman was putting them through was only slightly less demanding than what he put his old Yharnam hunters through. And that was only because he was taking time to also teach them other things.
Besides Wilderness Survival, he educated on the types of Nightmare Creatures. He made his own classifications and taught them the proper methods to recognize and exploit each one. In the First Nightmare, they would only have to deal with Dormant creatures and maybe some Awakened.
He could not transfer them Memories until they became Sleepers, but he could teach them how to make rudimentary weapons out of any Nightmare Creature corpses they found.
During this time, he had constructed the true Workshop of his New Workshop…which was quite confusing.
He used that very term, "True Workshop", to distinguish between the place where engineering and practical lessons would take place and the region itself.
They could get infected by the Nightmare Spell at any time, but they would have time to prepare before being sent back to the Dream Realm. And for the vast majority of Sleepers, it was much easier to return to the Waking World through a gate (and thus become an Awakened) than it was passing the First Nightmare.
In fact, it was only during the First Nightmare that Gehrman was truly worried he might lose some people.
There would be signs of mystical infection, mainly an overwhelming and persistent sleepiness. But even that wouldn't give him much time to prepare them. So Gehrman's training was quick, brutal, and efficient.
But just like the adults, they were impressively stubborn. Not complaining about the work aside from whispering fearful spite at their tormenter: "Mr. Red Judge".
So far, no adults had volunteered to become Hunters. This was natural as they held the same opinion that Oskar had. "It's impossible to kill Nightmare Creatures as mundane humans."
Though a couple of them had shown interest in lessons about engineering and weapon creation, the vast majority simply wanted to live a life of either farming in the constructed artificial tower that was already blossoming with artificially enhanced crops, or becoming teachers.
If Gehrman wanted the New Workshop to become the place he dreamed of, he needed something more.
So one month after the Workshop opened, he had Caster oversee the area while he traveled to the Dream Realm.
It was finally time to experiment with his new Aspect Abilities.